In Recent Issues of YANKEE SCOUT, and in the Battle of the

Wilderness!! Issue, three back, in particular, President Abraham

Lincoln’s February, 1864, appointment of General Ulysses S. Grant,

to the position of Lieutenant–General of the United States Armies,

has sent a wave of anticipation through the Army of the Potomac, then

in Winter Quarter at Brandy Station, along the Orange & Alexandria

RR in Culpeper County, Virginia. When the new commanding

general Grant finally arrives in Culpeper County, he takes a surprising

step, leaving General George Meade in full tactical command of the

Army of the Potomac itself, while assuming strategic planning for the

upcoming Spring campaign – to be called the Overland Campaign.

Grant soon moves his headquarters into the field with the Army.

These two or three simple decisions by Grant, immediately boost morale, and engenders a tangible sense of

anticipation and optimism among the troops. Pvt. Drew himself writes, that the Army has never been better, and

that there is “more Unionship among the Generals” than he has witnessed heretofore. When spring finally arrives,

and the rains have subsided some, the Overland Campaign itself can finally be set in motion: on May 4, 1864,

Meade’s Army of the Potomac moves out, crossing the Rapidan river into territory of Virginia that has been

exclusively under Confederate control since the Civil War began -- over three years prior.

Grant’s objective for the march is a crossroads at Spottsylvania Court House, from where he has a direct road to

Richmond. Here, he believes, he can draw General Robert E Lee out in the open and begin the war of attrition

which he has been contemplating. General Lee, however, prefers to engage on his own terms, with maximum

“home-turf” advantage, and with an element of surprise: and so he attacks Meade’s Army of the Potomac while it is

traversing the expansive second-growth forestlands known as “the Wilderness.” Despite the surprise attack, Grant

handles the Army admirably, and the Yankees thrash the Rebels.

The Union Army can now advance, and get …

NOT SO FAST !! For, on the morning of May 9, 1864, as the Army

of the Potomac advanced at last out of the second-growth hickory &

oak stands of the Wilderness, they INDEED were met with some fine

Southern sunshine, and broke into song: a rousing march tune that

they confirmed for all, that they were now indeed, “Out of the

Wilderness” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6JO4784QvSI

But as Army column moved on under the warming sunshine, towards

General Grant’s original destination of the crossroads at Spottsylvania

Court House, THEY WERE ALSO MET with some fine Southern

intensifying Confederate sniper-fire from sharp-shooters posted high

in the tree-tops: near enough to the road to pose a grave hazard to the

Union Army skirmishers defending the advance column.

Soon – that is, by about 10:00 o’clock A.M that morning -- celebrated Union Army General John Sedgwick lies dead

at the hands of a Rebel crack-shot sharpshooter – Benj. Powell of the 12th

South Carolina Infantry. Sedgwick’s death

savagely tears at the fabric of the Union Army command, fraying at the morale of his VI Corps troops immediately

after their very first operations of the Spring Campaign of 1864. General Grant himself – fresh to the northern

theatre of war upon hearing of the death of Gen. Sedgwick, lamented it aloud, saying that:

“The Grand Army of the Potomac could more easily afford the loss of an entire division, than spare General

Sedgwick !!!” But there’s no turning back the clock …..

Especially for the men of Sedgwick’s VI Corps -- who not only feel the

emotional shock and trauma of Sedgwick’s killing more acutely, but

also must immediately adjust not just to an entirely new command

hierarchy, but also to a new, untried & significantly altered strategic

command as well:. For with the de facto promotion of Col. Emory

Upton, to help fill the command void left by Sedgwick’s death, their

tactical commander is now planning battlefield attacks. And Col.

Upton’s eagerness to exercise his command prowess in a grander

attack – to distinguish himself and gain a much-coveted promotion --

leads to two dramatic charges in the vicinity of the Spottsylvania Court

House – each occasioning devastating losses to the assaulting

regiments, while accomplishing little. Upton’s novel ranked charges

– and their final ineffectiveness -- are also immediately associated with

General Grant’s habit of command: a command which appears to

treat mens’ lives like so much cannon-wadding, and which seems to

Pvt. Drew unconscious of the sacred trust which the foot-soldier places

in his generals, when he commits his life to service of his nation.

General Grant shows himself all too willing to squander the lives and

skills of the best fighting men to achieve … what? An unachieved

“salient” so dear to General Lee, and likewise to General Grant, that

it has now become The Bloody Angle.

What is the duty of a soldier in such circumstances, under such a command? Pvt. Drew had written earlier in his

Memoir, that he had been instructed as a new recruit, that “the glory of the soldier was obedience.” Like it or not:

“Mayo was on post with Denbo; just before sunset Mayo was shot dead and Denbo got another John – such is life

on the skirmish line.

“About 9 o’cl P.M. we was relieved by some of the old 3rd

Corps that had been put in our 6th

Corps. Denbo and I

packed Mayo and the two extra rifles in – we had quite a time finding the Reg’t. The next day we made road in the

rear so to get supplys from Acquia Creek to which place our Base had been changed.

“The next day we corduroyed road and built Bridges all day. Then as we was getting redy to camp down for the

night, orders came to fall in and we started on a march to the Right.

from Leslie’s Illustrated The Soldier in Our Civil War, p. 281

“We understood the 2nd

corps was moving parellil and on the left of us. Daylight found us back in the vicinity of

the Bloody Angle where we had fought all day [ ? ] of the instan. [ See YANKEE SCOUT – Spottsylvania !! ]

“But the rebels had made a new line of works some distance in front of the old line and had slashed the woods ,

brush and timber in front of a new fort, with plenty of artillery and infantry waiting. The attack on the morning of

the 18th was not very spirited, how could it be –

[P. 157 ] The Po River1

“After a toilsome march all night, it was the River Po – we waded going and coming, and none of us had got dry.

