USA > Indiana > The Eighty-sixth regiment, Indiana volunteer infantry : a narrative of its services in the civil war of 1861-1865 > Part 3
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Company A was recruited in Boone county with Aaron Frazee as Captain, George W. Smith First Lieutenant, and Robert A. Williamson Second Lieutenant.
Company B was recruited in Carroll county with Francis J. Mattler as Captain, John S. Armitage First Lieutenant, and Jeremiah Hangh Second Lientenant.
Company C was recruited in Fountain county with Jacob C. Diek as Captain, William Burr First Lieutenant, and Oli- ver Boord as Second Lieutenant.
Company D was recruited in Warren county with Lewis Stevens as Captain, Jackson Hickson First Lieutenant, and Harris J. Gass Second Lieutenant.
Company E was recruited in Warren county with Philip Gemmer as Captain, George Hitchens First Lieutenant, and John R. Moore Second Lieutenant.
Company F was recruited in Boone county with William S. Sims as Captain, Jacob Palmer First Lieutenant, and Rob- ert W. Coolman Second Lieutenant.
Company G was recruited in Clinton county with John Seager as Captain, Samuel Douglass First Lieutenant, and Nelson R. Smith Second Lieutenant.
Company H was recruited in Clinton county with Milton Bell as Captain, James B. Newton First Lieutenant, and Uriah Thomas Second Lieutenant.
Company I was recruited in Tippecanoe, Clinton, Boone, and Montgomery counties with William C. Lambert as Cap- tain, John Gilliland First Lieutenant, and James T. Doster Second Lieutenant.
Company K was recruited in Montgomery county with William M. Southard as Captain, William H. Lynn First Lieutenant, and John M. Yount Second Lieutenant.
Orville S. Hamilton, of Lebanon, was commissioned as the first Colonel on September 6, 1862.
Dixon Fleming, of Warren county, was commissioned as
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INDIANA VOLUNTEERS.
Lieutenant Colonel September 6, 1862, but declined the com- mission October 21, 1862, without having been mustered into the service.
Jasper M. Dresser, of Lafayette, was commissioned as Major September 6, 1862.
Carson P. Rodman, of Lebanon, was commissioned as Adjutant on August 18, 1862, prior to the muster-in of the regiment.
Kersey Bateman, of Attica, was commissioned as Quar- termaster August 12, 1862, prior to the muster-in of the reg- iment.
Rev. William S. Harker, of Frankfort, was commissioned as Chaplain September 7, 1862.
James S. Elliott, M. D., of Thorntown, was commis- sioned as Surgeon September 6, 1862.
Joseph Jones, M. D., of Williamsport, was commissioned as Assistant Surgeon August 14, 1862, prior to the mnster-in in of the regiment.
Allen M. Walton, M. D., of LaFayette, was commis- sioned as Assistant Surgeon September 6, 1862.
Such was the organization of the regiment as to the Company officers and as to the Field and Staff officers at the time it moved to Indianapolis to be armed and equipped for active service. On the first of September the regiment was ordered to Camp Carrington, Indianapolis, and remained there for one week. The date of the muster-in of the regi- ment as such was September 4, 1862, and the mustering offi- cer was Col. J. S. Simonson, of the regular army. The change of scene from Camp Tippecanoeto Camp Carrington was very great to most of the men, and officers as well. The majority of the regiment saw here for the first time soldiers in full uniform and equipments and the moving of troops as they left their camps and marched out in full cam- paign outfit, with bands playing and colors flying starting for "the front." The air they breathed was full of martial strains, and every breeze bore to their ears the sounds in- cident to camp life. Sentries paced their beats, and received their instructions in regard to guard duties.
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THE EIGHTY-SIXTH REGIMENT,
The full and complete roster of the regiment is pub- lished with this history, and contains briefly a record of all changes that were made of the officers both of the field and Staff, and of the line, as well as the record of the enlisted men.
It may not be amiss in this connection to state that all of the Field and Staff, excepting Assistant Surgeon Jones, that were mustered in with the original organization retired before the hardest part of the service of the regiment was reached. Assistant Surgeon Walton was severely wounded at Chickamauga and died from the wounds there received. He was a good and faithful officer, kind and sympathetic in his disposition, and under all circumstances a gentlemen.
