USA > Illinois > The story of the Fifty-fifth regiment Illinois volunteer infantry in the civil war, 1861-1865 > Part 15
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After marching through the main streets the brigade bivouacked in the vicinity of what afterward became Fort Pickering. To this point also followed the writer, having in his charge various letters and small parcels which had been brought for different members of Company I. Among these
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FIFTY-FIFTH ILLINOIS INFANTRY.
was a black bottle for Tom. Clark-a present sent by his brother Jim, and stated to be full of "Fogarty's best." In the mutations of its journey the contents had entirely evaporated. To conceal what might seem to be a breach of trust the bottle had been refilled with most villainous whiskey procured at one of the clandestine dens under the levee at Memphis. After arriving at the camp the bottle was delivered with a suitable reference to the kind brother who had sent it, and to the quality of "Fogarty's best." In a moment Tom, Dorsey Andress and a few chums were aside in the brush and all took a pull at the bottle, followed by a contented sigh and smack of the lips, and each pronounced it to have the true Illinois flavor. It was the most diabolical "Mississippi tanglefoot," but such was the glamour of home tradition surrounding it that it seemed nectar fit for the gods. For obvious reasons this pleasant hallucination was not disturbed.
After enduring a terrific rainstorm, the regiment was moved on the afternoon of July 23d to the northeast end of the city, and placed in camp near the fair grounds. The brigade was separated for the purpose of guarding the differ- ent roads leading into town. To the Fifty-fifth was assigned the new and old Raleigh roads, running to the northeast. The camp here formed became the home of the regiment for four succeeding months, and, all things considered, was the most pleasant ever occupied. Its recollections embody the very romance of soldiering. It was upon the west side of the street, which near by crossed the Memphis and Charles- ton railroad. Close around were suburban residences with their wide verandas, fruitful orchards and beautiful grounds. The site selected was divided by a small ravine running east and west, upon the south side of which were the Sibley tents of the men, and upon the opposite side the quarters of the officers. Both were upon gentle slopes, and among scatter- ing and large oak trees, while just below a copious spring afforded a supply of good water. The fair grounds and open woods just beyond offered ample facilities for drill and parade. In short, the location lacked only the skillful industry plenti- fully at hand to make an ideal camp-ground. The tents were
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A SUMMER CAMP.
erected in rows, with wide streets between them, and along the edge of the ravine cooking rooms, eating sheds and tables were soon placed. The fence around the fair grounds and the contents of two abandoned brick kilns were gradually absorbed and utilized, and every variety of "shebang" soon extended and elaborated the quarters.
It would probably be impossible, and certainly unneces- sary if it were possible, to describe in detail each day's events. Indeed, there was no great variety of incident. Dolce far niente, a phrase borrowed from a sunny clime, would apply admirably to this period. A very intelligent officer, in writ- ing home about it, correctly gave the outline of the summer's work when he said :
We have latterly been chiefly employed as an army in confiscating contrabands, cotton and watermelons, getting joyously inebriated, and holding court martials. Occasionally a regiment or two suddenly goes quick-step out into the country in pursuit of evanescent guerillas, and returns with each haversack bulging with peaches and sweet potatoes, followed by an army of grinning blackamoors.
If the above statement was reduced to literal exactness, it would probably contain a little less irony and more swect potatoes.
The guard duty consisted principally in detailing one or two companies daily for occupying the roads a couple of miles out, and the twenty-four hours allotted for that duty were regarded as so much time devoted to sylvan loafing in close relation to the sweet potato patches around. Only a few men were needed on post at one time, and the large reserve, after stacking arms, proceeded to kill the time in sleeping, eating and smoking, with an occasional mild game of draw poker, and thus the turn on picket embraced within its limited time a complete variety of about all the pleasures vouchsafed to soldiers.
