USA > Alabama > History of the First Regiment, Alabama Volunteer Infantry, C.S.A. > Part 6
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Contrary to expectation, the enemy did not push his advance May 26, and this gave the regiment an opportunity to intrench. This delay of one day by Banks was a fatal mistake to him.
Late in the evening of the 26th, Gen. Banks sent in to Gen. Gardner a formal demand for the surrender of Port Hudson. It was a lengthy document, written in that elegant style for which Gen. Banks was so noted. It set forth his ability to take Port Hudson at his will, but expressing earnest desire to save the unnecessary effusion of blood. To this Gen. Gardner re- plied briefly that his orders were to defend Port Hudson and that he should obey his orders. This formal demand of Gen. Banks and the laconic reply of Gen. Gardner were printed and distributed that night along the Confederate lines. So all knew that we were standing on the "perilous edge of battle." It was midnight when we were ordered to quit work and to sleep on our arms. The men, falling on the ground in the rear of the ditches, were soon in slumbers. The firing had ceased and the note of the whippoorwill in the ravine above us alone broke the stillness of the night. To the thoughtful it was an hour of se- rious reflection. To many it was the last sleep before that of their final rest.
At early dawn of May 27 Banks opened a heavy cannonade upon our whole front, the fleet shelling the river batteries. Shot, grape, shrapnel were whizzing everywhere, tearing up our breastworks here, plowing up the ground there, crashing through the trees yonder amid terrific explosion of shells. About 120 pieces on land and nearly as many heavy pieces from the fleet had their fire concentrated upon us. This was main- tained an hour when there immediately issued from the woods in our front a long line of burnished steel and waving banners. This was followed by another line, and this by another. What a host advancing against a single line where the men stood five feet apart. Our arms were the old flint lock musket (but they
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were a sure fire) not effective over forty yards ; the enemy were armed with the powerful Enfield rifle. Our cartridge was a ball and three buckshot, a destructive missile at short range. Owing to the ruggedness of the ground and felled timbers, the enemy could not preserve their lines intact and soon became a conglomerate mass. We awaited their approach in silence. When within forty yards we were commanded to fire. A blaze of musketry flashed from our ramparts. The enemy was dazed and stunned by the suddenness of the blow and the fearful effect of our first volley. Over one-fifth of his number were upon the ground dead or wounded. There was a momentary pause, and then rallying and raising a shout they charged. The Con- federates now loaded and fired as rapidly as possible. The enemy was falling thick and fast at every step of his slow ad- vance over brush, but still he bravely pressed on, firing as he came, until within a few feet of our lines and then-fled in utter panic and rout. As usual, the retreat was more disastrous than the advance, and the ground within range of our muskets was literally covered with blue-coats. Shouts of Confederates right and left, assured us of a general repulse along our whole front. Before the enemy's advance he had covered a ridge about fifty yards in front of our regiment with sharp-shooters, and these lay in perfect security and shot our men as they raised their heads and bodies above the breastworks to fire. These Yankee sharp-shooters inflicted the principal damage on our regiment, killing and wounding many more men than the charging columns.
The stampeded Federals rallied under protection of the woods in front and charged again, and were again repulsed. This second charge was made about 10 a. m. After these, re- peated assaults were made during the day upon our position, but the enemy never reached as near our works or fought with as much courage as on the first charge. Late in the evening the firing ceased and our next thoughts were of our dead and wounded. The latter had been promptly removed to our field hospital in a ravine 200 yards in the rear, but litters were lean- ing here and there along our ramparts saturated with blood, and blood was running and puddling in the trenches. Col. Locke received a painful wound in the neck from a spent ball; but, bandaging it with his pocket handkerchief stood bravely to his
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post. The total loss of our regiment was 32 killed and 44 wounded.
During the fierce assault of May 27 on our whole left wing, Commissary Hill was an especial object of attack. Here we had a four-gun battery, and behind it were our commissary stores, arsenal and old gin-house containing the little grist mills which did all the grinding for the army. Our battery did great execution by destroying a number of field guns, but sharp- shooters hidden in the fallen timbers soon made our battery un- tenable by shooting our gunners, compelling them to lie behind the parapet and await assault. Col. Steedman took his position in this battery. A ditch near the battery was enfiladed by sharp-shooters ; the Colonel ordered the Adjutant, Capt. S. D. Steedman (who is the brother of Col. Steedman) to remove the men from this ditch; in attempting to do so he was shot down by a rifle ball striking him over the heart. He was taken to the rear, supposedly mortally wounded, but late at night the Colonel and regiment were delighted to hear that the ball was deflected by a rib and came out at the back, and our adjutant was still living. He soon recovered from the wound and re- sumed duty.
