USA > Illinois > The story of the Fifty-fifth regiment Illinois volunteer infantry in the civil war, 1861-1865 > Part 4
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Up to this time no arms had been drawn, and the officers and men had devoted their entire attention to squad, company and battalion drill. No time had in consequence been expended in the more romantic motions of killing
41
THE REGIMENT ARMED.
people. It is now apparent that this long interval of military training without manual exercises was of incalculable benefit to the men as a whole. It was this unremitting practice which resulted in steadiness, and forever after made the regiment practically panic proof. At the time spoken of, however, the philosophy of this was not well enough appreciated to reconcile the men to the monotony of weary marching to and fro, and they had long clamored for the weapons of death. At last the day so long impatiently waited for came. The regiment in a high state of expectancy marched to the U. S. Arsenal in the lower part of the city, and each soldier took a gun from the immense quantity there stored, when the march was resumed to camp. For months these fiery patriots had longed for guns which would make them soldiers indeed. They had coaxed, grumbled, swore and howled after the manner of Western volunteers for deadly rifles and glittering bayonets, and now the wish was gratified, but only in theory.
'Language fails when attempting to describe the grotesque worthlessness of these so-called arms. They were of foreign make having scarcely the similitude of guns, and had been purchased at great cost during the reckless administration of Fremont. No excuse could exist for such a purchase, for they were too crude in construction to be deceptive. A bare glance ought to have convinced any one of their sham character. It would have been a wild freak of imagination to have called these things deadly weapons, for they could not by any possibility injure any one but the user and his immediate neighbors. Many of the tubes were of solid metal, while in other cases tube, cylinder and all would disappear at the first fire. Often times they could not be discharged at all, and again would persist in exploding, regardless of time or place. The first trial volley fired into the woods back of Benton Barracks disabled dozens of guns and some men. The records of the War Department show that the reign of Fremont was a carnival of corruption, and that fact was never better exemplified than in the pot-metal effigies carried back to camp by this tired and disgusted regiment in place of the long anticipated "revolvers." The
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FIFTY-FIFTH ILLINOIS INFANTRY.
air was fairly sulphurous with gorgeous profanity uttered in the effort to do justice to the occasion. It is said that the "Armies swore terribly in Flanders," but if the blasphemy used on that occasion exceeded in quantity or quality that used by the Fifty-fifth, it was because language was more flexible in those days than in the early days of the rebellion. All the glorious dreams of romantic sharpshooting disap- peared instantly, and a feeling of intense disgust, expressed in howls of uproarious protest, swept through the regiment. The whole length of the barracks was continually echoing with cries of "Here's your d -- d sanctified Methodist revolver !" having scornful reference to the promises of the reverend recruiting officers before referred to. Whenever it became necessary to carry the guns upon parade or guard, the indignant volunteer was heard to casually remark, "Here goes another sanctified Methodist sharpshooter." It was likewise insisted with many rhetorical embellishments that the man who shot the gun was the "revolver," which was often true, for the recoil when the doubtful explosion did take place was terrific. One exasperated soldier, afterward a valuable officer in the regiment, proposed to seek relief at high quarters and appealed directly to Governor Yates. His letter is so vigorous and so thoroughly good that its discovery is considered fortunate, and it is given in full:
CAMP BENTON, January 5, 1862.
GOVERNOR YATES.
HON. SIR : I saw in today's paper that you had procured eighteen thousand stand of arms, six thousand of which were to be distributed among Illinois troops which have inferior arms. Thinking our arms as inferior as any to be found, I thought it might avail us something by writ- ing you. The men would have as much faith in killing secesh with alder pop-guns as they would with the guns they have. If you wish your best Illinois men killed off by not having guns to defend themselves with, let us go as we are. If not, please provide us with good guns-that is, if we are not out of your jurisdiction. For God's sake remember us in mercy, for the men cannot and will not fight with such guns. It is impos- sible; they have no faith in them. They would surrender before they would fight. We were enlisted under the pretence that we would have revolving rifles. Since we cannot get them, all we ask is good single bar- reled guns, and we promise you (if occasion permits) as good fighting as can be done. I am respectfully yours,
H. H. KENDRICK, Sergt. Co. K, 55th Ill. Vols.
43
MARCHING ORDERS.
