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 5
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٤ جماسترـ ــ شر ماخلقله
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HISTORY OF THE THIRTEENTH REGIMENT
lery. With every desire to aid and co-operate with the forces in the West, I am compelled, at this time, to forego that gratification. I hope at no distant day, to be able to lend you efficient aid in overthrowing the federal domination in Missouri.
This sublime flight of General Polk's poetic imagination, came down like the boy's arrow ; after " soaring ! and soar- ing ! ! and soaring ! ! ! it came down on daddy's wood-pile."
July 28th .- General Polk says to Confederate Secretary of War, Walker :
I had the honor of addressing you a few days ago, informing you of a movement [the basket picnic mentioned above] I was contemplating on Missouri.
Since yesterday [why not say to-day ?] I have had to arrive at head- quarters the gentleman who is the bearer of this, Colonel Little, Adju- tant-General of the forces of Missouri. He comes directly from General Price's camp. From him I learn that the force stated to be under the command of the respective generals above, as stated by Governor Jack- son, is greatly exaggerated, to the extent of indeed, one half. [The exclamation points should have been used, when the arrow came down. ] * * * * This abatement of the force disposable for the invasion of Missouri, has caused me to pause in the execution of the plan indi- cated.
Perhaps we ought to consider that General Polk's pause was better late than never, but the great General being a clergyman, before publishing to several other Confederate gen- erals, his highly inflated scheme for cantering over the State of Missouri, and Illinois, should pause long enough to take his New Testament, and turn to the 14th chapter of Luke, where the Saviour is giving much good advice, and read over three or four times, the 31st and 32d verses, as follows :
Or what king, going to make war against another king, sitteth not down first, and consulteth whether he be able with ten thousand to meet him that cometh against him with twenty thousand? Or else, while the other is a great way off, he sendeth an embassage, and desireth conditions of peace.
It would seem as if General Jeff Thompson, would indorse the above criticism, as he tells General Pillow on August
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16th, 1861, that "The distrust and bad feeling at New Madrid, is distressing. General Polk either does not under- stand the people of Missouri, or he belongs to the ox-tele- * graph-line." * * *
A comparison between the bombastic letters of General Polk and the common-sense advice of our Saviour, can hardly be other than, as between the warlike clergyman and the "Prince of Peace"; the latter would have made a far abler general, and possibly, almost as good a Christian.
July 22nd .- This was a showery day in camp. Several prisoners sent to St. Louis.
Confederate General Hardee, to-day took command of that part of Arkansas lying west of the White and Black rivers, and to the Missouri line.
July 24th, Wednesday .- Captain Blanchard, of Company K, detailed and sent out with one hundred and twenty men and Bowen's Cavalry, to scout and if possible, take Miscal Johnson, a somewhat notorious rebel, of local reputation.
The day was warm, and the scouting party did not leave camp until 5:30 p. m., and they marched eighteen miles and camped for the night.
They were also to hunt Old Lenox, ten miles beyond Bennett's Mill.
July 25th, Thursday .- Generel Fremont, to-day assumed command of the " Department of the West."
The scouting party resumed their march, and arrived at Bennett's Mill, where it was learned that the rebels had re- treated. Several prisoners were taken, however, but as it was not thought best to be incumbered with them, they were sworn and turned loose on parole, with orders to report to Colonel Wyman the next week. Among the prisoners were Dent and Cook, two of the leading rebels in that country. The men were well, and foraged plenty of sheep, chickens, honey, tobacco, etc., and lived well. This reminds one, of what Sherman wrote to Grant, almost exactly three years later, as follows : "We are gradually falling back to Atlanta, feeding high, on the corn-fields of the Confederacy."
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July 26th, Friday .- Captain Blanchard's scouting party broke camp at Bennett's Mill, at 7 p. m., and marched for Salem ; keeping scouts out all the way, reaching there an hour after midnight.
On this day the Union Home Guards had a brush with the rebels at "Lane's Prairie," near Rolla. Union, three wounded ; rebels, one killed, and three wounded. This caused some excitement in camp, and a detachment sent by forced march, to the locality of the fight, achieved nothing.
