The Battle of Payne’s Farm

During the Battle of Payne’s Farm, while Union Gen. Henry Prince’s division held the ground on either side of the road to Jacob’s Mill, Gen. Joseph B. Carr aligned his division on Prince’s left flank in support and was ordered to make a connection if possible with the II Corps near Locust Grove. Nicknamed “General French’s Pets” by the rest of the corps, Carr’s division had seen little action, and for several of its regiments this engagement would be their first battle. Carr’s three brigades entered the fighting just as Confederates were making a concerted effort to turn Prince’s flank. After initial confusion, the untested Union troops advanced through difficult terrain, scaled the ridge ahead, drove back the Confederate skirmishers, and took position behind a fence at the edge of a large field atop the rise. In this fighting, the three regiments of Gen. William H. Morris’s brigade suffered the highest regimental losses in the Union army during the Mine Run Campaign, yet the new troops performed admirably and quickly became veterans. Morris rode to the front, congratulated his men for their bravery, and said that as new troops, a brigade never fought better. Pvt. Jesse Benson of Company A, 151st New York, was wounded in the right shoulder at Payne’s Farm, had his arm amputated soon after, and was discharged from service two months later.

Virginia · United States