USA > Illinois > Military history and reminiscences of the Thirteenth regiment of Illinois volunteer infantry in the civil war in the United States,1861-65, pt 1 > Part 14
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they could find ; turkeys, pigs, chickens, and fodder ; while he, himself, would engage the old man or woman in conver- sation, in which he was an adept. He would assure them that while the needs of the army made it necessary to take the things, the Government paid cash for everything so taken. That any time after such a day, setting the time several days ahead, they could come to camp and get their pay on the receipt which he would give them. This setting the time so far ahead, was for the purpose of giving ample time to eat up, and so secure the things taken, that identifica- tion would be next to impossible, if there should happen to be any trouble about it ; but the old planter was given to un- derstand that the delay was on account of the paymaster who was expected in a few days. The receipt was as follows :
Mr. Judas Reb, Cr., by turkeys, chickens, eggs, pigs, etc., as per schedule . $00.00
GEO. MULECHEEK, Adjutant Fourth Vermont.
The man would be instructed to inquire in camp for the above-named regiment. Now if there was any such regiment in the service, it was probably not nearer than the army of Vir- ginia, any way; and when this man came for his pay, and accosted first one officer and then another, as to the where- abouts of the Fourth Vermont, no such regiment could be found; and the old planter would come reluctantly to the conclusion that he had been assessed for the support of the Government of Abraham Lincoln.
CAMP CROSS-TIMBERS, ARKANSAS,
March 24th, 1862.
Gen. H. W. HALLECK, Com'd'g Dep't.
GENERAL : Hospital stores arrived yesterday. They are thankfully received, and I am grateful to the General and the Sanitary Commission for promptness in this regard. Many an aching wound is comforted by this. God bless the ladies that care for the sick and wounded soldiers.
I am, General, with very great respect, S. R. CURTIS, Maj .- Gen. Com'd'g.
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The employment of Indians in a body, in the army, by the Confederates, called forth a very general and indignant pro- test, as being an outrage against the rules of warfare among civilized nations. But the policy of the act was as short- sighted as the outrage was gross.
Take a hundred Indians and distribute them not more than one or two in a company of white soldiers, and the prob- ability is that you will have a hundred effective fighting men in a regiment.
Take the same hundred Indians and let them operate in a body by themselves, under their own officers, and governed by their own ideas of warfare, and it is nearly certain that you have a hundred almost worthless men.
No doubt, at the battle of Pea Ridge, bullets from Indian sharp-shooters laid low many good men in blue, but in any concerted movement of regular military tactics they are worse than useless, as the following history will show. General Fremont promptly declined the proffered services of a large body of Cherokee Indians on what was supposed to be the eve of a great battle. The Confederate General Ben. McCul- loch, however, employed a large body of rebel Indians at the battle of Pea Ridge, commanded by Gen. Albert Pike.
It is said that immediately in front of where the Indians were stationed, there was a Union battery of artillery, which the Indians called " Fire-wagons," and which they were or- dered to charge and capture. They sprang across the interven- ing space with all the demoniac yells, war-whoops, and pagan bric-a-brac, common to them on such occasions, and what with their impetuosity and infernal din, demoralized our battery- men to such a degree that they were driven from their guns long enough for the "noble Red Man " to seize and tip over the " Fire-wagons"; when, not stopping to draw one of them off, or even to spike a gun, they rushed back again, yelling, as they came. The Yanks soon recovered their composure, righted up the carriages and guns, and in a few minutes were sending shot and shell from those same guns into the Indian lines in a manner that Gen. Albert Pike must have despised.
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General Sherman is credited with saying that "The only good Indian, is the dead Indian." That being so, when our burial corps was burying the dead, on the field of Pea Ridge, after our victory, they found not a few "good cold Indians" lying about. At first, they utterly refused to bury them, on the assumption that none of the rules of civilized warfare required the decent burial of what might be called, outlawed belligerants. Instead of burial, our men, it was said, piled them up like cord-wood between two trees, eight feet apart. But the grave-diggers had reckoned without their host ; for it is a well ascertained fact, that a chronically moribund Indian smells as loudly as a white man; and, in this way, the " good Indian," not only demanded, but enforced the order for his own burial.
