Yours for the Union: The Civil War Letters of John W. Chase, First Massachusetts Light Artillery 9780823293629

Citation preview

YOURS FOR THE UNION The Civil War Letters of

John W. Chase First Massachusetts Light Artillery

YOURS FOR THE UNION The Civil War Letters of

John W. Chase First Massachusetts Light Artillery

Edited by

John S. Collier & Bonnie B. Collier

Fordham University Press New York 2004

Copyright© 2004John S. and Bonnie B. Collier All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means-electronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording, or any other-except for brief quotations in printed reviews, without the prior permission of the publisher.

The North's Civil War Series, No. 29 ISSN 1089-8719

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Chase, John W. (John Webster), b. 1825. Yours for the Union: the Civil War letters of John W. Chase, First Massachusetts Light Artillery I JohnS. and Bonnie B. Collier, editors.-- 1st ed. p.cm. Includes index. ISBN 0-8232-23ffi-5 (Hardcover) 1. Chase, John W. (John Webster), b. 1825--Correspondence. 2. United States. Army. Massachusetts Light Artillery Battery, 1st (1861-1864) 3. Massachusetts-History--Civil War, 1861-1865--Personal narratives. 4. United States--History-Civil War, 1861-1865--Personal narratives. 5. Massachusetts--History--Civil War, 1861-1865--Regimental histories. 6. United States--History--Civil War, 1861-1865-Regimental histories. 7. United States--History--Civil War, 1861-1865--Artillery operations. 8. Soldiers--Massachusetts--Correspondence. 9. Roxbury (Boston, Mass.)--Biography. 10. Boston (Mass.)--Biography. I. Collier, JohnS. II. Collier, Bonnie B. III. Title. E513.81st .C48 2004 973. 7'81--dc22 2003024722

Printed in the United States of America 07060504 54321 First edition

Table of Contents vii

List of Illustrations and Credits

xiii

Acknowledgments Introduction

XV

xxi

Prologue

1

Chapter 1. Alexandria Chapter 2. The Peninsula Campaign

81

Chapter 3. Maryland

139

Chapter 4. Fredericksburg

167

Chapter 5. Chancellorsville to Gettysburg

233

Chapter 6. Warrenton and Brandy Station

277

Chapter 7. The Overland Campaign

331

Chapter 8. The Shenandoah Valley

353

Chapter 9. Petersburg

391

Epilogue

403

Appendix I. Obituaries

409

Appendix II. Chronology

417

Appendix III. Battery Organization

425

Appendix IV. Asher Chase

433

Index

455

v

Illustrations 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7.

Detail from Envelope of May 30, 1862 Envelope Collage John W. Chase's Family John Chase's Travel Routes in Chapter 1 The Marshall House Captain Josiah Porter General George B. McClellan in Harper's Weekly, January 25, 1862 8. Annie Lisle 9. Captain Follett 10. George Chase 11. Envelope of January 2, 1862 12. Ben Winslow and John Chase 13. General William B. Franklin 14. Thomas and Mary Leavitt Marston 15. Relic from Fairfax Court House 16. Artillery, by Edwin Forbes 17. Letter of April 15, 1862 18. John Chase's Travel Routes in Chapter 2 19. Letter of April 20, 1862 20. Envelope of April 27, 1862 21. Letter of April27, 1862 22. Detail from Letter of May 3, 1862 23. Quaker Guns 24. Co. F, 114th Pennsylvania Zouaves (detail) 25. CSA Stamp 26. Letter of May 30, 1862- The Spy 27. Envelope of May 30, 1862 Vll

m xiv xix xxii 2 3 14 18 22 32 44 49 53 57 70 75 77 80 83 85 86 88 90 92 94 98 101

