USA > Indiana > The Eighty-sixth regiment, Indiana volunteer infantry : a narrative of its services in the civil war of 1861-1865 > Part 26
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in and bring to camp some provender found by the wayside. It was needed as they journeyed on their pilgrimage.
On the following morning, December 1, it was expected to resume the march early, but having to cross the Hiwassee river on a boat, Wood's division, at least Beatty's brigade, was delayed. The boys remained about the bivouac fires whiling away the time by parching corn. The command at this camp drew that which purported to be three days' rations of hard bread, sugar and coffee, but the allowance was very scant. The rest given by this waiting would have been most gratefully accepted had the men not known that they would have to pay for it with the most painful and weary leg service. The command crossed the Hiwassee on a boat called the "Paint Rock" between 6 and 9 o'clock p. m., and got to camp at 9:30, bivouacking a mile from the river in a thicket of brush.
On the morning of December 2, the command resumed its line of march at daylight, and pressed forward as rapidly as the condition of the roads would permit. The roads were heavy and the marching extremely slavish. The men became greatly exhausted, many falling behind. A half hour halt at noon for dinner refreshed the men and the column pushed ahead, passing through Decatur, the county-seat of Meigs county, and bivouacked, having marched seventeen miles. The men were aware of the object of the march and the lit- tle murmuring indulged was not proportionate to the hard- ships endured.
Reveille was sounded at 4 o'clock the following morning. The "thin clear notes" of the last bugle sounded to waken the weary soldiery had not ceased their echoing when the flames of fires began to leap, flicker, and play and throw backward from them the gloom of night. Fires speedily sprang up, and the moving torches carried to kindle other more distant fires revealed the muffled forms of the more drowsy comrades, the stacked arms, the cooking utensils, and the many wild, strange scenes which are common to the bivouac of a campaigning force. A bivouac is bizarre at best, but that of a command on a forced march is of the rudest
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INDIANA VOLUNTEERS.
and most grotesque form. Such was this morning's bivouac. Many of the boys weary and sleepy as only soldiers can get, after hurling some fierce denunciation at the "blasted bugler," slept again after reveille. But they had as little time for sleeping as others had for noting the beauty, and the picturesqueness of their surroundings. The morning meal was to be prepared and eaten; cooking utensils were to be packed for marching; blankets were to be rolled up; in short, all those things which are so necessary to the soldier when in camp and so cumbersome to him in ranks, were to be arranged that they might least feel the burden. These things emphasized themselves on this march as it was not one where "the column dragged its slow length along, " but a rushing one to succor and to save comrades in extremest peril. The command was led by the grandest of all raiders, the gallant and matchless Sherman, who marched with un- approachable celerity, and struck, with unerring aim, blows that went home to the heart of the Confederacy. Therefore, it was neccessary to start in the morning of every day's march in the best possible trim. But the command was soon ready, and just at sun-rise the Eighty-sixth filed out from its bivouac on to the road. The column set forward at once, halting only for brief rests every three or four miles until 1:30 p. m. when, upon reaching Pond Spring, "thirty min- utes for dinner" was announced. The meal consisted of the conventional hard tack, of which the supply was almost ex- hausted, bacon and coffee. At 2 o'clock the tramp was re- sumed at the same rapid gait as before. On that afternoon's march the men were informed by the officers that they would not draw any more rations until they reached Knoxville-not very encouraging information to a hungry set of men. About this time the command turned from its easterly line of march and bore off nearly due south, crossing a low mountainous ridge into a fine open valley. Covering three or four miles after crossing the ridge it came to a nice little town called Sweetwater, situated in the valley which is known by the same name. Wood's division passed beyond the town one mile and bivouacked on a slight elevation of ground in an
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THE EIGHTY-SIXTH REGIMENT,
open field with a higher wooded hill to the southeast and three hundred yards distant. The regiment and most of the brigade stacked arms in line with this rise of ground, and its line of battle facing southeast.
With the alacrity which the necessity of fleeting oppor- innity imposes on the slothful and inspires in the more ener- getic, the men quickly had a snug pile of rails and were busily engaged in preparing to make themselves as comfort- able for the night as a limited "commissary department " would permit. It was at this Sweetwater camp that a thrill- ing and exciting incident occurred which all who were with the regiment on that march will remember. The principal actors were W. W. Barnes and John D. Packer, of Company H. The announcement that no more rations would be issued until Knoxville was reached induced these two soldiers to sally out of camp on an independent foraging expedition before the picket line was established.