This trustful and besceching epistle does not appear to have had any effect, although boldly signed by a sergeant. It was of course impossible to compel or induce the men to take any care of such unspeakably worthless arms, and they were thrown about and thrown away until replaced by others which, although not "revolvers," were satisfactory.
While here Colonels Stuart and Malmborg, and some other officers, had their sabres ground so as to be prepared for future emergencies. The report for the closing month of the year shows an aggregate of 988 upon the muster rolls, of whom 53 present and 26 absent were sick. W. H. Howe, commonly called "Waukegan," joined the regiment as principal musician at Benton Barracks, and while it is not probable that his mellifluous fife did as much towards sup- pressing the rebellion as he sometimes thought, the good which he did lived after him, for his little son, Orion, became the pet hero of the war.
During all this time events were shaping towards impor- tant results. Whatever may be said of General Halleck's timid and inefficient conduct in the actual presence of the enemy, there cannot fairly be denied him certain powers of organization and efforts at grand strategy which resulted in the concentration of magnificent armies and the delivery of well aimed blows. «As the symptoms of approaching cam- paigns began to appear, no regiment was more anxious to get at its bloody harvest than this same Fifty-fifth. It was im- bued with genuine patriotism and entirely weary of the monotony of endless drill and camp life. Orders were anx- iously hoped for and daily expected which would point to the desired end. They came on the afternoon of Sunday, January 12th, and were to the effect that the Fifty-fifth would embark on board a transport on the next morning with all baggage and three days' rations. When the morning of the 13th came the weather was extremely cold for that latitude, the thermometer standing at about zero, and the wind was penetrating. Bright and early all equipage was loaded, and the regiment, with all the "pomp and circumstance of war," marched from the barracks through the city to the point of embarkation. There were about eight hundred men, includ-
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FIFTY-FIFTH ILLINOIS INFANTRY.
ing all officers, actually present, and about seventy men were left sick in hospital. The entire day was spent in loading the endless piles of baggage. This was perfectly characteristic of the way of doing things at that time. Such duty was of course very harassing to the overworked commissary and quartermaster-sergeants, who in this travail were hoarding up experience for after usefulness.
With the exception of the details employed by the quar- termaster, the troops had nothing to do but to stand idle in the ranks, subject to as much control as practicable. This was intensely disagreeable in the severe cold, and many an unfortunate ear paid painful tribute to enforced exposure. From time to time through the day men escaped and secured in various ways quantities of that soul-searching liquid called thereabouts "Mississippi tanglefoot," of which tradition said a small portion would "kill forty rods and around a corner." About dark such of the regiment as were able filed on board the D. A. January, and those who had fallen were carried, dragged or led along, in any way that seemed easiest. The surface of the river was a mass of floating ice. Everything about the boat was enveloped in a cloud of steam- damp, cold and disagreeable. The rank and file were assigned to various places upon the different decks. The officers fled beyond the howls of the drunken and disgusted privates, into the warmth of the cabin, to which shoulder-straps alone had access.
Under any circumstances the crowding of eight hundred men, with unlimited baggage, upon a boat of moderate size, would have been disagreeable. In the present instance, with the intense cold and gathering darkness, it resulted in actual suffering and privation, all aggravated by the shrieks and howls of hundreds of drunken and pugnacious men. Upon the bow of the boat there was a barrel of "commissary," guarded by that excellent but bibulous old soldier, Carl Dhelo, of Company I. Although ordinarily trustworthy, the tempta- tions of the day had overcome poor Carl, and while he was calmly sleeping upon one end of the barrel, other soldiers drew off all its contents into canteens, which were quickly distributed through the regiment, to the great confusion of
45
THE D. A. JANUARY.
the quartermaster's accounts. The bar of the boat had been closed by official order, but the fat old chambermaid estab- lished an agency at the rear, where vile whisky was vended from a tin wash-boiler at the rate of a dollar for a tin cupful. The bad men of Company G, E and I in particular were especially uproarious and bent on settling old scores, and in the darkness hit a head, whether they could see it or not. Some turned to vent their rage upon the despised guns which were piled promiscuously upon the bow of the boat. Pratt, a highly educated but drunken character, of Company I, de- liberately put in his time in dropping them overboard one by one, until interrupted by official intervention. That excel- lent and reliable soldier (afterwards captain), Kays, threw overboard at least twenty-five of them, in a fit of wrath.
