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| Captain William Saxton, Co. C, 157th Regiment, New York Volunteers. |
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Cortland Evening Standard, Saturday, September 19, 1903.
WAR REMINISCENCES.
By Captain Saxton of the 157th Regiment, New York Vols.
BEFORE A CONFEDERATE BATTERY.
Union Gunner Spikes their Guns by Plugging them In the Muzzles—Brave Sergeant Paddock—The Charge of this Regiment Through the Wheatfield—Regiment Reaches the Furthest Point in Front.
CHAPTER 36.
To the Editor of The Standard:
Sir—Foxe's "Regimental Losses" says: "In the first day's fight Captain Tuttle's company of this regiment (Twenty-sixth North Carolina) went into action with three officers and eighty-four men. All of the officers and eighty-three men were killed or wounded". The regiment had only 216 left for duty at the end of the first day's fight and at the end of the battle it mustered only eighty men. It had eighty-six men killed and 502 wounded. Company C of the Eleventh North Carolina, same brigade, also suffered fearfully at the hands of Tuttle's men [sic]. It lost two officers killed and thirty-four out of thirty-eight men killed or wounded.
All of the left wing of [our] First Corps, on account of superior numbers overlapping their flank, was compelled to fall back around the Seminary, where they hastily threw up barricades, and in connection with four batteries made a determined stand.
While this was transpiring with the First Corps, the Eleventh Corps was having more than it could attend to. Barlow's division joined ours on the right and he extended his lines to Rock creek north east of town. Devin's cavalry was still further to the east along the York road. This made our line very thin. When Rhodes compelled the right brigades of [our] First Corps to change front and face north, he kept on moving south and east and soon struck the Eleventh Corps. Ewell had also moved Early's division forward and Gordon's brigade struck Von Gilsa's and Hays' and Hake's brigades passed entirely across his right and was about to enter town from the northeast. Devin's cavalry interposed and held them in check until Costar's brigade of Steinwebr's division was taken from the reserve on Cemetery Hill and rushed to the rescue.
This move on the part of Ewell made it necessary for us to wheel to the right.
I remember as we rushed down through the town on the double-quick, out past the Pennsylvania college, we swung into line facing north in the rear of our brigade battery (Dilger's Battery I, First Ohio). This was about the time that Confederate O'Neal was turning Paul's right on Oak Ridge. I can distinctly see Dilger now unlimbering his brass pieces and arranging them as we formed in his rear and lay down.
Spiked a Gun in Front.
The shots from a Confederate battery near McLean's barn were flying just over our heads as we hugged close to mother earth. Colonel Brown's and Lieutenant Arrowsmith's horses became very uneasy and they dismounted and sent them to the rear.
I think that Confederate battery was not over three-eighths of a mile distant, and they were on a hillside and we in the valley. Dilger fired a shot at them which flew over them. The next gun he himself sighted and as the lanyard was pulled he stepped aside to see the effect. A rebel gun was dismounted and a horse killed. He sighted the next one and not seeing the effect took out his field glass to observe more closely. "What effect, Captain Dilger?" asked Colonel Brown. "I have spiked a gun for them—plugged it in the muzzle," replied Captain Dilger. This gun was abandoned or captured subsequently, for I saw it taken to the rear on the fourth day, Dilger's shot being wedged into the muzzle a little crosswise.
Corporal Johnson Killed.
The Confederate battery depressed their pieces a little and the shot struck in front and around Dilger. One came striking the ground and ricocheted over it and into our regiment, hitting Corporal Jerry Johnson of Company C in the head. Jerry belonged to the color guard and was in the center of the regiment. Company C was on the right. Poor Jerry lived a day or two, never regaining consciousness, and then died. His revolver was taken from his body and handed to me. I carried it back into Virginia and sent it to his father, if I remember rightly, by Harlan Thompson of the Tenth cavalry who was wounded and went home. Corporal Johnson lived in our village and was the first man killed in our regiment in this great battle.
Dilger kept on firing and made it so hot for that battery that they were compelled to limber up and move out of range.
Brave Sergeant Paddock.
