USA > Illinois > Ninety-Second Illinois Volunteers > Part 12
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Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38
. for it was the only instance in the three years' service where lazi . ness was rewarded. The Chief of Cavalry was inforined by telegraph of the result of feeding cane leaves to the animals, and by telegraphic orders he ordered it discontinued throughout the Department. For several days the animals continued to die: there was no remedy. Old Blutcher, the faithful war-horse of the Lieutenant Colonel, doubtless longed for a furlough to the well filled barns on the borders of his native Pine Creek, in Ogle
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County, and yielded up the ghost. Major Bohn embalmed Blutcher's memory in heroic verse, and sang it in a doleful way to console the Lieutenant Colonel. On Sunday, the thirteenth of December, the Chaplain dedicated his log chapel, erected by him and the soldiers who volunteered to assist him. On the evening of the seventh, the Regimental head-quarters were serenaded, and there was much speech-making. It was a beautiful evening, and the music of the band, echoed back by the mountains on the south side of the Tennessee, was most novel and beautiful. Col. len Bauden played a few notes of a bugle solo, and atter a while it would come back, every note clearly and distinctly repeated over and over again, from the rocky walls of the mountain. During the night, orders came to march. Our winter quarters. comfortable log cabins, had to be given up. On December eighteenth, the Ninety-Second marched to Bridgeport, and re- ported to Major General Stanley. On Sunday, the twentieth, the Regiment crossed on the pontoons to the south side of the Tennessee, marched three miles, and went into camp in a pine thicket in Hog-Jaw Valley-Sus-Maxillary Valley, Lieutenant Skinner called it. On the twenty-first, Lieutenant William Cox left for " God's country," on a leave of absence. Captain George Hicks, of the 96th Illinois, visited the Regiment, and was sere- naded by the band, and he and many of the officers of the Ninety-Second were called out for speeches. The men had fixed themselves up very comfortably with the pine boughs, and chim- neys to their tents, a la Tennessee, constructed of sticks. plastered inside and outside with mud. During the night, orders came for the Ninety-Second to join the brigade at Huntsville, Ala. bama, and the Regiment marched on the morning of the twenty- second, camping that night in the old quarters at Caperton's Ferry. Marched at daylight on the twenty-third, passing through Stevenson, and making a detour to the northward, to avoid the swollen streams by crossing near their sources, twenty-five miles. and camped fifteen iniles from Stevenson, near Bellefonte- forage for animals in abundance. Marched early, passing through Scottsboro and Larkinsville. Several of the men were arrested for shooting hogs, and all the officers of the Regiinent were called up before the Colonel, who lectured them like a Dutch uncle on their lax discipline. Marched early, and met Colonel Wilder at Brownsville, Alabama. The men called on the Colonel for a speech, which was not much in Colonel Wilder's line; but he wa- received with great enthusiasm by the Regiment, and expressed
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his gratification at meeting with the Ninety-Second once more. Colonel Wilder here received several boxes of Christmas presents for his regiment, which, not being there, and the eatables liable to spoil, the Colonel turned them over to the Ninety-Second, and the boys feasted on the nick-nacks the kind Indiana people had intended for Colonel Wilder's regiment. Marched twenty-four miles, camping in a hard rain-storm; but rails were plenty for building shelters for the men, and cooking. The Regimental head-quarters were in a large farm-house, and those at head- quarters, so inclined, passed the evening in drinking persimmon beer, a light home-made beverage, prepared from persimmons. The twenty-sixth of December was cold and stormy.' Marched early, through the beautiful city of Huntsville, and camped on the south side of the town, a mile from the city limits. The twenty-seventh was Sabbath, and many attended church in the city, and, for the first time in many months, listened to a church organ, and sacred music with female voices. Forage was abund- ant. Salt was scarce, and Company K was detailed to forage for salt. They called at a house where they had been informed they would find salt, but the owner protested that not an ounce of salt was in his house. A young lady, with great ado, insisted that the Yankees should not search her room for salt, but was evi- dently delighted to have her room searched, and a large quantity of salt was found in her chamber. She was a Union woman, and, while out of the presence of the owner of the house, rejoiced in her ability to aid the Yankees. She was a Northern school- teacher, who had been compelled, against her wishes, to remain in the South. A light snow-storm, on the twenty-eighth, re- minded the North-men of home. On the thirtieth, Company I made a scout to the Tennessee River, and captured three prison - ers and a ferry-boat, which the company burned. On the thirty- first of December, marched early, and camped at Judge Ham- mond's, twelve miles west of Huntsville. It was, probably, the coldest night the Regiment experienced during all its service, and how the men managed to keep warm is yet a mystery. The rails were rapidly disappearing, and the Colonel ordered the men to cut down trees, and get them well ablaze with the dry rails, before they were exhausted. There was little sleep that night. Standing around the huge burning piles of logs, roasting one side, and freezing the other, the night was passed, watching the old year out, and the new year in. There never was a more picturesque watch-meeting held. In the sombre pine forest, by
