Here are two
excellent accounts of the participation of Archer's Brigade at
the Battle of Chancellorsville. To go to the second account click here!
ARCHER'S BRIGADE AT
CHANCELLORSVILLE.
BY H. T. CHILDS, FAYETTEVILLE, TENN.
From the second battle
of Manassas the Confederate army moved triumphantly, rolling the
lines of blue entirely from Virginia's soil. It was the grandest
campaign of the war. When I had sufficiently recovered from my
wound, I returned in February, 1863, to my command and found the
boys in winter quarters on the banks of the Rappahannock River,
near Fredericksburg, Va.
On the last day of
April General Burnside began crossing the river in his "On-to-Richmond"
campaign. The first day Major General Lee's army left its winter
quarters, and all day long both armies were maneuvering. That
night my company was sent forward on picket duty, and we were
stationed, two on a post, thirty or forty steps from the Yankee
pickets. The boy who stood with me was my messmate, R. H.
Anthony, as noble a boy as Franklin County ever produced. He was
sick and wanted to lie down; but though it was very cold, no man
was allowed to unroll his blanket. About midnight I told him to
lie down and go to sleep, and I unrolled my blanket and spread it
over him. Occasionally during the night some Yank or Johnny would
expose himself, and then there would be a general fusillade of
musketry. Just before break of day every band of music along the
Confederate lines struck up "Dixie." It was grand! As
our music died away, every band along the Federal lines struck up
"Rally Round the Flag, Boys," and it too was grand.
Then both sides struck up "Home, Sweet Home." As this
music died away, with thoughts of home and tears in my eyes, I
kicked Bob and told him to get up, and then the rattle of
musketry began. We were expecting the Yanks to drive us in, and
they were expecting us to drive them in. When our line reached
the brow of the hill we found our boys in line behind temporary
breastworks in breathless expectation of a heavy column of blue
to be right after us; but the Yankees did not come. I never was
as cold in my life and felt that we ought to be allowed to make a
cup of coffee and eat breakfast. But no; the day's march was on.
It was now the 2d of
May. We were moving in a northwest direction, and each army
seemed to be trying to out flank the other. About 3 P.M.
Stonewall Jackson turned the right wing of .gif)
the
Federals. All evening the battle raged, and that night Stonewall
Jackson was mortally wounded by his own troops. During the day's
march Bob Anthony, who was very sick, managed to keep up, his
brother, Rod Anthony, and I by turns carrying his gun. Just at
dark the command came, "By company file left!" This
moved us into the bushes. "Halt, front, stack arms! Lie
down, boys, and go to sleep."Bob Anthony asked me to get him
a canteen of water, and other boys came with their canteens.
Taking eight of them, I slipped back into the road, examining the
boughs of the trees as I went along so I would know the place
when I got back. Passing forward, for I knew there was no water
on the road we had come over, I soon came to the plank road,
where General Jackson struck the Yankees that evening. The road
was full of Confederates and Yankee prisoners. As I turned to the
left I met an artilleryman who had been to water his horses. He
pointed to a big light in the distance as the place where General
Hill's wounded had been gathered and said I would find plenty of
good water there. It was a mile away, but I got there, and after
drinking all I wanted I sat down to rest and watched the army
surgeons amputate arms and legs. It was frightful to see them
grab up a boy and lay him down upon a scaffold, while he begged
for his arm or leg. I soon got tired of this barbarity, filed my
canteens, and started back. On getting back to my starting point,
I was perplexed, for there were no stacks of arms there and no
boys sleeping on the ground. Feeling that Bob would not leave me,
I began calling him. He answered, saying the brigade had moved,
but he had waited for me. The brigade had moved only a short
distance, and we were soon with the company. While handing the
canteens to their owners General Archer dashed in among us. He
had spread his blanket just in rear of our company and, hearing
the racket about the canteens, came to see if he could get a
drink. I handed him my canteen, and he almost emptied it.
At one o'clock on the
morning of the 3d of May a courier came riding in among the
sleeping boys, calling General Archer, who was directed to form
his brigade upon the plank road and take the line of march just
behind General Pender's brigade. Then General Archer's shrill
voice rang out upon the night air: "Tennessee brigade, fall
in!" Soon everything was ready to move. Then General Archer
came to us, calling for that sick man, and told Bob to stay upon
the plank road until Dr. McGuire came up with the ambulances, and
he would get to ride.
