USA > Illinois > Ninety-Second Illinois Volunteers > Part 35
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ordered cavalry charge had followed up the victory, Kilpatrick would have done what the Rebel General Forrest never failed to do, and his many laurels, bright now, would have been brighter still. And then the fight at Waynesboro. Do you recollect your night on picket, when the enemy brought up his artillery, and Erb and Merrill were mustered out honorably? and the next morning, when you were double-quicked into the fight without breakfast? Thanks to the pistol in Schermerhorn's breast coat pocket-if it had not been there, he would have had marching orders to report to his quarters on high. How proud I was of the old Regiment that morning! How coolly you charged the enemy's long line of barricades, capturing eighty-seven of the " Johnnies," and grinding out the shot from your coffee-mill guns on the backs of the fleeing mass that attempted to retreat. How soldierly you behaved, scorning to leave your ranks to take charge of the prisoners your valor had captured, leaving them to be picked up by the cavalry following, and yourselves pressing forward, shoulder to shoulder, and repulsing, with the deadly fire of your death-dealing " Spencers," the heavy charge of Rebel cavalry by which they attempted to regain their lost ground! That was a brilliant victory, but brilliant as it was, we paid dearly for it. Brave "Gedee" Scott and his no less brave comrades who sleep to-day in their narrow little beds on that victory-crowned field was part of the price paid for victory. And on to Savannah, where the dashing waves of the Atlantic sounded welcome to the brave Western men who had marched from the heart of the Continent, over mountain barrier, through rocky defile and dis- mal swamps, to plant the eagle-surmounted shot and shell-torn standards of the old Republic on the ocean-beat shore! Have you forgotten your foraging after rice in the straw for your horses, your trip to the Altamaha River, your foraging expedition to Taylor's Creek after corn, sweet potatoes, honey, turkeys, and chickens? How did you like your oysters gathered up from the neglected oyster beds, on New Year's day, 1865, at King's Bridge? Do you remember our second review by General Sherman, in the streets of the captured city of Savannah, where we passed in review before the Secretary of War? And away again through rain and swamps on to the " sacred soil" (?) of South Carolina? Do you remember how you put your cartridge boxes on your heads and held your guns up over them and waded the Salke- hatchie River under the fire of the enemy, and charged over the abatis up the steep hill opposite, and drove them out of their
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earthworks? When will you forget Barnwell wrapped in flames, or Blackville Station, with its miles of burning railroad ties? When will you forget Aiken? Wheeler and Hampton had there prepared a trap for you, and Kilpatrick's dare-devil dash drove you squarely into the jaws of the trap, but when they sprung it and thought they had you nicely, they found they had caught a tartar! There never was a tight place that the Ninety-Second, with their Repeating Rifles, was not sent into; and you will remember how fearful I was that the Regiment would some day be surrounded by the enemy and be left by the cavalry to get out again as best it could.
At Aiken, Kilpatrick ordered me to withdraw with the balance of my Brigade and leave you surrounded, but I determined to maintain the reserve line until you came out, or at least until I could no longer hear the rattle of your " Spencers." How often I have urged you to stick by one another, and fight in a body, what- ever might be the odds against you. You did it at Aiken, and we did not have to wait long until you had cut your way through and were ready to turn again upon your enemy; and, with the gallant 9th Ohio and 9th Michigan, charged them in turn, driving them through Aiken in confusion, and rescuing Companies " K" and "A," still left surrounded by the "Johnnies," and fighting among the buildings in the town, and bringing off your wounded. Bitterly the enemy paid for their effort to gobble up the Ninety- Second Regiment. They buried eighty of their slain at Aiken! After that I had no more fears that the Regiment would ever get into a place it could not get out of, and about concluded that all of Jeff. Davis's gray-coated legions could not capture the Ninety- Second! It was a hard task to fight, with four little regiments, Wheeler and Hampton with seven divisions; but seven divisions could not whip you while you had plenty of ammunition for your " Spencers." And on again, past Saluda Factory, Columbia, Winnsboro and Rocky Mount to Solemn Grove, where you matched in the night on a parallel road with the enemy's column, and so close your flankers mingled with theirs, and the loud talk- ing in their column could be plainly heard, and when we struck the forks of the road, and supposed we had got in ahead of them. we met one of Wheeler's aids, who came dashing back ordering us to " hurry up," and we quietly informed him he was a prisoner, and Kilpatrick's troops didn't obey Wheeler's orders. But we learned from him that three divisions of Rebel troops were on the road just ahead of us, and four divisions of Rebels coming up in
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our rear-we had just filled the gap in the Rebel column, and with Wheeler leading and Hampton following, we were marching along the same road with them! So we concluded that if the Rebels wanted that road so bad they might have it all by them- selves, while we plunged into the dark pine woods and found an- other road off on the right. Only cool, intrepid men, who would not speak above their breath, and were ready to fight, could be taken out of so dangerous a place. And on, by Fayetteville to Averysboro, where we opened the fight by capturing Colonel Rhett, of South Carolina, who had just evacuated Fort Sumter. And on again, to Bentonsville, where Johnston's "Johnnies" showed fight, but where, when " Uncle Billy" turned his columns around to give them fair battle, between dark and daylight,
" Folded their tents like the Arabs, And as silently hastened away."