Our experience on the night of May 27 was new to us, and distressing. The piteous cries of "water," "water," from hun- dreds of the enemy's wounded, and the groans of the dying now touch with deepest sympathy those with whom they had but to- day been locked in deadly strife. Several of our men took the risk and carried canteens of water to those nearest our lines. When these returned they reported plenty of Enfield rifles near our ramparts. Our men quickly supplied themselves, and after this each man kept two loaded guns, his Enfield for 'long taw," and flint and steel for close quarters.
Early next morning Gen. Banks obtained a flag of truce for the burial of his dead and removal of his wounded. Col. Locke, by direction of Col. Steedman, met the flag. Several immense openings in the earth were made in front of our regiment each with a capacity of about 100 men. Into these the dead were piled and covered. A brigade of negroes had charged the 39th Mississippi on our left; about half were killed outright on the field, and for the burial of these Gen. Banks never asked a flag of truce. They lay there in the hot sun and putrified and swelled until the stench became so unbearable to Col. Shelby of
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the 39th Mississippi, that he asked Gen. Banks to allow him (Shelby) to bury them. Cen. Banks replied that he had no dead there.
This ended the greatest battle of Port Hudson during the siege. It taught us that a few men with a determination to stay could hold a fortified position against great odds.
The enemy began a series of zig-zag approaches to our lines and soon had their breastworks within 75 yards of us. Both sides placed notched logs longitudinally on their breastworks, the notches being turned down and used as port-holes through which sharp shooting was plied vigorously from daylight to dark. Both Federal and Confederate sharp-shooters got the exact range of the opposite openings and could shoot through them every fire. Many of our men lost their lives at these po- sitions, and a Federal officer told the writer after the surren- der that twenty-three Federals had been killed through a single one during the siege. Another source of loss was carelessness. During a long siege men become accustomed to bullets and to a degree lose sense of danger.
As an instance out of hundreds I give the circumstances of the untimely and tragic death of Newton Soles, a youth of 16, and naturally inclined to be a little thoughtless. The heat of the sun was so intense that we were permitted to erect, in rear of the breastworks what we called "shebangs." These were made by first driving down into the ground two small stakes three feet high and about seven feet apart and connected at the top by a ridge pole, across which a blanket was stretched. Then, at right angles to these stakes, and about three feet from each, four other stakes each about one foot high, were driven down to which each corner of the blanket was fastened. Two men could very well occupy a "shebang." On the day of his death Newt proposed to me to build one. This point of the line was on a hillside; and, in getting from the ditch to the bank in rear one had to be very careful not to let his head. or the least part thereof, show itself above the breastworks, be- cause it was almost certain death. As we ascended the bank I said to Newt: "Look out for your head there." He was on the upper side of the hill. We had just put up the two high stakes, the ridge pole, and had stretched the blanket, when I heard the thug of a bullet. Newt rolled into the ditch, dead.
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with the blood pouring from a wound in his head. He never spoke afterwards.
On the evening of June 13, Gen. Banks made another demand for surrender. But Gen. Gardner again courteously declined. Men and officers preferred to fight.
The opening of the battle at dawn on the next morning by Gen. Banks was very similar to that on May 27, but he had in position more artillery and his infantry was nearer our lines. A furious cannonade was maintained about two hours. Their shot and shell frequently passed entirely over the Confederate semi- circle and fell among their own men on the opposite side. After this free-for-all entertainment, the enemy advanced to the assault in three double lines of battle. We used our Enfield rifles until within 30 or 40 yards, and then our old flint and steel muskets. Under a destructive fire from our men the enemy bravely ad- vanced until within twenty yards, and then fled in panic amid loud rebel yells along our whole lines. Again and again they reformed and charged, but never came as near as on the first charge. In fact, towards the last of the battle their officers could hardly get the Federals to leave their own breastworks. They were not cowards, but brave men. They saw no hope of storming our position successfully and were demoralized. Had it been simply a question of Bank's Army taking Port Hudson, the Confederate flag would have been floating over its ramparts today (1904), and forever after this. Again had their dead and wounded covered our front. Sharp-shooters on that ridge again killed and wounded several of our regiment. Blood flowed freely along our trenches.
