Bissell and Bisbee in the Civil War -- 1864
The Battle of The Wilderness
What was called "the Grand Campaign" by the Union Army began the morning of May 4, 1864 when the Army crossed the Rapidan River at Germanna Ford on pontoon bridges, this photo picturing the Sixth and Fifth Corps crossing that day.
By night, they were advancing into the area called "the Wilderness."
As described in the Encyclopedia of Virginia, the Wilderness was "a tightly forested area nearly twelve miles wide by six miles long....The topography of the Wilderness—dense woods and thick undergrowth broken up by a number of small clearings—made the maneuvering of large armies particularly difficult and the experience of fighting claustrophobic."
William Shaw's diary picks up the story:
"May 5th 1864. Warm day. We advanced in three lines of battle, met the enemy in the woods, and had a terrible battle, neither side gaining any ground. Our brigade was in it and lost many men."
"May 6th. Hot. We attacked the enemy again today, pushing their right flank back one mile. Our regiment was in it and lost 150 men, our company losing 20 [out of probably a bit more than 100 men], five killed. No advantage gained on either side..."
"George Clark fell against me and across my feet, spattering me with his blood. I could not stop to look at him but kept on sending the shots at the enemy as fast as we could load and fire. They were but a few rods in front of us at this time, and in great numbers and in ten minutes drove them back to a line of breastworks where we held them.
"In the ten minutes, our regiment lost 150 men out of 600 that went into the fight. They fell thick and fast around you...It took fire at this time and burned up 300 of our wounded which were unavoidably left on the field."
When the Union soldiers moved into the Wilderness, they found it littered with skulls and bones from the previous years' battle of Chancellorsville. As pictured at the left, the dry and thick underbrush caught fire from the many cannon shells and while some wounded were carried to safety, many died in the fire.
The Battle of Spotsylvania Court House
From Shaw's diary:
"May 9th. Hot again. Lay in the line most of the day, building rifle pits and supporting a battery [of cannons] of eight pieces. At one time the rebels were advancing and was very near when the captain of the battery gave the order to load and fire as fast as possible. I timed them and they discharged one gun three times every minute, making twenty four shots a minute from the batter, which sent the enemy back in a hurry.
"Some hard fighting this engagement, .S.C. Bryant was wounded and died in a few days. S.P. Fuller wounded, taken prisoner and died in Andersonville prison, both of our Company. At night we went on picket.
This is a picture of what the Union Army trenches at the Wilderness look like today, still visible 150 years after the battle.
The Battle of Spotsylvania Court House involved fighting on and off from May 8 through May 21, 1864. It is often called the most intense fighting of the entire war and involved 32,000 casualties on both sides. After the Battle of the Wilderness, Gen. Grant attempted to flank Gen. Lee's Confederate Army by moving to the southeast. Lee raced ahead to the crossroads at Spotsylvania Court House and set up his defenses. The Confederate earthwork lines -- logs and dirt and trenches -- extended 4 miles and included a projection outward, called a salient, known as "the Mule Shoe" (presumably because of its shape). The western edge of this Mule Shoe, where the line bent southward, became known as "the Bloody Angle' and involved almost 24 hours of desperate hand-to-hand fighting.
"General Sedgwick, commander of the 6th Corps, killed this morning by a rebel sharpshooter...the sharpshooter had been sending some shots toward the General and his orderlies, the orderlies had been doing some dodging, when the General says, "What are you dodging for? They could not hit an elephant at that distance," the words had hardly left his lips, when a bullet struck him under the eye killing him instantly."
Gen. Sedgwick was the highest ranking Union officer killed during the Civil War, and one of the most beloved.
General Horatio Wright had taken over command of the Sixth Corps after Gen. Sedgwick's death. Seen here to the right below, just under the letter "A" in "MEADE" is the dark Union troop line marked "WRIGHT" with an arrow arcing down to the Bloody Angle and the defensive lines of the Confederates in the Mule Shoe. On May 11, Grant had wired Secretary of War Edwin Stanton, "I propose to fight it out on this line if it takes all summer..." This is where Grant ordered the Sixth Corps, including Bissell and Bisbee of Company D in the 37th Massachusetts Infantry Regiment, to attack the rebel lines.
