Last year in this blog, I wrote about a project being
carried out under Graham Warder, a Keene State College associate history
professor. Warder put his students to work transcribing the Civil War letters of Willard Templeton, a soldier from New Hampshire who fought with the state’s
11th volunteer infantry regiment during the Civil War.
 |
| Simon G. Griffin |
The letters are in the State Library in Concord, but Warder
arranged to have them moved to the college library. There are about 140 of
them, and the transcription work has progressed since my last post about the project.
Templeton, of Hillsboro, enlisted in 1862 as a 20-year-old
from Hillsboro, N.H. About two years later,
the 11th New Hampshire fought with a New England brigade at the Wilderness and
Spotsylvania. The brigade’s commander was Brig. Gen. Simon G. Griffin, who had
been born near Keene.
Below, thanks to the students, are transcriptions of the
letters Templeton wrote home from Grant’s Overland Campaign.
Unlike other leaders of the Eastern armies, Gen. Grant did not retreat and rest after a battle.
Templeton’s letters reflect the hard marching and constant fighting of soldiering under Grant in the spring of 1864..
Templeton was killed at the Battle of the Crater on July 30,
1864, just 71 days after the last of these letters was written.
Battle Ground of the Wilderness
May 6th 1864
Dear Parents:
I have just been through a terrific battle almost equal to
that of Fredericksburgh. Our brigade formed a line in front of 4 lines of the
3d Div & we all to-gether charged on the rebels driving them half a mile
over two lines of rifle pits. They fought desperately for the bullets were
showered among [us] like hail stones during a shower. I was not scratched
though the bullets were buzzing about me for three fourths of an hour.
 |
| Col. Walter Harriman of the 11th New Hampshire was captured at the Wilderness and held captive until September of 1864. After the war he served as governor of New Hampshire. |
We drove them through the woods to an open field. They
retired over beyond the field, but in a few minutes we discovered that the
rebels were marching on our flank and in another minute we heard the bullets
whizzing by us from that direction. We all commenced running back. Many were
taken prisoners. Col. Harriman was taken prisoner, Lieut Col Collins killed,
two Captains, Clark & Dudley, wounded, 5 men wounded in Co D. Geo. Prichard
was slightly wounded. He was the only Hillsboro boy hurt.
Near or at Chancellorville
Sunday May 8th
I will try & send this by some of the wounded. We had no
fighting yesterday & to-day we are moving towards Fredericksburgh. Evrything
is all bustle & moving I learn we whipped the rebels all round. It has been
a terrible battle thousands killed & wounded and I fear it is not half over.
Good buy and
In Haste
W J Templeton
*
Battle ground in front
of the enemy
Near Spottsylvania
Court House
May 17th 1864
Dear Friends at Home
I sent James a letter yesterday which I suppose you will
receive from him before this reaches you. In that I attempted to give you an
account of our first days fight May 6th called “The Battle of the Wilderness.” I
confess I was ashamed to send you or James such a letter as I sent yesterday
especially the last sheet. As you will see by the writing I commenced
yesterdays letter expecting to have time to give you an account of the
desperate fight the 9th Corps had on this ground.
We only received notice at 10 that a mail would leave at 12
n, but for some reason or other it left before 11 o clock & I had but just
began my letter I thought I must send it for it was the first chance I had
since we left Bristoe Station knowing that you & James would be curious to
hear from me, as I expect my name appeared in the Boston Journal among the
slightly wounded. I hope no mistake has made so as to class me among the
dangerous.
We have seen hard times for the last 12 days. If not
marching in the heat, we were obliged to be ready to spring to our guns any
minute night or day & I know not how many times I have been woke from a
sound sleep by the excited whisper from the comrade on guard “fall in” or a
still more exciting command to fall in, by the whizzing of bullets over our heads
& the crashing volleys from our pickets & the enemy in front. Thus we
have lost half & more of evry nights sleep. Last night I slept from dark
till 2 am & this forenoon I have occupied in sleep so I guess I have got
rested so as to be able to write more intelligibly than I did yesterday.
