on the ground, sang, laughed, and finally cried. Then, taking in another breath of fresh American air, we flung up our old pans, kettles, bags of meal, and bundles of all sorts, and cheered again for Lincoln, Gen. Grant, Gen. Sherman, and Gen. Exchange; and hugged the horse of the colonel, who was trying in vain to get us into line."

Major-Gen. Horatio G. Wright was a native of Orange; but his parents soon after removed to Clinton, where the family still resides. Young Wright received a commonschool education; and during his youth, served for a while as clerk in a store in New Haven. He finally obtained a cadetship at West Point, and graduated in 1841, second in a class of fifty-two, of which Buell, Rodman, Schuyler, Hamilton, Totten, Reynolds, Richardson, and Nathaniel Lyon were members. From the time of the outbreak of the Rebellion, he sought very active service. He commanded a regiment at Bull Run, led the brigade which included the Sixth and Seventh Connecticut, and first struck South Carolina; became major-general in 1863, and relieved Burnside at Cincinnati; commanded the 1st division of the 6th corps at Gettysburg, and thenceforth, until he succeeded John Sedgwick in command of the corps, and led it upon the heels of Lee, and drew it up in front of Appomattox. He commanded the troops at Washington when Early, expecting to find it exposed, attacked it from the north, and, after a brief contest, fled across the Potomac. He also, by his admirable disposition of the troops, turned the rout at Cedar Creek backward towards victory. He was a brave, skillful, and effective fighter, maintaining always the honors which he won at graduation.

CHAPTER XXXIII.

Up the James River. - The Sixth, Seventh, Eighth, Tenth, Eleventh, and Twenty-first at Bermuda Hundred.-A Reconnoissance. - The Railroad destroyed. - Battle of Drury's Bluff. - Repulse and Heavy Losses. -" Bottled up" within the Intrenchments. Fight of the Twenty-first. - Death of Col. Arthur H. Dutton. - Losses of the Seventh. The First Connecticut Artillery ordered to Bermuda Hundred. — The Non-Veterans mustered out.

EE still contended bravely for the possession of Virginia; though no relief came to the armies of the Rebellion with the spring of 1864. While Sherman was consolidating the armies of the West, and Grant getting the Army of the Potomac well in hand, Butler marshaled the Army of the James. The Connecticut regiments had by this time been filled with recruits, until, with one or two exceptions, they again mustered eight hundred to a thousand men each. A large proportion of these soon deserted, leaving the regiments little stronger than when they came.

On the morning of March 1, the veterans of the Eighth and Eleventh Connecticut, returning from furlough, were on board a transport anchored off Fortress Monroe. The Eighth debarked at Portsmouth, and returned to the old camp. On the 13th, the regiment was ordered to Deep Creek, where it remained performing outpost and picket duty one month, when it shared in the reconnoissance towards Suffolk. It now broke camp at Deep Creek, and went to Yorktown, where it encamped on April 21. The Eleventh arrived at Williamsburg, March 3, constituting the force nearest Richmond. Recruits had been received, so that 1,035 were present for duty. The Eighth was now in the 1st Division, and the Eleventh in the 2d Division, of the 18th Army Corps, under Gen. W. F. (" Baldy ") Smith.

THREATENED ATTACK ON WASHINGTON, N.C.

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On April 26, the veterans of the Tenth, under Lieut.-Col. E. S. Greeley from Connecticut, and the non-veterans, under Col. John L. Otis from Florida, met at Gloucester Point; and the regiment was assigned a place in the 10th Corps.

On the 27th of April, the Sixth' embarked at Hilton Head, and the Seventh took steamer at Jacksonville, Fla., on the 13th; and both regiments proceeded to Fortress Monroe, and thence to Gloucester Point, where they were assigned to the 10th Army Corps, under Major-Gen. Gilmore.

In March, Gen. Edward Harland was stationed at Washington, N.C., in command of the sub-district of the Pamlico. After the capture of Plymouth, on April 20, it was expected that Gen. Hoke would attack Washington. Harland was ordered to evacuate. He made hasty preparations; and the Twenty-first Connecticut and 51st Pennsylvania had already embarked on transports, when Hoke invested the town. The regiments were at once ordered back, and put into the works. Every preparation was made to repel the attack. The Fifteenth Connecticut still remained here. All the troops were assigned places in the intrenchments, and at three o'clock each morning were called out to the breastworks in readiness for action, where they remained until daybreak. Picket-lines were strengthened, and every precaution taken to guard against surprise, and to insure protection to the town. Gen. Harland, ever active, superintended the arrangements for defense of the town in person, and by his activity and energy did much to inspire the soldiers under his command with confidence and courage. When the transports returned, Hoke thought Harland was receiving re-inforcements, and withdrew in the night without attack.