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"May 12th. We charged on the enemy's works at 3 a.m. Hard fighting for 24 hours...they made charge after charge marching up only to be mowed down by our guns...Some of the enemy finally got up to the opposite side of the works, they would put their guns over as far as they could and fire and we was doing the same. We kept this up for 24 hours without a stop or rest, with nothing to eat or drink, unless we chanced to have water in our canteens...After the enemy had retreated and it became daylight, I got up on the works and went up and down looking over the enemy's side...their dead and wounded literally piled on top of one another, some of the way you could not step between them." -- William Shaw, Sargeant, D Company, 37th Regiment
The 37th Regiment at this time was in Col. Oliver Edwards' Fourth Brigade. Edwards' Brigade at the Bloody Angle, written by James Bowen, describes the fighting by the 37th.
"At Spotsylvania, the 37th Regiment and the Fourth Brigade fought longer than any other Brigade of the Sixth Corps. The 37th was moved into the trenches that had been taken from the Confederates and which the rebels tried to retake, the 37th at the nose of the angle and the 2nd Rhode Island and 10th Massachusetts regiments along the right face.
"The brigade was scarcely in position when the Confederates advanced to the attack...Three times in rapid succession their columns formed and rushed upon the angle, and as often did Edwards and his 900 men repel them...Near night the brigade was relieved, but the 37th Massachusetts was almost immediately ordered back to hold the works, which had been vacated by a regiment...that was out of ammunition.
"Battle of Spotsylvania" by Thure de Thulstrup, 1848-1930, considered the foremost military artist of his time.
"The guns of the 37th were also empty, but they pushed their bayonets under the log head [of the rebel earthworks] and held the works until a fresh supply of ammunition could be procured, when the firing was resumed and continued until 3 o'clock on the morning of the 13th.
"The guns of the 37th were also empty, but they pushed their bayonets under the log head [of the rebel earthworks] and held the works until a fresh supply of ammunition could be procured, when the firing was resumed and continued until 3 o'clock on the morning of the 13th. This regiment was in action continually for more than 20 hours, during which time it fired over four hundred rounds per man. At one time its guns became so foul that they could no longer be used, many of them bursting in the hands of the men. As it was impossible to relieve the line, a regiment from the Second Corps exchanged guns with the 37th, enabling the latter to continue its fire. It was in front of the right wing of this regiment and almost directly in the rear of the apex that the oak tree, 21 inches in diameter, was cut down by bullets and fell within the Confederate lines." James Bowen, Edwards' Brigade at the Bloody Angle.
The field pictured above is the battle field at Spotsylvania Court House as it looks today, looking north and west from the rebel lines. This is where the 37th Regiment fought at "the Bloody Angle" and where their position is still marked by a monument today.
Shaw wrote that fighting continued at Spotsylvania for another week.
"May 18th. Warm day. At four o'clock A.M. we made a charge on the enemy's left, but not driving them, they being behind strong fortifications, we lost many men. Corporal Holbrook and George Bisbee wounded...The rebel's shot and shell cut off many of the fine trees over our heads. A few of our regiment taken prisoners."
George Bisbee's casualty report is pictured above, noting he was "wounded in back" on May 18, 1864.
Shaw noted the end of the fighting at Spotsylvania:
"May 21st, 1864. At about 1 o'clock P.M. I heard the [rebel] command, forward march (the boys heard them as well) and we knew they were advancing...Soon they came out of the woods and then we opened on them in earnest, twenty of the rebels got over the works and we took them prisoners..."
The Battle of Cold Harbor
The next big battle of the Wilderness Campaign after Spotsylvania Court House was the Battle of Cold Harbor. While Sgt. Shaw didn't mention them in his diary, the official service record of the 37th Massachusetts Infantry shows that the regiment was also at military engagements that occurred between the time they left the Wilderness battle on May 21 and the time they reached Cold Harbor on June 1.
Union Army engineers constructing a pontoon bridge across the North Anna River in May 1864.
Those engagements in the last 10 days of May 1864 were at:
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North Anna River (May 23-26), where the Union Army first crossed over, then realized Lee's position was too strong to attack. The Army came back to the north bank and went south and east about 34 miles to cross the --
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Pamunkey River (May 26-28). The Sixth Corps crossed near Hanovertown at a place called Nelson's Crossing, and finally came to --
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Totopotomoy Creek (May 28-31), where Lee had raced ahead to set up a defensive line south of the Creek.
After crossing the North Anna River, before heading south and east to cross the Pamunkey River the Union troops tore up five miles of the Richmond, Fredericksburg and Potomac Railroad (pictured above) to hamper the rebels' troop and supply lines.
At Totopotomoy Creek, the Sixth Corps was marched northwest to Hanover Court House, then turned sharply southwest and down to the Creek, about 10 miles altogether. Wright's Sixth Corps was the right flank of the Union line on the north side of the Creek, facing Lieutenant General Ambrose P. Hill's Third Corps as the left end of the Confederate line on the south side of the Creek. After digging in, only light skirmishing occurred on May 29.
