Although a bit difficult to see in this photograph, the Federal skirmish earthwork line just west of Nine Mile Run is slightly visible running through the center of the image. Confederates from McLaws's division attacked from the left background (east). This perspective is looking south.
(Tim Talbott)
Introduction
The two most recent traditional histories covering the Battle of Chancellorsville, those by Ernest B. Furgurson (1992) and Stephen W. Sears (1996), offer readers little about the Union and Confederate soldiers battling it out on the Army of the Potomac’s Second Corps front on May 3, 1863. Those studies only offer brief mentions about how things wrapped up on that part of the battlefield. Relying solely on these works, one would not know important details about the determined assaults by Brig. Gen. William Wofford’s Confederates, and the resolute defensive effort of the entrenched Federal skirmish line initially led by Col. Nelson Miles on and near the CVBT-owned property along the meandering stream known as Nine Mile Run.
A much more thorough examination of the Second Corps participation is available in Carol Reardon’s article, “The Valiant Rearguard: Hancock’s Division at Chancellorsville,” which is available in Chancellorsville: The Battle and Its Aftermath, edited by Gary Gallagher. Unfortunately, however, it too excludes a number of fascinating period accounts that provide colorful perspectives from the soldiers and officers who fought at Nine Mile Run.
In this CVBT History Wire, we’ll explore in greater depth the preceding days’ sequence of events that set the stage for this largely overlooked part of the battle, what occurred here during the morning of May 3, and the outcome of the fighting.
May 1, 1863 – Prelude and Position
"Victorious Advance of Genl. Sykes (regulars), May 1st"
This sketch by Alfred Waud shows Maj. Gen. George Sykes's Fifth Corps division attacking east along the Orange Turnpike on May 1, 1863. Maj. Gen. Winfield Scott Hancock's Second Corps division provided support, occupying the position in the foreground before being ordered to withdraw west to Chancellorsville by Maj. Gen. Joseph Hooker.
(Library of Congress)
When two divisions of the Army of the Potomac’s Second Corps set out from their Stafford County camps near Falmouth in late April 1863 and marched west in what was to become the Chancellorsville Campaign, one of the division’s commanders, Brig. Gen. Winfield Scott Hancock, was already known as “Hancock the Superb” for his impressive fighting during the early portion of the Peninsula Campaign the year before. Now commanding a division of four brigades, Hancock’s men, along with Samuel French’s division, crossed the Rappahannock River at United States Ford on April 30—some units helping lay the pontoon bridges—and bivouacked that evening near Chancellorsville.
Hancock’s immediate superior, Second Corps commander, Maj. Gen. Darius Couch, received orders on the afternoon of May 1 for Hancock’s division to support Maj. Gen. George Sykes’s Fifth Corps division, which engaged with Maj. Gen. Richard H. Anderson’s Confederates after advancing east along the Orange Turnpike. Hancock’s men, led by Brig. Gen. John Caldwell’s brigade, positioned on the high ground east of Nine Mile Run near the Newton house. Col. Nelson Miles’s 61st New York served as skirmishers on the south side of the turnpike, while on the north side of the road companies from Col. Daniel Bingham’s 64th New York (Col. John R. Brooke’s brigade) bolstered the skirmish line. The 64th New York’s skirmishers soon received orders to move forward and across the road in an attempt to link up with the left flank of the 61st New York, while the rest of Hancock’s regiments served as reserves on the Newton house ridge for Sykes’s soldiers fighting desperately just to the east.
Sykes’s men, many of whom were Regulars, encountered stiff resistance from Anderson and supporting troops from the division of Maj. Gen. Lafayette McLaws. Sykes reported his critical situation to the Army of the Potomac’s overall commander, Maj. Gen. Joseph Hooker, who in turn ordered Sykes, along with the other Fifth Corps and Twelfth Corps forces, to withdraw to Chancellorsville.
Fifth Corps commander Maj. Gen. George Gordon Meade, and Twelfth Corps head Henry Slocum, were dumbfounded at Hooker’s order to relinquish the advantageous defensive positions they had attained.
