|
Former Bellefonte Fencibles soldiers, William Raphill and James P. Hughes, completing three months service, and returning to Bellefonte in July 1861, recruited the Centre Infantry for three years service which enlisted at Camp Curtin in August.
History of Pennsylvania Volunteers 1861-1865, Samuel Bates p1057-1080
FORTY-FIFTH REGIMENT
"The companies composing this organization were recruited in the counties of Centre, Lancaster, Mifflin, Tioga, and Wayne, from July 28th to October 18th, 1861, and were mustered into the service of the United States at Camp Curtin. An organization was effected on the 21st of October by the selection of the following field and staff officers: Thomas Welsh, of Lancaster county, Colonel; James A. Beaver, of Centre county, Lieutenant Colonel; and J. M. Kilbourne, of Potter county, Major. Theodore Gregg, of company A, was appointed Adjutant, and John M'Clure, Quartermaster. A beautiful flag was presented by Governor Curtin, and was received in an appropriate speech, on behalf of the regiment, by Colonel Welsh. The ceremonies were witnessed by a large number of the citizens of Harrisburg, and by thousands of soldiers in camp.
At twelve M., it marched from Camp Curtin, and was taken by rail to Washington, arriving on the 23d, and encamped a mile and a half from the Capitol, on the Bladensburg road. On the 28th, the army of the Potomac was reviewed by General M'Clellan, the Forty-fifth being in line. It was assigned to Howard's Brigade, of Casey's Division. On the 3d of November it was detailed to preserve the peace at an election in Prince Frederick. On the 7th it returned to camp, and was subjected to constant drill.
The regiment took transportation for Baltimore at eleven P. M., of the 19th, marched through the city, and embarked on the steamer Pocahontas for Fortress Monroe. Arriving on the 21st, it moved to Camp Hamilton, three miles from the fort. The camp was well arranged and was occupied by the Seventy-sixth Pennsylvania, which extended to the Forty-fifth a cordial welcome. Here it remained until the 6th of December, during which period it was thoroughly disciplined in company and battalion drill. On the morning of the 6th, the two regiments broke camp, and returning to Fortress Monroe, embarked for Port Royal, South Carolina. At three P. M., the command moved off amid the cheers of those remaining at the fort.
A beautiful scene was presented on the morning of the 7th, as the sun shone brilliantly out over the world of waters, most of the troops having never seen the ocean before. The command arrived in sight of Hilton Head at five P. M., of the 8th, and with some difficulty passed the shoals and breakers in safety. The steamer Louisiana, having on board three companies of the Forty-fifth, and the entire Seventy-sixth, arrived off the harbor at seven P. M., and grounded on Gaskin Bank, near the south channel. Minute guns were immediately fired, as a signal of distress, and a gunboat, which came to her assistance, succeeded in getting her off the bar. Fortunately the wind was not high, nor the sea heavy, or the ship could not have withstood the breakers. Their deliverance was greeted with cheers by their comrades on board the Cosmopolitan.
Colonel Welsh reported his command to General T. W. Sherman, and received orders to occupy the sea islands, which made it necessary to divide the regiment. Accordingly, Lieutenant Colonel Beaver, with companies A, C, D, E and I, landed at Bay Point, and took possession of Fort Walker, relieving the Seventy-ninth New York. He had command of all the fortifications on the island covering the entrance to Port Royal Bay. His staff consisted of Major Kilbourne, Lieutenant George D. Smith, of company I, acting, Adjutant, and Lieutenant James P. Gregg, acting Quartermaster. Colonel Welsh, with companies B, F, G, H and K, sailed for Otter Island, taking with him five large guns, and arrived at noon of the 11th. On the south point of the island were the ruins of Fort Drayton, which had been blown up by the enemy at the fall of Port Royal, and which Colonel Welsh immediately proceeded to re-build. Fenwick Island was occupied on the 20th by companies F and K, under command of Captain Rambo. Fort Drayton being completed, and the guns mounted, it was placed in command of Captain Strahan, of the Fourth Rhode Island Artillery.