On this day, General Schofield, to Adjutant-General at St. Louis Arsenal, says : "We have heard of the defeat of our troops in Virginia, though hardly enough to judge of its extent. If so, the next news will be our defeat also." *
July 27th, Saturday .- At Salem, Bowen scouted all day, routing a squad of rebels, taking one prisoner and five guns. Lenox was heard from, not far off, threatening an attack. One of his spies was captured, and several prisoners dis- posed of.
This day, General Lyon, and Captain Clark Wright, both report rebel forces moving from Arkansas to Carthage and vicinity, for invasion of Missouri. Refugees give startling accounts of the depredations that are being, committed by the rebels as they return.
July 28th, Sunday. - The scouting party at Salem, broke camp at 5 p. m., and marched for Rolla ; but after marching fifteen miles, reached Lake Spring, where they camped.
That was a quiet Sunday in camp. It was quiet only be- cause we did not realize or know, even, the critical condition of the State generally, and of Rolla in particular, but will be fully realized when we read the reports from all the important points as follows :
On this day, Secretary Seward is told by General Fre- mont, that-
"The rebels are advancing in force from the south
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upon these lines. We have plenty of men,
BUT ABSOLUTELY NO ARMS ;
and the condition of the State, critical."
This reference by General Fremont to want of arms, is particularly interesting to the boys right here, as it was General Fremont himself, who purchased in Europe, these identical old Belgian and Austrian muskets with which we were at that very time, armed. As to whether General Fremont was to be thanked, or censured for this act, we shall further along have occasion to examine into.
On this same quiet Sunday, also, General Prentice from Cairo, Illinois, writes General Fremont, that - " Rebels from Tennessee, are constantly crossing at New Madrid, Missouri, with avowed intention of assulting Bird's Point. * * * .
On yesterday, three thousand rebels west of Bird's Point forty miles, three hundred at Madrid, three more regiments ordered there, also troops from Randolph and Corinth. The number of organized rebels within fifty miles of me will exceed twelve thousand." > -X-
Again to-day, Capt. Clark Wright, reports from Green- field to General Lyon : "My picket-guard, sixteen miles out in the direction of Carthage, assured me twenty minutes since, that I would have to be reinforced. The situation seemed so serious, that I at once sent a dispatch to Major Sturgis, calling for reinforcements."
In response to this call from Captain Wright, Assistant Adjutant-General Schofield ordered five companies of Colonel Andrew's regiment, Missouri Volunteers and four companies of Colonel Deitzler's regiment and two companies of Cavalry, dispatched at once.
- الد وائدة
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CHAPTER V.
COMPANY "Q'' ORGANIZES AND SELLS THE SUTLER A BARREL OF COFFEE .-- WHAT THE REBS THOUGHT AND SAID OF US .- DUG SPRING AND WILSON'S CREEK.
July 29th, Monday.
W HEN Captain Blanchard's scouting party resumed the homeward march, this morning, at 7, Major Bowen continued to scout, and suc- ceeded in engaging the force of " Old Lenox," with the misfortune, however, of being partly sur- rounded, which might have proved a serious matter, had not Captain Blanchard's Infantry force arrived on a double-quick, at the critical moment, having heard the firing. On this turn of affairs, the rebs retreated ; when the march was continued, and the detachment reached the post at 7 in the evening, with much plunder, consisting of horses, cattle, sheep, etc. Three rebels were killed, and three prisoners were brought in. No casualties on our side.
July 30th Confederate General McCulloch writes Confed- erate Secretary of War Walker, that he is about to move (next day ) from Cassville on Springfield ; and that he has suggested to General Hardee to make a
DEMONSTRATION AT THE SAME TIME ON ROLLA.
It is to be presumed that Colonel Wyman, as commander of the post at Rolla, knew of the threatening demonstrations from various directions, and very frequently, must have been
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in a state of extreme anxiety, with but his own regiment, and with no defensive fortifications, and nothing but a thousand men, full of fight, it must be admitted, but poorly armed and with only a small cavalry force for light scouting, and vedette guard.
The fort had not yet been commenced, and was not for twenty-eight days after ; and the four siege-guns would not arrive for about twenty days, and would be useless for many days to come until they could be mounted. Of course it is useless to speculate as to how Hardee, or any other rebel general, backed by a considerable force, would have been received, if attacking us suddenly, but it is pretty certain that they would have picked up a smart chunk of a fight, and would have had considerable to talk about, had they succeeded.