Of the orginal Captains at the organization six resigned, two were dismissed by court martial, two were promoted, one was mustered out with the regiment with same rank, and one, William M. Southard, of Company K, was killed in the storming of Missionary Ridge, November 25, 1863. Of Cap- tain Southard it can be truthfully said, no man was ever a more devoted friend than he, and as an officer he looked serupulously after the interests of his men. His death was such as any soldier living might wish for if fate decreed to him to die. He died in the midst of the charge on Mission- ary Ridge when the regiment had almost reached the sum- mit, and victory was just within its grasp. The shots had come thick and fast, the struggle had been a hard one, the troops were pushing through the leaden storm, cheered on by the voices of their officers. Captain Southard was doing his full duty when the soldier's summons came, and with a cheer to his men, and with a breath of love on his lips to her who had borne him, in the midst of that terrible shock of battle, as he received the death wound and while falling he spoke the word "Mother," and his soul went out to the God of battles, and battles for him were forever ended.
Of the original First and Second Lieutenants at the organization eight were promoted; eight resigned; two were dismissed; one, Second Lieutenant James T. Doster, of Com- pany I, died; and one, First Lieutenant George W. Smith, of
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INDIANA VOLUNTEERS.
Company A, was killed in the first day's engagement at Stone's River, December 31, 1862.
CHAPTER III.
THE INITIATION.
Camp Tippecanoe-1ts Fine Location-Hard Beds-Trials for Hoosier Stomachs -Edible Blankets-Electing Officers-Physical Examinations-First Efforts at Drill-Raiding the Sutler.
The separation of friends was much the same in all places and at all times for the soldier when called to duty in the field during our late war. There was always a strong prob- ability that this separation was final. This probability of never again meeting these friends embittered the parting more than one can tell, and whatever the sense of duty of offering one's service to his torn, distracted, and bleeding country all were loth to separate from those whom they held dearest-dearer than life itself-when that separation was quite possibly for all time. . No one feeling the ties of kinship, the love for wife and children, for brothers and sis- ters, or love and reverence for parents, or that tender emo- tion of the lover for his sweet-heart will deny that it was to him a most severe and terrible trial, and cost him many a pang and prolonged heartache.
On entering Camp Tippecanoe each man was wide awake to take observations concerning his new life. The high roll- ing ground and its superior drainage made it a splendid loca- tion for a military camp. The sheds used for sleeping pur- poses were mere temporary structures, built of undressed boards from the saw mill. The camp in general was very scantily furnished with the most necessary articles for con- venience or comfort. The bunks were not even supplied with straw.
THE EIGHTY-SIXTH REGIMENT,
Some of the seeming hardships which will be here related probably the more staid and dignified historians would scarcely pause to notice, much less to chronicle, but they are told that our children may learn and know of them. They were trivial ones, no doubt, yet life is made up of little things, and subsistence is one of the indis- pensable things in existence, and quite as necessary to the newly recruited soldier as to any other class, for next to an infant the average raw-recruit is among the most helpless of beings. It is reasonable to believe that the conditions which are here delineated had no little effect in undermin- ing and ruining the health of many who, under more favor- able circumstances, might have made fairly serviceable sol- diers. The utter repulsion of food caused by these condi- tions so far weakened digestion in many a sturdy lad as to sow the seeds of disease, for the elements of weakness caused by the repugnance to food ultimately produced camp- diarrhea, and probably still more frequently caused that condition of mind known as nostalgia, or home-sickness, which of all things most completely destroyed the usefulness of a man as a soldier while still leaving him in possession of a fair portion of his faculties and physical powers. But it frequently went much farther than this; it robbed him of strength and made him a physical wreck, and it often so com- pletely unnerved him mentally that he would cry like a child at the bare mention of home or friends. This condi- tion of body and mind was frequently brought about by the great shock to the system of the young men when they had to endure unexpected hardships and extremely nauseating rations, as at Camp Tippecanoe, where it was expected everything in the line of catables to be both clean and palata- ble. This statement of the origin of disease and home-sick- ness may seem, to the inexperienced, to be a strong one and rather far fetched, but having witnessed the deep disgust and utter loathing of food by, at least, apparently healthy young men immediately almost upon arriving in camp, it is believed this statement is not overdrawn. Most of the old soldiers who read this can bear witness that the picture here
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INDIANA VOLUNTEERS.
given is not too highly colored nor stated in too strong terms. The trials which are imposed on one changing from a civil life to that of a soldier are not, and cannot be appre- ciated by any one who has never made the change and who never experienced the privations incident thereto.
