Revised Register Of The
Soldiers And Sailors Of New Hampshire
In The War Of The Rebellion 1861-1866.

Prepared And Published By
Authority Of The Legislature,
By Augustus D. Ayling, Adjutant General.

Concord: Ira C. Evans, Public Printer. 1895.

FOURTEENTH REGIMENT NEW HAMPSHIRE VOLUNTEER INFANTRY. (THREE YEARS.) - PART 1

[Transcribed by Dave Swerdfeger]

By FRANCIS H. BUFFUM, late Sergeant Company F, Fourteenth Regiment,
New Hampshire Volunteer Infantry, and Historian of the Regiment.

THE Fourteenth was the last long term regiment furnished by New Hampshire. It was recruited mostly from the central and southwestern sections, Cheshive county raising five companies. The chief recruiting officers were: Company A—F. T. Barker; B—J. G. Johnson, A. M. Adams; D—C. W. Hodgdon, J. N. Brown; I—S. Clogston, D. F. Pike; C —A. D. Coombs; F—G. W. Pierce, J. H. Goodwin, E. Brown; H—W. E. Buntin, A. H. Sawyer, W. H. Sargent, M. M. Holmes; K-O. H. Marston, J. N. Snell; E-E. Brown, D. Sessions, William Cobleigh; G—C. F. Webster, S. A. Carter, Rev. S. L. Gerould. The towns with the largest quotas in the different companies were: Company A—Hinsdale, Westmoreland, Dublin; B—Walpole, Charlestown, Marlow; D—Weare, Seabrook, Deering; I—Cornish, Newport, Grantham, Claremont; C—Keene, Swanzey, Marlborough, Fitzwilliam; F—Winchester, Chesterfield, Richmond, Milan; H—Chichester, Dunbarton, Concord, Bow; K—Sandwich, Pembroke; E—Lancaster, Dummer, Northumberland; G—Jaffrey, Keene, Dublin, Stoddard. Company H was peculiar in being drawn from twenty towns, and in containing twelve pairs of brothers.

The men were enlisted mostly in the month of August, many of them expecting to enter earlier regiments. They rendezvoused in "Camp Cheshire," Concord, September 19. The muster into United States service was completed September 24, but the Government recognition dates from October 16. On entering the service the colonel was 51 years old, the lieutenant-colonel 55, the major 26, surgeon 40, chaplain 48, adjutant 30. The oldest captain was 41, the youngest 20, and the average age 27. The youngest member of the regiment was 15, and the eldest 63, both in Company F. The initial and inharmonious combination in field and staff was a misfortune which disturbed the unity and lowered the morale of the regiment through half of its existence, and only by exceptional excellence in the line and the ranks was the ultimate high standard of discipline and efficiency attained.

The Fourteenth, nine hundred and sixty-seven officers and men, under Col. Robert Wilson, left the State October 18, reached Washington the 10th, and camped in shelter-tents on East Capitol hill. An immediate assignment to Grover's Independent Brigade sent the regiment into the arduous service of defending the Potomac, above Washington, against guerrilla incursions. The brigade included the Thirty-ninth Massachusetts, Tenth Vermont, Twenty-third Maine, "Scott's 900," cavalry, and the Tenth Massachusetts Light Battery.

At the outset the men were armed with old 54 calibre, smooth-bore, flint-lock, altered to percussion, muskets; ammunition, "buck-and-ball." These were replaced, May 3, 1863, by Springfield rifles. The picket duty of the first winter was severe enough to well season the men, and marked improvement was shown in drill. The nine months in Washington, beginning April 21, 1863, with its multifarious duties, arduous and exacting, proved to be an experience of incalculable benefit in developing this command to its noted condition of discipline and varied serviceableness. This attainment was conspicuous enough to win the personal and emphatic commendation of President Lincoln. The service in Washington was peculiarly burdensome, and the regiment was more than decimated by disease; yet, as a whole, in detachments, in details, heavy and light, provost, patrol, and guard duty, special details, staff, headquarters, and secret service, the Fourteenth had a range of experience, a "school of the soldier," such as few organizations in that war enjoyed.

