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THE POST, FRIDAY, MARCH 21, 1941
143rd VOLUNTEERS ARE SWORN INTO SERVICE
From the History of 109th Field Artillery
(Continued from last week)
1862
While there was uncertainty as to
the seriouness of the war following
the muster of the 8th Infantry,
‘Wilkes-Barre continued to send out
individuals and companies into the
volunteer service.. The grand army
would need men, and yet more men,
in the next few years.Foreseeing this
need the Governor, in August, 1862,
selected E. L. Dana to organize Camp
Luzerne, in Kingston Township, in
order to give recruiting a new im-
petus. This called for new effort
and the ex-citizen soldiers of the
Wyoming. Volunteer and Eighth
Regiments rallied to the call.
The Ross Rifles formerly a com-
pany of the Wyoming Volunteer
Regiment, although not in the three
months service, was the first to be
mustered in and became Company A
of the 143rd as the new regiment
was called. On the following day
Company C was mustered in; it had
formerly been the Wyoming Artill-
erests or Company F of the Eighth
Regiment. On the next day Com-
pany D, formerly the Wyoming
Light Dragoons, or Company C,
Eighth Regiment, was mustered.
Edward W. Wandell who had
served with the Wyoming Artiller-
ists in Mexico and Henry M. Gordon
who had been a private in the three
months service of our regiment or-
ganized and commanded Companies
G. and F respectively in the new
regiment. Colonel J. W. Rhoads
who had commanded our regiment
in 1859 “brought a company of fine
looking men from the lower end of
the county and marched them into
Camp Luzerne.”
An additional company was ob-
tained form Wilkes-Barre and the
remaining companies of the regiment
came from nearby localities.
Our seventeenth Commanding Of-
ficer, Edmund L. Dana, relinquished
command of the camp and was ap-
pointed colonel of the new organiz-
ation, the 143rd Regiment Pennsyl-
vania Volunteers as of October 18,
a ae
“The mystic chords of memory,
stretching from every battlefield
and patriot’s grave to every
hearth and hearthstone all over
this broad land have been
touched by the better angels of
our nature and today we swell
the chorus, ‘Peace on earth,
good will to men’.”—Lincoln
I~
1862, He was well fitted for the
command of this regiment which
would represent the “old historic
Valley of Wyoming” on many san-
guinary battlefields before its muster
out. His miltary career had been
interesting. In 1842 he became first
lieutenant and shortly afterwards
captain of the Wyoming Artillerists.
The citizens of Wilkes-Barrg had
presented him with a handsome
sword just before he departed with
his company for the Mexican War.
The experience and service of his
command in that war, as told in the
last chapter, was excellent prepa-
ration for the task confronting him
in 1862. During the years between
the Mexican War and the Civil War,
he had developed in civil life, be-
coming major general of militia, and
as he had no prospect of active ser-
vice in that grade he came back to
us as a colonel. Following the Civil
War ‘he became an additional law
judge in the county and held other
public and semi-public offices. On
his death in 1889, it was said of him:
“His heroic devotion to his
country in time of trouble
marked him as a true patriot.
His private life was filled with
brilliant incidents. He has
stepped from one position to
another, higher and higher, and
during peace and war he has
at all times commanded the re-
spect and confidence “of the
‘people. His sound judgment and
quickness of perception, both
as general and as judge, are in-
cidents of his success in life.”
The Regiment drilled and trained
at Camp Luzerne until November
Tth,—this was the place in which it
camped for the longest time in its
service,—when it was placed on
duty in the defences of Washington.
This duty included heavy fatigue
details building Fort Slocum, school,
and much drill. These duties, and
the hard cold winter with six inches
of snow in January, removed the
glamour of military life for many
{new soldiers. During this period
there were four times as many de-
sertions as there were in our sub-
sequent service in the war. There
were enough to worry the command-
ing officer and the order to report
to General Hooker for duty with the
Army of the Potomac were received
with relief.
1863
On February 17th in. a terrific
snowstorm the regiment marched to
the foot of Sixth street where they
embarked on a transport and on
arrival at Belle Plain the next day
had their introduction to the waste
lands of Virginia. After marching
over roads of “unfathomable mud”,
in the rain, to make a new camp,
the colonel notes in his diary, “a
bleak, cheerless prospect—but better
than former camp”. On his birth-
day they had given him another new
sword so those soldiers of the 143rd
must have loved the “old man.”
Knapsack drill by companies, with
drill by battalions in the morning,
is typical of the training day at this
time. On Saturday afternoons they
washed and cleaned up and on Sun-
days they were inspected. There
were occasional tours of real out-
post duty,- for only a few miles
away, across the Rappahannock,
were the Rebels. By these methods
our regiment was gradually accust-
omed to the sights and sounds of
battle. The officers were studying
“Casey’s Tactics” and had recitations
in the evening at which time the
colonel notes that ‘several were
inattentive”. “One evening a wild
turkey, of great size, alighted in
»
PRAYER ABOARD A MAN O° WAR
A chaplain leads a group of sailors in services aboard a British man
'o war somewhere on the high seas.
