USA > Alabama > History of the First Regiment, Alabama Volunteer Infantry, C.S.A. > Part 2
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within the city limits ; thence to Johnson's Island, where he was detained until exchanged at Vicksburg the following Septem- ber. Rejoining his regiment at the latter place, they were sent a few days later to Port Hudson, La., where he was put in charge of a line of heavy batteries. He was in command of this line on the night of March 14, 1863. During the siege of Port Hudson, which began May 25 following, he was act- ing brigadier-general in command of the left wing of the land defenses, as well as the river defenses; and it was during this terrible siege of seven weeks that his superb endurance and military genius and courage shone forth with great resplend- ence.
After the surrender of Port Hudson July 8, four days later than that of Vicksburg on July 4, Col. Steedman and the rest of our officers were sent to New Orleans, thence to Governor's Island, N. Y., by sea, and thence to Johnson's Island, where he was held until the spring of 1865. While here he was, at the request of his fellow prisoners, put in charge of the prison hospital, selecting his own assistants, five in number, who were also fellow prisoners.
After being sent east for exchange he sailed from Fort Mc- Henry, Baltimore, for City Point, and on the voyage rendered valuable service to the sick suffering from smallpox and gan- grene. Before reaching its destination the vessel returned to the military prison at Point Lookout, and Col. Steedman was held here until sent to Fort Delaware, where he was paroled at the close of the war. Returning to Alabama he located in Montgomery for the practice of his profession. On Oct. 31, 1865, he was married at St. Louis, Mo., to Dora Harrison, a native of that city, and locating in St. Louis he began the prac- tice of his profession there in 1866. In his profession he was eminently successful, until he retired in 1880. He still (1904) resides in that city, in excellent health. He has three sons : James Harrison, George Fox, and Edwin H. Steedman, all Uni- versity graduates, and successful manufacturers, being associ- ated with their father.
The following were some of the prominent characteristics of Col. Steedman, as he was in 1861-1865, and will be readily recognized by every member of the regiment: Five feet eight or nine inches high, weight about one hundred and forty pounds; dark grey eyes, dark brown hair, and heavy goatee and mus-
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tache of same color ; perfectly symmetrical ; graceful carriage, quick in movement, perception, decision, and expression ; a clear, ringing voice ; untiring energy ; a mind ever on the alert but never confused; utterly fearless, but never reckless; de- lighting in the profession of arms; firm in discipline, but most courteous to and most considerate of the humblest private ; never, under any circumstances, exhibiting the least irritation or temper; abstemious; modest ; chaste in language, and of pure, irreproachable private character; and of a powerful per- sonal magnetism. Never was there an officer whose men would have followed him with more implicit faith and greater enthusi- asm, into any danger he might have proposed to lead them. Nowhere did Col. Steedman have a greater admirer than the big-hearted Gen. Clayton himself. Speaking of Col. Steedman in the Union Springs Herald, September, 1885, Gen. Clayton says: "If Col. Steedman had been in the field instead of being confined to garrison duty during the war, he would have risen to the rank of major-general long before I did."
Maj. Williams, being third in command, had no particular opportunity to show his ability as a military man. He was held in the highest esteem by every member of the regiment. Since the close of the war he has represented the third congressional district in the lower house of the Federal congress, and since his retirement from congress has for many years filled the honorable position of chancellor of his district.
Under the immediate direction of Lieut. Joseph Wheeler, of the engineer corps, now the celebrated Gen. Wheeler of two wars, the regiment was soon put to erecting batteries along the heights west of Fort Barrancas : the Red Eagles for two motar guns in the rear of Fort Barrancas ; the Rough and Ready Pio- neers, for two thirty-two pounders in the depression between Fort Barrancas and the Old Light House ; the Perote Guards, for three ten-inch columbiad's and one eight-inch columbiad at the Old Light House; the Alabama Rifles for two ten-inch mortars between the Perote battery and the New Light House ; the Clayton Guards, for two ten-inch rifle guns at the New Light House.
These companies were assisted by daily details from other companies of the regiment, cannon being brought by slow and laborious processes (rolled on skids) from Forts Barrancas and
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McRee. While getting a gun from the latter fort, the regiment heard for the first time of their future friend and inseparable traveling companion, the army louse ; for it was on this occasion that an old regular soldier was stripped, shaved and carried publicly out to the beach, stretched upon the sand and scrubbed to rid him of the loathsome vermin. We would then have re- sented the slightest insinuation that these companions would form an accompaniment of our future wardrobe.
