USA > Florida > Dixie County > Seventy-seven years in Dixie : The boys in gray of 61-65, civil war memoirs of a soldier in the first Florida infantry > Part 2
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THE BATTLE AT EAST PASS
up, but when another shot was heard would say, "Here comes another," and dodge down again. Captain Madison Reddick [author's brother-died at the Battle of Chickamauga] was in command of the schooner, and when a breeze sprang up, got out of range and then landed the supplies on the mainland side.
We had good equipment that we had brought from home and were enjoying ourselves finally until about eight or nine months after our enlistment when one morning we were startled by a cannon ball whistling over our heads. The Yankees had brought up two guns from Ft. Pickens [Pensacola] and had landed them on the outside beach and placed them behind some small hills on the islands just across the Narrows from us.
It was just at break of day, at which hour the rolls were called each morning and the men were forming in line and answering to their names, when they heard the roar of the gun and heard the shot whistle over their heads. It was a complete surprise and every man broke ranks and ran for his shack. I was not in the ranks, as I had been on duty all night and was in my shack sleeping and did not hear the first shot. The men were divided into messes of seven and eight men. Our brave little orderly sergeant was in my mess, and when that first shot was fired, made for the shack where I was sleeping and yelled that the Yankees were shooting at us and for me to get up quick. I thought that he was teasing me and while we were talking the second shot came, the ball going through our house near the top and just over my head. There was no more talking. I jumped up and began looking for my pants and shoes, which I had a hard time finding,
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SEVENTY-SEVEN YEARS IN DIXIE
though I did so at last and ran outside, and about that time the third shot came and went through our houses. All the men were running and dodging in every direction.
I had not yet gotten into my pants and shoes, and the cannon balls were coming thicker and nearer every minute. I finally got out of the range of the guns and got my pants and shoes on, and the next thing I heard was Captain McPherson calling for Lieutenant Reddick to help get the men into line. After some time we rallied the men and got them in line behind the little mound between us and the water. The Yankees evidently could hear our voices, for they dropped a cannon shell just behind our ranks, which caused a general stampede, every man breaking for the hammock in our rear and only a short distance away. There we rallied again and formed our line in the thick woods in an old road that led northward.
There Captain McPherson made a little talk to the men and ordered every man who would not risk his gun to step one pace to the rear, an order that about one-third of the company, those armed only with old shotguns, obeyed. Just as they stepped back, the Yankees got our range again and sent another shell over our heads, and such a scattering there was. Every man for himself for over two miles when we were brought up by the waters of Garnier's Bayou, all except two or three who were reported to have swum the Bayou and I know that two or three men did not report for three weeks afterwards.
We camped on the bayou that night, the Captain placing a heavy guard around the camp. During the night the guards stationed below and above Camp Walton reported to Captain
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THE BATTLE AT EAST PASS
McPherson that the Yankees were crossing the Narrows in small boats, but the report proved to be false, though it frightened the whole community very badly at the time.
2
CAMP WALTON
Next morning a small detachment was sent up in a small boat to meet the schooner Lady Ann commanded by Captain Baker, who was bringing our mail over the Bay, and to direct him to bring the Lady Ann into Garnier's. He arrived the next day and we were ferried across the bayou and marched some seven miles through the woods to Boggy Bayou [Valparaiso/Niceville], when we struck camp again and remained some three weeks, our commander in the meantime notifying General Bragg of what had happened. His orders were for us to return to Camp Walton and hold that place at all hazards.
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SEVENTY-SEVEN YEARS IN DIXIE
These orders were obeyed, but we had a taste of war. After our panicky retreat Captain McPherson had ordered all our houses burned, and when we got back to the old ground we were without shelter of any kind for about three weeks when General Bragg sent us some tents and two thirty- pound cannons. One was mounted upon a mound near the water's edge and pointed towards the little hill on the island behind which the Yankees had placed their guns when they fired on us in camp. The other never was mounted, and when we evacuated the camp it was buried about fifteen paces from the water's edge.
The engineer who superintended the mounting of the gun was Dr. Chas. Mckinnon, sergeant of our company. Not a man nor an officer of our company of ninety-two men had ever fired a cannon or stood near one when it was fired and some of them had never seen or heard one. Some of the men were drilled in the artillery tactics but were never called upon to exercise their knowledge.