HEADQUARTERS, ARMY OF THE SOUTHWEST, CAMP CROSS-TIMBERS, March 3Ist, 1862.
Major-General H. W. HALLECK.
GENERAL : * * " Much talk about Thompson and others burning railroad and Rolla. Rebels think that is Price's next move." I am, General, with very great respect,
S. R. CURTIS, Major-General Com'd'g.
A good many things happened during those fifteen days at Camp Cross-Timbers. A characteristic story is told of Colonel Wyman, that ought to be true.
Henry Taylor, of our regiment, a worthless soldier, and back of that, a worthless man, met Colonel Wyman, one day outside the regimental lines, and accused the Colonel of doing him an injustice, in the way of punishment for some alleged shortcoming.
The Colonel condescended to explain and justify himself ; but nothing could placate Taylor, and he told the Colonel, then and there, that his shoulder-straps alone protected him from a flogging.
The Colonel, coolly and deliberately dismounted, hitched his horse to the fence, then coolly took off his coat and threw
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it across a rail, and then said : "Taylor, there is now no differ- ence in our rank ; when I take off my coat, I take off my rank also ; now pitch in. Taylor pluckily pitched in, but, with- out knowing it had encountered a scientific boxer; and was soon polished off so that he expressed himself satisfied.
The Colonel, resuming his coat and rank, said : Taylor, whenever you desire promotion to my rank, I will cheerfully take off my coat.
KINSHIP.
On the march from Springfield, Missouri, to Pea Ridge, Arkansas, a ludicrous thing happened which interested the writer personally, more than any other member of the regi- . ment ; but no really good thing in the army can be kept per- sonal, it is seized by all as though it had been issued from the quartermaster's department on a regimental requisition.
After a good day's march, the regiment had gone into camp on the hither side of some plantation buildings which were flush with the road over which we should pass on re- suming our march the next day.
Sometime during the night, I was gradually awakened by a hand gently pressing and shaking my shoulder, while an almost inaudible whisper, close to the ground, outside the tent, and close to my head, was saying, "Hush, A. B., hush." "What is it," I responded, in an equally guarded whisper. "Take this package," the voice said, "and put it in your haversack, and make no mistake (there were five other haversacks hanging there), and be sure you eat it before reveille." I took the package, never doubting. I knew the voice. To me, always kindly ; but the parcel did feel curi- ously, rough and stiff, but clean. I thought of cabbage, rhu- barb, and dock ; this latter it proved to be, instead of paper, which could not be had for love or money. After intrusting the precious secret to my haversack, I snuggled and wriggled back into my place, for the voice was waiting to explain. I listened to enough of the explanation to get the points, and gathered the details afterwards.
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That my exact locality in the small text, containing six of us, was well known to my friend, was not at all surprising, for, it is probable that the members of Company Q knew within three-quarters of an inch, where every head lay, in every tent in the regiment ; and a mistake of one and one-half inches, would be considered an unpardonable blunder, and would subject the delinquent to a severe reprimand.
After the explanation I could not sleep any more, and it would not be long before reveille any way, and so, quietly, selfishly, stealthily, meanly, and hoggishly, I took down my haversack and took out the precious package, which proved to be the upper and lower joint of a chicken's leg, done to a turn, and seemed to me the most delicious morsel I ever ate; and what surprised me was, that I could not for the life of me tell whether the chicken was Confederate or Union,-for I never did school myself or my palate sufficiently to tell the differ- ence. When I had fairly scraped the bones, I did them up in the generous burdock leaf, and warily threw them over among the tents of the next company. This would save litter around our own tent, and at the same time lend an air of generous living to our neighbor.
The explanation was, that two or three of Company Q boys of our company had sallied out by the "sweet silver light of the moon " for adventure ; and, having been used to good society, they resolved to call at the plantation house and pay their respects to the good people there.
Two or three " bra laddies," each with a shining musket in his hands, under most circumstances, will command re- spect-and is a strong reminder to others of the necessity on their part, of good manners and politeness ; and when these Company Q boys knocked at the door of the farm-house, a "Come-in " was promptly vouchsafed, and such broken chairs, stools and boxes as were available, were placed at the disposal of the visitors, by the daughter of the house, whom the mother called Miz-u-ry ; giving the a its long, full sound, and with a strong accentuation. This was really meant for
جسدى ناصر اللحم
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Missouri ; a very common name for a girl in the Southern States.