As Sykes’s men withdrew toward the Chancellor House, Hancock held the Newton house ridge position and then, too, fell back. Gen. Couch ordered the skirmishers to withdraw from their advanced position as well. According to Confederate Brig. Gen. Paul Semmes, the Federal withdrawal was not an orderly one. In his report, Semmes claimed, “The road, the woods, and fields on either side, over which the enemy retired, were strewn with knapsacks, blankets, overcoats, and many other valuable articles.” The closely pursuing Confederates received encouragement to finally slow their advance by Federal artillery near the Chancellorsville crossroads and by Sykes’s reorganized units.
Col. Nelson A. Miles, 61st New York Infantry, (shown here later as a major general) was placed in command of the Second Corps picket line on the night of May 1.
Miles was wounded on May 3 and later received the Medal of Honor for his actions that day.
(Library of Congress)
During the night of May 1-2, Hancock received orders to change position from the south side of the Orange Turnpike to the north side and established a new line facing east. Throughout the night, the Confederate artillery, now on the Newton house ridge, shelled Hancock’s line as they tried to entrench in between incoming rounds.
Col. Daniel Bingham of the 64th New York reported that just before dusk he sent out five of his companies to serve as skirmishers. The skirmishers placed their right flank on the Orange Turnpike and their left connected with skirmishers from Caldwell’s brigade. Confederate artillery shelled the companies of the 64th who remained on the main line, and at least “One charge of grape or canister was thrown through the line of skirmishers. . . .,” reported Bingham.
Col. Miles received orders during the night to take charge of the skirmish line in front of Hancock’s division. Miles noted that he was ordered to “establish my line on the most favorable ground in its front.” The companies and regiments that made up the initial skirmish line came from three of Hancock’s four brigades. Apparently, the skirmish line troops completed some work on abatis and earthwork defenses to potentially slow any attempted Confederate attack.
May 2, 1863 – Skirmishing
"Three Soldiers in Action"
Although the location and date of this sketch by Alfred Waud is not noted, it shows soldiers who could be skirmishers. Serving as the armies' forward troops in battle situations, skirmishers played an important but dangerous role in the Civil War.
(Library of Congress)
The skirmish line established by Col. Miles basically followed the contours of Hancock’s main line, which by daybreak on May 2 connected with Twelfth Corps units on the right on the south side of the Orange Turnpike and with the Fifth Corps to their left.
Miles’s skirmishers were posted on the west side of Nine Mile Run and perpendicular to the Orange Turnpike. The picket line then curved back almost parallel to the road and then ran to the southwest. An uncomfortable day was ahead for these sentries throughout May 2. Col. Miles reported, “We were constantly engaged skirmishing with the enemy during the day, and at about 3 p.m. the enemy commenced massing his troops in two columns, one on each side of the road, flanked by a line of battle about 800 yards in front in the woods.” Miles noted that “Their orders could be distinctly heard.”
This movement by the Confederates was, of course, by design as a means of keeping the Federal troops on this part of the field occupied while Lt. Gen. Thomas J. “Stonewall” Jackson completed his winding march to the get in position on the Eleventh Corps right flank for an attack. “They soon advanced with a tremendous yell, and were met with a sure and deadly fire of one simple line. A very sharp engagement continued about an hour, when the enemy fell back in disorder,” Miles commented. Apparently, the Confederates sold the diversion well, as Miles wrote, “Their charge was impetuous and determined, advancing to within 20 yards of my abatis, but were hurled back with fearful loss, and made no further demonstrations.”
One of the Confederate attackers was Lt. William R. Montgomery who led a company in the 3rd Georgia Sharpshooter Battalion, which served in Brig. Gen. William Wofford’s brigade. Montgomery wrote to his mother and sister on May 7, briefly describing their role in the May 2 fighting. As to their responsibilities, Montgomery wrote, “We are always in front of the Brigade, about 300 or 400 yds., to clear out the way & I tell you we done it too, to perfection.” He added, “You ought to hear Gen Wofford praise us.” Concerning the combat, Lt. Montgomery noted, “Saturday evening [May 2] our little Battalion charged the Yankies breast work, one whole Brigade behind it, charged three times but the fire was hot from the enemy. We had to fall back. Our loss was quite heavy.”
