USA > Illinois > The story of the Fifty-fifth regiment Illinois volunteer infantry in the civil war, 1861-1865 > Part 5
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5I
FUN AT THE SUTLER'S.
the Fifty-fifth found its condition much improved. All sorts of rumors were rife relating to attacks and counter attacks, and details for guard and picket duty were quite heavy. Squads were daily taken from the regiment to work upon the fort being constructed around the Marine Hospital, which afterwards served a purpose in the memorable defence of Paducah by Colonel Hicks of the Fortieth Illinois. Some of the men took lessons in artillery practice at this fort; and the knowledge so acquired was put to valuable use during the closing incidents of the first day's battle of Shiloh.
The large round tent used by the sutler had been set up adjacent to the camp, where "sutler's chips," the representa- tive of value in all the poker games thereabouts, were sold to all desiring them, who had money or credit. Phillip Seel- bach, first-lieutenant of Company I, was a German of some capacity, plenty of good nature, and bibulous proclivities. It was a rare day indeed when this easy-going officer was not symmetrically drunk by night-fall. Just after dark, one rainy night, he wandered into the sutler's tent in search of con- genial companionship and the other luxuries likely to be found there. The fire was comfortable and the company all that could be expected, and with the overwhelming dignity of a drunken man who is bound to conceal his condition, the lieutenant seated himself upon a camp-stool within the charmed circle. Further refreshments of the liquid sort, combined with the warmth, soon overcame him, and he slid off the camp-stool into the saw-dust beneath, "whereupon the proceedings interested him no more." Captain Tazewell, Quartermaster Janes and others waggishly inclined, at once proposed that Seelbach should be buried with the honors of war, since he had fallen upon the field. They proceeded to completely bury him in the saw-dust, and fire loose cartridges all over and around him, and when the entertainment closed, trundled him home in a wheelbarrow, and left him, like Pick- wick, to be gazed upon and scoffed at by the rabble. When the orderly of Company I reported to him the next morning, he lay in a heap, covered with mud and saw-dust, with eye- brows and hair singed off, without doubt the hardest looking warrior in the Western department.
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FIFTY-FIFTH ILLINOIS INFANTRY.
Owing to the frequent rumors of attack the sutler, a nervous individual, was in a state of constant alarm lest he and his stock should be captured. Knowing this, certain officers pursued him with blood-curdling stories of danger. On a certain warm, foggy evening, one officer after another, according to a pre-arranged plan, dropped in upon him, and each in turn showed a lot of cartridges filled with saw-dust, cursing loudly the villainous fraud, especially as an attack was bound to come that very night. When the sutler's fears had been wrought up to the proper pitch, the quartermaster dropped in and told in a highly excited way that he was ordered at once to send to the river for a supply of good ammunition, to replace the worthless stock on hand. He furthermore complained that all his teams were a mile away, and asked the sutler if he would not take his sleek span of mules near by and go upon the errand. Of course that indi- vidual was only too glad to go for ammunition which was to be expended in the protection of his person and property, and armed with a fictitious requisition upon a fictitious officer, located upon a boat equally mythical, set forth at once. As soon as the sutler disappeared, the whole regiment was taken into the secret, and turned loose to fortify the tent. Hun- dreds of willing hands were instantly busy in digging a ditch and throwing up breastworks to that end, and when done, all the old stovepipes and barrels around camp were mounted thereon to represent artillery. A circle of brush was dragged around outside the whole, and all retired to await results. When the sutler returned, his rage and fury in storming the works around his own tent more than satisfied all that the labor was well expended.
February 2d several thousand troops passed up the Ten- nessee, leaving the Fifty-fifth behind, much to the disgust of its members, who were kept busy about guard duty, unload- ing steamboats, and other such irksome labors. As.is now well known, this movement of the Union forces opened the heart of the Confederacy through the conquest of Forts Henry and Donelson. It was understood at the time that the Fifty-fifth was left in the rear on account of the utter worthlessness of its arms. That they were useless was finally
53
FORTS HENRY AND DONELSON.
judicially settled by a board of inspection, who sagely deter- mined what everybody had long known, and to that fact is due what was then conceived by the members of the regi- ment to be a great misfortune. After Shiloh the luck of being left in the rear in case of battle was always submitted to with resignation, though it must in truth be confessed that chances for such self-denial did not often occur in the subse- quent history of the regiment.
