Chauncey Leland "Chance" Harris: The Old Slouch of the Mountains - Part I

Scipio Roots of Chance Harris

Gideon Allen, husband of Phebe Beardsley, was among the earliest settlers of the Town of Scipio, Cayuga Co., New York, removing from the Town of Granville, Washington Co., New York where he was censused in 1790. Storke (1879) places Gideon's Scipio settlement in 1790.

"Gideon Allen, and possibly Ebenezer Witter, the latter of whom accompanied Roswell Franklin in his settlement at Aurora, came in the same year [1790]. Gideon Allen was a cousin of Ethan Allen, and came from Washington county. He settled a little south-west of Scipioville, where his grandson, Lemuel Allen, now lives. He afterwards bought the farm in Springport now occupied by Ethan Allen, another grandson, where he died, aged 97."-- Elliot G. Storke, History of Cayuga County, New York 1789 - 1879 (Syracuse, Onondaga Co., NY, D. Mason & Co., 1879), Internet Archive <http://archive.org/>, p. 418

Although Gideon and Phebe had many descendants and some remained within Southern Cayuga Co., most continued to move west with advancing settlement. Sally Allen, a daughter, married Samuel Millard Strickland, and removed to the Town of Brighton, Monroe Co., New York. Sally's daughter, Fidelia Strickland, married Daniel Ely Harris and resided at various places in western New York, including Brighton, before settling in Rochester, Monroe Co., New York. Among Fidelia and Daniel Harris's three sons was Chauncey Leland "Chance" Harris, the subject of this sketch.

Chance Harris's Youth

Chance Harris was born 4 July 1841 in the western part of the Town of Greece, Monroe Co., New York according to an obituary from a Rochester paper; however, several Allen genealogies give Chance's birth as 3 July 1841 so some uncertainty exists as to the exact date. Daniel Harris moved several times during Chance's youth. Census data place the family in the Town of Rushford, Allegany Co., New York in 1850; Buffalo, Erie Co., New York in 1855; and Rochester in 1860. By this time, Chance was employed as a Clerk and living in his father's household.

Chance Harris's Civil War Through the Battle of Gettysburg

Chance enrolled as a Private in Captain Francis E. Pierce's Company F, 108th Infantry Regiment, New York Volunteers on 31 July 1862, for which he received a Bounty payment of $25.00 with a Premium of $2.00. Two weeks later, on 15 August, he was ordered to report to Camp Fitz John Porter at Rochester for assembly of the troops. Chance was formally Mustered In to the 108th Regiment on 18 August, and they departed the following day by train for Washington, D.C. via Albany, New York and New York City.

The 108th Regiment was thrown into the Battle of Antietam at Sharpsburg, Washington Co., Maryland on 18 September 1862, just one month after mustering in at Rochester. Chance did not face another major action until the Battle of Fredericksburg in Spotsylvania Co., Virginia on 13 December 1863. Thereafter, the 108th went into winter quarters at Falmouth, Stafford Co., Virginia where Chance was promoted to Corporal on 28 February 1863. Fighting resumed for the 108th Regiment with the Battle of Chancellorsville in Spotsylvania Co., Virginia from 30 April until 6 May 1864. The Battle of Gettysburg in Adams Co., Pennsylvania followed on 1-5 July.

During the Battle of Gettysburg, Chance penned a letter to his father. This letter was published well after the Civil War in at least one newspaper and in a regimental history and is instructive on the nature of Civil War battles.

