The 8th Vermont Infantry Regiment was a three-year infantry regiment in the Union Army during the American Civil War. It served in both major theaters, first in Louisiana and then in Virginia, from February 1862 to June 1865. It was a member of the XIX Corps.
The regiment was mustered into Federal service on February 18, 1862, at Brattleboro, Vermont. It was engaged in, or present at, the Occupation of New Orleans, Raceland, Boutte Station, Bayou des Allemands, the Steamer "Cotton," Bisland, and Port Hudson, in the Department of the Gulf, and Opequon, Fisher's Hill, Cedar Creek, and Newtown in the Shenandoah Valley campaign.
Service
Organization/training The 8th Vermont was designed from the outset for Maj. Gen. Butler's southern expedition. Butler had visited Montpelier and solicited the General Assembly to raise troops for his expedition. Gaining approval from the state, Butler recruited another War Democrat from the legislature, Stephen Thomas, to be the Colonel of the 8th and recruit it.
Unlike the 7th Vermont (which also was sent to Butler), the regiment's officers and men knew that they were bound for the Gulf of Mexico. The 8th was raised by the state legislature's authority, and were recruited, armed, and equipped by Col. Thomas, under direct instructions from federal government through Butler. Due to this genesis, the regiment had a different relationship to the state than the other volunteer units. Other volunteer regiments enlisted by the state received care and supplies from state officials, but the troops raised by Thomas could not look to Vermont for any aid, and the responsibility and labor of providing for them devolved wholly upon him and his staff. In a sense they belonged to the federal government, and not to the state where they enlisted. They were not entitled to share in the state aid provided other Vermont troops. Being thus thrown on their own resources to obtain supplies as best they could, members of the 8th developed learned to become self-reliant and make do to meet and endure the hard life in store for them.
To encourage and promote rapid enlistments, Thomas and his growing staff were continually on the move among the recruiting stations from Brattleboro to Derby Line, working days, travelling nights, making addresses, contracting for supplies and transportation, paying bills, and seeing that the work was pushed forward. As his staff, Thomas chosen practical men, some of whom had previously served the state in organizing and furnishing other outgoing regiments.
The regiment bivouacked in the middle of a Vermont winter of unusual severity, amid deep snows, when the thermometer ranged from ten to fifteen degrees below zero. Their only shelter was a lot of cheap sectional wooden houses that the men found less convenient and comfortable than tents would have been. Under such conditions, the men set about learning to be soldiers and drilled daily. Through the experience, they adopted to field life.
The training camp was a field of high elevation just a short distance southwest of Brattleboro. Named after Governor Holbrook, it had ample room quarters and drill ground.
The winter of 1861-62 was one of unusual severity. The temperatures were extremely cold, and snow fell very early and accumulated as each new storm dumped more. Increasing discomfort, the portable wooden buildings used for quarters were not insulated for such a winter. Large wood stoves in the center heated them with bunk beds along the walls forcing the men to huddle together and burn a large supply of fuel to keep warm during the day, but at night, they found to keep those in the lower berths warm nearly suffocated their comrades in the upper bunks. Scores fell sick with severe colds, and the surgeons not only had a little foretaste of army practice, but soon had a hospital full of patients. Chills and fevers attacked many, and soon after measles and mumps broke out in the camp.
The regiment continued with its training, learning to obey with promptness and precision the necessary commands. When issued uniforms from federal stock, the men found contractors made them in only a small number of sizes and the seams of these uniforms failed so much that in the course of the first week, many of the men reinforced them with sewing gear provided by their families. While possibly not warm enough for midwinter Vermont, they would resist the milder air in the Gulf.
The ten companies of the 8th were sworn into the U. S. service for three years, Feb. 18, 1862. Again, due to its origin, the regiment's departure was delayed by a deficiency of medical stores, until Thomas and the medical staff succeeded in obtaining a limited supply. The regiment remained in camp at Brattleboro until March 4, when it left for New York.
Transit On March 4, 1862, the 1,060 men of the 8th and the 160 of the 1st Battery boarded a train at Brattleboro station heading south along the " winding and willow-fringed" Connecticut River which still had ice on its banks. All along the railway, they were cheered by signals of encouragement and miniature flags. In Northampton, they saw a rebel flag captured by one of the Massachusetts regiments in North Carolina had captured and sent home. On reaching Springfield, the 8th received refreshments from the ladies of the city and were cheered by a crowd on departure. At twilight, the train reached the wharf at New Haven, where the regiment boarded the steamer Granite State which brought them to New York City the next morning.