We was in the second line of battle and had no chance to fire a shot althou we was under fire most of the time.

“The attack failed, the 2nd

corps was repulsed with heavy loss.

“Hancock withdrew his men and started back on the road, he came by early in the afternoon, the 6th

stayed giving

the foe a chance to come out and tackle us, but they would not [do] so after dark we followed the 2nd

Corps and

marched [by] night when we laid down to rest; after a couple hours rest we turned out, got a fed and soon after

daylight was on the arch to the left or front.

“About 9 o’cl A.M. we stacked arms, took shovels and picks and built breastworks in a firm place for the foe to

tackle, but they seemed to be done giving us that kind of play.

“The day was hot. Strawberries and cherries are ripe, corn two feet high, we spoiled quite a lot of it, this is a fine

farming county – nobody at home in the big houses, all goen to Richmond to get out of the way of the Yanks,

excepting a few negroes too old to be of any use, left to look after things. There was some fighting on the right and

left of us some distant off – but none near us.

“The boys are begening to think U.S. Grant as great a bucher as Burnside, some times we know it is useless to

attack breastworks, forts and rifle-pities with one thin line of battle when ever we strike the rebs we find them

behind strong works.”2

“We march all night and fight all day. We never make a move even on a dark night but the foe knows it and

makes a counter move behind their entrenched lines [ P. 158 ]

1

There is not going to be time or space in this issue of YANKEE SCOUT – Cold Harbor !! to explore in any detail

the movements of the two armies and their sporadic engagements moving between Spottsylvania Court House and

Cold Harbor. These battles along the Po and North Anna Rivers in Orange & Spottsylvania Counties, Virginia,

extending over three weeks, and merit a fuller treatment than the Editor is able to give them here. 2

Drew is emphasizing once again, that the Confederate soldiers have not left their defensive works in the weeks

following the Battle of the Wilderness. Grant confirmed this in his Memoirs, where he wrote, p. ___ “They no

longer wanted to fight them “one Confederate to five Yanks.” Indeed, they seemed to have given up any idea of

gaining any advantage of their antagonists in the open field. They had much come to prefer breastworks in their

front to the Army of the Potomac.” Despite the hardships and demands of soldiering under General Grant, and

despite the unprecedented rate of casualties, this downshift in rebel tactics has won for Grant confidence of the

Yankee army, though – as we shall see in this issue of YANKEE SCOUT – it is BY NO MEANS COMPLETE !!

Drawing the Johnneys Out

“May 22nd

the Army began another move on the flank. Our division was moved close up to the foe and kept up a

heavy skirmish attack out on their rifle pitts until the middle of the afternoon when we withdrew to some rifle pitts

in our rear.

“The foe seeing us returning came after us with a strong force. But our rifle pitts was well-manned and we sent

them back with a heavy loss. At dark we started following the 2nd

Corps neer noon the next day we stuck the

Richmond and Potomac [RR ] at Guenens Station, after a feed we proceeded to tear of [up?] the R. R. until dark

then camped.”

“The next day we got to the North Anna River and laid in supporting distances of the 5th

Corps that was forcing a

crossing. The next morning we crossed on a pontoon bridge, and moved to the support of the 5th

Corps that was

doing some fighting; [but] before we got in position the foe had got enough and left and went into their

entrenchments, so we rested and done some much needed washing and cleaning up. “

“Drew ammunition and rations, the fresh beef we got to night was mighty poor and tough. Chaplain Kelley got up

with the mail and we received news from home and friends.

Denbo Hit

“The next morning we moved close up to the rifle pitts of the foe. The 6th

Maine was put in the skirmish line, in a

short time we [ was ] severely engaged. “At 10 o’cl P.M. Denbo was wounded on the firing line, he crawled to the

rear amidst a shower of rebels bullets and I never saw him again. 3

3

Pvt. Henry C. Denbo, Pleasant Point Passamaquoddy Indian of Lubec, Maine, was listed as 23 years old in the

1860 census, and so would be about 27 at the battle of Spottsylvania. His parents were Amos and Eunice “Betsy”

Dennysville Denbo of Lubec, Maine. He was married to Grace Keif on the 25 of September, 1869, in Lubec. No

photographs of Denbo are known. For further details on Denbo, see YANKEE SCOUT – White Oak Swamp !!

Rolls show that Henry Denbo enlisted on August 23, 1862, and was mustered out August 15, 1864 -- but the Drew

Memoir definitely places him with the 6th Maine as early as their reconnaissance of the Yorktown defenses on April

6, 1862, and again during Hancock’s charge at Williamsburg, on May 5, 1862, etc.

Pvt. Denbo survived this gunfire, but not for long: obviously to Drew, the wound looked serious at once. Denbo

died prior to February 6, 1865, in the harsh Maine winter – presumably of complications from this very sniper

wound. Denbo’s departure from the field of war, punctuates for Pvt. Drew the brutality of this new command under

General Ulysses S. Grant and his new “field-promoted” Brig-Gen. Emory Upton, “whose star was bought with the

useless slaughter of so many of the Army’s finest fighting men,” as Drew said after the attacks on the Mule Shoe

Salient at Spottsylvania. Denbo’s death closely follows the May 9 death of General John Sedgwick, one of Drew’s

favorites; and, after the carnage of this “Bloody Angle,” although his dedication is complete, Drew’s enthusiasm for

more war under such a command is ebbing fast. He is not alone in his recalcitrance to submit to Gen. Grant’s

caprice with manpower – as we shall soon see. CHECK IT OUT BELOW !! But meanwhile, the loss of Denbo

– a great Union Army soldier and scout -- marks the end of an era for Pvt. Drew, who had said that the most

important thing in the making of a good soldier, “..is another good soldier by his side.” For Drew, that was Denbo.

“After dark a picket line was set behind us and we joined the Brigade some 4 or 5 men less -- lost during the day.”