It was your fortune to first make the discovery in the morning that the ubiquitous gray-backs had " slid out," and to lead the advance that followed on through the town of Bentonsville. Then we turned around and greeted Schofield at Goldsboro, who, after his magnificent victory over Hood at Franklin, from behind the very fortifications you helped to construct, and Hood's final repulse at Nashville, had taken the cars to the sea-coast and sail to New Berne, to shake hands again with his old comrades of the Atlanta campaign. Honor Lincoln, and Grant, and Sherman, and Thomas, and Schofield, and all who planned or helped to execute that grand winter's campaign ; and when you grow old tell your little grandchildren that you marched and fought with Sherman's boys in the grandest campaign in all the world's history. And as soon as Sherman had issued clothing, you led his columns against Johnston at Smithfield. Have you forgotten the bright morning when we drove the enemy across Swift Creek in North Carolina, found the bridge destroyed, and, after part of your Regiment had waded the creek so as to hold the other side, our pioneers rebuilt the bridge, and just after the Ninety-Second began crossing, Major Nichols, of Sherman's staff, rode up with the news that Lee had surrendered to Grant? No, you have not forgotten it, and you will never forget it. How your caps went into the air, how loud your glad voices rang out-how bright the starry banners we had so long followed looked as you gave them to the breeze and the sunlight; and never before did bugles blare and trumpets blow so loud, or music sound so sweet as when our Band struck up " Hail
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Columbia!" But the still stubborn "Johnnies," in their earth- works half a mile across the creek, who had been only waiting for part of the column to cross to make an attack when no support could be offered by the troops not yet across, had not yet heard of Lee's surrender, and did not know the war was ended! But you boys of the Ninety-Second, shouting and laughing with the glad news you had just heard, coolly received the wild charge of that Rebel brigade, halted it with murderous volleys from your ever faithful "Spencers," turned it back, and shouting still with joy over Lee's surrender, dashed after the retreating Rebels, and cap- tured their earthworks. Brilliant victory-but, oh! the price we paid! I never felt so sad in battle as I did then, when I looked upon the poor boys who there, after the great war was in fact over, and victory was with our eagles, received marching orders to report in heaven. Little did I dream when I saw Major Hawk, under the great oak tree by the white farm house, pale and bleed- ing with his terrible wound, that I should greet him here in a Reunion of our Regiment in our Illinois home. Long may he live to receive the greetings of his old comrades in arms! And on, through Raleigh to New Hope Creek, where our Brigade fired its last shot. It was my fortune while Captain of Company "A," IIth Illinois, to assist in capturing one of the first (if not the first) Rebel flags captured west of the Alleghanies; it was a few days after Ellsworth captured the Rebel flag at Alexandria, Virginia, and a day or two before Governor Oglesby captured the Rebel flag on the Mississippi, near Columbus; and a book recently pub- lished in New York, edited by a Southern lady, gives the Brigade I commanded the honor of firing the last loyal shot in the war before the surrender of Johnston's army. And then you quietly sat down in Chapel Hill to await the terms of surrender that was to close the most gigantic Rebellion known in all the world's his- tory.
