DARTMOUTH CAVALRY IN THE CIVIL WAR

Several members of my class, as of other classes were from the states that decided to join the step for rebellion. As soon as they heard from their parents they packed their trunks and started for home. The commotion ran through the class. A few favored letting the South secede and their talk stirred up fierce discussions. The division came in members of the Democratic party. In my class most of them announced themselves as War Democrats, and denounced the secession movement so fiercely that they almost came to blows in discussion with those who advocated "letting the erring Sisters go." If they wanted a government founded on negro slavery, why not let them have it?

Soon after Gen. Butler had completed his march through Baltimore's rebels, the war men of my class decided to take steps to organize a company for learning military tactics, and practice drilling on the Campus. A committee was sent across the river to Norwich University to secure a drill master from the cadets then in training there. Charles B. Stoughton, a recent graduate, then instructor in the University, consented to come over each day, as soon as he was at liberty from his classes. On receiving the report from the committee steps were at once taken to organize a company, and name it the Dartmouth Zouaves. A set of 12 rules was drawn up for governing the company, the preamble to which is as follows:

We, the undersigned, do hereby form ourselves into a military company for the purpose of improving ourselves in military tactics and do agree to be governed by the following laws:

I—This Company shall be called the Dartmouth Zouaves.

II—This Company shall consist exclusively of such able bodied men as are now, or shall hereafter become members of the Class of 1863, in Dartmouth College, provided they be sanctioned by a two-thirds vote.

Then follow various other rules and the names signed are as follows: G. S. True, C. F. Moulton, B. F. Blake, W. N. Cook, C. C. Pierson, J. F. Joy, T. Cogswell, Jr., Edwin Greene, S. J. Alexander, John Scales, J. B. Peasley, G. W. Bingham, W. Burnap, A. K. Hamilton, C. F. Kittredge, S. S. Burr; W. L. Flagg, F. L. Spencer, C. A. Pillsbury, E. P. Merriam, I. W. Heysinger, G. C. Peirce, G. S. Hutchins, C. B. Converse, H. S. Westgate, C. W. Morrill, F. PGoulding, J. C. Bodwell, Jr., M. V. Perley, I. N. Jenks, Jesse Johnson, C. I. Parker, H. L. Colby, R. B. Crandall, D. N. Lane, Jr., N. H. Clement, A. H. Foster, G. A. Miller, W. H. Preston, and Z. Gilman.

The men secured copies of Scott s Tactics and carefully studied the rules of war, as therein laid down by Gen. Winfield Scott. They kept at the drills daily till Commencement 1861, and became quite proficient in the knowledge thus acquired. Twenty-seven of them put the knowledge into successful practice, in the volunteer service between that time and the close of the war in 1865. One attained the rank of Colonel; three that of Major; nine that of Captain, and the others did good service in minor places. During the four years the class had 100 men and of these, 55 are named on the bronze tablet now on the door of Webster Hall. Three of them served in the Confederate army.

In the spring of 1862, immediately following President Lincoln's call for forty thousand volunteers for three months, Sanford S. Burr of the class of '63, commenced canvassing for volunteers to organize a company of cavalry. The President's call had produced tremendous excitement among all the students, and especially in Burr's class. The students were so excited for a few days that the faculty became alarmed lest a larger part of the number would respond to the call. Parents of students under age became alarmed lest they enlist before taking advice from home. Captain Burr was a medium-sized man of twenty-two years, wideawake, courteous and persuasive in his talk, and commanding in his way of urging support of President Lincoln's call for three-months volunteers. At times he attracted much attention by riding on horseback about the village and to Norwich in search of recruits. This inspired an unknown poet to write, and have scattered on printed sheets, the following verses;

The shades of night were coming down quick As, hastening along with the aid of "Old Dick," A youth through Hanover streets did go, Bearing a banner with this motto "Enlist!"

His steps were light, his heart beat high, The gleam of hope flashed from his eye. And like a cracked old cow-bell rung The accents of that martial tongue "Enlist!" In students' rooms he saw the light Of kerosene flash, fierce and bright, Above the College rag unfurled; And from his mouth a shout he hurl'd— "Enlist!"