[P. 160] See Some Old Works

The Union Army advances into the battlefield of “Cold Harbor” that will take its

name from nearby Cold Harbor Tavern. Pvt. Drew’s headline alone says that

the men “See Some Old Works” as they begin digging in. As is so common with

this area of Virginia, historic battlefields are cheek & jowl with other historic

battlefields, in bewildering array – so they must be distinguished arbitrarily be

landmarks nearby. Such famous “stand-alone” sites as the April 30- May 6 1863

Battlefield of “Chancellorsville” took its name from a single boarding house in

the vicinity, when in fact it was as much a part of the same “Wilderness” as the

“Battle of the Wilderness” two years later. Pvt. Drew’s reference to seeing “some

old works” probably refers to entrenchments of the Battle of Beaver Dam Creek,

about two years prior – that had been thrown up on either side of Beaverdam

Creek, tributary to the Chickahominy. The battle of Beaverdam Creek itself, is

a smaller engagement of the Battle of Gaines’ Mill –part of the Seven Days’

Battle. See, YANKEE SCOUT – Seven Pines to Seven Days!!

“At Roll call on June 1st

, 1864, the sergeant said only one and a half months more, for us unvetarnushed heroes

[Sic: Perhaps “unvarnished” was intended, but suggests a backwoods hyberbole of approbation for veterans? –

Ed.] to escape shot, shells and cold steel – then we that are alive can take out discharge and go home, “And the

five of you can join the Navy, Artillery, or Cavalry if you want to, but never more the foot cavalry for me.”4

“We cooked and eat our breakfast, each cooking to his taste, fresh beef, bacon and coffee, to go with our hard tack.

“Packed up, cleaned our guns and was waiting for orders when they came. We worked all day on the breastworks.

While eating supper, orders came to be redy in a half hour for a night’s march. We put in some six hours on a

slow halting creeping march then camped down, at daylight on the 2nd

of June we found we was in range of the foe’s

guns their breastworks was a the edge of a belt of timber across several hundred yards of open grown.

“Skirmishing began before breakfast, the 5th

Wis on the firing line, while the 6th

Me and the Penna boys took

shovels and picks and threw up a line of works under the fire of the Rebel artillery – the continual and aggravating

popping of musketry with a big gun occassionaly all day.

“We built fires behind our works and eat our meals at supper time orders came to charge on the foe along their

whole line at 4:30 A.M. in the morning.

“Grant’s Army is too large. He will reduce it tomorrow,”5

was the verdict, as we rolled our blankets around us, the

night was very dark. By 10:30 P.M. all as quiet and most of the boys was asleep when suddenly volley fireing broak

out away to the Right [P. 161] just far enough away to cause us to stand in line awhile redy for what might come.

“The racket died down.”

4

The 6th

Maine Infantry was mustered in on July 15, 1861 for a three

year tour of duty, so Pvt. Drew’s term of volunteer service is set to

expire at the end of another six, or until ca. July 15, 1864. The same

date was set for the mustering out of the entire 6th

Maine Infantry

Regiment. Pvt. Drew is of course wounded in this very issue of

YANKEE SCOUT, and thus after the Battle of Cold Harbor he

completes his tour of duty in while being treated for his injuries, in

the Army Hospital in the Washington D.C.

HOWEVER, it should be noted here, that when their tour of duty

expired, in response to President Lincoln’s urgent request, the entire

6th

Maine volunteered for an additional 30 days, during which time

they participated the defense of Washington, D.C. by repulsing the

attacking Confederate forces of General Jubal Early, during the Battle

of Fort Stevens. Pvt. Drew was there, sort of: but at the time Drew

could only cheer on his comrades, from the grounds of the Infirmary

in D.C. Only later, of course, is C. N. Drew declared DEAD of his

wounds, and carried from the Hospital. READ ALL ABOUT IT!! In the FINAL issue YANKEE SCOUT -- Raid on Washington!! 5

The Union troops have already learned to read Grant’s “body-

language” during the Battles of Spottsylvania and the Bloody Angle.

“A horseman brought word that a reconnoitering party of the foe ran into our men as they were going into line --

we was moved some distance to the right and laid down to sleep….… to awake on that day …”

“… to awake on that day of useless destruction of life,

and a flat refusal to obey orders, for a second charge

on the enemy’s works at the battle of Cold Harbor.”

More than once in the war, the Union soldiers showed

a distinctly YANKEE streak of self-governance in the

interest of simple self-preservation -- even against

direct orders given by the indomitable General Grant,

whose leadership was recognized, as much as his

apparent caprice in exposing large numbers of his

troops to senseless slaughter – as if for the sake of the

slaughter itself. The troops sense of reserve had

nothing to do with reluctance to engage in combat,

much less did it suggest any cowardice:; in the case of

the 6th

Maine, after three years in service, they qualify

as seasoned veterans – Drew refers to them as

“unvetarnushed heroes” – perhaps a new coinage,

suggesting the veterans’ honed observational skills –

almost an instinct -- for recognizing what is feasible,

from what is senseless.

The Union infantry clearly had some support in their mutiny against the second charge at Cold Harbor, from Army

Corps commanders who were equally aghast at Grant’s senseless efforts to squander his army. Wikipedia even

advises, “Grant and Meade did not give specific orders for the attack, leaving it up to the corps commanders to decide

where they would hit the Confederate lines and how they would coordinate with each other. No senior commander

had reconnoitered the enemy position. Baldy Smith wrote that he was "aghast at the reception of such an order, which

proved conclusively the utter absence of any military plan." He told his staff that the whole attack was, "simply an

order to slaughter my best troops.” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Cold_Harbor#cite_note-36

At the battle of Spottsylvania the preceding month, the hand-picked cadre of fighting forced under Col. Emery Upton

Upton, assaulted the Confederate entrenchments and overcame them, but General Mott had been unable to bring

in reinforcements to the attack – Mott “failed utterly” according to Grant. But Grant writes that nevertheless, the

Union soldiers determined to hold their position; and here too, he, their General, acceded to their demands:

“So much time was lost in trying to get up the troops which were in the right position to reinforce, that I

ordered Upton to withdraw; but the officers and men of his command were so averse to giving up the advantage they had gained that I withdrew the order. To relieve them, I ordered a renewal of the assault.”

