The Princeton union. [volume] (Princeton, Minn.) 1876-1976, 1898-03-03
A WARTIME SUNDAY.
How the Soldiers Observed Sabbath
During the Rebellion.

During the Rebellion.
The following paper was prepared
for the Lincoln's Birthday exercises.
but the author was unable to be
present. The UNION therefore gives it
publicity.
Comrades, Ladies and Gentlemen;
Eve now live in quiet community,
where Sunday is usually devoted tc
churchgoing and other pleasant diver.
sions. I thought it might be we'll for
me to relate to you how I spent one
Sunday during my army life. I shall
as much as possible conhne myself
simply to the immediate command in
which I served. T.. ~@..>.e - -,
In May, 1868, was a corporal OF
Company A, Sixth Maine Infantry,
which regiment was then part of the
light division Sixth Corps. When
Gen. Hooker took command of the
Army of the Potomac he reorganized
it, and in so doing on February I'd
formed this extra division in the Sixth
Corps for scouting and other special
duties. 1t was composed Of the Fifth
Wisconsin, Sixth Maine, Sixty first
Pennsylvania, Thirty-irst New, York
and Fortythird New York Regiments,
and was first commanded by Gen.
Pratt, but before active service COM
menced he left us and Col. Hiram
Burnham of the Sixth Maine was left
ranking officer, in command. We ore
the Sixth Corps badge, but of green
color. On the Goth of April, 1868,
was detailed as one of the color guards
of the regiment, and as Company A
was on the extreme right of the line,
and the colors in the center, was thus
separated from the rest of my company,
in which I had a younger brother, a
brother-in-law, a cousin and several
schoolmates. At II o'clock P. M. Satur-
day, May 2, 1868, Gen. Sedgwick, COM
handing the Sixth Corps, which was
then on the south side of the Kappa
hammock river, three miles below
Fredericksburg, received an order
from Gen. Hooker, written only fifty
minutes previously, directing him i'm
mediately on receipt of the order to
move in the direction of Chancellors-
Vile until he connected with the major
general commanding, to attack and
destroy any force on the road, and be
in the vicinity of the general at day
light. (See Sedwick's Report, vol. rs
Rebellion Records, and Swinton's,
p. 3O4.)
1t is fourteen miles from Fredericks-
burg to Charlottesville, and between
Sedgwick and the point to which he
was ordered was the heights of Fred
ericksburg, in trying to take which
Burnside in December before had lost
1921 men killed, wounded and Cap
tured. A diary kept at the time says
we started about o'clock this Sunday
morning and marched into Fredericks-
burg. Some other troops attacked the
rebel batteries before daylight, but
were repulsed. We proceeded through
the town and huddled into slight de-
preston about midway between town
and Marye's Heights. The& was the
plank road we had been ordered to
travel to reach Charlottesville, where
we were already past due. A force
was advanced from the left, but they
could find no path that was not OBJ
structed. Another was then sent to
the right, but they found that the rebel
left extended to the canal and that we
could not go that route. Sedgwick, in
report to which I have just referred,
says nothing remained but to carry the
works by assault. This we proceeded
to do, to remove the distractions from
the road, that we might continue our
march, as we supposed Gen. Hooker
wished us TO attend divine services that
day at the church near which Gen. O.
.. Howard and Gen. T. J. jackson, the
two most noted religious men in the
two opposing armies, had opened a
series of meetings the night previous,
at which the Eleventh Corps had been
suddenly converted. The assaulting
forces were first. the four right COM
panies Fifth Wisconsin deployed as
skirmishers; then fifty PAGES in their
rear, the Sixth Maine in the center,
with the Twenty-third Pennsylvania
on our right, and the Thirty-frst New
York and left six companies of the
Fifth Wisconsin On our left, in line of
battle. On the right we're ,Sixty-first
pennsylvania and Forty-third New
York, and on the left were the Seventh
Massachusetts and the Thirty sixth
New York in column. The right of the
Sixth Maine rested on the plank road
Our objective point, directly in front
some 60 rods, was the famous Marye's
Heights, and the as famous stone wall
The plank road runs nearly due west
from the city. just below Marye's
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