"Cry not that text!" "Old Haskell" said, "For then he'll leave my board and bed "For war of you will be the death." But loud he cried with scornful breath "Enlist!"

"Oh stay!" the Sherman Nun did cry, "If you should go, I'll surely die;" The moisture gathered in his eyes, And still he answered 'mid his sighs— "Enlist!"

"Beware of the awful Yellow Jack "That makes a fellow weak in th' back." This was the fair one's last good night, And loud he yelled, far out of sight— "Enlist!"

The gentleman mentioned as "Old Haskell" was Captain Burr's boarding master, who did not want to lose a boarder. The ''Nun" mentioned was one of Mrs. Sherman's students in the house that stood at the northeast corner of the Campus, where she kept a fashionable boarding school for young women.

As soon as Captain Burr had a number of names enrolled on his enlistment paper, he began to inquire where he could find a place to get his cavalry men mustered into the Volunteer Army. He applied to several governors: First to New Hampshire, next to Maine, then to Vermont, then to Massachusetts; they all replied they had no cavalry regiment in which they could place The Dartmouth Cavalry. Finally, he applied to Governor Hoppin of Rhode Island. A telegram was received in reply that he would accept the company if organized at once. That settled matters and the organization was promptly completed. Three officers : Captain, Sanford Smith Burr; first lieutenant, Theodore H. Kellogg; second lieutenant, Charles F. Tillinghast of Norwich University. Eighty-two enlisted men. Of the eightyfive men Dartmouth furnished thirty-five, of whdm twelve were of the class of '63; Norwich University, twenty-three; Bowdoin College, four; Union College, four; Williams, one; Amherst, one; unknown, or of no college, seventeen.

The company left Hanover for White River Junction on the evening of June 18, 1862. At an hour preceding their leaving town for the railway station in Norwich they assembled in the chapel, where President Lord gave them the parting word, and offered a beautiful, patriotic and remarkable prayer. At my suggestion, and unknown to President Lord, Mr. Weaver had it put in type and sent copies to the company while they were in Providence, Rhode Island. An extract of the prayer can be found on page 318 of Professor John K. Lord's History of Dartmouth College.

The company arrived in Providence, Rhode Island, about noon, June 19, and were given a grand reception by Governor Hoppin and other high officials. Then they were formally mustered into the Volunteer Army, and became Company B of Seventh Squadron, Rhode Island Volunteer Cavalry. They arrived in Washington on June 30 when they were carefully drilled until July 18. They then crossed into Virginia and did valuable service in the Shenandoah Valley and were at Harper's Ferry when the Confederate Army was at Fredricksburg and on its way to give battle at Antietam. The commanders of the army at the Ferry saw that it was necessary to cross the Potomac into Maryland and get on their way into Pennsylvania before Lee's army should cut off their retreat and take them prisoners. About four o'clock in the afternoon, September 14, the proposed plan of escape was made known to the Dartmouth Company by their commander, Major Corliss, who closed his address to the squadron with the startling information that "by the next morning they would either be in Pennsylvania, or in hell, or on their way as prisoners to Richmond."

They crossed the river safely, and arrived at Greencastle, Pennsylvania, in the morning of September 15. On the march the squadron captured one of General Longstreet's ammunition and commissary trains consisting of eighty-five army wagons, each drawn by six mules and loaded with ammunition and provisions and followed by forty fat young steers. The whole story is quite long and very interesting. It can be found in the Register of New Hampshire Soldiers and Sailors in the War of the Rebellion, beginning on page 1013. They were not in the battle at Antietam, but within hearing distance. They were mustered out at Providence, October 2, and were soon received into the College and resumed their studies.

Perhaps it will suffice to say, in conclusion. that most of them came home in vigorous health and eagerly desirous of completing their course of studies at Commencement in 1863. One died at Winchester of typhoid fever (not a college man) ; four Dartmouth men, one Bowdoin and one Union, were taken prisoners and carried to Richmond but were paroled and arrived in Providence in season to be mustered out October 2.