"Miz-u-ry," under the inspiration of the bright buttons, of the blue clothes, and the bright glances of the eyes of the wearers of the buttons, moved about so briskly, that seats were soon found by the visitors, without disturbing the lady of the house from the only splint-bottomed chair in the room. Here the matron sat, entirely undisturbed by the visitors, somewhat spitefully smoking a corn-cob pipe, and anon ex- pectorating a jet of saliva from where she sat, in the middle of the room, to a particular knot-hole in the fore stick in the fire- . place, where was burning an ample fire.
This accomplishment is by no means rare among the ladies of the South ; and our boys soon noticed that the fair markswoman never missed her target ; and that before they took their leave, the knot-hole could hold no more.
Both ladies were dressed in some dark homespun, and home-woven fabric, that, when new, or clean, must have been comfortable looking. The mother's hair was of a dull terra-cotta color, and cut short in the neck, and was intended to be kept back behind the ears, but straggled badly, and seemed to have a disposition to come to the front ; while the young lady, just budding into womanhood, aspired to a top- knot, made by bringing all the hair together on the top, and winding a string from the head upward, for four or five inches, and then letting.the golden surplus (red ) fall outward in graceful overflow. Both ladies kept their hair comparatively smooth by crawling through the brush-fence after the pigs.
A half-suppressed giggle from the corner where "Miz-u- . ry " and one of the boys sat, caused the mother to turn in that direction so suddenly as to almost miss her target, at which she was just then again firing, and sharply said, "I declar to grashus, Miz-u-ry, you be that ornary, that the Yanks '11 think ye ha'n't got no larnin." "Well ma," ex- plained the young lady, " he sez, what's dad's name?" (She had forgotten to also tell her ma that the Yank had just taken
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her hand and was squeezing it somewhat fervently for such a short acquaintance. )
" Wall, what o' that?" sharply interrogated the mother. " I told him 'twas Mun," replied the girl.
Here the soldier, addressing the mother directly, asked : "Madam, is that his name? "
" Wall," she replied, " I never did rightly git hold o' the old man's name. I taxed him about it a time or two, when we was a courtin', but I'low that I never did git hold of arry right eendon't. 'Pears like he said 'twas Mummy-Mungrel-( Mon- grel) Mun-Vermen-Mullen-(mullein) Muren-(Murrain) or sum sich."
The young lady in the meantime, had gone out, and on coming back, handed the soldier an old envelope on which had sometime been addressed, the following :- " gege rulf mun."
The whole three scanned it and studied over it as though it had been an ancient "cryptogram " ; and finally decided it to be intended for-Judge Ralf Munn.
Again addressing the lady, the soldier said,-" Madam, there is a man up in our camp by. that same name."
(The young lady had already told her admirer that her father was in the Confederate army.)
"Do he tote arry gun?" the lady asked.
"Oh, no," was the reply, " he is a musician."
" What ; is he one of them ar' rub-a-dub fellers " ?
"No," the soldier replied, at the same time imitating the holding and playing of a fife.
" Oh, then he blows into one of them ar' screechinsticks" ?
The soldier thought this latter name too appropriate to question, and made no further conversation.
Upon this, the lady, either inspired with disgust, or hav- ing determined upon a more aggressive attitude, delivered a most Gatling-like discharge of nicotinized saliva at the devoted knot-hole, which caused such a violent ebullition as to make enough overflow as to almost put out the fire ; at the same time rising and knocking the bowl of the pipe against the
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chimney-jam, to empty it, she stood a moment refilling the pipe, looking the soldiers full in the face all the time, as though measuring them, to decide how far she might safely go in abuse without laying herself liable to retaliation. "Wall " - she finally continued, " I hope a bullet from my old man's squirrel rifle 'll hunt him up and make his acquaintance."
And it is certain that had that bullet ever got after me, propelled with the venom, and with the certain aim that my amiable lady namesake was master of, I should most certainly have gone under.
The boys could take no personal revenge on the woman who they considered had literally spattered me with so nasty an insult, but they determined to assess exemplary damages, at least ; accordingly they took their way out through the outbuilding and yards, and gathered in six nice chickens and a noble shoat that would weigh at least a hundred pounds.