This was the last general assault upon our position. The at- tacks made May 27 and June 14 are known as the two great battles of Port Hudson. After this the two armies resumed sharp-shooting through portholes. Large green trees between us and the enemy were shot to death and into splinters with minie balls. The enemy, generally at night, made frequent sorties upon some points of our lines, but were promptly re- pulsed. They also occasionally annoyed us with hand grenades -diminutive bombs. For this they would select a dark night, and an hour when all except videttes were supposed to be asleep, creep stealthily as near as possible, then make a dash forward to our breastworks, toss the grenade into our trenches and run back to their ditches before we could be roused from
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sleep and get into line. Several hundred of these little burst- ing bombs popping like so many big fire-crackers away in the night produced many laughable incidents among the boys. Though we never slept over ten steps from our line, before we could be aroused and get into position the land grenades were all burst, and the Yankees all gone.
Col. Steedman, in a letter to the writer, dated July 2, 1902, relates the following incident of the siege of Port Hudson :
"About the middle of the siege, the enemy attempted to make a sneak through our lines in the night. A picked command was formed, possibly a thousand men. They selected the slaughter pen route. This pen stood on a high bluff, deep ravines from the neigh- borhood running into Sandy creek. These ravines were filled with the offal of many hundred cattle. The attempt was made in a rain- storm. The men got separated and lost while bogging and flounder- ing in this awful putrid mess. They came straggling through our thin line, and were captured in detail. The greater number scram- bled back to their own lines .- Those captured were hideous, stink- ing objects and glad to get a chance to wash up.
"Had this picked command succeeded in getting through our lines in good order, and been followed up by reinforcement, Port Hudson might have been captured that night; but good luck and brave men saved it. This is written from memory, but is correct in essentials, my headquarters being within a few hundred yards of the spot."
As the siege progressed sickness increased. We had no pro- tection from a burning sun, our food most unwholesome, and we were not permitted to take off accoutrements day or night. Since the middle of June we had nothing but corn bread and syrup and only a scanty supply of corn. We had a few peas and these were ground with corn for bread, but it produced so much sickness that the surgeon ordered its discontinuance. Green muscadines were cooked into preserves that tasted well, but also caused sickness. For some reason not a fish could be caught out of the river. There were several old mules in our lines in medium order, and Gen. Gardner had these slaughtered and issued to the men. Some of the boys also caught and cooked big rats. "How do mule and rat taste?" The writer did not get a chance at rats, though during the siege they were considered a delicacy. He tried mule meat, and corn
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bread shortened with mule grease. Famished as he was, his stomach rebelled against the latter. The former had a flavor somewhat like turkey, but it tasted like nothing else he knows except a mule.
Those who used tobacco (as most did), suffered much from lack of it. Many kinds of bark and roots were substituted.
THE SURRENDER OF PORT HUDSON.
All through the siege we cherished hope of relief through Gens. Joe Johnston and T. M. Logan. The latter, with a bri- gade of cavairy did attack Banks's rear in hearing of Port Hudson. Though we had no fears of the enemy, who was thoroughly whipped and demoralized already, yet having noth- ing to eat and being nearly out of ammunition, all foresaw our inevitable doom. But negotiations for surrender came earlier than anticipated, and from a source not expected. On the night of July 6, a hand grenade, to which was attached a message from Gen. Grant to Gen. Banks stating that Vicksburg had surrendered on July 4, 1863, was thrown by a Federal picket into our lines. This dispatch was immediately carried to Col. Steedman. He carried it to Gen. Gardner at headquarters. The result was a council of war immediately, in which it was determined to send a flag of truce to Gen. Banks next morning and ask whether this telegram were genuine and true. Gen. Banks replied upon his honor that it was true, and that one of Grant's army corps was already on the way to Port Hudson, and that another would follow next day. Commissioners to treat for surrender from both sides met under a tent-fly between the lines on the morning of July 7. Col. I. G. W. Steedman, Col. W. N. Miles, and Col. M. J. Smith were the Confederate commissioners. The Federals demanded an immediate sur- render; the Confederates, by every possible artifice, strove to postpone the surrender until the morning of the 8th, their ob- ject being to gain time by which Confederates might make their escape from Port Hudson during the night. A heavy rain and thunder storm luckily came up from the west late in the afternoon and thus gained us a night's delay before formal sur- render.
