Journey of the Captives

Saturday, November 30, 1861

Dr. Edward G. Higginbotham, chief surgeon of the Richmond prison hospitals, confirmed to Adjutant Charles Pierson that hostages Colonel Lee and Major Revere were well. Peirson wrote a second letter to Captain George C. Gibbs about Lieutenant William Putnam’s sword, as he had not received a response from his letter of November 24.¹

References:
¹Charles Lawrence Peirson, "Memorandum of the Battle of Leesburg," Association of Officers of the Twentieth Massachusetts Regiment, Reports, Letters and Papers Appertaining to Twentieth Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry, vol. 1, p. 120-21, Twentieth Massachusetts Special Collection, Boston Public Library, Boston, Massachusetts.

Regimental Matters - New Recruits

Thursday, November 28, 1861

The regiment welcomed the first batch of recruits enlisted by Captain Henry Tremlett. Over the winter months the new recruits would acquire skills to prepare them for combat, including drills, bayonet exercise, skirmishing, and guard duty.¹

References:
¹George A. Bruce, The Twentieth Regiment of Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry 1861 - 1865 (Cambridge, Massachusetts: The Riverside Press, 1906), 73.

Journey of the Captives

Tuesday, November 26, 1861

Despite General Winder's order earlier in the week prohibiting communication between the hostages at Henrico County Jail and their fellow prisoners in Ligon Factory, Major Paul Revere managed to send news to Adjutant Charles Peirson. Major Revere reported that he and Colonel Lee were well, but that two of the hostages, Colonel Cogswell and Captain Rockwood, were ill.¹

References:
¹Charles Lawrence Peirson, "Memorandum of the Battle of Leesburg," Association of Officers of the Twentieth Massachusetts Regiment, Reports, Letters and Papers Appertaining to Twentieth Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry, vol. 1, p. 121, Twentieth Massachusetts Special Collection, Boston Public Library, Boston, Massachusetts.

Regimental Matters - Promotions and Commissions

Monday, November 25, 1861

Massachusetts Governor John Andrew bolstered the roster of officers by promoting First Lieutenants George Macy, Allen Beckwith, and Charles Cabot to Captains, and Second Lieutenants Henry Abbott, Charles Tilden, and Henry Sturgis to First Lieutenants.

Governor Andrew commissioned three Second Lieutenants from the enlisted men, namely First Sergeant William Riddle of Company I, Quartermaster Henry F. Sander, and First Sergeant James Murphy of Company A. In addition, he commissioned three new recruits as Second Lieutenants: Herbert C. Mason, Arthur R. Curtis, and Henry L. Patten.¹

References:
¹George A. Bruce, The Twentieth Regiment of Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry 1861 - 1865 (Cambridge, Massachusetts: The Riverside Press, 1906), 72.

Journey of the Captives

Sunday, November 24, 1861

In Ligon Prison, Adjustant Charles Peirson wrote to the Richmond commandant, Captain George C. Gibbs, about the sword of Second Lieutenant William Lowell Putnam, who was mortally wounded at Ball's Bluff. In his request Peirson asked Gibbs to make inquiries into the whereabouts of the sword. Once located, Peirson asked Gibbs to obtain the sword and offered compensation for the cost.¹

References:
¹Charles Lawrence Peirson, "Memorandum of the Battle of Leesburg," Association of Officers of the Twentieth Massachusetts Regiment, Reports, Letters and Papers Appertaining to Twentieth Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry, vol. 1, p. 120-21, Twentieth Massachusetts Special Collection, Boston Public Library, Boston, Massachusetts.

Journey of the Captives

Saturday, November 23, 1861

The prisoners received disheartening news concerning their situation. Provost Marshal General Jonathan Winder prohibited any further communication between the prisoners at Ligon Factory and the hostages at Henrico County Jail. He also refused any communication between the prisoners and Lieutenant Colonel Palfrey through General Nathan Evans at Leesburg.¹

References:
¹Charles Lawrence Peirson, "Memorandum of the Battle of Leesburg," Association of Officers of the Twentieth Massachusetts Regiment, Reports, Letters and Papers Appertaining to Twentieth Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry, vol. 1, p. 120, Twentieth Massachusetts Special Collection, Boston Public Library, Boston, Massachusetts.

