Battery L, 1st Artillery Regiment (Light) - George Breck Columns: Chapter 28: “Politics Are Running High” The Presidential Election, Oct. 5, 1864 – Nov. 16, 1864

By October, the presidential aspirations of George McClellan and the Peace Democrats had been lessened considerably by Union victories at Atlanta and Mobile Bay. War-weary Northern voters could now see the light at the end of the tunnel. That did not prevent Breck from laboring strenuously on McClellan’s behalf.

In the meantime, Grant’s strategy of testing first one end of Lee’s defenses, then the other again paid off at the end of September. To prevent Lee from sending reinforcements to Early in the Shenandoah valley, Grant launched a Union operation north of the James that resulted in the Union capture of Fort Harrison in the outer defenses of Richmond on Sept. 29. This forced Lee to siphon off troops from in front of Petersburg. Grant then sent Warren’s V Corps on a reconnaissance in force to envelop the west end of Lee’s defenses below Petersburg, to at least prevent Lee from sending more reinforcements north of the James. Gen. Charles Griffin’s division succeeded in overrunning a Confederate strongpoint at Peeble’s Farm on Sept. 30, thereby further extending the Union line westward.

Battery “L”
Oct. 5, 1864
(Appeared Wednesday, Oct. 12, 1864)

The movement of the 5th Corps on Friday of last week (Sept. 30) took Battery “L” from the position it had occupied since the 21st of August, and placed it that same afternoon first in front, and then in the rear of the line of works on the enemy’s right, which were so brilliantly attacked and captured with a number of prisoners and one gun, by Gen. Griffin’s division of our corps. Here we remained, engaged in no fighting, however, till eight o’clock p.m., when, with (Capt. Patrick) Hart’s (15th) N.Y. Independent Battery, we were hurried back to our old camp, to be ready to take position at early dawn the next morning along the Vaughan road, about a mile in front of our old quarters, a point of considerable importance and one which might have been taken had the enemy assaulted it in large force. Had they pierced that portion of our line while the army was operating on their extreme right, very bad results might have ensued to us. The Vaughan road leads to Petersburg, and the enemy came down this road when he made such desperate efforts to regain possession of the Weldon Railroad. We, together with Hart’s Battery, supported by Gen. (Edward) Bragg’s old veteran troops of the old 1st Corps, now command the road with our guns. A redoubt is being built just west of it, into which we expect to move when finished.

The late movements of Gen. Grant, which have been attended with so much success, are apparently suspended for awhile, for since last week’s demonstrations by both wings of the army, no farther movement seems to have been made up to the present time. We do not think, however, that the new campaign which opened so auspiciously has come to an end. The advantages gained by Generals (Edward O.C.) Ord, (David) Birney and Warren will, no doubt, be followed up very soon by other demonstrations, which, we hope, will result in other brilliant achievements – not unlikely in the capture of Petersburg and, perhaps, in the fall of Richmond. Surely the military situation looks bright, and we have good reason to believe that the armed force of rebellion is staggering in consequence of the recent heavy and telling blows it has received from our brave armies. Reverses may be in store for us, and the people ought not to flatter themselves that the rebels are now in a condition easily to be conquered, and that all we have to do is move southward and achieve decisive victories. Let it be borne in mind that the valorous and battle-worn troops of Lee and Hood still confront our gallant soldiers, and until they are whipped and dispersed we shall have plenty of long, hard, bloody work to perform. The end of the war is not yet, but God grant that it may not be far distant. It cannot be, with a wise and comprehensive statesmanship which shall reap the fruits of our land and naval victories.

Lieut. (Lester I.) Richardson, commanding Battery D of our regiment, was severely, though not dangerously wounded on Saturday last. He is the fifth officer who has been wounded or killed in that Battery since Grant’s campaign began. He is a young man of much ability and bright promise, and his loss would prove a severe one to his command and the army.

The paymaster has recently made us a visit. The company sent home about four thousand dollars.

The weather is very pleasant and the troops are in the best of spirits. New recruits come pouring in by regiments. They are mostly one-year men. Battery L has received a few.

