USA > Indiana > The soldier of Indiana in the war for the union, Vol. I > Part 22
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One day a young man, a stalwart fellow, but with a face as gentle and fair as a girl's, stood leaning on a broom with which he had been sweeping, and looking intently out of the window. His expression attracted. the attention of a lady
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who was in the hospital, and she appoached him. "The poor soldier," he said, when he saw that she was near ; " the poor soldier, I am sorry for him, if I am one myself." Before the door of the opposite house were ranged two files of soldiers, and through the passage others were carrying a coffin.
Music and the firing of artillery were early forbidden, on account of the depressing influence the solemn and oft-re- peated sounds had on the sick, and now in silence the dead were borne to the grave-yard and laid away in the earth.
Another time this same nurse said to the lady, " I thought you would like to know that I am a member of the church." "I am glad to know it," she replied. " Yes," he continued, "I joined four years ago, and I have never sworn a word since."
A good many of the young men were pious. Joseph Drake was sick a long time, but he was always uncomplain- ing. A lady who feared he was going to die asked, "Is he a good man?" "If ever there was a good man," answered one of the boys, who was from the same part of the country, "it's Joe Drake. He was a class leader in Hope. He's a scholar, too, Joe is. He was in college there in Hope four years. His father's very well off. He has a good farm, and Joe is used to having things comfortable. It's been hard on Joc, this soldier's life; but he knew it would be. Before ever he volunteered he said he didn't believe he could stand the hardship; he never was very stout." " Why did he volunteer then?" "Oh, Joe isn't the kind to turn his back on his coun- try. He said it was a righteous cause, and he wouldn't shirk. What life he had he'd give freely."
The next night Drake was so low that one of the nurses watched beside him till morning, bathing his parched lips, wiping the death-sweat from his forehead, and listening to his broken sentences. In the middle of the night the sick man said to his companion, "I've got a furlough." "Have you?" exclaimed the other in surprise; " they'll be mighty glad at home." "It's not for that home," replied the dying man; "it's for that," looking upward. At nine o'clock in the morning the angel of death brought the furlough, and the
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CORRESPONDENCE.
soldier of the Union, who was also a soldier of the Cross, went to his heavenly home.
Two extracts from private letters, written by a lady nurse in Crab Orchard, give a faithful and unstudied tribute to the inmates of the hospitals :
" No, I am not as you say an 'exile of patriotism.' The men are friends and acquaintances, and the work is only hard and sad because it is terrible to see these brave fellows suffer. I want to do it above everything. I never was half so happy in all my life. Of course Mrs. - - envies me, for what woman now-a-days does not sicken of a life at home, safe but not happy, because all we hold dear is at stake? It is the best blessing God ever gave me, to let me come and help in the only way a woman can. If I may only have this work until the war is over, and the strength to do it, I will never complain of anything again. I would buy the privilege with the happiest hour and memory I have.
"There is less sickness now, only one hundred and fifty very sick, though many are on duty who are really what we should call very sick at home. The Lieutenant-Colonel's wife is a good nurse, and is now here, so we are comparatively well fixed. Tell - - her bump of order would never quit aching if she had to cook a week in a Kentucky kitchen. ' Where is the tea-kettle ?' ' Won't dat da pot do?' 'Haven't you got a tea-kettle?' 'Yes, Missus, but Aunt Sue's bilin' close in it; better take de pot.' 'Very well; give me the cover. What's in it?' 'De lard I jis done fried out, Missus.' The lard is poured into a milk-pan; Peggy sends Maria to borrow Aunt Jinny's dish-rag; Bill tells Jim to send Uncle Spencer to the barn for soap, and finally Hoosier fists conquer impos- sibilities, and I get a cup of tea for a sick man after he has waited an hour for it."
"Oh, how brave and patient these men are! In all the suffering I have seen I have never heard the first regret at the giving up of home and health and life itself for the country. When I have tried to find out, the spirit of the answer has almost invariably been, ' What I have done I would do again, even if it brought me here!' This is a great deal when these men believe their terrible sickness was the result of the drunken
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mistake of one officer, and the abominable inhumanity of the General in command."