Memoir, p. 224.

Cold Harbor -- June 3rd, 1864

Grant -- Reducing his Forces6

“No drum beat of bugle call, not even a roll call to awake the weary soldiers, prompt at 4:30 A.M. in the

gray mist of morning, we moved forward without pickets or scouts over strange land, in line of battle with

the whole corps, (History says the whole 6th

corps was in the charge) . Grant’s orders was for the whole

army to charge at the same time. [Over 300 yards of open field – Ed.]

“Troops on our Left struck the foe’s line first, then the Right of our Corps got engaged. The rebs was up

and redy for us there was a curve in the rebs works in front of our brigade –[so] we was longer getting to

their works than the men on our Right and Left, a few of our men got on top of their works, but it was

useless –

“One would have supposed that it would have been General Grant s plan, on crossing the

Pamunkey, to aim at something more than merely discovering new lines of intrenchments at

which he might hurl his army ; in fact to gain some position threatening Lee’s communications,

or even Richmond itself. One would have supposed that General Grant had by this time had

enough of attacks, and that he would have seen how extremely desirable it would be for him to

put himself in such a position that Lee would be obliged to attack him. But in fact nothing of

the sort seems to have entered Grant s head. His only idea seems to have been, on having

crossed the Pamunkey, to find out as soon as he could where Lee’s intrenchments were, and

then to assault them.” – Ropes, “Grant’s Campaign in Virginia in 1864”, p. 394, in The Wilderness Campaign, Papers of the Military Historical Society of Massachusetts, Vol IV

(1905)

6

This is a Drew’s linesman quip on Grant’s decision at this point in the war, to “reduce his artillery” by sending

his big guns, with their horse teams and caissons, back to Washington, in order to streamline the movement of

the Army of the Potomac, encumbered by excess artillery after Spottsylvania. Grant, Personal Memoir, p. 241.

“Bullets, shells, canister, R.R. spikes, they gave us everything they had, then came a raking fire from the

left. The men on the Right slowly began to retreat and we all done the same.

“The 6th

Me and the 5th

Wis had almost got to a line of our rifle pitts when a shell from a rebel gun on left

exploded so close to my head that concushion knocked me senseless and I fell.”

Images: details from Alfred R. Waud, “General Grant’s Great Campaign, … at Cold Harbor, June 1, 1894.”

from Harper’s Weekly, June 24, 1864 ]

Why Pvt. Drew was Lucky

Pvt. Drew was injured in retreat from the first assault at Cold Harbor, exposed to an exploding shell, that tore off two

fingers of his right hand, mangled his left forearm, removing, he says, four inches of bone, and injured his abdomen

probably with shrapnel. However, because in his retreat from the Rebel works at Cold Harbor, he was able to make

it safely back, almost across the entire 300 yards of “no-man’s land” between the opposing lines, his injury occurred

near the Union entrenchments, and his comrades were willing and able to risk the exposure, to Confederate firepower, to recover his unconscious body and carry him to safety.

But for almost all of the wounded -- and certainly for all those soldiers wounded or disabled in the middle grounds

of the battlefield -- there was to be no help. In one of the most egregious developments in the Civil War, the wounded

of both armies at Cold Harbor were left to bleed out their lives on the that same open battlefield -- under the blistering

Virginia sun – with not so much as a drop of water to moisten their lips, or soften their tongues; much less could they

benefit from stretcher-bearers who stood at the ready, ringing the plain, to carry them to the waiting ambulances.

Indeed, the two great generals, U.S. Grant, and Robert E. Lee for the first time reached a strange meeting of the

minds: on the subject of allowing thousands of wounded men to lie helpless and unassisted on the battlefield. It

seemed entirely beyond their capacity as Commanding Generals, to simply negotiate even on terms of a two-hour

cease-fire, for the sake of recovering their dead, and aiding their wounded men.

Regarding the top-drawer negotiations over a cease-fire to tend to the wounded, Gen. Grant included the entire

correspondence between himself and General Lee, at pp. 273-276 of his Memoir. In part because of General Lee’s

insistence to see a flag of truce waving over the movements of the ambulance crews, nothing was ever done to bring

the men off the field to medical care. For Grant, such a white flag would have meant admission that he had lost the

battle … The correspondence lasted 48 hours, and General Grant reports, by the time he received the last

communique from Lee, acceding to terms of a cease-fire, all but two of the wounded had died. In fact, Robert E.

Lee certainly must have calculated that he had insufficient provisions for maintaining the Confederate wounded

from Cold Harbor, and that these soldiers could only be a drag on his army. Hence, the only calculus that made

sense was reciprocal attrition – by slow, gruesome & agonizing death. This joint atrocity of war added significantly

to the number of casualties at Cold Harbor – and Grant’s reputation has suffered for it ever since.

Drew’s Memoir reports that Grant later admitted the second charge at Cold Harbor was a mistake. He was reading

from Grant’s Personal Memoir, and certainly a p. 276, Grant acknowledges the disaster. Grant wrote:

I have always regretted that the last assault at Cold Harbor was ever made. I might say the same thing of

the assault on the 22nd

of May at Vicksburg. At Cold Harbor no advantage whatever was gained to

compensate for the heavy loss we sustained. Indeed, the advantages other than those of relative losses, were

on the Confederate side. Before that the Army of Northern Virginia seemed to have acquired a wholesome

regard for the courage, endurance, and soldierly qualities generally of the Army of the Potomac. They no

longer wanted to fight them “one Confederate to five Yanks.” Indeed, they seemed to have given up any

idea of gaining any advantage of their antagonists in the open field.7

They had much come to prefer

breastworks in their front to the Army of the Potomac. This charge seemed to revive their hopes

temporarily; but it was of short duration. The effect upon the Army of the Potomac was the reverse. When

we reached the James River, however, all the effects of the battle of Cold Harbor seemed to have

disappeared.