The boys took the chickens and pig far enough into a neighboring piece of woods to prevent the light from a fire being seen, and there dressed and cooked them, and feasted all they could comfortably get away with, gave some packages of it to the guard, instead of. the countersign, when they went back through the guard lines, brought me my package, and may possibly have had two hours' sleep before reveille.
A sick comrade, who had started along a little in advance of the regiment, thinking to walk a little for exercise until the ambulance should overtake him, had sat down in the gal- lery of the house, and afterward told me what he had observed. He said that the lady of the house was walking up and down the gallery of the house in a state of decided unrest, and he had from the first, noticed that she always spat from a certain spot on the gallery, and in exactly the same direction. Look- ing more closely, he discovered that a great fat toad had crawled from his burrow. and was watching for unwary flies, when, unfortunately for him, the lady saw him and immedi- ately selected him for her morning's target. Somehow, in this lady's vivid imagination, the poor creature, in a manner, seemed to typify, and even personate the average Yankee
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soldier ; and as such, all the worse for the toad, the lady was determined to show her disgust for the Lincoln Government. As the drums and screechinsticks struck up, announcing the approach of the regiment, the lady's disquietude increased, and the unsavory missiles struck the toad's mailed sides with greater frequency, and more destructive impact, and always with unerring aim. Finally, the toad, seeing that he was entirely overmatched in the fight, retreated precipitately to his burrow, where he wriggled, twisted, and squirmed until he had thrown up sufficient earthworks to temporarily protect himself.
As a laughable contrast to the mother's belligerant aspect, and attitude, the daughter's face was radiant while this splen- did regiment of men marched by ; and a sudden suffusing of her neck and face with blushes, told too certainly that she had discovered in the ranks, her last night's admirer, who had attracted her notice long enough to waft her from his fingers' tips, several kisses, the language of which, young ladies, by the time they are sixteen, learn by intuition.
Good-bye, my fair kinswoman ; you will be madder still. two or three hours from now, when you learn that you and "Miz-u-ry " have not so many chores to do us usual.
Gambling, to a fearful extent, prevailed in the army. If officers surrounded tables piled with money, though protected from too general observation by private rooms, and night, the boys could not be expected to resist the blandishments of the Chuck-a-luck board in an adjoining grove. Men fell into the demoralizing practice in the army, who had never done so at home ; and, should they live to see home again, would never touch gambling machinery again.
John Curtis was one of the most quiet, and least boisterous of our soldiers ; and yet, one of the most indefatigable and reckless gamblers.
He was never excited, possessed a countenance so stolid, that feeling never lit it up. Losses were never recorded on his face ; and gains had no power whatever, to make him look cheer- ful ; in fact, he had the same face for faro as for funerals.
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I asked him one day, whether, on the whole, he lost, or gained by play ? He replied, " I don't mind telling you that I have gained by play, enough to send home to my father nearly a thousand dollars, with which to pay off a mortgage on the farm. I would not have my parents know how I got the money, for the world; it would break their hearts. I deceive them by saying that, when off duty, I have an oppor- tunity of making considerable money by trading. I don't intend to, ever again, touch a card after I leave the army."
It is to be hoped that he carried out the above good resolu- tion ; but greatly to be feared that the habit clung to him like a "Shirt of Nessus."
There is no rich, rare, or racy quality of the human mind which did not find ample scope for exercise, in army life.
The order that, none but the "top rail" of the old planter's fence be used for the boys' camp-fires, caused the legitimate destruction of the entire fence, on the principle that when the top rail is taken off, the next lower one immediately becomes a top rail ; and so on in regular promotion down- ward, according to the strictest interpretation of the rules of Civil Service Reform.
Colonel Wyman, was famous for ambiguous orders : but his actions usually gave the key to his intentions.
One afternoon, after a march since daylight, and a few days before arriving at Camp Cross-Timbers, our camping- ground was chosen in a beautiful grove, and near a fine plan- tation which was extensive and under good cultivation. Arms were stacked and everything ready for breaking ranks, when the Colonel rode into one of the central company streets of the prospective camp, and halted right in the midst of an old sow and large litter of fine roasting size pigs. The old sow and family, by their familiar confidence, betrayed a lamentable ignorance, not only of the existence of war, at that time, but of the latent possibilities wrapped up in the uniform of a soldier, whether wearing the blue or the gray.