Regimental Matters

Friday, November 22, 1861

The regiment conducted its first brigade drill since the Battle of Ball's Bluff. The regiment also welcomed a new member, Norman Folsom, a cadet assigned to duty with the surgical staff.¹

References:
¹George A. Bruce, The Twentieth Regiment of Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry 1861 - 1865 (Cambridge, Massachusetts: The Riverside Press, 1906), 71.

Thanksgiving at Camp and in Prison

Thursday, November 21, 1861

At Camp Benton, the regiment celebrated the Thanksgiving feast with a dinner of roast turkey and plum pudding. The officers shared bottles of whiskey with the enlisted men.

Meanwhile, at Ligon Factory, Adjutant Charles Peirson shared a meal with other Massachusetts officers. A dinner was sent to the Henrico County Jail for the seven officers held as hostages. ¹

References:
¹Robert Garth Scott, editor, Fallen Leaves: The Civil War Letters of Major Henry Livermore Abbott (Kent, Ohio: The Kent State University Press, 1991), 79; Charles Lawrence Peirson, "Memorandum of the Battle of Leesburg," Association of Officers of the Twentieth Massachusetts Regiment, Reports, Letters and Papers Appertaining to Twentieth Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry, vol. 1, p. 120, Twentieth Massachusetts Special Collection, Boston Public Library, Boston, Massachusetts.

Journey of the Captives

Tuesday, November 19, 1861

Adjutant Charles Peirson sent a carpet bag to Henrico County Jail for Colonel Lee. He also received a response from the Richmond commandant, Captain George C. Gibbs, that he, Lieutenant George Perry, and Dr. Edward Revere would be placed last on the list of prisoners to be sent out of Richmond.¹

References:
¹Charles Lawrence Peirson, "Memorandum of the Battle of Leesburg," Association of Officers of the Twentieth Massachusetts Regiment, Reports, Letters and Papers Appertaining to Twentieth Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry, vol. 1, p. 119, Twentieth Massachusetts Special Collection, Boston Public Library, Boston, Massachusetts.

Journey of the Captives

Monday, November 18, 1861

Adjutant Charles Peirson, one of the officers imprisoned at Ligon's Factory, applied to the provost marshal, General Jonathan Winder, for permission to visit Colonel Lee and Major Revere at the Henrico County Jail. General Winder refused permission for the visit. He announced that six hundred prisoners would be transported to Tuscaloosa, Alabama on Friday, and that an additional five hundred prisoners would be removed to North Carolina. The remaining prisoners would be sent to North Carolina within a few weeks. The officers would be allowed to select either Alabama or North Carolina. Adjutant Peirson wrote to Captain George C. Gibbs, Commandant of Richmond, to request that he, Lieutenant George Perry, and Dr. Edward Revere remain in Richmond for as long as possible.¹

References:
¹Charles Lawrence Peirson, "Memorandum of the Battle of Leesburg," Association of Officers of the Twentieth Massachusetts Regiment, Reports, Letters and Papers Appertaining to Twentieth Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry, vol. 1, p. 119, Twentieth Massachusetts Special Collection, Boston Public Library, Boston, Massachusetts.

Journey of the Captives

Thursday, November 14, 1861

General Jonathan Winder returned to Ligon Factory for the seven Union officers selected as hostages on November 10. Colonel W.R. Lee, Major Paul Revere, and five other men shook hands with their fellow prisoners in silence and then departed with guards for their new quarters at Henrico County Jail. The jail was a small building that contained only four prisoner chambers, and all seven hostages were confined in one dingy cell that measured seventeen by eleven feet. Two small, barred windows provided scant lighting, which was extremely dim during the late autumn and winter. The jail also served as a detention and discipline center for slaves, and, to the great horror of the seven hostages, conducted weekly whippings for punishment.¹

References:
¹George A. Bruce, The Twentieth Regiment of Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry 1861 - 1865 (Cambridge, Massachusetts: The Riverside Press, 1906), 66-67; Richard F. Miller, Harvard's Civil War: A History of the Twentieth Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry (Lebanon, New Hampshire: University Press of New England, 2005), 92-94.

Regimental Pay

Tuesday, November 12, 1861
The regiment received its first pay since leaving Massachusetts on September 4th. The men were paid in gold coin and in full up to November 1 and sent over eight thousand dollars home on order of Joseph Wightman, Mayor of Boston.¹

References:
¹George A. Bruce, The Twentieth Regiment of Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry 1861 - 1865 (Cambridge, Massachusetts: The Riverside Press, 1906), 72.

