Full text of "A little fifer's war diary, with 17 maps, 60 portraits, and 246 other illustrations;"

See other formats

GIFT OF

MICHAEL REESE

A LITTLE FIFER'S

WAR DIARY

with 17 maps, 60 portraits, and 246 other
illustrations

C. W. B ARDEEN

Editor of the School Bulletin
Formerly of Co. D., 1st Mass. Vol. Inf.

WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY

NICHOLAS MURRAY BUTLER, LL.D.

President of Columbia College

SYRACUSE, N. Y.:

C. W. BARDEEN, PUBLISHER

191Q

INTRODUCTION

My dear Bardeen:

You have done a real service, first, in
safeguarding your diary through all these
years, and, second, in making it the basis
for these intensely interesting personal
recollections of the Civil War.

The literature of that war is, as you well
know, already almost limitless in extent,
but. I question whether in the years to
come any of the documents that throw
light upon it will have more real value
than the frankly stated personal reminis
cences and recollections of men who, like
yourself, fought in the ranks and saw the
ebb and flow of battle from the standpoint
of the private soldier. There is a close
ness of contact with events which the
private soldier enjoys that in no small
degree compensates for his inability to
see a scheme of campaigning or a plan of
battle as a whole.

It has been peculiarly interesting to
me to read your reminiscences, because
I have often wondered wrhat must have
been the feelings and the reflections of an
American youth who found himself in the
early sixties old enough to appreciate in
some degree the great crisis which faced

the nation, and yet not old enough to
participate in the events which accom
panied it with full adult power. You
have answered this question admirably
and fully. Your reflections upon the
relative capacity of various commanding
officers, your anecdotes, and your sketches
of such battles as those at Chancellors-
ville and Gettysburg have given me keen
pleasure, and they will certainly give a
pleasure just as keen to the many who
will read these recollections in book form.
You have not changed so very much
since you enlisted in Company D, First
Massachusetts Infantry. Then, as now,
you permitted very little to escape your
vigilant notice; then, as now, you were
furnished with quick wit and keen humor
with which to illumine events as they
happened, and to soften asperities as they
came to your notice; then, as now, you
hated shams and pretence, and had a
pretty sharp lance in hand with which to
make your justifiable hatred effective;
then, as now, you were blessed with the
power of description that your friends
recognize to be most unusual, the results
of which they never fail to enjoy.

284471

A Little Fifer's War Diary

There must be a second edition of this a year if permitted to run the Government

book, because none of us will permit that on business principles, people gasped, and

glorious controversy with the Pension the wiseacres of the newspaper press

Office to be cut off in its prime. We scornfuny smiied. Personally, I have no

must get the rest of that story. You doubt whatever that he spoke with exact_

have now enlisted in the war against the negs and without exaggeration. Your

noble army of Red Tape, and while I
daresay it will be bloodless, I trust that
it will not on that account fail to be mark
ed by appropriate casualties. Uncle Sam
has the most wasteful, the most ineffec
tive, and the worst administrative system
in the world. When Senator Aldrich said
in the Senate a few months ago that he Columbia University,
could save three hundred million dollars

little experience is only one illustration
to which thousands might be added.

But I am wandering from the Civil War
and your reminiscences of it.
With sincere regards

NICHOLAS MURRAY BUTLER

Thanksgiving Day, 1910

PREFACE

Y instinct for re
cording is proba
bly inherited.
The Corporal
William Nutting
of the Minute-
men at Lexing
ton whose note
books during the Revolutionary war are

That was on my father's side. On the
other, the Amos Farnsworth, minute-man
at Lexington, corporal at Bunker Hill, and
lieutenant at Ticonderaga, whose pub
lished diary is one of the important sources
of history, was a cousin of my grand
father's great grandfather, and my mother
herself kept a diary for me from my second
birthday till I was eight years old

PAGE FROM JONATHAN NUTTING'S ACCOMPT BOOK

preserved by the Massachusetts Histor
ical society was my great-grandfather.
His grandfather Jonathan Nutting kept an
"accompt book" that is still carefully pre
served in the family. Here is a page
from it, written almost two centuries ago.

and able to carry it on myself. I
have not only maintained the habit but
preserved the records, so that I have a
nearly unbroken autobiography of more
than sixty years.

Most of the entries have no interest for

A Little Filer's War Diary

// / T~7 7P

<4J<T£^^

0 •

PHOTOENGRAVED FROM THE ORIGINAL DIARY

anyone else: indeed in the early. days the
weather predominates, and there are occa
sional statements (not absent in what I
have here copied) that there is nothing of
interest to record. But during the war
there was often something doing, and the
days' records, though brief, have enough of
detail and frankness to give some picture
of what army life was to a young boy.

Probably most of my readers will won
der why I have not omitted or modified
some of the entries, but to my mind that
would destroy the value of the whole.
Actual facts carry weight; facts modified
become fiction. I am sure every statement
in these entries was true or believed by me
to be exactly true at the time. I do not
find any indication that I wrote or omitted
anything with reference to the diary's being

read by any one else. It was as accurate
as the items in a cash book. To change
it now, even by omission, would be like
making false entries.

But I have no disposition to conceal any
thing. One can never write about one's
self impersonally, but I can come pretty
near it as I copy the story of this little
friendless boy of fourteen, undergoing an
experience unlike anything that had ever
happened to him before or has ever hap
pened to him since. All this occurred
forty-five years ago, in the first quarter of
my life. I have heard old soldiers say that
as they talked about the war it seemed in a
way as if they were telling legends that
they had heard rather than experiences
they had undergone, and I have something
of this feeling. On the other hand 1 have

Preface

been astonished at the way forgotten facts
have come back to me. When I first took
up these reminiscences I read over a roster
of the regiment, and could place hardly
two score names. Now there are more than
a hundred of whom I can recall how they
looked and incidents in which they figured.
Still more true is this of my own experi
ences. These brief entries bring back so
much that there have been days when I
seemed to be living again at Falmouth or
Brandy station, and nights when my dreams
have been of my old army surroundings.

One thing I have had foremost in mind,
to give" a picture of camp life during the
civil war. Most books of reminiscences
deal with the battles. Of these I have
little to say except as they affected me.
What I seek to show is how a little fifer
ate when he ate and how he sometimes
went hungry; how he slept, when he slept,
and how he sometimes stood by the fire
because his blanket would not keep him
warm; how he marched and drilled and
went on fatigue duty; what special temp
tations he encountered and what followed
when he yielded to them.

There is nothing here to be especially
proud of, and there is a great deal to be
very much ashamed of, but I have copied
it just as it is, even to the spelling and the
erratic punctuation. It will be noted
from the photo-engraved page that my
penmanship was as full of flourishes and
inconsistencies as my conduct.

As I read over this diary I am sorry
for the little boy who underwent so many
privations and sufferings, but I was not
sorry for myself at the time. One of my
childhood stories was of some little chil
dren who had to sleep with only a door to
cover them, and who asked their mother

what those poor little children did who did
not have any door. I slept night after night
on the wet ground with nothing under or
over me, and should have looked upon a
door as opulence, but I had the habit of
comparing my lot with those worse off
instead of envying those more fortunate,
so I did not waste much time in repining.

In reviewing my army life as a whole the
reader must see that I was remarkably
fortunate.

In the first place, I was lucky to have
been assigned to the 1st Massachuestts.
For one thing I got home earlier, since it
was the first three years regiment mustered
in and of course the first to be mustered
out. But apart from that, the old 1st
was a regiment to be proud of. There
may have been other regiments with as
good a record : there surely was none with
a better. Ask any old army of the Poto
mac man what it meant to belong to
Hooker's brigade of Sickles's division of
the 3d corps. It was not only that I
shared the honor of these accredited
fighters, but I got my notions of war from
these men. When the silly froth was
knocked out of my little head it was sup
planted by what I learned from men who
had fought in both Bull Runs and who
had been at the forefront in the Peninsula
campaign.

I should say that ours was a clean-
mouthed regiment. My recollection is
rather of hearing vulgar stories checked
than of listening to them. We had a
large proportion of sensible, mature, solid
men, who enlisted because it seemed a
duty, and when they got back home took
up again the occupations they had relin
quished. I have attended two reunions
of the regiment, and both times I have been
impressed by the strong and serious pat-

A Little Fifer's War Diary

riotism they still manifested. I have
heard veterans belittle the issues at stake
during the civil war, and talk slightingly
of what was accomplished and how and
why it was done. There was not a word
of this at these meetings. The old songs
were sung, the old flag was cheered, the
boys who had dropped out during the
year were remembered first as good sol
diers in battle. I was as proud in Boston,
half a century later, to belong to such a
regiment, as I had ever been as a boy in
the field.

In the second place I was fortunate
that at the time I joined it this regiment
was relieved from duty at the front, so
that I had time to be acclimated before
I saw hard service. After two months
in the regiment my first march proved
too much for me. What might have
happened if I had been sent to the front
upon my enlistment, when the army was
retiring from before Richmond ?

On the other hand, think what a privi
lege it was to be present at the battles of
Fredericksburg, Chancellorsville, Gettys
burg, and the Wilderness, not only four of
the great battles of the war, but all differ
ing so much in commanders and in their
general features.

In the third place I escaped not only
wounds but sickness. I was not seriously
ill during my service, and the outdoor
life so strengthened me that I have never
been seriously ill since. So the minor
fatigues and privations recorded here
were really of little consequence. I did
not always have food, but I always had
the appetite for it, and that is much more
important. I was sometimes too cold
to sleep, but when I did sleep I slept
soundly. On the whole I had a pretty
good time in the army, and though I was

glad to get my discharge I would not ex
change my experiences there for anything
else that could be offered me.

I feel that those who do not care for my
story ought to like the pictures. They
were all drawn or photographed at the
time, and the very crudeness of some of
them is evidence of their fidelity. The
great artist of the war was Edwin Forbes,
and besides his pictures in Frank Leslie's
I have reproduced many of his "Life
Studies of the Great Army", a portfolio
of sketches that reach straight to the old
soldier's heart. There were other good
men, too — Winslow Homer, who has died
the week I write these lines; and Homer
Davenport, and Henry Lovie, and H. R.
Ward and A. R. Waud and William Waud
and C. E. F. Hiller, and James O. Guirl
and H. Mosher, and F. H. Schell and A. W.
Warren; you will find their names in the
index with such of their pictures as I
have been able to trace. Of Thomas
Nast's illustrations I have given only two,
on pages 127 and 212. They are in con
trast with the rest in that they picture
what could not possibly occur. For the
life-like initial sketches I am indebted to
Comrade H. W. Beecher of the Conn.
Light Battery, who drew them for his his
tory of that regiment and kindly loaned
them to me.

It has proved a great pleasure to get
these pages together. I had not thought
of my diaries as of interest except tcTmy
grandchildren, but when my friend Presi
dent Nicholas Murray Butler suggested
that a soldier's genuine experiences would
have value, no matter how insignificant
he was, I set to work at once and this
book is the result.

I have remarked several times in the
narrative that this is not a history of the

Preface

war: it is a history of what the war did
to poor little me, and of no general interest
except as it indicates what it did to other
little me's, thousands of them.

I make one exception. I sent the
proofs of the chapter on Gettysburg to
Major Gen. Sickles, to whom victory in
that battle was due, and the only survivor
of the great generals of the war. He did
me the kindness and the honor to correct
the proofs with his own hand, to send
me additional material and the photograph
I have reproduced on page 223, and to say
that the account as given is absolutely cor
rect and of interest to military men as well
as to the general public. I do not know of
any other published account except the
story of the battle in the volumes published
by the New York Monument commission,
from which I have quoted freely, that makes
clear the purpose of Gen. Sickles 's move
ment on the afternoon of the second day.
It is commonly referred to as the advance
of the 2nd division of the 3rd corps to the
Emmitsburg road, but that movement
was only a result of the main movement,

which was the wheeling to the south of the
1st division, to prevent the confederates
from turning our flank by advancing from
the south. The resemblance of this attack
at Gettysburg to the attack at Chancellors-
ville is as marked as is the contrast be
tween the defence of Gen. Howard and that
of Gen. Sickles, and between the results of
the two battles.

I should have liked to write a book
like that of Lt. Col. Dwight of the 2d Mass.
He was a Harvard graduate, a high minded
officer, a noble patriot in life and in death,
of whom his family and his college and
his country may be proud. But unfor
tunately I wasn't that kind of a soldier,
so I have to tell my own poor little story
of a very ordinary little boy. On the other
hand Lt. Col. Dwight does not describe
lob scouse and I do. I suppose there is a
place for lob scouse books as well as for
memorials, and if here and there mine
finds a niche on this humblest shelf, I shall
be content.

Syracuse, N. Y., Oct. 12, 1910

CONTENTS

CHAPTER I. ENLISTMENT 17
Early associations and anti-slavery opinions —
Breaking out of the war — Attempt to enlist in
the 12th Maine. Interview with Gen Butler —
A drummer who could not drum — Why I was
allowed to go — Camp Cameron — Premium on
gold and silver — Havelocks and filters

CHAPTER II. GETTING TO THE FRONT
23

Impatient to join my regiment — Steamer
to New York — Union Relief Saloon in Phila
delphia — The ferry at Havre de Grace, and
another at New London years afterward — Wash
ington — Sailing down the Potomac — Alexan
dria — Fort Lyon

CHAPTER III. BREAKING IN A RE
CRUIT 30

Record of the 1st Mass. — Demoralization —
The shelter tent — Pillows — Recruits unwelcome
— John Tarbell's story — Pediculus vestimenti—
Gen. Burnside in the field — Confederates and
cleanliness — Washing clothes — Company ket
tles — A fist-fight with Chapman — Fairfax Semi
nary — Whistling for an orderly — Adjutant
Mudge — Holy Jo — The sutler — Why Johnny
Reb fought so hard

CHAPTER IV. ON PICKET 49
The soldier's romance — Individual responsi
bility — Countersigns — Birman wood — Eggles-
ton's revengeful Virginian girl — Pickets stock
exchange — Friendly feeling between opposite
armies — Confederate kindness to union soldiers
— The soldier's picnic

CHAPTER V. GETTING ACCLIMATED
04

Dress parade — Why Jo Phillips deserted me —
Eight days on three days rations — My first re
view — Sibley tents — Munson's hill — Another
Eggleston romance — Four men under one blan
ket — Prest and Perkins — Overcoats and none
too soon — Corps badges — I buy a fife — Baked
beans — Fifty years later — Virginia hospitality

CHAPTER VI. ON THE MARCH 77
A thirty-five mile walk — I fall out— Waking
in solitude — Reveille — Sleeping on the wet

ground with nothing under or over — Bugle
reveille set to words — Shoes and socks — Break
ing camp — Baggage is impedimenta — How knap
sacks lighten — Confederate equipment — Steal
ing army stores — Knapsacks carried — Building
huts — Gen. McClellan — My first illness — Con
traband packages — Drum major Hull — Ford
ing a river — Scramble for rails — Persimmons —
Differences in regiments

CHAPTER VII. WITH A WAGON TRAIN
90

Made at home in a Virginia family — Lowe's
balloons — The telegraph in the field — Rifling
a sutler's wagon — Easy life of the wagoners —
Darkey drivers — Fredericksburg — George Wash
ington and his mother — Falmouth — The Rap-
pahannock and its fords — Change from drum
to fife

CHAPTER VIII. BATTLE OF FRED
ERICKSBURG 99

The seat of five battles — Routes to Richmond
Pope forgot what the other fellow might be
doing — Pontoon laying — Sacking a city — Under
fire, and well scared — Charge of the Irish bri
gade — In action — Esprit de corps — The test
of courage — The dying soldier's last thought —
Was Franklin a traitor?

CHAPTER IX. HOSPITAL WORK 114
Where the drum corps belongs — The sur
geon's work — How it feels to be wounded —
Carrying men in from the field — Wills made on
the battlefield — A letter home — A gloomy
period

CHAPTERX. REFLECTIONS AFTER THE
BATTLE 127

Drummers on the battle-field — Protection
in battle — The British soldier's stolidity — Fero
cious fighting accounted for — Officers want
promotion — Regiments have to demonstrate
efficiency — Reckless indifference fo danger —
Braggarts sometimes brave — Supreme test of
courage — Bull-fighting in Spain

Contents

CHAPTER XI. TENT ARCHITECTURE
139

Trading in camp — Disappearance of timber —
Confederate camps — My Brandy Station hut —
Photographs of huts

CHAPTER XII. BURNSIDE STUCK IN
THE MUD 149

The farce hurt more than the tragedy — The
fords of the Rappahannock — Corduroy road-
building — Marching in the mud — Inextricable
confusion — What it is to be exhausted

CHAPTER XIII. WINTER CAMP AT FAL-
MOUTH 160

Fighting Jo Hooker — A bow and a faint
smile from Lincoln — Army clothing — Lieutenant
Doherty — Whiskey as rations — Pork and crack
ers — Officers and men — Straggling vs. marching
in line — Our lieutenant-colonel as an artist —
Drumming out — Guardhouse punishment — A
grand review — Form of enlistment — The com
missary end

CHAPTER XIV. GAMBLING 176
Playing cards — Cheating a comrade — Becom
ing an expert — The pleasure of draw-poker —
Its quicksand — The unhappiest day in a young
man's life

CHAPTER XV. BATTLE OF CHANCEL-
LORSVILLE 184

Brilliantly planned — The joy of battle —
Breaking of the llth corps — Gen. Howard's
responsibility — Stonewall Jackson killed — Why
our left gave way — Heroic defence — Gen. Hook
er's defeat

CHAPTER XVI. LAST DAYS AT FAL-
MOUTH 196

Six weeks of idleness — Rations; official allow
ance — Military funerals

CHAPTER XVII. MARCH TO GETTYS
BURG 204

Twenty-seven miles a day — Suffering for
•water — Bull Run battlefield — 'Twixt river and
canal — Change of commander-in-chief — Mary
land hospitality

CHAPTER XVIII. BATTLE OF GETTYS
BURG 214

Everything at stake — Carr's brigade — An
accidental location — Old Goggle-eyes — Crisis
on the second day — Preliminary skirmishing —

Wheel to the south of Birney's division — Was
Gen. Sickles justified? — Testimony of Gen.
Longstreet — A second Chancellorsville avioded —
The fifth corps dilatory — Change of front —
Third corps not cut to pieces — Longstreet's
vivid account — Third day's fighting — Pickett's
charge — Sights on the battle-field — Comparison
with Balaklava

CHAPTER XX. BACK TO VIRGINIA 239

Meade fails to follow up his victory — Harper's
Ferry — Stealing a loaf of bread — Foraging 011
Sherman's march to the sea — The underestimat
ed mule — Losing all my luggage — End of my
first year

CHAPTER XXI. BATTLE OF WAPPING
HEIGHTS 252

Meant for a greater than Gettysburg — Thor
oughfare Gap — Blackberries the saving of the
army — One of Meade 's disappointments — A
good-natured battle — Making a Vermont soup

CHAPTER XXII. A NEW YORK EPI
SODE 258

Draft riots — Our regiment sent north — Gover
nor's Island — Riker's Island — Conscripts —
Guard mounting — Soldiers were easy marks —
Trying to be a sport — Not good at grudges —
First experience at the opera

CHAPTER XXIII. AT THE FRONT ONCE
MORE 268

The army had fallen back — Tearing up rail
ways — Breaking camp — Correspondents for
friendless soldiers — Lost my regiment — Hospi
tality of the 26th Pa.— Lt. Col. Baldwin-
Struggle with New York toughs

CHAPTER XXIV. BATTLE OF LOCUST
GROVE 276

Mine Run to Meade what the Mud March was
to Burnside — One pontoon short at each tord —
Impossible to be sure of the road — Thanksgiving
as imagined and as it was — Formidable charge
ordered — Letter home — Gen. Warren lacked
nerve — Honest endeavor to be just to Gen.
Meade — If Meade told the truth he was sur
rounded by attrocious liars

CHAPTER XXV. IN CAMP AT BRANDY
STATION 287

Shot for desertion — Whiskey and the officers
— Jo Phillips — A little skirmish — Gen. Prince —

A Little Fifer's War Diary

Order of companies in the line — Psychogical
effect of skirts — Gen. Grant commander-in-chief
— I lose a tooth — Beards and mustaches —
Culpepper on the sly

F CHAPTER XXVI. BATTLE OF THE WIL
DERNESS 300

Difficult to follow and to understand — Our
division breaks — A change of base

CHAPTER XXVII. BATTLE OF SPOTS-
SLY VAN I A 306

A struggle to the death — Regulations begin

to mean something — The charge on the salient-
Rain changes Grant's plans — Ordered home

CHAPTER XXVIII. MUSTERED OUT 312

Uncle Sam kept faith with us — A night march
to Fredericksburg — Stringing the long bow —
A Boston editorial — Ended my army life with
two dollars — Sharp practice of the old Bay
state — I get back pay — Fun with the pension
office — Identity difficult to establish — Soldiers
,and affidavits.

ILLUSTRATIONS

Page from Jonathan Nutting's account book 5

Photoengraved page from mv diary 6

Inflicting calamities myself 18

A skirmisher 22

The 1st Massachusetts at Williamsburg 22

Barnum's Museum in 1862 23

Union Relief Saloon, Philadelphia 24

Washington, D. C. in 1862 26

Budd's Ferry on the Potomac 26

Town Hall and Market, Alexandria, Va. 27

Marshall House, Alexandria, Va. 27

Stables and negro servants' tent 28

Fort Lyon 28

Fort Albany 29

Knapsack and accoutrements 30

Interior of the tent of a cavalry private 31

Genesis of the shelter tent 32

Shelter tent 32

Summer camp of shelter tents 33

He remembers his shelter tent kindly 34

Every man his own washerwoman 40

His clothes line on the march 41

Drawing rations 42

Boxes from the good women of Boston 4o-

Fairfax Theological seminary, Va. 44

Sutler's tent 46

Sentry in the rain 49

Antennae of the army 49

"Advance and give the countersign" 50

Looks like trouble ahead 51

On the outpost 51

"O hell, I thought it was the relief" 52

Approach of Birnam Wood 53

Every move is watched intently 54

Awaiting the approaching enemy 55

A view of the enemy 56

Stealthy approach of pickets 56

A skirmish 57

One picket shooting another 58

Pickets stock exchange 59

Capturing a picket 62

Pickets firing near Fairfax 62

Picket bivouac fire 63

A cavalry picket 64

A drummer's sword 65

Camp of Sibley tents 67

Bailey's cross roads 68

Mun son's hill in possession of the enemy 69

Another view of Munson's hill 70

Still another view of Munson's hill 71

The little darkey asleep 72

Diamond on the 1st Mass monument at Gettys
burg 74

Falls Church, Va. 75

Fort and observatory, Upton hill, Va. 76

Knapsacks on the march 77

Reveille in camp 78

Bugle reveille 79

Played out 80

Marching confederate prisoners 82

Temporary quarters 84

All quiet along the Potomac 85

Fording a river in Va. 87

Another view of the same 87

Fording a river by a rope 88

Shaking the persimmon trees 89

An army wagon stuck in the mud 90

Prof. Lowe making a balloon ascension 91

Connecting the army by telegraph during bat
tle 91

Halt of a wagon train 92

A darkey mule-driver in trouble 92

Around a camp fire 93

Mtile drivers watering their teams 94

Attack on a wagon train 94

Fredericksburg from Falmouth station 95

Fredericksburg from Falmouth village 96

Fredericksburg from below 96

Martha Washington's monument 97

The Rappahannock above Fredericksburg 97

Drummer boys 98

An exploded shell 99

Bringing pontoons from Aquia Creek 100

Fredericksburg from Falmouth heights 101

Laying the pontoon bridge 101

Crossing into Fredericksburg 102

Union soldiers in Fredericksburg 103

Negroes desecrating their master's homes 104

Soldiers destroyed as well as misused 104

A thirteen inch mortar 105

Shells and other artillery appliances 106

Charge on Marye's heights 108

Franklin's troops crossing the Rappahannock 110

The dying soldier's last thought 112

A Little Fifer's War Diary

Franklin's troops recrossing 113

Water to the wounded 114

Surgeon at work in the rear 114

The eager surgeon 115

Fortunate enough to be brought in 116

Carrying in the wounded from the field 118

Bringing in the wounded under difficulties 119

Searching for comrades at night 120

Lincoln apologizing for the Army of the Potomac

122

Lincoln's dream of a good time coming 123
Lincoln and Barnum, the showman 124
Congress as seen by a French newspaper 124
Military gymnastics, or the greased pole in

Virginia 125
The bursted drum 127
Regiment in action 127
A battle as it is imagined 129
Capturing a battery 130
In the trenches 131
The fallen horse 139

"John McAbe went down to the river" 139
Building huts 140
The army chimney 141
Native Virginia models 142
Interesting experiments 142
Types of winter quarters 143
Camp of shelter tents in winter 143
Remains of a rebel camp at Manassas 144
My winter home at Falmouth 145
Perkins's tent at Brandy Station 145
Inside of Perkins's tent 146
1st Mass, huts at Camp Hooker 146
Interior of middle hut at Camp Hooker 146
When the snow came 147
A lighted fuse 149
Crossing at United States ford 149
Marching in the rain 150
Building a corduroy road 151
A rougher corduroy road 151
Another photographed page from my diary 152
Gloomy marching 152
Retreating in the rain 152
Mud sticking to the horse's hoof 153
A struggle for existence 154
The straggle of a baggage train 155
Difficulty with a pontoon 156
Inextricable confusion 157
As usual Lincoln got the blame 158
Loafing in front of a tent 160
Another photographed page 161

Delmonico outclassed 164

A twenty-minute halt 166

Drumming a skulker out of camp 169

Another drumming out 170

Mounted infantry 171

Too fond of whiskey 172

Photoengraved enlistment paper 174

The commissary end 175

Playing cards on a log 176

Paying troops at night 176

The day after pay day 177

A bivouac fire 178

A scaly crowd 180

Killed in battle 184

Hooker's army crossing the Rappahannock 185

Howard's llth corps flying in panic 187

Where Stonewall Jackson was shot 190

Hooker's headquarters at Chancellorsville 192

Berdan's sharpshooters 193

Marching back through Falmouth 194

Idleness in camp 196

At the commissary's 196

Charge of Co. H at Yorktown 198

Cooking coffee on the march 199

When boxes came from home 200

On picket under marching orders 202

Carrying a man on a stretcher 204

A midnight bivouac 204

Catlctts Station, O & A. R. R. 205

Marching past Manassas Junction 206

Battlefield of Bull Run 206

Hotel at Centreville, Va. 207

Confederates destroying the C. & O. canal 208

Monocacy Aqueduct of the C. & O. canal 209

Frederick City, Md. 211

A chance to wash up 212

Maryland hospitality to union soldiers 213

A cannon in action 214

The Devil's Den at Gettysburg 220

The Emmitsburg road 224

Monument of the 1st Mass, on this road 229

Scene of Pickett's charge from Little Round

Top 235

Pickett's charge 236
Bodies on the battlefield 237
Scouting 239

Meade's army pursuing Gen. Lee 241
Hagerstown, Md. 241
Sharpsburg, Md. 242

Loudon heights, showing Harper's Ferry 243
Harper's Ferry, Va. 244

Illustrations

Another view ol Harper's Ferry 244

Last bivouac in Maryland 245

Returning from a foraging expedition 247

Treasure seekers 248

One of Sherman's bummers 249

A handsome mule team 250

When the mule is refractory 250

Mule shoeing in the army 251

Taking aim 252

Thoroughfare Gap, Va. 252

On the lookout, Wapping Heights, Va. 254

Warrenton, Va. 256

Another view of Warrenton 256

Foraging at a disadvantage 257

On the steamer 258

Drafting in New York city 259

Destruction of Provost Marshel's office 259

Burning the colored orphan asylum 260

Recruits drilling on Governor's island 261

Enlisting bounty men 262

A blind advertisement 265

Tearing up railway ties 268

How the confederates destroyed railroads 269

Kelly's ford on the Rappahannock 272

Another view of Kelly's ford 272

Not the colonel's end 274

When the regiment has been foraging 274

A decoy hat 276

Crossing at Germania ford 277

Building pontoons 278

Thanksgiving day as our friends pictured it 279

Thanksgiving day as it was 279

Advancing as skirmishers 280

Ely's ford 283

Individual cooking 287

Brandy Station, Va. 287

Shooting a deserter 288

The camp barber 297

Culpepper courthouse, Va. 298

Carrying in the wounded 300

Hancock's corps crossing .the Rapidan 300

Crossing the Rapidan at Ely's ford 302

Woods on fire during battle 304

Breastworks in the Wilderness 305

The horse and his master 306

Fireproof where Sedgwick fell 307

Batteries on Warren's left 308

Discharged soldiers 312

Fredericksburg with the railway bridge 312

Belle Plain, Va. 313

Union Volunteer Refreshment Saloon, Philadel
phia 313

After the war is over 338
Facsimile of discharge, inside back cover

MAPS
Chancellorsville battlefield 184

First day 185

Second day 188

Third day 191

Fredericksburg battlefield 99
Gettysburg battlefield, front fly leaf
Gettysburg and vicinity 215

First day 218

Second day 221, 232

Harper's Ferry and its surroundings 210
Locust Grove battlefield 276
Spotsylvania battlefield 308

Bloody angle 309
Virginia, inside front cover
Wilderness battlefield 301

Position May 5, 313

Position May 6 313

PORTRAITS
Bardeen, C. W. 19, 162

Ethel 190

Barnum, Phineas T. 124
Beauregard, Gen. 85
Berry, Gen. 191
Birney, Gen. D. B. 227
Burnside, Gen. A. E. 39, 123
Butler, Gen. B. F. 18
Butterfield, Gen. D. 284
Carr, Gen. Joseph H. 252
Chase, Salmon P. 123
Clem, John 18
Cowdin, Col. Robert 38
Cudworth, Rev. W. H. 45
Davis, Jefferson 58, 158
Farnsworth, Helen 25
Franklin, Gen. W. B. 113
Grant, Gen. U. S. 306
Greeley, Horace 125
Hancock, Gen. W. S. 302
Heintzelman, Gen. S. P. 67
Hooker, Gen. Jos. 160
Howard, Gen. O. O. 188
Humphreys, Gen. A. A. 216
Jackson, Stonewall 190
Lee, Gen, Robert E. 306

A Little Fifer's War Diary

Lincoln, Abraham 161

Caricatures 122, 123, 124, 158
Longstreet, Gen. James 223
McClellan, Gen. Geo. B. 84, 85, 123, 125
Meade, Gen. Geo. G. 211, 283
Morgan, Gov. Edwin 258
Patrick, Gen. M. R. 285
Perkins, Charles C. 73
Phillips, Joseph M. 64
Pope, Gen. John 100, 125
Reynolds, Gen. John F. 217
Sedgwick, Gen. John 307

Seward, Wm. H. 123
Seymour, Gov. Horatio 258
Sickles, Gen. Daniel E. 223
Slocum, Gen. H. W. 285
Santon, Edwin M. 123
Stoneman, Gen. Geo. 148
Stuart, Gen. J. E. B. 233
Tarbell, Lt. John E. 36
Thumb, Tom 124
Wadsworth, Gen. J. S. 304
Warren, Gen. G. K. 282
Welles, Gideon 123

A Little Fifer's War Diary

A Little Fifer's War Diary, 1862-4

CHAPTER I. ENLISTMENT

I was born Aug. 28, 1847, so when Sum-
ter was fired on I was thirteen years old.
My interest in national matters had begun
five years before, when I attended ratifi
cation-meetings in behalf of Fremont and
Dayton. I remember I felt personally
imperilled with the country when Buchanan
and Breckenridge were elected; which did
not prevent my going up the street to see
an illumination given by one of the few
democrats in Fitchburg. One of the
transparencies read, "John C. has gone up
Salt river". The banner I remember best
on my own side read, "We'll give 'em
Jessie" ; but we didn't.

All my associations in Fitchburg, Mass.,
at home, at school, at church, were ultra
abolition; and at Randolph, Vt., where I
lived more than half the time after I was
ten years old in the family of John B.
Mead, afterward candidate for governor, I
read not only the weekly New York
Tribune and the Atlantic Monthly but most
of the anti-slavery pamphlets of the day.
I knew the "Key" 'to "Uncle Tom's
Cabin" as thoroughly as the book itself, and
its more sombre successor "Dred", a dis
mal tale of the Great Dismal Swamp.
We had Helper's "Impending Crisis" as
soon as it was published, and I read it with
avidity: to this day I can remember the
definitions of abolish, abolition, and aboli
tionist, and the financial arguments for
abolition. How queer the author's plan
for abolition would seem now.

I need not say that I was deeply inter
ested in the John Brown raid. I really

hoped he would succeed in his purpose, and
when he was captured and tried and
hanged I read every word about it I could
find. I was less excited over the 1860
campaign than over that of 1856, because
I was so certain Lincoln would win. I
remember that West Randolph was one
of the places through which Stephen A.
Douglas passed on his tour, "in search of
his mother " as his opponents sneered.
I went to the otation, as did most of the
country around. I forget whether he
made a speech, but I remember his looks
as he stood on the back platform of the
train, a little man in a dapper light brown
suit.

When rumors of secession arose I became
of course alarmed, and was always ready
to express my political views to any one who
would listen. One of the experiments
with me was to send me up to live with a
farmer named Sheldon in Peterboro, N. H.,
who came to Fitchburg to drive me home
with him. He was so much impressed by
my political harangues that he stopped one
or two neighbors and set me going so that
they could see what a ready tongue a boy
could have. He either got tired of it or
thought I was" not adapted to tending sheep,
for after a few days he got me into his wagon
again and drove me back to Fitchburg.

So when Sumter was fired on April 12,
1861, I was excited. I remember walking
up and down the sitting room, puffing out
my breast as though the responsibility
rested on my poor little shoulders, shaking
my fist at the south, and threatening her

Enlistment

[Boston, Mass,

INFLICTING CALAMITIES MYSELF

with dire calamities which I thought some
of inflicting on her myself. I joined the
military company at the Orange country
grammar school and took fencing lessons.
As men began to enlist I wished I were
older. I don't know why I did not happen
to think of getting in as a drummer boy;
perhaps because I didn't know how to
drum or have any means of learning,
though as I afterward discovered, that was
no obstacle.

At last there came a possible chance.
Captain John F. Appleton, of the 12th Maine
in the brigade Gen. Butler was recruiting to
the distress of Gov. Andrew*, was a cousin
of my mother's second husband and
promised to try to enlist me in his company.
So on Dec. 3, 1861, I went to Lowell, and
was taken by the captain to Gen. Butler's
tent. "This boy is rather young," the
captain. said, "but he is healthy and strong
and intelligent, and I should like to have
him in my company."

*See Schouler's "A History of Massachusetts in the Civil
War", Boston, 1868, pp, 252-282,

GEN. BENJAMIN FRANKLIN BUTLER, 1818-93

Gen. Butler was writing at a table and
did not look up till just as the captain
finished. One squinting glance was enough.
"Take the damned little snipe away," he
said; "we've got babies enough in this
brigade already."

When I publish my "Men I have known"
I shall have to record this as my only in
terview with Cock-eyed Ben. After the
war I met him on Broadway in smug
civilian's clothes, but I did not think our
acquaintance warranted me in accosting
him. In 1902 I happened to be in the
Massachusetts legislature with my daughter
when they were discussing whether to
erect a statue to Gen. Butler, and the
opposition had the floor. My daughter
wanted me to get up and tell my experience,
but nobody asked me to speak and I
thought best not to intrude. Thackeray
remarks more than once on the slighting
notice he received when introduced to the
Duke of Marlborough, and speculates on
how different the author might have made
that warrior figure in his stories had he
been thought worthy of notice. With all
of us our judgment of others is affected by
the personal equation; when Gen. Butler
was accused in New Orleans of stealing
spoons I read of it with equanimity.

But six months later I had better luck.
A second cousin of mine was sent home from
the front as a recruiting sergeant, and I

July 21, 1862]

A Disagreeable Boy

went down to Boston to see him. He
arranged the matter for me at once, and said
I could learn to drum after I was enlisted.
He even tried to enter me as a private to be
detailed as a drummer, so that I could
draw thirteen dollars a month instead of
twelve. I had to undergo a medical
inspection which I thought rather severe,
taking off all my clothes and having among
other 'tests to jump, to be sure I was sound
in wind and limb; but I passed it, and on
July 21, 1862, I became a Massachusetts
soldier, assigned as musician to Co. D of
the 1st Massachusetts infantry.

By this time my readers are wondering
how my family allowed me to enter the
army at so early an age, while I still would
go off alone and cry if anybody spoke
harshly to me, as may be judged from this

FOURTEEN YEARS OLD

picture, reproduced from a tin-type I sent
to my mother as soon as I was in uniform.
During the Spanish war I came home rather
late one night, and found my daughters
leaning over the banisters to hear what
reply I would send to this message from my
younger son:

"Telegraph consent to enter company Yale
Light Artillery, great chance. Norman"

They were reassured to have me telephone
without delay this telegram:

"Decidedly no: wait for better cause and
better climate."

But circumstances were different : we
were fond of Norman and could not have
him with us too much. It was not so at
my home. My father had died when I was
eleven years old, my mother had married
again very happily, and I was always a
disturbing element. I was conceited,
boastful, self-willed, disobedient, saucy,
not lazy but always wanting to do some
thing else than the duty of the moment,
absurdly scrupulous in some things yet in
others not above what the modern child
psychologist would I suppose define as
haziness in discrimination between the
concepts of the memory and those of the
imagination: in those harsh days folks
called it lying. The adolescent period had
not then become interesting as a subject
of study, so I was wholly disagreeable.

I had been expelled from the Orange
county grammar school because the
principal was impudent to me, and my
last recollection of the Fitchburg high
school is being told by Miss Anna Has-
kell, rather maliciously I thought at the
time, that I had not passed in geometry.
I had even run away from home once,
gone to Boston, bought of William V.
Spencer on credit some portraits of war
generals, and worked my way on foot
to Randolph, Vt., selling these pictures
and a few little Yankee notions and
sleeping at farm houses along the way.
On one occasion my mother had got
ready to take me to the reform school
at Westboro, and I remember standing by
the table in the sitting-room waiting for
her to start with me, fingering a gold
dollar in my pocket and planning how to

Enlistment

[Cambridge, Mass.

elude her in Worcester and get to Boston
and go to sea. She relented and did not
take me, but I can see how it was a relief
to her to have me really in the army, under
authority that could control me, with the
responsibility off her mind.

I was sent first to Camp Cameron, in
North Cambridge, five miles from Boston,
afterward named Camp Day. Here I
drew my first uniform, and uncomfortable
enough the coarse wool was to my unaccus
tomed skin. The first nights were almost
torture. Still wearing my day's thick
woolen shirt, I slept between coarse woolen
blankets in a bunk filled so closely with
soldiers one could hardly turn over.

I borrowed a drum from the quartermas
ter, and used to go over to the hill between
the camp and Tufts college to practise. I
had no one to teach me and probably began
wrong-, for I think I have never succeeded
in anything less than in learning to drum.
My sense of rhythm was keen and I could
keep time, but I could never get an even
roll. This is done by making a double
stroke with each hand. That double
stroke I never mastered. It was partly
because a drum was so awkward to carry
on the march that I soon sent for a fife and
learned to play that, and in December got
transferred from drummer to fifer, but I
was glad enough to turn in an instrument
that I played so poorly.

I was soon set to carrying the mail, a few
letters coming from Porter station, but
most of them from Cambridge. I used to
buy postage stamps by the hundred, too,
and retail them out to the men. The post
master at Porter's asked me one day to mail
my letters there and buy these stamps of
him, as his salary depended on the amount
of business he did, while it would make no
difference to the postmaster at Cambridge.

Always ready to oblige, I did so for a time,
but the Cambridge postmaster soon noticed
it and complained to those in authority; so
I was ordered to do my mailing and buy
my postage stamps thereafter at the end
of my route.

I ran into one little speculation at Camp
Cameron. One of the men took his knap
sack to a painter in Cambridge and had
the company and regiment stencilled in
white on the back, for which he paid
twenty-five cents. I was going to do the
same, when I happened to think a good
many would want it done and I might as
well do it for them. So I went into Boston,
bought a set of stencils and some green
paint (I always had a weakness for colors) ,
and for some days was kept busy stencilling
knapsacks at a quarter apiece ; I even sent
to Fitchburg for my brother, three years
younger, to come down to help me. ' I
remember that I began to stencil "U. S.
A." for United States Army, but learned
that the letters should be "M. V. M.",
Massachusetts Volunteer Militia.

It was while I was still in camp that there
began to be a premium on gold and silver.
There were two or three days when you
could give a car conductor a dollar-bill,
and take the ninety-five cents he gave you
to a broker and get a dollar-bill for it.
Of course that could not last, and postage
stamps began to come into use for change.
What a sticky, inconvenient currency they
were. It was at Baltimore on my way to
the front that I saw the first postal shin-
plasters, prettier in the beginning when
they had pictures of the postage stamps
they represented than afterwards. I re
member at the Baltimore station giving a
silver ten-cent piece for a ten-cent shin-
plaster; afterward that ten-cent piece would
have bought a twenty-five cent shinplaster.

August, 1862

Camp Day

I remember going into Boston one day
to get a present of a havelock and, if I
remember aright, a filter, which Mrs.
Harrison Gray Otis gave to every soldier
who would come for them. The havelock
I never wore and I think I made little use
of the filter. Often while marching I

drank water out of the mud of the road
where the troops were treading, and was
glad to get it. If chocolate had been made
of most of the water we drank while march
ing in Virginia it would not have changed
the color. I don't remember that we ever
examined water very closely if it was wet.

CHAPTER II. GETTING TO THE FRONT

VERY day
that I was
kept in
camp I grew
more and
more impa
tient. Had
I been sent
immediate -
ly to the
army I should have taken part in the hard
est campaign my regiment went through.
My enlistment was just a week after Pope

became really commander in fact, and one
of my earty recollections of the front is see
ing McClellan ride through Fairfax station
after his final dismissal. So I just missed
these unfortunate campaigns, and was car
rying mail from Camp Day, while my regi
ment fought at the second Malvern Hill,
Kettle r Run, Bristow Station, and the
second Bull Run. My regiment was in the
very thick of the Peninsular compaign. On
page 309 of Harper's Weekly for 1862 there
is this picture of the 1st Massachusetts at
Williamsburg, and busy and brave they
look as they charge. Frank Leslie's for

THE IST MASSACHUSETTS AT WILLIAMSHURG
22

Sept. 1, 2, 1862]

By Steamer to New York

May 24, 1862, gives a picture of the suc
cessful charge of Co. H, 1st Massachusetts
on a rebelredan before Yorktown, pictured
here later. In La Bree's Pictorial Bat
tles ot the Civil War (i. 42-3) you will find a
picture of the 1st Massachusetts at Bull
Run. But it was Sept. 1 before a suffi
cient number of recruits had been assem
bled to be sent to the front, and a momen
tous day it was for me.

A Diary of the War.

Monday, Sept. 1st. 1862. Today I left
Camp Day, for the seat of War. Left Camp
about three o'clock in the P. M., taking the
Horse Cars for Boston. Georgie went with
me. After getting at Bowdoin Square, parted
with Georgie, and marched to the Fall River
R. R. Depot and took the cars for Fall River.
Arriving there, we took the steamer Metro
polis for N. Y. City. This was a very fine
steamer, and a number 'of us went down into
the Cabin, and made ourselves comfortably

for the night. In the morning went up to the
top, and viewed the scenery. Long Island,
stretched along for a great distance, numerous
Schooners and Ships, and the exhiliariating
effects of the sea bracing air, made it very
pleasant. As we neared N . Y.I saw the
Great Eastern.

This vessel was supposed then to be a fail
ure on account of her size, but she would be
a tow-boat compared with the steamships
they are building now. She was still there a
year later when we were sent to New York
at the time of the draft riots, and was in
full view for a month when we were
camped at Riker's island.

Arrived in N. Y. about 9 A.M.
and went to the Park Barracks. Not liking
to stay there I ran the Guard, and went
out to see the city. Went into Barnum's
Museum. Went up and down Broadway
and through Wall St — by the Post Office
back on Park Row.

The City Hall park is little like what it

Getting to the Front

[Baltimore, Md.

was then. Where the barracks then were
the big ugly post-office now stands, and only
the Astor House and St. Paul's church
remain as they were then. A twenty-odd
story building stands where Barnum's
Museum was, and The World office occupies
what was then the site of French's hotel.

Left N. Y. at 4 P. M. taking steamer
for Amboy. Then cars for Camden. Thence
Ferry for Philadelphia. Her ewe went to
the Union Relief Saloon and had a supper.
It is finely fitted up.

How familiar this picture is to old
soldiers, and what pleasant memories

UNION RELIEF SALOON, PHILADELPHIA

it brings up. An ungrateful soldier who
passed through New York said that the
ladies there gave him thin soup and a
pocket Testament. Philadelphia fed us
generously and did not preach.

Then we

marched across the city to the Depot of
the B. & O. R. R. After some trouble
we took the cars but did not start till
morning. Philadelphia makes a curious
appearance, with its three story brick houses
and white blinds. We arrived at Havre de
Grace about noon, but did not get to Balti
more until about five o'clock.

There was then no bridge at Havre de
Grace and the cars were taken over on a
ferry, three at a time, if I remember.
Then the ferry boat went back for another

three cars, and the train waited till all the
cars had been ferried across.

Years later that cost me something. I
crossed this ferry four times during the war,
and supposed all ferries were run this way.
While I was in college I went with the
Beethoven club to give a concert in Provi
dence. We crossed the Connecticut on a
ferry at New London, and I of course
hurried to get put of my car and upon the
boat, to see all that was going on. Half of
the cars were taken over, and I waited on
the boat to go back for the rest. The train
rolled away, and I found that passengers in
the rear coaches had been told to go for
ward and had taken other coaches on the
other side. There was no other train
before midnight, and after getting supper

Sept. 2-5, 1862]

Generalization from Insufficient Data

I came back upon the b©at, to enjoy the
scenery.

Thinking I might have my trousers
pocket picked I put my purse into an inside
vest-pocket. Unfortunately the suit was
a new one and the tailor for some inscru
table reason had put the inside pocket upon
the left side of my waistcoat instead of the
right. Feeling in the dark and half asleep
I must have slipped the pocket-book
through the arm-hole, for I lost it. I did
not know it, however, for when I told how
I came to be left and that the treasurer of
the club had bought tickets for the party,
the conductor accepted my explanation
instead of a ticket, and at the hotel of
course I had no bills to pay.

But I called on a second cousin of mine,

WOUNDED AT ATLANTA

who as it happened had been wounded at
Atlanta by one of Sherman's shells, and I
went to walk with her, visiting the univer
sity and other noteworthy places. When
she suggested that it would be well to take
a car back so as to be in time for dinner I
discovered for the first time that I was ab
solutely penniless. No doubt she had
money and it should have been easy enough
to explain my predicament, but I was too
bashful, and the mental effort I expended
in making excuses to see this and see that
till we were so near the house we might as
well walk would have solved all the prob
lems in Puckle's Conic Sections.

Went to the rooms of the Baltimore
Volunteer Relief, and got supper and a place
to sleep. In the morning I went around the
city some. It is a large place. Started
for Washington about 2 P. M. Arriving at
about 7. Went to the building constructed
for the Soldiers and staid over night. In
the A. M. went around the City, Capitol etc.

The view next page shows how little the
overgrown village of 1862 resembled the
Washington of to-day. In Harper's Pic
torial History of the War a picture is given
of the first inauguration of Lincoln showing
the dome completed, which proves that it
was drawn for a subsequent inuauguration.
As for the Washington monument, few of
us who saw it then believed it would ever
be completed.

Started about nine o'clock, taking the steamer
down the Potomac to Alexandria. Had a
pleasant ride down there and arrived there
about noon.

Rather leisurely traveling, but in those
days everything connected with the army
was leisurely. The confederates were at
this time dangerously near the capital, and
Washington was considered to be in peril.
Gen. Me Clellan had just been restored to

Getting to the^Front

[Alexandria, Va.

THE CITY OF WASHINGTON IN 1862

command. The Potomac was fortified Town hall and market house, and the Mar-
on both sides, as is shown by this picture of shall house, where Col. Ellsworth was assas-
Budd's ferry, where the 1st Massachusetts sinated. We found much to interest us in
had been encamped for a time. the little dwellings and the abounding
As we marched through the city we saw the pickaninnies of that southern town.

BUDU'S FERRY, ON THE POTOMAC

Sept. 5, 1862]

Alexandria

TOWN HALL AND MAKKET AT ALEXANDRIA

The assassination of Col.
Ellsworth was one of 'the
early sensations of the war.
On May 24, 1861, he was
marching by the Marshall
House at the head of his
New York regiment of fire
zouaves when he saw a
confederate flag flying from
the building. He entered
the hotel and pulled down
the flag, but as he came
down the stairs was shot
by the proprietor, who in
his turn was immediately
killed by a zouave seargent.

Beyond the city the ef-
ects of war began to appear.
Dead horses unburied and
swollen lay by the road,
and strolling negroes and
straggling soldiers elbowed

THE MARSHALL HOUSE, ALEXANDRIA

Getting to the Front

[Alexandria, Va.

one another. Pleasant as the weather was
the red clay made the roads almost un walk-
able : we could imagine what it would be
after a rain. The roads accounted for the
big clumsy, lumbering canvas-covered army
wagons that we saw, with tool box in front,
feed trough behind, spare pole suspended
at side, and hanging from the rear axle a
wooden bucket for water and an iron buck
et for grease. We got our first views of
army mules and darkey drivers, and
widened conceptions of snake whips and
language.

Marched up to Fort Ellsworth,
and found that the First Mass, had moved
over by Fort Lyons. So we marched over
there.

Fort Lyon was the strongest earthwork
in the defences of Washington, mounting
26 guns. On the map given on inside page
of cover, the large fort just under the
word Arlington, opposite Washington, is
Fort Runyon. The two above it, under the
words Chain Bridge, are Fort Albany and
Fort Corcoran, the latter to the east.
The confederate flags show the ground

FORT LYON

Sept. 5, 1862]

Forts about Washington

FORT ALBANY, BUILT BY THE IST MASSACHUSETTS

held by the confederates Nov. 1, 1861. At
the time I joined the regiment, nobody
knew just where the confederate army
was, and the authorities at Washington
were greatly worried. After the second
Bull Run, just fought, the confederates
might have occupied all the forts west of
the Potomac, but did not consider it for
their interest to do so.

The map, furthermore, shows Fort Ells
worth, on the road to Munson's Hill, nearer
to Alexandria. Fort Lyon is south of the
railway, and the tent is a sign that we
camped there. There is another tent at
Fairfax Seminary, another at Fitzhugh

House, near Fredericksburg, and another
at Brandy Station. These were my four
principal camps. Small as that map is, it
gives the entire ground I passed over in
the army except the march to Gettysburg
and back north of the Potomac. The
battles of Fredericksburg, Chancellors-
ville, Locust Grove, the Wilderness, and
Spotsylvania were all fought within a
radius of ten miles. I shall give smaller
local maps from time to time, but this
map should be referred to by those who
care to read the remaining chapters of
this diary.

CHAPTER III. BREAKING IN A RECRUIT

HE news of the
war had interested
me before I en
listed, and I be
came absorbed in
it when the 1st
Mass, became "my
regiment ", Gro-
ver's "my brigade", Hooker's "my di
vision", and Heintzelman's "my corps".
I followed my comrades to be as if my con
nection with them were past instead of
future, and just as I started for the front
I strutted when I read of the charge made
by "my brigade" on Aug. 29 at the Second
Bull Run which Gen. Heintzelman called
"the most gallant and determined bayonet
charge of the war". It was a desperate
affair. Gen. Grover says of it: "About 3
p. m. I received an order to advance.
Pieces were loaded, bayonets fixed, and
instructions given for the line to move
slowly upon the enemy till it felt the fire,
then close upon him rapidly, fire one well-
directed volley, and rely upon the bayonet.
We rapidly and firmly pressed upon the em
bankment, and here occurred a short, sharp
and obstinate hand-to-hand conflict with
bayonets and clubbed muskets. Many of
the enemy were bayoneted in their tracks,
others struck down with the butts of pieces,
and onward pressed our line. In a few
yards more we met a terrible fire from a
second line, which in its turn broke. The
enemy's third line bore down upon our
thinned line ranks in ctose order, and swept
back the right centre and a portion of our
left. With the gallant 16th Mass, on our
left I tried to turn his flank, but the break

ing of our right and centre and the weight
of the enemy's lines caused the necessity
of falling back to our first position, behind
which we rallied our colors. The entire
action took twenty minutes, and in that
third of an hour of the 2,000 men of the
brigade 41 were killed and 327 wounded."
Gen. Grover added "The well-known 1st
Mass . was as usual in the van . " No wonder
I was proud to belong to it, even by ac
cident of assignment. But its gallantry
had been all in vain. When I enlisted it
was at Harrison's Bar, on the Peninsula,
and on Aug. 5 it fought at the second battle
of Malvern Hill. Aug. 15 it began its
change of base from the Peninsula to
Alexandria, where it arrived Aug. 24. The
next day it went by train to Warrenton
Junction, where Pope was just discovering
that Stonewall Jackson had passed through
Thoroughfare Gap and was behind him, so
that he had to turn his army about, making
its rear the front. On Aug. 27 it was en
gaged in the fight of Bristoe Station, on
Aug. 28 and 29 in the second Bull Run as
just noted, retiring Aug. 30 to near Fairfax
Station, Sept. 2 to Centreville, and Sept. 3
to Fort Lyon, where I joined it Sept. 5.

Nobly as they had fought our men were
discouraged. Their old commander Hooker,
wrote Aug. 31: "It is my duty to report
that my division is in no condition to meet
the enemy. I find their morale to be such
as to warrant me in entertaining the most
serious apprehension of their conduct in
their present state. I ascribe this demor
alization of the men to the severe losses
they have sustained in battle, both here
and on the Peninsula. They are in no con
dition to go into battle at this time." It

Sept. 6, 1902]

The Shelter Tent

was in consequence of this appeal that
Hooker's division did not take part in the
Antietam campaign but remained to guard
the defences of Washington.

What he says of the demoralization of
the division may possibly have applied to
the Excelsior and Jersey brigades, but I saw
no signs of it in the 1st Massachusetts. I
kept my ears and eyes open and I usually

knew something of what was going on in
the ranks, but never did I hear a breath of
lack of loyalty and obedience. Indeed I
do not think Gen. Hooker's report was fair
to a brigade that had made that bayonet
charge two days before.

Got very much tired out, but arrived
at the Reg. Friday night. Slept with some
boys in Co. K. and in the A. M. was put

INTERIOR OF THE TENT OF A PRIVATE IN THE CAVALRY

Breaking in a Recruit

[Alexandria, Va.

into Co. D. and I pitched tent with Joe Phil
lips, the other drummer.

How did our tent look ? On p . 3 1 is a pic
ture of the interior of a private's tent as
given in Harper's Week fa for Sept. 21, 1861.

Did our tent look like this ? Not so that
you would be specially struck by it.
Here is another picture, of the mounted fly
of a wall tent, that gives the principle on
which our tent was based,

THE GENESIS OF THE SHELTER TENT

This pitching a tent was a simple matter.
We each of us had a piece of white cotton
drill five feet two by four feet eight, with
buttons and button-holes on three sides to
fasten them together and loops on the op
posite side to fasten to pegs. We cut
stakes about five feet long with a fork on
top, cut a limb a little more than five feet
long for a centre-pole held by the forks,
put the doubled part across the horizontal
pole, and fastened the sides to the ground

A SHELTER TENT

by pegs through the loops. Such a tent
could be put up in twenty minutes and

Sept. 6, 1862]

The Shelter Tent

A SUMMER CAMP OF

taken down in two, and did well enough in
warm and dry weather. It had no floor
and was open at both ends, and if the rain
continued it soon leaked through, but it was
light and convenient and of considerable
service, in every way preferable to the
larger tents in which earlier in the war
groups of men were herded together.

Being only five feet long the tent did
not cover us as we slept unless we curled
up spoon-fashion, and when it rained we
had to double up like a jack-knife. On
the march, especially when it rained, we
used to put down pine branches for a mat
tress to keep us off the ground, but often
we had to rely on rubber blankets. This
last was our principal stand-by. When
we threw away our luggage piece by piece
on long marches, the rubber blanket and
the shelter tent, with the haversack and
canteen, were the last to go, and desper-

SHBLTKU TENTS

ate indeed was the weariness of the soldier
who threw them away.

In winter quarters we built quite elabo
rate huts, as will be shown hereafter, but
the shelter tent was still the roof, and
except when the rain was prolonged it
usually served us fairly well. We soon
learned not to brush our heads against the
tent when it rained, for that would at once
set the cloth to leaking. Snow was some
thing of a problem, but we always swept
it off the tent as soon as possible.

A camp of shelter tents was not hand
some, even when they were set in company
streets; they were so irregular in angle
and in spread that they looked sprawly,
for the space covered depended on the
height of the forked sticks, some soldiers
preferring a high tent and some a broad
one. But on the whole the old soldier
remembers his shelter tent kindly. It was

THE SOLDIER REMEMPERS HIS SHELTER TENT KINDLY

Sept. 6, 1862]

A Dictionary for a Pillow

a simple invention but it did the army of
the Potomac good service.

Benton says, "The thought of more
permanent accommodation continually
haunts, like a mirage, the soldier's life."

But such luxury was possible only when
we were settled down for the winter, and
even then was liable to be abandoned any
moment on a signal to break camp and fall
in. All we had at Fort Lyon was this
cotton sheeting over us. On the march we
usually put a rubber blanket under us, and
if it was rainy, especially if water was
running through the tent on the ground, we
put branches underneath the rubber blan
ket, pine if we could get them.

For pillows we used our knapsacks.
Toward the end of my enlistment I used to
have a wooden frame inside my knapsack
which kept it in shape and made a pillow
four inches high and of definite shape.
After I was discharged it was some weeks
before I could sleep in a bed ; I used to lie
on the floor, with a dictionary for a pillow.
I can quite appreciate the advantages of
the little wooden stools the Japanese use.
Even now I prefer a hair pillow stuffed
hard and about four inches thick.

Wellington's bedroom at Apsley House
was the plainest room in the mansion.
The bed was the one he used on the field,
and was hardly wide enough to turn in.
He used to say, "When a man begins to
turn in bed it is time to turn out." During
the interval at Talavera he wrapped his
cloak about him and went to sleep.

The old regiments did not take kindly to
us recruits. They had hoped to go home to
fill up, and were by no means pleased to
have their recruits sent to them. The
squad drills in the morning of the new men
were made strenuous, and all sorts of tricks
were played on them, not unlike those soph

omores play on freshmen. One recruit, for
instance, when he had drawn his clothing
from the quartermaster was persuaded to go
back and demand his government umbrella.
Not that umbrellas were unprecedented.
In 1813 during an action near Bayonne
the Grenadier Guards protected themselves
from rain by umbrellas, whereupon Welling
ton sent word that he would not allow them
to make themselves ridiculous in the eyes
of the army.

But we recruits were certainly unwel
come. Two or three days before the battle
of Reams station, the 20th Mass, received
200 German recruits who could not under
stand English.

Wellington declared that his Waterloo
troops were the worst he ever commanded,
and that if it had been composed of his
old Peninsular troops the battle would have
been decided in three hours.

