USA > Indiana > Henry County > Hazzard's history of Henry county, Indiana, 1822-1906, Volume I > Part 8
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Notwithstanding the unfavorable conditions, great success attended the
REGT.
TH
REGT
GEORGE
P.GRAF.
CO.F. 24TH REGT.
ELIJAH N
PRESNALL
WILLIAM
HOUSE
. 30TH REGT.
CO.B.42D REGT
HARRY WATTS.
CO.A.30TH REGT.
SAMUEL
OVERMAN. C.
HENRY
SHOPP.
V
L.
GEORGE
BURTON.
INDIANA INFANTRY.
CO.A.320
A.30TH REGT.
CO
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HAZZARD'S HISTORY OF HENRY COUNTY.
Union cause during the first four months of the year 1862. At the beginning of the year the national capital was deemed secure. Kentucky, Missouri, Mary- land and West Virginia had been kept in the Union. On January 19 General Thomas defeated the Confederates in an engagement at Mill Springs, in which the Confederate General Zollicoffer was killed. General Grant, aided by Flag Officer Foote and his gunboats, captured Fort Henry February 7 and Fort Donel- son February 16, with over 10,000 prisoners, forty cannon, and immense stores. The day after the surrender of Fort Henry a permanent footing on the coast of North Carolina was gained at the battle of Roanoke Island by General Burnside and the navy under Commodore- Goldsborough. On March 8 General Curtis defeated General Price at Pea Ridge, and the next day the Monitor practically destroyed the Merrimac in Hampton Roads. In the month of April a great battle, resulting in a Union victory, had been fought at Shiloh, in which General Albert Sidney Johnston, regarded as the greatest of Confederate generals, had lost his life, and in the same month Farragut captured New Orleans. In some portions of nearly all the Confederate states the Federal land or naval forces had gained a foothold.
The importance of these victories, coming at this time, can hardly be over- estimated. For nearly its entire length above and below Vicksburg the Mis- sissippi was now open to Federal gunboats, and the territory west of that river was practically cut off from the Confederacy, while the possession of New Orleans was of vast importance in many ways to the Union cause. The drooping spirits of the North revived, President Lincoln issued a proclamation for a special Thanksgiving, and so clearly did events point to a speedy termination of the war, that, for a time, further recruiting was stopped by order of the Federal govern- ment, and Governor Morton was requested to cease purchasing arms.
This order for the discontinuance of recruiting is given in full in Mcclellan's Own Story, p. 258. It was issued from the Adjutant General's office April 3, 1862, and directed that "The recruiting service for volunteers will be discontinued in every state from this date," and that "The superintendents of the Volunteer Recruiting Service will disband their parties and close their offices, after having taken the necessary steps to carry out these orders." The extraordinary character of the order will be more fully apparent when it is considered that it was issued just after McClellan had started on his Peninsular campaign and only three days before the beginning of the battle of Shiloh.
Before the year was half gone the northern skies were again overcast with the shadow of disasters that came thick and fast. While the western armies and the navy were achieving splendid victories, the great Army of the Potomac was resting idly in camp. The Fall and Winter of 1861 had passed and the Spring of 1862 was far advanced, and still that magnificent army had done nothing. The daily dispatch, "All quiet on the Potomac," at first conveying a cheering assur- ance of the safety of the national capital, now excited only derision, and was accepted as further proof of the inefficiency of McClellan and his army.
McClellan should have moved on February 22-indeed long before that time. The northern press, the leading members of Congress, and Stanton and Chase, the two most influential members of the cabinet, were urgently, almost furiously demanding that McClellan be forced to advance or be removed from command.
