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James Tolbert, the highly regarded, firm, soft-spoken leader in matters involving human rights died in October, 2017 and was honored by an overflow audience at the venerable Zion Episcopal Church in Charles Town. In 2014, he recounted to Jim Surkamp at Fisherman’s Hall the life of his great-great-great uncle Daniel (also called David) Wilson Arnett who displayed a familial courage September 29, 1864 when storming a line at New Market Heights, Virginia – led by no less than four African-American sergeants – all in Arnett’s 5th U.S. Colored Troops regiment – who were all recognized with Congressional Medals of Honor for that day’s actions.
OK. My name is James Tolbert and I live here in Charles Town, West Virginia. My great-great-great-uncle was Daniel (nicknamed “David”) Arnett. who served in the 5th United States Colored Troop Infantry during the Civil War. http://www.civilwarindex.com/armyoh/5th_us_colored_troops.html
James Alvin Tolbert’s Greatest Uncle:
JULY 30, 1864 – PVT. ARNETT AT THE MINE EXPLOSION, PETERSBURG, VA.:
The Saddest Affair: A Geologic Perspective on the Battle of the Crater, U.S. Civil War
18-year old Private D. Wilson Arnett could no longer hear a thing in his left ear, burst in the unearthly explosion of 8,000 pounds of gunpowder that in the wee hours of July 30, 1864 in front of Petersburg, Va. heaved horses, men and 400,000 cubic feet of earth into the air.
The Federals planted the dynamite underground at the end of a tunnel they dug in secret and it blew a huge crater in the Confederate line. From that moment on and into old age, Arnett could only hear a bit in his right ear, not at all in his left ear – only of faint, shouted orders, conversation, the birds and life in general. It mattered.
THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 29, 1864 – THE FALL OF NEW MARKET HEIGHTS, VA.:
Civil War historian James Price writes:
Thursday, September 29, 1864 is . . . certainly one of the most, if not THE most important day in African-American military history.” He goes to say that the fighting Arnett bore with others “broke the outer ring of defenses protecting the Confederate capital of Richmond, Virginia.”
Arnett’s 5th U.S. Colored Troops infantry regiment had been given the heavy honor to lead an assault of 1,300 men – leading two other regiments: the 36th and 38th U.S. Colored Troops infantry regiments – on a fortified position of seasoned Confederate Texans, Arkansan sharpshooters and Virginia artillerymen.
As the fog burned off, you could see dead and wounded on the field from an earlier failed assault by another – Gen. Samuel Duncan’s 3rd Brigade, (also in Gen. Charles Paine’s Division) to the left and westward. Pvt. Arnett still had to be able to hear, understand, and follow any orders to cross that no man’s land – be it from the 5th’s commander, Colonel Giles Shurtleff, Capt. Ulysses Marvin, who commanded Arnett’s “I” Company or from the Company’s first sergeant, the company’s ranking black man – Robert Pinn.
MOLLUS-Mass Civil War Photograph Collection Volume 74 https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/7218633/samuel-augustus-duncan
– Civil War Medal of Honor – https://civilwarhistory.wordpress.com/2008/03/11/the-medal-of-honor-in-the-civil-war/
– Powhatan Beaty – https://civilwarhistory.wordpress.com/2008/03/11/the-medal-of-honor-in-the-civil-war/
– James H. Bronson – https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/7218078/james-h.-bronson
– Milton Holland – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_American_Civil_War_Medal_of_Honor_recipients:_G–L
– Robert A. Pinn – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_American_Civil_War_Medal_of_Honor_recipients:_M–P
“Remember Fort Pillow and No quarter!!” exhorted the mounted Federal Major General Ben Butler, who commanded the overall Army of the River James – the wholesale massacre of surrendering black Federal troops that spring in Tennessee of which not a soldier listening that morning in the camp needed the slightest reminding.
During the tense wait, sipping his coffee as the dawn came, Arnett perhaps thought of the life-ways that led him to this hinge-point in history: being born October 28, 1846 in Martinsburg, then-Va.; and serving Charles J. Faulkner Sr., the one-time Minister to France and, earlier, a congressman, working as a teen coachman at Faulkner’s Boydville mansion.
Arnett’s possible chance to escape bondage came in May, 1862 when Federal General Nathaniel Banks’ Army fled through, past Martinsburg and northbound ahead of Confederate Gen. Stonewall Jackson’s men, eventually giving Arnett two years of residency in Akron, Ohio, where Arnett worked as a waiter.
(account required)
He himself would enlist during that time near Akron August 28, 1863.
Their cups of coffee emptied, Colonel Shurtleff rose and said to them all: “If you are brave soldiers, the stigma — denying you full and equal rights of citizenship shall be swept away and your race forever rescued from the cruel prejudice and oppression which have been upon you from the foundation of the government.”
At about 7:30 AM, the 1300 men began in a column six companies wide and ten ranks deep – three regiments – across a complex 1100 yard expanse, the line of charge some eighty feet wide and the last 800 yards deadly. Passing thru 300 yards of pine forest then across an upland meadow they flowed forward as gracefully as if in a parade, then shells from the Virginia Rockbridge Artillery hit them. Next, the men scrambled down a slope to a small stream – about three inches deep, but marshy to the west where some of their forward push bogged down. They then began the climb up a 30-degree slope of hill coming up from the stream, which would very soon cease to protect from the – previously – “too-high” musket fire and shrapnel coming from the downward-aiming Confederates in infantry units and artillerymen.
Reaching the top of the hill, the men received carnage-making fire while they raced to and hacked and axed their way through a very dense abatis made up of fallen trees, their fine branches shorn leaving just big, sturdy limbs sharpened into spear points.
Shurtleff and his ten companies of 550 black men led all the 1300-man column, all with instructions to charge with bayonet. Every company-commanding officer was white, because black men were not yet allowed under law to be officers. With a lifetime of mistreatment and the shibboleth of “Remember Fort Pillow” to motivate, the men were also vowing to address the most immediate issue: pay inequity – with their teeth-clenched fighting resolve. Even still, this was the chance for the black soldiers to lead a major charge which was promised then denied at the very last minute on July 30, 1864 nearby at the Mine battle, a change of plans that confused all Federal assaults that day and what Gen. Grant would call “the saddest affair I have witnessed in this war.”
Besides Arnett’s “I” Company, led by Captain Marvin and Sergeant Pinn, Captain George B. Cock led “G” Company with First Sergeant Powhatan Beaty; and Captain Wales Wilbur commanded “A.” Company; “C” Company’s commander Capt. Gustavus Fahrion was not accounted for as present at the battle along with “D” Company’s commander Alexander Poundstone, leaving Sgt. Major Milton Holland and First Sergeant James H. Bronson in leading roles in battle for the two companies, respectively. Strangely Bronson had been promoted to first sergeant on August 22, 1863, but he later requested being “reduced to the ranks and reassigned to the regimental band,” a position granted in November, 1864. His service record lists him as “musician.”
Four company commanding officers of the 5th USCT would be killed or wounded of the ten companies as the day wore on.
As the men overcame the obstacles the Confederate sharpshooters and artillerymen harvested the colored bluecoats, shooting down hill from just 150 yards away, the officers in front fell first – “G” Company’s George Cock fell wounded, leaving his bugler musician/first sergeant James H. Bronson bereft and in charge.
THE HEAT OF BATTLE: (DETAILED MAP OF BATTLE) https://www.civilwar.org/learn/maps/new-market-heights-september-29-1864
Arnett, especially could not hear in the chaos the shouted orders from Col. Shurtleff or from his own Captain Marvin (https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/imgsrv/html?id=mdp.39015047670164;seq=32) because of his deafness. Then both Shurtleff and Marvin fell wounded. A bugler (likely Bronson because he also had previous leadership positions and was highly decorated for bravery that day) – was seen rallying with his bugle giving his clarion call for the men to reform and charge on. Sgt. Pinn grabbed the colors and charged forward, bayonet bared, Arnett following most likely with company-mates Z.B. Jackson, Jacob Lee, and Charles Teeters, Jefferson Carpenter, Henry Turner, and Peter Turner – r – who all fell on the field either killed or wounded in the advance (fold3.com service records).
