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Lee's Final Retreat
5th Wisconsin Inf | 1st Maine Cavalry
18th GA Inf | 3rd GA Batt Sharpshooters | Cobb’s Legion
1st Maine Veteran Volunteer Cavalry
Wednesday April 5th, the regiment remained where it was until about noon, the men of one battalion doing nothing and the other two battalions still on picket, while the first and second brigades of the division (Gens. Davies and Gregg) were sent out on reconnaissance. Various rumors of the success and defeat of these two brigades were heard during the forenoon, and finally the rumors settled down into a well authenticated report that they had had attacked Lee’s retreating army and captured 5 pieces of artillery with prisoners, wagons etc., almost without number. The infantry had arrived on the ground and were in line all around. Soon the Third brigade was ordered to “move out,” and it was learned it was thought all the time that this brigade had gone with the other two in the reconnaissance, and it was now ordered to move to their support as fast as possible. As the brigade passed the pickets, one of the battalions of this regiment on duty there was ordered to fall into line, and thus two battalions of the regiment went with the brigade, leaving one still on picket. After marching two or three miles at a trot, the command reached the other brigades near Paineville, or Fame’s cross-roads, and immediately went to their support. They had been fighting heavily, - at one time were almost surrounded and captured, but were doing well then, and had done excellent services, the rumors that had been heard being confirmed. The different regiments of the brigade were posted in the best positions possible, two of the regiments charged the enemy and captured a battle flag, and the other two brigades started back, leaving the Third to bring up the rear. The column marched slowly back without molestation, nearly to the starting place of the morning, where the First New Jersey Cavalry was doing picket duty, dismounted, and the First Maine relieved them. Before the New Jersey boys got out of the way, the enemy came down on them, and the First Maine boys got some hard work, being obliged to run around on foot all the afternoon, changing position every moments, running backward and forward with very little firing,- nothing to speak of. The enemy was very near and occasionally the singing of a bullet told the Maine men he knew where they were. At one time the regiment was nearly surrounded and cut off from the rest of the command, but the boys used their legs as nimbly as if infantry men and got out of the escape. Along toward night the regiment got settled down behind a line of breastworks near the line it was on the night before, and remained there quietly till perhaps 9 o’clock, when it again went into camp on the ground of the previous night, leaving three companies on the line for pickets, tired enough to ensure sound sleep, at least, if not troubled by orders from headquarters.

While the regiment was off on this expedition, the battalion left on picket, in command of Capt. Myrick, was attacked by the enemy, but succeeded in driving him away and in holding the position until the return of the division. One man was wounded in the regiment during the movements of the day.

The situation now began to grow exciting. From the various rumors afloat, the men gathered enough the bore the stamp of truth to believe that Lee’s army was in full retreat. Having been pushed from Petersburg and Richmond, he attempted to reach Danville, but Sheridan’s cavalry got the Danville road before Lee had got by, and he was compelled to his course for Lynchburg.

The morning of the sixth the men awoke in fine spirits. Never before during their three years and more of service had there been any prospect of the end. All the hard marching and fighting of three summer campaigns, and the long hours on picket and in dull winter quarters, had been with no such encouragement as they now had-had been of no apparent effect upon the quelching of the rebellion-had not even started the enemy toward the last ditch. Now this was changed; Richmond was captured-the stronghold of the rebellion was in possession of Union soldiers-the goal for which they had marched and fought, and for which so many brave boys had died, was reached-the backbone of the rebellion, which newspaper correspondents had broken so many times, had now been broken by the boys in blue, and was beyond healing. It now remained to capture Lee and his army, or to whip them till they knew they were whipped. It was fast becoming a race for very life on the part of the Confederacy, and on the part of the Union troops a chase for final victory and triumph. It was exciting to even think of the situation, that spring morning, as the regiment remained quietly on the hill behind Jetersville, the men watched the various infantry commands moving in different directions. What was the progamme for the day, they knew not-as long and “Little Phil” was in command it was not worth the while for the men to bother about plans or intentions.

Gen. Smith remarked that morning, as the command moved out : “Today we will see something big in crushing the rebellion.” and the men had no inclination to doubt it.

