The Peak Helps Reunite Divided Civil War Battle Memoir

Posted By Les Conklin on Apr 23, 2019

April 22, 2019

Do you have  complaints about today’s healthcare? Read this Civil War memoir.

To save Searles Young’s life, stretcher bearers carried him through the streets of Washington in an iron four-poster bed. And that’s just part of the story.

Our sincere thanks to The Peak reader in Vermont and the Foster R.I. Preservation Society. Because of their help, we can share this long-missing part of Young’s incredible memoir.  Editor, The Peak

Prologue

Grand Army of the Republic Ribbon.

By Les Conklin

I’m  proud that Searles Bradford Young is my great, great, great granduncle. He was born in 1832 on a farm in Killingly, Connecticut, a few miles from the western border of Rhode Island. During his life, he married, raised two sons, was a farmer, Free Will Baptist minister, and assisted his son in a lumbering and sawmill business in Ben Lomond, California and Foster, Rhode Island.  As you will see, he was an exceptional and candid writer.

I first learned about him in the 1980s when I became interested in family history. My mother had met Searles when she and her sister were little girls and stayed at the Young farm  during their summer vacations. He must have been easy to remember. He was very old, bearded and was missing an arm that he “lost” in the Civil War.  Mom gave me a photograph of Searles.

I did some research and obtained a memoir that Searles had written, his Army pension records and other information. The government records confirmed that he was wounded at the Battle of Fredericksburg. The memoir was a jewel but unfortunately the final part of the memoir was missing. The part I had was a teaser, coming to an abrupt mid-paragraph end just when Searles began describing what happened to him at Fredericksburg.  Someone must have taken the last pages and not returned them.

Last month I wanted another  article for The Peak, so I wrote “ 19th Century ‘Scholars’ Deal with School Pollution.” Most of the article is quoted from the part of the memoir that I’ve had for years. In it, Searles describes attending classes in a one room school house that was warmed by a wood burning stove. It’s very funny.

Within days of publishing the article online, Rob Grandchamp called me from  Vermont. His hobby is researching the soldiers in the Rhode Island 7^th Regiment. He had Googled Young’s name and found my article. He put me in touch with Ed Robinson at the Foster Rhode Island Preservation Society. Ed emailed the missing pages of the memoir.

So with a sense of gratitude and family pride, here is Young’s account of his experiences before, during and after the Battle of Fredericksburg.  It is not funny.

Excerpt Searles Bradford Young Memoir – Fredericksburg

By Searles B. Young, c. 1907

Searles Bradford Young

For many years the slavery question had been before the country. From my childhood I had been taught the evils of slavery and as I grew older, I became an earnest advocate of the anti-slavery cause and in the election of Abraham Lincoln to the presidency. The war commenced in August 1862. I enlisted in the 7^th Rhode Island Regiment, camped at Narragansett Bay for a few weeks, and on the 10^th of September 1862 we left R.I. for the seat of war.

Going to War

The soldier is often called brave but I tell them that the bravest thing that I did was to kiss my wife and two children Good Bye with the chances against us ever meeting again. We first went to Washington D.C. and camped on East Capitol Hill for a few days. I was there when the great battle of Antietam was going on, and for the first time we heard cannons that meant business. The battle was many miles away but so many cannons discharged at a time that it jarred the ground.

From here we marched through the city and over a long bridge (one mile long) and up on Arlington Heights. Here I was taken sick with typhoid fever. About this time the regiment was ordered to Maryland and after going as far as Frederick, they left me in a hospital there.

Before I was fairly recovered, I was sent away to my regiment, which was supposed to be camped near Harper’ Ferry but when I reached there, I found the regiment had started on a march, so I had to join a battery. I marched with it until I found my regiment.

First Action

The army was preparing for a forced march down the Rappahannock and we rested here three days.  The river being low and fordable at this place, my company and one other were placed on picket guard. We sent a few scouts over the river to watch the movement of the enemy, and at night four horsemen tried to pass the pickets; but as they were unable to give the countersign they were not allowed to pass. They claimed to come from General McClellan’s headquarters, but we considered it a ruse to test the pickets.