A young officer drilling recruits gave the
order, "Lift the left leg!" By mistake
one of the recruits litted his right leg so
that it joined closely the left leg of his
neighbor. "Good gracious !" exclaimed the
astonished officer, "that fellow has lifted
both his legs!"

They tell about a drill where the in
structor grew angry at a recruit. "Now,
Rafferty," he roared, "you 're spoiling the
line with those feet. Draw them back
instantly and get them in line." Raffer-
ty's dignity was hurt. "Plaze, sargint,"
he said, "them's not mine: them's Micky
Doolan's in the back row." On the other
hand, when a sergeant called "About
face!" all the feet turned except one pair.
He seized the owner by the shoulder and
shook him. "Why don't you turn with
the rest?" he asked angrily. "Why I did,
sir," the recruit replied. "You did? Why,
I watched your feet and they never moved,"

Breaking in a Recruit

[Alexandria, Va.

"It's the boots they gave me, sir," ex
plained the recruit: "they're so large that
when I turn my feet turn in them."

An Irish recruit refused to answer to his
name at roll-call because he and the ser
geant were not on speaking terms.

A recruit being drilled in the bayonet
asked, "How do you parry, sergeant?"
"Parry be hanged," was the reply: "let the
enemy do the parrying."

Lord Kitchener found a colonel drilling
his men and declaring nothing was right.
His men sat their horses wrong, moved
awkwardly, and were no better than a
damned rabble, a lot of gutter snipes.
"That is not a way to address men," said
Lord Kitchener. "They are not a damned
rabble, but soldiers, and to be spoken to as
such. No troops can be trained in that'
fashion, and the commander who does not
respect his men is unworthy to lead them."

But Phillips was very good to me. He
greeted me cordially, instructed me pa
tiently in the ways of the camp, and did
not assume superiority because he was a^
veteran .

Sunday. Sept 7th. 1862.
Very pleasant. In the P. M. went down
near Alexandria with Phillips and went in
swimming. Rode part of the way back on an
Artillery horse. Monday. John Tarbell
came up to my tent and inquired if I knew
him. I told him no. Whereupon he told me
his name. He ran away from home five
years ago and had not been heard of since. I
was very glad to see him. He is in the 1st
Conn. Heavy Artillery at Fort Ward.

In our boyish days, John and I had been
nearly of an age, and exactly of a temper
ament. Many a jack-knife had we traded;
many an apple-tree had we known by its
fruits. But John had not been satisfied at
home. His father was a plain farmer in

LIEUTENANT JOHN E. TARBELL

Wilton, N. H., who thought it better to
have a hundred dollars in the pocket of a
homespun suit, than to wear his money on
his back. So John chafed and fretted in
clothes that were a better protection from
the cold than from the imagined sneers of
his more stylish companions. Moreover,
John was ambitious, and could not con
centrate his energies upon hoeing potatoes
and chopping stove-wood. His father did
not understand him, and instead of en
couraging and directing his ambition,
sought to repress it, and punished him for
surliness and obstinacy, till those faults
actually appeared. The 'camel's back finally
broke when John asked leave to attend a
private school just started in the neighbor
hood, and in the end received, instead, a
severe whipping. John concluded that he

Sept. 7, 1862]

John Tarbell

was justified in leaving a vacant chair in
that household; and that night he slipped
out of bed, wrapped in a handkerchief a few
necessary articles, took from his father's
wallet the exact amount his father owed
him, stole out of the house, and the next
morning took the fir^t western bound
train from a station twenty-five miles away.
And that was the last that we heard from
him. All attempts to trace him had failed,
and his father had learned to tell the story
without showing emotion — always ending
with the prophecy: "But I believe the boy
will come back sometime, and he will do
well, for he was- honest when he might just
as well have taken a hundred dollars more
than belonged to him."

All this flashed through my mind as I
looked at the ruddy, stalwart young fellow
who grasped my hand, and I easily recog
nized the matured features which had once
been so familiar. He told me his story —
how at first be had seen hard times, and had
resolved never to write home till he was in
an independent position ; how he had begun
to get established and was doing well, when
the war broke out ; how he had enlisted in
the 1st Connecticut Heavy Artillery, had
been promoted, and had at last written to
his father; how he had received most cor
dial letters from all his friends, and had
learned from them that I too, was a soldier;
and how, learning that my regiment was in
the vicinity, he had sought me out at once.

I was, of course, delighted to meet him
again, and we were together much of the
time while my division lay quiet. But
soon the army moved toward Fredericks-
burg, an,d as his company remained in the
fortifications, I did not meet him again
during the war. We corresponded, how
ever, and I learned that in the winter of
'63-' 64, his regiment re-enlisted, and he

spent his month's leave of absence at
home. Here he became acquainted with
a young lady of whom his letters were
thereafter full. She was the loveliest and
the sweetest of her sex, of course, and as
he was a handsome and agreeable young
officer, I was not surprised to learn that
she was also the kindest, and had consented
to be his Lottie as soon as the war was over.
Soon after his return to the army, his regi
ment was ordered into service under Gen
eral Grant. He was made a staff officer, and
served with credit and without a scratch or
a day's illness till after the surrender of Lee,
and the flight of Jeff Davis. His regiment
was presently discharged, and he returned
to New England almost as proud and happy
as his family and his Lottie. .

In the first year of their marriage my
cousin and his wife were visiting friends
in Charlestown, Mass. They had intended
to leave upon a certain evening, but were
urged and induced to remain till morning.
They retired to a room upon the third story,
and lay down to sleep as tranquilly as you
or I, reader, expect to this night. About
twelve o'clock, the wife was roused by a
shout of "Whoa! Whoa!" She awoke to
see her husband leap through the window,
which she reached in time to see him
crushed into a shapeless mass upon the
pavement. Who can measure her agony
at that sight ? The lower half of his body
was paralyzed, and he was left almost help
less — a mere wreck of what was so lately
a handsome, stalwart man. It seems he
had been dreaming that he was sitting in
the front room of a little house in Virginia,
occupied at one time by the General on
whose staff he had been, and that he saw a
horse running away. As the long windows
opened upon the veranda, he jumped up to
stop the animal, and sprang through the

Breaking in a Recruit

[Alexandria, Va.

window — to awaken as he felt himself fall
ing, and in an instant crushed on the piti
less stones. Thus he, whom a double term
of active service in the army had left un
harmed, was instantly maimed for life by a
baneful dream.

I wonder if anybody has noticed any
difference of style in this story of John
Tarbell. It is copied, with some omissions,
from an article published in The Advance of
Chicago, March 2, 1871, and is interesting
to me as the first writing for which I re
ceived pay. I may add that it filled three
columns of a blanket sheet, and the amount
I got was three dollars. I went right on
with my teaching.

I looked

at my underclothes today and found
them full of lice.

It was a bitter day when I discovered
that I was not exempt from an evil all
marching flesh is heir to.

I happened to be in Col. Cowdin's tent

COL. ROBERT COWDIN

when some people from Boston were visit
ing him and he was showing them a bullet-
hole in a coat he was not wearing. He
held the coat in one hand and pointed with
the other. "There," he said, "is what
made me the trouble." He was looking,
not at the coat, but, as was fitting enough,
at a very pretty girl in the party, so he did

not see what all the rest of us saw, that just
where he was pointing a big, fat, white ped-
iculus vestimenti was crawling. The visit
ors laughed, but to me it seemed an awful
thing. When I got back to my tent I told
Phillips about it, and he amazed me by
declaring there wasn't a man in the regi
ment, officer or private, whose coat would
not exhibit the same sort of inhabitants.
"Count me out of that," I replied indig
nantly: "my clothes are all fresh and
clean." "You had better examine them,"
he said significantly. I would not let him
know that I did so, but the more I thought
about it the more I became conscious of
certain sensations of the epidermis that I
had ascribed to other causes, and I thought
I should be more comfortable if I assured
myself I was exempt. So I went away
from camp, crawled over a fence, and when
I was sure I was unobserved I pulled my
shirt over my head. The broad blue ex
panse was uninhabited. "There," I ex
claimed triumphantly, "I knew it couldn't
be so!"

But the shirt was of thick wool with wide
seams, and when I turned over the first
seam I felt as if I should faint. There
they were, big and little and nits, a garrison
of them. I had had blue days since I en
listed, but this was the first time I wished
I had staid at home. Must I endure this
sort of thing for three years ? I made sure
the present generation were extinct, and
went back to camp a sadder and a wiser
boy. I never got so that I could sit in
front of my tent and do my (k)nitting as
indifferently as a Spanish beggar cleans her
daughter's head at the entrance to a
cathedral, but I made my daily pilgrim
ages to secluded spots and reduced the in
fection to a minimum. Afterward when I
tented alone I succeeded in tenting entire-

Sept. 8, 1862]

A Plague of Egypt

ly alone except for now and then a straggler
soon disposed of: even then eternal vigil
ance was the price of solitude ; but on the
march they were as impossible to escape as
fleas in Rome. Sometimes even in camp
a man would draw an entirely fresh suit,
go out in the field, strip, burn his old clothes,
put on his new ones, come back to camp,
and find as many as ever upon him the next
morning. John D. Billings says that he
heard the orderly of a company officer tell
of picking 52 graybacks from the shirt of
his chief at one sitting.

Jacob Cole of the 57th N. Y., whose
"Under Five Commanders" (Paterson,
1906) gives recollections that are clean-
outlined, says: "The following incident is
an actual fact. An officer of .the 57th was
leading his men into a battle and at a cer
tain point came under a fire of grape and
canister. A charge was made, and this
gallant officer, for such he was, ran out in
front of his men, raised his sword high in
air with his strong right arm, cheered and
led on his men, but his left hand had un
consciously gotten under his right arm and
was there digging away with sufficient
energy to divert the attention of his com
pany he led from the hail of grape and
canister that greeted them."

Marching in the early dawn from the
Wilderness to Spotsylvania I happened to
see Gen. Burnside just getting up from a
little sleep in an improvised camp near the
road : for under Grant even generals did not
always sleep luxuriously. He was a dis
tressful looking object. His face was dirty,
the whiskers to which he gave the name were
unkempt, his clothes were bespattered, the
stars on his shoulder-straps were dimmed,
and though I have no statistics I will guar
antee that if every living thing buttoned
up under his muddy blue coat had been a

GEN. AMBROSE E. UURNSIDE. 1824-81

soldier, Gen. Burnside would have been
pretty nearly a regiment.

I am quite aware that the subject
is a loathsome one, but I am telling my
army experiences as they were, without
rose water, and to every old soldier this is
a crawly remembrance. Of course it
must be remembered that I joined my regi
ment just as it had finished a long cam
paign. The quartermaster had not yet
dealt out fresh clothing, and many of the
men possessed only a single ragged shirt.
Chaplain Cudworth says many of them had
not changed or washed their clothing since
they left Harrison's Landing six weeks
before; having been on the move or held
in expectation of a move ever since.
This was no reflection on them. The 1st
Royal Muster Fusiliers were very proud of
the name "Dirty Shirts", because in 1805
during the siege of Bhurtpore they were
'complimented by Gen. Lake for working
in the trenches till their linen was any
thing but clean. "My men," he said,
"your appearance does you honor. You
have sacrificed personal comfort to the
duty you owe your country."

The confederates were much worse off
than we. Carlton McCarthy in his "De
tailed Minutiae of Soldier Life in the Army
of Northern Virginia" (Richmond, 1882),
a book so frank and accurate that I shall

Breaking in a Recruit

[Alexandria, Va.

often quote from it, speaks of "those lively
creatures which were the constant admirers
and inseparable companians of the Boys
in Gray and Blue", and says common white
cotton shirts and drawers proved better than
woolen because they were easier to wash
and because the vermin did not propagate
so easily in cotton as in wool. But he adds,
"Very little washing was done, as a matter
of course. Clothes once given up were
parted with forever. There were good
reasons for this: cold water would not

cleanse them or destroy the vermin, and
hot water was not always to be had." And
again : "First among the luxuries of settled
life was the opportunity to part forever with
a suit of underwear which had been on con
stant duty for possibly three months, and
put on the sweet clean clothes from home.
They looked so pure, and the very smell of
them was so sweet." One can imagine
what color "white" cotton underwear would
be after wearing constantly three months
without washing.

EVERY MAN HTS

This is one of the pictures where the
pencil has an advantage over the camera.
For the scene is necessarily Bowdlerized.
Laundry work was usually made the oc
casion of -a personal bath. Men would
have thought it absurd to wear trousers
in the middle of a stream to get wet as
they squatted down, when there wasn't
a woman within forty miles.

This problem of washing clothes, how
ever, was a very serious one. In some
regiments one of the men opened a laundry
and boiled and washed efficiently the
clothes that were brought to him. I find a

OWN WASHWOMAN

record of a laundry bill I owed to some one
in the 26th Pennsylvania who did this.
But no one in the 1st Massachusetts under
took it, so far as I remember, and we were
obliged to be our own washerwomen, going
down to the brook and rubbing our be-
soaped clothes upon rocks.

Cole tells of bathing in the brook at
Manassas, when an old man asked one of
the boys to lend him his soap, and got the
reply, "You go to hell and get your own
soap, you old baggage-master." He
proved to be Gen. Richardson, in command
of the division, but he did not wear his
uniform while taking a bath.

Sept. 8, 1862]

Laundry Work

His CLOTHES LINE ON THE MARCH

Breaking in a Recruit

[Alexandria, Va.

Sometimes, it is true, a 'few of the men in the same kettles you see these men
would boil their clothes, but what did coming up to get their coffee or their
they do it in ? I shudder to remember: soup or their boiled beef or their baked

• ;> f.v* iJEFST^V-

•* '"rti» ••<•- >*•"'• '\ i&Jti'r'i 'K-'' !&!'> -A L- ".( '-""<,!,' ,1

DHAWING

beans in, for the company seldom had
more than one pair of kettles even
in camp, and never on the march. On
one of the first days a load of boxes came
from some good ladies in Boston, and I re
member that among the articles sent was a
lot of white shirts with starched bosoms.
For a joke some of the men put them on
before tearing them up for dish rags, and a
good illustration it was of the inappro-
priateness of much that was done for the
soldiers.

Col. Humphreys tells of a barrel of
pebbles sent to his colonel by a Mrs. Crewe
of Salem, Mass. "I have read," she wrote,
"that a pebble held in the mouth is a splen-

RATIONS

did remedy for thirst. Will you please
accept, my dear colonel, this barrel for the
use of the troops at the front ?"

I have said that we recruits were not wel
come, and one illustration appeared in the
treatment of Chapman, who had come out
as a drummer for Company K. He also
was fourteen years old, though a little older
and considerably larger than I, but there
was something about him that led the old
members of the regiment to pick on him,
especially to try to get him to quarrelling
with me, and he got in the way of making
himself disagreeable.

I was a peaceable boy and would have
preferred not to fight, but matters got to

Sept. 12, 1862]

A Yale and Harvard Preliminary Scrap

IJOXES FROM THE GOOD WOMEN OF IJCSTON

such a pass that I saw I should have no
comfort till he and I had a reckoning. So
I invited him. down by the brook where the
men washed their clothes and told him we
might as well have a good square fight all by
ourselves and find out where we stood. He
was not so quarrelsome with no one around
to egg him on, but I was quite determined
to end the matter once for all and he finally
took off his coat. We fought for some
time, not very skilfully either of us, and
without any such dramatic finish as I should
like to record. But it served my purpose,
for he had all he wanted of it and was there
after always respectful. Curiously enough

we were I think the only two in the regi
ment who afterward went to college; he
was graduated from Harvard in 1880 as I
was from Yale in 1869. In 1902 he visited
me at my home in Syracuse and deplored
the inequality of fortune that made him
so much less distinguished than his class
mate recently made president of the Unit
ed States. Yet some of the droppings of
his classmate's greatness fell on him: the
last I heard of him he was employed in
one of the departments at Washington.

— Friday — Went up to the
Sutler's tent and saw Mr. Page of Fitchburg.
Was much pleased to see him. In afternoon

Breaking in a Recruit

[Alexandria, Va.

FAIRFAX THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY

had orders to march, and went over to Fairfax
Seminary, about 2 miles where we encamped,

This was my first march with the regi
ment, but as will be seen from the map,
inside cover, it was a short one, and we re
mained in this camp more than a month.

There was considerable pillaging of the
abandoned houses in the vicinity and more
or less of the furniture was appropriated
for camp use, with incongruous effect. The
Theological Seminary itself had been con
verted into a general hospital. Deaths
were frequent, and as the burying-ground
was near our camp we became familiar
with the melancholy strains of fifes wailing
out the Portugese hymn to the accompan
iment of muffled drums.

Pitched tent with Joe Phillips. Saturday.
Was put on Orderly

When I was put on orderly I supposed
this meant orderly sergeant and was look
ing around for some light blue cloth to sew
stripes on my sleeves, but I soon learned it
meant only to be errand boy for the ad
jutant, Charles E. Mudge. I had this de
tail every week all the time I was in the
regiment, so I got pretty well acquainted
with Lt. Mudge. I can see his swagger now
and his self-satisfied smirk. As I look back
I think he was good-natured, not too ex
acting, pompous and conceited but mean
ing to be kindly and fair. He had to look
so far down at us little drummers, how
ever, that he sometimes forgot we had
some pride of our own. One day when

Sept. 15, 1862]

Holy Jo

Phillips was orderly, the adjutant whistled
for him but Phillips paid no attention. Lt.
Mudge came to the door of the tent and
saw Phillips near by.

"Didn't you hear me whistle for you?"
he asked.

"I heard you whistle, sir," replied Jo
sturdily, "but I am not a dog."

"Do you mean to disobey me?"

"I mean that I will not answer a
whistle."

"We shall see about that," Lt. Mudge
said, and had Phillips tied to a tree. Jo
staid there till he was released at night and
then went to the colonel's tent, and told
what had happened.

"Call Lt. Mudge here," said Lt. Col.
Baldwin, then in command, and when the
adjutant came he said to him, "Lt.
Mudge, when you want dogs, whistle for
them, but when you want men, call them."

The last time I saw Lt. Mudge was in
Boston in the 1880's. I had called on my
cousin Walter Eames, formerly of the 15th
Mass., who at the battle of Ball's Bluff had
saved his colonel's life by swimming across
the river with him, and after the war had
been appointed to a place in the custom
house. As I was talking with him he said,
"Why, your old adjutant is just around
here," and he took me over to him. Mr.
Mudge had hardly changed a hair. He was
a clerk here at $1200 a year or so, but he was
just as pompous as when he could order me
about, and when talking with me still had
the same old swagger. It was a curious
fact to me that when he invited me to lunch
and insisted on my going I took opportunity
of his being engaged for a moment with
some detail of his daily work to sneak out
and get away: the instinct of obedience
so extended from the old days that he

would probably have carried me off in
spite of myself.

Sunday Sept 14th 1862-
In the morning went down to a brook in swim
ming. In the afternoon, joined « a Bible
Class, under the direction of the Chaplain.
This chaplain was the Rev. Warren
H. Cudworth. "Holy Jo" we used to call

REV. WARREN H. CUDWOKTH

him, but never disrespectfully. He was a
good man, a patriot and a Christian, ready
to pray with you at the proper time but
never obtruding his piety, and always ready
to help you in any way. There was no
other officer in the regiment who approached
him for genuine manhood of the highest
type. He died as a soldier should, dropping
dead twenty years after the war while as
sisting in the Thanksgiving services in the
Maverick Congregational church. East
Boston.

He was not a fighting parson, like Chap
lain Fuller of the 16th Mass., who was
killed in the streets of Fredericksburg
while carrying a gun. But I liked him
quite as well for that. Let the shoemaker
stick to his last or we may run short of
shoes. In the picture belonging to the
British nation of the battle against the
Zulus at Rorke's Drift .the gallant chap
lain Parson Smith with his great red beard
is seen handing cartridges to the defenders
and attending to the wounded. But his-

Breaking in a Recruit

[Alexandria, Va.

A SUTLER'S TENT

tory tells us that as the small body of men,
hungry, thirsty, and weary, struggled
against what seemed certain death, Parson
Smith cried out, "Don't swear at. them,
my lads: shoot the- — ." The blank
conservatively represents a reflection upon
their maternity which in a clergyman
seems slightly incongruous.
Monday got an order from the Lieut, for $2.00
at the Sutlers, and took it all up.

This was a common custom. Except
just after pay-day few of us had money,
and we were allowed to anticipate the next
pay-day by these orders, the amount of
which was deducted from the pay due us.
The sutlers were thieves, so far as I re
member: once Col. McLaughlin cut our
sutler's prices in half; but I suppose they
had to be. Prices were high in those days
anyway. Butter was half a dollar a pound

and sugar thirty cents at home, and the
sutler naturally charged more. He ran
a good many risks. He sometimes trusted
men without officers' orders, and he did not
always get his pay with the orders. It was
not an uncommon lark, especially on a
march if a sutler dared to appear, to make
a sudden raid, turn his wagon over, grab
his goods and scatter. I saw that happen
more than once; I am not prepared to
swear I was never quorum pars; but I never
saw any possibility of his recovering any
damages. I saw and approved of a similar
raid in this state long after the war. In
the early days of The School Bulletin I
took the eight o'clock train at Buffalo, one
wintry evening, expecting to reach Syra
cuse at midnight. The winds blew and
the snows came and beat upon that train,
and at ten the next morning we reached

Sept. 15, 1862]

The Sutler's Tent

Batavia. There was no dining car, and we
all made a rush for the little eating-place
that used to form the west end of the old
station. The first man grabbed a piece of
pie and asked, "How much?" The pro
prietor recognized a great opportunity and
rubbed his hands as he replied, "Twenty-
five cents." Almost before he could wink
the greedy restaurant-keeper found him
self entirely alone, no customers, no money,
and also no pies, no dough-nuts, no sand
wiches. I don't know how it happened
but I know I got a whole apple pie.

Coffin tells that in the early days when
liquor-selling was still permitted a sutler
broached a barrel of beer and began to sell
it at ten cents a glass. His trade was brisk
for a time, but gradually fell off and even
tually ceased.

"What is the matter, boys?" he asked.
Aren't you thirsty?"

"We aren't going to pay you ten cents a
glass for beer when we can buy it for five,"
some one replied.

"You can't buy it for five in this camp."

"Yes, we can."

"Where?"

"Right behind your tent."

The sutler went around and discovered
that some soldier had tapped his barrel
on the other end, put in a spigot, and was
underselling him with his own beer. Was
the crowd sorry for him ? Not so far as was
apparent to the naked eye. The only
place where a sutler could find sympathy
gras in the dictionary.

On the march a sutler's wagon was sel
dom seen. After we were settled in camp
a week or two the story would go around
that there was a sutler over in the 3d div-
sion, or perhaps in the 6th corps, and all of
us who had money would go searching for
him. I remember when I was tenting with

Sawyer of Co. H that such a rumor came
in. We both started out in different direc
tions and we both found sutlers, but in
each case when we found him he had
nothing left but grape jelly. We each of
us came back to the tent with a tumbler of
grape jelly, and we finished those two tum
blers that evening. It was a long time
before I wanted grape jelly again.

If one could strike a sutler when he first
opened up there was some variety. Tobac
co was of course the first thing called for.
Then came pies, "with a taste resembling
rancid lard and sour apples", "moist and
indigestible below, tough and indestruct
ible above, with untold horrors between";
yet I still feel surprise that once when I ran
across a sutler unexpectedly a long way
from camp and bought for a quarter -an
apple pie a foot in diameter I could not eat
the whole of it.

Chaplain Quint says the 2d Mass, bought
650 pies in one day, and it was an off day
with them at that.

Gen. Nelson caught a peddler selling
pies for half a dollar apiece, and made him
swallow every one of them, threatening
him with hanging if he ever showed his
face again.

Even after the war an ex-confederate
could find no more luxurious climax. "At
Appomattox," sighed he, "we had 13,000
poor, ragged, footsore, tired, starved vet
erans, while you had an army of 300,000
fat, sassy soldiers provided with every
luxury, and every mother's son of 'em
chock full o' pie."

Then there were molasses cakes at six
for a quarter, and self-raising flour, always
a temptation, for we always liked to try
our own hands at cooking. Butter came next
perhaps at a dollar a pound and cheese at
half a dollar, and condensed milk at 75 cts,

Breaking in a Recruit

[Alexandria, Va.

such as is now sold at four cans for a quar
ter. Then canned fruits at prices that
would drive the modern housekeeper into
hysterics and of flavors that would bring
her out again if she tasted them. Besides
food the sutler sold playing-cards, station
ery, underclothes, socks, suspenders, shoes,
boots, needles, thread, and such like con
veniences, all at prices that made us sing of
his tent as

"The dearest spot on earth to me."
But we were glad enough to be within
reach of him, whatever he charged. The
confederate army had no sutlers, partly
because the south had no men to spare for
that business, and partly because the sol
diers had no money to buy with. This was
one reason why the confederates were so
ready to fight : they thought the northern
soldiers were revelling in luxuries, and re
lied upon despoiling them. Here is Mc
Carthy's picture of a Johnny's anticipa
tions; how it resembles the Arab soldier's
dream of a celestial harem awaiting a
follower of the Prophet when he is killed in
battle: "The confederate solider relied
greatly upon the abundant supply of eat
ables which the enemy was kind enough to
bring him, and he cheerfully risked his life
for the twofold purpose of whipping the

enemy and getting what he called a square
meal. After a battle there was a general
feasting on the confederate side. Good
things, scarcely ever seen at other times,
filled the stomachs and the haversacks of
the Boys in Gray. Imagine the feelings of
men half-famished when they rush into a
camp at one side while the enemy flees from
the other, and find the coffee on the fire,
sugar at hand ready to be dropped into the
coffee, bread in the oven, crackers in the
box, fine beef ready to be cooked, dessi-
cated vegetables by the bushel, canned
peaches, lobsters, tomatoes, milk, barrels
of ground and roasted coffee, soda, salt,
and in short everything a hungry soldier
craves. Then add the liquors, wines, ci
gars, and tobacco found in the tents of the
officers and the wagons of the sutlers."
No wonder a half-starved gray-back fought
with his mouth watering. I am not sure
Jeff Davis did not have some advantage
over Mahomet in this stimulus to daring:
in appeal to appetites the stomach comes
first. Besides, the mussulmari had to die
to get his harem, while Johnny Reb hoped
to get his plunder and fatten on it.

"I can whip any army that is followed
by a drove of cattle," said Stonewall Jack
son, meaning that hungry soldiers will fight
desperately for food : and he proved it.

CHAPTER IV. ON PICKET

ETTING somewhat
used to camp life
and familiar with
my duties, my
first actual service
is recorded on
Sept. 15, as fol
lows:

In the af
ternoon, went off
on Picket about 3
miles 8^ camped out.
The confederate army had retired from

''""' 'i''-iit' '-itV •' ^' "^

•• ^-^ ---> •• - '-

before Washington Sept. 3, but the defences
were not yet considered safe, and there were
rebel cavalry hovering about, so a sharp
lookout was maintained. Our companies
took turns in keeping up an outpost beyond
our regular lines, that any move or the ene
my might be discovered.

Picket was the soldier's romance. The
camp was a noisy place with always the
feeling of a multitude. On picket we were
far from the madding crowd, in the coun
try by ourselves as it were, always in little
groups and much of the time individually

THEJANTENNAE OF THE ARMY
49

On Picket

[Alexandria, Va.

alone. One must have eaten and slept
and passed his days in a crowd to appre
ciate the relief of this.

Then it was about the only place where
we felt individual responsibility. In a
battle you are one of a company, a regi-

ment, a brigade ; all you are asked to do, all
you are allowed to do, is to follow orders.
On picket when you are on guard only your
judgment stands between your army and
the enemy. You are the outpost, one of
the - antennae of the army. If danger

ADVANCE AND GIVE THE COUNTERSIGN "

threatens you are to discover it and to give
warning. Once I was allowed to take the
midnight watch of a private suddenly ill.
I put on his ammunition box, I loaded his
rifle, and I peered through the moonlight
across the fields to the opposite woods,
where I knew confederate pickets were
watching like me. There is a thrill in the
responsibility one feels at such a time.

Here are horsemen approaching and
when you see they mean to reach the line
you summon the officer of the guard, who
calls, "Who comes there?" "A friend."
"Advance, friend, and give the counter
sign." If he has the right word for the
night he is admitted within the lines, but
we must all be wary.

They tell many stories of counter signs.

LOOKS LIKE TROUBLE AHEAD

s&s ^?

ON THE OUTPOST
51

"O HELL, I THOUGHT IT WAS THE RELIEF."

APPROACH OF HIKNAM WOOD

One recruit challenged, " Who goes
there?" "The Grand Rounds." Instead
of saying, "Halt, Grand Rounds. Advance,
sergeant, and give the countersign," the
recruit exclaimed in disgust, "O hell, I
thought it was the relief."

This conversation might occasionally be
heard :

"Who comes there ?"

"A friend."

"Advance, friend, and give the counter
sign."

"Hang it, man, I have forgotten it."

"Begorra, so have I."

A general testing the sentries came upon

a young recruit who halted him with.
"Stop! Have you the countersign?"

"No," replied the general.

"What, another one without it?" ex
claimed the sentry in disgust. "Well, I'll
tell you; it's 'Victory'."

The general gasped for breath. "What
do you mean by giving anyone the
countersign?" he at last roared out: "I'm
the general and I'll have you hanged."

The sentry was amazed. "Why, my or
ders were not to let anyone pass without
the countersign," he exclained. "Let me
tell you, I am tired of giving it. Such a
lot don't seem to know it."

On Picket

[Alexandria, Va.

EVERY MOVE is WATCHED INTENTLY

An officer approaching a sentry was sur
prised to be greeted with "Hi-tiddle-de-hi-
ti". "What do you mean by challenging
like that?" he inquired. "The last time I
was on duty," was the reply, "I was told to
challenge in a more musical voice, and
that's the only tune I know."

On the troopship St. Lawrence in 1865 an
officer who had just got up from a convivial
party proceeded to visit the sentries, and
this dialogue was overheard :

"Sentry."

"Yes, sir."

"You're asleep, sentry."

"O no, I am not, sir."

"But I say you are asleep, sentry."

"Very well, then, sir: I am."

"Then why on earth didn't you say you
were asleep, sentry?"

"Because I didn't know that I was, sir,
until you told me so."

"All right, sentry: don't let it occur
again."

One might know that was a British story;
the following has more the tone of our civil
war. To test a sentry an officer after the
usual salute said, "Let me see your rifle."
The recruit handed it over, whereupon the
officer said in disgust, "You're a fine sol
dier! You've given up your rifle and now
what are you going to do?" The young
fellow drew out a dangerous knife and ex
claimed, "Give me that rifle or I'll cut your
heart out." The officer was convinced

Sept. 15, 1862]

Scouting Parties

'"•

AWAITING THE APPROACHING ENEMY

that he would, and handed back the weapon
hastily.

Sometimes instead of a party boldly
riding up, the picket sees a stealthy op-
proach of men shielding themselves behind
every barrier, perhaps like Birnam Wood
behind branches of trees they are holding
in front of them to seem to be small trees
and thus escape notice. For it is the picket
who must detect the approach of scouting
parties like these. Now there is indeed
alertness and every move is watched in
tently, as shown on page 53.

Here are pictures showing how scouts
creep upon an enemy and how pickets
await the concealed but detected approach
of the enemy

This scouting duty often involved hero
ism . Some of you know what it is to stalk
a deer. When what you are stalking is
armed men, and to step on a crackling twig
may cost you your life, it becomes exciting.
If the service was especially dangerous the
commander instead of detailing men some
times called for volunteers. These were
never lacking, and there were remarkable
instances of valor and endurance.

Somebody remarked that the Boers did
not show their wonderful marksmanship at
Glencoe, to which a hearer replied that the
best marksmen in the world would get a
little rattled if the targets were chasing
them; but our seasoned men shot straight
even under fire.

STEALTHY APPROCAII OF TICKETS

Sept. 15, 1862]

No Vendetta in American Character

A SKIRMISH

When the enemy are fairly within sight
and disguise is thrown off, pickets fight in
the open and the contest may become a
skirmish. They still protect themselves
behind trees as they move along, but lose no
chance of a shot at the enemy, whom they
strive to pick off, one by one.

On the next page is a picture of a picket
shooting another; there is another in The
Illustrated London News of July 13, 1861.
Should I have shot a rebel picket if I had had
a good chance ? When I entered the army
I should have thought so : I think that was
not an uncommon idea at the beginning of
hostilities. In Harper's Weekly for July
20, 1861, there is an approving account with
illustration of Major Knife at Williamsport
"winging a secessionist" whom he happened

to see riding on the other side of the Po
tomac. But my regiment had taught me
that would be assassination. When it oc
curred we called it guerilla warfare, with
the same contempt a man-of-war's man
would have for pirates. We were fighting
the confederate army, not southern men.
When a battle was on we were to shoot to
kill when we could not capture, but when
we were on picket duty, acting only as sen
tries, we were friendly, guarding our posts
but displaying no individual enmity. All
through the war we sang :
"We'll hang Jeff Davis to a sour apple tree,"
but when we captured him, did we ? When
he was no longer dangerous animosity
against him evaporated. There is nothing
of the vendetta in American character.

On Picket

[Alexandria, Va.

ONE PICKET SHOOTING ANOTHER

Jefferson Davis's

portrait is on the
silver service pre
sented in 1909
to the United
States battleship
Mississippi, and
in May 22, 1909,
46 years after the
battle of Chan-
cellorsville where
her husband lost his life, Mrs. Stonewall
Jackson greeted President Taft as the
"great harmonizer of all our hearts".

Eggleston, in his Southern Soldier
Stories" tells a fortunately impossible tale
of a Virginia girl — beautiful of course, it
never costs any more to make her so when
you are dreaming, whose lover was killed

in a cavalry contest, and who remarked
vindictively at his grave: "He was just
twenty-one. It will take just twenty-one
to pay for him." Thereupon she joined his
troop, not enlisting but dressing as a man
and eating and living wth the rest, and car
rying "the finest Whitworth rifle I ever saw,
with its long range, its telescopic sights
and its terrible accuracy of fire". Some
times when scouting expeditions were slack
she would go off by herself and remain for a
day or two in close proximity to the enemy's
lines, and pick off men, one by one, till the
tag she wore on her breast with a number on
it was marked twenty-one. Then she went
back home contented, having murdered
twenty-one innocent men, not because they
were in the ranks of those opposed to

Sept. 15, 1862]

Pickets in Friendly Relation

A PICKETS STOCK EXCHANGE

her in battle or even because they were ene
mies of her country, but to settle a private
grudge against an army that had killed her
lover in a fair conflict. I am glad to be
lieve that the number of American men
who would perform a series of dastardly
deeds like that is very small, and I should
be sorry to believe any American woman
would do it, north or south.

For weeks our pickets guarded one bank
of the Rappahannock at Fredericksburg
and the confederates the other, but never
was there a thought of shooting one an
other. On the contrary there was con
tinual bargaining, our men freighting little
craft with salt and sugar and coffee and

needles and newspapers and thread to ex
change for tobacco that the confederates
would steer across the river to us. Not
seldom opposing pickets would get together
and traffic as eagerly as if they were on the
Stock Exchange. In fact by the time I
reached the army, so far as I had occasion
to observe, the feeling of the northern for
the southern soldier was friendly. Both
sides recognized that the conflict was ca
lamitous and regretted the necessity of
fighting. This made the strife no less de
termined when the battle was on, but it left
us men and brothers when we were not in
action. War is hell, as Gen. Sherman has
epigrammatically defined it, but it by no

On Picket

[Alexandria, Va.

means follows that soldiers are devils, or
that either side looks upon the other as
such. At Talavera, as is well known,
French and British bathed together in the
Tagus between the battles, and shook hands
when the bugles sounded the recall as the
signal for renewing the conflict.

In his account of the Peninsular war
Napier tells of a French sentry twenty
yards from the British line who walked his
beat so unconcernedly that he laid his knap
sack on the ground. When the order to
advance was given, the British helped him
replace his knapsack.

"So well," says Napier, "do veterans un
derstand war and its proprieties."

At the siege of Kalunga a Goorkha who
had his lower jaw shattered by a cannon
ball came forward amidst the fire waving
his hand. The guns ceased till he had
reached the British line, when he explained
that he wanted to have his jaw attended to.
He received the best surgical assistance,
was kept in hospital till he recovered, and
was then sent back to his friends.

This comity between pickets sometimes
extended to the fighting. In the Boer war
a Highlander under cover persisted in
raising and taking a pot shot, immediately
sinking under cover again. One of the
Boers pursued the same tactics and it be
came a duel between them. But finally
when Sandy arose chuck went a ballet
through his hand, so surprising him that he
gave a startling yell. "Serves you right,
Mac," remarked an officer; "you were told
not to show yourself." "Nae doot, sir,"
replied Sandy, "but hoo did I ken he was
gaun to fire oot o' his turn ?"

In the early days of the war a good deal
was said of rebel cruelties, and in The Il
lustrated London News for Sept. 14, 1861,
you will find a picture of union soldiers

attacking with bayonets unarmed con
federate soldiers marching under guard
through the streets of Washington. But
that was before they had acquired experi
ence. In Frank Leslie's Illustrated Neivs-
paper for August 27, 1864, you will find
a picture of confederate soldiers carrying
water to union wounded, holding up their
canteens as flags of truce. In the Wilderness
when the woods were fired by artillery, the
confederate troops as they pushed our troops
back, seeing that the wounded would be
tortured by the flames in the midst of the
battle, raked the dry leaves away from their
prostrate foemen. At the battle of Ken-
nesaw mountain Col. W. H. Martin of the
1st Arkansas, seeing the woods in front of
him on fire and burning the wounded fed
erals, tied a handkerchief to a ramrod and
amidst the danger of the battle mounted a
parapet and shouted to the enemy, "We
won't fire a gun till you get them away.
Be quick." With his own men he leaped
over the confederate works and helped
remove them. A union major was so im
pressed by his magnanimity that he pulled
from his belt a brace of pistols and gave
them to Col. Martin, saying, "Accept them
with my appreciation of the nobility of
this deed." Of similar magnanimity to
my own regiment on the left at Freder-
icskburg I shall tell later.

Even as early as Cedar Mountain, Chap
lain Quint, a rabid hater of everything
southern, admits that the confederates
built shelters of boughs for the union
wounded and brought them water and bis
cuit and apples.

A straggling Yankee soldier was in a
squad that was captured and passed before
Gen. Semmes. One of the men remarked
that the prisoner was hungry. "Feed

Sept. 15, 1862]

War as Veterans see it

him," said Gen. Semmes. "Shoot 'em on
the line, but feed 'em on this side of it."

At Elandslagate Col. Schiel was lying in
a row of Boers guarded by a Gordon High
lander, who whenever he came near him
stopped and deliberately spat on the ground.
"Can't you see I'm wounded?" asked the
colonel. Instantly the soldier dropped on
his knees, wrapped his blanket round the
wounded enemy, gave him his water-
bottle, and as he stood up said: "You should
have told me that before. Now I've gi'en
ye ma blanket an' I've gi'en ye ma water-
bottle, but mind, we're no friends."

Gen. John B. Gordon in telling the story
of the taking of Fort Steadman March 25, .
1864, the last confederate assault of the
war, illustrates the relation among pickets
that had developed in four years of conflict.
The affair was a desperate one and the early
movements were overheard by a federal
picket, who called out, "Hullo there, John
ny Reb, what are you making all that fuss
about over there ? "

The men were just leaning forward for
the start, and Gen. Gordon was apprehen
sive, but a rifleman called out, "O never
mind, Yank ; lie down and go to sleep. We
are just gathering in a little corn : you know
rations are mighty scarce over here."

As a matter of fact there was a patch of
corn between the lines, some of it still hang
ing on the stalks, so the Yankee picket re
plied, "All right, Johnny, go ahead and get
your corn ; I won 't shoot at you . ' '

Gen. Gordon gave the command to go
forward, but the rifleman, not to take ad
vantage of the federal picket's good
nature, called out, "Look out for yourself
now, Yank: we're going to shell the woods."

"This exhibition of chivalry and of kind
ly feelings on both sides," says Gen. Gor

don, "touched me as deeply as any minor
incident of the war. "

Before the battle of Orthez, Wellington
sent word to Soult that to blow up the
bridge would be a disaster to the people of
Orthez and if the French would not des
troy it he would promise not to use it.
The bridge was spared and the English
forded the river under severe fire. The
bridge stands to this day, a monument of
good sense and good faith.

We had similar instances of good faith.
Cole tells that at South Mountain he was
on the skirmish line and stumbling along
in the dark when he fell down on top of a
man who proved to be a confederate, who
said, "Well, Yank, there's no use for us to
kill each other: let's make a bargain,"
which was that if the union troops won he
should be Cole's prisoner, and if the con
federate troops won Cole was to be his
prisoner. He kept his compact, and though
he was six feet tall and Cole was a little
fellow, he marched in a prisoner.

Before the battle of Omdurman Kitchener
gave orders to bayonet all wounded der
vishes, because they feigned death in order
to murder men who might come within
their reach. Fortunately it is only in
dealing with heathen that such cruelty
becomes imperative. No American, north
or south, showed such treachery.

Washington wrote in his stilted way to
Burgoyne after the surrender: "Viewing
you in the light of a soldier contending
against what I conceive to be the rights
of my country, the reverse of fortune you
experienced in the field cannot be unac
ceptable to me; but, abstracted from con
siderations of national advantage, I can
sincerely sympathize with your feelings as
a soldier."

On Picket

[Alexandria, Va.

CAPTURING

Sometimes pickets were captured, of
course ; this was considered an achievement
and when it was attempted there was likely
to be firing; the picket line had become a
skirmish line. Sometimes when we were
trying to surprise the enemy our men had
to kill a picket to prevent his giving alarm.

A PICKET

But this was a necessity of war. To
"wing" a picket in mere wantonness would
disgrace a soldier. Here is a picture from
Harper's Weekly of Dec. 21, 1861 : the pick
ets are apparently firing at random into
the opposite woods. I never saw anything
of this sort, and I think it was one of the

PICKETS FlRIHcNEAft F A IK FA X T^r

Sept. 15, 1862]

The Soldier's Picnic

A PICKET BIVOUAC FIRE

immature practices of raw recruits that
service and reflection proved to be un
worthy and unwise.

I am dwelling too much on the serious
side of picket duty. Really that was sel
dom uppermost. The main body of the
picket guard relied on their sentinels and
enjoyed themselves about the bivouac fire.
I remark later in my diary that picket duty
brought officers and men into more social
relation. That was only one of the mani
festations of the general spirit of freedom
and good fellowship that picket duty afford
ed. The picket was the soldier's picnic.

Sometimes in winter, when it was cold
and rainy, especially when there was snow,
picket duty was onerous, occasionally the
clothing would freeze upon a sentry; but
such occasions were rare , and even then there
was the joy of getting back to camp. If you
had seen my hut at Brandy station you
would not have thought it luxurious, but to
a man re turning from picket duty or from
an expedition that had proved futile, it
was a palace, and it was worth while to go
off: on little jaunts to appreciate it when
one got back.

CHAPTER V. GETTING ACCLIMATED

OR three lines of
diary my last chap
ter was a long one,
"an intolerable
deal of sack," Fal-
staff s prince would
say. The dispro
portion here will be
less great.

Tuesday. Got home to
Camp about noon. Wednesday. Com
menced having Dress Parades in ike P. M.
This is always a sign of being established
in camp, with accoutrements replenished
and decent clothes to wear once more — a
sort of military afternoon tea. Every coat
had to be brushed, every shoe polished,
every belt pipe-clayed. We drummers
came into evidence here, for after the line
was formed we marched up and down in
front, playing our prettiest. In later days
I found the first dress parade after a battle
pathetic. The captains would report,
"Company A all present or accounted for,"
and so on down the line, but we all knew
how some of the poor fellows were account
ed for.

Dress parade was the time for privates
to get a sight of the visitors to camp, for
they always came out to witness it. Some
times we were interrupted. I remember
once at Brandy Station being on parade
about five o'clock when a sandstorm was
seen coming, a small simoon, t with such
dangerous velocity that we were ordered
to our tents without ceremony, and ran,
each to save his own. Many tents were
blown down, some into tatters, and though
I wrapped a loaf of bread I happened to

have in my blanket so much sand got into
it that I could not eat it.
Friday. Was put on Orderly again. Sat
urday went on picket again.

Sunday. Sept 21st. 1862-
Returned from picket. Went to the Bible
Class but was not much interested. Had a
cold night. Got my drum — Tuesday.
Went over to see John Tarbell. Went over
Fort Ward with him and saw mortars can
non etc, in profusion. Saw Light Artillery
Drill. Wednesday. Went out to practise
drumming. Find it no easy thing to learn
to drum. Thursday. Phillips moved out to
go in with Chapman.

JOSEPH M. PHILLIPS

It was fourteen months before I learned
why he had deserted ^me.

Sept. 18-26, 1862]

Why Jo Phillips Deserted me

I have said that in the early days of the
war I took fencing lessons, not many or
very effective, but enough to give me some
of the movements. While we were here
in camp the drummers were provided with
drummers' swords, toad-stickers the boys
called them, though a man could never
stick a toad with one unless the toad were
tied to a very short string, about as clumsy
and awkard and absolutely use
less weapons as could be d£-
vised: I would rather have an
Irishman's shillala any day. I
was demonstrative with mine,
flourished it about, swore it
should never be taken from me,
and all that, but I had entered
the army as a boastful patriot
and had not yet had the non
sense taken out of me by actual
service. I can see now with
what grim humor these veter
ans of a dozen conflicts used to
listen soberly as I stood before
the fire and told what gore I
should shed as soon as I got to
my first welcome battle, no
ploubt remarking among them
selves like Senator Hill of
Georgia that the invincible in
camp were likely to be invisi
ble in the field. Before one is
tried it is difficult to predict
whether he will be battle-
scarred or battle-scared.

But to get back to our toad-stickers.
I used to practise with the other drtimmers
more or less, and one day I was fencing with
Phillips down by a little brook. It was
all good-natured enough, till of a sudden
he turned his back upon me and returned to
camp alone. When I followed a few min
utes after I found he had taken away his

half of our tent, and joined in with Chap
man.

He was of English birth, proud, of few
words, easily offended and of long resent
ment. I was also rather proud myself,
disdainful of explanations, thinking that
if people misunderstood me so much the
worse for them. So I said nothing to him
and made no inquiry. For more than four
teen months from that day Jo Phillips and
I, though drummers in the same company
and sometimes obliged to tent together,
never exchanged one unnecessary word. I
had no resentment against him; on the
whole I liked him for what he was, as well
as because he had been kind and helpful.
But I was satisfied I had given him no
reason to break with me, and as he had
made the quarrel I left him to end it.

On Dec. 2, 1863, Gen. Meade had led us
out on a wild-goose expedition that resulted
in our living eight days on three days' ra
tions. Everything was gone. That morn
ing I had followed the path of a cavalry
"horse through the woods, picked up from
the ground the southern corn it had nosed
out of its bag and chewed the dry kernels
one by one. The day before a few of us had
found and killed a cow and I still had a few
pounds of the carcass in my haversack,
but none of us had salt, and only those who
have tried it know what it is to eat fresh
beef unsalted. The army was retreating,
as usual, going back to our old camp pro
bably, and as usual I was straggling along
by myself: I never marched with the regi
ment by fours if I could help it.

Of a sudden a voice called out, "Halloa,
Bardeen!" I looked up and there was Jo
Phillips, as fat and contented as though he
had just left camp. He was quite given to
escaping long marches, and I was indignant
enough that he should have evaded what

Getting Acclimated

[Alexandria, Va.

had been so grievous for the rest of us. So
when he added, "Got any hard tack?" I
replied surlily, "No, and if I had I wouldn't
give you any."

"Well, I've got a haversack full," he
said; "come on over."

I could hardly believe my ears, but I lost
no time in getting to him. He had not
only crackers but coffee and salt and even
butter: with my beef we could give Del-
monico cards and spades. I was for sitting
down at once, but he advised getting across
the river first; and it was well we did, for as
we came out of the little hollow where we
had built our fire we saw that the bridge
was up, our troops were out of sight, and
the confederate cavalry were trying to
swim their horses across. As we came in
view they shouted to us to halt, but we
were not especially eager for news from
Richmond and did not exactly what you
might call linger. They sent a few
shots after us, but I do not think they
tried very hard to hit us. They could see
Phillips 's drum, and they were not blood
thirsty about boys.

Stopping to cook that meal had made us
two youngsters absolutely the rear guard
of the big army of the Potomac, but no
one who reads this, had he been in my
place and as nearly starved as I was, would
have allowed the chance of capture to hur
ry that meal. To this day I can smack
my lips over that steaming coffee and that
salted and buttered beefsteak.

When we were out of range I asked Jo,
"What made you desert me so suddenly,
down by the brook?"

"It wasn't fair of you to pink me," he
replied.

"Pink you? What do you mean?" I
asked.

When he was assured I really did not

know, he pulled open his shirt and showed
me a scar in his breast not a great way
from his heart. It seems my clumsy toad-
sticker made it, and he really thought I did
it on purpose.

I do not think we carried our swords far on
our first march, and they were never re
placed; their absurdity had become mani
fest.

Friday. Orderly

again. Had quite a talk with Ed. Coudin's
hired man, a negro, who came with him from
Boston, about battles etc. In the evening
played on the fife with Geo Allen. Saturday.
The Reg. was paid off today although I got no
pay.

Sunday. Sept. 28th. 1862.
Went around with Chapman, till his money
was about gone, $3.00. Then borrowed a V
of Henry Mingall and spent a good portion
of that.

There were two Mingle brothers, both
drummers. Both were good fellows, not
talkative but never shirking and always
ready to oblige. I would have selected
them from the entire drum corps for trust
worthiness of the watch-dog type. The
younger one, George, could not see after
dark and had to be led. He called it moon-
blindness, and attributed it to sleeping one
night with his face toward the full moon.
He was in Co. F and when we came home
was transferred to the llth Mass. Henry
was in Co. A.

Monday. This was a regular feast
day with the Drum Corps. Most all got
drunk, and all eat till they were surfeited.
Tuesday. Lucius Saunders came to see me.
He was at home a week ago & of course I was
glad to see him. Wednesday. Orderly once
more. Went over to Div. Headquarters after
tatoo. Thursday. Went to review of
Hooker's Division. Saw Heintzleman,

Sept. 26-Oct. 8, 1862]

Sibley Tents

Sickles, Patterson. It was quite a sight.
Went in swimming coming back.

GEN. SAM'L P. HEINTZELMAN, 1805-80

This was my first review, and I got an
idea of what an army looks like when it is
massed. Heintzelman was our corps com
mander. Friday.
Went over to see Cousin John. Went into

the Fort and saw Heavy Artillery Drill.
Saturday. Went in swimming.

Sunday. Oct. 5th. 1862..
Commenced drumming in the morning.
Had divine service. Went in swimming in
afternoon. Monday. Moved into Sibley
Tents. Wednesday. Did not get to sleep
untill about midnight as the boys were so busy
fooling.

Sibley or bell tents were big conical af
fairs, 18 feet in diameter and 12 feet high,
for 12 men, one to eacfi seam, we used to
calculate. It had 'grown cold for our little
shelter tents, but the change was for the
worse. Two men can get adjusted to one
another so as to sleep comfortably together,
but there were no dozen men in the world I

A CAMP OF SIBLEY TENTS

Getting Acclimated

[Munson's Hill, Va.

wanted to sleep in the same apartment
with. Among so many there were sure to
be some who felt like fooling, some had to
be summoned at all hours of the night for
duty, and somebody was sure to make him
self conspicuous just as the others were doz
ing off. Then most of them smoked, some
wanted the tent closed up tight, and showed
t-hat they had not manifested the appre
ciation they should have had for the op
portunities to bathe that a steady camp
usually affords. Some soldiers habitually
slept with all their regular day clothes on,
and I have heard of a private so negligent
about changing his underclothes that when
he finally took a bath he peeled off a num
ber of shirts and socks he supposed he had
lost.

We slept with our feet toward the centre,
and any one who had occasion to go out of

the tent during the night was sure to stum
ble over his sleeping companions. No one
could stand or sit erect except at the centre,
so there was crowding when we were called
upon to get up and dress.

Thursday. Had inspection &
drill near Fort Ward by Gen. Sickles. Sat
urday. The boys were noisier than ever at
night.

Sunday Oct 12th 1862.

Still they keep teazing Chapman. I should
think the very Devil himself had got into
some of the boys, by the noises they make.
Tuesday. While fencing with Joe Welch,
cut my finger and was excused 'till Friday.
Welch was drummer in Co. C. I have
lost all track of him.

Saturday. Signs of rain. Saw
yer came to our tent and asked us to let him
in as it was cold and he had no tent-

BAILEY'S CROSS ROADS, ON THE ROAD TO MUNSON'S HILL

Oct. 8-20, 1862]

Munson's Hill

Sawyer was drummer in Co. H. I after
ward tented with him for a time.
Sunday. Oct. 19th 1862.

John Tarbell came over to see me, and
showed me a letter from Eldorah. Wrote a
letter to Georgie and to Mr Eames' folks.
Went down to the brook, but could not wash as
it was too cold to go in all over.

This was a deprivation, for a camp is a
dirty place, muddy when it rains and dusty
when it is dry. Virginia mud could change
to dust with remarkable celerity, and clung
in either form.

Monday.

Had Reg. Drill at Fort Ward. Put up a
stove in our tent and had made prepara

tions for a warm night, when, about dark we
had orders to march, and went to Munson's
Hill, about four miles, where we encamped.

We marched by way of Bailey's Cross
Roads, which looks now very much as it
did then.

Munson's Hill was interesting as being
the most advanced post the confederates
ever held. There is in The London Il
lustrated News of Oct. 8, 1861, a picture of
it with the confederate flag flying, and
another Oct. 26, 1861, of McClellan riding
proudly up to take possession. It is as will
be seen way inside of Fairfax Court House,
in command of the western roads out of
Alexandria and only six miles from Wash-

MUNSON'S HILL IN POSSESSION OF THE ENEMY

Getting Acclimated

[Munson's Hill, Va.

ANOTHER VIEW OF MUNSON'S HILL

ington. The confederates had thrown up a
circular redoubt without the usual ditch
but with a strong abatis, which gave the
walls height and impregnability. I give
views both of the confederate fortifications
and of those thrown up by the Garibaldi
regiment. Bailey's Cross Roads is just
below the symbol for the fort in the map
on inside cover.

George Gary Eggleston says that after
the first Bull Run Stuart suddenly occupied
it with a strong force because a woman who
allowed herself to be captured on picket at
Falls Church took out of her long black
hair and gave to Stuart some papers that
he found very interesting. After dining
with him she was sent back to the federal
lines under a flag of truce, with the message

October 20, 1862]

Munson's Hill

MUNSON'S

that Gen. Stuart did not make war on
women and children. The next day Stuart
occupied Munson's Hill with a strong force,
and thereafter kept a close watch with a
glass on a certain house in Washington in
easy view. The house had many windows,
each with a dark Holland shade, and these
Holland shades gave information as they
were put up or pulled down. Eggleston
says: "We never knew what three shades
up, two half up, and five down might sig
nify. But we had to report it, neverthe
less, and Stuart seemed from that time to
have an almost supernatural advance per
ception of the enemy's movements."

I regret to say that to an. old soldier
Eggleston 's "Southern Stories" seem more

HILL

impressive for their imagination than for
their veracity, "Twenty-one", for instance.
So while what he writes may be true, his
writing it is not proof that it is true.
Was very cold at night and staid by the fire
most of the time.

We had no tents and four of us agreed
to sleep together under our four assembled
blankets. This was comfortable enough
for the two men inside, but we drew lots for
places and I got one on the outside. The
blankets would not quite reach the ground,
so I spent most of the night by the fire,
toasting first front and then back and then
one side and then the other. A little dark
ey a dozen years old slept with his back to
the same fire, barefoot, with only a shirt

Getting Acclimated

[Munson's Hill, -Va.

and a ragged pair of trousers, with nothing
over him and only a newspaper under him
and yet seemed perfectly comfortable : I do
not recollect his turning over. He ex
plained the next morning that he always
slept on the windward side. That kept
the warm flame wafted over him, while if
he had slept on the other side the wind
would have struck him before it did the fire.
The picture above is of a comparative
sybarite.

Tuesday. Pitched tent
with Prest.

John J. Prest was drummer of Co. I, a
green fellow from Maine, long and lank as
the two written J's in his name, who always
seemed a joke to me and yet who proved
companionable. He came out as a recruit
about the same time I did, and when he

caught from the old soldiers as I did the
disagreeable household companions I have
shudderingly referred to, he ingenuously
remarked that he had known them at home.
That was for a time an awful blight. In
the army, yes: but at home? perish the
thought. I don't know how it happened:
very likely he was brought up in a lumber
camp or among sailors. Certainly I found
him scrupulously neat: in fact he had such
a fresh, rosy complexion that he might have
been an advertisement for Pears 's soap; I
could not scrub my face enough to look as
clean as he djd when he got out of bed. He
was a thoroughly good fellow. He en
joyed any amount of badinage that did not
reflect upon his honor. His sense of that
was keen and he was justly jealous of it.
But he never balked at any expedition I

Oct. 22-24, 1862]

Army Overcoats

proposed, however wild, and he never
shirked his share of labor or cost or danger.
I had a good deal to do with him, and I have
not one memory of him that is not pleasant.
Yet he is still a joke to me. I have not
heard from him since the war. With his
health and vigor and pleasant disposition
and scrupulous uprightness he ought to
have done something in the world.

Wednesday. In the afternoon
had orders to march with canteens & haver
sacks and went to Alexandria, about 7 miles,
and then over to a field where we were re
viewed by the President, Banks, & Heint-
zelman. Then marched to Fairfax Semin
ary where we had supper and thence back to
Munsoris hill making a march of about 13
miles. Thursday. The Reg. got their
overcoats.

It was none too soon. I have a good pic
ture of one in this photograph of Perkins,
a private of Co. K who became bugler.

I saw Perkins at the48th annual meeting
of the regiment, May 25, 1909. At first I
could hardly recognize him in the little man
with gray hair and white mustache, but as
I talked with him the Perkins of the old
times came back, alert, cheerful, reliable.
He had been employed for forty years in
the city surveyor's office in Boston.

The coats were of light blue, with cape,
and those our regiment got were of good
material. Some of the pioneers, or wood
cutters and carpenters of our brigade, big
fellows from Maine, used to wear their over
coats on the hottest days in summer, de
claring that what would keep cold out
would keep heat out. Nothing could kill
those giants but bullets, so they survived,
but they had no imitators.

You will notice on Perkins's cap, as per
haps you did on Jo Phillips's, a white dia
mond. That was the badge of our division :

CHARLES C. PERKINS

2d division white, 3d corps diamond. You
will see that white diamond on top of the
marker erected on the battle-field of Get
tysburg to show where Gen. Sickles was
wounded, and in granite upon our regi
ment's monument there. The first division
of our corps had a red diamond, the third
division a blue diamond. The 1st corps
had a circle, the 2d had a clover leaf, the 5th
a Maltese cross, the 6th a St. Andrew
cross (changed in 1864 to a Greek cross),
the llth a crescent, and the 12th a star.
These badges were compulsory, and made it
easy to see at a glance in what part of the
army a man belonged. They were intro
duced later than this, in the spring of 1863.
Friday. Sent by Burditt for
the best fife to be got in Boston.

Getting Acclimated

[Munson's Hill, Va.