By eight o’clock the men were in the saddle, marching down the railroad over the road they marched up two nights before, instead of onward. This strange movement caused some surprise, which only the consciousness of the presence of Sheridan could reconcile with being just right. Only a short distance back, however, when the command crossed the railroad and started in a direction at right angles with it, marching it seemed to the men, in a direction parallel with that of Lee’s army. Fine marching that morning-the roads in good condition, the air fresh and invigorating, the trees just beginning to put on their green,- and all enjoyed it. At times the men rode over high ground, they could see, away off to the right, through the gaps in the trees, portions of Lee’s train moving along by the side of the Union forces, apparently not a great distance away, and that distance growing less as they marched on.

After a few miles march the regiment, with the Second and Third brigades, suddenly turns short to the right and marches direct for the enemy’s trains, then near Deatonsville. Soon there are evidences of a fight is about to commence. First, the regiment marches by the pack trains of the different regiments, drawn up by the side of the road, and leaves its own their; then the worn out horses and colored servants of officers, also waiting by the roadside, and the headquarter wagons and paraphernalia, drawn up out of the way, and all with the evident intention of waiting for the present. In fine, nothing but fighting men and material pass this point. Soon the men see brigade headquarters a short distance ahead, by the side of a small piece of woods, halted in the road.
The regiment in advance is turned off to the left of the road for duty. As the head of the First Maine draws near, Gen. Smith sends a staff officer to Col. Cilley with the orders: “Turn in to the right, charge through the woods, and get to the train, if possible.” This is about half past 11 o’clock. The colonel gives a command, and in a instant, almost, the regiment has left the road and is hurrying into the woods by fours. Charge through those woods! That certainly is a command the regiment does not promptly obey. No sooner do the men get into the woods than they find themselves in a swamp, their horses sinking to their knees at every step, and can get through at all only at one or two points-one at a time, instead of in line. The first through keep on towards a hill in front. After riding a short distance, the colonel looks round to see his command, and finds instead of a regiment, scarcely a platoon with him. With an impatient gesture and angry in tone he says to the sergeant major: “Sergeant, go back to the woods and hurry the men along, and have them form in line just this side of the woods.” A look into the woods at the horses floundering round, now and then one on his side, with his rider endeavoring at the same time to help the horse up and prevent himself sinking into the soft earth, and the sergeant concludes there is no hurrying them - they are doing their best. Before half the regiment gets through, seeing no time is to be lost, orders a charge. On they go, over a hill, close up to a fence they cannot get over, and for a moment halt and keep up a lively fire, many of them dismounting for that purpose, while the enemy is giving them full as good as they send, and has the advantage of being out of sight in the woods. But a moment does the command stand that, when it turns half right and again starts on the charge, the remainder of the regiment having got through the woods and joined it. It is lively exciting work for a few moments, and they are obliged to retire. Across the raving is posted, what compared with this regiment a large force of the enemy, behind trees or whatever else they can get for shelter, and they receive the regiment with a shower of bullets which kills Capt. John A. Heald, Co. E, and two men, and wounds Adjt. Little and Capt. Freese, and a dozen men. It is a mere waste of life to remain, and the regiment goes back over the hill, out of range, and waits a while. The enemy shows no disposition to attack - he is now acting only on the defensive. As Co. E emerged from the thicket about fifty yards from the road occupied by the enemy’s train, they were confronted by a heavy line of infantry and a deep water cut, which could not be crossed with horses. Here they halted and exchanged several rapid volleys with the enemy at short range. Capt. Heald (always cool under fire), seeing it was impossible to advance, and that a portion of the regiment had taken up a new line about one hundred yards in the rear of the position then occupied by Co. E, ordered his company to retire to position in the regiment. This was his last command, for at that moment he fell, shot through the head.
Lieut. Benjamin A. Osborne, upon who command of Co. E then devolved, after placing his company in the new line of the regiment, assisted by two men, under a galling fire, dashed up to within about seventy-five yards of the enemy’s line of battle and rescued First Sergt. Charles M. Bailey (who was mortally wounded) and the body of Capt. Heald. In this charge, Co E lost one officer and seven men.