Early in February, 1864, the regiment was hurried to the Upper Potomac to repel guerrilla invasion. Returning to Harper's Ferry, a camp on Bolivar Heights, in shelter-tents, the ground covered with snow, and zero weather, was an experience of hardship almost unendurable. However, a transition, as startling as it was gratifying, relieved the stress of this short but sharp campaign; for the Fourteenth was ordered "home to vote," and with transportation all rail, via Washington, Concord was reached February 28, and the men got a fortnight's furlough. Many a town meeting was enlivened by the aggressive patriotism of the voters in blue. March 16 New Hampshire was again left behind, New York city being the rendezvous; thence off, in the "Daniel Webster," on a long ocean voyage, with a hurricane off Hatteras, and forebodings of foundering so realistic as to stir feelings of horror in the writer thirty years after. The battered, crowded transport crawled into Hilton Head, and the Fourteenth camped in deep sand and shelter-tents, under glorious palm trees and pitiless rain clouds.

Letters home were headed "Department of the Gulf, New Orleans, April 12," and then Camp Parapet; the northern defense of the Crescent city, was held for nearly two months, with Colonel Wilson as Post commander. Steaming up the Mississippi to Morganzia, the regiment became a part of the Nineteenth Army Corps, June 8, and so continued to the end. Extreme heat and a strange climate proved sadly fatal during the stay in Louisiana.

The new comprehensive strategy of Grant demanded a transfer of troops, and early in July the regiment returned to New Orleans and sailed—the right wing, under Colonel Wilson, in the "Continental," left wing, under Major Gardiner, in the "General Lyon"—July 13, with sealed orders. The redoubtable Jubal A. Early largely shaped the subsequent career of this organization, for he was menacing Washington just as the left wing reached Fortress Monroe. The right wing, arriving previously, had been ordered to the Army of the James, where it saw fighting. The left wing was hurried up the Potomac, posted in the defenses of the Capitol, and then went to the Valley, the Nineteenth Army Corps becoming a part of Sheridan's famous Army of the Shenandoah.

The two wings were re-united, near Winchester, August 18, and entered upon their sanguinary campaign solidified and disciplined to high efficiency. Severely tried, these men never faltered nor failed. Throughout the Valley campaign the regiment had but one field officer, Colonel Wilson resigning, Major Gardiner succeeded to the colonelcy early in September.

The charge of the Fourteenth—holding the right of the line—at the battle of the Opequan was a remarkable performance from any standpoint of criticism. Losing one third of its number in thirty minutes, the regiment advanced persistently until all semblance of formation was destroyed; and the scattered remnants retreated only on repeated orders. At Fisher's Hill the advance was over the most perilous ground traversed by the Nineteenth Corps, and the steadiness of the Granite State boys was highly commended. At Cedar Creek, with the enemy on three sides, in the midst of indescribable confusion, the regiment fought on both sides of its breastworks, changed fronts while almost surrounded, and formed new lines at every command. Its signal steadfastness caused the brigadier to rally his shattered brigade on the colors of the Fourteenth New Hampshire. At Deep Bottom, Winchester, Halltown, Berryville, Lock's Ford, Tom's Brook, and Strasburg, the regiment confronted the enemy, and always realized the demand of the situation. In this campaign the Fourteenth was brigaded with the Twenty-sixth Massachusetts, Ninth Connecticut, Fourteenth Maine, Twelfth Maine, Seventy-fifth New York.