By 9 a. m. on the morning of the 8th, white flags were fiying all along the ramparts of friend and foe. Vicksburg had gone,
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Port Hudson must go! Our long struggle of seven weeks had been in vain ! So many of our comrades had died in vain! No, not in vain, for our little band had held back forty thousand Federals from Vicksburg. Groups of Federals and Confeder- ates were soon together between the lines in conversation, and trading-a trade is always the first thought of a Yankee. We had syrup and sugar; they had bacon, crackers, coffee, and to- bacco, and trade ran briskly in these commodities. That even- ing we were ordered back to camps, followed by Banks's com- missary train that issued to us bountiful rations of beef, crack- ers, and other supplies. What a feast! But over it all hung the shadow of imprisonment.
Next morning, July 9, we were ordered up in line of battle fronting Gens. Banks and Gardner, and grounded arms. The ceremony of surrender was over, and we were prisoners. Gen. Banks addressed us in a brief speech, commending most highly our heroic defense of Port Hudson, and closed by saying that brave men could always be trusted, and that every private and non-commissioned officer should be released on parole. This announcement was received with joy, but mixed with regret that a hard fate awaited our faithful officers. For this mag- nanimous act the Port Hudson prisoners were ever grateful; and it was an act of magnanimity, pure and simple, and not of. motives. Gen. Banks so assured the writer in a private letter written in 1878.
THE MARCH TO SHUBUTA AND HOME TO ALABAMA.
The work of paroling began July II, and was completed July 14, 1863. During this time several of our sick died at our hos- pital, and several of our officers, among them Maj. S. L. Knox, obtained paroles given to these dead privates, donned a pri- vate's uniform, and passed out of the Yankee lines without being detected. A few of the officers, after perilous adventure and much suffering from hunger and thirst, effected their es- cape through the enemy's pickets.
Receiving our paroles, we passed through the enemy's lines at our breastworks on the Clinton road, camping that night about ten miles from Clinton. Here several of our officers who had made their escape, rejoined us. We gave them an ovation. The citizens along the way out to Tangipahoa on the
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line of Mississippi and Louisiana were exceedingly kind and generous. These Louisianians were a princely people, and in- tensely loyal to the South. At many points along the road free lunch stands had been erected where the soldiers were served by the white ladies and negroes. Many of these young creole women were beautiful; so that while we satisfied the cravings of hunger, we feasted our eyes. To the women of the Confed- eracy there were no strangers in the Southern army; all were brothers. Men, women and all would say: "Our roasting ears are ripe ; plenty of watermelons in the fields; if we have any- thing you need, take it; nothing we have is too good for you; it all belongs to you while you are with us. We appreciate your services to our State, at Port Hudson."
The railroads being torn up, we had to walk from Port Hud- son to Shubuta, Miss., on the Mobile & Ohio Railroad, a dis- tance of 180 miles. Of this, 120 miles lay across the entire State of Mississippi, which required a week's travel, and where we had much difficulty in getting food and shelter; and never without pay. They would not even haul our sick a few miles without compensation. But perhaps our treatment was what might have been expected; as we have since been informed, the poor piney woods Mississippi counties we marched through were filled with a very large element, notoriously disloyal to the Confederacy. Jones, one of these counties, was so intense- ly Union in sentiment, that it is said at some time during the war to have passed an ordinance, seceding from the Confeder- acy.
We went by as direct a route as possible to Shubuta, where we took the cars, reaching home during the last days of July. Here we remained two and one-half months, enjoying a much- needed rest, bounteous rations, and social gatherings.
Officers were sent to prison and held to the close of the war.
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CHAPTER IV.
MERIDIAN, MOBILE, AND GEORGIA CAMPAIGNS.
REGIMENT REASSEMBLED.