Going into camp at LaFayette, so near home and friends, surrounded by all things necessary to make one comfortable and cheerful many did not consider it as soldiering but rather as picnicing. Here all were to have a good time when once they got inured to camp life. It was to be a joyous prelude to the more arduous duties of the campaigning that was to come when they were thoroughly drilled and fitted for the field of action. And so it was in many respects, a very good time if all could have accepted it as such, although there were some bitter doses. Many thought they would live fine, drill a little for exercise and that the change would be so little that in all essential things it would not be unlike home life.
The realizations of these astounding changes at once aroused the perceptive faculties to great activity. It set thoughts afoot-a running, as it were, and the boys pondered much upon their situation and wondered what would come next. They reasoned in regard to future developments that if there was such a marked difference between their concep- tion of camp-life and camp-life as found here under the most favorable circumstances, what bewildering and astounding changes in camp-life and campaigning would be presented when once ushered into the field of active duties in the enemy's country. There where the real rather than the imaginary trials are met face to face, where hardships, pri- vations, and suffering from the vicissitudes of heat and cold are extremely oppressive, where death stalks by his side and and that continually there and there only can be witnessed the great trials of the soldier, and there only can his heroism and the extent of his offering on the altar of his country be understood and fully appreciated. These thoughts came with great force and suggested the thought: What next? True they had volunteered in the service at the call of their
:
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THE EIGHTY-SIXTH REGIMENT,
country with the determination to do their full duty. It was however, never supposed that it would add to the danger of probable death by a rebel bullet, the pangs of starvation in a country so overflowing with all the necessaries of life as in the Northwestern States, and in a country so traversed and intersected by railroads as both the North and the South furnishing such ample means for transportation of these necessaries. Their minds became greatly excited and the more they gave wing to their imagination the more excited they became. They could not unravel the mystery of the future, or tear aside the veil which hid from view coming events. It was well they could not. They had but to do their duty and bide their time.
In referring to the hardships of diet in Camp Tippeca- noe it is not meant to insinuate that the Commissary of Sub- sistence of the camp failed to do his full duty in furnishing rations. All certainly had plenty to eat, indeed, much that none wanted, and yet ate it-reluctantly it is true, but ate it all the same. There was plenty of bread and meat and an abundance of good water. The bread was fairly good baker's bread. The meat was excellent. What then was the trouble, may be asked. But the difficulty of mastication and degluti- tion were not directly referable to the quality of the bread or meat, or any of the solid foods issued, nor were they occasioned by the quality of the drinks pure and simple. The malignant imp that presided over the appetite and almost defeated the plan of subsistence was not in any of these arti- cles originally, but it was over and in all of these before they were finally and fully prepared for the palate. It ruled in camp everywhere -- that is in Camp Tippecanoe. To be more explicit, the different companies of the Eighty-sixth upon their arrival in camp had issued to them a lot of coarse white hairy blankets, the like of which had never been seen before or since. They could hardly be called woolen, but were com- posed of coarse stiff hairs which were ever ready upon a touch to desert their place in the original fabric and cling with wonderful tenacity to the place of their adoption as des- ignated by the accidental touch. In these blankets the boys
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INDIANA VOLUNTEERS.