Packer was an original character, the like of which is seldom seen actively engaged in the exercise of all of his fully developed powers in the respectable walks of civil life. In person he was tall and well proportioned. He was young, active and apparently tireless, generally good humored but sometimes irritable, venting his ill-humor on his comrades. A natural straggler and forager when on the march, he re- fused to be confined to the ranks, always looking for and scenting plunder. He would pillage on the left flank in the morning and bestow his plunder upon his comrades at the noon-halt with unrivaled prodigality. He would renew his ravages in the afternoon on the right flank despoiling lar- ders, sacking smoke-houses, and devastating barn-yards and poultry roosts, bribing messmates to carry the spoils to camp by the prospect of a feast, but guarding and hoarding the loot when it once reached the bivouac with a miser's care and crabbedness, for he had a soldier's stomach and appetite. He had fairly earned his varions titles of " pot-hound, " "jay- hawker," "poacher, " and " bummer." As a vigorous uni- versal "in gatherer of provender " he would have taken rank with General Dan Macauley's famous " pirooter " in his
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palmiest days. A lark in the morning, a hawk at noon, and an owl at night. He could double discount skunk, weasel, and fox combined in catching chickens. He would filch from the dignified country gentleman, or his old decrepit African "mamma " with equal indifference. In the very wantonness of this "pirooting" spirit, he would steathily abstract the choicest viands from the table of the most beau- tiful and refined lady, who, out of the goodness of her heart and in the most gracious manner, had bestowed upon him enough of excellent food to satisfy hunger for days all of which he would receive with the greatest humility and even servility, or he would rob the half naked, poorly fed pick- aninny of its coarest corn-dodger and its greasiest "sop" with a nonchalance of manner and buffoonery of action which both astonished the beholder and forced him to laugh, in spite of his better nature, at the ridiculous conduct. Such was his indifference that it was often a question whether it arose from a heart devoid of sympathy or from a lack of intelligence.
In a very few minutes after reaching the place of bivouac they were ready. Barnes took nothing but a large butcher knife and Packer his gun and a few cartridges in his pocket. Not thinking of the hard march they had made, but antici- pating the nice piece of fresh Tennessee pork they would bring back to camp, they sallied forth in high hopes. Glanc- ing up at the sun to calculate the time at their disposal they sped away at a rapid pace. Barnes with his quick, strong, sweeping stride in the lead, followed by Packer with his gun on his shoulder and with a quick, jerking step and his hat cocked over his eyes. "You may go ahead now, pardner, but I'm chief of this expedition, all the same, and don't you forget, " and so he swaggered on. They had passed out into a lane that ran along the right of the regiment as it lay in bivouac, and were rapidly nearing the woods on the hillside, when a shot was heard, and some one remarked: " Why, the boys soon found a hog." Barnes, too, at this time remarked to Packer, "We'll have to hurry up, John, some one is ahead of us," and they pressed forward with still greater alacrity.
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Somebody was ahead of them, sure enough, but they were not hunting hogs. The boys were now drawing quite near the woods and were somewhat startled to hear the challenge thundered close to them in rather more than ordinary mili- tary sternness, "Halt, you blank Yankee blank of blank," and with the word two mounted rebel cavalrymen rode down the hill, out of the woods, almost upon the boys, and opened a brisk fire upon them from their revolvers and car- bines. It looked like certain death for both of the blue-coats right in the face of the whole division. Pop, pop, went their revolvers, szip, szip, came the balls. Barnes had no gun and consequently at that distance had no means of either attack or defense, and, of course limbered to the rear at once at a more rapid pace than he had gone forward. Pop, pop, went the carbines. He came down the lane as he had gone out in the advance of the column of two. Pop, pop, went the car- bines, szip, szip, came the balls. The boys came flying down the lane. Pop, pop, went the carbines, szip, szip, came the the balls in close proximity to their ears, and tired legs could not carry them half fast enough. The balls hissed spitefully and unpleasantly near the boys as they came rushing down the lane. Packer kept Barnes close company for perhaps half the distance to the bivouac, then taking shelter in a fence corner returned the bushwhackers' fire. Not knowing but that these daring fellows were the skirmishers or scouts of a strong cavalry force near at hand, Colonel Dick ordered the regiment to stand to arms, and at the same time ordered a company to be thrown forward and deployed as skirmishers. The company at once opened fire on the valorous enemy to develop his strength. But it proved to be just two adven- turous spirits who saw their chance to have a crack at a "Yank." The skirmishers pressing rapidly forward suc- ceeded in killing one of their horses, and as a trophy, brought in the saddle; but the men made good their escape by doub- ling on the remaining horse.