No sooner did you hear of Johnston's surrender than you were clamoring to be mustered out; you were not soldiers from choice ; you went from a sense of duty alone, and when the power of the Rebellion was broken, and the Rebel armies scattered, your duty was done. All the world's history can furnish no prouder record than was achieved by our citizen soldiery, and never before have a million battle-scarred heroes left the bloody field as soon as the last hostile shot had died away, and hastily returned to kiss their wives, their babies, and their sweethearts, and resume the peaceful callings they had left. With the flag of your country, known and
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honored in every part of the world where the bible is read and christianity acknowledged, proudly floating over you, secure in the liberties your valor helped achieve for your country, you are laboring in your professions, at your trades, or on your farms. Children of the North American Republic, proud of your coun. try, your country is proud of you.
One feature in our Regiment I have not yet mentioned-a feature which will gladden the hearts of some of the fathers and mothers of the boys. As soon as the Regiment was mustered in, a party of christian gentlemen belonging to the Regiment organ- ized a Thursday evening prayer meeting, and, during all our service, I do not believe that one Thursday evening was permitted to pass without a meeting of that christian band. Many a time have I heard their earnest prayers and fervent amens rising above the din and confusion of the busy camp, and louder than the wind and storm. Such christianity is a badge of honor in this life, and will prove the highest honor in the next. Those who believe the army so demoralizing that virtue cannot live in it, are sadly mis- taken-gold is refined in the fire-and I can bear cheerful testi- mony that the professors of religion in the Ninety-Second, both officers and men, so bore themselves as to honor the profession they made.
Very little have I told you of our Regimental history-battle after battle have I passed by without mention-yet who shall say that your Regimental career was not one of uninterrupted honor? and shall not the impartial historian record that the Ninety- Second Illinois did fully its part in crushing out the great slave- holders' Rebellion? and who shall dare assert that the starry emblem of liberty, " flag of the free heart's only hope," given into your keeping, although tattered and torn in battle and campaign, was not brought back by you without a stain on its bright blue field?
Some tell me these Reunions are wrong,-that we ought to strive to forget, and not to remember our terrible sufferings, pri- vations, battles, and maimings, the horrible prison pens, and deliberate butchery of our captured prisoners, and forgive our erring brothers of the South, who tried to lay our temple of liberty in ruins, and attempted to wade through seas of blood to found a Confederacy, with slavery as the chief corner-stone. Did our revolutionary sires seek to forget Bunker Hill and Lexington as soon as the power of King George was broken? Did they forget the prison ships? Did the people of America forget
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WASHINGTON and his compeers? No! While liberty survives, the fame of the Continental soldiers will remain bright, and as long as a revolutionary hero shall live, so long will the American people honor the survivors of the revolutionary struggle; and when all are gone, their memories will live to keep bright the sacred fires of liberty their heroism kindled. Time, in its flight, will bring such memories to the American people of you. Their battle, and your battle, was for freedom. In the sacred cause of liberty and humanity, they fought and bled ; and so did you. For the last ninety years, those who have loved their country and liberty have met annually, and, kneeling around the altars of liberty, have renewed their vows to keep their memories bright forever; and hereafter, mingled with praises of them, will be praises of you.
Christ has taught us that forgiveness is for those who seek it, "confessing their sins." There is no man living more willing than I am to forgive those people in the South who see their sin and are turning from it. But when their sins are forgiven, and they are received into full fellowship in the American Church of Liberty, they must kneel with us and worship at Liberty's altar; they must join with us in chanting the songs of Freedom, and in sounding the praises of the " boys in blue," who battled Rebel. lion's hosts under Liberty's bright banner.
Let us cherish the sacred memories of our soldier life-let us never forget the terrible price we have paid for liberty, or the " crimson currency" in which it was paid. Let us honor the memory of our dead comrades, whose graves are scattered over Kentucky, on the banks of the Tennessee, by Chicamauga's dark river of death, around Atlanta's hills, along the roadside beneath the dark pines of the Carolinas, or in nameless graves at Millen or Andersonville.
" The muffled drum's sad roll has beat The soldier's last tattoo; No more on life's parade shall meet The brave and fallen few. On Fame's eternal camping ground Their silent tents are spread- And Glory guards, with solemn round, The bivouac of the dead."