IST MASS. MONUMENT, GETTYSBURG

I paid Burditt seven dollars for it. Most
of the drummers afterward bought drums
through him. Some time after we were
discharged I saw him in Boston, and as we
talked over old times he chuckled as he told
how he scaked the boys for those drums.
However, the fife paid me at any price. I
knew something of music, having taken a
few lessons on the melodeon before I was
ten years old, and I made more rapid pro
gress on the fife than on the drum.
Sunday Oct. 26th 1862.
A rainy day. In the afternoon the wind
rose and it rained like a hurricane. The
tent begins to leak. Monday. Last night
the rain continued and the wind was so strong
that not one tent in ten was left standing —
Ours was however, although we were wet

through. In the morning we went over to a
barn, near, and were calculating on a nice
breakfast of baked beans. So we took them
out of the oven and lo, they were burnt to a
crisp. So here we were, half frozen, and
nothing to eat.

I don't know about the rest of the army,
but ours was a Boston regiment and baked
beans were our great luxury. They were
the real thing, too, brown, individual, with
huge masses of pork, the rind sliced and
crackling, and cooked all night as in a ba
ker's oven. A hole as deep as the mess ket
tle was dug the day before like a grave and
kept full of burning wood. Then the coals
were shovelled out, the kettle of beans put
in with hot coals, sticks covered with mat
ting were put over and covered with earth,
and the next morning the feast was ready
to serve. It was this feast we had been an
ticipating as we shivered in our wet beds;
we had longed for morning and beans.
Morning came, but no beans: the hole had
been too hot. Unhappily the company
rations had been drawn in pork and beans
so that we had nothing else to eat save our
coffee and what hard tack happened to be
left over in our haversacks. It was a dole
ful time.

Went up into the loft and
laid down in the hay, but were driven out by
the owner of the barn.

The owner of the barn was quite right to
drive us out. Most of the soldiers smoked,
and a pipe in a haystack is a foe of insur
ance companies.

Got some Hard

Bread. But it chared off in the afternoon
and Prest and I went up to Falls Church.
The Church has been used as a stable — Went
up into the belfrey and had a good view.

What a difference a little sunshine makes

FALLS CHURCH

Longfellow's "Rainy Day" may be homely
philosophy but it is sound.

In the fall of 1909 I hired a carriage in
Alexandria and drove with my daughter
over this entire region. At Fort Lyoii
there are still remains of the entrench
ments. At Fairfax Seminary, the pres
ident of which was most courteous in point
ing out the changes that have been made,
the main, building is still the same. It
was in this theological school that Bishop
Potter and Phillips Brooks were trained.
I could distinguish pretty well where the
tent stood from which Phillips deserted
me, and could see the stream beside which
I fought with Chapman. I had forgotten
what a glorious view there is from the hill.

Then we drove by Bailey's Crossroads,
with buildings not quite the same as those

shown in the picture on page 68 but giving
the same dilapidated effect; and over
Munson's Hill, on which little has been
done since the war. On Upton's Hill
there was however no trace of the obser
vatory that used to stand there.

The great surprise was Falls Church.
In place of the straggling little street with
its single church that Prest and I entered
there is now a thriving village of consider
able extent and quite attractive, with its
communication with Washington both by
steam and by trolley evidently a favorite
suburban residence section.

This seems a new Virginia, a reawakened
and hustling Virginia, but no where else
in the region we drove over was the new
spirit manifest. We started from Fred-
ericksburg an hour before noon, relying
on getting dinner at Chancellorsville, as

Getting^ Ac climated

[Munson's Hill, Va,

FORI.AND OBSERVATORY QRUPTOHHIU.

one of my regiment had done. But when
we were too far to go back our driver as
sured us the house was in ruins. Was
there no hotel? Not till we got to Spot-
sylvania at four o'clock. Some little
store, surely? He didn't know of any.
But where the road forks before reaching
Chancellorsville we saw what evidently
had been a little store. We finally got a
woman to the door who said the stock
had run down, she had not even crackers
or bread or canned goods; absolutely noth
ing at all. "But," and she suggested it
as hospitably as though she were an F. F.
V. of the olden time, "I have some potato

soup just ready f or my dinner and the child
ren's. There is plenty, if 37-011 will share
it."

We were very glad to, so she brought
out two steaming bowls and was delighted
to see us eat it. She refused pay. "It
isn't much," she said, "and I am sorry
it is all I have, but you are more than
welcome."

That was the true Virginia spirit. We
had dined the night before at Harvey's
on steamed oysters and mallard duck,
but my daughter and I agreed that we
would much rather have missed that meal
than this.

CHAPTER VI. ON THE MARCH

TEST now came of
my marching pow
er, the suddenness
of the call being
well indicated in
the entry. In the
army we never
knew what a day
or an hour would
bring forth.
Tuesday. Fixed our tent up good. Friday.
Had mustering in for our pay. Saturday.
Had marching orders and went back to Fair
fax Seminary where we got three days rations
and then took the road for Centreville. Found
it impossible to keep up with the Reg. so fell
out of the ranks, and about 9 o'clock went
out in a field and went to sleep.

This was a humiliation. It was my
first serious march, with all I owned
in the world on my back. I had boasted
so much and so often of the soldier I was
to be that it was shameful to collapse. I
had been tired on the little tramps the regi-
ement had taken but I had managed to
conceal it, and I had hoped if I fell in battle
it could be put on my monument (of course
I was to have one), "He never flinched."

It seemed to me I ought to be able to
march with the best of them. I was a
fairly strong boy. I have said that I
walked from Boston to Randolph, Vt.
The last day I walked thirty-five miles,
from. White River Junction to Randolph
Centre. I had not planned to go so far,
but it was a moonlight night, I felt like it,
"I got to going", to describe a condition
that has often carried me a good ways, and
I completed the journey, getting to John

Mead's at two o'clock in the morning and
doing a good day's work on the farm the
next day. Afterward in the army I grew
to march better than the average soldier,
I find it recorded that one day I marched
eight miles in three hours without taking
off my knapsack ; and on two of the hardest
marches the regiment made I was one of the
very few who slept with the colors at night ;
on the third there were only seventeen that
did it and five of them were mounted. Yet
on this first march I was "all in" before we
had gone ten miles. I would have held out
if I could, for pride's sake if for no other,
but I saw that it was a question of dropping
down in my tracks and so fell out while I
still had strength enough to crawl over
the stone wall and drop down under a tree.

Sunday Nov. 2nd 1862.
Woke up about 2 o'clock and went on to find
the Reg. Soon found Patterson's Brigade
and was assured that Can's Brigade was
not far on, so lay down and went to sleep
again.

How well I remember that night. It
was clear and starlight, and as I dropped
down there were the tramp of feet, the mur
mur of voices, the occasional, "Close up,
men: close up!" When I awoke there was
not a sound. The troops had passed, the
road was empty, there was not a noise; as
I sat up and looked around there was ab
solute solitude. It gave me a curious feel
ing after living four months as one of a
crowd to find myself the one animate thing
in sight and hearing. Stuart's cavalry had a
way of circling about our troops at pleas
ure and there was already talk of guerillas,
so I was not sure what manner of men the

On the March

[Fairfax Courthouse, Va.

REVEILLE IN CAMP

first troops I found would be. It was not
altogether a safe predicament I was in, but
manifestly the thing to do was to go on,
following the road the regiment had taken.
I was soon reassured. Patterson's brigade
was the New Jersey brigade of our division,
and as they had halted no doubt the whole
division had. So as I was still exhausted
I might as well finish my night's sleep here
and I did so.

Was awakened at 4 o'clock by the
Reveilee and went on. I found the Reg.
Made some Coffee and eat breakfast.

Reveille on a march produces an inter
esting spectacle. Men have been sleeping
about in all sorts of positions, many of
them dropping down in their tracks with
out even taking off their cartridge boxes.

Few have had enough under them to keep
out the chill of the ground, and as they are
awakened find themselves stiff as with
rheumatism. After the battle of Gettys
burg I lost all the little equipment I had
left, and lay down two or three successive
nights on wet ground with absolutely noth
ing under or over me. When I woke up I
had to limber myself out by sections. I
would move the fingers of my left hand till
I could use them; then my left wrist and
arm; then my right fingers and wrist and
arm; then my left leg; then my right leg,
till finally I could get into a sitting posture,
and eventually to my feet. It was liter
ally a matter of some, minutes and of de
tailed effort to stand.

Nov. 2, 1862]

The Importance of Shoes

The beating of drums for reveille gave
way to the bugle, and this tune became
familiar :

The boys found many words to it, of which
this was a common version:

I can't get 'em up, I can't get 'em up,

I can't get 'em up. I tell you.

I can't get 'em up, I can't get 'em up,

I can't get 'em up at all.

The corporal's worse than the private,

The sergeant's worse than the corporal,

The lieutenant's worse than the sergeant,

But the captain's worst of all.

I can't get 'em up, I can't get 'em up,

I can't get 'em up this morning;

I can't get 'em up, I can't get 'em up,

I can't get 'em up to-day.

In the infantry the bugle call for taps was
the same as the artillery tattoo. At its
conclusion the drummer beat a few isolated
taps, and the army day was done. All
lights must be put out, all noises must
cease, and every man but the guard must
be in his quarters. But my recollection is
that these regulations were seldom enforced.

At daylight

we started and I soon fell out again. We
got to Fairfax about noon and about a mile
beyond had a long rest. Soon I saw the Reg.
coming back and falling in with them we went
back to Fairfax and encamped near there.
My feet were very sore, but on the whole I got
along very well.

I wore the regular army shoe, and always
the first day of a march after breaking
camp my heels became a mass of blisters.
I grew to expect it, and to know if I
pricked them at night they would begin to

harden the next day; but this first experi
ence gave me only the present pain, and I
had not learned it would not be permanent.

Coarse as army shoes were, I am not sure
but with their broad soles and heels they
were better than a more fashionable
boot. I tried the home kind once or twice
but was glad to get back to those dealt out
by the government, ungainly as they were.
The Duke of Wellington replied to the
question what was the best requisite for a
soldier, "A good pair of shoes", and when
asked what was the next requisite, answered
"A spare pair of good soles". A confed
erate soldier who has laid a Yankee low
has been known to rush for him, shouting,
"Them's my shoes!" But the confederate
shoes were poor as well as scarce. I had
no reason to complain of the shoes dealt
out to me.

It is said that Lee had no intention of
fighting at Gettysburg, and Gen. Heth was
sending his soldiers there to get shoes.

Gen. Wadsworth on the march to South
Mountain came to a town where all the
shoe-stores were closed, and made 200 men
take off their shoes and give them to his
soldiers.

Gen. Meade held the army for a day
after Gettysburg because he found 900
men without shoes.

When Sir Harry Smith, after whose wife
Ladysmith was named, was governor of
Cape Colony his troops returned from a cam
paign against the Kaffirs in most dilapi
dated outfit. He inspected them on pa
rade and made a speech congratulating
them on their gallant conduct, but one of
the men stepped forward from the ranks
and said, "Beggin' your pardon, Sir 'Arry,
we don't want no gammon; we want
boots."

On the March

[Fairfax Station, Va.

Whatever else I discarded I always tried
to keep several pairs of socks and when
possible I kept them washed, but there were
many men who owned but one pair at a
time and wore them as long as they held to
gether, often not taking them off at night.
I do not see how these people endured long
marches. Not seldom their feet would get
so heated and sore and inflamed that they
would take off their shoes and socks and
march barefoot, even in cold weather.
McCarthy, who says that few confederate
soldiers had socks, speaks of this carrying
shoes as a common habit, and says bloody
footprints in the snow were not infrequent.
Besides the inevitable chafing of coarse,
ill-fitting shoes, sand and gravel would work
in, for when marching in line one could not
pick his footsteps; and as there was no

chance to remove these intrusions till the
next long halt, hours on perhaps, the feet
became raw and the gravel was ground
into the open flesh.

At night pitched tent with
Prest, and went to bed, but for some time 1
lay thinking over the events of the day &
thinking how different was a Sunday at home
from a Sunday in the Camp. Monday. Cos
D, jp, H & G were ordered to Fairfax Sta
tion on the R. R. and a drummer went with
each Co, but Phillips went with D.

This I regretted, for there was a possi
bility of a skirmish and I still wanted to get
into a battle.

Went

over to the Camp of the 119th N. Y. which
they were leaving. Got a pair of leggings
and a good deal of other stuff.

Nov. 2-3, 1862]

Where Luggage is Impedimenta

It is a pitiful thing to break up camp
and leave behind the comforts one has ac
cumulated. You know what it is to pack
your kit for the Adirondacks and how hard
it is to throw out this and that which seem
so necessary and yet which you realize you
cannot carry forty miles on your back.
But when you throw them out it is to re
turn to them; it is only doing without
them for a few days. In the army it was
throwing them away for good, and it came
hard. The old soldier learned to do it
ruthlessly, but even he did not know how
long the march was to be, and he often
started with what he had to scatter along
the road. I saw the most instances of
this the next June 15, when we were march
ing wearily along the railroad on a very hot
day, with no water. I never saw elsewhere
such a quantity and variety of castaways.
I picked up a beautifully bound prayer-
book ; a bawdy book of which the half page
I read before I knew what it was is branded
in my memory to this day; even a letter
from a wife telling her husband how in her
poverty she had finally succumbed to the
landlord who had pressed her for rent and
would not be otherwise appeased. Think
of throwing away a letter like that without
even tearing off the address; even I, a
stranger, kept it till I could burn it with the
book. I threw things away, too, on that
march, more and more of them, till when
we got to Gettysburg I had only a haver
sack, a rubber blanket and a canteen left,
of all the luxuries I had gathered in the
winter camp.

The principal mistake I made on this
first march was carrying too heavy a knap
sack. It is amazing how every ounce
weighs down, till the straps around one's
shoulders seem to cut into the flesh. Mc
Carthy says the confederates did away with

overcoats and knapsacks, and even with
canteens, preferring tin cups. They even
discarded cartridge boxes and carried cart
ridges and caps in their pockets. It was
amusing to see the men hauling out of their
pockets a mixture of corn, salt, caps, and
cartridges, selecting the material needed
before they loaded or ate. "Reduced to
the minimum," he says, "the private soldier
consisted of one man, one hat, one jacket,
one shirt, one pair of pants, one pair of
drawers, one pair of shoes, and one pair of
socks. His baggage consisted of one blanket,
one rubber blanket, and one haversack."

There were occasional exceptions.
When the 30th Georgia went into its first
fight one man had a violin strapped to his
back declaring, "If I die I want to die to
the sound of Betsy." When the fight was
over he was found under a tree, badly
wounded, but propped up against the trunk
and playing on Betsy.

On the next page is a picture published
about the time of the battle of Antietam,
representing confederate prisoners. I saw
a great many confederate prisoners but I
never saw any who looked like this. They
all have shoes and hats and clothes enough
to cover the m. They may have looked that
way when they started out from Richmond
but not when they got into Maryland. The
picture in "Battles and Leaders", iii. 250,
of confederates crossing a ford is most
amusing. There was never a Johnny Reb
north of the Potomac with any such outfit
as these men are carrying.

On the retreat from Moscow Ney had
twelve million francs in gold which he saw
he must abandon, and made the fatal mis
take of distributing it among the soldiers.
They so overloaded themselves that hun
dreds of them failed to reach the frontier.
Sir John Moore was wiser. On his retreat

On the March

[Fairfax Station, Va.

from Corunna he had the money thrown
down a precipice after the army had
passed.

One of our

boys stole a box of candles out of one of the
wagons and Prest. and I got 71.

If I had been writing for other eyes I
might have modified this entry, but in this
diary a spade is a spade. As a matter of

fact soldiers thought no more of pilfering
from a commissary or a quartermaster than
a child does of getting at its mother's
cookie jar.

''Weren't you afraid when you went into
that dark closet for the cookies ?" asked an
earnest mother, trying to instill what con
science was.

"Yes, mamma, 1 was a little afraid."

Nov. 3-11, 1862]

The Burden of Knapsacks

"Afraid of what, dearest?"
"Afraid I couldn't find the cookies."
As the darkey proved to have taken one
of his master's shoats explained: "Dat
ain't no stealin', Mahse John; hit's all in
de family; you'se got less shoat but you'se
got mo' niggah:"

/ traded

off some of them in the village. As I was
buying some stuff in one of the shops a sick
soldier of the 134th N Y. came along &
bought five cts. worth of cakes with all the
money he had. I bought him some cakes &
cheese for which he was very grateful.

When I first read over this diary I
thought I recoginzed here a little intercom
munication between my right hand and my
left, but it stands so alone in this respect
that I think it was chronicled merely as an
interesting incident.

Wednesday. Had orders to move and so
packed our knapsacks, but had them carried
on the wagon.

This was an unusual concession : perhaps
an echo of an order of Gen. Pope in which,
to prevent straggling, he commanded the
officers to march behind their companies
instead of before, and on the other hand
recommended that knapsacks be carried.
This would have been wholly impracticable
for such campaigning as we did. Wagons
could seldom accompany us in sufficient
number, there would be great delay in
putting our knapsacks on the wagons and
getting them back again, if there was a
skirmish the wagons would get separated,
perhaps captured, and altogether the idea
belonged to militia training rather than to
a fighting army.

Went to Fairfax Station. Prest
& / pitched our tent. Thursday. In the
morning it began to snow, and a wet, cold,
miserable day it was. Saturday. Went

about }/% mile to an old Church which ike
soldiers had torn down, and got some boards.
Prest got enraged at my laziness and we sepa
rated. Laid cold at night.

This is not to conflict with my statement
that I have only pleasant memories of
Prest: I did net say he had only pleasant
memories of me. I have no doubt he was
perfectly justified, only he was a half older
than I and six feet tall, so it was easier for
him than for me to carry a dozen boards
half a mile on his shoulder.

Much ingenuity was shown in the build
ing of huts, for we had only our shelter tents
and hardly averaged a blanket apiece.

Our own regiment picketed the rail
road for some distance, and to save march
ing out and back distributed companies
along the track. They constructed biv
ouacs, often stretching their rubber blan
kets over rails or poles as shown on the next
page. Some of them dug holes in the em
bankment of the railroad to make beds in,
and Bailey of Co. H., who was asleep in
such a cavern, was covered by a cave-in
and died before he could be rescued.

Sunday. Nov. 9th.

Got two papers from home. Sent two letters
in the P. M. Fixed ^my house, Monday.
Built me a Chimney. Tuesday. Got two
letters, from home. The Reg. was called out
to give a salute to McLellan. Saw both
McLellan & Hooker.

Gen. McClellan had been recalled from
command of the army, and was on his way
from Warrington to Washington.

I have heard a good deal about how the
soldiers idolized Little Mac and resented his
dismissal from command, but I heard noth
ing of the sort in my regiment. They had
been with him all through his peninsular
campaign., and they were quite ready to try
some one else.

On the March

[Fairfax Station, Va,

TEMPORARY QUARTERS

Some man asked Lincoln for a pass to
Richmond. "A pass to Richmond," ex
claimed the president, "Why, my dear sir,
if I should give you one it would do you no

GEN. GEORGE B. MCCLELLAN, 1826-85

good. You may think it strange, but
there are a lot of fellows between here and
Richmond who either can't read or who are
prejudiced against every man who totes a
pass from me. I have given McClellan
more than 200,000 passes to Richmond,
and not a darned one of them has got there
yet."

My regiment had been within four miles
of Richmond, and then turned back be
cause McClellan had not the sand to fight a
battle . They had read his dispatches prom
ising to die at the head of his troops, and
seen him take refuge on a gunboat. They
knew that this caricature published in
Frank Leslie's for Feb. 1 was unjust in that
it represented his troops and Beauregard's
as equal, while as a matter of fact it was
divisions against brigades. They had no
doubt it was with McClellan's connivance
if not by his command that his pets Fitz
John Porter and Franklin refused to obey
Pope's commands and lost the second
battle of Bull Run. When afterward
McClellan ran for president on a platform
pronouncing the war a failure, they wagged
their heads at one another and echoed, "I
told you so." I don't know what the army
thought about Little Mac, but that was
what the enlisted men of the 1st Massa
chusetts thought, and what they said about
the camp fires.

Nov. 11-22, 1862]

Little Mac

Wednesday. Sick
to day. Got some pills from the Dr. Geo.
Allen gave me a Sedlitz powder which tasted
firstrate. Thursday. Sold my dirk knife
to Prest for $1.25, payday. He got me
checks for 1.00 and I spent part of it. Fri
day. Still sick & appearances of Jaundice.
Saturday Felt better in P. M.

George H. Allen was fifer in Company
A. I saw him at the fortieth reunion of
the regiment. He is an officer in the sol
diers home in Maine, I think.

This was my first illness, and I had few
afterward, none serious. The taste of the
powder seems to have been more worthy
of record than whether it cured me. The
spending of the dollar seems to have result

ed in return of the complaint, which was
hardly worthy the dignified name of jaun
dice.

Sunday. Nov. 16th 18621
Got some papers of the Chaplain. Monday
Fixed my house more. Everybody is build
ing houses. Tuesday. Had orders to pack
knapsacks and get ready for a march. The
llth. N. Y. and 2 N. H. passed us. Wed
nesday Rainy. My house leaked badly —
Thursday. Still raining. Went over to a
house near and bought three pints of meal,
for which I traded some needles & thread.
Drew Pants, Blouse, Cap, Stockings & Shoes.
Rainy night. Got wet. Friday. Towards
night it cleared up. Saturday. Fixed
my No. 4 Blouse into a coat with Side Pock-

ALL QUIET ALONG THE POTOMAC

On the March

[Wolfs Run Shoal, Va.

ets. Fixed my house with raised bank &
tent overhead-
Sunday Nov. 23d. 1862.
Got knowledge of a box containing liquor
and arranged with the Sentinel to open it as
it is contraband. So opened it and got some
butter, sugar, & tea.

Since this is recorded I suppose it must be
true, but I am more ashamed of it than of
any other deed recorded in these pages. I
wonder who the sentinel was who made me
his cat's-paw; no 1st Massachusetts man,
I hope ; my own conduct inflicted disgrace
enough upon it. The sentinel was pro
bably upon brigade guard , as the regimen
tal guard would have had no such authority.
I was a Son of Temperance, and as will
be afterward seen I poured my govern
ment rations of whiskey on the ground,
but I think this is the only time in my
life I ever played informer and got paid
for it. If it had been a characteristic and
not a vagary I don't know how low I
might have sunk ; I might even have writ
ten a text-book on physiology with state
ments about liquor exaggerated enough
to have the book approved and sell, so
that when a schoolgirl who used it saw a
glorious sunset, the first thing it would
remind her of would be the appearance
of her father's stomach after he had drunk
a glass of claret.

— Monday. Went over
to a house near and traded some tea for a pie
& some flour. Tuesday. Was awakened
about 2 A. M. by Hull who told me to get
ready to march.

Hull was the drum major, and -in many
respects a good one. He could beat as even
a roll as I ever heard and his single and
double drags were a pleasure to hear. He
was pretty faithful to his duties, too, in a
subordinate's way. You could depend

upon him to wake us all up and see that we
got in- line. His discipline was not what
it should have been. More than once the
drum corps made mortifying blunders on
dress parade that under a better drill mas
ter would have been impossible. He was
not fond of danger, but he always staid by
the regiment till the drum corps was or
dered back, which was more than could be
said of Major Hart, the other principal
musician, a fifer. Once when we were or
dered to the firing line with stretchers Hull
balked, telling us to start with the ambu
lance but to turn back. Of course it was
not our legitimate work, but it was in the
Wilderness under Grant, when men were
growing scarce and even boys counted.
This was near the end, however, and it was
natural to want to get back to Boston with
a whole skin. Personally he was a pleas
ant fellow, companionable and always
good-natured. I played a great many
games of chess with him. I am told he
lives now in Laconia, N. H.

So I got up and cooked
some flapjacks etc. and at daylight, took some
sugar and tea and went over to the house
and got 80 cts. in money and two pies. Start
ed about 8 o'clock for Wolfs Run Shoals,
which we forded and encamped the other side.

Fording a river is no fun. We shall hear
a good deal about fords in this narrative,
for Virginia had forty fords to one bridge.
Usually a pontoon bridge was thrown
across for us, but now and then we had to
wade through, often in the midst of a
march. If marching is difficult in dry
clothes, guess what it must be with all our
heavy woolens dripping, and our shoes
soaking. Often the fords were dangerous,
and cavalrymen were stationed below to
rescue the men carried off their feet.

Nov. 22-4, 1862]

Fording Wolf's Run

Three men in the 12th corps were drown
ed at a single fording.

Sometimes a rope was stretched across to
which the men could cling to keep from
being carried away.

When the march for the day was ended
there was always a rush for fence-rails or
anything else we could get to sleep on.
Any thing would do for a bed that kept
us off the ground.

FORDING A RIVER IN VIRGINIA

On the March";

[Wolfs Run Shoal, Va.

.<^i*fe^L rs'SS^^V- v fa' ''*•'?>-,

FORDING BY A ROPE

O. D. Robinson, principal of the Albany
High School and during the war a soldier
in the 9th N..H., wrote, Dec., '62, in his
diary of the sj battle of ' Fredericksburg :
"Fires were all extinguished at dark, and
we bivouacked in the muddy streets. I
procured a couple of house doors, one of
which I used as a bed, which though not
soft was dry, and the other I arranged to
break off the wind, and thus with one of
my tentmates slept soundly and sweetly."
."„ Here I saw and ate for the first time
persimmons, which the men are picking in
the trees. When fully ripe they are rather
pleasant to the taste, but if eaten pre
maturely they are astringent. A confed
erate who was asked why he ate green per
simmons replied, "To pucker up my stom
ach to the size of my rations."
Pitched tent alone. Got letter from home
with receipt from Express Co. for box. Also
for fife. Whole bill for fife $7.00. Wednes
day. It rained last night but I did not get
wet. Bought a corn-cake at a, house near.
Was put on Orderly and bought another at

noon. Thursday. Thanksgiving. Co. E.
had boxes* come in the morning and had great
dinner in P. M. ;-, / went up when they were
through and got some mince pie. At night
my box came. It was in pretty good shape,
and contained Chicken, Cakes, Jelly, etc.

I was doubtless entitled to signs of jaun
dice again, next day, but apparently es
caped.

Friday In afternoon went over to see the
14:th Vt. but saw none whom I knew.

I was a good deal of a visitor, and never
failed to look up anybody I might have
been acquainted with in Vermont or
Massachusetts regiments. Indeed I used
to visit regiments as regiments, to get a
general impression of them, from their
camps and appearance. The differences
were marked, depending I suppose upon
the original officers as well as upon the
character of the men. Some regiments
were always slouchy, in dress, in gait,
in camp arrangement, while others were
habitually trim. I was usually glad when
I came home from a visit to a new regiment

Nov. 24-30, 1862]

A Rush for Fence Rails

SHAKING THE PERSIMMON TREES

to congratulate myself upon having been sions were granted substantial recognition,
assigned to a regiment that was trim. As Sunday. Nov. 30th. 1862

elsewhere told we received frequent Had divine service. Wrote off my Diary

compliments upon this, and on two occa- up to date.

CHAPTER VII. WITH A WAGON TRAIN

OR a boy who
had started out
in rather hard
luck the rest of
the march to
Fredericksburg
proved very easy,
and afforded
some interesting experiences.

Diary for month of December, 1862.
Is*. Left Wolfs 'Run Shoals at daylight
in the morning and was soon obliged to fall
out, as my shoulder was very lame. Dearing
of Co. G. accompanied me.

Dearing was a drummer of Co. G, who
just before we were discharged re-enlisted
in the llth Mass., Co. C.

We came within

2 miles of Dumfries and stopped at Thomas
Lamb's over night. Was much pleased with
the Family & felt more at home than ever
before since leaving home—

This was an unparallelled experience in
my army life, so I have always remembered
it. Once on the train to New York I heard
a boy in the opposite seat ask the conductor
how to get to a shipping office in lower
Broadway. The conductor did not mani
fest much interest in directing him, so I
went over beside him. In the course of
explaining what he wanted to find he told
me he was a school boy from Virginia, and
had spent the summer working in an auto
mobile garage in Syracuse. I took him in to
breakfast with me and called for both
checks. "O I have money," he said proud
ly: "I'll pay," and he showed a two-dollar
bill . But the breakfast had cost more than
he would have ordered, and I insisted on

paying and going down Broadway with
him.

"You've been mighty good to me, sir,"
he said as I left him.

"Some of you Virginians have been
mighty good to me," I said, thinking of
Thomas Lamb, "and I am always glad to
have a chance to pay back. You Vir
ginians are pleasant people to meet."

"Well," he replied, straightening up
proudly, "I think we uns are a pretty
decent lot. Of course there are some mean
Virginians, but you don't meet them often."

And that is true. I have fallen in with
quite a number of Virginia men and
women since the war, and always with gra
tification. It was worth the price of the
breakfast to hear "we uns" again.
2nd. Started early and were overtaken ere
we had reached D. by a train of wagons car
rying Lowe's Balloons &c. Stated my case
to the Wagon Master and was surprised to
have him say "Get upon any wagon you
choose" Rode untill night and encamped
a little North of Stafford Courthouse.

This was another unmatched experience ;
the wind was being tempered to the lame-
shouldered lamb.

The balloon was used a good deal that
winter: indeed Burnside relied more upon
his balloon than upon his cavalry to discover
the enemy 's movements . He was criticised
for neglecting his cavalry: Stuart's con
federate cavalry raided Dumfries way in
our rear the day before the battle of Fred
ericksburg, But after the war Gen. Alexan
der, a confederate officer, expressed his sur
prise that other generals discontinued Burn-
side's use of balloons, which had put the

PROF. LOWE MAKING A BALLOON ASCENSION

CONNECTING THE ARMT BY TELEGRAPH DURING BATTLE

With a Wagon Train [Stafford Courthouse, Va,

. HALT OF A WAGON TRAIN

enemy at great inconvenience to conceal his was affixed offering a reward of 500 francs

movements. to anyone who would send back news from

In the Franco-Prussian war a balloon the outer world. But the balloon fell into

was sent up from Metz with 45,000 letters the hands of the Prussians, who sent word

and a cage with two pigeons in it. A note to Metz by official dispatch that the birds

A DAKKKY MULE DUIVKK IN TROUBLE

Dec. 2, 1862]

At Night

A ROUND ANOTHER KlRE

made a meal both welcome and tender.

Another present help in trouble was the
telegraph, which our men learn to lay on
temporary poles even during a battle, so
that the commander could keep in touch
with all his leaders.

It was an easy life these wagoners led,
and the night encampment was a lark to

me. A sutler's wagon had joined them for
protection, and that night it was rifled. It
contained a large stock of officers' boots,
and each wagoner picked out a pair for
himself. I was above such things: besides,
none of the boots I tried on were as com
fortable as my army shoes.

The wagoners were a good-natured lot,

With a Wagon Train

[Falmouth, Va.

MULE DRIVERS WATERING THEIR TEAMS

ATTACK ONUA WAGON TRAIN

Dec. 2, 1862]

Negro Mule Drivers

and it was fun to sit about the fire and hear
their yarns. They were all white, while
the usual mule driver is colored, and the
stories were amusing enough they told of
those darkey drivers when a wagon went
off a bridge or the train was attacked by
confederates. Afterwards I now and then
saw these attempted seizures of wagon-
trains, and on one occasion helped a little
in recovering a train the enemy had cap
tured. I remembered what these men
about the fire had said of the negroes'
terror under fire and found it fully justified.
A darkey driver trying to lash a contrary

•' I ' • •*?. .M****;^ - ^rpy*n-

sextette of mules into running fast enough
to escape is a sight to make a soldier weep
with laughter even when he is under fire
himself.

Not that the negro is especially a coward.
When he was enlisted as a soldier his brav
ery made it a slang phrase that the colored
troops fought nobly. There were indi
vidual instances among colored servants
of indifference to danger, as where it is told
of a darkey whom the frangibility of shells
filled with disgust, that he exclaimed, "I
'dare, massa, de Yankee shell ain't wort a
cuss: some on 'em buss when he hit de

FREDERICKSBURG FROM FALMOUTH STATION

With a Wagon Train

[Falmonth, Va.

FREDERICKPBUFG AS SEEN FROM FALMOTJTH

ground, an' some on 'em so no 'count he lieved at the time, though of course Wash-
buss right in de air." ington was born in Westmoreland county.
3d. Started again with them and rode to But his father lived here for many of the
Falniouth and hence to near the Phillips years of Washington's boyhood ; the can't-
House, the birthplace of Geo. Washington, tell-a-lie incident would have occurred
I Jiave given the legend generally be- here if it had occurred at all — indeed sol-

-^:-

FREUERICKSBURG FROM BELOW

Dec. 3, 1863]

The Rappahannock River

MARTHA WASHINGTON'S MONUMENT

diers sent home relics made from the cherry
tree he cut down ; and his mother's monu
ment, scarred during the war by many a
bullet, stood in a graveyard in the southwest
of the city. President Jackson laid the
cornerstone, May 7, 1833. It is now re
placed by a tall shaft.

Falmouth was on the other side of the
river from Fredericksburg, then in confed
erate hands, so we could see not only the
city but sections of the opposing army, as
detachments appeared from time to time.
The most distinctive feature of the city was
the old mill with external wheel, near the
railway bridge. That mill played its part in
the battle there, for it was the narrowness of
the bridge over its race that made it so
difficult to mass men for the charge up the
hill.

The name Falmouth on the map on
the inside cover • shows Falmouth station

THE RAPPAHA?WOCK RIVER ABOVE FREDERICKSBURG

With a Wagon Train

[Fredericksburg, Va

on the railway. The village is a mile up the
river, on its bank.

The river itself is a rather interesting and
not unattractive stream. Views will be
given from time to time in these pages,
above and below the city, and at United
States ford and Kelly's ford. On the
Rapidan I shall also show Ely's and Ger-
mania fords. The map on inside cover will
make the story of the marching and fight
ing clear.

Then rode with a 2nd N. H. Wagon to the
Regt and surprised the Drum Corps by my
appearance as they thought I had stopped
somewhere on the road or had been taken
prisoner.

5th. Had Review by Gen. Hooker, and
Hull told me to turn in my Drum & take up
fifing. Had very good review

My march- had proved what an incon

venient thing a drum was to carry. If
it was thrown upon the back over the knap
sack it was always in the way, particularly
when the column stopped for a little and I
sat down to lean my back against a tree or a
wall. If it was carried at the side it was
continually swinging around in front and
hitting my knees, and was again in the way
when I wanted to rest. Heavy as a mus
ket is, I would rather carry it, cartridges
and all, than a drum. As for a fife it
slipped into the knapsack out of the way
and had practically no weight.
6th Pitched Tent with Chipmunks.

This was our commonest name for Chap
man.

8th Burditt & Phillips came into our tent
and we all four slept under five blankets.

I do not mention it, so I hope this time
I drew one of the two inside places.

CHAPTER IX. THE BATTLE OF FREDERICKSBURG

ET this map of
the vicinity of
Frederick sburg
well in mind, for
it will serve for
the battles of
Freder icksbu r g,
Chancellors ville,
Locust Grove,

the Wilderness, and Spotsylvania. More
than 50,000 union soldiers were killed and
wounded in the triangle between Germania
ford, Spotsylvania, and what is marked
Pontoon bridges.

From Washington to Richmond the nat
ural route is via Fredericksburg, which is

almost exactly half way. Yet two other
routes were chosen first for the union army.
McClellan originally insisted upon the pen
insular campaign, going by the Potomac and
Chesapeake bay to Norfolk and thence up
the James. This had the advantage of
connection with Washington by water
and the assistance of gunboats, but the
disadvantages of leaving Washington
uncovered and thus dividing the army,
and of a swampy and unhealthful climate.
When this proved a failure and Pope was
put in command he chose a second route by
way of Culpepper and Gordons ville, and
told boastfully how he was going to Rich
mond from the northwest. "I'm goin' ter

100

The Battle of Fredericksburg

[Fredericksburg, Va.

GEN. JOHN POPE, 1823-92

pound the stuffin' out er you," said one
ragamuffin to another; "I'm going ter
paste ye in the eye and bang ye in the nose
an' swat ye till ye don't know whether ye 're
on yer head or yer heels." "So?" retorted
the other scornfully, "an' wot am I doin'

all this while?" Pope had not paused to
ask himself what the confederates would
be doing, and the first he knew Jackson had
interposed between him and Washington,
and made him turn his army right-about-
face. Still, after McClellan had driven the
confederates back into Virginia at Antietam
and was urged to do something, he was
planning to take this same route, and our
first march had been to join the rest of the
army at Thoroughfare Gap. Longstreet
believes that Burnside should have carried
out the plan McClellan was contemplating
in his leisurely way, of going from Warren-
ton to Chester Gap and fighting him and
Jackson separately.

BRINGING THE PONTOONS FROM AQUIA CREEK

Dec. 10, 1862

101

^:?^.

FREDKUICKSBURG FROM FALMOUTH HEIGHTS

Wth. Had orders to move and prepared
ourselves wtih knapsacks packed but we got
no orders to start. Gen. Sickles rode up and
observing large fires in front of Field Tents
said1' No unusual fires, Major." So we
think there must be something up—

There was something up : my first battle
had begun. The pontoons had been
floated down Ouantico creek from Dumfries
(see map, inside cover), and carried to Aquia
Creek landing by water, then by train to
Falmouth, and this night were being car-

LATINO THE PONTOON BRIDGE

102

The Battle of Fredericksburg

[Fredericksburg, Va.

ried to the river for use the next day. We
were supplied with three days rations, and
the privates with 60 cartridges each. It
was an exciting time for me, and I was eager
for action.

llth. Wakened at 3 in the morning by
Rolls of Cannon. Soon had orders to leave
in light marching order, and went about a
mile this side of Fred'g, and halted and staid
till night. Went over by the Phillips House
to see how they were getting along and had
fine sight.

The morning was cold and chilly, but
the men were busy laying pontoons, as
shown on page 101. The big clumsy
boats were placed side by side and joined
by planks that made a solid roadway across
the 140 yards of river. As soon as the

confederates, warned by their signal can
non, perceived the improvised bridge under
construction they opened so heavy a fire
that the work was interrupted, but de
tachments from the 19th Mass, and 7th
Mich, crossed the river in boats, dislodged
the sharpshooters from the houses along
the river, and enabled the engineers to
complete the bridge. The heights on our
side were 140 feet, so much above those on
the other side and so covered with artillery
that the confederates had no hope of pre
venting our men from crossing, and, as
afterward appeared, were glad to have us
do so. At the time I went to the Phillips
house troops were marching over into the
town unmolested. Some houses were
burning, and the whole city looked de
molished by our cannon.

CROSSING INTO FREDERICKSBURG

Dec. 11-12, 1862]

Sacking the City

103

12th Early in the morning had orders to
start and went out near the Phillips House.

Our division had been ordered to follow
Getty's division of the right wing across
the bridge, but halted in front of Sumner's
headquarters and at 4 received the other
order. Had the first order been unchanged
we should probably have taken part in the
charge on Marye's hill.
/ started out alone and went into Fred'g.
Such a sight I never saw. Every house was
riddled with balls. The city was ruined.

As we still lay idle, and it was too foggy to
see much from where we were, I undertook
a little expedition of my own, crossing the
pontoon bridge, and walking down the
main street, of which the picture following
accords with my recollections, though at
this time there was no fighting. Some of
the streets were held by our troops and

some by the confederates. What inter
ested me most was the sacking of the city
by our men. Stores and private houses
alike were plundered, and what could not
be carried away was destroyed. Men
plunged their bayonets into mirrors,
smashed piano keys with musket butts,
pitched crockery out of the windows,
shovelled dirt into barrels of flour. Sofas,
arm-chairs, beds, carpets were carried into
the street and put to -ridiculous uses. I
saw one man cooking flapjacks in a silver
cake -basket, at great inconvenience. "One
soldier carried off a stuffed monkey, one a
dozen custard cups on a string, one a
beaver hat." Much was said of the dese
cration of their masters' houses by the
emancipated negroes, but our soldiers des
troyed as well as misused.

Cole says that some of the men found a

* •*3$li

s^-|fffff*^|p' ^llflf

UNION SOLDIERS IN THE STREETS OF FREDERICKSBURG

104

The Battle of Fredericksburg [Fledericksburg, Va.

NEGROES DESECRATING THEIR MASTERS' HOUSES

SOLDIEKS DlSTROYED AS WELL AS MISUSED

Dec. 12, 1862]

Under Fire for the First Time

105

barrel of whiskey in a cellar, with results
that could have been expected, but I saw
no signs of this. What I saw was looting,
but it was decorous looting.

When the Imperial Light Horse arrived
at Pretoria, it proceeded to use a front door
for kindling wood. The indignant owner
exclaimed, "Do you know who I am? I
am the commissioner of police." "Think
yourself lucky, my son," replied the ser
geant in charge; "this corps usually boils
its coffee with pianos."
Got a few Relics, which I brought back, but
not being satisfied thought I would go again.

I contented myself with a few relics, like
a flattened bullet and a confederate bay
onet, both of which I threw away on my
first long march. When I got back to the
regiment and told them what I had seen
they asked indignantly, "Where is your
flour ?" "Where is your tobacco ?" naming

the things they would have seized if stores
were being plundered.
So started and got nearly to the river when a
shell came whizzing among us, closely fol
lowed by others. I thought it time to leave
and ran back to the Regt.

I felt ashamed of my unpractically, and
started again back, this time Prest accom
panying me. We had just reached the top
of the bank near the bridge, troops were
passing across, a band was playing at this
end, the sun was shining, there had been
no firing for some time, when as I happened
to look above the city where the confed
erate batteries were I saw a flash, and I
have always believed that I saw the shell
leave the mortar. At any rate I followed
its flight easily enough, for it was one of
those high circling, slow travelling fellows
such as we used to read about in physics
when the problems were on calculating the

A THIRTEEN-INCH MORTAK

106

The Battle of Fredericksburg

[Fredericksburg, Va,

SHELLS AND OTHER ARTILLERY APPLIANCES

1 Stand o± grape, 2 Round shot, 3 Empty canister, 4 Shell, 5 Shell and cabot, 6 Priming
box, 7 Ammunition pouch. 8 Elevating screw, 9 Cartridge, 10 Worm, 11 Sponee 12 Rammer
13 Handspike.

path of a projectile. Why does it not oc
cur to somebody in these days of learning to
do by doing to let the class work those
problems under the inspiration of the
real object ? It would be an interesting
sight to witness a high school with desks set
out in the open field for a regents examin
ation in projectiles, the shots to be calcu
lated being shells fired over their heads.
This particular shell went straight over my
head, exploding behind me among the
troops who were marching toward the river.
No one who has not heard a shell can imag
ine the sensation it produces as it goes
whiz-z-z-z-2, BANG! The troops that were
crossing halted, the band scattered in more
directions than there were men.

Then occurred one of those psychological
inconsistencies of which life is so full. I
was scared, Prest was scared; I knew he
was scared, he knew I was scared; I knew

he knew I was scared, and he knew I knew
he was scared: yet though either of us
if he had been alone would have lost no
time in getting to a place of safety, rather
than acknowledge to each other we were
scared we pretended to deliberate.

"Do you think we ought to go on?" I
asked, and like the heroes in the Aeneid
who were scared my voice stuck in my
throat.

"P-perhaps they won't let us in," he
replied with similar indistinctness.

"May be the regiment will be moving,"
I added.

"Yes, I think we had better go back to
it," he assented.

By this time the gunners had got the
range and the shells were coming fast.

"Perhaps the regiment may charge these
batteries," I suggested, "and we shouldn't
want to miss that."

Dec. 12, 1862]

Bomb-Ague

107

"No, we shouldn't want to miss that,"
Prest agreed, his^teeth chattering; "we'd
better start right ^along;" and his lengthy
strides made back up the hill.

"Hold on, "I cried, " you're right in range.
Come down the river apiece before we start
back."

But if he heard me he did not turn, and he
made a bee line for the regiment. I
went down the river almost to the Lacy
house before I turned up the hill and was
soon out of the line of shells.

But I was certainly scared. One shell had
exploded near enough so that I could realize
its effects, and the one thing I wanted was
to get where no more shells could burst
around me. This patriotic hero who had
declared in front of campfires how he
longed for gore would have liked to be
tucked up once more in his little trun
dle-bed. Bomb-ague is a real disease and I
had caught it.

There was no question of getting back
to the regiment as soon as possible, for
the firing continued and this reopening of
the battle meant movement for us. I
could see that my division was preparing to
march, and while I did not actually run I
certainly walked fast to get to it. It is
curious how little annoyances will keep
themselves prominent even in time of dan
ger. I had on thick woolen drawers which
had somehow broken from the fastening
that held them up. It was a warm day
and as I hurried up the hill those drawers
kept slipping down till they drove me
almost distracted, disturbing my equa
nimity more than the danger did.

Found them al
ready for a start and we marched some four
miles to a point down the River where Frank
lin crossed. Halted on this side.

I did not get back any too soon, and was

scolded as usual for being off sight -seeing
when I ought to have been at my post. In
fact the regiment had already begun to
move and I should have lost my knapsack
and other belongings had not the men in
my company carried them along for me.
They were certainly a mighty good-natured
lot of fellows ; I wonder to this day at the
kindnesses they used to show to a little
reprobate like me, always skirmishing off
where I didn't belong. They even ac
cepted without expressing incredulity my
explanation that we had given up our entry
into the city because the provost guard
would not let us in, "just on account of a
few rebel shells". Fortunately Prest, who
had got back before me, had hit on the
same story. But we deceived no one.
Cowardice is like sea-sickness: you may
keep your voice cheerful but the color
shows.

We marched rapidly over poor roads and
ploughed ground to the east along the bank
above the river. The little boy who had
been so eager for battle had just one prayer,
that we should stay on this side, out of
danger. As a matter of fact after march
ing some four miles we did halt and re
main on the north side.

But it was only for the night and there
would be battle for us to-morrow, so we
were a sober regiment. Just before going
into action there is considerable to think of.
There are letters to write that for some will
be the last ones, and injunctions for one's
comrades "if anything happens", as the
men used to say. It was a solemn night
for me.

13th. Soon had orders to move as the heavy
peals of cannon and musketry gave evidence
of the need of our assistance. But we did
not cross the river but remained in a place

108

The Battle of Fredericksburg

[Fredericksburg, Va.

THE CHARGE ON MARYE'S HEIGHTS

where we had a perfect sight of the whole line
of battle — Saw the Charges on the Batteries.
It happened to few private soldiers dur
ing the war to witness such a sight as spread
out before us after the thick mist rose in
the morning. We could see not only our
own troops but the confederates, every
movement, every attack, almost every can
non. The charge of Meagher's brigade
was a pitiful sight. Again and again they
started up the hill in solid platoons. At
the first fire of the confederates they would
be thinned to a fine-tooth comb, at the
next to a coarse comb, at the next to a rake,

and then the remnant would fall back, and
another division would succeed them with
the same result. It was not only slaughter,
but as it seemed to me hopeless slaughter
and I would have given a good deal to be
walking the streets of Fitchburg. This is
the way Conyng Lane tells the story in
"The Irish Brigade" (New York, 1867):

"Early in the morning the Irish brigade
was drawn up in line of battle, a green sprig
in the cap of every officer and man. At
9.30 they marched to centre of city. At
almost 12 the battle became general.
French made the attack, Zook's followed,

Dec. 13, 1862]

Charge on Marye's Heights

109

then Meagher's. French's division fires,
falls, lies down, scatters, rallies, but in
vain — already hors dn combat. Zook's
advanced in fine style, but rapidly fell.
Thinned but on they went. Then the
Irish brigade forward double quick, guide
centre, and on it dashes through the corn
field, greeted by grape and canister and
minie balls. Gaps are opened but they
close and press forward. The first fence is
gained and passed. The enemy falls back
to 2d line of breastworks. They gain the
2d fence within 60 yards of the enemy's
batteries, and are met by a disastrous en
filade and direct fire from enemies' batter
ies. They had not a single piece of ar
tillery to support them, and yet they stood
against shot and shell, grape and canister,
minie and conical balls to fight a formid
able enemy, artillery and infantry posted
behind stone walls and fortifications in an
impregnable position. An oblique flank
fire swept them so that the whole regiment
melted away. The advance was impeded
by bodies piled on top of one another. It
was not a battle but a slaughter." As Gen.
Bosquet said of Balaklava, "It was grand,
it was magnificent; but it was not war."

There was only one other Balaklava in
the war to compare with this, Pickett's
charge at Gettysburg, and I saw that too.
History will condemn both as unpardonable
attempts to achieve the impossible.

When Gen. Longstreet suggested add
ing another cannon to those that swept the
plain below Marye's hill, Gen. Alexander
replied: "We cover that ground so well
that we will comb it as with a fine tooth
comb. A chicken couldn't live in that
field when we open on it." There were six
distinct charges, beginning about 11 and
ending about sunset, 7,000 killed and
wounded, some of them piled three deep.

Lee said here to Col. Alexander, "It
is well war is so terrible or we would grow
too fond of it."

Cole tells modestly how the 57th N. Y.
carried its colors away. When the colonel
saw that it was impossible to get nearer the
enemy without sacrificing every man in the
regiment, he planned to withdraw without
seeming to retreat, and let the men fall
back two or three at a time till there were
only six men with the colors in line. Then
it was arranged that two of the men should
start back with the colors ; if they fell the
next two should seize them, and if they
dropped the last couple should strive to
carry them back. This was accomplished,
and though the fire was fierce only one man
was seriously wounded, and his comrades
carried him off the field.

On Dec. 17 Col. Brooks crossed the river
under a flag of truce to bury the dead. He
buried 913 soldiers, and brought back the
bodies of five officers. Nearly all these
bodies had been stripped of all their
clothes.

About 2 P. M. Had orders to cross the river
and went at once into action.

After some delays, at every one of which
I clutched as a straw, we crossed the river
at the left at the pontoon bridge below
Deep Run to take the place as I
learned afterward in the centre of the gen
eral line of Gibbon's discouraged and re
tired division; and I knew that when we
had marched up that hill we should be
under fire. Even when we had crossed I
hoped we might be detailed to guard a
wagon train or a hospital; anything to keep
away from battle. But an aide gave us
orders to proceed and we went on and on up
the hill as shown in the picture, except that
what seems to be forming into company
front in the middle did not occur till we had

110

The Battle of Fredericksburg

[Fredericksburg, Va.

FRANKLIN'S TROOPS CROSSING THB RAPPAHANNOCK

nearly reached the top of the hill. The
picture does not show what is prominent
in my memory, an artilleryman lying on
the left of the line of march a third way up
the hill with the top of his head taken off
by a shell. Some way this man lying dead
made more impression on me than those I
had seen wounded by a bursting shell or
killed on Marye's heights, for I marched
within two feet of him. It happened that
my regiment had the right of the column,
so that we musicians were in the very front
of the troops. Not all of us staid there.
Hart, the principal fifer, much older than
the rest of us, fell out before he had gone
far, pleading a call of nature. The men
looked at one another significantly: he
always did that before a battle. I would
have done the same had I dared to, but
scared as I was it would have taken more
bravado to sneak out like that than to
walk straight up to a cannon.

Then I began to realize something of
what the French mean by esprit de corps,

the spirit that makes a hundred united men
so much more than a hundred times as
strong as one man because each is not only
held in place but stimulated by his fellows.
Napoleon said, "In war men are nothing:
a man is everything." In a sense that
may be true, but in another sense the
opposite is true. Prest and I had shown a
feeble symptom of the way a body of men
stimulates each man in it when we had
delayed running when we were for the first
time under fire because each was ashamed
to let the other see he was scared. Later
I saw a remarkable instance of the want
of it. If there was in the whole army a
division to be relied upon in any emergency,
it was ours. It saved the army at Chan-
cellorsville when the llth corps broke;
it held the Emmetsburg road at Gettys
burg for a time against ten times its number.
But in the Wilderness, in the last fort
night of our regiment's fighting, the sap
lings were so thick and close together that
in our first charge there the line could not

Dec. 13, 1862]

Esprit de Corps

111

be preserved, the men had to make their
way through and around these wretched
little trees as best they could, and the
division of five thousand men became
five thousand individuals. What hap
pened? When a murderous fire opened
unexpectedly right in front, these five
thousand grizzled veterans, who if they
had been at elbow touch and with officers
in their accustomed places would have
plunged forward and very likely have
captured rifle-pits and men, finding them
selves disorganized and each man obliged
to act for himself, actually turned and ran
back to the breastworks. Most of us
felt that the division was disgraced. But
it was easily accounted for. Fifteen min
utes later when these same men got to
gether again in organization they held
those breastworks against the most de
termined assaults, and five days later
they made a brilliant and most successful
charge. The difference was that when
they were scattered they were no longer
sustained and stimulated by esprit de
corps.

Napier tells of the panic that struck
the Light Division just before Busaco, when
no enemy was near, no alarm was given, yet
suddenly the troops as if seized with a
frenzy started from sleep and dispersed in
every direction. This strange terror could
not be allayed till somebody called out the
enemy's cavalry were among them, when
the soldiers mechanically ran together in
masses, the illusion was instantly dis
pelled, and esprit de corps was restored.

John A. Logan, then a member of con
gress, walked out to the first Bull Run and
took part in the fight. When he got back
and was telling about it, a fellow- member
asked, "Are the cars running?" "No,"
said Logan, "the cars ain't running, but as

near as I could make out every other
damned thing in the state of Virginia is."
The army had not yet acquired esprit de
corps.

When we got to the brow of the hill the
column, which had been marching by fours,
halted to wheel into companies. Company
C had the right and as I stood by the colonel
I was close to Captain Jordan, who had
the reputation of being one of the bravest
officers in the regiment. I watched him
with curiosity to see how this approach to
danger affected him. To my astonishment
he was digging his nails into the palms
of his hands, and his lips were white under
his clenched teeth. Then I knew that he
was more scared than I was ; and I realized
that he ought to be, for he had more at
stake. If my poor little candle were
snuffed out nobody would notice that it
had grown any darker, but he was a hus-
hand and a father.

At Spotsylvania I saw Captain Moses
Warren brought in from the battle-field
where he had lain all night bleaching in the
rain, and I was with him till he died. His
voice grew fainter and fainter but the moan
never varied: "O my poor wife and child!
O my poor wife and child!"

Next page is a picture of a soldier on the
battle-field of Gettysburg, with his little
boy's picture on his breast, his last thought
of the darling he should see no more.

Those were the heroes of the war: — the
men who had something to lose . But these
men who had so much to lose were the men
to be depended on. They had counted the
cost and thrown their lives into the balance .
When they went into battle they met dan
ger not recklessly but unflinchingly.

This knowledge that Captain Jordan was
scared put things in a different light to me.
The great truth became real that the good

112

The Battle of Fredericksburg

[Fredericksburg, Va.

THE DYING SOLDIER'S LAST THOUGHT

soldier is not the one who is not scared
but the one who holds his post whether
he is scared or not. That helped a
good deal, and I saw that I wras
going to get through without disgrace,
scared as I was. So when we started again
and came under fire, though I was alert I
was reasonably cool.

Birney's division had crossed at noon
and carried the heights across the railroad,
forcing the confederates beyond them.
We had crossed a swamp to get on the left
of Gen. Howe, as first ordered, and had to
turn back to get to our new position on
Birney's right. The column advanced
double quick down the Bowling Green
road, shown in the map near the spot

marked "pontoon bridges". We crossed
the road and were deployed in two lines,
our brigade on the right of the first line,
which was advancing about half way
between the Bowling Green road and the
railroad.

Skirmishers were thrown out and engaged
the enemy, whose front was concealed by
the railway embankment and heavy timber
covering the ridge where Meade's and
Gibbon's divisions had been repulsed.
Our line crossed the railroad, and a com
pany of our regiment was sent to the burnt
chimneys on the right, from which its fire
was very effective. Meantime the confed
erate -artillery kept up an active fire till
dusk, our own guns replying at intervals.

Dec. 14, 1862]

My First Retreat

113

FRANKLIN'S -DIVISION RKCROSSINQ THE RAPPAHANNOCK

There was no further advance. Our divis
ion with Birney's now held the center of
the line of battle on the field, and if Frank
lin's charge expected by Burnside had been
made, we should have been at the apex of
the advancing troops. As it was, our
regiment lay all night"in the damp furrows
of a cornfield, no fires allowed for fear of
drawing the fire of sharpshooters.

The next morning the enemy opened
fire early, but most of the next day our
troops lay quiet. At 9:30 at night Gen.
Stoneman ordered the second line to retire
under the slope that descended toward
the swamp in the rear. An hour later all
our division retired across the river, our
regiment being the last of all Franklin's
grand division to cross. Our part of the
battle, like all the rest, had ended in a
fiasco.

Was Franklin a traitor that he did not
make this charge? Don't ask me. Burn-

side removed him, but Lincoln did not
approve it, and Burnside resigned. I

GEN. WILLIAM BUSH FRANKLIN, 1823-1903

know we privates of the 1st Massachusetts
thought Burnside was justified. But this
is no history of the war, only a record of
a little fifer's experiences as he remembers
them, and those experiences did not qual
ify him to sit in judgment on his command
ing officer. He gives his opinions now and
then but only as part of his reminiscences,
without a suggestion of their being history.

CHAPTER IX. HOSPITAL WORK

HEN one has gone
through the strug
gle of getting to
the front and is
reasonably con
tented there, one
is entitled to be
left there, for the
hard part is get
ting nerved up to it. But orders came for
the musicians to retire, and at this early
period I obeyed orders more zealously than
I did afterward.

The Drum
Corps were ordered back to the Hospital and

none of us were wounded. Here we lay at
night with the Dead & Dying around us.
14th. Spent the day attending to the sick
and changed our sleeping place out of the
Hospital —

No doubt the place for the drum corps in
battle is at the hospital, and at this battle
when we were ordered there I went. I
staid through, and did everything I was
asked to do as well as I was able. But it
was the only time I did it, for reasons that
will appear. Thereafter whenever it was
possible I kept by my regiment in battle,
not always on the firing line for I had no
musket, but near enough to see what was

THE SURGEON AT WORK IN THE REAR
114

Dec. 14, 1862]

A Hospital Nurse

115

going on , which when I discovered how prac
tically useless I was without a musket, suc
ceeded the ambition to do valiant deeds.
I was always glad to help any of our
wounded to the hospital, where I was willing
to take care of men if they were our
own, but I did no more service as a general
nurse.

I did not object to the work itself. I was
not fond of pathology and unless I was
needed would avoid as zealously as many
others seek the sight of persons or animals
badly injured. But I found that when I
had some part to perform my attention was
so concentrated on doing it well that the
horrible aspect made little impression. The
oretically it would be a difficult • thing for

me to hold a man's leg while it was being
sawn off. Practically I did it here with
out shrinking, much more easily than I
could have looked on without holding the leg.
There was a great difference in the atti
tude of the surgeons. There was a doctor
in the 16th Mass, who revelled in opera
tions. As soon as firing began he would
roll up his sleeves and await the first man to
be brought in with positive appetite.
Weird stories are told of operations he per
formed where there was no possibility of
recovery but unusual chance to experiment :
I remember his taking off a leg out of the
hip joint, for instance, where death was in
evitable, but he thought it a pretty oper
ation.

THE EAGER SURGEON

116

Hospital Work

[Fredericksburg, Va.