Powhatan Beaty and Milton Holland likewise grabbed their colors and led their men into the maw of gunfire. The 5th regiment was to have received the most visits that day from death and woundings – a total of 28 killed (eight of whom were officers), 177 wounded and 23 missing. – the most of 24 units that fought from the 18th Army Corps at the three locations: New Market Heights, Fort Harrison, Fort Gilmer.
Volume XLII – in Three Parts. 1893. (Series 1 Vol. 42, Chap. 54)
Chapter LIV – Operations in Southeastern Virginia and North Carolina. August 1-December 31, 1864.
Vol. 42 Part I – Reports
p. 136 – of nine U.S. colored Troop regiments at Chaffin’s Farm, the 5th USCT infantry suffered the most casualties (238 – NOTE: an error in additional gives 236 in the casualty report), followed by the 6th USCT with 209). https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=hvd.hwanqn&view=1up&seq=156&skin=2021&q1=Chaffin%27s
Raked with shrapnel and musket fire, the regiments, now led by the inspiring, unstoppable sable sergeants, raged ahead another hundred yards up a hillside.
Just fifty yards from the hot musket and cannon barrels, they hit a wall of chevaux-de-frise (a criss-cross pattern of large pointed metal and wooden spears), that the men chopped through under close fire then resumed charging. As one axe man fell, another took up the axe. As one fell with the colors, another picked up the colors and charged on. Ahead was a small redoubt, some called a “fort” with battery on raised platforms with earthworks extending some distance to the right and left.
J. D. Pickens, who commanded the regiments from Gen. Hood’s old Texas Brigade at New Market Heights, wrote later: “I want to say in this connection that, in my opinion, no troops up to that time had fought us with more bravery than did those negroes.” – (Pickens, J. D. “Fort Harrison,” Confederate Veteran, v. XXI, No. 10, (1913). p. 484.
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Then a lifting in the murderous fire from the Confederates seemed to be saying: “We destroyed the charge, the black enlisted men will all flee without their white officers,” a deduction deformed by racism. The Confederate units, thus began moving to the northwest to Fort Gilmer about five miles away where they had been summoned to stave off a Federal attack there.
https://archive.org/stream/battlesleadersof02cent#page/675/mode/1up
But the Federal, sergeant-led bayonet charge pushed over the last embankment, closing in on the reserve unit routing the remaining Confederate reserve and even chasing and catching up to some the units making their way to Fort Gilmer.
Federal Army commander Butler, who watched the proceedings from the original elevated meadow, summed it later:
(They) ran at the double quick up to the first line of abatis — the axe man laid to, vigorously chopping out the obstructions; many of them went down. Others seized the axes. The colors of the first battalion went down, but instantly they were up again but with new color bearers. Wonderfully they managed to brush aside the abatis and then double quick. The reformed column charged the second line of abatis (the pointed poles). Fortunately they were able to remove that in a few minutes, but it seemed a long time to lookers-on. Then with a cheer and a yell that I can almost hear now, they dashed upon the fort. (might be referring to Camp Holley – see map-ED)
Wrote Rockbridge cannoneer Edward Moore later:
. . . we hurriedly broke camp, as did Gary’s brigade of cavalry camped close by, and scarcely had time to reach high ground and unlimber before we were attacked. The big gaps in our lines, entirely undefended, were soon penetrated, and the contest quickly became one of speed to reach (by) the shorter line, fortifications some five miles nearer to and in sight of Richmond. The break through our lines was on our right, which placed the Federals almost in our rear, so that a detour of several miles on our part was necessary.
When Col. Shurtleff regained his senses and came to, on the battlefield he witnessed “the 5th USCT, followed by two other USCT regiments ( http://www.oberlinheritagecenter.org/blog/tag/james-bronson/ ), (as they) swarmed through the abatis and over the Confederate parapets . . . chasing the rebels over a hill a quarter of a mile beyond the works they had captured.”
– p. 41 – Giles W. Shurtleff, “Reminiscences of Army Life”, Oberlin College Archives, RG 30/032, Series 7, Subseries 1, Box 1, “Writings re the Civil War” Oberlin Heritage Center
Powhatan Beatty of Co. G left his men who retreated back to the first abatis, rose and ran forward in a hail of gun fire to retrieve their colors, returned to his men and charged forward towards the enemy.
Of Company G’s eight officers and eighty-three enlisted men who entered the battle, only sixteen enlisted men, including Beaty, survived the attack unwounded. With no officers remaining, Beaty took command of the company and led it through a second charge at the Confederate lines. The second attack successfully drove the Confederates from their fortified positions, at the cost of three more men from Company G. By the end of the battle, over fifty percent of the black division had been killed, captured, or wounded.
All of Company D’s officers had been killed or wounded in the first charge. So First Sergeant James H. Bronson, whose application was pending to be reduced back to private and to join the regimental band, took command of Company D, rallied the men, and led a renewed attack against the Confederate lines. They successfully broke through the abatis and palisades and captured the Confederate positions after hand-to-hand combat with the defenders.
Milton M. Holland Sergeant Major of Company C, after all the officers had been killed or wounded, gallantly led it.
Arnett’s decimated Company, were then given ill-considered orders by their inexperienced Division Commander Charles Paine to go to Fort Gilmer and continue fighting.
Private Arnett and Sergeant Pinn were among them and fought there too. . .
Moore, whose Rockbridge Artillery had by then traveled the five miles from New Market Heights saw what happened ( http://www.archive.org/stream/cu31924030907509#page/264/mode/1up ) from his new defensive position to the right of and close to Fort Gilmer:
The fact that a superb fight was made was fully apparent when we entered the fort an hour later, while the negroes who made the attack were still firing from behind stumps and depressions in the cornfield in front, to which our artillery replied with little effect. The Fort was occupied by about sixty men who, I understood, were Mississippians. The ditch in front was eight or ten feet deep and as many in width. Into it, the negroes leaped, and to scale the embankment on the Fort side climbed on each other’s shoulders, and were instantly shot down as their heads appeared above it.
Sergeant Pinn was shot through the right thorax, rendering his right arm useless for the rest of his life.
Pinn, Beaty, Holland and Bronson (Brunson) from the 5th USCT were all awarded a special medal from Gen. Butler and the Congress-approved Congressional Medals of Honor for their bravery that day. Nine men total in Shurtleff’s three regiments received the Congressional Medal of Honor. – List of African-American Medal of Honor recipients – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_African-American_Medal_of_Honor_recipients#American_Civil_War
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Medal_of_honor_old.jpg
Wrote Butler of inspecting the field later:
And, as I guided my horse this way and that way that his hoof might not profane their dead bodies, I swore to myself an oath, which I hope and believe I have kept sacredly, that they and their race should be cared for and protected by me to the extent of my power so long as I lived.
– p. 733 – Butler’s Book – https://archive.org/details/butlersbookrevie00butl?view=theater#page/733/mode/1up
Butler’s report to Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton four days after the battle in part read: ‘My colored troops under General Paine…carried intrenchments at the point of a bayonet….It was most gallantly done, with most severe loss. Their praises are in the mouth of every officer in this army. Treated fairly and disciplined, they have fought most heroically.’
– Volume XLII – in Three Parts. 1893. (Vol. 42, Chap. 54), Chapter LIV – Operations in Southeastern Virginia and North Carolina. August 1-December 31, 1864.
Part III – Union and Confederate Correspondence. p. 65 https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=coo.31924077730095&view=1up&seq=67&skin=2021
AFTER THE WAR:
Arnett survived, eventually returned to live in Shepherdstown, where political sentiment was more accepting of returning U.S. Colored Troops veterans than the more Confederate-disposed Charlestown part of the county.
Arnett, sometimes known as “Wilson Arnett,” would own a two-story very old dwelling on the east end of Shepherdstown still today called Angel Hill.
On October 15, 1873, he married 23-year-old Maria Louisa Carter.
In 1890, Because of his lost hearing, the Federal government officially granted Arnett his pension, which was announced, in somewhat biting prose, in the Shepherdstown Register: “Wilson Arnett has received his pension money. His first payment was $759 and his monthly allowance will be $20 as long as he lives.”
