their colonel, lieutenant colonel, and adjutant, and about eighty
from the ranks. They had only three hundred before the fight.
The 56th New York and 26th Maine suffered badly. We took
many prisoners, and encamped close by the field, the first time for
four nights that we had had a chance to sleep much. The next
day we marched twenty-three miles, and carried our heavy loads,
though it was fearfully hot. We reached New Iberia at night,
and the roll was called. Only twenty-three of Co. F answered to
their names. The rest had fallen out one by one.
156 HISTORY OF THE 52D REGIMENT
'^'^ April 26. — I have been in the saddle nearly every day of late,
scouring the country in search of cotton, sugar, etc. We go where
we choose, and confiscate all the teams we can find, and make the
negroes hitch up and load with cotton and sugar, a great deal of
which we find hidden away in the swamps and woods ; but most
always we can find a negro who will tell us where it is. It is al-
most a reign of terror here.
" April 28. — Yesterday I was in the saddle all day, and found
a good deal of cotton. We could trade horses where we thought
we could better ourselves, though sometimes we got shaved. I
saw some of the finest horses in a lot as we were going by, and
I managed to catch one ; and, after putting on my saddle and
bridle, I turned my old one loose and mounted my new one, when,
lo ! he could not be made to move a peg, backward or forward.
So I had to take my traps ofif, and let him go, but succeeded in
getting a fairly good one.
^^ May 5. — All but our four companies leave to-morrow morning
for Opelousas. We shall not leave till all the others are gone, as
we are on guard.
^' Bras hear City, May i8. — We left New Iberia Wednesday, and
were the last troops that left this part of the country. We took a
large party of negroes with us. First came three companies, then
the darkies, then the other company as rear guard. Six of us
were detailed to ride from one to three miles in the rear, to watch
for stragglers and guerillas. We had good horses and a very
pleasant time ; could stop at the plantations, and get all we wanted
to eat. The people were willing to use us well for fear they
should do worse.
"On our arrival at Brashear City we were put on a steamer to
go up the Atchafalaya, to join our regiment at Barre's Landing.
Reaching there, we found that we were to march back to Brashear
City, to guard an immense crowd of contrabands. It was a long,
hot, hard march. We were to have eight days for the one hun-
dred and twenty-five miles. But circumstances compelled us to
do it in six days.
" Hospital, New Orleans, May 30. — They have brought me here
at last, as you will see by the date of this. We have seen pretty
hard service since I wrote last, and are pretty well used up. We
left Brashear City on the 18th for Barre's Landing, and since we
have landed find we are to march back immediately to Brashear
City, — one hundred and twenty-five miles, — to help guard a con-
NEW IBERIA 157
traband train. We started Thursday noon, with orders to occupy
eight days on the march, but got back to Brashear City in six
days. It was fearfully hot and dusty. Some of the way we could
not see twenty feet ahead, the dust being like thick smoke. The
last fifty miles we made in twenty-eight hours. The colonel got
frightened on Monday afternoon, when we had got about six miles
below Franklin. We were all tired out, having marched twenty-
one miles, when the couriers came galloping down the road, with
the word that the rebels had attacked the rear guard, which was
some five miles back. There were two regiments in the rear of
the train. The train of contrabands was four or five miles on.
The colonel, fearing disaster in the rear, ordered the 52d and the
90th New York to 'right face, double quick march.' We had to
hurry on for five miles, and found the rebels had skedaddled
before we got there. So we had to march back to where we
started from."
(The corporal is mistaken in supposing that Col. Chickering
was needlessly alarmed at the approach of this force in the rear.
It turned out that there was a large force of the rebels in that
region, waiting for an opportunity to attack our force.)
"About twelve o'clock we reached the place we had started
from, hoping for a little rest, for we had already marched forty
miles ; but we did not get it. We halted, ate a little hard-tack,
and fell in again for the last ten miles that lay between us and
Brashear City. We arrived there about noon, making fifty miles
since the morning before. We encamped upon the ground, and
slept nearly twenty-four hours ; and, when I awoke, I found that I
was quite sick. One of my hips and knees refused to navigate.
I do not know what the trouble is, unless it is rheumatism. I
cannot walk, but am in good quarters in New Orleans, where I
have the best of care. There are about seven hundred at the
hospital, and the building is large enough for more."