I have got no paper envelopes & know not how to get them
so please send me a sheet of paper & an envelope in evry letter. I lost a
new portfolio full of paper & envelopes on the march from Washington. In
short some one took my knapsack & everything in it. I have left only a good
suit of underclothing. I have been well since I left A [Annapolis].
 |
| This photo of Sgt. Edwin Chamberlain of the 11th New Hampshire shows the cut of the regiment's uniform. (Library of Congress) |
I was hit by a spent ball in last Thursdays fight. It struck
me in my left arm. It swelled considerably but is not much lame now. I have
been on duty evry day since. Yesterday I went with the Reg. in front to feel if
the rebs. & see if they are on the move in force. Gen Burnside thought they
had left but we found enough of them. We lost in 22 minutes two killed 12 wounded
& one missing.
Now I will commence where I left off in yesterdays letter to
James. Wednesday pm. & during the night it rained hard at intervals &
we slept but little on the cold wet ground. Before daylight we were ordered to
fall in to line and just at break of day we heard loud cheering or rather
yelling all along the line for miles to our right. It was 2d Corps beginning a terrible
charge on the rebel brest works. In a minute after the cheering then came the
booming of cannon & long & continued rolls of musketry.
In another minute the order came for us to advance. We were
in front & throughout, two companies as skirmishers, & advanced the
17th Vt. on our right 7th RI on our left. We rushed through bushes &
thickets, over mud holes & brooks, driving the rebel skirmishers &
there supports as fast as there legs would carry them. We rushed on passed there
camp ground, tents all standing & blankets just as they lay in them. They
had left almost everything in their hast.
After advancing ¾ of a mile we came up within a few rods of
the rebel brest works. There we could see the pits full of heads. They resumed
their fire, expecting we should charge on their works, but we were only to hold
our position. Our line ran north & south while just at our right it formed
a almost right angle running east & west. At our right the 2d Corps charged
bravely while we lay flat on our faces but received a terrible hot fire from the
rebels in their brest works.
If we had been in line & standing we should have been
almost annihilated. As it was we lost more in proportion in a few hours than we
lost in the battle of Fredericksburgh. In the battle of the Wilderness May 6th
we lost killed wounded & missing 60. In the battle on this ground we lost
91 killed wounded & missing. In yesterdays reconnaissance we lost two
killed twelve wounded & one missing, making 165 total loss.
As we advanced I got a bullet hole through my right pants
leg than. In about half an hour I got hit in the left arm & went of[f] the
field, the cords of my arm being useless & I could not use my hand for
several hours. But I am getting off the tract a little.
We lay on our faces, the bullets spotting by the hundred into
evry tree around & dropping into the ground on all sides. Such a terrific
fire I was never under before, how any of us got out seems most a miracle. We held
our possition or rather fell back a few rods in the afternoon and through up
brest works. The rebels were driven out of the brest works in our front for the
2d Corps boys flanked them.
They took 8000 prisoners, two major Generals, & killed
several brigadiers. We took 18 pieces of artelery. Two pieces and two caisons
were captured by the 2d Corps.
Thursday afternoon May 19 1864
I have picked up a few bits of paper & will write you a
little more before I send my letter. We moved last night at 1 am evacuating our
possition on battle field where we fought last Thursday & moving to the
left wing of our army & taking a new position in an immense corn field. We
rested for breakfast on a deserted plantation called the “Anderson plantation.”
It was before our troops drove the rebels of[f] here two days ago, a splendid
place for trees, shade trees walks parks & groves the most beautifully
aranged I ever saw. But the yankees are now in possession and the Virginia
aristocrat, if he ever sees his plantation again, will see the fruits of seccession.
I have just been reading your letter No. [3/8] which I
received this afternoon. We got a big mail, the first since we crossed the
Rapidan. I only got one letter. I was glad to hear from you & to learn that
you were all well. It seems you got the box & and money all right. I
received your letter No 2 dated Apr. 16 while we were at Bristoe Station. The
money I sent I did not need & as it has happened I might have sent more
instead of buying articles which I have lost. I was well supplied with articles
of comfort when I left A [Annapolis] but have lost most all.
I supposed when at Annapolis that I might possibly be at
Head Quarters of 2d Div & there could get my baggage carried, but Gen.