FIRES HIT ARNETT’S SHEPHERDSTOWN HOMES
Then, a fire destroyed their Shepherdstown home on East High Street. Reported in the Shepherdstown Register: Late Sunday afternoon at about one o’clock, September 13, 1896 while the Arnetts were at church – “when an alarm was sounded and a crowd quickly gathered. The dwelling house of Wilson Arnett, a well-known colored man, in the eastern part of town known as “Angel Hill,” had caught fire, presumably from a spark from the chimney, and in a short time the entire upper portion was blazing fiercely. The fire engine was put to work, but almost immediately a section of the new hose purchased a short time ago burst causing some delay. When a stream was finally gotten on the house the blaze was extinguished, but the entire upper portion had been consumed. The house-hold goods in the second story were burned, but everything on the first floor was saved. This house was a very old one, and was probably built over a hundred years ago. Harrison & Schley had insured the house for $300 and the contents for $150 and these sums will probably cover the loss. The adjustment is now being made.”
Then another (more suspicious) . . .
About noon, Monday October 19th, 1896 a fire alarm was sounded in response to a fire discovered in the small frame dwelling house on High Street “occupied by the families of Samuel Ranson and Wilson Arnett. The engine was gotten out, but before it was put in use the blaze had been quenched by the bucket brigade. The fire was apparently incendiary in origin, paper having been placed beneath the weather boarding and set afire. A year or two ago combustible material had been placed against the same house in the night time, but the incendiary had been frightened away. A month or so ago Wilson Arnett’s dwelling was destroyed by fire and as a result of the two circumstances he is considerably alarmed.
The Arnetts moved to Charlestown and made their home at 317 W. Academy Street.
The death on October 5, 1900 of 50-year-old Maria Louisa Arnett left “D.W.” alone, old and with his infirmities until mid-January 1902 when he met and married his acquaintance and now second wife, the 39-year-old Charlotte Adams.
They began a long term effort to obtain a added pension for Arnett’s poor heart condition, although he had a pension for his deafness.
JIM TOLBERT:
He was married to my great-great-great aunt Charlotte Arnett. Charlotte Arnett lived at 317 W. Academy Street here in Charles Town, West Virginia.
David (Daniel) Arnett after the Civil War, his wife applied for a pension because CHECK his wife was hard of hearing, also he developed heart trouble and he died from heart trouble.
She put in an application to the Pension Bureau (in the Department of Interior at that particular time). She wanted to get a pension and contained in his pension records are affidavits, also statements from several physicians, who had indicated that there was no indication on the record that showed that Arnett developed heart trouble from being in the military and being in combat. She tried from several directions to get a pension for his heart trouble.
However, she did get a small pension – he got a small pension – for his deafness.
He was also in the same group – the same company (Company I) – with Robert Pinn. Pinn was a Medal of Honor winner.
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And when Arnett and his wife were trying to get the pension, Robert Pinn was asked for an affidavit,
Pinn had returned to his home in Stark County, Ohio, and opened a contracting business. Later he attended Oberlin College, studied law and, after being admitted to the bar, served as a U.S. pension attorney. – (last paragraph) – (civilwar.org) https://www.battlefields.org/learn/articles/battle-new-market-heights-usct-soldiers-proved-their-heroism
Pinn, a friend of Arnett’s from Company I and one of that regiment’s Medal of Honor recipients, received a a supplement to his pension for a severe injury; described in his application. Pinn’s legal training helped him in the process to a certain extent:
Robert A. Pinn, the soldier named in this bill, now 59 years of age, served as sergeant in company I, Fifth United States Colored Troops, from Septmeber 5, 1863 to September 20, 1865 . . . records show that he was wounded at Fort Gillmore (sic), Va. September 29, 1864 through the right thorax, and the files of the ension Bureau show that he was pensioned on account of this wound, which resulted in entire loss of the use of the right arm at $8 per month from discharge, at $15 from June 6, 1866, at $18 from June 4, 1872, at $24 from march 3, 1883, and at $36 from August 4, 1886.
He filed a claim for an increase of his pension on August 22, 1892 and filed medical testimony to the effect that he required assistance in dressing and in preparing his food etc. but was denied.
While Pinn agreed with the Arnetts to write a letter of support he gave limited endorsement.
and Pinn only mentioned that he did serve with him (Arnett) and was also there when the cannons were going off at New Market Heights, Virginia; but he, of course, could not verify that (Arnett’s) heart trouble was from that, only that he served in the same unit with Arnett.
TOLBERT:
Charlotte Arnett . . . even approached Congressman Brown from the State of West Virginia, trying to get a pension on Arnett’s behalf. But in the long run, she did not get that pension, because the army doctors had all certified that the heart trouble did not come from being in close proximity with the cannons.
https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/37542622/d.-w.-arnett
He died. He was buried in Shepherdstown, West Virginia. His gravesite is clearly marked, of course.
The house that Charlotte and David (Daniel) Arnett lived in is still in the family at 317 West Academy Street, and every time I approach that particular house, I think of Aunt Charlotte and of course Uncle David.
47. October 26, 2017 – Jim Tolbert dies leaving a great legacy of his own.
James Alvin Tolbert, Sr. | 1932 – 2017 | http://www.eackles-spencerfuneralhome.com/?action=obituaries.obit_view&o_id=4425956&fh_id=13130
James Alvin Tolbert, Sr. of Charles Town, WV passed on October 26, 2017. He was a guest of Hospice of the Panhandle, Kearneysville, WV. He was born in Charles Town on September 3, 1932 to the late Edward and Ollie Lightfoot Tolbert. He was the youngest of four siblings. He graduated from Page-Jackson High School in 1950.
After graduation James began his working career serving in US Air Force as a dental laboratory technician in Japan during the Korean War. After his military service, he attended West Virginia State (University) in Institute, West Virginia, earning a Bachelor of Science degree in Zoology in 1958. He became a medical technologist at the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, MD before beginning a career with the Department of Veterans Affairs as a nuclear medical technologist at the Martinsburg VA Medical Center. He then served as a Personnel Staffing Specialist at the Baltimore Medical Center and retired in 1988 as a Personnel Staffing Specialist in the Washington, D.C. Central Office.
As a Life Member of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, James served in numerous capacities and on various committees. He was President of the Jefferson County Branch from 1968 to 1974 and President of the West Virginia State Conference of Branches from 1986 – 2007. He also served as the Region III Chair for Michigan, Kentucky, Indiana, Wisconsin, Ohio, West Virginia, and Illinois. ?
From 1983 to 1985, he served as Most Worshipful Grand Master, Most Worshipful Prince Hall Grand Lodge of WV, F&M, Inc.; Past Master and Secretary, Star Lodge #1, Charles Town; Past Recorder, Nile Temple #27 of the Shriners, Martinsburg; Prior, I.M. Carper Consistory #192, 32nd Degree, Martinsburg. James was also a member Allegheny Chapter #9 of the Royal Arch Masons of Fairmont and a member of Gibraltar Commandery #10 of the Knight Templars, Fairmont. He was Grand Inspector General, 33rd Degree, United Supreme Council, Prince Hall Affiliation, Washington, DC; Deborah Chapter #38, Order of the Eastern Star, Charles Town, Grand Historian, Most Worshipful Prince Hall Grand Lodge of WV and a proud member of Alpha Iota Lambda Chapter, Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Charleston, WV.
A lifelong member of St. Philips Episcopal Church, James served as a lay reader, chalice bearer, Vestry member, clerk and Sunday School Superintendent and as Senior and Junior Wardens. He was former Chair of the Episcopal Keymen of the Eastern Convocation, Diocese of West Virginia and served as former member of Executive Committee and Member and Past President of the Diocesan Committee on Racism. He served as a member of the Committee to elect the Fifth Bishop of West Virginia.