On the 12th of March, companies G, H and K, Captains Whitney, Seheffelin, and Rambo, all under command of Lieutenant Colonel Beaver, started, in boats, on an expedition to Aiken's plantation, for the purpose of capturing an outpost of the enemy stationed near the banks of the North Edisto River. Leaving the boats m charge of Captain Whitney, with a large detail of men, Captain Seheffelin, with company H, was sent to hold a bridge in the rear of the enemy, and cut off his retreat. The balance of the command, conducted by a negro guide, proceeded to make the attack. The night was dark and foggy. 'Unfortunately the guide missed the road leading to the building occupied by the rebels, and took the one leading to the bridge,' which was guarded by Captain Scheffelin's company. Perceiving a party approaching, and supposing it to be the retreating rebels, the Captain ordered his men to fire, and they poured a destructive volley into the ranks of their supposed enemies. Captain Rambo and Corporal Fessler' were killed, and nineteen men wounded. Parties were frequently sent out-by Colonel Welsh to visit the neighboring islands, and report any hostile movements of the enemy from the direction of Charleston. On the 4th of April, Captain Theodore Gregg was ordered to proceed, with company F, to Fenwick Island, where he remained watching the movements of the enemy on the adjacent islands until the 20th of May. On the 8th of April a brisk skirmish' occurred along the banks of Musquito Creek, a bayou running from the Asheboo to the North Edisto, and the enemy was driven with a loss of several killed and wounded. On the 20th of May, Captains Gregg, Haines, and Scheffelin, received orders to abandon the islands, and at nine A. M., they proceeded to join the command on Otter Island. Permission had been previously obtained, by Colonel Welsh, to join, with six companies of the Forty-fifth, in the contemplated movement upon Charleston, and for this purpose he had sent orders to Lieutenant Colonel Beaver to send him company A, Captain John I. Curtin; but some cases of small pox being discovered among its members, Company I, Captain Hill, was sent in its stead.
On the 21st, companies B, F, G, H, I and K moved to North Edisto Island, where the troops which were to participate in the expedition were being secretly landed. Three companies of the command were sent on the 1st of June to John's Island on picket duty, and during, the night the entire command of General Benham followed. On the 5th, the regiment marched: through a heavy storm of rain to Legreeville, where it remained until the 39th, when it took steamer for James' Island, and landed eight miles from the city of Charleston. At this place, on the following day, a rebel force, three thousand strong, was encountered. The command was posted in an old ditch, the embankment of which was thickly overgrown with brush. The enemy advanced through the woods, with open column of companies, without skirmishers. Approaching to within a short distance of the line, a well, directed fire from the ditch caused the advance, led by the Forty-seventh Georgia, to stagger. Soon recovering from the confusion into which it was thrown by this fire, its commander attempted to change front; but it received a terrific fire from Captain Hamilton's Battery, United States Artillery, and from the Seventy-sixth Pennsylvania, which had come to the rescue, which caused it to retreat in confusion towards Charleston. Ninety men, killed and wounded, of the Forty-seventh Georgia, were found upon the field. The loss of the Forty-fifth was one man mortally wounded.
The regiment, under command of Major Kilbourne, participated in the engagemeent1 of the 16th of June, but suffered no loss. It was engaged in picket duty, and in constructing field-works, until July 1st, when it returned with the brigade to Hilton Head, and moving on the 11th to Elliott's plantation, five miles distant, went into camp in a beautiful grove, near the shores of Port Royal Bay. Here the four companies, under command of Lieutenant Colonel Beaver, rejoined the regiment after a separation off seven months.
Returning to Hilton Head on the 18th, the regiment embarked on the steamer Arago for Fortress Monroe, where it arrived on the 21st, and encamped three miles from Newport News. Upon the resignation of Major Kilbourne, on the 30th, Captain John L Curtin, of company A, was commissioned to succeed him. It remained here, engaged in. company, battalion, and brigade drill, until the 4th of August, when it was assigned to the First Brigade2, First Division, Ninth Army Corps. It reached Acquia Creek on the 5th, and on the following day nine companies moved to Brooks' Station, on the Richmond and Potomac railroad, and remained until the 29th. The second battle of Bull Run was now in progress. Major Curtin, with three hundred men, marched to Potomac Creek, and burned the railroad bridge. On the 4th of September the bridge and buildings at Brooks' Station were burned, and the troops took cars for Acquia Creek. Here the landing, warehouses, cars, locomotives, and commissary stores were destroyed on the 6th, and the regiment moved by water to Washington. On the 9th, in light marching order, it proceeded to Brookville, from thence to Frederick City on the 12th, and to Middletown on the 13th.
The army of General Lee, flushed with its successes, was now at South Mountain. General Burnside made immediate preparations to meet him. Early in the morning of the 14th, the troops were in motion. The division marched from Middletown down the turnpike, the Forty-fifth in advance, and arriving at the base of the mountain, turned to the left on the old Sharpsburg road. It then moved at double-quick, and took position on the right of Cox's Division, commanding the pike. The Forty-fifth was supported by the One Hundredth Pennsylvania. The Forty-eighth New York was formed on the left and rear, the . Eighth Michigan on .the left, and the Seventeenth Michigan on the right hook's Battery was placed in position near the road, and ordered to open fire upon the rebel batteries. It was vigorously replied to by a fire which enfiladed the road, and soon a column of North Carolina troops advanced to capture the guns. A volley from the enemy's musketry drove the cannoneers from their position, and threw the line into temporary confusion. One company of the Forty-fifth, with the Seventeenth Michigan, and Seventy-ninth New York, rushed forward, drove back the charging column and saved the artillery. For some time the fighting was most desperate, and became general along the line of Wilcox's and Cog's divisions. Generals Rodman and Sturgis promptly came to their support, and a battery of thirty-pounder Parrott guns opened from the crest of a hill, near the pike, with telling effect upon the enemy in Turner's Gap. By a steady forward movement the troops had secured commanding positions on both sides of the pike, which rendered the expulsion of the enemy certain.