For some time it fell to the lot of the pickets to search all out-going citizens in order to see that the trade regulations of General Sherman were not violated. This duty oftentimes had its ludicrous features, not always being submitted to with equanimity by the victims. The stony stare and frigid deportment of the Tennessee dames was far more likely to
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produce laughter than the paralysis intended. Shortly after this system was established, Company F, commanded by Lieutenant Parks, captured a covered spring wagon contain- ing seventy-five thousand percussion caps, which of course were confiscated as contraband of war. Some other small captures were made, but as a rule travel upon the main roads adjusted itself to the code in force, and smuggling sought a more secret channel. This matter of search was soon taken from the pickets, and given to an officer detailed for the especial purpose. Henry Augustine, just promoted to be lieutenant, served for a long time on that duty. His suave manners admirably fitted him for the purpose, and he soon became a favorite with all the females in that region, who were enraptured with his beatific smile.
The whole brigade entered upon a course of systematic drill, under the personal supervision of its commander. With such an expert, this exercise lost much of the long- drawn dreariness often inflicted by the regimental officers, and became quick, alert and interesting. The rudimentary period of "left, left, left," "eyes right," "right dress," had passed, and the time was devoted to battalion and brigade evolutions, skirmish drill, bayonet and manual exercises. The Fifty-fifth was in the best possible condition to profit by the opportunity. The men were in some sense the survival of the fittest, the companies being reduced to about forty men each, the most convenient size for casy handling. All through the summer, review, followed by exhibition, regi- mental drills, was held Sunday, upon the fair grounds. General Sherman and other high officers were often present. If the weather happened to be pleasant, a large concourse of citizens was on hand, and the "beauty and chivalry," if not the elite, of the adjacent city, seemed to enjoy the military pageant.
Beyond question the Fifty-fifth Illinois and the Eighth Missouri were the star regiments. The Eighth excelled in bayonet exercise and skirmish drill, being probably more skilled in that way that any body of men in the Western army. In battalion movements, especially at double-quick, and in the manual of arms, the Fifty-fifth equalled any
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GUARDING REBELS' PROPERTY.
organization ever in the Department. During many weeks the commander had his brigade assembled each evening upon the fair grounds, to hold dress parade. Each regiment in turn was put upon that duty under the eye of the brigadier, who carefully watched all details. He paid as much atten- tion to the mode of giving the commands, as he did to the execution of them, and his eccentric and epigrammatic criti- cisms, as each officer came under his notice, were entertaining in the extreme. In such a presence, Lieutenant-Colonel Malmborg was in a state of repression, of itself a source of relief to the officers and men. The health of the soldiers was generally good, though many, like Captain Slattery, were suffering from malaria and other like results of exposure. The injured of Shiloh not discharged had mostly returned, and a halting limb here and there might be noticed as the result of honorable wounds. During the summer and fall the three senior captains, Chandler, Heffernan and Black, alternately performed the duties of major. The river travel from Cairo was unobstructed, and the wives of officers and men frequently arrived from the North, so that the presence of ladies and the prattle of children sometimes enlivened the monotony of camp.
During the first days of the occupancy of Memphis, Gen- eral Halleck's distasteful order about guarding rebel property was in vogue. In its enforcement guards were placed in all the contiguous fields and orchards. Its unpopularity ren- dered the execution of it difficult, and punishment for violations generally nugatory. It never had any particular effect upon the fealty of the people, because they were hope- lessly hostile, and all favors to them seemed to generate contempt rather than gratitude. In deference to the outcry of the whole army and the loyal North, the obnoxious order was rescinded. Notice of that fact reached the camps of the Fifty-fifth about two o'clock one afternoon, and was instantly promulgated. It was at the climax of the peach season, and within an hour every guard was withdrawn from the orchards of the vicinage. Supper that night consisted largely of peaches, cooked in every way the combined skill of soldiers and contrabands could devise. A full knowledge of the
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practical process of converting by assimilation rebel garden truck into active bone and muscle penetrated the brain of the average Northern soldier without the aid of a surgical operation.