On February 6th, much to the joy of the men, new arms were issued to them. They were heavy guns of 58 calibre, called the "Dresden rifle," were long range and accurate, and adapted to the conical ball. In all battles in which the Fifty- fifth took part, up to the close of the Vicksburg campaign, they were efficient weapons in the hands of brave men, and did their full share of bloody work on numerous battle-fields.
The almost bloodless capture of Fort Henry was followed by the sanguinary conflicts around Donelson, and on Febru- ary 16th and 17th large numbers of Federal and Confederate wounded arrived at Paducah. Churches and other buildings were taken as hospitals, and large details of the Fifty-fifth were kept busy in moving and caring for the unfortunates. The streets were filled with the slightly wounded, each one surrounded by a group of admiring listeners, and not one of the gaping crowd but would have gladly taken the wound if a share of the glory could have been transmitted with it.
As the expedition passed up the river by Paducah, John Armstrong of Company I went on board a transport to visit friends in the Fifty-seventh Illinois. The boat left suddenly and John became a part of the campaign. He passed through the outskirts of the conflict at Donelson, and so accidentally earned the distinction of being the first man of the Fifty-fifth ever under fire, and upon his return was looked at as a hero, to whom the god of war had granted a great favor. It is needless to add that shortly such honors became more com- mon and less conspicuous.
Some writer has used the far-fetched expression that at this period the army was clothed with music. If so, the Fifty-fifth had its full share of harmonious apparel. In ad- dition to the irrepressible drum corps, a splendid brass band
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FIFTY-FIFTH ILLINOIS INFANTRY.
had so far been connected with the regiment. Although the men liked well enough to listen to their music and march to its rhythm, the members of the band had always erected their tent in the field-officers' row, and held themselves some- what aloof from the common soldiers. As their duties were somewhat of the dress-parade order, they were the victims of many rough jokes. If the term had then been invented, they would have been called military dudes. In accordance with a general order this band was mustered out on February Ist, and forever after the regiment had to rely on such rattling strains as "Waukegan" could coax or scold out of Joe Edwards, "Betsey" Sherman, Orion P. and Liston D. Howe, and their youthful but insubordinate fellows.
In the latter part of the sojourn at Paducah many changes occurred among the line officers. Some were unfitted for the positions they occupied, either in fact or in the opinion of the colonel, who assumed the most arbitrary control over their official existence. Although nothing but garrison duty had been encountered, some had endured enough of the hardships of war to exalt the family altar above the much eulogized altar of the suffering country. Still others, and by far the greater number, were chafing under the unstable policy of the colonel, and the ill temper and abuse of the lieutenant- colonel, and as the most practicable means of escape tendered their resignations. The major was well liked, but when two superiors are present, the major of a regiment is a good deal like the proverbial fifth wheel to a coach. Few if any com- missions had yet been issued to the officers of the Fifty-fifth, which was entirely the fault of the colonel, as will be seen later when it becomes necessary to allude to it at greater length, as a potent cause of dissension. Since the records of officers in the Adjutant-General's office of the state of Illinois are kept in what is known as a Commission Book, and the reports from that office are made up from such book, many of the names of the first officers of the regiment appear no- where in the archives of the state. No commissions having been called for by the commander of the regiment, none were issued, and therefore the records of the Adjutant-General are, and for no fault of his own in that particular, incomplete.
55
RESIGNATIONS.