Grant has cut down baggage trains greatly. I guess the army of the Potomac
never moved with so little baggage. Our teams carry supplies & ammunition
instead of all sorts of baggage for officers. Then just before leaving Annapolis
the order cam putting evry man who was detailed from his reg. back into his
reg., employing citizens instead of them, so that now I carry a few little
comforts & but a few.
Perhaps my pictures don’t look much like me 20 months ago.
But evry one said they were good pictures. My whiskers which are sandy and don’
take well make me look odd. My old dress coat I sent home because it was too warm
for summer & I could not carry it. The over coat you may keep. Perhaps I
may want it sometime. I will sent a button to putt on the strap behind when I
find one those Suspenders I did not need as I had two pr. Tell Aunt Mary I am
much obliged to her for kind rememberance of me.
We all hope for the best. I have been in four battles during
the last fortnight, right in the hottest of it evry time, & have escaped with
but slight injury. How it is possible for one to escape in such a shower of
death dealing missels seems almost a miracle. How many more such scenes of
death & carnage I am to witness & go through unharmed or how soon I am
to fall no one but God knows.
Friday Morning May 20th
I have picked up another sheet of paper so will try &
fill it up. I have to buy or pick up all that I have. I shall have to send this
letter without a stamp.
That checker board I got out of one of those houses which
were afterwards burnt during the siege of K. [Knoxville, Tenn.] I have got a good rubber blanket
which is better than a coat, for one can’t carry but little. I am glad to get
such long letters from you. Please write often. Tell Anna I will write to her
soon. I don’t get much time to write. We move & fight so often.
Now I will try & write you a little account of our last
battle day before yesterday. I told you in my other sheet that great movements
were going on Tuesday night. Artilery was rattling & troops moving all night.
Some thought [we] were going to evacuate, others that an advance was to be made.
We were woke up at 3am at day break. Corcorans Irish brigade
2d Corps advanced arms at night shoulder shift, on the run over our pits &
in an instant the whizzing of shells & buzzing of bullets told us what they
had met. Soon after, our brigade was ordered to their support and we advanced
amidst a shower of shells & covered ourselves under the brow of a hill.
The Irish Brigade drove the rebels from two lines of pits
& held their ground. We were then in a thick woods of hard wood trees. We
were right up to a big rebel fort within twenty rods of the musles of the guns.
We could see them run their guns out & fire grape & canister at us. We
were in the rear line & but one or two got hurt. The Irish brigade got
badly cut up in the charge & by shell & grape & canister. Our
brigade went to work throughing up brest works, the rebels throwing shells
& knocking away the logs we lay up to pile durt on, but they could not do us
much harm under the hill & in a thick woods.
We worked busily & by 4 pm had a very formidable rifle
pit. About 11 am the rebs through a charge of grape into the ranks of the Irish
brigade & they broke & run pell mell through our lines & the 6th
NH. The 9th NHV & 32d Maine also broke & run & left the 11th &
the 6th almost alone to hold the line, but we stuck to our ground/ The 9th was
not to blame for running for the Cap. commanding their reg. run like a coward.
But as I said before we held the line till 4 pm then the rebels made a dash on
our right flank and partly turned it but were repulsed by the 6th and 9th.
We soon found out we
must get away or be gobbled up and while some were throughing the dirt over the
brest works others were creeping away to our old rifle pits on the left. Silently
& slowly we made our way back & all got out safly. I tell you I felt
some relieved to get into our strong lines again We had been under fire all day
& but few of us had fired a gun, but it was harder to bear than though we
had been fireing.
I guess our movements Wednesday were to fool the rebs as we
could fall back & evacuate Wednesday night, as we did. Then last night the
latter part of the plan was carried out. We had 40 guns planted so as to rake
evry rod of ground we evacuated. They were all covered up or masked, then they
left out 2d Div supply train there to bait on the rebs.
About 6 o clock last night we heard heavy fireing where we
come from. It was the rebs driving in our pickets, they expecting to get our
hard tact & sugar. Our lines fell back. The train moved away slowly till
rebels were in just the spot we wanted them. Our 40 guns opened & in a few
minutes many rebels did not need any more corn bread.
Report says 2000 were killed & as many taken prisoners
but my sheet is full.
Good Buy
W.J.T.
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