7

See, YANKEE SCOUT – The Wilderness!!

Drew was unforgiving of General Grant:

For an infantry soldier like Pvt. Drew, called merely to a duty

of excellent and obedient service, his attitudes and intentions

towards his superior and commanding officers might be very

complex, and not resemble those of “easy-chair” analysts, who

may simplify their evaluation of the conduct of a battle, in

accordance with the outcome thereof, thereby justifying even

extravagant losses. Elsewhere Drew was equally critical of

other Union Generals. See, e.g., YANKEE SCOUT – The

Mud Campaign!!

Pvt. Drew’s sketchy evaluation which follows, is from a page

of “Retrospect” evaluation which Drew added after the

Memoir proper, and which appears at p. 178 of his memoir

book. Other Union Army generals under whom Drew

served, and whom he critiques ex post facto, are Gen. Geo B.

McClellan, his brigade general, Gen. Winfield Scott Hancock

(see below, p. 23 ) and Gen. Sedgwick. It’s clear throughout

the Memoir that Drew has the utmost respect for the last of

these two commanders. Of Grant, Drew wrote, simply:

“Gen’l U.S. Grant had two years of active war, when he took command of all the Union Army, with

Headquarters in the Army of the Potomac.

“He had 140,000 men when he crossed the Rappadan on the 4th

of May, 1864. He fought the battles of

the Wilderness, Spottsylvania and Cold Harbor and North Anna. His loss from the 4th

May of the 12th

of

June was 54,929 men.

“Had McClelland done that in ’62 they would have hung him for a traitor.8

“Grant had never fought such a rebel gen’l as Lee, nor such a army as the Army of Northern Virginia.

“Upton’s display attack on Spottsylvania and the fight at the Bloody Angle should have convinced him it

was useless to take Lee’s breastworks for a anvil, the army of the [Potomac] the red hot metal, with Lee

striking the sledge hammer’s blows on our side – he, Grant, continually hammering from the other side.

That every spark that flew from the metal was the life blood of a Union soldier.

“He acknowledge in his own book, the attack at Cold Harbor a mistake. I’ll say. The Bloody Angle and

Spottsylvania also. He should have struck out for the James River and let Cold Harbor alone, then he

could have got to Petersburg and captured it before Butler got there.”

A cat can look at a king – so the saying goes.

8

A once-humanitarian Congress very early issued accolades and thanks to Gen. McClelland, after the battle of

Williamsburg, for conducting the war with minimal loss of human life. See, YANKEE SCOUT – Williamsburg !!

“He was President after the war, put in by the big money men of N.Y. who ruined [Grant ] in a short time.”

Calif Newton Drew wrote his Memoir as a much older man, but he clearly harbored an old grudge against General

Grant for the reasons he just named: the two charges at Spottsylvania and the charges ordered at Cold Harbor.

Nevertheless, it’s clear that Drew and the rest of the Union Army, knowing the nature of warfare, and knowing what

was at stake, were ready to follow Grant, even through these extravagant losses.

There’s a saying that goes, “You go to war with the Army you have, not with the Army you might want to have.”

And this is equally true from the soldiers’ perspective: you fight under the command you have, not the one you wish

you had. Pvt. Drew’s criticisms of Grant then must be accepted as “all in the family” – and it’s clear they represent

bitterness over the killing of the leadership of Gen. Sedgwick, as well as for the senseless carnage of the Upton

charges that ensued. But Drew makes it clear, the Army of the Potomac knew that Grant truly was the one man,

on whose leadership the fate of the Union hung.

That President Ulysses S. Grant’s term in office was “ruined”

by big money Republicans of New York, as Pvt. Drew writes,

is almost a consensus opinion, shared by the majority of

historians of his Administration. The key pivot of the Grant

Presidency away from the broader interests of the American

people, in favor of Wall Street, is generally recognized to be

the gold specie Resumption Act of 1876.

Frank J. Scaturro, who ably defends the legacy of the Grant

Administration in Grant Reconsidered, (1999) would concur

with the importance of this Act, where he writes at p. 60

(quoting Jackson) that "...the passage of the [species]

Resumption Act, at Grant's urging ... in turn made him ‘the

president most responsible for putting the country on the gold

standard.' Scatturo, at pp. 50-53, defends this shift in

economic policy by charting the dramatic expansion of

“American business activity” following passage of the

Resumption Act – but does so without adequate regard to the

level of benefit directed at the bulk of the working population.

The definitive treatment addressing this particular failure of

the Grant presidency, is Robert Ingraham’s “The Specie-

Resumption” Fight: Henry Carey’s Battle to Save Lincoln’s

Economic Revolution,” EIR, Vol. 29, No. 47, Dec. 6, 2002

http://www.larouchepub.com/eiw/public/2002/eirv29n47-

20021206/eirv29n47-20021206_022-

the_specie_resumption_fight_henr.pdf

Leslie’s Illustrated Soldier in Our Civil War, p. 246

The Grant presidency overall, is now being reconsidered, not only be Scaturro, but in the works by Prof. Brooks

Simpson of Arizona State University, including Simpson, “Butcher? Racist? An Examination of William S.

Mcfeely’s Grant: A Biography,” Civil War History, Volume 33, Number 1, March 1987, pp. 63-83, and Simpson,

The Reconstruction Presidents (2009).