Soon the march to the
great battle of Chancellorsville was in full swing. As we moved
down the road we could see the dead Yankees and dead horses left
upon the field the evening before. When we began to get near the
Federal lines our officers cautioned us to make no noise. Filing
to the right in a dense jungle, we got in position and were told
to lie clown with guns in hand and sleep if we could. The Boon's
Hill company (Co. K, 1st Tennessee Inf. [Turney's), Prov. Army)
were deployed as skirmishers, and soon they had taken the Yankee
pickets off their posts. At the first streak of day the company
officers aroused us, and we moved forward some fifty yards and
halted to dress our lines. Then General Archer's shrill, clear
voice was heard along the line "Fix bayonets Forward, guide
center Charge'em, boys!" With an onward bound and the
terrific whoop of the wild Rebel yell, we dashed forward through
the dense jungle, the Boon's Hill boys falling in as the line of
battle came up, and George Jones happened to fall in by my side.
Soon we struck a steep little hill, and right up it we went.
Along the brow of this hill the Yankees had thrown up temporary
breastworks. They were taken by surprise. Over these works we
poked our guns and poured a volley into them as they were getting
up. A battalion of artillery was standing there. We killed every
horse and, I suppose, every artilleryman. How General Archer got
there on his big gray horse I do not know, but he commanded,
"Right over, boys!" and, spurring his horse, he scaled
the works. Then he waved his sword and commanded, "Halt!"
He wanted to re-form his lines.
But they would not
halt. When on a charge, Tennesseeans haven't got a bit of sense.
On they rushed, the Yankees in their confusion shooting back at
us. I was just as afraid of being shot by our own men from behind
as I was of being shot by the Yankees in front. In we swept in a
southeast direction, the Yankees pulling for their second line of
works on the brow of the next ridge. They jumped the little creek
and moved rapidly up the slope. We too jumped the creek in our
confusion, and when within two hundred yards of their second line
we met a volley of Yankee bullets. Then we began to touch elbows
and move steadily in a good line up the hill to a kind of bench,
where we could lie down and load, then rise and fire. From this
position I fired three times and began loading again. I could see
comrades falling around me. One boy from the 14th Tennessee
Regiment fell right across me. George Jones, who had kept with
me, had a breech-loading gun, and he was loading and firing
rapidly. As he was getting down to reload it seemed to me that I
saw a bullet whistle through his mouth, and at the same time he
was shot in the knee. When my gun was loaded I hesitated, then I
thought, "That is what I am here for," and as I made my
spring to rise I was shot through the left thigh. Just then our
line began to retreat, leaving us wounded boys within forty yards
of the enemy's works. Coming over their works, the Yankees in
perfect line began to advance. I said to George: "They are
coming." He said: "Let them come; I would as soon die
now as any time." We thought they would pin us to the earth
with their bayonets as they came over us. On they came, making
the earth tremble, but just before reaching us I heard the
command, "Right about!" and the line moved back behind
their works.
The battalion of
artillery, which we captured in running over their first line,
was now turned on the Yankees in their second line. But our
gunners shot too low, and grape and canister fell all over us
wounded boys. At the first volley that fell among us I was on my
hands and knees trying to crawl down the hill. A grapeshot
glanced my left hand, rendering it useless for a long time.
Finally I managed to crawl down to the creek and got right in it,
leaving George Jones, and I never saw him any more till the war
was over. While lying in the creek I looked back and saw General
Archer coming over the hill; then the flags came in sight, then
the bayonets, then the boys. My company came within ten steps of
me. The first man to get to me was Maj. F. G. Buchanan, who
pulled me out. On the line moved with its dreadful tread shaking
the earth.
It was the last time I
ever saw the lst Tennessee Regiment, soon I was carried by the
litter bearers to the field hospital, where my wounds were
dressed. In due course of time I was taken to the hospital in
Richmond. My father went to Richmond for me and brought me home.
After an eventful journey we reached home just as General Bragg
was retreating from Tullahoma back to Chattanooga. I was unable
for service for about eighteen months. In September, 1864, my
father bought me a horse, and I joined the Forrest Escort
Company, and the rest of my service in the cause of the
Confederacy was with the "Wizard of the Saddle".
ARCHER'S
BRIGADE AT CHANCELLORSVILLE.
BY JOHN HURST, CLARKSVILLE, TENN.
[From
the "Records."]
Archer's
Brigade, commanded by Brig. Gen. J. J. Archer, was one of the six
brigades composing the division of Maj. Gen. A. P. Hill, of
Jackson's 2d Corps, and during the activities attending the
Chancellorsville campaign and battle, in the spring of 1863,
consisted of the following subordinate organizations, commanded
by the respective officers named in connection with each: 13th
Alabama Regiment, Col. B. D. Fry; 5th Alabama Battalion, Capts. S.