Finally, towards the end of April, Gen. Harland evacuated the town, and prepared to go to Newberne, sending the Twenty-first before him to the Army of the James. On the 28th, the Twenty-first marched down to the wharf,

1 On April 20, Capt. Lewis C. Allen, jr., died of disease. In former years, he was a member of a militia company in Georgia; and afterwards, removing to New Haven, was drill-officer of the New-Haven Blues. He went out as a first lieutenant in the third three-months' regiment, and as captain of the Brewster Rifles of the Sixth. He was provost-marshal at Hilton, and participated with credit in all the battles of the regiment.

to find that the boat assigned to them had been loaded down with the anxious negroes and their baggage. The trespassers were ordered off. Capt. Delos D. Brown wrote of the scene,

"After the negroes were all disembarked, our men were ordered on board to unload the baggage; and mounting the hurricane-deck, where it had been packed away, they charged upon the confused mass of African possessions, and commenced transferring them in a very unceremonious manner to the wharf. The scene which followed baffles description. Feather-beds fell like snow-flakes, only rather more forcibly, upon the heads of the frantic searchers for their own' household goods. Bedding, clothing, all manner of domestic goods, filled the air, and fell like rain in one confused and inextricable mass. Hooped skirts were hurled gracefully from the deck to come down enveloping some corpulent wench, and adding to her wrath. Some were crying, some laughing, some fighting, and all wrangled amid the shower of bag and baggage' which mingling fell.' And thus we left them, to be subsequently conveyed to Newberne; but, if they ever live to sort that baggage, they will exceed the average African longevity."

The Fifteenth returned to Newberne, forty miles south, while the Twenty-first proceeded to Fortress Monroe, and encamped at Portsmouth. Hampton Roads now presented a very animated sight. Hundreds of steamers and transports of all kinds moved to and fro, busy in preparations for the coming campaign against Petersburg.

On the 4th of May, Gen. Butler's force the 10th and the 18th Corps embarked on transports, and followed gunboats up the James. The enemy was surprised; and the landing at City Point and Bermuda Hundred,2 on each side the Appomattox, was unopposed. The Sixth and Seventh Connecticut were in Col. J. R. Hawley's brigade of Brig.-Gen. Alfred H. Terry's division of Gilmore's 10th Corps; and the Tenth was in Plaisted's brigade of the same division. The Eighth, Eleventh, and Twenty-first were in Smith's corps; the Eleventh, in a brigade commanded by Col. Griffin A. Stedman; and the Twenty-first, in a brigade commanded by Col. Arthur H. Dutton.

On the 7th, both corps advanced cautiously through the

2 Bermuda Hundred is a small cluster of houses on the extremity of the peninsula formed by the James and Appomattox Rivers. In the early settlement of Virginia, slaves were located at different places in gangs of a hundred at each point. These settlements were usually designated by taking the name of the place from which the slaves were bought, with the word "hundred" affixed. The gang landed here was from Bermuda; hence the name Bermuda Hundred.

THE SEVENTH RECAPTURE A PIECE OF ARTILLERY.

539

thick woods, towards the Richmond and Petersburg Railroad; and the ground was feebly contested.

Hawley's brigade struck the railroad near Chester Station, on the morning of the 10th; when the Sixth under Lorenzo Meeker, and the left wing of the Seventh under Major O. S. Sanford, moved up towards the station, destroying the track. This was done very thoroughly in the face of an alert enemy. Skirmishing was constantly kept up, and the Sixth lost one (Capt. Jay P. Wilcox) killed and twenty-one wounded. Sergeant John H. Botts of Stamford lost his eyes.

Capt. Jay P. Wilcox left Waterbury as a private soldier in the Sixth, but was soon promoted to be corporal, and thence rapidly to be captain, for gallantry, and fidelity to the interests of the service. He was sincerely mourned.

In the mean time, Lieut.-Col. Rodman, with the right wing of the Seventh, moved up the turnpike to destroy the telegraph. After a short time, they were ordered forward at a quick pace. "Arriving at the top of the hill, to the right of and near Chester Station, we were ordered into line of battle on a road leading from the right of the turnpike; and immediately threw out Company D, under Capt. Jeremiah Townsend, as skirmishers. We were soon joined by the left wing, under Major Sanford. Two companies, E and H, under Capt. John B. Dennis, were immediately sent to support a battery upon a hill a little in front of our line. I then ordered Major Sanford, with Companies B and K, to proceed to the top of the hill, and engage the enemy."3

Major Sanford reported, —

"I threw the right of my line a little forward, and opened fire on the left flank of the enemy, stationed in the woods, and drove them back. We engaged the enemy at intervals. They were trying to take a piece of artillery which had been abandoned by the 4th New-Jersey, and was near their lines. I drove them back at every attempt. The enemy opened with two pieces of artillery; and I sent a request for a section of battery to silence that of the enemy. One piece of the 4th New-Jersey was sent to my position, and immediately opened upon them. I then ordered Licut. Charles E. Barker, with Company K, to move forward, and bring in the abandoned piece, which he succeeded in doing. I placed the piece in position, manning it with men from Company K, taking ammunition from a caisson which was also abandoned by the 4th New-Jersey, all the horses having been shot.

3 Report of Major Sanford.