James was committed to numerous community activities. He was a board member of the Jefferson County Economic Development Authority; Chair of the African-American Community Association that was responsible for the restoration of Fisherman Hall; he was a Founder/Secretary of the Jefferson County Black History Preservation Society; he was a member of the West Virginia Martin Luther King Holiday Commission; member of the Community Relations Council, Harpers Ferry Job Corp; and a member Marshall- Holly Mason American Legion Post #102. James was the longest serving member of the Zenith Club, a social organization; and he supported a Multicultural Scholarship named in honor of his mother, Ollie Lightfoot Tolbert, at Shepherd University. James was the Chair and sat on the Board of Directors of the George Washington Carver Institute; served on the City of Charles Town Development Committee; was an interviewer on the Affirmative Action Committee for the Shepherd University Multicultural Leadership Scholarship. He was on the Boards of Directors of the Arts and Humanities Alliance; the Jefferson County American Red Cross; and the Jefferson County Boys and Girls Club. He served on the Board of Managers, Charles Town General Hospital; was President of the Board of Directors, Eastern Panhandle Mental Health Center. He was an organizer, leader, and committeeman of Cub Scout Pack #42; and organizer of the Charles Town Recreation League; Treasurer of the Jefferson County Civic League; and served on the EEO Committee, Baker VA Medical Center, Martinsburg. He served on numerous committees for the Jefferson County Schools.
Because of his dedicated service to his local, state, and national communities, James was honored with various awards and recognition. The James A. Tolbert, Sr. Civil Rights Scholarship was donated in perpetuity by Attorney and Mrs. J. Franklin Long of Bluefield WV and Hilton NC. He was awarded the 2011 Martin Luther King, Jr. Achievement Award from the West Virginia University Center for Black Culture and Research and the 1976 T.G. Nutter Award from the West Virginia NAACP. He received the 2003 West Virginia Civil Rights Day Award by the Governor’s Office; the Charleston Job Corp Center; West Virginia State University; and the West Virginia Human Rights Commission. In 1987, he received the Community Service Award given by Kappa Lambda Mu Sorority and in 2008, he was awarded the Community Service Award from the Eastern Panhandle Alumnae Chapter, Delta Sigma Theta, Inc. In 1988, he received the Living the Dream Award from the West Virginia Martin L. King Holiday Commission for Human and Civil Rights. In 1991 & 2002, he received the Dr. Benjamin Hooks Award, NAACP Midwest Region III as State President of Year. He was recognized in 1987 by the West Virginia Blue Ribbon Commission on Educational Reform and was honored by the West Virginia Human Rights Commission Task Force in 1992. In 2003, he received the 2003 Earl Ray Tomblin Community Service Award from the Southern West Virginia Community and Technical College.
James is survived by his wife of 61 years, Shirley Tolbert; his sons James Jr. (Constance) of Pittsburg, California; Michael (Erica) of Charles Town, WV and Stephen (Kim) of Ellicott City, Maryland; three grandsons, Miles, Aidan, and Logan; step-grandsons, Garik Pugh and William Lewis, Jr. and step-great granddaughters Alexis and Aniya Hemingway-Lewis. In addition to his parents, he was predeceased by a son Gregory and three siblings, Marion Tolbert Taylor, Edwina Tolbert, and William Tolbert, Sr. Survivors also include many nieces, nephews, cousins, and friends. He is also survived by former daughter-in-law Rachel Mahoney Tolbert.
Visitation will be from 6 pm to 8 pm, Wednesday, November 1, 2017 at the Eackles-Spencer & Norton Funeral Home, 256 Halltown Rd, Harpers Ferry, WV 25425. The funeral; service will be held at Zion Episcopal Church, 301 East Congress St., Charles Town, WV. 25414 at 11 am on Thursday, November 2, 2017. The service will be conducted by Reverend Joseph Rivers of St. Philips Episcopal Church, Charles Town and Reverend Michael Morgan of Zion Episcopal Church.
Interment will be in Milton Valley Cemetery in Berryville, Virginia.
In lieu of flowers, it is suggested that donations be made to Hospice of the Panhandle, 30 Hospice Ln, Kearneysville, WV 25430.
Daniel Arnett and the Medal of Honor Moment – by Jim Surkamp References
10,764 words
References – Daniel Arnett & The Medal of Honor Moment – New Market Heights, Va. Sept. 29, 1864
Bailey, Chuck. (2014, July 29). “The Saddest Affair: A Geologic Perspective on the Battle of the Crater, U.S. Civil War.” https://wmblogs.wm.edu/cmbail/the-saddest-affair-a-geologic-perspective-on-the-battle-of-the-crater-u-s-civil-war/
One hundred and fifty years ago this week a terrible and pernicious battle was fought at Petersburg, Virginia during the American Civil War. In the summer of 1864 the Confederate and Union armies were at a stalemate; dug in and facing each other across a long front. Lt. Colonel Henry Pleasants, a mining engineer from northeastern Pennsylvania, proposed digging a tunnel (in essence a mine shaft) beneath the Confederate lines and then setting off explosives to pierce the Southern defenses. The Union troops would then storm the breach with the prospect of a significant breakthrough on the Petersburg front.
Union general George Meade originally thought the proposition little more than a curious endeavor to occupy bored troops. Between June 25th and July 17th, Pleasants’ men excavated a 500-foot (~150 m) tunnel from just behind the Federal lines to a location immediately beneath the Confederate position. Eventually the plan was embraced by the Union high command and just before dawn on July 30th, 1864 ~8,000 lbs. (~3,600 kg) of gunpowder was detonated in subsurface galleries. In an instant the explosion violently displaced 400,000 cubic feet of earth. That’s equivalent to about 50 modern railroad boxcars) and in the process killed more than 250 Confederate soldiers. A massive crater with a ragged maw and steep walls, upwards of 25’ high (9 m), was created. In the aftermath a cloying dust cloud settled back to the surface coating both Confederate and Union troops.
Rather than immediately storm through the breach, Union troops reacted with confused caution. Ladders and footbridges weren’t available to facilitate Union troop movement out of their own trenches. After traversing the no-man’s land between the lines many Union troops went into the Crater as opposed to going around it, as called for in the original battle plan. Eventually the Confederates regrouped and mounted a counterattack on the Union forces, now mostly stuck in the Crater. Rather than cutting the ever-growing Union losses, General Ambrose Burnside sent a division of the Unites States Colored Troops into the Crater. What ensued was effectively a race riot and many black soldiers were massacred after they’d surrendered. By midday the Confederates had regained the lost ground and the Union was routed. Between 5,000 and 6,000 men were killed, wounded, or captured during the battle of the Crater (the vast majority of casualties were from the Union army). General Ulysses Grant lamented, “it was the saddest affair I’ve witnessed in this war.”
Powell, William H. “The Battle of the Petersburg Crater.” Battles and Leaders. Vol. 4. Robert Underwood Johnson, Clarence Clough Buel (Ed.). New York, NY: Century Co., 1887. pp. 545-560. pp. 550-551 http://archive.org/stream/battlesleadersof04cent#page/550/mode/2up
I returned immediately, and just as I arrived in rear of the First Division the mine was sprung. It was a magnificent spectacle, and as the mass of earth went up into the air, carrying with it men, guns, carriages, and timbers, and spread out like an immense cloud as it reached its altitude, so close were the Union lines that the mass appeared as if it would descend immediately upon the troops waiting to make the charge. This caused them to break and scatter t6 the rear, and about ten minutes were consumed in re-forming for the attack. Not much was lost by this delay, however, as it took nearly that time for the cloud of dust to pass off. The order was then given for the advance. As no part of the Union line of breastworks had been removed (which would have been an arduous as well as hazardous undertaking), the troops clambered over them as best they could. This in itself broke the ranks, and they did not stop to re-form, but pushed ahead toward the crater, about 130 yards distant, the debris from the explosion having covered up the abatis and chevaux-de-frise in front of the enemy’s works.
Little did these men anticipate what they would see upon arriving there an enormous hole in the ground about 30 feet deep, 60 feet wide, and 170 feet long, filled with dust, great blocks of clay, guns, broken carriages, projecting timbers, and men buried in various ways some up to their necks, others to their waists, and some with only their feet and legs protruding from the earth. One of these near me was pulled out, and proved to be a second lieutenant of the battery which had been blown up. The fresh air revived him, and he was soon able to walk and talk. He was very grateful and said that he was asleep when the explosion took place, and only awoke to find himself wriggling up in the air ; then a few seconds afterward he felt himself descending, and soon lost consciousness.