YOURS FOR THE UNION

28. Governor John A. Andrew 29. General HenryW. Slocum 30. Camp of the First Massachusetts Light Artillery on Heron Creek near Harrison's Landing, by Alfred Waud 31. John Chase's Letter of July 21, 1862, in the Roxbury City Gazette 32. Lieutenant William H. McCartney 33. General Henry W. Halleck 34. Horace Greeley 35. Senator Charles Sumner 36. Napoleon Gun, by Edwin Forbes 37. General William F. Smith 38. John Chase's Travel Routes in Chapter 3 39. Relic from Letter of September 20, 1862 40. Colonel Webster Relic 41. Captain J. Henry Sleeper 42. Captain Wm. H. McCartney 43. General Ambrose E. Burnside 44. First Massachusetts Light Artillery Boring New Vents, by Alfred Waud 45. John Chase's Travel Routes in Chapter 4 46. General George B. McClellan 47. General Joseph Hooker 48. Fredericksburg, by Alfred Waud 49. Hamden's Express Receipt 50. A Stormy March, by Edwin Forbes 51. From Envelope of February 3, 1863 52. Sarah F. (Marston) Chase, John's wife, who died in 1857 53. Lieutenant Robert L. Sawin 54. Clipping in Letter of Feb. 17, 1863 55. Blacksmith-First Massachusetts Light Artillery, by Alfred Waud 56. Judge John Scammon 57. U.S. Christian Commission 58. President Lincoln

viii

111 117 120 123 128 130 131 131 133 135 138 147 148 150 151 152 156 166 168 173 179 184 195 197 198 200 205 214 218 223 224

ILLUSTRATIONS

59. John Chase's Travel Routes in Chapter 5 60. White Oak Church 61. Letter of May 6, 1863 62. John W. Chase-''The Old Veteran" 63. Envelope of June 12, 1863 64. Lieutenant Charles French 65. Detail from Gettysburg Cyclorama 66. A Fifty Cent "Shinplaster" 67. John Chase's Travel Routes in Chapter 6 68. General Robert E. Lee 69. General George G. Meade 70. Benny Brooks, John Chase, and Francis Conway 71. Sixth Corps Cross 72. Sleeper's Battery at Kelly's Ford, by Alfred Waud 73. John Chase's Reenlistment Form, December 23, 1863 74. Winter Quarters Headquarters at Brandy Station 75. Letter of February 14, 186[4] 76. General Ulysses S. Grant 77. A Sutler's "Fruit & Oyster House" 78. John Chase's Travel Routes in Chapter 7 79. Artillery by the Rapidan, by Alfred Waud 80. Letter of May 13, 1864 (Battle of Spotsylvania Court House) 81. GeneralJohn Sedgwick 82. Letter of July 5, 1864 83. John Chase's Travel Routes in Chapter 8 84. Captain Sleeper in Harper's Weekly, July 9, 1864 85. Detail from Letter of July 12, 1864 86. Harpers Ferry in 1865 87. General Philip H. Sheridan 88. Captain Stevens's Battery, by Alfred Waud 89. Battle Near Upperville below Ashby's Gap, by Alfred Waud 90. Sheridan's Ride, by Alfred Waud 91. General Horatio G. Wright ix

232 234 235 248 249 263 266 275 276 280

2fn 294 295 303

312 314 315 320 325

330 333 334 335 349 352 355 356 358 365 366 368

370 371

YOURS FOR THE UNION

92. 93. 94. 95.

John Chase's Travel Routes in Chapter 9 Siege of Petersburg, by Alfred Waud Muster-out Roll, April 26, 1865 Boston Police Department Station Captain, John W. Chase 96. Gravestone of John W. and Sarah D. Chase 97. Sarah F. Chase 98. Mary (Chase) Huntington 99. Charles H. Chase 100. George W. Chase 101. Samuel S. Chase 102. Benjamin Winslow 103. Charles French 104. First Massachusetts Light Artillery Monument at Gettysburg 105. John Chase's Travel Routes from October 1861 to April 1865 106. Guarding the Bridge at the Relay House 107. First Lieutenant Josiah Porter 108. A Light Artillery Gun Detachment at Drill

X

390 394 401

403 404 404 405 405

406 406 407 407 408

416 426 427 430

ILLUSTRATIONS

Illustration Credits AJB

The Story of the First Massachusetts Light Battery, by A. J. Bennett, Deland and Barta, Boston, Mass., 1886

CFC

Chase or Collier family collection

HW

Harper's Weekly, Vol. VI, No. 265, January 25, 1862; Vol. VIII, No. 393, July 9, 1864

