USA > Indiana > Henry County > Hazzard's history of Henry county, Indiana, 1822-1906, Volume I > Part 9
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After supper the men spent the time as they pleased, writing letters, playing cards, or telling stories, until tattoo was sounded, when they were required to go to their quarters and attend evening roll-call. The last bugle call was taps or "lights-out," after which every one, unless assigned to some special night duty, was expected to be in bed. Then the soldier lay down to sleep-"to sleep ! per- chance to dream" of his home in the far distant North; to dream that he was again one of the cheery circle gathered about the family fireside, or that he was again clasping in his arms the fond wife and the prattling children he had left; to awake in the morning and find that it was all a dream and that he was far away from the home and the loved ones that he might never see again.
All did not sleep. The camp guards, under the command of an officer detailed as officer of the day, were stationed near the camp and divided into three reliefs, serving alternately four hours at a time, and these walked the beats assigned them and allowed none to pass without halting and giving the countersign over the point of a bayonet.
It was on the vigilance of the pickets, however, that the security of the army at night depended, especially when the enemy was in the near vicinity. They were posted far enough from camp to give timely warning in case of a sudden attack. They also were divided into three reliefs, each relief serving four hours at a time. Sometimes the picket walked over a beat varying in length, but if in close proximity to the enemy he was usually stationed by a tree or in some spot which would serve at once to conceal him from the view, and to shelter him from the bullets, of the enemy. However tired, he was not permitted to sleep. Next to desertion, the greatest offense of which a soldier could be guilty was that of sleep- ing on his post. No matter how cold it might be, no matter how pitiless the blast, no matter if the rain came down in torrents, he must stand at his post until relieved. To stand alone anywhere for four hours on a dark night, in a lonely spot, would
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try the nerves of most men, but to stand there in momentary expectation of being fired on by an enemy known to be near by is an experience the full meaning of which none but soldiers can appreciate.
Pay-day was of course an important day in the army. In anticipation of it the muster-rolls were prepared, showing the amount due to each man, and when the paymaster arrived the money was speedily distributed. Most of it was sent home by the men for the use of their families, or to be invested or kept until their return. It was usually sent by some one going North on furlough, or by some visitor or sutler; but after the first year's service much of it was sent by what was known as the "allotment roll" plan.
Next to the arrival of the paymaster, the event most eagerly anticipated was the arrival of the mail. When in camp for a considerable time the mails came with something like regularity. Occasionally some one who had been home on furlough returned, bringing letters and papers. The letters were, of course, read with the most eager interest, for they brought news directly from home and from those nearest and dearest to the soldier. After the letters the papers were read and passed around. The local papers were of greatest interest to those from the town or county where they were published, and usually contained letters from soldiers in the various regiments having representatives from the place. Of the newspapers most highly appreciated in the Army of the Cumberland, composed largely. of troops from Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois, the Cincinnati Gasette and the Cincinnati Commercial were the most popular. Whitelaw Reid, now editor of the New York Tribune, was one of the war correspondents of the Gazette. He wrote under the nom de plume, "Agate." He was one of the best, if not the best, of the war correspondents during the Civil War. "Mack" (J. B. McCullagh), the cor- respondent of the Commercial, was also a popular writer.
One of the prominent characters of camp life was the army sutler. He took a great many risks and was obliged to charge high prices. It is doubtful if many sutlers in the Army of the Cumberland made a fortune. The sutler carried in stock some clothing, combs and brushes, playing cards, some canned goods, and a general but small assortment of such articles as the soldiers would be likely to need most. Sometimes he kept wines and liquors, but the regulations were generally such as made it difficult for the enlisted men to purchase intoxicants.
It must not be supposed that the soldier's life in camp was an endless monotony of work and drill. When not on duty the men amused themselves in pitching quoits, playing ball or cards, in reading, in visiting their friends and acquaintances in other regiments, and in various other ways. There was consider- able gambling in the army, but not a great deal in the regiment to which the author belonged. There was also considerable drunkenness, but it prevailed to a greater extent, in proportion to the numbers, among the officers than among the men, because it was much more difficult for the latter to procure liquor. The "canteen," so much discussed in connection with the Spanish and Philippine wars, was un- known in the Civil War.
