BURIAL OF CAPT. HITCHCOCK.

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geant W. H. Haynes and Private J. N. Dexter were wounded by rifle-balls; and they were obliged to leave the gallant captain dying there.

"Lieut. Thomas Horton (of Norwalk), Company D, was doing his whole duty, nobly rallying and regulating his company, when a heavy grape-shot passed entirely through his right thigh, nearly up to his body. He was carried to the rear, praising his men and urging them on; and lived but a short time. Sergeant (acting Second Lieut.) Henry Upson, jr. (of Hartford), Company F, was heroically at work when a grape-shot took off three fingers, and dashed through his right shoulder."

The staff-officers are mentioned complimentarily; and of the line-officers the report says, "At a most critical moment, when we were re-arranging the line for a second advance, nothing could have been better than the conduct of Capts. Gray, Palmer, and Skinner, and Lieuts. Chamberlain, Atwell, Thompson, Townsend, and Burdick. Surgeon Bacon and Assistant Surgeon Porter and their assistants were very industrious in bringing off the wounded; to which I attribute our small number of missing. Chaplain Wayland was also everywhere present, self-possessed and active." The regi ment had lost in this brief action nineteen killed and seventynine wounded. The color-staff was shot in two parts in the hands of Sergeant H. H. Smith of Meriden.

The body of Capt. Hitchcock was never found by those who sought to recover it. He had been in the war from the beginning, and was a kind, skillful, and fearless soldier, as he was a patriotic man. A former employer of young Hitchcock wrote, "His impulses were always towards truth, justice, and liberty; his thoughts and words came quickly; his advocacy of the right, under all circumstances,— knowing no expediency, no policy,- might be safely emulated by many older men. Seeing in him these qualities, I loved him, and could not forbear adding this rude tribute to his memory." He set an example, in the army, of morality, purity, courtesy, and bravery; and his men followed him devotedly. A chaste and stately monument was erected to his memory by the members of his company, on a lot donated

by James M. Townsend, its untiring patron, whose patriotic benevolence seemed to increase with the burdens of the

war.

Sergeant Upson died of his wounds. Col. Hawley recommended that his commission as second lieutenant be made out, and said, "Though he will not live to receive it, I should be glad to have the commission issued as recommended. The noble man deserves the honor."

Capt. Charles E. Palmer, of Winsted, shortly after died from exposure in this campaign. Gen. Terry wrote of him, "At the time of the action on James Island he was so ill, that, under ordinary circumstances, he would not have been in command of his company; but, prompted by the devotion to duty which always distinguished him, he led his company to the field, and gave to it and to the regiment a splendid example of courage and firmness under the most trying circumstances. The noble purity and uprightness of his nature, and his eminently soldierly qualities, had not only endeared him to us all, but had led us to look forward to a brilliant future for him; and we mourn his loss not only as ours and yours, but as a loss to the country which he served so faithfully."

When Gen. Hunter returned, he ordered an evacuation of the island. This soon took the Connecticut battery to Beaufort. The Sixth and Seventh, in Gen. Wright's brigade, went to Edisto, and occupied the rude camp there; but, after remaining two weeks, they returned to Hilton Head, and, in the familiar quarters of the previous winter, made themselves once more comfortable. Plethoric boxes from Connecticut were again received, and all the tender communications with home were re-established.

CHAPTER XIV.

The Fourth becomes the First Connecticut Heavy Artillery. - Recruits. Goes with McClellan to the Peninsula.-"Siege" of Yorktown. The Heavy Batteries.-—— "Ready." - Magruder falls back. Detached as Infantry. - The Seven-days' Battles. - Malvern Hill.-Back to Arlington Heights. - The Connecticut Battalion of Cavalry. Among the Mountains of West Virginia. - After Bushwhackers. Raids and Incidents. - Battle of McDowell. - Charge through Wordensville. — Dash into New Market. - Ambush at Harrisonburg. - Cross Keys. - Jackson Ubiquitous. -The Fifth at Winchester.- Battle and Repulse, — In Maryland again. - Slaughter at Cedar Mountain. — Bravery and Severe Losses of the Fifth.-Stone, Blake, Dutton, Smith.

JAN. 2, 1862, the Fourth Regiment was changed, by order of the War Department, into the First Connecticut Heavy Artillery; and before spring, under Col. Robert O. Tyler, it had attained a remarkable degree of efficiency, and was soon after "ranked by military judges as the best volunteer regiment of heavy artillery in the field, and considered equal in all respects to any regiment of the same arm in the regular service." It received two additional companies, and was recruited to eighteen hundred men. Company L was from Hartford County; Company M from Bridgeport and New Haven mainly. Other officers and men added at this time were largely from Norwich, Killingly, New London, Waterbury, New Haven, and Watertown.