D. Stewart and A. N. Porter; 1st Tennessee (Provisional Army),
Lieut. Col. N. J. George; 7th Tennessee, Lieut. Col. John A.
Fite; 14th Tennessee, Col. William McComb and Capt. R. C. Wilson.
("Official Records," Vol. XXV., Part I., page 791.)
The
brigade accompanied the division and corps Friday morning, May 1,
1863, when three divisions, commanded respectively by Rodes, A. P.
Hill, and Colston, were led from the lines in the vicinity of
Hamilton's Crossing toward Chancellorsville by Lieut. Gen. T. J.
Jackson. When this force reached a point some four miles east of
Chancellorsville about 8 AM., it found Maj. Gen. R. H. Anderson
fortifying against the advance of the Federal forces, when line
of battle was formed, Rodes in advance, Hill supporting, and
Colston in reserve. "The enemy was rapidly pushed back into
Chancellorsville." (ibid., 885.) Here the enemy had assumed
a position of great strength; and as darkness was approaching
before the strength and extent of the position could be
ascertained, the Confederate troops were halted and formed in
line of battle in front of Chancellorsville, at right angles to
the plank road, extending on the right to the Mine Road and to
the left in the direction of Catherine Furnace (Ibid., 797, and
here the Confederate army bivouacked on the night of the 1st of
May.
Next
morning, Saturday, May 2, Archer's Brigade relieved Iverson's
Brigade, of Rodes's Division, about ten o'clock. When Iverson
moved he left his "skirmishers hotly engaged until they
could be relieved. (Ibid., 984.) An hour later Gen. A. P. Hill
ordered Archer to withdraw from his advanced position on the
plank road, which he did, leaving his pickets out to wait until
relieved, and proceeded to follow the other brigades of the
division, which, except Thomas's, had gone by the Welford Furnace
road. When Archer had moved two miles beyond the furnace he
received information which caused him to retrace his steps toward
the furnace with his own and Thomas's Brigade (the latter was
following Archer) to meet an attack on the trains which were
passing at that point. When he arrived at the furnace he found
that the enemy had been repulsed by Lieut. Col. J. Thompson
Brown, of the artillery, and some infantry, among which were
Companies L and H of the 14th Tennessee Regiment, commanded by
Capt. W. S. Moore, and which had borne a conspicuous part. His
brigade did not rejoin the division until late at night. (Ibid.,
924, 925.)
Captain
Moore, with the companies under his command, had been left on
picket in front of Chancellorsville until relieved by Major
General Anderson's troops, when Archer's Brigade moved off. He
was following the latter to overtake and rejoin it and had
marched one and a half miles when he heard firing and discovered
considerable confusion in the train behind. At the earnest
solicitation of several officers who rode up and informed him of
the danger threatening the train, though he was without orders
from his superiors in command, he immediately countermarched at a
double-quick and reported to Colonel Brown, of the artillery,
ordering a number of men whom he met with guns in their hands to
fall in with his force. Forming line of battle with the 23d
Georgia Regiment, which was on guard at that point and which he
found in a confused condition and rallied, this force hotly
contested with a large force of the enemy for at least twenty
minutes. Moore's force remained long enough to give the train an
hour and a half start. He left the Wellborn Furnace about an hour
by sun. With the resistance given by this force the train was
able to get by with the exception of one caisson, which was
broken down. "But one man was hurt." Captain Moore
rejoined the regiment before it halted for the night. (Ibid., 933,
934.)
Archer's
Brigade bivouacked that night, May 2, on the plank road near the
point at which the head of Jackson's column first entered it that
evening, the 2d of May. Here it was halted to guard the approach
of Averill's Cavalry, a body of at least 3,500, and which was
known to he located on the north side of the Rapidan River near
Germanna and Ely's Fords. The brigade remained here until about
twelve o'clock that night, when it was ordered "down the
road about three miles to the point from which the enemy had been
driven the evening previous. A log house stood on the right of
the road (Melzi Chancellor's, Dowdall's Tavern). Here the brigade
was filed to the right and moved perpendicularly to the road
about six hundred yards, where it found General McGowan's brigade
in line of battle extending east and west. Archer's Brigade was
formed on the right of McGowan. This line was formed a short time
before day (Sunday, May 3) and skirmishers thrown out in front
extending about two hundred yards to the right." (Ibid, 929,
930.)1
About
sunrise on Sunday, May 3, Archer moved forward to the attack; and
as the Federal 3d Army Corps, Maj. Gen. Daniel E. Sickles
commanding was evacuating its position at Hazel Grove, in his
front, he pressed the retreating troops so closely that he made a
capture of four pieces of artillery and about one hundred
prisoners. Archer made two other separate assaults on heavy
forces and strong positions and was each time forced to retire.