In connection with a notice of the Thirty-Third, but with reference to all the soldiers of Indiana, Henry Ward Beecher says in the Independent of February 20, 1862:
"Indiana came out of the Mexican war with a cloud on her fame for valor. It was always bitterly felt. The privates declared that bad officers were the cause of their disgraceful retreat. They have justified themselves in this war. No State has done better than Indiana, and no troops have fought with more skill and indomitable bravery. Every spot is gone from her escutcheon. Indiana has no cause of shame for her noble sons!"
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THE TENTH REGIMENT.
CHAPTER XXIII.
INDIANA SOLDIERS MOVING TO THE RESCUE OF KENTUCKY.
" A place in the ranks awaits you, Each man has some part to play; The Past and the Future are nothing In the face of the stern To-day." -A
THE Tenth regiment left Indiana and entered Louisville the 22d of September. It was received with all the rejoicing a city on the brink of destruction might be expected to feel and to show to its deliverers. After being armed and equip- ped, the regiment proceeded to Bardstown, whence five hun- dred Rebels fled as it approached. Many of the inhabitants of Bardstown were either lukewarm Unionists or outspoken Secessionists, and they looked upon the Federal troops of In- diana with suspicion and aversion. Even loyal citizens watched the deportment of the regiment with ill-concealed anxiety. Hostility was gradually overcome, fear quieted and anxiety allayed, according to the report of the regiment and of the Louisville Journal.
" The Tenth Indiana," said the latter, "is a tried regiment, and distinguished itself in West Virginia for bravery at Rich Mountain and other places. By order of the General Gov- ernment it has found its place among us. When it first made its appearance, people felt great dread that more of their 'rights' might be taken from them, but all now testify life and property are more secure than before. At the present time nothing would quiet the people of the State so much, and so completely remove groundless prejudices, as the presence of such a regiment as this Tenth Indiana in every county."
Several members of the Tenth were printers, and taking possession of a secession printing establishment they pub-
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lished a newspaper which they called the Chronicle. The following was published as part of the platform of the Chronicle:
"GOVERNOR MORTON .- The praises of Governor Morton are in the mouths of all Union men throughout the country, and especially of citizens of Indiana. When inferior arms were placed in the hands of the soldiers of the Tenth regi- ment at Louisville there was a general expression of indig- nation, until it was understood that Governor Morton had pledged himself to replace them at the earliest possible mo- ment. Then every man brought his gun to his shoulder and marched off. Some guns, manufactured over a hundred years ago, were entirely useless, but every soldier was satisfied it was the best that could be done at the time, and as well satisfied that the pledges of the Governor would be redeemed. It has proved so, and could the Governor have seen the enthusiasm of the men when the Enfield rifles were placed in their hands in place of the old muskets, and have heard the shout after shout that went up, it would have stimulated him to still greater exertions in favor of the soldiers, if that were possible. The Tenth is now as well armed as any regiment that ever left the State."
After remaining about a month at Bardstown the Tenth was advanced to New Haven and Lebanon.
The Thirty-Fourth, or "Morton Rifles," was organized at Anderson the 15th of September, and was detained there nearly a month. It remained on Rousseau's old camping ground, near the falls of the Ohio, more than a month. In both places the time was industriously employed in drilling and preparing for an active winter campaign. With a patience which was not common in those days of excitement, and which showed that already the war was beginning to produce the fruits of steadiness and forethought, the regiment sub- mitted to prolonged weeks of tedious drill in Indiana camps. The men generally were farmers. They were intelligent and cheerful, and in the bloom and vigor of early manhood, few being under twenty and scarcely any over thirty-five years of age.
Colonel Steele could scarcely be called self-sacrificing to take command of such a regiment, although to do it he was
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THE SEVENTEENTH REGIMENT.
obliged to leave, besides a home, which every man left, an extensive law practice.
From Camp Joe Holt the Thirty-Fourth went to New Haven, Kentucky.
At the time the Thirty-Fourth went into camp near New Haven, large numbers of troops were collecting in that vicin- ity. The Fifteenth and Seventeenth regiments were both there, and attracted a considerable degree of attention as veteran regiments, both having seen hard service in West Virginia.
In four months spent in Virginia the Seventeenth marched more than five hundred miles, assisted in the work of two fortifications, and was engaged in several skirmishes and one battle. The first encampment of the Seventeenth was on the north branch of the Potomac, sixteen miles from Oakland. Here it was engaged two weeks in constructing the fortifica- tions known as . Camp Pendleton. Its second camp was on the Elkwater, where the second work of the same kind was done. In the battle of Greenbrier the Seventeenth was very efficient.