The hospital service in the army was as good as could have been expected under the circumstances, especially in the general hospitals such as those at Naslı- ville, Louisville, and Washington. But even in these the accommodations for the sick and wounded would have been totally inadequate without the aid of the loyal
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people, and especially the loyal women, in the North. In nearly every town and village in the North there were local organizations of the Sanitary Commission or the Christian Commission, in which noble women met and prepared bed- clothing and bandages for the sick and wounded and such delicacies as would tempt their appetites and forward them to the hospitals. Moreover, great numbers of patriotic women volunteered their services as nurses, soothing with woman's gentle touch and cheering with woman's gentle presence the suffering soldier lying helpless on his cot. One of these nurses, Mrs. Francena Howe Brock, of Lowell, Mass., recounting her three-months' experience in the Campbell Hospital at Washington, says :
"The heroic attempts of women to supplement the supplies of the government and afford kindly help to the sick and wounded, through the Christian and Sani- tary Commissions, will ever stand out in history as one of the brightest pages of our Civil War.
"Their gifts were poured out with lavish generosity, and their services in the front were given with unselfish heroism.
"On many a hospital bed, the fever-scorched patient had on the clean, white garment, made by the loyal women of the North, while on the beds of the conva- lescents, quilts covered with mottoes and texts of Scripture gave comfort and words of cheer."
Every soldier will endorse the truth of this statement. Nor should we forget the noble work of the Catholic Sisters of Mercy. In nearly every hospital their sweet faces were seen as they moved quietly about, ministering with equal fidelity to those of their own or of another faith. But in the field hospitals the facilities for taking care of the sick were limited, and a rugged constitution was the main dependence upon which the patients could rely for recovery.
Two diseases that at home rarely leave permanent bad results were, from the impossibility of proper diet and treatment, productive of dangerous consequences in the army. One was diarrhoea which, when it assumed a chronic form, as it frequently did, was almost as fatal and became as much dreaded as consumption. The other was measles, a simple disease under proper medical treatment, but one which in the army often left the victim with impaired eyesight or other permanent disability. Another disease, common in the army, was nostalgia or home-sickness. There it assumed a well-defined form and undoubtedly caused or greatly ag- gravated other diseases. Malingering, or the feigning of disease in order to shirk duty or to avoid danger, is common in all armies, and in the British army is severely punished. It was undoubtedly largely practiced in the Federal and Con- federate armies.
In noting the features of life in camp, the "contrabands" must not be for- gotten. This was the term always applied to the negroes. Some came from the North but most of them were picked up in the South. They were generally employed as cooks and servants for the officers. In a subsequent chapter, the employment of negroes as soldiers will be considered.
Life in camp and life on the march were quite different. Generally the order to break camp and prepare to march came very unexpectedly to the line officers and enlisted men and there was not much time for preparation. If it came in the night it was usually to prepare to march the next morning at daybreak.
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Sometimes the order came to break camp and prepare to march at once, and it was astonishing how soon a regiment could pack up and get into line ready to move.
If it was expected merely to go on some short expedition and to return to the same camp the tents were left standing in charge of a guard, and the men carried with them only such baggage as was indispensable. But when it was not expected to return to the same camp the preparations involved the abandonment of every- thing that could not be taken. The officers' valises, company kettles, extra ammunition, and whatever could be so disposed of were put into wagons.