In the meantime the routine of camp life went on at Rolla, with very little of absorbing interest to vary the monotony. Company and battalion drill went on every day of good weather, prisoners were frequently brought in, and in due time forwarded to St. Louis.
Unionist refugees, in considerable numbers, were almost every day arriving at the post, to seek protection, food and shelter. Their tales of suffering and abuse, and not infre- quently, gross outrage, were well calculated to call forth all of indignation and sympathy natural to the noble soul of Colonel Wyman, and, in fact, of his entire regiment ; and while the naturally impatient and impetuous disposition of our commander chafed under the severe control which he was obliged constantly to exercise over himself, the men of the Thirteenth were often clamorous to be led where some of these rebel miscreants could be chastised.
It is well that we should know something of the opinion entertained towards us, as instilled into the minds of the rebel soldiers, and common people, by rebel officers and leaders.
"Oh ! wad some power the Giftie gie us, To see oursels as ithers see us."
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السيدة
الوزير:
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On July 2d, 1861, Mr. E. C. Cabell, of Missouri, wrote Jefferson Davis, as follows :
To insure the accession of Missouri to the Confederate States, has been the object of my labors for several months past. This great result may, and I feel confident will, be attained. But it is second- ary to the cause of Southern independence ; and should it fail, which God forbid, and which I do not apprehend, I shall be none the less de- voted to that cause, for, I shall never reside, and I would rather bury my children than have them live in any State which, willingly or un- willingly, remains under the rule of the men of the late United States.
Now, it is more than half certain, that Mr. Cabell's chil- dren, would prefer to live, even in Missouri, to being buried, anywhere; and his disinterestedness strongly resembles that of the late Artemus Ward, who declared that " This rebellion must, and shall be put down, if it takes every drop of blood flowing in the veins of my wife's relations."
On December 4th, 1862, Confederate General Hindman, addressing his soldiers, said : *
* * " Soldiers : Fifth, do not break ranks to plunder. *
* Plun- derers and stragglers will be put to death on the spot. [Lofty virtue, and vigorous discipline.] File-closers are es- pecially charged with this duty. Remember that the enemy you engage, has no feeling of mercy or kindness toward you. His ranks are made up of
PIN INDIANS.
( Whatever does that mean ? )
Free nogroes. Southern tories.
Kansas jayhawkers.
And hired Dutch cut-throats."
On April 21, 1861, some loud crowing Confederate rooster, calling himself S. R. Cockerell, writing from Nashville, Tennessee, to Confederate Secretary of War, Walker, thus "norates " :
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* * The Legislature meets next Thursday ; and the plan is to pass the ordinance of secession, and let the people ratify it, arm the State, and stand ready to march South or North. [Wonder why they failed to march North ?] Arkansas will go out May 6th before break- fast. [He knew certainly, or guessed exactly.]
THE INDIANS COME NEXT.
Companies are forming rapidly, and I expect both my sons to go whenever the insolent invader shall tread a hostile foot upon our soil. The Slave States, a unit, are omnipotent in defense. Arkansas and Tennessee are wild with indignation at the insolence and usurpation of the Buffoon at Washington city. * * The prospect of a corn * crop fine. I have planted one hundred acres for your army. [Ten chances to one, the Yanks got it. ] * With streamers gay, push forward with sanguine cheer. The " God of battles must, and will go with you."
(The chances are, that if the " God of battles " paid any attention at all, to the matter, he boosted the other side.) .
The Rector(tude) of the Governor of Arkansas, is evinced in a communication to John Ross, Principal Chief of the Cherokee Nation, on January 29, 1861, in which he says :
SIR : It may now be regarded as almost certain, that the States having slave property within their borders, will, in consequence of re- peated Northern aggressions, separate themselves and withdraw from the Federal government. * * * * It is well established that the Indian country west of Arkansas, is looked to by the incoming admin- istration of Mr. Lincoln, as fruitful fields, ripe for the harvest of abo- litionism, free-soilers and Northern montebanks.
It seems unaccountable, and almost incredible, that these men uttered such things. It must have been done to prej- udice and imbitter the feelings of that class from which came the recruits for the rank and file of the Confederate army.