Politics are running high in the army. The merits and demerits of the two candidates are vigorously discussed, and some loud talking and hard words are indulged in. The other evening a Lieutenant Colonel of a Maryland regiment delivered a political harangue to his command just in front of our camp, which was set off with such beautiful and patriotic expressions as the following: “Down with McClellan and up with Lincoln,” and then the speaker very tenderly alluded to some domestic relations, which were not so strong, however, as his attachment to Mr. Lincoln and the cause of universal freedom. By the time he concluded his speech, which was interspersed by occasional faint cheers from his immediate audience, there had assembled another audience standing on the earthworks of Battery “L,” representing said battery. The speaker’s address was immediately followed by nine rousing, enthusiastic cheers from L Company, with a “tiger” at the close, for Gen. McClellan, which seemed to mar the meeting’s proceedings and the equanimity of the Lieutenant Colonel. The only apology which the men of Battery L give for taking part in the political meeting held in front of their camp is that the sentiment, “down with McClellan,” was something they could not justly submit to in silence, and so they repudiated it in the demonstrative manner of cheering for their old and beloved commander, who will never “down” in their hearts, whoever he is that bids him down. And then again, General McClellan belongs to the U.S. Army, and what is it but the height of military disobedience and insubordination for an inferior officer to decry against his superior, speaking not only disrespectfully of, but actually vilifying his superior in command, begetting in the minds and hearts of the rank and file of the army those ideas and feeling which, if they should, as they are likely to become, developed, would be so prejudicial to military order and discipline as to actually destroy the efficiency of troops. (1) To be sure, Gen. McClellan is not in active service, but present or absent, no inferior officer has any military right to say aught against him by defaming him, as a man and a soldier, especially in the presence of troops, in a public speech.

Perhaps the opinion of the writer as to how the army will vote, judging from observation and from what is told him, would be considered biased; but here is a “straw” which has turned up since this letter was begun. My readers can draw their own conclusions. The 185th N.Y. regiment, a new regiment, and numbering eleven hundred and thirty three strong, passed by our battery a little while ago on their way to the front. An old veteran in the service, who stood looking at them, spoke up and said, “three cheers for Little Mac.” The regiment was halted by its Colonel, and the loudest kind of cheers were given for McClellan, in which all the command seemed to participate. Three cheers were then proposed for Abraham Lincoln. Five voices only, out of the entire regiment, were heard to give them.

This fact would seem to indicate that the old soldiers who fought under McClellan are not the only troops who favor McClellan’s election. G.B.

Fort Keene, near Weldon Railroad
October 25, 1864
(Appeared Tuesday Nov. 1, 1864)

Three years ago to-day, Battery L was mustered into the U.S. service to serve for the period of three years, unless sooner discharged. Its original term of service expired yesterday, and twenty-four of its old members received honorable discharges and started for home. Their departure from the company seemed like the breaking up of strong home ties and associations, and though it was a matter of rejoicing that they were going to join their homes, after three years of hardships and dangers in their country’s service, it was nevertheless a matter of no little sadness to part with them, for the associations formed were of no ordinary character; formed as they had been amidst common trials and perils. The record of these men is one that they may well feel proud of, a record of brave and valorous deeds performed on many fields of strife with the resolute and spirited enemies of our country. They never shrunk from danger when called upon to meet it, but stood up manfully, and faced and fought the foe with a true patriot’s courage. They helped to give to Battery L the good name it sustains, and we would repeat what was said to them personally, God bless them. Did time permit, we would like to give a brief history of the company since its organization, but we must delay it till a future day. We can merely state now, that since it has been in the field, it has been in eighteen engagements, commencing active service at Harper’s Ferry when “Stonewall” Jackson made his celebrated raid in the Spring of 1862, passing through Pope’s unfortunate campaign, serving under the masterly generalship of McClellan, and continuing with the Army of the Potomac since McClellan’s removal, sharing its experiences, toils and conflicts, and with a grateful heart, we would say, wonderfully preserved as a company through the perils we have passed. We have lost ten killed in action or of wounds received in action, and have had twenty-nine wounded. Twelve have died of disease. The organization of the Battery remains almost as numerically strong as it was when it first entered the field, though the loss of twenty-four of its old veterans all at once, – nearly half of them non-commissioned officers –rather disarranges its organization, and must necessarily for a while weaken its efficiency until the new recruits, about forty of whom we have recently received, have become drilled and disciplined.