Just after dark the D. A. January -called later, "Whoa January"-swung loose from the levee into the sea of ice, and with it floated down the stream. A paymaster was on board and proceeded to utilize the time by paying off the regiment that night. The companies, one by one, were assembled as far as possible, and taken to the cabin for that purpose. The line looked as battered as though it had been through a riot, and many a weary patriot had to leave his financial concerns to his captain. One end of the cabin was devoted to hospi- tal purposes, and Dr. Roler was kept busy in patching up the injured from the scrimmages below. The scattering recollec- tions remaining after an eventful quarter of a century cannot so fairly present the unpleasant events of this voyage as a well written-cotemporaneous account. From the quite volu- minous literature of that character kindly furnished by the comrades, the following letter, written at the time by a well- known member of the regiment, is selected:
Monday night and Tuesday we crept down the stream at snail's pace passing over in thirty hours seventy miles -or about half the journey we expected to finish in twenty hours, supposing Cairo to be our destination. The men, all this time exposed more or less to cold and damp, began to fall ill and the floor of the ladies' cabin was speedily covered with the sick stretched on mattresses and blankets.
The country we passed through was chiefly a wilderness, rocky on the Missouri and flat on the Illinois side. The way grew wofully tiresome after the novelty of getting aground and swinging or sparring off had
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FIFTY-FIFTH ILLINOIS INFANTRY.
worn away. On Tuesday evening the officers relieved the tedium of the voyage by the mock trial by court-martial of a captain of the regiment, who was charged with "riding a borrowed horse, sitting backwards upon him and using the tail as a rudder"-with "swallowing the surgeon's probang while having his throat operated upon," etc., etc. About nine P. M. when the mad fun was at its height, the boat struck heavily upon a bar and thenceforth the history of the expedition may be concisely set forth in two lines of that poetical arctic romance in the reading-book of our school days:
"Six days and nights, the record stood, Had they been in the ice and wanted food."
Wednesday we awoke to find ourselves "cabined, cribbed, confined " in the wilderness-twenty miles from anywhere, the weather severely cold and one day's provision aboard for over eight hundred men, women and children-the river falling to still "lower depths," and a hostile shore twenty rods away. The spars were worked incessantly, the engines roared, and the mate swore enough to melt the ice within hearing distance of his resonant voice, but the boat clung to the sand. Two men were sent ashore in a skiff and dispatched across the country to Cape Girar- deau, the nearest town, for assistance. Thursday one strong man died in the cabin. Our last rations were dealt out and the quartermaster landed to search the neighborhood for cattle. Towards evening our messengers .. returned with a wagon load of provisions and the promise that a boat would come, if possible, to our relief. Friday the quartermaster pressed into service the steamer Belle Memphis, lying in winter quarters not very far from the scene of our disaster. She got up steam and tugged at us forwards, backwards and sideways, all to no purpose. Consultations of . the officers were frequent, but no plan of extrication from our difficulty could be agreed upon as feasible. We could disembark and make a forced march to Cape Girardeau or to Jonesboro', Ill., but we must aban- don baggage and boat to the mercy of the river and the secessionists who knew of our mishap; and moreover the roads were reported hardly pass- able. The Memphis could take us on board but, being a heavy-draft boat, could not go over the next bar a mile ahead. It was finally decided to unload and march for Jonesboro', first sending to Cape Girardeau for mules and provisions. The messengers were dispatched, and the D. A. January disgorged hier wealth of military stores and men upon her sister boat.
The Surgeon and his assistants knew no rest night nor day. The officers were in constant anxiety lest the secessionists, hearing of our situation, should come upon us in force. The men were becoming rapidly demoralized by hunger, fatigue and exposure. The clouds never broke and the wind blew bitterly chill from the north-west, while the muddy river forcibly reminded me of that stream in Dante's Purgatorio angrily rushing -** * * "on with the brown, brown current under the shade perpetual, that never ray of the sun lets in nor of the moon." Satur- day we landed and set the mess fires blazing on the Missouri rocks.
