CHAPTER XI.

The Eighth, Tenth, and Eleventh leave Annapolis. - Storm off Hatteras.- Suffering and Depression. - Battle and Capture of Roanoke Island. - Death of Col. Charles L. Russell. - Another Movement. - Battle of Newberne. -Death of Col. A. W. Drake.

Incidents.

Siege of Fort Macon.

HE Eighth, Tenth, and Eleventh at Annapolis waited patiently the great expedition under Burnside, in which they were to take a part; and the cold morning-air of Nov. 6, 1861, resounded with the last réveille at that venerable capital. Three days' meat-rations had been cooked, and ammunition distributed; and now tents were struck and rolled, and the last article of private baggage compactly stowed

away.

Then the men stood in melting snow around their fires again, and waited marching-orders. At evening, orders came to embark; and wearily and tediously the companies plodded through slush and mire, huddling here and there in groups waiting their turn. The Eighth was divided; six companies taking the bark J. P. Brookman, and four the steam-transport Chasseur. Eight companies of the Tenth embarked on the steamer New Brunswick. The Eleventh was stowed away in the propeller Sentinel and bark Voltigeur. Before morning, most of the regiments were on board. Each vessel was expected to carry from two hundred to a thousand men. The following extract from a letter of Lieut.-Col. Pardee of the Tenth shows the accommodations of soldiers in transports:

"In the lower cabin were six hundred men. To accommodate all these soldiers, bunks had been built of unplaned boards, and ran in tiers, both against the sides and through the center, leaving narrow passages between.

A STORM OFF HATTERAS BAR.

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Into one of these spaces, six feet long, thirteen inches wide, and eighteen inches high, a soldier is expected to stow himself, his knapsack, gun, and accouterments."

Companies B and I, of the Tenth, were crowded into the filthy hold of a small schooner where coal had recently been freighted, and had neither bunks nor straw.

The Eighth was no better off. There were no berths on the Brookman. The men slept in their blankets, on deck or in the hold, where the air was stifling with the odor of bilge-water. The Eleventh were huddled together in the same way. No adequate ventilation was possible, even with a windsail rigged down the forward cabin. It was supposed by the projectors of the expedition that the troops would certainly be less than a week upon these transports; and that, for so short a time, they might be able to endure, without material injury, the discomforts of the close crowding.

Nov. 9, the signal rocket gave notice for the departure of the fleet. Next day, most of the vessels rendezvoused at Fortress Monroe. Here the soldier-passengers bought fifty thousand postage-stamps, indicating that they expected to have something to write about.

Nov. 11 and 12 they put to sea, to assemble again off Hatteras. The evening showed "a golden sunset, a long, peaceful twilight, a calm sea, from which the glories faded only to give place to the mirrored stars. These bright smiles of Nature were looked upon as harbingers of a speedy voyage and brilliant triumph." But next morning, with little premonition, a fearful storm broke upon the fleet, increasing in violence from day to day. Many of the frailer craft were lost. For three weeks, the helpless fleet lay tossing in the storm on either side of Hatteras Bar; and the effect of the detention on both the health and spirits of officers and men was injurious in the extreme.

"The history of this expedition so far," wrote the same officer, after a week or more of this inaction, "may be stated in brief thus: Delay, misfortune.' We have been drifted, tossed, bumped, blown, sea-sicked, and so on, through all the varied exigencies of sea-service. We have long waited for the moment that should take us towards the

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foe: but the bar between the inlet and Pamlico Sound has proved an insuperable object to most of the fleet; and so we still wait." "Vessels are being lost every day," wrote Col. Russell of the Tenth, a little later in his diary; "and things begin to look gloomy and unsatisfactory. Little progress has been made that is visible, and all are getting lowspirited and dejected." A member of the Eleventh wrote to the Palladium, Jan. 14, "The boys feel gloomy enough, boxed up in this tub with the sick. The stench is almost suffocating."

Many in every regiment were on the sick-list; some died; and others became permanently invalids, contracting disease which only ended with death. Capt. Pardee, writing of those long weeks on the swash, said, "How can I describe them? Days of weariness and danger; no news to cheer us; disasters all around us; the skies black and unpromising; the surf beating sullenly the solemn requiem of the lost; sickness on all the vessels; epidemics rapidly extending; deaths frequent; no comforts for the sick; scanty food for the well; water, tainted with kerosene, served out in limited quantities; our expedition a seeming failure! Oh! the darkness of those days, and the gentle, uncomplaining faithfulness of those men, none can describe. I heard no murmur or regret. All looked for bright signs, and talked more hope than they felt. The noted grumblers were for the time the stanchest in their words of cheer." The days were passed with charades, concerts by Jepson's glee-club, theatricals, euchre-playing, reading, writing, songs, and frequent prayermeetings.

