History of Fairfield County, Connecticut

Quartermaster-sergeant, John S. Ward, of Bridge- port; afterwards promoted to be quarternuister, and mustered out with the regiment. Commissary-sergeant, Josiah L. Day, of Danliurv; discharged for disability, March li, 1S(J3; succeeded by Edwin D. Hurd, of Fiiirfield. Hospital steward, Jesse S. Nash, of Bridgeport; discharged for disability, Dec. 29, l.'>(;2. Assistant adjutant, Henry W. Chatfield, of Bridge- j)ort ; afterwards promoted to Ijc sergeant-major, ai\d for gallant conduct at Chancellorsville, in rallying and I'c-forming the regiment, promoted to be adju- tant, serving with distinguished gallantry at Gettys- burg, and killed in action at Dunn's Lake, Fla. Captain of Company A, Douglas Fowler, of Nor- walk ; a captain in the three montlis' service, after- wards captain in the Eighth Connecticut ; promoted to be lieutenant-colonel for gallantry at Chancellors- ville, and killed in first day's battle at ( rettyslnirg. Captain of Company B, Charles A. Hobbie, of Darien, who was wounded at Chancellorsville, cap- tured in Florida, and imprisoned at Andersonville. Cajitain of Company (', .Tames E. Moore ; a scddier of the Me-xican war, and a captain in the three months' service. A faithful officer, serving with dis- tinguished gallantry at Chancellorsville, and killed in the first day's fight at Gettysburg. Captain of Company D, William 11. Lacy, of Bridgeport; wounded at Chancellorsville, and re- signed in May, 18(53. He was succeeded by Lieut. William L. Hulibell, of Bridgeport, who was suc- cessively promoted to be adjutant, captain of Com- pany D, and major of the regiment. Captain of Company E, Henry 1'. Burr, of West- port ; served with distinguished gallantry at Chancel- lorsville (where he was taken for a sh<irt time jiris- oncr] and afterwards at Gettysburg, where, at the close of the I>attle, he was in command of the regi- ment. Captain of Company F, Enoch Ward, of Xorwalk, who raised his company in three days from nothing to one liundred and two men; resigned in March, l.S()3, on account of ill health. He was succeeded by Lieut. Henry Allen, of Norwalk ; afterwards jiro- moted to be nuijor and lieutenant-colonel of the regi- ment, which position he held at the close of the war. Ins three jiredeeessors having been killed or mortally wouniled in action. Captain of Company G, James E. Dunham, of r>ridgeport ; in the winter of 18G2 and 1S(13, pro- moted to be provost-marshal on the staff of (Jen. Devens, First Divisicm, Eleventh Corps ; badly maimed at Chancellorsville by the fall of his horse, and unalile to march as captain ; resigned to accept the position of captain and ])rovost-nuirshal of the Fourth District of Connecticut. He was succeeded by Lieut. Wilson French, of Stratford, who was on picket at Chancellorsville with his company, and met the first onslaught of Stonewall Jackson's assault; also wounded at Getty.sburg, and for a short time a ]n-is(iner; afterwards provost-marshal of the Eastern District of Florida, and then captured and taken prisoner to Anclersonville. ('aptain of Company H, Enos Kellogg, of New Canaan ; a gallant officer; in the battles of Chancel- lorsville and Gettysburg, and in the trenches on Morris Island. At Volusia, Fla., with oidy fifty men, seventy-five miles from any other Union force, he so fortified his position, aided l)y Lieut. Ruggles of Com- jiany K, that he frightened olfthe rebel captain Dick- enson with his artillery and two hundred mounted rifiemen. Captain of Company I, D. O. Benson, of Green- wich, who died early in his service at Baltimore, and was succeeded by -Vdjt. \Vilcoxson, aftci'wards lieu- tenant-colonel. Captain of Con]|)any K, J. J. Mct'arthy, of Fair- field ; a very gallant officer; marked for his behavior as such at the battles of CluinccUorsviUe and Gettys- burg, and in the trenches on Morris Island ; was spe- cially selected to head any dan^rcrous or difficult post 56 HISTORY OF FAIRFIELD COUNTY, CONNECTICUT. on picket- or skirmish-lino ; a bold and fearless officer; resigned at Folly Island in the winter of 1864. The regiment had no chaplain at its organiz.ation, but the Kev. Alexander U. Thomson, D.D., of the Second Congregational Church of Bridgeport, while the regiment Wius in camp, filled the place of two or three chaplains, procured them a chapel tent and a library of five hundred volumes, and was most active in every work to promote the interests, spiritual and temporal, of the regiment. He would have gone out with the regiment as its chaplain could he have ob- tained leave of absence from his congregation ; he afterwards visited them at IJaltimore, and held there their first divine service and a grand tcmi)eraiice- mcetiug. The regiment, from its colonel down, re- veres and loves him. He was succeeded by the Rev. Hall, who joined at Antioch Church, November, 1802, and con- tinued with the regiment through the battles of Chan- cellorsville and Gettysburg and until November, 1863. THE REGIMEKT IN THE SERVICE. Aug. 28, 1862, the regiment was mustered into the United States service. On September 3d following it took rail for the front. A short time previous, Maj.