We are a six gun battery again, the two guns having been replaced which were turned in by an order issued when the army lay at Spotsylvania, reducing six gun batteries to four gun organizations. It has been found that this number of pieces to a battery is better than four, for the work required of the army of the Potomac, and especially just at present when so many forts have been constructed along the lines of Petersburg and which have to be garrisoned with artillery. Their field fortifications stretch from City Point to near the South Side Railroad fifteen or twenty miles in length, a perfect cordon of them, most of them skillfully and elaborately constructed. Gen. Grant, who with Gen. Meade and staff visited our fort the other day, was overheard to make the remark that the farmers in this vicinity would have plenty of labor to perform leveling the works which have been built by the army. A veritable fact, that, so far as already observed, these works stretch for miles and miles in this locality of the seat of war and indeed, as to that matter, they run back to the Rapidan, a fearfully long line, blood stained all the way. Truly “spades are trumps” and no mistake. If in by gone days they were considered indicative of bad generalship and a disgrace to American soldiery, they are now emphatically a powerful “adjunct” to cannon, muskets, rifles and all the ordnance of war.

There bids to be news of a very startling and important nature, from certain active and vigorous preparations now going on in the army. Before this letter reaches its destination, my readers will doubtless have heard of another movement of the army of the Potomac, and one we believe, from what we have been told, that will be attended with success. The strength and efficiency of the army is to be brought out in a manner such as it never has before. We predict a great battle before election day. May it be won by this brave army and be allowed to tell for the cause of Union and Peace.

Here comes an order disposing of Battery L as follows: One section of it is to be left where it now is, in Fort Keene, another section to move to Fort Umston (Urmston), which is on our left about a mile distant, and the third section is to occupy Fort Cononghey (Conahey) half a mile to the left of Fort Umston, your correspondent having charge of that fort. Lieut. Anderson will remain with the section in Fort Keene. He was to be mustered out yesterday on account of the expiration of his original term of service, but delays the matter till after this movement has taken place. The above forts are to be garrisoned with, I suppose I ought not to say how many guns each, as it might be considered contraband – a sufficient number to convince the enemy if he attempts their assault, that they are not to be approached without difficulty.

Election took place in our company last week. 110 votes cast, 63 for McClellan and 47 for Lincoln. The recent addition of troops previously mentioned, mostly from the strong

Republican district of St. Lawrence, gave to the vote polled in the company the heavy shade it received.

The men who were mustered out of service yesterday, when they enlisted, did so when their only pecuniary inducements that were offered were $13 per month and $100 bounty. Two thirds of this number went home with Gen. Geo. B. McClellan in their hearts, and they will unquestionably be heard from on the day of election. Being honorably out of the service, they will not run the risk of being dishonorably discharged in case they are discovered a la Lieut. Edgerly, circulating “Copperhead tickets.” These kind of tickets, so called, have been circulated among the troops, but not without opposition and difficulty by the eminently patriotic of the army, and in spite of the indisposition, and in some instances the utter refusal of certain loyal republican officers to administer the oath as prescribed by law to those men of their commands who desired to vote for McClellan. The vote polled for McClellan thus far is a handsome one. The surgeon of the 104th N.Y. Regiment, -- or what was once the 104th – informed me that McClellan received 115 votes and Lincoln 15 in that regiment. (2) Other regiments with a greater disparity than that have been reported. We have a good deal, we might say, of this voting in the army, which ought to make some parties blush for their partisan conduct in the matter. We close abruptly, however. G.B. (3)

Those “vigorous preparations” Breck mentioned indeed signaled a major assault on the Confederate defenses by the Army of the Potomac. The recent Federal success in gaining a lodgment at Peeble’s Farm had forced Lee to extend his lines south to Hatcher’s Run. Various sources of intelligence suggested this line was barely scratched out at its lower end. Meade, sensing an easy victory and a chance to close the ring on Petersburg, suggested attacking this section, and Grant agreed, stipulating a simultaneous attack by Butler against the other end of the Confederate lines north of the James.

Meade assigned 25 brigades – a total of 154 regiments – to the effort. However, two of the three corps quickly became bogged down, Warren’s V Corps by nearly impossible terrain, and Parke’s IX by stout confederate defenses. That left Hancock’s II Corps to bear the brunt of Confederate attacks, which seemed to come at his men from all sides. The movement was called off, and the Union soldiers returned to their old positions.

