Charles R. Mudge: "Win or Die"
Charles R. Mudge: "Win or Die"
by Diana Loski
Charles R. Mudge
(US Army War College, Carlisle, PA)
At seven a.m. on Friday, July 3, 1863 the Battle of Gettysburg was far from decided. In the hours before Pickett’s Charge, another portion of the field was about to explode into warfare. The lower echelon of Culp’s Hill – which formed the right flank of the Union line – was divided, with both Union and Confederate troops facing one another. Each side waited for orders across a meadow ringed with woods and large, scattered rocks. The ground was saturated from recent rains.
A young commander in blue acknowledged the presence of an approaching orderly. No one remembered who the messenger was, but he claimed to be from the staff of the newly appointed brigade commander, Colonel Silas Colgrove, recently promoted from the 27th Indiana Infantry. The Hoosiers were deployed nearby, to the rear of the men of the 2nd Massachusetts Regiment. The New Englanders’ lieutenant-colonel, just 23 years old, turned to receive the message. He was told to attack.
Later that day, a similar, though much larger, charge took place between Seminary and Cemetery Ridges with devastating results. The smaller charge on Culp’s Hill is far less known, but had a similarly dire outcome. Knowing the order was fatal to them, Lieutenant Colonel Mudge, always a determined soldier, followed the order.
Charles Redington Mudge was born in New York City on October 22, 1839. While he enjoyed the company of three sisters, he was the only son of Enoch Redington Mudge and his wife, Caroline. While Charles and his sister, also named Caroline, were still small children, their parents moved to Lynn, Massachusetts, where his father, a native of Maine, set up a successful business in the wool and cotton industry. Like many of his ancestors of New England origin, Enoch Mudge was “a prime mover ”. He was known to be a man who “ would not acknowledge that ultimate failure was possible.” He got results, and became influential in the community for his efforts.1
Charles inherited some of his father’s traits. A good student and industrious worker, he graduated from Harvard in 1860, planning to join the family business. War, however, changed his plans. Charles immediately offered his services to the Union, raising a company in what would become the 2nd Massachusetts Infantry. He remembered, “I fully made up my mind to fight; and when I say fight, I mean win or die.”2
Mudge and his men of Company F fought their first battle at Cedar Mountain in August 1862, as part of the Union Second Corps, with General John Pope’s army. The battle proved disastrous for the men in blue and Mudge fell among the many wounded.
He healed in time for the Battle of Antietam on September 17 of that same year. With Pope relieved of command, the Massachusetts regiment had been reassigned to the Union Twelfth Corps, Army of the Potomac. Charles was also wounded, albeit less dangerously, near the Dunker Church. His corps commander, General Mansfield, however, was killed, causing another necessary change for the men from Massachusetts. Their new corps commander was General Henry Slocum, who would command them at Gettysburg. The regiment missed the Battle of Fredericksburg, although they were in the vicinity. Like the rest of the Army of the Potomac, they endured winter camp in Virginia.3
For his courage and his genial manner with his men, he was soon promoted, and by early 1863 was a lieutenant-colonel. One of his men remembered, “There could be no word of harshness or of sarcasm from him…Each comrade felt that Mudge saw the bright side of his character and recognized all his best qualities.” Like most able commanders, Mudge would not order his men to any task if he were not there to lead them.4
A young commander in blue acknowledged the presence of an approaching orderly. No one remembered who the messenger was, but he claimed to be from the staff of the newly appointed brigade commander, Colonel Silas Colgrove, recently promoted from the 27th Indiana Infantry. The Hoosiers were deployed nearby, to the rear of the men of the 2nd Massachusetts Regiment. The New Englanders’ lieutenant-colonel, just 23 years old, turned to receive the message. He was told to attack.
Later that day, a similar, though much larger, charge took place between Seminary and Cemetery Ridges with devastating results. The smaller charge on Culp’s Hill is far less known, but had a similarly dire outcome. Knowing the order was fatal to them, Lieutenant Colonel Mudge, always a determined soldier, followed the order.
