Providence April 3^d 1863.

 

Dear Colonel.

                        In your last to me you expressed I thought, a strong desire to hear how I got along with the lambs of the 2^d. I had been a fortnight with the 11^th when a very flattering letter from Gov Sprague came, offering me the Colonelcy of the 2^d, "Rhode Island's oldest three years Reg^t on which she looks with peculiar pride" &c. The 11^th was guarding a camp, composed of sick men, slinks & cowards, near Washington, & likely to remain there its whole time, was a new & a 9 mos. Reg^t, time soon out &c. little chance of winning golden spurs there. On the other hand was an old three years Reg^t, at the front, sure to fight &c. I asked Sam Arnold, I was clear ab^t going, & he advised it, I knew nothing ab^t any troubles, except that Jameson had resigned. I accepted & went. I had been idolized in the 11^th notwithstanding my short stay, I was coldly received in the 2^d. Gov Sprague had written a letter to one of their officers saying that no officer in the Reg^t should have the Majority, & he should hesitate ere he promoted them to the ordinary vacancies. Sprague was hotter than a coal at their forcing Jameson out, called it treasonable & insubordinate &c. Viall, the Col, had gone in for Jameson's being examined, & as Viall hadn't been mustered as Col, Sprague stopped his being mustered, & forced him out. 

 

