Building A Bridge

PART FOUR: WELDON RAILROAD

The Civil War is the most written-about episode in American history. Less focused upon is the pain and suffering of those left behind by young soldiers. Edwina Paine was twenty-six years old with a year-old son when she bade farewell to her husband in October of 1862. The Stockbridge men who had formed the 16th Vermont and performed so admirably at Gettysburg were enlisted for nine months only. When their term expired, Oscar, along with several other Stockbridge men, reenlisted in the 4th Regiment, drawn in part, possibly, by exorbitant bounties offered to fill town quotas. Did the young newlyweds sit at table and discuss buying their own farm with the proceeds? Naiveté had passed; the southern countryside was strewn with American dead. Did Oscar, having survived Gettysburg, acquire a feeling of invincibility? Was it patriotic pride, or did the quiet, cold solitude of a Vermont January simply stir a restless soul? For reasons we will never know, Edwina again waved goodbye to her young husband.

Five months later, on June 23, 1864, just south of Petersburg, Virginia, Oscar Paine was among a contingent of soldiers sent to destroy the Weldon Railroad. A fellow Vermonter described the debacle, “We did our work on the railroad well, tore it up, burned the station and a bridge or two, threw the rails on the fire so as to warp them so they could not be used again, and about noon were ready to return. Our regiment was on the skirmish line that day, in the center… Our commanding officer was Col. Pingree of the 3rd Vt. Infantry, who was officer of the day. Before the movement to the rear began I saw him go to the rear. This seems to me to have been about one o’clock but it may have been later which left us without a commander, as the senior captain (our regiment had lost all its field officers) was not informed of the state of affairs, and the lines on our right, and on our left were withdrawn leaving us an easy capture… if we fell back we fell into their hands so we had a double incentive to maintain our ground, the little hillock and the trees furnished us better protection than any artificial breast work. We had sixty rounds of ammunition each, and the campaigns of the Wilderness had taken out the unskilled and all were experts with the rifle.…”

An account of the First Battle of Weldon Railroad describes what happened next: “The Confederates swept in, and over several hours during the late afternoon gobbled up the forward Vermonters of the 4th Regiment and Fleming’s battalion of the 11th Vermont. The 3rd Georgia Regiment chased the Vermonters off the railroad and then Mahone arrayed his division in line of battle along the railroad facing east. Methodically, he had his Georgians push the Vermonters of Fleming’s Battalion back to an entrenched position in the woods and pin them there. He then sent his Mississippi Brigade around the north flank of these Vermonters while he took the rest of his division south attempting to get around the Federals’ left flank. His Virginians struck the 4th Vermont picket line splitting the regiment in half and fanned out in its rear near Dr. Gurley’s house. Captain William C. Tracy assembled the left wing of the 4th Vermont and rallied his men for a brief stand. He soon fell dead, shot through the neck, and after several more men had been shot down, the rest surrendered to the surrounding Confederates.” Over 400 Vermont soldiers were taken prisoner that day; Oscar Paine, of the 4th Vermont Volunteers, was Killed in Action.

Edwina’s true pain is illustrated in a letter written by a fellow grieving Vermonter sharing her situation, “Sister Harriet, he is dead. I never shall see him again. Oh I cannot have it so all my hopes in life are over. There is nothing but disappointment and trials in this world. He was shot in the head and died instantly. Oh like a knell it rings in my ears. I lay in a fainting condition most all night and am so weak in body and mind. Have pity on me. To think he lays on the battlefield far away without one moments warning and could not send no message to the wife he loved so well. My poor Mother is almost beside herself, they all loved him so well. I can’t write any more…”

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Edwina Paine was awarded a widow’s pension the following year, and with Oscar’s enlistment bounty, purchased my little house. There she lived thirty-five years until 1902, when she passed from this life. Her Last Will and Testament left one sister $50, another $100. She forgave a debt owed from one George Walker, and specified that, “The residue and remainder of all my estate, both real and personal, not herein otherwise disposed of, I give and grant to the Town of Stockbridge to be used and expended for the benefit of the poor in said Town of Stockbridge.” The town decided to use the property as the schoolhouse for District Number 11, and thus Paine Academy came into existence.

NEXT WEEK, PART FIVE: THEIR TIME