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5th NEW YORK CAVALRY GROUPING OF CHARLES T. PIERCE INCLUDING HIS WARTIME FIELD DIARY AND HAVERSACK

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This is a large group of material relating to Charles T. Pierce and the 5^th NY Cavalry, including Pierce’s wartime 1864 field diary in which he chronicled not only the opening of Grant’s Overland Campaign with the regiment’s fighting at Parker’s Store and the Wilderness from May 5-7, but also Wilson’s June raid on the Danville & Southside Railroad that ended in a debacle at Reams Station on June 29 from which Pierce and two companions, one of them the regiment’s Chaplain, managed to escape, travelling at night through woods, swamps and across rivers in enemy territory, until reaching Union lines on July 5. Even later in the year, while on duty at a hospital in Maryland, he decided to take part in a scout that attacked a group of Confederate raiders in December.

The diary is in pencil, with some entries made while awaiting muster or while on furlough sporadic and brief, while others take up most the twenty-lines available for each day and some, like the ones made during his escape are extended by writing crosswise. He was of a religious bent, so there is a good deal of prayer and self-reflection, and some scathing commentary on the behavior of the men on payday, as well as details of his health during his service. He was educated, a teacher by background, and was almost immediately detailed as acting commissary sergeant for the company and then as company clerk, but was also in the front lines. On May 5 the regiment was in the advance: “.. picket firing all night. I was ordered to go out with skirmishers. Met the enemy in a very few minutes. Had a detachment of about 400 men against a brigade of infantry- held them for 5 hours and then had to retreat. We fought on foot. We went back at 1 the infantry came up & gave them a volley that silenced them for a time. Sharp work is going on now 2 pm Hard fighting this PM. The 5^th NY fired the 1^st gun.” He also mentions suffering a flesh wound in the left arm “while leading a charge.” The latter might be a bit of an overstatement, and the wound did not incapacitate him, but his 1925 obituary mentions a wartime wound that much later necessitated the amputation of his left arm above the elbow. Similarly, his account of the fight was not exaggerated- the regiment fought a delaying action against A.P. Hill’s troops for some five hours before elements of the 6^th Corps could come up.

His account of the Wilson raid is equally good, detailing destruction of Confederate warehouses, trains, train stations, and track, along with the failed attempt to take a railroad bridge, with Confederate artillery throwing grape and canister at them and sharpshooters taking out officers. He chronicles their retreat along one side of the river with reinforced Confederates on the other side throwing occasional shells at them, and then the final abandonment of their supply trains, burning the supply wagons and destroying the running gear of the ambulances, but pulling off the tops to make tents to shield the sick and wounded they had to leave behind, followed by the realization that friendly forces are not waiting for them: “We retreat in disorder back to the Rowanty . . . God forbid that I should see another such sight men unhorsed trying to swim . . . others falling from the bridge and bullets falling like hail in a hail storm. This is followed by five days on the run with his two companions and scanty rations, dodging Confederate soldiers but aided by black residents. Chaplain Boudrye gives a version of this escape in his regimental history that likely relied on Pierce’s diary, and Pierce himself later copied and expanded upon some of his experiences in another journal that is not part of this grouping, but passed through an auction some years ago. This, however, is Pierce’s own, first-hand, contemporary record.

After reaching Union lines and returning the regiment, where he found he had been assumed to be a prisoner in Confederate hands, he spent some time in a remount camp and was then transferred to a hospital at Frederick, Maryland, where he was retained for duty as a clerk for the medical staff. He managed to get two short furloughs home, but also take time to go on a scout after Confederates assumed (most likely wrongly) to be Mosby’s men, but whose camp they located and surprised on December 21: “I got quite a fall and bruise by being thrown from my horse, he being shot through the head. I rallied my men and charged them again and after the excitement of the moment was over I found my shoulder badly hurt…”

Pierce complained of soreness and dizziness for time thereafter, on top of other medical complaints, but seems to have remained on that duty in Frederick, until transferred to the commissary of musters in NY City in August 1865, for muster out on August 22, the regiment having officially been mustered out in July.