Viall had been unpopular theretofore, for he was miserably illiterate, drank, & once or twice had led the Reg^t, when they expected a fight, when he was so drunk that he didn't know whether he was on foot or horseback, & Goff, the late Lt Col, said he couldn't drill the Reg^t. This removal even made Viall popular for they said he had been martyred. Then followed a fortnight when the Lt Col was in command. He had gone out Capt, & had but lately been made Major & Lt Col in quick succession. He was an engraver of jewelry at home, good enough, but nothing brilliant. He was extremely ambitious, & as he had kept clear, out of policy, of the Jameson row he expected the Reg^t. In the meanwhile the Reg^t got the rumor that I was coming, & instantly they united against outsiders, were strong for regular promotion, which had been preserved in that Reg^t more closely than any other, & were dead against me. I went there, found the Reg^t was out on a three days tour of picket, lived with the Lieut. D Can, whom I had known here, sent for Goff the Lt Col, poked round the Brigade, & found out the feeling. In the Brigade the feeling was one of regret that the harmony of the Reg^t should be broken, for it stands very high there, & all thought Goff's promotion would have healed all difficulties, Gen^ls & all. Can advised me to resign, Goff said no one from the cooks up wanted me to stay, & I inwardly smiled to see how much exercised the fellow was. When the / Reg^t returned from picket I sent for all the officers, & as the Lt Col introduced them I shook them all by the hand, & when I got them all collected I made them a little speech. I said I had come to them quite ignorant of their difficulties & found affairs entirely different from what I had expected, that I had understood that all desired the promotion of Goff, that at his urgent solicitation I had taken the advice of the Gen^ls & particularly Gen^l Wheaton, their former Col, (whom, by the way, I had known from a boy, & who was a kind of connexion of mine) & that following that advice I had written a letter to the Gov, to send by Lt Col Goff, who had got ordered home for a week to work for himself. I read them the letter. I told the Gov that I had found affairs different from what I expected, that the feeling was very strong with all in favor of preserving the harmony of the Reg^t, & that all said Goff's promotion would do it. I told him that Col Goff, with the documents he would bring from Gen^ls &c, thought he could disabuse his mind of what was before supposed to be misunderstood, that if he could, & he, the Gov, was willing to make Goff Col, or would leave him as Lt Col Com^dg, I would resign, that I entered the Army merely to do my duty, that I would go back to the 11^th, or the 3^d even in my old capacity, or if these places were all filled I would put off my uniform, & wait till my services were both needed & desired. The Gen^ls all told me / that they had no idea that Sprague would alter his mind, but it would place me better, & so restore harmony. I also said to the Gov that if he wished me to stay I should probably do so, as all the Gen^ls agreed that in that case the Gen I ought to stay for the good of the service. It was a mere question of harmony for Wheaton had settled the question of my competency & bravery by talking me up to all. Goff of course came back with the tallest kind of a flea in his ear; at first the Gov wouldn't see him, when he did he was savage, told him he had intended to revoke his commⁿ for coming on such an errand, sat down & wrote me a savage letter; he had no place for me but as Col of the 2^d. he had plenty of men for all the offices from 2^d Lt up to Col; if I wouldn't take the Reg^t Church would, et id omne genus, at the same time putting some confidence in me by talking about promoting the non-comm^d officers & men at my recommending, & the officers at my urgent solicitation after they had made amends for their treasonable & insubordinate conduct. He read this epistle to Goff & sent it to me unsealed by him. Of course it made me mad, & I intended to resign, but the officers got hold of it, & three quarters of them including the steadiest & most respectable, came to me in a body & urged me to stay with the Reg^t. They had got ac- / quainted with me, & the only objection they had ever had to me was my being an outsider; though I had been sent to them as an oppressor, they were satisfied I would never be one; I was the only man that could, in their opinion, extricate them from their difficulties; if I went the next man that came would be a tyrant; they didn't ask me to stay on my account, they desired me to lay aside all personal feelings & stay for the good of the Reg^t & they would support me to the utmost I told them I would consider the matter, & in a day told them I would stay through thick & thin, though I told them I didn't know but my letter had lost me my influence with Gov Sprague. Still they wanted me to stay. This made Goff madder than a treed coon, & he at once accused these officers of being traitors to him, & would hardly treat them decently. Three or four officers, who swore he should be Col, including Capt Shaw, your Capt's brother, would not speak to these officers nor have any thing to do with them. Goff was very cold & offish to me though of course these under officers did not dare to show out to me. At last Headquarters had to consolidate into one mess from the difficulty of lugging round more than one mess kit, owing to the limited transportation. Of course being thrown together things went a little better / still coolly & disagreeably. The officers who wanted me to stay were disgusted at his style, & declared if I should go that they would get out of the Reg^t, for they would never serve under him. So I went up, & he went down, except for three or four who were more bitter than ever, & they were the poorest officers in the Reg^t. The Gen^ls were disgusted with Goff, for they said he only wanted to be Col, & was willing to keep the Reg^t in chaos for the happening of a dozen contingencies, which might never occur, & by that time the Reg^t would not be worth commanding, & as of course I had improved my time, & had I think improved my time made a good impression & they saw I knew my business, & they approved my conciliatory & successful course, they urged me strongly to stay, & so the young man got pretty warm in his nest. Things went on this way a month, & Goff got a State Order revoking his commission, which limbered him out immensely, & he was all ready then to make a cheerful Lt Col, & give up his ambitious vision of the Eagles. I was on picket then as Gen^l Officer of the Day, & he rode out to see me, & was very desirous of knowing if anything had gone from the Reg^t about him. I told him I had told Gov Sprague all about things; how far it had influenced him I didn't know. I then pitched in about the style he had treated me after the sacrifices I had made for him, what his friends had / said that they bet Goff would be Col in a month & then wouldn't these other officers catch hell for wanting me to stay. Now said I Col Goff, by all that is Holy you shant be Col of that Reg^t for I have fully made up my mind to stay nothing can get me out so long as it is necessary for me to stay to protect a single friend from tyranny. In the meantime he went home on a ten days leave, & just before he returned the Docts & Gen^ls sent me off for my health, as I had another just such attack as I did South just before the James Island Expedition. When Goff got back he found an order from the War Dept dismissing him from the U.S. Service "for