A short time after this we received orders from General Bragg to report to the officers in command at Pensacola who sent a steamboat up to a point about thirty-five miles below our camp, and mules and wagons were sent by road to haul our equipage down to that point. Our baggage was packed up and we marched the thirty-five miles to the boat, which took us to Pensacola. About three weeks later we had orders to cook up two days' rations, and I was sent with a detail of fifty men up the [Escambia] river to Bluff Springs [Florida], about one hundred miles by water, with instructions to obstruct the river behind us, which we did by cutting cypress trees and falling them into the river. The rest of the command marched to Bluff Springs destroying the railroad
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THE BATTLE AT EAST PASS
as they went. We rejoined them there and were with other companies organized into the First Florida Infantry. We did not stop here long, but during the time, many of our men were sick and some of them died. Amongst these I remember Calvin Lewis, Johnnie McDonald, Willie and Jessie Rooks, who were members of our company (E).
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Reddick's Civil War Travels
WEST VIRGINIA
River
VIRGINIA
Evansville, IN
Ohio
Louisville
Richmond
KENTUCKY
Bardstown Perryville
Cairo, IL
Glasgow
Nashville
Franklin Spring Hill
Murfreesboro
Smithfield
Bridgeport
Columbia
Bentonville
Memphis
TENNESSEE
Chattanooga
Corinth
Tennessee River
Rocky Face Mtn. ·Dalton
Wilmington
ChantArfiAld
NORTH CAROLINA
Mississippi River
Duck River
Greensboro
Big br
Pearl River
Milledgeville
Vicksburg
River
Macon
Jackson Brandon
Columbus
Montgomery
MISSISSIPPI
Mobile
Bluff Springs
Geneva
GEORGIA
Walton County
FLORIDA
Pensacola
Alabama
Reddick's Civil War Travels
WEST VIRGINIA
River
VIRGINIA
Evansville, IN
Ohio
Louisville
Richmond
KENTUCKY
Perryville
Cairo, IL
Glasgow
Nashville
Franklin
Greensboro
Murfreesboro
Spring Hill
Bridgeport
Columbia
Memphis
Duck River TENNESSEE
Bentonville NORTH CAROLINA
Corinth
Rocky Face Mtn. ·Dalton
Chesterfield -
Wilmington
Tennessee River
Chattanooga
Mississippi River
Smithfield
Bardstown
INSERT FOLD-OUT OR MAP
HERE !
CHAP. III
ACTUAL SERVICE - THE KENTUCKY CAMPAIGN
0 UR next move was to Chattanooga, Tennessee, where we saw the first of what the officers called actual service. The first thing was to deposit all our surplus baggage, and that meant everything we could not carry on our backs, with a baggage master. We had a lot of such things as feather pillows, quilts, cooking utensils, etc. We were told that we would get it all back when we returned from Kentucky, but never heard of it again. That was the last of it.
Our next move was to cross the Tennessee River, which we did at night. We were ordered to go up and draw rations; flour and bacon, but no salt, was what we got. The next morning we started on Bragg's raid into Kentucky. The first day's march was a short one and the first night we baked our hoe-cakes on flat rocks. Some of the boys used their ram-rods, rolling the leathery dough around them and holding them over the fire to do the baking. There was no salt or grease in them and they stuck without any trouble. The cook wagons were behind and there was no telling when they would come.
The next march was over the Blue Ridge, three miles to the top, four miles across and three down to the valley on
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ACTUAL SERVICE - THE KENTUCKY CAMPAIGN
the other side. The road up was in the shape of a rail fence, and it took from ten to fifteen men to the wagon to help the mules up the hill with their loads.
It was on the mountain that Henry Wright and myself shed a part of our load. I threw away a good feather pillow and two quilts and I think Henry got rid of about the same amount of stuff. I carried only one quilt and the best suit of . clothes I had, my knapsack and old haversack, and in it but very little rations.
The next place was at Murphreesville (Murphreesboro) [Tennessee - July 13, 1862], where General Bragg placed some of his heaviest guns in position to command the town and demanded its surrender, which was granted. The Yankees surrendered six thousand prisoners, several cannons besides a quantity of small arms and ammunition.