To illustrate this point, the case of T. B. Burrows may be cited. He had served as second-lieutenant of Company H since the muster-in of the regiment, and died at Paducah; but his name nowhere appears in the Adjutant-General's re- port. At this distance, and principally for the reasons above given, strict accuracy as to the names of the officers leaving about this period is impossible. The following is offered as perhaps an imperfect statement, in that connection: William Presson, captain of Company A, resigned March 13, 1862; Asahel C. Smith, second-lieutenant of Company B, resigned March 5th, 1862; Thomas B. Mackey, captain of Company B, resigned December 28, 1861; William S. Johnson, second- lieutenant of Company D, resigned March 5, 1862; William H. Dixon, first-lieutenant of Company E, resigned March 13, 1862; William R. Halligan, second-lieutenant of Company E, resigned March 5, 1862; Milton L. Haney, captain of Com- pany F, resigned March 5, 1862; Jabez C. Crooker, captain of Company I, resigned February, 1862; Phillip Seelbach, first- lieutenant of Company I, resigned March 5, 1862. One L. P. Crouch, whose name does not appear at all in the Adjutant- General's office, and who had been striving in a feeble way to fulfill the duties of chaplain, also tendered his resignation. As previously mentioned, Lieutenant T. B. Burrows of Com- pany H died in hospital at this post. From the above it appears that more than one-third of the officers originally mustered with the regiment disappeared from its rolls before the danger of actual battle was reached.
On February 27th, 1862, Colonel Stuart assumed command . of the Second brigade of Sherman's division. Here began the association of the Fifty-fifth with the excellent and brave Fifty-fourth Ohio Zouaves, so long companions in the rebellion struggle, and neither regiment were ever ashamed of the association. The Seventy-first Ohio, so utterly dis- graced at Shiloh, was the remaining member of the brigade.
It was well understood in military circles that the recent conquest of Forts Henry and Donelson had pierced the rebel line of defence, and the abandonment of Columbus, the "Gib- raltar of the West," was anticipated as likely to follow. For the purpose, possibly of hurrying that result, an expedition
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FIFTY-FIFTH ILLINOIS INFANTRY.
was organized, consisting of a battalion from each of the three regiments above named. At Cairo the gunboat fleet, with the Twenty-seventh and Forty-second Illinois, joined, and the whole proceeded down the Mississippi to the imme- diate vicinity of the rebel stronghold. It was found that Columbus was evacuated, a fact not however at once appar- ent from the river. Finally thirty men of Company I em- barked with General Sherman upon a tug-boat, which steamed direct to the water batteries at the foot of the bluff. Captain Slattery was the first Federal soldier who stepped on shore, followed quickly by the general and others present. Every- thing capable of destruction was a smoking ruin. The strongest fortifications ever erected in the West were wholly dismantled. The innumerable "shebangs" and "dug-outs" for may thousands of men were wholly or partially destroyed; and the ruins were objects of untiring exploration during the short Federal occupation. For the only time during the war the Fifty-fifth acted in conjunction with its former colleague of the Douglas Brigade. As was nearly always the case during its history, no reports were made for the regiment, and it is difficult to state precisely what portion participated in this expedition. Most comrades when asked say that the whole regiment was included. Lieutenant Hartsook, than whom there is no better authority, is certain Company F was not present. In the opinion of the writer, Companies A, F and G did not go. Besides, large details from other companies were left at Paducah. General Cullum, Halleck's chief-of- staff, who was present, reports that a battalion of the Fifty- fifth, under Major Sanger, accompanied the expedition.
One of the very few regimental monthly reports which have been found is that of February, IS62. It is valuable as showing the exact condition of the Fifty-fifth just before it went to the extreme front, and only five weeks before it par- ticipated in its first and greatest battle. By such report it appears that on the last day of February there were 6 field and staff, 19 line officers, and 764 enlisted men present for duty, being an aggregate of 789 in all grades. This is what would have appeared in the Confederate reports as the effective total. There were 73 men present, but sick-in
57
LEAVING PADUCAH.
other words, in regimental hospital or excused by the surgeon from duty; 32 enlisted men were absent sick -that is to say, away from the care of regimental surgeon. There were in arrest two enlisted men, both from Company G, and one man had died during the month. Pursuing the examination fur- ther, it appears that there were 954 names upon the roll of the regiment. There was a loss from all causes during the month of 32. These were mainly by resignation and the muster out of the band; one, however, was a deserter from Company E.