T. N. Austin, Co. A, kept a voluminous journal of his daily ex-
perience.
He relates this characteristic experience. While at New Iberia,
a squad of darkies was brought in, and he addressed an intelligent-
looking colored woman, and asked, "Where do all you niggers
come from ? " She, bristling up, called out to the man in charge
of the squad, and said, " Sir, this soger calls me a nigger ! "
"Well," says Austin, "what are you, anyway .-' What should I
call you ? " "A free lady of color," she replied with great dignity.
158 HISTORY OF THE 52D REGIMENT
As she had been away from her master's house less than forty-
eight hours, Austin thought she was putting on airs. This New
England soul was much grieved to find that at New Iberia little
regard was paid to the Sunday, — horse-races and the like in the
afternoon, the priest taking a share in all the sports and deciding
all the contests.
While our men were at New Iberia, trouble occurred between
the negroes and whites at St. Martin, a village ten miles away. A
call was made upon our force at New Iberia for aid ; and Capt.
Stone, of Co. F, with a squad of thirty men, was sent to St. Martin
to secure peace. On their arrival they found the place in great
excitement. The negroes had armed themselves, and were threat-
ening the inhabitants with all manner of disasters. The citizens
had prepared to defend themselves, and a sharp skirmish had oc-
curred, in which the whites had the advantage, and secured ten of
the leaders in the trouble. These they took to the bridge over the
river, pinioned their arms and legs, placed a noose around the
neck of each one, and at a given signal strung them all up and left
them dangling in the air. In the night their friends came and
carried their bodies away. But the trouble was over. Capt.
Stone stayed till he saw there was to be no further need of his
services, and then took his squad back to New Iberia.
XVI.
PORT HUDSON AND CLINTON.
[May 28 TO June 7, 1S63]
Col. Greenleaf's account: —
" On the twenty-eighth day of May, a.d. 1863, the 520! Massa-
chusetts was moved by rail from Brashear City on the Atchafalaya
to Algiers on the Mississippi, opposite New Orleans, eighty-six
miles distant, and on the 29th and 30th was transported by
steamer to Springfield Landing, thirteen miles from our division
headquarters, then before Port Hudson, and one hundred and
forty-five miles above New Orleans, and thence completed the
march to headquarters about midnight of the 30th, the stupid
guide who had been sent from the front to escort us back to the
second brigade having lost himself and led us several long, weary
miles out of our way. And let me say here, by way of commen-
tary on the hardships of our western Louisiana campaign, now
ended, that, if there are any modern six days' go-as-you-please walk-
ing champions, either in this country or in Europe, who, knowing
the facts, would prefer these terribly exhausting forced marches
through the Teche country and back, heretofore described, ending
with this last day and night march from Springfield Landing, made
under the same circumstances and conditions that we made them,
to a six days' contest on the sawdust, under the rules of the
'trampers" prize ring, I would be charitable enough to regard
them, one and all, as fit candidates for some well-regulated lunatic
asylum. And I am strong in the faith that any surviving member
of the regiment who made these marches would fully indorse the
sentiment.
" But we were joyfully received by our respected brigade com-
mander. Col. William K. Kimball, of the 12th Maine, at his head-
quarters in the woods before Port Hudson, and heartily welcomed
back to our former place in the line.
"The assault by Gen. Banks on the enemy's works, on the 27lh
of May, had been repulsed with considerable loss to the Union
army, in which, among many volunteer white troops, was a bri-
gade of colored soldiers commanded by Col. Nelson. On our
l6o HISTORY OF THE 52D REGIMENT
march from the Landing to the front, on the 30th, we met many
hospital ambulance wagons, bringing the sick and wounded to the
rear. And from some of those whom we met we learned for the
first time of the wonderful fighting qualities displayed by these
negro troops during the said assault on the 27th of May. The
report was that 'they fought like very devils'; that they went
into the fight eight hundred strong ; that they made six or seven
splendid charges on the enemy's works, under a most murderous
fire, and at last, by almost superhuman efforts, succeeded in cross-
ing the wide ditch in front and scaling the abatis; that, once in-
side the fortifications, they proceeded forthwith to bayonet the
Confederate gunners, but, in their martial frenzy, soon threw away
their guns, seized their hated foes with their hands, and tore their
quivering flesh with their teeth ; but that they were finally over-
powered by greatly superior numbers, and compelled to retreat,
leaving six hundred out of eight hundred of their numbers dead
in the trenches. And it was painfully interesting to note the
effect which this. wonderful tale produced on different individuals.