The Colonel called for attention, and then addressed the regiment as follows :
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"I have learned that the gentleman who owns yonder plantation, is a good Union man. It is true his sons and sons-in-law are all in the Confederate army, but, of course, . you will not hold the old gentleman in the least responsible for what is entirely beyond his control. I have frequently observed, however, that here in the South, the more intensely loyal to the old flag a man is, the more sons he has in the rebel army. This is a somewhat curious coincidence, but most prob- ably to be accounted for on the principles of the old darky, who said that he prayed to the devil half of the time, as it was uncertain whose hands he should fall into.
"Now the Union man's property must be preserved ; nothing must be touched ; not even one of these pigs." Upon which, he drew his revolver, still sitting in his saddle, shot two of the pigs dead on the spot. The Colonel then rode to the place where his own tent was being pitched, and dismounted.
It is scarcely necessary to add that nearly everything eat- able on that plantation went inside those blue uniforms before marching next day.
Besides being hungry, at Camp Cross-Timbers, we were cold. I can not do better than to quote from Comrade Chapel's diary, as to the weather during a part of the time. The diary says :
" Friday, March 21st, 1862 .- It snowed all night, and this morning we have as much snow as we had at Rolla any time this winter. It is a regular "down easter " equinoctial storm. As we left our overcoats, and all our blankets, except one, at .Springfield, we have to work hard to keep warm. I laid abed almost all day, wrapped up in my blanket. Towards night the weather moderated a little."
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CHAPTER XIV.
BENTON HUSSARS POISONED, AND CAPTAIN DUFLER FATALLY. -OUR SOLDIERS CAN STAND HUNGER AND COLD, BUT OBJECT TO POISON.
N 'OW was about to commence one of the most remarkable campaigns of the war ; whether looked at from the standpoint of hard marching, over almost impassable roads, inclement weather, hunger, cold, sickness, less danger of battle than of poison, in beverage and in food, and poisoned wells, springs, and streams of water, or from being cut off from any source of supply, or from the knowledge or whereabouts of our army, by General Grant, and other armies east of the Mississippi.
The following order inaugurates the campaign :
Special orders HEADQUARTERS, ARMY OF THE SOUTHWEST, No. 134. CAMP CROSS-TIMBERS, April 4, 1862.
VIII .- "The army in the field will move to-morrow, the 5th instant, in the order herein stated, on the road or eastward, leading through Cassville and hence toward Yellville. Order of march : First Division will move at 6 a. m. ; Fourth Division at S a. m .; Wyman's Brigade at 8:30 a. m. " * * *
By command of Major-General Curtis.
H. Z. CURTIS, Asst. Adj't-Gen.
When our army broke camp at Cross-Timbers, it took the back track, and we were fearful that the campaign was ended, and that we were destined to see Rolla again ; but when we
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reached Cassville and took an easternly direction, we were reassured, and right away began to speculate as to where such horrible roads, through so wretched a country could take us, unless we ran into the Mississippi river some dark night while trying to make camp. This zigzag campaign of two hundred miles in an easterly direction, consuming twenty-three days, first zigging to one side of the line be- tween the two States, and then zagging back to the other side, through rain and snow, much of the time without blank- ets, muddy roads letting the wheels of the army wagons in to the hub, going without their one-quarter ration, which was in those wagons stuck in the mud, three miles back from camp, country forage scarce, the natives hungry and the women and children half-starved, and so utterly wretched that an angel would shed tears of pity, and at the sight of our boys dividing their one-quarter ration with these poor people, that same angel might properly weep tears of joy.
Great God ! What a heart of gold hast Thou wrapped up in many of those blue uniforms ! !
The route of our army, the destination of which puzzled and worried our boys so, lay across the northern spurs of the Ozark Mountains ; and these spurs had a way of throwing themselves crosswise of their general direction ; and valleys, streams and roads were tortuous, devious, and doubled back on themselves so frequently, that their geography was dis- appointing and so distracting as to make one feel sure that he was making more distance backward than forward.
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