admin CHAPTER XVII.
THE NOBLE RECORD OF THE 17TH NEW YORK INFANTRY – THE DEATH OF CHARLES E. BILLS.
THE data for this sketch are gleaned from the report of the chief of the bureau of military record, the files of the Western New Yorker and the Wyoming County Mirror from a diary kept by the late Orlando S. Smith, and other sources. This regiment, at first called also the “Westchester Chasseurs,” was made up of companies that were recruited in various parts of the State. Westchester county furnished four, New York city two, Rockland, Chenango, and Wayne counties each one, and Company K represented Wyoming county. The following is a roll of this company at its organization:
COMPANY K.
Officers.- Gideon H. Jenkins, captain; H. A. Rudley, first lieutenant: Alvin M. Whaley, second lieutenant. Sergeant – Charles V. Jenkins, Warsaw; Edwin H. Beardsley. Warsaw; Adalbert H. Jenkins, Warsaw; Joseph W. Morey, Wyoming. Corporals- Frank S. Austin, Perry; Charles J. Watkins, Warsaw; Lucien H. Post, Perry; Oscar Nicholson, Warsaw.
Privates.- Charles H. Agar, George Armstrong, George Baker, Riley R. Baker, Galusha W. Blowers, John R. Brown, Homer C. Curtis, Eugene Edson, William Fisk, Miles P. Fowler, Sumner Gill, Willard L. Hitchcock, Edward Harty, Jason M. Johnson, Frank H. Johnson, Lucien P. Knapp, Thomas B. Knapp, Frank Lamphire, Charles W. Lewis, Ira Lounsbury, Ellis Luther, jr., George F. Martin, Jesse J. Mattocks, Adalbert Hosier. Samuel R. Hunger, William Parker, Charles A. Patridge, William Poland. George Reynick, John T. Reynick, Daniel Starks, James A. Smith, Wilber H. Snyder, America H. Turner, James Tyler, William H. Walker, Alfred Watrous, Morris Warren, Romanic L. Wilkin, William Young, Warsaw; Charles Bill, Henry Cronkite, Thomas Durfee, Henry C Ferris, William Hodge, Solon G. Ripley, Orlando 8. Smith, Walter C. Tillotson, Otto Warner, Middlebury; William P. Bovie, Martin H. Carpenter, Frank Graves, Lafayette E. Hastings, Henry Rice, Deveilo Sheffield, Arthur B. Thorpe, Edwin R. Wood, Gainesville; George A. Armour, David Jones, Albert Lewis, Augustus Satyr Henry Stroemer, Henry Schneider, Orangeville; Michael Metager, Nicholas Smith, Sheldon Alton, P. Beardsley, Oscar Ayres, Perry; Mansor Dunbar; Orlgen Dannell, John Etwell, Alton Pert, Wetherfield; William R. Benchlay. Dale; Jacob Darrow, York; Giles Gilbert, Pike; William A. Houghton, La Grange; Samuel Houghton, Fredonia.
Henry S. Lansing was appointed colonel of this regiment. Thomas J. Morris lieutenant-colonel, and Charles A. Johnson major. Company K was mustered into the United States service on the- 25th of May, 1861, and the regiment was mustered on the 28th.
It is perhaps due to the regiment to speak of the claim which its officers put forth for it: that recruiting for it began on the 1 6th of April and ended on the 5th of May, 1861; that it was numbered successively 9, n and 17, and its organization delayed by the action of the State military board for reasons that were then deemed sufficient; that the headquarters of the regiment was established at the corner of Rector street and Broadway, New York, in a store, the rent of which ($12,000 per annum) was paid by the Union Defense Committee; that it occupied the City Hall barracks during about six weeks without uniforms, and was then moved (June 15th) to Camp Washington, Staten Island.
It left Staten Island on the 21st of June, and proceeded, via New Jersey, Harrisburg and Baltimore, to Washington, where it arrived on the 23d. The expenditure by the Union Defense Committee up to August 16th, 1861, was $22,351.58. The State expended for the regiment, exclusive of quarters and subsistence, $41,983.22.
