Colonel Edward E. Cross :: Pre-Gettysburg Career
On December 13, 1862, Burnside threw his troops against the impossible position held by Lee at Fredericksburg. Among those in the battle was the Second Corps and the Fifth New Hampshire with Cross at the helm. Cross remembered,
I went to my regiment, counted my files, and found that I had two-hundred and forty-nine rifles and nineteen officers -- line, field and staff. I passed along the line and spoke to the officers and men; told them it twas to be a bloody strife, to stand firm, and fire low; to close on their colors and be steady. I told the officers, I said that they were expected to do their duty. Then I placed myself at the head of my men and we started, following the Irish Brigade.
The Second Corps and the Army of the Potomac took a drumming at Fredericksburg. The Fifth New Hampshire ended up facing the infamous stonewall at Mayre's Heights. In the action, Cross was wounded again in the face and in the chest by shrapnel. He stated: "I tried to get to my feet but could not stand...I concluded to lie still, and lay there for more than an hour in expectation of instant death or a mortal wound." Cross probably should not have even been in the battle. His brigade commander, Caldwell, stated: "Colonel Cross, at the time of the action, was suffering from an attack of chills and fever, which would have laid most men on their beds. He did not hesitate, however, to lead his noble regiment into battle, and was struck down, severely wounded, while at the head of his regiment, bravely leading his men forward."
As Cross lay wounded, his regiment desperately tried to assault the Confederate position. Any person who doubts the bravery of the Union soldier has only to view the bravery of the men who threw themselves against Mayre's Heights. The next morning, seventy soldiers answered roll for the Fifth. Colonel John Brooke would later state "that the bodies found nearest the "stone wall" were those of the Sixty-ninth New York, Fifth New Hampshire, and Fifty-third Pennsylvania."
Cross was minorly engaged in the battle of Chancellorsville, commanding a demi brigade. It would be, however, the next, and what would prove to be his last action that would leave his name on the immortal scrolls of fame.
During the Gettysburg campaign, Cross began having premonitions of his death. Lieutenant Hale, who considered himself close to the Colonel remembered:
The Colonel evidently had a strong premonition of his death. It did not seem to effect him much, in fact it effected me more than it did himself for I was then only a smooth-faced boy of nineteen, while he was a long bearded man of thirty-one, but having been more or less in contact with him from the time the regiment was organized, I had come to know him intimately and understood something of his moods.
As the Gettysburg campaign progressed, Cross seems to have been a moody man. On Sunday morning the 28th, Hale remembered:
Captain Butler rode on the Colonel's right and myself on the left, but I was taking little part in the conversation that was mainly on matters pertaining to the regiment. He told Butler about the magnificent sword, spurs and watch that had been presented to him at Falmouth, a testimonial from the officers of his regiment expressing the sentiment of an injunction uttered by Captain Perry as he lay dying amidst the slaughter of Fredericksburg. As he spoke of the matter in a pleased animated way, I saw that the colonel had been touched and gratified by this evidence of esteem from his loyal followers.
Finally, the conversation turned on the impending struggle that we were hastening forward to, and at last the Colonel said, It will be my last battle." He used the words in a grave decided way, and it gave me a shock, and also a feeling of resentment that he should speak in that manner; then I recalled to myself that in the last day or so he had at times seemed in a sort of abstracted mood that was not usual with him.
At last he said to me;"Mr. Hale, I wish you to attend to my books and papers; that private box of mine in the headquarters wagon; you helped me re-pack it the other day. After the campaign is over, get it at once, dry the contents if damp, and then turn it over to my brother Richard."
Richard served as a major in the 5th New Hampshire. Cross's brother Nelson was the skipper of the 67th New York of the Sixth Corps. Both brothers would survive the Civil War.
Once again on the 29th, Cross spoke of feelings that this would be his last battle. This again bothered young Hale, and the friendly relations between the two were strained. On July 1, Cross spoke nothing at all of his premonition. However, Hale remembered that on July 2,
...Soon after we had take up the line of march and were rapidly approaching the battle field, he said to me in a grave, firm, way, Mr. Hale:-attend to that box of mine at the first opportunity; that was all, but it convinced me that he was in dead earnest and had firm conviction of impending fate.
Cross's feelings of his impending doom are difficult to deal with. Certainly, he was no coward. John B. Gordon in his Reminiscences of the Civil War stated many cases including his own brother and General Stephen Dodson Ramseur as men of sound mind who had some sort of premonition of their own demise. In fact, the Civil War is filled with accounts of men who had some sort of inkling of what was to come. What brought these views into the future are beyond this authors capacities. Perhaps, though, as Gordon stated, this was indeed evidence of a Superior Being, and that there is something beyond this life.
As the day progressed, Cross had another change of mood. He walked among the men, giving them the pep talk: "Boys, you know what's before you. Give 'em hell!" Hale remembered that Cross walked off with Colonel McKeen of the 81st Pennsylvania,
Taking McKeen's arm they walked a little ways apart, both heads bent in earnest conversation. Colonel McKeen of the eighty-first Pennsylvania was a younger man but just such another gallant fighter as Cross, and while commanding a brigade he fell in just the same way on the field of Cold Harbor nearly a year later; here he was next in rank to Colonel Cross of the commanders present. After walking a little ways they stopped, grasped hands a moment, then turned and walked back, to where we were standing, Cross saying to the little group who where intently watching them, Gentlemen: - Colonel McKeen will command the one hundred and forty-eighth Pennsylvania to- day; before night he will probably be commanding the brigade."