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 24
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Stopping to investigate a wood-pile here, then crossing the river to interview a very promising rail-fence, then puffing and wheezing up stream a few miles further, and hungrily ap- proaching the Adriatic, for rations, then with frowning and grumbling politeness throwing a hawser aboard the grounded gun-boat, Louisville, to tow her off a sand-bar, and going over to Luzerne for five hundred bushels of coal, then back again to the Mississippi shore, and then re-crossing and spending the entire night taking on more coal, was the way we crawled up the "Father of Waters " and to glory, until we made the mouth of the White river on the 7th, four days from Milliken's Bend.
Ran into the White river on the 7th, passed through the "Cut-off" on the 9th, and disembarked below the fort on the roth, and began throwing out the lines of investment.
Sunday, the IIth .- The investing movement was early com- pleted ; our Fifteenth Corps having the right and advance. Made a circuit and came out on to the river above the fort. Morgan's Thirteenth Corps was on our left. Blair's brigade having lately had so much work to do, was placed in reserve ;
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and our brigade loss was nine wounded, of which two were in the Thirteenth.
Sherman, on this same subject, says to McClernand : " The former [Blair] having borne the brunt of our unsuccessful assault at Vicksburg, was properly held in reserve on this occasion, and suffered but little loss."
The gun-boats engaged in the expedition of "Arkansas Post" were the :
De Kalb, Lieutenant-Commander, John G. Walker. Louisville, Lieutenant-Commander, Elias K. Owen. Cincinnati, Lieutenant, George M. Bache.
(Ram) Monarch, Colonel, C. R. Ellet.
Blackhawk, Lieutenant-Commander, K. R. Breese. Tyler, Lieutenant-Commander, James W. Shirk.
Then the Tin clads :
Rattler, Lieutenant-Commander, Watson Smith, (and) Glide, Lieutenant, S. E. Woodworth.
Four hundred yards below the fort, the three ironclads had ranged themselves in line across the river, the De Kalb on the right, the Louisville on the left, while the Cincinnati had the center. Eight hundred yards in their rear was another line with the gun-boat Lexington on the right, the gun-boat Monarch on the left, the tin-clad Rattler, the right- center, and the tin-clad Glide the left-center. Sixteen hun- dred yards still below the last line, were stationed near the left bank, the gun-boat New Era and near the opposite bank, the gun-boat Blackhawk.
The bombardments from the boats began on Saturday afternoon, the roth, which was a sort of prelude ; but at night the boats dropped down stream and tied up to the bank, out of sight range of the heavy guns of the fort, moving up to their previous position again in the morning of Sunday, January 1Ith, and at I p. m., the army being ready, the fighting was commenced in earnest ; and while pouring in an incessant fire from both musketry and artillery, the investing lines advanced preparatory to a final assault. It had already become apparent that the enemy was over-weighted from both
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afield and afloat. The belligerant voice from the fort grew weaker and its white flags hastened to articulate : "Hold ! enough !"
We captured about five thousand prisoners, all their arms, ammunition, fort equipments and stores. Our loss was one thousand and sixty-one killed and wounded, while, besides the prisoners, the enemy's loss was sixty killed and eighty wounded.
The rebs had comfortable log quarters which they kindly turned to our boys, as they themselves expected to spend the summer in Chicago.
When the flood-tide of victorious Yanks poured over the works of that fort, many bloody scenes of slaughter met the eye. Dead, dying and wounded were lying about all through the works. To be sure, such scenes were not unfamiliar to our eyes, but each new horror has peculiar features of its own, and is nearer and newer than the previous one ; and there is possible a climax of horrors beyond any that have preceded.
On looking into the casemate, the destruction of which had specially been assigned to the ironclad, Cincinnati, a death-chamber was revealed which seemed to have reserved to itself the supreme climax of horrors. -
This casemate, built of the heaviest hewn timber, and covered and banked by a great depth of earth, contained a monster gun of nine-inch caliber, which, when it looked from its deep embrasure, commanded a down-river sweep which brought into the sweep of its vision a considerable land space occupied by the left-wing of our army, and any gun-boat which could be stationed in the river below, and bearing on the fort ; and right there, only four hundred yards away, and looking right into this particular embrasure, were four of our best ironclads. A shell from one of these four ( the Cincinnati) had entered the embrasure, exploding as it struck the heavy timber with such tremendous force as to cause the roof to fall in, had dismounted the great gun, and killed every man of the six who had served the gun.