Carl Schurz has well described the
slaughter-house character of an army hos
pital during battle. "Most of the oper
ating tables were placed in the open where
the light was best, some of them partially
protected against the rain by tarpaulins
or blankets stretched upon poles. There
stood the surgeons, their sleeves rolled up
to the elbows, their bare arms as well as
their linen aprons smeared with blood,
their knives not seldom held between their
teeth while they were helping a patient on
or off the table, or had their hands other
wise occupied; around them pools of blood
and amputated arms or legs in heaps some
times more than man high. Antiseptic
methods were still unknown at that time.
As a wounded man was lifted upon the
table, often shrieking with pain as the at
tendants handled him, the surgeon quickly
examined the wound and resolved upon

cutting off the wounded limb. Some
ether was administered and the body put
in position in a moment. The surgeon
snatched his knife from between his teeth
where it had been while his hands were
busy, wiped it rapidly once or twice across
his bloodstained apron, and the cutting
began. The operation accomplished, the
surgeon would look around with a deep
sigh, and then — 'Next!' '

Some surgeons were arrant cowards. Dr.
Sim, surgeon in charge at Chancellors ville,
reported : "On my return I found that some
of our surgeons had obeyed the directions
in the circular of Oct. 30, 1862 (reminding
them of the impropriety of unnecessary
exposure) so literally that they had disap
peared, and I have heard since that some of
them did not stop until they were a mile or
two on the other side of the river." On
the other hand there are instances of great

FORTUNATE ENOUGH TO BE BROUGHT IN

Dec. 13, 1862]

How it Feels to be Wounded

117

heroism. This happens to be English, but
I have no doubt our men could match it.
Surgeon Hugo found Lt. Ford bleeding to
death from a bullet wound in a night attack.
The fire was too hot to permit a light, but
by the spluttering of a match the surgeon
saw the nature of the injury, seized the
bleeding artery and as no ligature was avail
able remained for three hours under fire
holding the artery between his fingers and
his thumb. As soon as it was possible he
picked up the officer and carried him on
his shoulder to a place of safety, with
out relinquishing his hold upon the artery.

How does it feel to be wounded ? I can
not tell from experience. I have felt the
wind of a bullet, and I know the thug! of a
minie as it penetrates the breast of a man
at my side, about the most distressful
sound imaginable, but I was never touched.
Here are some experiences of others that
seem to me accurately told.

A soldier wounded " at Inkerman said :
"A man fell in the front rank. 'Close in,'
yelled the captain. Another moment and
I felt a dizzy numbness creeping over me,
almost like a man hopelessly drunk. 1
sank gradually to the ground. The roar
still rang in my ears but sounded as though
miles off. It became dark slowly, then all
was blank. When I regained conscious
ness I heard moans and groans all about me.
It seemed like a month before anyone came
to me. I felt as though I was burning up.
How I craved for a drink of water. At
last some chaps came, pulled a dead man
off my legs, and carried me to the hospital.
I lay there a month. When I came away
this arm was gone."

Major Simmons, who was shot through
the thigh, said: "Being wounded in this
way was quite a new thing to me. For a
few minutes I could not collect my ideas,

and was feeling about my arms and body
for a wound , until my eye caught a stream
of blood rushing through a hole in my
trousers, and my leg and thigh appeared so
heavy that I could not move it."

There was a remarkable difference in the
way men took their wounds. At this bat
tle Sergeant Jim Sprague of my company
got a bad wound in the thigh, but he was
the liveliest man in the hospital. I remem
ber a picture he drew there of a couple on
the beach under an umbrella. A soldier
whose leg had been amputated said to the
surgeon who was throwing it away, "Hold
on ! give me the sock, please : it will be as
good as a pair to me now."

In an English hospital a young guards
man wounded in the arm was making great
adoo, crying "I shall die ! I shall die !" "Be
aisy wid yer noise now," cried an Irish
surgeon, "ye're makin' more noise than
that poor chap wid his head cut off." At
Chancellorsville a young fellow with a flesh
wound through the upper arm that would
have healed of itself moaned over it so that
he died ; and ^another man so struck by a
cannon ball that his intestines fell out and
his comrades, thinking his case hopeless,
would not carry him to the hospital, walked
there, holding his intestines in place by his
hands, and got well.

Cole tells of a little fellow on Marye's
hill crawling along on his hands and knees
and dragging behind him by a thread of
flesh .his broken leg. He seemed uncon
cerned till spoken to, and then, yielding
somewhat to the pain, asked the way. off
the field. " Cheer up, my brave boy,"
replied a soldier: "follow that fence and
you will get off all right." On the boy
crawled, leaving a trail of blood behind
him. Very likely he recovered: pluck is
half the cure.

118

Hospital Work

[Fredericksburg, Va.

At the battle of Colenso a nurse asked
of one of the men brought in. "Is he a
man or an officer?" "Well," replied the
bearer, "he ain't got no inside, we've car
ried 'im seven miles, let him drop twice, and
'e ain't squeaked once: if 'e ain't a man I
don't know one when I see 'im."

"You see, begorra," argued an Irish
soldier who lost a leg at Colenso, but wanted
to go to the front again, "if the Boers hit
me where the leg's missing they won't hit
me at all."

A private of the Dublin Fusiliers in the
Moori River hospital was explaining his
wounds. "That bullet," remarked a visit
or, "must have passed perilously near the
region of the heart." "It did, sorr," was

the reply, "but ye see me heart was in me
mouth for safety."

• An Irishman tells that in one of Gen.
Rundle's battles a Boer ran thirteen yards
after his head was shot clean off, and fell
right on his face.

There are several stories about wounded
men who have had to lose part of the brain
but who have replied, "O never mind, that
won't matter now: I've got a place in the
war office," or elsewhere.

When Gen. Mahone was wounded at the
second Bull Run, the messenger said to his
wife, "Don't worry: it is only a flesh
wound." "Impossible," she replied, "he
hasn't enough flesh on him for that."

CARRYING IN THE WOUNDED FROM THE FIELD

Dec. 14, 1862 J

Bringing in the Wounded

119

BRINGING IN THE WOUNDED UNDER DIFFICULTIES

One of the hardest duties while the en
gagement was going on was to determine
whether it was worth while to take a man to
the hospital. Unless there was a fair
chance of his recovery it was considered
not legitimate, as it took a man from the
ranks when every man was needed. They
tell of an Irishman at whose side a com
rade fell and called to him, "Take me to the
hospital quick; my leg is shot off." Pat
threw the wounded man over his shoulder
and made his way to the rear through shot
and shell so thick that when a ball took off
the wounded man's head he did not perceive
it. When he got to the hospital the sur
geon in charge exclaimed, "What do you
mean by bringing in a man with his head
shot off?" Pat dropped his burden and
looked at him. "The desavin' crater," he

exclaimed indignantly; "he tould me it was
his lig."

Archibald Forbes says that Major George
Napier was shot in the breach of Ciudad
Rodrigo, and was picked up with his arm
shattered. Lord March bound his sash
about it and bade him go seek the amputa
ting place. After an hour's search he
found it, but had to wait two hours for
his turn. The operation took twenty-five
minutes, the surgeon's tools being blunted,
and then Napier was directed to go and
find quarters. He walked about most of
the evening before he could find a place,
and then sat by the fireside until the death
of Gen. Crawford provided him a vacant
bed.

The native Indian troops have remark
able powers of endurance. A Sikh at the
Koragh Defile was shot. He could feel the

120

Hospital Work

[Fredericksburg, Va.

bullet in his body, and so worked away at
it with both hands so that he pushed it out
ward till he extracted it. Then he shoul
dered his rifle again and did a march of
twenty miles in spite of the loss of blood.

At Austerlitz Napoleon forbade that the
ranks should be weakened to give assistance
to the wounded.

In some battles wounded men were car
ried to the rear at once, either by ambulance
men or by their comrades: in others they
had to lie during the battle and perhaps
long afterwards. Sir Colin Campbell said
to his Highlanders at Alma: "Now. men,
you are going into action: remember this,
whoever is wounded — I don't care what his
rank is — must lie where he falls till the
bandsmen attend to him. No soldier must
go carrying off wounded men. If any sol

dier does such a thing his name shall be
stuck up in the parish church."

At Spotsylvania we were not allowed to
bring in our wounded, and Capt. Warren
lay all night in the field, bleaching in the
rain. But here at Fredericksburg Early 's
men, who were opposite us, were delight
fully humane. Gen. Sickles reports :

"Opportunely the stretcher-men from
my ambulance corps in going to the front
for wounded skirmishers occasionally went
unmolested to the verge of the enemy's
line to get the wounded of Gibbon's divi
sion who fell on Saturday. Their stretcher-
men were told by the enemy that if our
skirmishers would not fire any more on
them, our ambulance parties might come
anywhere along or within their lines and
get all of our wounded, hundreds of whom

SEARCHING FOR COMRADES AT NIGHT

Dec. 13, 1862]

A Contemporary Letter

121

were appealing for succor. This was soon
afterward said to be confirmed by Gen.
Ewell, whose division was in my front,
and I directed all firing along my lines to
cease, and by a tacit though informal un
derstanding no more picket-firing occurred
along my lines."

This truce was carried so far that the
troops on both sides mingled in the most
friendly way, exchanging southern tobacco
for northern newspapers, and drank together
when anybody on either side had anything
to drink, toasting their respective sides.
Two officers, one union and one confederate,
played a game of cards.

When men died on the field there were
often evidences that their last thoughts
had been of their loved ones at home.
I gave a picture on page 106 of a soldier's
body found at Gettysburg with the
photograph of his little son on his
breast, the last thing that dropped from his
nerveless fingers. After the battle of El
Teb the body of a soldier was found with
this scrawled inside his helmet with a
leaden bullet, "All to my wife." In Af
ghanistan a soldier's body was found after
it had lain for weeks beside a stone wall on
which he had written with his own blood,
"I want all to go to mother." In both
cases the English war department held the
wills to be valid, and ordered their property
to be distributed accordingly.

During the South African war many vol
unteer nurses, mostly amateurs, journeyed
there to assist in the hospitals, and often
made themselves a nuisance by their sen
timental attentions. One soldier pinned
this scrawl above his head: "Too ill to be
nussed to-day, respectfully Jim." An
other replied to one of those volunteers
who offered to wash his face, "All right,
miss, if you can 'urry hup. Hi've 'ad me

face washed sixteen times since breakfast
and there's two more ladies Hi've pro
mised. But Hi dessay Hi can get some
snooze afore tea."

Perhaps the most melancholy of our
duties was to search the field at night for
the bodies of those of our own company
who had not reported.

Cole says : "For the burial of our dead we
would dig a trench about 20 feet long by 7
feet wide, and then would lay the bodies
side by side until we had filled its length ;
then about a foot of dirt was placed on
them till all were covered: then we would
lay again other bodies in the trench, then
more earth until the trench was covered.
A head board was placed at their head on
which was marked their names and the
number of their regiment and company."

I wrote frequent letters home and three
of them were preserved. I give one writ
ten this night, still transcribing the spelling,
capitals and punctuation of the original.
Co. D. First Mass. Vol. Inf
Hospital near the Battlefield Dec. 14
Battle of Fredericksburg 5th Day

Dear M other \

When I closed my last it was Sunday
Morning. I will relate what has passed
since then. I believe I mentioned that there
were several wounded Rebels brought in. As
they were suffering badly, I made a Coffee pot
full of coffee, giving it to all of them who
wished. Most of them were in Georgia
Regts, particularly the 61st & 62d & GO//*
One was the Adjutant Gen'l of Erwin's
Brigade, under Jackson, and in the absence
of Erwin he led the Brigade in a charge upon
one of our batteries. Our infantry in front
united to give the batteries a chance to open
with cannister, which, as soon as the enemy
were near enough, they did, with terrible
effect. Our infantry then advanced and took

122

Hospital Work

[Fredericksburg, Va.

many prisoners. This Adj-Gen'l was
wounded in the Groin and was in great pain.
In company with all of them, he. expressed
great surprise at the kind treatment he re
ceived at our hands. He said he was treated
as well as our own boys. All day I staid
there, doing all I could for all of them. At
night we went out a little way from the Hos
pital to sleep. I saw many legs & arms
taken off, and the sight was awful. The men
say that it is not battle but butchery, as the
rebels are well protected by breastworks.
Monday morning we were ordered back
across the river, as the Div. Hospital had

been established there. So the drummers
were put in reliefs of six hours each to attend
to the wounded. My relief is on at dark.
The following were the instructions given to
me by the Nurse, in the tent assigned to me.
"The men on the left side will not require
much attention. That man in the corner is
wounded through the temple and is insane.
You will have to hold him down if he at
tempts to get up, and you must keep close to
him and keep him covered. The one next to
him is crazy also. Every time he wakes up
you must give him some water & look out
that he does not get up. The one in this cor-

Manager Lincoln. "Ladies and Gentlemen, I
regret to say that the Tragedy, entitled The
Army of the Potomac, has been withdrawn on
account of Quarrels among the leading perform
ers, and I have substituted three new and striking
Farces or Burlesques, one, entitled The Repulse

at Vicksburg, by the well-known, popular favor
ite, E. W. Stanton, Esq., and the others, The
Loss of the Harriet Lane and The Exploits of the
Alabama — a very sweet thing in Farces, I assure
you — by the Veteran Composer, Gideon Welles."
(unbounded applause by the Copperheads)

Dec. 14, 1862]

When Lincoln's Burden was Heavy

123

ner has got the Dysentery and will require
the Bedpan often — You must pay strict at
tention to them all, and not let the crazy men
get the upper hands of you." So off he went
and left me alone with two crazy men and 6
or eight wounded ones to attend to. It was
a hard place, but I did my duty as well as I
was able 'till my six hours were up. I never
want to go into a Hospital again. Tuesday
morning as you know by the papers our
Troops all returned to this side of the river
and we joined our Regt, and marched quick
to where our knapsacks were, when we left.
9 A. M. Wednesday Morning. The 15th
crossed the river and entered the city Saturday,
and as the Rebels shelled the city and the
hardest of the fighting was there, Walter
must have been in great danger. I shall go
and see him as soon as possible. My first
battle is over and I saw nearly all of it. Sat
urday the hardest fighting was done. I saw

the Irish Brigade make three charges. They
started with full ranks, and I saw them
in less time than it takes to write this,
exposed to a galling fire of shot and
shell and almost deciminated. I saw gallant
fighting every day for six days. I saw
wounded men brought in by hundreds and
dead men lying stark on the field and then I
saw our army retreat to the very place they
started from, a loss incalculable in men,
horses, cannon, small arms, knapsacks,
and all the implements of war, and I am
discouraged. I came out here sanguine as
any one, but I have seen enough, and I am
satisfied that we never can whip the South.
They have too much the advantage of position
and every thing else, and while I hate to con
fess it, I must say I am satisfied that sooner or
later we must give up. Let any one go into
the Hospital where I was and see the scenes
that I saw, and see the effect of the enemy's

LINCOLN s DREAM OF A GOOD TIME COMIN<

124

Hospital Work

[Fredericksburg, Va.

LINCOLN: "I THINK MINE ARE THE SMALLEST.'

UNE SEANCE DE LA CHAMBRE DES REPRESENTANTS a WASHINGTON

Dec. 14, 1862]

When Lincoln's Burden was Heavy

125

MILITARY GYMNASTICS, OB THE GREASED POI.E IN VIRGINIA

fire on our ranks as I saw it and they will
agree with me. But I must close as I have
written a long time now. I received some
papers yesterday — Write at once.

Your Son Charlie

If the prophetic tone is Cassandra like, at
least it reflects the feelings at that time.
Harper's Weekly was a staunch friend of

the Union and usually of the administra
tion, yet it published on Jan. 31, 1863, the
cartoon on page 122.

On page 123 is another cartoon, published
in Frank Leslie's Feb. 14, showing Lincoln
dreaming of beheading McClellan and Pope
and Burnside, while Seward and Staunton
and Welles tremble as they approach the

126

Hospital Work

[Fredericksburg, Va.

block; while here is still another from
Frank Leslie's of Feb. 28 comparing
Staunton and Welles with Tom Thumb;
and yet another representing the attacks
on Richmond as a greased pole.

At Richmond it was believed that the
war was ended. Gold had gone to 200, and
capitulation was expected in a month or
two.

The government was not in favor any
where. Le Monde Illustre, Paris, gave
April 27, 1861, the picture on page 124 of our
House of Representatives, apparently based
on a similar caricature that had appeared
in the London Illustrated News of April 16
preceding.

15th. Crossed the river again in the forenoon
and went to the Div. Hospital. Here we had
to go on duty by Reliefs in taking care of
the sick six hours at a time. In the mean
while the Regt crossed the river.

The picture on page 107 of recrossing the
Rappahannock represents a scene that be
came familiar to me. Of all the battles in
which I was engaged we were successful
only at Gettysburg; from all the rest we

went back to camp like this, except that
from the Wilderness and Spotsylvania, as
severe defeats in themselves as Fredericks-
burg and Chancellorsville, the army did not
go back, but kept on going, to try again
some where else.

16th Went back to our old Camp and' glad
we were to get there. The Regt lost 1 killed
fy 45 wounded. Our company lost one Or
derly Sargeant wounded (since dead] and
four or five wounded. 18th Me took com-
mand.

Col. McLaughlin was a regular army
officer, grim and strict, but not without
humor. I remember his telling cne wild
Irishman who had blacked the tips of his
shoes but not the heels that he would make
a good soldier because he never looked be
hind him. He proved a great man for us
when the llth corps broke at Chancellors
ville and came flying through our ranks.
He pulled out his revolver and faced man
after man, threatening to shoot them on the
spot if they did not turn in and fight with
us; and he would have done it, too. For
his services in this battle he was recom
mended by Gen. Carr for brevet promotion.

CHAPTER X. REFLECTIONS AFTER THE BATTLE

HERE was the ro
mance of the drum-
mer boy's life?
Here is a picture
drawn by Thomas
Nast that makes
him a little hero.
Now I don't say
that no drummer
boy ever marched like that early in the

which the drummers went along playing
for encouragement and comradeship, but
in my experience, charges played a very
small part in fighting. We could seldom see
the enemy, and learned more and more to
protect ourselves as we advanced, keeping
behind trees and displaying ourselves as
little as possible. "Only recruits and fools
neglected the smallest shelter," says
McCarthy.

war, or in some other regiment later in the
war: I am telling what I do know, not
what I don't know. What I do know is
that no drummer in my regiment ever
played a drum on the battlefield or could
see any sense in doing it. Fighting isn't
done that way. I can imagine a charge in

An Irish soldier put it this wray, "Ye gits
a blade o' grass six inches high an' ye takes
cover behind it an' they nicks it off inch by
inch, an' whin it gits to the last inch, be
jabers look out." A Gordon Highlander,
describing his experiences, said: "We didn't
see a bloomin' Boer, only felt their bloomin'

127

128

Reflections after the Battle

[Falmouth, Va.

bullets, an' when the order was given to get
under cover, the only cover I could find was
a daisy."

The legend is that at Fontenoy the Eng-
list and the French Guards found them
selves within thirty paces of each other,
when Lord Charles Hay stepped forward
and taking off his hat called out in French,
"Gentlemen of the French Guard, fire."
To which the Marquis d'Auterroche, com
mander of the French replied, "We never
fire first, gentlemen; fire yourselves." That
is magnificent, but it is not war.

I remember the last month I was at the
front, near Spotsylvania, a heavy artillery
brigade that had come into active service
for the first time was ordered to recapture
a baggage train. The general actually
formed his men in solid front and charged
through the woods.

Colonel Peck once rode up to the con
federate general Zeb York and cried,
"General, we are ruined: the Yankees com
pletely surround us." So much the bet
ter," replied the general, "for we are sure
to hit them whatever way we fire." On
the other hand, at Phillipi a Virginia 'com
pany worn out with marching was strag
gling wearily along when the captain
shouted, "Close up, boys. Hang you,
close up. If the Yankees were to fire on
you when you're straggling along like that
they couldn't hit a blamed one of you."

As this regiment marched every confed
erate bullet was sure of its man, and the
dead lay thick: I helped bury and mark the
graves of more than a hundred. It even
failed with its five thousand men to capture
the train, and then our poor little brigade,
hardly twelve hundred altogether, was sent
in, and advanced rapidly, every man keep
ing under cover in the thick woods and
brought in the train, hardly losing a man.

But they did not have the drum corps
beating drums to show where they were.

The only time I remember music in
battle was when Gen. D evens 's brigade was
crossing the pontoon bridge at Fredricks-
burg, and then it had to be silenced, for it
led the men to keep step, which would
have destroyed the bridge; and this was
long before the troops came under fire.

Sometimes there were charges, of course,
and my regiment had its share of hand-to-
hand conflicts when even musket-butts
were used. Capturing a battery is an ex
citing experience. But these formed a
very small share of the fighting that was
done. Oftener the enemy would not be seen
at all for hours, as in the trenches. Under
the artist's brush war is picturesque, but
in the field it is usually commonplace.

When Steel the sculptor was modelling
a bust of Wellington he tried to produce
animation by asking the Duke to tell him
about the battle of Salamanaca. "Were
you not galloping about the field," he asked
"cheering on your men to deeds of valor
by words and action?" "Gah!" was the
reply. "If you really want to model me as
I was on the morning of Salamanaca, do me
crawling along a ditch on my stomach,
with a telescope in my hand."

General Maurice says the secret of suc
cess to the British army soldier is his stolid
ity. He looks upon the work at hand as a
thing that has got to be done and not talked
about. This stolidity leads to heroic ac
tions because they imply entire forgetful-
ness of self at moments when nothing will
be left of him if things go wrong.

A lady said to an invalid from the front
that she was delighted to make the ac
quaintance of a hero from South Africa.
"I ain't no 'ero, mum," he answered;
"I'm just a bloomin' reg'lar."

December, 1863]

The Regular Army Point of View

129

A BATTLE AS IT is IMAGINED

It is amusing to read the comments of
Capt. Vaughn-Sawyer of the English army
on the ferocious fight at the salient at
Spot syl van ia in which my division was
engaged, the ''bloody angle" as it is com
monly called. We supposed that it was a
desperate effort for the sake of our country

to win what must be won if there was a
possibility, but he speaks of it as a mania,
to be encouraged as one stings a dancing
girl with a tarantula. He says :

"It is one of those instances of the re
markable effect produced on men by cer
tain conditions of battle. These instances

130

Reflections after the Battle

[Falmouth, Va,

CAPTURING

show that under certain influences, not
only individuals but masses of ordinary
civilized persons will exhibit a complete
absence of the sense of fear and will behave
in a manner which is actually insane. This
form of mania is a product of the primitive
aggressive instinct of the stronger animals,
and as it is generally found associated with
victory, is to be encouraged. Any over
discipline amounting to individual repres
sion tends to make troops less subject to its
recurrence."

This shows how different the feeling is
in the English army from what it was in
ours. With us the motive was a mix
ture in varying proportions of sense of
duty and love of excitement; with the
English soldier it is opportunity for ad
vancement. There was the same difference
between our civil war soldiers and the Eng
lish that there is between a volunteer fire

A BATTERY

company and paid firemen. The old vol
unteer fireman would jump out of bed at
the alarm, work like a Trojan till the fire
was put out, and then go back to bed again
and be an ordinary citizen till the next fire ;
while the paid fireman is nothing else. So
our men were farmers and mechanics and
tradesmen and professional men before they
enlisted, and they were farmers and mech
anics and tradesmen and professional men
after they got back: the war was only an
interlude. But regular soldiers are that
and nothing more. War is their profes
sion. All their chance of advancement
comes through fighting.

Long after the war I was impressed by this
while spending a day with some officers of
the regular army in garrison near Salt Lake
City. All their talk was of impatience
to get into active service, not for what they
could accomplish for their country but be-

December, 1863]

The Regular Army Point of View

131

IN THE

cause it was the only way they^could get
ahead themselves. The lieutenant wanted
to be a captain, the captain to be a major,
the major to be a colonel, and so on, and
this could come only through battles that
would give these men a chance to distin
guish themselves and would kill off some of
the officers above.

So in the English army the soldier is
eager for danger because it is the only way
he can get ahead. Every Tommy Atkins
of the better class dreams of the V. C.,
the Victoria Cross, that intrinsically value
less bit of iron that marks him a hero, and
he will seize greedily a chance to obtain it.
Not that this is the only motive. Many a
man has won it and wondered why.
Lt. Willie M'Bean of the 93d Foot got it
for killing eleven with his own hand at
Lucknow. When the cross was presented
to him at dress parade, Sir R. Garrett re-

TRENCHES

ferred to it as a good day's work, whereupon
the hero protested, "Toots, mon, it didna
tak' me twenty meenutes."

Regiments as well as men have to demon
strate their efficiency. In the famous
charge at Omdurman the 21st Lancers per
formed prodigies of valor because it was
their first battle. Sergeant Diggs lost two
fingers cut off by a Dervish sword, but
though the surgeon was close by refused
attention. "There's plenty much worse
off than me," he said. Major Wyndham's
horse was killed, when he Was seized from
the ground by Captain Kenna, who lifted
his fellow officer into the saddle behind
him, handed him his own revolver, and
while one urged on the horse the other
fired the revolver on the pressing enemy.
Private Byrne rescued Lt. Byrne and was
twice wounded, but when ordered to fall
out for medical attendance refused, but

132

Reflections after the Battle

[Falmouth,Va.

waving his bent lance shouted, "Never!
Fall in, No. 2 troop!" As one soldier said:
"You see the regiment had to win its name :
we had all made up our minds to do that
and only wanted the chance. You don't
know what it is to go into a canteen and
have every man's finger pointed at you,
and hear them all say, 'Thou shalt not kill.'
Now there's an end of that. A man of the
21st can go among all the cavalry regiments
of the service now, and look 'em straight
in the face and hold his head up. We meant
to do it all along and we done it."

With this spirit predominant cowardice
is shamed out of sight and indifference to
danger becomes a habit. During the Pen
insular war one English soldier bet another
that he would light his pipe by the fuse of a
shell that had just landed, and won, after
ward stamping out the fuse with his foot.
At Sebastopol an Irishman incautiously
raised his head above the trenches when a
Russian bullet whistled by and smashed
the bowl of his pipe, leaving the stem in his
mouth. Hastily dropping under cover
Pat expressed his desire to come into con
tact with that thafe that stele his only pipe.
At the siege of Ostend in 1745 a soldier was
holding 'up a loaf of bread when a shot
carried away the top portion, leaving the
rest in his hand. The man coolly exam
ined the other half. "I must say they play
fairly," he said; "they have left me the big
ger half." At Luc know Johnny Ross of the
93d Highlanders was disputing with a com
panion over a game of cards when the sig
nal came to fall in. At that moment a
spent ball struck him in the mouth, knock
ing out four of his teeth. He thought his
comrade had struck him, and returned the
blow. "You silly ass," his comrade re
plied, "you've a bullet in your mouth."
Ross spat out the bullet and his four front

teeth, and looked at them ruefully. "How
shall I manage to bite my cartridges the
noo?" he complained. At the same battle
Sergeant Halliwell, a crack shot of the 32d,
was detailed to prevent the rebels from
mounting the 18-pounders that they had
hauled upon the flat roof of one of the pal
aces. He took position behind some bat
tered down masonry which covered him
only when he lay at full length, and could
change position only by rolling over from
back to stomach. Food was taken him at
night by men crawling on hands and knees .
He remained there several days, his unerr
ing rifle laying low every Sepoy that tried to
mount the guns.

At the siege of Sebastopol a soldier was
groping around in the heap of debris where
a part of the defences had suffered severely.
"What are you hunting for?" an officer
asked. "For my mate's cap, Jack Miles."
"Why doesn't he hunt for it himself?"
"Because his head's in it."

During the siege of Fort Erie a patient
with an amputated forearm laughed and
laughed, which he explained thus: "Ex
cuse me, but I lost my arm in such a funny
way that I laugh every time I look at it.
Our first sergeant wanted shaving and got
me to attend to it. I had lathered him,
taken him by the nose, and was just about
to apply the razor when a cannon ball
came, and that was the last I saw of his
head or my arm."

This indifference to danger sometimes
reached to recklessness. During the Pen
insular war Col. Hellish appeared mounted
on so wretched a steed that his fellow-
officers derided him, and one of them de
clared the horse was not worth five pounds.
"I'll bet you fifty pounds I get forty for
him," cried the colonel. "Done," said the
other. The colonel rode toward the ene-

December, 1863]

The Regular Army Point of View

133

my, was fired on of course, but kept ad
vancing till the horse was killed, when he
jumped off and ran back to camp, winning
the wager because the British government
allows £45 for every officer's horse killed in
action.

Our army could not match that care
lessness of life, I hope, but we could
match that achievement and all the others
I have named, though the motives were
different. For instance, Gen. Sickles says
in his official report of Chancellorsville :
"The rebels advanced up the plank road
rapidly in silence, showing only an Amer
ican flag. Pleasanton's aide de camp rode
to within 100 yards when they called out,
'We are friends; come closer.' He rode
within 50 yards when the whole line opened
on him with musketry, dropped the Amer
ican color and displayed eight or ten rebel
flags." Yet he escaped unhurt.

Sentimentality is not encouraged. Dur-
leigh in his "Sirdar ..and Khalifa" tells of
the night before Atbara, when as he walked
softly among the slumbering men he heard
a Highlander say to a comrade, "Ah, Tarn,
how mony thousands there at home across
the sea are thinking o' us the nicht."
"Richt, Sandy," said the other cheerily,
"and how many millions there are that
don't care a damn. Go to sleep, you fool."
And silence reigned.

During the Ashantee war two soldiers
were communing as to why they ever left
home for that God-forsaken country. One
said, "I have neither wife nor children and
am fond of war." "Just the opposite with
me," said the other, "I have both wife and
children and am fond of peace."

A man who got a letter from his wife
saying she did so wish to see him before the
battle remarked that he would a great deal
rather have her see him after it was over.

An alderman sitting next to the Duke of
Marlborough at a Mansion house dinner
remarked patronizingly, "Yours must be a
very laborious profession, I suppose."
"O no," replied the warrior airily, "we
fight for four hours in the morning and two
or three hours after dinner, and then we
have the rest of the day to ourselves."

Marshall Lefebvre said to an envious
visitor, "Come into the court and I will
fire at you thirty times at twenty paces.
If you survive all shall be yours. You
won't ? Recollect then that I have been
fired at more than a thousand times and
nearer, before I arrived where you find me."

When the Marquess Townshend was en
gaged in one of his first battles a drummer
by his side was killed by a cannon ball that
scattered his brains in every direction.
"What puzzles me," he said, "is how any
body with such a quantity of brains ever
came to enter the army."

It is very hard for a civil war soldier to
believe that the English soldiers used to be
accompanied in war by their wives and
children. It is told of Earl Percy who com
manded the 5th regiment in the American
Revolution that at his own expense he
provided each company with a large tent so
that the women and children should have
suitable shelter.

"Did you ever go to a military ball?"
asked a lisping maid of an old soldier.

"No," was the grouty reply, "but I once
had a military ball come to me, and it took
my leg off."

At a notable society function in Dublin a
general was admonishing a beggar to go
away from the rounds when she exclaimed,
"It is I that am proud to see your honor
here in the very coat you wore the day ye
saved the life of me boy, me little Mickie."
"Indeed," replied the general, not sorry to

134

Reflections after the Battle

[Falmouth, Va.

have the deed reported with such eminent
people within hearing, "I had forgotten all
about it. How did [ save his life?"
"Well, your honor, when the battle was at
its hottest your honor was the first to run,
and when me little Mickie saw the general
run he run too, the lord be praised "

Corporal Caithness said he was never
afraid the British would lose the battle of
Waterloo. "Na, na, I did na fear that: 1
was only afraid we should be a' killed
before we had time to win it."

The Irish were sometimes jealous of the
Scotch. When a Highlander was boasting
of what his regiment had done, an Irishman
exclaimed, "I'd have you know as true a
heart beats under an Irishman's shirt as
under any Scotchman's kilt."

A soldier of the Black Watch, passing
in a theatre a private of the Rifle Brigade,
stepped on the foot of the latter, who
exclaimed, "You stepped on my foot!"
"Weel," said the Highlander apologetically,
"I did ma best tae leap ower it, but a
Hielan' mon is only human; I'm nae a
kangaroo." Strange to say, a battle
followed.

When Gen. O' Kelly, an Irishman in the
French service, was introduced to Louis
XVI he was annoyed to have the monarch
commend the bravery of another regiment.
"Sire," he broke in, "that regiment behaved
very well, it is true; many of them were
wounded; but my regiment behaved bet
ter for we were all killed."

Cambrone declared at Waterloo, "The
Imperial Guard die but never surrender."
The speech received honorable mention in
the Assembly at Paris, but this was erased
from the journal when it was discovered
the Cambrone was at that moment himself
a prisoner in Wellington's camp.

It is a mistake to think that a braggart

may not be brave : more than one man has
exposed himself as he would not have done
otherwise to make good his boasts. Wolfe
was such a gasconader that after Pitt had
dined with him and heard him bluster he
exclaimed, "Good heavens! that I should
have trusted the fate of my country to
such hands !" But Wolfe took Quebec and
died a hero.

Benton, of the 150th N. Y., whose "As
Seen from the Ranks" has a literary quality
unexpected in these books of reminiscences,
speaks with discriminating frankness:. "I
had no difficulty in finding the regiment,
who were in line of battle on the southern
slope of Gulp's Hill, crouched behind a
barricade of logs and branches, and once in
the line I was surprised to find that the fear
which had haunted me so on the way im
mediately vanished. Yet in each subse
quent trip to the regiment as I came under
fire I experienced the same shrinking dread
of the bullets which all seemed intended
for me. Their whispering message gives
one the singular feeling of being soul-
naked in their presence, and that neither
clothing nor body would for an instant
check their flight. Yet curiously, whether
from the presence of numbers or whatever
the cause, each time as soon as I reached
the regiment this feeling vanished, and I
felt as much at ease as when in the rear."

Benton says again: "I think it is com
monly supposed that men are divided
sharply into two classes — those who are
afraid and those who are not, or, as is more
comnwnly expressed, 'the brave and the
cowards'. Save for a few abnormal ex
ceptions it would be much more nearly cor
rect to say that all men belong to both
classes. When about to take part in an
engagement, and during a little while after
getting well under fire, there enters an un-

December, 1863]

Instances of Heroism

135

pleasant and unwelcome thought that one
may soon be numbered among the dead, or
be one of those whose sufferings were such
a common sight. But in this case as in the
others the mind instinctively adjusts itself
to the prevailing conditions, and without
losing the sense of danger, yet becomes to
a • degree indifferent to it. The 'scare
feeling' is soon gone, and thenceforth it is
that dominant sense^of duty of which I
have spoken which holds the reins."

Gen. Shoup tells of a private in one of
his regiments who [wrote a letter to his
colonel begging not to be forced into the
line of battle. He confessed that he was a
coward and could not stand fire. He
begged to take care of patients in the small
pox hospital, anything to keep to the rear :
he should die if he were forced into fighting
ranks. The colonel compelled him to come
to the front and he was pitiful to see,
crouched, trembling, and dodging. But
when the first fright was over he proved a
first-rate soldier, in fact one of the most
reckless and daring in the ranks.

An excellent example of nerve is the fol
lowing. Sir Charles Napier saw an Indian
juggler cut in two with a sword a lime held
in the hand of an assistant, and thought
there must be a collusion. To expose it he
offered to hold the lime himself. The jug
gler examined his hand carefully and then
refused to perform the feat. ''I thought I
should find you out," exclaimed Napier
triumphantly. "Stop," said the juggler,
"let me see your other hand." After he had
examined it the juggler said, "If you will
hold this hand steady I will cut the lime."

"But why the left hand and not the
right ?'

"Because the right hand is more hollow in
the centre and there is more danger of cut
ting off the thumb."

Napier was startled. "I got frightened,"
he said, telling the story. "I saw it was an
actual feat of delicate swordmanship, and if
I had not abused the man, as I did before the
trial, I honestly acknowledge I should have
retired_, from the encounter. However I
put the lime on my hand and held the arm
out steadily. The juggler balanced him
self, and with a swift stroke cut the lime in
two pieces. I felt the edge of the sword on
my hand as if a cold thread had been
drawn across it."

I may add that' I have seen this feat per
formed not in India but in Syracuse, and
not by an Indian juggler, but by Col. Ver-
beck, principal of St. John's school, son of
Verbeck of Japan and who learned sword
manship there. So the danger was less
than Napier supposed, but that does not
lessen his courage in submitting to the test.
To me that would be a much more severe
trial, though so much less would be at stake,
than to ride from one command to another
under heavy fire.

I have always thought the supeme test
of courage thus far evolved is that of the
Spanish matador. He does not kill the
bull: the bull must commit suicide. His
sword is not grasped, but is held with the
hilt against the back of his hand, which is
stretched out palm upward. He must hold
that sword so that when the bull comes rush
ing upon him the point will penetrate a spot
in the bull's spine not bigger than a silver
dollar. Often the sword will enter the bull
up to the hilt, but unless the exact spot is
reached the wound is not fatal and the
matador must follow up the bull and draw
out the sword for another trial. When the
bull is fierce it requires nerve to await his
onslaught and stand there, sword poised,
so directing it that the bull shall lunge
himself upon it at just that point. How-

136

Reflections after the Battle

[Faimouth, Va.

ever much one may disapprove of bull
fighting he cannot withold his admiration
of the matador's courage. I was present
at the last fight of the season at Madrid, in
1887, when Frascuelo, then the pride of
Spain, was tossed upon a bull's horns and
supposed to be fatally wounded. It was
the fifth bull of the ten, and showed
unusual spirit from the first, delighting the
audience, who shouted, "El bravo torol"
Frascuelo played with him longer than is
customary, turning him aside with his red
shawl as he lunged forward. When at
last Frascuelo was ready he planted him
self and the bull came on with fire in his
eyes. He made a movement with his
horns just a bit different from what Fras
cuelo had£anticipated and in an instant
he had thrown the matador up into the air.
Yet while supreme unction was being ad
ministered to Frascuelo, another matador
came into the ring, and, profiting by
the knowledge gained of the beast, de
spatched him just as Frascuelo had tried
to do it. You may like bull-fighting or
not, but you cannot deny the courage it
shows.

Should a soldier bob his head when bul
lets are flying ? Gordon discusses this mat
ter in his journal and concludes "Certainly.
I remember on two occasions seeing shells
before my eyes which certainly had I not
bobbed would have taken off my head."

At Taku Fort in 1860 a mounted officer re
proved the Royal Surrey regiment for bob
bing when bullets whistled by them saying,
"Whenever you hear the sound of a bullet
it has passed by you and you have nothing
to fear." Just then a bullet whizzed by his
own head and he ducked so violently that
he nearly fell off his horse. Righting him
self he said to the soldiers with a smile,
"That was a narrow squeak, wasn't it ?"

Early in the Ladysmith siege an old
major whose fighting record is beyond
question was lecturing his men on the folly
of ducking to a shell. "When you hear it,
men, it's actually past so that ducking your
heads is quite useless." Just then came a
hissing shell from "Silent Sue" close over
the major's head. He ducked. The men
laughed and he observed, "Ah well, I sup
pose it's just human nature."

There were jokes even at Balaklava.
Lord Cardigan criecl, thinking he was going
to certain death, "Here goes the last of the
Cardigans." Upon which an Irishman
echoed in his rich brogue, "Here goes the
last of the Murphys." After all Cardigan
survived, and while travelling in Scotland
called for a bottle of soda-water. The cork
flew out with a sharp pop and passed close to
his lordship's nose, whereupon Cardigan
dodged to escape it. "Ye wouldna ha'
done to ha' beane in the Crimeen war,"
said the landlord cotemptuously, and Card
igan smiled without revealing his identity.

There is a good deal of fatalism among
soldiers. "If I am to be shot, they say,
"I shall be shot, and there is no use to try
to escape." Cronje said in the South
African war, when a cornet suggested that
he retire to a less exposed position, "No,
I am in the hands of God. If I am to be
shot I shall be hit just as soon in one place
as in another."

"The finger of God was upon me all day —
nothing else could have saved me," Wel
lington said of Waterloo. Yet he could
hardly utter a sentence without an oath.

There are two theories of the recurrence
of a shot. One that "Every bullet has its
billet and a place once hit is to be avoided."
The other, "It never hits in the same spot
twice."

December, 1863]

Instances of Heroism

137

Dr. Dabney, on Stonewall Jackson's
staff, preached one Sunday on war, and
said that every shot and shell and bullet
was directed by the God of battles. At
Malvern Hill the staff was under heavy fire
and Gen. Jackson directed his officers to
dismount and shelter themselves. Dr.
Dabney hid behind a gate-post and Major
Nelson exclaimed, "Why Dr. Dabney, if
the God of battles directs every shot, why
do you want to put a gate-post between
you and a special providence ?" Dr. Dab
ney retorted, "Why just here the gate
post is the special providence."

A soldier in the Dacoit-infested region of
Burmah was a firm believer in destiny, but
when about to take a stroll one evening was
observed to put a pair of pistols into his
pocket. "Hullo," cried a comrade, "what
are you taking a revolver for ? That won't
save you if your time has come." "No,"
said the other, "but I may happen to meet a
Dacoit whose time has come."

An old soldier was describing his adven
tures in battle, the long wait, the nerve
tension, the charge, how the men behind
spat blasphemies at the sight and set their
teeth to win. "And what struck you most
after it was all over?" asked his listener.
"The bullets that missed me," was the reply.

An Australian who wanted to fight the
Boers was rejected on the ground that his
teeth were defective, though he protested
that he didn't want to eat the Boers, only
to..fight 'em.

The watchword of the King's Rifle Corps

before a charge was, "Remember the la
dies! remember the babies!"

La Rochejacquelin's address to his sol
diers was, "If I advance, follow; if I fall,
avenge me; if I flinch, kill me."

Soon after leaving Cambridge Coleridge
enlisted in the 15th Light Dragoons. "Do
you think," asked the general commanding,
"you can run a Frenchman through the
body?" "I don't know," replied Cole
ridge, "but I'll let a Frenchman run me
through the body before I'll run away."

It will be remembered that the Prince
Imperial of France met his death at the
hands of the Zulus, against whom he was
serving with the British army to get ex
perience in war. Lt. Carey, an officer of
the party, rushed into camp crying, "Fly!
fly! The Zulus are after me and the Prince
Imperial is killed!" Sir Redvers Buller
turned upon him and asked sternly, "And
how is it that you are alive?" Carey was
compelled to resign from the army, and
entered the church.

Colonel Lake said at Rolica, "Remember
the bayonet is the only weapon for a Brit
ish soldier."

When the English army landed in Egypt,
a Highland regiment fixed bayonets to at
tack a French battery. Then came the
command, "Prime and load," but Donald
Balck cried out, from the ranks, "No prime
and load but charge paignets at once."
The men promptly obeyed and recarried the
ridge.

A Goorkhat trooper serving as guide to
the English who were sheltered from a mur
derous fire but could not get away to safety
proposed, "Sahib, we mustn't stop here all
day. I will jump on top of the parapet,
they will fire at me and you can rush out on
them before they can reload." He did it
and the English routed the natives. Cu-

138

Reflections after the Battle

[Falmouth, Va.

riously enough the Goorkhat was absolutely
unharmed.

Lord Roberts tells that he himself saw
a shell pass between a rider and his horse,
tearing the saddle to shreds and knocking
down the horse but not seriously injuring
either man or horse.

A militia colonel who wanted his men to
volunteer for service abroad marched his
regiment in line up to the boundary wall of
the field and kept the men marking time
for a while, literally with their noses to the
wall. Then he read to them the require
ments of the foreign service and said,
"Those men who do not wish to volunteer,
two paces to the front." As not a man
could advance, the colonel reported that
every member consented had to go abroad.

Soult turned his back on Jaubert, who
had made epigrams about him, whereupon
Jaubert said to him, "I have been told you
were my enemy but am glad to see it is not
so." "Why not ?" thundered Soult fiercely.
"Because your enemy never sees your
back," was the diplomatic reply, and all
wounds were healed. On the other hand
when Wellington was ambassador to Paris
many of the French marshals turned their
backs upon him. Louis XVIII apologized,

but Wellington replied, "Never mind, your
majesty, they have got into the habit and
can't get out of it."

Most military stories, especially in com
pany, must be taken with a grain of salt.
6$ One had seen a man shot through the
head and he lived. ? Another had seen a
soldier whose arms^and legs had been
carried away, and he lived. A third had
known a man to^be shot in the side and
through the head, and he lived. A fourth
remarked that he had seen a man shot
clean through the body with a ten-pound
ball, and then paused. "And he lived?"
inquired one of the bystanders. "No, he
died."

A lady exhibiting family portraits pointed
to an officer in uniform. "He was brave as
a lion," she said, "but the most unfortunate
of men. Why he never took part in an
engagement without losing an arm or a leg.
He was in twenty-four battles."

An overbearing officer was complaining
to his Quaker aunt of the responsibility
placed upon him. "I have to do all the
work of the' regiment," he said; "I am my
own major, my own captain, my own

lieutenant, my own sergeant," "and

your own trumpeter," interrupted his aunt.

CHAPTER XL TENT ARCHITECTURE

AMP LIFE in
earnest now began
for us. The sum
mer camp is tem-
porary, but in
winter soldiers set
tle down in hopes
of permanence.
We were at Falmouth six months.
\§th. After three days rest we commenced
drilling again — Began to give out Whiskey —
2oth. Christmas. Had a fine Christmas
dinner of salt junk & Hard Tack. John
Me Abe went down to the river and saw boats
crossing and recrossing and all gay & happy.
Up to this point my diary had been kept
on sheets of writing-paper, which I sent
home as they were filled, thinking they

would be safer there. From this point on
my diary is kept in books with printed
forms for each day. It will be observed
that the first entry is always of the weather.
A specimen page is reproduced for Jan. 23.

Jan. 1. 1863. Rather cold. Nothing going
on in the Reg't. but went over to Birney's Di
vision and had a pretty good time although I
got there too late. There was the customary
hurdle-race, rolling wheel, etc.

Jan. 2. Rather cold. Was on Orderly.
Ran regularly between the Adjutant's and
Capt. Jordan's tents. Had a talk with
Geo Harrington, who has lately arrived
from Camp Day.

Jan. 3. Pleasant. Hull came around
with Tobacco at $1.50 <p Ib. payable pay day.

'JOHN McABE WENT DOWN TO THE RlVEB'"

139

140

Tent Architecture

[Falmouth, Va.

Took two pounds and got $5.00 pay day for
it.

Trading was one of the methods of re
lieving the monontony of the camp. It is
told of two Yankees in Libby prison that
the first day they were together they traded
jacknives forty-three times, at the end of
which time one had made a dollar and a
half and^ the other fourteen shillings,
while each man had the same knife he
started with.

I never formed the tobacco habit myself.
When I first enlisted and went back home
on furlough for a day or two I announced
that I was about to buy a meerschaum pipe,
expecting my mother to try to dissuade
me. But she had some acquaintance with
me and instead offered to go down town
with me and help pick it out. That took
away all the interest, for the principal
charm had been to assert my new indepen

dence. I learned to be glad I had escaped
the habit, however, when I saw how men
suffered who could not get tobacco. There
were periods when there was no opportunity
to buy, and many a man seemed more dis
tressed without his pipe or his chew than
when his rations of food ran short.

After dinner the Reg't received orders to
get ready to move Camp and we went about
two miles on the Belle Plains road. The
camp made a splendid appearance in the
woods with the dry pine fires.

The woods about our first camp had dis
appeared at the rate of an acre a week,
and we moved over to the Fitzhugh house,
as shown on the map on inside cover. Here,
there was a heavy growth of oak and pine
timber, and a camp was laid out with con
siderable regularity, the company streets
up and down the hill and the officers' quar
ters on the ridge.

BUILDING Htrra

Jan. 3-9, 1863]

The Army Chimney

141

Jan. 4. Pleasant. Established Camp in
the morning. The Drummers were sent to
their respective Companies. Fixed tent
pretty well.

Usually we musicians were permitted to
tent where we chose.

Jan. 5. Pleasant. Marched two miles to
Review by Gen. Burnside. Saw Gen's.
Sickles, Carr, Mott, Sumner, Birney, Fer-
rero, Wadsworth, Doubleday, etc. Left the
Reg't and fell in with Charlie Montjoy of
the 21s£ Mass, and with him went over to the
3Qth Mass, and saw Hamilton, Emory,
Thompson and other Fitchbitrg boys. Saw
the Balloon & with it Prof. Lowe. Got
some Troches etc. by mail.

Jan. 6. Pleasant. Got a letter from Gen.
Schouler in regard to Descriptive list. Drills.

I had thus far been unable to draw pay
because through some error in the red

tape department this description of my
person and the facts about my enlistment
had not been forwarded.

Jan. 7. Pleasant. Drills

Jan. 8. Pleasant. Was on Orderly.

Jan. 9. Pleasant. Put a chimney on
house and fixed it up good.

The confederate camps were much more
elaborate than ours, both because the
southerners were more experienced house-
builders and because they preferred to
sleep a good many together, so that they
could afford more elaborate construction.
We preferred the quiet and independnece
of tenting not more than two together.
We chose camping in open fields; they took
to the woods. Then they did not use tents
as we did, even on the march. McCarthy
says: "Tents were rarely seen. All the
poetry about the 'tented field' died. Two

THE ARMY CHIMNEY

142

Tent Architecture

[Falmouth, Va.

NATIVE VIRGINIA MODELS

INTERESTING EXPERIMENTS

OF WINTER QUARTERS

fc£

jfeW^;

;2^S^

A CAMP of SHELTER TENTS IN WINTER. Compare page 33

144

Tent Architecture

[Falmouth, Va.

REMAINS OF A REBEL, CAMP AT MANASSES

men slept together, each having a blanket
and an oil-cloth; one oil-cloth went next
the ground. The two laid (sic) on this,
covered themselves with two blankets,
protected from the rain with the second
oil-cloth on top, and slept very comfortably
through rain, snow or hail, as it might be."
Hence they had wooden roofs.

As finally modeled my Brandy Station
hut represented a good deal of planning
and experiment. I first put down a log
9 inches thick through the middle of the
square on which the tent was to stand.
Then I excavated the half of the square
in front to the depth of nine inches, and
put the dirt on the half of the square
behind, which gave me a seat eighteen inches
high, by^raising the bed eighteen inches
from the floor. Then I put logs around

something as shown in these huts left by
the confederates at Manassas, except that
I had only three logs high above the
ground, and the door was at the floor cor
ner: I sacrificed a pair of shoes for
hinges. The chimney was like those here
shown, built of logs chinked in with clay
and lined with clay inside. The roof,
however, was still my pair of shelter tents
and was not nearly so high as here shown.
The result was about like those shown in
the lower picture on page 141, except that
the chimney was like that on page 145, the
picture in the foreground giving the gen
eral effect of my Falmouth tent.

Jan. 10. House was fixed in time. It
rained all day but I was dry.

I tented alone this winter, and so did all
the building myself. I laid a foundation

Jan. 9-10, 1863]

Winter Huts

MY WINTER HOME AT FAI.MOUTH

of logs as shown in the picture, and built
the chimney of logs plastered with clay. I
laid a foundation of pine-branches for my
bed, and put a rubber blanket over them.

The chimney was sometimes eked out
by a barrel, as shown in this picture of the
outside of Perkins's tent at Brandy Station.
The reader will remember his portrait on

PERKINS'S TENT AT BRANDY STATION

INSIDE OF PERKINS'S TENT

rr Js

IST MASSACHUSETTS HUTS AT CAMP HOOKER, 1861-2

INTERIOR OF THE MIDDLE HUT AT CAMP HOOKER
146

Jan. 10-13, 1863]

In the Snow

147

page 73. He sends me this and the three
sketches on page 146 made by himself. The
next tent here was Bagley's, another
musician's, and the two were at the end of
the musicians' row, next the parade ground.
Staff tents are shown at the left.

The next picture shows the inside of
the same tent. The door was made of a
cracker box, with hinges of leather, and
the chimney was made of earth sod.

'The two next were regimental huts at
Camp Hooker. The one in the centre was
made by Perkins and Burditt of Co. G.
The top was thatched, and leaked some,
but the bunks were placed one over the
other, and a rubber blanket put over them
to shed the water to the floor. As this
was simply the ground, the water drained
off.

Directly in front of this shanty and along
the public road was the guard house.
At the right was the bake house, and at
the left, as one went down the hill towards
the spring at the bottom of the ravine,
was another log hut. The ten company
houses here were at right angles to the
road, with parade grounds in front and
staff quarters in the rear.

Jan. 11. Pleasant. Had Sunday In
spection. Rec'd another letter from Adj't
Gen. Schouler. No signs of the Descriptive
List.

Jan. 12. Pleasant. Got a letter with 30
cts., stamps, etc.

Jan. 13. Pleasant. Had Inspection by
Gen. Stoneman.

WHEN THE SNOW CAME

148

Tent Architecture

[Falmouth, Va.

GEN. GEORGE STONEMAN, 1822-94

Gen. Stoneman was a brother of Kate
Stoneman, so long a teacher in the Albany
normal.

He honored Dearing by
taking him by the collar and telling him never
to come on Inspection again with a dirty
shirt.

Bearing was the one I started on from
Wolfs Run Shoal with, Dec. 1.

Jan. 14. Pleasant. Our Sutler arrived.
A large crowd soon formed in front of his
tent, and at Tattoo he had nothing left.

Jan. 15. Pleasant. Drills as usual. Am
beginning to play the fife pretty well.

Jan. 16. Pretty cold. Was put on Order
ly. McLaughlin not liking the Sutler's
prices " razeed" his prices 100 <P ct. Orders
came for a move.

We privates sometimes razeed a sutler's
prices 100%, but I think Col. McLaughlin
did not cut them below 50.

Jan. 17. Cold. Did not move though
kept in readiness.

Jan. 18. Cold. Was put on orderly for
not turning out. Was taken sick and Prest
put in my place.

CHAPTER XI. BURNSIDE STUCK IN THE MUD

REDERICKS-
burgwas an awful
disaster, and yet it
hurt Burnside less
than his memora
ble mud march.
The battle was a
tragedy, the march
was a farce. The country blamed him
for the lives sacrificed, but it laughed
at him for the retreat through the mud.
Here the weather record in my diary is
significant. We had had only one rainy
day since the year opened, but it poured for
the two days of this march, and there was
nothing to do but to go home again. You
people who have not walked in Virginia
roads have no idea what rains meant there,
especially when all movements involved
crossing the Rappahannock, slow and slug
gish enough in pleasant weather, but when
formidable not fordable.

Jan. 19. Pleasant. Orders were given to
pack knapsacks again but some unaccount
able reason delayed us and we did not start.

An order was read on line announcing that
we were about to meet the enemy.

Jan. 20. Rainy. Started about 3 o'clock
& marched 2 miles and halted then while
other Corps were passing us.

The troops were of Franklin's grand
division, and the lack of discipline was
appalling. A majority of the men fell out
by the roadside and sought any shelter they
could find, declaring they would not be
marched at such a time, in such a manner,
by such officers, if they were court-
marshalled for disobedience.

It now began

to rain and back we went to Camp and found
our tent poles stolen. So we slept very cold
and wet.

Jan. 21. Rainy. Were awakened at
daylight out of our uncomfortable sleep by the
order "fall in", so breakfastless and cold and
uncomfortable we waded through the mud
about 7 miles to a place near U. S. ford,
where it was intended to cross.

This is the first of several pictures I shall
show of the fords of the Rappahannock.

CROSSING AT UNITED STATES FORD
149

150

Burnside Stuck in the Mud

[U. S. Ford, Va.

MARCHING IN

The infantry usually crossed them on pon
toon bridges.

Wagons

and Pontoons stuck in the mud lined the
road. Slept very well at night, the steam
from the blankets and clothes wet through
acting as a narcotic.

That was before the days of Mrs. Julia
Ward Hunt, and I could take a; narcotic
with a clear conscience.

Jan. 22. Cloudy. The Reg't were sent
out in the morning to build a Corduroy road
to retreat on.

The pictures show how a corduroy road
was built. Trees were felled and cut into
lengths somewhat wider than an army
wagon , and these logs were laid across string
ers and fastened as securely as possible.
Many of my readers have complained of

THE RAIN

this kind of road in the Adirondacks, but an
Adirondack log road is asphalt compared
with what we used to build in Virginia.
Sometimes we did not stop to lay stringers
but merely laid logs down, as shown in the
second picture on the next page. About
the only advantage of such a road is that
it saves the mud from being absolutely
bottomless.

It is tiring labor to build them. The
logs of green wood are heavy and often
have to be carried long distances. Here
everything was done in rushing haste, so
that there was much stumbling and inter
ference. The officers hated the work and
took out their dislike for it on the privates,
so that altogether we were an uncomforta
ble and disagreeable lot. We drummers
did our full share of the work.

ROUGHER CORDUROY ROAD
151

152

Burnside Stuck in the Mud

I reproduce this entry for the next day
to give an idea of this diary. The size is
the same as that of the original.

[U. S. Ford, Va.

'•&.

RETREATING IN THE RAIN

Jan. 23, 1862]

Retreating in the Rain

153

I do not know that I can add very much
to the description of this march conveyed
by these pictures. McCarthy says :

"Rain was the greatest discomfort a
soldier could have ; it was more uncom
fortable than the severest cold in clear
weather. Wet clothes, shoes, and blankets;
wet meat and bread; wet feet and wet

NOTE HOW THE MUD STICKS TO THE HORSE'S HOOF

ground; wet wood to burn, or rather not to
burn; wet arms and ammunition; wet
ground to sleep on ; mud to wade through ;
swollen creeks to ford; muddy springs, a
thousand other discomforts attended the
rain. There was no comfort on a rainy
day or night except in bed — that is under
your blanket and oil cloth."

1.54

Burnside Stuck in the Mud

[U. S. Ford, Va,

A STRUGGLE FOB EXISTENCE

Cold winds, blowing the rain in the faces
of the men, increased the discomfort.
Mud was often so deep as to submerge
the horses and mules, and at times it was
necessary for one man or more to extricate
another from the mudholes in the road.

Cole says: "Up to our knees in slush we
sought to find our ways to the fords. It
frequently happened that men striking

their feet against the covered stumps
stumbled forward into the slough."

In his "Reminiscences" (N. Y., 1907)
Carl Schurz describes the scene vividly:
"In that part of Virginia north of the Rap-
pahannock, where there had been for a
long period a constant marching and coun
termarching, the fences had altogether
disappeared, and the woods had in great

Jan. 23, 1863]

Retreating in the Rain

155

THE STRUGGLE OF A BAGGAGE TRAIN

part been cut down, only the stumps left
standing. When the existing roads had
become difficult they were 'corduroyed',
that is, covered with logs laid across close
together, so as to form a sort of loose wood
en pavement. So long as the weather was
measurably dry such roads, though rough,
were fairly passable. But when heavy
rains set in, the corduroy was soon covered

with a deep slush which hid the roadbed
from sight. Some of the logs of the cor
duroy under that slush were worn out or
broken through, and thus the corduroy
roads became full of invisible holes, more
or less deep, real pitfalls, offering the most
startling surprises. Foot soldiers floun
dering over such roads would unexpect
edly drop into those pits up to their belts,

156

Burnside Stuck in the Mud

[U. S. Ford, Va.

and gun carriages and other vehicles be
come inextricably stuck. Of course march
ing columns and artillery and wagon trains
would under these circumstances try their
fortunes in the open fields to the right and
left of the roads, but the fields soon became
covered with the same sort of liquid slime
a foot or more deep, with innumerable
invisible holes beneath. Thus the whole
country gradually became 'road', but road
of the most bewildering and depressing
kind, taxing the strength of men and horses
beyond endurance. One would see large
stretches of country fairly covered with
guns and army wagons and ambulances
stalled in a sea of black or yellow mire, and
infantry standing up to their knees in mud,
shivering and swearing very hard, as
hard as a thoroughly disgusted soldier
can swear. I remember having passed by
one of the pontoon trains that were to take
the army across the Rappahannock, stuck
so fast in the soft earth that the utmost
exertions failed to move it. Such was
'Burnside stuck in the mud'."