“When I came to I was behind our line of works. Some of the men of Co. C had helped Corporal Frank Johnson

drag me in. I was wounded in the left forearm, 4 inches of [P. 162 ] of bone being taken out, 3rd

and little finger on

Right hand gone, and a wound in my abdomen. One of the men put a bandage around my left arm, to stop the

bleeding. The stretcher men came and I was started to the rear and the hospital. (The fighting this morning lasted

about fifteen minutes and cost a 100 lifes and wounded every minute. Grant acknowledged it was a mistake.)

Under Dr. Buck

“It was 10 c’cl P.M. when they put me upon the dressing or operating table and Dr. Bill buck took charge of and

done all of work on me. He saved my left arm from being amputated as the head Dr. in the hospital ordered, by

saying I was his brother.

Limbs amputated by Union Hospital surgeons outside of Washington

“Two of us was put in a Army wagon and started for the White House Landing over a rough corduroy road. The

driver was going for ammunition and he did not spare the mules.

“That ride was a terrible ordeal to me, my companion in misery was a large heavy man, we reversed a number of

times as the wheels sent into chuck-holes of off the end of the corduroy. He done some useless yelling and cursing

at the driver.

“I think he was worse hurt than I for he was dead when taken out at the boat Landing about 8 o’cl A.M. on the 4th

.

Hospital Steamer

“A steamer was being loaded with the mangled wrecks from the battlefront – while it was being unloaded of a cargo

of ammunition and other army supplyes.

[Image: An engraving of the U.S. Naval Hospital Steamer “Red Rover” plying the Mississippi,

from Harper’s Weekly, May 9, 1863 ]

“It was some time in the forenoon I was put into a bunk and left . There was long rowes of bunks on each side of

the cabin two and three tiers heigh. There must have been a hundred of us in that cabin between decks. The day

was hot, not a breath of air moving, and the flies was more than plenty. No nurse. No Doctor. No one to give a

little [P. 163 ] aid to us poor mortals, about every hour a deck hand came round with a bucket of water and gave us

a drink.

“The day passed very quietly, for the wounded made no outcry as a general thing they bore their afflictions without

a murmer. A lamp was lighted in the cabbin and the work of loading and unloading went on.

In Hospital at Washington

“It was near morning of another day, when the boat arrived at the dock in Washington, D.C. I was put in an

ambulance and carted out to Columbia Hospital, out on 7th

Street, and laid upon a bed in one of the tents. The

condition I was in is a hard story to tell at this late day.

“My cloathes was stuck to me by dry blood. My wounds was full of maggots and they was living off of my live flesh,

every bite they took set me in agony. A man came in soldier’s uniform, I started in on him good and strong as

being a bum. “Hold your horses, old man. Here comes the nurse, that will attend to you.”

“A woman came in, arranging some of her cloathes – her slumber had been disturbed.

“Wounded in both hand,” said she.

“Yes, and in the belly also, but begin on the right hand the maggots are setting me wild trying to eat what is left of

it.”

“Why go into detail, I’ll mearly say she took a cupful of maggots from the wounds, and some of them an inch long.

“I was striped, given a bath, traded the old uniform for a sleeveless robe and laid upon a cot with a rubber blanket

under me, and a keg of ice-water put on a stand at the foot of the bed, and a spout was [set] to keep the lower

wounds wet, as there was danger of inflammation setting in that wound. It was sunrise of another day when the

nurse said I was dressed to her [P. 164] liking and she brought me a feed of chicken broth and soft crackers.

“Oh! Such a little mess. I could have eat ten times as much, but “No more now, sir,” she said. At breakfast time I

was feed again. And I think I was fed every two hours of the day. I had not eaten any thing from the night before

being wounded and had taken only a few drinks of water.

“My wounds was dressed twice a day – nothing but cold water and lint was used with the bangade and splints.

Three days and nights I did not shut my eyes. The Head Doctor gave me a sleeping powder and got my first

nights’ sleep.

A Visitor

“One morning there was a great policing and cleaning up.

I asked the nurse if it was Sunday morning Inspections.

“No, Sir. But President Lincoln is a-going to call and there

will be Mrs. Lincoln and several other ladies past through the

tent and they will have a small treat for each of the wounded

men in this hospital. It is on the road to the President’s

Sunday resting place …”

There may be no better evidence of Lincoln’s affinity for the

common man and the volunteer soldier, than that, during the

progress of the Civil War, he set up his “Sunday resting place” in

a small cottage on the grounds of the Old Soldier’s Home -- the

U.S. Military Asylum north of the City of Washington, and

routinely stopped by the hospital wards with Mrs. Lincoln, to visit

with and comfort the wounded Union troops. Thus, even his

“getaway” time was spent in service to the servicemen…

This aspect of the day-to-day functional history of the Lincoln

Administration is buried in the business of a very busy and

dynamically productive tenure in office. And there were no

secretaries along on Lincoln’s visits, to record them, or take down

Lincoln’s discourse with the wounded soldiers. See, Matthew

Pinsker, “Lincoln’s Sanctuary: Abraham Lincoln and the Soldier’s Home,” (2005). However …

Luckily, one or two visits were recorded by Pvt. Drew !!

Image: Detail of Sneden, Map of the Plan of the Rebel Attack on Washington D.C., showing the Lincoln retreat

house on the grounds of the U.S. Military Asylum out 7th

Street ….. Now commonly known as the Lincoln Cottage.

http://www.nps.gov/nr/travel/presidents/lincoln_cottage.html Historian Matthew Pinsker also has a valuable short

history of the Lincoln Cottage and the Military Asylum here: http://www.lincolncottage.org/news/SHhistory-

fulltext.pdf

President Lincoln would regularly ride his horse from the White House to the “Lincoln Cottage” along 7th

street to

reach the Old Soldiers Home. But on this day, since he was travelling in the company of Mrs. Lincoln and her

Washington D.C. “social” friends, and brought numerous treats -- it’s clear he was travelling in the carriage instead!!