Awful as this scene was to the looker-on, the awfulness
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never reached the consciousness of the doomed men, so sud- denly had death met them.
The postures in which death had left them would very strongly suggest the effects of Mesmerism, were it not that some of them were so horribly mutilated; but there was nothing in the expression of their faces to show that any of them had realized the close proximity of the grim destroyer.
Looking on the countenances of these corpses, who seemed to be only sleeping, they brought forcibly to mind the case of the "Seven Sleepers of Ephesus"; and it seemed that, could it be possible for life to reanimate those stark forms, even though years elapsed to intervene, they would leap to their feet and, instantaneously, make a most desperate effort to remount that gun and train it on the Federal gun-boat that had caused the disaster, and which, presumably, would still be at anchor in the river below.
Of the few days immediately succeeding the capture of Arkansas Post, Comrade Chapel says : "Monday, January 12, I took a walk over the battle-field and gathered some relics. Moved into the rebel's barracks at 9 a. m., our regi- ment occupying five streets, and our Company F, five houses ; which gave us plenty of room. Our mess occupies the rebel lieutenant's quarters. Spent the day in cleaning and putting new bunks in it. They tell us we are to remain here some time. For the first time since I left Helena (twenty-two days) I undressed and slept well.
"Wakened at daylight by reveille. Quite a new thing, as we had not heard reveille before for three weeks. Had a nice Johnny-cake made of secesher's cornmeal for breakfast.
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CHAPTER XXII.
WE DESTROY ARKANSAS POST .- OCCUPY MILLIKEN'S BEND AND YOUNG'S POINT .- CAPTURE THE DE SOTO .- GO TO GREENVILLE, MISSISSIPPI, AND RETURN.
S PENT half the forenoon on the battle-field, and just got back when Adjutant Jenks sent for me to do some writing for him. Spent three or four hours in writing general orders, when another general order came for us to embark imme- diately on the Warner. This is the way it always is ; as soon as we begin to be comfortable, we have to get up and move. We were ordered to put everything combustible into the houses and fire them ; which we did and at 2 p. m. we started for the boat, leaving nothing but smok- ing ruins. The rifle-pits are filled up and the fort is being demolished as fast as possible, and soon the fort at "Arkansas Post," will remain only in history.
" We were busy loading all night. I volunteered to stand guard for the sake of having a dry place to sleep (between reliefs).
Wednesday, January 14th .- From daylight to dark it con- tinued to rain in perfect torrents ; not even holding up long enough for us to cook anything. The new Monitor came up from the Mississippi river. She carries two 13-inch Dahlgren guns and is one of the best gun-boats ever built.
"Toward night it began to grow cold and we had to leave the decks and hunt places below. Hartman and I laid (not slept ) down on some cord-wood near the boiler. About 12 midnight it began to snow and we lay shivering till morn- ing, which brought us no abatement of the storm.
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"Snowed all day. Two or three inches of snow. Sever- est storm known for a great while.
"Pulled out at 9 o'clock in the morning, January 15, and started down the river. The boat broke one of her runners and we had to go slowly to keep right side up.
Friday, January 16th. -- At 7 a. m. we reached Napoleon, and tied up to the wharf. Colonel Gorgas told us to go on shore and make ourselves as comfortable as possible in the vacant houses around town ; and we all found shelter. We (Company F) went into a boarding house and found some stoves and felt quite at home.
January 16th .- Busy all day cooking and fixing up our quarters. We found some molasses and made some excellent candy. We were sent out on picket-guard, and although I was one of the color-guard and excused from all duty, I went `out and stood my regular guard with the rest. We did not come on duty until 5 o'clock in the morning.
Saturday, January 17th .- We remained on duty all day ; and for some unexplainable reason, were not relieved and had to remain out.
Sunday, January 18th .- We were relieved at noon and ordered on board the Warner immediately. Packed up our traps and embarked. Had not been out long when some rascal set fire to the town, and the boats had to move up stream. It rained nearly all night."