Chaplain Cud worth says in his "History

of the First Regiment" (Boston, 1866):
"Along these roads horses and mules strug
gled and floundered, drawing much lighter
loads than usual, covered with mud and
perspiration, sending up clouds of vapor
from their heated and reeking bodies, and
breathing so violently whenever they
stopped for rest that the motion shook
them from end to end like a convulsion.
Some pieces of light artillery had double
and even triple teams attached to them,
12 to 18 animals being sometimes har
nessed to a single gun, which even then
they dragged at a snail's pace, requiring
frequent assistance from the soldiers, who
threw rails and branches from the trees
across the worst places, and pried up the
wheels when they sank so low as to be
utterly immovable.

"At the crossings of the streams, where
bridges had been rendered indispensably
necessary by the depth of the water,
horses and mules were killed in their effort
to get over, or broke their legs and had to be
put out of their misery. Every mile
presented some such scene, and the general

DIFFICULTY WITH A PONTOON

Jan. 23, 1863]

Retreating in the Rain

INEXTRICABLE CONFUSION

difficulty of the advance greatly discour
aged the troops. The infantry avoided the
roads as much as possible, and picked their
way over the hills and through the fields.
Although they could get along, their pro
gress was accomplished with extreme diffi
culty, as they were perpetually slipping
back, and occasionally getting tripped up,
or lifting their feet entirely out of their

boots, leaving them buried twelve or fif
teen inches in the mucilaginous ooze.

"Where the slough was particularly soft
and deep, the men were compelled to pro
ceed by single file, till some venturesome
and impatient fellow would start out to find
a better and a shorter track, only to sink up
to his knees in mud, and become the butt
of universal ridicule until he waded back

15S

Burnside Stuck in the Mud

[U. S. Ford, Va.

! lau'ffh r^rt/3 { v t|
2£ .T: »t o— •!*• i Vr1

From Frank Leslie's, Feb. 21. 1863

As USUAL LINCOLN GOT THE BLAME

into line again. Another, thinking he could
leap across a stream across which his com
rades were plodding on some fallen tree or
single plank, would just fail of reaching the
opposite side, and drop souse into the water,
scrambling out with musket, knapsack,
haversack, and clothes all dripping,
greeted with roars of laughter for his ex
ploit, and sundry jibes far from compli
mentary or soothing."

The pictures show the inextricable con
fusion of such a march. There is little
effort to hold a regiment together. Every

man pushes along as he may, and finds his
company when he can. Hence there is
little discipline and sometimes severe
measures have to be resorted to. Of this
march I have a recollection I can not swear
to that I saw some altercation between a
mounted officer and a private, probably
under different command. I did not hear
the first of it or learn what the isssue was,
but just as I got there the officer shot the
private dead, and nobody paid much at
tention to it, so far as I observed.

There is nothing improbable about it.

Jan. 23, 1863]

What it Means to be Exhausted

159

On the retreat from Chancellorsville an
exhausted soldier jostled against Gen.
Meade. That quick-tempered officer drew
his sword and struck the soldier with all
his might, and though he did not kill him
he might have done so.

I think I saw on this march a fight
between a Frenchman and a negro, in
which each used his own method of fight
ing. The negro watched his opportunity
and suddenly butted at the Frenchman,
aiming all his weight through his head with
inconceivable velocity at the pit of the
Frenchman's stomach. But the French

man was prepared and drew back in time
to plant his foot in the negro's stomach
with such force that the negro fell gasping
to the ground as if for his last breath. 1
did not have interest enough to stay to see
whether he recovered. Do you know what
it is to be so tired that if you were told New-
York city was burned to the ground or
Great Britain had slid into the ocean you
wouldn't care whether it was true or not ?
I have marched when it seemed to me that
my wishes and my interest were absolutely
limited to a chance to sit down for five
minutes.

CHAPTER XIII. WINTER CAMP AT FALMOUTH

HE winter passed
with no more im-
p o r t a n t fmoV e-
ments. There
were some drill,
some fatigue work,
much idleness, but
on the whole con
siderable comparative comfort.

Jan. 24. Pleasant. The Reg't received
two months pay but I received nothing.

This was because the Descriptive list
already referred to had not been received.

Jan. 25. Pleasant. Had Brigade In
spection. Got receipt from home of box, etc.

Jan 26. Rainy. Bought pack of cards.

Jan. 27. Got a fine Bible and Diary
from home.

I have the diary still: the Bible with
hundreds of others, fell by the way on my
first long march.

Jan. 28. Very stormy. The worst rain
we have had since we were at Fairfax Station.
Sold Jack Robbins my shirt for 1.00.

Though the entry would indicate it, I
trust the shirt sold so much below the mar
ket price was not my only one.

Re
ceived news of Hooker's taking comtmand of
the Army. Was much pleased.

My pleasure in the appointment of Gen.
Hooker came through my fellow soldiers,
for our brigade looked upon Fighting Joe as
our especial representative. Ours had been
the first brigade he commanded, and it was
to our division and our corps that he was
subsequently promoted. Even now the
survivors of the 1st Massachusetts guard
his memory zealously. Isaac P. Gragg,

GEN. JOSEPH HOOKER, 1814-79

our secretary, published in 1900, "Homes of
the ancestors of Major General Joseph
Hooker", and was secretary of the Hooker
memorial committee under whose charge
the equestrian statue of Hooker was erected
in the State house grounds in 1903.

Jan. 29. Cold. Was put on Orderly.
There was about five inches of snow on the
ground and six of mud under. So I had wet
and cold feet all day. The trees presented a
fine appearance, bowed down by the snow.

Jan. 30. Cold. Got up a fine lot of wood,
and had a gay fire at night. That is one of
the advantages of exposure. If I had been
spending the winter in a steam-heated house
I never could have enjoyed that fire.

Jan. 31. Cold. Got up a good lot of wood
in self defence from the cold. We have to go
about f of a mile for wood and then carry it
on our shoulder

It was as I was coming back to camp with
a log of wood about this time that I
met Lincoln riding with a large staff of
officers from one camp to another and it
seemed to me his was the saddest face I ever
looked on. It will always be a pleasant
recollection that when I swung my hat to
him with real admiration I got a faint
little smile and an individual bow all to
myself, little fifer as I was.

160

Jan. 24-Feb. 1, 1863]

Army Clothing

161

ABRAHAM LINCOLN, 1809-65

Feb. 1. Very Pleasant. Had Company
Inspection again. Drew Blanket, Blouse,
Pants, etc. Am afraid I have overrun my
clothing bill this year.

I find this page in my diary and have re
produced it. I do not know how long a
period it covers. We were allowed $42 a
year for clothes. Those of which the prices
are carried out here amount to $34.06. so it
is manifest my account for the year is over
drawn even if this represents a whole year,
which I should hardly -suppose. The sol
dier could draw about all the clothing he
wanted when the quartermaster was around,
but he was only allowed a certain amount
and whatever he drew more than that was
deducted from his pay. I always overdrew
my allowance, but there were men in the
regiment who underdrew and had quite
an extra amount coming on payday. My
impression is that the regular allowance
was for most men ample, and that no shod
dy goods were dealt out to us. Our great
est extravagance was in throwing clothing
away upon the march.

Grant says in his Memoirs (ii. 190—1)
"I saw scattered along the road from Cul-
peppertoGermaniaford wagon loads of new
blankets and overcoats thrown away by
the troops to lighten their knapsacks, an
imprudence I had never witnessed before."

Most of my underclothing, and at least

,4 &.v

^fl (J Jl

i/(Ja/i/c<^ .

one pair of shoes and one pair of boots had
been bought outside.

The uniform was anything but becoming.
The trousers were particularly ugly and on
the march were heavy and clogging. In
the old high bicycle days what a difference
it made whether one wore long trousers or
short, and there is that difference in march
ing. The khaki suits with puttees must
make it enormously easier to move the leg
forward, forward, forward so many times
for hours.

Yet the many local uniforms with which
the troops started out, zouave and all the
rest, finally gave way to this homely cos
tume. I do not remember seeing any
Highlander regiment. An Englishman in
sinuated that the reason Highlanders wear
kilts is because their feet are so large they
can't get them into trousers.

162

Winter Camp at Falmouth

[Falmouth, Va,

THE ARMY TROUSERS OF 1863

Gen. Butler wrote to The United States
Service Magazine that it was astonishing
how many necessities a man could do with
out. "In doing without a pair of breeches
a Highlander is only at the beginning of the
lesson, and it has always appeared strange
to us why he should have begun there.
The Bluecoat boys get on very well without
caps. Bluejackets do remarkably well
without boots, and one of the most active
'irregulars' I ever met on service was a
West African negro, whose kit literally
fulfilled the exact primitive meaning of
the word, for it consisted solely of a large,
empty, square -sided gin bottle, which he
wore suspended from the left shoulder,
after' the manner of the old hussar or
Hungarian jacket."

Prof. Cheyne tells of a soldier in South

Africa who mended his trousers by making
four holes in a tin from a biscuit can and
tying it on with a string. Dr. Cheyne said
that when marching up the hills he looked
like a heliograph on two legs.

Feb. 2. Very Pleasant. A fine day.
Nothing of importance occurred.

Sounds like the padding in my diaries of
earlier years. However, in winter quar
ters no news was good news to a degree those
at home can never appreciate.

Feb. 3. Stormy. Cold with snow in the
morning. Very cold and windy at night,
but we were quite comfortable with a thickness
of cloth between us and the wind.

Feb. 4. Very Cold. Was put on Orderly
but had a very easy time. Lieut. Doherty
was in my tent all the evening.

Lt. Doherty had been promoted from
the ranks without being puffed up by it, and
liked to tell us boys of his adventures as a
sailor and a soldier. His stories were
largely of his own courage and yet told
with a sort of modesty. I did not ques
tion them at the time, and I don't yet; so
far as they occurred in the regiment his
fellow soldiers confirmed them.

On the second day at Gettysburg be
fore the fighting got to us, our men were
pretty nervous. He ordered his company to
bring their arms to their shoulders and put
them through the manual of arms while
a tornado of missiles was flying over
their heads. He was a reckless fighter
in battle, but he was an old sailor, and
had a sailor's vices. At Baltimore on
our way to New York at the time of the
draft riots he got drunk and tried to kill an
officer in another regiment. Lt. Col. Bald
win seized a musket from one of the pri
vates and clubbed Doherty with the butt of
it till his head was a mass of blood. Doher-

Feb. 1-6, 1864]

Army Rations of Whiskey

163

ty was afterward made major of the 56th
Mass., and was killed before Petersburg.

Feb. 5. Snow. The Reveille was beaten
at 4 o'clock and the order "Fall in for Ra
tions'' admonished its to get up. Hooker
had given orders for our Division to go on an
Expedition for the purpose of destroying a
bridge on the Rappahannock used by
Stuart's Cavalry. We went up near U. S.
Ford and slept at night with everything wet,
and the rain drizzling down. For the first
time I drank my whiskey.

I have spoken of my absurd scrupu
lousness in some matters. I think it
brought me more dislike than my more sel
fish faults, unless indeed there is a certain
selfishness, a holier and wiser than thou at
titude, in adhering to one's personal views
against the common sense of the multitude.
I had been brought up in a prohibition
town. I remember how shocked I was the
first time T went to Boston with my father
to see rum and beer and wines openly ad
vertised ; in Fitchburg they were sold only
on the sly. My views on prohibition were
as strong as upon abolition, so hitherto
when whiskey had been dealt out I had
not only refused to drink it but had poured
it out on the ground, thinking it a sin to
give it to any body else. Imagine how an
old soldier shivering with wet and cold his
own allowance had only alleviated enough
to make him eager for more, looking upon
a little fool boy throwing his whiskey away.
I wonder the men were as decent to me as
they were: they always treated me a lot
better than I deserved.

This night I really felt I needed the whis
key as medicine, and I have no doubt it did
me lots of good. At any rate it kept me
from pouring it out on the ground again
when there were men who had had only one
drink. Thereafter when the commanding

officer gave out whiskey I yielded to his
better judgment.

Of course I speak as one who had no in
herited or acquired fondness for liquor.
Very likely there were men, though I did
not observe any, in whom this gill of
whiskey produced an almost insatiable
thirst for more. I should never offer liquor
to a man with whose habits I was un
acquainted.

One thing I remember of this bivouac
better than the whiskey was the supper
I cooked myself. It had been unusually
hard to build a fire because the wood was
not only wet but green. Our way was
to split up kindling into small sticks
eight or ten inches long, shave down
four of the sticks in the centre, leaving
the shavings on the stick, and then by
putting the shaved sides of these four
sticks together and touching them with
a match we could usually start a fire
even from unpromising material. This
night it took more than four sticks for
one trial, but at last we got our
smoky fires to burning, and I remem
ber how 1 cooked my supper. I had salt
pork and hard tack. Cutting a forked
stick I impaled the pork on that, held it in
the blaze, and let the black fat trickle down
on the cracker. I have had dinners at
Delmonico's and at Sherry's that cost more
money, but I have never eaten anything
more appetizing at the time than that pork-
greased cracker.

Feb. 6. Rain. Started early and waited
close to the river while the Jersey Brigade
went across. They burned the bridge and
took about 40 Prisoners as the result of the
Expedition which proved every way suc
cessful. Slept very well at night though we
were short of Rations.

164

Winter Camp at Falmouth

[Falmouth, Va.

DET,MONICO OUTCLASSED

The confederates had just constructed
the bridge and their cavalry were crossing
upon it, when a volley from our men emp
tied some of their saddles and compelled
them to retreat. They formed again and
started to cross backed by infantry, but
our fire was too heavy and they retired.
Then our cavalry started across and the
confederates began to destroy their end of
the bridge. Seeing they could not get
across t>ur cavalry came back and started
to burn the bridge on our side, so it was
soon all in flames,

Feb. 7. Very Pleasant. At five o'clock
got up and started for Camp. Went ahead
of the Reg't and got into Camp about 2P.M.
Found letter awaiting me with 15.00 in it,
with which I paid my debts. The Qth Corps.

including the 21st and 36th Mass. Reg'ts
left today.

Feb. 8. Very Pleasant. Fine day.
Feel well today after leaving four woolen
blankets in the morning.

Meaning, I suppose, that I slept warm the
night before, which I did not always, by any
means.

Feb. 9. Pleasant. Had Regimental In
spection. Got my washing done at the 26th
Penn.

As a result of this inspection ours was
one of the three Massachusetts regiments
commended in general orders, and granted
extra furloughs, the others being the 2d
and the 20th. Of all the regiments in the
army only 11 were so commended. Yet
our regiment was singled out of the entire

Feb. 7-16, 1863]

More about Straggling

166

division for fatigue duty from March 17 to
April 2, building corduroy roads from camp
to camp in mud from two inches to two feet
deep. This was believed to be the result of
envious spite on the part of an officer who
happened to be placed in authority over us.

Feb. 10. Pleasant. Had Regimental
Inspection by Col. Parks of the 2nd N. Y.
Very minute. Capt. Stone received my
Descriptive list.

Feb. 11. Rainy. Nothing of importance
occurred.

Feb. 12. Pleasant. Stewart came today
from Roxbury with his Express. Phillips
got his box.

My Co. D was from Roxbury.

Feb. 13. Marched about 10 miles to a
place 5 miles from Camp which is our Picket
Post.

I don't know how the customary top
line about the weather came to be omitted
to-day.

Feb. 14. Pleasant. Enjoyed myself very
well as I had all the reading I wanted.

Cause and effect closely related. There
were times when we got no fresh reading for
weeks.

Feb. 15. Rainy. Put a Rubber Blanket
over us and got along very well. I rather
like Picket. It brings Officers and men
together and each likes the other better.
Wiggins gave us some flute playing on my
fife.

The capitalization of "Officers and men"
is very appropriate. Hard as some of the
marc fling was, I think nothing was so diffi
cult for me to endure as to be so absolutely
subservient to any little popinjay who hap
pened to wear shoulder-straps. The offi
cers of my regiment were a pretty good lot,
far above the average, but it did not come
easy for me to recognize how low they

looked down upon me even when they
were trying to be kind. Some young fel
lows who went into the Spanish war dis
covered this. Men who had been close
friends found that shoulder straps draw
unexpected barriers.

Feb. 16. Pleasant. Went back to camp
on my own hook. Saw Maj. Stoughton
of West Randolph 1st U. S. S. S.

This traveling "on my own hook" was
my one great army offence. It was a form
of straggling, and though I seldom failed
to reach my regiment at night and never
failed to be with it when it went into bat
tle, I marched with it as little as possible.
For this there were two main reasons. In
the first place, it is very tiresome to inarch
by fours. That means you must move
when the others move, stop when the others
stop, and start again when they start.
Now I have never been so nearly "all in"
anywhere else as in inarching. Over and
over again I have been so exhausted that
it seemed as if to lie down and be left alone
for half an hour would be so great a blessing
that everything else in the world would be
indifferent. While our regiment was in
New York at the time of the draft riots I
went one afternoon to a performance at
Barnum's Museum, and as I sat there what
impressed me most was how often after we
were back at the front again I should wish
as we were marching that I could be sitting
once more in that comfortable chair.
Wants are relative: you become uncon
scious of the tooth-ache if you are run
over by an automobile. Every old soldier
knows what it is to have the cry for rest
so strong that it seems irresistible. It is
said that men have slept as they marched.
I have marched till it seemed as if it was no
longer by will power but by a sort of dazed
mechanism.

166

Winter Camp at Falmouth

[Falmouth, Va.

A TWENTY MINUTE HALT

Owen Watkins tells of seeing in the
Soudan campaign of 1898 an adjutant and
a major riding side by side, so that if they
fell asleep they could lean on each other
and not fall from their saddles. If men get
as exhausted as that riding, think how far
they may be gone when walking.

Now if you are marching by fours the
column occasionally halts. These men that
Edwin Forbes pictures are not dead; they
have thrown themselves down for a
twenty minutes rest. You hope the halt
is for a rest, and throw yourself upon the
ground. But it may be only because a
wagon ahead was for a moment stuck in the
mud, and the instant you have stretched
out your legs the column may start forward
again, and you must climb to your feet
more exhausted than ever. The first time
I fell out on the march to Fairfax Court
house, I simply could not keep up. I was
green to marching, to carrying a heavy

load, to such continued exertion, My feet
were blistered, my muscles ached, I should
have fallen in the road if I had kept on.
But I found it so easy after I woke up and
followed on alone to catch up with and find
my regiment that 1 saw I should save half
the exhaustion of marching if I went as
here "on my own hook".

But in the second place it enabled me to
see what was going on. A man trudging
along in fours has very little chance to see
anything: he is absorbed in the one great
task of getting one foot before the other.
But free from my fellows I could make the
day's march in from half to two-thirds the
time it took them, and have the rest to
wander about when anything seemed worth
looking at. If a brigade was sent out to
capture a wagon train I was pretty apt to
follow along; if there was a preliminary
skirmish before crossing a ford I sometimes
got a glimpse of it. I was the only soldier

Feb. 16-28, 1863]

A Straggler's Advantage

167

in my brigade who went into the city of
Fredericksburg during the battle, or who
saw the magnificent artillery battle on the
right at Gettysburg, or the capture of
Kelly's ford. It seemed to me stupid to
miss all these chances by obeying orders,
when I could do everything required of
me just as well in my own way.

Of course I was disobeying orders, and
I was probably more sworn at than any
other man in the regiment. But I found
that it never went beyond swearing and I
got used to that; so did the officers: their
profanity became perfunctory. I except
Lt. Col. Baldwin. He never swore at me
more vigorously than twelve hours before
he was captured in the Wilderness. A
week after, I was tending a wounded con
federate prisoner and as we exchanged
military gossip he asked, "Why, didn't
your lieutenant colonel get taken after
the first day's fighting?"

"Yes."

"Our boys captured him. Say, can't he
swear? Our boys used to come up to the
tent by detail to hear him cuss."

The fact was, I was the youngest soldier
in the brigade, and I looked it, so however
harshly men talked to me they were really
sorry for me, and I took advantage of it.

There was one thing about my straggling :
after I got my marching legs it was usually
ahead of the regiment, not behind it. Gen.
Pope issued an order for the commanding
officer to march behind his regiment, to
prevent straggling. That would not have
bothered me. I always wanted to march
way at the head of the corps if it was a
corps movement, or of the division, or of
the brigade. So when it was only my regi
ment moving I used to get so far ahead
that Lt. Col. Baldwin, then in command,

once made me carry a log of wood on my
shoulder as a handicap. ,'.

Feb. 17. Snow. Snow by the quantity.

Feb. 18. My old chimney tumbled down.
Built it up better than before.

Feb. 19. Rainy. Came near breaking
my back lugging a 200 Ib. stick of wood a
mile with mud two feet deep and bushes etc, in
the way. Who wouldn't be a soldier.

Feb. 20. Windy. Nothing to do. - I
wrote letters all

That entry seems to have been somehow
interrupted.

Feb. 21. Rainy. Wrote two letters for
Chapman.

As before stated Chapman is now a Har
vard graduate, but he wasn't then.

Feb. 22. Snow. Found six inches of
snow on the ground and it rapidly increasing.
A Salute was fired from Each Battery 0/100
guns for Washington's Birthday.

Feb. 23. Very Pleasant. Rivers ivas on-
Orderly which was the third time since me.

None of us were fond of errand-running,
and we exulted to get less than our share .

Feb. 24. Very cold. A fearfully cold.
Ink, shoes, £ Food frozen stiff. The Reg't
was sent on Fatigue duty, building Corduroy
roads.

Feb. 25. Warm & Pleasant. Beautiful
day. Got an Independent from home.
Reg't still on Fatigue.

Feb. 26. Rainy. The 2nd A[. H. went
home today. Was on Orderly but staid in
the tent all day and was almost sorry to have
tattoo beaten.

Feb. 27. Pleasant. Played Cribbage
untill late in the evening.

Feb. 28. Cloudy. Got a letter signed "a
Visitor of Granite Division and a friend of
Somebody Else", alias Miss Mary Brooks.

She was the sister of the pastor of the
Baptist church in Fitchburg, a woman I

168

Winter Camp at Falmouth

[Falmouth, Va.

always very much admired. Granite di
vision was of the Sons of Temperance,
which I had joined.

March 1. Rainy. Express came today,
but none for me. I don't understand why
my box does not come.

March 2. Pleasant. Went on Sick List.
Cause Costiveness and Orderly Duty I
Bad complaints.

March 3. Pleasant. It rained all last
night but is quite pleasant today. Phillips
got some whiskey and got drunk as a fool.
God grant I may never like whiskey. At
Dress Parade Capt. Johnson was dismissed
from the service.

March 4. Beat 15 straight games of
cribbage. Lincoln- s administration is half
over.

Apparently two events of equal moment.

March 5. Cold. Went to the Dr to get ex--
cused from Duty. He gave me some pills as
usual, Pil, Cath, Com, IV. and I put them
in my pocketbook. But Hull discovered
that I was not excused and stopped my fun \

There is an old story of an Irish private
who asked leave of absence. "Me woife
is viry sick," he explained, "an' the childers
is not well." The colonel eyed him. "Pat,
he said, "I had a letter from your wife this
morning saying that she didn't want you at
home; that you raise the devil whenever
you are there, and that she hopes I won't
grant you any more furloughs. What
have you to say to that?" "You won't
get mad, colonel, ef I say it?" "Certainly
not, Pat." "Weell, I was thinkin' there's
twosplindid liars in this room, an' I'm one
of thim. Oi nivir was married in me
loife."

An order was read on Dress Parade by
which the 1st 2d £ 20th Mass, and other
Regiments get extra furloughs on account of
discipline etc, while the 32d Mass, and other

Reg'ts to get none. Checks are issued for
extra loaves of bread from the Bakehouse.

March 6. Pleasant. Was on Orderly but
had an easy time. My box came all safe
— except one or two little things.

March 7. Pleasant. No drill today.

On the evening of March 7, Col. Mosby
with 29 confederate cavalry slipped in be
tween the camps of regiments about Fair
fax Courthouse, and went himself to Col.
Stoughton's tent, whom he captured and
carried away, with 35 more prisoners.
Col. Johnson escaped capture by hiding
himself unclothed under a stack of ha}^
The whole command became a laughing
stock. Mosby tells the story entertaining
ly in "Battles and Leaders of the Civil
War" in. 148, 140.

March 8. Cloudy. Had inspection and
reading of the Army Regulatione.

March 9. Pleasant. Had Drills. Dress
Parade witnessed by Maj. Gen. Berry, who
complimented the Reg't highly.

Poor fellow, he was killed at Chancel
lors ville a few weeks later.

March 10. Was on Orderly. Heard of
the Raid at Fairfax Courthouse.

March 11. Pleasant. Drills and Dress
Parade.

March 12. Pleasant. Went on Picket.
Took my new dinner pail with me, full of
Baked Beans and Codfish. The Drum
Corps stopped together. Cut a splendid
Black Walnut tree for wood.

March 13. Pleasant. Enjoyed ourselves
first rate. We might call it a Picnic if we
did not get $12 a month for it. Signals at
night.

March 14. Had a good time as usual.
The Picket was aroused about 1 in the morn
ing in expectation of an attack.

March 15. Pleasant. Came back to

Feb. 28-Mch. 21, 1863]

Drumming out a Coward

169

Camp. . When we got into Camp the weather
changed and we had a cold rain storm.

March 16. Pleasant. A -funny rumor is
running around the Army. There is a
spring in Fredericksburg which was never
dry except just 3 months before the 1776 &
1812 wars closed up. It is now getting
dry ! ! ! — some believe it.

We all wanted to. At this time there
was little to indicate an early end of the
war, or indeed to predict any termination.

March 17. Pleasant. Heard heavy
firing in the dirction of Culpepper. Tried to
make some Doughnuts but did not make out.

March 18. Cloudy. A member of the l§th
was drummed out of the Brigade this after
noon. His head was shaved and a big
board with Skulker \ on it. When drummed

around he threw off the board exclaiming
"Who says 1 ain't a citizen?"

Later in the war this punishment would
hardly have been meted out. So eager
were men to get out of the army that many
shot off their forefingers so as tc be unable
to fire a musket, till this was no longer ac
cepted as ground for discharge. On pages
171, 2 are other punishments inflicted.
Of an execution I saw I shall speak later.

March 19. Cold. Did not get out of bed
untill Guard Mounting.

March 20. Snow. Got some beans of
Dear ing.

The sunny south belied its name for us. .

March 21. Snowy. A Cold, Damp mean
day. Was on Orderly. Dr Whiston re
ported for Duty.

DRUMMING A SKULKER OUT OF CAMP

170

Winter Camp at Falmouth

[Falmouth, Va.

March 22. Pleasant. Beautiful day.
The Col. gave orders to cut down all the trees
in Camp for fireivood.

We had been going farther and farther
for wood every day, as the trees were used
up. This order showed that we were soon
to break up camp.

March 23. Pleasant. Played ball with
the 26th. in a new way.

This was the 26th Pa. but I have real
ly forgotten the game of ball.

March 24. Cloudy. Played Checkers
with Rivers.

March 25. Pleasant. The Corps re
ceived orders to get ready to move. Co. C
presented Ll. Clarke with a fine sword.

I don't remember the speeches, but those

at a similar occasion in an English regiment
are on record. "Lieutenant," said the
representative of the company, "here's
your sword." "O is that it?" replied the
officer. And that was all there was of it.

March 27. Pleasant. Was on Orderly.
A big horse-race between Mudge's and Walk
er's horses. Pack mules arrived for the
Division.

March 28. Drew 2 prs socks.

March 29. Was put in the Guardhouse
for not returning to Guard-mounting when
sent after Wallace.

The guardhouse was not a severely penal
institution. There is an old story of a
Lancashire regiment where the officer of
the day found only a single sentry, who

ANOTHER DBUMMNIG OUT

Mch. 22-April 2, 1863]

In the Guardhouse

171

simply saluted him. "Don't you know
your duty, sir?" asked the officer indig
nantly. "Why don't you turn out the
guard?" "Well you see, sir," the man re
plied, "I havn't much to do with it."
"Not much to do with it ?" thundered the
officer; "what on earth do you mean?"
"Why you see, sir," the man explained,
"I'm a prisoner, and as the guard wanted
to have a game of nap they asked me to
stand sentry for an hour or two."

March 30. Pleasant. Lucius Saunders
came to see me. Lt. released me from arrest.

Mr. Saunders was an acquaintance of
mine in Fitchburg, and it was rather hard
luck that he should get there just as I was

under arrest for the first time. But there
had been lots of times when I ought to have
been under arrest. When Mrs. Thrale de
clined to marry Dr. Johnson, for one rea
son that one of her ancestors had been
hanged, the Doctor replied that he did not
know that any of his ancestors actually had
been hanged, but he was sure lots of them
ought to have been.

March 31. Rainy. Reg't still out on
fatigue.

April 1. Pleasant. Played checkers with
Rivers, beating him for once.

April 2. Pleasant. Big Busthead at
night. Carried lantern for Band and got

MOUNTED INFANTRY

172

Winter Camp at Falmouth

[Falmouth, Va.

full Belly and full pockets. 33d Band. Gen.
Carr, Hooker's Staff etc. here.

April 3. Pleasant. Was on Orderly.
Furlough business commenced again.

April 4. Cold. Did not get up untill
about noon. Battalion Drill.

April 5. Snowy. Got up about 10 o'clock
and found it snowing.

It will be observed that on these cold
mornings I found my bunk the warmest
place. Five blankets for one were more
comfortable than four blankets for four
and an outside place, as on our first march.

April 6. Pleasant. Went on Orderly at
night for Bunk by playing Whist.

Bunk was the smaller Mingle who was
moonblind and could not see at night.

April 7. Pleasant. Played Ball. Lin
coln, Hooker, Butterfield & staff rode
through the camps.

April 8. Pleasant. Grand Review by
Lincoln. Saw enough stars to make a sky.

This is an allusion to the number of gen
erals present. For a brigadier general the
shoulder straps bore one star; for a major-
general, two stars.

There were more than stars here, for Pres
ident Lincoln and his wife and Secretary
Seward with many others from Washing
ton were present.

Cole describes this review at Falmouth
with much vividness, but in a style quite
unlike the rest of the book. He says:
"On our arrival we found the entire corn-

Too FOND OK WHISKEY

Apr. 2-13, 1864]

A Review by Abraham Lincoln

173

mand on the ground preparing for review.
The plateau selected sloped gradually to
the river with here and there a few slight
dips in the ground. On the right the
cavalry were in front, ranged in solid
masses by regiments and brigades, and as
our regiment took up its allotted position,
I saw that the infantry to the right and
left were rapidly forming in like order.
There were four lines, two corps in each,
the regiments standing like blocks with
their colors in front, while the batteries of
artillery were placed in the spaces between
the divisions. Our brigade happened to be
stationed on the highest point to the left.
I could see the whole army as it stood mar
shalled in grand array on a plain fully two
miles square. The sun was shining bright
and warm. As orders came for the men to
rest, the slight breeze was just sufficient to
stir the heavy silken folds of the regi
mental colors as they waved in their tat
tered elegance. It was a scene for the
genius of a Vernet, with all its martial
glory and wealth of color. The bright
rays of the sun flashing on a hundred
thousand bayonets and sabres as they were
moved on the word of command, the pic
turesque field batteries, the dashing cavalry
and the long dark lines of infantry, the
parti-colored banners of the corps, di
vision and brigade commanders bearing the
strange devices of star, crescent, and cross,
were the salient points in this living, ani
mated picture. It was war in all its pomp
and circumstance, and as I watched the
sunlight play in dalliance on the burnished
steel of gunbarrel and bayonet, or fol
lowed with curious eye the passage of the
clouds throwing their swift shadows over
the assembled host as the breezes carried
them swiftly over our heads, I began to feel
all that warm delight and enthusiasm that

comes so naturally to a soldier at a time of
ajioliday or a parade."

April 9. Pleasant. Went on Picket.

April 10. Pleasant. Nothing of impor
tance occurred.

April 11. Pleasant. Went over to the
15th Mass in P. M.

I had a cousin in this regiment, already
referred to on page 123.

April 12. Pleasant. Went home. Capt.
Stone gave me Sherman's knapsack. Rid-
dell and three other deserters arrived in Camp.

Sherman was discharged for insanity
April 21. I don't remember why his knap
sack was given to me.

One cf Gen. Hooker's reforms was by
more liberality to discourage desertion
and to get back those who had deserted.
Riddell was in Co. I and had deserted
Nov. 13, 1861, at Budd's Ferry. I don't
think he staid long this second time: it
wasn't really pleasant for him.
Had letter from Gen. Schouler saying dis
tinctly that the Recruits were to be dis
charged with the Reg't.

There had been much discussion as to how
long the recruits would be held. Our en
listment read "for three years or during the
war". That would keep me till July 21,
1865. On the other hand I had enlisted in
a particular regiment, and this regiment
was to be discharged May 25, 1864. I
claimed that I could not be transferred
without my own consent, and that I must
be discharged with the regiment. That
was the view that Gen. Schouler here con
firmed, and it was carried out. Gen.
Schouler's son was a clergyman in Syracuse
in the 70's, and for a time his family and
mine occupied a double house.

April 13. Pleasant. Had mustering in.
Got diary by mail.

This mustering in was entering of our

174 Winter Camp at Falmouth [Falmouth, Va.

VOLUNTEER ENLISTMENT.

STATE OF TOWN OF

I, born in

in the State of aged- years,

and by occupation a Do HEREBY ACKNOWLEDGE to have

volunteered this day of 18 ,

to serve as a Soldier in the ^rmi) of flje fttnitcb States of America, for
the period of THREE YEARS, unless sooner discharged by proper
authority; Do also agrefe to accept such bounty, pay, rations, and
clothing, a.s are, or may be, established by law for volunteers. And
I, do solemnly swear, that I will bear

true faith and allegiance to the United States of America,
and that I will serve them honestly and faithfully against all their
enemies or opposers whomsoever; and that I will observe and
obey the orders of the President of the United States, and the
orders of the officers appointed over me, according to the Rules
and Articles of Wai-.

Sworn and subscribed to, at )

this day of 18 ,V

BEFORE )

I CERTIFY, ON HONOR, That I have carefully examined the above
named Volunteer, agreeably to the General Regulations of the Army, and
that in my opinion he is free from all bodily defects and mental infirmity,
which would, iu any way, disqualify him from performing the duties of a
soldier.

EXAMINING SURGEON.

1 CERTIFY, ON HONOR, That I have minutely inspected the Vol
unteer, previously to his enlistment, and that he was
entirely sober when enlisted; that, to the best of my judgment and
belief, he is of lawful age; and that, in accepting him as duly qualified to
perform the duties of an able-bodied soldier, I have strictly observed the
Regulations which govern the recruiting service. This soldier has
eyes, hair, complexion, is feet inches high.

Volunteers.
KKCKUITIXO Orricicii.

names upon the roll for the approaching knapsack. Put in the Guardhouse at night

av-day w*^ ^^Ps- Found Cards and Crib

Board there and played all night.

April 14. Pleasant. Marching Orders j found out months iater what it was to

under Hooker. Eight days Rations\ Had have no salt, when I had to eat fresh beef

Inspection by Can and one of the drummers without salt after the Mine Run fiasco, the

put under arrest for having no salt in his next December.

April 13, 14, 1863]

The Commissary Department

176

THE COMMISSARY END

Up to this time I had little experience
of what it meant to be short of food, and
like most soldiers I often threw away
half what was given me. In other words
I had never been far from the commissary
department. But I learned what it was
to have my stomach crave vainly for food
and I grew to respect every element of
the rations dealt out to me.

The boy thinks of the brass band as
the important element of the army. The
veteran knows that it is the commissary
end which counts. Stonewall Jackson
despised the commissary end because he
relied on having his troops prey on our
commissary end. But a commissary end
there must be somewhere, and sometimes
it requires as much generalship to main
tain it as to meet the enemv.

CHAPTER XIV. GAMBLING

INTER idleness
brought tempta
tions, and to one of
them I most unex
pectedly yielded . It
is my only excuse
that there were
others.

April 15. Paymaster came at night.
Was released from arrest.

April 16. Cloudy. Pay Day. Was paid
87.60. Paid all debts. Sent 50. home,
left 25 with the ^Chaplain and kept the rest.

This was the first pay I had received,
owing to delay in sending out my "des
criptive list", as several times referred to.

April 17. Pleasant. Played Bluff at
night for the first time, winning 65 cts.

April 18. Pleasant. Still win at Bluff.

April 19. Pleasant. Lent Baldwin 2.00
and Lydston SI. 00. Inspection of Knap
sacks by Gen. Sickles.

April 20. Pleasant. Still win at Bluff.

A pril 2 1 . Pleasant. Lost at Bluff as I was
too green to see that the cards were slacked.

I suppose my readers are surprised that

PAYING TROOPS AT NIGHT
176

April 15-21, 1863]

Facilis Decensus Averni

177

I do not omit these references to gambling,
but I am telling what did happen, not what
ought to have happened. I had in me
nothing of the gambling spirit. 1 was fond
of all games, and of cards with the rest.
As appears in the diary I twice sat up all
night playing cribbage. I whittled out a set
of chessmen and played with everybody
who knew the game or would learn it. I
• played checkers so much that when the

officers had finished their tournament the
winner sent for me to play for the champ
ionship of the regiment, and won two
games out of twenty.

Cards mean a good deal to the soldier.
They while away many an hour that would
otherwise be tedious, and a pack of cards
will be about the last thing thrown away on
a long march. A soldier who had three
finders shot off at the battle of Shiloh

The day after Pay day.

178

Gambling

[Falmouth, Va.

held up his mangled hand,
luck," he exclaimed; "I shall never be able
to hold a full hand again." I was as fond
of cards as any one, but it had always been
motive enough to win without the induce
ment of gain, and I had hitherto refused to
play bluff. This pay-day everybody was
playing that game and I could find no one

A BIVOUAC FIRE

"Just my for checkers or cribbage or seven-up or

forty-fives. It is so in all armies, probably.
A Colonel Bunbury was once called to
account because there was a good deal of
gambling among the officers of the regi
ment. "That may have been the case, sir,
some months ago," he said, "but I can
assure you there is nothing of the kind

Apr. 21, 1863]

In the hands of a Sharper

179

going on now." "What makes you so con
fident ?" asked the general. "Why, I've
won all the ready money in the regiment,'
he replied "and 1 don't allow any gam
bling on credit."

So I was in a way forced to play
bluff, and as the limit was small, and as I
began like all tyros by winning, I found
it not so very bad after all.

This night Nick Dranger* came into my
tent and proposed a game, and I played
with him alone all the evening, losing stead
ily. During the game Charley Tillson
crawled into the tent, looked on a while,
and went out again without remark. But
the next day he got me off at a distance
from camp and said,

"I was surprised to see you playing cards
with Nick Dranger last night."

"Why?"

"He is a notorious gambler, and was
cheating you out of your eye teeth."

"Cheating me? a boy? in his own com
pany?"

"Every hand he dealt."

"How could he do it?"

"Easily enough: he stacked the cards."

"What do you mean?"

"He fixed the cards so that he could get
what cards he wanted and know what cards
you had."

I don't see how."

"Suppose he had two aces and you had
two kings. As he gathered up the cards
to shuffle he arranged them alternately, so
that he gave you a king, himself an ace,
you another king, himself an ace."

"But I cut the cards every time."

"You didn't cut those cards. He has a
big hand, and when he passes the cards over

*Every other name in these reminiscences is real except
this. I have changed it because the man is still living, and
very likely repented long ago, and may have children and
grand-children.

for you to cut he keeps the half-dozen top
cards inside his hand, and lays them down
again on top. He is playing now in Jim
Macrea's tent: come over and watch him."

As we played the game the deal did
not pass but staid with the winner, so a
man who once got hold of a pair of aces,
a pretty good hand with two playing,
could keep them indefinitely, showing them
only when he was called, and taking most
of the pots by his bets without exhibiting
his hand.

Nick Dranger was not trying all the trans
parent cheating on Jim that he had on me
but I saw enough to be convinced my money
had been stolen, and it made me angrier
than I had been since I enlisted. What had
been a pastime, indulged in only because I
could get no other game going, became a
study. I played whenever I could get a
chance, for money if we had it, "on pay
day" if we hadn't. On the march to Get
tysburg I played at every halt with little
John Turner, who got to owing me more
money then he ever tried to pay or I to
collect.

For I became classed among the expert
players. Every pay day the loose money
in each company would get into the hands
of one or two of the better players, and then
these men would form little parties and the
winnings would gravitate into the pockets
of half a dozen of the most skillful. The
weaker players would have stopped gam
bling because their money had given out,
but these regimental survivors of the
fittest always had money or could get it,
and played the year around. Eventually
I got into this crowd, of which Nick Dran
ger was another. But he did not stack

cards or hold out an 'ace or deal from the

bottom in this party. It had to be a square
game, for every man knew all the tricks and

180

Gambling

[Falmouth, Va.

would have made it uncomfortable for any
body who tried them . The best player in
this crowd was one of the hospital men. His
hand always trembled , so that there was no
guessing at his hand from that indication,
and he never spoke an unnecessary word.
He watched the cards and he watched the
players, and his luck had to run hard to
make him quit a loser.

I watched him and I imitated him. At
first as in everything else I tried to be spec
tacular. One of the better players was
called one day and said he had three kings.

"The money is yours," said his opponent.

But he threw his hand into the deck.
"I won't show three kings for a little pot
like that," he said.

I thought it was a lordly way to play,
and presently when I had a flush and was
called I threw my hand into the deck. "1
won't show such a hand for three dollars,"
I said.

The man I was imitating sat behind me
and exclaimed, "Why, you' really had a
flush."

"Of course I did."

"Then why didn't you show it and take
the money?"

"Show a flush for three dollars? I
guess not."

"Why you damned fool, show it for five
cents if that is all there is in the pot."

"You didn't show your three kings for a
dollar and a half the other day."

April 21, 1863]

The Game of Draw-Poker

181

"Because I didn't have them: I was
trying to bluff. Are you an absolute idiot ?"

Under these gentle ministrations I learned
something of the game, especially to keep
my mouth shut and my eyes open. In those
days there was no drawing of cards. We
bet on the hands originally dealt us and
there was no indication of what they were
except from the manner of the player. The
hands used to grow rich as the game pro
ceeded, for every man "stacked" his cards
before he threw them in; that is if he had
a pair of aces and there were four playing
he put the aces on the outside of the five
cards so that if the hand were undisturbed
the pair would fall to the same man; if
there were three playing he would make a
pair of aces the first and fourth cards, and
so on. Of course the deck was shuffled,
but it is surprising how little ordinary
shuffling disturbs cards, ?nd by remember
ing what three cards I put between my
aces, if one of these -cards came to me 1
could frequently guess from the betting
that one of the party had the pair of aces.

I made a mathematical study of the
game, too, and did not allow excitement or a
run of luck to lead me to bet more than
what a hand might reasonably be supposed
to be worth. So eventually I came to be
regarded as a cautious player, making it
the easier for me to blufT. It was at first
a great temptation when I got away with a
pot without the cards to show my hand,
but I learned to restrain that inclination,
and to play simply for the cold cash.

The one thing I wanted was to break
Nick Dranger, and at last the time came
when I did it. I even lent him twenty-five
dollars, and should have been gratified if
I could say that he never paid it. But he
used it as a stake in another game and paid
me back within twenty-four hours. After

that the game was never quite the same to
me, and I quit it for good long before the
regiment came home.

The stopping was as sudden and as un
premeditated as was the beginning. Ten
months later than this, pay-day had come
and I had started out intending to play
first as usual in the company. I met John
ny Turner. "Let's get up a game," I said.

"I believe I won't play this pay day," he
replied .

I thought nothing of it until I saw him
playing in another game. Then I recog
nized that I was looked upon as a profes
sional, with whom the ordinary player did
not have a fair show. It set me to thinking
and to comparing these good fellows in rr>y
own company with the disreputable set I
had lately played with mostly. I saw that
I could not belong to both sets, and I rec
ognized that in my heart I had for a long
time loathed these greedy gamblers. As
usual with me the turn was radical, and I
never bet a dollar on cards or anything else
while I was in the regiment. The great
crises come less often from a change of con
ditions than from, change in the point of
view, and it is often a trifling circumstance
that turns the kaleidoscope.

Only an inexperienced or an incapable
person will deny the pleasure in draw poker
at its best. Given seven men who like one
another, a limit large enough to prevent
reckless betting and small enough so that
no one will remember the next morning
whether he won or lost, with a fixed and
early hour of quitting, and it is a very com
fortable way to spend an occasional even
ing. But these conditions are hard to
maintain. One or two of the seven are
away and somebody is brought in who is un
congenial, or who plays the game for the
money in it, or who is a hard loser and in-

182

Gambling

[Falmouth, Va.

sists on increasing the limit and delaying
the wind-up. Then all the pleasure dis
appears, the line between skill and sharp
practice is obscured, men stay too late,
lose too much, are not unlikely to quarrel or
to feel like it, and go home feeling disrepu
table. It is a pretty good game to let alone,
for the ideal conditions are seldom attain
able, and any other are degrading.

The quicksand of poker is unwillingness
to quit loser. Where the same men play
frequently together it makes little odds who
wins to-night : somebody else will win next
time. But it is a matter not of amount of
stakes but of disposition. I came home
from England once with two young fellows
on their way to make their fortunes over
here. They were bright, eager, intelligent,
alive to everything going on, till they got
to playing penny ante together. They
played morning, noon and night all the way
across, and even when we passed Sandy
Hook and sailed up our magnificent harbor
on a bright crisp December day, these boys
sat in the dining saloon playing their
wretched little game till the vessel was
docked. Poker played like this is not a
game, it is a disease, and people prove sus
ceptible to it most unexpectedly.

I am speaking of poker as a game of
skill, in which money is used only because
the game would be silly without it. When
it is a game of money played to get money
from your fellow-players, it is as vulgar as
any other kind of greed. As I afterward
realized, I felt contaminated when I passed
from the boys in the company with their
five-cent ante and their jokes and their
transparent bluffing and their hilarity into
the companionship of the cold-blooded
professionals, and when the eagerness to
learn the game wore off I realized what a
low business it was. The only relief in

thinking of these fellows is that they are
always sure to go off and lose their winnings
elsewhere, with the odds so much against
them they stand as little show as they have
given their victims. The first book I ever
made was for a man named Goodrich, who
had been a lightning calculator for the Erie
railway, and really was a wonder at figures.
While I was in New York I went with him
one night to a keno bank and saw him play
the game. As I remember it the players
bought for a dollar apiece boards contain
ing numbers, and when the right number
or the right combination of numbers, I
forget which, came out of the wheel, the
man who had it on his board won the money.
If the entire amount had been distributed
the chances would have been even to win or
lose, but the bank always took out fifteen
percent before distributing. Mathema
tician as he was, I never could get Goodrich
to see that for every dollar he put down he
got back only eighty-five cents. Coming
once from Alexandria to Genoa, I found on
the steamer several young Englishmen on
their way to Monte Carlo to gamble, and
absolutely relying on what they were to win
there to pay their debts and furnish them
spending money. It was a curious study
to me, that reliance on luck against mathe
matical odds. In all gambling the "kitty' ' ,
.the dealer's percentage, the stock-broker's
eighth percent must eventually absorb the
stakes. The sound principle was com
prehensively epitomized by Horace Greeley
when he said, "The unhappiest day in a
young man's life is the day he first thinks
there is an easier way to get a dollar than
to earn it."

But these are later reflections; for
months, as will be seen, 1 went on gambling.

April 23. Pleasant. At night shook
props. Am getting to be quite a Gambler.

April 21-7, 1863] Gambling 183

April 22. Rain. Got broke at night. Am April 25. Pleasant. Won a little today,

glad of it. April 26. Review by the Gov. of N. J.

April 24. Pleasant. Lost about 12.00 at April 27. Pleasant. Review again by

night, William H. Seward and Lord Lyons.

CHAPTER XV. THE BATTLE OF CHANCELLORSVILLE

HANCELLORS-

ville was my first
serious battle tho'
I had been more
than nine months
enlisted. I missed
the second Bull
Run because I was
kept with other recruits in Cambridge, and
Antietam because my division was held
back to guard Washington. At Freder
ic ksburg my division was one of the only
two held in reserve, and when we did go
upon the field, though we were put in the
centre of the line that was ordered to make
a most desperate charge, Franklin had re

fused to obey the order and we had done
only skirmish duty. But Chancellorsville
was for me a real battle ; no regiment had
more of it than ours.

Chancellorsville was the most brilliantly
planned of the battles of the civil war, and
of all the failures came closest to success.
Hooker actually surprised the enemy,
which was more than any other commander
of the army of the Potomac had succeeded
in doing. He accomplished what Burnside
failed to accomplish at Fredericksburg,
getting his troops across the river and even
carrying Marye 's heights. For his general
plan was not unlike Burnside 's. Re
peating the map, it will be seen that he

April 28, 1863]

A Well-planned Battle

185

THE ARMY OF GEN. HOOKER CROSSING THE RAPPAHANOCK

Operations on the First of May. (A is an extension of the larger Map to the N. W., upon a smaller scale.)

186

Battle of Chancellorsville

[Chancellorsville, Va.

laid the same pontoon bridges below the city
of Fredericksburg, and he marched three
corps down there to make the enemy think
he was going to attack from below, as
Franklin had been expected to do at Fred
ericksburg. But in the mean time he got
most of his army across the Rappahannock
at United States ford, and massed them on
the plank road from Chancellorsville to the
city. Then while Sedgwick crossed op
posite the city and captured it, as he did,
the main army, now augmented by the
three lower corps which had secretly
joined it by marching up the river from the
pontoon bridges on roads hidden behind
the heights opposite the city, was to march
down the plank road and capture the entire
confederate troops.

The place was right. A year later al
most to a day Grant began his work in the
east almost on the same spot. The whole
region about Chancellorsville is known as
the Wilderness. Gen. Sickles's official re
port of this battle speaks of this as "the bat
tle of the Wilderness and Fairview", and
the next year under Grant I picked up
bullets that had fallen twelve months
before under Hooker.

The time was right. The army was real
ly eager for battle. The spirit was changed
from the habitual expectation of deteat
that had grown up under McClellan and
Pope and Burnside. We believed in
Fighting Jo Hooker, and expected to help
him end the war.

And the execution was right, up to Satur
day afternoon. The battle was lost be
cause Gen. Howard was too conceited to
follow suggestions or even to regard orders.

April 28. Pleasant. Had orders to move
and went down to the place we crossed the
river before. Found two other Corps here,
First & Sixth.

This crossing before was under Franklin
at the battle of Fredericksburg. See map
on inside cover. In this map it is marked
"Pontoon Bridges."

We were roused at 5 a. m, and at 9
moved toward the river to act as
support for the 6th corps. The laying of
the bridge was much less obstructed than
from across the city, five months before.
The 23 boats were in the water before day
break and in a dense mist started from the
bank at 4:30. Soon through the fog we
could hear a volley across the river show
ing that our men had got over . A charge
captured the rifle-pits, and the bridge was
laid without opposition, though the city
church bells rang angrily to give notice of
this new invasion. Here we remained all
day, and at night made ourselves as com
fortable as we could in the rain.

April 29. Cloudy. Shook props during
the day winning 3.75.

April 30. Cloudy. An order was read
from Hooker stating that we had got the Re
bels in a horse-shoe. Started at noon &
marched up nearly half way between Fal-
mouth & U.S. Ford. Threw away my
crackers and lost Bible, etc.
^'2 May 1. Pleasant. Crossed the river.
Halted at noon in an old Rebel Encamp
ment. We could hear a fight going on &
soon started for the Battle of Chancellors
ville. Arrived on the field about dusk, but
did not go into action.

Our regiment was detailed as rear guard,
and we were obliged to help along some of
the wagon trains.

The place we took is shown in the map
on page 188 marked "Berry", who was our
division commander. The rest of the
corps was below, marked "Sickles".

This was the only occasion in my ex
perience when there was anything of the

Apr. 28-May 2, 1863]

The llth Corps Breaks

187

'--. v~
7l*$c&,

joy of going into battle that we read so
much of. It was sunset as we reached the
field, we were still under the glamor of
Hooker's order, we really believed Fighting
Jo had the rebels on the run, and we came
in on the double-quick: I am not sure we
did not do some singing and shouting. I
think we really should have liked to get into
action at once and finish the thing up, so
much difference it makes whether or no we
expect to win. It "was the only large battle
'we ever went into while I was in the regi
ment that "we did expect to win.

May 2. Pleasant. Our Reg't was not en
gaged during the day but at night the llth
Corps broke and our Corps had to take their
place . The firing was terrific all night .

This was in some respects a harder ex
perience than our corps had on the left at
Gettysburg the second day, because we had

HOWARD'S HTH CORPS FLYING IN PANIC

to contend not only with the enemy but
with the panic-stricken Germans. What
men" will do in a panic surpasses belief.
They threw away not only their guns and
knapsacks but their coats and caps. I
have already spoken of Col. McLaughlin's
facing those who came near him with a re
volver and compelling them to turn about
and fight in our ranks, but these were only
a few of the entire corps running away,
and it was hard to push on through them.

Gen. Sickles reports: "The fugitives
swarmed from the woods and swept fran
tically over the cleared fields in which my
artillery was posted. The exulting enemy
at their back mingled yells with their vol
leys, and in the confusion which followed it
seemed as if cannon and caissons, dragoons
cannoneers, and infantry could never be dis
entangled from the mass in which they were
suddenly thrown." Dr. Sim, surgeon in

188

Battle of Chancellors ville

[Chancellorsville, Va.

Jackson's Attack on
Howard, May 1 st. 1 863

a.a.a. Jackson's Route
b.b.b. Route of Train when
Jtriven off (he Roacl.

Doubleday's Map; should read May 2, instead of May 1

chief, says: "The fleeing Dutchmen ac
tually ran over our field hospital."

What had happened ? The maneuvre
that routed Howard was Stonewall Jack
son's last fighting, for that daring gen
eral lost his life there. Reproducing
Doubleday's excellent map, where the
union troops are shown by black rect
angles, the confederate by white, it will be
seen that Jackson started on Saturday
from a point near the Furnace, just below
where Sickles's corps was posted, and by a
circuitous route got to the west of Howard.
The date should of course be May 2 instead
of May 1 ?s on the map. It was a hazard
ous undertaking, permissible only because
the battle was at the time almost hopeless
for the confederates. It cut off Jackson's
troops from the rest of the confederate
army, and both sections would have been
destroyed if Howard had shown ordinary

GEN. OLIVER O HOWARD, 1830-1909

sense and discovered and guarded against
the movement. But it won the battle.
Howard sent back a brigade forwarded
to help him, telling the commander,
"I would send my compliments tc the whole
rebel army if it lay in front of me, and
invite them to attack me." What was the
result ? A small part of the rebel army did
attack him, at a time when his men were
getting supper and playing cards without
even the usual pickets thrown out, and

May 2, 1863]

Stonewall Jackson* s Last Battle

189

Howard's corps fled in the most disgrace
ful and disastrous panic of the war.

Carl Schurz says in his "Reminiscences,"
(ii. 417, 8): "To my utter astonishment I
found many years later in a paper on 'The
llth corps at Chancellor sville', written by
Gen. Howard for the Century Magazine,
the following sentence: 'Gen. Hooker's cir
cular order to "Slocum and Howard" neith
er reached me, nor, to my knowledge, Col.
Mysenburg, my adjutant general.' How
could he have forgotten that I had read and
delivered to him that identical despatch, es
pecially as it touched so vital a point, and its .
delivery was followed by another animated
discussion between us, in which I most
earnestly — althoughdneffectually — endeav
ored to convince him that in case of such
an attack from the west, our right, as then
posted, would be hopelessly overwhelmed."

Meade reported after the battle of Get
tysburg: "Much feeling exists in this army
in regard to the llth corps. This induces
me to submit the propriety of breaking up
the organization of the corps by sending
Gen. Howard with one division to the 2d
corps, another division to the 12th corps,
and leaving the 3d division under Schurz to
guard my rear."

Having routed Howard the confederates
swept down the plank road toward Chan-
cellors ville . Ours and the 2d brigade took
position perpendicular to the plank road.
The 1st Mass, was detached from the 1st
brigade and posted on 'the left of the 2d
brigade, prolonging the line to the plank
road, while the rest of the 1st brigade
formed a line 150 yards to the rear. Gen.
Sickles says : "These dispositions were made
without the steadiness <_f these veteran
troops being in the least disturbed by the
torrents of fugitives." Our line imme
diately threw up a strong breastwork of

logs and abatis. Sickles says again: "The
splendid fire of the artillery and the im
posing attitude of the iron wall of infan
try co-operated with our flank attack to
check the enemy's advance, which was
effectually accomplished before dark."

The attacks were repeated during the
night by continual charges more regular
than any other fighting I ever heard. There
would be first the confederate artillery, then
their yell, then their muskets, then our mus
kets, then our artillery, then our shouts,
repeated over and over. At last I grew
weary, and fell back behind the woods in an
open place and went to sleep. When I
awoke in the early morning there was not
anywhere a sound. I thought at first I
must have grown deaf, so great was the
change from the cannonading in the midst
of \\hich I went to sleep. I sat up and
looked around. There was not a soldier
in sight, and I had no way of knowing
whether our men had gone on and left me
or whether they had retreated. On general
principles I concluded they had probably
gone back, and I started toward Chancel-
lorsville. For once, however, we had held
our own, and when I came upon our sen
tries I found that I had been sleeping inside
our lines.

It was this night that the confederate gen
eral Stonewall Jackson was killed. After
he had broken through the eleventh corps
he supposed he held the plank road undis
puted, and about nine o'clock he rode along
reconnoitering in front of our regiment,
which rested as I have said upon the plank
road. Our men saw the group approach
ing, not recognizing him of course, and as
soon as the confederates came in range
poured a volley into them. Gen. Jackson
was severely wounded and died a week later.
For some reason the confederates preferred

190

Battle of Chancellorsville

[Chancellorsville, Va,

WHERE STONEWALL JACKSON WAS SHOT •

to report that he was killed by his own men,
but he was certainly killed directly in front
of our regiment, as the boulder that marks
the place still shows. If he had been
fired on by one of his own regiments why
did his staff turn and flee ?

Col. McLaughlin makes this official
statement: "At 9J p. m. a cavalcade of a
dozen or more horsemen drove down the
Plank road, when my men immediately
opened fire upon them; they immediately
turned about and rode furiously back up
the road. From the official report of the
rebel Gen. Lee, I am led to believe that
Gen. Stonewall Jackson formed one of the
cavalcade, and that he was killed by my
men."

GEN. THOMAS J. JACKSON, 1824-63

There are other claimants for the credit
of shooting him. Doubleday says:
"Whether the rebels killed him or whether
some of his wounds came from our own
troops, the 1st Mass, or the 73d N. Y., who
were firing heavily in that direction, is a
matter of some doubt." In The Orange
County Press of Dec. 16, 1890, Capt. Wis-
ner of the 124th N. Y. gives circumstantial
account of the firing from his regiment upon
a group of rebel officers among whom he
believes to have been Stonewall Jackson .