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Stanton was already bitterly hostile to McClellan. Chase was equally so, and at one of the cabinet meetings, to which McClellan had been invited for a discussion of his plans, bluntly asked him whether he intended to move at all and, if so, when. Lincoln still clung to McClellan, but was continually urging him to advance. . To all his appeals McClellan pleaded for more re-enforcements, though it was then generally believed, and is now known to be a fact, that McClellan had twice as many men as the Confederate General Joseph E. Johnston, who was in his front. Finally, after many cabinet meetings and councils of war, interviews, and consultations, the Army of the Potomac started March 17 on what is known as the Peninsular campaign. The story of it is sorrowful reading. It lasted about three months. In that time the Federal army had been in sight of Richmond. At the end of it, after seven days of battle, it had retreated to the river James, arriving at Harrison's Landing July 3 with a loss of over 15,000 men. McClellan laid the blame for his failure upon Stanton and Halleck, while they charged it to him. On August 3 Halleck ordered McClellan to abandon the Peninsular altogether and to withdraw his army to Acquia Creek. Against this order Me- Clellan earnestly protested, but his protest was not heeded. The change of base by the Army of the Potomac exposed Washington to an attack by the Confederate armies, and, to avert this danger, the troops scattered over northern Virginia, under the commands of Fremont, McDowell, and Banks, about 50,000 in all, were hastily patched together and called the Army of Virginia, over which General Pope, suddenly called from the West, was placed in command. McClellan was ordered to Washington and the Army of the Potomac was for a time virtually without a commander. Pope, the young Lochinvar who had so unexpectedly come out of the West, signalized his assumption of command by an address characterized by Ropes as one of the most "extraordinary in military annals." extraordinary alike for its bombast and for its tone of insult to the eastern soldiers over whom he had taken command. In this address, together with much like stuff, Pope said :
"Let us understand each other. I have come to you from the West where we have always seen the backs of our enemies; from an army whose business it has been to seek the adversary and to beat him when he was found; whose policy has been attack and not defense. . Meantime I desire you to dismiss from your minds certain phrases which I am sorry to find in vogue amongst you. I hear constantly of taking strong positions and holding them-of lines of retreat and bases of supplies. Let us discard such ideas."
The woeful outcome of Pope's boasts made them all the more ridiculous. The Army of Virginia lasted only about two months, long enough, however, to be demolished at the second battle of Bull Run. Pope afterward complained that the remnants of his army had been so scattered by Mcclellan that he ( Pope) could not tell what had become of them. The Army of Virginia had vanished forever, and never again appeared in the list of Union armies. The fragments of it which escaped. together with the portions of the Army of the Potomac that had been sent to re-enforce it, found their way back to Washington September 2d. Again the Army of the Potomac was in the trenches about Washington, confronted by the army of Lee; the cabinet was in a panic ; the North was in dread of invasion ; Halleck was helpless ; and Lincoln, in utter despair, was obliged to appeal to Mc- Clellan to save the national capital.
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HAZZARD'S HISTORY OF HENRY COUNTY.
On March II, 1862, the departments formerly commanded by Generals Halleck, Hunter and Buell were merged into the Department of the Mississippi in order to give Halleck control of all the armies that took part in the battle of Shiloh, and after the battle these armies were all consolidated into one, divided into the right wing, left wing, center, reserve, and cavalry, under the respective commands of Generals George H. Thomas, Don Carlos Buell, John Pope, John A. McClernand, and Andrew J. Smith. Halleck assumed chief command and Grant was announced as second. By this contrivance Grant was made a fifth wheel and was temporarily shelved.
No other Federal general in the Civil War ever had such an opportunity as that now afforded Halleck. Had Grant been in his place it is possible that the war might have been brought to a speedy termination ; it is at least highly probable that its duration would have been greatly shortened. But, unfortunately for the country, Halleck was unequal to the opportunity. Although he had a great army of over 100,000 men, more than twice that of the Confederate army under Beau- regard confronting him, he avoided bringing on a general engagement, proceeded to advance against Corinth, about twenty miles distant, after the old fashion of gradual approaches by parallels, and going along at a snail's pace arrived there May 30 to find that the Confederate army had safely retreated.
For a few days the North was fed on bombastic dispatches from Halleck to the effect that "General Pope with 40,000 men is thirty miles south of Corinth pushing the enemy hard," and that "he already reports 10,000 prisoners and deserters from the enemy and 15,000 stand of arms captured. The country was chagrined to find a few days later that the pleasing story told in Halleck's dis- patches was a hoax. All the blame, however, was laid on Pope. We know now, moreover, that Halleck's orders to Pope were not to press the Confederates so hard as to bring on a battle.
Halleck next proceeded to break up his army and to scatter over the country the various parts of which it had been composed, Buell being ordered to advance into east Tennessee. The, movement which Buell was ordered to make, a very important one if pushed with energy and celerity, was neutralized by the condition imposed upon him that, as he marched, he should repair the Memphis and Charles- ton railroad. Buell strongly protested against frittering away precious time by repairing a railroad that ran parallel to the enemy's lines, which, when repaired, could not be depended upon as a safe line of communication, but his protests were overruled by Halleck.