The Fifty-fifth returned from Columbus to Paducah on March 6th, where all was "hurrying to and fro," and every- thing in a state of unrest, foreboding a speedy departure. The city, the river bank, and the numerous steamboats in sight were crowded with blue-coats, betokening extensive concentration and an eventful future. On this day Hugh Muckle, a soldier of Company B, was accidentally killed by a musket shot. Scarcely had the Fifty-fifth reached camp when orders were received to strike tents and join the pro- cession. The regiment had by this time acquired a gorgeous array of baggage, mules and wagons. One authority places the number at twenty-six six-mule teams. This would make a melodious aggregate of one hundred and fifty-six of those humble but useful animals, all of which had had their tails twisted and been lashed into an uncertain state of subordi- nation by the intellectual soldiers detailed for that purpose. The soul-searching strains of disapproval arising from the corral about these times did much to console the men for the recent loss of the brass band. For the purpose of destroy- ing sleep and jarring upon the nerves of a sick man they almost equaled the drum corps which made life a burden to "Waukegan." All baggage and equipage was upon the same magnificent scale, and it may well be supposed that moving was a laborious proceeding. March 7th was devoted to that duty, and after dark the Fifty-fifth filed on board the steamer Hannibal, which was to be its home during the journey up the Tennessee. During that night the boat remained at the levee, but early on the morning of the Sth dropped down the river for coal; and when the fuel was on board, tied up at an
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FIFTY-FIFTH ILLINOIS INFANTRY.
adjacent island, surrounded by a large number of stcamers, each bearing a like burden of boisterous patriots.
The day was warm and genial. The buds of the willow and water maple were fast opening to the kiss of the south- ern sun. The bluebirds and other feathered harbingers of spring were flitting about, undisturbed by the warlike pageant spread out before them. Steamboats covered with swarms of blue-coated soldiers were moving from place to place, while here and there black gunboats were anchored in sullen silence. The air was burdened with strains of martial music. Altogether the scene was a gorgeous panorama, as inspiring as was ever pictured on this continent. Evidently a historic climax was approaching.
Since the resignations which had recently occurred, much speculation had ensued as to who should succeed to the vacancies caused thereby. Ordinarily, and in a regiment where the accepted rules of the service governed, this would not have been a matter of either difficulty or speculation. If the parties who had been found reasonably well qualified had been promoted according to rank, the whole problem would have been solved according to well established rules of justice. But this was not for a moment intended, and for weeks the "caucus plan" had been in operation, wherein all sorts of influence, prejudice and favoritism had a full hearing. Just before departure from Paducah some had been quietly notified of their intended promotion, and had ad interim been so acting; but no uniforms or insignia of rank had as yet been authorized to designate such elevation, and no order had been issued definitely recognizing it. Thus it was that when the Fifty-fifth marched on board the Hannibal many vacancies in fact existed in its roster of officers, and the hopes and fears of a dozen or more ambitious soldiers were dependant upon the colonel's future and final action. An order in precise terms of military brevity would have fulfilled all legal requirements, and have been in accordance with army usage. More ostentation, however, ushered in the glitter of these new shoulder-straps. In the presence of the adjacent thousands it was determined to promulgate the various pro- motions in the most public manner, and the colonel proceeded
59
STUART'S ORATORY.
to that task early in the day lest the sun should go down before it was completed. The spirit of oratory was again upon him. The waters of his great intellectual deep were troubled, and the wind must spend its force before they would again be calm. The hurricane deck of the peaceful steamer Hannibal was cleared for action. Then Company A was formed on the lower deck, "armed and equipped as the law directs," and marched to the upper deck, where each promo- tion, whether commissioned or non-commissioned, was an- nounced by the colonel, and each new officer, blushing with his new honors, then and there assumed his proper place, to "be respected and obeyed accordingly." These proceedings were interrupted and garnished with bursts of eloquent admonition about the duties of each grade, with hints upon deportment, military ethics, and the war generally. Thus in alphabetical order each company was in turn marched to the same place, and a like libation of euphony poured upon it. On this auspicious occasion, and in like grand manner the writer was lifted from the humble position of orderly-sergeant of Company I to the exalted (as it then seemed ) office of first-lieutenant of the same company, and some of the rhe- torical gems scattered for the delectation of that company, still linger in the chambers of memory. Colonel Stuart was magnificently dressed, and walked the deck like a king. His fine form and bearing was the cynosure of thousands near by. If the reason for his declamatory flux was somewhat far-fetched, his manner was in the highest degree attractive and dramatic. The inexperienced and wondering listeners were not wont to grow weary under it, besides who could then tell but what the walls of the Confederacy might not be vulnerable to huge blasts of noise, like unto those of Jericho of old.