Gen. Pleasanton, who in his letter to the
committee on the conduct of the war
kindly explains that every success of the
war was done either directly by him or
through his advice, also claims that his
cavalry fired the fatal shot.

But personally I am quite willing to
have our regiment relieved of responsi
bility for his death. He was a great loss to
the confederacy, more than a whole division
of rank and file, Jefferson Davis said.
But he was a noble man as well as a great
general. On receipt of news of his death
Captain Weisner declares, though I do not
remember it, our division was assembled,
and the adjutant-general said: "In view of
the fact that he was wounded by our di
vision and also as mark of respect to a
gallant Christian soldier the division will
receive the announcement with uncovered
heads."

May 2, 3, 1863]

Why the 1st Mass. Gave Way

191

The reply of his body servant to the
question why he was always ready is well
known: "Well, gemmen, whenever I sees
Massa Stonewall get up in the night and go
to kneeling and saying his prayers, I know
dere's a fight on hand shua, an' I makes
preparations accordin'."

Stonewall Jackson once ordered one of
his colonels to make a certain attack.
"General," the officer expostulated, "that
would be madness: my regiment would
be exterminated."

"Colonel," was the reply, "do your duty.
I have made every arrangement to care for
the wounded and bury the dead."

May 3. Pleasant. The battle commenced
again early. The most awful attempts were
made to break our line, and we were driven
back some, but our boys were not to be driven
far, and the attack was repulsed. Baxter
and Badger of my Co. were killed.

Glad they weren't taking us alphabet
ically: I should have been between them.

Gen. Berry himself gave our regiment

GEN. BERRY, 1824-63

the order to take position at the right of the
plank road and to hold it at all hazatds.
Co. I Was deployed as skirmishers and our
men threw up such breastworks as they
could of small timber and brush, aided
by four or five spades the llth corps men
had thrown away in their flight.

The confederates advanced in great
force about 5 :30 a.m. We held our ground

TJATTLK OF THE
THIRD OF MAY

l Linn •••• Confederate Lillet

SCALE OF MILES

for an hour, but had to fallback to the sec
ond line. Col. McAllister of the llth N.
J. complains that the left of our regiment
gave way first, while the right stood firm.
But it must be remembered that the left of
our regiment adjoined the 3d Md. of the
12th corps, which was on the left side of
the plank road, in direct line of the enemy,
and which broke and retreated, thus letting
the enemy in down the plank road on our
left flank. The wonder was not that our
regiment's left gave way but that the right
stood. Gen. Carr reports that the division
\vas finally compelled to fall back about
7:30 by the injudicious retreat of a Mary
land regiment (the 3d Md.), but says:
"The division held its own for over four

192

Battle of Chancellorsville

[Chancellorsville, Va,

GEN. HOOKER'S HEADQUARTERS CHANCELLORVILLE MAYI'-'.l

hours against a force of the enemy three
times as great as its own and until its am
munition was exhausted."

Gen. Sickles reports: "The vigor and
tenacity of the enemy's attack seemed to
concentrate more and more upon my lines
near the plank road and on my left flank.
As fast as their own lines were broken up by
the terrible fire of artillery and musketry
fresh columns were deployed. My last re
serve, Ward's brigade, had been sent to
support Berry on the right of the plank
road, but that heroic commander had fal
len in the thickest of the fight, and Ward
failed J;o get into position before the enemy
had turned Berry's left flank, held by the
3d Maryland of the 12th corps."
j What was worse, when the enemy got on
our flank and were pouring their shot into
us, enfilading us, the regiment on our
right, the 5th Excelsior gave way, leaving
our right flank open to attack. We were
then compelled to fall back a quarter of a
mile, but formed line again in the road
leading from the ford to the Chancellor
house. The cannonading was terrific and
at ten o'clock the regiment fell back to the
works in the rear, for rest, but at noon

moved forward again and remained at the
front in line of battle till 11:30, when the
men were allowed to go to sleep after 18
hours of almost continuous fighting.

Again Gen. Sickles reports: "The front
line near the plank road early in the morn
ing comprised, beginning at the left of the
road, the 3d Md., 1st Mass, (on the right
of the plank road), 5th Excelsior (N. Y.),
120th N. Y., 2d, 1st, and 3d Excelsiors
(71st, 70th, and 72d N. Y.), and 26th Pa.
This line gallantly resisted the assaults of
the enemy for more than an hour, when its
left was turned, and Col. Stevens, now in
command, changed front to repel the ad
vance of the enemy on the flank. There
w?s nothing like ardor in the advance of
the enemy after occupying our lines at
Fairview. I took 400 prisoners as 1 re
tired slowly to Chancellorsville. It would
not have been difficult to regain the lost
ground with the bayonet as I proposed, but
the senior officer in that part of the field
did not deem it wise."

Doubleday says of our division: "They
were true and tried men, and went for
ward at once to the rescue. Few people
appreciate the steadiness and courage re-

May 3-5, 1863]

A Record of Hard Fighting

193

quired, When all around is flight and con
fusion, for a force to make its way through
crowds of fugitives, advance steadily to
the post of danger in front, and meet the
exulting enemy, while others are seeking
safety in the rear. Such men are heroes,
and far more worthy of honor than those
who fight in the full blaze of successful
warfare."

One of our disappointments at Chancel
lors ville was Ber dan's sharpshooters.
They could be effective, but here it was
almost impossible to keep them at the front.

We finally fell back to the rear of the
Chancellors ville house, and later down the
road to the white house, 4J^ mile? from the
river, which had been used as the general
hospital. Here a new line of entrench
ments was established, along the skirts of
the woods perpendicular to and on both
sides of the plank road. Our left line con
nected with the 12th corps.

The map of Doubleday on page 191 shows
the fighting ground of this day. It will be
seen that our division was on the right of
the army, facing A. P. Hill's troops, and it

will be remembered that the 1st Mass, was
just north of the turnpike. This ended
our part of the fighting. Of the division
as a whole Gen. Carr reported: "The 2d
division fought at Chancellorsville like
veterans, brave soldiers that they are, re
flecting credit upon themselves, their di
vision, and their country."

Gen. Sickles's summing up of his report
of this battle reads: "As long as the his
tory of this war shall be read, conspicuous
upon its pages will be the record of the
achievements of the 3d army corps in the
battles of the Wilderness and Fairview."

May 4. Rainy. Some slight attempts
were made during the day but no regular
fighting.

We were reordered into line at 7 o'clock,
through an alarm caused by heavy firing
upon a working party. We were formed
in line of battle again at nine in the eve
ning, but there was no engagement.

May 5. Rainy. An awful thunderstorm
at night. Orders to retreat were received to
our great surprise and the whole army re-
crossed the river.

194

Battle of Chancellorsville

[Falmouth, Va,

MARCHING BACK THROUGH FALMOUTH AFTER THE BATTLE

Our regiment was detached and 'about
five o'clock ordered to report to Capt.
Randolph, chief < f artillery, but we re
joined the brigade the next day.

May. 6. Rainy. Returned to Camp.
Thus ends the first battle of Gen. Hooker.

And his last as commander. We felt
personally concerned, for Hooker had been
with his old brigade a name to conjure with.
What might have happened had Franz
Siegel been left in command of the llth
ccrps, or if Howard had been mercifully
detained from the battle by illness, will
never be known.

I was once a guest at a Bowdoin dinner in
New York where Gen. Howard was the hero
of the evening and introduced as the peer
less Christian soldier, and as he bowed his
acknowledgements I reflected upon Chan
cellorsville. When Von Gilsa galloped to
his headquarters to beg for immediate re
inforcements, Howard told him he "must
hold his post with the men he had and trust
in God". This is the sort of piety that

drives the unregenerate to profanity. Per
sonalty I do not know how it is possible to
be more profane.

Curiously enough, in 1909. not long be
fore his death, while he was president of
Lincoln university, Tennessee, I received
an invitation to become honorary vice-
president of that institution, but he was
the last man I should want to be responsi
ble for in any degree, and I declined.

There were other mistakes, and at the last
Hooker, who had been injured by a falling
pillar dislodged from the Chancellorsville
house, was in no condition to direct. So
what had been a victory within our grasp
was turned into a crushing defeat. Wel
lington said, "When other generals commit
an error their army is lost by it ; when I get
into a scrape my army gets me out of it."
He illustrated it when he said again, ex
plaining how he conquered Napoleon's
marshals one after another : "They planned
their campaign just as you might make a
splendid set of harness. It looks well and

May 5, 6, 1863]

Hooker and Meade

195

answers well, till any part gets broken, and
then you are done .^f or. I made my cam
paign of ropes. If anything went wrong
I tied a knot and went on." Hooker was
lacking in this faculty. It is a pity he no
longer had his comrade Gen. Kearney, killed
eight months before at Chantilly, to con
sult. He used to say, " Kearney plans and
I do it." But when he resigned three days
before Gettysburg because Grandmother
Halleck interfered with his orders I should
like to know what was gained by substi
tuting Meade. Hooker planned the de
fence of Washington, deceived Lee, and
made all the dispositions which resulted
in the fighting at Gettysburg. Meade's
first act was to order a grand review at
Frederick, about as sensible as to put on
evening clothes when your house is en fire.
He was persuaded by Hoc ker's old officers
out of that and out of retreating from
Gettysburg, for which he had signed an
order, but Gettysburg -was won, as we shall
see because Sickles disobeyed Meade's
orders. I don't see how Hooker could
have made a we rse series of blunders than
these. And certainly Fighting Jo Hooker

would never have lain idle three days with
out finding out that the confederates had
retreated and starting after them.

In all of these opinions, I trust it is no
longer necessary to repeat, I am speaking
not as a historian but as recalling what Jo
Hooker's old brigade thought at the time,
and so far as I know, every man of us still
thinks.

Pleasanton says: "Gen. Hooker was the
first commander of the army of the Po
tomac to exhibit a correct appreciation of
organization in an army. He consolidated
and increased his cavalry, organized them
into a corps, supplied them with artillery,
and was rewarded by some distinguished
service that made the march of the army a
tiiumph from Falmouth to Frederick city.
The campaign of Gettysburg which he com
menced so brilliantly, was afterward con
ducted by his successor with such results
as to produce the deepest mortification
throughout the country. The doubt,
hesitation, and fear of consequences dis
played by Gen. Meade were in striking con
trast to the heroic valor so constantly and
stubbornly displayed by the a-mv."

CHAPTER XVI. LAST DAYS AT FALMOUTH

less confident.

May 7, Cloudy.

HERE was more
idleness for the
army for six weeks,
and much uncer
tainty as to the
future. We still
believed in Fight
ing Joe, but were

Bought stuff at the

Commissary. The boys are about starved.

The commissary was not the sutler, but
the officer who gave out rations. Some
times when food was plenty we could draw
extra rations of him and pay extra for
them, as for clothes. Here is a picture of
his storehouse in winter camp.

Much interesting information as to army
rations is given in "The Hero of Medfield.
Journals and Letters of Allen Alonzo
Kingsley" (Boston, 1862). Kingsley was
bugler for Co. H, 1st Mass. His friends

COMMISSARY'S

196

May 7, 1863]

Army Rations

197

had the good sense to print these docu
ments just as he wrote them; they do him
credit and they give details that I have not
found elsewhere.

He was company cook for a time and
afterward chief cook, and he tells much of
his experience in that capacity. In the
early days of the war there was consider
able variety. On June 21, 1861, he records
that the men growled at coffee and bread
for breakfast, beefsteak for dinner, bread
and corned beef for supper. On June 23
he gave them soup, boiled rice and salt
junk for dinner; the next day fresh beef
for supper. July 4 they had roast beef
and potatoes and lemonade for dinner,
the last furnished by some of the officers.
July 5 he gave them boiled rice for break
fast, soup for dinner, bread and coffee for
supper, and yet there was more grumbling.
Some of those grumblers must have gone
like me at Mine Run eight days on three
days rations; wonder if they would have
growled at boiled rice and soup then. Sir
William Olapherts, better known as Hell-
fire Jack, made short work of the demand
a newly-arrived Irish regiment made upon
him -in 1902 for potatoes, "If you expect
God Almighty to grow potatoes for you
on the dry plains of India, especially to
please you, you're damnder fools than I
took you for," he said. " Dismiss'" And
the subject was dropped.

July 6 his beans did not get done for
breakfast so the men had to put up with
beefsteak, getting their beans for supper.

On the march the boys were looking for a
fight and had too much else to think of to
grumble about food. July 18 they had
only one cracker apiece, yet they were in
good spirits and eager for a fight. July 26
they had boiled squash for dinner and
blackberries and milk for supper. Aug.

3 he records that they are faring as well as
they would at home. These extracts are
from his diary. His letters go more into
detail. June 24 he writes they had beef
steak for supper and rice for dinner with
sugar sauce. "Some days we don't have
half enough, and that not fit to eat. The
meat is salt and dry, the bread dry as chips,
but we have coffee, 31bs. at noon and 3 at
night, and 12 Ibs. of sugar a day. I have
got 75 Ibs. salt beef and 25 Ibs. salt pork
for to-morrow. To-day we had 10 Ibs.
rice and 125 Ibs. fresh beef."

June 30 he writes that to-morrow they are
to have flour and make their own bread.
Julyjl, that they had pulverised potatoes.
"The potatoes are ground and dried, we
then boil them in water, but it does not
look much like potatoes."

Sept. 29 he writes: "When we have mon
ey we buy milk and butter, but milk is 10
cts. a quart and butter 30 cts. a pound.0

Dec. 29. "We have soft bread now,
baked in the regimental ovens. Each
man has a loaf a day, about the size of the
five cent baker's loaves at home. This
lasts for three meals. At noon we some
times have soup, roast beef, or salt horse
(salt beef). Three times a week we have
baked beans for breakfast. On the whole
we live pretty well just now."

April 18. "There is one bugler to each
company. We watch and keep by the side
of the captain during an engagement. It
is our business to sound the advance, halt,
charge, &c, just as the captain or colonel
gives orders." Yet in the Yorktown en
gagement he carried a musket instead of a
bugle.

"Gen. Hooker says he never saw a better
regiment of regulars during the Mexican
war than the 1st Mass."

Three days after he wrote this he was

198

Last Days at Falmouth

[Falmouth, Va.

killed in a bayonet charge at Yorktown,
of which the picture above is given in
Frank Leslie's for May 24, 1862.

By the time I reached the army the giv
ing out of rations had become more sys
tematized. The following was the official
allowance to each man per day in camp,
the second amount when given in bold face
in parenthesis being the allowance on a
march when different. Why we should
have less to eat on a march I never dis
covered. When marching we did not get
soft bread or vegetables. Vinegar was
never served direct to the men, but only to
the company cooks in camp. Sugar and
coffee we used to carry in little bags, some
times mixed together. Rice I do not re
member getting.

Salt pork 12 oz.: or fresh beef 20 oz.(16
oz.) ; or salt beef 20 oz. (16 oz.)

Hard tack 16 oz.; or soft bread 22 oz.; or

flour 22 oz. ; or corn meal 20 oz.

Potatoes 1-200 bu.

Beans or split pease 1-400 bu.

Rice, 1-10 Ib.

Dessicated vegetables, 1 oz.. as a substitute

for the above vegetables.

Coffee 1-10 Ib. green or 2-25 Ib. roasted.

(3-20)

Sugar 3-20 Ib.

Salt 1-50 qt.

Pepper 1-25 oz.

Vinegar 1-25 qt.

Candles 1-5 Ib.

Soap, 1-25 Ib.

The government furnished to each man
(1) a tin dipper with a handle on the side.
Usually he bored two holes in the sides so as
to put a wire through for a holder on top
when he cooked coffee over a fire : often a

May 7, 18631

Army Rations

199

tomato can was used instead. (2) A tin plate,
sometimes used as a frying pan, but a
poor substitute. (3) Knife, fork, and spoon,
all substantial but not elegant.

The dipper was used for both coffee and
soup, and like the plate was usually
cleaned if at all with soft bread if there
was any to spare. The knife and fork were
easily cleaned by running them into the
ground a few times.

The government furnished candles but
not candlesticks. For this purpose a bay
onet was most convenient, but often a
little grease was poured wherever the can
dle was wanted from the candle itself, and
the candle, held a moment in the cooling
fat, would soon be firmly fixed. In the ab
sence of candles we imitated the old
Roman lamp, by filling a sardine box with
grease of some kind, and igniting a rag
floating in it.

The dessicated vegetables were not very
satisfactory: we used to call them dese
crated vegetables.

Hardtack was a plain flour-and-water
biscuit 3x2xJ^ inches. The daily ration
was 9 to a man, sometimes 10, but there

were usually a plenty, as not all men
draw all they were entitled to. Some were
so hard they could not be bitten, and when
soaked became like gutta-percha. When
they had been wet they were usually
mouldy, and they sometimes contained
maggots or weevils, a litue brown bug -J-
inch long. When a man broke up his
hard tack in his coffee he might find the
weevils squirming around on top.

The beef was usually boiled when served
cooked, but men preferred to have it given
out raw and cook it themselves, oftenest
broiling it. The salt beef was penetrated
with saltpetre, colored like rust on .yellow
green. I have had it dealt out to me when
it was rank and smelled to heaven but not
of it, but as a whole our rations were sound
and wholesome. The coffee was especially
good, and was in fact the soldier's main
stay. What we each man drank at every
meal would keep a New England family a
day, but in the open air it did not hurt us,
and it was a constant comfort.

The southern soldier stuck to his frying
pan, often carrying it with the handle
stuck into the barrel of his musket. When

200

Last Days at Falmouth

[Falmouth, Va.

meal time came pork was fried into gravy
and the biscuit, fried or soaked in water,
was wiped in it and eaten. Southern sol
diers also ate "slosh" or "coosh", frying out
the bacon till the frying-pan was half full of
grease boiling, and then pouring into it
flour mixed with water to the consistency
of milk, and stirring till it became a dirty
brown mixture. ' In its elements this was
not so different from the flapjack, except
that the latter was mixed with less water,
the grease only covered the bottom of the
pan, and the paste when browned on the
under side was by a dexterous twist of the
hand tossed over and browned on the other
side. Slosh did not seem attractive to us,
but the hungry Johnnies would dream of
"the solid slices of streaked lean and fat,
the limpid gravy, the brown pan of slosh
inviting you to sop it" .

Cole says : "Sometimes to vary the bill of

fare pieces of pork and broken crackers
would be put into the tin and stewed to
gether. This we called lob scouse. If
some corn, potatoes, or other vegetables
could be added it was called a son of a
gun."

Little as we cared for the southern fried
dishes we were always glad to get hold of
their pone, unraised corn bread baked in the
ashes. But there was probably never any
other army so fond of the frying-pan as
the confederates. The Indian mutiny was
caused by the introduction of the greased
cartridges required by the Enfield rifle.
The men thought they would lose caste if
they bit cartridges covered with the fat of
pigs and cows.

A native cook in an Indian regiment
complained to the colonel. "Sahib, they
tell me everything tough — beef, mutton
tough, chicken tough, now they say butter

WHEN BOXES COME FROM HOME

May 7-31, 1863]

Moving Camp

201

tough: how can that be?" A Highlander
used to disdain butter. He argued that if
the bread was good it didn't need butter,
and if it was bad it did not deserve it.

We were glad to get back to camp, but
we found that in our absence thieves had
made busy with our quarters, so there had
to be much repairing and rebuilding. Many
of the men had lost their knapsacks in the
battle or on the way, and slept cold for
lack or overcoats and blankets.

May 8. Cloudy. Got a big mail at night.

May 9. Pleasant. Inspection again.

May 10. Had Inspection. Cooked
some Doughnuts.

May 11. Very hot. Went down to Poto
mac Creek in swimming. The Reg't went
on Review.

The swimming place was not far from
camp, as appears in the map on inside cover.

May 12. Pleasant. Went on picket.

May 13. Played Bluff and won 1.50

May 14. Rainy. Lost at Bluff.

May 15. Returned to Camp.

May 16. Pleasant. Played Bluff all
day. Drew the $3.00 remaining of the
Chaplain.

Holy Jo was very good about it. He
knew what I was drawing all this money
out for, and he made me feel he knew, but
he never said a word about it. He was
merely the custodian of my money, and if
I chose to draw it I was not obliged to give
a reason. Besides, he no doubt thought I
was learning a lesson, and was glad to see
me lose. He did not know the personal
feeling behind it all.

May 17. Pleasant. Had Inspection.
May 18. Pleasant. Lost $12.00 at Bluff.
May 19. Pleasant. Moved Camp to
day. Pitched alone and had only one half

tent to work with, so I made a rough looking
concern.

This moving camp was for sanitary
reasons, a winter camp becoming intoler
able when the warm weather begins. Our
regiment moved about half a mile to the
rear.

May 20. Pleasant. Took a walk down
by Birney's Div. who are still in Winter
Camp. The IQth Mass &llth Jersey have
got beautiful Camps.

May 21. Pleasant. Was on Orderly.
Our Camp is being fixed up very prettily.

Many bowers were erected in front of the
officers' headquarters, and the rest of us
sheltered our tents as much as we could,
the sun having become oppressive. Major
Walker had a rural chapel built, where ser- ,
vices were held on Sunday, with nightly
prayer meetings.

May 22. Pleasant. Attended Church &
Singing in the evening.

May 23. Cloudy. Very warm in P. M.

May 24. Warm. Lost $3.00 at Bluff.

May 25. Pleasant. Pay Day. Re
ceived $24.00 & of course paid about $11
away in Debts. Won $2.00 at night.

May 26. Pleasant. Lost $7.00 at Bluff.

May 27. Pleasant. Went on picket with
the Jersey Brigade. Played Bluff and won
$9.00 Were in a new place close to the
River. Co. D. stopped in a Barn.

May 48. Pleasant. Won $5.00 at Bluff.

May 29. Lost $20.00 at Bluff. No
comment is needed.

May 30. Pleasant. Came home. Re
ceived box from home. All in good order.
Hat, Shoes, Shirts, etc.

I thought home-made shoes would be
more comfortable, but I soon discarded
them for the army pattern.

May 31. Warm. Was on Orderly.

202

Last Days at Falmouth

[Falmouth, Va.

June 1. Pleasant. Beautiful day.

June 2. Pleasant. Got paper from N. Y.
i June 3. Cloudy. Dr. Gunn and Searj't
Bigelow were buried by the Reg't to-day.
8th Regular Band.

A military funeral at the front is a sol
emn occasion, as Chaplain Quint has well
described in "The Potomac and the Rap-
idan", one of the most real books of rem
iniscences I have seen:

"A suitable escort (for a private, eight
rank and file, properly commanded) is
formed in two ranks opposite to the tent of
the deceased, with shouldered arms and
bayonets unfixed; on the appearance of
the coffin the soldiers present arms. The
procession then forms, on each side of the
coffin being three bearers, without arms ;
immediately preceding are the eight sol
diers, with arms reversed (the musket under
the left arm, barrel downward, and stead
ied by the right hand behind the back) ;
in front is the music, than whose dirge no

sadder sounds ever fell upon my ear, as
they proceed to the place of burial. With
slow and measured step, and muffled drum,
they move. At the grave, the coffin is
placed upon one side, the soldiers resting
upon their arms, the muzzle upon the foot,
the hands clasped upon the butt, and the
head bowed upon the hands. The chaplain
who has walked in the rear of the coffin,
conducts the burial service ; 'earth to earth,
ashes to ashes, dust to dust'. Three vol
leys are fired over the grave, and the last
kindness to the comrade is over. The
graveyard left, immediately the band
strikes up a cheerful air, and all take their
way back to camp and to living duties."

On this occasion on the way back the
band played, "Ain't we glad to get out of
the wilderness?", emphasizing that the
mourning stops when we turn back from
the grave.

June 4. Cloudy. Orders came to march
but were countermanded.

ON PICKET UNDER MARCHING ORDERS

June 1-10, 1863]

An Army Funeral

203

June 5. Pleasant. Went on picket.
Were Brig. Reserve. The whole Army re
ceived marching Orders.

There had been rumors of the gathering
of the confederate army near Culpeper for
a northern invasion, and to-day a division
of the 6th corps crossed the river below
Fredericksburg to see whether the southern
army was there in force. The 26th N. J.
paddled in pontoons, as before the battle
of Chancellors ville, carried the rifle-pits

across the river, and captured 80 prisoners,
whereupon Howe's division crossed and in
trenched themselves south of the river.

June 6. Rainy. Lost $4.00 at Bluff.

June 7. Cloudy. The Quartermaster
came out bringing Marching Orders for the
Reg't. Went back to Camp to look for my
stuff.

June 8. Pleasant. The Reg't came in.

June 9. Pleasant. Drills.

June 10. Pleasant. Drills.

CHAPTER XVI. THE MARCH TO GETTYSBURG

HE march to Get
tysburg was much
the longest and
hardest I had.
My diary tells the
story without
need of many
comments.
June 11. Pleasant . While at dinner or
ders came to move. In an hour we started.
Hot and dusty roads made it hard travelling
and I put my stuff on one of the teams.
Went to Harwood Church. Slept with
"Nosie" of the IQth.

"Pack up and be ready to fall in in half
an hour." So read the order. The 6th

corps had crossed the river below the
city some time before and entrenched
themselves, so we supposed we were to re
lieve them. As it was only about 8 miles
there we loaded ourselves down pretty
heavily, but when we started up the river
instead of down, away went considerable
superlative luggage. As we passed along
by the encampments of the 2d corps we
saw them taking up ovens and many other
unmistakable indications of a decided
change of base, but we bivouacked at
Hartwood church in quite good humor.

June 12. Hot. Gen. Sickles had orders to
go to Beverly Ford, so we had to march
there, though it was 27 miles and it was a

A MIDNIGHT BIVOUAC
204

June 11-15, 1863]

Exhaustion of Summer Marching

205

hard road and hot dusty day. It was an
awful hot day. Many dropped dead on the
road. Our Reg't was sent out on picket at
the Ford.

This was one of the hardest marches I
made, as the route on the map indicates.
Four men in our own brigade died of ex
haustion. McCarthy says: "In summer
time the dust combined with the heat
caused great suffering. The nostrils of the
men, filled with dust, became dry and fever
ish, and even the throat did not escape.
The grit was felt between the teeth, and
the eyes were rendered almost useless.
There was dust in eyes, mouth, ears, and
hair. The shoes were full of sand, and the
dust, penetrating the clothes and getting
in at the neck, wrists, and ancles, mixed
with perspiration produced an irritant
almost as active as cantharides."

June 13. Cloudy. A large lot of men
were detailed at night from the Brigade to
throw up intrenchmeiits . Through the day
we staid looking at the Rebels.

June 14. Pleasant. The Intrenchments
were completed in the morning and the Rebels
looked much surprised. At night had or

ders to march and marched all night down
the R. R. passing Bealton.

McCarthy says: "Night marching was
attended with additional discomforts and
dangers, such as falling off bridges, stumb-
bling into ditches, tearing the face and
injuring the eyes against the bushes and
projecting limbs of trees often sprung
back from a soldier ahead who had passed
them and carried them along with him only
to fly back like a switch."

June 15. Very hot. Had hard work to
keep my eyes open. We did not halt untill
we got to Catlett's Station about 10 A. M.
Here we halted in the hot sun two or three
hours and started again and marched to
Manassas Junction. A hard march too,
with no water hardly. We halted about 10
P. M. having marched some 35 miles and
been 40 hours without sleep.

I did pretty well to stand that march;
a great many grown men didn't.

Never again did I suffer for water as on
this day. I saw men cutting off half a
mile to the right where a spring was said to
be, and I followed. Whatever it may have
been in the beginning, when I got there I

- ----- -

CALLETT'S STATION, ORANGE AND ALEXANDRIA RAILROAD

MARCHING PAST MANASSAS JUNCTION

BATTLEFIELD OF BULL RUN; Thoroughfare Gap and Blue Ridge in the distance

June 15, 16, 1863]

Battlefield of the two Bull Runs

207

THE HOTEL AT CENTREVILLE, VA.

found only mud too thick to drink. So I
marched an extra mile for nothing.

"People at home don't value water,"
said one soldier. "If they saw the men out
here with cracked and blackened lips and
tongues swollen with the terrible thirst
they would value it more."

June 16. Very hot. Moved about a mile,
The 84th Penn. and 12th N. H. added
to our brigade from the 3rd Div, making 7
regiments.

We were now near the Bull Run battle ;
field. The regiment had been in both the

first and the second Bull Run fights, and
every spot had associations for them.

In "Four Years of Fighting" Coffin
tells us that at Blackburn's Ford, July 21,
the 1st Massachusetts received the hottest
of the fire. One soldier in the thickest
of the fight was shot; he passed his musket
to his comrade, saying, "It's all right,
Bill," and immediately expired. The sol
dier standingnext to Lt. Col. Wells received
two shots in his arm. He handed his gun
to the Colonel, saying, "Here, I can't use
it; take it and vise it."

208

March to Gettysburg

[B. & O. Canal

CONFEDERATES DESTROYING THE CHESAPEAKE AND OHIO CANAL

June 17. Hot. Started ahead and went
near Centreville, about six miles.

June 18. Hot. Had thunder Storm in
P. M. and when over moved out of our tents
which we had fixed in good shape, over the
other side of Centreville. Slept with only a
wet shelter tent over me.

June 19. Cloudy. Laid out Brigade
Camp and while aligning the Guides, had or
ders to march. Went to Gum Springs. All
citizens forced to accompany the column.

June 20. Cloudy. Joined the Brigade.
Played Bluff all day. Give a description of
Gum Springs.

The last is in pencil, to indicate a purpose
that was not carried out. Gum Springs
was formerly a fashionable Virginia resort.

June 21. Pleasant. Moved into a beauti
ful wood. Col. Baldwin arrived. We are
short of Rations.

June 22. Pleasant. Won $7.00 at Bluff.

June 23. Pleasant. Won $2.00 at Bluff.

June 24. Pleasant. Lost $8.00 at Bluff
and was broken.

June 25. Rainy. Marched to Edwards
Ferry, crossed the Potomac, and marched
up the towpath of the B & O Canal to Mono-
cacy. Only 17 footmen kept up with the
Reg't.

It was some 20 miles to Edwards Ferry
where we crossed on pontoons. All of us
felt glad to shake off Virginia soil, and we
expected to stop, as it was nearly dark and
had begun to rain. But no, we started on

June 17-25, 1863]

A Hard Night's March

209

AQUEDUCT OF THE C. & O. CANAL, AT THE MOUTH OF THE MONOCACY

again and as the Potomac was on one side
and the canal on the other it was not easy
to straggle far. For a while it was good
walking, but soon it became muddy and
slippery and by ten o'clock we could ap
preciate the old problem of the frog in the
well who jumped up three feet every day
and fell back two.

This picture shows how narrow the path
was, and how difficult it must have been
for an army to march along the towpath at
night. In fact the rain raised the canal so
high that in places it flowed over its banks
into the Potomac, and more than one poor
fellow mistook his path and plunged into
the canal.

I remember that Capt. Cook, on brigade
staff, rode down the lines two or three times

and as he was asked how much farther we
were going invariably replied, "About half
a mile; not far." He was soon after or
dered off with his regiment, the 27th N. H.,
and the next time I saw him was on Broad
way. I asked him with a smile, "How
much farther are we going, Captain?" and
the joke must have become familiar, for
though of course he did not know me he
replied with a hearty laugh, "Not much
farther: half a mile."

But after being told it was half a mil-
three or four times the men became dis
couraged and falling out became so fre
quent that when the regiment reached the
Monocacy Chaplain Cudworth says there
were only seven men left, five of whom were
mounted officers. As he was probably one

%^as^

JNSBURQ „

r or* MANS roRC
KCDINGTON *5

. .

^fe2jS5«%Kf

June 25-8, 1863]

Change of Commanders

211

FREDERICK CITY, MD.

of the five while I certainly was not one of
the two, I yield my figures to his. A sub
sequent note in pencil records that this was
one of the three hardest marches. The
other two were June 12 and June 15.

June 26. Rainy. Had a hard march and
slippery road and reached Point of Rocks
about five o'clock. Got a hatful of cherries,
which in part compensated for nothing to eat.
Passed Monocacy Aqueduct, a fine structure.

It rained all night and everything got
soaked through. My woolen blanket was
too heavy to carry so I left it. I caught up
with the regiment about ten o'clock. We
got bacon as well as cherries at Point of
Rocks. The cherries we had in plenty in
Maryland if we could get far enough away
from the column, but the officers would not
let men climb the trees.

June 27. Rainy. Started early and
marched to Jefferson, a large and handsome
place. From here we were sent to Burkett-
ville on picket. Here those who had cash
could get bread etc.

At Burkettville we marched an eighth of a

mile on a brick sidewalk, and declared that
we felt quite at home.

June 28. Rainy. While the bells were
ringing for Church, started again. Went
through Middletown and Frederick. A
fine city. We halted about 2 miles the other
side of Frederick, and after resting an hour
went on four miles farther. This is hard
marching. Gen. Meade in command of the
Army. Army doesn't like it.

GEN. GEORGE G. MEADE. 1815-72

This was the fifth change of commander-
in-chief in ten months. Of course I did
not converse with the entire army and
my statement brought down to rock
bottom is based on the fact that my

March to Gettysburg

[Emmetsburg, Md.

A CHANCE TO WASH UP

division, especially my brigade, and most
especially my regiment, the dozen men I
talked with, didn't like him. We still felt
that our reputation was bound up with
Hooker's, and we resented his dismissal
from command, so we were prejudiced
against Meade from the start. But that
dislike grew, and with good reason, as will
appear later. Doubleday says that Meade
might have saved Chancellorsville.

June 29. Rainy. Went on again, start
ing before we had enough for breakfast.
Passed through Taneytown, a very hospitable
place and halted about 4 o'clock on the farther
side of the town. Here we received our mail.
The fellows had a chance to wash up, which
was needed as they had got rather lousy.

We halted about 10 in the evening, but
started again about four in. the morning.

Our mail was very welcome; many a poor
fellow got his last letter here.

We knew we should have a battle some
where near Gettysburg, but did not know
just where, though we thought between
there and Emmitsburg.

June 30. Rainy. An old man brought
cakes and bread into Camp, to give to the
Soldiers. He would take no pay. The
12th and llth Corps passed us. Started
about 3 o'clock, and marched half way to
Emettsburg where we halted for the night.
Burditt and I went over to a house and got
supper, for which they would take no pay.

I like to record these instances of Mary
land hospitality. We got well acquainted
with Maryland bread, huge loaves baked
in ovens outside the house, and tasting to
us like manna in the wilderness.

Maryland Hospitality

213

MARYLAND HOSPITALITY TO UNION SOLDIERS

We marched a little beyond Emmets-
burg and halted, so I came back into the
village to get something to eat. A curious
thing happened here: I found a two-
dollar bill lying on the ground. I picked it
up and looked about. There was nobody
who seemed to have dropped it, and I
knew if I asked for the owner every man

within hearing would claim it, so I kept
it and made good use of it, for I was en
tirely without money. But before long I
saw the signal flags flying vigorously and I
hurried back to the regiment. We marched
at an unusually fast pace, and raised a cheer
as we crossed the Pennsylvania line.

CHAPTER XVII. THE BATTLE OF GETTYSBURG

EYOND compari
son, the battle of
Gettysburg was the
greatest experience
of my life, beside
which everything
else seems common
place. It was not
only the greatest battle of the war but
one of the great battles of the world.
If Creasy rewrote his book, he would
have to change his title or displace
one of his fifteen for Gettysburg. I
hesitate to say how much it meant to
our army, but as I am telling -everything
else I may as well tell this, that if the bat1-
tle had gone against us I should have made
straight for Fitchburg, and I should have
had lots of company. We had lost battle
after battle, by blunder after blunder, of
commander after commander, and we had
lost all confidence. It was common talk in
the ranks, "We'll do our level best here, but
if we can't lick the rebs on Yankee soil
that's the end of it for us."

Gen. Birney meant substantially this
when he testified before the congressional
committee : "To have retreated while the
enemy were in our loyal state of Pennsyl
vania would have been almost fatal to the
command, if not to the country;" and Gen.
Butterfield, that "It would have resulted
in the destruction of the army."

And our regiment was in the thick of the
battle. I have shown that at Chancellors -
ville it was our division that was sent in to
stay the panic when Howard's llth corps
broke and fled like a stampede of horses,

and that our regiment rested on the plank
road and had to endure another stampede
when the 3d Md. broke on one side and the
120th N. Y. on the other. Even more re
sponsible was the work of the 1st Mass, at
Gettysburg. The battle was won at the end
of the second day, and only through the
throwing forward of our division to the
Emmitsburg road. Of that division our
brigade had the van. The monuments of
the Excelsior brigade all bear the inscrip
tion that they supported Carr's brigade.
Of that brigade we shall see that two regi.
ments carried off the honors ; the 26th Pa-
and the 1st Mass. On the picture of the
map of the battlefield by Bachelder (shown
facing the inside cover), approved by the
corps commanders, the position of the 1st
Mass, is shown as the most advanced in the
entire army, beyond the Peter Rogers
house. Our monument is near that house
on the west of the Emmitsburg road. The
26th 's monument is on the east of the road,
as usual in close supporting distance. A
section of this map faces the inside cover.
By the map opposite (I still use Double-
day's, for they leave nothing to be desired)
it will be seen that Gettysburg' is the cen
tre of a large region. Doubleday compares
Gettysburg to the hub of a wheel, with
a railroad and seven great roads leading
out of it, to Hagerstown, Chambersburg,
Carlisle, Harrisburg, York, Frederick, and
Taneytown. With our troops in posses
sion of Gettysburg we could check the
enemy on any of these roads, as we held the
centre. If the enemy held it he could
shorten and strengthen his line to Williams-
port, from which he got his supplies.

214

July 1, 1863]

A Battlefield by Chance

216

Yet it was not chosen by either side.
Lee had no intention of fighting there and
Meade was planning to make Pipe creek his
line of battle.

It is officially on record that at 3 o'clock
on July 2 Meade telegraphed to Halleck,
"If satisfied the enemy is endeavoring to
move to my rear, I shall fall back on my
supplies at Westminster." And they cer
tainly were trying that very thing.

Pleasanton claims to have tried to im
press upon Gen. Meade that the result of
the campaign depended upon which army
first gained possession of Gettysburg, but
as Meade failed to realize the situation
Pleasanton ordered Buford to Gettysburg
to hold the place at all hazards. He says:
"While this terrible fight of the first day
was raging. . . . Gen. Meade was 17 miles off,
at Taneytown, leisurely planning a line of

216

Battle of Gettysburg

[Gettsyburg, Pa.

battle on seme obscure creek between that
and Gettysburg."

The confederate troops were stretched
along the Cumberland valley, as if to cover
Meade's plan of a line upon Pipe creek,
while we were keeping between them and
Washington. Our regiment had come up
through Middleburg and Taneytown and
Emmitsburg. The 1st Corps was already
at Gettysburg. The llth and 12th Corps
had passed us on the way. The other corps
were within thirty miles and could be sum
moned. As my diary records, we had
knowrn for some time that a battle was im
pending, and that it must be somewhere
in this region.

July 1. Rainy. An order was read to the
troops from Gen. Mead exhorting the men to
deeds of valor. Marched through Emmits
burg to the battlefield of Gettysburg, where
we found the 1st & 12th Corps.

GEN. ANDREW A. HUMPHREYS, 1810-83

We were led on this march by Gen.
Humphreys, "Old Goggle-eyes" we used to
call him, another man we did not like
before the battle, but whom after the
battle we were ready to swear by, for he
showed himself a hero and a leader.

About nine in the evening we came to a
stream, which we were to ford waist high.
I was pretty well exhausted anyway, and
when I saw that stream I said to myself,
not for me. So I fell out, lay down under
a tree near the road, and went to sleep,

well aware that I was not unlikely to be
picked up by guerillas and taken to Libby
prison, of which we had begun to hear
something. When I woke up troops were
marching in the other direction, and as I
thought they might be confederates, I lay
quiet and listened. Presently I recognized
Lt. Col. Baldwin's profanity, whereupon I
sprang up and rejoined my regiment. It
seems they had missed the road, owing to
"Goggle-eye's" stupidity as they put it, and
had forded the stream back again. "Just
his damned luck," they said in disgust,
when they saw me dry and rested.

The first intimation Gen. Humphreys got
that we were on the wrong road was given
by two of our men who came in with a con
federate sergeant they had captured. They
had straggled off to get something to eat,
and seeing this man ordered him to sur
render. His first remark was, "How in hell
did you get here?" They concluded all
was not right, and forming themselves into
a scouting party found a confederate bat
tery within a quarter of a mile of where
our troops were. An aide rode down the
line and commanded the troops to counter
march without noise, and we got away
without being discovered. We reached
Gettysburg at about 1 o'clock a. m.

We had heard the heavy firing of
the first day's battle, beyond Gettysburg,
but were too exhausted to look about, and
sank down to sleep as soon as we were
halted.

This march fiom Emmitsburg was un
dertaken by Gen. Sickles without orders.
After the unfortunate death of Gen. Rey
nolds, Gen. Howard sent word to him
from Gettysburg, "For God's sake come up
with all speed. They are pressing us hard."
The same appeal was sent to Gen. Slocum,
who moved promptly, although it was not

July 1, 2, 1863]

The Second Day's Fight

217

GEN. JOHN F. REYNOLDS, 1820-63

a command from headquarters, and Sickles
was a born fighter, who had no notion of re
maining idle within sound of the battle.
So he made a forced march, and though
Howard, who had lost 1500 prisoners, un
generously declares Sickles got there after
the first day's fighting was over, we may be
sure he was very glad to have his llth
Corps, which had behaved better than at
Chancellors ville, protected by the same
troops that had filled the gap they left at
Dowdall's tavern. At the time he said,
"Here you are, general, always reliable,
always first." But men forget.

Meade unquestionably disapproved of
this encounter. Doubleday says that
Meade displaced both him and Howard,
putting them under junior officers, to show
his disapproval of the fighting on the first
day, perhaps to hold them as scapegoats if
the battle were finally lost. Doubleday says :
"A charge was ordered about dusk. Gen.
Newton, who had been put over me, or
dered it stopped, but my front line kept
on, regained Hancock's four guns and two
of the enemy, and brought in prisoners,
apologizing to me for not halting."

July 2. Rainy. The battle was recom
menced in the morning, but nothing of im
portance occurred untill afternoon when the
attack was suddenly made upon our left,
and the fight commenced in earnest. Our
men were driven at first, but the 5th Corps

came up and formed on our left, which ended
any doubts as to the result.

At two o'clock in the afternoon I sat in
the limbs of a tree in front of our brigade,
writing in the very green diary from which
all these entries are copied. There was no
fighting just then, but we could see the
confederate wagon trains and artillery
moving to our left. I particularly re
member an officer on a white horse who
rode up and down far in front of me, ap
parently close by the confederate woods.
He seemed so needlessly reckless that I
wondered whether he had anybody at
home to care whether he was killed or not.

Two hours later that tree was a centre
for artillery fire, but I had moved.

Wellington said of Waterloo: "People
ask me to describe Waterloo. I tell them
it was hard pounding on both sides and we
pounded the hardest." So of Siborn's
model of Waterloo, he said "It's all a farce,
fudge! They went to one officer and said,
what did you do ? I did so and so. Then
to another, What did you do ? I did such
and s*uch a thing. One did it at ten, an
other at twelve, and they have mixed it all
up. A battle is like a ball, they keep foot
ing it all day long."

I am not going to describe all the battle
of Gettysburg. The battlefield covered
25 square miles, but I shall speak only
of what I saw, which ought to simplify
matters. A man in the 1st Corps will
see only the first day and tell how
his regiment fought there, and a man in
the 5th Corps will think his brigade won
the battle. I am going to tell only what
happened to the 1st Mass. But it is be
yond dispute that the crisis was on Thurs
day afternoon and we were in the midst
of it. So while in this way I keep my
story simple and connected, I am at the

218

Battle of Gettysburg

[Gettysburg, Pa.

same time telling what decided the battle.

If anybody tells you that the battle of
Gettysburg was won on the third day,
don't you believe him. We did not know
it, but it was already won at sunset of
the second day. Before Gen. Meade rose
from the council on the evening of the
second day, and said angrily, "Have it your
own way, gentlemen, but Gettysburg is no
place to fight a battle 'in," the battle had
already been fought and won. It was a
defeated army that made the charge on the
third day. The charge was an impossible,
a preposterous attempt, as Gen. Lee after
ward acknowledged. The troops engaged
were less than half as many as had attacked
us the second day, and the killed and
wounded on the last four hours of the
second day were more than in all the rest of
the three days. Gen. Hancock, who was
in command of the position attacked on the
third day, testifies that Pickett's charge
was repelled mainly by six small brigades.
Suppose the confederates had carried the
hill and even captured and turned the guns,
there was the whole great army of the
Potomac ready to plunge upon what was
left of their poor little 14,300 men. Of our
own division, severely as it had suffered the
day before, Gen. Humphreys says the only
difficulty he had the third day was to keep
them back from leaping over the breast
works and fighting Pickett's men hand to
hand. Pickett had no chance.

I am going to describe our part in these
four hours, but I recognize the difficulty of
it. The accounts I have given of Fred-
ericksburg and Chancellorsville seem clear
to me, but I am aware that to many of my
readers they have been mere words, so im
possible is it for me to supply my back
ground of remembrance. I have felt
my helplessness as I stood before a class

of children and tried to make an in
cident of the war real to them. They
would look back smiling and seem to be in
terested, but war, battle, shot, shell, minie
bullets, wounds, death, these were all mere
words. Nobody born since the war can
realize what it meant to feel that our nation
was in jeopardy, or even to watch for news
of battle in which a father or a husband was
engaged. We have had a little hybrid
Spanish war, but what a poor, purposeless,
mismanaged, hopeless, helpless affair it was.
Told by some one that he lost a relative in
the civil war, you ask, "In what battle?"
Told that it was in the Spanish war, you
propound the alternative, ''Typhoid fever
or dysentery?"

Let us first get the ground clearly in
mind. Taking this map of Doubleday's,

which, while it gives more fully the details
of the first day, when Doubleday himself
was for a time in command, is yet like all his
maps excellent throughout, it will be seen
that the axis of the field is the Emmitsburg
road. To the west may be seen the con
federate line of the morning; say rather
of three in the afternoon, for all the morn-

July 2, 1863]

Plan of the Battlefield

219

ing their troops were moving to this posi
tion. Midway north and south of this
road is the Peach orchard. Of this- the
Comte de Paris says (The Civil War in
America, Philadelphia, 1883): "Lee, con
vinced of how much the position of the
orchard will be useful for the final attack,
has been under the impression that he
should begin by taking possession of it,
inasmuch as it would be the first point to be
met on the Emmitsburg road." Keep the
location of this Peach orchard in mind,
for a momentous hour it was a central
point of the battle. The government
plans to restore this orchard so far as pos
sible to just its appearance on this July 2d.

Southeast you see the Round Tops. The
stream west of them is Plum run, and
between the branches of Plum run is the
Devil's Den, well named for the bloody work
done there that afternoon. The ridge from
the Round Top to Cemetery hill is clearly
marked. Compare the map facing left in
side cover.

Now let us keep in mind that the general
plan of the confederates was to move south
by the Emmitsburg road and attack our
left in flank, that is from the south,
charging up the Emmitsburg road. Let
us also keep in mind that in this they
were foiled, getting at the farthest only
to the points shown by the white rect
angles, while our troops at night held the
positions shown by the black rectangles.

Next let us divide the struggle of the day
into three periods: (1) the preliminary
skirmishing till 2 o'clock; (2) the wheel
to the south of Birney's division; and the
fighting till Gen. Sickles was wounded;
(3) the order to face about, with the
final contest for the ridge.

1. Preliminary Skirmishing

The 3d Corps held the left of the Union
line. Gen. Hancock had posted the 2d
Corps to cover 1300 yards. In accord
ance with orders Gen. Sickles so formed
his two divisions, Humphreys's and Bir
ney's, as to extend along a southerly line
from the left of the 2d Corps, on Ceme
tery ridge, to a point near the base of
Little Round Top. He sent out the 1st
Massachusetts as a picketline beyond the
Emmitsburg road. The 3d Brigade was
detached to support the 1st Division, on
our left. Our regiment was sent forward to
occupy a little log house on the Emmitsburg
road and the famous peach orchard near by.
We could see the enemy in a woods half
a mile to the west, on higher ground.

Capt. Lovell Purdy, jr., 74th N. Y., re
ports: "Orders were received to deploy on
the road in front, on the right of trie 26th
Pa. and in the rear of the 1st Mass.
There being a remnant of a fence in close
proximity — Col. Hale immediately had
breastworks erected (using fence rails for
that purpose). The men moved with an
alacrity I have never seen equalled. The
1st Mass, being engaged in the immediate
front, several men in this regiment were
wounded by chance shots."

2. The Wheel to the South of Birney's
Division

As is seen from the map on page 221 our
position at Gettysburg was shaped like a fish
hook. Gen. Meade was most interested in the
bow, and gave orders for an attack on our
right, which Gen. Slocum took the liberty of
not obeying. We were strong there, and it
was wise to remain on the defensive. But
on the left we were weak. You see Little
Round Top and Round Top. A glance
shows that if the confederates captured

220

Battle of Gettysburg

.. .

[Gettysburg, Pa.

those two hills they could enfilade our po
sition: that is, shoot their cannon balls
and shells through the length of our line,
with the certainty that every volley would
be murderous.

The next day we used this enfilade
against the confederates. Gen. Long-
street says: "The slaughter was terrible,
the enfilade fires of the batteries on Round
Top being very destructive. At times one
shell would knock out five or six men."

Gen. Meade gave orders that our Corps
should be posted between the 2d Corps and
Little Round Top.

To Gen. Sickles the position thus occu
pied by the 3d Corps proved unsatisfactory.
Cemetery ridge along the 2d Corps front
had considerable elevation, but it did
not extend all the way to Little Round
Top, the ground sinking to low swale,

THE DEVIL'S DEN

with no opportunity to use artillery or
to maneuver troops. As the map shows,
the Emmitsburg road runs close to Ceme
tery ridge where the 2d Corps was post
ed, but bears off to the southwest until
it is a mile from Little Round Top. The
triangle between that road and Little Round
Top on the line designated by Gen. Meade
was covered by a wide belt of woods, and
broken up into steep ravines and knolls.
It included the Devil's Den, a wild, rocky,
partly wooded eminence, huge boulders
about its base, some of them large as a
house, its summit 80 feet above Plum
Run, which separated it from Little
Round Top. It was a strong tactical posi
tion. In its rear lay the wheatfield and
other open ground for maneuvering
troops. On the front and south its eleva
tion, crowned with artillery, commanded
the long approaches over which the

July 2, 1863]

Gen. Sickles saved the Day

221

/ il/lr

********

III

LITTLE
ROUND TOP

The position of troops here is that on night of July 2.

enemy must move to attack either the
Round Tops or the position itself.

During the forenoon the pressure on
his picket-lines convinced Gen. Sickles an
attack would be made on his flank. He
went to headquarters and asked Gen.
Meade to accompany him to the left
and examine the field. Gen. Meade de
clined, but finally sent Gen. Hunt, chief of
artillery, who refused to assume respon
sibility for changing the line indicated by
Gen. Meade.

The confederate picket-fire became so
persistent that about 11:30 a.m. Gen.
Sickles ordered a reconnoissance, sending
out Berdan's sharpshooters, supported
by the 3d Me., who entered the woods
west of the Emmitsburg road. They met
part of the Alabama brigade, and drove
them far enough to see that three col
umns of infantry were in motion on the
other side of the woods.

Gen. Sickles was now confronted with
a problem of the gravest character; on
his decision the fate of the battle might
depend. His were the only troops in that
part of the field, and the enemy was
massing against him on his front and
flank. If he occupied the Round Tops he
could not hold the ground between him
and Hancock. If he remained where he
was the Round Tops would be occu
pied by the enemy, and his position
become immediately untenable. Meade had
withdrawn Buford's cavalry, so that he
could no longer observe properly the
screen of woods on his left. To recall his
skirmish line from the Emmitsburg road
would abandon the route by which half
the army had reached the field, and
lose communication with the strate
gic position at Emmitsburg which by di
rection of Gen. Meade he had with Gen.
Humphreys examined the previous day as
a possible battle-ground. Gen. Meade
would not assist him by a personal exam
ination of the situation. Apparently the
flank movement that won the battle of
Chancellorsville was to be repeated, by
forces numbering two to his one. He
could not hope to withstand the onset
where he was, but if he could modify his
position he could depend on his old 3d Corps
to hold the ground till reserves were sent
to his support.

2. The Wheel io ike south of Birney's
Division.

Gen. Sickles resolved to exercise the
discretion of a corp commander, and
occupy the strong line extending from
the base of Little Round Top to the ridge
at the Peach orchard on the Emmits
burg road, and await the impending attack
there, instead of on the lower ground
where he had been posted. Shortly after

222

Battle of Gettysburg

[Gettysburg, Pa.

2: p. m. he gave the order. Birney's divi
sion wheeled to the left and advanced
500 yards to the front of Little Round
Top, where they occupied the high
ground from the Devil's Den to the
Peach orchard, the troops facing south.

Humphreys's division advanced to a posi
tion along the Emmitsburg road, its left
connecting with Graham's brigade of Bir
ney's division at the Peach orchard, at
which point there was an obtuse angle
in the general line, often referred to in
the reports as a "salient angle".

Now comes the great controversy of the
battle. We were at first placed as ordered,
but Gen. Sickles, whose military instinct
fathomed the enemy's intentions, as the
Comte de Paris says, saw the attack
was to be upon our left and thus pro
tected his position. Was this wise? Gen.
Halleck reports it was an error which nearly
proved fatal. Pennypacker, Meade's ful
some panegyrist, says (-'Great Commanders,
General Meade," N. Y. 1901) that Sickles
"would not have ventured to occupy this
position on his own responsibility but
for the spirit of insubordination pre
vailing among certain of the corps com
manders". But Longstreet, who com
manded the attack and the calamity of
whose career was failure to succeed in it, says
in "From Manassas to Appomattox" (Phila
delphia, 1896): "At the opening of the
fight Gen. Meade was with Gen. Sickles dis
cussing the feasibility of moving the 3d
Corps back to the line originally assigned
for it, but the discussion was cut short by
the opening of the confederate battle. If
that opening had been delayed thirty or
forty minutes the corps would have been
thrown back to the general line, and my
first deployment would have enveloped

Little Round Top and carried it before it
could have been strongly manned, and Gen.
Meade would have drawn off to his line
selected behind Pipe creek."

In 1903 I met Gen. Sickles in the Bruns
wick hotel, Boston, and introduced my
self as one of his old division. "I have
maintained all these years," I said, "that
the battle of Gettysburg was won by the ad-
vancee position taken by your Corps under
your own orders.

"That is absolutely true and demon
strated," he replied. "Only last fall I had
a letter from Gen. Longstreet affirming
what he had already published in his his
tory of the war. I will send you a copy."

The letter is as follows, the second itali
cizing being mine :

"Office of the Commissioner of Railroads,
"Washington, September 19, 1902.

"My Dear General Sickles: My plan and
desire was to meet you at Gettysburg on
the interesting ceremony attending the un
veiling of the Slocum monument; but to
day I find myself in no condition to keep
the promise made you when last we were
together. I am quite disabled from a se
vere hurt in one of my feet, so that I am
unable to stand more than a minute or two
at a time. Please present my sincere re
grets to the noble Army of the Potomac,
and accept them, especially, for yourself.

"On that field you made your mark that
will place you prominently before the world
as one of the leading figures of the most
important battle of the Civil War. As a
Northern veteran once remarked to me:
'General Sickles can well afford to leave a
leg oh that field.'

"/ believe that it is now conceded that the
advanced position at the Peach Orchard,
taken by your corps and under your orders,
saved that battlefield to the Union cause.

July 2, 1863]

Sickles assumed the Responsibility

223

GEN. DANIEL E. SICKLES, 1825 —

" It was the sorest and saddest reflection
of my life for many years ; but to-day I can
say, with sincerest emotion, that it was
and is the best that could have come to us
all, North and South; and I hope that the
nation, re-united, may always enjoy the
honor and glory brought to it by that grand
work.

"Please offer my kindest salutations to
your Governor and your fellow comrades of
the Army of the Potomac.

"Always yours sincerely,
(Signed) JAMES LONGSTREET

Lieutenant General Confederate Army"

Gen. Hunt, chief of the artillery, testi
fies: "I suppose the occupation of that
advanced position compelled the enemy to
attack us there, even if they had started to
turn our left flank." This is exactly the
point. They had started to turn our left
flank, and to do it by the Emmitsburg
road. They would have done it, had not
this advance prevented. As the Comte
de Paris points out, the 3d Corps by making
so long a resistance, enabled Meade to
place on his left forces much more numer
ous than those of his assailants.

Double day says: "The movement, dis
astrous in some respects, was propitious as
regards its general results, for the enemy

GEN. JAMES LONGSTREET, 1821-1904

had wasted all their strength and valor in
gaining the Emmitsburg road, which after
all was of no particular benefit to them."

This movement is commonly referred
to as an advance of the 3d Corps to the
Emmitsburg road, but this advance was
only incidental to the real movement,
which was the left wheel of Birney's di
vision to the south to meet the flank at
tack, which soon came from that direc
tion. Had Howard adopted the same tac
tics at Chancellorsville the battle would
have been saved.

Let us admit that our troops formed a
"salient angle", and that salient angles are
dangerous; though in this instance the
troops at this angle were fighting long
after those on their left had given way,
and the first break in Graham's brigade
occurred not at the angle but up the Em
mitsburg road: indeed the confederate
cross-fire and enfilade did not drive one
infantryman from his place.

Let us admit, again, that our lines were
extended till it was impossible to main
tain the ground without assistance. The
Comte de Paris says: "The left of the fed
erals, instead of terminating as the south
ern general in chief had thought, in the
neighborhood of the orchard, was pro-

224

Battle of Gettsyburg

[Gettysburg, Pa.

THE EMMITSBURG ROAD

longed in return from this point as far as
Plum run, thus forming a convex line of
great strength and difficult of access."

Wellington said of Waterloo, "Our army
was drawn up into a good many squares,
with the cavalry riding among them. I
saw it was necessary to present a length of
front to the enemy, so I made them fall into
line, four deep. That maneuvre won the
battle." Besides, why shouldn't Sickles
have assistance ? What was the rest of the
army there for? In the morning he had
warned Gen. Meade that the attack would
be on the left, and Meade had replied, "O,
generals are all apt to look for the attack
to be made where they are."

Instead of sending the troops needed
Meade withdrew Buford's cavalry, that
had guarded our left, leaving our flank ex
posed. The Comte de Paris calls this one

of those blunders that frequently occur on
the battlefield, compromising the safety of
the federal line in just that part which will
be the first to be menaced. So Sickles
sent Ward's brigade to hold the Devil's
Den, and advanced his line of battle on
the right accordingly, to meet the oncom
ing attack on his left flank. Except for
this movement nothing could have pre
vented Longstreet from seizing the
Round Tops, and Gettysburg would
have been another confederate victory.
Gen. Sickles describes his line as "from
Round Top on the left, perpendicular to
the Emmitsburg. road, but somewhat en
echelon with the line of battle established
on Cemetery ridge," and says, "It was
either a good line or a bad one, and which
ever it was I took it on my own responsi
bility because it enabled me to hold com-

July 2, 1863]

A Second Chancellors ville Avoided

225

manding ground, which, if the enemy had
been allowed to take — as they would have
taken it if I had not occupied it in force—
would have rendered our position on the
left untenable, and in my judgment would
have turned the fortunes of the day hope
lessly against us."

