In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:

228 richmond must fall “heavy galling volley” Several miles east of the Burgess Farm, the afternoon near the Clements house had settled into a wet, uncomfortable calm. Parke and Warren arranged their two corps in a continuous line to guard against Confederate counterattacks. in the ninth Corps sector to the north, Potter’s division anchored the right flank, with Ferrero’s USCts in the center, and orlando Willcox’s brigades dug in north of the Clements house. The men felled timber for several dozen yards in their front with the tree tops pointed toward the enemy and, as one Wisconsin soldier described , “the boughs ‘so intimately connected’ as to form ‘a slashing,’ the most adventurous Johnny would hardly care to endeavor to penetrate, at least with hostile intention.”1 on Willcox’s left, the Fifth Corps held the line, with griffin’s men entrenched along the front south to Hatcher’s Run. Romeyn ayres’s division, also from the Fifth Corps, remained in reserve behind griffin. For the green new York regiments in griffin’s division, the day had been unpleasantly eventful. Undrilled and untested, the rookies faltered in the initial morning attack and tumbled backward, leaving wounded comrades in their wake. However, the regiments regrouped and began constructing temporary works from old logs and dirt in a dense strip of timber. as the units girded their line, the wounded suffered in the woods to the front, directing their cries of help back to their comrades. When an officer in the 187th new York solicited volunteers to rescue the stricken men, about thirty soldiers stepped forward. John Haskin, whose son Monroe lay somewhere in the woods, sought to join the party. However, as he climbed over the new breastworks, his regiment’s commander, lieutenant Colonel daniel Myers, ordered him back, explaining that the mission required younger men. Haskin, desperate to find his son, tried a second time, but Myers repeated his instruction. The relief squad crept forward without Myers and soon met a “heavy galling volley of musketry.” Most of these new Yorkers scrambled back to safety. But four of them, lieutenant Richard Shannon of Company g, the diminutive Charles a. orr, the large John Williams, and another man, remained in the timber 228 Chapter 14 Crawford at Hatcher’s Run • crawford at hatcher’s run 229 searching for their wounded friends. orr and Williams sifted through the woods in front, picking through the brush and downed trees. each time the group bore back an injured comrade, John Haskin asked for any news of his son. each time the answer was no. The party kept at their task for an hour or two, rescuing several new Yorkers as well as members of the 155th Pennsylvania. The brave effort would later earn the Medal of Honor for Charles orr.2 eventually, John Haskin’s missing son was found alive; he continued to serve in the regiment.3 except for the sporadic firing and scattered heroics, little occurred along the Boydton Plank Road line the rest of the day. With the federal units earnestly entrenching, there would be no more attempts to pierce the abatis and gain the rebel earthworks. “almost impossible to proceed” With Hancock’s force halted to the southwest at Burgess Mill, most of the ninth and Fifth Corps remained north of Hatcher’s Run doing next to nothing. to form a connection, Meade and grant had dispatched a single division, led by Brigadier general Samuel Crawford into the space between the two formations. Crawford’s command had joined the Fifth Corps procession earlier that morning. But around 11 a.m., one of Warren’s aides directed Crawford onto the duncan Road and south toward Hatcher’s Run. Shortly afterward, Washington Roebling escorted him across the stream at armstrong’s Mill.4 to augment Crawford’s two brigades (a third brigade of his remained in the trenches on october 27), Warren ordered the Maryland brigade, led by Colonel andrew W. denison, from general ayres’s division, and an artillery battery to join the movement. Crawford’s mission was complicated. as he recalled, Roebling directed him to “advance up [the] right bank, my right resting upon it, and guided by it. My orders were to advance and connect with the left of First [griffin’s] division.”5 if possible, Crawford was expected to ascend the right bank of Hatcher’s Run, bypass the rebel earthworks on the north side, cross over to the left bank, and attack the enemy position...

Share