By hundreds. Another resident of Milton and member of Octaves company, Leon H. Drake, described Octaves father as rendered utterly destitute by his sons death, writing that Octaves father was forced to go bare foot and nearly naked. Drake testified that there was no one for Richard to reach out to in his family for support Octaves except three daughters who lived in Canada and who could not financially support him. We propose resting on our arms, Randall told an aide to Vermont General George Stannard when he returned to the line, until [Stannard] acknowledges our achievements., Glory to God! Nine Months to Gettysburg: Stannard's Vermonters and the Repulse of Original data: Gabriel Drouin, comp. For this dedication and resilience, Marcell was admired and well-liked by others in his company, with Sergeant Clark praising him as an honest, fearless and thoroughly good-natured boy.. Union General Winfield Scott Hancock spotted Wrights men retreating with four Union cannons in their clutches, and asked Colonel Francis V. Randall if his Vermonters could recapture the guns. Richard Marcell was finally approved in December of 1867 to receive an $8 per month pension for Octaves service, which provided some financial relief, but was still an insufficient income to live off of. The soldier raised his carbine to fire a shot, but Lieutenant Jones reportedly said, Hold on, George . A large brigade advanced from (a) point of woods on my left, reported Wright, and we were now in a critical condition. The Vermonters effectively surrounded Wrights men, the converging line . As Benedict put it, it was a terribly costly movement for the enemy. At the Battle of the Wilderness, the Vermont 1st Brigade prevented the Union Army from being split by holding at a strategic crossroad. and round shot plowed up the ground before and around us., Added soldier Ralph Sturtevant, The passing of each minute seemed a lifetime. The Vermonters occupied the position closest to the Rebel line, and that, ironically, may have saved them: According to Coffin, the shells were mostly flying over the Union line to the rear of the ridge, so that the closer the soldiers were to the Confederates, the less likely they were to be struck., After about 90 minutes, the artillery barrage stopped, and according to a soldier quoted by Coffin, someone with a glass to his eye says, There they come, and just emerging from the rebel lines you can see the long ranks of grey, the shimmering of steel in the July sun. The Union forces waited until the gray lines came within range and then opened fire, tearing gaps in the Rebel ranks as soldiers fell. Dedicated in 1889, this is a classical style monument, featuring a statue of Brigadier General Stannard, standing upon a column. Fighting back the uncertainty and fear that gnawed at his insides, Marcell likely gained courage and confidence from the mere presence of his friends and comrades advancing dutifully by his side. The carbine had an effective range of about 300 yards, but the point was not to hit the officer; when Jones fired, the Rebels knew that theyd met up with the opposing army, and the battle of Gettysburg was soon underway. The engagement at Hanover was a prelude to what followed in Gettysburg, and one of the results was that, for the next three days, Stuarts men rode far out of their way to avoid a second confrontation with Union forces. Go on, boys! Scott recalled Randall shouting. According to Sergeant Henry Ide, Flags waved everywhere. He ordered an attack, and the Georgians, he wrote, charged up to the top of the crest of Cemetery Ridge and drove the (Union) infantry . The Second Day at Gettysburg: the Attack and Defense of Cemetery Ridge, July 2, 1863. The bronze figure of Brigadier General Stannard is facing the battlefield, with sword in his left hand. Also in 1909, in Marcells own town of Milton, the surviving veterans erected a monument to memorialize all from Milton who served. Influenced by antislavery opinion in both Vermont and Canada, Marcells father likely shared an antislavery stance and raised his son to believe that slavery was morally wrong. Charles Henry Blinn: the life and times of a Vermont soldier. These gag rules prohibited Congress from reviewing petitions against the peculiar institution. Vermonters interpreted these rules as an attack on free speech and their right to petition government. The list of tools and manufacturers supplied is too long to enumerate here but can be found in Carrie Brown's excellent booklet "Arming the Union,gunmakers in Windsor, VT". Despite the poor conditions facing the soldiers, Marcell himself was always present at roll call, and Sergeant Clark further confirmed that Marcell never missed a day of service with his regiment for any reason. Killed and mortally wounded, 40,wounded, 90; mustered out July, 1865. read more, Photo By Sgt. The precision tool facility in Windsor also provided arms, specifically the SpringfieldSpecial 