Official Records of the Rebellion

[p.137:5 LAND AT WESTPOINT]

About 4 o’clock in the afternoon, everything being in readiness, the artillery beginning to arrive, and the tide suiting, orders were given to land the troops. About fifty pontoon-boats, manned at first by the detachment of the Fifteenth New York Regiment, moved to the transports containing the troops that were first to land; and now the preparations that we had made came into play. In less than an hour the boats were loaded and at a given signal they all pulled for the shore, carrying some 2,000 men, besides the oarsmen. As soon as the boats grounded the men jumped out and waded ashore, forming at once in line of battle. The oarsmen returned at once with the boats and continued afterward to land the troops as rapidly as possible, but without order, or at will, so to speak, for after the first trip each boat went about its work independently of the others. Care was taken, however, as much as possible to confine the boats to one brigade until it was all landed before the landing of another brigade was commenced, In three hours the main body of the infantry (say 8,000 men) was on shore, formed in order of battle, with pickets thrown out into the woods beyond the open plateau. The men carried their knapsacks and haversacks. The pontoon rafts were used by the officers to land their horses and baggage. The remainder of the infantry followed, but more slowly, as some of the boats were soon wanted for other purposes.

As soon as the infantry began to land I directed my attention particularly to the construction of a wharf. We first brought up one of the lightest of the double canal-boats, as before described, loaded with a battery of artillery, as near to the shore as possible. This was securely anchored in the proper position at high water when it once grounded. This raft was some 200 feet from the shore. Outside of it, parallel to it, and at a distance of some 20 feet from it, was placed and securely anchored the double canal-boat next lightest in draught of water, the space between the two being bridged by one of our heavy gang-planks. In the same manner was placed a third double canal boat or raft. Then we brought up a light draught steamer, a ferry-boat, forming the pier head of our wharf. This barge also contained a battery of artillery. We then had left one of the double canal-boats with which [p.138] to form the pier head of another wharf; which we might want hereafter, and which we could build as soon as the pontoon-boats were set at liberty. These three double canal-boats and the barge carried us out some 220 feet farther into the stream than we were at the beginning, and at this point we had a sufficient depth of water for our light transports to come alongside and discharge. While this was going on outside the point of starting the work of making a roadway from there to the shore was also being done. First, a flat-boat or scow was brought up and secured on the line between the canal-boats and the shore and some 20 feet from the former, the connection between the two being made by a long gang-plank. Then three or four of the pontoon rafts were floated into position next to the scow, the connection between being soon made in the usual manner with balks and chess, so as to make a regular pontoon bridge. A gang-plank for an apron established the connection with the shore, and we were now ready to discharge. This wharf was finished before dark. Some of our artillery was already on the wharf, for a battery was in the first barge that had been placed. The artillerists, with a detail from the infantry to assist, soon took the batteries ashore without the aid of horses and placed them in position on the left of our line.

By 12 o’clock at night the four batteries with the command were landed and ready for action, and the transports containing their horses were alongside of our wharf and alongside of each other, all ready to land. The officers of the artillery were clamorous for their horses, particularly Captain Arnold, who displayed great energy and judgment during the whole operation. And here I ought also to mention Captain (now Major) Perry, of the Fifteenth New York, whom I left in charge of the wharf during the remainder of the night and the whole of the following day. To him more than to any one were we indebted for the rapidity with which the lauding was effected.

Shortly after 12 o’clock at night I left the wharf, and when I returned in the morning I found the artillery nearly all landed.

I have entered into these details of the proposed landing below Gloucester and of the actual landing which was made at West Point not from any vanity, but to show precisely what was done with the means we had at hand. When the way of effecting a landing was first discussed I found officers of great intelligence entertained very crude notions on the subject, and many of them were disposed to leave such matters to the sailors on the transports. Having had a good deal of experience at different times in landing building materials, sometimes under difficult circumstances, I knew that it would not do to trust to the crews of the vessels to land their cargoes, and hence I applied for a detachment of the Fifteenth New York Regiment and established a workshop on one of the steamers at Cheeseman’s Creek, where all our preparations were made. The results you have above.

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