October 12, 1863, the regiment, Maj. S. L. Knox command- ing, was ordered to Cahaba, Ala., and went into parole camps on a high hill two or three miles west of the town. We had not been exchanged in accordance with the terms of our paroles, and an effort by our officers to put us on duty in violation of our paroles was bitterly resented by almost every member of the regiment. By the terms of our parole, we were to perform no kind of military service or duty until regularly exchanged ac- cording to the provisions of the cartel of exchange. We had not been so exchanged, nor were we afterwards. The commis- ioners of exchange had annulled this cartel, simply "declar- ing all paroled prisoners exchanged."
However, our officers having satisfactorily explained the situation in reference to exchange, we entered upon duty. We always doubted, and still, doubt, the legality of our exchange, and had we been recaptured might have been severely dealt with.
On Nov. 9, the regiment left Cahaba for Meridian, Miss., spending the night in an old cotton warehouse in Selma. As the regiment marched from the warehouse next morning through the streets to the depot, the effects of whiskey were much in evidence. Reaching Meridian Nov. 10, we at once set about erecting log cabins for winter quarters. A detachment of the regiment guarded railroad bridges below, the rest fur- nished daily guards for all outgoing and incoming trains. We were in fine health and spirits, had full rations and comfortable clothes, drew several months' pay, investing it all in "bone dried goobers" at $50 a bushel, and "potato pones" at $I a pone.
During the Christmas holidays, Gen. Reynolds's Arkansas brigade, which was stationed here, got too much whiskey, be --
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came boisterous and mutinous, and our regiment with other commands was called out to restore order. For a while the situation was serious, but the Arkansans were finally pacified.
The second term of enlistment (two years) of original mem- bers of the regiment having expired in January, 1864, each re- ceived a thirty days' furlough on reënlisting. Companies C. H. and K were ordered to Jackson, Miss., Jan. 21, 1864, reach- ing that point Jan. 23. The object was to capture and bring across Pearl river a number of railroad locomotives, but the advance of Gen. Sherman from Vicksburg thwarted this plan, and the detachment returned to Meridian.
MOBILE BAY CAMPAIGN.
As Gen. Sherman's advance seemed to threaten Mobile, the regiment left Meridian Feb. 14 and marched to the Tombigbee river, embarked on steamer, reaching Mobile Feb. 20. For two weeks we did garrison duty at the forts and batteries along the line of land defenses, but were then withdrawn and encamp- ed on a vacant square in the residence part of the city. March 13 we set out for Port Alabama, twenty-five miles down the bay, and after a two days' march through a flat, lonesome, piney woods country, reached our destination, pitching our tents on the bay front. While here, detachments of the regi- ment did garrison duty at Cedar Point and Fort Powell; the rest, picket duty along the beach, on one occasion capturing and hanging a Yankee spy. Leaving the companies on garri- son duty, the regiment went by steamer to Fort Gaines April 5, 1864, and was assigned to guns. We remained here a month, enjoying plenty of fish and oysters. The garrison also had a vegetable garden of ten acres, cultivated by daily details, but we left too soon to be benefited by this.
At Fort Gaines the regiment handled its last artillery, its his- tory henceforth being blended with that of the Army of Ten- nessee.
REGIMENT JOINS GEN. JOSEPH E. JOHNSTON'S ARMY RETREAT- ING ON ATLANTA.
About May I the regiment left Fort Gaines for the Army of Tennessee then retreating before Sherman in North Geor- gia. We stopped about a week or ten days at Pollard, Ala.
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While here Co. I was detailed for duty on Dog river. Co. K at Hall's Landing, and Co. C at Greenville, Ala. The rest of the regiment left Pollard May 16, and joined the Army of Ten- nessee at New Hope Church, Ga., May 18, and was assigned to Cantey's brigade (but a week later was transferred to Quarles's brigade) Walthall's division, Polk's corps. The regiment's position was north of and near the church, in a new ground and in front of a branch. Fifty yards beyond the narrow valley of this little stream, was a dense undergrowth of bushes and saplings, held by the enemy's pickets. Heavy skirmishing was going on as we tock our places in line. On May 25 the Federals made a general attack on our position. Three times they charged us from the copse in front, but were repulsed with heavy loss before they could cross this narrow valley perhaps a hundred yards. Assaults were made also on May 26 and 27, but not in such force. Companies I and C arrived in time to take part in the battle. . Co. K reached us later, on the 28th.
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