© Melissa Hanson | mhanson/masslive.com/TNS The General Josiah Pickett parking lot on Green Street in Worcester was one of the few references to the man in Worcester before it was turned into Rockland Trust Plaza.
A simple municipal sign in a small Worcester parking lot was, for many years, the only real memorial for the man.
Gen. Josiah Pickett is not exactly a household name in the city — at least not anymore. His generation is long gone — with only a few vestiges remaining in the form of painted portraits in historic halls or a plaque or marker here or there.
It probably doesn’t help that he also shares his last name with another famous Civil War general — Confederate Gen. George Pickett.
But on a battlefield more than 500 miles away in Virginia on June 3, 1864, Josiah Pickett, while under military arrest, led a regiment of 315 Worcester County men in one of the deadliest ill-fated charges of the Civil War.
It’s difficult to tell today, but he was once a legend in Worcester. A war veteran known for his steady leadership and the respect he commanded. In later years, he was the city’s postmaster. Upon his death in 1908 at the age of 85, and still technically under military arrest, the flags at Worcester City Hall were lowered to half-staff.
The Gen. Josiah Pickett Municipal Parking Lot sign that bore his name has now been removed, as has the parking lot, to make way for a new Green Street entrance to Polar Park, home of the Worcester Red Sox. It was never much of a memorial to begin with. The name of the new entrance has gone to a corporate sponsor and is now the Rockland Trust Plaza, although a plaque for Pickett somewhere at the plaza is planned for later, city officials say.
A portrait sill hangs of him in Mechanic’s Hall, although it and a few others were moved out of the main hall a few years back during an effort to include portraits of notable women of history in recognition that the portraits had, until that time, been white men only.
There is no comprehensive history written of Pickett’s life. Newspaper accounts from dozens of anniversary gatherings of the 25th Massachusetts after the war along with documents in Worcester Historical Museum’s collections shed some light on the man. But it is the personal accounts of the men he served with, including a self-published book of the story of Company A of the 25th Massachusetts published by former soldier Samuel H. Putnam that create a sharper picture of the city’s nearly forgotten hero.
And his story is remarkable.
Born in Beverly in 1822 to Josiah and Mary Pickett, census reports show his early occupation as a painter. According to the book “The Worcester of 1898″ he’d run off to California for the Gold Rush at age 27. But it was his move to Worcester in 1855 that almost immediately made a reputation for him as a leader and keen tactician in the local militia.
When the war came in 1861, he helped recruit men at the formation of the 25th Massachusetts regiment in Worcester. But the men learned that Gov. John Andrew intended to appoint a New Yorker to head the Worcester regiment.
Pickett and one other prospective member of the soon-to-be-formed regiment traveled to New York City to implore the man to turn down the commission, which he did. Chance had it that Gov. Andrew was also in New York City at the time and was astonished to find the men had come to “interfere with his plans,” according to an account in “Wearing the Blue in the 25th Mass. Volunteer Infantry.”
Pickett explained that the governor should respect the “reasonable local pride of the men of Worcester County” and appoint one of their own. Shortly after, Edwin Upton of Fitchburg was appointed colonel with Augustus B.R. Sprague of Worcester as lieutenant colonel.
The Battle of Cold Harbor
The regiment had already seen its fair share of war by the time that then-Col. Pickett and the 25th Massachusetts arrived at Cold Harbor, Virginia. Pickett was now leading the regiment, having distinguished himself, according to Putnam, as being “in a fight always in the lead, inspiring the men with courage by his coolness and daring.”
He’d often be seen walking on foot, allowing a sick or footsore soldier to ride his horse.
But the march to Cold Harbor was strewn with dead horses and mules and the stench was horrible, Putnam recalled. The fighting had begun June 1 and it was on the 2nd that the 25th marched in.
June 3 was planned for the big assault.
Gen. Ulysses S. Grant’s plan was to overrun Gen. Robert E. Lee’s defenses at Cold Harbor and push his army to the Confederate capital in Richmond.