Its splendid equipment and its high state of discipline were soon to be tested. April 2, the regiment marched out of its comfortable barracks at Fort Richardson, and joined the vast army under McClellan that moved to capture Richmond through the Peninsula. The First was accompanied

1 Adjutant-General's Report, 1863, p. 78.

Gen. George B. McClellan was a son of Dr. George McClellan, formerly of Woodstock, Conn.

by a siege-train of seventy-one pieces of artillery. After a slow and tedious passage, it disembarked at Cheeseman's Landing, near Yorktown, April 12.

McClellan had a hundred thousand men. Magruder, the rebel general, in his front, had seven thousand and five hundred, which, says a Confederate authority, he "adroitly extended over a distance of several miles; a regiment being posted here and there, in every gap plainly open to observation; and, on other portions of the line, the men being posted at long intervals, to give the appearance of numbers." With this absurd disparity of strength, McClellan announced that Yorktown and the line across the Peninsula were impregnable, except to a regular siege.

In this the First participated, having some of the heaviest ordnance in the service. The laborious task of getting batteries into position was at once begun. In the siege-train of seventy-one pieces were two 200-pounder Parrotts, five 100-pounder Parrotts, ten 13-inch sea-service mortars, and sixteen 10-inch sea-service mortars. To transport and mount these properly required the most arduous labor prolonged night and day, and unflagging energy. For two weeks, the work went on; the companies vying with each other in the severe task.

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"The heaviest pieces placed in position in the trenches before Sebastopol by the English were the 68-pounder gun of 10,640 pounds, and the 13-inch sea-service mortar of 11,300 pounds; and by the French the cannon de fifty of 10,190 pounds, and the mortier de 32c of 9,615 pounds. The 200-pounder Parrott weighs 16,470, and the 13-inch sea-service mortar (1861) 17,120 pounds. The guns placed in position before Yorktown, therefore, exceed in weight by fifty per cent any guns that have ever before been placed in siege batteries." +

4

For the service of these guns, it was necessary to convey 17,047 projectiles, weighing, in the aggregate, four hundred and twenty-eight tons. All this carrying was done by the regiment; and, during the twenty-two days before the evacu

3 Pollard's Southern History of the War, p. 287.

4 Report of Major A. Doull, 2d New-York artillery, ordnance-officer to siege-train First Connecticut.

THE SIEGE OF YORKTOWN.

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ation, they carted seven hundred and twenty-six loads to the dépôt.

Only the battery of heavy guns was engaged during the siege. "This battery opened fire on the 1st of May, and at once drove all the rebel shipping from the wharves at YorkIn all, a hundred and thirty-seven rounds from the 100-pounders, and four rounds from the 200-pounder, were fired." The practice was very accurate, although firing at long range, two to three miles.

Major Doull of the 2d New-York, ordnance-officer to the siege-train of the First Connecticut, says in his report to Col. Tyler,

"In the three weeks during which these siege-operations have been conducted, your regiment has worked with very little relief night and day. As soon as any battery has been completed, the companies to which it has been assigned have moved into camp near it, constructing such shelter from the enemy's fire as they could, and remaining with their guns; differing, in this respect, from all other troops employed in the trenches, who returned to camp out of fire as soon as their duty was finished.

"During the seven days that elapsed from the 26th of April to the evacuation of Yorktown, all the batteries have been fired at more or less continuously; and though the regiment has never before been under fire, aud is, like the rest of this army, composed of troops who have not been twelve months in the service, and who would therefore be considered in any regular artillery in the world merely as recruits; and the officers have not had the advantage of that scientific military training which is usually considered necessary for this branch of military service; and although a large part of the material employed has been of a weight hitherto unknown in sieges, and has therefore necessitated the employment of carriages and platforms, usually confined to permanent works, on account of the labor, care, and accuracy required in their construction, yet the condition of the batteries, and the accuracy with which all the platforms have been laid and the magazines arranged, give no indication whatever of these disadvantages."

Major Doull says that this siege-train was placed in battery before Yorktown as quickly as the first siege-train of smaller guns by the English before Sevastopol, though the latter had "all the resources of a powerful navy and a large regular army, skilled by constant practice ;" and he concludes that "it is evident that the labors of the First Regiment Connecticut artillery will compare favorably with any thing of the kind that has been done before."

5 Major Doull's Report.