The whole scene of the explosion struck every one dumb with astonishment as we arrived at the crest of the debris. It was impossible for the troops of the Second Brigade to move forward in line, as they had advanced; and, owing to the broken state they were in, every man crowding up to look into the hole, and being pressed by the First Brigade, which was immediately in rear, it was equally impossible to move by the flank, by any command, around the crater. Before the brigade commanders could realize the situation, the two brigades became inextricably mixed, in the desire to look into the hole.
Price, James S. (2011). ”The Battle of New Market: Freedom Will Be Theirs By The Sword.” Charleston SC: The History Press, Inc. p. 9 first paragraph in the Preface.
Reid, Whitelaw. (1868). “Ohio in the war: her statesmen, her generals, and soldiers.” Vol. 1. Cincinnati, OH: Moore, Wilstach & Baldwin. https://archive.org/details/ohiointhewar01reidrich
Hanna, Charles W. (2002). “African American Recipients of the Medal of Honor: A Biographical Dictionary.” Jefferson, North Carolina, and London: McFarland & company, Inc. – https://books.google.com/books?id=ehIkCQAAQBAJ&pg=PA42&lpg=PA42&dq=1st+Sgt.+Alexander+Kelly&source=bl&ots=wUsGNryz9W&sig=S65coR0do0u5mfIDbxf9fQ2IjI8&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiA2KWps7zZAhUhTd8KHZxJAAsQ6AEIOTAG#v=onepage&q=1st Sgt. Alexander Kelly&f=false
Powhatan Beaty p. 16
James H. Bronson p. 19
Milton Holland pp. 38-40
Robert A. Pinn pp. 46-47
OVERVIEW OF SEPTEMBER 29-SEPTEMBER 30, 1864 BY DAVID A. NORRIS:
Norris, David. (2017, July 29). “Battle of New Market Heights.” – http://warfarehistorynetwork.com/daily/civil-war/battle-of-new-market-heights/
Along New Market Road, 1,800 Confederates manned one mile of works. Below the entrenchments was an abatis, a tight barrier of interlocking trees, branches, and brush. On the left, the 1st Rockbridge Artillery provided cover with their guns. Brig. Gen. Martin Gary’s brigade came next, followed by the Texas brigade of Brig. Gen. John Gregg to Gary’s right, and then a detachment of the Richmond Howitzers. Gregg was at Fort Harrison, leaving command on the ground to Colonel Frederick S. Bass. Brig. Gen. Alfred Terry’s division held the Union right, facing Gary and the Rockbridge Artillery. Brig. Gen. Robert Sanford Foster’s division waited in reserve.
Paine’s division held the Union left, facing Bass’s Texans and the Richmond Howitzers. Early that morning they were arrayed on high ground south of Four Mile Creek, where they were instructed to lie down and wait for further orders. Colonel Samuel Duncan’s brigade was sent ahead first, but they were blocked by the abatis. Colonel Alonzo Draper moved his brigade forward and to the right to support Duncan. Draper took skirmisher fire from the woods until he reached the creek’s ravine.
. . . After half an hour, Draper moved his men ahead in double columns. Emerging from a stand of young pines, they burst into the open 800 yards from the enemy’s works. Charging across the field, they lost many men to heavy enemy fire and found themselves mired in the wetlands of Four Mile Creek, 30 yards from the Confederate lines. Slogging through the water, they formed ranks again on the north side of the creek. There, wrote Draper, “The men generally commenced firing, which made so much confusion that it was impossible to make orders understood.” Amid the chaos, Draper was unable to communicate the order to charge, and the brigade remained stranded and tangled in front of the abatis. All the while, men were falling by scores.
For half an hour, under heavy enemy fire, Draper’s men hacked at the abatis with axes. Draper’s aide-de-camp fled from the field. But to Draper’s relief, Confederate fire began dying away. The colonel ordered each regimental commander to rally his men around the colors and charge. Draper’s regiments were short of officers. That morning, the 550 men of the 5th USCT went into action with only one officer per company, and managed that only because the adjutant took command of one of the companies.
“Better Men Were Never Better Led”
By the time they reached the New Market Road works, several companies were missing their officers. Stepping into their places to take command under fire, four sergeants in the 5th USCT and four in the 36th USCT became de facto company captains—the first African American soldiers to command troops in combat. Pouring through the abatis, the Union soldiers rushed up the slope to the Confederate breastworks. Unknown to the Federals, the Confederate fire had slackened because Bass and Gary had received orders to abandon their position and reinforce the lines closer to the city, which were coming under attack from Ord’s XVIII Corps. As Paine’s troops reached the ramparts, enough Rebels were still in place to keep up a lively fire.
For their actions in the final dash to the entrenchments several men were commended in after-battle reports. Among them, Private James Gardiner charged ahead of his company and into the Confederate works. He shot and bayoneted an officer who was trying to rally his men. A musket ball struck Corporal Miles James and shattered his upper left arm bone. James stayed on his feet, urged his men forward, and somehow loaded and fired his musket with his one good arm.
Paine’s strategy of throwing in his regiments piecemeal resulted in needlessly high casualties for a position that was being abandoned anyway. Confederate soldiers remaining in line delayed the Union advance and inflicted heavy losses on the enemy before commencing an orderly evacuation. The sacrifices of Paine’s men had meaning far beyond the value of the ground taken. Until that day, the worth of black soldiers was doubted by much of the Union Army in Virginia. Paine’s brigade sufferedmore than 1,000 casualties, most of them in front of the New Market Heights works. “Better men were never better led,” wrote Butler. “The colored soldiers by coolness, steadiness, and determined courage and dash have silenced every cavil of the doubters of their soldierly capacity.” . . .
Aftermath of Grant’s Fifth Offensive
While Field and Hoke made their attacks on September 30, Meade charged the Confederate entrenchments southwest of Petersburg. They captured a section of works around a redoubt called Fort Archer. Under Lt. Gen. A.P. Hill, Confederates dug new fortifications and repelled the Union forces from further progress. Fighting continued until October 2, when each side settled into their newly established lines of entrenchment. Another 2,800 Union and 1,300 Confederate casualties were added to the cost of Grant’s fifth offensive.
Fourteen men from Draper’s brigade and other USCT regiments in the Army of the James received Medals of Honor for their actions on September 29. Butler was so impressed with the conduct of his USCT regiments at New Market Heights that he supplemented the Medal of Honor awards with a citation of his own, known as the Army of the James Medal or the Butler Medal. Butler himself ordered and paid for the specially designed medals and ribbons. They were manufactured by Tiffany & Company and modeled on the Crimean War Medals issued by Great Britain. “I record with pride,” wrote Butler, “that in that single action there were so many deserving that it called for a presentation of nearly two hundred.” The Army of the James Medal was the only military honor created for a specific battle during the Civil War.
“The Union Army” Vol. 2. Madison, WI: Federal Publishing Company. Internet Archives archive.org 19 January 2001 Web. 6 November 2017.
– pp. 449-450 Fifth U.S. Colored Troops – https://archive.org/details/unionarmyhistory02madi
Fifth U. S. Colored Troops.— Cols.. James W. Conine, Giles W. Shurtleff; Lieut.-Col., John B. Cook; Maj., Ira C. Terry. This was the first colored regiment recruited in Ohio, the nucleus of which was a few colored men collected at Camp Delaware. Much difficulty was met in the organization, as there was no law of Congress regulating the same and no order from the war department calling for their services. The initiative, however, was taken by mustering into the U. S. service J. B. T. Marsh, as quartermaster of the 127th Ohio infantry, and the formation of this regiment was commenced under what was known as the “contraband law,” which gave a colored laborer in the service $to per month, $3 of which was for clothes. Recruiting progressed slowly and but for a few faithful men, who were ambitious to show themselves worthy of their freedom, the organization would have failed. The companies were mustered into the U. S. service as follows : B, C, E, G and H, July 23, 1863; D, Aug. 20; F, Sept. 9; I, Oct. 17, and K, Jan. 15, 1864. The war department finally called colored men into the service and promised that Congress would place them on an equality with other troops. Officers were examined and assigned to the regiment and early in November the regimental organization was formed. The synonym of the regiment was changed to 5th U. S. colored troops, the equipment was completed and the regiment was ordered to Virginia with nine companies and nearly the full complement of officers. It served the government honorably in many battles, and no troops ever did better fighting. Upon the roll of honor will be found the names of 266 brave soldiers, who gave up their lives on the field of battle, in hospital from mortal wounds received, or from disease. The regiment was mustered out on Sept. 20, 1865, at Carolina City, N. C.
