Robert J. Holmes grew up in the small village of East Granby, CT. At the age of twenty-one years he traveled the short distance to Hartford, CT and enlisted in the Union Army in the Civil War. On August 14, 1862 he became a soldier in the 16th Regiment, Company B of the Connecticut Volunteers. The 16th left for Washington, DC on August 29th and set up camp near Fort Ward. After only a few days of training at Fort Ward the 16th was moved by forced marches and joined the Army of the Potomac. They were brigaded on the battlefield of Antietam the evening prior to the battle. This poorly trained Regiment saw its first action in the Battle of Antietam.
The Battle of Antietam was waged on September 17, 1862 and took its name from Antietam Creek, which has its source near Gettysburg, Pennsylvania and flows almost due south to the Potomac River near Harper’s Ferry in West Virginia.
The 16th Connecticut, which fired its muskets for the first time in this battle, suffered terribly. The 16th went into battle with 940 men and lost in killed and wounded 432. Apparently Robert suffered through this encounter unscathed. The 16th fought next in Fredericksburg, VA and his unit suffered only minor casualties.
Robert’s unit then marched to Newport News, VA for a four to five week stay. This allowed some of the wounds to heal and then got some rest.
Robert’s regiment with the rest of the Connecticut Brigade to Suffolk where it suffered considerable losses in the battles of Edenton Road on April 24, 1863 and Providence Church Road on May 3rd. On June 16 the regiment was moved to Portsmouth and engaged in an expedition called the “Blackberry Raid”. After this battle the 16th Connecticut had several months of quiet near Portsmouth. During this time the men were taught the discipline and military skills they so greatly needed.
On the 21st of January 1864 the regiment was ordered to Plymouth, SC arriving there on midnight of the 24th. While there the regiment made several raids against rebel camps and destroying large quantities of cotton and tobacco. On March 3, 1864 the 16th was ordered to New Bern, NC which was being threatened by Confederate attack. They camped near the Neuse River. On March 20th the regiment was ordered to return to Plymouth.
The following portrayal of the Battle of Plymouth is a composite of three hand written letters by Robert J. Holmes, one addressed to his daughter, Alice, the other two were not addressed or dated. Not all of the text was legible and therefore some interpretation was necessary. Although it may not always be a direct quote I believe it accurately describes the battle as Robert intended.
We finally reached the channel where we passed from Palmico Sound to Albemarle Sound around Roanoke Island and up a number of miles in the sound we had a bar to cross. Now the strong wind had driven the water out of Albemarle Sound till it was a number of feet lower than usual so we ran aground. Every heavy wave that came lifted the vessel up farther unto the same till she rested on her keel. When a wave struck her she would go over one way and then back the other. And every time she made a heave it seemed as if we were all going overboard. We were in this position for twenty-four hours. The storm had ceased and the steamer, “General Berry” came along side us and took us aboard and carried us to our destination, Plymouth, which we reached about ten o’clock at night.
When we left Newbern we had rations for breakfast and dinner and this was all the provisions we had for forty hours.
Plymouth lies on the south side of the Roanoke River, eight miles from Albemarle Sound. It was a fortified position commanded by General Nancy W. Wessell. The following troops were in his command: 85th N.Y., 101st and 103rd Penn., 16th Conn., 1 light battery, two companies of heavy artillery and in all about 2400 men. There were also three gunboats on the river; the Southfield, the Miami and the Burnshell.
The attack was made on us by General R. F. Hoke commanding the Confederate forces. They consisted of one regiment of cavalry, seven batteries of light artillery, three brigades of infantry, in all over 7000 men assisted by the mailed ram, Albemarle.
Our fortifications commenced on the bank of the river at the west end of the town running west about half a mile, then to the east one mile, then to the north about half way to the river terminating with a small fort containing one heavy gun. The rest of the way to the river was without breastworks as the position was such that it could be swept by the guns on the boats. We had four forts, one of which I have mentioned, Fort Merril, about midway of the line of works running east and west, Fort Warren west of the town and outside of the breastworks about half a mile, and Fort Gray in a swamp still further west. Both of these forts commanded the river and were built to destroy the ram when she came down river.
It was a beautiful Sabbath morning April 17, 1864. We had gone through our regular morning of duties and it had got to about noon when we saw the cavalry from the outpost dashing into the town bringing the report that there was a large force of the enemy only two miles out. Immediately there was commotion in every quarter, drums beating, bugles sounding, and men rushing from every quarter. This confusion was of short duration and soon every regiment was marching to its position at the breastworks.
A line of skirmishers was immediately sent out, advancing carefully until they found the enemy. During the afternoon there was some firing on the skirmish line and some artillery firing but not much real fighting took place Sunday.
Monday morning, bright and early, the ball opened in earnest. The enemy directed its attention to the forts commanding the river. The idea being to cripple or silence them so that the ram might safely come down.
Fort Warren was garrisoned by seventy-five men and two or three pieces of heavy artillery. With this small force she resisted charge after charge of the enemy with more than ten times her number and I presume it safe to say that they killed five times the number of men that the fort contained. The fort was supplied with hand grenades, which they used with terrible effect when the enemy was trying to scale the embankments of the fort. The night of the 18th with the crippled condition of the forts, the ram came down.