stood guard at night. They threw them around their should- ' ers in the chill of cool evenings ; they slept in their bunks wrapped in them, and consequently they were literally cov- ered from head to foot with these foul, unsightly hairs. Like the effects of original sin they were ever present. Clothing was covered with them; nose, eyes, mouth, and ears were filled with them. An hundred Esaus spat and sput- tered from morning until night, and from night until morn- ing again to free their mouths of these persistent abomina- tions, and they came far short of success. There were few or no vessels yet provided which could be used for transferring the rations from the regimental commissary department to the company quarters. Therefore these blankets came read- ily into use; for rations we had to have. Thus at a very early date there was a very general and liberal admixture of these blanket hairs with all rations drawn to be used by the companies. But there was never a hair missed. The crop was an unfailing one, and there was always on hand an abundant supply. By this double use of the blankets the hairs were generously and even copiously distributed every- where; no place or person was slighted. The bunks were full of them ; the rude tables were festooned with them ; the bread was dressed and robed with them ; the meat was duly apparaled with the fashionable garb of the day and conse- quently was well covered with coarse white hairs. They in- vaded the sugar; tin plates were ornamented and embellished in various designs by these long, stiff, tickling, unwelcome nauseating hairs. Tin coffee-cups were likewise wreathed and fringed in fantastic dressings with them. In short, not a drinking or cooking utensil or vessel of any kind could be found about the company quarters of that camp but what was fully decorated with these white robed conquerors. With a persistence that seemed born of intelligence they were ever present-conquering time and space and the palates of hundreds of sturdy lads and strong men, showing no favors to any. Yet they taught a good lesson: they were like true soldiers always at the front and every ready to per- form their full duty. The boys were at first disgusted, then
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THE EIGHTY-SIXTH REGIMENT,
angry, then both disgusted and angry, then disgusted, angry, and sick. for the gorge of every man did not fail to rise in rebellion against such treatment, as every well-fed, well- treated, and cultivated stomach should do. Yet this or a similar experience may have in one sense been necessary and beneficial in proving the boys' stomachs and preparing them for that which was to come, for although these consti- tuted their last and only ration of edible blankets they suf- fored many hardships and sore trials of the stomach and pal- ate during their term of service. This was, however, their worst and most trying experience of the palate while they remained in camp at LaFayette.
After their arrival in camp the boys were called up for examination and acceptance or rejection by the examining surgeons. This was soon completed. Some few were re- jected who were really very anxious to go to the front and servo their country. The physical defects on account of which they were rejected were not in most cases marked ones so as to be noticeable by non-professionals, and the rejected ones were much crest-fallen because of their rejection, and declared that they were better men physically, that they were healthier, stronger, and more capable of enduring fatigue, exposure, and every manner of hardships than others of their comrades who were accepted. Some few even went so far as to make a request of the surgeons to accept them and again failed. The surgeons were the autocrats of the occasion and their decision was final. But generally the boys of the Eighty-sixth were a robust and sturdy lot of Hoosiers composed of young men accustomed to physical exercise - and to labor either upon the farm or at some trade, mostly of tine form and fine fibre and of as good nerve and muscle as the Western country could produce. Therefore a slight ex- amination was sufficient to satisfy the surgeons that they were good for any ordinary or reasonable service of camp or field with proper care, training and handling to inure and accustom them to the diet, duties, and habits of a sol- dier's life.
Soon after the men were accepted by the examining sur-
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INDIANA VOLUNTEERS.
geons they were called out upon the drill ground to go through the form of the election of officers. It was but a mere form as the whole thing was set up, cut and dried, as is said in politics. Of course there were some who were disap- pointed, but with a commendable spirit of patriotism there was but little grumbling. Some of the best men in the dif- ferent companies were undoubtedly defrauded of their rights and had to receive orders from those who were in every way their inferiors as soldiers and as men. But in no particular did these defrauded ones show their superior qualities both as men and as soldiers more markedly than by their orderly conduct and quiet submission, and their prompt obedience to all orders and their readiness for every duty.
