Official Records of the Rebellion

[p.146][REPORTS FROM LIEUTENANT HINE AND CAPTAIN SPAULDING]

I give a short extract from Lieutenant Hine’s report of the 1st and 2d instant:

During the day and night of the 1st the water remained stationary. At 3 a. m. on the 2d instant the river suddenly commenced rising at the rate of 6 inches per hour, and by 8 a. m. the bridges were impassable, all of the approaches being washed away. I applied last night in person to General Heintzelman, sent a dispatch to the nearest brigade (Third, Hooker’s division) this morning, then went myself for men; but it was 10 o’clock before any were on the ground, and 1 o’clock before communication was open across the bridge.

At 10.30 a. m. the water was 3 feet and 2 inches higher than at 3 a. m., when it commenced rising, and the bridges in imminent danger of being swept away, when, as a last resort, I cut the dikes on both sides of the river between here and the railroad bridge, inundating the whole valley, but spreading the water so much that it rose no higher. By this the bridges are saved, and I have 200 men now at work raising the approaches and completing the timber bridges I had commenced. By daylight tomorrow morning I shall have a bridge 24 feet wide, capable of sustaining any required weight, completed. I have kept General Heintzelman apprised by telegraph during the day of the condition of the bridge, so that no serious interruption has occurred.

On the 4th instant Major Embick, with a detachment of two companies, was sent to Bottom’s Bridge to assist Lieutenant Hine. This detachment has constructed a permanent bridge, double roadway of the strongest description; two spans, 30 feet; four spans, 15 feet; length; 120 feet; width of roadway, 24 feet. The approaches on either side have been corduroyed for the distance of 1,200 or 1,300 feet, under the direction of officers of this detachment. This bridge will render unnecessarythe two trestle bridges at this point.

A detachment under Captain Spaulding was directed to construct a trestle bridge about half a mile above New Bridge. On the 2d instant Captain Spaulding reports:

Owing to the sudden rise of the river having floated all the bridge material at the point where it had been deposited, to prevent its being observed by the enemy it became necessary for me to remove all the material to higher ground to prevent its being carried off before it could be used in the bridge. As this work was nearly all done in the water, the operation was necessarily a slow one, so that I did not get to work at the construction of the bridge until about daylight. When I had the bridge about three-fourths complete the second trestle cap from the bank broke, making it necessary for me to dismantle all of the bridge except one span to put in a new cap.

[p.147]

When the bridge was again entirely completed across the main stream I found that the rapid current was fast undermining the legs of the trestle in the main channel, and I was compelled to dismantle 40 feet of the bridge about the center and put in one of the pontoon-boats. Owing to the delay caused by these reconstructions the time occupied in constructing the bridge was longer than I had expected, but the south abutment was put in and the bridge finished at noon yesterday.

When the bridge was completed yesterday I returned to camp, leaving the approach at the south side of the river to be built by Captain Chester. During the construction of the bridge the approach on this side was built by Captain Perry, of the Fifteenth, who also rendered me valuable assistance in securing the north end of the bridge. With the slight changes suggested by you to accommodate the bridge to the falling or lower stage of water, and which I hope to have finished before the south approach is ready for use, the bridge is perfectly secure for infantry in two ranks, and as safe for the passage of artillery as this plan of trestle can be made without strengthening it beyond the original plan. This bridge is — feet in length.

Colonel Stuart, in his regimental report, speaks in the highest terms of the skill, energy, and endurance exhibited by the officers and men engaged on this work, and of their great exposure in the stream, which had become very deep and rapid before the trestle could be placed and secured, and of their utter indifference in regard to the enemy’s shot and shell, which fell at one time in close proximity to them.

The bridge has been strengthened by placing piles beneath the trestle caps, to prevent injury from the extreme high water.

A detachment under Captain Brainerd commenced the lower trestle bridge. Of the difficulties attending the construction of this bridge Colonel Stuart says:

One hundred feet of trestle bridge, which had been prepared for the stream when at low-water mark, and made up without a pontoon boat, which was not of sufficient length nor of the right character for the stream, swollen as it was by the recent rains on the night the work was commenced.

Added to this, the unlooked-for and remarkable rise of water on Sunday morning rendered it necessary for the men engaged in the construction of this bridge to work for nearly twelve hours in the cold water, frequently having to dive to place the legs of the trestles and swimming to reach the opposite bank; and this, too, mostly in the darkness of the night.

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