The soldier on the march carried his arms and ammunition. These consisted of musket and bayonet, a belt to which was attached a leather ammunition-box, containing generally forty two rounds of cartridges, and a leather scabbard hold- ing his bayonet. His provisions were carried in a canvas or oil-cloth haversack suspended over his shoulder by straps ; in like manner he carried a canteen holding about three pints of water. Each soldier was provided with a piece of oil-cloth, a blanket, and, later on, a piece of dog-tent. Generally these were all rolled together and the ends tied, making a roll in the shape of a horse collar, and this was thrown over the neck in such a way as to be carried on one side. Into their knapsacks the men crowded all they felt able or inclined to carry. Those of new recruits were always stuffed with enough to start a small store, but soldiers speedily learned that they could do without much which at first, had been thought indis- pensable, and the contents of a veteran's knapsack were usually very scanty-a change of underclothing, a house-wife with some pins, needles, and buttons, a small supply of writing-paper and a photograph or two, being about all that he carried.
In the last two years of the Civil War, the line officers on the march fared little better than the men. Every captain was obliged to carry his own oilcloth, blanket, piece of dog-tent, haversack, and canteen, and also his own knapsack if he wished to take any extras.
When everything was in readiness to move the bugle sounded the assembly and the regiment took its place in the column. In a long column consisting of several divisions, it was very much easier to march in front, and for this reason, on a march of several days' duration, the regiment at the head of the column dropped the next day to the rear. There are few more picturesque sights than a considerable body of troops-a corps or a division-on the march over a good road on a clear day. Stretched along the road you see a moving column, with waving banners and gleaming guns, the general and regimental officers in brilliant uniforms mounted on spirited steeds, the artillery rolling along, cavalrymen occasionally dashing by-all indicative of the strength and grandeur of the death- dealing powers of an army when loosed in battle.
The men always marched in columns of fours and no attempt was made to step in unison, but all speedily adopted what was known as the route step. The distance traveled was usually fifteen to twenty miles a day, according to the weather and the roads, but much longer distances were covered on forced marches. The weather and the condition of the roads determined the character of the march, not only as to distance traveled, but as to the comfort of the men. When the weather was fine and the roads were good the men enjoyed the march. To march
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all day in the rain over a muddy road and then to pass the night on the damp ground was not a pleasant experience. More than once has the soldier laid two rails together so as to make a sort of trough, elevating one end of the trough in order to keep it off the ground, and slept in it all night with an oil-cloth over him and his hat over his face to protect him from a drizzling rain.
One of the most common incidents of a march over a muddy road was the stalling of a baggage or an ammunition wagon. On such occasions the drivers were apt to indulge in profanity. Indeed, it was commonly believed that in a very bad case an expert swearer was absolutely indispensable to start an obstinate team of mules.
The monotony of a long march was relieved in various ways. New scenery was opening at every step. No house was passed that did not excite some cont- ment ; no rustic appeared by the roadside that was not plied with questions or jocularly, though not unkindly, bantered. Often a song was started and taken up, company by company, until the whole regiment joined in it.
Foraging by individual soldiers on the march was strictly prohibited, but the prohibition was construed with more or less leniency, according to the disposition of the commanding officers, and there were usually some opportunities on the march for the men to replenish their scanty supply of provisions. Guards were generally stationed at the farmhouses along the line of march, but a friendly guard over a smoke-house rarely observed his comrades in the rear of it dexterously poking the shoulders and jowls off the hooks with their bayonets. The temptation to pick up a stray turkey or chicken was one too strong to be resisted by the most conscientious soldier. Moreover, the law of self-defense received a very liberal construction in the army ; it was universally allowed to be lawful to kill a hog or a sheep that manifested a disposition to bite, and, strange to say, all the hogs and sheep in the South exhibited such a belligerent disposition.
The cavalrymen and the artillerymen always had the advantage of the in- fantrymen in foraging. When, as often happened, nothing to eat could be picked up on the line of march, the soldier was reduced to the supplies in his haversack. It did not take long for him to cook a meal. There were no tedious courses. A pot of coffee was soon boiled, and a piece of sidemeat, stuck on the end of a ram- rod and held over the coals, was soon broiled.
