USA > Indiana > The soldier of Indiana in the war for the union, Vol. I > Part 3
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May 27th, the First Virginia, a regiment which was raised and offered to the President immediately after the Convention
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23
WEST VIRGINIA.
at Wheeling had resolved that the counties there represented should not secede, and two Ohio regiments, were ordered to drive the enemy from Grafton. After some delay, caused by the necessity of building bridges, they arrived to meet, instead of a warlike, an enthusiastically friendly reception. - The Rebel troops had retreated to Philippi.
24
THE SOLDIER OF INDIANA.
CHAPTER IV.
GETTING INTO ACTION.
BEFORE Indiana's first brigade has entered upon its career of danger and duty, it may be well to form some acquaint- ance with the colonels, the men on whom, perhaps more than on any other, privates are dependent for health and comfort, for mental and moral improvement, for success in the day of battle and on the perilous march, and for safety when for safety the soldier may blamelessly strive; - and an introduction to Indiana's first Brigadier-General may not be amiss. They are all men in their prime, although Milroy, the oldest, bears in his gray hair and in the number of his years, fifty-five, tokens that he has passed the line we call the meridian of life ; and Wallace, the youngest, does not yet count thirty-five, and in his buoyant step and lithe form gives no indication of the insinuating influences which in the maturity of years seldom fail to steal away the spring and gush of life.
THOMAS T. CRITTENDEN, Colonel of the Sixth, was born in Alabama, educated in Kentucky, and had his first experience as a lawyer in Missouri. In 1846, when war was declared between Mexico and the United States, he threw aside his books, left a lucrative and rapidly increasing practice, and enlisted as a private in the Second Regiment of Missouri Volunteers, then commanded by Colonel Sterling Price. He remained in the service until near the close of the war, re- ceived promotion to a lieutenancy, and was afterwards selected by his superior officers to write a history of the regiment. He became a citizen of Madison, Indiana, in 1848, and pursued the practice of law with energy and success. His Southern training gave him such an insight into Southern character and views, that, while almost every other individual in the State ridiculed the idea of rebellion, he acknowledged the danger, and endeavored to rouse a general anxiety. As early as January 1861, he organized a company and offered it to Gov-
25
DUMONT.
ernor Morton. On the 19th of April he went to Indianapolis with his company, and shortly after was elected and commis- sioned Colonel of the Sixth Regiment. Crittenden is stout and ruddy, frank, genial, and cheerful, with the comfortable, friendly aspect and manner which distinguish the Kentucky gentleman.
Colonel DUMONT, of the Seventh, -sallow, lean, and small, with an irascible, melancholy countenance, lighted up by a keen, deep-set eye, and sometimes additionally illuminated by flashes of dry humor,-is not only strikingly unlike the good- humored, hearty Crittenden, but is a sort of contrast within himself, and consequently has earned an unenviable reputa- tion for eccentricity. Few men laugh so heartily, yet few look so morose; few are so tender, almost none so harsh ; not many are so generous, yet many are more kind. He has attacks of devoutness which would lead one to think him most reverent and pious, yet his most partial friends do not call him religious. As lawyer, politician, and banker he has shown shrewdness, industry, and remarkable uprightness.
He was born in Indiana, in Vevay, a little Swiss town on the Ohio, - was taught principally by his mother, a woman of genius, who, if she had not been absorbed by the cares of a large family, and worn by the privations of a new country, would have won enduring fame as a writer, -and studied law with his father, a man also of ability, education, and refine- ment of feeling. Almost the first act of the son, however, on arriving at maturity, was to announce himself a Democrat in a public meeting, to the great disgust of the old Whig, his father, who immediately rose and stalked out of the house. Although not a man of military habits and tastes, and so under the influence of passing emotions that tactics and army discipline can be anything but agreeable, he volunteered even before the present war, and served honorably and usefully under General Taylor in Mexico. Such of the circumstances of war as touch a poetic fancy no doubt warmed his enthu- siasm, but patriotism was the main incentive, and he then was as eager for the growth and glory of his country as he is now resolute for its preservation. He was prominent among the speakers the night of the announcement of the surrender
3
26
THE SOLDIER OF INDIANA.
of Sumter ; and his eloquence, made up of mingled pathos, wit, and denunciation, and uttered in a voice so peculiar that it seemed to mock at his own feelings, drew tears and laugh- ter and shouts from his excited audience. He led the list of offerings to the Government that night by the contribution of a horse with a man on his back.