Charles Redington Mudge was born in New York City on October 22, 1839. While he enjoyed the company of three sisters, he was the only son of Enoch Redington Mudge and his wife, Caroline. While Charles and his sister, also named Caroline, were still small children, their parents moved to Lynn, Massachusetts, where his father, a native of Maine, set up a successful business in the wool and cotton industry. Like many of his ancestors of New England origin, Enoch Mudge was “a prime mover ”. He was known to be a man who “ would not acknowledge that ultimate failure was possible.” He got results, and became influential in the community for his efforts.1
Charles inherited some of his father’s traits. A good student and industrious worker, he graduated from Harvard in 1860, planning to join the family business. War, however, changed his plans. Charles immediately offered his services to the Union, raising a company in what would become the 2nd Massachusetts Infantry. He remembered, “I fully made up my mind to fight; and when I say fight, I mean win or die.”2
Mudge and his men of Company F fought their first battle at Cedar Mountain in August 1862, as part of the Union Second Corps, with General John Pope’s army. The battle proved disastrous for the men in blue and Mudge fell among the many wounded.
He healed in time for the Battle of Antietam on September 17 of that same year. With Pope relieved of command, the Massachusetts regiment had been reassigned to the Union Twelfth Corps, Army of the Potomac. Charles was also wounded, albeit less dangerously, near the Dunker Church. His corps commander, General Mansfield, however, was killed, causing another necessary change for the men from Massachusetts. Their new corps commander was General Henry Slocum, who would command them at Gettysburg. The regiment missed the Battle of Fredericksburg, although they were in the vicinity. Like the rest of the Army of the Potomac, they endured winter camp in Virginia.3
For his courage and his genial manner with his men, he was soon promoted, and by early 1863 was a lieutenant-colonel. One of his men remembered, “There could be no word of harshness or of sarcasm from him…Each comrade felt that Mudge saw the bright side of his character and recognized all his best qualities.” Like most able commanders, Mudge would not order his men to any task if he were not there to lead them.4
The 2nd Massachusetts Memorial, Gettysburg
Mudge and the rest of the men in the 2nd Massachusetts participated in the Battle of Chancellorsville. When General Thomas Jonathan Jackson routed the Federal Eleventh Corps in the evening of May 1, the men of the Twelfth Corps stubbornly stopped the Confederate tide, with help from the unwitting North Carolina troops who accidentally shot General Jackson.
When General Lee decided to invade the North in the late spring of 1863, Mudge commanded the 2nd Massachusetts. Along with the rest of the Twelfth Corps, they marched up the Baltimore Pike, too late to be part of the fight on July 1. They arrived in Gettysburg on July 2, and took their position on Culp’s Hill, the Union right flank.
Because General Slocum took wing command of the flank, the division commander, Alpheus Williams, took control of the Twelfth Corps. The brigade commander, General Thomas Ruger, was promoted to division command. One of the regimental commanders, Colonel Silas Colgrove of the 27th Indiana, suddenly rose to brigade command. The brigade, which included Mudge and the men from Massachusetts was comprised of five regiments: the 27th Indiana, the 2nd Massachusetts, the 13th New Jersey, the 107th New York, and the 3rd Wisconsin. Deployed on the lower part of the hill, the men remained there for several hours, many of them digging in and fortifying their position. They received orders that afternoon to move out on the double quick. A problem created by an errant Union general, Dan Sickles of the Federal Third Corps, had caused the center of the Union line to unravel, and the Confederates were eager to take advantage of it.
Mudge and the men of the 2nd Massachusetts joined their division in shoring up the Union line on Cemetery Ridge. When the danger of attack had passed, the troops were ordered back to Culp’s Hill.
As they returned in the coming darkness, they had not realized that, while they had vacated their line, Confederate troops had moved into the position. Realizing that possibility, Mudge sent scouts ahead to determine if their line of deployment had been taken. Men from the 23rd Virginia rose from the position, and grabbed one of the scouts. The other ran to his colonel with the news. When General Slocum learned that Confederates had infiltrated the lower portion of Culp’s Hill, he tersely replied, “Well, drive them out at daylight.” 5
At first light on Friday, July 3, the roaring of artillery opened the fight on Culp’s Hill. For another seven hours the men in blue and gray fought for the hill. It was the longest sustained fight at Gettysburg.
While Union troops held the heights, Slocum’s determination to drive out the Confederates on the lower tier reached the commanders in the field. Colonel Colgrove, new to his position of brigade commander, did not question the order, nor did he fully grasp the severity of it. He decided to send in his own former command, the 27th Indiana, and the 2nd Massachusetts.