“Lincoln came in I was next to the door on the left hand side,

“Well nurse, you have a man on the bed again, I see.”

“Yes, sir,” said the nurse.

“Lincoln read my description card on the head of the bed aloud:

Calif N. Drew

Co. K 6th Maine Vol. Infry

Wounded at Cold Harbor June 3rd, 1864

“Why, you are one of Hancock’s boys – was you at Williamsburg?”

“Yes, Unkle Abe, and everywhere else with the old Regiment -- until

the Johnney’s got me the other day.”

“You was one of the Light Division that did go up over the Marye’s

Hill…

“I must shake hands with you, my boy.”9

[P. 165 ] “Excuse me Mr. President, we will not shake, it nearly

breaks my heart to refuse, but you see I am wounded in boath hands

or at lease have them both tied up.”

“Well, well, and in the body also I see. Well my boy what would

you like, some wine or Brandy, I have a little of each and they are

good.”

“No, Mr. Lincoln, Ide rather have a good smoak than all your wines,

I haven’t tasted smoak since I was wounded.”10

9

Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces, President Lincoln is savvy to the heroic highpoints of the 6th

Maine

Infantry service, even under different commanders !! The momentous attack of General Hancock at Williamsburg,

May 5, 1862, after infiltrating Confederate defenses at Fort Magruder, precipitated the Rebel Army on a 50-mile

headlong flight back to Richmond!! And the strategic importance of the Light Division’s successful assault on

Marye’s Heights above Fredericksburg, of almost exactly a year later, on May 3, 1863 -- now under the command

of Col. Hiram Burnham -- was clearly not lost on the President. While the territory and fortifications gained were

retaken by the Confederates the next day, the lightning-like Union victory had stunned General Early defending the

works at Marye’s Heights, turned the tables on General Lee, enabled the telegraph and plank roads to be pushed

through, remoralized the loyal troops, and removed much of the stigma and humiliation suffered by the Army of

the Potomac, at the same location, under General Burnside, the previous December, 1862 – a brutal defeat known

simply as “The Slaughter Pen.” See, YANKEE SCOUT – Fredericksburg !! 10

Pvt. Drew picked up smoking when prescribed it as a remedy for malaria contracted during the pursuit of the

Confederate Army following the Battle of Williamsburg, while the Army of the Potomac was encamped at the

White House Landing on the Pawmunkey River. For more, see YANKEE SCOUT – Seven Pines, Seven Days!!

“He turned to a negroe with a cloath basket, took out a common longstem T. D. clay pipe11

and a sack of fine cut,

filled the pipe:

“There my boy, you shall have your

smoak,” He started to hand it to me,

when I said,

“But you must light it for me, Mr.

Lincoln.”

“The negroe lit a match and hild it to

the pipe, The President put it in his

mouth and got it going, put it between

my teeth. He laid the sack of tobacco

on the bed saying,

“When that is gone, you shall have

more – the women will be along in a

few minutes with their treat –“

“They can’t have better than this, Mr.

President,” and I sent a cloud of

smoke floating in the air.

A portion of the Pvt. Calif Newton Drew’s unedited MS Memoir, p. 165

11

The “T.D.” clay pipe was a style of “uni-body” clay pipe with the stem and the bowl of a single mold. Most

scholars agree that the “T.D.” often stamped on the back of the bowl (facing the smoker) were the initials of a

London pipe-maker, Thomas Dorner, and original examples are dated back to ca. 1755. But whatever copyright

interest Thomas Dorner may have retained would have been viciously dis-respected by American Revolutionaries,

nor was international copyright protection for pipe design negotiated during the Treaty of Paris after the War (1783),

so trans-Atlantic copyright or patent protection for the style or the brand “T.D.” was non-existent: both were just

pirated and “knock-offs” sold. YANKE SCOUT wishes to acknowledge Thomas Dorner’s original design, however.

Mr. & Mrs. Lincoln

“The pipe went out. Nurse took it from my mouth and laid it with

the tobacco on the floor – then a number of ladies came in led by

Mrs. Lincoln.

“Hello – a new man in this corner. My man, how are you to day?

And which do you prefer Peaches and cream or Strawberries and

cream?

“I am tip-top Mrs. Lincoln, and I’ll take Strawberries and cream.

It’s been a long, long time since I had any.”

“A Glass bowl that would hold about three gills12

was filled nearly full

of nice ripe berries. One of the others put on the sugar, and Mrs.

Hancock put on the milk, saying, “I see you are one of [my]

husbannds old 1st

Bridgade !”

“Good Lord, are you Mrs. Hancock! I love your old man -- ”

Almira (Russel) Hancock or “Allie” to her friends, met Winfield

Scott Hancock in St. Louis, Missouri in 1850 after the Mexican War,

where Hancock had served at Vera Cruz under his namesake,

General Winfield Scott, earning commendations for bravery in four

battles. They married in 1850, and Almira accompanied Hancock to

Florida, where he served in the Seminole wars, then to California.

The couple had two children.

When Civil War broke out, Winfield Scott Hancock returned to

D.C. to volunteer his services, and McClellan appointed him

Brigadier General of Volunteers on Sept. 23, 1861, at which point he

assumed command of the First Brigade, 1st

Division, II Corps – and

was Pvt. Drew’s second Brigade Commander after Gen. W. F.

“Baldy” Smith. Readers of YANKEE SCOUT will recall that Pvt.

Drew and Gen. Hancock first got acquainted in the vicinity of Fort

Marcy, near the Virginia end of Chain Bridge, following the Battle of

Bull Run. At that time, Drew and the other men of the 6th Maine

Infantry were happy to demonstrate the art of the TIMBER DRIVE

for Gen. Hancock. See, YANKEE SCOUT – Bull Run!! Hancock

lead his Frist Brigade through the duration of the 1862 Peninsular

Campaign, beginning with the Siege of Yorktown !!