Author's Message

On this observance of Veterans Day, please take some time today to remember and honor veterans of all wars. Thank you.

Journey of the Captives

Sunday, November 10, 1861
General Jonathan Winder, the provost marshal of Richmond, received orders from the Confederate War Office to select from the prisoners at Ligon Factory fourteen officers as hostages for Confederates privateers on trial for piracy. From this pool of fourteen seven were selected by lots for hanging if the Confederates on trial were to be likewise treated. Colonel W. R. Lee and Major Paul Revere were among the seven officers selected for confinement in squalid quarters at Henrico County jail later in the week.¹

References:
¹George A. Bruce, The Twentieth Regiment of Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry 1861 - 1865 (Cambridge, Massachusetts: The Riverside Press, 1906), 66; Richard F. Miller, Harvard's Civil War: A History of the Twentieth Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry (Lebanon, New Hampshire: University Press of New England, 2005), 91-92.

Resignations

Saturday, November 9, 1861
Captain Edward Walleston of Company F, who had been on leave since October 5, resigned today. This marked the second resignation of an officer this week, as Captain John Herchenroder of Company B, who submitted his resignation on October 11, exited on November 7.

As these departures reverberated through the regiment, Captain Henry Tremlett intensified his recruitment effort in Boston.¹

References:
¹George A. Bruce, The Twentieth Regiment of Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry 1861 - 1865 (Cambridge, Massachusetts: The Riverside Press, 1906), 71-72.

In His Own Words - Captain William Francis Bartlett

Thursday, November 7, 1861

In his journal Captain William Bartlett responded with characteristic humility to the praise he received from Boston and New York newspapers concerning his outstanding performance at Ball's Bluff: "They compliment me too highly, who did nothing more than my duty. My coolness was in me. I ought not to have the credit of it, but be grateful to God, who in his mercy has spared me, for granting me the courage and self-possession."¹

References:
¹Francis Winthrop Palfrey, Memoir of William Francis Bartlett (Boston, Massachusetts: Houghton, Osgood and Company, 1878), 33-34.

Letters from the Front - Henry Abbott

Thursday, November 7, 1861

In a letter to his father, Lieutenant Henry Abbott shared his thoughts about his conduct under fire at the recent conflict at Ball's Bluff:

You know I told you that I didn’t believe I was physically brave. In fact, I was pretty sure I should be frightened on the field of battle, though I hope my feelings of duty, pride & honor would keep me up. The fact is, however, that on the battle field I was very much surprised to find that I wasn’t frightened at all ...

Abbott modestly downplayed his bravery while praising that of fellow officers Captain William "Frank" Bartlett and newly-promoted Captain Norwood Hallowell:

All the stuff you see in the newspapers about 'young Abbott, son of Judge Abbott,' is all blow & poppy cock. I no more deserve to share Frank's praise with him than any of his privates do ... There are plenty of officers in the regt., Hallowell for instance, who deserve more praise than I do, though they haven't had the distinguished honor of being posted by the newspapers. Frank, however, you may be sure deserves all he gets.

He admonished his father to be skeptical of newspaper reports: "In a word, you had better disbelieve all the stories & all the puffs in the papers, except those which have the sanction of this regt., & then you will be safe..."¹

References:
¹Robert Garth Scott, editor, Fallen Leaves: The Civil War Letters of Major Henry Livermore Abbott (Kent, Ohio: The Kent State University Press, 1991), 73-74.

Under a Flag of Truce

Wednesday, November 6, 1861

On the previous day Lieutenant Colonel Palfrey crossed the Potomac at Edwards Ferry under a flag of truce to arrange for transport of the bodies of soldiers killed during the Ball's Bluff conflict. He also inquired about the welfare of the prisoners and asked if it were possible to send them letters and supplies. He was received by officers of General Nathan Evans' staff, who gave permission for their endeavor. At 9:00 AM, again under a flag of truce, Lieutenant Colonel Palfrey arrived with a detail to transport the bodies of fallen comrades for burial and to deliver supplies, money, and clothing to the prisoners.¹

References:
¹George A. Bruce, The Twentieth Regiment of Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry 1861 - 1865 (Cambridge, Massachusetts: The Riverside Press, 1906), 71.