The two would-be foragers came safely to the bivouac. It was really a close call for both of them, yet it served as matter for quite a good deal of good humored raillery among
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the comrades for some days. Soon the report came back from the skirmish line that no enemy was in sight and the regiment again broke ranks and proceeded with the prepara- tions for the night's bivouac. The menu was exceedingly scant. There was no savory smell of fresh pork, only a very small supply of hard tack, parched corn, and coffee.
Reveille was sounded next morning, the 4th, at the usual hour, 4 o'clock, and the Eighty-sixth filed out upon the road in the advance of the brigade at sunrise. The column started out on the road to Loudon. Details of foragers were made from all the regiments to secure supplies of provisions. The Eighty-sixth's foragers having to travel over the same ground passed over by the foragers of the two brigades in advance had but little success in getting supplies without traveling great distances on the flank, which at the rate of speed the column was moving they could not easily do. This placed them at a great disadvantage and the men were con- sequently extremely scarce of anything to eat. Still the foragers, detailed and independent, came not to camp en- tirely empty handed. A noon halt was made for dinner and the march then continued. The brigade bivouacked between 3 and 4 o'clock in the afternoon, the Eighty-sixth being de- tailed for picket.
Notwithstanding the boys had been notified that they would not receive any more rations until they reached Knox- ville, on the morning of the 5th an issue was made to the command. The allowance was very scant and required more care and time to divide and distribute than if the supply had been more plentiful. About 7 o'clock a. m. the march was resumed. Arriving at the Little Tennessee river there was delay on account of the bridge being broken. The command remained here until about noon and got dinner before cross- ing the river. The crossing was made at Morgantown. The column was rushed forward as though it was going all the way that afternoon-almost on the run with very few rests. The command was strung out upon the road and badly scat- tered. This pace was maintained for hours. The men who got behind their commands knew it was impossible to catch
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up and therefore took things easy. Many of them began foraging, raking in without mercy everything edible. The command bivouacked about 10 o'clock p. m. The men who had kept their places in the ranks were almost completely exhausted. Leg weary and footsore many threw themselves down to sleep without awaiting to prepare their usual cup of coffee. It was a desperate push and the men would have been more than human if they had uttered no protest against the unexampled exertions they had been required to make on this occasion. It fell with particular force upon the Eighty-sixth on account of its vigil while on picket the pre- vious night. The distance marched that day was eighteen miles.
On the following morning reveille was sounded at 4 o'clock and the regiment breakfasted almost entirely on for- age provisions, save good old government coffee. Its place could not be supplied by any article which could be foraged, though the men were compelled to use it sparingly on ac- count of its scarcity. The command resumed the route step about daylight and speedily covered three miles and arrived at Maryville, the county seat of Blount county. Here the command rested for a short time. A part of Sherman's troops, of the Army of the Tennessee, were here also. After leaving Maryville the regiment proceeded at a rapid pace and reeled off about five miles without a halt. Passing through a small place called Springfield it reached a stream known as Little river. Here the men were informed that they would remain an hour or two and possibly all night.
During the afternoon flour was issued to the regiment- about a tablespoonful and a half to the man. But to encour- age the men they were informed that both flour and meat would be issued some time during the night. About sun- down a few potatoes were issued, and so far as they went, were very acceptable. The day had been fine and was quite comfortable and agreeable in that respect, but as the men could not live on fine weather it did not satisfy or compensate them for their lack of rations. The command was getting farther and farther from its base of supplies, and consequently
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the difficulty of supplying it with rations greatly increased. The single line of railroad to Chattanooga was barely suffi- cient to supply the troops there and along the line. Now, if the Army of the Ohio and the Fourth corps had to be sup- plied from there and depend upon one or two small boats to con- vey the supplies up the river to Knoxville with what their small wagon train could haul over such villainous roads, the outlook for the winter was not particularly bright. Conse- quently the troops must, under the circumstances and condi- tions, often be destitute, or live off the country. The lat- ter alternative was far from encouraging, as the rebel army had already pretty effectually collected the surplus for its subsistence. This rendered the situation more alarming than it otherwise would have been. The command bivouacked here on the night of the 6th.