One man, with complaisant look and self-satisfied air, would stand
a little more erect than usual, and say : ' I told you so. I always
knew the negro would make a far better soldier than the white
man." Another would smile incredulously as he heard the marvel-
lous story, as much as to say: 'Wait until you learn more of the
facts in the case before you decide. This tale smacks too much
of the Oriental, — sounds quite too mythological to be fully be-
lieved by any body.' While the third person would, perhaps, in-
dulge in a sneer at the very mention of a negro soldier, and
denounce the unofficial report as a base fabrication, designed to
mislead the public in the interest of stay-at-home politicians. At
the proper time and place, in the course of this narrative, we will
give the actual facts as to this report, derived from official sources.
" As I now recall the distance, I should say it was from one
thousand to twelve hundred yards from our new camp in the
woods to the strong, well-defended earth-works of the Confederate
Gen. Gardner in front, glimpses of which we would get from nu-
merous openings in the wood, or a full view of a long line of them
from many of the tree-tops or from the western edge of the
woods.
" Batteries of the 19th Army Corps were planted at different,
well-chosen points along our own front ; and between them and
those of the Confederate general in the invested town a regular
PORT HUDSON AND CLINTON l6l
artillery duel was kept up night and day. Every few seconds,
either from one of our own batteries near by or from one of Gard-
ner's, one thousand yards or so away, or from both, we hear the
report of one gun or more, 'from morn till night, and from night
till dewy morn again.' Occasionally an ugly shell from some one
of the enemy's guns bursts over our heads where we lie encamped
in the wood, and the fragments thereof go meandering about
among the boys in blue, in a most careless, inconsiderate manner.
One large fragment of such a shell which 'brought up' at my own
feet about this time I deliberately seized and confiscated, and
now possess as my proud and only trophy of the war.
"And so the time wears on until the 7th of June, 1S63, when, in
consequence of an engagement a few miles to our rear, between a
body of our own cavalry, commanded by the dashing young Capt.
Perkins, and a considerable force of mounted rebels, said to have
been commanded by Gen. Mouton, in which engagement Capt.
Perkins was killed and his command put to route, a force of
seven thousand strong, — cavalry, artillery, and infantry, including
the 52d Massachusetts, — commanded by Gen. H. E. Paine, was
sent out to capture or disperse this troublesome brigade of
mounted 'gray-backs,' as they were sometimes called.
"About daylight on the morning of the 7th of June Gen. Paine
set out on his expedition with his valiant little army, to give battle
to the aforesaid 'gray-backs,' and pursued his way unmolested
over the most dusty of roads, under a broiling Southern summer
sun, with the thermometer among the nineties in the shade, with
most of the water to be had of worse quality than that of any frog-
pond to be found north of Mason and Dixon's Line, to the pleas-
ant country village of Clinton, twenty-five or thirty miles from
Port Hudson, where we rejoiced to learn that the enemy had
kindly and considerately concluded to disperse without fighting.
At any rate, we failed to 'gobble ' him or even to catch a glimpse
of the backsides of him.
"Then we countermarched back to our old camp in the woods,
under much the same conditions as to heat, dust, and water as
those under which we suffered so much in the march to Clinton.
Not a ' foot passenger ' in the whole command had a dry thread of
cloth about him on the march either way, so great was the heat
and so profuse the perspiration ; nor, indeed, could the more fortu-
nate 'mounted' braves of the command, either with or without
shoulder-straps, contrive any way to escape the scorching rays of a
l62 HISTORY OF THE 52D REGIMENT
June sun in Louisiana, to avoid the suffocating, ever-present dust,
or to improve the quality of the most impure, stagnant water. All
suffered alike in these respects; and the 52d Regiment in particu-
lar 'rejoiced and was exceeding glad' to return to the rest and
shade and shelter of the friendly wood before Port Hudson, as we
did on the afternoon of the 9th of June.
