"The Irish Ninth in Bivouac and Battle"
by Michael H. Macnamara
CHAPTER XXVII.
A Rebel Camp. -- Rebel Sufferings and Rebel Sympathizers. -- Condition of Rebel Camps. -- Of Union Camps. -- Preserve us from the Attributes of Southern Chivalry. -- New Baltimore. -- Auburn. -- Three-mile Station. -- Rappahannock Station. -- Storming the Enemy's Works. -- Brandy Station. -- General Meade and his Movements. -- The Ninth in Position of Honor and Danger. -- The Invitation to Death. -- Description of Mine Run. -- Winter Quarters. -- Bealton.
ABOUT Three miles from Bull Run is erected quite a village of substantial log-houses, capable of holding from ten to twenty men each. They were built by the rebels and used as winter quarters after the close of the first campaign. They must have lived very comfortably at that time, while our troops only enjoyed the shelter of the "ponchos." Much of the suffering afterwards said to have been undergone by the rebels only existed in the imagination of their sympathizers. In all things, with, perhaps, the single exception of food, they were quite comfortable.
We are convinced of this from the fact that their evacuated camps and the general appearance of those who have fallen into our hands have conclusively proved it. A rebel camp is generally filthy and ill kept, its sanitary condition seeming to be a matter of little or no consequence. Comfort, so far as protection from wind, rain, and cold was concerned, is to the rebel the most important preliminary to the pitching of a camp. Drainage and sinks are accommodations scarcely known, or, if known, rarely used by them. When they halt, they occupy the ground with all its attendant evils and accumulated filth, and when they break camp for the march, the only difference in the condition of the place is that it is more loathsome and filthy than before. The Northern soldier, on the contrary, is a model of order and cleanliness, and no finer camps were ever pitched in active service, in modern or ancient times, than those of our troops at Miner's Hill, on the peninsular, or at Beverly's Ford. Cleanliness, regularity, and refined discipline are noticeable attributes in the sturdy Northerner of America. And if this distinguished peculiarity is proof of blood and breeding inferior to the pseudo "chivalry" of the South, let us accept the token of inferiority, and be unto the Giver of all things devoutly thankful.
From Bull Run the army moved towards New Baltimore, a village containing a few houses, but at that time scarcely any inhabitants. We finally encamped at a place called Auburn, and the following morning continued our march in the direction of Three-mile Station, where we again encamped only to move the next morning to Rappahannock Station, where we soon engaged in a most interesting battle.
The works at that place extended along the line of the Rappahannock for a number of miles, and were considered by military critics to be very formidable. It was decided to storm the works. During the night, the regiments selected to perform the labor crept, under cover of the darkness, to within one hundred and fifty yards of them, and after an hour's patient waiting, they advanced, and charged rapidly down upon the shadowy earth-line, bristling with the muzzles of innumerable guns. With such vigor, silence, and courage was the charge made as scarcely to allow of resistance. An incoherent and disconnected volley of small arms from the enemy -- a desultory roar from a few cannon -- and the works were ours. In fact, this change of ownership was so rapidly effected as scarcely to be realized by the rebels, who fled in great confusion to the river, in which many were drowned, and on the banks of which numbers were captured or killed.
General Meade rapidly effected the passage of his army over the different fords, the Fifth Army Corps moving towards Brandy Station, here the Ninth took possession of the winter quarters of the rebels -- log-houses well built in the woods, which, on account of uncleanliness, as usual, we demolished, simply pitching our shelter-tents, which, if not so comfortable, were at least clean, military, and wholesome. Here we remained until the morning of November 26, 1863, when General Meade made his memorable movement on Lee, in fortified position near Orange Court House, in the County of Orange, Va., and but a few miles distant from Chancellorsville, the scene of General Hooker's three days' movement, and from which he effected his remarkable retreat a few months before.