The Confederates had now determined to make another effort to regain Tennessee and Kentucky, and, while it was yet uncertain what would be the line of advance, it soon became apparent that the Confederate Army of the Tennessee intended to take the offensive. The forerunners of the projected Confederate advance were the forces under General John Morgan and General Forrest, which soon began to play havoc with Buell's communications, destroying railroad bridges, capturing garrisons and creating widespread consternation in Kentucky. Before the middle of August it became apparent that Kentucky was to be invaded by General Kirby Smith through Cumberland Gap and by General Bragg, who had succeeded to the command of the Confederate Army of the Tennessee, marching north toward Louisville.
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Long before the removal of either McClellan or Buell, the commanders of the two great armies in the East and in the West, the people of the North had begun to distrust both. It was suspected that they were lacking in the earnest devotion to the Union essential to the general who would lead its armies to victory. The great commanders who were to do this were yet in the background. After the surrender of Fort Donelson the people of the North had begun to talk of "Un- conditional Surrender" Grant, who was beginning to be famous; but Halleck was jealous of him as were other generals ; he was assailed in Congress and in portions of the northern press for his conduct of the battle of Shiloh, and his former victories had already been overshadowed by his repeated failures to take Vicks- burg. The newspapers of the North were ridiculing his attempts to dig a channel that would allow the passage of vessels around Vicksburg and were bitterly com- plaining of his retention in command of his army.
Referring to these failures of Grant, and to Sherman, his most trusted subor- dinate, one of the coarsest and most reckless of the newspapers said that "the army was being ruined in mud-turtle expeditions under the leadership of a drunkard. whose confidenial adviser was a lunatic."
Senator Ben Wade, the bluff, honest, but impulsive chairman of the Com- mittee on the Conduct of the War, a man of powerful influence in Congress and in the national councils, vehemently urged the removal of Grant, at the same time giving the President the cheerful assurance that he was leading the government to hell, which at that minute was not a mile off. But for the strong support of Representative Elihu B. Washburn and the steadfast friendship of Lincoln, Grant probably would have been relegated during the remainder of the war to some obscure position in which it would have been impossible for him to display the soldierly qualities that afterward placed him in the front rank of the world's great commanders.
Alexander K. McClure, an active and influential Republican politician of Pennsylvania, was one of those who urged upon Lincoln the removal of Grant and he has given us an interesting account of it. He labored with Lincoln from II o'clock one night until I o'clock the next morning. He says :
"I pressed upon him, with all the earnestness I could command, the immediate removal of Grant as an imperious necessity to sustain himself. As was his cus- tom, he said but little, only enough to make me continue the discussion until it was exhausted. He sat before the open fire in the old Cabinet room, most of the time with his feet up on the high marble mantel, and exhibited unusual distress at the complicated condition of military affairs. Nearly every day brought some new and perplexing military complication. He had gone through a long Winter of terrible strain with McClellan and the Army of the Potomac; and from the day that Grant started on his southern expedition until the battle of Shiloh he had had little else than jarring and confusion among his generals in the West. He knew that I had no ends to serve in urging Grant's removal, beyond the single desire to make him be just to himself, and he listened patiently.
"I appealed to Lincoln for his own sake to remove Grant at once, and in giving my reasons for it I simply voiced the admittedly overwhelming protest from the loyal people of the land against Grant's continuance in command. I could form no judgment during the conversation as to what effect my arguments
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had upon him beyond the fact that he was greatly distressed at this new compli- cation. When I had said everything that could be said from my standpoint, we lapsed into silence. Lincoln remained silent for what seemed a very long time. He then gathered himself up in his chair and said in a tone of earnestness that I shall never forget : 'I can't spare this man; he fights.' That was all he said, but I knew that it was enough, and that Grant was safe in Lincoln's hands against his countless host of enemies."
The Confederate plan was that General Bragg should invade Kentucky, march on Louisville, destroy Buell's communications, and force his army back to the Ohio River. This meant that the invasion of Kentucky, if successful, would be speedily followed by the invasion of Indiana and Ohio. Indiana had gained some idea of what was involved in an invasion by a hostile army, when in July a band of Con- federates crossed the Ohio and sacked the town of Newburg, situated on the river a few miles below Evansville.