“The face saving began almost immediately,” notes Trudeau, with Union dispatches trying to downplay the movement as a reconnaissance in force. Breck, who indulges in some heavy-handed sarcasm below, was not the only one to see through this. “Few soldiers bought the official line, “ Trudeau notes. (4)

Fort Keene, Va.
Oct. 31, 1864
(Appeared Monday, Nov. 7, 1864)

A reconnoissance in force. So Edwin Stanton, Secretary of War, declared in his official bulletin of October 28, the latest movement of the Army of the Potomac to have been, by virtue of a dispatch received from General Grant to that effect. Solomon has told us that “there is nothing new under the sun,” but Solomon said that thousands of years ago – long before this rebellion broke out, and before Secretary Stanton, General Grant and the Army of the Potomac had an existence. There was fighting in his days, and his father, King David, was a great warrior and commanded large armies, and we read in Biblical history of some very great and important movements made under his leadership, but we have no recollection of his moving his entire force, or nearly the whole of it, in an advance on his enemies, sending his immense trains, if he had any, to the rear, fifteen or twenty miles distant, pressing into the ranks every available man, supplying them with six days’ rations each, arming teamsters and putting them behind fortifications, and in a word, making the most stupendous preparations for a forward movement to engage in aggressive hostilities, and then denominating the gigantic movement simply a reconnoitering expedition for the purpose of ascertaining the strength of the enemy’s entrenchments and how well his works were made. Surely a “new” and improved style of reconnoissance this might well be pronounced; but the movement of the Armies of the Potomac and of the James on Thursday of last week (Oct. 27), which was characterized by all the “stupendous preparations” above mentioned, is called by the Lieutenant General “an advance in force for the purpose of a reconnoissance.” Then we are to understand, of course, that there was no plan for a general engagement, no contemplation of attacking the enemy if he was found in any considerable numbers and offered a strong resistance, no design to advance against the South Side Railroad, or Petersburg, or Richmond, if thereby a battle wo’d be incurred of a serious nature. Nothing of this sort entered into the plans and preparations of the recent movement, if it was merely to reconnoiter the enemy’s position, and, perchance, invite an attack. We wonder if we have been mistaken in supposing that when this army broke camp on the 4th day of May last, and packed up bag and baggage and advanced across the Rapidan in the face of Lee’s army, it started simply on a reconnoissance to find out the enemy’s strength and “feel” of his position. We always thought it was the commencement of a bona fide advance on the rebel capital, undertaken with the determination to give battle whenever the rebel army might be found, and push on to Richmond in spite of everything. We always thought it was the beginning of what was to be the greatest campaign of the war, the beginning of the end of the rebellion. And then after the battle of the Wilderness, when the army moved to Spotsylvania, was that a reconnoitering movement also? An awfully expensive one if it was. And how about the next movement to North Anna river, was that intended for a reconnaissance, as well as the following one when the army brought up at Cold Harbor, went through another terrible fiery and destructive ordeal? And then too, the crossing of the James, was that another reconnoissance in force? All the army’s movements and operations in front of Petersburg, have they been reconnoissances, or were they intended as such?

It seems to me that if the recent movement of this army was nothing more or less than an intended reconnaissance, then it may be truly said that the whole of this year’s campaign of the army of the Potomac was begun and has been conducted for a like purpose. This late advance had been long looked for and talked of, and the nearer the day of election approached, the more certain it became that the army would move if there was a possible chance to win a victory over the rebels, for in the case of such a victory in the field, would there not be a greater and better victory, as Senator Summer might say – achieved elsewhere and for other purposes? What a powerful, telling electioneering document for Mr. Lincoln it would be! How such a military success would impair the prospects of the election of Gen. McClellan! A “trump card” indeed, it might prove, for the Presidential nominee of the Republican party. (5) Well, who can honestly deny that the card was not played, but it did not turn up a “trump.” Somebody got beaten, badly beaten, and which side was it? The most extensive and elaborate preparations were made for a successful advance of the greater part of the army; nothing was left undone which could be done to warrant a brilliant achievement, all wagons and baggage, all the horses and caissons belonging to the batteries left to garrison the forts along the line from the Appomattox to some three miles west of the Weldon road, all this property was sent to the rear at City Point. Every precaution was taken to repulse any attack the enemy might make on the long line before Petersburg, while the main portion of the army advanced on the left with palpable purpose of gaining possession of the South side railroad. My readers must look to other correspondents for particulars of the advance. It was a failure, I regret to say, and had it not been for the Fifth corps, when the right wing of the Second corps was flanked by the enemy and almost doubled back, the fate of Gen. Hancock’s brave troops would unquestionably have been a severe one, but the valorous “old Fifth” was on hand, and the enemy’s advance was checked and he lost a number of prisoners. Thursday night (Oct. 27), it was dark and stormy, and the fighting was suspended, though with the expectation that it would be renewed the next morning. Morning came, but no sound of cannon or musketry. Noon arrived, and lo, the troops were coming back. Coming back but not to remain idle, surely yes to remain idle, to settle down in the same camp or quarters vacated the morning previous. Verily, it must have been a “reconnoissance in force,” which cost us a thousand men to say the least. The rebels still hold the South side railroad, Petersburg and Richmond, and the army of the Potomac has gone back into quietude.