This whole line was now astir with busy men. Work, drill, picket duty kept us moving ; and after the cannon were mount- ed in their respective batteries, artillery drill was added. The scarcity of artillerists in the Confederate army at this stage of the war rendered it necessary that volunteers be trained at once for this important branch of the service, and this explains why our regiment came to be both an infantry and heavy artillery regiment. It continued in this dual service until it left Fort Gaines, Ala., in May, 1864.
Early in April the regiment cleared away the scrub bushes and seaweed between Fort Barrancas and Perote battery, and pitched their tents in front of the bay in full view of Fort Pickens, the Eufaula Pioneers remaining to garrison Fort Barrancas. The tents, with arbors of seaweed in front for shade, afforded a delightful retreat from the stale old barracks, but the warm spring brought clouds of mosquitos, and fleas of prodigious size and bloodthirsty intent became as numer- ous as the sands of the seashore.
THE SONG OF THE BONNIE BLUE FLAG.
The first time I ever heard the song of the Bonnie Blue Flag was under the following circumstances: Lieut. M. B. Locke of the Perote Guards, later lieutenant-colonel of the regiment, came to me about sundown one evening and asked me to at- tend the theatre with him that night in Warrenton. I gladly accepted the invitation for several reasons. In the first place, it gave me an outing beyond our lines for a few hours. In the second, I was fond of theatres anyway. In the third, I always loved "Mike" and deem his personal friendship one of my most valuable earthly possessions. We went. The large building was densely packed with soldiers, and a few ladies. I have no recollection of any special points in the play, but at the close
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was an incident never during life to be effaced from memory. A gentleman soloist, and a fine singer he was, advanced to the front of the stage bearing a large, blue, silk flag with a golden star in the center. Slowly unfurling the banner he began the song of the "Bonnie Blue Flag." As he named each State in the order of its secession the soldiers from these respective States cheered with the greatest enthusiasm. But as he con- cluded the last stanza,
"For the lone star of the Bonnie Blue Flag Has grown to be eleven,"
he at the same time reversed the banner, displaying on the opposite side a galaxy of cleven stars, representing the eleven States of our new-born Confederacy. The sentiment, the oc- casion, the highly dramatic rendition of the whole recitation electrified the great assembly. Every man at once seemed to lose his reason. They sprang to their feet, rushed forward fran- tically waving their caps and wildly gesticulating, some out of joy beating comrades with fists, others embracing and kissing, still others shouting and yelling like mad men. This reign of Bedlam lasted ten minutes. Though forty-two years have elapsed since this incident, the whole scene rises from the dead past as vividly as on the night of its occurrence.
THE REGIMENT PAID FOR FIRST TWO MONTHS' SERVICE IN SPECIE.
In April or May the regiment was paid for its first two months' service in gold and silver by the State of Alabama, privates receiving each $20 in gold and $2 in silver, and offi- cers in proportion. That night the whole encampment looked like a gambling establishment. This writer did his first gamb- line then and there at "seven up," ten cents a game, and after playing until after midnight came off one dime winner. He is glad to add that this was his last gambling. But expert card players reaped a harvest that night from "suckers." Jack Gib- son next day had about $200, I believe, and my recollection is that he carried nearly all this sum through to the close of the war. Though fond of playing cards, Jack was a good fellow and a good soldier. This was the last and only gold and silver paid the regiment for its services during the war, and if any other Southern command was as fortunate even as- we in this respect we are not aware of the fact.
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Pensacola Campaign, 1861.
UNIFORMS.
On reaching Barrancas no two companies were uniformed alike. As a rule each company had two suits, full dress and fatigue. The former was made of high grade material, tl.at of the Perote Guards costing $50 a suit. It was full dress style, heavy gray cassimere, trimmed with blue, three rows of buttons in front of coat, and red plumes tipped with white. This suit the company bought at its organization, each member paying for his own uniform. The fatigue suit of the same company pre- sented by the ladies of Perote on our leaving home was of very dark cassimere, heavy weight, trimmed with light gray, single row of buttons and frock skirts.
About the first of July we were furnished by the ladies of Alabama with a regimental uniform. This was made of blue jeans, frock skirt reaching down to our knees, and with a single row of buttons in front.