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Gen. McLaws in his report seemed to concur partly with Lt. Montgomery. McLaws wrote: “I was ordered to advance along the whole line to engage with skirmishers, which were largely re-enforced, and to threaten, but not attack seriously; in doing General Wofford became so seriously engaged that I directed him to withdraw, which was done in good order, his men in good spirits, after driving the enemy to their intrenchments.”
Lt. Samuel Burney, who served in Cobb’s Legion, another regiment in Wofford’s brigade, took a minute to write home to his wife on the night of May 2. Burney explained that “we have seen hard times to be sure,” but “There has been no general engagement yet. . . .” However, danger abounded. Burney explained, earlier that evening, “while our brigade was passing through a field at the double quick, we were severely shelled.” He “narrowly escaped a shell.” Burney continued, “As I write I hear the skirmishers on the front, but that has been going on all day.” Describing his temporary camp, he penned, “We are at the place where the Yankees camped last night. The ground is covered with their leavings—knapsacks, haversacks, old clothes, blankets, &c.”
In Col. John R. Brooke’s brigade, Capt. John F. Reynolds of the 145th Pennsylvania noted in a May 11 letter describing May 2, that at about 6 p.m. “the Rebels having placed a battery in position commenced shelling us . . . in a hour’s time they ceased firing. . . .” Reynolds did not know why, but again, it was probably to keep their attention and prevent assisting in the defense of Jackson’s flank attack. Fortunately, for Reynolds and his comrades, “none of us were hurt as we lay in the intrenchments and could not be hit unless the shell should happen to burst over our heads.”
The 64th New York’s Col. Daniel Bingham noted that during the day his regiment was ordered back to the main line near the Chancellor house. However, “About dusk, Colonel Brooke ordered me to deploy the whole regiment as skirmishers in front of [the] brigade and parallel to the front of the new intrenchments, and advance about 600 yards to the front, and connect with Colonel Miles on the right,” Bingham reported.
It would be in this forward position, just west of Nine Mile Run and along a line of improvised earthworks, that the 64th New York and other regiments of Brooke’s brigade would fiercely fight it out with William Wofford’s Confederates the following day.
Many of these units had faced each other in battle only five months earlier at Fredericksburg as the Federals assaulted what were now Wofford's Georgians in the famous Sunken Road. However, now the role of attacker and defender would be reversed.
May 3, 1863 – A Time to Fight
This photograph shows a view from the Federal picket line earthworks looking east toward
Nine Mile Run and the Confederate attack position.
(Tim Talbott)
Just before daybreak on May 3, and from their entrenched picket line, Bingham’s 64th New York heard Confederate officers giving commands, “and immediately after[,] a line of skirmishers appeared in our front, and advancing with their peculiar yell, commenced the attack,” but after about a half hour the Southerners retired. Soon came a “regular line of battle, extending along our whole front, with closed ranks.” This more concerted assault moved “to within 5 or 6 rods [about 30 yards] of our breastworks.” Bingham reported, “The men of the Sixty-fourth worked coolly and steadily, taking good aim, and but few shots were thrown away.” After roughly an hour of fighting the Confederates “retired in confusion,” with the New Yorkers cheering their departure.
Wofford’s sharpshooters participated in this initial assault by the Confederates skirmishers. Among them was Capt. William Montgomery of the 3rd Georgia Sharpshooter Battalion. Montgomery recalled in a letter four days later to his wife that “Soon Sunday morning the Gen[eral Wofford] sent us in again. We charged again under the most deadly fire. Got within a few feet of the works, but it was fixed with brush [abatis] that we could not climb then & had to fall back. Our loss was again more.”
Along with the 64th New York in the forward entrenched skirmish line, men from the 145th Pennsylvania (also a unit in Brooke’s brigade) soon joined them. Early on May 3, the regiment’s colonel, Hiram Brown, reported that he received orders from Brooke to “detail 166 men and 10 officers . . . to report to Colonel Miles . . . for picket duty.” Lt. Col. David McCreary led this skirmisher detail.
