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Stories of the 2nd Pennsylvania Heavy Artillery A Brief Account of an American Civil War
Regiment: Randall E. Black Over the years, Americans have
had hot and cold interest periods with the Civil War. We have honored the brave and noble
deeds and sacrifices of the combatants by raising monuments to their glory on the
battlefields. We have written and published thousands of books, papers, manuscripts and
journals about its campaigns, battles and leaders but have not, until recently, begun to
reveal the atypical events, the less romantic side of the story. Somewhere in its
romanticized popularity, the true essence of our Civil War history has been ignored.
During the late 1950's and early 1960's the Civil War Centennial sparked a resurgence of
public interest in the war, diminished briefly for a few years, then surged forth again in
the late 1970's. The most recent "hot interest" period has given rise to the
publication of new books and reprints of the old favorites, written unit histories by the
hundreds, and the formation of living history reenactment and round-table study groups.
Above all, these renewed activities and the thousands of period documents published on the
Internet have strengthened our ties to the Civil War era. We have rekindled an
appreciation for American history studies, making it possible to learn about the less
dramatic, less glorified, but the most common, occurrences of that great conflict. The
history of the Second Pennsylvania Heavy Artillery, its men and the role that they played
in the defense of the United States during that tragic time is one of the many remaining
stories to be told. During the early part of the Civil War, the customary practice of officer selection for regiment and company leadership was political, often resulting in commanders who were untrained and ill prepared for the severe military tasks which lay ahead. In addition to the poor leadership and discipline in their commands, the soldiers were often not properly trained, and "as a general rule, officers and men started out together in equal ignorance and blundered along." (Wiley) The 2nd Pennsylvania Heavy Artillery was a unit not unfamiliar to this practice. In his "Regimental History" of the unit, Ward mentions the many instances of lax discipline, abuse of privileges, and the general distrust of and disobedience to officers of the regiment. From these accounts by the Unit Historian, one can imagine how a large group of men, green recruits who were having their first experience away from home, progressively degenerated into little more than an unruly mob. This situation however, did not escape the observation of political leaders and "regular Army" officers and was soon to change. The 2nd Pennsylvania Heavy Artillery was a unit that was always in flux with the regiment's batteries typically assigned to "independent company" duty in various locations. This is evidenced early in the regiment's formation with the assignment of batteries D, G and H to Fort Delaware for garrison duty in January 1862. The remaining batteries were kept at rendezvous camp until February 25 when those seven companies were ordered to the northern fortifications of Washington, D.C. The 3 batteries assigned to Fort Delaware rejoined the regiment in mid-March. Immediately upon their assignment to the Washington defenses "a purging of the sub-par officers took place…as higher authorities frowned upon lax discipline, and the regimental commander's concern more for the fleshpots of Washington than his command." (Cooling) Colonel Angeroth was discharged from the service and Augustus A. Gibson, former regular army captain of the 2nd U.S. Artillery in the Mexican War, was commissioned to succeed him. Shortly following the reorganization, the 2nd Pennsylvania "Heavies", after running off their Chaplain, were introduced to the Reverend "Father" Thomas P. Hunt. The good reverend soon undertook the task and "ended Colonel Gibson's hard swearing…and the pair ended the regiment's turn at hard drinking, neighborhood foraging, and abuse of passes."