The next morning the army began to march down toward Falmouth. The enemy found that we were moving and began shelling our army from the hills beyond the river.  Our regiment was deployed as skirmishers through the woods so that we might not be taken by surprise, but the firing lasted only a few minutes. We then made a forced march to Falmouth, opposite Fredericksburg, arriving there November 20th, 1862.

Here we camped on a farm where Washington lived as a boy, and here was his mother’s grave. General Burnside, whom we were under, expected to find the pontoon bridges so that we could cross before General Lee arrived.; but he was disappointed in this and by the time his bridges arrived from Washington, Lee had thrown up breast-works sixty-five miles in length.

Courtesy Wikipedia.

The bombardment of the city commenced early in the morning of December eleventh. There were about two hundred cannons used in this attack and the bombardment continued all day.  The next day, Friday, our army completed laying the pontoon bridges and marched into position. The Battle of Fredericksburg began about noon on Saturday the thirteenth.  We were marched out onto a plain and ordered to lie down in a place which was very much exposed to the fire of the enemy.  Soon we were ordered forward at double quick. Two fences had been built across the plain and many of the men were killed while climbing over those obstacles.

Wounded and Escaped

As I was lying on one elbow and tearing a cartridge in order to reload, a rifle-ball from the enemy struck my index finger, cutting it nearly off. It broke my jaw bone, cut my tongue almost half off, and passed out the side of my neck, very close to the jugular vein.

As soon as there was a lull in the firing I went to the rear, thinking my best chance to escape was along the railroad track.  A high bank protected me for a short distance. Then I came to a place where the ground was level and the firing very severe. I had been crawling on my hands and knees but after resting a little and summoning all my strength I ran across the open space and reached the banks in safety.

Search for Medical Care

From here I walked to the city and began a search for our hospital.  I was directed to the hospital of another regiment by mistake but was allowed to stay there overnight but nothing was done for my wound.  When daylight came, I was obliged to start on my search again. I could not speak but could only show an envelope which had on it my name and the number of my regiment. When my strength was almost exhausted, I found a house where a surgeon was willing to care for me. Here my wound was bathed and dressed and my finger cut off.  I was given nourishment which was the first in twenty- four hours.

Care in Washington

The next day we were taken across the river and placed in a tent. That night it rained heavily and the next morning I found myself lying in a stream of running water.

Some of the wounded soldiers were to be taken from here to Washington, and I begged so hard in sign language that I was finally allowed to go, though the surgeons thought I was too weak. We were carried fourteen miles in freight cars and finished our journey to Washington in a steamer.

From the wharf where we transferred by ambulance to the Ninth Street Church Hospital. A very kind nurse took charge of me and soon had me bathed and placed in a clean comfortable bed, which I appreciated after my hard journey.  Many kind people came to visit the wounded soldiers and brought dainties to eat.

While in this hospital I had a great deal of trouble from bleeding of the severed arteries but these were finally tied by a skillful surgeon. I also had severe chills and on recovering from these, I caught erysipelas from another soldier, named Sargent Watson. We were ordered removed to a tent and the men were about to place me on a stretcher, when my doctor overheard my protestations. He ordered them to leave me in bed saying it would end my life to take me from it.

So, I had the strange experience of riding through the streets of Washington on an iron bedstead. After being place in the tent I gained rapidly but my troubles were not over yet. A half-drunken nurse gave me iodine instead of tincture of iron. The doctor relieved my distress as soon as possible and I soon recovered from the effects of the dose. I was later taken to the H Street Ascension Church Hospital where I remained until discharged.

Going Home

I received my discharge February 4, 1863 and arrived home February 7th, 1863.