Colonel MILROY, of the Ninth, is also a native of Indiana. His father was so strong a Democrat in theory and practice, that he had an unconquerable aversion to colleges, and obsti- nately refused the earnest entreaties of his son Robert to be al- lowed a liberal education,-entreaties to which the son added an offer to relinquish all claim upon the paternal estate. The boy was obliged to content himself with books at home, with which his father, with an inconsistent liberality, supplied him, until he was twenty-four years old; when, taking advantage of a visit to some relatives in Pennsylvania, he pursued his way to a military institution in Norwich, Vermont. A gener- ous uncle gave him pecuniary assistance until the sturdy Dem- ocrat at home relented. In 1843 he graduated, taking the degrees of Master of Arts, Master of Military Science, and Master of Civil Engineering. He travelled several months in New England, teaching fencing and acquiring an acquaint- ance with Yankee landscape and character. In 1845 he
went to Texas and took the oath of allegiance to the Lone Star, but after a few months returned to Indiana and settled down to the study of law. He was a captain in the First Indiana Regiment in the Mexican War, and when his term of service expired, endeavored unsuccessfully to procure the acceptance of himself, with a company of mounted infantry, to serve during the war, - making application first to General Taylor, afterwards to the Governor of Texas and the Secre- tary of War. Repeated refusals left nothing to the disap- pointed captain but to return home and continue the study of law. He attended lectures in Bloomington, received a degree, and was admitted to the baren 1849.
Early in 1861 Milroy was convinced that war was inevi- table, and February 7th issued a call for the formation of a volunteer company. Up to the fall of Sumter he succeeded in getting but two recruits : Gideon C. Moody, now captain
27
WALLACE.
in the Eighteenth Regulars and member of General Thomas's staff in the Army of the Cumberland; and Albert Guth- ridge, now captain in the Forty-eighth Indiana regiment. While it was still dark, on the morning after the announce- ment of the surrender, with the Court-House bell, a drum and fife, he roused and assembled the town of Rensselaer, his place of residence, and completed the number before breakfast. The same day he reported to Governor Morton in Indianapolis.
There is something in the majestic figure of ROBERT MIL- ROY, in the erect head, held often as if watching or listening, in the fearless, restless eye, and gray hair turned back from the narrow forehead, so suggestive of the cognomen his sol- diers have bestowed on him, that one is tempted to wonder why even in peace he was not called the " Gray Eagle."
LEWIS WALLACE is very American in appearance. His deep, flashing, black eye, straight, shining, black hair, and erect figure, would be no discredit to the haughtiest Aborigi- nal; and the boldness and sharpness, vigor and delicacy of his features, the insatiable yet controlled mental activity pervad- ing the whole man, and still more the shade of sadness, tinged with scorn, resting on his face, and seeming to indicate a sort of self-pity, perhaps because of the contrast between the transitory nature of the goods of ambition or business, and the ardor employed in their pursuit, decidedly stamp him of the Anglo-American race, which, as a late English traveller says, " loses in the second generation all trace of European parentage," certainly the quiet and apparent stolidity of the genuine Englishman.
Lewis Wallace handles the pen and brush with ease and taste, and the lawyer's tongue, in his mouth, has lost none of its accredited skill. But his genius is military. The clash of arms enticed him, when he was scarcely past his boyhood, to the fields of Mexico ; and the years spent in the exercise of his profession found their choicest recreation in the drill of a company of home-guards, to which he taught the ma- nœuvres of Napoleon's Zouaves. Like Dumont, he was edu- cated in the Whig party, of which his father was a prominent and able member, and adopted Democratic principles when
28
THE SOLDIER OF INDIANA.
he arrived at an age to vote. Colonel Wallace is a native of Indiana.
MAHLON D. MANSON, Colonel of the Tenth, was born in Ohio. He had few opportunities in his youth for intellectual cultivation, and is a self-made man, possessing that accuracy, ingenuity, independence, and self-satisfaction which he, who battles unaided with fortune and knowledge from his youth, is almost certain to acquire. He has spent the most of his life in mercantile pursuits; but he left the counter and the ledger in 1846 to engage in the Mexican War, and there received the instruction and the discipline which were to pre- pare him for a more responsible position in a more important conflict. In politics he was always an uncompromising Democrat. He is a solid, substantial, good-humored man in appearance, with very pleasant and popular manners.