After Company I had "right dressed," Lieutenant Slattery was first addressed and his promotion to the captaincy an- nounced, with congratulations and good advice. The orderly was next taken in hand and a section of an oration delivered "suitable to his condition in life," when his gun was taken away and he marched just the regulation number of paces in rear of the left flank. This course was pursued in the regular
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FIFTY-FIFTH ILLINOIS INFANTRY.
order, and finally ended with the rescuing of a "high private" from the obscurity of the ranks and elevating him upon the exalted pedestal of an cighth corporal, when the company marched away in a blaze of glory.
A large share of the lecture was devoted to denouncing the evils of intemperance, and as an inducement to forego the seductive fluids, it was promised that when we got to New Orleans at the end of the war we would all get drunk to- gether. All through the day there stood upon the bottom of an upturned yawl on the upper deck a woe-begone soldier holding an old cavalry sabre over his shoulder. This was one Welch of Company B, who was suffering in the flesh for having been drunk the night before. Not being one of the fortunate ones selected for promotion, and his place of immolation being close at hand, he had an admirable oppor- tunity for listening to the entire series of speeches, and he occasionally served the purposes of illustration. While the colonel was delivering a torrent of invective against the evils . of intemperance, he suddenly turned to the culprit and vehe- mently remarked: "There's Welch; he got drunk last night, fell into the river and lost his gun. He is a perfect walking moral philosopher of the evils of intemperance; he is his own horrid example." Addressing Welch directly he said, "Welch, you were drunk last night, weren't you? Speak up like a man, and own up." Welch lugubriously replied, "Yeas, about half-drunk." Whereat the colonel yelled out, " Half- drunk, d --- n you, why didn't you get whole drunk like a man?" In this formidable and ponderous way about one- half of the officers of the regiment were created, or in some way changed their positions. It is not likely that any other similar organization ever underwent such an official revolu- tion at one time, before experiencing a necessity for it by the casualties of battle. Certainly such a large number of changes in the roster of officers had an important bearing upon its history, and the manner in which it was done throws certain side lights upon the character of those responsible for the method used.
The list of promotions following is tentative and given as the nearest correct attainable. Henry S. Nourse was pro-
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61
PROMOTIONS.
moted to adjutant. He was from Lancaster, Massachusetts, and had come West at the request of Stuart to enter the service as engineer, in which direction he was especially educated. This promise, like many from the same source, was broken, and so far he had acted as clerk to his friend the adjutant, drawing neither pay nor rations and not enlisted. He brought to his new office the first fruits of his youthful talents and splendid education. Fortunately he survives so that we can gather riper fruits from the same source to be stored within the covers of this volume. The members of the regiment never knew how he wrought and suffered for it in an unassuming way while under the rasping
domination of superior officers. Captain Milton L. Hancy was promoted, if it may be called promotion, to be chaplain. That he was the best officer of that grade in the service every survivor of the Fifty-fifth is yet willing to maintain. In Company A, Jacob M. Augustine was promoted from first-lieutenant to captain and Second-Lieutenant Casper Schleich to first-lieutenant. Taking into account the splen- did ability and character of these two officers, together with the tragic death of both of them in battle, it is fair to place them highest upon the lengthy roll of honor belonging to the Fifty-fifth. William F. Cootes, orderly-sergeant, was pro- moted to the second lieutenancy of the same company. Adjutant George L. Thurston was made captain of Company B. He was a man of high attainments and soldierly quali- ties, and his early death from disease and privation was as true a sacrifice as though he had gone down in the flame of battle. Elijah C. Lawrence, who nominally belonged to Company K, was made second-lieutenant of Company B. Sergeant Theodore W. Hodges, killed in one month's time, was promoted to be second-lieutenant of Company C, while Sergeant Josiah E. Keys of the same company, was transferred and made first-lieutenant of Company E. Order- ly-Sergeant Jonas L. Buck of that company was raised to its second-lieutenancy. Second-Lieutenant Squire A. Wright of Company C, whose life was also soon to go out in fierce conflict, was elevated to be captain of Company F, and Second-Lieutenant Joseph W. Parks made its first-lieutenant,
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