On the morning of the 7th reveille was sounded at 4 o'clock, and the orders were to march at 7 a. m., but the Eighty- sixth with the Third brigade did not start until 8:30. They marched about a mile and came to the place of crossing Lit- tle river, and were delayed for some time. The place of crossing was at Rockford, a small village ten miles from Knoxville. When the brigade was across the stream the col- umn marched at a rapid rate, at least, wherever the roads would permit a show of speed, but as the roads were muddy and the country broken and hilly, great speed was out of the question. Dragging through the mud up and down hill was very tiresome, and as many were destitute of bread, and no halts were called which would enable them to bake, they be- came weak and exhausted. The halts were few and brief, and there was a very tired and an extremely hungry com- mand when the Third brigade of Wood's division bivouacked on the evening of the 6th of December-about sundown in the edge of a strip of timber not far from the Holston river, two miles south of the city of Knoxville. The goal was reached. The prize was won. The city was saved and the imperiled army succored. Gen. Longstreet on hearing of the advance of the forces of Sherman assaulted Burnside's works-Fort Sanders-attempting to overpower him before the rescuing
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column could get within striking distance. The assault was made just at daybreak on the morning of the 29th of Novem- ber, and was of the most determined and desperate character. but was handsomely repulsed. Longstreet lingered a few days about the city's works and drew away on the 4th of December, retiring toward Virginia.
The steady tramp of Sherman's column was inexorable as fate, and Longstreet, cool and daring as he was, knew it was worse than useless to face and contend with both Sher- and Burnside. He gave up the struggle, but for the Fourth corps it was only fairly begun. It was true the forced march for the rescue was over. Success had crowned the effort after much suffering. But now Sherman was to return to his own department, while Wood's and Sheridan's divisions, of the Fourth corps, were to remain in the Department of the Ohio, and render Burnside's success secure from future at- tacks. The late perilous situation of his army had been too great for those in authority to be willing to again expose it to the risks of such a siege. Therefore, two divisions of the Fourth corps were left as reinforcements for the Army of the Ohio upon the request of General Burnside.
The Fourth corps was to remain in East Tennessee-in the Department of the Ohio, and endure the hardships of that isolated command. And most of the rank and file always con- tended that Wood's division suffered more than the Army of the Ohio; that being only detached troops they did not have the favors extended to them from the commissary depart- ment which the troops of the department received. Be that as it may, it is certain that all suffered great hardships and endured the most severe privations. Perhaps the suffering of the troops in East Tennessee during the winter of 1863-64 was the most severe of any general body of troops of the Union army during the war, not even excepting the siege of Chattanooga. But the men had no thought of these great trials in store for them on their arrival at the bivouac on the bank of Holston river opposite Knoxville.