On May 30, the Sixth Corps was ordered (along with all the other Union troops) to cross the Creek and engage Hill's troops. But the 6th got bogged down in a swampy area called Crump's Creek and was delayed in any advance until late in the day. The rest of the Union army had similar results, with little progress. Gen. Grant decided to move south again, still trying to outflank Gen. Lee, moving toward a road intersection called Old Cold Harbor, only six miles from the Confederate Capital of Richmond, Va. Lee responded by moving troops in that direction, trying to gain control of the crossroads before the Union did so. On May 31, Grant ordered the Sixth Corps to move on Cold Harbor.
When the Sixth Corps arrived at the Old Cold Harbor crossroads, they fought with Confederate infantry that evening. By the afternoon of June 1, Gen. Wright and the Sixth Corps had circled around behind all the Union troops and now held the other end of the Union line, the Union left and facing "Anderson's Division" commanded by Brigadier General William Mahone. This Confederate division included 5 regiments from Alabama, 5 from Virginia, 4 from Mississippi, 6 from Florida and 5 from Georgia. The Union troops of the Sixth Corps included three divisions, the Second Division with 4 brigades, the 4th brigade being commanded by Col. Oliver Edwards and consisting of the 7th, 10th and 37th Massachusetts and the 2nd Rhode Island Infantry regiments. The entire battle line extended seven miles. Because of delay in the movement of the Union Second Corps, Gen. Lee was able to dig in and build a formidable set of defensive trenches.
William Shaw's brief account of Cold Harbor reads:
"June 1st. Hot day. Our corps marched to Cold Harbor, a hard march, it being so warm, found the enemy in force and had a fight with them...June 3rd, heavy charge made the whole length of the line at 5 o'clock A.M., we drove the enemy back on the right and left but did not gain anything and the loss of life was heavy on our side.
Union troops digging trenches at Cold Harbor after a failed rebel assault.
2 o'clock P.M., we are now lying in line of battle, fighting still going on. The enemy made a night attack and were repulsed with heavy loss. 4th. Hot day. In rifle pits all day, sharp firing by sharpshooters, the enemy gave us some shell and canister."
When the Union troops finally moved to the attack early on June 3, Lee had his defensive line in place, seven miles stretching from Totopotomoy Creek on the north to the Chickahominy River on the south, making flanking moves by the Union impossible. Union troops began the assault at about 4:30 a.m. in thick fog. Heavy Confederate fire quickly caused massive casualties. The Sixth Corps, in the center of the three Union Corps' attacking, was pinned down by heavy fire and moved no further. With similar experiences all along his line, by noon Grant conceded that his assault had failed.
According to the website civilwar.org, the website of the Civil War Trust, a battlefield preservation group, the total two-week battle at Cold Harbor resulted in more than 18,000 soldiers killed, wounded or captured. Six thousand Union troops or more were killed, wounded or captured on June 3 alone. Wounded men were left on the battlefield for four days while getting a truce to recover the wounded was delayed.
This was the battle over which Grant, after the war, expressed remorse for the terrible Union casualties at Cold Harbor, saying, "I have always regretted that the last assault at Cold Harbor was ever made...no advantage whatever was gained to compensate for the heavy loss we sustained."
Assault On Petersburg, Va.
William Shaw's diary describes the march of the Union army after the disastrous fighting at Cold Harbor:
"June 13th. We marched from Cold Harbor, crossing the Chickahominy River, marched all last night...14th. Up and off at 4 o'clock A.M. for Charles City Court House on the James River.
"15th. The Army is crossing the James River here today...We are crossing on pontoon bridges, the largest ones laid [2,200 feet long] ... the wagon train of the Army of the Potomac is sixty miles long and was all day and night crossing the James River."
The 37th regiment did not see much action around Petersburg the last two weeks of June 1864 -- the major players for the Union were the XIII, II and IX Corps in the attempt to take Petersburg. The Union attack had begun on June 15 and continued for four days. The following week, on June 22 and 23, the Sixth Corps was involved in skirmishes against Confederate Lt. General A.P. Hill's corps. At this point, after several weeks of very heavy Union losses, Grant began the trench warfare that characterized the next nine months of fighting at Petersburg, with Union trenches eventually extending 30 miles from Petersburg to Richmond, in an effort to cut of rebel supply lines.