47
ON A SAND-BAR.
Cattle and hogs were slaughtered, and the band, stationed on the hurri- cane deck, struck up merry tunes. Towards evening a ferry-boat from Cape Girardeau crept up to us through the fog. The rain poured in torrents during the night, but only made the river inuddier, not more navigable. Sunday we began the transferring of men and indispensable baggage to the Illinois shore with the purpose of marching to the nearest point on the Illinois Central R. R. One load had reached the opposite bank, when a ringing cheer from the deck of the Memphis awoke the echoes. The D. A. January had by sparring vigorously been loosened from the grip of the sand-bar and visibly swung as on a pivot in the current. At one P. M. she was free, steamed up the river for wood and coal, returned, and before dark regiment and freight were again on board.
Monday morning the men were landed to march a mile or more while the boat, lightened of their weight, safely passed a formidable sand-bar near some singularly castellated cliffs that overhung the river's edge. Another troublesome shallow, overlooked by the " Devil's tea-table," com- pelled a second disembarkation a few miles further on. The boat dragged with difficulty over, received her living freight again and the pilot cheer- fully announced that our troubles were at last ended. But not so! In less than an hour we were fast upon another bar and only got off after four hours' diligent work, when, it being dark, we tied up for the night with our consort, the ferry-boat. Tuesday morning at eight o'clock we started again, and struck a snag at nine, but slid off from it; the ferry-boat, less lucky, was sunk in our wake. Arriving at Cape Girardeau, we were ordered to disembark and encamp. Having become by this time expert in transferring freight, before ten o'clock the regiment had everything piled upon the levee and was just taking up the line of march for camp, when orders arrived for us to embark at once and proceed to Fort Holt via Cairo. At half-past four P. M. we were away to the tune of Dixie. Commerce, Mo., was reported occupied by Jeff. Thompson and a small Confederate force, but we floated by undisturbed in the darkness and tied up for the night a little below that place. Wednesday the back- water, caused by the swollen Ohio, ended our troubles in navigation. At half-past one P. M. we reached Cairo, ten days from St. Louis. Having nearly depleted that city of its supplies of apples, gingerbread and news- papers, about four P. M. we steamed up the Ohio under orders for Padu- cah. Thursday morning we deserted the D. A. January, and marched with the pleasant sunshine of a May-like day to the music of bluebirds and our band playing Yankee Doodle, and pitched our tents in an oak grove near where the Tennessee pours its waters into the Ohio.
The journey so well described in the foregoing letter ter- minated on January 23d. It was an adventure of real hard- ships, the more so as the men were yet unaccustomed to exposure, and lacked the experience and skill which ulti- mately made them equal to anything. The soldier whose
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FIFTY-FIFTH ILLINOIS INFANTRY.
death is mentioned was Albert Washburn of Company G, who thus early died of diphtheria. Dr. Roler, by his unre- mitting kindness during this expedition, earned the love and esteem of the rank and file, which ever after remained un- wavering -- fully deserved and freely given.
On the day of arrival at Paducah the regiment disem- barked, and marched about two miles to a place of encamp- ment upon high ground and among innumerable stumps. Here for the first time tents drawn at St. Louis were erected, being of the Sibley pattern, just then in vogue. Sheet-iron stoves were also issued by the quartermaster. They were cylindrical affairs, which stood upon the ground like a barrel upon end, and attached to them was a pipe, making its exit at the top of the tent. These contrivances answered moderately well for the purpose of heating, but were useless for cooking. There were fourteen women with the regiment, wives of officers and men, nearly all striving vaguely, and in the main uselessly, to do something as hospital nurses, laun- ·· dresses, or cooks.