WILLIAM P. BENTON was educated at Farmer's College, Ohio. He studied law early, and is a well-read lawyer. He showed his devotion to his country by sacrificing a large practice in the wealthy and pleasant town of Richmond to accept the charge of the Eighth. He is a safe, reliable man, unostentatious and earnest. He has the ruddy hue and rotund form of John Bull.
Indiana's first Brigadier-General is a man so quiet, so grave, so almost stolid in countenance and demeanor, with features so blunt, and coloring so dark and dead, that the eye of the observer, after resting with pleasure on the gallant, or animated, or thoughtful, or dignified colonels of his brig- ade, might turn to him with something like displeasure,- displeasure however to be swept away by a sure if slow recognition of the reserved power in the steady eye, of the gentleness and modesty eye and lip and life alike express. He stood high as a West Point student, being mentioned with honor in the report of the graduating class of 1834; and as a business-man, a gentleman, and a Christian, his reputation is unspotted. Indiana fondly and proudly speaks the name of THOMAS A. MORRIS, although his military history is sug- gestive only of him who is immortalized in the reflections of the royal misanthrope of Scripture, -the poor, wise man, who by his wisdom delivered a city, yet was remembered of none.
29
CALLED TO THE FIELD.
The Volunteers expected to be led off to battle, to a battle-ground at least, as soon as they enlisted; in conse- quence, they bore with extreme impatience the delay and the confinement and preparation in Camp Morton. Nothing was easier with their stalwart limbs and brawny fists than to fight; nothing harder to practise or endure than the monot- onous manœuvres of dress-parade. Officers were not less impatient than privates, and earnest solicitations were for- warded to the President and General Scott for permission to move the Indiana forces toward the East. At length General Scott gave orders for the immediate removal of the Sixth, Seventh, and Ninth regiments to West Virginia. It is impossible to describe the delight afforded to the desig- nated regiments by the announcement of these orders. The long tedium broken, the dull monotony dispelled, the door to action opened and the way made clear, life seemed to have a greatness hitherto unknown. The Volunteers felt that they were born for this day, and for the proud work of redeeming their country.
May 29th, the Seventh and the Ninth left Indianapolis. The Seventh was composed of men chiefly from the river counties. The Ninth was generally from the northwest. One of the privates in the latter regiment was a senator, and several were representatives in the legislature. May 30th, the Sixth followed. The Sixth was from the east and south- east counties ; some Kentuckians, attracted perhaps by the name of Crittenden, one of their favorite statesmen and the old friend of their especial pride, Clay, had joined the standard of his nephew. It is said that one walked a hun- dred and twenty miles for the purpose. When the friends and relatives of the Volunteers in Madison were shaking hands and bidding good-bye, he said, sadly : " I've no one to say, ' God bless you!'" Instantly a hundred hands were extended, and a hundred " God bless you's " were uttered.
As fife-major in the Sixth went an unmusical young physician who had performed the duties of surgeon in camp, and had expected the position of assistant-surgeon in the field. But while he was practising in the hospital, somebody else practised in the Governor's mansion and obtained the
30
THE SOLDIER OF INDIANA.
place. Disappointed, but with undampened resolution, he applied to each regiment for admission as private, without being able to find a single vacancy. At last Colonel Critten- den kindly discovered that the Sixth was in need of a fife- major, and, without a very scrutinizing examination, intro- duced the applicant to the situation. The talents of the young doctor soon made his services in other quarters not only acceptable but needful, and he had but one march at the head of his regiment as fife-major.
On the route through Ohio, the troops met with welcoming honors, which would not have been inappropriate if bestowed upon returning victors. Dinners, breakfasts, and suppers were prepared for them ; flowers were showered on them ; speeches were made to them; ladies wept at the sight of them; old men with outstretched hands called down blessings upon them ; infants were held above the heads of crowds to look at them. No act that rapturous enthusiasm could prompt was omitted.
The Ninth reached Grafton on the evening of the day on which the Ohio and Virginia troops arrived, and participated in the noise and joy of the welcome. The Seventh came the next morning ; the Sixth was delayed by broken bridges, and Colonel Crittenden reached Webster, a few miles west of Grafton, not until the evening of June 2d. But four com- panies were with him, the remainder of the regiment having been left on the Ohio, to attack a little town where a muster of Rebels was reported.