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their blazing fires, the Methodist members of the Regiment kneeled in prayer, remembering their families at home, who, at the same hour, were likely celebrating watch-night in comfortable churches. It was a noisy camp, and, with all the suffering from intense cold, it was a jolly crowd that made the woods ring with their shouts and songs. "Judge" Hammond (probably called Judge because he was a good judge of a negro,) was the great landlord of the region. Originally himself a " poor white man," a class looked down upon even by the negroes, he had, by engaging in the profitable employment of raising negroes for the market, and strict attention to business, with careful economy, amassed a fortune, and bought up the smaller plantations around him, until he owned hundreds, and perhaps thousands, of acres. From his house could be seen many chimney stacks, once the location of the plantation buildings of separate plantations that his had swallowed up. He said he had seldom bought a planta- tion, except when his neighbor had run into debt and died, and it had been sold by the administrators. He was asked what became of the families then, and replied that they were crowded back into the poor lands among the hills, and soon sank into the mass of "poor white trash." His plantation is in Limestone County, one of the richest and most productive counties in Northern Alabama, Huntsville being the Court House town, with a population of about five thousand, a new city grown up within a decade ; and yet the population of the County, notwithstanding the growth of Huntsville, which had a remarkable growth for a Southern town, was actually receding year by year, owing to the process of the consolidation of small plantations into large ones. And the poor whites who were driven to the hills by this pro- cess! We have no language to describe their unfortunate and hopeless condition. Even the wealthy, who, by the extravagance or improvidence of the heads of families, were plunged into this hopeless state, rapidly sank into a condition lower than the negro slaves. Without schools, or churches, or a ray of hope in the future, ambition dead, virtue and intelligence decaying,-their condition was indeed a sad one! And, with prayer and song, and shout and story, the old year of 1863 went out, and the young new year of 1864 was welcomed in by the Ninety-Second around their camp-fires, on the great plantation of Judge Hammond. During the year, the Ninety-Second, plodding on foot, or on horseback, had marched fifteen hundred and fifty-eight miles.
Welcome, New Year! But, oh, how cold! How clear the
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bugles rang out on the frosty air when "boot and saddle" was sounded from head-quarters, and was repeated in the companies. The roads were horrible, exceedingly rough on the hills, and frozen in the lowlands strong enough to bear a man, but not a horse; marching along, the men on foot to keep from freezing, and the horses breaking the ice as they went, until the horses' fet- locks were bleeding, cutting the strong new ice! Napoleon's army, retreating from Moscow, did not march on a colder day. Late in the afternoon the Regiment went into camp, the men very weary, having marched on foot most of the day to keep warin. The camp was at Elkmont Springs, a summer resort, and the cot- tages were taken possession of by the men for quarters. They all had fireplaces, and the men soon made themselves comfortable. One negro boy, an officer's servant, while bringing forage from a cornfield, had his arms and legs so badly frozen that both arms and both legs were amputated. During the day Company B scouted for horses and mules, and captured seventeen. Marched on the second, at noon, twelve miles, to Prospect, and camped in the woods near Elk River. Marched on the third, at noon, in a sleet and rain storm, and camped five miles south of Pulaski, Ten- nessee. Marched again at noon, and camped half a mile south of Pulaski, where the Regiment lay in camp several days. From the fourth to the ninth the weather remained very cold, the ground covered with snow, and men and animals suffered greatly. On the tenth, the weather moderated considerably. N. G. Collins, Chaplain of the Fifty-Seventh Illinois, delivered an interesting and amusing lecture, and offered his printed address for sale. Captain Albert Woodcock, of Company K, was detailed as Provost Mar- shal of the Second Division of Cavalry. On the twelfth of January, the Ninety-Second marched thirteen miles on its return to Hunts- ville, and camped amid plenty. Marched at daylight, on the thir- teenth, and again camped on Judge Hammond's plantation. On the fourteenth, marched at daylight; passed through Huntsville, and camped on the pike two miles north of the city, and went to fixing up permanent camp. The next day was fine and warm, and the men fixed up their quarters comfortably for a long stay. Forage was abundant, and the railroad brought plenty of rations. On the sixteenth, many of the men having left camp and gone to the city without permission, a line guard was put around the Reg- iment for the first time in ten months. The men did not like it, and did not perform their duty in just the manner that experienced soldiers ought to have done. One of the guards commanded a