– https://udayton.edu/directory/artssciences/history/washington_versalle.php
Washington, Versalle F. (1999). ” Eagles on their Buttons: A Black Infantry Regiment in the Civil War.” Columbia, MO.: University of Missouri Press. books.google.com 24 November 2005 Web. 22 February 2018.
pp. 25-26 – “C” Company’s commander Capt. Gustavus Fahrion was not accounted for as present at the battle
pp. 52-57, 60 – New Market Heights Battle
Reid, Whitelaw. (1868). Ohio In The War-Volume II. Cincinnati, OH: Moore, Wilstach & Baldwin.p. 915 http://archive.org/stream/ohioinwarherstat01reid#page/n948/mode/1up
p. 269 – “Fifty Years and Over of Akron and Summit County” – books.google.com/books?id=nyAWAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA269&lpg=PA269&dq=Ulysses+L.+Marvin&source=bl&ots=mrI_Q3IXUT&sig=QKZlsVLz2Vajxs0ter0sD0Dcg4c&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwibsrPN96_XAhWmhVQKHUMJDw0Q6AEIKzAA#v=onepage&q=Ulysses L. Marvin&f=false
Marvin, U.L. “Estimate of General G.W. Shurtleff as a Soldier, by a Comrade in Arms.” In Oberlin Alumni Magazine. June 1911. babel.hathitrust.org 6 December 2009 Web. 20 February 2018.
pp. 316-322). https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015047670164;page=root;view=plaintext;size=100;seq=28;num=31
p. 316:
it is certain that the officers and the enlisted men looked to Colonel Shurtleff as their leader, and it was the inspiration of his presence which was always needed to induce his regiment to do its best.
Before any full colonel had been assigned to the regiment, Colonel Shurtleff, by his zeal and care of his troops, as well as by the firmness with which he commanded, and the discipline upon which he insisted and which he enforced, had become to the Fifth Regiment the embodiment of the soldierly qualities which bespeak the safe commanded.
On the next day, the 16th of June, the regiment, with the other forces with which they were joined, made an attack upon the enemy lasting for several hours, but resulting in no decided victory for anybody.
This was the first general engagement in which Colonel Shurtleff commanded his regiment, and in this engagement, as in all those that followed, he took his position in advance of the center of the front line of his regiment.
He was exposed more than any other officer, both in this and all the subsequent engagements of this regiment, and this because of the fact that instead of taking his position at the right of his regiment, and (317) simply in line with the front rank, he always took his position about two paces in front of the center of the front line.
This made him a target for the enemy, and exposed him more, as already said, than any other officer of the regiment was exposed. In this engagement we lost several men, and the first officer of the regiment who was killed, was killed in this engagement on the i6th day of June, 1864, Lieutenant Johnson, of Bellefontaine, Ohio, a gallant officer and a worthy man.
On the 17th of June we remained quietly in camp at a safe distance from the enemy. On the 18th the attack was renewed and the enemy driven from its first line of breastworks.
It fell back, however, only to its second line, which it was able to hold. We took possession of the first line and reversed the earthworks which the enemy had thrown up, so as to make them a protection to us, and from this line we never retreated, but, as known to all who have read the history of those days, it was many months before we were able to hold any position nearer to Petersburg than the one which we secured on the 18th day of June.
From this time on we were engaged in skirmishes almost daily. Our trenches, as we called them, (which were simply a line of earth thrown up in our front about 4 1-2 feet high, and extending from the Appomattox in a semi-circular form to the east and south-east for a distance of several miles) were so near to the enemy’s line that musketry fired from either side reached the other, and scarcely a day went by that we did not lose some men by the firing of the enemy.
During this time also there was danger of an epidemic, and it required the utmost exertion on the part of the officers, among whom none was more faithful in any part of the command than was Colonel Shurtleff, to keep the camps policed so as to be reasonably clean, and during this time it was largely due to Colonel Shurtleff that we were furnished with rations which were reasonably fit for men to eat.
He made a personal inspection daily of the commissary stores supplied, and under his direction we erected posts and cross bars, and covered them over with branches of trees so as to protect ourselves as far as might be from the intense heat of the sun.
On numerous occasions it was necessary to tumble these branches off, and that very hurriedly, because some force of the enemy would come out from behind their trenches, or (318) we would make, and did make on several occasions advances in front of our trenches, but at night each army occupied the position that it had occupied before.
This state of things continued until the 30th day of July, when the famous mine explosion took place. This explosion was brought about by the excavation under the fort of the enemy of an immense chamber, in which large quantities of powder had been placed, and the details all arranged for an explosion of this mine, which was expected to, and which did blow up the enemy’s fort, killing a large number of men, and filling all their troops in that immediate neighborhood, at least, with consternation.
The colored division was to make the attack immediately following this explosion, and while it was hoped the confusion of the enemy would be so great that they would not be prepared to offer vigorous resistance.
The result is well known; somebody blundered. The attack was not ordered as early as it should have been, and until the enemy had had some opportunity to recover and to prepare themselves for the attack, and when the advance was made, the troops were ordered into the very chasm which had been caused by the explosion, and there hundreds of then met a horrible death. The Fifth Regiment, however, was not among those who fell into the chasm.
We were at the extreme right of the charging column, and so were saved from this horror, but our own experience of that day was sufficient to warrant us in characterizing war as General Sherman characterized it in that famous expression of his.
The enemy retreated to a line of entrenchments but little removed from this fort and the lines extending from it, and there held their own. During that day we made four distinct charges upon the enemy.
They were entrenched; we exposed. The result was, that as we retreated from these charges to the line which we had established, and which had been the enemy’s line in the morning, we left many of our men dead and many more wounded on the field.
The day was hot beyond almost any experience which we have ever had in Ohio, and on the 31st of July, which was Sunday, these wounded and dead men were in our sight, and yet we were unable to help them until late in the afternoon, when a flag of truce, (which we had tried to have recognized the entire (319) day was recognized by the enemy, and we were permitted to remove our wounded.
As a result of the siege up to this time and of the battle of the Mine, our numbers had become greatly depleted, and earnest pleas were made to Ohio for more men. Not only this, but we succeeded in enlisting a very considerable number of men who had been slaves.
These men were, of course, intensely ignorant, but they had sufficient intelligence to know that the defeat of the confederate army meant emancipation of their race, and they had the merit to be willing to face the dangers and endure the hardships of the
battle and the siege for the accomplishment of this result.
Shortly after this engagement, we were removed to the North side of the James, and from that time on participated in the siege of Richmond. The work was practically a repetition of that in which we were engaged while in the trenches in front of Petersburg, but during all this horrible summer, when the men of the regiment were enduring all that it would seem as though men could endure, they were kept in heart, their courage was stimulated, their pride and a determination to win in the long run was kept up, as I firmly believe, more by Colonel Shurtleff than by any other one man.
The battle in which the Fifth Regiment lost most, was fought on the 29th of September, 1864, in an attack on a fortification of the enemy known as “New Market Heights.”
The night before this attack was made, the regiment was furnished with ammunition, and with everything to indicate that we were expected to go into battle on the next day.
By this time our regiment had been recruited so that we numbered on the morning of the battle five hundred and fifty enlisted men. At this time Colonel Shurtleff was the full colonel of the regiment.
Besides him, we had one field officer, Major Ira C. Terry, who had before that been wounded and had just returned to the regiment.
The number of line officers was so reduced that instead of having, as a full complement of officers would require, three to each company, we had but one to each company, and this only because the adjutant took command of a company.
That is, we had ten company commanders, one of whom was the adjutant, who volunteered to take the command of a company, though it was not one of his duties.
Our entire complement of officers, exclusive of the chaplain, the (320) surgeons and the quartermaster, who of course were non-combatants, was on this morning twelve.