While no especial pains were afterwards taken to guard rebel property, orders were plain and positive against forag- ing. Of course such rules were principally noticed by their evasion, a pleasant custom connived at frequently by the subordinate officers. Watermelons, peaches and green corn were plenty and good in season, but they were after all rather effeminate luxuries. It took something more to produce a continuous sense of fullness about the waistband, and the placid state of contentment so comfortable to Western sol- diers. Sweet potatoes, by experiment, were discovered to exactly fill the bill. The supply of that respected esculent was regular, and usually obtained by the following plan, modified to suit circumstances: After taps a dozen men, more or less, would quietly saunter from the camp and meet at a designated place with guns and equipments. Some one would be selected for the purpose, and perhaps disguised under shoulder-straps borrowed for the occasion, would form the men into ranks, and the procession would move in elegant military order into the country after the manner of a regular detail. Arriving at the field in contemplation, pickets were placed at proper intervals, while the reserve entered the patch and filled their blankets with bushels of the vegetable sought after. If any one approached the field he would be halted and told not to interfere with the guard there ou duty, and the planter, if he knew of their presence at all, retired to rest thankful to the kind general who was thoughtful enough to send a guard for his property. Such a raid would result in at least a week's supply for those interested in the plunder. It was upon such nefarious duty that the generally exemplary Hartsook first operated in the glory of his new-born corpor- al's stripes. Rations were plenty and good throughout the stay at Memphis, and when supplemented by shrewd forag- ing often reached a state of Epicurean luxury. All such drudgery as cooking and washing was delegated to happy and unctous contrabands who, for reasonable wages and
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HERNANDO EXPEDITION.
good diet, and above all a taste of personal liberty, served willingly and faithfully in every menial capacity.
As usual the musicians of the regiment were much sought after. Under musician John G. Brown of Company A, a string band was formed, which furnished music for all the regimental dances of the brigade. Whenever the pay was not forthcoming from the outside regiments, Brown and his fiddle always ordered a strike in the midst of the festivities, which brought out the requisite amount of postal currency and "sutler's chips," and the capers proceeded.
Occasional expeditions toward the interior took place during the summer and fall. The first of these had for its object the destruction of a new railroad bridge south of Hernando, between that point and Senatobia. Select detachments from all the regiments in the brigade, accom- panicd by three hundred and fifty cavalry under the command of the celebrated Colonel Grierson, participated. The march began under command of General Morgan L. Smith, September 8th, and at first proceeded toward Holly Springs by way of Olive Branch, Mississippi. After a day's progress in that direction the column suddenly turned west and swung around towards Hernando, for the purpose of striking the railroad bridge aimed at. About noon the sec- ond day out, a half dozen or so of the men, among whom was little Jack Berlin of Company I, pushed ahead for water, and while engaged around a well were suddenly pounced upon by a squad of guerillas and captured. The regiment, then a short distance in the rear, was just stacking arms preparatory to taking dinner, and upon the alarm being given wheeled beautifully into line, and Company A deployed instanter. Just then Grierson's cavalry came upon the scene by another route, and the rebel cavalry found themselves in close quarters and took to the fields, leaving their captives who had been prisoners for ten minutes. Some bloody minded member of Company A shot the horse of the rebel lieutenant commanding, and he was almost immediately thereafter taken. Grierson got a few prisoners, and the butchering of the sheep captured by Lieutenant Whipple was resumed. The skirmishing on the trip was considerable,
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but attended to by the cavalry, and the railroad bridge and its extensive approaches were entirely destroyed. The trip averaged twenty miles of travel each day, and the last day's march was twenty-eight miles. As usual, full reports appear for all troops engaged, except the Fifty-fifth.
It was known that the rebel army was concentrated about Tupelo with strong detachments in Holly Springs and its neighborhood, from whence various raids were projected. Occasionally rumors of an attack upon Memphis caused a temporary excitement among the troops there. One such alarm was promulgated in the camp of the Fifty-fifth, about ten o'clock at night. Colonel Stuart was in the city, as he generally was, and the lieutenant-colonel got the regiment under arms, and according to his usual confused belligerency dispatched four of the eight companies present to reinforce the pickets. The remaining companies he put on the color line, and required them to remain there all night, a few fect from their tents. As for himself, he was willing to share the privations of the rank and file, and to that end had his cot and blankets taken outside his tent and placed full six feet away from it under a tree, and booted and spurred like a knight of old,
" Lay like a warrior taking his rest, With his martial cloak around him."