(Cooling) The unit was turning around and with return of discipline and order, families of the regiment's men now saw it fit to join their soldiers in the permanent camps. While in this sector of the Capital's defenses, the regiment "provided separate company-size garrisons at Forts Slemmer, Bunker Hill and Saratoga, and Battery Morris, together with Forts Thayer, Lincoln, and Battery Jameson." (Cooling) During these assignments, a marked improvement in the regiment's performance became noticeable. According to the unit's historian, the regiment evolved "from a second-rate infantry command with only marginally proficient officers into a crack heavy artillery contingent." (Cooling) For the most part, a soldier's duty in the fortifications consisted of maintaining the existing defense structures and building new ones, constructing roads and performing other fatigue details. Most of this work was tough, physical labor and performed under all weather conditions. When not assigned to fortification detail, the individual batteries would engage in parade drill, gunnery drill, marksmanship, and various inspection routines. In addition, the heavy artillery units also received infantry and bayonet instruction. Overall, however, the general view of battle tested veterans of Washington defense duty was regarded as "soft assignments." At the end of March 1864, the regiment was transferred to the defenses south of the Potomac River, and assigned to the garrisons of Forts Ethan Allen and Marcy. "While thus engaged, the regiment became celebrated for its proficiency in drill and soldierly appearance, but to this time had had no opportunity of displaying its skill in battle." (Bates) By the spring of 1864, the regiment numbered eighteen hundred and thirty-six men, a much larger number than that allowed by law. However, recruits still continued to arrive in large numbers, swelling the regiment to three thousand three hundred men. In mid-April, the War Department authorized the formation of a new regiment from the surplus men under the name of the Second Provisional Heavy Artillery. Officers for the newly formed regiment were selected from among the officers and enlisted men of the old regiment. The 2nd Pennsylvania Provisional Heavy Artillery regiment was sent to the front where it was assigned to duty with the Ninth Corps. "With that corps it participated in the battle of the Wilderness, and in all the operations of the campaign, until it arrived before Petersburg." (Bates) When Ulysses S. Grant became Lieutenant General, general-in-chief of all Federal armies in early March 1864, new campaign objectives against Lee's Army of Northern Virginia and the confederate capital were planned. One of the many things that Grant despised was manpower wastage. To get the manpower to support the new Virginia campaign, "Grant extracted thousands (from the Washington, D.C. garrison)…turned them into line infantry, and brought them down to Culpeper and Brandy Station to join the Army of the Potomac." So, on May 27, the 2nd Pennsylvania Heavy Artillery was ordered to duty on the front, with a small contingency remaining in the Washington fortifications. The regiment arrived at Port Royal, on the Rappahannock, on the 28th, and "marching sixty miles across the country, joined the Eighteenth Army Corps, under General Baldy Smith, on the 4th of June, at Cold Harbor." (Bates) The regiment with eighteen hundred and thirty-six men, was too large to maneuver in line of battle so it was formed into three battalions, each having four companies. The average soldier's view of heavy artillery units that were garrisoned in Washington, D.C. was less than favorable. The combat veterans were "delighted by the relentless way Grant reached out to take soldiers from the bombproof Washington garrison and add them to the fighting force." (Catton) The veterans believed that it was every soldier's fight and that they (the "heavies") had been enjoying the war doing no marching or fighting. On their arrival at Cold Harbor for example, the veterans' resentment toward these units was evident when "…the soldiers liked to stand by the roadside when one of these Washington regiments came to camp and sang out…'How are you, heavy artillery?'" (Catton) At Cold Harbor on June 3, a massive Federal assault on the Confederate entrenchments resulted in a great number of Federal casualties…"more than 7,000 men, most of them in the first two hours of fighting." (Catton) Due to the fire of Confederate sharpshooters the dead and wounded could not be removed from the battlefield. After four days of negotiating a truce under the strict observance of military protocol, an agreement was finally reached. On June 7, units from the 2nd Pennsylvania Heavy Artillery and other regiments were assigned duty in removing the dead and wounded from the battlefield. However, "they got a slim harvest, because by now most of the wounded men had either died or had been rescued by comrades." (Catton) The Federal burial crews under a white flag of truce were to work between the hours of 6 to 8 p.m. removing the dead and dying from the field. Leaving the relative safety of their breastworks, the men's eyes fell upon a hellish, indescribable site. Thousands of bodies lay stretched between the lines; "some laid where