15th Infantry Regiment New Hampshire (Nine Months)

Date of Organization:  4 Oct 1862    Mustered out  Date: 13 Aug 1863 in Concord, NH

Total men enlisted: 920

Officers Killed or Mortally Wounded: 0      Officers Died of Disease or Accident:  0

Enlisted Killed or Mortally Wounded:  30  Enlisted Died of Disease or Accident:  130

Thirteen Newmarket Soldiers

DOCKUM, Charles – enlisted 30 Aug 1862 at age 18 as a Private in Company D, 15thInfantry.

FROST, George W.  - enlisted 2 Oct 1862 at age 38 as a Major in Company S, 15thInfantry. Commissioned to Lieutenant Colonel 18 Oct 1862.  Resigned 14 Feb 1863,  Born Mass about 1825.  Date of Death 30 Jun 1879 at Coney Island, NY.

HAINES, Alanson – enlisted 30 Aug 1862 at age 19 as Private in Company D, 15thInfantry.

HANSON, John – enlisted 30 Aug 1862 at age 26 as a Sergeant in Company D, 15thInfantry.

JOY, Eben – enlisted 5 Sep 1862 at age 44 as a Private in Company D, 15th Infantry.

NEALLEY, James – enlisted 16 May 1861 at age 18 as a Private in Navy Regiment, US Navy. Mustered in 16 May 1861.  Discharged from the Navy 10 Oct 1861. Enlisted Company D, 15thInfantry on 8 Oct 1862.  Mustered out 13 Aug 1863 in Concord.

PALMER, John – enlisted 30 Aug 1862 at age 44 as a Private in Company D, 15th Infantry.

PERKINS, Charles – enlisted 30 Aug 1861 at age 21 as a Private in Company D, 15thInfantry.

ROBINSON, Nathaniel, Jr. – enlisted 30 Aug 1862 at age 40 as a Private in Company D, 15thInfantry. Date of Death 24 Nov 1891.

TAYLOR, George – enlisted 21 Oct 1861 at age 18 as a Private in Company D, 15th Infantry.

TAYLOR, William – enlisted 30 Aug 1862 at age 44 as a Private in Company D, 15th Infantry.  Died of disease on 5 Aug 1863 at Chicago, Ill.

TOWLE, Benjamin – enlisted 15 Oct 1862 at age 33 as an Assistant Surgeon.  Commissioned in Company S, 15thInfantry. Mustered out Concord, NH. Aug 13 1863. Occupation at time of enlistment was Physician.     

WYMAN, Richard – enlisted 18 Sep 1862 at age 22 as a Private in Company D, 5thInfantry.

Regimental History

 THE Fifteenth New Hampshire Regiment was mustered into the United States service, in the state house yard, at Concord, .Governor Berry presenting the colors, on the 12th day of November, 1862. This was the very darkest period of the war. It was the first regiment of New Hampshire’s quota in response to President Lincoln’s call for 300,000 nine months’ men. A reference to the roster of the regiment will show that it included many men who were too young to enter the service at the outbreak of hostilities, but who had since become of military age. It will also show that many, at the expiration of their term, who possessed adequate health, immediately re-enlisted and returned to the front. It is understood that the nine months’ men were raised for a special purpose—as an auxiliary to our struggling armies already in the field, and to enable them to strike the rebellion a staggering and fatal blow. How well this work was done and at what a cost is already recorded in history.

The varying companies set off by the steamers “James S. Green” “Prometheus” and “Cambria” eventually joining back together at Carrollton, just above New Orleans, on the Mississippi river at 10 A. M. of the 19 Jan 1863.

The regiment was provided with the Enfield rifle, which arm it carried during the rest of the service; on the 28th the camp was moved up river about two miles and pitched behind a parapet which extended from the river toward Lake Pontchartrain, and terminated in an impassible cypress swamp. Here the regiment was brigaded under Gen. Neal Dow, of Maine, with the Sixth Michigan, One Hundred and Twenty-eighth New York, and Twenty-sixth Connecticut. The time was spent in drill, guard mount, dress parade, and general guard and police duty.

May 9th the regiment participated in a march to New Orleans, where the whole division passed in review before the commanding general. At 8 A. M. of the 22d the whole squadron left Baton Rouge and arrived at Springfield Landing, just below Port Hudson, at noon. Landed, and thence, at two o’clock, with one hundred rounds of ammunition, marched back into the country and into the rear of Port Hudson. Continued the march till dark, and then halted for the night at a place called Beulah Plains. In the forenoon of the 23d, the division was formed in line and reviewed by General Sherman, our band furnishing the music. At 3 P. M. moved toward Port Hudson, and rested for the night within about four miles of the same. On Sunday, the 24th, advanced to the enemy’s outer works, and found them abandoned. Here rested for the night. Heavy firing, both artillery and musketry, on the left and right. There was a dense belt of woods between us and the enemy’s works, which were about two miles distant. Upon our band commencing to play, toward evening, the enemy opened on our camp with shells.