And it seems to me that now, from their bright homes on high, they are looking down on this Reunion of the old Regiment, and
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there comes a message from away beyond the clouds, "Comrades, stand by your colors-keep the old flag to the breeze!" And from your hearts I know goes back the reply, "Aye, we will! The bright starry banner, emblem of liberty, that floats so proudly over your graves, shall be kept to the breeze! We are children of the Republic, and if dangers threaten we will 'rally around the flag' as in days gone by!" And again from heaven's starry dome I hear the return reply, "All is well!"
Cherishing the sacred memories of our comrades gone, owe we no duties to the gray-haired father or mother, whose staff and support in life's declining years these fallen boys were ?- owe we no duties to the weeping widows, or little fatherless children they have left? Yes, we owe these duties-they are solemn and binding. We should ever be ready to divide the rations from our well filled haversacks which the all-bountiful Commissary of the universe so freely issues to us, with any of those who need. Let a permanent Reunion organization be formed, and let its most sacred duty be to hunt up those suffering ones, and systematically apply the relief which a soldier's warm heart is always ready to bestow upon the kindred of his dead comrades.
And in the Articles of Reunion, let us provide for a meeting every three years, as long as any of the old Regiment survive, to renew our vows to liberty, and our allegiance to the dear old flag. Will all that are here to-day meet in our Reunion three years hence? No, not all. If I am living, I will be at that Reunion. But, ere then, some of us will have marching orders from Him who outranks the President or The General, the Grand Com- mander of the universe, and will have gone into permanent quarters beyond death's pontoons, on the other side of the dark river. And who will be here ten, twenty, forty years from now? 'Will our old Chaplain be here to offer his spiritual advice, and on bended knees offer prayer to the Throne of God for the gray-haired vete- rans, who, forty years from to-day, will hold the Reunion of the Ninety-Second Regiment? Not likely. In the course of nature, it is probable that the oldest will be gathered to their fathers first. And who among us all will be the last to answer roll-call on earth?
And then, while liberty blesses the loved land of our birth, the old Regiment shall all meet together again, up yonder, where our blattle-slain comrades are waiting to greet us, in a Reunion where there never shall be parting more, nor death, nor battle, on the "eternal camping ground" beyond the skies.
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At the close of General Atkins's address the Band played. Afterward the "Commissary call" was sounded on the bugle, occasioning a lively interest. After two or three hours, pleasantly spent in picnic fashion in the beautiful grove, the Regiment held a "dress parade" and a short " battalion drill." " Sick call" was sounded, but all present reported for duty. A permanent Re- union organization was perfected. General Smith D. Atkins was chosen President; Captain R. M. A. Hawk, Vice-President; J. C. Lowe, Recording Secretary ; Dr. George R. Skinner, Correspond- ing Secretary; Dr. Clinton Helm, Treasurer; Rev. Barton H. Cartwright, Chaplain. In the evening the generous citizens of Polo gave the Ninety-Second, and all soldiers present, an enter- tainment and supper in Agricultural Hall.