End Memoir

Postscript

By Les Conklin

Searles wrote this memoir in 1915 or 1916. His wife had died in 1905. One son had died in 1863 and the other was ill and died in 1916. In the memoir’s last line, Young wrote – “At the age of eighty-three I am able to be useful still and am commander of my Post in the G.A.R. (Grand Army of the Republic.)” It’s likely that he wrote the memoir for his friends in the G.A.R. post.  Most of the memoir is about boyhood pranks and his military service, with comparatively few words devoted to family life and work. He belonged to the James C. Nichols G.A.R. Post in Clayville, R.I.

The memoir is pretty much as Searles wrote it. In the early 1900s, they wrote long paragraphs, perhaps to conserve paper. I have broken up the paragraphs and added white space and a few subheadings to improve online readability.

I have Young’s pension application which includes a statement from his sergent. The sergent wrote that on the day he was wounded Young was still suffering from the effects of typhoid and had severe diarrhea (too much informaiton?) and was told he did not have to be with the unit that day. Searles went anyway. The memoir states that the surgeon removed his finger. Actually, his arm was amputated at the elbow. They did not have antibiotics and to prevent the spread of infection, surgeons amputated up to “good” flesh.

Battle of Fredericksburg Information

The battle was a disaster for the North and was referred to as a “butchery.” The Confederate cause was bolstered.  According to Wikipedia, the Union army suffered 12,653 casualties (1,284 killed, 9,600 wounded, 1,769 captured/missing). The Confederate army lost 5,377 (608 killed, 4,116 wounded, 653 captured/missing). For additional information, visit the following:

About The Seventh Rhode Island Volunteers – Wikipedia

The Seventh Rhode Island Volunteers was mustered into the service of the United States to serve for three years on September 6, 1862. They also drew Enfield rifle-muskets on this day. In addition the Seventh was clothed in the full uniform of the United States Army; a feature of their coats being a very high collar. On September 10, the regiment left Rhode Island and proceeded to Camp Casey outside of Washington, D.C. Here they remained for several weeks before joining the First Brigade, Second Division, Ninth Corps on October 6, encamped outside Sharpsburg, Maryland following the victory at Antietam a month earlier. The Seventh remained encamped at Pleasant Valley, Maryland, for three weeks, perfecting its drill, while losing several members of the regiment to disease and the elements.

Battle of Fredericksburg

In late October the Army of the Potomac again embarked upon another campaign to capture Richmond, Virginia. In early November, Ninth Corps commander, Major General Ambrose Burnside assumed command of the Army of the Potomac. On November 15, the Seventh fought its first engagement, holding a key bridge against Confederate cavalry. Later that month they arrived at Fredericksburg, Virginia. The city lay in their path to attack Richmond. Burnside waited for over two weeks for pontoons to allow his army to cross. The result would be the near destruction of the Seventh Rhode Island.

The Battle of Fredericksburg was one of the worst defeats of the Civil War for the Federal Army. The Army of the Potomac had to attack across a wide open plain to reach a Confederate division entrenched behind a sunken road. In addition, Marye’s Height contained twenty-four pieces of artillery. The Seventh Rhode Island went in at 12:20 on the afternoon of December 13, 1862. Almost immediately, Rhode Islanders were being killed and maimed. Lieutenant Colonel Welcome B. Sayles was hit in the chest by a shell, sprinkling pieces of his body all over members of the Seventh. After halting in the middle of the field to fire their Enfields, the Seventh surged forward in an attempt to flank the wall; they were repulsed by “a perfect volcano of flame.” They halted one hundred and fifty paces from the sunken road. Their flag became the farthest advanced banner in the Ninth Corps. After remaining on the field for seven hours, the Seventh was relieved and returned to Fredericksburg. 570 officers and men went into the fight, 220 became casualties; including over 50 dead. As the regiment assembled after its charge, all Colonel Bliss could say to his battered regiment of young Rhode Islanders was “you have covered yourself with mud and glory.” Bliss would be nominated for promotion to brigadier general and receive a Medal of Honor for his actions. Many of his enlisted men would receive promotions for their actions on the field.

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