FLAGS.
Each company reached Barrancas with its own company flag, and these were as unlike as the uniforms, but bearing a striking resemblance to the Stars and Stripes of the Union. They generally agreed in one point only, that of having a sin- gie star. Some had been inscribed with mottoes and curious devices, such, for instance, as a rattlesnake in coil ready to strike his victim, with the motto, "Don't tread on me." This great diversity of company flags was especially conspicuous on regimental drill and dress parade. On the adoption of a sov- ereign flag, during summer the ladies of Montgomery sent the regiment a Confederate flag made of bunting, after which the company flags were seldom used.
These flags were captured at Island No. 10, April, 1862, and are presumably in possession of Northern States. That of the Perote Guards has been recently located at Madison, Wis., by Hon. Thomas M. Owen, Director of the Department of Ar- chives and History of Alabama. It will probably be restored to our State when the next legislature of Wisconsin convenes.
GENERAL REVIEW OF THE ARMY AT BARRANCAS.
Gen. Bragg determined to hold a general review of the army during the month of July, and for this purpose had all under-
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brush removed from a space of half a mile square out in the piney woods about a mile in the rear of the new light house, and out of sight of Fort Pickens. It was a fearfully hot day and not a leaf of the forest stirred from its place. The hot sun burned our feet through our shoes. We stood in this posi- tion about an hour facing the sun with our long blue jeans coats buttoned tightly up to our chins while we enjoyed the luxury (?) of being reviewed by the general and his staff. After the general had passed along our front he took a position at one corner of the square where the army by companies marched past him as he sat on his highly caparisoned war-steed, cap in hand and head bared to the burning sun. This consumed another hour, by which time many of the men were prostrated with heat, and had to fall out of ranks. This was the only gen- eral review we had at Barrancas, and it was enough for us. For several weeks we had been looking forward to this event, anticipating a "big time," but as a pleasure affair the whole per- formance was a stupendous failure.
SICKNESS AT BARRANCAS, FLA., IN 1861.
I shall speak briefly first of the Marine hospital, a distinct image of which as it was in 1861 still hangs in the picture gal- lery of memory, although I was never an inmate myself. The building was a magnificent structure of brick, three stories high, painted yellow, occupying a terraced elevation half a mile from the beach, enclosed by a heavy brick wall quadrangu- lar in form, with a large iron gate at the center of each side, almost obscured by that prince of all forest trees, the live oak, around whose dark massive trunks and long wandering branches ivy and other vines had woven themselves into a solid coating, until leaping up and over-spreading the tops of trecs and hospital they hung in graceful festoons along the walls of the latter. The spacious grounds were carpeted with nature's perennial green, relieved here and there by clusters of brilliant and variegated flowers. The grove was enlivened by the cease- less singing of many birds, of which our own Southern mock- ing-bird is king, thus removing this one spot as far away as possible from every other suggestion of war and turmoil and strife. A Confederate soldier, in full uniform and with fixed bayonet, is pacing his beat in front of each gate and also of
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each entrance of the main buildings, while sisters of charity, dressed in black and wearing white sun-bonnets were moving along the wide corridors and verandahs on their missions of mercy, or standing in groups of two or three in earnest consul- tation with the surgeon. If we enter and go through the apart- ments we shall find them large, well lighted and well ventilated; the walls, furniture, and beddings scrupulously clean, and the patients receiving such food and attention as their respective conditions demand.
During the spring, summer and fall measles, jaundice and malarial and typhoid fevers had successively invaded the camp of the Ist Alabama regiments; and, despite the rigid enforce- ment of sanitary regulations, the first two became epidemic and the last nearly so. Many believed that too much drilling in the hot sun, while closely laced up from hip to chin in heavy woolen uniforms, was responsible for so much sickness. As many of the regiment had never been accustomed to labor or active exercise of any kind ,this opinion may have been, at least to some extent, well founded. Of course no blame can attach to any officer of the regiment on this account. Raw troops have to be drilled, disciplined and hardened for service, and officers alone have to do this. Besides, the "hardening pro- cess" at Barrancas doubtless saved many lives to the regiment at Island No. 10, when the exposure and duties were so much greater, and where the new recruits suffered such terrible fatal- ity, while the volunteers of '61 passed through the fiery ordeal of after campaigns with comparatively slight loss.