JSC/BBC

JohnS. Collier and Bonnie B. Collier

LC

Library of Congress p. 18, Memory series; p. 75, LC-USZ62-11096; p. 90, LCB8171-0334; p. 92, LC-B817-7143; p. 120, LC-USZC45817; p. 130, LC-B813-6377; p. 131, LC-USZ62-47450 & LC-USZ62-66840; p. 133, LC-USZ62-126493; p. 150, LCB817-7085; p. 156, LC-USZ62-14724; p. 168, LC-USZ62100749; p. 179, LC-USZC4-5629; p. 195, LC-USZ62-12799; p. 214, LC-USZ62-14638; p. 223, LC-B8171-7471; p. 234, LC-USZ62-119121; p. 280, LC-USZ62-103217; p. 287, LCB813-1467; p. 303, LC-USZ62-7034; p. 314, LC-B817-7161; p. 320, LC-USZ62-101466; p. 325, LC-B811-1051; p. 333, LC-USZC4-2393; p. 365, LC-B482-4012; p. 366, LCUSZ62-14914; p. 368, LC-USZC2-3761; p. 370, LC-USZ6215163; p. 371, LC-8811-2564; p. 394, LC-USZ62-7052

u

History of the Sixth New Hampshire Regiment, by Lyman Jackman, Republican Press Assoc., Concord, N.H., 1891

NA

National Archives p. 2, B-5294; p. 224, American Originals; p. 266, 66-G-19015; p. 312, pension records; p. 358, 165-SB-26; p. 401, pension records; p. 426, 79-CWC-3F-22; p. 430, B-443

xi

YOURS FOR THE UNION

NEHGS

Engraved for the New England Historic Genealogical Society by F. T. Stuart, Boston, Mass., 1868

RCG

Roxbury City Gazette, Vol. 2, No. 14, July 31, 1862.

TGM

The Granite Monthly, Vol. XXVI, No.3, March 1899

USAMHI

U.S. Army Military History Institute, Carlisle, Pennsylvania p. 22, Vol. 95-4873; p. 128, RG98S-CWP20.99; p. 200, RG98S-CWP216.70; p. 263 & p. 407, Vol. 95-4874; p. 427, Vol. 95-4872

xii

Acknowledgments We are grateful to the previous generations of the Chase family who recognized the historical, or, perhaps, sentimental value of these letters and saved them. We want to acknowledge the effort of Margaret Johnston Collier who typed the initial transcriptions of the letters years ago and who contributed several of the family photographs. We also want to acknowledge the contributions of family photographs by Dorothy Chase Barthlemes, Mary Chase Barker, and Joyce Barker Rowe. John & Bonnie Collier

xiii

YOURS FOR THE UNION

CFC

xiv

Introduction While he was a soldier in the Union army during the Civil War, John W. Chase wrote frequent letters to his older brother, Samuel S. Chase, back in Roxbury, Massachusetts. He patriotically signed several of his letters "Yours for the Union," which explains in part why he left friends and family to join the Union army. One hundred and seventy-two of those letters have survived and live on to describe John Chase's experiences and thoughts from October 1861 until the war ended in April 1865. In plain language, his letters reflect the view of the war from the perspective of a common soldier rather than from an officer or a journalist or an historian. His letters portray a man who is trying to provide for his children, maintain his finances, and obtain food and clothing to supplement his meager rations, all while marching in the dust and the mud and fighting a war. His letters reveal his patriotism and his enthusiasm for preserving the Union, but as the war went on, his increasing cynicism becomes apparent and his criticism of the Union officers and the leadership in Washington grows more intense. His occasionally crude language reveals his strong opinions about abolition and, especially, abolitionist politicians. As a soldier in the Army of the Potomac, Chase was present at most of the major battles fought in the East. John Chase's state of mind reflects that of the Union army after each discouraging defeat or encouraging victory. This collection of letters is not a sanitized or heroic memoir, and there are better and more complete descriptions of the battles and of the military strategies of the competing armies. Instead, these letters chronicle the experiences of one common soldier in the Union army. John enlisted for three years as a private in the First Massachusetts Light Artillery, in Boston, on August 28, 1861, and XV