When Lt. Col. Mudge heard the order, he could not believe it. He had formerly held the position now occupied by the Confederates, and knew it was impregnable. In addition, crossing the open meadow to their front left his men completely vulnerable to a withering fire. When he realized the order was certain, he said, “It is murder, but it’s the order.” He turned to his regiment and called, “Up, men, over the works! Forward, double quick !”6
Instantly, his regiment obeyed and the 2nd Massachusetts rushed across the meadow. In a few minutes, the explosive fire of muskets behind the rocks and veiled by trees brought down nearly half of the intrepid soldiers. One of the fallen was Colonel Mudge, who was killed instantly by a bullet to the throat. The men from the 27th Indiana, who followed the Massachusetts men, also suffered heavy casualties. After a valiant fight, the Union soldiers withdrew to their lines, unable to rescue any of their wounded.
After many hours of fighting, at about eleven a.m., the Confederate troops, suffering heavy losses elsewhere on Culp’s Hill, realized that the position was untenable and withdrew. Culp’s Hill remained in Union hands. Lee’s attempts at a flank attack had failed, and he decided to attack up the center of the Union line – the same area he had almost won on the evening of July 2 – the spot rescued in part by the Twelfth Corps. Lee’s final assault at Gettysburg, known as Pickett’s Charge, secured the Union victory and left thousands of dead and wounded Confederates on the field between the ridges.
The body of Charles Mudge was returned to his grief-stricken parents in Lynn, Massachusetts. He was buried in a mausoleum at St. Stephen’s Episcopal Church. His younger sister, Fanny, had also recently died, so Charles was buried beside her.7
In all, the 2nd Massachusetts Infantry came to Gettysburg with 22 officers and 294 enlisted men. They lost 137 of them, a significant number – but not surprising. When the survivors of the war learned that monuments were permitted at Gettysburg, they expressed a desire to leave a memorial for the many brothers-in-arms they lost in the pivotal battle. The 2nd Massachusetts Memorial, located on Culp’s Hill where they made their charge, was the first permanent regimental monument to be dedicated at Gettysburg. Placed there in 1879, most of the surviving veterans of that regiment attended the dedication. Like most of the monuments at Gettysburg, those who placed them hoped that future generations would always remember “the honored memories of that hour.”8
Colonel Mudge had determined, like his father, to “win or die”. He managed to accomplish both on Culp's Hill.9
Charles Mudge, age 23, was only one of the phalanx who fought and the countless who fell on the Pennsylvania loam. His family, like thousands of other families, mourned his loss for the rest of their lives. He was not able to marry and have children, to enjoy a bright future in business, or continue with a long life that should have come to him. His fate was like that of so many others, in the epic struggle at a place called Gettysburg.
When General Lee decided to invade the North in the late spring of 1863, Mudge commanded the 2nd Massachusetts. Along with the rest of the Twelfth Corps, they marched up the Baltimore Pike, too late to be part of the fight on July 1. They arrived in Gettysburg on July 2, and took their position on Culp’s Hill, the Union right flank.
Because General Slocum took wing command of the flank, the division commander, Alpheus Williams, took control of the Twelfth Corps. The brigade commander, General Thomas Ruger, was promoted to division command. One of the regimental commanders, Colonel Silas Colgrove of the 27th Indiana, suddenly rose to brigade command. The brigade, which included Mudge and the men from Massachusetts was comprised of five regiments: the 27th Indiana, the 2nd Massachusetts, the 13th New Jersey, the 107th New York, and the 3rd Wisconsin. Deployed on the lower part of the hill, the men remained there for several hours, many of them digging in and fortifying their position. They received orders that afternoon to move out on the double quick. A problem created by an errant Union general, Dan Sickles of the Federal Third Corps, had caused the center of the Union line to unravel, and the Confederates were eager to take advantage of it.
Mudge and the men of the 2nd Massachusetts joined their division in shoring up the Union line on Cemetery Ridge. When the danger of attack had passed, the troops were ordered back to Culp’s Hill.