For a time after landing the weather remained warm and pleasant. On January 27th camp was removed to a point nearer town, and contiguous to the brigade of General Lew Wallace, in which were the fantastically dressed and fanci- fully drilled Eleventh Indiana and Eighth Missouri. The removal took place in a driving rain and snow storm, and was followed by freezing cold weather. There was no material for bedding other than the single blanket and overcoat be- longing to each soldier, and no means of flooring the tents, which were pitched upon a coating of several inches of snow, underlaid by slush. Much suffering and consequent sickness followed. On the approach of evening a few men entered a barn near the camp-ground and confiscated certain small bundles of corn fodder to eke out their scanty bedding. The owner at once appealed to the colonel who, furiously enraged, rushed to the front of his tent, and at the top of his strong voice proclaimed that he would "turn grape and canister" upon the men-that he "would slaughter them" before it should be said that he "commanded a regiment of thieves and vagabonds." All this and much more was repeated over
·
49
THE ORDERLIES.
and over again, in the loudest possible tones, and garnished with an infinite variety of oaths. This exhibition of ungov- ernable rage to the men, who were suffering fearfully from the inclemency of the weather, was wholly unwarranted by the occasion, and was a foretaste of the abuse and tyranny which increased from day to day as the distance from the restraints of civil life enlarged.
During the early part of the service the orderly sergeants were held accountable for nearly everything. It was much safer to curse and lecture them than it was the commissioned officers, who sometimes resented insults, and were supposed to have certain rights. Not so with the hard-worked order- lies, who suffered daily and hourly vicariously for everybody's faults, and if nothing specific could be discovered, were cursed on general principles by the field-officers, and grum- bled at by the company officers and men. It may be that the names of these lowly personages who toiled and suffered so much are worth preserving in these pages. They were:
Company A, William F. Cootes. Company F, James F. Shreves.
= B, Parker B. Bagley. G, Peter Roberts.
C, Ambrose E. Partch.
H, James McCreedy.
D, Charles E. Burnap. 66 I, Lucien B. Crooker.
"
E, Jonas L. Buck. K, Charles K. Ensell.
Subsequently three of these men became captains, after filling lower grades. One became second-lieutenant, and was cashiered for cowardice. One was discharged for wounds re- ceived at Shiloh. Two died, one in battle and one of disease, after both had justly earned promotion and been unjustly de- nied it. One was transferred to the Veteran Reserve Corps for disability, and nearly all received wounds.
One pronounced trait in Colonel Stuart's character was a penchant for making speeches on every possible occasion. He was an orator of fine action and much dramatic force, and however uncalled for, his florid declamations at the time excited admiration. It should be remembered also that this was the epoch of speech-making, and that the most popular stump orator was apt to be considered the most deserving officer. In the light of later experience Stuart's orations now seem extravagent, if not ludicrous. Somehow they did 4
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FIFTY-FIFTH ILLINOIS INFANTRY.
not appear so then, probably because the inexperienced lis- teners had not yet learned to distinguish between a rhetorical fusilade and practical warfare. Just after dark, on the cold night of the before-mentioned "grape and canister" epi- sode, the orderlies' call sounded, whereupon those humble but useful non-commissioned officers trotted off to the quar- ters of Adjutant Thurston, and were there told by Clerk Nourse that the colonel wished to see them. They ranged themselves in the tent occupied by that dignitary, looking deeply impressed and as soldierly as possible. Stuart sat behind a small pine table, upon which was a candle "dimly burning," and at once launched out into an oration. The first words uttered were literally as follows: "I am a man of somewhat damaged reputation, as you all well know, and I came into the army solely to retrieve that reputation; and I depend upon this regiment to do it." Following these remarkable words he assumed an upright position, and with the graces of diction and gesture he knew so well how to use, proceeded to lecture the orderlies for the space of an hour upon the extent of their duties, when they were allowed to retire and wonder how so many responsibilities happened to rest upon men having so little honor and such small pay. The qualifications named by the speaker as necessary for an orderly-sergeant would have been cheaply purchased by the government at the expense of a major- general's salary for each of them. In the peculiar language above quoted is undoubtedly found the chief incentive to Stuart's action, and this is confirmed by much that he said and did afterwards.
It was apparent from the massing of troops about the mouth . of the Cumberland and Tennessee that important operations were about to take place. Of course the details were beyond the scope of the vision of the rank and file. In connection with these movements the troops encamped adjacent to the Fifty-fifth took their departure, and on the sixth day of February camp was moved a few hundred yards to the ground just abandoned by the Eleventh Indiana. It was regularly laid out in graded streets, with comfortable log-cabins for guard and cook-rooms, and after the removal
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