Orders to move to Kentucky were received on the 19th of November. Winter had set in, and snow lay six inches deep on the mountains, yet the troops were still living in tents, which had been blown and beaten, ripped and torn so long by mountain storms that they scarcely held together, and afforded the semblance rather than the reality of protection.
Any place was more comfortable than West Virginia in winter, and no place, to which soldiers could be ordered, was so agreeable as Kentucky, standing as it does next door to In- diana. Orders were obeyed, therefore, not only with prompt- ness, but with unalloyed satisfaction.
The roads were bad, and after the march was commenced much of the baggage had to be thrown away before it could be continued.
At Louisville new tents and equipments of every kind were received. At Camp Buell, three miles from Louisville, a public dinner was given the Seventeenth. Here the regiment remained until it was brigaded and assigned to General Nel-
18
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son's division, when it marched to Camp Wickliffe, near New Haven.
Colonel Haskall was educated at West Point, and served a year in the Third Regular Artillery. His education and experience made him very acceptable to his regiment.
The outline of the early history of the Fifteenth is similar to that of the Seventeenth, differing only in having less ex- perience in constructing fortifications, and more with the enemy, as it was included in the force which pursued the fugitive Rebels from Rich Mountain.
The Fifteenth and Seventeenth, with two Ohio regiments which accompanied them from the East, felt great enjoyment in the change from bleak, barren and desolate mountains to pleasant fields which spread away under the wide scope of the sky, and from poverty-stricken and ignorant mountaineers to wealthy and intelligent lowlanders. Among these last, however, they heard the expression of as bitter secession sen- timent as they had ever been forced to listen to among the first, and with far greater surprise. They scarcely believed their ears when they heard "mouths which were made for singing" in coarse scorn call them " Union dogs" and " Aboli- tion snakes."
Three other Indiana regiments, the Thirty-Sixth, the Forty-Sixth and the Forty-Seventh, were encamped during a part of the fall and a part of the winter in the vicinity of New Haven or Lebanon. They were commanded respect- ively by William Grose, of Newcastle, one of the best and most prominent public men in the State, and one of the most successful lawyers; by Graham N. Fitch, a man of equal talent, and who early forsook the modest path of the physi cian for the ambitious career of the politician; and by James R. Slack, an aspiring lawyer and politician.
The Thirty-Sixth was composed of men from the staid Quaker region round Richmond. It was completely equipped and armed, the flank companies with Enfield rifles, the others with an excellent French musket, when in the last of Sep- tember it moved toward the South. It was very common for citizens who remained at home to present a horse to the Colonel of a regiment in token of their gratitude for his offer-
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A SINGULAR COINCIDENCE.
ing himself for their defence, but the Chaplain did not so often receive a gift which was equally appropriate. In the Thirty-Sixth it was the Chaplain, Rev. Orange Lemon, on whom the favor was bestowed. Before the close of the next December company B, of the Thirty-Sixth, sent home to Muncie and its vicinity nearly a thousand dollars.
The Forty-Sixth left Logansport in the latter part of De cember, and passing through Indianapolis reached Madison, and embarked on steamboats to go down the river, on a Sun- day morning. As the boats, loaded with troops, pushed off from the shore crowded with people, the band playing, hand- kerchiefs and hats waving farewells, the church bells began to ring for morning service. A similar, but long past, scene rose as vividly as the present to the minds of many. In 1846 two companies of soldiers from Logansport, going to join the army in Mexico, embarked from the crowded shore of Madison on a Sunday morning when the church bells were ringing. Some of the citizens who were then on the shore now stood on the shore; some of the soldiers who were on the river then were now on the river; and the same drummer was plying his drum-stick, and as vigorously now as then.
The Forty-Seventh went first to Bardstown. Remaining there only a few days, it encamped on New Year's Eve at Camp Wickliffe, near New Haven.
Two companies of Indiana cavalry were also at Camp Wickliffe, and were kept in active employment as scouts. Captain Moreau's company was from Knightstown; Captain Klein's from Florence. They were early included in the Third cavalry, although not united with the regiment.
