Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1878-02-15
From the st. Albaus Advertiser.
A Bit of War History.


number of the official reports rendered from
time to time by the Rebel General Lee an,
his various military subordinates of the gal
liant army of Northern Virginia" From
careful reading of these reports, We hav,
gathed some facts that ought to be interest
ing t. the Vermont Veterans. The fighting
IN which the Vermont troops took seriou.
part during the Peninsula campaign q
Mcclellan, was ut Lees Mills, April IL
1852, at Godmg's Farm. June 27th and 2Sth
Savage Station. June 29th. and White Oal
Swamp, June 30th, 1852. At Lees Mills the
3rd, 18th and 9Th Vermont fought General
Howell Cobb's brigade of Magruder's Divi.
sion. Cobbs troops were all Georgia regi,
ments. The Vermont Brigade crossed the
Chickahominy early in June. Just, after the
battle of Fair Oaks and held the position at
Golding's Farm until its evacuation on the
2Sth of June, 1862. The Rebel force op-
posed to us at this point. was another
brigade of Georgia troops. commanded by
that famous iire-eating Southern orator, Gen
eral Robert ToombS who in his official report
of his assault on our lines, June eth, 1862,
states that he attacked with the ID, eth, 18th,
l7th and 20th Georgia regiments, and was
repulsed with severe loss. The 4th Vt,
Col. L. II. Stoughton, and Hancock's Brig
ade of Smiths Division met Georgia on this
occasion. D. r. Gen. Jones, Toombs's Division
| Commander, speaks of the fire of General
Smiths batteries during the afternoon of the
9th, as so severe as to compel him to retire
his guns from the contest. The battle of
Savage Station. fought on Sunday afternoon
ana evening, June 2Sth, 1862, was fiercely
waScd on our part by the Vermont Brigade
of Smiths Division, and Burns Brigade of
Sedgwieks Division against rebel force
commanded 10y General J. b. Magruder. con-
sisting of kershaw's, Semmes's. Barksdale's
| and Cobb Brlgade,-troops that afterwards
| formed McLaws famous Division of Long
streets corps The Vermont Brigade fought
| the Brigade of General Paul J. Semmes.
whose regiments were the 10th Georgia the
| sd Virginia, and the 9TH and 10th Louisiana
regiments, with portion of General Barks-
dale's Mississippi brigade in support. General
Semmes had also with him Kemper's famous
| battery, whose fire was awfully destruc-
| tive to the 5th Vermont, that regiment losing
2OG men, killed and wounded, in a short time,
Co. f, from Manchester losing Al out of
50 men, and Co. II losing 36. General
Semmes in his report says that the lines were
in some places scarcely 40 yards distant that
IN the darkness be sent private of the 9th
l'ouisina forward to ask what regiment was
in front, and on receiving the answer I'D
Vermont" he at once opened fire. The dead
IN front ofhis line the next morning, General
Semmes reports at 100 men, while his own
loss WIS but "a. This enormous difference
OF loss the rebel General aitributing to the
nearness fthe line that made ''the buck and
BALI of the rebels take full effect. and
to the shower of grape and canister poured
INTO our ranks 10y kemrers battery, and
locomotive" gun that fired from the railroad
track
Turning TO the report of the battle of White
Oak Swamp, June 3Oth, 1862, rendered by
MAJOR General ''Stonewall" jackson, We find
that the tremendous artillery fire which
walked he exhausted Old Brigade from its
slnmbers about noon. proceeded from thirty
one cannon which General jackson, unob-
served by Our men, had placed in position on
the farther side of the creek. Gen. jackson
says that his failure to force the passage at
this point detained him all day long. and
prevented his junction with Longstreet. who
needed his help to crush Sumner and Heint-
zleman. and so the resistance of Franklin's |
corps at White Oak Bridge undoubtedly |
saved McClellan's army. and gave our trains. |
etc, time TO get of. To have baked such |
an energetic soldier as jackson was no small |
credit to Wm. F. Smith and Franklin.
These rebel briGades OF Semmes, Cobb and |
Barksdale that encountered the Vermont |
troops SO destructiyeiy at Lees Mills and |
Savage Station, seemed iated to meet them
NpuslahllN III alttt Couibil
The next fight of the Old Brigade was at
Champion Gap. Maryland. Sept. 1ith. 1862,
when, under the lead of Gen. W. I. H.
Brooks, the brigade helped push their old
adversaries Cobb's and Semmes brigades of
McLaw's Division, out of this very strong
position. and two days after, on the 18th,
Smiths Division saved the battle at Antie-
tam, arriving Just in the nick of time to roll
back the victorious advance of Semmes
Cobb, Barksdale and kershaw. before whose
impetuous charge General Sedgwick's Divi-
sion Of Summers corps had been driven with
fearful loss. 1t was the crack division of the
9Th Corps, pitted for the fourth time against
McLaw's crack division of Longstreet's
corps
When in MAY. 1868. the Vermont Brigade
stormed the heights at Fredericksburgh.
called Marye's Hill, they drove Barksdaie's
brigade OF McLaw's Division with great loss
out of the rebel works. and all the next al
ternoon and evening the Vermont troops
fought the rest of McLaw's Division Cobb's.
Semmes's and kershaw's brigades at Guests
Farm, repulsing the rebels with great slaugh-
ter and covering the retreat of the 9th corps
at Banks Ford
At Gettysburg. the "Old Brigade was held
IN reserve. but sincularly enough. among the
troops hurried up TO repulse the attack of
Barksdale's brigade on the evening of July
I'd, loG3. were two regiments of the ID Yer
mont Brigade. and in this desperate attack
and repulse of McLaw's Division, General
Barksdale and his fellow brigadier Semmes
were both mortally wounded. Barksdales
body being brought into our lines
We do not krow the after history of Me
Laws gallant division Of Longstreets corps.
We believe il was afterwards commanded by
General kershaw, and served under Early in
the Valley, and if we are correct in this i'm
preston, doubtless the Vermont troops in
the 9Th corps found themselves again face To
face with their antagonists in so many fields
since Lees Mills and Savage Station, where
;hey first met those gallant, dashing rebel
brgaGes of Cobb, semmes, Barksdale and
kershaw 1t is singular and noteworthy
that these troops, composing
AlcLaw's Division, that gave our Vermont
soldiers such a terrible scourging in their
first fighting on the Peninsula, should have
been their specific antagonists afterwards at
Champions Gap, Antietnm, NIarye's Hill
Guests farm, tBanks's Ford and Gettys-
burg. II is noteworthy that the brigade of
was composed solely of Mississip-
plans, the brigade OF kcrshaw solely OF South
Carolinians. the brigade of Cobb of Geor-
gians and North Carolininns, the brigade of
Semmes, OF Georgia, OF Louisianians and Vir-
ginians, 50 that Vermont hac Il taste of the
military quality OF all the best fighting men
Of the South, and while she is ready to frank
ly admit that her foes fought with unsur-
passed yalor, she modestly claims to have
thoroughly cured them OF their early delu-
son that "a Yankee won't fight.