The regiment remained in that vicinity for about an hour, changing positions various times, and finally withdrew altogether, taking up the line of march with the division where it turned from it to attack the train, and was again marching alongside Lee’s retreating army. In the meantime, another division of the cavalry corps had gone down the next crossroad to make a second attack on the train, and Gen. Custer’s division had taken the third crossroad for the same purpose. The guns of these divisions could be heard by the men of the Second division, which marched by these crossroads, and along in the afternoon was ordered to take position on the left of Custer’s division, then near Sailor’s Creek, where he was making merry music with his artillery. After taking various positions the regiment was dismounted and advanced a short distance to a piece of woods, leaving the rest of the brigade a little to the rear on the right, and still mounted. As this regiment arrived at this position, they found, almost alone, Col. Robinson, then commanding the Sixteenth Pennsylvania, which regiment the men had hardly seen for half a year. As Col. Robinson saw Col. Cilley, his face lighted up and he eagerly approached him saying: “Col. Cilley, I am glad to see you; I have been trying to get my men to stay in the woods there, but I cannot do it; they have been in there twice, but they will not stay, the fire is so sharp from yon skirmish line; they do not run, but will not stay where I want them to. I am glad to see you.” At the same time one of his men stepped up to a First Maine man and asked: “What regiment is that?” “First Maine,” was the reply. With a yell he fairly jumped with joy, and sang out at the top of his voice: “Come on, boys; here is the old First Maine.” The effect was like magic and into the woods the Sixteenth went, before Col. Cilley had a chance to reply to Col. Robinson. They never came back from those woods but went through Lee’s train and beyond.

The regiment was now behind a triangular piece of woods, the right of the regiment at the small end, and at the right of that was an open field, while a short distance in front the enemy was posted behind some temporary breastworks. The line was hardly satisfactorily formed when the command “CHARGE!” rang along the line, and with a hearty cheer the whole line started. The enemy opened a heavy fire and fought bravely, but they failed to check the charging line, and in a moment they were scattering over the hills in confusion, and the boys in blue were at their works, over them and beyond, - still charging, yelling like fiends, wild with excitement, still onward. On and on, for more than a mile, reaching and passing the train, - which the rebels had fired when they saw capture was inevitable, to prevent its falling into Federal hands in a serviceable condition, - and going beyond the road, passing hundreds of the enemy whom they had no time to capture, - leaving that for those to do who had no more exciting work.

Lieut. Poor, who was detailed adjutant when Adjt. Little was wounded, was wounded while the line was forming for this charge. The result of the day’s fighting, in which it should be said the infantry of the old Sixth Corps took a prominent part, was the capture of several general officers, thousands of prisoners, and a large portion of the enemy’s train, which was destroyed, - a glorious day’s work. The losses in the regiment were one officer killed and three wounded, thirteen wounded, and four missing.

After driving the enemy from their train, scattering them in every direction, the line was halted and marched back towards the starting point, meeting the led horses on the way. The regiment was mounted and sent on after the retreating enemy, to capture as many as possible. For more than a mile it advanced, over hills and ravines, through woods and fields, finding men and munitions of war in all conceivable hiding places, till about dark, when the men discovered a barn well filled with corn, and loaded themselves with a couple of feeds, at least for their horses. Then back to near where they dismounted to enter the fight, and into camp for the night, passing on their way back a force of infantry, which had marched up and gone into camp on the road on which Gen. Lee had been trying to escape. The horses had a good supper, but most of the men went hungry - there were always men in the regiment who were never known, under any circumstances, to go hungry; they always had something to eat - got somehow. But hungry or not, all were happy that night. The repulse of the morning was more than balanced by the glorious affair of the afternoon, and with small loss, and all hearts beat high in thinking over what had been done. “A big day in the crushing of the rebellion,” surely, though perhaps not to so full an extent as intimated by Gen. Smith in his remark of the morning.


The 1st Maine Cavalry in the Civil War ~ Tobie ~ 1887

website: GTodd
November 25, 2004