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Journals and accounts reveal a monotonous routine of drill and mundane camp life activities from January well into April. It was during this time that Cross was promoted to Brigade commander and the Fifth came under the command of Lt. Col. Charles Hapgood. At the battle of Chancellorsville the Fifth was held in reserve through most of the engagement and was given, along with the Eighty-first and
Eighty-eighth New York, the task of digging in to stop the Confederate troops who had routed the Eleventh Corps. After Hooker's defeat at Chancellorsville the army withdrew back to it's camp at Falmouth. In June Lee began his campaign into Pennsylvania and the army of the Potomac moved in response that led to the battle of Gettysburg. The Fifth New Hampshire arrived on that field late in the evening of July 1 and was held in reserve throughout most of July 2 until about 4:30 in the afternoon when the brigade commanded my Cross, was ordered into the "wheatfield" to turn back the aggressive Confederate attack on the Federal left. In three hours of desperate fighting the regiment lost eighty-six officers and men of one hundred eventy-seven men present for duty. Col Cross was mortally wounded by a musket ball that struck him in the navel and exited near the spine. He was carried to a field hospital behind Culp's Hill where the regimental surgeons did their best for him and many members of the regiment came to speak to him. Cross, conscious throughout this final struggle, died shortly after midnight July 3. His final words "I wished that I would live to see the arriving in Concord on Aug. 3, |
rebellion suppressed and peace restored...I think the boys will
miss me." Thomas Livermore left these reflections "With Col. Cross's death the glory of our regiment came to a halt. It is true that the regiment maintained a good reputation to the end of the war and did some splendid fighting, but it was not the old regiment. He was a brave man and clear headed in a fight; he took the most excellent care of his men in a sanitary way and was a good disciplinarian. He taught us by rough measures, to be sure, that the implicit obedience to orders was one of the cardinal virtues in a soldier. He taught us to ignore the idea of retreating. Beside this he clothed and fed us well, taught us to build good quarters and camped us on good ground and in short did everything well to keep us well drilled and always ready to meet the enemy." With less than one hundred men present for duty after Gettysburg, the army command detached the Fifth from the Second Corps and returned it to New Hampshire for recruits to rebuild their decimated ranks. |
leaves
to visit their homes throughout the state. From August 3rd through October, the regiment remained in the state receiving conscripts. On November 9th, they arrived by steamer at Point Lookout, Maryland where they, along with the Second and Twelfth New Hampshire, were assigned the duty of guarding Confederate prisoners. Here they remained until May of 1864 when they were recalled to the Army of the Potomac, then engaged in the Wilderness and Spotsylvania. It is ironic that Colonel. Hapgood should report his regiment present for duty, literally on the eve of the deadly assault at Cold Harbor. According to Hapgood's official report, "At 4:30am June 3, the regiment with the brigade, charged the enemy's works and carried them, capturing two guns and one hundred and twenty five prisoners which were sent to the rear... Ascertained that the other regiments of the other brigades of the regiment had not carried the works...and that the Fifth New Hampshire regiment was between the enemy's lines with no connection to either flank and immediately...gave orders to retire." The casualties were 202 killed out of 577 present for duty. It was the most costly single day in the regiments history. In the continuing campaign that developed into the siege of Petersburg, a series of engagements occurred between June 15 and June 19th at Baylor's Farm, Withal, and Weir Bottom Church that continued to erode the regiments rolls. On June 17th Hapgood was severely wounded and command of the 5th New Hampshire passed to Major Larkin. Click to continue |
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understandably pleased to return to New Hampshire and they did, where
the soldiers were granted |
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