On their arrival at Washington the troops went into camp about two miles west from the city. They remained at that camp, perfecting themselves in military drill, till July 14th, when they went to Alexandria and encamped about two miles above the city, near Fort Ellsworth. At that place Company K was detailed on its first duty – that of guarding military stores on the dock. They were placed temporarily in the second brigade of the fifth division, and shared in the movements of the reserve at the “reconnaissance in force,” and battle of Bull Run.
The regiment went to Fairfax Seminary in September, and participated in a reconnaissance to Mason’s Hill. It went to Hall’s Hill in October, where it went into camp, and there spent the winter of 1861-2. Soon after its arrival at that camp, which was called Camp Butterfield, in honor of General Butterfield, to whose brigade they were assigned, the men received Sibley tents in place of the A tents that were first given to them, and in the following February the smooth-bore muskets that they originally received were exchanged for Springfield rifles.
On the 12th of the following March (1862} the regiment left Camp Butterfield and went with its brigade on a reconnaissance. It stopped at Fairfax Seminary, from which place it moved on the 21st to Alexandria, and went on board the steamer “Knickerbocker.” The following entries appear on Smith’s diary:
“March 23d, 1862. – In the Chesapeake Bay. Pleasant. Saw the ‘Monitor,’ the iron gunboat that had a fight with the ‘ Merrimac’ Left the boat about dark. Passed Old Point Comfort, and we are lying on the ground. ‘Knickerbocker ‘ sprung a leak so we had to leave her.
“Monday, March 24th. – Arose and moved about sunrise about one mile and pitched our tents. Had dress parade at 6 P. M. Pleasant day. Passed through the village of Hampton – now in ruins, having been burned by the enemy to prevent the Union men from having winter quarters there.”
On the 25th they moved about four miles and camped in the woods. On the 26th they went to Wall’s Creek on a reconnaissance, discovered the enemy in force, and returned with one prisoner. On the 27th the force went to Big Bethel on a reconnaissance, which the diary describes thus:
“Thursday, March 27th.- Arrived at Great Bethel at noon. The enemy fled before us. Marched in line of battle across the flat up to the enemy’s breastworks, and placed the stars and stripes on the first fortification. Returned to camp, the distance said to be ten miles. The sharpshooters shot two rebels.”
April 4th they moved toward Yorktown, and on the 5th marched nine miles and reached the scene of active operations in the siege. Under this date the diary says: “Marched soon after sunrise. Halted about noon to leave our knapsacks and prepare for a fight. Pitched our tents in sight of the enemy’s batteries; exchanging shots freely now, while I write and rest with my knee for a desk.”
The regiment remained at this siege, engaged in picket and fatigue duty, with occasional drill, during about a month. On the 3d of May the rebels evacuated Yorktown. The diary says: “Sunday, May 4th. The 44th went out to work and saw our flag on the enemy’s parapet. Went over and found our men in possession. Several had been killed by torpedoes that they had stepped on (which had been left by the enemy). Got a good many prisoners. Our flying artillery and cavalry in pursuit.”
On the 8th the regiment passed through Yorktown and embarked on the steamer “S. R. Spaulding” for West Point, whence, two or three days afterward, it went to Cumberland. The roads had been obstructed with fallen trees, and the woods set on fire; and during the severe march the men were obliged to remove the obstructions and labor to extinguish the fires. They remained one day at Cumberland and marched to White House. The regiment then moved and made its camp on Gaines’s farm, on the Chickahominy. Nothing noteworthy occurred till, on the 27th, the regiment moved with the brigade for the purpose of attacking the enemy at Hanover Court-house. After a tiresome march of about fourteen miles, the enemy was encountered about two miles from the court-house, where the road joins Ashland, with a guideboard marked “To Richmond seven miles – to Port Green Church two miles.” There, according to a correspondent, a brilliant charge was made by the 17th, and a howitzer captured and turned on its late possessors. The enemy were completely routed, and after the regiment had spent a short time going through their abandoned camp it proceeded to the court-house. A sharp and vigorous attack on the rear of the division was repulsed, and the victory was complete. The next day the regiment went down the railroad and burned some bridges, and returned to its camp on the Gaines farm on the 29th. It remained in this camp, occupied with the usual details of fatigue and picket duty, till June 22nd, when it moved six miles back.
