Regimental History
EIGHTEENTH REGIMENT NEW HAMPSHIRE VOLUNTEER INFANTRY.
(ONE AND THREE YEARS.)
By THOMAS L. LIVERMORE, late Colonel Eighteenth Regiment New Hampshire Volunteer Infantry.
SIX companies of this
regiment (A to F) were raised under the call of the president, July 18, 1864.
They joined the
Engineer Brigade, commanded by General Benham, at City Point, Va., October 4,
1864. Charles H. Bell, of Exeter, was
appointed colonel, and James W. Carr, of Manchester, lieutenant-colonel, but
both declined the commissions. October
13, Joseph M. Clough, of New London, lately a captain in the Fourth New
Hampshire Volunteers, was commissioned lieutenant- colonel, and William I.
Brown, of Fisherville, then adjutant of the Ninth New Hampshire Volunteers, was
commissioned major, and in the same month they joined the first six companies at
City Point. Although the quota of the State, under the call of July 18, was
completed, Governor Gilmore, by proclamation, October 13, caused enlistments for
the last four companies to proceed in advance of the next call of the president
of December 19, under which proclamation and call the regiment was completed. It
was composed of excellent material. The members were almost entirely citizens of
the State. A good many of them had seen service in other organizations, and the
remainder were good men, whose delay in volunteering may fairly be presumed to
have been justifiable.
January 17, 1865, Thomas L. Livermore, of Milford, then major of the Fifth New
Hampshire Volunteers, and acting
assistant inspector-general of the Second Army Corps, on the staff of
Major-General Humphries, was commissioned colonel.
His muster was deferred under the regulation of the War Department that a
regiment should not be entitled to a colonel
until it had ten companies. Companies G and H joined the regiment at City Point
in February, and Company I joined at
Petersburg, in March. The tenth company (K) was mustered into service April 6,
but on account of Lee's surrender, was
detained at Galloup's Island, Boston Harbor, until May 6, when it was mustered
out of service. The regiment remained a part
of Benham's brigade until March 19, and was employed for some weeks in labor on
the fortifications of City Point. December
10 the brigade moved, in severe weather, to the lines in front of Petersburg,
and there occupied the works to the left of Fort
Davis for several days. December 18, as a part of a temporary brigade detached
under Lieutenant-Colonel Clough, it labored
two weeks on the works at Bermuda Hundred, under order of General Ferrero;
February 5, in Benham's brigade, the regiment marched to the front of
Petersburg, and remained there a week. March 19, by order of General Meade,
commanding the Army of the Potomac, the regiment was detached from Benham's
brigade, and ordered to report to the commander of the Ninth Army Corps, to be
disbanded and distributed among the New Hampshire regiments of that command. The
personal intercession of Colonel Livermore at army headquarters, caused the
order for disbandment to be revoked. Having reported to General Parke,
commanding the Ninth Army Corps, March 25 the regiment supported the Eleventh
Massachusetts Battery, in the engagement in which Fort Stedman was recaptured
from the enemy, and on the
same day it was assigned to the Third Brigade, First Division, Ninth Army Corps,
and was posted in Fort Stedman, where it
remained, under constant fire, until the fall of Petersburg. March 29 the
regiment repelled a night attack, in which Major
Brown was killed and Lieutenant-Colonel Clough was slightly wounded, and several
enlisted men were killed and wounded.
April 2 the regiment made ready for an assault on the enemy's line, which the
division was ordered to make. Captain
Greenough was wounded while forming the three companies which had been placed
under his command for the advance party. The assault was countermanded. Later in
the day, a skirmish line from the regiment, supported by three of its companies
under Captain Potter, was thrown forward, and encountered a strong force, with a
loss of one killed and several wounded. April 3 the regiment entered Petersburg,
which had been abandoned by the enemy the night before, and then moved up the
Southside Railroad to Ford's Station, where it remained until the 20th.
Captain Potter was promoted to major April 4, and Colonel Livermore was mustered
in and took command April 8. On the
20th the command marched for City Point, where it took steamer and arrived at
Alexandria April 26, and then marched to Tennallytown, D. C., where it went into camp with its brigade, which included
also the Twenty-ninth, Fifty-seventh, and Fifty-ninth Massachusetts Volunteers and One Hundredth Pennsylvania Volunteers.
Soon after arriving at Tennallytown, the Eighteenth was placed on guard in Four
and One-Half Street, Washington, from
Pennsylvania Avenue to the Arsenal where the court-martial was sitting for the
trial of the conspirators against President
Lincoln, and, alternating in tours of four days with a regiment from another
army corps, it continued to perform this duty
during the entire session of the court. The selection of the Eighteenth as one
of the two regiments for this duty, out of
the great army then lying around Washington, was high testimony to the
character, discipline, and soldierly appearance of the
regiment.
May 19 Lieutenant Caswell was appointed adjutant, vice Hobbs discharged for
disability. June 10 Companies A, B, C, D,
E, and F were mustered out, and Companies G, H, and I went on duty as provost
guard in Georgetown. June 8 Colonel Livermore was appointed president of a
court-martial convened by the division commander of the First Division, Ninth
Army Corps, and June 15, by his order, was assigned to the command of the Third
Brigade of that division. He and Major Potter were mustered out June 23,
and Companies G, H, and I, and Lieutenant-Colonel Clough, were mustered out July
29.
The Eighteenth New Hampshire Volunteers was attached to Engineer Brigade, Defenses
of City Point, Va., Army of the
Potomac, October 4 to March 19, 1865; to Ninth Army Corps, March 19 to 26, 1865;
to Third Brigade, First Division, Ninth Army Corps, March 26, 1865, to date of
muster out.
ENGAGEMENTS
Fort Stedman, Va. . . . . . . . . . March 25, 29, 1865
Petersburg, Va. . . . . . . . . . . . April 2, 1865
Source: The Union Army, vol. 1
ALHN New Hampshire
Civil War History and Genealogy
USGenWeb Project New
Hampshire
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