Insubordination". He was not a bold man & needed a good deal of bolstering & reassuring to keep his knees firm & this blow completely stunned him; he was all limbered out & if he could only be Lt Col he didn't want anything higher. Of course the roughness of this step created some sympathy for him for now he was all limbered out to my friends, & Sprague caught it in their tongues. Of course I had nothing to do with it. I didn't suspect it even, I think it extremely rough but it is a relief to me. The officers sympathized some & gave him a paper of good character but it made no defection towards me, indeed I think many felt it as a relief for now the Field would be harmonious. Sprague disregarded my recommendations & appointed a 1^st Lt, H C Jenckes, Major, & an outside / Capt & several 1^st Lieuts. Jenckes is a very brave capable fellow but is utterly ignorant of a Major's duties, still he backs me up. The new officers as far as I have seen are smart educated men, can hold their own, & [torn] for me strong, & then since Cozzens, who has followed my recommendations blindly, came in, two Capts, several 1^st & 2^d Lts have been made by promotion so that helps me. Several of the newly appointed outside officers, that is two or three out of half a dozen, have declined. I have had the S^r Capt, Read, a very smart fellow on detached duty as AAA Gen^l on the Brig^d Staff made Lt Col. He is a friend all round, popular in the Reg^t & the best officer; he didn't go in for me particularly at the start, but when I concluded to stay he pulled right in cheerfully & said he should go in for me as he didn't believe in keeping up faction in the Reg^t. He will make me an extremely good Lt Col, & will harmonize the Reg^t since Goff was turned out but what I write is from officers who came since, on the short 10 day leaves, & letters. The letters Reg^t I consider now in very good condition. There are four or five officers, Capts & Lts who hate me, but is that any larger a proportion than there are in most Reg^ts who think their corns trod on &c. I think / not; at all events I am satisfied. I want much to get back & I could straighten things out very soon. [torn] men somehow or rather I have won wonderfully, for there hasn't been a disrespectful demonstration towards me at any time, nor a desertion, & that is the way in the Potomac Army that the men show any discontent, & is what Goff predicted in my case. I told them him they would never do it but once if they did that, that in the Reg^t I was brought up in officers were accustomed to command their men & not be commanded by them, & that it would go very hard with any officer whose men exhibited any such feeling. I have got the Reg^t in good deal better shape than when I went there, more quiet & orderly, more drills &c. When I went there they had no manual of arms. Wheaton had let Steele & Viall, old militia officers, get up a manual from Scott & Hardee & partly original. For example they could only fix & unfix bayonet from an order; I undertook to unfix from a shoulder & they came back to a shoulder; they couldn't support from a right shoulder shift & vice versa &c. I at once set them at Casey much to their delight. The Reg^t had run down much under Viall who had much prestige from having been a Serg^t in the Mexican War & that was just / as high as he ever ought to have gone. I would like to have given Brayton a Field place but it would have made a big row which was big enough before; I had some smart men, I could smooth by my appointments & the Major I had nothing to say about. I saw Sprague here, I went to see him, he was as pleasant as possible. I told him he wrote rather roughly to me in reply to my missive but I saw he did not see it was a double header. He apologized for it, something I thought he never did, said he meant it all for Goff & not for me, that he appointed before he received my recommendations & was as cordial & pleasant as possible. Now Smith is elected, & I am sure of support from him. My leave began March 18^th & expires April 7^th but the Docts have persuaded me to stay here a week longer on certificate. My Reg^t is straight & all right now. If I was rid of two Capts I couldn't ask for a straighter row to hoe. Brayton said he heard they talked of trying to examine me out. They thought just as much of it as your officers have thought the same thing about you. Why they didn't dare to think of it, it was so dangerous. Some of the most influential of the Examining Board are friends of mine & all think I am too well posted for that sort of thing. Frankly Col, I am not ambitious & I should have been just as well satisfied as your Lt Col & should / have enjoyed myself much better, though all will think me a fool for so saying. Really I was not ambitious except to be second to you, I would willingly have waited for you to have been promoted before being Col, or just as willingly have come home your Lt Col. All that galled me was being ranked by such an ass as Bucklin. I think of your present Lt Col & wonder if you wouldn't have liked to have had me stay with you when you are backing your load alone, for with your Field Officers, that is what it amounts to in Executive affairs; & yet I suspect you were at the bottom of my two Colonelcies, for which I thank you. I got up a band in the 11^th & they say it is a very fine one. I got Fessenden & Burlingame 1^st Lieutenancies & two 1^st Serg^ts 2^d Lieutenancies. Q. Master Olney is under arrest for embezzling, over twenty specifications, some he dont deny, all sorts of ways & things, selling to officers pocketing the money, overdrawing by altering or rather making up the consolidated Provision return fraudulently for more men than the Cos report. No difficulty about proof & they wont let him resign. Bad isn't it? Washington has completely corrupted him & he is utterly rotten though very penitent now. His wife was with him when he was exposed & arrested & she was well nigh distracted. Chaplain Gould who is at home on leave told me this. I have written you a stunning letter but you wanted to know all a / bout the 2^d & I have told you. I would much enjoy going with you on your Great Expedition. Let me say a good word about Brayton. Promote him for he would make you a better Field Officer than any made in your Reg^t particularly if you trusted him as you did me. He wants to be promoted but is diffident about speaking to you. He is in great fear of being dismounted & that makes him miserable. He is worth a Reg^t of Shaws, Strahans & et id onme genus. Smart, brave, daring, educated, talented, trusty, shrewd, are all points he possesses. If I were in your place I should promote him the first chance in spite of a little bellowing but it would make us more than my promotion to Major did. I would give him a place in my Reg^t if I could.

 

My wife wishes to be remembered. I think by the middle of this month the Virginia Army will be able to move. I do not feel much encouraged about the war. It looks to me as if they were going to let the army dwindle by the exit of the 9 mos men (300 000) & the 38 Regts (N.Y.) of 2 yrs troops before replenishing by draft & thus the summer will really be frittered away. Next summer the 3 yrs troops will be going, my Regt's time will be out June 5^th/64. Answer me soon. Remember me to all inquiring friends

                                                           

Your warm friend

H Rogers Jun

 

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My address is "2^d R.I. Vols. Devens Brigade 3^d Div. 6^th Corps.

Army of the Potomac, Washington, D.C."

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