Even the Confederate General, Joseph E. Johnston, one of their ablest and most chivalric officers, five days after the surrender at Vicksburg, harangued his soldiers as follows :
"An insolent foe, flushed with hope by his recent suc- cesses at Vicksburg, confronts you, threatening the people, whose homes and liberties you are here to protect, with
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plunder and conquest. * * This enemy, it is a: once the mission and duty of you brave men to chastise and expel from the soil of Mississippi.
"The telegraph has already announced a glorious victory over the foe, won by your noble commanders of the Virginia army on Federal soil."
Lee had then been on the keen run from " Federal soil," at Gettysburg, for five days ; and Johnston must have known it at that very time.
The men who stooped to such questionable means to bolster up a bad cause, were men educated in the schools, colleges, and universities ; and in addition, most of them had received a military education, at the expense of our govern- ment, which they were now trying to destroy.
With all these advantages, these officers may be supposed to have moved in good society, and been familiar with the amenities which obtain in refined social life ; and it is diffi- cult to treat them with that dignity and forbearance, which the historian is forced to use.
The readers have exact quotations of their language and writings, and must draw their own conclusions.
Whether the monotonous routine of camp life, is primarily responsible for the bringing into existence of that anomalous but potent force, or institution, known as Company Q, will probably never be certainly known.
There seems to be no doubt, however, that its pedigree may be traced for a considerable distance in that direction ; and a variety of other conditions, or things, may have been its god-fathers. However that may be, certain it is, that. Company Q, always reports for duty, is never in hospital, on the sick-list, or home on furlough.
Some time in August, 1861, the contingent of Company Q, from Company I, conceived that it had an account to settle with "Old Hyde," the sutler. He was not "old " because of years, but it was a sort of semi-epithet, with about the same significance that it would possess if applied to a pawnbroker, or a dealer in "old junk." High prices
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at the sutler's store, had been accepted as a declaration that his hand was against every man, especially of the rank and file, and every man of the rank and file of Company Q, was against him.
As we were close to the village, the sutler sold goods to a good many citizens.
The cooks of Company I, having a surplus of rations, and more especially of coffee, were in the habit of boiling the coffee without grinding ; and then drying the berries for future using over again, should it be found necessary.
Almost a barrel had been used, and then dried in this way, when a bright idea struck some brain, more than usually fertile in camp expedients, in a commercial direction ; and a scheme was concocted, to sell the boiled dried coffee to " Old Hyde."
This was hailed with great gusto, and the conspirators organized at once. The chief conspirator sought and ob- tained a confidential interview with the doomed sutler, and cautiously asked him if he could quietly dispose of some sur- plus coffee ? Hyde said he could, but the transaction must be kept a profound secret, as the officers would never allow the soldiers to trade off their rations, and that he would be held responsible for receiving the goods.
A sample of the coffee, liberally mixed with some of full strength, was submitted to the sutler for examination, and as there appeared to be nothing wrong, he offered a liberal price for the entire barrel, and the sale was made, and one dark night the coffee was safely transferred to the sutler's tent.
It soon leaked out that the citizens who had been buying coffee of the sutler were grumbling, and finding fault about the coffee having no strength. "Old Hyde" began to sus- pect something ; and a close examination revealed the cheat.
He did not dare say anything, however, but it was too good to keep, and the conspirators themselves told the story, and it was a long time before the officers quit bantering "Old Hyde " about the coffee trade with Company Q.
August Ist .- Colonel Marsh, at Camp Fremont, to General
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Prentiss. "The following information, just received, is, I be- lieve, reliable. General Pillow was at New Madrid on the morning of the 31st, with eleven thousand troops well armed and drilled ; two regiments of cavalry, splendidly equipped ; one battery of flying artillery, ten pounders, and ten guns, manned and officered by foreigners ; several mountain-howitz- ers, and other artillery, amounting in all to one hundred ; nine thousand men moving to reinforce. He has promised Governor Jackson to place twenty thousand men in Missouri at once. I have a copy of his proclamation and also one of his written passes."
August 2d .- Fight at Dug Springs, Missouri. First -- Iowa, Third-Missouri. Five batteries Missouri Light Artil- lery. Union, four killed and thirty-seven wounded. Confed- erate, forty killed and forty-four wounded.
