580
GORDON'S ATTACK AT FORT STEDMAN.
rison. Eighty rods farther was Eort Stedman, astronger work than. Haskell, and not so well com-manded from Cemetery Hill. Two hundred rodsfrom Stedman was Eort McGilvery, near the riverand out of range of Lee’s heavy ordnance. In frontof Haskell there were woods, marshes, and a slug-gish stream completely obstructing the passage ofmen and guns from the enemy’s works eastward,but at Stedman, where the lines were but fortyrods apart, the ground of both lines and all be-tween was solid, and feasible for rapid movementsof bodies of every arm of service, even to cavalry,and so here was a road that a master-stroke mightopen.
The headquarters of the 14th were at Stedman,where our acting colonel, Major George M. Randall,had command. Captain Charles H. Houghton, ofCompany L, commanded at Port Haskell.
About 3 o’clock on the morning of March 25thLieutenants C. A. Lochbrunner and Prank M.Thomson, who were on night duty at Port Sted-man, informed Major Randall of an unusual com-motion in front of the works. Lieutenant Thomsonwas directed to arouse the command at once andhave the men moved to the works as quickly andas quietly as possible. The attack fell first uponBattery X and the breastworks on the right of it,and at that time the most of the officers and menof the garrison were in their places. Captain J. P.Cleary, Lieutenant Thomson, and Sergeant JohnDelack (who had been on guard duty during thenight) had hauled a gun to the sally-port on theface of the fort toward Battery X, and it wasopened upon the assailants. Many of the Con-federates were captured and sent to the rear. JjThe guns on this face were fired several timesunder command of the officers of the battery. Theartillerymen in Battery X attempted to defendtheir guns, and Lieutenant E. B. Nye, command-ing the section, was shot down beside his pieces.
A second attack was immediately made on therear of Port Stedman by an overwhelming forcethat entered the breach at Battery X. The Con-federates climbed over the parapets and in atthe embrasures, and it was so dark that the garri-son could not distinguish their own men from theenemy. Finding it impossible to hold the fort, theofficers and men of the garrison who could getaway took shelter on the outside of the parapets,and continued the fight with muskets. After day-light some of the officers and men of the 14thmade their way along the moat of the trenches toFort Haskell, and others fell back in line downthe road toward Meade’s Station, and formed onthe slope within rifle range of their old works.Major Randall was captured just outside of Port
% Tlie flag of the 26th South Carolina was taken byone of the men of the 14tli, and delivered to Major Ran-dall.— G. L. K.
4- Coiiies of the order referred to had been distributedin quantities, inside of the Confederate lines, during theautumn previous, and had the effect of inducing desert-ers to plan to get away in squads. My diary states thaton the night of February 24th nine deserters came in onour brigade front, and on the next night fourteen, in-cluding a commissioned officer, many of them fullyarmed and equipped.— G. L. K.
Stedman, but managed to get away from his cap-tors and reach Port Haskell. The Confederateshad silenced the pickets in front of Port Stedmanby taking advantage of General Grant’s order ofamnesty to deserters from the enemy. This orderencouraged these deserters to bring in their arms,by offering payment for them. 4 On this occasionConfederates claiming to be deserters came inin large numbers, and very soon overpowered thepickets and passed on to the first line of works.
It was the intention of the Confederates to sur-prise Port Haskell also. | This work was guardedby two rows of abatis, and at the gap where thepickets filed out and in a sentinel was on duty allnight. The man who served the last watch thatmorning on this outer post was Sylvester E. Hough,Company M, 14tli Regiment, and soon after hewent on post (at 3 o’clock) he saw blue-lights flashup along the picket-pits. He also heard the soundof chopping at the abatis on the lines between Sted-man and the Confederate works on its front. Hehallooed to the second sentinel at Haskell, whosepost was at the bridge across the moat, and analarm was called out in the fort. Hough then ad-vanced down the picket trail toward the outposts,and as he did so the first camion was fired fromStedman, and the muffled sounds of the fightingthere were heard.
There was a long slope between Fort Haskelland the picket-pits, and on this slope Hough meta column of men moving stealthily up toward ourwestern front. The enemy were in two ranks, andhad filed into our lines through the gap in front ofStedman, and were moving upon ns unopposed, forthey were between us and our pickets. If sometraitor had divulged their secret movement hoursin advance the men of this column could not havebeen at greater disadvantage than they now wereby the chances of war. Hough, unseen by theenemy, ran back to the fort to advise the gunners.Three howitzers, double-shotted with grape, weretrained upon the ground. The garrison had beencalled to arms, and the firing at Port Stedmanaroused the cry on all sides, “ They have takenPort Stedman.” The story told by Hough confirmedour suspicions that we were to be attacked, also;we had not long to wait. When the assailantsneared the abatis we could hear their tread andtheir suppressed tones. “Wait,” said CaptainHoughton; “wait till you see them, then fire-A breath seemed an age, for we knew nothing ofthe numbers before us. Finally, the Confederateleader called out, “Steady! We’ll have theirwoi’ks. Steady, my men!” Our nerves rebelled,and like a flash the thought passed along the par-apet, “Now!” Not a word was spoken, but in
j) The Reverend Charles A. Mott, now (1888) pastorof the Calvary Baptist Church, Philadelphia , was acorporal in Company I, 14tli Regiment, and h a J:charge of a vidette picket-post on the right of F° rHaskell, on the night of the 24tli and 25tli. In a letternow in my possession, written November 1 st, 1888 ,he states that at the opening of the attack a cannon-shot from Fort Stedman plowed the ground near hispost, and very soon afterward he heard the trea ^of a column of the enemy advancing toward ovilines— G. L. K.