Calhoun, a little town seated in the mud on the banks of Green river, was another spot which was thronged with Union troops. The Thirty-First, Forty-Third, Forty-Second and Forty-Fourth Indiana regiments were encamped here, al- though frequently one or another was obliged to remove to Henderson, Owensboro or South Carrolton. These regiments were under the command of an editor, a farmer, a lawyer and a druggist.
The Thirty-First moved down to Evansville about the time the Tenth was sent into Kentucky. It was entirely full,
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thoroughly equipped, and had received some military instruc- tion. The citizens of Evansville, alarmed for the safety of their town by the bold movement of Buckner, desired to re- tain the protection of the Thirty-First until the Home-Guard could be properly formed and armed. But after only a short delay in Evansville, the regiment was ordered to Calhoun. For a time it was stretched along the river for the protection of its locks, which, it was discovered by an intercepted letter forwarded to Governor Morton, were in danger of destruc- tion. For a time, also, it was encamped at Henderson, where the conquest it made over prejudice was even more striking. than that of the Tenth, as the citizens of Henderson were still less loyal than the citizens of Bardstown.
It is doubtful, however, if any conquests of this kind, al- though much boasted of at the moment, were real. They were certainly not lasting. Kentucky secessionists were never generous enough to be convinced or persuaded. They are in the category of the blind who will not see.
Colonel Cruft is a graduate of Wabash College. He was an editor and lawyer. His position as a business man was good, and his attention to his new duties, with his ability in grasping them, promised an equal position in the army. He is said to have a cold, unimpressible temperament, but it is impossible to read his character in the light of the battles in which he has taken part and believe him incapable of warmth. Under the inspiration of cannon balls he is a hero.
The Colonel of the Forty-Third, George K. Steele, was a farmer, the first up to this number in the list of Colonels, and he cannot truthfully be called simply a farmer, as he is also a banker. Whatever the reason may be, the fact remains, that while the ranks are filled from the country and the line officers- . are often farmers, and while farmers form a large part of our Legislature, and fill other civil offices, they are almost never at at the head of regiments .*
In October the Forty-Third moved from Terre Haute to
* Several gentlemen who became prominent in the army were engaged in farming as a secondary pursuit. Two of our Generals, for instance, were farmers, at the same time that they were lawyer and politician.
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A REGIMENTAL CHURCH.
'Spottsville, Kentucky. Remaining there but a short time it encamped for the winter at Calhoun.
The Forty-Second, under the command of Colonel Jones, a prominent citizen of Evansville, and formerly Attorney General of the State, marched to Henderson in the middle of October. It endured a few weeks of mud in Calhoun; a short time of still greater mud at Owensboro, and a little period of unparalleled mud at South Carrolton. At this latter place it threw up a long line of earthworks, and felled a quan- tity of timber. Its presence was very acceptable to the coun- try people. A scouting party from the Forty-Second was received with most grateful demonstrations at Greenville, which Union troops had not before visited, while it had been long annoyed by parties of Rebel cavalry.
The Forty-Fourth was organized in October, but remained in Fort Wayne until December, when it was sent to Ken- tucky. Going first to Henderson, it did not encamp at Cal- houn until the close of the year.
The first encampment of the Thirty-Seventh Indiana was in Lawrenceburg, where it remained about a month. Here the Chaplain, Rev. John H. Lozier, organized a regimental church, composed of different religious sects, and of indi- viduals who had not previously been church members. He took the name and post office address of some friend of each member, in order to make a report, whether the man lived or died, of his standing in the regiment.
Colonel Hazzard was educated at West Point, and had served as Captain of artillery. He was a thorough tactician, and an extremely rigid disciplinarian, with none of the arts which seek or gain popularity, although he was a highly pol- ished and refined gentleman, drawing to him with "hooks of steel" those who understood him.
In the latter part of October the Thirty-Seventh was re- moved to the mouth of Salt river, where it was joined by two Ohio regiments and one Michigan. They were all em- ployed in building earthworks on the hills south of a little town ambitiously called West Point, and in guarding with seven six-pounders the Louisville and Nashville turnpike. In the middle of November the Thirty-Seventh marched twenty-
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five miles over a rough road and through a poor country, covered with low red oaks, to Elizabethtown.