We started on the march to the front at early dawn, within an hour we had come up with the enemy who, aside from the protection of the fort, had earthworks extending in either direction, to their right and to their left, along the entire front, and in front of these they had constructed with the boughs and branches of trees abatis, so near to their lines that in our attack we were obliged to go over this, or when we could, pull it to one side, and while we were engaged in this work, we were under severe musketry fire of the enemy, who were near by.
Again we had a full realization of General Sherman’s characterization of war. In this engagement, out of five hundred and fifty men of the Regiment who entered it, eighty-five were killed and two hundred and forty-eight in addition were wounded, and nine of the officers were wounded, one of whom was killed, Captain Wilbur, of Marion, Ohio.
These statistics are taken from Whitelaw Reid’s “Ohio in the War.” It was in this engagement that Colonel Shurtleff received the wound from which he suffered during the remainder of his life, and which for a time seemed likely to prove fatal.
Examining the statistics as to other Ohio regiments in the same volume, it will be found that no regiment from Ohio suffered as great a percentage of loss in any one day as this regiment suffered on the 29th of September, 1864, and it will be further found that no regiment from Ohio suffered as great a percentage of loss during the entire three days of Gettysburg as this regiment suffered at New Market Heights on the 29th of September, 1864.
When Colonel Shurtleff was struck, he was, as I have described him earlier, in front of his regiment, encouraging them by his conduct, by the waiving of his sword and by his calling on them to come on.
General Butler, in his account of this engagement, uses this language: “Then the scene that lay before us was this: There dipped from the brow of the hill quite a declivity down from some meadow land.
At its foot ran a brook of water only a few inches deep, a part of the bottom, as I knew, being gravelly and firm. The brook drained a marsh which was quite deep and muddy, a little to the left of the direct line.
The column of division unfortunately did not oblique to the right far (321) enough to avoid that marsh, wholly. Then rose steadily, at an angle of thirty to thirty-five degrees, plain, hard ground to within one hundred and fifty yards of the redoubt. At this point there was a very strong line of abatis.
A hundred yards above that, the hill rising a little faster, was another line of’ abatis. Fifty yards beyond was a square redoubt mounting some guns en barbette, that is, on top of the embankment, and held by the enemy.
I rode with my staff to the top of the first hill, whence everything was in sight, and watched the movement of the negroes.
The column marched down the declivity as steadily as if on parade. At once when it came in sight the enemy opened upon it, but at that distance there was not much effect.
Crossing the brook their lines broke in a little disorder, the left of the divisions having plunged into the morass, but the men struggled through, holding their guns above their heads to keep them dry.
The enemy directed its fire upon them; but, as in all cases of firing downward from a fort, the fire was too high. The leading battalion broke, but its colonel (Colonel Shurtleff) maintained his position at its head.
Words of command were useless, as in the melee they could not be heard; but calling his bugler to him the rally rang out, and at its call his men formed around him.
The division was at once re-formed, and then at double quick they dashed up to the first line of abatis. The axmen laid to, vigorously chopping out the obstructions. Many of them went down. Others seized the axes. The enemy concentrated their fire upon the head of the column. It looked in one moment as if it might melt away.
The colors of the first battalion went down, but instantly they were up again but with new color bearers. Wonderfully they managed to brush aside the abatis, and then at double quick the reformed column charged the second line of abatis.
Fortunately they were able to remove that in a few minutes, but it seemed a long time to the lookers on. Then, with a cheer and a yell that I can almost hear now, they dashed upon the fort.
But before they reached even the ditch, which was not a formidable thing, the enemy ran away and did not stop until they had run four miles, I believe.
They were only fired at as they ran away, and did not lose a man.
As I rode across the brook and up towards the fort along this (322) line of charge, some eighty feet wide and three or four hundred yards long, there lay in my path five hundred and forty-three dead and wounded of my colored comrades.
And, as I guided my horse this way and that way that his hoof might not profane their dead bodies, I swore to myself an oath, which I hope and believe I have kept sacredly, that they and their race should be cared for and protected by me to the extent of my power so long as I lived.
On every anniversary of this battle, it may, without doubt, safely be said that every man of the Fifth regiment feels a sadness and gloom in his recollection of the terrible losses of that day.
Colonel Shurtleff was immediately taken to the hospital at Hampton, and after remaining there several weeks, came home. He might now very properly have tendered his resignation.
His wound was such as to entitle him to be honorably discharged on a resignation. While at home on this occasion, he was married, but as soon as he was able—indeed before he was able to fully resume his duties in the field, he returned to the regiment.
BATTLE MAP – New Market Heights – September 29, 1864 – https://www.civilwar.org/learn/maps/new-market-heights-september-29-1864
BATTLE OF NEW MARKET HEIGHTS http://www.thegospelarmy.com/newmarket.htm
Pickens, James D. (1909). “Fort Harrison.” Confederate Veteran Vol. 21 No. 10. p. 484 https://archive.org/stream/confederateveter21conf#page/484/mode/2up
The Online Books Page Confederate Veteran
– (onlinebooks.library.upenn.edu
Butler, Benjamin F. (1892). “Butler’s Book.” Boston, MA: A.M. Thayer & Co. Internet Archives archive.org 26 January 1997 Web. 16 October 2017.
pp. 730-733 https://archive.org/stream/butlersbookrevie00butl#page/730/mode/1up/search/Butler’s+Book
Just before’ sunset on the 28th of September I rode along the James River on the south side from a point opposite Aikens’ Landing down to Deep Bottom. There was no more appearance of the proposed movement than if there had not been a soldier within fifty miles of the place — not the slightest appearance of any preparation for throwing a pontoon or other bridge across the river, and no pontoons in the river or in sight.
When darkness fell the work began, and at half past eleven I was again there. A thoroughly serviceable pontoon bridge had been thrown across the liver to convey infantry and artillery, and it was entirely muffled.
At five minutes of midnight the head of Ord’s column struck the bridge, and with a quiet that was wonderful the march across was performed.
I had sent an aid to Deep Bottom, and he met me half way coming back to say that at precisely twelve o’clock Birney’s column silently began crossing the bridge, and that General Birney had said that after he had bivouacked three divisions of colored troops as well as his own, he should remain quiet and move exactly at daybreak; and that he expected that I would take personal command of the colored troops at that time.
I rode quickly to my headquarters and snatched a few minutes’ sleep. At three o’clock I took my coffee, and at four I was crossing the Deep Bottom Bridge. (731) At half past four o’clock I found the colored division, rising three thousand men, occupying a plain which shelved towards the river, so that they were not observed by the enemy at Newmarket Heights. They were formed in close column of division right iD front. I rode through the division, addressed a few words of encouragement and confidence to the troops. I told them that this was an attack where I expected them to go over and take a work which would be before them after they got over the hill, and that they must take it at all hazards, and that when they went over the parapet into it their war cry should be, “Remember Fort Pillow.”
The caps were taken from the nipples of their guns so that no shot should be fired by them, for whenever a charging column stops to fire, that charge may as well be considered ended. As there was to be no halt after they turned the brow of the hill, no skirmishers were to be deployed.
We waited a few minutes, and the day fairly shining, the order was given to go forward, and the troops marched up to the top of the hill as regularly and quietly as if on parade.
Then the scene that lay before us was this : There dipped from the brow of the hill quite a declivity down through some meadow land. At its foot ran a brook of water only a few inches deep, a part of the bottom, as I knew, being gravelly and firm. The brook drained a marsh which was quite deep and muddy, a little to the left of the direct line. The column of division unfortunately did not oblique to the right far enough to avoid that marsh wholly. Then rose steadily, at an angle of thirty to thirty-five degrees, plain, hard ground to within one hundred and fifty yards of the redoubt. At this point there was a very strong line of abatis.
A hundred yards above that, the hill rising a little faster, was another line of abatis. Fifty yards beyond was a square redoubt mounting some guns en barbette, that is, on top of the embankment, and held by not exceeding one thousand of the enemy. I rode with my staff to the top of the first hill, whence everything was in sight, and watched the movement of the negroes. The column marched down the declivity as steadily as if on parade. At once when it came (732) in sight the enemy opened upon it, but at that distance there was not much effect.