After a short stay here, we started for Bardstown [Kentucky], with General Bragg hustling us through on a forced march-we on foot traveling almost as fast as the cavalry could go. General [Don Carlos] Buell's [Federal] army was marching on a road about ten miles west of us and parallel with us and for several days we were in this position, and it was there that General Bragg missed his opportunity for victory in not giving battle. We reached Bardstown without any fighting, and the Confederate flag was planted on top of the courthouse.
Before this, however, Captain McLeod, Captain Coleman, Lieutenant Nicholson, two lieutenants from Arkansas, and myself had gotten our feet so severely blistered that we could not march and were given permission to fall out of the ranks and get along the best we could. Our feet were so sore that we could hardly march at all, and for two days we hired an
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SEVENTY-SEVEN YEARS IN DIXIE
old farmer with a two-horse team to haul us. We had gotten so far behind that we could not draw rations and had to depend upon what we could get to eat along the road. We drove up to the hotel in a little town called Glasgow [Kentucky], and expected to get a good dinner, as we were very hungry, so we thought Lieutenant Nicholson went in to order dinner for seven, but soon came back with the word that there was nothing there. The landlord said that General Bragg's army had just passed through and cleaned up everything there was to eat in the town, but he said that if we would go down the pike about two miles and call at a large two-story white house, we could get dinner because a rich widow lived there who had plenty.
We struck out for that place which we reached in due time, and the crowd put it to me to see if we could get dinner and I went in. I had to go back to the kitchen before I found her, but when I did and told my wants she agreed with the best humor to get dinner for us, but said we would have to wait until it was cooked which would take about half an hour. The boys were glad when I told them of my success, for they were hungry enough to have eaten up the whole place. The owner of the team unhitched his team and joined us at the table while we were eating the splendid dinner the lady had prepared for us. We were enjoying the dinner as only hungry men can enjoy such a meal when we heard the sound of horses coming down the pike from the direction of Glasgow.
This did not particularly alarm us as we had just come from that direction, and the landlady suggested that it was probably her boy Johnnie, which it proved to be, for a few
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ACTUAL SERVICE - THE KENTUCKY CAMPAIGN
moments later he rushed into the dining room exclaiming, "Mama, the Yankees are in Glasgow."
At the words we jumped up from the table, but she urged us to sit down and finish our dinners saying that possibly Johnnie was mistaken, and we turned to our dinner again, but had hardly seated ourselves before we heard the sound of a large force of horsemen coming down the road, and, to tell the truth, the Yankees were at the gate before we could get out of the house. Some of the boys suggested that we go upstairs and others that we go out the back way, and in the haste to get away we divided, three going upstairs and three out the rear. Captains McLeod and Coleman and Lieutenant Nicholson went upstairs and under the beds, where the
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SEVENTY-SEVEN YEARS IN DIXIE
Yankees found them and dragged them out by the heels. Myself and the Arkansas lieutenants made our way for the woods about two hundred yards away, having to climb over two fences on the way, or rather falling over them. The Yankees saw us before we got to the woods and commenced firing at us, but with no other effect than to increase the speed of our leg action. As we fell over the second fence we fell down and watched the Yankees march our friends off and saw the old farmer drive off with all our baggage.
We had left our hats in the house and were bare-headed. We kept in the woods for two days and one night and with nothing to eat. It seemed to us that every road was full of Yankees. The second night we went to a farmhouse and got something to eat, and on the morning of the third day caught up with the army and joined our command.
The army stopped at Bardstown for some time, and our Florida brigade was placed on picket duty some six miles out on the Bardstown and Louisville Pike, and while there we got pumpkins to eat. During this time I was taken sick with a severe fever and was sent to the hospital in Bardstown, where I found a good many of our soldiers laid up for repairs.
It was only a few days before General Buell commenced advancing and Bragg fell back to Perryville [Kentucky - October 8, 1862] without offering any resistance, leaving the sick to be taken prisoners, and among them was Captain McPherson and myself. At Perryville Bragg joined General Kirby Smith with about twelve thousand men and made a stand against Buell, and our boys who were wounded and captured there said that while Bragg put up a good fight, Buell outnumbered him so badly that he had no chance. My
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ACTUAL SERVICE - THE KENTUCKY CAMPAIGN
room was in the third story of the Female Academy, which was used for a hospital, and it fronted on the street so that I saw Buell's army as it passed through, taking nearly two days to do so. I counted 110 flags and estimated one thousand men to the flag. The wounded captured at Perryville were sent to the hospital at Bardstown, and there many of them died.
