Excerpts from Crawford, K., & Bertera, M.N. (2010). The 4th Michigan Infantry in the Civil War. (first cloth ed.). East Lansing: Michigan State University Press. https://muse.jhu.edu/book/6969.
Griffin’s Battery at Yorktown:
p. 56: April 5, 1862: ” The regiment’s assignment was to support Capt. Charles Griffin’s battery, part of their brigade’s artillery, and soon these and other Union guns were firing back from a hill off the road. The Michigan men took positions to the right of the batteries, partially screened from the Rebel gunners by some pine woods and brush. Dr. [David] Chamberlain wrote there were remnants of trenches here, dug back in the American Revolution. The men of the regiment quickly began to improve, extend, and enlarge these old works as the artillery blasted. “Pieces of shell were flying in every direction,” the doctor wrote. Edward Taylor said that Griffin’s gunners silenced a battery of three Rebel cannon. “Every shell he [Griffin] threw exploded within their works,” he wrote.
April 9, 1862:
p. 57 [Yorktown] “Their brigade was pulled back the next day, shifting about a mile to the right, or east, to camp with Porter’s division in a peach orchard on an old farm near the York River. The soldiers again went to work digging new trenches. Henry Seage of Company E wrote that a Confederate sharpshooter fired at the men from a hiding place high in a chimney of a burned-out house at the time, but the brigade’s artillery commander, Charles Griffin, brought out a gun “and soon made a ruin of the chimney, reb and all.” The weather continued fair and foul, but at last new tents arrived.”
9/19/62 Shepherdstown Ford
p. 107 “We had only been out but a short time when Gen. Griffin rode down and ordered Col. Childs to cross the river with his regiment and take the artillery on the other side,” Vesey wrote. The brigade commander called the 4th Michigan to attention. “Men,” Griffin said, “we are ordered to ford the river, and dismount those pieces over there. Are you willing to go?” The soldiers cheered.”
12/13/62 Fredericksburg
p. 118
“Sweitzer’s men lay down. But there was no way for Union soldiers in front of them to fight in the open for very long while exposed to the heavy fire. Finally these men turned and retreated. [Chaplain John] Seage wrote that General Griffin was on the field and saw what was happening, ordering the Second Brigade to remain in place and not let the retreating soldiers disrupt them. “Lie still, boys, and let them pass through,” he ordered, according to Seage’s Fredericksburg account, and the fleeing soldiers jumped over the rows of prone men, heading back to town. Now it was the Second Brigade’s turn to attack. By some reports, it was 4:00 p.m. or later.”
5/3/63 Chancellorsville
p. 142 “Whilst the ball was going, Gen. Hooker came where we were and sat down amongst us for about an hour,” [Lieut. Charles H.] Salter wrote from the battlefield. “He told Gen. Griffin that our position must be held at all hazards; and that everything depended on our being able to hold this place. Gen. Griffin told him that he had two of his best regiments here, and could hold it against all the
[p. 143] devils in hell, and that the rebels had not men enough in the Southern Confederacy to take it.” The anecdote would be proudly remembered and retold, with variations, for years by men of both Michigan regiments.”
5/30/64 Bethesda Church
p. 218 Another clash was taking shape as the Second Brigade moved to the front at 6:00 a.m.
the next morning, May 30. Shortly before they marched, Lt. James W. Vesey of Sturgis quickly
wrote a letter to his hometown newspaper, since he was sure they were going into battle when
his gruff division commander went by, his hat cocked at an angle. “Gen. Griffin just rode by our
lines, his hat was at the ‘fighting pitch,’” Vesey noted. “We will fight today. It is a sure sign when
‘Grif’ wears his hat a little on the left.” Vesey wasn’t wrong. The Michigan troops advanced and
the sound of skirmish fire was soon crackling over the countryside.
6/18/64 Petersburg
p. 225 The morning of June 18 dawned and the Second Brigade moved toward the front and then
angled to the south into some woods. Col. Jacob Sweitzer, the brigade commander, promised
he would hold the 4th Michigan back and “will call on us only in the case of urgent need,”
Bancroft noted. Moses Luce later wrote that Gen. Charles Griffin, their division commander,
told the soldiers of the 4th Michigan that they should vote on whether they were willing to go
into the fighting that day. According to Luce, the men of the regiment voted they would attack,
if needed, though apparently some men decided to desert rather than risk being sent into battle.
p.226 Around 6:00 p.m., the regiments of the Second Brigade were sent in to charge a section of the Confederate line—all of the regiments, that is, but the 4th Michigan. With the three-year hitch of more than 150 officers and men ending in just hours, a commanding officer, likely Gen. Charles Griffin, allowed the Michigan regiment to remain behind. One member of the brigade remembered that the 4th Michigan was excluded from the order to attack when the rest of the troops moved out to assault the Rebel position that evening. The fighting was terrible and scores of men fell dead and wounded, but the Confederate line did not break.