A disturbance occurred on Sunday night however, in front of the second corps. The “Johnny Rebs” dashed in from their work, got in rear of the second corps pickets and gobbled up about three hundred, without firing a shot. There was a terrific musketry and cannonade firing immediately after this bold exploit, but it was like locking the stable after the horse had been stolen.

As stated in my last, Battery L helped to garrison three forts during the late movement, a section of the Battery being in each. We are now together again, at Fort Keene, and winter quarters are talked about. A very good place, this would be, to sojourn in through the winter months.

The departure of Lieut. C. L. Anderson from the Battery leaves us but one officer in the company at present. We miss our “old war-worn” colleague and comrade in-arms, who stood by us for three years, doing valorous and honorable service for the Union and the Constitution, never losing sight of the noble object which took him into the field, and never failing to render all the maintenance in his power for the accomplishment of that object. “The Union at all hazards and the one condition of ‘Peace’” was the sentiment of his heart and voice when he entered the service, and it certainly was when he bade us good bye and left the army. May that patriotic sentiment prove a reality. G.B.

Battery “L,” Fort Keene, Va.
Nov. 16, 1864
(Appeared Monday, Nov. 21, 1864)

Like Micawber, your correspondent has been “waiting for something to turn up” which would be of sufficient interest to write about; but since Gen. Grant’s last grand “reconnoissance in force,” nothing of note or importance has, to my knowledge, transpired in the army. A general quietness has prevailed along the lines, occasionally broken by a little picket or cannonade firing near Fort Warren, where hostile demonstrations have been almost continuous since the army arrived in front of Petersburg. There was considerable firing in that vicinity all last night, but confined to the pickets.

The appearance of many camps is very winter-like. Log houses are being built in every direction, and the soldiers apparently have winter quarters “on the brain.” The weather continues very pleasant, and though the nights are somewhat cold, campaigning would not be unduly severe at this late season of the year. Further army movements are doubtful, however, till the advent of Spring, although it is the belief of some that the campaign is by no means ended yet.

The army is in no wise in a demoralized or dispirited condition, but it is true that the troops need a great deal of drill and discipline, as every commanding officer is ready to testify. So many old men have left the army on account of the expiration of their term of service, and so many, too, have fallen in battle or by disease, or been discharged by reason of disability, and their places being filled by new men, there is, as a consequence, a want of strength and efficiency on the part of the army which requires instruction and drill to correct and improve. Nearly four years of war have failed to teach our government the urgent necessity and propriety of establishing a camp or camps of instruction for the training and discipline of new recruits, to be held in readiness to enter the field whenever their services should be required. The policy has been, and is now, to make a call for one, two, three or more hundred thousand men, send them immediately to the field, place them in the front and set them at fighting, and when they have been killed off or have become lost to the army in other ways, then the call is repeated for a new levy of men, who pass through a similar process. Would it not be the part of wisdom to have a reserve camp of fifty or one hundred thousand men, who should be thoroughly drilled before taking the field, and this camp to be always kept full?