At this camp opposite Knoxville, the Eighty-sixth made its first batch of flapjacks out of that abominable stuff known
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in East Tennessee as "sick flour. " It would be futile to at- tempt to describe the sensations one experiences from eat- ing it. Ipecacuanha, or lobelia, is not more sickening. The suffering one endures from it is of the depressing and nau- seating character with various extras thrown in. The regi- ment had a good supply of rails and only lacked in rations to be reasonably comfortable when the first supply of this flour was procured. The men were delighted and expected to live well so long as the flour lasted. All were soon busily engaged baking flapjacks, and there was not a great deal of ceremony wasted until they were disposed of, for the time being at least, but it did not prove to be the final disposition. Soon the fun began. if fun it may be called. First the saliva began to flow, then the stomach began to have its misgiv- ings, then rebellion and tumult became evident and the poor weakened stomach insisted on throwing off the vile mixture. It was soon very evident that these stomachs did not pro- pose to be imposed upon in any such a manner. Their func- tion was to digest food and this was no food, but a poison. In fact, many of the boys imagined that some rebel fiend had actually attempted to poison them by poisoning the flour, and concluded that in his efforts to poison a whole army he had mixed the poison with so much flour that it was so divided up until each one only got enough to sicken and dis- quiet him instead of enough to kill as was intended. But it certainly would have been laughable to a person not inter- ested to have watched one who had eaten heartily of these flapjacks. First, he would be a little uneasy and restless. If sitting by the fire he would change his position frequently, probably get up and stand by the fire, turning a few times this way or that as if he were undecided as to the position he wished to assume for comfort But the decision was soon made. He would battle against fate and strive at first to control the internal commotion and put the rebellion down. That was what he had enlisted for. But the tenacious, stringy saliva would soon begin to flow in unmistakable ropes from the unwilling mouth. The sufferer would turn deathly pale, take a few quick steps away from the camp-
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fire-a sudden upheaval from the stomach, a volcanic erup- tion, minus the fire, and the climax was reached. It was a topsy-turvy, side splitting effort made to empty the stomach, and it was usually quite effectual. It was to the hungry soldiery a calamity. They were lanker than hounds and there lay their flapjacks on the ground with no other provis- ions in sight except this same "sick flour."
There were a few men with cast iron stomachs who did not at first get sick, and these guyed, in a most unmerciful manner. those who complained of this sickening stuff. These cast iron fellows accused the sick ones of making gluttons of themselves, averring that their sickness was not on account of the bad qualities of the flour but owing solely to their ex- cessive indulgence, and it was therefore merely a just punish- ment which they richly deserved. However, sooner or later even these cast iron fellows had to succumb to its overpowering qualities and acknowledge the potency of its debilitating influence. Sometimes it did not vomit, but sick- ened, and caused an obstinate and debilitating diarrhœa that had a strong tendency to assume the form of dysentery. It produced the severe headache which usually accompanies in- digestion and also the general malaise. Of course as one might suppose the symptoms of an acute attack of indiges- tion were present and even exaggerated. But the men were not long in learning the nature of their ailment. Yet when they came to know its nature very well, as an old and fa- miliar acquaintance, a thing indigenous to this locality, while they remained in this department they were often compelled to use it, notwithstanding they knew at the time they were ingesting pain and sickness, and perhaps untold misery. It is probable that this "sick flour " was responsible for the loss of more than one life to the Union cause. Frequently. however, it was Hobson's choice, that or nothing, and sick- ness although painful and extremely annoying was prefer- able to starvation. So the men ate to live, although they were sick unto death always after eating it. This was a case equal to eating the first army blanket at Camp Tippecanoe. "Sick flour " was not only an unsubstantial diet, but a most
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distressing one. There was no way of testing the flour but by eating it. It was indeed a sore and heavy trial to weary, hungry men.
CHAPTER XIX.
KNOXVILLE AND BEYOND.
Blain's Cross Roads-House Mountain-Lye Hominy-Parched Corn-A Bleak December-Gaunt Hunger, Rags and ley Winter Go Hand and Hand-Christ- mas Thoughts-That Cold New Years- Mail From llome-Strawberry Plains-To Dandridge and Back-A Second Valley Forge.
The Eighty-sixth remained in camp near Knoxville until the 16th of December, performing the various duties incident to camp-life. The supply of rations continued extremely meager. Meat principally consisted of mutton, but occasion- ally the boys had a little poor beef. For bread-stuff some- times they had a little meal. and it was very little, and oc- casionally they had the "sick flour." The price of all kinds of provisions was very high. A very dark and poor quality of sorghum molasses was readily sold at 25 cents a pint or $2 per gallon. There was no grumbling at prices when any- thing to eat could be purchased. The men were frequently out of bread, and then they would forage corn, and parched and ate it to appease hunger. In fact, parched corn was about one-half of the Eighty-sixth's living during the entire winter. On the 14th appearances indicated that the regi- ment would remain at this camp for some time, and the men. therefore, set about to make themselves more comfortable. Huts sprang up everywhere, covered with shelter tents. From a brick kiln near by bricks were procured to construct chimneys, and the camp of the Eighty-sixth at once swarmed with carriers of brick, mixers of mortar, and brick-layers. The walls and the chimneys grew apace and it soon looked like a city springing up as if by magic. Although it was
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