Placed under arrest
The orders made no sense to him. When Pickett received orders for the following day’s assault, he, like many other officers along the front line, could now see the proposed attack on the thoroughly entrenched rebels would be suicide.
The Confederates had constructed a 6-mile-long elaborate series of fortifications Union troops would need to penetrate. The picket lines were staggered in a way to allow the rebels to catch any attacking army in a crossfire.
Pickett sent word back to Gen. George J. Stannard, the brigade commander, asking for an explanation — or for new orders. Stannard angrily sent back a reply that the orders did not require explanation and that Pickett would be wise to follow them as they were issued.
But Pickett, who, his men would later recall, was known for his clear orders and leadership, wouldn’t let it go. He told an orderly to reply that he could not follow orders he could not understand.
Stannard ordered Pickett placed under arrest for insubordination and relieved of his command.
The morning of June 3 and ‘the heroic regiment’
The fighting began early on the morning of June 3; around 4:30 a.m. Facing a thick fog, Union soldiers up the 6-mile battlefront began to advance on the entrenched Confederates.
Pickett emerged from his quarters ready for duty.
According to an account in the Philidelphia Inquirer, Pickett remarked that “he did not propose that a little matter like a difference of opinion between him and the brigade commander should prevent him from taking part in the battle.”
But as a three-year veteran of the war, he must have known what lay ahead.
The 25th Massachusetts was positioned at the far north end of the battle line. As they lay on the ground under the trees, Pickett and his regiment looked across the battlefield weighing their chances.
“We knew it meant slaughter for us to make the attempt,” Putnam wrote. “But to obey orders is a soldier’s duty.”
The battle was moving north along the line. The men heard cheering and artillery fire to their left.
“We knew our boys were making an assault on the enemy line,” Putnam wrote. “We could only guess at the result.”
“‘Forward!’ The hour had come. We moved slowly up the slight elevation beyond which a thousand deaths awaited us. No man faltered, and only the wounded ones fell out; for we were under fire all the time while lying under the trees.”
Pickett showed no hesitation.
At the head of the regiment, he raised his sword above his head, shouting “Come on, boys! Forward, double-quick. Charge!”
“We dashed forward with a cheer,” Putnam wrote. “The enemy’s earthworks in our front, perhaps 20 yards distant, were enveloped in smoke and flame. And volley after volley of musketry sent bullets through our ranks like hail.”
Confederate gunfire poured in from both the left and right flanks. Survivors of the battle recalled seeing charging soldiers peppered with multiple rounds before their bodies could even hit the ground.
Across the enemy line, Confederate Col. P.D. Bowles of the 4th Alabama was prepared for the assault.
“On looking over the works, I discovered what I supposed to be one regiment, with a single flag, and an officer in front with sword raised high in the air, calling on his men to charge,” Bowles recounted 20 years later in a letter to the Philidelphia Weekly Times. “I ordered my command to place their guns on the works and wait for orders. When the advancing line reached within seventy yards I ordered my line to fire …”
Pickett went down, shot in the hip.
The ground was quickly covered with the dead and the wounded. “The slaughter was fearful,” Putnam wrote.
“The heroic regiment that made the gallant charge was the Twenty-fifth Massachusetts, which was the only regiment that obeyed orders to advance,” Bowles wrote.
In fact, historic accounts show many other regiments had advanced along the battle line, sustaining heavy casualties, including the 27th Massachusetts out of Springfield, which was positioned next to Pickett’s regiment. Capt. Edward Kirk Wilcox led the 27th. He had been transferred but rejoined his old regiment when he saw them heading into battle. He fell dead, pierced by a dozen bullets.
“Not since the charge of the three hundred at Balaklava has a more heroic act been performed,” Bowles wrote of the charge he witnessed that day.
Soldiers, many now trapped in the line of fire, used bayonets or tin cups to try to dig themselves into the earth. Others tried to shield themselves behind the dead bodies that were stacking up.