Crossing the brook their lines broke in little disorder, the left of the divisions having plunged into the morass, but the men struggling through, held their guns above their heads to keep them dry. The enemy directed its fire upon them; but, as in all cases of firing downwards from a fort, the fire was too high. The leading battalion broke, but its colonel maintained his position at its head. Words of command were useless, as in the melee they could not be heard; but calling his bugler to him the rally rang out, and at its call his men formed around him.
The division was at once re-formed, and (733) then at double quick they dashed up to the first line of abatis. The axemen laid to, vigorously chopping out the obstructions. Many of them went down. Others seized the axes. The “enemy concentrated their fire upon the head of the column. It looked at one moment as if it might melt away. The colors of the first battalion went down, but instantly they were up again but Avith new color bearers.
Wonderfully they managed to brush aside the abatis, and then at double quick the re-formed column charged the second line of abatis. Fortunately they were able to remove that in a few minutes, but it seemed a long time to the lookers on. Then, with a cheer and a yell that I can almost hear now, they dashed upon the fort. But before they reached even the ditch, which was not a formidable thing, the enemy ran away and did not stop until they had run four miles, I believe. They were only fired at as they ran away, and did not lose a man.
As I rode across the brook and up towards the fort along this line of charge, some eighty feet wide and three or four hundred yards long, there lay in my path five hundred and forty-three dead and wounded of my colored comrades. And, as I guided my horse this way and that way that his hoof might not profane their dead bodies, I swore to myself an oath, which I hope and believe I have kept sacredly, that they and their race should be cared for and protected by me to the extent of my power so long as I lived.
When I reached the scene of their exploit their ranks broke, but it was to gather around their general. They almost dragged my horse up alongside the cannon they had captured, and I felt in my inmost heart that the capacity of the negro race for soldiers had then and there been fully settled forever.
Meanwhile the white troops under Birney had advanced up the Newmarket road in the direction indicated by his orders without meeting any force except a few skirmishers and pickets who fled before him, and occupied the abandoned line of the enemy’s entrenchments, which had been carried by the colored division.
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– p. 60 – https://archive.org/details/cu31924030907509/page/n76/mode/1up?view=theater
Moore, Edward Alexander. (1907). “The story of a cannoneer under Stonewall Jackson, in which is told the part taken by the Rockbridge artillery in the Army of northern Virginia.” New York, NY; Washington, Neale Publishing Co. Internet Archives archive.org 27 Oct. 2009. Web. 26 Sept. 2010. pp. 263-265 http://www.archive.org/stream/cu31924030907509#page/263/mode/1up
The summer now drawing to a close had been a most trying one, and the future offered no sign of relief. The situation was one of simply waiting to be overwhelmed. That the fighting spirit was unimpaired was demonstrated in every encounter, notably the one on July 30, at The Crater, near Petersburg.
During the night of September 28 there was heard the continued rumbling of wheels and the tramp of large forces of the enemy crossing on the pontoon bridges from the south to the north side of the James. At dawn next morning we hurriedly broke camp, as did Gary’s brigade of cavalry camped close by, and scarcely had time to reach high ground and unlimber before we were attacked. The big gaps in our lines, entirely undefended, were soon penetrated, and the contest quickly became one of speed to reach the shorter line of fortifications some five miles nearer to and in sight of Richmond.
The break through our lines was on our right, which placed the Federals almost in our rear, so that a detour of several miles on our part was necessary. On the principle that the chased dog is generally the fleetest, we succeeded in reaching the breastworks, a short distance to the left of Fort Gilmore, with all four guns, now ten-pound Parrotts, followed by the straggling cannoneers much exhausted. I vividly recall George Ginger, who was No. 1 at one of the guns, as he came trotting in with the gun-rammer on his shoulder, which he had carried five miles (264) through brush and brake for want of time to replace it on the gun-carriage.
Much has been written about the defense of Fort Gimore, and much controversy as to who deserved the credit. The fact that a superb fight was made was fully apparent when we entered the fort an hour later, while the negroes who made the attack were still firing from behind stumps and depressions in the cornfield in front, to which our artillery replied with little effect. The Fort was occupied by about sixty men who, I understood, were Mississippians.
The ditch in front was eight or ten feet deep and as many in width. Into it, urged on by white officers, the negroes leaped, and tO’ scale the embankment on the Fort side climbed on each other’s shoulders, and were instantly shot down as their heads appeared above it. The ground beyond was strewn with dead and wounded. A full regiment had preceded us into the Fort, but the charge on it had been repulsed by the small force before its arrival.
Next morning we counted twenty-three dead negroes in the ditch, the wounded and prisoners having previously been removed. There was great lamentation among them when ” Corporal Dick” fell. He was a conspicuous leader, jet black, and bald as a badger. A mile to the right of Fort Gilmore and one-fourth of a mile in advance of our line of breastworks was Fort Harrison, which was feebly garrisoned by reserves.
This force had beep overpowered and the Fort taken by the Federals. Two. days later, (265) and after it had been completely manned with infantry and artillery, an unsuccessful attempt was made to recapture it, of which we had a full view. The attack was made by Colquitt’s and Anderson’s brigades, while General Lee stood on the parapet of Fort Gilmore with field-glass in hand, waving his hat and cheering lustily. Of course our loss in killed, wounded, and captured was very heavy. This ended the fighting, except sharpshooting, on the north side of the James.
During our stay in Fort Gilmore a company of Reserves from Richmond took the place of the regular infantry. They were venerable-looking old gentlemen — lawyers, business men, etc., dressed in citizens’ clothes. In order to accustom them to the service, we supposed, they were frequently roused during the night to prepare for battle. After several repetitions of this they concluded, about two o’clock one night, that it was useless to retire again and go through the same performance, so a party of them kindled a fire and good-humoredly sat around in conversation on various subjects, one of which was infant baptism.
My bedfellow, Tom Williamson, a bachelor under twenty years of age, being deeply interested in this question, of paramount importance at this time, forthwith left his bunk, and from that time until daylight theology was in the air.
Giles W. Shurtleff, “Reminiscences of Army Life”, Oberlin College Archives, RG 30/032, Series 7, Subseries 1, Box 1, “Writings re the Civil War” p. 41. https://www2.oberlin.edu/external/EOG/ShurtleffBio-Mercer.htm ; http://www.oberlinheritagecenter.org/researchlearn/bibliographycivilwar
Butler’s report to Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton four days after the battle in part read: ‘My colored troops under General Paine…carried intrenchments at the point of a bayonet….It was most gallantly done, with most severe loss. Their praises are in the mouth of every officer in this army. Treated fairly and disciplined, they have fought most heroically.’
– Volume XLII – in Three Parts. 1893. (Vol. 42, Chap. 54), Chapter LIV – Operations in Southeastern Virginia and North Carolina. August 1-December 31, 1864.
Part III – Union and Confederate Correspondence. p. 65 https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=coo.31924077730095&view=1up&seq=67&skin=2021
1890 Veterans Schedule
Shepherdstown Wv Enumeration District No. 5 p. 1
D. W. Arnett loss of hearing ancestry.com
Shepherdstown Register, November 28, 1890, page 3 – https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn84026824/1890-11-28/ed-1/seq-3/
Shepherdstown Register., September 17, 1896, page 3 – https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn84026824/1896-09-17/ed-1/seq-3/
plat of Arnett property DB 99 pages 279-281 – Deed Room County Clerk Charles Town, WV
Shepherdstown Register., October 22, 1896, page 3 – https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn84026824/1896-10-22/ed-1/seq-3/#date1=1789&index=15&rows=20&words=Arnett+Wilson&searchType=basic&sequence=0&state=&date2=1949&proxtext=Wilson+Arnett&y=0&x=0&dateFilterType=yearRange&page=1
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Marriage certificate 1902 D. Arnett and Charlotte Adams – (wvculture.org) 2 March 2000 web. 20 February 2018.
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Widow’s Pension Application for Husband War-Related Injury for D.W. Arnett (505493) Bureau of Pensions – U.S. Department of Interior. October 24, 1912, pp. 1 & 2.
– Robert A. Pinn. April 30, 1902. – Ordered to be printed – (genealogybank.com).