Shortly after these heroic preparations were completed, Colonel Stuart came raging from the city, and no enemy materializing, he fired into the night air a hot volley of curses aimed mainly in the direction of the lieutenant-colonel, and the camp subsided into quiet. On September 10th the brave but peculiar Sixth Missouri was attached to Morgan L. Smith's brigade.
General Sherman, by some means at present unknown, obtained a muster-roll of a company of cotton-burning gue- rillas, operating northeast of Memphis, and commanded by one Burrows, a whilom preacher of Raleigh. The principal occupation of these bogus soldiers was to destroy cotton and maltreat citizens suspected of Union sentiments. Their favorite rendezvous was at the crossings of Wolf River, whither travel seeking the city was obliged to converge for
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SHELBY DEPOT.
the purpose of passing that stream. They wore no uniforms, and if danger approached, time enough to hide a shot-gun transformed them into ostensibly peaceful citizens of alleged loyal proclivities. On Wednesday, October 22d, the effective force of the Fifty-fifth, aided by a squadron of cavalry, all under command of Colonel Stuart, started into the country to wreak vengeance upon the persons and property of these outlaws.
The trip was peculiar, inasmuch as many buildings were burned and much property was destroyed by express order or permission of the officer in command. The cavalry, as usual, did the scouting and desultory skirmishing, while the infantry attended to the conflagrations and stood ready to do the heavy fighting. The journey extended to Shelby Depot, which was destroyed. While at that point, some of the men engaged in the hilarious task of plundering a store a few hundred yards away from where the main body of the troops were lounging. The colonel, upon being informed of this proceeding, immediately mounted his war-horse, and rode fuming and storming to the front of the building. Commis- sary-Sergeant Fisher was with the motley throng inside, and upon hearing the stentorian protest of the wrathful colonel, sought to retire by the rear. The complicated and disastrous . evolution undertaken to that end was a blind jump through a high window at the back of the store. The fall was severe, and the sergeant was immediately followed in his flight by the irrepressible Dick Needham, who landed squarely on top of him, and apparently expelled what little breath remained. The injury was temporary, but the joke remained a familiar "gag" for months after. Whenever Fisher appeared in sight some loud-voiced warrior would sing out, "Who fell out of the window?" whereat hundreds would reply in concert, "Fisher." This was generally followed by a like interesting catechism as to who fell on top of him, etc. It is difficult now to appreciate the humor in such inane jokes, but the fact remains that at the time they answered the purpose of amusement.
While on the return trip the regiment bivouacked at Union Depot. The stalwart and handsome Captain Black, with his 11
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company, was detailed to picket the road in the rear. After having placed what was deemed a sufficient number of men on post, he with the remainder gathered around a large camp- fire, to act as reserve. The time passed joyously with the aid of fiddles, contraband dancing, and the like. Late in the evening, when most of the men had curled down around the fire, an enterprising bushwhacker, who had crept through the brush, turned lose a couple of charges of buckshot upon the group. Captain Black and Sergeant Lomax each received a buckshot where they could much better feel than see the effects, and two or three others were shot through the cloth- ing, but no great harm was done. Of course the whole reserve opened a promiscuous fusilade into the woods, and of course hit no one. The next day the adjutant's contra- band, Nat, who had pushed ahead to obtain water for his "guide, philosopher and friend," was fired upon from an adjacent cornfield and shot in the shoulder.
The fine residence of Captain Burrows, chief of the gue- rillas before mentioned, was located about one mile from Raleigh, and Companies I and E were detailed to burn it. Finding the wife and two grown daughters on the premises, the officer in charge directed the removal of the furniture to a safe distance. There was in Company I an uncouth but excellent German soldier named George Blahs. He had been shot across the face at Shiloh, so that his beauties included a ghastly scar from mouth to ear. As the conflagration pro- gressed, the ladies stood by, alternately railing and weeping, calling the "Yankees" ignorant savages. Blahs finally seated himself at the piano, then in the yard, and proceeded to play with perfect ease various cultivated airs. That a dirty, long- haired private soldier could perform better upon the fash- ionable instrument than they themselves, seemed to impress the ladies with a new view of the "ignorant Yankees." The regiment regained camp in due time, loaded down with bed- ding, books and household gear, and all such plunder as taste dictated or means of transportation allowed.