As they returned in the coming darkness, they had not realized that, while they had vacated their line, Confederate troops had moved into the position. Realizing that possibility, Mudge sent scouts ahead to determine if their line of deployment had been taken. Men from the 23rd Virginia rose from the position, and grabbed one of the scouts. The other ran to his colonel with the news. When General Slocum learned that Confederates had infiltrated the lower portion of Culp’s Hill, he tersely replied, “Well, drive them out at daylight.” 5
At first light on Friday, July 3, the roaring of artillery opened the fight on Culp’s Hill. For another seven hours the men in blue and gray fought for the hill. It was the longest sustained fight at Gettysburg.
While Union troops held the heights, Slocum’s determination to drive out the Confederates on the lower tier reached the commanders in the field. Colonel Colgrove, new to his position of brigade commander, did not question the order, nor did he fully grasp the severity of it. He decided to send in his own former command, the 27th Indiana, and the 2nd Massachusetts.
When Lt. Col. Mudge heard the order, he could not believe it. He had formerly held the position now occupied by the Confederates, and knew it was impregnable. In addition, crossing the open meadow to their front left his men completely vulnerable to a withering fire. When he realized the order was certain, he said, “It is murder, but it’s the order.” He turned to his regiment and called, “Up, men, over the works! Forward, double quick !”6
Instantly, his regiment obeyed and the 2nd Massachusetts rushed across the meadow. In a few minutes, the explosive fire of muskets behind the rocks and veiled by trees brought down nearly half of the intrepid soldiers. One of the fallen was Colonel Mudge, who was killed instantly by a bullet to the throat. The men from the 27th Indiana, who followed the Massachusetts men, also suffered heavy casualties. After a valiant fight, the Union soldiers withdrew to their lines, unable to rescue any of their wounded.
After many hours of fighting, at about eleven a.m., the Confederate troops, suffering heavy losses elsewhere on Culp’s Hill, realized that the position was untenable and withdrew. Culp’s Hill remained in Union hands. Lee’s attempts at a flank attack had failed, and he decided to attack up the center of the Union line – the same area he had almost won on the evening of July 2 – the spot rescued in part by the Twelfth Corps. Lee’s final assault at Gettysburg, known as Pickett’s Charge, secured the Union victory and left thousands of dead and wounded Confederates on the field between the ridges.
The body of Charles Mudge was returned to his grief-stricken parents in Lynn, Massachusetts. He was buried in a mausoleum at St. Stephen’s Episcopal Church. His younger sister, Fanny, had also recently died, so Charles was buried beside her.7
In all, the 2nd Massachusetts Infantry came to Gettysburg with 22 officers and 294 enlisted men. They lost 137 of them, a significant number – but not surprising. When the survivors of the war learned that monuments were permitted at Gettysburg, they expressed a desire to leave a memorial for the many brothers-in-arms they lost in the pivotal battle. The 2nd Massachusetts Memorial, located on Culp’s Hill where they made their charge, was the first permanent regimental monument to be dedicated at Gettysburg. Placed there in 1879, most of the surviving veterans of that regiment attended the dedication. Like most of the monuments at Gettysburg, those who placed them hoped that future generations would always remember “the honored memories of that hour.”8
Colonel Mudge had determined, like his father, to “win or die”. He managed to accomplish both on Culp's Hill.9
Charles Mudge, age 23, was only one of the phalanx who fought and the countless who fell on the Pennsylvania loam. His family, like thousands of other families, mourned his loss for the rest of their lives. He was not able to marry and have children, to enjoy a bright future in business, or continue with a long life that should have come to him. His fate was like that of so many others, in the epic struggle at a place called Gettysburg.
The dedication of the 2nd Massachusetts Memorial, 1879
End Notes:
1. The Boston Globe, 22 July, 1913. Mudge Family History, Ancestry.com.
2. U.S. Census, 1850. Culp’s Hill Wayside Marker, GNMP.
3. Mudge Family History, Ancestry.com. The Boston Globe, 22 July, 1913.
4. Higginson, p. 143.
5. Pfanz, pp. 233-234.
6. Ibid., p. 341. When Lt. Col. Mudge was killed, Major Charles Morse took over command of the regiment.
7. The Boston Globe, 22 July, 1913.
8. 2 nd Massachusetts Memorial, Culp’s Hill, GNMP.
9. Culp’s Hill Wayside Marker, GNMP.
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