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dog that was passing the lines to halt, and, as the dog didn't, he , blazed away at it. Soldiers returning to camp were permitted to . slip in between the guards unobserved. One of the boys writes in his diary: "The Colonel got mad, and put just three times the usual guards on duty. The men concluded it wouldn't pay to fool around any more, and guard duty was better done after that." On the nineteenth, the ground was covered with snow; the Regi- ment was ordered to march, but the order was countermanded. The twentieth was delightfully warm, and the snow melted off. On the twenty-third, the Regiment marched with the brigade early, and camped on Limestone Creek, fifteen miles west of Huntsville. On the twenty-fourth, marched at daylight through Athens, a town burned up by General Turchin. When that tight- ing Teuton first entered Athens with his brigade, the enemy fought him in the streets, and the citizens, it was said, fired upon the Yankees from the windows of the houses. The burly 'Turchin, it is reported, said to his men, camped about the town: " Boys, I shuts mine eyes for shust one hour-I sees notting." When he opened his eyes again Athens was in flames and hopelessly ruined. Camped at Rogersville. On January twenty-fifth, the Ninety- Second marched at daylight, in the advance, and at noon crossed Shoal Creek, and, when about one mile west of the creek, the ad- vance was fired upon by a picket on the left of the column, on a road leading to Bainbridge Ferry, across the Tennessee River, at the foot of Muscle Shoals. Captain Becker, with fifty men, was ordered to charge them, and he did it splendidly, charging down to the river's edge, about a mile. He captured three of the enemy, and drove the others around the base of the bluff, where they took to shelter, dismounted among the rocks, leaving their horses on the river's beach. A ferry-boat, with an ambulance loaded with the enemy, nearly across the river, returned to the other shore. The Rebel General Roddy's command was on the opposite bank, and had rifle pits which commanded the approach to the ferry on our side of the river. The men among the rocks were commanded to surrender; but their friends opposite told them to lie still, that the Yanks could not get at them : and we could not, without running the gauntlet of the enemy's fire, and likely losing more men than we should capture by the effort. There were twenty horses, and probably twenty men, under the bluff. We could see the horses, but the men were concealed among the rocks. The horses were all shot, and, bidding the Johnnies good-bye, the Ninety-Second was withdrawn, and Captain M. Van Buskirk, of
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Company E, with four companies, was ordered to march rapidly to Florence. He started, but only a mile or so away, near the Sweetwater, ran into the enemy, who had a strong line flanking a log house, and the house itself was full of the enemy, who used it as a fort, knocking out the chinking to fire through between the logs. Captain Van Buskirk charged them on horseback; but, finding a heavy force, the men slipped off from the horses, and lay down in the grass and weeds. While lying there, with the open field surrounding the log house in front of them, Captain Becker told Company I, " By jingo, boys, we will have to charge over that field, for I lost my hat out there." He did not wait long for an opportunity to recover his hat. The brigade moved up and dis- mounted two regiments, and the line had just commenced ad- vancing to the support of the four companies, when Captain Van Buskirk ordered his four companies to charge on foot. Forward they went, receiving a hot fire from the log house, and the two Rebel regiments flanking it; but they routed the Rebels, captur- ing twenty prisoners, and killing fifteen of the enemy, and prob- ably wounding twice that number. Our loss, all in the Ninety- Second, was: Captain Horace J. Smith, Company B, wounded, musket bal! through his arm ; Corporal J. A. Colehour, Company I, wounded in shoulder-the Corporal had been home with a wound received at Chicamauga, and had just returned to the Reg- iment; private Andrew Drafferty, Company B, wounded ; private William B. Smith, Company F, wounded ; private Jeremiah Lam - bert, Company F, wounded; private David O'Brien, Company I, wounded; private Henry K. Hapster, Company F, wounded. Among the fifteen of the enemy killed, were Lieutenant Colonel Wynans and Captain Ingraham, of the Fourth Alabama Confed- erate Cavalry. Lieutenant Colonel Wynans was in command of the two regiments, and on his body were found marching orders. He had been directed to make a junction with the forces that had just commenced crossing the Tennessee River at Bainbridge Ferry-the force that Captain Becker had turned back by his charge-and with them to attack Athens at daylight the next morning, where he was informed that a column of dismounted men, with artillery, would aid him ; the last-mentioned column to cross the Tennessee River after dark, immediately south of Athens -the three Rebel columns striking Athens at daylight. By these marching orders, captured from the dead body of Lieutenant Col- onel Wynans, commanding one of the Rebel columns, we were placed in possession of the Rebel plan of the attack on Athens.