According to the following correspondence between Mc- Clernand and Sherman, as to the burning of Napoleon, the fire must have been on Saturday, the 17th, instead of Sunday, the 18th, as recorded by Comrade Chapel. The correspond- ence was as follows :
HEADQUARTERS, ARMY OF THE MISSISSIPPI, AFLOAT OFF NAPOLEON, ARKANSAS, January 17th, 1863.
Major-General W. T. SHERMAN,
GENERAL : Take measures immediately to extinguish the flames which are consuming Napoleon, and find if possible the incendiaries and punish them.
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Place guards to stop the scandals which are being perpetrated by worthless men. *
* * *- I am, General, respectfully,
JOHN A. MCCLERNAND, Commanding.
To which General Sherman characteristically replied :
HEADQUARTERS, FIFTEENTH ARMY CORPS, NAPOLEON, ARKANSAS, January 17, IS63.
Major-General JOHN A. MCCLERNAND :
GENERAL : * * * It is impossible to find out the incendiary ;
not a clew can now be found. * * * * No man in the army has labored harder than I have to check this spirit in our soldiers ; and I am free to admit we all deserve to be killed [tough on McClernand], unless we can produce a state of discipline when such disgraceful acts can not be com- mitted unpunished.
I am, General, with very great respect,
W. T. SHERMAN, Maj .- Gen. Com'd'g Corps.
Under peremptory orders from General Grant to return immediately to Milliken's Bend, General McClernand moved the army down stream with some show of alacrity, to both the place designated, and Young's Point, arriving there on the 20th, where we were soon followed by General Grant, who arrived down on the 29th, and assumed command of the army in person.
On February 3d, 1863, Grant says to Halleck : "One of the rams ran the blockade this morning. This is of vast im- portance, cutting off the enemy's communications with the west bank of the river."
As above stated, we had arrived down from Arkansas Post, to Milliken's Bend on January 20th, 1863, and on the 22d lay alongside the supply steamer, Adriatic, nearly all day drawing rations. Here, and on this day, Color-Sergeant, Wilson E. Chapel, of Company F, took charge of a squad for the burial of Private Joseph M. Bashaw, of Company E, who had died the day before of wounds received at Chickasaw Bayou.
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On the next day, January 23d, our boat dropped down to the landing at Young's Point where the regiment debarked and consumed almost the entire day in taking off our things from the boat ; when, towards evening the entire brigade took up its march across Young's Point to go into camp along the levee below Vicksburg, but above Warrenton. The road was so badly blocked by other troops, on the road to their several posts, that at midnight we stopped until early morning of the 24th, when we went on to our designated position and went into camp.
The canal, which we were to guard and help finish, had been begun the previous year by General Thomas Williams, who, in command of a small force of troops from General But- ler's army had come up with Farragut's fleet, which was intended to reduce Vicksburg ; but the movement was not successful, and the canal was not finished ; but General Grant now decided to renew the scheme, trusting to the high water in the river to do a large part of the excavating when once the head-gates of the canal should be opened and the flood let in. But this and other like schemes which were tried later on, to deprive Vicksburg of navigable communication, from either above or below, were destined to failure ; and the pick-axe and spade had to retire behind the gun and bayonet.
Time and events were evidently to prove not so monotonous in this as in some former camps ; for, while very busy putting our camp in order, even on that first day, events seemed to court our acquaintance, even to meeting us more than half way. Towards noon the rebel transport, Vicksburg, came up from below, and when opposite, our batteries opened on her by guess, as she could not be seen through a heavy blanket of fog which had been let down on the river and reached up above our heads. It is not likely that any of our shots struck her, as she was well over on the other shore, and soon ran under the guns of their forts.
During the same afternoon some asthmatic, wheezing puffs were heard apparently approaching, and Sergeant Amos H. Miller of Company B climbed a tree where he could look over
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the fog, and reported the approach of a small steamer from below, and headed towards a seductive wood-pile right in front of our camp. It proved to be the De Soto, a small rebel foraging boat whose crew did not know of our occupying the levee at that place. Without any consultation, or plan of campaign, several of our boys ran to camp and got their guns and hid behind the levee, prepared for anything that might turn up.
The boat came up alongside the non-committal wood-pile, threw a line ashore, followed by a man who made it fast to a tree, when up jumped our boys who had the officers and crew captured in a trice, and the supplies of eggs, chickens, butter, and sweet potatoes, etc., confiscated. This was one of those wonderful inspirations that move forward unerringly to their consummation, with no officers, no privates, no orders, and no obedience necessary.