Unsung heroes of Britain's battle
for existence, the naval chaplains take no part in actual fighting, but their
work in bolstering the spirit of the men is considered vitally important.
the camp, was pursued and shot.”
was in the making. General Hooker,
By the middle of April, when the | “Fighting Joe”, who had just taken
weather was “settling down”, when | over this responsibility, was going to
the officers had reached the second demonstrate his ability to command
volume of Casey and the men were
circulating happily received rumours
of pay-day, there came, “orders to
the 143rd for three days’ cooked
rations to be kept ready in their
haversacks—long orders as to meth-
ods of marching and preventing
straggling. Additional orders after
midnight.” These were ominous,
deep-toned rumblings of impending
action which kept the colonel. and
his adjutant “up all night” studying
and issuing orders.
Our distinctive unity had been
merged into a larger combination;
we were now in Doubleday’s Divis-
ion of the First Corps which was
commanded by
and the battle of Chancellorsville
General Reynolds !
the Army of the Potomac in battle.
On April 20-22 he sent us to Port
Royal to bluff the Rebels into think-
ing we would cross the river at that
point. We had pontoons that we
displayed ostentatiously and when
one was unloaded from a wagon we
mounted a log on the axle and made
it look like artillery. We also learned
how to march all night, drop by the
roadside in a cold rain to sleep for
one hour, and then march some
more weary miles without breakfast.
Many can do this trick but only a
good soldier can do it cheerfully and
retain his mental and physical
efficiency.
The battle of Chancellorsville be-
gan on April 27th and ended May
6th. Our army had nearly twice as
many men as the Confederates, yet
we were defeated—it has been said
that our commander, not our army,
was defeated. Our First Corps had
an excellent fighting record and we
were able to learn from the veteran
regiments about us. The first few
days, as reserve of the left flank of
the arm, we lay in bivouac across
the river from Fredericksburg. As
old soldiers know, being in reserve
during battle is a difficult test of
morale for a new regiment. We
saw the wounded carried by, we
changed our position several times
to keep under cover from the Rebel
artillery fire, we lay close to the
ground so as to present but a small
part of our body as a target for the
shells bursting near us and when
we were too cold to sleep we walked
about to keep warm. On the 30th
orders were received to prepare for
an attack which only used up ner-
vous energy as we were not called
on anyway. Under cover of fog,
rations and whiskey were issued
next morning.
On the morning of May 2d Gen-
eral Hooker ordered the First Corps
to march from the extreme left to
the right flank of ur army. Stone-
wall Jackson, who was to be mortal-
ly wounded that night, with his Con-
federate “foot Cavalry” had made a
wide detour and attacked our right
flank. It meant, for us, a march of
more than twenty miles practically
all under enemy fire. We quote
from the story of the battle written
by our division commander after the
war had ended.
“At sunset the First Corps went
into bivouac on the south side of
the United States ford, about four
miles and a half from Chancellors-
ville. The men were glad enough
to rest after their tedious march on
a hot day loaded down with eight
days’ rations. We heard from afar
off the roar of battle caused by
Jackson’s attack, and saw the eve-
ning reddened with the fires of com-
bat, but knowing that Hooker had
a large force, we felt no anxiety
as to the result, and took it for
granted that we would not be want-
ed until next day. An aide brought
the startling news that the Eleventh
Corps had fled and if we did not go
forward at once, the army would be
hopelessly defeated. We were soon
PAGE SEVEN
To Present Comedy
Members of the Junior Class will
present a lively comedy in Leh-
man High School Monday, March
28 at 8 o'clock. Miss Dickover is
director.
on the road, somewhat oppressed
by the news, but not dismayed. We
marched through the thickening
twilight of the woods amid a silence
at first only broken by the plaintive
sound of the whippoorwill, until the
full moon rose in all its splendor.
As we proceeded we came upon
crowds of the Eleventh Corps fugi-
tives still hastening to the rear.
They seemed wholly disheartened.
We halted for a time in order that
our position in line of battle might
be selected and then moved on. As
we approached the field a midnight
battle commenced, and the shells
seemed to burst in sparkles in the
trees above our heads, but not near
enough to reach us. When we came
nearer and filed to the right to take
| position on Ely’s ford road, the men
struck up John Brown’s song, and
gave the chorus with a will. Their
cheerful demeanor and proud bear-
ing renewed the confidence of the
army, who felt that the arrival of
Reynolds’ First Corps, with its his-
toric record, was no ordinary rein-
forcement.
We took up a defensive position
at 2:00 a. m. and, throwing up
breastworks with abattis in front,
held it for three days without being
attacked; yet we could hear the
Rebel yell as they charged -to our
left. The wood about us was set
on fire by the enemy artillery. Gen-
eral Reynolds begged General Hook-
er to let his corps make an attack
but was refused. On May 6th we
withdrew unmolested across the
pontoon bridge and after a circuitous
march went into camp near Pol-
lock’s Mills. Colonel Dana reported
the loss of considerable equipment,
due to the forced marching, although
no arms had been lost. He also
protested the requirement that men
carry sixty rounds of cartridges and
eight days’ rations. This experience
was valuable to the regiment and as
it cost but one casualty it was inex-
pensive. It was excellent prepara-
tion for the battles to follow.
(To Be Continued)
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