One soldier in McCreary’s detachment was Pvt. James Harris. Harris wrote about his May 3 experience in the forward position near Nine Mile Run a week later in a letter to his wife. He explained, “We were soon ordered out on the advanced post. There was a breast work there, but rather poor. Just before we got there they commence firing at us. We got behind the work as soon as possible and lay waiting for them to advance.”
Pvt. Eli Pinson Landers
Pvt. Landers, like several other soldiers on both sides, left a vivid account
of his experience fighting along Nine Mile Run.
(Public domain)
One of Wofford’s men, J. R. Parrott, wrote to the Atlanta Southern Confederacy newspaper after the battle explaining that the brigade “advanced upon the foe to the right of the road [north side] about a half mile below [east of] Chancellorsville, when the gallant men encountered the terrible fire of the foe, well secured behind breast works . . . through a very dense woods with large trees and undergrowth naturally so thick that it was difficult to get through.” If that was not trouble enough, “the enemy have felled trees and small brush cross and pile so as to make it difficult to charge the works, or even to see things,” Parrott noted.
A third concerted attack by Wofford’s men soon followed the second. Col. Bingham reported, “Another line of the same character [as before] took their place, and the contest kept on.” Unlike the day before, when McLaws’s men were only expected to keep Hancock’s troops occupied while Jackson’s flank attack shattered the Union’s right flank, on May 3, the attackers were as determined to break their foe’s line as the defenders were resolute to hold it. This situation created some fierce combat.
Pvt. Eli Pinson Landers of the 16th Georgia, who was fighting in the center of Wofford’s brigade, wrote to his mother five days after the fight. He penned, “We have lost a many a good solger . . . but the 3rd of May our Brigade got into it heels over head and our regiment lost more men than we ever have in arry fight yet. We had to fight them behind their entrenchments. There was some in our company killed 15 steps from their trench. Our company is nearly ruined.” During the fighting, Landers noticed when his friend Jim Matthews fell. “The poor fellow looked very pitiful at me when he got shot and begged me to help him but I had no time to lose. It was everyman for himself for they was falling on my right and left and my disposition inclined to try to return the fire with as much injury [to the enemy] as possible.” Landers himself was wounded in the hand but remained with his company.
J. R. Parrott concurred with Landers about the dangerous position of the 16th Georgia. He mentioned in his letter to the Atlanta Southern Confederacy newspaper that due to the way Wofford’s brigade had to attack, “some regiments and parts of regiments [were] much nearer than others to the enemy, very near the works.” Parrott wrote, “The 16th [Georgia] was very near and greatly exposed.”
Lt. Horatio David, 16th Georgia Infantry
Lt. David received a painful wound during the May 3 fighting at Nine Mile Run.
(Library of Congress)
Another 16th Georgia soldier to fall wounded during the fighting along Nine Mile Run was 20-year-old Lt. Horatio David. Chancellorsville was his first battle as an officer. A comrade who received a wound to the thigh wrote Lt. David’s family on May 7 from a Richmond hospital that Horatio’s wound was “Jest a flesh Wound.” Horatio may have told him that so as not to cause overconcern, but his injury was much more serious. In a May 20 letter home, Horatio explained that sometime during the fighting, a “ball struck me on the hipbone in front where it joins the backbone and then it glanced and struck the backbone and ranged up the back bone 2 inches and stopped.” On June 12, Horatio was able to travel home to Georgia with his mother, who came to Richmond to help him recover.
The conspicuous part played by the 16th Georgia in the fight is evidenced by a number of references to them. For example, Col. Bingham reported, “One of the regiments in this line was the Sixteenth Georgia, whose battle-flag was brought up to within 2 rods of our breastworks. . . .” Bingham related that this happened “in front of the opening left for the skirmishers to come in [through the breastworks].” Here, the “opening had been filled with logs, but no earth had been thrown against them, and no ditch had been dug.” Additionally, Bingham explained, “the abatis was also light, and no men behind it.”
