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 PERSONAL NARRATIVES

 OF EVENTS IN THE

 WAR OF THE REBELLION,

 BEING PAPERS READ BEFORE THE

 RHODE ISLAND SOLDIERS AND SAILORS
 HISTORICAL SOCIETY.



 THIRD SERIES - NO. 15.



 PROVIDENCE:
 PUBLISHED BY THE SOCIETY.
 1885.




PROVIDENCE PRESS COMPANY, PRINTERS.




 REMINISCENCES OF SERVICE

 WITH THE

 TWELFTH RHODE ISLAND VOLUNTEERS,

 AND A

 MEMORIAL OF COL. GEORGE H. BROWNE.



 BY

 PARDON E. TILLINGHAST,
 [Late Quartermaster Sergeant of the Twelfth Rhode Island Volunteers.]


 PROVIDENCE:
 PUBLISHED BY THE SOCIETY.
 1885.




[Edition limited to two hundred and fifty copies.]




REMINISCENCES OF SERVICE

WITH THE

TWELFTH RHODE ISLAND VOLUNTEERS.


The months of July, August, September and October of 1862, were stirring
times in Rhode Island,--and in fact throughout the entire North. The
vigorous onward movement of our army towards Richmond, which had been
long and frequently promised, was still deferred. The decisive victory
won by the Union forces over Lee's army at Malvern Hills at great cost,
which, in the judgment of every officer in the Army of the Potomac save
one, and he the chief, should have been immediately followed by a
determined advance towards the rebel stronghold, which was only about a
day's march distant, was supplemented by the now somewhat stereotyped
order to "fall back," thus presenting the not altogether inspiring
military spectacle of a victorious army running away from its defeated
and thoroughly demoralized enemy.

General Pope's campaign in Northern Virginia, inaugurated with a great
flourish of trumpets, had resulted disastrously; the rebel army was
greatly encouraged by the inactivity and the vacillating conduct of
their opponents, and had commenced a vigorous aggressive movement. The
National capital was again in imminent peril, causing a feverish
excitement throughout the country; Baltimore and Cincinnati were
seriously threatened, and a great crisis was evidently at hand. Vigorous
measures must be adopted at once, or our boasted Republic would soon be
a thing of the past.

The President, in view of the great emergency, had ordered drafts,
amounting in the aggregate to six hundred thousand men, one-half thereof
for three years, and the other half for nine months, the latter to be
drawn from the enrolled militia; and the utmost activity everywhere
prevailed in connection with the raising, equipping and forwarding of
this vast army of recruits.

Rhode Island was thoroughly alive to the occasion, determined not to be
outdone by any of her sister States in meeting this new and pressing
demand upon her loyalty and her resources; and meeting it too, if
possible, without resort to a draft, which, of course, was obnoxious to
the sentiments of the people. In order to promote enlistments, the
stores in some places were closed at 3 P. M. each day; war
meetings were held every evening, and the greatest enthusiasm was
manifested. The whole State seemed to be one vast recruiting camp, and
all the people, both male and female, to be engaged in the business. For
it should ever be remembered, to the praise of the women of Rhode
Island, that they were fully as loyal and as devoted to our country's
cause during the rebellion, as were the men; and that in very many cases
they suffered and sacrificed quite as much at home, though in different
ways, as did their husbands and sons and brothers in the field.

In such a state of public feeling what could I, a young unmarried man,
do consistent with a fair amount of self-respect but enlist? Evidently
nothing; and so I left the teacher's desk and enlisted as a private in
Company C, Eleventh Rhode Island Volunteers, under Captain Charles W.
Thrasher. I was detailed for service in the quartermaster's department
under Lieutenant John L. Clark, and shortly after was transferred with
him (I never knew why) to the Twelfth, and was appointed by Colonel
Browne to the office of Quartermaster Sergeant.

Camp Stevens, in Providence, was a lively place during the latter part
of September and the first part of October, 1862. The Eleventh and
Twelfth regiments were both encamped there together during a part of
this time, preparatory to their departure for the seat of war. The
former left on Monday, October sixth, and the latter on Tuesday, October
twenty-first.

The Twelfth Regiment was composed mainly of good Rhode Island material,
and was officered by intelligent, patriotic and brave-hearted men. There
were representatives from nearly all of the ordinary walks and callings
of life, thus furnishing the command with facilities for almost any
emergency; and it was proverbial that whatever could be done by