The following account of the second Reunion of the Ninety- Second is taken from the Freeport Journal :
The Ninety-Second Illinois Mounted Infantry Volunteers held their second Reunion at Wilcoxon's Opera House, in Free- port, on Thursday last, September first, 1870. The day was beautiful; the early train from the east brought large delegations from Companies B and K ; extra passenger coaches were attached to the 9:30 train from the south, on the Illinois Centrai, and came in loaded; the morning train from the west brought large delega- tions; the noon trains from the east and west, on the Western Union Road, also brought many to attend the Reunion ; from an early hour in the morning until noon, the old members of the Regiment, accompanied by their fathers and mothers, their wives and children, and family friends, came thronging into the city in wagons and carriages, until the streets presented a holiday ap- pearance. At a little past one o'clock p. m. the Freeport Zouaves, under command of Captain Hurlburt, accompanied by the Wins- low Brass Band, paraded through the city, and at two o'clock p. m. the audience assembled at Wilcoxon's magnificent Opera House, the use of which had been tendered for that purpose by Mr. Wilcoxon without cost, and at a little past two o'clock p. m., after the jam of finding seats in the Opera House was over, the exercises began, by the audience being called to order by General Atkins, President of the Ninety-Second Illinois Reunion Asso- ciation, who stated that the Reunion was held under the auspices of the Ninety-Second Illinois Mounted Infantry Volunteers, a Regiment that was composed of five companies from Ogle County, three companies from Stephenson County, and two com- panies from Carroll County, and was mustered into the service at
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Rockford, Illinois, on the fourth day of September, 1862, and, after almost three years' service, after the close of the war, was mustered out, and held its first Reunion at Polo, Illinois, on Sep- tember fourth, 1867, five years from the day on which they were mustered into the service. At that Reunion they had resolved to hold a Reunion so long as two of the members of the old Regiment should be alive, once in every three years. In obedi- ence to that resolution they were there-and they had cordially invited the soldiers of other regiments to meet with them, and the citizens also, for they well knew that the memories of the past, which were so dear to the surviving members of the Ninety- Second Illinois Volunteers, were the common memories of all the soldiers of the Republic, and of the people of America. The exercises began with music by the Band. Afterward the Presi- dent stated that it was a well-known fact, that the Ninety-Second Illinois was a God-fearing and a God-serving Regiment, and it would be appropriate that, before anything further was done, they should join in prayer, while Chaplain Cartwright, the old and well-beloved Chaplain of the Regiment, invoked the blessings of Deity, and the President called upon Rev. Barton H. Cartwright, who made an appropriate prayer.
After which the President called upon Captain E. T. E. Becker for a song, and Captain Becker came forward to the stand, and sang the beautiful song commencing,
" 'Tis finished, 'tis finished, the great work is ended,"
which was heartily applauded by the audience.
After . music by the Band, the President introduced General Sheets, of Ogle County, late Lieutenant Colonel of thie Ninety- Second Illinois Volunteers, who, the President said, was a modest gentleman, quite bashful among the ladies, but whom he had known to face the enemy upon the battle-field without flinching. The General came forward, amid applause, and spoke as follows :
SOLDIERS, COMRADES, FRIENDS: Addresses are sometimes appropriate-but at a soldiers' Reunion I believe them always out of place. We come here to think and talk of the scenes of the past-of events gone by-of hardships endured-of struggles deep and earnest, and to renew the associations of the past; and under such circumstances a set speech must always be out of order. And vet, in obedience to the orders of my superiors, I am here to inflict on you just such a speech.
When our good old Chaplain Cartwright first came to the
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Regiment, he asked me how we got the Regiment out to preach- ing. I told him, if the boys, being hungry, could find a good din- ner, they would need no urging to eat, and a good Chaplain, fur- nishing them with such spiritual food as they needed, would have no difficulty in getting them out to hear.
Sabbath morning came-the hour for worship had arrived- no church bells broke the stillness of the morning-instead of the Chaplain asking the Adjutant to call the Regiment together for worship, I heard his clarion voice (not always melodious) crying, "Ho, boys! come up here and help me serve the Lord for half an hour, and I will help you in the trenches the balance of the week." I need not assure you that everything was abandoned, and if all did not serve the Lord for half an hour, they listened to the Chap- lain's sermon. I shall not make you so rash a promise.
I have arranged, briefly as possible, a few of the events in the history of our Regiment. If there are soldiers of other commands here, we greet them most cordially-we were brothers struggling in the same cause-and they may find something in our history that will be responsive to their own experience.
The Ninety-Second Illinois was mustered into the service of the United States, at Rockford, Illinois, September fourth, 1862. It was composed of two companies from Carroll, three from Steph- enson, and five from Ogle. Of the one thousand men composing the Regiment, 999 of whom I dare speak, were as true and good as the war ever produced. It is no disparagement to others, to say that better material for soldiers was never mustered for the con- flict. Men of noble impulses, men of high culture, your own sons, brothers, or husbands were there.
Our first experience in camp was at Rockford. It was so un- like the experiences of war, that none of us will ever forget it. I have no doubt but that your memory to-day is fresh in the remem- brance of those yellow-legged chickens-those broad-backed tur- keys-the delicious fruit-the rich cakes, and everything which wife, or mother, or sister could provide for our wants. How those tables in the rear of our barracks used to groan beneath their load !
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