Whatever the cause, the Marine hospital was full of sick from June to October. Every day several were carried down from the hospital to the "dead house" for interment, or ship- ment home, the latter almost invariably the rule in the South- ern army during 1861. To us, not yet accustomed to the hor- rors of war, the situation was distressing. Said a nervous com- rade : "A man can die and be buried here with the least cere- mony and concern I ever saw." Our regiment lost about forty this year, mostly young men. Many a youth, who only a few months previous, had left a home of tenderness and luxury and had gone forth at his country's call to drive back the invad- ers of the South, thus early and suddenly found the end of his brief career and earthly ambition.
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First Alabama Regiment, C. S. A.
I distinctly recall to inind one, a youth of seventeen, of at- tractive personality, of superior intellect, of wealthy and dis- tingushed family, of magnanimous soul and Christian charac- ter, and of high social position, all giving assurance of a most honorable and useful life-thus untimely cut down.
From the first of the son's illness the anxious father (for his mother had died several years before) was at the bedside of his son who was slowly dying of typhoid fever. Though the hospital service was excellent, and the father provided for his son every comfort and delicacy that heart could wish, two com- pany comrades, by permission, spent the long, lonesome, sad hours of night in affectionate ministration to their loved friend. Towards the last of his illness, the patient's mind began to wander. In dreams and during periods of aberration he was conversing with comrades in camp, or in a gay party of friends at home, or wearied of a long march, or engaged in a fierce battle with the enemy. After a protracted struggle, the end came peacefully ; the spirit of a noble youth, with all its future hopes and promises, had departed ; only dust remained; but the natural color of the face returned ; a gentle smile, so char- acteristic in health and now so heaven-like, again lit up the wasted cheek. A fond, Christian father, overwhelmed with grief, bore him away from sorrowing comrades to still more anguished hearts of relatives and friends at home, where he was laid to rest, highly honored and sincerely lamented, by a whole community; and where a marble monument marks the place of his earthly remains.
This youth was Langdon L. Rumph of the Perote Guards ; the father, Dr. James D. Rumph.
'These were our first experiences in the horrors of war. Our sensibilities were yet tender, and the death of a comrade, a sad bereavement then, for we had not yet become accustomed to suffering and death by long-continued conflict and carnage. You who read this, read of the death of a soldier in time of war under most favorable conditions and circumstances possible. Later, we shall attempt to portray the death of a Confederate soldier on the field of battle.
Unnumbered thousands of Southern soldiers as noble and promising as comrade Rumph met death, and met it like men, far away from home and loved ones ; sometimes from sickness or wounds in over-crowded hospitals, where there were neither
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nurses, food, comfort nor medical attention ; sometimes in all instant on the field of battle; sometimes in prison hospitals among our enemies, where it was a matter of total indifference whether they lived or died, though with some preference for the latter; and, after death, were dumped into a hole in the ground with as little concern as a dead horse. But on this score we must not judge our enemy harshly. We Confederates shed no tears around the graves of dead Yankees. This is war.
Confederate troops had been constantly arriving at Barran- cas until by the Ist of June we had eight or ten thousand. Fed- erals had also been busy recruiting. Col. Brown with re- enforcements had superseded Lieut. Slemmer in command of Fort Pickens; Billy Wilson's regiment of New York Zouaves had gone into tents half a mile above Fort Pickens on the island ; batteries in front of us were being constructed. Still, a fellow feeling apparently prevailed between friend and foe as each, under the guns of the other, were allowed to bask in the morning and evening breeze without molestation. Even as late as April the Federal gunboat, Wyandotte, was permitted to land at the navy yard and take aboard supplies. The Yankees first broke the peace. Selecting a dark night, they captured and burned our little patrol boat, the Judith, lying out in the harbor. Not content, they shortly afterwards surprised the guard at the navy yard, burned the dry dock, spiked the guns of our battery manned by old ex-Federal regulars, and made good their escape. There was suspicion of treason. This ugly behavior called for correction. Accordingly, Gen. Bragg fitted out a detachment of about fifteen hundred men made up by details from the various regiments, put Gen. Anderson and Col. Chalmers in command, and left the rest to them. The Talladega Rifles and Wilcox True Blues represented the First Alabama. Marching to Pensacola, the expedition embarked on the steamer Times and on barges about dark on the evening of October 7, 1861, steamed west near the coast of Santa Rosa island and landed the troops on the north side of the island about 2 a. m. on- the morning of the 8th. The objective point was Billy Wilson's Zouaves camp, about five miles above which the troops were landed. The plan was to advance stealthily down the island, capture the pickets and surprise the camp. This was successfully done, and the Confederates were open- ing by platoons upon the camp before the Zouaves were aware
