Colonel Edward E. Cross
One American who made the ultimate sacrifice in the Wheatfield was Colonel Edward Cross. The commander of a small brigade in the Second Corps of the Army of the Potomac, Cross is remembered for the premonitions he had of his own death. These premonitions that he was to fall came brutally true when a Confederate soldier shot him in the abdomen as he led his brigade from Rose Woods into the maelstrom of shot and shell that was the confusing and complex battle of the Wheatfield.
Colonel Edward Cross was born on April 22, 1832, in the town of Lancaster, New Hampshire. Two of his brothers, Richard and Nelson, saw service with the Union Army. Young Cross was apprenticed as a printer at age 15. He served for some time as a newspaperman and editor. He lived in Cincinnati for a time, where his brother Nelson served as a judge, and later in Arizona. He fought two duels during his time as an editor over his opinions, but obviously he was not killed in any of these. Eventually, he gave up on the newspaper business, and joined the Mexican Army. When he received news of Fort Sumter, he resigned his Mexican Army commission and returned home to New Hampshire. There, Governor Berry appointed him as Colonel of the 5th Regiment, New Hampshire Volunteers. The Fifth New Hampshire was mustered in on October 28, 1861, and left for Washington the next day with 1,200 members.
One of Cross's first acts as colonel was the very unusual, but very valuable, step of establishing a school of sorts for training his officers and non commissioned officers. This act, coupled with his careful drilling of the men, ensured that the 5th would be prepared when the time for battle came. Cross was a strict disciplinarian. When the 148th Pennsylvania was later added to his brigade, the men of the 148th considered Cross something of a tyrant. Cross was also quick to jump to conclusions, and was by nature highly critical. Some of his friends claimed that this coupled with his outspokenness on political matters caused his advancement in the army to be slowed.
Cross was, physically, an imposing man. He rode tall, erect, straight as an arrow, according to an aide who knew him well and put down his reflections of Cross, Charles Hale. He had a full and tawny beard. In battle, he was impressive. Constantly, over and over again, he is referred to in the Official Records by his superiors as gallant under fire.
Cross and his regiment first saw action on March 13, 1862, at Rappahanock Station. This was the only engagement in which the Fifth suffered no losses in combat. The regiment was hereafter referred to as the "Bloodless Fifth." This is quite ironic considering that the when Fox compiled the losses of all regiments, the "Bloodless Fifth" topped the list. Of the Fifth, Fox stated:
The one regiment, in all the Union Armies, which sustained the greatest loss in battle, during the American Civil War, was the Fifth New Hampshire Infantry. It lost 295 men, killed or mortally wounded in action, during its four years of service, from 1861 to 1865. It served in the First Division, Second Corps. This division was commanded, successively, by Generals Richardson, Hancock, Caldwell, Barlow, and Miles; and any regiment that followed the fortunes of these men was sure to find plenty of bloody work cut out for it. The losses of the Fifth New Hampshire occurred entirely in aggressive, hard, stand-up fighting; none of it happened in routs or through blunders. Its loss includes eighteen officers killed, a number far in excess of the usual proportion, and indicates that the men were bravely led. Its percentage of killed is also very large, especially as based on the original enrollment.
The first major action the Fifth saw was at Fair Oaks, June 1, 1862, during McClellan's peninsula Campaign. Here, Cross and 170 other men were wounded, and 30 members of the regiment were killed. Cross was struck through the thigh by a bullet and wounded in the left side of his face by buckshot. All told, seven bullets struck Cross or his clothing, evidence that he was in the fight with his regiment. Later, General French would "mention the admirable coolness and conduct of Colonel Cross, commanding the Fifth New Hampshire."
The Fifth saw more action during the Peninsula Campaign and the Seven Days battles at Savage Station, White Oak Swamp, and Malvern Hill. The next large battle the regiment would distinguish itself in was the battle of Antietam on September 17, 1862, fought around the town of Sharpsburg, Maryland. At Antietam, the Fifth was involved in the actions for the Bloody Lane or Sunken Road. Here, Cross distinguished himself yet again. Thomas Livermore, then a junior officer in the regiment, remembered his Colonel:
As the fight grew furious the Colonel cried out "Put on the war paint!" and looking around I saw the glorious man standing erect with a red handkerchief, a conspicuous mark, tied around his bare head..Taking the cue somehow we rubbed the torn ends of cartridges over our faces, streaking them with powder like a pack of Indians and Col. to complete the similarity cried out, "Give 'em the war whoop" and all of us joined him in the Indian war whoop until it must have rung out amid the thunder of the ordinance."
Cross was slightly wounded in the scalp during the battle. The losses for September 17, 1862, were seven killed and one hundred and twenty wounded out of three hundred and nineteen present for duty. Again, the Fifth and its Colonel had proven their gallantry. In his report for the brigade, John Caldwell cited "Colonel Cross, of the Fifth New Hampshire Volunteers, handled his regiment in the most admirable manner, and is entitled to the sole credit of detecting and frustrating the attempt of the enemy to turn our left flank. He displayed in a high degree all the qualities of a good commander--bravery, readiness, coolness, and skill."
November would see the removal of McClellan. Of McClellan, Cross penned in his journal, "Here we have heard the removal of McClellan from command of the army at this time an ill-advised operation. We were going on well, and two days would have brought us to the enemy...He carried the hearts of the army with him." McClellan was replaced by Ambrose Burnside, a genial man, but a man not fitted to command of the Army of the Potomac, something no one knew better than Burnside himself.