Confederate General P.T.G. Beaureguard
The Confederate general defending Petersburg was Gen. P.G.T. Beaureguard (Pierre Gustave Toutant-Beauregard), born in Louisiana but trained as an engineer at the United States Military Academy at West Point. When the South seceded from the Union, he resigned the U.S. Army and became the first brigadier general in the Confederate Army.
Beauregard managed to repel the Union forces, even though heavily outnumbered, and thus delayed the Union's ability to take Richmond.
The Defense of Fort Stevens, Washington, D.C.
In late June of 1864, Robert E. Lee ordered Gen. Jubal Early to take the Second Corps from its defense of Richmond and head north to Maryland, to disrupt the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad and if possible threaten Washington, D.C. Gen. Early arrived on the District of Columbia border, in Silver Spring, Maryland at about noon on July 11. Learning of Early's movements, Union General Grant had ordered the Sixth Corps under Gen. Wright to get to Washington quickly and defend it. The steamships carrying the Union troops arrived about the same time as Early's troops.
At the start of the Civil War, the Union had built a "circle of forts" around Washington, D.C. One in the Northwest quadrant of the city was Fort Stevens.
Learning of Early's movements, Union General Grant had ordered the Sixth Corps under Gen. Wright to get to Washington quickly and defend it. The steamships carrying the Union troops arrived about the same time as Early's troops.
Shaw described the defense of Fort Stevens in his diary:
"July 6th, after a week of tearing up the Petersburg & Weldon Railroad, the 37th hears that the Confederates may be trying to make another raid into Maryland. Sunday July 10th. Hot. Orders came last night at 10 o'clock for our corps to pack up and report at Washington. We started, marching all night reaching City Point on the James River at 8 o'clock this morning, took the steamer at dark and started for Washington. 12th. Hot. Landed in Washington at noon, found the citizens in great excitement, the rebels being just outside the forts. As soon as possible, we marched to Fort Stevens and the 2nd division [the 37th regiment now fought in the 3rd division] had a sharp skirmish. The 37th was put on the skirmish line and we had a few shots at the Johnnies, we drove them about two miles and as it was growing dark we lay on picket at night..."
The command of the defense of Washington was very confused until the Sixth Corps arrived. Civilian federal employees had been armed and designated as a defense force for the city. However, Gen. McCook, in charge of the defense, knew enough to send veteran troops from the Sixth Corps into the front lines against Gen. Early's troops. The Union got another small break when the rebels were delayed because many of the rebel troops had stopped to sample the whiskey found in the basement of Montgomery Blair's home in Silver Spring. For the Sixth Corps, the fighting began almost immediately. This was the battle at which President Abraham Lincoln, who was always interested in getting close to the "action" during the war but rarely had the chance to do so, showed up, bringing along his wife Mary. Gen. Early had decided that Washington could not be taken without heavy losses. When Union artillery failed to drive the rebels out, Union troops including the 37th regiment attacked. While successful, more than 300 Union soldiers were killed or wounded.
The Shenandoah Valley Campaign
General Grant decided to clear the Shenandoah Valley of Confederate troops and make it impossible for the Valley to be a source of supply for rebels by destroying the economic infrastructure of the Valley, the first use of "scorched earth" tactics in the war. Grant gave command of the new "Army of the Shenandoah," a force of about 50,000 men that included the Sixth Corps, to General Philip Sheridan, his top Cavalry officer.
This illustration of Gen. Philip Sheridan's cavalry charge at the Battle of Opequon (Winchester) was a chromolithograph published in 1886 by L. Prang & Co. It is now in the Library of Congress.
The Battle of Opequon, also called the Third Battle of Winchester, was fought in Winchester, Virginia on Sept. 19, 1864 (according to Wikipedia and the Shenandoah At War National Historic District). Gen. Early was able to get his forces in position to defend the Union advance and casualties were heavy. Gradually, the rebel lines were pushed back towards Winchester and Early was forced to retreat. The Third Battle of Winchester was a do-or-die effort on the part of both armies, resulting in nearly 9,000 casualties.
After the Shenandoah Valley Campaign, the 37th Massachusetts Infantry regiment had special duty for a few months, then went to assist in the Siege of Petersburg, Virginia beginning in December 1864 and continuing until April 2, 1865. Sometime in July 1864, the Regiment had been issued the new Spencer repeating rifle, one of the first regiments in the Union army to get the new rifle. The 37th was the first regiment from the Sixth Corps to enter St. Petersburg when the city surrendered on April 3, arriving 20 minutes after Robert E. Lee's army had pulled out.