Our brigade was then ordered forward and right here occurred one of the most heroic acts of the day. Our orderly, or first sergeant, Charles H. Paddock, had been taken sick on the march in Virginia and was sent to the hospital. He recovered, was forwarded on to Gettysburg in an ambulance and unloaded on Cemetery Hill south of town, while we were north of it fighting. Most soldiers would have considered themselves non-combatants under the circumstances and remained in the rear. Not so with First Sergeant Paddock. He ascertained where the First brigade of the Third division of the Eleventh Corps was engaged and marched down through town, hunted up the regiment and as we were moving forward walked up and took his place on the right of the company without gun or ammunition. He went through the fight with us, but in falling back through town was captured and taken to Belle Island in the James river and spent many weary, suffering, starving months in the detestable rebel prison, finally returning to us when we were in South Carolina. He was promoted to first lieutenant in another company. He is now and has been since the war a general salesman in the great Wholesale drygoods house of James H. Dunham & Co., 340 Broadway, New York City.
Charge Through the Wheatfield.
As we moved forward we came in contact with a line of O'Neal's Third Alabama sharp shooters lying in the grass, who rose up and came into our lines and were sent to the rear. We then struck the Fifth Alabama and drove them back. Just now occurred another phase of the battle which I have already referred to. When it became necessary to change front to meet the oncoming forces of Ewell's Corps, the division on our right, Barlow's, was out-flanked and he was compelled, after a stubborn fight, to fall back to a new line farther in the rear, Barlow himself being terribly wounded and the command of the division succeeding to General Ames.
In the general advance of Ewell's Corps, Rhodes' three right brigades, Iverson's, Ramseur's and O'Neal's had struck the right of the First Corps and turned it, and now on account of Barlow's retrograde movement, we found Dole's Georgia brigade of Rhodes' division, consisting of the Fourth, Twelfth, Twenty-first and Forty-fourth Georgia regiments, on our right and rear. This brigade was marching along the Carlisle road. This compelled a change of front and Colonel Brown gave the order "Charge front, forward on the first company—March." This took us through a splendid wheat field waist high all ready to harvest. The regiments on our right gave way in conformity with our right division, but the One Hundredth and Fifty-seventh kept straight ahead. Colonel Brown says:
"I was ordered by General Schimmelpfenning to move over some distance to the right and attack the enemy, who were driving the second brigade of our division. This order I at once proceeded to execute. In order to get my regiment in position to do effective service, I found it necessary to move up within fifty yards of the enemy who, by the time I had reached my position, had placed a whole brigade in line to resist my attack."
Under a Tornado of Lead.
O! how those four Georgia regiments did pour the lead into us in that wheat field. Lieutenant Arrowsmith was killed right here in the rear of Company C. Lieutenants Coffin and Fitch of our company were wounded and the men fell like daisies before the mower's scythe. Buel Roropaugh fell just in front of me and I was struck with a ball on my left side, but fortunately my belt buckle, which was a solid cast New York State buckle, instead of a United States lead filled buckle, had worked around on my aide on which I carried my six-inch Colt's revolver. The bullet struck the brass nipple holding the flat of the holster, cutting it off, and passing through the leather struck the belt buckle I have spoken of.
I supposed I was shot through the body. It knocked me down and must have dazed me a little. The first I remember was, I was getting up and Buel asked me if I was hit and I told him I guessed so, but the only injury it did me was to leave a large bruise on my [hide] the size of one's hand that turned black.
General Schimmelpfennig sent Captain Klincker, his aide, to tell Colonel Brown to fall back, but Klincker's horse was shot under him and the order was not delivered. Finally the Twelfth and Twenty-first Georgia regiments began to swing around our flank and it was either retreat, be killed or captured. Then Colonel Brown ordered us to fall back.
Reached the Furthest Point Front.
"The One Hundred and Fifty-seventh New York of Von Amaberg's brigade was posted on the left of the Eleventh Corps. This regiment, lead by Colonel Philip P. Brown, Jr., encountered a severe fire from both infantry and artillery, which told with fearful effect upon its ranks. Over 200 of its men were struck down here and six officers, including Lieutenant-Colonel George Arrowsmith, were killed.
In its encounter with Dole's Georgia brigade the One Hundred and Fifty-seventh fought its way forward to the farthest point reached by any regiment on the Eleventh Corps line."—Col. Wm. F. Foxe, Author of Foxe's "Regimental Losses.'' W. S.