According to the third report of the bureau of military record the regiment remained in camp until the 26th of June, when it marched to Old Church. While there the battle of Gaines Mills was fought June 27th. This regiment, being in the rear, was cut off from the main army, and under General Stoneman retreated toward the White House. The distance was twenty-two miles, and the march one of grc.it suffering. Says a correspondent: “History will not record a more hasty, timely, or terrible march than this by such worn out and fatigued men. Many fell fainting by the roadside and recovered at their leisure. The last few miles was positively awful. The colonel, a good brave man, rode bareheaded down the rapidly decimating ranks and exclaimed, ‘ Men, it is hard, but if you do this to-day your country will not, cannot be ungrateful.’ We accomplished it; and as I looked at my blistered and swollen feet, I thought painfully of other days. The result was, as had been anticipated by General McClellan when he ordered Stoneman to fall back to White House if cut off, the movement of the enemy in that direction was anticipated, the stores removed or destroyed, and the regiment and other forces then embarked on the gunboats. On the 30th the gunboats sailed for Fortress Monroe.
“The regiment reached Yorktown on the 1st of July, and there passed from the gunboat to the steamer ‘Catskill,’ subsequently to the tugboat ‘Adriatic,’ and from the latter to the steamer ‘ Kennebec,’ and sailed for Harrison’s Landing, where it arrived on the 2nd. It remained in camp at Harrison’s Landing until the evacuation. In this time its camp was exposed to the artillery of the enemy in the attack of the 30th and one man killed; and it was detailed on duty on the opposite bank of the James in cutting down timber and patrolling the country. On the 14th of August it moved at midnight, and ‘reached and crossed the Chickahominy, continued the march on the 15th, and passed Williamsburg; on the 1 6th reached Yorktown; on the 17th marched seventeen miles, and from thence to Newport News. This was a very severe march, and will be long remembered by those who participated in it.”
From Newport News the regiment was transferred by water to Aquia creek. On the morning of the 21st it went to Fredericksburg by railroad, and from thence marched up the Rapidan to Warrenton and Manassas, and opened the fight at Groveton on the 30th. Says a correspondent: “When the enemy made their sudden and powerful advance toward our center on Saturday, Porter’s corps was ordered up to meet the attack. Butterfield’s brigade was sent forward – the 17th N. Y. having the advance. They marched up the hill amid the fierce leaden hail as if it had been but a pleasant summer shower. On they went, and fiercer and hotter was the fire. First a battery on the right and another on the left opened and poured a devastating fire into their devoted ranks, but they never wavered. Faithfully did they ply their trusty muskets, and held their position. Officers who witnessed the scene describe it as most terrific. Storm upon storm of bullets, grape shot, screaming shell, and pieces of railroad iron were hurled into, through and over them. Thus they stood, their ranks being thinned at every discharge. The enemy suffered too, and quickly sought the cover of the woods. At length came the order to fall back, it having been found impossible to reinforce them. The line was still preserved, and at the command they moved off steadily and coolly, although the dreadful fire of the enemy never ceased for one moment. The colors were shot into shreds, both flagstaff s were shot in pieces by grape shot, and three color bearers were shot down. Out of 350 men that went into this charge, 13 officers and 250 men were killed or wounded. Captains Wilson, Blauvelt and Demarest, and Lieutenant Reid were among the killed; and Major T. C. Grover, at that time in command of the regiment, acting Adjutant Sprague and Captains Burleigh, Martin and Foley, and Lieutenants Green and Morey were among the wounded – Major Grover wounded in four places.