Two great and unsuccessful movements have been made on this ground, the army under Meade pushing deepest into the enemy's country. The movement of General Meade seemed to be characterized by great caution, which was certainly needful, for he was in a dangerous territory. The Ninth Regiment occupied no unimportant part in this series of great movements which finally terminated in the great game of "blind man's buff" at Mine Run. The Ninth was placed in one of the foremost and most distinguished positions at Mine Run, being called upon, in conjunction with the remainder of the brigade, by a special order, to be prepared to storm, at a stated hour, one of the most impregnable and important rebel positions they ever faced during their thirty months of marches and battles. The Ninth Regiment was on the right of the Fifth Corps, the position of honor and danger, and close to the river or "run," which was a main defence of the contending force, would be among the first precipitated into the battle. For a long time after the order had been read to them, they awaited with eagerness and impatience that invitation to death, uttered in the single word "forward !" and truly, if ever men longed for battle, they did; for they were actually freezing as they lay inactive on the ground, and many did die from cold ere they left that most blessed and impregnable position. To fully appreciate the uncomfortable danger of the duty they were to perform, the reader must remember that in charging, the Ninth must pass through the freezing waters of Mine Run, a stream of perhaps ten feet in width, very shallow, if we may judge by the depth of clear water, but very deep when we count in the mud at its bottom. At its sides, extending several rods back, is a low marsh, miry and reed-grown. From the edges of the marsh the land rises gradually to a height of perhaps a hundred feet. A half mile back from either shore these slopes are open, and in many places cultivated patches of young pines dot the slopes, and extend back to the dense woods which crown the summits of the hills. The run rises somewhere south of the old plank road, and flows lazily northward to the river, in nearly a straight line. The enemy had fortified the west slope by a strong earthwork at its summit, in front of which felled trees, and shrubbery, and brush formed an impenetrable abatis; they had also dug a succession of pits half way up the slope, within easy musket range of the creek, and another series of the same style of defences at the commencement of the abatis. His line of defences extended from Clark's Mountain, south of the plank road, to the mouth of the stream, and was fully supported by artillery, and was, in fact, said by military men to be a stronger position than he held at Fredericksburg.
"Our own artillery was planted upon the side of the eastern slope, a few rods down from the edge of the timber, while our infantry was covered from view by the thick wood. In order to successfully operate upon the enemy with infantry, it became necessary to bridge the stream and morass in several places -- a work you will imagine to be both difficult and dangerous. It was done, however, by the first divisions of the First and Third Corps respectively. Darkness found us, on Sunday night, in the following position: The Second Corps was on the extreme left in the vicinity of Clark's Mountain, rëenforced by one division of the Sixth Corps. The left centre was held by the Third Corps; the centre by two divisions of the First, and the right by the Fifth and the remaining two divisions of the Sixth Corps. General Warren was to have attacked and turned the enemy's right wing at three o'clock in the afternoon. The Fifth and Sixth, under Sykes and Sedgwick, were, at the same time, to attack his left, while the Third and First were to make a demonstration upon his centre. The reserves of artillery had all been brought forward and positioned ready for action; but for some reason General Warren failed to connect, and night slipped in upon us, all drawn up in line of battle. That night a change was made in the programme. General Warren did not deem his force adequate to the task of turning the enemy's right; so he was still further reenforced by two divisions of the Third Corps, under Generals Carr and Prince, while Birney, with his division of the same corps, was to support the artillery.
Eight o'clock on Monday morning was then set as the hour for the great battle to open, and we retired to our ground-beds to rest and dream. The night of Sunday was the coldest we had yet experienced. Ice formed in the streams an inch in thickness, and several of the men froze their limbs, and one or two their lives out, while doing duty as pickets. At eight o'clock on Monday, the artillery began to play upon the enemy, and for an hour, I think, the firing was as constant and heavy as I ever witnessed; but the infantry did not make any demonstrations whatever; and, after a deal of noise, and the waste of a large amount of ammunition, the artillery was silenced by an order from general headquarters, which brought us back unmolested, but sore and weary, to our old camping-grounds.
From our camp at Brandy Station, we continued our march until we reached the Rappahannock, where rumors were rife that the campaign was ended, and the army going into winter quarters. This, the reader will believe, was welcome intelligence to us all, after our weeks of marching, freezing, and fighting. Our depleted columns surely needed reënforcing, and our exhausted soldiers were in great need of rest; so, when we crossed the Rappahannock, and learned that the Second Brigade, First Division, Fifth Corps, army of the Potomac, was to be detached from the army and sent to Bealton Station, to guard the line of railroad at that place, we felt satisfied that the campaign was over, and that the wished-for period of rest was at hand.
We resumed our march, and, towards evening, reached Bealton, and finally encamped in a beautiful pine wood, near to the railroad, where, in a few days, log-huts were erected, and the Ninth engaged in completing their winter quarters.
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