Hunt says of the two ridges from the
south and east that met at the Peach
orchard : "They commanded all the ground
behind as well as in front of them. This
was one good reason for our taking possess
ion of it. It would, it is true, present a
salient angle, which generally exposes
both its sides to enfilade fires : but here the
ridges were so high that each would serve
as a 'traverse' for the other, and reduce
the evil to a minimum. * * * * The
salient line proposed by Gen. Sickles al
though much longer afforded excellent
positions for our artillery; its occupation
would cramp the movements of the enemy,
bring us nearer his lines, and afford us
facilities for taking the offensive. It was
in my judgment tactically the better line
of the two, provided it were strongly occu
pied, for it was the only one on the field
from which we could hare passed from the
defensive to the offensive with a prospect
of decisive results." Yet he advised Gen.
Meade against it on the ground that it
would weaken the reserve to occupy it
strongly, and that discretion was the
better part of valor. Meade assented,
and would have commanded Sickles to
fall back, had it not been already too late,
as the battle had begun.

In a confidential letter afterward pub
lished Meade says that he ordered Sickles
to post his corps so that his right was to be
Hancock's left, and his left, Round Top.
To which Gen. Sickles replies: "To this I

answer, First, that this statement is con
tradicted by Gen. Meade's official report
of the battle, and by his testimony before
the committee on the conduct of the war ;
second, it is contradicted by the report of
his chief of artillery, Gen. Hunt; third,
it is absurd, technically and tactically;
fourth, my testimony before the committee
on the conduct of the war presented the
facts, which are wholly different from Gen.
Meade's statement in the Benedict letter,
and were not denied by him when he
testified in the following month." Gen.
Sickles goes on to point out that the dis
tance from Hancock's left to Round Top
was a mile and a quarter, through swale,
morass, bowlders, and forest, and tangled
undergrowth, unfit for infantry, imprac
ticable for artillery, and hopelessly domi
nated by the ridge in front, "which I would
have surrendered without a blow if I had
attempted to execute the impossible orders
Gen. Meade states that he gave to me.
I would have had no positions at all for my
artillery over half of my line, and would
have surrendered to Lee the positions for
his artillery which he states in his official
report it was the object of his movement
to gain."

Sickles says: "If the reenforcements
which came up from 5 o'clock to 6:30 had
arrived three hours earlier Longstreet's
assault on the 2d would have been repulsed
as promptly and decisively as on the 3d."
At night there had been gathered 40,000
troops to hold the line that the 3d corps
held alone for two hours. Why did they
not come earlier ?

Gen. Walker says of Sickles: "That he

. defended the position he had taken with

courage and address, and that^his splendid

troops exhibited unsurpassed gallantry and

Battle of Gettysburg

[Gettysburg, Pa.

resolution, must be admitted by even the
severest critic."

In "The 16th Decisive Battle of the
World" (Gettysburg 1906,) Capt. James Long
says — compare plan facing inside cover;

"Gen. Lee's plan for the second day of
July (the reader will understand that the
union army fought at Gettysburg on the
defensive for the first time, Lee's army
being the attacking party) was to attack
both flanks and the centre at one and the
same time. Longstreet's corps being on
Lee's right, and facing our left, was to
move forward and turn the left flank.
Ewell's corps being on Lee's left and fac
ing our right was to advance and turn
back the Union's right flank, while -A. P.
Hill's corp was to advance and strike the
crushing blow on the Union's center.

"But the 3d Corps of the Union army
having advanced out the Emmitsburg
road to the Peach orchard, and throwing
his sharpshooters and skirmishers still
farther in advance, they discovered Long-
street's movement and brought on the
battle. Longstreet at that time was mov
ing southward with his entire command,
along WiUoughby Run, west of Seminary
Ridge, and under cover of the same, on
his way around the south side of Big
Round Top for the purpose of attacking
Gen. Sickles from the east, then being in
the rear of Sickles's corps. Now if Gen.
Sickles had formed on the left of the 2d
Corps, as ordered at the beginning to do,
and had prolonged his line south to Little
Round Top, the greater portion of his
troops would have been on low, swampy
ground which was untenable, with the
enemy occupying the Emmitsburg road
in his front, and the left of his line would
have been on the summit of Little Round
Top 'in the air' and Longstreet would

have been successful in carrying out his
plans to move around to the south side
of Big Round Top and attack the 3d Corps
from the rear, w^hile a portion of Hill's
corps would have made the attack from
the front. Therefore had Gen. Sickles
not gone out and taken up that advanced
position Longstreet's movement would
not have been discovered, his plans wotild
have been carried out successfully with
no obstructions in his way, as he had
several hours to execute his move, which
would have been under cover and unseen,
before the 5th and 6th corps of the union
army arrived upon the field. %

"Those who study the history of the
battle and visit the field and view the
topography of the ground agree that under
the existing circumstances Gen. Sickles
did the best thing that could have been
done. It is believed by the, military crit
ics who visit the field at this late day
that had Gen. Sickles not fought his bat
tle in the manner and form which he did,
there would have been no battle fought
at Gettysburg on the Third of July."

Just as the fight was about to open Meade
rode up and asked : "Are you not too much
extended, general? Can vou hold your
front?"

''Yes, until more troops are brought up.
The enemy are attacking in force ; I shall
need support."

Well may Meade say "the 3d corps sup
ported the shock most heroically," for they
fought like lions against tremendous odds
for nearly two hours before the 5th corps
came up. Surely Gen. Sykes was not pre
cipitate; he sent word his men were tired
and must boil their coffee first, and when
they came up more than two hours later
than they should their conduct was not all

July 2, 1863]

The Death Struggle

227

that could be desired. They were put on
the left to relieve our 1st Division.

"Barnes's division of the 5th Corps sud
denly gave way. Gen. Birney was sent to
order Barnes back into line. 'No/ he said,
'it is impossible ; it is too hot ; my men can
not stand it.' Gen. Zook volunteered to
take Barnes's place, and found Barnes's
disordered troops in the way. 'If you
can't get out of the way,' said Zook, 'lie
down and I will march over you.' Barnes
ordered his men to lie down and Zook and
his spirited brigade under direction of Bir
ney did march over them and right into the
breach. Zook was mortally wounded at
about half six, just when Sickles lost his
right leg."

Meade now began to pour in the reen-
forcements that earlier in the day would
have saved thousands of lives. The 6th
and part of the 1st Corps, with Lockwood's
Maryland brigade were ordered forward.
Since this concentration of troops was nec
essary, it was remarkable that Sickles alone
had held back the enemy for nearly two
hours.

As I have said, our regiment had been
sent forward to a little log house on the
Emmitsburg road.

About three o'clock the battle began on
the left against Birney's division. Ourbri- .
gade was placed close up to the road, just
under the crest and we joined it. One regi
ment from the 2d Brigade was put with ours
to lengthen the line. As this movement
was 'made the enemy's artillery opened
upon us from the left, at first not seriously.
We {were now more than half a mile in
front of the main line, the 2d Corps nearest.
The orchards on our right were thick, and
there was danger of skirmishers getting in
there unseen. The artillery fire increased,

and by 5 :30 became formidable. It was now
a battle for us, and grew hotter every
minute. Somewhat after 6. p. m. the en
emy began to advance, having broken
through Graham's brigade and crossed
the Emmitsburg road. Gen. Humphreys
was about to advance to meet them
when he learned that Gen. Sickles had
lost a leg and retired, giving the com
mand to Gen. Birney, and the'latter seeing

GEN. DAVID B. BIRNEY, 1825-64

that his own 1st division must withdraw,
and as the Peach orchard had been lost, or
dered Humphreys to swing back his left so
as to connect with the line at the Wheatfield.

Carr reports: "At 12:30 p.m. I was order
ed to move forward and form line, of battle
on the prolongation of a line composed of
the 1st division, connecting on its right.

"About 11 a. m. I had sent out the 1st
Mass, as skirmishers, and this regiment now
covered my front.

"At 4:00 I advanced my line 300 yards
to the crest of a hill, and detailed 100 men
of the 16th Mass, to occupy an old building
in an orchard to my left. My left first be
came engaged, and its position was held
until the Collis Zouaves of the 1st division
gave way. The enemy advanced in con
siderable force on my left flank, which com
pelled me to change my front. No sooner
was this done than the enemy appeared on
my right pouring in a destructive cross fire.

228

The Battle of Gettysburg

[Gettysburg, Pa.

"I could have held my position, but was
ordered by Gen. Birney to fall back to the
crest of the hill in my rear. At that time
I have no doubt I could have charged the
rebels and driven them in confusion, for my
line was still perfect and unbroken and my
troops in the proper spirit for the perform
ing of such a task. In retiring I suffered
a severe loss in killed and wounded. After
I had reached the position designated by
Gen. Birney, the brigade was rallied and
moved forward, driving the enemy and
capturing many prisoners. I continued
to advance until I again occupied the field
I had but a few minutes previous vacated.
Here my command remained till morning."

Gen. Humphreys reports: "Just then
Birney sent word he had succeeded Sickles,
that his division was going to fall back, and
form a line extending toward my right
[left] from Round Top ridge, in rear of and
oblique to my present line, and that I must
change front and form on that line . To do
this I had to change front to rear under a
heavy fire of artillery fire as I wanted to
draw forward my troops to the attack.
While doing this, the troops on my left
that were to continue, the line to Round
Top ridge did not stop there but passed to
or extended beyond it. I formed my line
and extended it out to the left as far as pos
sible to close up this aperture, and by that
time was attacked on my flanks as well as in
front. I have never been under a hotter
artillery and musketry fire combined. For
a moment I thought the day was lost. I
did not order my troops to fall back rapidly
because the crest in my rear was vacant,
and I knew when troops got to moving
back rapidly it was difficult to stop them
just where you wanted to stop them.

"At that moment I received an order to

fall back to the Round Top ridge, which I
did slowly, suffering a very heavy loss. I
rallied my division, or the remnants of it,
on the ridge. As the enemy came up they
received the fire of the 2d Corps on my
right. My troops joined in and we drove
those fellows back. My men brought back
two if not three of the guns we left.
These men of mine did not wait for orders,
but went forward, and as there were so few
of them I went with them to bring them
back before they got too far from our main
line. By that time it was dusk, and the
fighting ceased for the day. I lost 2000
killed and wounded out of 5000.

"My troops behaved very well. It is the
most trying position in which troops can be
placed. I wanted to move forward and
attack, because there is always a great deal
in the spirit of advancing, even though it be
be but a few paces. If I had not received
the order to change my position to the
rear, I do not think I should have suffered*
a great deal more than I did, and I should
have punished the enemy very severely.

"My division lost as severely as any di
vision in the army. It was a fine division,
the men were good soldiers. The spirit of
my men was just as fine after the battle as
at any time. On July 3 the greatest diffi
culty I had was to keep my men from jump
ing over the little breastwork in front of
the artillery and advancing against the
enemy without any orders. They were
full of fight and felt angry at the way they
had been cut up the day before."

3. The change of front
About 6:30 Gen. Sickles received the
wound that resulted in the loss of his leg
and compelled him to retire from the field.
Had he remained in command one need not
doubt that our division would have been

July 2, 1863]

The Change of Front

229

MONUMENT OK THE IST MASS., west of the Emmitsburg road

permitted to advance and meet the on
coming confederates, as Carr and Hum
phreys desired. But Gen. Birney, who had
succeeded to the command, knew that his
own 1st Division must withdraw, and gave
orders that ours must go back with them.

Not everybody understood that this
movement was made under orders. Gen.

Tremain said at the dedication of the 73d
N. Y. monument at Gettysburg: ''When
the Peach orchard at your left had been oc
cupied by the enemy, Humphreys 's division
became exposed to a close enfilading fire
from its left flank. This, when followed
up, as it was, by an infantry attack,
forced us back. When the men of your

230

The Battle of Gettsyburg

[Gettysburg, Pa.

division found themselves assailed both in
front and flank, they broke. Humphreys
could not hold them, but under such a
leader the confusion was only momentary.
I quote from Col. Rafferty of the Excelsior
brigade. He says: 'The men understood
the matter as well as their officers. They
knew that the position could not now be
held and they seemed to have simultane
ously made up their minds that they were
going back to a position they could hold;
and back they did go, but fighting, not dis
orderly. They would fire at the enemy,
walk to the rear, loading as they went, take
deliberate aim and fire again, and so on,
but slowly and deliberately, and so deliber
ately that the enemy kept at a respectful
distance. However, the enemy kept up a
terrible artillery fire, killing and wounding
our poor fellows very rapidly, and yet the
coolness and self-possession of our men
under it was remarkable. They had delib
erately made up their minds that they
were going back to the old line, not as
though they were forced to go, but were
going there to reform: that was all. That
was as far as we were going then, and it is a
fact that the enemy never reached the or
iginal line on which the 2d Division of the
3d Corps had been posted."

Gen. Sharpe said at the dedication of the
Gettysburg monument of the 120th N. Y. :
"Though less than 100 of our men came
unharmed out of that murderous fire, this
regiment held the line till after eleven
o'clock, when another regiment took its
place, enabling the 120th to retire with
Carr's brigade.

"De Trobriand, writing lately, and after
he had been able to examine all the other
authorities, says that Humphreys's division
was gravely compromised after Graham

had been dislodged from the Peach or
chard. The rebels outflanked his left,
and they were moving to attack his front
at the same time. Then with splendid
coolness and under a terrible fire he effected
a change of front without ceasing to carry
on the combat. His right held out to the
Emmitsburg road (that was Carr's bri
gade), and his left extended towards Round
Top in the direction where Birney wished
to form a new line, and this undaunted
left was the 120th. And De Trobriand
adds that this dangerous movement could
not have been carried out except with
troops exceptionally firm, and at the cost of
great sacrifice."

Thomas V. Cooper said in his address at
the dedication of the monument of the
26th Pa.: "About 3 p. m. our 3d Corps
moved to the front, with our brigade at the
celebrated Peach orchard, and our regi
ment covering the right flank of the di
vision, separated from Hancock's 2d Corps
by a gap which proved inviting to the
enemy, for here immediate and repeated
attempts were made to pierce our lines by
bold dashes and charges. All of them
were resisted, and but one came near ac
complishing its destructive purpose. This
was late in the evening, when a large rebel
force, covered by smoke of the guns,
quickly crossed the Emmitsburg road, and
protected by the depression at the right of
the little and now demolished stone house
which flanked the Peach orchard, with
sudden rush and yell plunged itself upon
our already depleted ranks. Then the
26th, and the 1st Mass., our gallant Yan
kee companions upon many battlefields,
obeyed the order of Col. Blaisdell and
Major Bodine, and change direction by
the left flank, in the very face of overpow-

July 2, 1863]

The Final Victory

231

ering numbers. In this way the charge
was checked, and the enemy were kept
closely engaged until a division from the 2d
corps came to our relief and saved the line.
This struggle was the most deadly of the
day, and of the entire battle, and as well of
any battle known to the war. . . .These
frightful losses were largely due to the hero
ic change of direction made by the two
regiments named while under fire and at
close quarters — the most difficult move
ment known to military tactics, and the one
above all others calling for quick intelli-'
gence and high courage.

"Rothermel's great painting selects the
charge of Pickett's division and the stone
angle guarded by the 2d Corps under Han
cock as the dramatic point of the struggle,
and it was upon the third day ; but neither
this point, nor Little Round Top, nor Gulp's
hill, nor Buford's famous dismounted men
stood a shock like that hurled against
Humphrey's division of the 3d Corps, and
especially against our 1st Brigade. Truth
ful history will show that the valor and
sacrifice at and near the Peach orchard
equalled any ever known to the world upon
any battle-field."

The Comte de Paris explains the real
situation when he says: "It is near seven
o'clock. Humphreys has only two brigades
with him; his left is turned; his right,
poorly connected with the 2d corps, which
Cald well's departure has weakened, is only
covered by two regiments of Harrow's
brigade, and three strong brigades are on
the march to attack him. In order to an
ticipate them, Humphreys, like a true war
rior, desires to go forward to meet them.
But Birney, foreseeing disaster to his own
division, orders him to fall back, keeping
his left from participating in the movement
and bringing his right back to the 2d.

In the midst of the tumultuous sounds of
battle, this is accomplished with wonderful
precision ; the battallions are massing in
double column, and execute a backward
march in line ; then, making a quarter- wheel
halting at the point indicated to them by
their chief, they resume the line of battle,
and open at once a wrell sustained fire of
musketry against the assailants, who are
almost upon them. Humphreys also suc
ceeds in taking position along the line which
it is all-important to preserve. But the
trial was a hard one; he will himself ac
knowledge here that he thought at one time
all was lost. He has left one half of his
effective force upon the battle-field, and it
is necessary to count the flags that are
floating along his line in order to realize
the fact that it represents ten regiments."

All the flags were there. We saved ours
too. Corporal Nathaniel M. Allen of Co. B
was one of the heroes of the battle.
When the color sergeant was shot down he
turned back under a shower of bullets,
lifted the flag from the ground, and carried
it off in safety. For this he was awarded
the congressional medal of honor.

Here is an incident told by Bachelder in
"Gettysburg. What to see and how to
see it" (Gettysburg, 1873):

"In the thick of the fight, as General
Humphreys and his officers were using
every exertion to hold the troops, the
General saw Captain Chester of his staff
spring with a convulsive start; turning
to his commander, Chester said, 'General,
I'm shot!' General Humphreys, who had
noted his gallantry in sustaining the line,
sprang to his assistance, and clasping him
with his arm, sustained him in the saddle
until Captain Harry Humphreys, his son,
could take him in charge. An orderly
took the horse to lead him from the field,

232

Battle of Gettsyburg

[Gettsyburg, Pa.

when at the instant a round shot killed
the horse and carried away the orderly's
head. At this moment General Humph reys's
horse, bleeding from seven bullet wounds,
was struck by a shell, and springing convul
sively into the air, threw his rider violently
to the ground, though fortunately not
seriously injuring him. Just then, Cap
tain Humphreys was shot through the
arm; General Carr had his horse killed
under him, and Captains McClellan and
Cavada both had their horses killed. A
portion of the guns of Turnbull's battery
retired with prolonged firing as they went,
others were drawn off by hand, by the in
fantry, and others were captured. By
this almost superhuman effort the attack
ing force was held in check, until portions
of the First, Second, and Twelfth Corps
could be brought up by General Meade,
and a new line formed on Cemetery Ridge;
here the battle ended on the left for the
night."

Several generals testified that the 3d
Corps was cut to pieces in those last hours,
even that it did not exist as a corps. That
may have been true of the 1st Division

after Birney passed from immediate con
trol of it to command of the corps, but
there was never a minute that afternoon
when our division was not under complete
control of Gen. Humphreys as a division,
and that is a rare testimony to his gen
eralship. It was a calamity for us when
he was made chief of staff and succeeded
by Gen. Prince.

When the fighting ended on the second
day the Union line included the two Round
Tops and the wheatfield, and ran thence
through the woods in front of the J. Wei-
kert house to Cemetery ridge, with a
strong picket line including our regiment
on the Emmitsburg road. That portion
of the field between the Emmitsburg road
and Cemetery ridge was held as at the
beginning by union troops. The confed
erate brigades of Anderson's division re
tired to their original position in the woods
to the west. Some of Longstreet's troops
clung to their lodgment at the Devil's den
and held the Emmitsburg road to the
Peach orchard (xxvii, part 2, reports of
Anderson, Wilcox, and Wright).

July 2, 1863]

Gen. Longstreet's Account

233

The Comte de Paris sums up the final re
sult: "Wilcox taken in flank by Me Gil-
very 's artillery instead of the retreating
soldiers he was pursuing meets Humphreys
in good order on one side and Hancock's
reserves on the other, thus finding himself
within a circle of fire where he leaves 500
men out of the 1600 which composed his
command. Rather forsaken than van
quished these two brigades strike once
more the Emmitsburg road. The last
effort of the confederates against the fed
eral left wing has failed."

GEN. JAMES E. B. STUART. 1833-64

Much of the responsibility for the de
feat has been attributed to Gen. Stuart,
whose cavalry was not at hand to inform
and protect the confederates, but his
action will always remain a matter of con
troversy.

Much the most vivid and accurate
account of this day's battle was published
in a newspaper about that time by Gen.
Longstreet, and is reprinted in "Lee and
Longstreet at High Tide" (Gainesville,
Ga., 1905), written and published by his
widow. In reply to my request for per
mission to copy it, she not only gave
courteous assent but sent me an auto
graph copy of the book. It is a descent
from the sublime to the ridiculous that

the only return I can make for this noble
memorial to the strong right arm of the
confederacy is to send her a copy of these
reminiscences of an insignificant little
fifer.

"At half-past three . o'clock the order
was given General Hood to advance upon
the enemy, and, hurrying to the head of
McLaws's division, I moved with his line.
Then was fairly commenced \\hat I do not
hesitate to pronounce the best three hours'
fighting ever done by any troops on any
battle-field. Directly in front of us, oc
cupying the peach-orchard, on a piece of
elevated ground that General Lee desired
me to take and hold for his artillery* was
the Third Corps of the Federals, com
manded by General Sickles.

"Prompt to the order the combat open
ed, followed by artillery of the other corps,
and our artillerists measured up to the
better metal of the enemy by vigilant
work. . . .

"In his usual gallant style Hood led
his troops through the rocky fastnesses
against the strong lines of his earnest ad
versary, and encountered battle that call
ed for all of his power and skill. The en
emy was tenacious of his strong ground;
his skillfully handled batteries swept
through the passes between the rocks;
the more deadly fire of infantry concen
trated as our men bore upon the angle of
the enemy's line and stemmed the fiercest
onset until it became necessary to shorten
their work by a desperate charge. This
pressing struggle and the cross-fire of our
batteries broke in the salient angle, but
the thickening fire, as the angle was pressed
back, hurt Hood's left and held him in a
steady fight. His right brigade was drawn
towards Round Top by the heavy fire pour-

234

Battle of Gettysburg

[Gettysburg, Pa.

ing from that quarter, Benning's brigade
was pressed to the thickening line of the
angle, and G. T. Anderson's was put in
support of the battle growing against
Hood's right.

"I rode to McL^ws, found him ready
for his opportunity, and Barksdale chafing
in his wait for the order to seize the bat
tery in his front. Kershaw's brigade of
his right first advanced and struck near
the angle of the enemy's line where his
forces were gathering strength. After
additional caution to hold his ranks closed,
McLaws ordered Barksdale in. With
glorious bearing he sprang to his work,
overriding obstacles and dangers. With
out a pause to deliver a shot, he had the
battery. Kershaw, joined by Semmes's
brigade, responded, and Hood's men, feel
ing the impulse of relief, resumed their
bold fight, and presently the enemy's line
was broken through its length. But his
well-seasoned troops knew how to utilize
the advantage of their ground and put-
back their dreadful fires from rocks, de
pressions, and stone fences, as they went
for shelter about Little Round Top. . .
The fighting had become tremendous, and
brave men and officers wrere stricken by
hundreds. Posey and Wilcox dislodged
the forces about the Brick House.

"General Sickles was desperately wound
ed!

"General Willard was dead!

"General Semmes, of McLaws's division
was mortally wounded! . . .

"I had one brigade — Wofford's — that
had not been engaged in the hottest bat
tle. To urge the troops to their reserve
power in the precious moments, I rode
with Wofford. The rugged field, the
rough plough of artillery fire, and the pierc
ing musket-shots delayed somewhat the

march, but Alexander dashed up with his
batteries and gave new spirit to the worn
infantry ranks. . . . While Meade's lines
were growing my men were dropping; we
had no others to call to their aid, and the
weight against us was too heavy to carry.
. . . Nothing was heard or felt but the
clear ring of the enemy's fresh metal as
it came against us. No other part of the
army had engaged! My seventeen thou
sand against the Army of the Potomac!
The sun was down, and with it went down
the severe battle,"

July 3. The Battle continued. About 3
P.M. the whole Rebel Artillery was pointed
upon our Centre. The firing was terrific
and said to be the hardest of the 'war. It
hardly seemed as hard to me though as on
Saturday night at Chancellor sville. where
there seemed to be a regular clockwork move
ment. But with all their firing our men
held their position and the Battle of Get
tysburg is a Federal Victory.

Our part in the third day's battle was not
important, though we were under fire, and
were witnesses of Pickett's charge on our
right.

Gen. Carr finally reports: "At 6 a. m.
I was ordered to the rear where the balance
of the corps were in bivouac. After re
plenishing my supply of ammunition I was
ordered to the front and left of the line to
support a division of the 5th corps which
was in the first line. At 3:22 p. m. I was
ordered to the centre of the line to support
the 2d corps. As I lay in columns of bat-
tallion closed in mass I suffered severely
from the artillery fire of the enemy.

"At dusk I was ordered to my former
position where I remained."

Gen. Humphreys reports: "At daylight
I began moving to the rear and the enemy

July 3, 1863]

Pickett's Charge on the ThirdjDay

235

SCENE OF PICKETT'S CHARGE, from Signal Rook, Little Round Top

commenced shelling me fiercely. I waited
half an hour to see what they meant to do,
and then got together my 1st brigade which
was with the 1st division and put my di
vision into some shape.

"I then moved up and formed my di
vision in masses in rear of the 5th Corps. I
was ordered to move quickly to the right
and form in columns of attack and be pre
pared to advance. I did so and remained
massed in rear of seven batteries that were
near the ground I had first of all occupied
on the night of July 1. I sustained a loss
there from artillery fire of seven very val
uable officers and somewhat less than 100
men. We did not advance and the enemy
did not renew the attack. Towards night
I returned to my position further to the
left, where I remained until we marched
from Gettysburg "

Gen. Longstreet's account is as follows:
"Never was I so depressed as upon that
day. I felt that my men were to be sac
rificed, and that I should have to order
them to make a hopeless charge. I had
instructed General Alexander, being un
willing to trust myself with the entire
responsibility, to carefully observe the

effect of the fire upon the enemy, and when
it began to tell to notify Pickett to begin
the assault. I was so much impressed
with the hopelessness of the charge that
I wrote the following note to General
Alexander :

'If the artillery fire does not have the
effect to drive off the enemy or greatly
demoralize him, so as to make our efforts
pretty certain, I would prefer that you
should not advise General Pickett to make
the charge. I shall rely a great deal on
your judgment to determine the matter,
and shall expect you to let Pickett know
when the moment offers.'

"To my note the general replied as fol
lows:

' 'I will only be able to judge the effect
of our fire upon the enemy by his return
fire, for his infantry is but little exposed
to view, and the smoke will obscure the
whole field. If, as I infer from your note,
there is an alternative to this attack, it
should be carefully considered before open
ing our fire, for it will take all of the
artillery ammunition we have left to test
this one thoroughly, and if the result is
unfavorable, we will have none left for

236

The Battle of Gettsyburg

[Gettsyburg, Pa.

PICKETT'S CHARGE

another effort, and even if this is entirely
successful it can only be so at a very
bloody cost.'

"I still desired to save my men, and
felt that if the artillery did not produce
the desired effect I would be justified in
holding Pickett off. I wrote this note to
Colonel Walton at exactly 1.30 p. m.:

" 'Let the batteries open. Order great
precision in firing. If the batteries in the
peach-orchard cannot be used against the
point we intend attacking, let them open
on the enemy at Rocky Hill.'

"The cannonading which opened along
both lines was grand. In a few moments
a courier brought a note to General Pick
ett (who was standing near me) from Alex
ander, which, after reading, he handed me.
It was as follows:

' 'If you are coming at all you must
come at once, or I cannot give yon proper
support; but the enemy's fire has not slack
ened at all: at least eighteen guns are still
firing from the cemetery itself.'

"After I had read the note Pickett said
to me, 'General, shall I advance?' My
feelings had so overcome me that I would
not speak for fear of betraying my want
of confidence to him. I bowed affirmation
and turned to mount my horse. Pickett
immediately said, 'I shall lead my division
forward, sir.' I spurred my horse to a
wood where Alexander was stationed with
artillery. When I reached him he told
me of the disappearance of the seven guns
which were to have lead the charge with
Pickett, and that his ammunition was so
low that he could not properly support

July 3-5, 1863]

After the Battle

237

S^/mfe^;:

BODIES ON THE

the charge. I at once ordered him to
stop Pickett until the ammunition had
been replenished. He informed me that
he had no ammunition with which to re
plenish. I then saw that there was no
help for it, and that Pickett must advance
under his orders. He swept past our ar
tillery in splendid style, and the men
marched steadily and compactly down
the slope. As they started up the ridge
over one hundred cannon from the breast
works of the Federals hulled a rain of
canister, grape, and shell down upon
them; still they pressed on until half-way
up the slope, when the crest of the hill
was lit with a solid sheet of flame as the
masses of infantry rose and fired. When
the smoke cleared away Pickett's division
was gone. Nearly two-thirds of his men
lay dead on the field, and the survivors
were sullenly retreating down the hill.

BATTLEFIELD

Mortal man could not have stood that
fire. In half an hour the contested field
was cleared and the battle of Gettysburg
was over.

"When this charge had failed I expect
ed that of course the enemy would throw
himself against our shattered ranks and
try to crush us."

July 4. Rainy. Our men went out to
bury the dead. The Battle is over. Got
wet through at night.

July 5. Rainy. Went out on the Battle
field. An awful sight. Men, horses, all
lying in heaps as far as the eye could reach.
Got plate, etc., and some relics.

I should not dare to print or even to tell
the horrible sights I saw. Bodies had be
come swollen till they were inconceivably
distorted: I recollect a man whose bladder
protruded and was inflated to 'a foot in
diameter. The picture on page 176 must

238

Battle of Gettysburg

[Gettysburg, Pa.

be drawn from memory, for not a body on
the field looked as natural as that after the
field was open to us. It is a terrible sight
to see on the field the bodies of the freshly
slain, but when they lie twenty-four hours,
they become unnatural and the sight be
comes distressing.

Benton says: "For the most part the
dead were lying on their backs with wide-
open, expressionless eyes. In a few in
stances the features were drawn and dis
torted in a manner which gave an expres
sion of great pain and horror. I supposed
at the time that these victims suffered very
painful deaths, but after experiences con
vinced me that the expression of the feat
ures after death gives no clue whatever to
the presence or absence of pain before
death takes possession. * * *

"All were bloating and blackening in the
July heat, and the air was filled with that
indescribably sickening odor never found
save on a summer battle-field. Trees cut
and mangled in their full leafage ; thousands
of camp-fires from which ascended the
smoke and steam of wet burning wood and
blood saturated clothing; the putrefac
tion of human and animal remains, all
combined and blended to assail, lest the
sense of sight should not be sufficient, the
sense of smell as well."

Carl Schurz says of this field: "There can
be no more hideous sight than that of
corpses on a battlefield, after they have
been exposed a day or more to the sun in
hot weather — the bodies swollen to mon
strous size, the faces bloated and black,
the eyes bulging out with a dead stare,
all their features puffed out almost beyond
recognition, some lying singly or in rows,
others in heaps, having fallen over one an
other, some in attitudes of peaceful repose,

others with arms raised, others in a sitting
posture, others on their knees, others
clawing the earth, many horribly distorted
by what must have been a frightful death-
struggle."

One thing impressed us all, the universal
confederate skill in self-protection. We
learned something of it afterward, but I
do not think before Gettysburg we had
done much more than to get behind stones
and trees, when possible, and to throw up
company entrenchments. Here we could
see that every soldier had dug his own little
rifle-pit, with knife or spoon or plate or
bayonet, and we realized that even six
inches of dirt in front and a depression of
six inches behind made a breastwork that
to many a man lying in line made the
difference between life and death.

We lost at Gettysburg 5291 in killed
and those who died of their wounds, and
the losses on both sides in killed and
wounded were more than Washington
ever had under his command at any one
time.

At Balaklava the Light Brigade took
637 men and officers into the charge. They
lost 113 killed and 134 wounded, or al
together 36.7%. At Gettysburg 20 dif
ferent regiments lost more than 50%.

The charge of the Light Brigade at
Balakalava wa» a failure in result while the
charge of the Heavy Brigade under Col.
Scarlett was a striking success. It was
equally brave, but no one knows about it
because Tennyson did not write a poem
about it. It was so in the Revolutionary
war, as Dr. Andrew S. Draper has so well
pointed out; New York had the soldiers
but Massachusetts had the historians.

CHAPTER XX. BACK TO VIRGINIA

ARCHING back to
Virginia was in
some respects un
welcome, but at
least we marched
back as victors.
Why did not Gen.
Meade act more
like a victor? He seemed as afraid after
the battle as before.

July 6. Rainy. An order was read from
Gen Mead stating that French had des
troyed the Pontoons. Why don't they let us
follow the Rebels. Pennsylvanians are
anxious to avenge their brothers who have
fallen.

I cannot express the impatience of the
army at being held back from snatching
the fruits of victory. Gen. Sickles said at
the dedication of the New York monu
ments at Gettysburg: "Some time after the
close of the war I asked Gen. Alexander,
who commanded Lee's artillery at Gettys
burg, what would have been the result if
our reserves of infantry and cavalry had
been thrown on the right flank and rear of
the confederates after their defeat. He
answered, "The war would have ended in
an hour."

Lee ordered a retreat at 2 o'clock on the
morning of the 4th. The wagon train 17
miles long started at 4 o'clock in the after
noon, in a drenching rain, with peremptory
orders that there should be no halt for any
cause whatever. Nearly the whole train
reached Williamsport on the afternoon of
the 5th, and found the river was 10 feet
above the fording line, an easy prey if we
had followed.

Gen. Hunt, our chief of artillery testi
fied: "If an immediate and vigorous and
successful attack had been made after the
repulse on the 3d, we should most likely
have captured all the enemy's artillery.
I should have advised an attack as soon as
the troops could be collected. We must
risk to win."

Before the congressional committee all
the witnesses but Gen. Meade state that it
was apparent in the morning of the 7th of
July that the enemy were in full retreat,
and Generals Pleasanton, Warren, Bering
and others state that they counselled im
mediate pursuit. Gen. Birney says that
he obtained permission to attack that
morning, but just as he commenced the
movement, a staff officer rode up with a
written order not to attack but to let the
enemy go.

Gen. Howe states that his division had
the lead of the 6th corps, after passing
Boonsboro, but he was directed to move care
fully, and not to come in contact with the
enemy, as a general engagement was not
desired.

Gen. Meade says that even on the 5th of
July he was not satisfied that the enemy
was in full retreat and was not aware of
the injury he had inflicted. He testified
that he believed an engagement would
have resulted disastrously, but no other
general that appeared thought so. Gen.
Hancock dictated a dispatch from his
surgeon's couch to Meade "If the 6th
and 5th corps have passed up, the enemy
will be destroyed. The enemy must be
short of ammunition, as I was shot with a
ten-penny nail" Benton say*: "That

239

240

Back to Virginia

[Emmetsburg, Md.

heavy cannonading previous to Pickett's
charge must have exhausted the enemy's
store of artillery ammunition, and our
men knew of it and talked of it at the time.
Short sections of railroad iron were among
the curiosities of projectiles that were
hurled among us, and once a large stone
struck a tree directly over my head, the
pieces dropping to the ground about me."

Gen. Hancock tes uified : "I think the ene
my, from peculiarity of characteristic and
climate, and possibly other reasons, at
tack with more vivacity, but I do not think
they continue the fight with the same ener
gy as our troops do when serious resistance
is made. There is no finer army in the
world than the army of the Potomac.
The troops will do anything if they are
only ordered. If they have not made. this
or that attack it is because their command
ers did not order them to make it. It is
more difficult to stand and receive an at
tack — see it coming on before you are
called upon to take part in it — than in any
other operation in war. I have always had
troops that were eager to attack, and I
judge it has been owing to the policy or
temperament of the commander that that
has not been our system."

Gen. Howe testified: "I have been 22
years in the army; I graduated in 1841.
I was in what was known as Turks 's di
vision in the war with Mexico, on Gen.
Scott's side and before we left Puebla to go
into the valley of Mexico there was a great
deal of pride and emulation between that
division and another division commanded
by Gen. Worth, as to which should become
the most efficient, and I refer to the con
dition of things at Puebla as showing per
haps the highest degree of efficiency in any
light division that we have had since I have
been in the service.

"And when I came to compare the per-
sonel of this army, the degree of efficiency
of which it is capable of rapidly attaining,
with anything I have before seen, I may
say that I do not think the old army can
compare with this one. There is a de
gree of military efficiency and dis
cipline, a skill and ability to perform oper-
tions, that I have never seen equalled at all
in the best showing I have ever seen in the
old army. The character and intelligence
of the men is markedly superior; they are
men of far more intelligence, and more
readily acquire efficiency in military mat
ters. Except for the high character of the
rank and file as men of intelligence and
ability to understand, I cannot acconnt for
the good morals of our army as it stands at
this day, in the face of the failures and dis
appointments and mortifications which
they have met."

Thus the fruits of the battle were dis
carded. As is well known, Lincoln ex
pressed his disapprobation so strongly that
Meade resigned, but was persuaded to con
tinue in command. Meade reports: "I
did not fail to attack the enemy at Wil-
liamsport till I could do so safely; I simply
delayed the attack until, by examination
of his position, I could do so with some
reasonable degree of probability that the
attack would be successful. He withdrew
before this information could be obtained."

If Mark Twain had written that it would
be funnier than anything he has given us in
twenty years.

Gen. Meade reported: "It was not until
late in the evening (23) that the enemy de
bouched from the pass sufficiently to de
ploy any larger force than the 3d corps,
though this was followed by the 5th and
6th. During the night the 12th and two
divisions of the 6th were ordered up and it

July 6-7, 1863]

Following the Enemy at Safe Distance

241

was my intention to attack with my whole
force, in the hope of separating the force of
the enemy and capturing such portions as
had not reached the passes. I regret to in
form you that on advancing this morning at
daylight the enemy had again disappeared,
declining battle, and though an immediate
advance was made and Front Royal oc
cupied nothing was seen of him but a rear

guard of cavalry with a battery of ar
tillery."

July 7. Rainy. Started after the Rebels
at last. Passed through Emmetsburg and
near there got splendid dinner of green peas,
etc. At the College of St. Mary, Dinners
and good dinners, too, were furnished at 10
cts each. Halted the other side of Mechan-
icstown. Was wet through at night of course.

HAGEUSTOWN, VA.

242

Back to Virginia

[Harper's Ferry, Va.

SHARPSBURG. YA.

It will be observed from the map that
while the southern army went down the
western side of the mountains straight to
Hagerstown and Williamsport, where they
were to cross, we came down the east side.
For sometime Hagerstown was the con
federate headquarters. Our march to
Williamsport was more than twice as long
as theirs.

We had an order to move at 3:00 a. m.,
and after marching 7 miles halted for
breakfast. We marched 17 miles farther,
bivouacking at 5 p. m.

July 8. Rainy. Went ahead of the Reg't,
and got into Frederick early, spending all
my money and eating everything I could get
hold of. The 7th N. Y. were there.

We passed through Lewinsville and Kit-
toctan furnaces, and bivouacked three or
four miles beyond Frederick City.

July 9. Pleasant \ \ \ For the first time in
3 weeks we have got a pleasant day. But I
was sick and unable to keep up with the Reg't

so I stopped in a barn with Me Arty of Co.
G. over night.

Sleeping on the wet ground night after
night proved too much for me for a day or
two. The regiment crossed the Kittock-
tan mountains through Fox gap. At this
place Gen. Carr took command of our
division. Since Gen. Sickles was wounded,
Gen. French 'had been in command of the
corps.

July 10. Pleasant. Went on to Boons-
boro where I saw George Cripps, and went
back with him to where he left the Div. Ar
riving there found they had gone to Boons-
bar o, so I laid down and went to sleep.

This confounding of the verbs lie and lay
seems my commonest grammatical error,
but I think the distinction was less com
monly preserved than then now, even
among educated people. Chaplain Cud-
worth, for instance, says " Only forty
laid down in the rain ", and the last words
written by Lt, Col. Dwight of the 2d

July 7-14, 1863 J

The Enemy had Escaped

243

LOUDON HEIGHTS, showing Harper's Ferry, Maryland Heights, etc.

Mass., a Harvard graduate, were " Our
troops have left the part of the field
where I lay, the verb being present."

The weather suddenly changed from cold
to intensely hot, and marching was ex
hausting. The regiment passed through
Keedysville, crossed the Little Amsterdam
on the stone bridge, and bivouacked at
7:00 p. m. At 10:50 it started again,
proceeded to Brook mill, recrossed the An-
tietam, and bivouacked at 3:00 a. m. in a
wheatfield on the Boonsboro and Williams -
port turnpike .

July 11. Pleasant. Went back to the Reg' t,
and got the mail. Moved a little in P. M.

1 found it glad of a morning's rest, but at
3:00 p. m. we moved a mile and a half to
Roxbury mills.

July 12. Pleasant. Got some water in
the morning at the best spring I ever saw in
my life. Moved ahead in the afternoon to
within % mile of the front.

In the morning we received orders to
attack and hoped a blow was at last to be
struck. But we remained inactive till
three in the afternoon, when we advanced
a mile and bivouacked in the woods.

July 13. Rainy. Laid still during the
day. Siege Guns were sent by us to the
front. Hope that isn't a specimen of
Mead's policy. It is too MacLellanish.
The Jack of Spades.

July 14. Rainy. Our skirmishers,
smelling a rat advanced in the morning and
sure enough Johnnie had gone. The Prison
ers laughed at our Greenness. We went

HARPER'S FERRY, VA.

ANOTHER PICTURE OF HARPER'S FERRY

July 14-18, 1863]

A Little Foraging

245

LAST UIVOUAC IN MARYLAND

ahead early to Williamsport & stopped for
the night.

We had orders at 7:00 a. m. to move and
advanced four miles, but found the enemy's
works evacuated, and went into bivouac
on the pike, four miles from Williasmport.
They said they had but 7 rounds of am
munition and hoped for success only by
frightening us by a great show of strength.

July 15. Cloudy. Started back to Har
per's Ferry. Passed through Sharpsburg
and spent what money I had there.

We marched 17 miles through Fair Play,
Tilgmanton, and the battlefield of An-
tietam, and bivouacked at 11:30 p. m.
three miles beyond Sharpsburg.

July 16. D. D. Started early and went
within three miles of Harper's Ferry. Re
quisitions for Clothing, and Pay Rolls.
Blackberries in profusion.

We started at a quarter of eight and

marched around Maryland heights, through
Boonsboro. The view was magnificent.

July 17. D. D. Started about 4 P. M.
and went through Harper's Ferry into Va.
again.

Thomas Jefferson declared Harper's
Ferry one of the most stupendous scenes
in nature, and well worth a voyage across
the Atlantic to witness.

We crossed the Potomac on a pontoon
bridge at Sandy Hook, and crossed the
Shenandoah by a wire bridge. As we
passed through the town we were especially
interested of course in the engine house
where John Brown was captured four years
before. It was close by the water, on the
principal street.

July 18. Pleasant. Got a 75 ct loaf of
Bread on the road and didn't pay for it.

I told that story of the loaf of bread
once in 1871 in The Weston Boarding

246

Back to Virginia

[Harper's Ferry, Va.

School Cadet. There is a feeble attempt at
dialect, but so far as I can remember the
incidents were exactly as stated, so I quote
the article here.

Ye see, stranger, me and Prest was a
stragglin'. Prest, he was a long, lean,
lank, slab-sided Down-earster — not more'n
eighteen-year old; but law! that chap gra\\
inches faster'n he grew months. His feet
was the wust; why that feller, he'd set out
on a march with shoes he could jump into,
and afore we'd been out a week, that crit
ter's foot would' a grown bigger 'n his shoe,
and he'd go hobble-de-hobble, hobble-de-
hobble, blistered up no end. So he couldn't
keep 'long with the regiment, and he used
to fall out, and travel with me. For I tell
you what, stranger, I never did like to
march in the company — this keep'n in
fours, and haltin' along for an hour while
the front column's gettin' over a brook, and
then makin' up for it the rest o' the day is
wusser'n the travel itself. So I allus used
to kind o' slink out in the mornin' and go my
own gait, and when it cum night, I was up
with 'em, and not half so tired, neither.

Wai! this time me and Prest was a joggin'
along — 'twas after Gettysburg, and we was
a goin' up one side o' the Blue Ridge, and
the Johnnies on the t'other — and we tuk a
notion we'd have some soft bread: hard
tack, and salt junk is better'n nuthin', but
we'd had four weeks of it stiddy, and we
wanted sumthin' fresher. So we stepped
into a little Virginia shanty, and we asked
the old woman if she could bake us a loaf
o' bread. She was a cross-lcokin' old
heifer, and she growled out she'd like to
know where the money was comin' to pay
her. So I pulled out an old pocketbook
stuffed full o' paper, and I slapped it, 'n
told her we was Kurnel McLaughlin's or
derly 'n cook, and we was gettin' up a dinner

fur him. So she pulled out o' her oven a
loaf of bread — reg'lar Maryland loaf-
big as a milkpan, 'n white 'n light as a heap
'o snow, 'n she said we could have that for
a dollar. Now, ye know, stranger, we
hadn't seen a greenback since the last pay
day, three months gone, but I told the miser
ly old crone, sez I, "That's what we alluz
pay," sez I "That's all hunk. And new,"
sez I, kind 'o feelin' my way, "the Kurnel,"
sez I, "he wants some biscuit for dinner,
most particularly. Couldn't ye' bake him
a dozen or two?" And the old she-wolf,
she thought we must be flush o' rhino, so
sez she, her greedy old eyes snappin, "Yes,
I can cook a dozen for a dollar 'n a half."
So I told her that was dirt cheap, }n that I
would wait for 'em.

Now, ye' see, stranger, the bother of it
was to get Prest started along with the loaf
o' soft-tack. Wai, I seen the old woman's
oven wouldn't hold but a dozen biscuit at a
time, so while she was mixin' up, sez I,
"Don't ye' know some other lady as could
bake us another dozen while you was a
bakin' these? Our Kurnel's an awful
eater," sez I. So she said her sister lived
about a quarter of a mile on, and she iright
bake us some, though she prob'ly wouldn't
do is so cheap. So I told Prest to go on
to that house (winkin' to him), and get
some biscuit started, and wait for me.
Just as he was goin' out o' the door, sez I:
"Hold on thar; you've got a knapsack and
I ain't. Our Kurnel's so particular to have
his bread look smooth, you'd better put it
into your knapsack." He seen the p'int to
wunst, and begun to unstrap the knapsack.
The old woman, she kind o' smelt a rat, and
said she didn't want no vittles to go till
they was paid for, but I pulled out my old
greenback-holder agin, and I slapped it
agin, and asked her wasn't I goin' to stay

July 18, 1863]

Foraging

247

RETURNING FROM A

till them biscuits was baked ? So she let
him go, kind o' onvvillin' like, 'n he started
off his with the soft-tack. After he'd had
time to get a good piece down the road, I
begun to kalkilate how I was goin' to git
away. Ye' see I'd taken off my haversack
'n canteen, 'n I couldn't git 'em on without
wakin' up the old woman. But she had a
little youngster runnin' around, 'n I called
him up 'n asked him how he would like to
be a soldier? He was a impudent little
cus(tomer), and he said as how if he was a
soldier he'd shoot every darn Yankee he
seen. I kind o' flattered him 'n got him
good-natured, 'n then I told him to put on
my fixin's 'n see how he'd like to wear 'em.
So he put the straps around his neck, 'n
tried to walk. But I told him that wasn't
right: 'n I took 'em, and sez I, "You see,"
sez I, "ye' put on this haversack on, so;
'n then ye' put on this canteen on, so; and

FORAGING EXPEDITION

then when they say, 'Forward,' ye' start
off, so; left, right; left, right; left, right."
So I went on till I got outside the front
gate, 'n then sez I, "When they say,
'Double quick,' I go so;" 'n the way I cut
down that road would a made greased
lightnin' ashamed of hisself . The wind was
a comin' toward me, and it fetched along
the old woman's cusses, as she stood in the
door, 'n see her Yankee customer gittin'
down the road. But bymeby I cotched up
with Prest, 'n such a dinner as we had
was a caution, stranger.

This was, so far as I remember the only
foraging I did in the army, except at Mine
Run to aid in killing a cow we found in a
pasture. The Virginia we marched over
had reached Sheridan's ideal, a country so
devastated that a crow flying over it would
have to carry his rations with him. Some
times we traded for a pie or a hoecake, but

248

Back to Virginia

[Harper's Ferry, Va.

the people were so poor we usually made
excuses to give them the best of the bar
gain. If this old woman had shown a
different spirit we -should have left her
something she would have regarded as
more than an equivalent for her loaf of
bread.

I sometimes regretted that I had missed
this element of a soldier's life that is us
ually so prominent. It was best exem
plified on Sherman's march to the sea,
where the men we're not only permitted
but encouraged to plunder the country in
order to cut off supplies from the confed
erate army. Major George Ward Nichol's
"The Story of the Great March" (N. Y.,
1865) is startling in its frank relation of the
spirit there.

We are familiar with the plundering by
European armies. When Blucher was
taken to the dome of St. Paul's his ex
clamation was "Ach! Vat a zity var to
zack!" Marlborough's advice in Flanders

was "Always quarter upon the enemy, my
lads, always quarter upon the enemy."

During the Peninsular war the French
frequently wore British uniforms they had
stripped from their dead adversaries.
Thomas Hasker, who fought at Waterloo
said, "I lay bleeding from a dozen wounds
and was soon covered with blood. I was
plundered by the French soliders of my
watch, money, canteen, haversack, and
trowsers, notwithstanding the balls from
the British were dropping on all sides as
I lay there."

Southey describes the looting by French
soldiers on Massena's retreat from Portugal
as scientific. They were provided with
tools for the work of pillage, and broke
open furniture from behind so that no
valuables could be hidden. They exam
ined whether there was new masonry or if
any part of the cellar had been disturbed.
They poured water, and if it were absorbed
in one place faster than in another they dug

July 18, 1863]

Foraging

249

THE "T3UMMEK."

there for buried treasure. The habit of
living by prey called forth, as in beasts, the
faculty for discovering it.

This very habit is described by Nichols,
who even gives this picture of it, as he does
this other of "The bummer", a type of
creature that Sherman's army found useful,
and of which Nichols speaks not without
respect.

-' Most of the foraging done by our other
armies was apparently surreptitious. A
drummer captured a couple of geese and
hid them inside his drum. Presently the
colonel observed that the drummer was not
playing, and called out, "Why don't you
beat that drum?" "Colonel, I want to
speak to you," the man said. The colonel
drew close and asked, "Well, what have you
to say?" "Colonel," he whispered, "I
have two geese in here." "Of course if
you are sick you need not play," said the
colonel in a loud voice; and he had roast
goose for supper.

There was a good deal of good-natured
banter. A picket went to a near-by house
and asked to borrow a frying-pan. The
woman brought it, but the man stood
looking it over. "Well," she said, "is
there anything more I can do for you?"
"Could you lend me a piece of meat to fry
in it?" he asked, laughing in spite of
himself: and he got it. One man com
plained, with a winning smile "I haven't
had a mouthful for three days, to-day, to
morrow, and next day."

Sometimes the foraging was above board.
Gen. Paine said to a woman who com
plained of losing chickens, "We're going
to put down the rebellion if it takes every
chicken in Tennessee."
Saw a lot of Randolph boys in the IQth Vt.
Had a good dinner. Reached Hillsborough.
Got our mail.

We moved to what was called Wood
grove, nearer eight miles than six. We
marched up Sweet Run to Hillsborough,

250

Back to Virginia

\VHKN THE MULE is REFRACTORY

July 18-20, 1863]

The Army Mule

251

MULE SHOEING IN THE ARMY

which was in the vicinity of Snicker's gap,
on the eastern base of the Blue Ridge
mountains. We were keeping within easy
marching distance of the gaps, so as to
guard them from the confederate army,
which was marching down the Shenandoah
valley on the other side of the mountains.

July 19. Very hot. Started early and
went about 6 miles. Saw some splendid
mules on the Cavalry Train.

The mule is usually thought of as having
no pride of ancestry or hope of posterity
and therefore despicable, but a team of
mules is much more valuable and effective
than a team of horses of corresponding
grade. Such mules as these were noble
animals.

The braying of the mules was inter
preted to call "Jo-o-o Hooker, Hooker,
Hooker \"

July 20. Had my things carried in

Can's Ambulance, and lost haversack, etc,
in P. M.

We started at four in the morning, and
reached Upperville at noon.

I had a way of getting into a wagon train
and putting my things on behind one -of the
wagons, for even light articles become
heavy on a march. Usually I walked
behind beside them, but this time I cut
across the field and waited for the ambu
lance to come around the road. It came,
but on the way somebody had stolen my
rubber blanket, haversack, and canteen,
all I had left of stuff I had started out with
from winter quarters. That meant I must
absolutely go without these things till there
was the next distribution of clothing. All
I had in the world was the clothes on my
back. Curiously enough this was the last
day of my first year in the army: not a
very profitable enterprise so far.

CHAPTER XXI. THE BATTLE OF WAPPING HEIGHTS

BATTLE
that probably
you never
heard of, yet
Gen. M e a d e
expected
W a p p ing
Heights to be
greater than
Gettysburg.

To us it was largely a joke.

July 21. Pleasant. One year ago today

1 enlisted. Gen. Carr wouldn't let us go

around when we came to a stream but made

us wade right through.

I have a general feeling that we never

liked Gen. Carr very well, though there was

GEN. JOSEPH H. CARR, 1828-95

no marked expression that I remember.
We compared every one with Fighting Jo
Hooker.

We moved to Piedmont, on the Manas -
sas Gap R. R., starting at 2:30 and biv
ouacking at 7: p. m.

THOROUGHFARE GAP, VA.
252

July 21-3, 1863]

Manassas Gap

253

The railway had been destroyed by
Jackson during his retreat in 1862 and was
strewn with half -burned sleepers, twisted
rails, car wheels, and tin roofing. We
marched along the road beside the em
bankment to the entrance to the gap,
passing through Springfield and Barhams-
ville. Chaplain Cudworth says: "The
land now began gradually to rise, sloping
down from both sides of the mountains,
right and left to the valley between, along
which wound the road to the other side of
the ridge. In some places these moun
tains where the ascent was gradual and
easy had been cleared of trees and bushes,
and were covered with fields of grass,
clover, and grain. In others they were en
closed with walls and fences for the pas
turage of cattle and sheep. The soil was
exceedingly rich, but the surface of the
ground was covered with loose stones,
some of large size, above and around which
the rank grass had grown, making the move
ment of artillery and the maneuvering of
large bodies of men matters of no little
difficulty. The common roads, likewise,
having been at the same time roads and
beds for the mountain brooks which ran,
one to the east and the other to the west
through the gap, were rougher than any
thing the army of the Potomac had ever
before experienced in all its marches and
travels. Movable stones of all sizes and
shapes, from the common cobble to blocks
two or three feet high and as many broad,
lay directly in the track over which ar
tillery must proceed and the artillery be
driven. Army horses and mules usually
have a hard life; but here they were jerked
and twitched about and tripped up so
constantly that not a heart but pitied the
poor brutes. Knowing the nature of Ma
nassas gap, the rebels had not ventured to

bring their forces further than to the west
ern entrance, and had spread them out
over a series of eminences known as
Wapping heights."

July 22. Pleasant. Started about 2 P.
M. and marched along easily towards Ma
nassas Gap. Got some splendid Black
berries when we halted.

Those blackberries must have gone far
to preserve the health of the army after
our scant rations of salt meat. On this
particular afternoon I. sat down where we
halted and filled my cap with berries with
out moving. They were fine, large berries
too. I had never liked blackberries at
home, but after this they always seemed to
me delicious.

July 23. Pleasant. Reached Manassas
Gap.

We halted for an hour at the entrance to
the gap, and at ten o'clock formed line of
battle and advanced up the gap half a mile.
We came up with the 1st division at Lui-
den. At two, our regiment was sent for
ward in support of picket line and entered
upon the good-natured exchange of shots
of which I have spoken above. We
made our way in a leisurely manner up the
hill, and bivouacked on the summit. I
take this picture of the view from there
from Chaplain Cudworth's book, regretting
that I cannot name the two men who get so
much more prominence than the landscape.
He describes the view, however, as exquis
itely beautiful. "Front Royal was in the
foreground, with the swelling ranges of Mas-
sanuten, Great North, Little North,
Branch, and Shenandoah rolling up against
the horizon like mighty billows, and disap
pearing finally in the distant west; to the
right and left were the abrupt spurs and
towering peaks of the Blue Ridge chain,

264

Battle of Wapping Heights

[Manassas Gap, Va.

ON THE LOOKOUT, WAPPTXG HEIGHTS.

sharply defined in the clear atmosphere of
the region: while to the rear stretched
in tranquil loveliness the wide expanse of
valley lying between Bull Run mountains
and the Blue Ridge, or Bull Run and the
Potomac." A view of this same landscape
from the east is given on page 206.

Now who would imagine that this little
picnic excursion of ours was intended by
Gen. Meade to bring on a battle as impor
tant as Gettysburg, that should sweep the
confederate army out of existence : It
was one of Gen. Meade 's disappointments,
and he had a good many of them, as we
shall see later. Gen. Warren testified:
"We then moved on as rapidly as we could
and got into Manassas gap July 23. Gen.

Meade there intended to attack Gen. Lee's
army, the whole of it or any part of it,
for he knew he had got there before Lee had.
Gen. French then had the advance, and our
troops were first-rate in hand. But Gen.
French made a very feeble attack, with one
brigade only, and wasted the whole day;
and the enemy got off again at night. I
am sure Gen. Meade was more disap
pointed in that result than in anything
else that had happened. For when the
enemy got away at Williamsport Gen.
Meade fully calculated to attack him at
Manassas gap, or some place similar to it."
In his account of the movements of our
division Gen. Carr makes more of this en
counter than it seemed to us. He says, as

July 23-4, 1863]

An Opera Bouffe Contest

255

I have condensed it: "Early in the morn
ing followed the road to Masassas gap. At
Luiden came up with 1st div. Formed in
3 columns in mass, to follow and support
1st div, till it carried the high ridge crossing
our course in which the enemy had made
fight. This was a very high and steep
ridge, and being cleared the whole mechan
ism of the advance was visible, furnishing
a magnificent scene.

"When my columns arrived at the top I
found the 1st div. deployed along the crest,
occupying it far to right and left. I was
directed to form in column of battalions
closed in mass to support ; also to send out
our regiment to support the left of the line
of skirmishers, for which I detailed the 1st
Mass.

"The skirmishers below on the other side,
were stationary and warmly engaged with
others of the enemy, both parties seeking
the cover of the ground from each other
but perfectly in view from the top of the
ridge.

"The 2d brigade was marched by the
flank along the hollow, winding to the front
and centre of the high ridge on which we
stood, keeping on the lowest ground with
out it, to take the hill which was the key of
the ground occupied by the enemy's skirm
ishers. The 1st and 3rd brigades were in
position to support their charge by ad
vancing down the counter-part of the main
ridge, a nearer route to the hill referred to.

"Between 5 and 6 p. m. the 2d brigade
charged up the hill and carried it, taking a
second crest 200 yards beyond. I now ad
vanced the 3d brigade, and brought for
ward the 1st to support the flanks of the
3d.