We fared very well while our army was in Bardstown, but after it was captured by the Yankees things were bad indeed. While our army was there the ladies visited us and did everything they could for us, but when the Yankees came in, this was not allowed. If it had not been for the Sisters of Charity we would have fared much worse. They did everything they could for us, and I for one will never forget their kindness.
It was about three weeks before I was able to walk around any. One time after I got up, Captain McPherson and I walked down in the town, which was full of Yankees. I had a very fine gold hunting case watch that I had when I enlisted and of which I thought a great deal. A big, double- jointed Yankee stepped up to me and asked to see my watch. I took it off and handed it to him and he put it in his pocket and walked off, saying that he would see me again, which he never did, but I often wish he had.
After Captain McPherson and myself got strong enough to walk, we were paroled. We wanted to go south, of course, but this the Yankees would not allow, but gave us permission to go north as far as we wanted to. About a week after this we were sitting in the sun one day warming ourselves and talking of home and homefolks. A fine carriage drove up and a well dressed man got out and, seeing by our
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SEVENTY-SEVEN YEARS IN DIXIE
uniforms that we were Confederate soldiers, introduced himself as Reverend Mr. Beardsley of the Methodist Church. He assured us of his sympathy and gave us two bottles of fine Catawba wine which he had in his carriage. He offered to take us to Louisville [Kentucky], but we told him that we did not have any Yankee money. He then said that he would take us to the United States Hotel there, and that there were plenty of Southern people who would see that our board was paid.
We told him that we would be glad to go, and he said for us to be ready at noon and you may be sure that we were. He was on time and getting in his fine carriage behind his high-stepping horses, we were soon hitting the rocky pike in the direction of Louisville where we arrived soon after sundown. On the way we passed through a large cemetery, and all along the road near the town Yankee pickets were posted thick.
We drove up to the United States Hotel where the preacher left us for a few moments while he arranged for our rooms, which were on the third story. We remained there for three weeks and in that time wanted for nothing. I think we only saw him once after this, however.
This was some days later when he gave us an invitation to go with him to visit one of his old lady friends and church members. We accepted provided he would go with us, which he agreed to do and called for us that night at seven. Going down the street it seemed to me that I had never seen buildings so large and high. At the steps of the house where we went, we were met by four or five young ladies and invited into the sitting room, and soon the old lady came in, but her name I do not remember. She was a great talker and
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ACTUAL SERVICE - THE KENTUCKY CAMPAIGN
soon got started. She said that she had always wanted to see a Confederate soldier and this was her first opportunity.
I think that she had the same idea about us that some of the people in the far South had about the Yankees. I remember once when working on the roads near Sugar Valley in Georgia, being asked by some young ladies if I had ever seen a genuine Yankee soldier. When I said that I had, they asked what they looked like and if they were blue. I told them no, but that they wore blue clothes and that we called them "blue-bellies" when by ourselves, but when on picket near one another they called us Johnny Rebs and we called them Mr. Yanks.
During our visit with the young ladies that night we enjoyed ourselves to the utmost, though I believe Captain McPherson enjoyed himself better than I did. The young ladies were well-educated and used big words that I did not know the meaning of, though he did, for he was a young lawyer who had enlisted from our county. I think that his grammar helped him out that time. We remained until about ten o'clock when we were escorted back to the hotel by Mr. Beardsley, and this was the only visit we made while in Louisville.
Both the Captain and I were great smokers and used lots of matches, and on our return to the hotel I suggested that we go into the office, which was on the ground floor, and ask for some matches. The office was full of Yankee officers, and we crowded through up to the desk and asked for some matches. The clerk soon brought us a box which we did not open until we reached our room, and when we did so we found a twenty-dollar bill tucked in on top of the matches which the clerk had placed there for us.
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1
SEVENTY-SEVEN YEARS IN DIXIE
One morning after this we walked down the street and on every side people would stop and stare at us. We went into a dry goods store, wearing our uniforms with the brass buttons on which was stamped the motto, "United We Stand," which marked us as Confederate officers. The proprietor was a Southern sympathizer and was very glad to see us, and when we left he gave us fourteen yards of Confederate gray cloth for new uniforms, which we managed to smuggle through the lines and bring back to Dixie with us.