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of their presence. This was about 4 a. m. The rebel yell was raised which was instantly responded to by the Confederates from the navy yard to Fort McRee, who, with eager expect- ancy, had remained awake all night to witness the battle. There was the wildest consternation among the Yankees. Many of the enerny were killed and wounded, a few were captured, more escaped through the darkness of the night. The sound of a horse's hoofs running at full speed down the plank road to Fort Pickens was distinctly heard at our battery. Torches were applied to the tents and arbors of seaweed, to the com- missary and other buildings near the camp. This so lighted up the island that we could plainly see the movements of our troops from the mainland. The Yankees were gone. Daylight soon came and at the same time there advanced from the rear portals of Fort Pickens a long column of Federals. Our men, exhausted by the laborious march down the island through deep sand and dense thickets, and over rugged surface, slowly be- gan to retreat to the steamer Times and barges. The enemy followed, and our men were several times compelled to halt, form line and push back their assailants. At this juncture Gen. Bragg sent over the steamer Ewing with reinforcements, who took the place of our tired soldiers and drove the enemy down the island in confusion. The troops then re-embarked and landed at Pensacola. In the afternoon Gen. Bragg, under flag of truce, brought away his killed and wounded from the island, the total loss being about thirty. Among the former were Capt. Bradford of a Florida regiment, and Lieut. Nelms of a Georgia regiment. Out of honor to these officers, by order of Gen. Bragg, the steamer Times was thenceforth called the Bradford, and the Ewing, the Nelms.
Owing to this unpleasantness the regiment had to move its camp about half a mile in rear and out of sight of the enemy. We then began the erection of wooden barracks for winter quarters along the depression in the immediate rear of the Pe- rote battery.
BOMBARDMENT OF FORT PICKENS.
On the morning of November 22, 1861, as the Bradford was steaming down to the navy yard from Pensacola, Fort Pickens opened fire upon it. This was the signal for a general attack
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on our lines, and in a few minutes cannon were darting flame and iron from every porthole of Fort Pickens and from every battery along the island. The former had more guns than all the Confederate forts and batteries combined, but it had to di- vide its attack along a range of four miles, while it received the concentrated fire of all the Confederates. Fort McRee was the weakest of all our defenses, and yet the most exposed both to the fleet and Fort Pickens. Its gallant commander, Villipi- gue, with his Georgia battalion had strengthened it somewhat with sand bags. For this reason Fort McRee had, from the outset, been the object of deepest concern and anxiety ; but our apprehensions were greatly intensified when two of the enemy's largest men-of-war were moved up a channel even the existence of which had hitherto been unknown to us, cast anchor in the rear of the right wing of the fort on which side the garrison had neither strengthened the walls against attack, nor mounted guns for defense ; and from this new position about a mile nearer Fort McRee then the other Federal vessels, opened a terrific fire upon this helpless part of the fort. At the same time the rest of the squadron, now about two miles off, made a vigorous attack on the right front of McRee. The situation was alarm- ing. Fleet and fort were soon enveloped with the smoke of their own guns and that of exploding shells, except as an oc- casional breeze afforded a temporary glimpse. On one occas- ion simultaneous volleys raked the outer walls and parapets of the fort, wrapped it with flames of bursting shells, sent huge timbers and massive pieces of concrete flying through the air, swept away the flagstaff and demolished a section of wall on the right. As dimly seen from our position the whole structure seemed to bulge and sink to the earth in one general conflagra- tion and gigantic heap of ruins. There was a momentary sus- pense of firing along the Confederate lines, as men stood in breathless excitement and gazed with the eagerness of despair at what appeared the final doom of the fort. "McRee is gone up," murmured some. Nobody denied or doubted it. A mo- ment later a friendly breeze partially lifting the smoke, re- vealed only a part demolished, the rest standing firm. This gave some relief, but a moment later it was noticed that the flag had disappeared. "The fort has surrendered," they now said. But these words were hardly spoken when the large gar- rison banner with broken staff and torn with shot was seen
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