1861 with the Windsor made model referred to as simply the LG&Y. For they broke the desperate charge of Pickett, saved the day and with it, the whole North from invasion and devastation.. Such shocking sights and sounds must have simultaneously frightened and excited Marcell. Bells were ringing. The intrepid Lieutenant Brown was one of the few who ventured to the spring and filled several canteens for his comrades, once again earning further admiration for his fearlessness. All we have to do is charge, he told a subordinate, and the enemy will throw down their arms and surrender.. On the morning of June 30, the Union cavalry, including 840 soldiers of the First Vermont, rode north into Hanover, Pennsylvania (about 14 miles east of Gettysburg). When the 13th, 14th and 16th Vermont infantry reached Gettysburg late in the afternoon on July 2, they camped at the base of Cemetery Hill, behind the Union lines, near General George Meades headquarters, and had little time to recover from their long march before they were called to action. Mathless, Paul, and Henry Woodhead. Like Marcell, March had been born in Canada and felt a deep loyalty to his resident state of Vermont and to his adopted country. Soldiers from the Green Mountain state played a role in key engagements before the battle, a Vermont native fired the first shot and three Vermont regiments not only defended against, but twice repelled, Confederate attacks on the heart of the Union line. . Confederate prisoners later told Doubleday that what ruined them was Stannards brigade on their flank. It was a futile, ill-conceived attack, one which had no effect on the outcome of the battle. On the Fourth of July, 1863, reporting on the aftermath of the Civil War's most crucial battle, the New York Times wrote: "A Vermont brigade held the key position at Gettysburg and did more than any other body of men to gain the triumph which decided the fate of the Union." Following Lieutenant Marcellus Jones, a native of St. Albans who had moved to Illinois, was west of the town in a small group of men called a vidette post. Octave Marcells own enlistment would still be an agonizingly slow sixteen months distant, as he looked with impatience to the time when he could finally fulfill both his familial and national duties through honorable military service. This was a moniker all Civil War soldiers dreaded nearly as much as death itself. Tivilorethntfon,tirt.irlinotnsfrong, Randall initially reported 200 captured Rebels, but, says Coffin, he had a tendency to overstate. The actual number was around 80, which still meant that they outnumbered their Vermont captors two to one. Luckily, much of the Confederates cannon fire passed over the Vermonters, who lay with their heads down, waiting for the shelling to end as they sheltered themselves behind rocks and breastworks. Soon Lincoln would say, The father of waters again flows unvexed to the sea. Vermont at Gettysburgh - Google Books Vermont General: The Unusual War Experiences of Edward Hastings Ripley (1862-1865) (1960) Rosenblatt, Emil & Ruth. https://history.house.gov/Historical-Highlights/1800-1850/The-House-of-Representatives-instituted-the-%E2%80%9Cgag-rule%E2%80%9D/(accessed March 14, 2019). The September 11th attacks originated from Afghanistan, and we are still here today because of those attacks, said U.S. Army Command Sgt. It served in the eastern theater, predominantly in the Defenses of Washington, from October 1862 to August 1863. . It was not long after the Confederates crossed into south central Pennsylvania that they ran into trouble. Spherical case exploded over our heads and rained iron bullets over us . From the Second Vermont Brigade, 71 men were killed or mortally wounded and another 236 were wounded out of the 3,504 men General Stannard recorded as present on June 20. But as the Rebel infantry approached the 14th Vermonts position, they suddenly changed direction and started moving across the 14ths front. Interestingly, after that incident, the soldiers were not hassled again about stepping out of the lines to collect water. They were sent to the rear without a guard [but] none were needed, as the prisoners were quite willing to get within the shelter of our lines., Picketts Charge had been broken, with Vermonters at the center of the victory. . Col. Hiram Berdans two regiments of sharpshooters were unique in the Union army, using different uniforms, weapons, equipment and tactics from the line units. He was young and inexperienced, but he resolved not to let himself, his fellow comrades, or his country down in the fight that loomed on the horizon. Farnsworth was surrounded and shot through the chest five times, and by the time the Vermonters retreated, 13 of their men were killed, 25 were wounded, and another 27 were missing. However, the 13th Vermont, along with the 14th and 16th, did not engage in battle until about mid-afternoon when Confederate artillery commenced