Judson Cheney: Elysian Fields

Judson Cheney
Born: May 11, 1838, Hopkinton, St. Lawrence County, New York
Died: September 29, 1864, Chaffin Farm, Virginia
Relation to Author: 2nd Great Grand Uncle

When we last saw our hero, he was with the Army of the Potomac, running away from Richmond by way of the Seven Days Battles. The battles were done and the armies separate by July 4th and the Union army found itself in Harrison's Landing. On July 7th, President Lincoln reviewed the army there. If Judson was with his regiment that day, he would have seen the president. Kreutzer describes Lincoln this way:

Every one who has seen Mr. Lincoln has remarked the "dejected 'havior of his visage," the thoughtful cast of his countenance, recalling forcibly the picture of Don Quixote, the Knight of the Rueful Countenance. To us he appeared that day "drooping, woful, wan, like one forlorn, or crazed with care."

Kreutzer tells us that the colonel of the 98th forgot to instruct his men to cheer as Lincoln passed, so McClellan, who was riding behind Lincoln, had to remind them. Whereby the men overdid their cheer a bit to make up for the lapse.

While at Harrison's Landing, "Our quarters had never been so comfortable, and our duty on picket never so light," said Kreutzer. The army didn't stay long at Harrison's Landing - on August 4th McClellan was ordered to leave the Virginia peninsula. On August 17th, the army moved out. The hardest day of marching, at least for the 98th New York was the 19th - they marched 21 miles. Kreutzer he says it was the hottest hardest march they ever made. On August 22nd they arrived at Yorktown, where they 98th stayed, while much of the rest of the army boarded boats and moved back up the Potomac with plans to join Major General John Pope's army in northern Virginia.* 

Again, I'll let Kreutzer tell us about life at Yorktown:

On the high bluffs of the York, we have a splendid cam, we have rest and ease, the necessities and the luxuries of life. The river supplies us with fish and cansvas-backs and the best oysters. The markets of Fortress Monroe, Norfolk, and Baltimore are at our command. We have Northern papers and a daily mail. We say, "The lines have fallen to us in pleasant places, eat drink, and be merry." While we breathe, let us live.

...

The garrison remained at Yorktown until the 28th of December, and was engaged in drilling, leveling the old fortifications, and making forays into the enemy's country towards Fredericksburg. The object of these was to capture horeses, grain, stock, and to destroy some salt-works along the shore of the Chesapeake.

...

There sitting in our tents during the quiet, still days of August, we fancied that we heard in the air, along the ground, dull, heavy sounds coming from Pope's artillery fighting between Germantown, Sudley Springs, Gainesville, and Manassas junction, the battles of Bull-run, nearly one hundred miles away.

Although picket duty was said to be tough during the colder months, it was otherwise a relatively easy time for the NY 98th. As they leave on December 28th (150 years and 8 days ago), Kreutzer, ever the poet, says:

York River, Chesapeake bay, and Hampton Roads were like the Elysian Fields to us. Happy with every want supplied, on them we idling dreamed the autumnal days of 1862 away. Farewell happy field, where joy forever dwells: "In dreams, I revisit thy sea-beaten shore."

So Judson and the 98th say goodbye to relative peace and quiet at Yorktown and board a steamer for North Carolina.

Update:
One thing I really neglected to mention here is what Judson and his regiment missed while staying behind in Yorktown. The rest of the troops that were part of the penninsula campaign under McClellan - the Army of the Potomac - went back up the Chesapeake with the intention of joining Major General Pope in Virginia halfway between Richmond and Washington, DC.

During the rest of that summer and fall, those troops fought two major battles (and some it seems some should have participated in Second Manassas**), both really bad for the Union: Antietam (12,400 Union casualties, though a victory of sorts), and Fredericksburg (12,600 Union casualties). So while Judson was relaxing in the Elysian Fields, his fellow soldiers on the east coast were fighting in very bloody battles and losing. He was lucky.

But we know that his luck didn't last forever. By June of 1864 if not sooner, his regiment was back with the Army of the Potomac and participating in the major battles against General Lee's army of Northern Virginia. 



*An earlier version of this post had said Washington, DC (?). I hadn't made time to find out where the rest of the army had actually gone. 

** I published this update before realizing that McClellan's troops never made it in time to join Pope before Second Manassas.

I'll be honest, tracking the armies isn't as easy as I think it should be. I still am not quite sure where McClellan's troops went from the peninsula - Washington, DC? Alexandria, Virginia? Did they make it to the Rapahannock River? We do know that after Manassas, the Pope's army and McClellan's were joined and they moved north to meet Lee's invading army.