At this time the Fifteenth Regiment formed a part of a large army which had now invested Port Hudson, a part having approached from the north and a part from the south, and gradually drawing in upon the enemy’s works and enclosing them from the river above to the river below. The works thus invested consisted of a parapet, some seven miles in extent, built in a generally semi-circular form, and enclosing a large tract around the outside bend of the river at this place, where the land lay some eighty feet above the water level, with beetling bluffs facing the river. The enemy’s water batteries, for blockading the river, were planted along the brink of this bluff, and the seven miles of parapet were for their protection against an army approaching from the land, as ours had now done.

The Fifteenth Regiment from its last position advanced into the edge of the belt of wood which lay between us and the enemy, with a part of the regiment being still further advanced as pickets and supports for the First Vermont Battery. On the 26th, a detachment engaged in the affair of burning a mansion called the “Schalter house,” which stood well up toward the enemy’s works and which was said to shelter a body of their sharpshooters. At midnight Companies A, D, E, and K were advanced to the front and right as sharpshooters, and remained thus detached from the regiment during the assault of the next day. They, however, though sheltered by fallen trees, were within rifle range of the enemy and were hotly engaged until the close of the battle at nightfall of the 27th; the remaining six companies were engaged in the assault.

Advancing through the woods on the morning of the 27th, and peering out at the other edge, the enemy’s parapet could be seen across an open field some eighty rods away. Toward noon the regiment moved by the left flank some distance to the left and then advanced into the open, at a point where a narrow tongue of wood concealed them from the enemy.  We were subjected to a terrific cannonading of shot and shell. The Fifteenth Regiment was third in column of attack, being led by the Sixth Michigan and the Twenty-sixth Connecticut, and followed by the One Hundred and Twenty-eighth New York. The assault was unsuccessful, but it is not our purpose here to describe battles. From this time on till the surrender, on July 9, the regiment was always at the front and constantly under fire, and engaged in sharpshooting, building batteries, working in trenches and manning them, and in the general and incessant labor of the siege.

On June 13, fifty men from our regiment, under the lieutenants of Company H, and a like number from the Twenty-sixth Connecticut, advanced on the enemy’s parapet and reached a position within twelve rods of the same. Of the fifty in this affair, two were killed and six wounded. The position was held till twelve at night, when they were recalled to rejoin the regiment. At 1 o’clock A. M. of Sunday, the 14th, the regiment with others moved some miles to the left, and then, at 8 A. M., charged the enemy’s works at a point near the river. In this affair, the Fifteenth led the advance. On approaching the enemy’s works it was found that they were built on the further brink of a deep ravine whose precipitous bank was impossible of ascent. And the attack failed. This was the last general assault in which the regiment engaged, but the siege work grew closer and hotter up to the time of the surrender on July 9.

(Photo: painting of the Seige of Port Hudson)

July 16 the regiment marched into the works and there remained till Sunday, the 26th, when it boarded the steamer “City of Madison,” for Cairo, Ill., thence to Chicago. From Chicago and through New York, the regiment enjoyed a continuous ovation. Arrived at Concord at about noon of Saturday, the 8th, and was mustered out on the 13thof August.

The Fifteenth New Hampshire Volunteers was with United States forces at Carrollton, La., Department of the Gulf, December 24, 1862, to January 27, 1863; attached to First Brigade, Second Division, Nineteenth Army Corps, January 27 to July 11, 1863; Second Brigade, Third Division, Nineteenth Army Corps, July 11 to July 18, 1863; Second Brigade, United States forces, Port Hudson, La. (Nineteenth Army Corps), July 18, 1863, to date of muster out.

ENGAGEMENTS

Siege of Port Hudson, La… … May 27 to July 9, 1863

Battles Fought

Fought on 27 May 1863 at Port Hudson, LA.

Fought on 3 Jun 1863 at Port Hudson, LA.

Fought on 6 Jun 1863 at Port Hudson, LA.

Fought on 10 Jun 1863 at Port Hudson, LA.

Fought on 11 Jun 1863 at Port Hudson, LA.

Fought on 13 Jun 1863 at Port Hudson, LA.

Fought on 14 Jun 1863 at Port Hudson, LA.

Fought on 15 Jun 1863 at Port Hudson, LA.

Fought on 21 Jun 1863 at Port Hudson, LA.

Fought on 27 Jun 1863 at Port Hudson, LA.

Fought on 1 Jul 1863 at Port Hudson, LA.

Fought on 3 Jul 1863 at Port Hudson, LA.

Fought on 4 Jul 1863 at Baton Rouge, LA.

Regimental History  FIFTEENTH REGIMENT NEW HAMPSHIRE VOLUNTEER INFANTRY. (NINE MONTHS.)

By CHARLES McGREGOR, late Corporal Company H, Fifteenth Regiment, New Hampshire Volunteer Infantry, and Historian of  the Regiment.

Source: New Hampshire Soldiers & Sailors War of the Rebellion, Ayling