The stragglers were familiar figures on the march. Some were not strong enough to keep up, especially on a hard march, but most of them were men that purposely lagged behind to do a little foraging on their own account or for plunder. They were not all skulkers, but the skulkers were always among the stragglers if a battle was imminent. Straggling prevailed in all the armies, Federal and Confederate, but more in some regiments than in others. There was comparatively little in regiments whose officers enforced attendance at roll-call and other regu- lations designed to prevent it.
Care was usually taken to stop the day's march at some spot convenient to water and wood. Sometimes the commanding officers were so considerate as to halt the troops near a rail fence and then the command to stack arms and break ranks was hardly repeated before the entire fence around a twenty-acre field had disappeared as if by magic and almost in an instant thousands of camp-fires· were brightly burning. Then was heard the sound, so familiar to all old soldiers, of
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pounding coffee. The coffee issued to the soldiers in the Army of the Cumberland was browned but not ground, and coffee-mills were unknown. So the coffee was put into tin cups, placed on a smooth stump or stone, and beaten with the butt end of a bayonet, as a druggist pulverizes drugs in a mortar. Supper being ready it was speedily dispatched and then the soldiers gathered about the camp-fires. These were the real camp-fires. The incidents of the day were recalled; former battles and skirmishes were discussed; story after story went round; sometimes a song was started in which all joined; and thus the tired soldiers tried to forget the hardships of the past and the dangers of the future. Is it cause for wonder that the friendships formed about these camp-fires knit together more strongly than iron bands those who have survived ?
No two battles of the Civil War were alike, yet there were many features common to all. Various circumstances combined to determine just when and where a general engagement should be brought on by one or the other of the opposing forces, and which should take the initiative.
Usually for some days before a great battle there was considerable maneuver- ing for position, always conducted in such a way as to secure the most available positions for attack or defense, and, on the part of the attacking army, to deceive the enemy concerning the point where it was intended to strike the hardest blow. The duty of "developing the enemy," as it was called, fell chiefly upon the cavalry, but sometimes a reconnaissance in force was made by advancing considerable bodies of infantry until the position of the main body of the enemy could be ascertained. The character of the ground, and the disposition of troops during the night often made it difficult or impossible to ascertain the exact position of the enemy, or to determine when and where the first attack would be made. A striking illustration of this was seen in the battle of Chickamauga, each army on Friday night having been ignorant of the precise location of the other.
It would seem hardly possible for an army to be surprised by an attack from an enemy known to be in the vicinity, yet such surprises sometimes occurred, as at Shiloh. Night attacks were rare because in the dark there was so much danger that the attacking party would fire on troops of its own side or be fired on by them.
No troops will stand a flanking fire and, when exposed thereto, they must retreat or speedily change front. This is very apt to throw them into confusion, as it is difficult to make new formations under the galling fire of an advancing enemy ; therefore it is the object of every general to post and maneuver his troops in such a way, if possible, as to turn the right or the left flank of the enemy.
When neither a surprise nor a flank movement is practicable, another device is to mass a heavy body of troops, make a sudden dash and break through some weak point in the enemy's lines, thus throwing them into confusion, at the same time concealing, as far as possible, the strength of the assaulting force and diverting attention from the point where the attack is to be made by feint movements in other quarters.
The private soldier had little to do to prepare for battle. He stripped himself of his knapsack and all superfluous baggage, saw that his gun was in order and that his ammunition-box was filled. The main attacking columns were generally preceded by a line of skirmishers posted a short distance in front. The skirmishers advanced, followed by the men in the main columns, until they were checked by a
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superior force of the enemy, when they fell back or halted until their own main lines came up and then took their places in them.
The army anticipating an attack generally fortified its position as much as possible. The value of breastworks was speedily recognized. Those constructed by General Joseph E. Johnston to oppose the advance of General Sherman were so strong that the forces behind them would have been able to resist successfully a direct assault by four or five times their own number. Even temporary breast- works, such as could be erected in a night, composed of logs and rails two or three feet high, with a trench behind them one or two feet deep, or even without a trench, gave the troops behind them a great advantage, especially against a column compelled to travel a considerable distance over an open field in front in order to reach them. Behind such breastworks a line of men, armed with modern Mauser rifles, could probably resist a direct attack in front by an army ten times their own in number.