“The regiment fell back with the army to Fairfax, Chain Bridge, Long Bridge and Alexandria; and from thence moved to Fairfax Seminary and Hall’s Hill. On the 12th of September it started on the Maryland campaign, passed through Georgetown and Washington, and by railroad to within five miles of Rock vi lie; on the 13th passed through Rockville and took the road to Frederick; on the 14th reached Frederick; on the 15th to the vicinity of South Mountain; on the 16th to the vicinity of the battle ground of Antietam. During this movement Porter’s corps was in the reserve and was not engaged, although an occasional shell reached its position. On the 18th th- regiment moved to Sharpsburg, and thence to Antietam Iron Works. Here it was engaged in picketing the Potomac and in camp duties until the 30th of October, when it moved in the direction of Harper’s Ferry; passed through that place on the 31st to the Blue Mountains; on the 2nd of November moved on the Leesburg turnpike to Woodgrove, and then struck the road to the right in the direction of Snickers vi lie, and came up with and relieved Sumner’s corps, who were holding Snicker’s Gap; remained at Snicker’s Gap until the 6th. and then moved on the Alexandria road toward Middleburg; moved on the 7th, but was compelled to bivouac in consequence of a severe snow-storm; on the 8th followed the Orange and Alexandria railroad to New Baltimore, and from thence to Warrenton Junction, and followed the track toward Fredericksburg; 18th, continued on the march, and also on the 19th, and camped; on the 24th camped a short distance from the railroad at Falmouth.”
The regiment remained in camp until the nth of December, when it moved with the brigade in the advance on Fredericksburg. It crossed the river in the evening, participated in the movements of the brigade, and returned on the 1 6th with one officer (Adjutant Wilson) killed, and two officers and four men wounded. It remained in camp until the “mud march” on January 20th. From this march it returned on the 24th, and went into permanent winter quarters.
On the 27th of April, 1863, the regiment suited on the Chancellorsville campaign. It arrived on the enemy’s flank on the 1st of May. On the 2nd it threw up breastworks, and on the 3d was in action, but not heavily engaged; remained in position on the 4th, and at about 2 A. M. on the 5th moved toward United States Ford, covered the retreat and was the last to cross. It reached camp at Falmouth on the 6th. On the 18th it left camp for New York, where it was mustered out on the 22nd.
On the 3d of June Major W. T. C. Grover received authority to reorganize the regiment. Under this authorization a very considerable number of the members who returned with it re-enlisted for three years. The reorganization was finally effected by the consolidation with it of recruits for the 9th regiment, the 38th regiment N. Y. S. V., and the “Union Sharpshooters.” It left the State in October, 1863, officered by a majority of its old officers, and by officers formerly of the 9th, and composed almost entirely of veterans. It was ordered to the Department of the Southwest, joined the army under General Sherman, and served under him until it left the field.
The movements of the regiment in the Department of the Southwest may be briefly stated. On the 21st of December, 1863, under A. J. Smith, it began the Tennessee campaign after Forrest, losing, principally by severe frosts, about 200 men (many losing the use of both hands and feet, while there was scarcely an officer or man but was more or less frostbitten), and joining General Sherman at Vicksburg January 24th, 1864. Under that general it made the Mississippi or Meriden campaign, leaving Vicksburg on the 2nd of February and marching more than four hundred and sixty miles. In April it moved to Decatur, Ala., where for thirty-three days it had skirmishes with the forces of General Roddy almost as regularly as reveille call. It subsequently attacked Roddy at Pond Spring, Courtland, etc., routed his forces, and captured the whole of his camp and garrison, equipage, baggage, horses, etc. At Atlanta it was in the trenches. At Jonesboro it charged and fought Clayborne’s “invincible” Texas Rangers, who boasted never to have been defeated, but who were then broken, routed, and had their works taken from them. Here Colonel G rover was killed, and 10 1 of its men left on the field. From Atlanta it participated in the Hood campaign in the rear of the army, and marched more than 600 miles. It returned to Atlanta at night, and started the next morning without preparation on Sherman’s grand march to the sea. On the march from Savannah to the Carol in as it engaged the enemy at Averysboro, and had its lieutenant-colonel commanding, James Lake, wounded, and Captain Wm. G. Barnett killed. The last engagement was at Bentonville, where it cut its way through the lines of the enemy when surrounded by the falling back of the first division.