The loyal citizens of Kentucky were appealing to Governor Morton for aid. The people of Indiana were apprehensive for their own homes. Not a moment was to be lost. The President had called for 300,000 more volunteers. The emergency was pressing. The difficulty of raising the troops required, and the greater difficulty of equipping them, were apparently insurmountable. But nothing daunted Morton. He at once began the work. On July 12th he addressed a great war meeting at Indianapolis, and all over the State similar meetings were held. Volunteers came forward faster than they could be mustered into service ; a new mustering officer was called and all the energies of the state government were taxed to the utmost. The result is briefly told in some of Morton's telegrams as given by Foulke :
"August 17. I send 1,000 men to-night ; 7,000 to-morrow and Tuesday."
"August 21. I sent another regiment last night ; a battery will go to-morrow. The Sixty Ninth has started. The Seventy Fifth leaves at 6 p. m. and the Seventy Fourth at 9 p. m. to-day for Louisville."
"August 23. Will have at least 17 additional regiments ready for arms this time next week."
"August 26. The Seventy Ninth leaves Tuesday ; will hurry others ; Indiana has put 14,480 men in Kentucky up to Friday last; this will make it 19,296 by Thursday, this week. This includes two batteries."
"August 27. Another regiment can leave to-morrow ; one leaves this evening."
"August 30. The Eighty Ninth leaves this afternoon. The Eighty First and Eighty Second will be armed to-day. Two regiments will start to-morrow, and five more will be ready next week."
"August 31. The Eighty Eighth is at the depot. The Eighty Seventh will be in Louisville to-morrow morning. Two regiments leave to-day and two more to-night."
In this way he organized, equipped, and sent 14,000 men into the field in four days.
CHAPTER IV.
CAMP, MARCH AND BATTLE.
ON THE TENTED FIELD-ROUTINE OF CAMP LIFE-A SOLDIER'S FARE-DRILLS AND INSPECTION-TAPS-ON THE PICKET LINE-ARRIVAL OF THE PAY- MASTER-LETTERS FROM HOME-THE ARMY SUTLER-THE SOLDIER AT PLAY -THE HOSPITAL SERVICE-HOMESICKNESS AND OTHER DISEASES OF THE SOLDIER - MALINGERING - CONTRABANDS - BREAKING CAMP - ON THE MARCH-FORAGING-STRAGGLERS-AROUND THE CAMP FIRE-DEVELOPING THE ENEMY -- IN TIME OF BATTLE-BAYONET CHARGES-BEHIND THE BREASTWORKS-THE INSPIRING MOTIVE IN WAR-SKULKERS AND CONSTI- TUTIONAL COWARDS-THE AMENITIES OF WAR.
In the general histories of the Civil War, and in the histories of great cam- paigns and battles, we get much information about noted generals, military strategy, and tactical maneuvers, but we gain a very imperfect idea of a soldier's daily life. Some phases of it, as seen in camp, on the march, and in battle, deserve fuller attention before going further in this narrative.
When it was expected that a regiment would remain in one locality for a con- siderable period, camp was regularly laid out according to prescribed military regulations, with narrow lanes, on each side of which were the tents of the enlisted men. At the head of each lane were the tents of the line officers, the captains and lieutenants, and in rear of them were those of the regimental officers. In the first year of the war, tents in the shape of a letter A were furnished for the enlisted men, and wall tents for the line officers. The former were secured by ropes fastened to pegs driven into the ground. Small trenches were dug around them to keep out the water in rainy weather. If boards could be found they were floored ; otherwise beds were made on the ground. There was no way of heating them and in cold weather the fire was made in front, the men sleeping with their feet to the fire. The tents of the officers were provided with flies which were erected in the rear and were generally used as a sort of kitchen in which the officers ate their meals. The tents of the regimental officers were similar to those of the line officers but were larger and better. Later Sibley tents were issued to the men.