Pierce was very active in the regimental veterans’ association, acting as secretary for a time at least, and in the G.A.R., being a member and commander of the Ethan Allen Post G.A.R., and elected at least twice as Department Commander of Vermont. The group includes Pierce’s GAR medal in modern frame with a 1913 Gettysburg 50^th anniversary souvenir medal. A 1925 obituary indicates he was born in Connecticut in 1842 and was a teacher in central New York when the war broke out, something supported in the diary. According to that obituary he had served in both a Connecticut three-month regiment and three-year regiment before joining the 5^th NY Cavalry, but we find no record of that. His enlistment records for the 5^th do refer to him as a re-enlisted veteran, but we note that he was brought in by a recruiting agent who received a fee, so there may have been some lying by the agent to get a bonus for bringing in a veteran, though that it is repeated in his obituary may indicate he was aware of it. Similarly, an 1865 letter from a female admirer indicates she thought he had been wounded three times, though there, too, he might plead extenuating circumstances.

In addition to his diary, the group includes his wartime commercial haversack. This shoulder strap is long gone, but the leather body is intact and typical of those privately purchased from military goods dealers by officers and by enlistedmen who could afford them. The group also includes a large number of photographic and paper items, including the following:

Aug 1, 1865 letter from Pierce at Gen. Hosp. Frederick Md requesting a certificate that the regiment had been discharged so that he can be also.

2 Provost Marshal and 3 Gen. Hospital forms regarding members of Co. G 5NYC, all 1864, sent to the company commander, 1 envelope.

May 1864 Company Return for Co. G.

July 1864 letter and envelope to Capt. Co. G inquiring for priv. James Billings.

Sept 1 1864 list of ordnance stores Co. G.

Undated field report of strength Co. E 6^th NY Cav.

3 docs re: men of G in Gen Hosp, 1 envelope.

Jan 1865 letter, unaddressed but likely to CTSP from woman mentioning music and that he said he was WIA three times.

Dec 1867 letter to CTSP at Woodstock CT with envelope as Rev. Chas. T.S. Pierce,

1867 Auditor letter re: pay to CTSP

Two envelopes to commander of Co. G 5^th NY cav

Proposed badge for vets, modified from 1892 proposal, with notice: CTSP is secretary of veteran association

May 1889 certificate of service for CTSP in 5NYC.

Nov 1875 license to CTSP as local preacher, Methodist Episcopal church, with invitation card from pastor. Both Vergennes VT.

1890s photo of unidentified GAR vet

Two photos 1880s-90s of E.D. Dimmick, 5NYC in CW.

Regimental reunion pamphlets (proceedings and rosters) published by Pierce for their 1893 (2 cos.,) 1894, 1901, 1913, 1916, 1917-18 (2 cos.)

2 Ca. 1890 framed photos of Piece- one seated with GAR medals; the other standing with sword in a quasi-Confederate uniform with sword, possible from a theatrical or fundraising event.

Ca. 1910 seated photo of Pierce.

Six large, framed photos of 5^th NY Cav reunions or monument dedications, some with veterans identified on the reverse. Two of these are photos on different occasions at their Gettysburg monument.

A period catalog of Civil War and related books published by F.J. Meeker.

Paperbound booklet of “The Blue and the Gray, A Military Episode…” (“Eight allegorical tableaux and ten grand pictures.” Poor to fair condition. A fund-raising effort for Aaron F. Stevens Post 6. This was in Peterborough, NH. Pierce was living in Vermont and likely was involved in some way.)

The 5^th NY Cavalry Regimental Association Register. This was apparently brought to various reunions with the locations and dates noted, where attending veterans listed their names and current addresses.

Copy of Boudrye’s 1865 regimental history of the 5^th NY Cav. (Poor to fair condition: cover detached, Univ VT library sticker from the Gen. Rush Hawkins “Rebellion Collection.”) Boudrye was with Pierce in the escape from Reams Station and his account likely drew on Pierce’s diary or recollections as well.

Modern notes with some of the material indicate some of the framed photos may have been on exhibit at Pierce’s local G.A.R. post.

 

Born in Thompson, CT, on June 2, 1842, was 23 and a teacher when he enlisted. He seems to have been a clergyman in Saratoga County, NY, in the 1870s, but in 1880 is a music teacher in Vergennes, Addison County, VT, where he died in 1925. He married twice. His first wife died in 1895 and he remarried in 1900. His obituary notes that at his funeral, “The few remaining members of Ethan Allen Post, G.A.R., will act as an escort of honor.”  [sr][ph:L]

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