The regiment landed and marched to City Hall barracks for rations and that afternoon the regiment embarked on the sailing ships James Hovey and Wallace. On Sunday afternoon, March 9, the Hovey (with the colonel, major, quartermaster, assistant surgeon and six companies) and Wallace (with the lieutenant-colonel, adjutant, surgeon, the other four companies, and the battery) set sail. After a heavy gale separated the vessels once out of sight of land, sealed orders were opened and, as had been expected, their destination was Ship Island. A long and stormy voyage ensued, and after a twenty-seven-day transit, the ships arrived a few hours apart at Ship Island on Sunday, April 6.
Department of the Gulf
Assigned to the command of Brig. General John W. Phelps, the men had hardly pitched their tents when a severe storm hit the island. With their camp overflowed by sea, the men moved with their baggage to higher ground. The gale eventually passed, and daily drills resumed.
On Friday, April 18, the regiment heard Porter's bombardment of the forts below New Orleans sixty miles to the southwest, and soon heard of the occupation of the city. Butler sent for the 8th which struck camp on Thursday, May 6. It embarked before Friday dawn on the Hovey, and sailed for the mouth of the Mississippi leaving a number of sick men and two comrades who died of disease.
Arriving Saturday night, Hovey rode anchor at Southwest Pass for two days until a steamer came to tow her up to New Orleans. The men noted the sights as the ship rode high above the rice plantations including the wrecks of the Confederate gunboats, Forts Jackson and St. Philip on either side now flying the stars and stripes, and the throngs of blacks along the banks welcoming the regiment. As the ship slowly passed under the walls of the forts, the men, while aware that a stubborn battle had been fought there, did not then realize the magnitude of Farragut's naval achievement. The regiment gave the new federal garrisons a rousing salute which was answered forts' men.
New Orleans
Initial duty
Arriving a little before sunset, Monday, May 12, the 8th first saw New Orleans, still covered with smoke from its burned warehouses and smoldering docks. The men noted the hostility of the multitudes of unemployed men and how the richer and influential citizens encouraged it, particularly the women. The regiment saw the Confederacy's largest city's strange streets crowded with people, going around in aimless confusion. Above the general tumult, as the troops entered the streets, could be heard the loud strains of "Bonny Blue Flag," and other secession songs.
The regiment debarked from the Hovey on Monday evening and after the regiment formed in the street, orders were given to load the muskets in readiness for any emergency that might arise. Marching to "Yankee Doodle", which drowned the secession songs of the taunting mobs, the men moved to temporary quarters at the Union Cotton Press, and a strong guard was detailed for the neighborhood, and both officers and men slept on their arms. To further insure their safety, Col. Thomas issued very strict orders against leaving the quarters for any purpose. That first night in the city was memorable for the men. The colonel was vigilant, the men quiet and determined, the sentinels alert, and every precaution taken against surprise attack by an armed force or a city mob. The enforcement of strict military discipline was deadly serious. No one could be trusted, and the Vermont soldiers were liable at any moment to have to fight for their lives. The men knew they were in a hostile city and little temptation to leave quarters. The men got little sleep the first night, and, though no disturbance was attempted, they were relieved to see daylight on Tuesday morning.
At the end of the week, Saturday, May 17, the 8th moved into permanent quarters in the Mechanics Institute and the adjoining Medical College of Louisiana. With airy, convenient quarter and ample rations, the men made themselves thoroughly comfortable. Beginning at once, their main duties became police and provost guard duty and the distribution of food to the starving citizens. As the men in the 8th began to appear in public, and travel about on their duties, the bitter hatred of the local white seccessionists manifested in numerous ways from disgust looks to vehement verbal attacks. Despite this defiance, the Rebel sympathizers did not attempt any acts of personal violence against the regiment's members.
The men found it took great discipline to adhere to Butler's strict orders for his soldiers as well as for the citizens. He ordered all officers to never appear on the streets alone or without their side arms, all troops must pass through the streets in silence taking no offence to insults and threats, and if any violence was attempted must simply arrest the offenders. It was an ordeal of temper and of discipline punctuated by rumors of an uprising by the locals and of Lovell's army returning to recapture the city. These wise and humane restrictions were often very galling to the pride of the men and under repeated provocation, resentment sometimes got the better of prudence, and the loyal soldiers became exasperated. As a result, night after night the troops slept on their arms, in readiness for instant action. They went quietly about their appointed duty, and presently concluded that while they remained in the city, they were relatively safe.
Police and provost duty was the men's first service outside their quarters. In the organization of police districts, Major Dillingham was appointed commandant of a district, and each captain was assigned to a subdistrict, the soldiers taking the place of the city police, which Butler had disbanded.Large details were made each morning to protect public and private property, to seize concealed arms, and arrest suspicious and disorderly persons.
Butler was very active in rebuilding the city and soon realized he could use the telegraph lines in and about the city for the benefit of his military operations. These were in a disarray and the Confederates, before evacuation, had destroyed or secreted the apparatus of the telegraph offices, cut wires, and done all they could to make the lines inoperative.