From Grafton the Confederates had retreated to Philippi, a little town on Tygart's Valley River, and surrounded by hills capable of being easily and strongly fortified. With the pol- icy of exaggeration they have never hesitated to pursue, they gave out, and their friends industriously spread the report, that their number amounted to not less than three thousand. It did not in reality exceed fifteen hundred. General Morris arrived at Grafton on the evening of June 1st, and found that Colonel Kelley had organized an expedition for that night against Philippi. After a full conference with Colonel Kelley, he deemed it advisable to postpone the attack until the following night. The next morning Colonel Kelley re- ceived orders to take six companies of his own regiment,
31
NIGHT-MARCH.
nine companies of Colonel Milroy's, and six companies of Irvine's Sixteenth Ohio, to proceed on the railroad to a point six miles east of Grafton, and to march by the shortest and best route to Philippi. He must arrange his rest at night in such a manner that he could be sure of coming before the town at four o'clock next morning. Accordingly, at nine in the morning Colonel Kelley moved off in the direction of Harper's Ferry. The spies, who were numerous and active in Grafton, understood the movement to be against Harper's Ferry.
General Morris then organized another attacking column under Colonel Dumont. It consisted of eight companies of the Seventh, to be joined at Webster (a point a few miles southwest of Grafton) by five companies of Ohio Volunteers, commanded by Colonel Steedman, and two field-pieces, to be under the especial charge of Colonel Lander,* who volun- teered his services ; also by four companies of the Sixth In- diana. They were directed to reach Philippi at precisely four o'clock. This column left Grafton after eight in the evening, and at Webster found the expected troops, Colonel Critten- den having just arrived from the west. The darkness was intense ; rain poured down in torrents; mud was deep in the ravines, slippery on the hill-sides; the distance was twelve miles. Circumstances could not be more untoward. But it was the long desired moment for action, and the troops started out gayly. All night they trudged up-hill and down, drenched and dripping. The last five miles were made in one hour and a quarter. Many men fainted and were left on the road. Others threw away their haversacks and pro- visions, and with desperate exertions kept from falling behind. At daylight Colonel Dumont was heard shouting, " Close up, boys! Close up! If the enemy were to fire now, they could n't hit one of you!" The order was well-timed ; - the boys closed up and cheered up.
As they approached Philippi, they could perceive no evi- dences of the arrival of Kelley's detachment on the other side of the town. The infantry was ordered to halt, the artillery to advance and get the guns into position. Scarcely had this
* Colonel Lander was Aid to General Mcclellan.
32
THE SOLDIER OF INDIANA.
disposition been made when the pickets of the enemy com- menced a brisk fire from the heights immediately above the town, and from the woods and bushes on both sides of the road. Colonel Lander opened fire. The pickets ceased. Nothing now obstructed the way. The troops waited a mo- ment for orders; and as they waited, perhaps there was not a man whose eye did not glance with admiration upon the rare beauty of the scene spread below, - a green valley, encircled 1
6ª Ind.
"Ohio Bat.
14"Ohio.
LANDER'S RIDE
Kelly
Rebel Camp
Millroy
C.H.
N
1
- E
PHILLIPPI
BARBOUR COUNTY.Va.
S
TAYLOR SC. BOSTON.
by forest-crowned cliffs and watered by a winding river, a little scattered village, and a snow-drift of tents on the dark sward. The pause was but momentary. With a wild, ring- ing cheer, the infantry, the Seventh in advance, rushed down the hill, through a narrow bridge, three or four hundred feet in length, which spans the river, dashing aside a barricade of boards as if it were of wicker, and poured on towards
33
SAUVE QUI PEUT!
the Rebel camp. Unable to withstand the fascination of the shout and the race, the spirited, though moody, Lander left the artillery and urged his gallant gray down the rocky heights in front, with a temerity rivalling that of the old Putnam of Revolutionary times.
At this moment an answering shout was heard, and Colo- nels Kelley and Milroy were seen on the brow of the hill southeast of the town. In spite of a twenty-five mile march, the last few hours through mud and rain and darkness, down dashed the new-comers straight on to the Confederate camp. Unfortunately, their delay, though of not more than fifteen minutes' duration, left open one road. Toward this only door, out of the trap, without one attempt to get into line of battle, the whole body of Confederates turned face and foot.