This was obviously a weak spot that the Georgian’s hoped to exploit. However, Bingham stationed himself there, “which was left to the center of the regiment.” To make the site less vulnerable, Bingham “ordered the two companies on the right and left to right and left oblique their fire,” and in doing so they “enfiladed the front of the opening which checked the advance, but did not drive the enemy back.” Bingham noted, “The colors of the Sixteenth Georgia fell twice, and were afterwards placed against a tree, when our men ceased to fire upon it.”
J. R. Parrott’s letter to the Southern Confederacy also explained that “Cobb’s Legion were greatly exposed and fought very near the works.” The wounded in Cobb’s Legion included the previously mentioned Lt. Samuel Burney, who had just written to his wife the day before informing her he had fortunately made it safely through May 2. Burney’s good fortune ran out on May 3 at about 8:00 a.m. Burney was “struck above the left eye on the side of my temple, the ball passing out below my left ear,” he informed his wife four days after the battle from his Richmond hospital room. “The Company suffered much in the fight,” Burney added, and then listed over 20 comrades and their various wounds. Yet, he claimed “Cobb’s Legion had made an immortal name. Wofford proposed three cheers for it & declared that we had killed more Yankees than any battalion in his Brigade, and that we were closer to the breastworks of the enemy. We were not more than 30 yards from the Yankees, and they were in breastworks.”
According to the identification by the Library of Congress, this 1866 photograph shows "Federal entrenchments across Plank Road about one mile west of Chancellorsville."
However, the improvised works east of Chancellorsville along Nine Mile Run probably looked similar to these.
(Library of Congress)
The 64th New York’s Pvt. Warren Persons, too, detailed the ferocity of the fight along Nine Mile Run. In a letter home to his mother on May 11, he wrote about the foe’s determined charge: “They came up as if they had no fear of death, and at one time came within a few feet of our works, so that we were ordered to fix bayonets, and just as they broke and ran [we] were nearly out of ammunition, and we went in with sixty rounds. It was hot work there for a little while and if it had not been for our intrenchments but few of us would have escaped to tell the story of the rest.”
Pvt. Persons noted witnessing comrade after comrade being hit all around him. As he and a comrade, Corp. Russel T. Wilmarth, were busy digging their entrenchment deeper, Wilmarth hinted that perhaps they were digging their own grave, and “alas so it proved to him.” Persons wrote that during the battle, Wilmarth “was in the act of leveling his gun on a field officer when a ball from the left went crashing through [Daniel] Ely and [then Wilmarth’s] brain.” Wilmarth “dropped in a sitting posture, and died almost instantly without uttering a sound,” Persons noted. The casualties continued: “Philander Kellogg was the second man on my left, he was struck with two bullets at the same instant, one from the front going through his heart and the other from the left going through the brain, he merely exclaimed Oh dear: and fell dead. Charles Morey was the fourth man on my left, he was struck in the side of the head near the ear and fell like a log, the blood spouting in a torrent from the wound. These were the only ones I saw fall, except Daniel Ely and I was not near him I merely saw him fall into his brothers arms.” It is no wonder that Persons expressed, “It was a sickening sight to see young men, strong and healthy, in the full flush and vigor of life, suddenly struck down without a moments time for thought or preparation for eternity. It was such a sight as I wish never to see again and especially on the Sabbath. . . .”
Pvt. Persons summed up his May 3 battlefield experience much like other survivors probably did or would have that day: “Death and eternity have been brought very near to me and I have realized them as I never did before, and I feel it stands me in hand to be prepared and in constant readiness to meet any change. I hope never to pass through such scenes again, but I am ready for the conflict whenever wherever duty calls.”
As things got hot for the Federals, the 64th New York began to run out of ammunition. As previously mentioned, the 145th Pennsylvania joined them. The unit’s lieutenant colonel, David McCreary, who brought his troops to the picket line, sent some to the south side of the Orange Turnpike to connect with skirmishers on the right. There, near the road, McCreary heard Col. Miles receive a wound to the stomach by a Confederate bullet as Miles rode along the Orange Turnpike. For his “Distinguished gallantry while holding with his command an advanced position against repeated assaults by a strong force of the enemy; [and] was severely wounded,” Miles received a Medal of Honor almost 30 years later. McCreary moved three companies to support the 64th New York to the north side of the road.