After being passed by the surgeons as being physically capable and suitable for the service in the army of the United States, and the farce of the election of company offiers was gone through, the boys were ordered to drill so many hours each day. No time was to be lost. There was an urgent demand for more troops in the field, and it was necessary that they should be given as much drill as they could well perform and thus be speedily prepared to go to the front. It was then very necessary and everyway desir- able that the regiment should be well drilled at the earliest possible date. Accordingly daily drill was the order. Here again was trouble, not of so serious a character, it is true, as to cause the loss of life or directly to destroy health, yet quite enough to frequently cause vexations and very trying disputes between the men in ranks being drilled and the drill- masters. The yoking together of unequals always causes an extra expenditure of force. Here there were many un- equals with varying degrees of inequalities of form, strength, motion and constitution-the most diversified inequalities of both the muscular system and of the brain and nervous sys- tem. From these arose multiplied jars and aggravations and as a natural consequence a great waste of muscular force and a rapid and an immense expenditure of nervous energy. These expenditures of the natural forces of the body at such a rapid rate, at a time when already greatly over-taxed
THE EIGHTY-SIXTH REGIMENT,
caused nervous irritation and "the wear and tear" which makes a good humor impossible. In these drills there was this yoking. Here was the quick, nervous, rapid mover whose mental make-up was of the same nature as his physi- cal constitution, and who took in the points of drill as read- ily as given, matched with the slow and even sluggish in body and mind-whose physical nature was but the counterpart of his mental constitution and whom it required weeks and months to learn to "catch step." The long gangling youth of immense bone, great stride, and deliberate tread was to be drilled alongside of the shortof stature, quick of step, and short of reach. The rapidity of stride of the one had to be checked and his step lengthened, the stepof the other had to be quiekened and his reach shortened, things to the uniniti -. ated, the untrained, difficult to perform. The various nat- ural gaits of a thousand men confirmed by the unrestricted habit of years was no easy matter to break up and change to the regular, time-keeping, cadenced tread of the trained veteran soldier. It was making a machine of the liberty loving son of toil who had known no master and whose motions had been free and unrestricted as the air he breathed, yet this very breaking up and training to time-keeping tread had to be done or there was an end to drill, and consequently of all hopes of that regularity and precision required in the execution of all military evolutions. The importance of keeping step can scarcely be overestimated in an attempt to march a regiment in line of battle, or. in fact, any military manenver or evolution requiring regularity of movement and precision of action. Its importance is never fully appre- ciated by the civilian or new recruit. So it was with the Eighty-sixth in Camp Tippecanoe. Drill duties were a severe trial of patience. The short, brief word of command deliv- ered in tones of authority by, the drill-master grated harshly on the young American ear that had not been accustomed to be so ordered by man, and who still thought this to be a " free country " and themselves " freemen" as many of them expressed it. Not unfrequently there would be a brief and forcible expostulation uttered in reply to some command em-
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INDIANA VOLUNTEERS.
phasized by an explosive adjective in an irritated tone of voice and a threat to get even with the drill-master in the no distant future. There were many complaints made, de- murs were entered, and protests filed, but all came to naught so far as action was concerned. Drill progressed much the same as though no complaints had been made. The cry by lond voiced sergeants and corporals drilling squads here and there could be heard at all times of the day. " Left, left, left, left." "Catch step ;" "Guide right ;" Left, left, left, un- til it became monotonous and irksome in the extreme. Still the drill had to go on and did go on. But then it is aston- ishing how soon a raw recruit will tire of drill. He will imagine that he is worn out and broken down with drilling before he has learned its first principles. The Eighty-sixth were raw recruits ; yes, an awkward squad.
No events transpired in camp at LaFayette that were of particular importance in the military history of the regi- ment. In fact the organization here was but the chrysalis of what was afterwards the regiment-merely in a state of pupilage. However on Sunday night a depredation was committed which caused a flurry of excitement to run through camp the following morning. This was very distinctly and positively not military. On the morning spoken of it was discovered that the sutler's tent was laid low. His tent and goods gave the only evidence that a cyclone had struck the camp. The whole matter was easily explained. The Hoos- iers were getting ready for a campaign and had tried their hands on the sutler's tent and goods. The establishment gave evidence of their prowess. It was evidently of pillage and had been well executed. The man attending to the stock of goods had gone to town during the night. Some of the vig- ilant, riotous spirits of camp had observed this and soon col- lected from the quarters others equally bold and turbulent as themselves to complete the work contemplated. Who or- ganized the raid or led the raiders is not known positively, but certain it is, that the work was artistically done; for if ever a sutler's tent was stretched flat and his goods strewn to the four winds surely here was the time and place. The
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