Unquestionably another call for troops will be issued very soon, for “more men” is already the cry. Of course this call of our re-elected Chief Magistrate will, when made, be eagerly caught up and responded to with alacrity by the two millions of patriotic men who voted understandingly for a war of military subjugation, and for eradicating entirely, root and branch, the cause, in their opinion, of all our woes, the abominable institution of slavery. The issue in the recent political campaign was very plain, so that he who ran could read it, namely, “the Union at all hazards” and “the one condition of peace,” or “the recovery of the lost power of the United States over revolted States, by means of military subjugation and the abolition of slavery.” The latter meant no “cessation of hostilities” till the South cried out to the North, “Enough, I will submit to your emancipation and subjugation policy,” and of course, no man of reason or intelligence who voted upon Mr. Lincoln the accomplishment of such a herculean task expected for a moment that it would ever be triumphantly achieved without a vast amount more of fighting, fighting till the “bitter end,” and with this exception in their minds, it is natural to conclude, that if able-boded and fit for military service, all these same voters are ready to give practical and personal support to help carry out the object and policy decided by the election. Am I wrong in supposing that it will not be necessary to enforce another draft? “By their fruits ye shall know them, and the writer will be greatly disappointed if that party which determined how the war should be prosecuted and for what purpose, does not bear a rich abundance of fruit at the next summons for more fighting material. Indeed, why wait for the summons? The army needs your services now, my patriotic friends, you personally, and you know a voluntary offering is worth immensely more than a forced one, more satisfactory to yourselves and to all concerned. Then buckle on your armor and come forth and battle for Humanity and Freedom. That surely is a battle cry of greater and nobler significance than merely that of “the Union at all hazards,” one which must incite you to daring deeds, to gallant and heroic action. What if the rebellious South will not submit to the only condition on which you are willing to listen to and receive any overture of Peace? Then war to the knife, and knife to the heart, if need be.

Every day the army is losing men and officers in consequence of the expiration of their term of service, who have borne to the best of their ability the burden and heat of the war for three bloody years, and they are generally disposed to give way for their more loyal brethren, who have never confronted the cannon’s mouth, the glistening steel, and the deadly rifle, but who are vigorous and enthusiastic advocates for a vigorous application of nothing but iron shot and shell, the all conquering and subduing logic of “cold metal.” Come and stay three years in the army at the front, and may be you will be glad at the expiration of that time to accept overtures of Peace and Union, uncoupled with any other provision, – overtures which now seem very obnoxious and unsatisfactory to you, – though, thereby, you would incur the risk of being denominated a Copperhead or a Traitor, or appellations that have been frequently applied in our hearing to those in the service, whose motive now is and has been since the commencement of the war, “the Union the one condition of Peace.” Can you who honestly and patriotically voted against the so-called Peace Platform of Chicago, which, because it did happen to mention the sweet and joyous word of Peace, and looked to its attainment by negotiation or by some apt and honorable course if thereby the Union in all its integrity could be preserved, was a thing to be detested and spit upon; you who denounced Mr. Pendleton as a traitor, a secessionist, an approver of the rebellion and an enemy of the worst description to the Government; you, who in your heart, could not possibly find anything against the pure and heroic patriot, Gen. McClellan, but because of the manner in which he was presented as a candidate for the Presidency, voted against him, can you, we ask, who endorsed the exponents and policy of your party, consistently withhold your personal services from the battle-field and the scenes of warfare, where alone you have declared a reconciliation can be effected between the two sections of country, the North and the South? This is a serious matter, concerning the weal or woe of our beloved country, and whatever be the result of our national struggle, it will affect us equally alike, but it is unreasonable to suppose that we of the Democratic faith and principles, who, while supporters of the war for the Union, also advocate a wise, healing and conciliatory civil policy, should, in the absence of such a policy, fight our brave but “erring brethren” of the South with the same ardor and hope of success that must necessarily animate our more martial and patriotic opponents, whose political faith is different from ours, who believe in the settlement of our country’s difficulties by the supreme arbitrament of the sword alone, and who must be ready and willing, as a matter of course, to give a practical exposition of the faith that is in them. (6) Yes, gentlemen and patriots of the North, whatever be your trade, profession or pursuit, if within the prescribed age and pronounced sound by the medical examiner, your personal services are needed in the field, and faith, you know, be it religious, political or any other kind, is dead without works. G.B.

Transcribed And Donated By Bob MarcotteTranscribed And Donated By Bob Marcotte
​​​​​​​Robert E. Marcotte
Rochester, N.Y.
February 2005