Soon the Confederate artillery moved in and occupied the
elevation at Hazel Grove, and three regiments of Doles' Brigade,
under the command of Col. John T. Mercer, came up on Archer's
left, and the troops of Maj. Gen. R. H. Anderson joined his right.
Soon Gen. R. E. Lee rode up and directed Archer to move forward
with his own brigade and the three regiments of Doles' Brigade.
After he advanced four hundred or five hundred yards a short halt
was made to distribute ammunition to the regiments of Doles'
Brigade. Though he had received an order through a staff officer
of General Stuart, then in command of Jackson's Corps, not to
advance farther until he received orders from him, other troops
coming up on Mercer's left and on Archer's right, the latter
moved slowly forward and soon came to the ascending hill in front
of Chancellorsville in full view and range of the enemy's cannon,
which opened fire on the advancing line. During this advance
General Archer, on account of the denseness of the tangled
thicket and the number of men of other brigades that had by this
time joined the advance, lost sight of his own brigade and did
not for some time find it, "and he feared that it had fallen
back, but was gratified to find that all its little regiments had
moved promptly forward and had driven the enemy from that part of
the trenches farthest to the left and nearest to Chancellor's
house." (Ibid., 925.)
"As
soon as Archer's Brigade began to move it became hotly engaged.
He was compelled to conform his line of battle to that of the
enemy. He charged the works in his front and without the least
halt or hesitation carried them, driving the enemy before him,
who outnumbered him five to one. He succeeded in capturing a
battery of four guns. By his gallant attack he secured the key to
the enemy's position. Clearing a hill and open space in his front
and thus gaining for our artillery a position from which they
were enabled to silence the 29-gun battery of the enemy which had
inflicted so much loss upon our lines. From this position our
artillery had also a raking fire on the enemy's works on our
right. After carrying the hill referred to Archer advanced beyond
the open space and attacked the enemy on his right. He was joined
by Major General Anderson." (Heth, commanding A. P. Hill's
division in the Sunday's fight. Ibid., 891, 892.)
Archer
reported his loss at fourteen killed and three hundred and
seventeen wounded; total, three hundred and fifty-eight. As he
carried fourteen hundred men into battle that morning, this shows
a loss of over twenty-five and a half per cent. The tabulated
statement, however, varies slightly from this statement
Fifth
Alabama Battalion: 3 killed, 32 wounded, 1 missing;
aggregate, 36. Officers killed, Capt. S. D. Stewart and Lieut. W.
B. Hutton.
Thirteenth Alabama Regiment: 15 killed, 117 wounded, 8 missing;
aggregate, 140. Officers killed, Maj. John T. Smith and Lieut. J.
J. Pendergrass.
First Tennessee Regiment: 9 killed, 51 wounded, 1 missing
aggregate, 61.
Seventh Tennessee Regiment: 10 killed, 51 wounded, 3 missing;
aggregate, 64. Officer killed, Lieut. Andrew F. Paul.
Fourteenth Tennessee Regiment: 7 killed, 56 wounded, 3 missing;
aggregate, 66. Officer killed, Capt. W. W. Thompson.
Aggregate loss, including missing, 367.
Col. William McComb, commanding the 14th Tennessee, was severely
wounded.
On
Monday, May 4, there was no fighting except by the skirmishers at
Chancellorsville, but Hill's Division fortified its position on
the left of the plank road fronting the United States ford.
Generals Hill, Heth, and Pender all having been wounded in the
previous fighting, Archer was in command of the division on that
date, and Col. B. D. Fry was in command of Archer's Brigade.
General Heth, commanding the division on Sunday, May 3, said:
"Generals Pender, Archer, and Thomas deserve for their
successful attacks to be specially mentioned." (Ibid., 892.)
1From
this point, on Sunday morning, May 3, Archer's Brigade did its
first real fighting. The Eleventh Federal Army Corps, commanded
by Major General O. O. Howard, had been crushed and scattered six
or eight hours before Archer's Brigade reached that part of the
field. Jackson had been wounded several hours before its arrival
and had been carried back to the field hospital, several miles
west of Chancellorsville, where Dr. McGuire amputated his left
arm at the shoulder soon after midnight.
JOHN PURIFOY.
We do accept thee, heavenly peace!
Albeit thou comest in a guise
Unhooked for, undesired, our eyes
Welcome through tears and sweet release,
For which we bless thee, blessed peace,
From war amid woe and want--surcease.
-Margaret J. Preston.
From "The
Confederate Veteran" magazine
Transcribed by James W. Martin
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