In a matter of minutes, 220 of Pickett’s 315 men — all Worcester County men — were either dead, wounded or would be reported missing.
“Nearly all fell during the charge,” Putnam wrote.
It was a horrific blow to a regiment that a month earlier had boasted about 700 men. If the battle was bloody, the aftermath was simply horrific.
Many of the wounded were stuck between the opposing lines. It would be four days before a flag of truce would grant parties from both sides a brief two hours to recover the wounded and dead that littered the ground. The smell of the dead was overpowering and the wounded cried out for water.
A Union soldier’s diary found after the battle had one final entry: “June 3. Cold Harbor. I was killed.”
“This war and its deplorable results,” Putnam wrote. “It was a terrible sacrifice, but it was for the Union and the flag, and our country was saved by the blood of its heroes.”
On the night of June 8, military bands on the Union side played “The Star-Spangled Banner” and “Yankee Doodle.” On the Confederate side could be heard “Dixie” and “The Bonnie Blue Flag.”
In all, the Union lost about 6,000 to 7,000 men either killed, wounded or missing in 30 minutes that day while the Confederates sustained about 1,500 casualties.
“I have always regretted that the last assault at Cold Harbor was ever made,” Gen. Grant would later write.
It was a senseless loss for which many paid with their lives.
Some of Pickett’s men were captured. Fortune had it, however, that the Confederates who captured them had once been held prisoners themselves by the 25th. Remembering their good treatment under Pickett and his men, they returned the favor.
Col. Pickett promoted to general
Pickett survived the battle. But the severe wound he received would sideline him for the last few months of the war. He returned back to Worcester ahead of the rest of the regiment.
A lot of men made that horrific charge that day. But Pickett’s bravery stood out to his fellow officers and men.
A letter was sent to Gen. Grant recommending Pickett be promoted from colonel to general. The letter was signed by none other than Gen. Stannard, the same commander who had ordered him placed under arrest. A copy of the letter is on file at the Worcester Historical Museum.
Notes of recommendations were also included from Gen. A.E. Burnside, Maj. Gen. J.G. Foster and Charles Devens Sr.
Pickett was promoted to general before being discharged from the service in January 1865.
After the war, Pickett said that he believed he was the only man who could claim the distinction of being promoted and honorably discharged while under arrest.
According to an account of his life and death in the Springfield Republican in 1908, “the adjutant whose duty it would have been to record the arrest was killed in the conflict, and because of the heroism displayed by Worcester’s soldier the charges against him were entirely forgotten. He was always rather proud of this distinction and refused to allow any movement to formally release him from the arrest ordered by Gen. Stannard but never carried into effect.”
Returning home to Worcester
Four months after the Battle of Cold Harbor, the remnants of the 25th Massachusetts were headed, finally, home to Worcester. A delay was proposed in order to have a propper city welcome for the troops, but the men were eager to see home and arrived in the city around 4 a.m. on Oct. 13, 1864.
“What a contrast to that October day of three years before,” Putnam wrote. “Then it was a bright and beautiful day, with thousands to bid us good-bye; now it was a cold and cheerless morning, and (not being expected that early hour) none to give us welcome.”
One of the first to greet the weary men — Pickett, “our old captain,” as Putnam called him, “still suffering from his wound of June 3d at Cold Harbor; and lame as he was, he had walked to the City Hall to bid us old comrades welcome — and what a greeting was that!”
Pickett became the city’s postmaster, a post which he held for more than 20 years, and served various other public functions in the years after the war.
As Putnam reflected upon the regiment’s return to Worcester following the war:
“Our full term of service — three years — had expired — long years they had been to us; and with the proud satisfaction that duty to our country had been “well done,” we found ourselves again private citizens.”
Information from the Worcester Historical Museum’s collections as well as “The Story of Company A; 25th Regiment Mass. Volunteers in the War of the Rebellion,” “Wearing the Blue in the 25th Mass. Volunteer Infantry” and The Philidelphia Inquirer, The Springfield Republican and The Boston Post were used in this story.
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