"BATTLEFIELD AT GETTYSBURG, July 4, 1863. Dear Father--Another great battle has been fought and now, Wednesday night, we arrived here from Taneytown, and Thursday morning our regiment was ordered to the front, to support the First Regular Battery. During the day we were shelled occasionally and a few of our men wounded. Yesterday forenoon they opened on us again, but were soon silenced by our brass 12-pounders. The enemy could be seen building breastworks for protection from our shot and shells. In the forenoon companies A and C were sent out as skirmishers and had three killed and four wounded. At noon, or near that hour, they were relieved and came in. About 2 o'clock the enemy opened fire from their batteries, thus getting a partial cross fire on us. Our guns replied in good time and order. Our regiment was immediately in their rear and laid down, but many of them suffered severely indeed. It was the hardest fire the 108th ever experienced--perfectly awful--murderous. Not a second but a shell-shot or ball flew over or by us. Large limbs were torn from the trunks of the oak trees under which we lay, and precipitated down upon our heads. One shell came shrieking and tearing through the trees with the velocity of lightning, striking a caisson, causing it to explode, wounding several. Three or four men started to their feet to leave the spot, but Lieutenant Card drew his sword and commanded them to go back and lay down in their places, which they did. Small trees were cut down, and large ones shattered almost to pieces. Five different cannon balls struck a large oak three feet in diameter which stood not five feet from where I lay, and one of them passed entirely through it. A shell struck right at my feet killing Sergeant Maurice Welch and Private John Fitzner. This destructive and murderous fire continued to pour in upon us for more than an hour--in fact until they silenced our batteries, or rather until we had exhausted our ammunition. Very many of our cannoniers were killed or wounded and the most of the horses. Some of our regiment had to help them run their pieces back by hand; General French having taken command of the Third Corps. Brigadier-General Hays (a brother of the Hays of our brigade, who was taken prisoner at Chancellorsville), had command of our division, and I must say I think he is the bravest division general I ever saw in the saddle. Most of the time he was riding up and down the lines in front of us, exhorting the 'boys' to stand fast and fight like men. Shell, shot nor the bullets of the rebel sharpshooters seemed to intimidate him in the least, in fact he paid not the least attention to them nor did his staff officers. Once he rode by and said, 'Boys, don't let 'em touch these pieces,' and in a few moments he rode back again, laughing, and sung out 'Hurrah, boys, we're giving them h-ll,' and he dashed up to the brow of the hill and cheered our skirmishers, who were driving the rebels before them. Soon after our pieces ceased firing the rebels slackened theirs also, and then advanced in three lines of infantry from the woods and across the fields. I never saw troops march out with more military precision. Their lines were unbroken and they looked in the distance like statues. On they came, steady, firm, moving like so many automatons; our brigade now formed in line to receive them, the skirmishers coming in at the same time. The 108th was taken out of the grove, drawn up in line of battle, and then told to kneel down until the word 'fire.' 
The Twelfth New Jersey was on our left, and the 126th New York on our right. Two pieces of the First battery were brought up by hand. When the rebels had advanced about half-way across the field a deadly fire of grape and canister was thrown into them mowing them down like chaff, but still on they came. When within musket range the infantry rose and poured such a shower of leaden hail into them that their lines broke and they fell back in great disorder. They formed again, however, with part of the second line and came on once more, their officers waving swords and telling them to stand fast and not to break or run. Already they had wounded many of our men, who had gone to the rear. We looked about for reinforcements but they were not to be seen. Our ranks were closed again and we prepared to meet them once more. Lieutenant-Colonel Pierce who had command (Col. Powers being sick), was back and forth along the line encouraging the boys and cheering them up by his cool example. All remembered the fair name the Third Division had previously won in battle, and the encomiums bestowed upon us, and every man stood ready to do his duty and preserve that name or die then and there, and indeed many did fall there, but in the front rank facing the enemy. The second time as we poured volley after volley into them their ranks broke, and all was confusion for a time, but their officers rallied them again soon, and they marched forward in a body, but our fire was too tremendously hot for them, and the third and last time they were repulsed and completely routed. Many of our troops rushed down into the field, and hundreds of prisoners, many stands of colors, and any quantity of arms were taken, and here also did General Hayes again show his courage and bravery. Striking his high-spirited steed on the flank with his sabre, he dashed down among the rebels, seized a stand of colors, and carrying them back he rode at a gallop along the front of our lines, laughing and trailing the rebel flag in the dust, and then it was that cheer after cheer went up for him, entirely drowning the sound of the shells that were passing over us.
No other attempt was made by them to advance to our lines. I hear that General Longstreet was taken prisoner by some of our troops and Captain Ellerbeck of the Sixth New York cavalry, just here, says, he thinks we took about 10,000 rebels in all and thirty-five stands of colors. The 108th has suffered seriously. Company F lost 19 men, three of whom are killed. I think the total number killed and wounded is eighty-nine. We have driven the enemy from our right. Last evening two divisions passed through the town of Gettysburg, and are now following them up. Cannonading is heard in the distance and no doubt it is our troops engaging them or else shelling them as they retreat. As it is raining hard I will finish this to-morrow.
SUNDAY, July 5.--11 A. M.--It rained hard all yesterday afternoon and all last night. Many of the enemy lay on the field wounded. They would have been brought in but the sharpshooters picked off our men whenever they showed themselves. How much the poor fellows suffer can only be imagined. One of our skirmishers coming in said a Mississippi captain offered him $100 in gold to bring him in, but when he would raise, a shower of bullets whistled around him. So he left the poor captain to his fate. Our men are now roaming over the field to see what they can find and the prisoners are burying the dead. I have just learned from good authority that our division, the Third, captured sixteen stands of colors, and our brigade, the Second, took 1,800 prisoners. The casualties of the 108th are more severe than was at first supposed. The report this morning shows ninety-four killed and wounded, so we have but one hundred and twenty men left now. There but few regiments in the field that have been cut down to so few in number in so short a space, though we have won a name that every member is proud of, and that other regiments might envy us for. Since the first day we were in the front, and are still here. I have had more narrow escapes than ever before. Men fell by my side, before, and behind me, and several bullets passed through my clothes. I was also struck by a piece of shell on the calf of my leg. A kind Providence seemed to watch over me, however, and I escaped unharmed, for which I am truly thankful.CHAUNCEY L. HARRIS, Co. F, 108th N. Y. V."-- George H. Washburn, A Complete Military History and Record of the 108th Regiment N.Y. Vols., from 1862 to 1894. (Rochester, Monroe Co., NY, Press of E. R. Andrews, 1894), Internet Archive <http://archive.org/>, On To Gettysburg; pp. 52-53