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Manifestly, having turned back two of the Rebel columns, the only thing left for us to do was to make a night march, striking the Tennessee River south of Athens at daylight, and cut off the only column left of the Rebel attacking force. Colonel Miller, commanding the brigade, decided upon that course, and the com- mand countermarched ; and a mile east of Shoal Creek bivouaced and fed animals, and resumed the march at eleven o'clock P. M. At four A. M., of the next day, halted to make coffee and feed ani- mals, when Lieutenant Colonel Phillips, with a portion of the Eighth Illinois Mounted Infantry, from Athens, came up, and Colonel Miller, taking his advice, again countermarched upon Florence. About nine o'clock, a courier came from Athens, with information that the Rebels had made an attack upon Athens at daylight; but, not being supported by the cavalry they expected, and learning that Wilder's brigade and the Eighth Illinois were out on the Florence road, they feared that they would be cut off from their retreat to the south side of the Tennessee, as they ought to have been, and would have been had Colonel Miller acted reso- lutely upon the information in his possession, taken from the body of the Confederate Lieutenant Colonel Wynans. The column was again countermarched, and started for the Tennessee River, south of Athens; but the opportunity had been lost, and, on reach- ing a point eight miles west of Athens, a courier came with infor- mation that the enemy had made safe his retreat across the river. The command camped in Athens that night. On the twenty- seventh, marched from Athens toward Huntsville twenty-five miles, and camped on Limestone Creek. Marched at daylight, and camped at Huntsville. On the thirtieth, marched at eight A. M., fourteen miles; to Trianna, on the Tennessee River, south of Huntsville, at the mouth of Indian Creek, for the purpose of being near forage, and to recruit the animals, where the Regiment re- mained until the third of April. It was a beautiful camp, but there is little to record while the Regiment lay at Trianna.
On the first of February, there was a very heavy rain-fall, and the camp was ditched to carry off the water. On the second, thirty recruits from Illinois joined the Regiment. On the sev. enth of February, the Chaplain preached to citizens and soldiers. in the church at Trianna. On the eighth, the Regiment was inspected by Brigadier General Elliott, Chief of Cavalry. On the ninth, the Regiment received two months' pay. On the fif- teenth, a scouting party of the enemy was found on the north side of the Tennessee, and four of them captured. On the
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eighteenth, there was quite a snow-storm. On the twenty-fourth, five prisoners were captured. On the night of the twenty-fifth, there was considerable picket firing, and the troops were in line early on the twenty-sixth. On the twenty-seventh, several pro- fessed religion, the Chaplain having succeeded in getting up a revival in the Regiment at Trianna. The month of March came in with snow and rain, but the snow melted off immediately, and the trees were beginning to bud. On the fourth of March, the Regiment commenced playing town-ball, and it had quite a run. The weather was very fine. On the eighth, a soldier writes in his diary: "In going through the Regiment to-day, the men may be seen in their tents; some reading the papers ; others, old books, which they have found in the country ; some writing, and some playing cards; while out of the tents, wicket ball, base ball. and pitching quoits are going on. At night, music and dancing are going on in camp." Fishing for bull-heads, in Indian Creek, was a part of the passtime. Lieutenant Colonel Sheets sat, one day, four hours, out on a log, patiently waiting for a bite; he got one, just one, and, attempting to pull out the fish, lost his balance and his fishing pole; scrambling up, he grabbed his pole, but the fish had departed! The Lieutenant Colonel was disconsolate, and never more went fishing in Indian Creek. On the fourteenth of March, stringent orders came from Department head-quarters against foraging for food in the country, or burning rails, tor the reason that it was desirable that the country north of the Tennes- see should be cultivated, that it might furnish forage for men and animals another winter. On the twenty-second, there was six inches of snow in the morning: and on the twenty-third, great sport was had, four companies against six, snowballing, and occasionally some one would get a winder in the face with a hard- packed ball, and then there would be balling of a different nature. The snow-battle lasted until the snow was gone, and it resulted in a drawn battle, for the lack of ammunition on both sides-the only instance where the opposing forces exhausted their ammu- nition simultaneously. On the twenty-ninth, the new Sutler came with a stock of goods, the first for the Ninety-Second since leaving Franklin, Tennessee. On the first of April, the entire Regiment, officers and men, spent the day in April-fooling each other. It is only fair to say that the officers suffered most in the -port. On the second of April, orders came to march; and that evening the camp was filled with the people from miles around- come to see the last dress- parade, listen for the last time to Collen