they fell, six days before…swollen and torn by shot, shell and ball…so that as to be scarcely recognizable by friends who eagerly sought them." (Maney) This was the first close-hand observance of war's carnage for the men of the 2nd Pennsylvania Heavies and "those comrades participating in the burial were so overcome by the stench as to be unfit for duty for several days." (Maney) Then, precisely at 8 p.m., a signal-gun gave notice that the truce had expired and the burial detail "hastily retreated for cover…and in a few moments were again engaged in the deadly fray." (Maney) The actions around Cold Harbor from June 1 to June 12, 1864 registered Federal "losses of 10,971 killed and wounded, and 1,816 missing." (Maney) From June 4 to June 12, the armies settled in to their entrenchments and while exchanging cannonade volleys and musket fire, made no further direct front-line assaults. The 2nd Pennsylvania remained at Cold Harbor until the evening of June 12 when "…Grant secretly moved all the troops out of the trenches without the Confederates being aware." (Cullen) The Army of the Potomac was on the move once again, toward the south bank of the James River and Bermuda Hundred to threaten the city of Petersburg and the confederate's railroad supply lines. The Eighteenth Corps to which the 2nd Pennsylvania had been assigned upon their arrival at Cold Harbor was actually a detached Corps from the Army of the James. Now they were ordered to "proceed with all possible dispatch to Bermuda Hundred to join the Army of the James under the command of General Butler." (Humphreys) On June 14, the Eighteenth Corps arrived at Bermuda Hundred and "received orders to move at daylight on Petersburg." (Humphreys) Supported by Kautz's Calvary Division on its left flank, Smith's Eighteenth Corps was in position to attack the Petersburg fortifications shortly before noon on June 15. However, due to a miscommunication with the supporting artillery, the attack was delayed, not getting underway until 7:00 p.m. that evening. On the far right of the Federal line near the Appomattox River in the lowland area, two brigades of the 2nd Pennsylvania waited for the attack to begin. Following a heavy Federal bombardment, the infantry on all points of the line started toward the Confederate fortifications. Confederate artillery responded and covered the advancing 2nd Pennsylvania troops, and with musket fire from their fortifications, checked their advance to a stand still. Further to the south, other Federal troops faired better in storming the fortifications. Once the attack was underway it was immediately recognized that from their position, the fortifications were nearly empty of Confederate troops. It was over in thirty minutes or less and Smith's Eighteenth Corps "had taken a mile and a half of trenches, five forts, sixteen pieces of artillery and several hundred prisoners." (Catton) A few days later on June 18th, the Second Battalion of the regiment was ordered to join in a charge upon the rebel entrenched line, between City Point Railroad, and the Appomattox River. Due to the failure of other Federal troops on the left of the battalion to move promptly, "the whole fire of the rebel line was concentrated upon it and prevented it from carrying the enemy's works." (Bates) The men had charged through a field of tall oats and now used that cover to screen themselves as they scraped the ground with bayonets and tin cups, digging a low trench for cover from the Confederate bullets. The ground gained was held and at night the line was strengthened. The cost had been high in this charge, "…the battalion lost ten killed and sixty-five wounded, all within a few minutes." (Bates) The engagements conducted from June 15 to June 18 at Petersburg resulted in Federal losses of more than 10,000 men, "proof enough that the men in the ranks had fought as bravely as ever." (Catton) The Federal armies since Cold Harbor were engaged in a different type of warfare, the siege. Life in the entrenchment for the ordinary soldier was miserable. Relentless heat, dirt, filth and constant harassment from the fire of enemy sharpshooters tried many a man's patience and endurance, and it was to last for ten more months. During the remainder of June and throughout July and August the 2nd Pennsylvania performed hard and dangerous duties in the trenches, stretching from the Appomattox River to the Jerusalem Plank Road. During this 3-month period, the regiment lost more than half its original strength, being reduced from eighteen hundred and thirty-six, to less than nine hundred men. On September 5, about four hundred men, all that were left of the provisional regiment, re-joined the old regiment. During