YOURS FOR THE UNION

reported for duty on September 2, 1861. He was appointed corporal (chief of caisson) on October 9, 1861, promoted to sergeant on June 9, 1863, and promoted to 1st sergeant on September 7, 1863. He reenlisted on December 23, 1863, at Brandy Station, Virginia. He was attached to the Fifth Maine Battery on October 3, 1864, when the First Massachusetts Battery was dissolved at the expiration of the men's three-year terms of enlistment. He was transferred to the Ninth Massachusetts Battery on March 28, 1865. He mustered out on April 26, 1865, at age 39, near Petersburg, Virginia, two weeks after Lee's surrender near Appomattox Court House. John Webster Chase's pension records list his name erroneously as John Webber Chase, an error probably made by the law firm handling the pension application by his widow. He was almost certainly named after Daniel Webster, who was a prominent member of Congress at the time of John's birth in 1825.

The letters are presented here in their entirety as written by John W. Chase, with only the following minor editing. The original spellings have been maintained where they appear repeatedly, except that "ss" has been substituted for the old style "fs." Punctuation was rare, with no periods to end sentences and only occasional capitalizations to start them; however, Chase used other capitalizations liberally. We have added capitalized first letters of sentences and periods for readability, but made no attempt otherwise to punctuate the letters. A few letters were written in black ink, but most were written in pencil on blue-lined paper. A couple of letters were written in a reddish ink that was made from local berries. Although his handwriting was moderately legible, it was very difficult to distinguish between some letters. We have used brackets [ ] for editors' additions. This collection of letters, which fills one shoe box, was passed down through the family. Sam probably gave them to John's son, George, who lived in Stratham, New Hampshire, after John died. xvi

INfRODUCfiON

When George died, they went to his younger daughter, Mary Chase Hatch, who also lived in Stratham. Mary had heart damage from scarlet fever, which led to an early death. The letters were retrieved from Mary's attic by her older sister, Pearl Chase Johnston, only a year or two before the house was destroyed by fire. Pearl left the letters with her daughter, Margaret Johnston Collier, who transcribed them. Margaret also loaned them to Bruce Catton, who quoted from them in his book, This Hallowed Ground. Margaret's son, John S. Collier, John W. Chase's great-great-grandson, along with his wife, Bonnie Baldwin Collier, verified and edited the transcriptions, collected the photographs, and did additional research to create this book.

There are many people mentioned in John Chase's letters. The following is a list of his friends and family mentioned most frequently, and their ages in 1861: Brother Lizzie Asher William Hitty Mrs. Curtis Mary Charley George Sarah Mary Eliza Levi Pricilla Sis Horatio Littlefield

Samuel S. Chase (44) Sam's wife, Elizabeth (42) Sam and Lizzie's son (20) Lizzie's brother, William Curtis (45) William's wife, Mehitable (41) Lizzie's mother, Betsy (65) John's daughter (14) John's son (10) John's son (7) John's daughter (4) John's sister, Mary Littlefield (49) Mary Littlefield's daughter (21) John's brother, Levi Chase (38) Levi's wife, Priscilla (35) John's sister, Sarah Littlefield (54) Sarah Littlefield's son (21)

xvii

YOURSFORTHE~ON

Susie Smith Harry Smith George Head Father Mother

Emily

Mace Langdon

Lydston

Sarah Littlefield's daughter (20) Susie Smith's husband, William H. Smith (25) The widower of John's youngest sister, Susan, who died in 1860 (37) Andrew Chase (74) John's mother, Sarah, died in 1856. John called both his stepmother, Hannah, and his mother-in-law, Mary Marston, ''Mother" Emily Grindell lived with William and Hitty Curtis's family. She was a dressmaker for the family (28) Probably John Wilder May, who became City Solicitor for Roxbury in 1864 (43) John Langdon Jewell (47) and Sophia (Marston) Jewell (41), the sister of John's late wife, cared for three of John's children Alfred Lydston (41), Sam's coworker

xviii

INTRODUCTION

John W. Chase's Family Andrew Chase ( 1787-187 S) & Sarah Clark (1786-1856) James Littlefield (ca. 1835-) ' Sarah Ann Chase ( 1807-)~~ &__ Abn~_[jttlefiE!I~tlca1_8{)(:;::::L

_j

Horatio G. Littlefield ( 1839-1906) -·] &H~ett