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Bauden's excellent Silver Band, and hear the Glee Club sing it- farewell songs. During the time the Regiment was at Trianna. . Lieutenant Skinner, of Company D, was Chief of Scouts, with about twenty brave fellows under him. They spent their time riding around the country, occasionally capturing a Johnny home on furlough, and interviewing the secesh lassies, which, by the way, the Lieutenant assumed was a duty to be performed by the Chief of Scouts in person. One morning, hearing from the colored people that a Rebel soldier was home, the Lieutenant and his scouts set out for his house. The ladies declared he was not there; but the Lieutenant made himself agreeable, and soon had the confidence of the old lady, who told him her son's name, his company and regiment, the name of his Captain, his Colonel, and Brigade Commander; and told him her son had been home, but had returned, and informed him at what ferry he had crossed the Tennessee. The Lieutenant, suspicioning that her son was in the bush-that is, hid away in the woods-concluded to try a ruse. He waited until night-fall, then went to the ferry where the Rebel soldier had crossed the Tennessee, hallooed across, and was soon answered by the Rebel picket, who inquired who was there and what was wanted. The Lieutenant answered, giving the name of the Rebel soldier, his company and regiment, his Colo- nel's name, and the name of the Brigade Commander, and said he wanted to come across. It seemed so straight that the Rebel picket manned the ferry-boat with five men, and came over the river with it, but found the Lieutenant and his scouts, with a demand to surrender, at the moment of landing. Of course they did so; they could not help it. The boat was burned, and the prisoners brought to camp. Patrolling the river bank one day. the Lieutenant's quick eyes detected a spot on the beach, where a skiff had been recently landed, and, suspicioning that it might land again, returned after dark with his scouts, and lay concealed and quiet for hours, when they heard the snorting of horses swim - ming in the river. Waiting a while, a dug-out, just large enough to hold two men, came to the shore, two men in the boat, and two horses swimming by its side. The men in the boat had no chance but to surrender, and one of them was John Morgan's Chief of Scouts, armed with two revolvers. He declared it had always been his intention never to surrender alive; but, in that little boat, with twenty men around him, and no chance to fight. he had no other course. The horses were tine animals, and both men shrewd and cunning. They were taken to Huntsville,
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and, by the aid of Rebel friends there, and such stories as they concocted, they were both released, by General Crook, to return with the very information John Morgan had sent them to obtain. On the morning of April third, the Regiment marched at day- light for Madison Station and Huntsville. When crossing the marsh bordering Limestone Creek, the men scattered out to the side of the road. The Colonel told them it was better to keep in the middle of the road, but the men had been over the road oftener than the Colonel, and probably knew the road better: but the Colonel kept in the old road. It was so cold that ice had formed over the pools of water; and his horse breaking the ice, the Colonel kept on, until he came to a little bridge beyond which was a pool frozen over. His horse halted, but he gave him the spurs, and he sprang forward, and went all over under in the deep hole. The Colonel was in a sorry plight, when he was pulled out of the mud by his Orderly, and the Regiment had a good laugh. His Orderly scrubbed him off with a horse-brush, in the swift water of Limestone Creek ; and, nearly frozen, the Colonel dashed ahead, to find a house at which to warm, and get on a dry suit. The Regiment went into camp four miles south of Huntsville, when orders came detaching the Regiment from Wilder's Brigade, and assigning it to the Third Brigade, Third Cavalry Division, Ariny of the Cumberland, with orders to report to General Thomas, at Ringgold, Georgia. " Boot and saddle" was at once sounded, and the Regiment marched through Hunts- ville in column of sections, the band, mounted on white horses. leading, and received from General Gerrard, the then Commander of the Cavalry Division at Huntsville, the compliment of his saying that the Ninety-Second was the finest Regiment in his command; but it was not in his command ; it was already march- ing to report to General Thomas. The Regiment camped two miles north of Huntsville, and drew rations for its march to Ringgold.
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