August 3d .- Pillow says to Polk, at New Madrid : " I have made arrangements with Mr. Townsend to return to St. Louis, and with his secret society to destroy a large por- tion of the Iron Mountain road. This is essential to be done, and to be done quickly as possible, as a means of crippling the enemy in their future movements, looking to a concentra- tion of forces to meet us." * *
Our copperhead patriots who have protested with loud and boisterous profanity, so often, that these secret societies ex- isted only in the imagination, should make a note of what General Pillow says.
On this same August 3d, trains of provisions and other supplies started from Rolla for General Lyon's army at Spring- field, and a detail of two men from each company of the Thir- teenth was made to guard the train, in command of Lieutenant James Beardsley of Company D. The train reached Spring- field in safety, and our men participated, as volunteers in the great battle of "Wilson's Creek."
August 4th, Sunday .- A member of the regiment said to- day : " Camp life dull and monotonous. Religious services don't amount to anything. Elder Miller puts on airs, and goes in for display. Ornamental, nothing more; but, O
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God ! how sacred the evening hours of prayer, away from the noise of camp."
And yet, Company Q puts on record that on this same August 4th, Sunday, "The means of grace enjoyed by our regiment, are abundant, and of the very best quality. Dr. Plummer performed "Blue Mass," in the morning, and gave a(b)solution of quinine and tartar-emetic, to all of that faith ; while Chaplain Miller preached later on in the day, to the Protestant branch of the soldiery ; but, for some unexplained reason, he did not seem to reach the true inwardness of his hearers, for, they did not seem to absorb his doctrine; but Dr. Plummer's devotees, one and all, did absorb his doctorin'.
But the spirituous condition of both churches was exalted or depressed in proportion to the success of Company Q, who watched and preyed on the quartermaster's stores, by sneak- ing past the guard, and under the depot, and boring holes up through the floor, and into certain casks, from which can- teens were not sent empty away. A man who had been wounded at Lane's Prairie, died to-day.
August 5th, Monday .- The soldier who died yesterday, was buried to-day with military honors.
August 6th .- Assistant Adjutant-General Kelton, at St. Louis, to General Pope, says : "The General directs that you send to this city immediately, the Fourteenth, Fifteenth and Twenty-first Illinois Regiments ; also Colonel Marshall's regiment of Illinois Cavalry. Colonel Marshall, with parts of his regiment and others, will be to-day at Hannibal. You are directed to use the utmost possible dispatch in car- rying out the above orders." * ×
Same day, Hons. John S. Phelps, and Frank P. Blair, Jr., asked President Lincoln for a Union invasion of Arkansas, and force sufficient, and also to keep the Indians in subjection west of the State.
Some inkling of the above may have reached Pillow ; for, on this same date he hounds Polk to strengthen him at New Madrid ; which he says is not a strong strategic point.
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The astonishing celerity of military movement of consid- erable bodies of troops, on emergency, is shown from the fact that Assistant Adjutant-General Kelton's order to General Pope, to send to St. Louis the regiments mentioned in the order above, was issued, and the regiments reached St. Louis, and two of them reached Rolla on that same day, August 6th. The emergency, of course, related to the hurried preparations of General Lyon, at Springfield, for the coming battle, which seemed so inevitable, that its cer- tainty was the common talk in the regiment. An entry in a private diary, of August 8th (two days before the battle) says : "General Lyon's fight, the talk of the camp."
The Fourteenth Illinois, Colonel John M. Palmer, and the Fifteenth Illinois, Colonel Thomas J. Turner, arrived to-day, and went into camp not far from our regiment. These were very fine regiments of men, and seemed, in one sense, a part of our own family, as they were numbered respectively, next in order following ours.
In the light of General Lyon's expressions of his desperate situation some days previously, it is astonishing why these two fine regiments were not pushed forward; as a forced march of four days should have brought them on to the field at Wilson's Creek in time to have given Lyon the much- needed succor.
Perhaps the reason for the detention of these two regi- ments at Rolla, during those four days previous to the battle, and the sixty days subsequently, may be found in what must have been anticipated at St. Louis, and which Confederate General Hardee said to General Pillow, the next day after the arrival at Rolla, of these regiments. Hardee says :
"Your true policy is to unite with me here (Greenville, Missouri), take Ironton, march on Rolla ; then abandon our base of operations, cut off Lyon from his communications, attack and route him; then march with all our forces combined, yours, McCulloch's, Jackson's, and mine, on St. Louis. * * *
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