When breastworks were to be charged, the charge was usually preceded by a brisk cannonading, followed by a rapid advance of the attacking force in such numbers as to exhaust the fire of those behind the works, before re-enforcements could reach them. Such charges were usually very destructive to the attacking party, especially when exposed to the fire, at short range, of the men behind the breastworks and also to the fire of cannon loaded with grape-shot and canister.
Next to charging breastworks, the duty requiring the greatest bravery was that of charging a battery. If infantry could advance within musket range of the artillerymen and horses, the charge, especially if against a single battery, was usually successful in either capturing the battery or compelling it to retreat, because, unless well supported by infantry, the men and horses were soon killed or disabled. But dreadful loss of life usually resulted when a charging column was forced to advance over a considerable space before coming within musket range of the enemy's artillery. The general reader who sees accounts of men "marching up to the cannon's mouth" is apt to believe that this is a poetic stretch of imagination. But it is not. Such scenes were often witnessed during the Civil War. Time and again there were charges by both Federal and Confederate troops in which men marched straight up to the cannon's mouth and bayoneted the artillerymen.
Perhaps the most trying position in which a soldier can be placed is to be exposed to artillery fire when so situated that he can neither advance nor fire in return. In a charge he is carried forward by the very momentum of the column and is inspired by the enthusiasm kindled by the charge itself; when he is firing in return he has at least something to divert his mind from dwelling solely on his own personal danger; but when he is compelled to stand or lie still and can do nothing but await the coming of a cannon ball, he is in a situation requiring the courage of the bravest man. General Sheridan in his Memoirs, describing his division in such a position at Stone's River, says that the "torments of this trying situation were almost unbearable."
Bayonet charges were not uncommon nor were hand to hand contests, but there were comparatively few instances in which opposing forces fought each other solely with bayonets. The statistics collected by Colonel Fox show a very small percentage of bayonet wounds. What generally happened when a bayonet
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charge was ordered is illustrated in a dialogue given by Don Piatt in his "Life of General George H. Thomas," p. 14:
" 'Do you mean to say,' asked a civilian of a veteran officer who had seen many fierce fights in Europe, 'that bayonets are never crossed in battle ?'
"'Oh, no! I don't say that. What I asserted was that I had heard of such but never saw it, and I have my doubts whether it ever occurred.'
" 'Well, when a charge of bayonets is ordered, what happens, how does it end ?'
"'Why, if the other fellows don't run away, we do.'"
In the pictures of battles the officers are usually depicted in full uniform, generally on prancing steeds, and always far in advance waving their swords aloft and beckoning their men forward. Now this would be a very ridiculous position for an officer to take, because it would expose him not only to the fire of the enemy but to the fire of his own men. The army regulations required the officers, on the formation of a line of battle, to take their places in the rear of the line. An officer whose bravery or vanity induced him to expose his rank to the enemy was certain to be made a special target.
The men particularly aimed at in battle were the officers, especially those of high rank, if they could be distinguished, the artillerymen, and those bearing the regimental colors; but most of the firing was at ranks or masses of men, just as one would shoot into a flock of blackbirds. The old soldier, however, generally aimed at some particular person and with a view of hitting him. The difference in this respect between a veteran and a raw recruit is illustrated in the story told by General Schofield in "Forty Six Years in the Army," p. 142, the substance of it being as follows: A new recruit after a battle was proudly exhibiting to a veteran his empty cartridge-box and boasting of how many rounds he had fired, but he could not tell how many he had hit. "And how many rounds did you fire?" asked the recruit. "About nineteen," was the reply. "And how many did you hit?" "I think," said the veteran, "that I hit about nineteen."
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