The next morning the Captain went down and got our bill, which was Kentucky State currency, changed. After that we would send out by the boys from the street who often came up to see us, for such things as we wanted to eat, and they always treated us right and were honest with us.
Our meals were our worst trouble. We had plenty to eat and three meals a day, but the dining room was on the first floor and was always full of Yankee officers. The tables were round, seating four, and we always tried to get one where there was no one else. Sometimes we were successful, but often Yankee officers would come to our table and sit and eat. Some of them were agreeable, while others were rude and insulting, cursing the South and the people as rebels and traitors. Dinner was from twelve to three but we always ate as quickly as possible and went back to our rooms. We were there three weeks to a day when one morning an officer came up to our room, seemingly very much pleased at something, and after a few words said, "Gentlemen, I have orders for you to report down to Colonel Farrell's office at the prison."
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ACTUAL SERVICE - THE KENTUCKY CAMPAIGN
Thinking that we were to be sent South the Captain and I were highly pleased, and asked if we should take our little grips with us, and he told us to do so. We were ready in a few moments and went downstairs where we found a hack with two soldiers as guards with fixed bayonets. We were ordered in the hack with little ceremony and, obeying, were driven about two miles to Colonel Farrell's headquarters and given orders to report to him in his office. When we entered he was seated at his desk, writing, and when we said good morning, did not even look up. Presently he gave an order for the sergeant to take our description, which he did, measuring our heights and around us with a tape line and making a note of our complexions and hair, etc. He next searched us, going through our grips and over our persons, taking everything except our clothes, even to a few apples we had. The sergeant was then instructed to take us down to the prison, which he did, and when we reached the gate, told us to walk in. This cut our feathers considerable, but we felt better when we found so many of our boys there. All told there were about sixteen hundred Confederate prisoners there. Colonel Farrell was about the most contemptible specimen I have ever met and why he was so mean to us I have never been able to understand, even taking our apples and pocket knives. For three weeks we had been at the hotel mingling with the Yankee officers every day, eating in the dining room and often at the same table, and yet when they sent us down to the prison we were sent with two armed guards.
The prison fare was considerable of a change to us. At the hotel we had plenty, but here we got a piece of bakery
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SEVENTY-SEVEN YEARS IN DIXIE
bread, about as wide as three fingers and as long, and a piece of fat boiled pork about two-thirds that size twice a day with half a tin cup of coffee in the morning. The table where our rations were set out for us was in another room. We passed through a door in single rank and marched by the table, picking up our bread as we went along and then out through another door. A strong guard was placed in the room to see that no one got more than his share. The weather was very cold and we were allowed but one heater to one hundred men and a very short allowance of wood.
We were kept here about two months, when one morning we were ordered to fall in preparatory to going South, and we were glad indeed to hear it. After we fell into ranks at the gate, an officer told us that we would be marched directly through the city and that possibly handkerchiefs would be waved at us from some of the windows or galleries and warned us that any one cheering them would be shot down on the spot.
We were formed in single rank formation, our blankets and knapsacks searched, and then formed in ranks eight deep and were marched through town to the river bank, a distance of about two miles. Here the steamer Mary Miller was waiting for us. Coming through town we could see handkerchiefs waving at us from nearly all the larger buildings. While we were standing on the bank one of our boys saw a handkerchief waving at his part of the ranks and hallooed for Dixie and the guard shot him down like a dog. Sixteen hundred and eleven of us were marched on board, and we started down through the locks of the Ohio [River] on our way, as we thought, to Dixie. The next day, a good distance down the river and near the town of Evansville on
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ACTUAL SERVICE - THE KENTUCKY CAMPAIGN
the Indiana side, we ran aground on a sand bar, and as many of the prisoners as was necessary to lighten the boat were sent ashore in small boats. About three o'clock the Mary Miller was afloat again and we were marched back on board, and our journey was resumed. The next night when we were near Columbus and it was dark as pitch, I was asleep when a cannon ball whistled over the boat. By the time I got awake another one came along and everything was excitement. Some of our men thought that the Yankees were trying to sink the boat with us prisoners on, but we soon found out that the Captain had given the wrong signal and this had brought the fire on us from the Fort. We remained there until the next morning, when the Captain was arrested and taken ashore and another officer placed in charge.
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