"The 2d brigade took the second crest
and held it. The enemy were about to

attack my right. I brought the 1st bri
gade up to the second line and established
it in mass near the road. The enemy
threw solid shot and shell at the brigade
without effect, and the troops slept on
their arms."

Gen. Longstreet speaks of the affair con
temptuously. He reports: "Gen. Ewell
was detained a little, and found upon ap
proaching Front Royal that Gen. Wright's
brigade, left there to hold the gaps for him,
was engaged in skirmishing with the
enemy's infantry. He reinforced the bri
gade, held the enemy back, then changed
his line of march west, crossed the Blue
Ridge at Thornton's gap, and ordered
Early 's division, that was not yet up,
through the valley by Strasburg."

The enemy escaped during the night,
leaving us to bring in the wounded and bury
the dead. Altogether there were on both
sides some twenty killed and a hundred
wounded. At five o'clock in the afternoon
we marched to Markham, a hamlet some
twenty miles from Warrenton.

Found the Rebels here in a strong
position but easily drove them out of it.
Spinolas Brigade charged twice.

I find marked across the page, "Skirm
ish at Wapping Heights", so I suppose
that was the local name of the place. It
was the most remarkable battle I ever
heard of, almost like opera boulTe. Both
sides seemed very -good-natured, and fought
in the most leisurely way. Our men would
eat a mouthful of blackberries, load, eat
another mouthful of blackberries, fire, eat
another handful of blackberries, fire again,
and so on, and the confederates were equal
ly apathetic about gore.

July 24. Pleasant. Had splendid Soup.
At 5 P. W. had orders to join the Brigade
which we reached about S P. M.

256

Back to Virginia

[Warrenton, Va.

WARRENTON, VA.

Part of the time I went to school in and soft bread in it. I turned up my nose

Vermont I boarded with a crusty, shrewd
old man, not over-fond of me. One day
we had for dinner the old New Enland

at it, and he warned me that I would see the
time I should look back longingly at that
soup. How often in the army I remember-

soup, with potatoes and onions and carrots ed that remark. This day I found up on

--^IPB*!^

ANOTHER VIEW OF WARRENTON

July 24-30, 1863]

End of a Long March

257

FORAGING AT A DISADVANTAGE

the side of the hill a little truck garden
where I got some potatoes and one or two
other vegetables, and at the house I bought
a little flour to thicken the soup with. It
came out very well, and was a triumph I
was never after able to repeat.

I was told that at one of the other
farmhouses some of the boys tried to steal
honey, with unfortunate results.

July 25. Pleasant. Started early and
went back to the place where we encamped
Wednesday night. Left here at noon and
went through Salem to within 8 miles of
Warrentown. There is a Revere House in

Salem. Not much like its namesake in
Boston.

July 26. Pleasant. Started early and
reached Warrenton about 10 A. M. A
pretty place, but very secesh.

July 27. Pleasant. Some signs of stop
ping.

July 28. Pleasant. Clothing was given
out to the Reg't which makes quite a differ
ence in their appearance.

July 29. Rainy. Nothing occurred.

July 30. Rainy. Had good scouse for
dinner.

CHAPTER XXII. A NEW YORK EPISODE

LTHOUGH the
simultaneous vic
tories of Gettys
burg and Vicks-
burg had turned
the tide of the
war, the effect of
previous failures

still disastrous at the north, es
pecially in New York city. Under Gov.

was

KDWIN MORGAN. 1811-83
Governor 1859-6'^

Morgan the Empire state had contributed
generously to the war. The president had
asked the state for 13,000 men. In ten
days 10,000 had been sent forward and in
77 days 40,000 more were in camp awaiting
transportation. The legislature voted 3
millions for equipments, and sent an agent
to Europe with half a million more to pur
chase arms. By the fall of 1862 New York
had sent 219,000 men to the front.

Reaction followed. Our arms met a suc
cession of defeats, the withdrawal of men
and money began to be felt, and Horatio
Seymour was elected governor in opposition
to continuance of the war. When in April,
1863, 300,000 more men were called for,
New York's quota could no longer be filled

with volunteers, and drafts were ordered,
to begin in New York city July 1 1 .

Drafting is a serious matter. It is one
thing to go to war voluntarily: it is quite
another to be compelled to go. But men
must be had, and men who had been kept
at home not only by cowardice but by the
obligations of husband and father and son
and brother saw their names put into a big
wheel, and knew that if the blindfolded
man who thrust in his hand brought out

HOKATIO SKYMOUR. 1810-8H
Governor 1853-4, 1863-4

the slip containing their names, they must
leave everything and go to the front.
The peace journals declared that the draft
was unconstitutional and the act of govern
ment tyrannical. Handbills were posted
in grogshops urging men to resist the draft.
The militia had been sent to Pennsylvania
to resist Lee's invasion, and the police,
though they fought well when called out,
were individually in sympathy with those
who opposed the war. The draft began
Saturday, and the Sunday newspapers
gave the names of those drawn. The next
day rioting began. The provost marshal's
office and the Colored orphan asylum were
burned, negroes were hanged in the street,

258

DRAFTING IN THE HTH DISTRICT. New YORK CITY. Auj;. 19. 186.'5

DESTRUCTION^' PROVOSTMARSIIAL'S OFFIC& 3'Av

260

A New York Episode

[Governor's Island, N. Y

and on the other hand a thousand of the
mob were killed.

All this our regiment had read about
without guessing that it immediately con
cerned us, but on July 30 Gen. Halle ck
ordered Gen. Meade to send to New York 4
regiments of infantry, not from New York
or Pennsylvania, saying, "This detach
ment is all that is proposed at present to
take from your army ; but under no cir
cumstances can we give you any re-en
forcements. Every place has been
stripped to the bare poles. Keep up a
threatening attitude but do not advance."
Accordingly the 1st and 37th Mass., the
5th Wis., and the 20th Ind. were sent north.

July 31. Cloudy. Were woke up about 1
o'clock by orders to be ready to go to N. Y.
We could not believe it but it was true and we
got to Washington about night and went to
the Relief.

Through a mistake in the paging of my
diary there is an error here. It was July
30 instead of July 31 when we started for
New York, and we arrived in New York
Aug. 1. On this day we marched nine
miles to Warrenton junction, and took the
cars there.

Aug. ' 1. Pleasant. Left Washington
early going the old route. Reached Balti

more early and staid there a long while. Do-
herty got drunk, and got into a dangerous
mood, and tried to kill Col. Edwards of the-
37th Mass. Col. Baldwin interfered & D.
tried to kill him but Baldwin was too much
for him.

Col. Baldwin seized a musket from a
private and beat Doherty over the head
with it till his skull was laid open and he
fell insensible. It was the only thing to do,
and was well done.

Aug. 2. Pleasant. When I woke up in
the cars I found myself at Canton. So we
took the boat for N. York where we arrived
about 10 A. M. at the Battery. About 2
P. M. we were taken over to Governor's
Island^ a pleasant place containing forts.
Pitched Sibley tents.

Canton should be Camden, of course.

Aug. 3. Pleasant. Spent the day in wan
dering around the Island. It is a fine place.
There are about 100 Drummer Boys here,
that are kept here untill they can play and
then sent to their Regt's, in the Regular Ar
my. There is also a fine Band. The Drum
Major who has been in the service 45 years,
is dressed up in gay style.

Aug. 4. Very warm. Was on Orderly.
Saw Regular Guard Mounting. White
gloves and Dress Coats look well but the
Drill was poor. Had a fine Dress Parade
at night considering that we had not had one
since we were at Falmouth.

Aug. 5. Pleasant. Got our mail today.

Aug. 6. Pleasant. Received $10.00 in
letter from home.

Aug. 7. Pleasant. Went to N. Y. for
cards, etc.

Aug. 8. Pleasant. Was on Orderly.
Had a heavy shower in the afternoon.

Aug. 9. Very Hot. Had Sunday In
spection,

July 31-Aug. 17,1863]

Guarding Conscripts

261

RECRUITS DRILLING ON GOVERNOR'S ISLAND, N. V.

Aug. 10. Pleasant. The Reg't drills at
Heavy Artillery every day.

Aug. 11. Drills.

- Aug. 12. Had two letters. Heavy
shower in P. M.

Aug. 13. Pleasant. We have dug two
springs right on the bank or beach rather, in
which we get beautiful water, though they are
filled with salt water when the tide is in.

Aug. 14. Very hot. Drills as usual;
five of the Drummers were made to stand out
in the sun 4 hours for not turning out.

Aug. 15. Pleasant. It is rather dull here.

O the inconsistency of man. When we
were marching in the rain up to Gettysburg,
suppose some one had offered to transport
us to Governor's island, with plenty to eat,
a comfortable bed, and little to do, and then
should have told us we would find it mo
notonous.

Aug. 16. Pleasant. Had Sunday In
spection. Very warm.

Aug. 17. Cloudy. Had orders to leave.
Went down the East River to Richer' s Island
to guard conscripts. A bleak homely place.

Riker's island was certainly unattract
ive. The only thing raised upon it in any
quantity was wharf rats, almost as large
at some of the officers' spaniels that used to
seize them by the neck and kill them with
remarkable skill.

As for the conscripts, they were unspeak
able. This picture of a New York recruit
ing station displays the inducements held
out, and there were substitutes who came
to the island with a thousand dollars in
greenbacks. Some of them had never
owned five dollars at once in their lives,
and they were easy marks for all sorts of
swindles. Counterfeit monev was common

262

A New York Episode

[Riker's Island, N. Y,

30,000 TOLWTEERS

COUNTT BOUNIY CASH DOWN

STATE BOUIMTf

U.S. BOUNTY FOR NEW RECRUITS

I have know a soldier to give a substitute
counterfeit money for a hundred-dollar bill
and deduct ten dollars of the counterfeit
money as a commission for changing it,
which seemed to me to pass into the ar
tistic.

The conscripts and substitutes were kept
in a camp by themselves, of course, and
were visited freely at first until it was
discovered that their friends brought bot
tles of whiskey. They were hard to dis
cipline, and sometimes had to wear a ball
and chain, as if they were still in the prison
from which they seemed to have escaped.

Aug. 18. Pleasant. This island is a
great place for Bluff playing. Have com
menced to play here a little. I had just five
dollars when I came on the island and have
got no more to lose unless payday comes.

Aug. 19. Pleasant. Got $10.00 more in
a letter from home.

Aug. 20. Pleasant. Played Bluff as
usual. Came out a little ahead.

Aug. 21. Pleasant. Did not play much
today. Shower ~in P. M.

Aug. 22. Pleasant. We were paid off
today. I made considerable playing Bluff.
$27.00 at Draw Poker.

The game changed here. Bluff was
played with the cards first dealt; at draw
poker each player had the privilege of dis
carding as many as he liked of his original
five cards and having new ones dealt him
in their place. This gave two opportun
ities to bet, before and after the draw.
There was another difference. At Bluff,
as we played it, the winner of each hand

Aug. 17-Sept. 7, 1863]

Guard Mounting

263

dealt the next hand; at draw poker the
deal passed around to the left.

Aug. 23. Pleasant. Was on Orderly.

Aug. 24. Played Bluff of course. Made
pretty well.

Aug. 25. Pleasant. Played Bluff as
usual. Sent $50.00 home, and had 20. left.

Aug. 26. Pleasant. Did not play much
today.

Aug. 27. Pleasant. Made 20.00 at
Bluff. The Band, 1st Brig. 2d Div. 12th
Corps was here and played at Dress Parade.
Sent $50.00 home.

Aug. 28. Cloudy. Sixteen years old today.
Made a bad mistake at Guard Mounting oc
casioned by PresL who is too big a fool to do
as he ought.

Guard mounting took place at 8 o'clock.
The guard was divided into three reliefs,
each on duty for two hours and off four,
serving 8 hours in 24. The guard were not
subject to roll calls or fatigue duty. The
assembly' or guard call was followed by
other music, as the details marched out to
the color line. The corporal had to
seek out the relief when it was time, and
it was hard luck for him, if he got into the
wrong tent.

I don't know why mistakes of the drum
mers annoyed me so much: I had no re
sponsibility beyond my own fife. But
guard mounting and dress parade seemed to
me about the only places we earned our pay,
and I did like to get through them decently
and in order. Prest was a born blunderer.
Lost 5.00 at Sweat in the morn
ing but won it back again at Bluff. I seem
to have uniform good success at Bluff this
payday. *

Aug. 29. Rainy. Was on Orderly.
Sent $5.00 as present to Georgie.

Aug. 30. Pleasant. Had Sunday In
spection. Lost $10.00 at Bluff £ Sweat &

set up a board winning more than 1 lost.
Paid $25.00 to Hull for watch.

It did not take a profound mathematical
operation to demonstrate that the dealer
must win at sweat.

It was played on cloth on which the num
bers 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, were painted, and three
dice were shaken. I have forgotten just
how it counted but there was a frequent
contingency under which the dealer beyond
his even chance took half of all the stakes.

Aug. 31. Pleasant. Had Inspection and
Mustering in. Started a sweat table and
won 19 dollars but lost it in the P. M.

Sept. 1. Pleasant. Won $20.00 at Bluff
in A. M. A Full hand, two Flushes. I
held the Full. In P. M. won twenty dollars
at Sweat. Got a $30.00 Draft.

Sept 2. Pleasant. Was on Orderly. At
night one of the Conscripts swam across the
River. The guard fired twice but did not hit
him. Drs. Riddel and Hawkins examined
the patients in the tent at night. Got a Vest
from N. Y.

That must be the one I am wearing in the
picture on page 162. It looks not only
ready made but selected vicariously.

Sept. 3. Pleasant. Found a man hidden
in the hollow of a tree when we went down to
practise. He came in with the Drum Corps.
Won a little at Bluff. Lent Chas. Fields
$6.00 to go home with.

Sept. 5. Pleasant. Was on Orderly.
Sent $30.00 home.

Sept. 6. Pleasant. Made $11.00 at
Sweat in A . M. Lost it in P. M. and quit
the game. My partner won $2.00 when I
left him. Won $27.00 of Charlie Tillson
at Draw Poker and lent him.

Incidentally I find by my account book
that I never got that $27 back.

Sept. 7. Pleasant. Played Bluff coming
out about square. Sent in my pass.

264

A Bew York Episode

[Riker's Island, N. Y.

Sept. 8. Foggy. The boats were late on
account of fog. Went into N. Y. at 10
A. M. Went up to Central Park, Bar-
num's Museum. M. of A. etc and at night to
Niblo's and Woods. After the Perform
ance went into a Music Hall but did not stay
long. Slept at Tammany.

Few of our readers will remember that a
hotel used to stand where Tammany Hall
is now.

Sept. 9. Pleasant. Took a Bath, and got
breakfast at the Metropolitan. Had Photo
graph taken & bought books etc. Ascended
steeple of Trinity Church and had fine view.
Gave Sexton a dollar. Returned at 10 A . M.
Lost $8.00 at Bluff.

The photograph is on page 162. The
sexton must have gasped when he got a
dollar from that boy.

Sept. 10. Pleasant. Was put on Orderly.
Sept. 11. Pleasant. Mayor Lincoln,
Gen's Canby, Cowdin, & others came here
and the Reg't was presented with a City Flag.
A very handsame one. Our Drum Corps
done nothing right as usual. Charles
Fields returned from furlough.

Sept. 12. Pleasant. Won $25.00 payday
of Chas Tillson & 10.00 of Turner.

I have in my diary two pages of these
"pay day" accounts still unsettled. But
I had the fun of winning, and the money
itself did not count much in my mind .

Sept. 13. Cloudy. Inspection as usual.
Have got an awful cold.
Sept. 14. Cloudy. Was on Orderly.
Sept. 15. Pleasant. Nothing going on
untill Battallion Drill.

Sept. 16. Pleasant. Went to New York
by Harlem. At 5 P. M. met Father at
French's where I put up. He went to Al
bany in 7 o'clock boat.

I am referring here of course to my
mother's second husband. His experience

with me would discourage anyone else from
becoming a stepfather, but he fulfilled that
relation with wonderful patience and for
bearance. I never heard him raise his
voice or speak impatiently, and he was
always kind and considerate. Moreover he
gave me two half-sisters of whom I have
always been fond and proud.

Sept. 17. Pleasant. Returned in 11
o'clock boat. Found the Reg't paid off and
received $4.90 for two months pay. Won
$25.00 at Bluff.

The balance of my $24 pay doubtless
was accounted for by exceeding my allow
ance of clothes, as is elsewhere explained.

Sept. 18. Rainy. Played Bluff all day.

Sept. 19. Rainy. Was on Orderly.
Made 12.00 in a half hour in P. M. Sent
$40.00 home.

Sept. 20. Pleasant. Played no Bluff
today. Sunday Inspection as usual.

Sept. 21. Pleasant. Won about $22.00
counting 29.00 that McRea owes me. Lost
22.00 by careless playing. $10.00 on one
hand.

Sept. 22. Pleasant. Played but very
little and came out about square.

Sept. 23. Pleasant. Was on Orderly.

Sept. 24. Pleasant. Gov. Andrew. Gen.
Sickles, Gen. Canby and others were here
and reviewed the Reg't.

Sept. 25. Cloudy. Sent for Wide World,
True Flag, Am Union, for six months each.

What an insight into my favorite reading
at that time the names of these periodicals
give to those who remember them. None
of them could live now, with their sickly
sentimentalism. But the soldiers were easy
marks for advertisers. Here is an adver
tisement photoengraved from Frank
Leslie's of Feb. 16, 1863. It reminds me of
the South Sea bubble, when there were
abundant subscribers for a project which

Sept. 8-Oct. 3, 1863] My only attempt to be a Sport

266

U rpHE UNION VOLUNTEER'S SONC?»
JL STER"— Containing 100 patriotic Union
Songs, sent postpaid for 10 cts. fcoin.) Addreis Box
708, St. Louis, Mo. 324

Just Out. Just Out.

NOW IS THE TIME to get the most beauti
ful Invention yet. Every Officer or Private
in the Army needs one. Every Gentleman, Lady or
Miss ntust have one. Inclose 30 cts. and receive the
article by return mail, with full directions. Address
W. S. SALISBURY, Adams Ceutrc, Jtff. Co., N. Y.
32-1-27

Dr. Brown's Patent Baby Tender.

rpHE greatest invention
JL in the world for the
n.mfort and convenience of
MothorRa d Children. B-

31.

the promoters did not deem it prudent
to describe.

Sept. 26. Cloudy. Played Cribbage all
day as I had nothing else to do.

Sept. 27. Pleasant. Had church in P.
M. Inspection &c in A . M.

Sept. 28. Pleasant. Was on Orderly.
Jimmie Parker got home from Furlough.
Had sing at night.

Sept. 29. Pleasant. Very foggy in the
morning.

Sept. 30. Pleasant. Lost $7.50 at Bluff.

Oct. 1. Pleasant. Got broke playing
Cribbage with Nick Dranger. Wonder if
he stacked the cards at that game.

Oct. 2. Windy. Got a pass to go fishing,
"within sight of the Guards,'' and went to
Harlem, after fishing a little. I caught the
three largest fish. One of them an enormous
-flounder. Played Billiards and drank rum,
etc. in Harlem, and had a good dinner.
Saw Maj. Walker at Port Morris. Spent
a 3 dollar counterfeit Bill. Bought some
fish in Port Morris, so as to make up a good
string. Had a pretty good time altogether.

I was never much of a fisherman and
cannot recall another day entirely given up
to it. But I seem to have got in about all
that goes with it, even the story that I
caught the three biggest fish. I remember

the first one I caught, because I had never
before caught anything more than five
inches long. This was a blue fish and
quite a fighter.

When we were ordering drinks some one
ahead of me called for Rhine wine, so as I
already knew the taste of whiskey and had
tried the rum I called for Rhine wine, too,
always eager for a new experience. Shades
of Johannisberger and Steinberg Cabinet,
I wonder what that Rhine wine was made
of: if I should guess I should say water
90%, vinegar 9%, crude alcohol 1%. But
I sniffed the glass, took a swallow, held up
my mouth and meditated, took two more
swallows, and then remarked before finish
ing it that it had a fine bouquet and quite a
fruity flavor but was not dry enough. I
had never drank a glass of wine, I had never
seen anybody drink a glass of real wine,
but I had read about wine-drinking and
inferred that this was the proper behavior
for a connoisseur.

The whole afternoon was as artificial as
that. I was seeking to put myself into the
attitude and spirit of having a high old
time. I probably laughed the loudest of
the party, and I know I was the first to
assent to any proposal, the more reckless
the better. But I could not get into the
abandon of the other men. It was as im
possible for me to relax my moral sense as
to devitalize my body. I was always at
tension in both: I could not let myself go.

I was quite aware, of course, that while
this was a safeguard, no doubt often nec-
essar}^, it was a limitation. This was my
only attempt to be one of a fast party.
I tried to be a sport, but my nature would
not enter into it.

Oct. 3. Windy. Was on Orderly. Sent
home for $10.00 as I have not enough to pay
my washing bill. Wrote another letter home

266

A New York Episode

[Riker's Island, N. Y.

changing amount from 10 to 50 dollars.

Oct. 4. Pleasant. A conscript died in
Camp last night and was sent to N. Y. today.
A tended meeting.

Oct. 5. Pleasant. Reports of going
back to the Front.

I , Oct. 6. Pleasant. Went down to practise
'in the morning. Capt. Warren got back to
the Reg't.

Poor fellow, I saw him die at Spots yl-
vania.

Oct. 7. Cloudy. Was on Orderly.

Oct. 8. Cloudy. Got a pass to go to New
York and gave it to Nick D ranger. Harry
Jordan came to see his brother.

I had not. yet had my long sought re
venge on Nick, but the bitterness of my
resentment had worn off. I was never
very good at grudges. Often I have felt
that there was some reason I ought to dis
like a man, but I couldn't remember what
it was and have let the feeling vanish with
the remembrance.

Oct. 9. Borrowed $20. of Rogers and
went to N. Y. Bought underclothes,
gloves, and valise. Saw Nicole in his
Zampilaestroation feat. Went to the Opera
a little while in the evening.

It may seem strange in one so fond of
music as I was and so hungry for all that
led to culture that I did not stay through
the first opera I attended. Nowadays if
I know I am to be in New York or London
or Paris my first question is whether there
is a season of opera going on, and if so
what the pieces are for the nights I am to
be there . If possible I get seats in advance
choosing according to the opera-house:
in Berlin, for instance, the theatre is so
long that the galleries facing the stage are
too far away, in Paris the raised seats at
the rear of the parquette are better than
can be found in any other opera-house

anywhere, and in some opera-houses there
are trick seats, as at the Manhattan in New
York where the ticket-seller took my five
dollars and urbanely assured me the end
seat in K was excellent: it looked so on
paper, but when I got there I found' the
lower tier of boxes came to the floor and I
could not see the stage.

Then if the opera is new to me I buy a
libretto and make myself acquainted with
it, if possible reading it over aloud in the
language in which it is to be sung. Once
in Vienna there was a sudden change of
bill, and I could not get the libretto till just
before dinner. The opera was The Trum
peter of Sakkingen and wholly new to me,
so I began it with my soup. I grew so
much absorbed in the delightful story that
the waiter could hardly get my attention
to the courses, but the evening proved one
of the memorable enjoyments of my life.
Again in Naples I heard the fourth per
formance ever given of Pagliacci. I had
landed that afternoon from a steamer
bound for Alexandria, and had not even
heard of the opera. I got away from my
party, bought the libretto, and read it in a
little restaurant where I dined alone, so
when I got to the San Carlos I was prepared
to appreciate what proved so great a suc
cess.

Even if the opera is familar I like to run
over the libretto beforehand, and if pos
sible glance over the score, not only to have
it in mind but to recall when and where I
heard it before. Tannhauser, for instance,
always recalls that delightful Sunday night
in Munich when I heard it for the first
time, and where it was taken so seriously
by the chorus and the audience that it
seemed a religious performance. Lohen
grin, on the other hand, always recalls the
opera festival in Cincinnati the year

Oct. 3-13, 1863] Why I did not enjoy the Opera

267

Grover Cleveland was elected governor of
New York — I remember it that way be
cause I was introduced to him on the way
there. Albani was the Elsa, and though I
have heard other great singers in that part
I have never been impressed by them as by
her. • Traviata is another opera that takes
me back to Cincinnati. Patti was the
soprano, but the baritone Gelassi hit me
deepest with his appeal to his S9n. I was
newly a father then, and I wondered if I
should ever have to blush for my boy.

The triumph of that week was the duet
of Patti and Scalchi in Semiramide. Poor
Scalchi; I heard her last in vaudeville,
voice and figure and face all gone; and
the last farewell concert for Patti an
nounced in Syracuse was cancelled be
cause too few tickets were sold.

It is with such background and prepar
ation as this that I enjoy the opera. I
have heard the principal of a New York
normal school say not only that he did not
care for opera himself but that he ques
tioned the sincerity of anybody who pre

tended to enjoy it. He must have tried it
as I tried it on this occasion. I sat in a
cheap gallery seat, did not buy a libretto,
did not know the language it was sung in,
had no clear idea of what was supposed to
be going on, and was tired and sleepy after
a busy day of sight-seeing. So I really
didn't enjoy it: but I did not question the
sincerity of those who said they did.

Oct. 10. Went down to Brooklyn Navy
Yard. Too much Police. Then saw them
play billiards awhile in French's and went
into Barnum's Museum. Had just time
to jump on the John Romer. Got $20. in
letter from home.

Oct. 11. Pleasant. So cold there was no
church. Inspection as usual. Dress Par
ade.

Oct. 12. Pleasant. Quite cold. All the
conscripts sent to New Orleans.

Oct. 13. Was on Orderly. At night
two companies of the 8th U. S. I. relieved us,
and we were ordered to prepare for embarka
tion.

CHAPTER XXIII. AT THE FRONT ONCE MORE

ET the reader
imagine how, after
the luxuries of
New York city,
we enjoyed going
back to the field.
It was much hard
er than the first
time we went.
Started 'in the after-
Went to New York

Oct. 14. Pleasant,
noon for Washington,
in the John Romer and hence to Jersy City,
and thence on the N. R. R. of N. J. to
Philadelphia.

Oct. 15. Pleasant. Reached Philadel
phia about 3 A. M. Took breakfast at the
Union Refreshment Saloon and I went into
the City on 12th St to Chestnut and back to
Washington avenue on • l'3th St. Reached
Havre de Grace about 2 P. M. Baltimore at
8 P. M. Had supper at the Union Relief.
Then were packed like hogs into baggage
cars in which we could not lay down. Rode
all night and

Oct. 16. Rainy. Reached Washington
early in the morning. Did not stop for
breakfast, but had bread and coffee thrown
into the cars. Went on to Union Mills,
now the Front, and reported to our old Bri
gade. They welcomed us back with much
satisfaction.

Not unmingled with malice, of course.
They had naturally felt envious of us loaf
ing about New York while they were
marching and fighting.

When we had gone away, ten weeks
before, the army had been at Warrenton.
Now, as will be seen by the map, inside
cover, it was back almost where I first

joined it. How had it lost so much ground ?
The answer is simple : Meade had been out-
generalled.

Gen. Sickles said: "The retreat from
Culpepper to Centreville made the army
feel humiliated. To a military man it was
unaccountable."

Went over to the Wth Vt. and saw Edson.
Doten, Finn, and other Randolph Boys.

Edson was a cousin of Andrew W. Edson
associate superintendent in New York
city, and I had known him at school in
Randolph.

Oct. 17. Pleasant. Was put on Orderly
out of turn. It seems quite natural to get
back to the Army. Review by Gen. Sickles.
He was loudly applauded by the whole
Corps. I have got more breath to waste in
cheering him than any other man in this
Army.

Oct. 18. Pleasant. Orders to move, but
did not. Had church in the afternoon.

Oct. 19. Rainy. Started about 7 o'clock
and went towards Bristow Station. Firing
on the right. Moved as though preparing
for battle. At last halted in the Woods.
A damp, unhealthy place. Staid here all
night. Very Cold. The Rebs have torn up
the R. R. in big shape. The bridge is
burned clear down.

This picture shows how railways were
torn up. Benton says: "A regiment
would line up on one side of the track, and
taking hold of the rail and end of the ties
would begin to lift it up. Presently it
would be standing on the ends of the ties,
and as soon as it began to go over at one
point the men would let go, and, running,
behind the others who were still lifting,

Oct. 14-20, 1863]

On the 0. & A. Railroad

269

How THE CONFEDERATES DESTROYED RAILROADS

grasp a new place and continue the raising.
When once started in this way, the track,
rails, and ties together would be slowly
rolling over, like an immense furrow of sod
rolling from some giant plough. Now
surely the railroad is destroyed, the novice
would say. Not at all, for it could easily
be put together again: the ties must be
burned. These, however, could be re
placed by an army of slaves: the rails
themselves must be made useless. This
was accomplished by piling up the ties
with fence-rails and dry wood, and across
each pile would be laid perhaps a dozen of
the new rails. The burning of the ties
would heat these, and while they were red
hot each rail was twisted by the use of a
peculiar wrench. A bent rail can be
straightened out, but a thoroughly twisted

rail can never be used again, and the con
federates had no source from which to re
place them." No wonder they retaliated.

When they were rebuilt the rails were
often so insecurely fastened that as we
rode on the top of a freight car we could
see the end of a rail fly up as we left it.
It was curious to us that when any of our
men were drunk, as sometimes happened,
and rode on the top of freight cars bobbing
about on the insecure rails, they never fell
off, even when asleep.

Oct. 20. Pleasant. Started early and
went in the direction of Warrenton. Passed
through Greenwich and went two or three
miles beyond. Considerable sheepkilling.

It was seldom we had a chance to forage
in Virginia, as I have already said, but our
men found a few stray sheep in this region.

270

At the Front once more

[Kelly's Ford, Va.

Oct. 21. Pleasant. Very warm. Marched
about 13 miles to Catlett's Station. Went
about 30 miles to go from Bristowen. Halted
for the night at Catlett's. Capt Stone and
the Detailed Men came up here.

That second sentence is unintelligible
to me, and the last word is obscure.

Oct. 22. Pleasant. For a wonder "Re-
oeilee" was the first Bugle Call we heard
during the night.

Nichols, in his ''Story of the Great
March" (N. Y., 1865), a most interesting
narrative, thus describes breaking camp.
"At three o'clock the watch fires are burn
ing dimly, and, but for the occasional neigh
ing of horses, all is so silent that it is diffi
cult to imagine that 20,000 men are within
a radius of a few miles. The ripple of the
brook can be distinctly heard as it breaks
over the pebbles, or winds petulantly
around the gnarled roots. The wind sweep
ing gently through the tall pines over head
only serves to lull to deeper repose the
slumbering soldier, who in his tent is dream
ing of his far-off northern home.

"But in an instant all is changed.
From some commanding elevation the
clear-toned bugle sounds out- the reveille,
and another and another resounds, until
the startled echoes double and treble the
clarion calls. Intermingled -with this
comes the beating of drums, often rattling
and jarring on unwilling ears. In a few
moments the peaceful quiet is replaced by
noise and tumult, arising from hill and dale,
from hill and forest. Camp-fires, hitherto
extinct or smouldering in dull gray ashes,
awake to new life and brilliance, and send
forth their sparks high into the morning
air. Although no gleam of sunrise blushes
in the east the harmless flames on every
side light up the scene, so that there is no
disorder or confusion.

"The aesthetic aspects of this sudden
change do not, however, occupy much of
the soldier's time. He is more practically

engaged in getting his breakfast ready

The animals are not less busy. An
ample supply of corn and huge piles
of fodder are greedily devoured by
these faithful friends of the boys in blue,
and any neglect is quickly made known by
the pawing of neighing horses and the
fearful braying of the mules. Amid all is
the busy clatter of tongues and tools — a
Babel of sound, forming a contrast to tlie
quiet of the previous hour as marked as
that between peace and war.

"Then the animals are hitched into the
traces, and the droves of cattle relieved
from the night's confinement in the corral.
Knapsacks are strapped, men seize their
trusty weapons, and as again the bugles
sound the note of command, the soldiers
fall into line and file out up on the road, to
make another stage of their journey — it
may be to win fresh laurels in another vic
tory, or perhaps to find a rest which shall
only be broken by the reveille of the last
trump."

Oct. 23. Pleasant. Very cold without
Shelter Tents.

Oct. 24. Pleasant. Had two letters as
answers to the enigma I sent to the Wide
World. One Miss Amy Wilson Boston
Mass -& Miss Susie J. Ste adman, West
Bolton Mass. Did not expect any reply.

These enigmas were a means of finding
correspondents for soldiers who had few
friends at home. I exchanged letters for
some time with Miss Stedman and still
have her picture. As she kept up the cor
respondence after she had seen my photo
graph, shown on page 162, I conlcude that
her supply of friends must also have been
limited.

Oct. 21-Nov. 7, 1863]

Capture of Kelly's Ford

271

A teachers agency that prided itself on
doing its work by direct application to it
from schools devised what it thought would
prove to be an effective advertisement as
follows: "If you want practice in corres
pondence, enrol in one of the notification
agencies: if you want a place, write to us."

It was obliged to discard this form of ad
vertisement because so many teachers
wrote to it in good faith, "Please give me
the address of one of the notification ag
encies ; I want practice in correspondence.' '
That seemed to be the kind of young
woman who solved and replied to my en
igma. Certainly our correspondence was
of the most formal type, highly respectable
but unexciting.

Oct. 25. Pleasant. Very cold. Church in
P. M. Two more letters. One Miss
Maud F. Hunter, Salem, & Miss Anna T.
Gray, Lewiston, Me. Getting interesting.

Oct. 26. Very cold. Moved camp across
the creek. Battery K in position. Got a
lot of Black Walnuts.

Oct. 27. Pleasant. Very cold indeed.
Could not sleep at night. All the Company
on Detail.

Oct. 28. Pleasant. Went down on the
Rail Road and stole an axe. They are get
ting along very fast.

I think I should still steal an axe from the
government, if it provided no other way to
get wood enough to make a fire I could sleep
by.

Oct. 29. Pleasant. Tried to wash some
clothes but gave in. Baldwin got us drum
mers to work digging sinks. Saw shelling
W. N. W. at night, a long way off.

Oct. 30. Pleasant. Was on Orderly.
Moved up the R. R. above Warrenton Junc
tion to a place one mile from Weaverville.

Oct 31. Rainy. Went on Orderly as the
Drum Corps had sinks to dig. But did not

make much as I was very busy. Mustered
in for two months pay.

Nov. 1. Pleasant. Played cent ante to
day. Won a little, llth Sutler arrived.
Butter, Cheese, etc. Found Crabs. Had
letter from home with money & stamps.

Nov. 2. Pleasant. Sent for two Gold
Pens. Played Bluff coming out square.
Sent eight letters in A. M.

Nov. 3. Pleasant. Played Bluff coming
out a little ahead.

Nov. 4. Pleasant. 8 days rations given
out, and orders to be ready to move. Got
broke at Bluff. Had letter from Susie.
The proper name for this place is Licking
Run Heights & not Weaver smile.

Nov. 5. Pleasant. Played Bluff with
silver, losing 10 cts. Dress Parade at
night.

Nov. 6. Windy. Orders to march at
sunrise. The Reg't was to guard the Am
munition Train so I started ahead. At
1:30 P. M. as we neared Kelly's Ford, Ar
tillery announced a sharp engagement. I
went down to where I saw a good part of the
hottest of the fight. Some 300 prisoners
were taken. Could not find the Reg't so I
slept with some sick men.

At two o'clock in the afternoon the regi
ment had gone back ten miles to Morris-
town via Bealton, to act as train guard,
but I had heard nothing of it, being ab
sorbed in watching the engagement. It
moved up to Kelly's ford next day, where
I found it the day following.

Nov. 7, Pleasant. Drills commenced.
Company in A. M. Battalion in P. M.
Hollis of Co. K. received a letter from Sec
retary Staunton saying that Gov. Andrew
had authority given him by the War Depart
ment to raise recruits for the term erf service
unexpired in 3 years Regt's, and that Re
cruits enlisted under that order would be

•---~ _._:":

KKLLY'S FORD ON THE RAPPAHANNOCK; Confederate Breastworks in the Foreground

^gjfa^^

ANOTHER VIEW OF KELLT'S B'ORD

Nov. 7-13, 1863]

A Guest of the 26th Pa.

273

discharged with their Regt's; Soft Bread
given out to the Reg't. Also Potatoes.

This letter from Secretary Stanton was
good news to those of us who had enlisted
in old regiments under a three years mus
tering in.

Nov. 8. Pleasant. Started pretty early
and went down to the river. The 1st, 2nd,
3d, & 5th Corps were here. Saw Frank
Brown of the 12th Mass. Crossed the
river and went through Kellyville to Rhap-
pahannock Station where I found the Bri
gade, but the Reg't was still back with the
Wagon Train. So I kept with the Brigade
and marched up to Brandy's Station where
we halted for Camp. Stopped with the 26th
Pioneers and slept warm. Saw Gen.
Meade.

As will be seen, in my eagerness to see the
fight at Kelly's ford, a very interesting
little skirmish, I missed my regiment, the
plans of which were changed by the en
gagement. So I was for some days without
legitimate rations. I have never forgotten
the hospitality of those pioneers or woods
men of the 26th Pa. I had no business to
be skylarking around away from my regi
ment, but they did not consider that. All
they saw was a little fellow with nothing to
eat, and they took me right in as one of
their own, shared their rations and their
beds with me, and would not even let me
do my fair share of the work about camp.
I could not help feeling that' no Massa-
chussetts regiment would have treated a
Pennsylvania straggler that way, and I
have always had a warm place in my heart
for the old 26th.

Nov. 9. Snow. Very cold and some snow.
Did not move untill about 3 o'clock when the
Brigade laid out Camp. I went back to
Kelly's ford and found the Reg't. Got 2

letters by mail. Laid near Elk Run all
night and slept very well. 1st Div. 5th
Corps passed us going back somewhere. It
had Brigade Drill in P. M. for yelling
Hard Tack to the General. I went 8 miles
without taking off my Knapsack, in 3 hours.

I had toughened up quite a bit since my
first weary march. :V .^

Nov. 10. Windy. Left the Ford early in
the A. M. for Brandy Station. But had my
Knapsack carried, which made quite a differ
ence. Rejoined the Brigade, & the Col. made
me carry a log of wood for getting ahead.

A regiment was supposed to begin with a
field officer and end with a mule, and Lt.
Col. Baldwin was jealous of his privileges:
we sometimes thought he had the qualifi
cations for both ends. But frequent as are
the unpleasant references to him here I
think we boys respected him and rather
liked him. He was cross and irritable and
faultfinding, and what was to us worse,
work-finding ; all partly due to his game
leg. But he was a good soldier, prompt in
an emergency, and quite capable of gen
uine kindness.

Nov. 11. Pleasant. We are encamped
in the Winter Quarters of the Rebels.
They left in great haste, in some cases leaving
the meat boiling in the kettles!

This was the opposite, of McCarthy's
expectations quoted on page 48.

Nov. 12. Pleasant. Pay Day. Re
ceived my 24 dollars. Came out some ahead
on playing. The Paymaster paid off in
new currency.

• Nov. 13. Pleasant. Was on Orderly.
Baldwin's leg troubled him and he went all
over the camp finding fault with first one here
and then another. Among other things he
had a fence built around the Camp!

274

At the Front once more

[Brandy Station, Va.

WHEN THE REGIMENT HAS BEEN FORAGING

Nov. 13-25, 1863] Trying to beat the Excelsiors at their own game

275

Nov. 14. Pleasant. Made $25.00 at
Bluff. Held 4 kings, 4 sixes twice, and 4
deuces. In the forenoon a Rain came up at
Dress Parade and it rained very hard all
night.

Nov. 15. Pleasant. The rain cleared off
about 9 A . M. Heavy firing ahead and or
ders to be ready to move.

Nov. 16. Pleasant. Moving a humbug.
Lost some at Bluff.

•Nov. 17. Pleasant. Drills commenced.
Bluff as usual.

Nov. 18. Pleasant. Won some at Bluff.
Was in at a Raffle but did not win.

Nov 19. Pleasant. Won pretty well at
Bluff. Am fifty dollars ahead.

Nov. 20. Pleasant. Made about eleven
dollars at Bluff which I paid for Cady's
chance (42) at a Raffle. I was tied by Lea-
therber and in shaking off got (15) which
beat him and the watch was mine. Worth
$25.00.

Nov. 21. 'Rainy. Raffled my watch,
getting the twenty-five dollars clear. Have
got over a hundred now.

Nov. 22. Pleasant. Was on Orderly.
Very muddy.

Nov. 23. Pleasant. Rumors of moving.
Got some butter and cheese. Lost at Bluff
and Props.

Props was known among us as a Boston
game. It is played with four shells, two
white and two made red with sealing wax,
and the betting was whether there would
be two whites and two reds, or one of one
color and three of the other.

Nov. 24. Rainy. Lost my night's rest
by eating beans before I went to supper last
night. Orders to move and after we had got
on line and were wet through, they were coun
termanded. Lost $20. at Bluff.

Nov. 25. Pleasant. Set up a . sweat
board among the Excelsiors, and after getting
about S50. ahead was "cleaned out", having
vest torn and losing all my money. Big
thing.

My greenness could not have been better
illustrated than by my venturing off alone
into another brigade, of New York toughs
at that, and expecting to get away with any
winnings I might make. I grabbed my
money tight between my fingers, and after
I was knocked down I was kicked and beat
en considerably before I let go my clutch.
They got the money in my waistcoat, but
did not happen to think of an inside shirt
pocket in which I had a hundred dollars
or so stowed away. As it was I did not
lose much more than my winnings and was
not seriously bruised, so I learned a good
lesson more cheaply than I deserved to.

CHAPTER XXIV. THE BATTLE OF LOCUST GROVE

ND of his career as
commander, Mine
Run was to Meade
what the Mud
march was to
Burnside — it made
him ridiculous and
led Congress to in
sist on his dismissal from command.
Since Gettysburg won itself in spite of
him and he permitted the confederate
.army to escape him, he had done noth
ing except in the last half of October to
let himself be driven back from Warren-
ton to Centre ville. He had been very

much surprised there to find that Lee had
withdrawn of his own accord. He had
cautiously followed the southern army back
again, keeping at safe distance, and had es
tablished his camp beyond the Rappa-
hannock at Brandy Station. While he was
still lying there rebuilding the railroad he
had permitted the Confederates to destroy,
the pressure from Washington became
strong to have him do something. So he
finally planned to cross the Rapidan and
attack Lee. The scheme could hardly
have been worse conceived. Pleasanton
says: "Gen. Meade projected the campaign
of Mine Run, the plan of which was based

Nov. 26, 1863]

Mismanaged from the First

277

on the supposition that there was a good
road from a mill several miles above Ger-
mania ford to the Orange Court House
road or turnpike, when the fact was, there
was no road at all and the country was ex
tremely difficult to pass through. I knew
the country well, and I told Gen. Meade
there was no road at that place, and to
attempt to march troops through would
jeopard the campaign, but my report did
not seem to make any impression on him."
So his troops could not concentrate at
Locust Grove on Nov. 26 as he had planned,
and on the 30th, when an attack had been
ordered on the left at 8 o'clock in the morn
ing and on the right at 9, he permitted the
left attack to be suspended, gave orders to
suspend that on the right, and when Birney
in the centre had crossed the stream and
penetrated the first line, sent word to him
to fall back — that he had attacked by mis
take. Then next day he marched back to
camp again. It cost the army 1000 men
killed and wounded to let Gen. Meade's
mind wobble. This was the battle of Lo
cust Grove, of which the reader probably
never heard, and yet which, like Wapping
Heights, Gen. Meade expected to make a
greater than Gettysburg.

Nov. 20. Pleasant. Thanksgiving.
Reveille at 4 o'clock. Started early and
went S. E. to Jacob's Ford on the Rapidan.
Here we crossed and sent out skirmishers.

Jacob's mill ford was 3 miles below Ger-
mania ford; why it should have been se
lected for our crossing is past finding out.
The bank on the other side was so steep
that no wagons could be taken across there :
an officer could not even ride his horse up,
but had to dismount and lead him; all our
artillery and wagons and ambulances had
to be sent to Germania ford to cross. Gen.
Meade afterward named these steep banks
as one of the three reasons why this move
ment failed, but why should he not have
found out something about the banks
before he planned to cross there ?

Our brigade was in advance, and the 26th
Pa. were thrown forward as skirmishers.
The Napoleon battery was placed to the
left of a house on the hill on this side and
the rifled battery to the left, and the pon
toons descended the hill and were launched,
the crossing party being taken from the
llth N. J. There was little firing from the
enemy's skirmishers on the other side, and
the New Jersey boys were on the other side
by 12:30. Building the bridge had] already

CROSSING AT (JERMANIA FORD

278

Battle of Locust Grove

[Mine Run, Va.

BUILDING PONTOONS

begun, and now^ another of Meade's blun
ders was revealed — the bridge was one pon
toon short, and curiously enough this was
true at the other three crossings the army
was making. Meade gives this fact also as
one of the three reasons for failure, but
what other general would not have been
sure his information as to the width of the
river was accurate? Our bridge was at
length pieced out by a trestle, and we began
to cross. The 6th Corps was behind us,
and both corps were expected to be at
Robertson's tavern by noon of this very
day. No wonder we could not get there,
and this was Meade's third reason for fail
ure. See map on inside cover.

We went all manner of ways untill about
8 o'clock when we halted for Camp. Had a
very good fire. Quite a Thanksgiving.
Guess we'll have the Ball tomorrow. Quite
cold at night.

When we were across we found only a
blind wood road to follow and when we
came to a fork no one knew which path to

take. It was already sunset, so we halted
for the night. The 26th Pa. were thrown
out as skirmishers, and found some con
federate cavalry, which they drove back.

Nov. 27. Pleasant. Started early and
went abont 2 miles when we came on the
enemy's pickets. Co. D was sent out ahead
and about noon the whole Reg. went in.
Billy Hull of Co. C was killed and others
wounded. None of our Co. were hurt.
Quite heavy musket firing in P. M. Equal
to Chancellor sville. Slept with Tibbetts at
Division Hospital.

We were roused at daybreak. Our
regiment took the advance of the brigade.
As there was still doubt which of the two
roads to take we were sent up the right
hand road to investigate, and met the
enemy's pickets, skirmishing through dense
woods and pressing on till we got to his line
of battle. After we had become pretty
warmly engaged orders came to cease oper
ations, as this was the wrong road. After
some waiting another order came to go

THANKSGIVING DAY as our Friends at home pictured it

•.-->.-

THANKSGIVING DAY as it Was

280

Battle of Locust Grove

[Mine Run, Va.

ahead, this was the right road. The enemy
were outflanking us and Gen. Prince called
on Gen. Carr, our old brigade commander,
now head of a division of the 6th corps,
to go into line of battle on our left, but he
declined. We were ordered to go on with
out him, and the skirmishing was becoming
brisk when another order came from head
quarters to wait for him. ; Just then the
enemy took the initiative, and gained so
much ground on "bur left that we seemed
certain to be flanked. So our left reluc
tantly turned and fell back to support
Battery K, 4th U. S. corps. Ward's bri
gade came up behind the battery and our
men halted there, restoring our formation.
This turned the tide, and we held our own
in a general engagement that lasted till
dark. This was for us the battle of Locust*
Grove, for we had no more fighting here.
Our division slept on the field, giving three
cheers for the union before they encamped.

In his official report Col. McLaughlin
says: "On the morning of the 27th we
stood to arms from one half hour before
till shortly after daybreak, when we were
ordered to retake the advance of the bri
gade, retrace our steps about three quar
ters of a mile, and then to advance upon
a road leading to our left. After advanc
ing about one mile on the new road we met
the- pickets of the enemy and halted. At
10:00 a. m. we again advanced, Company
D being employed as skirmishers. Al
though the ground was persistently dis
puted, owing to the admirable management
of Capt. Stone, commanding the company,
in taking advantage of every tree or in
equality of the ground that would afford
cover for his men, the enemy's skirmishers
were pressed steadily back through a dense
wood until the y^ joined their line of battle,
without the loss of a single man upon our
side. Great credit is due Capt. Stone for

ADVANCING AS SKIRMISIIEUS

Nov. 27-30, 1863]

A Letter from the Field

281

the skill, courage, and address shown by
him throughout in the performance of this
important duty."

Nov. 28. Rainy. Left the Hospital and
rejoined the Reg't.

At daylight we marched by the Germania
ford road toward the left in a heavy rain,
reaching Robertson's tavern at 2:30, more
than 48 hours behind the time Meade had
planned. We halted here two hours and
then went on west two miles and halted
for the night, 150 men going on picket.
We were now before the enemy's entrench
ments at Mine Run, about in the centre of
the line.

Nov. 29. Pleasant. The Division
started off reconoitering and we were ordered
back. We are very short of Rations and
orders are not to give any out untill tomorrow
night.

At 6 A. M. our division and the 3d were
marched to the left and placed under com
mand of Warren, of the 5th Corps, in
preparation for the expected charge the
next day.

Nov. 30. Pleasant. This day was fixed
on for the grand charge along the whole line
by the 2nd, 3d & part of the 6th Corps. The
men dreaded it awfully every man expecting
to die but the order was countermanded and
it did not take place. 8 of its killed a Cow
& had her to subsist on in place of Rations.

Fortunately the letter I wrote home
from here was one of the three that were
preserved. I give it in full.

Wilderness, Nov. 29th 1863-
Dear Folks]

I don't know where we are, what we are
doing, where we are going, what we are going
to have to eat or anything else.

Thanksgiving Reveille was beaten at 8
A. M. and at Daylight we started going S.
E. untill we reached Jacob's Ford on the

Rapidan between Racoon and Germania
Ford. Here we stopped (the 3d Corps) and
sent skirmishers out ahead. We worked
along slowly untill about dark when we halted
for two hours; then moved back a little way
and stopped for the night about 8 P.M.
Thus was passed Thanksgiving. The next
morning we started early & went off two or
three miles when we ran on the enemy's
Pickets. Our Reg't was ahead and Co. D
acting as Skirmishers. They went out and
returned reporting the enemy in force. So
our Reg't was formed and the fight com
menced. About 2 o'clock the first heavy line
firing began, and the first man brought in was
Billy Evans of Co C. The firing soon
became very heavy; indeed the musket
firing (no Artillery of consequence was
used) almost equalled Chancellor "sville. But
the Rebels could not move our line & dark
found us as we commenced. The next
morning we moved down to the left. It
rained hard, and the mud was awful. But
we were not engaged again and have not been
since, though we are at the rear and the Reg
iment is ahead reconoitering. We have no
rations and have got to live on half rations,
Gen. French says, till this move is over as our
communication is destroyed. The trains
were sent back across the river. Some say
we are going to Dobbs Court House, some to
Fredericksburg but we can't believe anything.
If I get a chance to send this I will but I
think not.

Your affectionate Son

Charles W . Bardeen
Co D First Mass. Inf.
P. S. Friday Dec. 4th 1863-
We recrossed the river yesterday and are at
our old Camp. Monday morning prepar
ation was made for a grand charge of the
whole line upon the Rebel Breastworks. Our
Regiment all had white faces. Never saw

282

Battle of Locust Grove

[Ely's Ford, Va.

them so dreading anything before. It was a
long distance to charge and the muzzles of the
Reb's guns loaded with chain shot & cannister
struck terror into the hearts of all. All the
men put their money in the hands of the
Chaplain or those not forced to go into the
fight. I staid with the Reg't untill the order
was given to "Fix Bayonets" and was start
ing for the rear, in a secluded spot far from
shot & shell when ike order was counter
manded. If ever I saw happy faces it was
then.

We staid over the river and recrossed
Wednesday. We have been gone from
Camp 8 days and only took 3 days rations
and had one days issued, and the men were
almost starved. The Army was never so
short before. For 4 days I lived entirely on
Fresh Meat (a Cow some of us killed) with
out salt, just broiled over the fire. I never
knew hunger before. But I guess our Cam
paigning is over for the winter. If that
charge had been made it would have taken all
winter to reorganize the Army
Your Aff. Son

Charles W. Bardeen

I enclose some rebel letters, receipts etc. which
please preserve — Charlie-
While this letter expresses what was un
questionably the feeling of the army, I
doubt if the danger was anything like what
was anticipated. Our army was stronger
than Lee's, these dreaded entrenchments
had most of them been recently constructed,
and badly as the whole campaign had been
planned I think now as I look back that we
should have won out if Gen. Warren had
not wavered and Gen. Meade been glad to
have an excuse to withdraw. As Gen.
Birney of our 1st division very well said,
the trouble with Gen. Warren here was
that he had too much reconnoitering, fire-

GEN. G. K. WARREN. 1830-82

building, and delay. What we needed in
the army was more fighters like Birney
and Sickles, and less engineering and siege
gunning. Birney himself, expecting the
plans determined on to be carried out,
charged this morning and crossed Mine
run and carried the enemy's first line, only
to be recalled and told it was all a mistake.
It was all a mistake — to have Meade for
commander.

Dec. 1. Pleasant. Very cold. Joined
the Reg't in the morning and about noon-
started back (our Brigade) on the plank road
going to Bailey's Store.

This should read Parker's store.

Here we were kept

up with knapsacks on, all night while the
Army passed its.

Dec. 2. Pleasant. Started for Ely's
Ford & crossed about noon. I picked up
little pieces of muddy hardtack along the road
& eat with relish. But at the Ford I met
Phillips who had been loafing at the rear &
he had plenty of H. T. so we had a splendid
dinner. But when we we*e through the
bridge was up and the Rebels on the opposite
side. They tried to plant a Battery but
could not. Caught up with the Brigade &
when we went in Camp each man got half
rations from the 1st Corps Teams.

This is the incident referred to on page 65.

Nov. 30-Dec. 2, 1863]

Gen. Meade's Record

283

KLY'S FORD

Postscript

I have repeatedly kept it in the reader's
mind that this is not a history of the war,
but only a record of the experiences and
impressions of a little fifer who had no more
to do with the ending of the conflict than a
fly on a cannon wheel. But when I came
to read in manuscript my references to Gen.
Meade it occurred to me that I might be
prejudiced, so I went over to the library
and read in full his testimony before the
congressional committee on the conduct of
the war. I found it most interesting, for
no other humor is so entertaining as that
which is unconscious. One's first impres
sion is that he uses only one vowel, but
closer study reveals a's and e's and o's, with
sometimes w and y, but never a you.
If I lose my memory and forget what it
was that had a thousand I's, the moon but
one, I shall think it was Gen. Meade.
Take, for instance, this paragraph from
page 329: "Under this existing state of
affairs I determined, and so notified the
general-in-chief, that I should move my
army as promptly as possible on the main
line from Frederick to Harrisburg, extend-

GEN. GEORGE GORDON MEADE, 1815-72

ing my wings on both sides of the line, as
far as I could consistently with the safety
and the rapid concentration of that army,
and should continue that movement until
I either encountered the enemy or had rea
son to believe that the enemy was about to
advance upon me; my object being at all
hazards to compel him to loose his hold
upon the Susquehanna and meet me in
battle at some point. It was my firm
determination, never for an instant to
deviate from, to give battle whenever and
as soon as I could possibly find the enemy,
modified, of course, by such general con
siderations as govern every general officer
— that when I came into his immediate
neighborhood some maneouvers might be

284

Battle of Locust Grove

[Mine Run, Va.

made by me with a view to secure advan
tages on my side in that battle, and not
allow them to be secured by him.'*

If he had gone more into detail we might
have had this: "After my march of 26
miles I was wearied in my 159,999 feet,*
so I halted for the night, pitched my 39,
468 tents, built my 24,765 fires, put my
80,000 pots of coffee on to boil, stuck my
79,467 pieces of fat pork f on prongs of wood
and held them in the blaze, lit my 79,999t
pipes, sat for an hour about my 24,765 fires
and talked about what a solemn old ass I
had for a commander, pulled my 80,000
blankets over me, and went to sleep to dream
of my 33,569 wives and my 46,542 sweet
hearts."**

Before the congressional committee he
testified he had command of everybody;
he had command of Gen. Schenck, of Gen.
Crouch, of general everybody else. But
when he was questioned he made a poor
showing.

"You did not bring Gen. Scheneck's
forces into the field ?"

"I never had any returns from him; I
did not know what force he had."

"What was the force about Washington ?'

"I do not know."

"Did not Gen. Heinzelman have a corps
there?"

"I do not know."

He must have been truthful, of course:
he admits himself that he was a Christian
gentleman ; but he seems to have been sur
rounded with the worst lot of liars who ever
kept out of jail. There is Gen. Butterfield,
for instance. He lived in Utica, and we

*Af ter the battle of Gettysburg Gen. Sickles had only one
leg left.

tPart of the command were Hebrews.

JThe little fifer did not smoke.

**These figures ought not to overlap but they sometimes
do. Some men think variety is the spice of wife. It is
difficult to obtain exact statistics.

GEN. DANIEL BUTTERFIELD, 1831-1901

people in central New York used to think
his word was as good as his bond. When his
son Theodore lived in Syracuse as superin
tendent, of the R. W. & O. railway I had
many business relations with him, and al
ways found him square as a die. But Gen.
Butterfield must have been a whited sepul
chre. Meade says he never got hold of a
word of Hooker's plans. Butterfield, who
was chief of staff to both, says that at
Meade's request he got Hooker's plans for
him in full, and even tells what they were as
he related them to Meade, whereupon
Meade told Butterfield that these were the
plans Hooker had already communicated to
him, and he followed them.

Meade says, and takes solemn oath on it,
that he never for an instant contemplated
abandoning Gettysburg. Butterfield says
that by Meade's command he prepared an
order to abandon it, and Pleasanton says:
"Gen. Meade had so little assurance in his
own ability to maintain himself, or in the
strength of his position, that when the
rebels partially broke our line in the after
noon of the 2d, he directed me to collect
what cavalry I could, and prepare to cover
the retreat of the army; and I was thus
engaged until 12 o'clock that night." And
yet they afterward made a man who could
contradict Meade like than subtreasurer of
the United States.

Dec. 2, 1863]

Gen. Meade's Record

285

GEN. HENRY W. SLOCUM, 1827-94

Gen. Slocum, one of the three S's,
Slocum, Sedgwick, and Sumner, held in
honor in central New York, and who was
in command of the right at Gettysburg,
when Gen. Meade's official report of the
battle of Gettysburg was published wrote
an official letter to Gen. Meade saying:
"Yet the tacts in the case are very nearly
the reverse of the above in every particular,
and directly in contradiction to the facts
as set forth in the reports of Gen. Geary
and Gen. Williams."

Gen. Williams, who commanded the
12th corps points out four serious mis-
statements in Gen. Meade's official report,
and concludes, "I confess to have read
that part of his report relating to the 12th
corps with a mixed feeling of astonish
ment and regret."

Gen. Sickles, commanding the 3d corps,
says conservatively: "In other words, Gen.
Meade's statement is difficult to reconcile
with his high position and the ample means
of information always accessible to him,"
and points out that while Meade says in his
letter that Sickles's movement caused a
loss of half of the 5th corps, the entire
loss of the 5th corps during the battle was
2187 out of 12,000, less than one-eighth.

Internet Archive Audio

Featured

Top

Images

Featured

Top

Software

Featured

Top

Books

Featured

Top

Video

Featured

Top

Mobile Apps

Browser Extensions

Archive-It Subscription

Save Page Now

Full text of "A little fifer's war diary, with 17 maps, 60 portraits, and 246 other illustrations;"

See other formats