firing upon them. Johnson, Brian. Eventually, Marcells parents moved to Milton, Vermont, where Marcell grew up working as a hired laborer on neighboring farms and received a basic education (although, according to the 1860 census, both he and his father were considered officially illiterate.) Octaves mother, Margaret Marcell, had died in 1853 when Octave was still a young child. The soldiers at first thought that it was a salute from the townsfolk, but, according to Ide, when a shell burst nearby, We came to the conclusion that people didnt normally fire (live ammunition) for a salute. The advancing Union cavalry had caught up with Stuarts column, and the Rebels had chased the Union cavalry back into town. . Maj. Paul Edwards, the senior non-commissioned officer for the battalion and a resident of South Burlington, Vt. All Vermonters have a reason to be proud of what we are doing here and the role that we are playing in the war, he added. Men of Vermont: An Illustrated Biographical History of Vermonters and Sons of Vermont. Ill be at your head as soon as I get out of this damned saddle! Several soldiers rolled the horse off Randalls leg, and Randall went to the front of the unit on foot, reported Scott, limping badly, his hat off, his sword swinging in the air. The Vermonters charged forward to the stolen cannons and, said Scott, the enemy did not await us. Hawks, Steve A. . In the confusion of the first day of the battle, various, panicked corps commanders sought to commandeer the brigade for their own purposes. Stuarts objective was to gather provisions while getting a sense of the Union armys strengths and weaknesses. Each commander ordered the brigade to march to a different position that the respective commander felt was at greatest risk of attack, bewildering the weary soldiers and prolonging their suffering. U.S. Army Chaplain (Capt.) Seeing the Elephant: Marcells Final Moments. Among those Union troops were five Vermont regiments belonging to the First Corps of the Army of the Potomac. In fact, southern newspapers and magazines tended to lump northern and Canadian political culture together. . Octave Marcille in the Quebec, Canada, Vital and Church Records (Drouin Collection), 1621-1968 [database on-line]. However, some Vermonters were already on the field of battle, and one of them is widely credited with firing the first shot. Union Casualties at Gettysburg: A Comprehensive Record. In his grief, Richard may have turned to God for strength and sorrowfully accepted his sons death. Even more rare, for a short time in June and July of 1863 there were two all-Vermont brigades in the Army of the Potomac. some 80 or 100 yards in rear of [their] batteries. document.getElementById( "ak_js_1" ).setAttribute( "value", ( new Date() ).getTime() ); View across the field of Picketts Charge from one of the 13th Vermonts flank markers at Gettysburg. PAKTYA PROVINCE, Afghanistan When Union Gen. John Sedgwick gave the order Put the Vermonters ahead, at the battle of Gettysburg almost 150 years ago, he etched the legacy of the Green Mountain Boys into the pages of history. . During their states largest deployment since World War II, and one week before the countrys first Afghan-led elections, the Soldiers also had the opportunity to reflect on being in Afghanistan on the anniversary of the 9/11 attacks. The Confederates hope, repeatedly, was to break that line either at the ends (one of the goals of the repeated attacks on Culps Hill and the famous attack on Joshua Lawrence Chamberlains 20th Maine at Little Round Top) or in the middle (the goal of Picketts Charge). From Howard Coffin's Full Duty, Vermonters in the Civil War: "Lee had ordered more than 12,000 men- 11 brigades - to advance across a mile of open ground to attack, and breach if possible, the middle of the long Union line. Though, for many of the Vermonters, their combat experiences had ended in July of 1863, they could not shake the memories of their service, and found themselves drawn back to their war-time stomping grounds on more than one occasion. His peers had long admired him for his positive attitude and bravery. The prisoners included about 50 Rebels who tried to run for the woods behind the house, until Randall yelled Halt! and then, more emphatically, God damn you boys, stop that running! at which point the 50 threw down their guns and surrendered. The Second Vermont Brigade at Gettysburg: 2 July 1863 by Paul E. Bretzger 10/12/2016 The 12th, 13th, 14th, 15th and 16th Vermont Volunteer Infantry regiments comprised the so-called "Second Vermont Brigade." All regiments were nine month enlistments, and went into service in October, 1862. Writer Shelby Foote told of a southern soldier who, when asked by one of his Union counterparts, What are you Rebs fightin for, anyway? replied with We all are fightin because YOU all are down here! For the first two years of the Civil War, nearly every engagement of the war took