Colonel Gardiner was mortally wounded September 19, and was succeeded by Adjt. C. D. Wright, who was promoted to the colonelcy December 6; but he retained command only a short time, and was succeeded by Capt. F. L. Tolman, promoted to be major the same month. Major Tolman remained in command until Capt. O. H. Marston was commissioned lieutenant-colonel, March 24, 1865; and who took the regiment home. Remaining in the Valley until the end of 1864, the Second Division of the Nineteenth Corps was ordered to Savannah, via Baltimore. For some time the Fourteenth furnished the martial municipal administration of Savannah, after Sherman marched northward. During the spring months this service was the most agreeable of the war. In May the brigade marched to Augusta-the first Yankee soldiers ever seen there. This was a romantic campaign, with its thousands of rebel soldiers roaming homeward, and the "kingdom coming" to the exultant darkies.

The return march was disastrous to health, and in the rice swamps of Georgia a large proportion of the men got the seeds of permanent disability. The last dress parade of the Fourteenth was made June 18; and the final review, by General Birge, occurred July 3. The discipline and morale of the command were maintained fully to the end. On the 7th of July the regiment left Savannah, was mustered out at Hilton Head, and sailed in the "Constitution," July 11, for Boston, where a banquet was served in Faneuil Hall. Then to the Granite Hills and the vocations of peace.

The Fourteenth had three colonels,—Robert Wilson, Alexander Gardiner, Carroll D. Wright; two lieutenant-colonels,—Tileston A. Barker, Oliver H. Marston; three majors,—Samuel A. Duncan, Alexander Gardiner, Flavel L. Tolman; three adjutants,—Alexander Gardiner, Carroll D. Wright, L. Warren Wright. Several members of the regiment acquired distinction outside of the organization. Capt. S. A. Carter served honorably on the staff of Gen. E. W. Hincks; Adjt. C. D. Wright was acting assistant adjutant-general on General Birge's staff; Lieut. Stark Fellows became the brilliant colonel of the Second United States Colored Troops; Maj. S. A. Duncan passed "No. 1 in class 1," and got a colonelcy in the United States Colored Troops, coining out of the war brevet major-general of volunteers. This regiment was peculiarly fortunate in its recruits, many of them proving equal to the best of the original material.

While in Augusta the Fourteenth had in custody, for one day, Jeff Davis, just captured by Wilson's cavalry. The colors of the Fourteenth were waved over Sumter by the writer of this sketch when Anderson raised again the flag he hauled down four years before. The regiment made four sea voyages, traveled fifteen thousand miles, and served in seven states of the Confederacy. Attached to Grover's Independent Brigade, Corps of Observation on the Upper Potomac, Defenses of Washington, October 21, 1862; Twenty-second Army Corps, Military District of Washington, April 22, 1863; Third Brigade, Third Division, Sixth Army Corps, February 9, 1864; at Washington, D.C., February 25 to March 1, 1864; en route to New Orleans, La., March 1 to April 12, 1864; at Camp Parapet, District of Carrollton, Department of the Gulf, April 13 to June 7, 1864; attached to Second Brigade, Second Division, Nineteenth Army Corps, June 7, 1864; First Brigade, Second Division, Nineteenth Army Corps, June 26, 1864; in District of Savannah, Department of the South, January 17 to July 8, 1865.


ENGAGEMENTS.

• Deep Bottom, Va. (Right Wing, Cos. A, B, C, D, H, I) .................... July 27, 28, 1864
• Winchester, Va. (Left Wing, Cos. E, F, G, K) ............................ Aug. 17, 1864
• Halltovirn, Va. ......................................................... Aug. 26, 1864
• Berryville, Va. ......................................................... Sept. 3, 1864
• Lock's Ford, Va. ........................................................ Sept. 13, 1864
• Opequan (or Winchester), Va. ............................................ Sept. 19, 1864
• Fisher's Hill, Va. ...................................................... Sept. 22, 1864
• Tom's Brook, Va. ........................................................ Oct. 9, 1864
• Reconnoissance to Strasburg, Va. ........................................ Oct. 13, 1864
• Cedar Creek, Va. ........................................................ Oct. 19, 1864