The enlisted men's tents were found to require too many wagons to haul them and, in 1862, what were familiarly known in the western army as "dog-tents" were introduced. Each man was furnished with a piece of canvas about five and one half feet square with buttons and button-holes so placed that three pieces could be buttoned together, two of them making the sides and one the back of the tent. They were held in place by being stretched over a ridge pole laid on top of two forked stakes, and fastened at the bottom with wooden pins. In an emergency
John A. Korn
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HAZZARD'S HISTORY OF HENRY COUNTY.
two muskets with fixed bayonets, stuck in the ground, served for temporary stakes. When so put together these pieces of canvas made what were at once nicknamed "dog-tents." As they were not more than four feet high, a man could not stand in them nor could he sit in them with much comfort. But when lumber sufficient could be found, sides and rear walls were constructed of boards or logs and the dog-tent was used as a roof. Then the structure was dignified by the title "shebang," and bunks were made similar in size and shape to those in the state- rooms of vessels. Regiments which were fortunate enough to remain in winter quarters and to have access to timber, constructed miniature log houses, eight or ten feet square, in shape much like those of the early western pioneers, having stick chimneys-the interstices between the logs being filled with clay. These were palatial structures compared with the dog-tents. Into these contracted quar- ters five or six men could manage to stow themselves and all their baggage, arms, and cooking utensils and to live in them with a reasonable degree of comfort, incredible as this may seem to people in good circumstances who now want houses of eight or ten or more rooms, and think they can not live comfortably with less.
The daily routine of camp life began with the sounding of the reveille. Then the men rose, dressed, and responded to company roll-call, at which the names of those assigned from the company for police, camp guard, picket, or other special duty were announced. Next came the drawing of rations, which were obtained from the regimental commissary sergeant by the company orderly sergeants and distributed by them to the men. When it was possible to furnish full supplies, they were generally abundant and good, consisting usually of side-meat, always in the army called "sow-belly," crackers, always called "hardtack," coffee, and sugar. To these were sometimes added beans, potatoes, and a vile compound known as "desiccated vegetables." But such princely provisions were rarely dis- tributed unless the regiment remained in camp for a considerable time and there was easy communication with the base of supplies.
Cooking in camp was sometimes done by a company cook, but usually the men were divided into messes of six or eight, and the labor of getting wood and water and preparing the meals was apportioned among them as they might agree. Occasionally a company officer messed with some of the men, but usually, when in camp, two or three officers united and employed a colored man to do the cooking. Those who could afford to pay the prices, which were usually very high, could at times buy of regimental sutlers canned peaches, jellies, and a few other delicacies. Boxes of dainties were sometimes sent from home and were generously shared by the recipients with their comrades. When the country people were allowed to approach the picket stations, these became trading posts for the purchase or exchange of pies, cakes, and other eatables.
It is needless to say that cooking in the army was not done according to the rules prescribed in approved cook books. Cooking utensils were scarce; the mess that had a camp kettle, a coffee-pot, a frying-pan, and a few tin plates and cups, was well provided. Occasionally we procured at some country house an old- fashioned "Dutch oven"-a large iron skillet with a lid-and the services of a "contraband" who knew how to bake beans and corn pone, and then we enjoyed a feast that could not be surpassed.
We fared best in Summer when young corn and berries were in season. No
6
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soldier that was in the vicinity of Pikeville, Tennessee, in the summer of 1863, will ever forget the delicious roasting ears and blackberry cobblers with which the memory of the place will always be associated. The recipe for making a black- berry cobbler was very simple. The six or eight men in a mess put all their blackberries, all their crackers, and all their sugar into a camp kettle, filled it with water, and let it come to a boil, then stirred the contents with a bayonet or stick, and it was ready to serve. I do not recall that any of it was ever left.
Drills and inspections occurred with more or less frequency, as the necessity for them required. Usually there was a company drill in the forenoon and a regi- mental drill in the afternoon. In the intervals between drills and inspections the men were required to put their arms and quarters in good condition. The chief military display during the day was the dress parade. This took place a little before sundown. The whole regiment was formed in line; the buglers, or the regimental band, if there was one, marched up and down in front of the regiment playing a lively tune, generally, "The girl I left behind me." Then the adjutant gave the order, "Present arms"; the colonel or commanding officer of the regiment acknowledged the salute and perhaps put the regiment through a brief exercise in the manual of arms; orders intended for the regiment, if there were any, were read; and then the regiment was dismissed and the companies marched back to their respective quarters.
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