place south of the Mason-Dixon line, particularly in Virginia, and in spring 1863, General Robert E. Lee, weary of the ravages that had been inflicted upon his home soil, decided to take the war up there to the North. Generals, Sharpshooters And Gettysburg: Revisiting The - Vermont Public . prisoners than I had [soldiers] in my entire company.. They wanted future generations to remember the Green Mountain States brave sons, the cause for which they fought, and just how many had been proud to serve their country, even if it meant paying the ultimate price. Genealogical and Family History of the State of Vermont. Vermonters at Gettysburg - Welcome to the VPR Archive On August 18, 1862, Octave Marcell finally got his turn to serve his adopted country, enlisting for a nine-month term in Company D of the 13th Vermont at Colchester, Vermont. The heavy small-arms and artillery damage which the Confederates inflicted on the Union line atop Cemetery Ridge thinned the ranks and more than once, desperate calls for reinforcements reached the soldiers stationed on Cemetery Hill. While reviewing notes for my upcoming e-book Vermont At Gettysburg, I found this description of Picketts Charge at the Battle of Gettysburg, July 3, 1863,written byGeorge H. Scott, who was a First Sergeant in Company G of the 13th Vermont,the famous unit of General Stannards which was right in the middle of the Union defenses on that day. Gettysburg commission Call number 8249396 Camera Canon 5D External-identifier urn:oclc:record:1158189578 Foldoutcount 0 Identifier vermontatgettysb00chen Identifier-ark ark:/13960/t39z9jv3r Identifier-bib 00137024238 Lccn 19001657 Ocr ABBYY FineReader 8.0 Over 500 Vermont veterans came to the reunion, feeling the tug of memories from their youth and a longing to reminisce over their shared experiences with their comrades on the historic landscape that defined their war-time service. Kurt Geib of Newport, Vt., with Headquarters Company, 3rd Battalion, 172nd Infantry Regiment (Mountain), reads a prayer as Soldiers bow their heads in prayer during a 9/11 memorial ceremony at Forward Operating Base Gardez here Sept. 11. The 13th joined its fire . At the Battle of Gettysburg the 13th Vermont was a part of General (George) Stannard's Vermont command. Image accessed 28 April 2019. . Kurt Geib of Newport, Vt., read a statement in memory of the victims of the attacks and the servicemembers killed in action, and led the Soldiers in a prayer. Consolidated with Fourth VermontFeb. 25, 1865, these companies served withthat regiment to the close of the war. I thought you must be green, the soldier replied, or you wouldve never gone in there., The four cannons were back behind Union lines, but Randall and some of his men were still in the field, moving toward Rogers House, a farmhouse on Emmitsburg Road where Confederate snipers were holed up. Furthermore, many Christian sects in Vermont and its adjoining states saw slavery as an immoral, unjust system a view that was propagated by local newspapers throughout the state. After Gettysburg, the 13th Vermont had followed the Army of Northern Virginia down to Middletown, Maryland before being sent back to Brattleboro, Vermont on July 8th. Change), You are commenting using your Facebook account. El Dorado Hills: Savas Beatie LLC, 2015. My hope is to eventually expand this to book length, but in the meantime. Like other Union veterans, the Vermonters were in close contact with Confederate veterans at this reunion. However, Octave Marcell also surely embraced military service as an opportunity to earn higher wages with which he could support his infirm father and young brother. The 13th could see the bloody aftermath of the fierce combat along Cemetery Ridge as Union soldiers there struggled to hold their lines against the unrelenting waves of enemy attacks. Picketts Charge: A New Look at Gettysburgs Final Attack. Hearing of Stuarts presence nearby, the brigade had been prepared for a fight with the Confederate cavalry, but Stuart withdrew soon after the 12th Vermont fired their rifles and artillery a few times, cutting their conflict short. https://www.battlefields.org/learn/articles/life-civil-war-soldier-army (accessed March 12, 2019). Hundreds of schoolchildren stood in the market square singing songs of welcome." One of the projects Im working on a little bit at a time is an expanded book version of my articles about Vermonts soldiers at the Battle of Gettysburg, and part of that book will include the text of an 1864 Vermont soldiers memoir entitled The Second Brigade. Dedicated October 19, 1899.Men to Match the Mountains, Photographs from the Vermont Civil War Collection of Francis Guber (blog), photograph posted January 20, 2015. The line ran across the field that had been fought over the night before, and the dead and wounded of the two armies, lying side by side, thickly strewed the ground.
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