During the last days of January, 1862, the vessels all passed over, seventy-two remaining afloat there out of the one hundred and twenty that had left Fortress Monroe. Bearing five hundred of the Eleventh, with Col. Kingsbury, the Voltigeur was beached near Hatteras, and no tug came to the rescue. They lay there twenty-three days in great distress, and finally got ashore, and the vessel went to pieces. Here the regiment lay, to its own great dissatisfaction, while its comrades pressed on up the sound.

1 Capt. B. S. Pardee's Letter.

THE EIGHTH AND TENTH AT ROANOKE ISLAND. 165

The fleet now cautiously approached Roanoke Island, held by three thousand rebels under Gen. Wise. On the 7th our gunboats attacked the rebel gunboats, and bombarded the fort. In the night, a landing was effected; Connecticut's motto of faith and fortitude, "Qui Trans. Sust.," following the flag of Massachusetts ashore. The point of debarkation was a kind of marsh, described by Lieut. H. W. Camp as "soft, slimy mud, several inches deep, with pools and ditches thickly sprinkled in." Having struggled through this, the rebels. falling back before them, the men spent the remainder of the night around camp-fires in the woods or the adjacent cornfield, shivering with cold, drenched with rain, and without blankets; those in the cornfield adroitly balancing themselves on the rows, to keep out of the water which filled the furrows.

Half an hour before sunrise next morning came the order to “fall in ;" and, shivering from their comfortless vigils of the night, the men sprang with alacrity to their places. It still rained; but the men were full of spirit for the fight, and heartily cheered Gens. Burnside and Foster as they rode past.

The Eighth was posted on an old road leading towards the right flank of the main battery, by which the enemy might turn the left of our advancing forces. The position was one of considerable responsibility, and Gen. Burnside ordered them to hold it at all hazards; but no attack was made.

The Tenth took its place in the 1st Brigade as it moved down the beach, and, by a wide détour, into the swampy road that bisected the island and led to the rebel position. Before going a mile, the enemy's skirmishers were met, and pushed slowly back.

A letter of Capt. Pardee, written at the time, says,

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"A second mile was passed; heavy guns boomed; rifle-shots shrieked. We heard cheering. By and by, the woods showed more light. We heard balls among the leaves; we saw men hurry by with medical stores towards the front; we met men exhausted by the roadside. An aide came to us with the order, Advance the Tenth!' Col. Russell pressed his lips firmly together, and said, 'We are going under fire, captain. Forward, solidly, quickly!' Men came by with stretchers, carrying the brave Massachu

setts boys, frightful with bleeding wounds. We saw the dead lying beneath the trees on either side. Surgeons were busy at their vocation. We halted on the edge of a great clearing, and deployed to the right by companies. We saw the smoke and flashes from the redoubt. At last, we were under fire.

"We had been pursuing an embowered path through the woods: suddenly it entered a broad clearing, where thick bushes (like the whortleberry) and tangled vines netted the marshes. Evergreen trees, principally pines, were on either side; and three hundred yards in front of us was the famous redoubt of which we had been told weeks before in Hatteras Inlet. When we debouched from the road into the cleared way, it brought us right in front of the rebel guns, and in perfect range. They had three pieces of artillery fronting and commanding this clearing; and large numbers of riflemen perched in trees, behind the turfed walls, and under all possible covers."

The Tenth, being ordered forward to relieve the 25th Massachusetts, advanced, and formed its first battle - line with precision and coolness, under a terrible fire. The left wing was held in reserve. The right commenced firing with a will; and it was immediately opposite this point that the rebels met their heaviest loss. "The firing on both sides was now terrific. The right wing stood up and fought nobly. They suffered severely."2 "For an hour we fought on, not a man shrinking from his post. Other regiments were marched into the woods on our right and left; but we kept our position. Balls came thicker and faster. We were ordered to lie down under the bushes, and stop firing. Down the boys piled themselves, and sought cover of logs, stumps, and whatever else furnished protection. Col. Russell for a long time refused to lie down. A ball whizzed close to him. Capt. G. M. Coit called out,' Colonel, that was meant for you: lie down ; do lie down!' The colonel stood quietly watching for the appearance of troops on the flank of the enemy. Again Coit entreated him to lie down, and this time successfully. We had been thus covered for a few minutes, when a shot came lower than usual: it entered his shoulder, and pierced him to the heart. It was to him an instantaneous death. His body was carried to the rear, and we lay still!"3 "Bullets and grape-shot flew thick over the men as they lay. There was a constant Hst, hst!' as the musket-bullets whis

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2 Lieut.-Col. Drake's Diary.

8 Capt. Pardee's Diary.