"On the whole, this march to Clinton and back was one of the
most exhausting to the soldier (as it was the last) of our campaign,
as hard to endure as some others heretofore described had been,
and was one which will be remembered, I venture to say, so long
as a single member of the regiment who was ' present ' on this
march shall survive. So long as the ears of the last survivor shall
be able to distinguish the martial notes of the fife and drum or
his eyes discern the glorious f^ag under which he then marched
through dust and smoke, and fire and flood, and battle shocks, to
victory at last, among his most vivid recollections will be that of
the march to Clinton."
Daniel W. Lyman in the Northampton Gazette, June 10 : —
"In thk Woods before Port Hudson.
"■The March to Clinton. — The regiment left here on Friday
morning about four o'clock, with six other regiments of infantry,
a regiment of cavalry, and twelve pieces pf artillery, under com-
mand of Gen. Paine. Owing to a poor guide, we marched sev-
eral miles in the wrong direction ; and, by the time we had got
fairly started on the right road, the sun had come out burning hot,
and the men were overcome by the terrible heat and dust. The
heat was so overpowering that the men could not march in the
middle of the day, and halted till six o'clock, when the order was
to 'fall in,' to march three miles; but we went eight, and did not
stop until after eleven at night. As soon as it was light we were
on the march, and kept on till noon, when we halted close by
Amete River, a clear running stream with a gravelly bottom, the
most like a New England brook we have seen in the State of
Louisiana. At midnight we were aroused again, and marched
some seven miles to within two miles of Plympton, where we
were halted for a short time till the destruction of the armory,
depot, and the government works were complete ; and, finding
that the rebels whom we had come out to attack had skedaddled,
we turned about, and marched back in the burning sun to the
camp ground of the previous day, at which place we rested till six
PORT HUDSON AND CLINTON 1 63
P.M., when we marched agahi for over three hours. By daylight
the next morning we were again on our way, and did not stop
until we were nearly back to our old place. Thus ended a mem-
orable march from Port Hudson to Clinton and back, as bad, if
not worse, than any the 52d had made, owing to the excessive
heat. Hundreds were overcome by it."
Corp. Hosmer writes : —
" Of the episode to Clinton and back I do not mean to write
much, for you have had enough of hard marching. Let a few
words suffice. The force, consisting of regiments detached from
this and that brigade, with some artillery, a large body of cavalry,
left camp here in the forest about four o'clock in the morning.
How hot and dusty it grew ! We began by taking the wrong road,
which gave us an extra distance of five or six miles, and then we
went by the longest route. The first day at noon the heat became
perfectly intolerable. Several were nearly killed by its power, and
we were forced to halt till night. Thenceforth we marched for the
most part at night ; but the dust was excessive, the night short, and
the water often poor. At dawn we halted within two or three
miles of Clinton, to hear from the cavalry in the advance that the
foe had fled. Back we came, therefore, dragging wearily into our
old camp through all the dust and heat, tired in every bone, every
fibre, clothing soaked and resoaked with perspiration, having in
the course of four days gone some fifty or sixty miles."
June 20. — Word has come that Niles, of Co. I, has just died in
the hospital at Baton Rouge. He had a " bee in his bonnet," but
has furnished much fun for the regiment. He delighted in cutting
down the big trees near our camp ; and the crash of one falling to
the ground gave him great pleasure. There are not so many big
trees in Louisiana as there would have been if it had not been for
Niles.
XVII.
BEFORE PORT HUDSON, AND THE ASSAULT OX THE
14TH OF JUNE.
Col. Greenleaf's account : —
"At night we often listen to the discordant shrieking of our
own shells, as they go plunging through the air in the direction of
the doomed town, and watch the effect of the explosion within
the beleaguered works. They are sounds and sights never to
be forgotten; better heard and seen than described, — at least,
by me.
" Artillery firing on our side still continues night and day, at
brief intervals. At times the very earth is made to quake and
tremble at the discharge of monster Dahlgren guns, a battery of
which has been brought from the sloop of war ' Richmond,' lying
in the river below, manned by her brave sailors, and planted not
far distant.