their absence, the 2nd Pennsylvania Provisional Heavy Artillery regiment had "performed exceedingly hard service, and lost, in the short space of four months, about one thousand men." (Bates) While with the Ninth Corps under General Burnside, the "Provisional Heavies" were involved in the attack upon Confederate fortifications after the infamous Petersburg mine explosion (The Crater). "When the mine was exploded, the provisional regiment formed part of the brigade that had the advance in the charge, and dashed into the crater, losing heavily in killed, wounded, and prisoners." (Bates) By September, the armies were bogged down in trench warfare. Each maneuver was countered by another and the casualties continued to rise. Grant was determined to force the Army of Northern Virginia to overextend its lines of defense around Petersburg, thereby weakening the fortifications and opening them to assault. On September 29, Grant moved the Tenth and Eighteenth Corps back across the James River for an assault on the outer defenses of Richmond. Grant anticipated that this movement would prevent the Army of Northern Virginia of sending reinforcements to General Early's forces in the Shenandoah Valley as well as force Lee to weaken the Petersburg defenses in response. At daybreak, a division of the Eighteenth Corps stormed the heavily gunned Fort Harrison that resulted in the permanent establishment of the right wing of the Federal army, north of the James River. During the day, the First and Second battalions of the 2nd Pennsylvania were ordered to charge the Confederate installation in rear of the fort. Not supported, the movement was disastrous with "the loss in the two battalions amounting to over two hundred men killed, wounded, and prisoners." (Ward) The loss of Fort Harrison was important enough to General Lee that he personally directed several unsuccessful assaults to gain its recapture. Lee now had to draw back his line of Richmond defenses and build new fortifications to protect the city. And as Grant had desired, it made Lee extend his defensive line northward, further weakening the Petersburg fortifications. The 2nd Pennsylvania occupied a new defensive line south of Fort Harrison until early December. "No further serious efforts were made to enter Richmond from the north side of the James, and the two armies faced each other in these respective positions until Grant finally broke Lee's lines at Petersburg on April 1, 1865, forcing the Confederates to abandon Richmond." (Cullen) On December 2, the 2nd Pennsylvania was ordered to the Bermuda Front entrenchments. The original term of 3-year service expired in January 1865, however, a large number re-enlisted. With these reenlistments and additional recruits, the regiment had over two thousand men still remaining in the service. After the Confederate evacuation, the regiment was assigned defensive duty in Petersburg, and upon the Confederate surrender at Appomattox Courthouse a week later, "the regiment's companies were distributed through the lower counties of Virginia, for the purpose of maintaining order and tranquillity." (Bates) Until its muster out in January 1866, the regiment performed basically "policeman" duties. During this ten-month period, it must have been quite bewildering to the soldiers to continue to serve in this manner. The war was finished, they had done their fighting, now it was time to go home. According to one source, "peace keeping did not strike the Civil War veteran as an important role" and "the volunteer rarely became a soldier: he would accept military service in wartime but not in peacetime." (Mitchell) The 2nd Pennsylvania as
compared to other regiments was no different than most in performing their duty for the
United States during the war. The men of this regiment were no less brave or honorable
than other men who served longer under combat conditions. For the most part, they were
boys who were taken away from small towns and farms, and returned as hardened men after
seeing and enduring the hardships and horrors of battle. The passing of their service has
not been glorified or celebrated like some. However, the deeds that they performed and the
courage that was required is evidenced by the losses that the regiment: suffered: "5
officers and 221 enlisted men killed or mortally wounded, and 6 officers and 385 enlisted
men by disease." (Bates) The men of the 2nd Pennsylvania Heavy Artillery regiment
fought and died for many different reasons and performed severe duty when the situation
demanded. Like all Civil War combat survivors, memories of death, destruction, triumph and
loss would always be with them, through the remainder of their lives. Bibliography: |