A hero emerges at Chancellorsville, part 1

 Talk about bureaucratic delay: The federal government took 33 years to reward Charles Amory Clark for saving a Maine regiment at Chancellorsville.

Born in rural Sangerville in Piscataquis County on January 26, 1841, Clark “was a student at Foxcroft Academy” when the Civil War began. “I was fairly well fitted for college, and would have entered that summer,” he said. “I did not do so.”

Charles Amory Clark was a 20-year-old student at Foxcroft Academy in Piscataquis County when Confederates fired on Fort Sumter. He quickly joined the 6th Maine Infantry Regiment.

Asked years later “from what institution I graduated,” Clark replied, “From the Army of the Potomac.”

On April 24, 1861 Clark “piled up my Greek and Latin books and enlisted” in Co. A, 6th Maine Infantry Regiment three days later. “My fellow students very generally did the same.

The classes in the old academy were broken up,” he recalled.

Shortly after Fort Sumter fell, some FA students cut down two tall white pines and fashioned them into a liberty pole that stood throughout the war. According to Clark, the Civil War monument dedicated at Monument Square in Foxcroft in October 1893 was erected on the liberty pole’s site.

Clark finally mustered on July 15 and went off to war. Listing “farmer” as his occupation, he stood 5-7½ and had light hair, a light complexion, and blue eyes. His appearance reflected his ancestral roots in England.

“My people came to Massachusetts in 1640,” Clark stressed his New England roots.

Clark and other patriotic students fashioned a liberty pole and raised it in Foxcroft’s Monument Square. The Civil War monument dedicated in 1893 stands on the same spot. (Brian F. Swartz Photo)

Promoted for his capabilities, 1st Lt. Clark arrived with the 6th Maine opposite Fredericksburg in spring 1863. He was the regiment’s adjutant.

Originally commanded by Col. Hiram Burnham of Cherryfield, the 6th Maine reported to Lt. Col. Benjamin F. Harris and belonged to the Light Division, now led by Burnham. The division in turn belonged to VI Corps, commanded by Maj Gen. John Sedgwick.

Ordered by Joe Hooker to feint against the Confederates defending Fredericksburg, VI Corps actually captured Marye’s Heights in a wild May 3 charge that earned the 6th Maine glory and the courageous Clark recognition by his superiors.

He was among the first Mainers to vault the stone wall and ascend the heights.

Out-of-date orders issued by Hooker and slow maneuvering by Sedgwick led to VI Corps losing the Salem Church battle later on May 3 and being trapped against the Rappahannock River by Monday morning. Confederate troops soon surrounded Sedgwick on land, and his back abutted the river.

By dark on Monday, May 4, the 6th Maine held “a bluff, which overlooked Brooks’ Ford” on the Rappahannock, said Clark. The position placed the 6th Maine on VI Corps’ far right flank.

From the bluff, enemy artillery “would command our pontoon bridge,” the VI Corps’ only connection to freedom, Clark observed.

In citing “Brooks’ Ford,” Clark encountered the frequent wartime confusion pertaining to place names. No such ford existed on the Rappahannock, and Sedgwick stated his 1st and 3rd divisions, “along with the Light Brigade, fell rapidly back upon Banks’ Ford, and took position on the heights … and … rifle-pits” nearby.”

But 6th Maine survivors identified the river crossing as Brooks’ Ford, and thus “this ford gave its name to the engagement,” Clark insisted.

After capturing Fredericksburg, Maj. Gen. John Sedgwick found his VI Corps trapped against the Rappahannock River. (Library of Congress)

Actually there were two pontoon bridges. Overnight on Thursday, April 30, Union engineers disasemmbled two lengthy Fredericksburg pontoon bridges and transported them upriver “about 15 to 16 miles” to Banks’ Ford, said the Engineer Brigade’ commander, Brig. Gen. Henry Benham.

Engineers assembled a 14-boat bridge at Banks’ Ford “between 3 and 4:30 p.m.” on May 3, 16 boats went upstream to United States Ford, and 14 boats “were retained for a second bridge at Banks’ Ford,” just “in case,” he noted.

With VI Corps backing against the Rappahannock, engineers laid the second bridge Monday afternoon while being “a part of the time under a severe fire of shot and shell,” Benham said.

Under “a full moon and an unclouded sky,” Union troops were well observed by Confederates, “and they crowded us closely,” he said. A strong Confederate attack struck Sedgwick’s left flank to the east, but the Yankee rifle volleys and artillery stopped that assault.

Opposite Sedgwick’s left, Confederate Maj. Gen. Lafayette McLaws pushed his brigades against the shrinking Union perimeter. “The noise of their [Yankee] passage over the pontoon bridges convincing me that the enemy was in full retreat, I thought it best to press on in pursuit,” he said.

Brigadier generals Joseph B. Kershaw and Cadmus M. Wilcox “pushed on, driving the enemy before them,” McLaws reported.

Wilcox brought the 8th and 9th Alabama infantry regiments, Kershaw his all-South Carolina brigade, and the attack began “about 9.30 p.m.,” Wilcox said. “Above and near Banks’ Ford,” the Confederates captured “13 officers and 150 men” with “no loss on our side.”

Meanwhile, Harris had marched the 6th Maine under orders toward the pontoon bridge at Banks’ Ford, but a countermanding order returned the regiment to the bluff. Told “to hold on as long as possible … and then, if cut off” by the enemy, “to make our way to the bridge if we could,” the Maine lads realized “a desperate enterprise was confided to our hands,” Clark said.

He sensed just how much trouble awaited the 6th Maine.

Next week: He rode his horse over a precipitous cliff, part 2

Sources: Charles A. Clark, Campaigning with the Sixth Maine, The Kenyon Press, Des Moines, Iowa, 1897; Maj. Gen. John Sedgwick, Official Records, Series 1, Vol. 25, part 2, No. 206; Maj. Gen. Lafayette McLaws, OR, Series 1, Vol. 25, part 2, No. 315; Brig. Gen. Henry W. Benham,


If you enjoy reading the adventures of Mainers caught up in the Civil War, be sure to like Maine at War on Facebook and get a copy of the new Maine at War Volume 1: Bladensburg to Sharpsburg, available online at Amazon and all major book retailers, including Books-A-Million and Barnes & Noble. —————————————————————————————————————–

Brian Swartz can be reached at visionsofmaine@tds.net. He enjoys hearing from Civil War buffs interested in Maine’s involvement in the war.

Brian Swartz

About Brian Swartz

Welcome to "Maine at War," the blog about the roles played by Maine and her sons and daughters in the Civil War. I am a Civil War buff and a newspaper editor recently retired from the Bangor Daily News. Maine sent hero upon hero — soldiers, nurses, sailors, chaplains, physicians — south to preserve their country in the 1860s. “Maine at War” introduces these heroes and heroines, who, for the most part, upheld the state's honor during that terrible conflict. We tour the battlefields where they fought, and we learn about the Civil War by focusing on Maine’s involvement with it. Be prepared: As I discover to this very day, the facts taught in American classrooms don’t always jibe with Civil War reality. I can be reached at visionsofmaine@tds.net.