At last the order was given for the entire Ninth Corps to advance in line of battle and drive the rebels from the mountain. Companies A and K were thrown forward as skirmishers on the right of the regiment. The line advanced under a destructive fire of musketry and artillery, and gradually pressed the enemy down the western slope. The Forty-fifth was suffering severely from the fire of the rebels posted behind a rail fence near the edge of a wood. Supported by the One Hundredth, it moved forward, and drove them from the fence across an open field, when they faced about and took shelter be hind a low stone wall. A rapid fire upon their line, at a distance of not more than fifty paces, was kept up, obliging them to hug closely their cover. Another charge was ordered, and the, enemy was driven in the wildest confusion, leaving his dead and wounded, in large numbers, on the field. The loss of the regiment in this closely contested action was an aggregate of one hundred and forty-five men killed, wounded, and missing. Lieutenant Smith, of company I, Assistant Adjutant General on the staff of Colonel Welsh, was among the killed, and Captain Grove among the wounded.
On the following, day the regiment, with the brigade, marched in pursuit of the retreating foe towards Antietam Creek, following close upon the heels of his rear-guard. He cautiously evaded an engagement, but retired, passing through Boonsboro' and Keedysville, crossed the creek, and took up a strong position upon the heights beyond. The creek is here spanned by four stone bridges; one on the Keedysville and Williamsport road, one on the Keedysville and Sharpsburg pike, one on the Rohrersville and Sharpsburg road, and one near the mouth of the creek, on the road leading from Harper's Ferry to Sharpsburg. The command occupied the extreme left, opposite the Rohrersville and Sharpsburg bridge, but some distance from it. At four P. M., Colonel Welsh received orders from General Burnside to charge over the hill towards Sharpsburg, which was finely executed, the regiment again in advance. The One Hundredth Pennsylvania was on the right, the Thirtieth Ohio, of Stugis' Brigade, on the left, and the Forty-sixth New York in support. Approaching a stone mill near the town, company K dislodged the enemy and captured the mill and buildings. The battle raged furiously. The strong position near Sharpsburg was firmly held, but the necessary reinforcements failing to arrive, the command was withdrawn. The Ninth Corps, with an aggregate of thirteen thousand eight hundred and nineteen officers and men, had withstood the impetuous assaults of more -than thrice its number, had gained the most advanced position of any portion of the army, and had attested its bravery in the most signal manner. The loss sustained in the Forty-fifth was thirty killed and wounded.
On the night of the 18th, General Lee quietly withdrew his entire army across the Potomac, and took position on the opposite bank, near Shepherdstown. The regiment moved with the corps in pursuit, and went into camp near Antietam Creek. It marched by rail to Frederick City, on the 11th of October, to defend it against the incursions of Stuart's Cavalry, which was at that time upon` a raid around M'Clellan's army. From Frederick City it proceeded via Point of Rocks, Berlin, Snickers, and Ashby's Gaps, Rectortown and Orleans, to the Hedgeman River, and encamped, on the 7th of November, near Waterloo. The troops, suffering much from short rations, styled the camp "Starvation-Hollow."
Leaving camp on the 16th, it marched through Warrenton and Falmouth, and pitched tents, on the 19th, on the north bank of the Rappahannock, opposite Fredericksburg, where it was engaged in drill and picket duty until December 12th, when it crossed the river at nine A. M., and bivouacked near the gas-works. Early on the morning of the 13th, the command marched down the river to the lower crossing, and joined General Franklin's Grand Division. Here the men were obliged to remain quiet spectators of the fight, in which Reynolds' Division alone, of Franklin's Corps, was permitted to participate. Re-crossing the river, on the night of the 15th, the regiment marched to its old camp near Falmouth, where' it remained until February 11, 1863.
On the 12th it proceeded by rail to Acquia Creek, and thence by steamer to Newport News, and encamped two miles from the landing, on the banks of the James River. A new manual of arms was here adopted by the Forty-fifth, consisting of selections from. Hardee's and Scott's tactics, with many original manoeuvres. It comprised one hundred and six movements, which were indicated by taps of the drum. In the short space of two weeks the regiment became proficient in the new drill, and made a fine appearance, eliciting the praise of all by the perfect manner in which the movements were executed. On the 13th of March, Colonel Welsh was promoted to Brigadier General, and Lieutenant Colonel Curtin and Captains Hill and Kelsey, to Colonel, Lieutenant Colonel, and Major, respectively.
|
|