12

A gill is an old U. S. measure of liquid volume equal to about 4 ounces –

three gills being thus just a few ounces short of a nice juicy pint.

Mrs. Almira Hancock

A noted above, p.14, after the end of his Memoir of the Civil

War, Calif Newton Drew includes a Retrospective section,

assessing the merits of four Union Generals under whom he

served. Of Course, Drew enjoyed more direct work under

Hancock – his own Brigade General – then under any of the

Corps commanders, much less under McClellan or Grant. So he

had a special personal attachment for Hancock, under whose

distinguished military command he had the privilege of serving.

Of Hancock, Drew writes:

“Genl. W.S. Hancock had few if any equals in the care of

his men. No other troops was given such fun [??] or treat as

he gave his brigades on Christmas, 1861.

“He was more competent to command the Army of the

Potomac than Burnside or Hooker. When Gen'l Meade

sent him to Gettysburg to take command of the troops

after the death of Gen'l Reynolds, Gen'l Howard refused

to work under him.

"All right," said Hancock, "I'll work under you." In a short

time he saw that Howard was unequal to the task. Then

showed his orders and took command, placed the troops

where he wanted them, restoring order, and told Meade

it was the best place to fight the coming battle -- thereby

locating the Battle of Gettysburg.

“He was always in the front with his men, and saw every

move.

“He was a Union Democrat, ran for President on the

Democrat ticket after the war -- was defeated.”

Hancock remained in command of Drew’s First Brigade until the

Battle of Antietam, when he was advanced to the command of the

First Division of the II Corps. See YANKEE SCOUT – Antietam!! Lincoln promoted him to Major-General on November 29, 1862.

Hancock was a standout Union general, who earned himself the

nickname “the Superb” for generalship behind Rebel lines at the

Battle of Williamsburg, referenced above, and never diminished in

reputation, throughout the Civil War.

History, however, reserves her highest honors for Hancock, for his

role at Gettysburg, as Drew suggests. For more,

See, YANKEE SCOUT– Gettysburg !!

Brig.- Gen. Winfield. S. Hancock

[ P. 16 6 ] “There, sir,” says Mrs. Lincoln, “there

are your berries and cream,” and she put the spoon

in them.

“But Mrs. Lincoln – you must feed me. You see I

have neither hand I can use and I know you have

fed babyes before this….”

“Nurse brought a chair, Mrs. Lincoln sat by the cot

and feed me. It was a feast. While I had been

occupying so much of Mrs. Lincoln’s time the other

ladies treated other wounded men in the tent there.

“The next Saturday when the president came in he

said, “Well, how is my Yankee Boy to day?”

“Tip Top, Mr. Lincoln,” I answered.

“When Mrs. Lincoln cam she wanted to know how

her top top boy was and I would have to take

peaches and cream as she failed to get any other

fruit and while feeding [me] we chatted like old

acquaintances. I told her I was in hops of getting

home to vote for father Abe. It seemed to please

her some.”

Pvt. Drew’s coaxing a hand-feeding from Mary Todd Lincoln, by advising her “I know you have fed babyes before,"

was the direct but maybe not the most tactful way to introduce himself to the First Lady: the Lincolns had lost their

second son, Edward Baker Lincoln, at age 4, in 1850; and their third son William Wallace Lincoln, just two years

before, on February 20, 1862, at age eleven years. “Willie’s” death of typhoid fever occurred during Lincoln’s

planning for the Union Army’s 1862 offensive against Confederate positions on the Middle Peninsula, which

eventually became the Peninsular Campaign. At the time Willie died, the Lincolns’ fourth son Tad, was also sick

with typhoid: a situation that must have left both parents nervous wrecks.

Meanwhile, the Lincolns’ eldest son, Robert Todd Lincoln, born 1843, was almost 21 years old at this the time of

the Battle of Cold Harbor, and --prevented by his parents from enlisting -- was very anxious to join up in the Union

Army, and make a name for himself. Mary Lincoln’s adamant opposition Robert’s enlistment is well-known; as is

her anxiety over perhaps losing Robert to the war: a thing that would leave her with only one of her four sons alive.

This dispute and the family 'dynamic" it created, is brilliantly portrayed almost as classic tragedy by Euripides, in the

recent Spielberg film "Lincoln." Is it any wonder, then, that Robert Todd Lincoln eventually was obliged to have

Mary Todd Lincoln committed as insane?

Mrs. Lincoln's bedside visits like this, to the Old Soldiers Home – aka Columbia College Hospital -- appear not to

be elsewhere documented: but, whether they were frequent or infrequent, the Editor of YANKEE SCOUT

supposes they must have further troubled her heart in apprehensions for the safety of Robert Lincoln, and

reinforced and aggravated every objection she had about his youthful determination to serve.... So it's perhaps no

wonder that, try as he might, Drew does not seem to think he was very successful, in cheering up Mary Lincoln.

Following the visit, Mrs. Lincoln and the other ladies probably returned to the White Hose by carriage, while

President Lincoln stayed overnight at the cottage. See Next Issue – YANKEE SCOUT – Raid on Washington !!

Mary Todd Lincoln

“Each Saturday when the President came we would have a little chat. He got to calling me his Tip Top Boy [and]

for whomever came and asked, that was my answer.

“June passed away, my wounds was healing and doing nicely ……..13

13 SPECIAL THANKS to STEPHEN DOW BECKHAM, PROF of HISTORY

(Ret.) at LEWIS & CLARK COLLEGE, Portland, Ore., https://www.lclark.edu/

for Vital Stats and Bio Info of Pvt. Henry C. Denbo !! AND MUCH MORE !!