The first Sunday in December the sacrament was celebra- ted in the regimental church, the Eighteenth Ohio also par- ticipating. Like little children recalling sweet remembrances of home, and of the self-sacrificing love of parents, the Christian soldiers partook of the sacred emblems, yet feeling they could not be separated from the love of Christ. "Several applied for church membership, and the day closed with a narrative of Christian experience, so mingled with the motives which moved the speakers to enlist, as to show the folly of attempting to ignore from religion or the pulpit the claims of patriotism in this war. No mercenary spirit, no thirst for fame, but duty to God and their country alone had taken them from their peaceful homes and remunerating toils. If the highest motives make the best soldiers, these men cannot be surpassed. They would do for Cromwell's soldiers who "trusted in God," or for Havelock's saints who were "turned out in every crisis," and they may yet prove to be "the sword of the Lord" against Southern Rebels .*
Two companies of cavalry went from Indiana to the mouth of Salt river the first of November, and there joining the Thirty-Seventh, moved on with it to Elizabethtown. One, under the command of Captain Graham, was from Clermont and Franklin; the other, under Captain Gaddis, was from Frankfort. With the two companies at Camp Wickliffe, they were included in the Third cavalry, and were the only companies of the regiment which served in the West. They were constantly employed in scouting.
The Second cavalry, or Forty-First regiment Indiana vol- unteers, although mustered into the service the 26th of Sep- tember, was allowed to remain in Indianapolis until December was half gone. It was not then fully equipped, nor was it fully supplied with transportation until the next April, thougli many a long day's march intervened. The unreadiness was not due in any degree to the officers of the regiment, who were thorough western men, full of enterprise, ardor and that.
*J. D., in the Cincinnati Gazette.
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SECOND CAVALRY,
abandonment of themselves to their plans or projects, which is commonly understood to be a characteristic of young com- munities, and to be exceptional in long-settled regions.
Colonel John A. Bridgland was a wholesale tobacco mer- chant in Richmond. He was strict, almost severe, in his management of the regiment.
Lieutenant-Colonel Norris was a graduate of West Point, and had served in Mexico, where he was one of the first to scale the walls of Chapultepec. He was in the expedition across the Rocky Mountains which made Fremont's name the delight of every bold boy in the United States, and had his full proportion of the honor which all the members of the expedition shared with the leader. He was the companion of Kit Carson in several hardy undertakings.
Adjutant Woolley was also a West Pointer, and, though he had no brilliant stories of daring and danger to relate, his present prompt attention to duty, and a peculiar kindness and good humor, set him high in the estimation of the regiment.
The man in the regiment who, above all others, united in himself and even intensified western characteristics, was the senior Major, Robert Read Stewart. Being the son of gen- uine Irish parents, his western character was grafted on an Irish stock. His early career, controlled only by caprice, was as free and wild as it was singular.
In his boyhood, followed up on some truant expedition, captured and led home by an imperious elder brother, he, at the door, assumes a grave demeanor, and presents his brother as the culprit to an offended mother, who, silencing all attempt at explanation, vigorously applies the rod to the wrong back. But little later he is an enlisted soldier in Captain Kearney's company of United States dragoons, now boldly carrying important dispatches alone through fifty miles of the enemy's country; then modestly serving General Scott as orderly; at one time fighting at Contreras, Molino-del-Ray, Garito-san- Cosmo, Lake Chalco, plunging headlong on an unmanageable horse over the breastworks at Cherubusco; and at another time, for this last act of distinguished bravery, receiving a certificate signed by the President of the United States, and saying bluffly, " You'd better give it to my horse,"
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THE SOLDIER OF INDIANA.
In 1850 Stewart is seen in California, engaged in com- mission business, but he throws his tame employment aside when Colonel Walker, of fillibuster fame, calls for men to assist in the deliverance of Nicaragua, and raising a company he starts with it, but at San Francisco he is checked by an unforeseen affliction, and forced to abandon the expedition. He does not, however, lose his elasticity, and when he is heard from again he is settled, if such a man can be settled, on Frazer river, in the British Possessions, and is there en- gaged in trade. Soon he disappears from this quiet region, but only to re-appear in the Sandwich Islands, a still more narrow and uncongenial field. Next he is traversing Lower California, Costa Rica and Nicaragua. In this last country, reached too late for action, he hears the rumor of war at home. Bronzed, bearded, long-haired, in nothing but the old, unresting fire like the stripling who went to the Mexican war, he arrives at home, and recalls the fading remembrance of himself.
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