The De Soto, in our hands, was barricaded with bales of cotton, a twenty-pound Parrott gun was put on board of her, and, manned by a detail from our regiment, she was turned into a sort of floating battery, and served well to provoke and draw the enemy's fire.
On the morning of the 25th, not long after midnight, con- siderable firing below was heard, and although probably between belligerant boats, it was feared that the rebels might be trying to land and surprise our right flank. The Thir- teenth was ordered into line and marched a considerable dis- tance down the levee, but found nothing threatening or suspicious, and so went back to camp.and went to bed, but got little sleep, as another disturbance before daylight brought out the entire brigade again, and again we were all marched down the levee, and in line of battle, in a drenching rain we stood there until after daylight. On the 26th, the brigade was again called out, but there being no enemy, quiet was soon restored.
On January 31st, 1863 .- Five companies from our regi- ment were detailed to work on the canal. These details were frequent, and were sufficiently dangerous to relieve the tedium
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of hard work of too much of the prosaic, by intermittent dashes of poetic spice in the shape of explosive shells from the enemy's heavy batteries across the river, whose gunners would now and then calculate the range so accurately as to lift down a monster shell right into the canal ; and our boys were scarce ever so stubborn as to dispute the right of way with the self- invited stranger from the Confederate States, and would politely and good-naturedly retire until the envoy had deliv- ered his message. While our boys would gladly have dis- pensed with these over the river favors, nevertheless the visitations of these masterful messengers were not without their practical and substantial benefits ; for, not infrequently they would strike right at the base of a huge stump and raise it out by the roots and blow it bodily, or in fragments, com- pletely out of the canal, which otherwise would have resisted for hours the combined efforts of a squad of our men.
On February 2d, 1863 .- At daylight the Ram Queen of the West, ran the blockade and landed near our camp. Of this affair General Grant, to General Halleck, says: "One of the Rams ran the blockade this morning. This is of vast impor- tance, cutting off the enemy's communication with the west bank of the river."
Writing of the condition of things at this time, Lieutenant Josselyn says : "Our camp opposite Vicksburg is the drear- iest and most unhealthy one we have ever had. The ground is low and wet, made worse by frequent rains. Water is bad, and sickness and death are upon all sides." -X * *
Lieutenant Josselyn by no means exaggerates ; and the actuality would admit of a much higher coloring. We were then receiving large accessions of new regiments which had been so lately organized and sent to the front that there had been no chance for their getting seasoned; and when sent immediately to Young's Point, some single regiments literally buried hundreds of men before the movement for the reduc- tion of Vicksburg was put into action, until the amphithe- atrical segment of the land side of the levee, for miles was a vast cemetary of terraced soldiers' graves. But in strong con-
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trast to this terrible mortality in the new regiments, the writer well recollects being told by Dr. Plummer, at that time, that so far, after an arduous service of almost two years, our regiment had lost but sixteen men from disease. It is pre- sumable that there is no survivor of our regiment who would deny that Dr. Plummer has the right of chief honor for this splendid sanitary record.
Continuing, Lieutenant Josselyn says : "Large details of men work on the canal every day, varied often by standing picket, and unloading boats. Constant cannonading is heard between the enemy's Vicksburg and Warrenton batteries and our land batteries and gun-boats. Camps are changed frequently to avoid the rising waters, and sometimes we are camped on the levee."
About this time work on the canal had to be given up by reason of the flood in the Mississippi which burst in the head- gates of the canal which was soon full to overflowing, and the adjoining country was slowly inundated, which drove our camps to higher ground, Our brigade had already broken camp and moved back across the Point to the landing ; and on March Sth, we moved camp one mile up the river and camped near McClernand's headquarters.