After the surrender of General Johnston the regiment marched to Washington, took part in the review of General Sherman’s army, and was soon afterwards mustered out of service. It reached New York on the 1 6th of June, 1865, bearing with it testimonials from the officers commanding the 1st brigade, the 2nd division, and of the 14th army corps; the first asserting that: “In all the essential qualities which distinguish the heroic citizen -soldier, the 17th New York has been excelled by none. Representatives as you are of the great city of New York, your association with the men of the Northwest, composing the balance of the brigade, has been of the most pleasing and genial kind; “the second, that” the general will always remember with o pride its gallant bravery in the charge at Jonesboro, and in the battles of Averysboro and Bentonville;” and the last, that ” its soldierly conduct, attention to duty, and invariably gallant conduct in action, has reflected credit upon itself and the corps.”
The following was related by a fellow soldier of Charles E. Bills, of the Wyoming company in this regiment. It has been extensively published, but it is worthy of a place here:
“I was in the hospital as nurse for a long time, and assisted in taking off limbs and dressing all sorts of wounds; but the hardest thing I ever did was to take my thumb off a man’s leg.
“It was a young man who had a severe wound in the thigh. The ball passed completely through, and amputation was necessary. The limb was cut off close to the body, the arteries taken up, and he seemed to be doing well. Subsequently one of the small arteries sloughed off. An incision was made and it was again taken up. “It is well it was not the main artery,” said the surgeon as he performed the operation; ‘he might have bled to death before it could be taken up.’ But Charley got on finely, and was a favorite with us all.
“I was passing through the ward one night, about midnight, when suddenly, as I was passing Charley’s bed, he spoke to me: ‘H____, my leg is bleeding again.’ I threw back the bed clothes, and the blood spurted in the air. The main artery had sloughed off!
“Fortunately, I knew just what to do, and in an instant I had pressed my thumb on the place and stopped the bleeding. It was so close to the body that there was barely room for my thumb, but I succeeded in keeping it there, and, arousing one of the convalescents, sent him for the surgeon, who came in on the run. ‘I am so thankful, H____,’ said he as he saw me, ‘that you were here and knew what to do, for he must have bled to death before I could have got here.
“But on examination of the case he looked exceedingly serious, and sent out for other surgeons. All came who were within reach, and a consultation was held over the poor fellow. One conclusion was reached by all. There was no place to work save the spot where my thumb was placed; they could not work under my thumb, and if I moved it he would bleed to death before the artery could be taken up. There was no way to save his life.
“Poor Charley! He was very calm when they told him, and requested that his brother, who was in the same hospital, might be called up. He came and sat down by the bedside, and for three hours I stood and by the pressure of my thumb kept up the life of Charley, while the brothers held their last conversation on earth. It was a strange place for me to be in, to feel that I held the life of a fellow mortal in my hands, as it were, and stranger yet to feel that an act of mine must cause that life to depart Loving the poor fellow as I did, it was a hard thought; but there was no alternative.
“The last words were spoken. Charley had arranged all his business affairs, and sent tender messages to absent ones, who little dreamed how near their loved one stood to the grave. The tears filled my eyes more than once as I listened to those parting words. All were said, and he turned to me. ‘Now, H____, I guess you had better take off your thumb! ”O, Charley, how can I? said I. ‘But it must be, you know,’ he replied, cheerfully. ‘I thank you very much for your kindness, and now good-bye.’
“He turned away his head; I raised my thumb; once more the life current gushed forth, and in three minutes poor Charley was dead.”
SOURCE: History of Wyoming County, N.Y., with Illustrations, Biographical Sketches and Portraits of Some Pioneers and Prominent Residents; F. W. Beers & Co.; 1880