Pvt. Samuel V. Dean of the 145th wrote to his wife on May 21 about their ordeal three weeks earlier. Dean related that “we went in under a heavy fire from the Rebs But with no [loss] in our company.” There they found the 64th New York and Col. Bingham “out of ammenshion + the Rebs within Six Rods of the Entrenchments Bound to Break through our lines But we gave them Rebs fits we gave volley after voly.” Bingham reported that he spread the 145th out “along the line, and directed them to share their ammunition with us.” There was a problem though. The 145th “used the buck-and-ball cartridge” with their smoothbores while the 64th had Austrian rifles, into which the big .69 caliber ball would not fit. Col. Bingham told his men “to tear off the ball and use the buckshot, which was efficient for such short range.”
Buck and Ball Cartridge
The Civil War buck and ball cartridge typically consisted of three buckshot at the top, a .69 caliber musket ball beneath them, and the black powder charge.
(Union Drummer Boy, uniondb.com)
Firing grew heavier and Pvt. Dean noted that many of the men killed near him were hit in the head. “One man was kild By the Side of me we laid him on the Bank Behind us But he Bled so much it made a Puddle where I stood.” Pragmatically, Dean took the dead soldier’s “Rifful and cattridges.” Standing beside Col. Bingham, Dean explained “Bingham of the 64[th] tore cattridges for me to load + fire[;] he[,] Conl Bingham[,] is a Brave man + a good fellow.”
A little ammunition finally arrived via the pioneers of the 64th New York, but not enough for everyone, so they fixed bayonets in anticipation of another charge. Fortunately for Col. Bingham, Wofford’s men fell back. One 64th soldier jumped over the earthworks and captured six soldiers from the 16th Georgia. At about this time, around 9:00 a.m. according to Bingham, the 27th Connecticut (another unit in Brooke’s brigade) relieved the 64th New York, who fell back to the line near the Chancellor house, and later eventually to the third line.
After their breakfast on May 3, eight companies of the 27th Connecticut received orders to relieve the 64th New York. According to the unit’s regimental history (published in 1866), the 27th went forward to “the intrenchments we had thrown up . . . the Friday [May 1] night previous. These works now formed the picket line of the army, and from the nature of the position and its relation to the movements of the enemy, a large force was required to hold it.” As they marched “double-quick, down the hill [east] into the ravine, it was met with a heavy fire of musketry. A number were wounded, and several shot through the head as they entered the breastworks.” Although not offering another assault, the Confederates, “concealed in the thick woods, continually annoyed us with a scattering fire.”
Also still holding the line were men from the 2nd Delaware and the previously mentioned 145th Pennsylvania. Pvt. Dean of the 145th was not impressed with the 27th Connecticut’s soldiers, “that Regt I did not think much of[,] Both officer[s] and men wer Scard,” Dean wrote. He explained the 27th colonel, Richard S. Bostwick, “laid flat on the ground Behind a Tree + So did the major of that Regt[.] ther men were So Scard + Excited I was afraid they would Shot me they Being behind me[.] I Jawed them like Sixty [with zest] + told them not to fire until they new what they fired at[.] But they Sooned got composed and done Better[.]”
Soon the entrenched Federal picket line along Nine Mile Run started receiving artillery fire from the rear. Thinking that their own artillery near the Chancellor house was firing too short, Lt. Col. McCreary sent a courier to tell them they were firing too low. The courier did not return. Infantry fire from McCreary’s rear now came in a couple of rifle volleys. It was not friendly fire. McCreary, who at this time was about 50 yards on the northside of the Orange Turnpike, explained, “About this time a rebel officer came up the road [Orange Turnpike] in front of the line waving a white handkerchief.” McCreary sent a lieutenant to see what the Confederate wanted. He returned with “word that the rebel officer demanded our surrender.” With his rear support having retreated, and now basically surrounded, McCreary had little other choice.
After capitulating, McCreary later wrote in his report to Miles: “I conversed with a number of their officers & men and . . . they all expressed the greatest surprise when they learned how small a force held the line against them and said they had supposed we has a strong line of battle behind the breastworks.”