"Gen. Gardner now answers our fire less frequently than at
first; yet, if one of us 'Yanks' ventures into the open field in
front or to the edge of the wood even, he at once becomes a tar-
get for rebel sharpshooters five or six hundred yards away, and
their leaden slugs come humming and singing about our ears like
busy bees. If we show ourselves in any opening or clearing be-
tween the brown earth fortress and our camp, a dozen triggers are
pulled on us at once ; and it is no fault of the 'gray-back ' marks-
men if we escape unhurt. But all this is only a prelude — mere
boy's play — to the sanguinary work yet to come. Gen. Banks is
now making the necessary preparations for a grand assault upon
Gen. Gardner's formidable works. Three strong columns are to
be formed to storm the fortifications at as many different points,
one column to be commanded by Gen Augur, one by Gen. Weitzel,
and the other by Gen. Dwight. The second brigade is assigned a
place in the central column, commanded by Gen. Weitzel, a gradu-
ate of West Point, — a gentleman, withal, and every inch a soldier,
although, in form and size, he would well compare with the late
lamented General-in-chief, Winfield Scott. For several days
squads of men have been employed cutting fascines in the w'oods.
THE ASSAULT ON THE 1 4TH OF JUNE 1 65
and other squads preparing small bags of cotton, all to be used,
as such things are generally intended to be used, in storming the
parapets. Bridges across small streams or ravines, over which the
attacking force is to pass, are covered with layers of cotton, to
deaden the sound of artillery wheels and the tramp of men and
beasts as they pass over, and every man unfit for duty is sent to the
rear.
"The adjutant of the regiment (Lieut. Decker, formerly lieuten-
ant colonel of the Massachusetts loth), one of the most faithful
and efficient officers in the service, was one of this unfortunate
number. The colonel himself escorted him to the hospital, two or
three miles to the rear, and there left him in care of one of the
surgeons.
" On the 13th of June Gen. Banks issued his general order for
the grand assault to be made on the following day. Soon after it
was issued the commanders of companies were assembled to hear
the general order read, and to receive such special regimental
orders as the occasion required. Each commander was to see that
his men were furnished with water and rations for twenty-four
hours, and to caution them to be as cool and deliberate as possible
in any emergency that might arise ; not to shoot at random nor
too high, but to reserve their fire until they could do some execu-
tion with their guns ; not to skulk nor seek to dodge bullets that
would come whistling about them, but to stand by their colors and
face whatever dangers might confront them, like brave, loyal men.
The colonel little knew at this time how welcome to all, himself
included, would be the stumps and trunks of trees and rifle-pits
on the field of battle before high twelve another day ! With that
day's duties done, and with most keen anticipations of still more
arduous duties on the morrow, the command sought rest and sleep
at an early hour. A short time before midnight Capt. Long, of
the color company, came groping his way through the wood to
regimental headquarters, having left the hospital in the rear (where
he had been confined some days) against the earnest protest of
the surgeon, in order, as he said, that he might be with his com-
pany to share its fortunes in the hour of its greatest peril. He
spread his rubber blanket on the ground beside the colonel, and
lay down for an hour's rest, — if possible, to sleep. Kind, good,
brave friend and soldier, he survived the war; but now, alas !
"'The lightnings may flash, and the loud thunders rattle,
No sound shall awake him to glory again ! ' "
l66 HISTORY OF THE 52D REGIMENT
" Soon after midnight a warm breal^fast was served by the
cooks, and soon after breakfast the regiment was in line, awaiting
orders to move ; and we had not long to wait.
"A few minutes later we were slowly winding our way out of
the forest by the right flank, but hailing every now and then, to
accommodate the column in front and rear. Sometimes we halt
a few minutes in front of artillery or cavalry camps, about which
breakfast fires had been built, the reflected light from which, on
man and beast and wagon-wheels and trees, and polished brass
and steel of many guns, contrasted w^ith the darkness and gloom
of the night and wood, reveals a sight well calculated to inspire
the brush of an Angelo or the pen of a Byron ; and then again we
halt in places dark, of which a Milton only could truly sing. Many
a soldier on that memorable night must have wished himself both
painter and poet, that he miglit put upon canvas in enduring
colors or upon paper in enduring ink what he then saw and felt.
We were on the eve of a great battle. No soldier could tell what
might befall him ere another sun should rise and set. We were
anxious, fearful, hopeful, yet firmly resolved upon our duty.
"At daylight we emerge from the forest, and enter a deep
ravine through which a military road has been cut, on both sides
of which are high banks that command a full view of the Confeder-
ate ramparts to be stormed by our column ; and, as we wind into