General Sherman, in a letter to General Grant about this time, referred to General Morgan L. Smith's brigade in the following terms:
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CAMP ARCHITECTURE.
I review these troops every Sunday afternoon, and think them as well drilled and instructed as any troops in service. They are full of confi- dence, and only need filling up with recruits to make a No. 1 brigade.
The routine of drill and duty left sufficient time to exer- cise a great amount of personal industry. Camp was improved in every way the inexhaustible ingenuity of the men suggested. A neat log guard-house was constructed, and picturesque bridges were laid across the ravine dividing camp. The skill as well as the eccentricity of the different soldiers was most strikingly displayed in the multitude and variety of quarters crected. There became nearly as many curious adaptations of odd material for domestic purposes as there were individuals. From the Sibley tents, at first occupied by a dozen or more, one soldier after another seceded, and set up a house of his own. Occasionally the tent itself would be elevated upon a circular brick wall, while a neatly paved or boarded floor covered the interior. One man would be contented with a rudimentary shanty, just big enough to lie down in, made of stolen boards, while close by an ambitious group were ever striving to improve an impos- ing brick or log homestead, with symmetrical brick chimney, glass windows and painted door. The neat cooking and cating rooms and sheds along the ravine were of course in charge of the fat and contented contrabands, who were after a manner brevetted to membership in their respective com- panies.
The physical and mental oddities of these latter were a never-failing source of amusement. Their peculiar dialect. their quaint stories and songs, and their vigorous prayers excited constant interest. Their undying and sometimes, alas, misplaced confidence in the nobility and perfection of the Yankee soldiers, was curious and even touching in its simplicity. In the cook-room of Company C each evening a number of these sable menials were accustomed to meet and engage in the pastime of "seven up," when each staked his few cents or other trifling valuables in humble emulation of the superior race. Bob Oliver, always in search of victims, procured some damaged cartridges and stealthily ascended to the roof, and dropped them down the chimney upon the
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fire beneath. There was at once a black upheaval inside. To the superstitious darkies the devil was in the flying coals and ashes, and all made a wild rush for the door. In the stampede a blockade ensued, and the order of exit was reversed by the rear turning heels up over the front rank. One excited gentleman of color ran his head into a mess kettle, which could only be removed from the shining pate inside by the total disruption of the utensil.
Many pleasant associations were formed by the different members of the regiment with the surrounding inhabitants, who, though mostly secessionists in sentiment, were fre- quently socially inclined. Such intimacy of course secured a certain amount of protection, but there is no reason to doubt the genuine hospitality and kindness of most of them. It is a pleasure to record that these fair offers were requited by the uniform gentlemanly conduct of the members of the Fifty-fifth. Among the citizens in the vicinity, a Mr. Jeffer- son and a Mr. Temple are gratefully alluded to by the members of the regiment.
Lieutenant Augustine, who had for some time been in charge of the details to search baggage on the new Raleigh road, of course got acquainted with all the citizens accus- tomed to pass that way. Living just outside the lines was a worthy minister named Knott, who with his accomplished wife frequently importuned Augustine to call and stay with them over night. After some hesitation the invitation was accepted, and one evening that officer, without leave and against standing orders, went outside the pickets to the pleasant domicile of the parson. After an elegant supper, while the evening was passing, a loud rap called the head of the household to the door. Presently he returned, and close behind him stalked Captain Payne, a noted guerilla of that region. Visions of Libby prison, cashiering, suffering and unutterable punishment rioted through the startled brain of the newly-fledged lieutenant. The host, however, was acting in good faith, and the presence of the guerilla captain was only an accidental call for hospitality. A truce was easy of arrangement, and the "blue and the gray" slept peacefully
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