The 142nd Pennsylvania's first time on picket

 

 

This anecdote is part of an address delivered at an 1888 Gettysburg reunion by D.H. Warren, the last colonel of the 142nd, detailing the unit's first experience on picket duty outside Washington in 1862.

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"On the day after its organization (August 1862)  the unit was ordered to Washington, arriving there just as the wounded were coming in from the second battle of Bull Run. ... Instead of being ordered into battle immediately into battle, as many of us expected, we were marched out about four miles near the Maryland line, where we were ordered into camp.  Shovels and picks were furnished and soon the whole command was busilys engaged throwing up earthworks, the main portion of which was named, when completed, Fort Massachusetts. ... The first night we were there, after digging hard all day, as commandant of Company A, I was summoned to the Colonel's quarters and informed that I was detailed to take my company and go on picket for the next twenty-four hours; that a regular officer would report shortly and go with and designate to me the line for me to guard. We began to realize then that there was not much play about that kind of soldiering.  The officer came and led us out the road about one mile, then helped me station my men so as to cover the raod and each side of it about one-third of a mile. I was informed out position was a very important one -- that at any moment the cavalry attached to the troops commanded by Stonewall Jackson might dash in and capture my whole force, if we did not keep a sharp look-out, and in case such a thing did occur, and we did not make the necessary resistance to put our forces i the forts and works on the guard, the most serious results might be expected.  This was our first picket duty, and, as yet, some of my men scarcely knew how to load a musket.  And, while there may not have been an enemy within twenty miles, we could peer out into the darkness in our front and, in our imagination, see long lines of the enemy marching and countermarching and getting ready to sweep us from the face of the earth. If my memory serves me, most of us were tired and weary, but __ sleep! well, we had no use for sleep that evening, the responsibilities of war were crowding in upon us too fast for any of us to think of closing our eyes in slumber.  We all wished we had eyes behind as well as in front, so we could see the enemy whichever way he might come, for we were so green we hardly knew what to make of our perilous situation."

"After we returned to camp and learned how far we were from the enemy,  we did not make mention of our perilous service, for until then we supposed we were the outposts nearest the victorious army of Lee. "

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