The levees of the lower Mississippi, when seen for the first time, seem so stupendous that they force a comparison with the great Pyramids of Egypt; but the purposes for which they were severally built are in most striking contrast. The levees of the lower Mississippi make certain the seed-time and harvest of millions of acres of the garden-land of Amer- ica. The Pharaohs and Potiphars of Egypt, for thousands of years never caused a spadeful of earth to be moved to prevent the annual inundation of the Nile from sweeping to their deaths the toiling millions whose entire lives were devoted to the erection of those Pyramid-Mausoleums, the wonder of the world, on the outside, but containing nothing but a crypt, large enough to hold a sarcophagus which in its turn con- tains a swathed, shrunken mummy, who might very naturally
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exclaim, as he looks out of his glass case in Barnum's Museum : " To what base uses are we come ! "
The tops of these levees are so broad as to allow teams and wagons to pass, and are used as highways, and it was now no unusual thing to meet General Grant, General Logan, General McPherson, and other mounted officers on the levee-road.
On March 14, 1863, Lieutenant George P. Brown (now Captain) of Company B, returned from staff-duty, as topo- graphical engineer, with General E. A. Carr.
Any unusual firing was watched, and speculated upon with the greatest freedom, as well as the greatest interest, and every private in the army felt that he had as good a right to know all that was going on, as had the commander-in-chief himself. and it was astonishing how after knowledge verified the anal- ysis of most important events, by the rank and file which could only be certainly known to commanders, at the time.
The following is well worth recording :
HEADQUARTERS, THIRTY-SEVENTH OHIO VOLUNTEER INFANTRY, YOUNG'S POINT, LOUISIANA, February 25th, 1863, 6 a. m.
P. B. STANBERRY, Lieutenant and A. A. A. General,
Third Brigade, Second Division, Fifteenth Army Corps.
SIR : I have the honor to report that the firing from the rebel bat- teries near the city at 12 p. m., was occasioned by a boat which is now lying below the mouth of the canal, and proves to be a flat-boat rigged up to represent a gun-boat. She has a square turret forward, with a mock cannon projecting toward the bow from within. Smoke-stack made of flour-barrels, wheel house, etc., covered all over with a thick coat of tar. Has a hole just above the water line at the bow, from a shot. Nothing else of interest.
Very respectfully yours, E. HASLER, Second Lieutenant, Thirty-seventh Ohio Vol. Inf'ty.
In an article entitled " Naval Operations in the Vicksburg Campaign," among the articles published by the "Century Company," entitled "Battles and Leaders of the Civil War,"
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"Prof. James Russell Soley, U. S. N., of the above affair, says :
"A day or two later, Porter, whose buoyancy of spirits never deserted him, set adrift from his anchorage .a dummy- monitor, constructed out of a coal barge surmounted by bar- rels. The incident was in the nature of a stupendous joke, but it had very practical results. The dummy passed the Vicks- burg batteries under a terrific fire. When the Queen of the West, acting as a picket to the Indianola, saw this new antag- onist coming, she only stopped to give the alarm, and fled down the river. The supposed monitor stuck fast a mile or two above the Indianola, but the Confederate officer in charge of the work on board the latter, did not wait for an attack, but set fire to the recent prize, which was in great part de- stroyed."
On March 11th .- We were reviewed by General Sherman.
Our old Brigadier-General Frank P. Blair, had lately been promoted to Major-General of Volunteers. The writer had means of knowing, and will here relate the fact that both General Steele, and General Blair, had notice that their com- missions were on the road, and might be expected any day. General Steele outranked General Blair and up to this time, General Blair was General Steele's subordinate in the same Division.
For some reason General Steele's commission was delayed while General Blair had received his, but made it a point of honor not to wear two stars until General Steele could do the same. However, General Steele's commission came by the next dispatch-boat, and the two new Major-Generals each toted an additional star.
General Blair was now made commander of the Second Division of our Corps, and Colonel Francis H. Manter, late Colonel of the Thirty-second Missouri, was put in command of our brigade, and our status was now, Gorgas' First regi- ment of Manter's First brigade, of Steele's First Division, of Sherman's Fifteenth Corps, of the right wing of Grant's Army of the Tennessee.
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On March 31st 1863 .- General Sherman ordered General Steele on the Deer Creek expedition to last two weeks.
On April 2d .- Having already received orders, the entire Division, our regiment on the Metropolitan, climbed the Missis- sippi river to Greenville, Mississippi, and raided the country inland for the twofold purpose of driving off a small force of rebels who seemed to be used to scare off any small force of ours that might come there for forage ; and also to destroy the great granary from which the rebels at Vicksburg drew the bulk of their supplies. Hence the importance of the expedition.
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