For the captured Federals along Nine Mile Run their fighting was over at Chancellorsville. According to the 27th Connecticut’s 1866 regimental history: “As soon as the surrender had been consummated the men threw away their guns, many of them with the cartridges, into a rivulet [Nine Mile Run] near the intrenchments, and some cut up their equipments, determined to afford as little aid and comfort to the rebels as possible.” The prisoners were marched off the field and to “General Lee’s headquarters, where the rebels took away our knapsacks, rubber blankets, shelter-tents, and canteens, and registered our names.”
Conclusion
"Parole Camp Annapolis Maryland"
Some of the Union prisoners captured at Nine Mile Run spent time at Camp Parole waiting to be formally exchanged.
(Library of Congress)
As was often the case with assaults against entrenched positions, the Confederates suffered significantly more casualties in terms of killed and wounded on May 3 at Nine Mile Run than the Federals. According to the Official Records, Wofford's brigade suffered 491 men and officers killed and wounded during Chancellorsville. The vast majority of those occurred on May 3. The brigade's two hardest-hit regiments were Cobb's Legion (157) and the 16th Georgia (133).
While the killed and wounded in Brooke's Federal brigade was relatively light at 83 total for its five regiments, their greatest loss came in prisoners of war on May 3. The 27th Connecticut had 283 officers and enlisted men captured, while the 145th Pennsylvania had 112. The 2nd Delaware, who was ordered to detail 75 men to the entrenched forward picket line at Nine Mile Run on the morning of May 3 lost 40 captured. The prisoners were fortunate to only have to endure a short stay in actual Confederate POW facilities. Marched to Richmond, by one soldier’s account they arrived there on May 9 and received paroles on May 14 at City Point. Most ended up at holding facilities like Camp Parole in Annapolis, Maryland, until they were properly exchanged, which in some cases took months.
Some Sources and Suggested Reading
George Montgomery, Jr. (editor). Georgia Sharpshooter: The Civil War Diary and Letters of William Rhadamanthus Montgomery. Mercer University Press, 1997.
Carol Reardon. “The Valiant Rearguard: Hancock’s Division at Chancellorsville,” in Chancellorsville: The Battle and Its Aftermath, edited by Gary W. Gallagher. University of North Carolina Press, 1996.
Elizabeth Whitley Roberson (editor). In Care of Yellow River: The Complete Civil War Letters of Pvt. Eli Pinson Landers to His Mother. Pelican, 1997.
Verel R. Salmon. Common Men in the War for the Common Man: The Civil War of the United States of America – History of the 145th Pennsylvania Volunteers From Organization through Gettysburg. Xlibris, 2013.
Parting Shot
CVBT's Nine Mile Run Battlefield
(Tim Talbott)
In 1868, five years after Chancellorsville, Rev. Isaac Moorhead traveled with Lt. Col. David McCreary of the 145th Pennsylvania to visit the Virginia battlefields where McCreary fought. As they rode west from Fredericksburg to the Chancellorsville battlefield they approached where the Nine Mile Run fighting occurred and where McCreary was captured.
At the Newton house ridge, McCreary told Moorhead, “We certainly came to the top of this hill—where we ought to have stayed—and then double-quicked back again, and, yes, I do believe that at the foot of this hill you will find our advanced works where I was captured.” Rev. Morehead explained, “Driving down the hill I almost recognized the locality from my friend’s [McCreary's] frequent descriptions of it. The earthworks were still quite complete, although somewhat washed by rain. They lay directly across the road, and extended on either side into the deep woods. Immediately in front of them the heavy timber had been cut, but in the wonderful luxuriance of the soil, the second growth had sprung up everywhere, varying in height from four to twelve feet. Remains of uniforms, cartridge boxes, canteens, haversacks and some human bones lay in the trenches. Dead branches were hanging on all of the trees, and all the bodies of them were scarred with shot and shell.”
Moorhead continued: “In front of this advanced line and scattered all through the woods we found the graves of many of the enemy’s dead marked with head and foot stakes, the pencil tracings obliterated and a tangle of second growth already covering them. I cut a hickory walking stick that had grown right out of the breast of some brave fellow from McLaw’s or Anderson’s commands.”
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