" Great on a run, if not much for a fight!" muttered Colo- nel Dumont, as he reined in his horse and cast his eye over the scene.
Pell-mell, helter-skelter, without boots, without hats, with- out coats, without pantaloons, through the town, up the southern road, over the wall of hills, away they fled, inconti- nently, ingloriously, ignominiously. "Shirt-tail retreat!" No other thing with so mean a name ever inspired so glorious a pursuit. On, on came the Union troops, so tired an hour before they could scarcely lift their mud-encumbered feet, now fresh as pointers starting up the game. On they came, shouting and yelling, pell-mell, helter-skelter, up the height, down the height, and scattering through the wood. Peremp- tory orders at length recalled the unwearied Seventh, and stopped the ardent Ninth. The Sixth, too much fatigued to join in the pursuit, had quietly taken possession of the camp.
The immediate results of this affair were the capture of twenty-five thousand dollars' worth of goods, including a train, which had just arrived, with fifteen boxes of flint mus- kets ; a number of banners, one of which was a splendid blue silk, presented by the ladies of Bath County two days before, and still redolent of exhortations to bravery and vows of fidelity ; - killed to the number, it was supposed, of forty ; a few prisoners; and such an inauguration of the campaign
34
THE SOLDIER OF INDIANA.
as greatly discouraged one side and proportionably encour- aged the other.
One of the prisoners was taken in a somewhat singular manner. Some half-dozen soldiers were thrusting their sharp bayonets into a pile of hay, when a lawyer by the name of Martin, the private secretary of Colonel Porterfield, the Con- federate commander, issued from under it in mortal terror. Assuming a composed and candid countenance, he declared that he had been thinking very seriously within the last few minutes about this secession movement, and was now ready to take the oath of allegiance. No Union soldier was killed, and but two wounded, - Colonel Kelley and a private.
More than three fourths of the inhabitants of Philippi had fled, but their property was scrupulously guarded. A beau- tiful watch, found in a hastily-vacated house, was returned to the owner, who was a lady, with the following note : - " Our soldiers love and admire women. We come not to plunder, but to protect, and to crush rebellion. My kindest regards." Signed, " A soldier of the Ninth Reg. Ind. Vols."
The tidings of the affair of Philippi excited an interest in Indiana, as the first encounter, if encounter it could be called, with the Rebels, scarcely less intense than that produced later by the important battles of Stone River or Gettysburg, and penetrated with little delay to isolated farms and dwellings whither letters and newspapers seldom find their way.
One 'day in June, a lady with her family was slowly as- cending one of those long, lonely hills which the Blooming- ton road through Morgan County so often climbs, when she was accosted by a pale, sad-looking woman, who asked for a newspaper. " I have none," said the traveller ; " but why do you want a paper?" "I want to read about the battle of Philippi," answered the anxious woman; " I don't know the particulars yet, and I have two sons in the Seventh."
The traveller immediately gave the stranger a seat in her carriage, and as they drove leisurely along, related all she knew of the battle and of the regiment. In return, the coun- try woman gave an account of her sons, how they were away from home at work on a neighbor's farm when the call for soldiers came. It was on a Saturday. The younger put his
35
THE SOLDIERS' MOTHER.
name down first. He was a good boy, but he was thought- less ; then, too, he had a weak chest, and who knew what he might have to bear of cold and hardship! So the elder, part for his country but part for his brother, enlisted too. He was twenty years old, steady and religious. She was not uneasy about him, nor about the younger either, for had n't he his brother to take care of him, and wasn't it in a good cause ? They did not come home Saturday nor Sunday ; she reckoned they could not tell her; and they went away Monday without ever saying good-bye, - only in a letter which somebody brought her the same morning. From In- dianapolis they sent her their " profile " ; and they wrote another letter, which the mother repeated word for word, be ginning with the date, and ending with, " Yours till death." " I wander around these hills," she said, " day and night, thinking about my two boys, for they are all I have, and wondering if they will ever come home again."
The travellers had now reached the woman's house, a little cabin, near a hazel thicket by the roadside, and they left her there ; but many a time since they have recalled the plain- tive voice and lonely wanderings of the soldiers' mother.
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