- Gen. Franz Sigcl, through Capt. l/von, one of his staff, had asked consent of the regiment to join his Eleventh Corps. He was eager to swell his force, which then was without a Connecticut regiment. The officers of the Seventeenth gave their unaniuKms consent to be so a.ssigTied. When it broke camp at Seaside Park the members of the whole regiment felt, in the words of the refrain, that they should soon " fight mit Sigcl." The date of departure had been made known to the liomes of the county ; the friends and kindred of the regiment turned out a vast throng of anxious hearts and patriotic sympathy to say farewell. Outside of Bridgeport, whose citizens crowded en vianse, there came thousands by rail and country road to bid adieu to brothers, fathers, and friends; there were many sad and many cheerful jjartings. As a whole, the soldiers were elated and ho|)eftil. Youth, pride in such a service, and the novel duties and scenes in which they were soon to act gave the " enchantment of distance" to a life filled with hardshi]>, danger, and death. The regiment moved (except from New Y'ork to Amboy) from Bridgeport to Baltimore by rail, with orders to report to Gen. Wool, there commanding. It arrived in Baltimore on the next day, Septendier 4tli, about dark, and marched to the extensive rail- road depot and store-shed of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, of which the colonel took possession for shelter, and refused to move until ordered by Gen. Wool. On reporting to Gen. Wool late the night of arrival, the colonel was ordered to hold his command in readi- ness for orders from WasMngton. In the mean time the Union men of Baltimore, anxious for their city in the face of the disasters beyond, were fearful of some sudden raids of the enemy in force. They had looked over this regiment, so ccmspicuously qtiartered in the centre of their city, and expressed flattering admira- tion for its make-up and bearing. They soon hinted and "guessed" that we should not be allowed to go farther, and that they wanted such a regiment there as much as anywhere. They had evidently inter- viewed Gen. Wool in force or visited Washington. A few days afterwards he sent down orders to the regiment to shift quarters to Fort Marshall, a tempo- rary earthwork on high ground ciust of the city, com- manding the city, harbor, and surrounding countrj*. It was to act as a reserve and supporting force to a New York artillery regiment, which formed its gar- rison. Our ])osition there was in every respect irksome and distasteful. The garrison was made up of very differ- ent material from the regiment. It had been re- cruited in New York and Brooklyn, and wiw held with a very lax rein of discipline. The association was bad. Besides, Col. Belger, the post (piarter- master, refused the regiment the shelter which at a post and as a reserve to garrison they had a right to demand. He paid no heed to the remonstrances of the regimental quartermaster, Lieut. Hayes, or to those of the colonel. Every military man knows that regi- ments in the field and in active service can stand hardships and exposures which will sicken and thin out a force in the position of ours at Fort JIarshall. Men make light of all sorts of things on forced marches or in action which tell heavily upon them in the quiet camp. Under this state of things the colonel of the regi- ment, out of the regular channels of communication, wrote what he intended as a [irivate letter to Gen. Sigel, stating the annoyances suffered and the insult- ing rebuffs of Col. Belger, reminding him of our orig- inal purpose to join his command, and asking his aid to eft'ect that end. It was supposed that in some way, without following the lines of rod tajw and those reg- ular channels, he would find means to cut the tape and got us into the field. Nothing was heard from him or about the nujttor for a month. In this state of things, about Oct. 15, 1862, Col. Noble called upon Gen. Wool to lay before him the grievances of the regiment in regard to its camp equipage and Col. Bclger's neglect of our militarj- rights. He found that venerable oflieer very irate. He confronted the colonel with the letter to Gen. Sigel, which had just arrived in its travels tiirough the regular channels, with due and ample " respcctfiil reference." Nothing that Col. Noble could say at all cooled the general's wrath. He did not exhibit to the colonel his letter or its indorsements, one of which doubtless was for the regiment to report at ^\'ashlng- ton. At any rate, he immediately ordered the colonel to take his regiment by rail to Washington, and to MILITARY HISTORY. 57