She was of peculiar construction. Her hull was but little above the water and her guns and crew were protected by railroad iron set up and firmly secured in the form of the letter “A” lengthwise of the deck. Our two boats being wooden vessels knew that they could not contend with her in any ordinary way so they devised the following plan to meet her. Each boat got as near opposite banks as they could so that they could then connect themselves together with heavy cables, the object being that the ram would run between them, they would catch her with the cable, steam in the opposite direction, crowd in on her and sink her.
Everything worked as it was planned. They had her down until water was pouring in her portholes when a shot fired by the Southfield glanced off from the ram and killed the captain of the Miami. In the confusion some one yelled, “cut the cable”. It was done and immediately the ram was free. She turned her bow into the Miami crushed a hole in her and sank her. The Southfield escaped down river. The Burnshell, the other small boat was used up Monday. So the morning of the 19th the river was clear with the exception of the ram, which lay down the river firing her heavy shells up into the town.
Now you can see the situation we are in: the loss of sixteen guns from the gunboats, the enemy reinforced by the heavy guns of the ram, and one half of our east line without any protection. The enemy had but one point of attack now and they opened everything they had on the town and from every point at once. Every tent that stood up was just riddled with bullet holes and you could hardly believe that anyone could live through such a shower of shot and shell.
We withstood the heavy and the repeated charges of the enemy all day the 19th and the constant artillery firing all through the night. The morning of the 20th it looked rather dubious for us. General Hoke had sent in a number of requests for us to surrender but received a reply that we expected to fight it out. The final charge was made by the enemy soon after noon of the 20th. They broke through our line at the point where there were no breastworks in the east and fought their way up through the town and took us in as they came to us.
The outcome was that we were made prisoners (which meant death to a large percent of the captured). We lost in killed and wounded about one hundred. The enemy lost in killed and wounded about 1500. Some who had good opportunity of judging though this a low estimate of the enemy loss.”
R. J. Holmes
April 15/03
After Robert’s capture at Plymouth, NC on April 20, 1864 he was held at Florence, SC for perhaps a week and then loaded into a boxcar and sent with the rest of the prisoners along the southern railroads to the south. The men who formed the garrison of the small fortified outpost at Plymouth reached the railroad station at Andersonville, GA on the night of May 2, 1864. The next morning a large detachment of Union soldiers under heavy guard were marched from the railroad station to the stockade at Andersonville Prison. In this group were about 300 enlisted men of the 16th Regiment of Connecticut infantry volunteers. The officers of the 16th were held at Macon, Georgia. Some family records state that Robert spent nine months in southern prisons, the last thee at Andersonville. His death notice in 1923 says that he spent eight months in Andersonville. This seems more likely. Andersonville was one of the most notorious of the southern prisons. It was established in November of 1863 under orders of General J. H. Winder. A stockade of sixteen and one half acres was the initial size and was later increased to twenty-six acres. Pressure from Confederate Headquarters in Richmond led to prisoners being sent to Andersonville before the barracks and other facilities were constructed. Drainage was poor and the water supply inadequate. The prisoners received poor and uncooked food. Many of the men were already diseased and fatigued before their arrival at the prison. Disease ran rampant through the prison.
The first prisoners were incarcerated February 25, 1864 and they numbered about 500 men. The total number of prisoners was said to have reached 52,345. In six months 42,686 cases of diseased and wounded prisoners received treatment from an inadequate medical staff. Prisoners who were known to have died number 12,912. The 16th Connecticut contributed 234 to this number.
After September of 1864 the prison was largely a hospital and the last of the incarcerated men left April 17, 1865. The site of this prison has been preserved as a Federal Park.
Robert was released from his confinement at Andersonville and was paroled at Richmond, VA on December 11, 1864. He was returned back north to Camp Parole in Maryland and was given a one month furlough at his home in East Granby, CT from December 25, 1864 until January 25, 1865. He was so sick during this time that he requested an extension of his leave from Doctor Sanford, M.D. at Simsbury, CT. Sanford’s medical statement reads that Robert Holmes was carefully examined and “found suffering by reason of eight months of cruel treatment in Rebel prisons which has caused great emaciation, general debility, a bad cough, a pain in his side and chronic diarrhea”. Robert returned to Camp Parole, MD until March 3, 1865 when he was admitted to the General Hospital at Annapolis, MD as a patient. After his recovery Robert was given his Honorable Discharge at Annapolis on July 7, 1865.
It is miraculous that any person could endure the battles of Antietam, Fredericksburg, Suffolk and others and then nearly drown in Albemarle Sound, the battle and subsequent capture at Plymouth, NC followed by eight months of prison in Andersonville and still remain a whole sane man. Fortunately many men did and Robert J. Holmes was one of them.
Robert is listed as a soldier and a musician in the military records. He played a flute and carried a Sharp’s Rifle. His discharge papers and flute are held by Curtis L. Holmes. Milton C. Holmes holds the Sharp’s Rifle.
1972
Revised September 17, 1988
Revised: April 17, 1994
Revised: December 14, 2002
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