USA > Indiana > The soldier of Indiana in the war for the union, Vol. I > Part 33
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President Lincoln bore with the apparent short-comings of the General, with the indignation of the army, and with the impatience and fretfulness of the country, only saying that if Grant was addicted to whisky he wished some more of his Generals could be provided with the same article.
* After the battle of Shiloh, the following jeu d'esprit appeared in the Louisville Democrat :
"Epitaph discovered on an old tombstone in the church-yard of Weis- nichtwo:
'Here lies Toutant de Beauregard, Who for the truth had no regard; When seized by Satan he will cry,
'I've caught old Satan! Victory !'"
ET EVET WAN GER ALVIT! RADYET.
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HONOR UNTARNISHED.
General Grant declares that he was not surprised. "As to the talk of being surprised," he says, "nothing could be more false. If the enemy had sent us word where and when they would attack us, we could not have been better prepared. Skirmishing had been going on two days between our recon- noitring parties and the advance. I did not believe, however, that they intended to make a determined attack, but only a reconnaissance in force."
General Prentiss also asserts that he had more than the usual number of pickets in his front, and that he was more than usually watchful.
However it may have been with the Generals, the privates and subordinate officers were certainly taken by surprise, and it is not fair to ascribe to them the guilt of the confusion and disorder into which they were thrown. And if they who fled are excusable so much the more honor belongs to the brave, patient men who stood their ground on Sunday. An officer of the Twenty-Fifth, in a letter to his wife, said: "I felt that the honor of the regiment that day and at that hour was almost equal to life. I did all that I possibly could to save it, and am satisfied with the result. I believe you would have been reconciled if my life had been lost in that terrible fire rather than have had me and the regiment disgraced by a. total rout."
Such was the universal feeling with those who had the resolution to stand. Having borne the first fire, they could bear everything. No Indiana banner fell, no Indiana regi- ment fled; no Indiana battalion was cowering on the river brink when the impetuous Nelson requested leave "to open. fire on the knaves."
Indiana's robes were flecked with blood, and her face was; stained with tears, but her honor on the field of Shiloh was- white like snow.
A ballad which appeared the first day of 1863, as a New Year's Address, may fitly close this chapter:
26
390
THE SOLDIER OF INDIANA.
THE OLD SERGEANT.
BY FORSYTH WILSON, OF NEW ALBANY, INDIANA.
The Carrier cannot sing to-day the ballads With which he used to go, Rhyming the grand rounds of the happy New Years That are beneath the snow;
For the same awful and portentous shadow That overcast the earth, And smote the land last year with desolation, Still darkens every hearth.
And the Carrier hears Beethoven's mighty death-march Come up from every mart, And he hears and feels it breathing in his bosom, And beating in his heart.
And to-day, like a scarred and weather-beaten veteran, Again he comes along, To tell the story of the Old Year's struggles, In another New Year's song.
And the song is his, but not so with the story; For the story you must know,
Was told in prose to Assistant Surgeon Austin By a soldier of Shiloh :
By Robert Burton, who was brought up on the Adams, With his death-wound in his side;
And who told the story to the Assistant Surgeon On the same night that he died:
But the singer feels it will better suit the ballad, If all should deem it right To sing the story as if what it speaks of Had happened but last night:
"Come a little nearer, Doctor-thank you, let me take the cup ! Draw your chair up-draw it closer -- just another little sup! Maybe you may think I'm better, but I'm pretty well used up- Doctor, you've done all you could do, but I'm just a-going up.
"Feel my pulse, sir, if you want to, but it is no use to try." "Never say that," said the Surgeon, as he smothered down a sigh; "It will never do, old comrade, for a soldier to say die!" "What you say will make no difference Doctor, when you come to dic.
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A VISION.
"Doctor, what has been the matter?" "You were very faint they say; You must try to get to sleep now." "Doctor, have I been away ?" "No, my venerable comrade." "Doctor, will you please to stay ? There is something I must tell you, and you won't have long to stay,
"I have got my marching orders, and am ready now to go; Doctor, did you say I fainted ? But it couldn't have been so- For as sure as I'm a Sergeant, and was wounded at Shiloh, I've this very night been back there, on the old field of Shiloh.
"You may think it all delusion-all the sickness of the brain- If you do, you are mistaken, and mistaken to my pain; For, upon my dying honor, as I hope to live again, I have just been back to Shiloh, and all over it again!
"This is all that I remember: the last time the lighter came, And the lights had all been lowered, and the noises much the same, He had not been gone five minutes before something called my name- 'ORDERLY-SERGEANT-ROBERT-BURTON!' just that way it called my name.
"Then I thought it's all a nightmare-all a humbug and a bore; It's just another grape vine, and it won't come any more; But it came, sir, notwithstanding, just the same words as before, 'ORDERLY-SERGEANT-ROBERT-BURTON!' more distinctly than before.
" That is all that I remember till a sudden burst of light, And I stood beside the river, where we stood that Sunday night, Waiting to be ferried over to the dark bluffs opposite, When the river seemed perdition, and all hell seemed opposite;
" And the same old palpitation came agin with all its power, And I heard a bugle sounding, as from heaven or a tower, And the same mysterious voice said: 'It is the eleventh hour? ORDERLY-SERGEANT-ROBERT-BURTON, it is the eleventh hour !'
"Doctor Austin, what day is this?" "It is Wednesday night, you know,"
" Yes, to-morrow will be New Year's, and a right good time below.
"What time is it, Doctor Austin?" "Nearly twelve." "Then don't you go; Can it be that all this happened-all this-not an hour ago?
"There was where the gunboats opened on the dark, rebellious host, And where Webster semi-circled his last guns upon the coast- There were still the two log-houses, just the same, or else their ghost, And the same old transport came and took me over-or its ghost!
" And the whole field lay before me, all deserted far and wide --- There was where they fell on Prentiss-there McClernand met the tide, There was where stern Sherman rallied, and where Hurlburt's heroes ded-
Lower down where Wallace charged them, and kept charging till he died.
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THE SOLDIER OF INDIANA.
"There was where Lew. Wallace showed them he was of the cannie kin- There was where old Nelson thundered, and where Rousseau waded in; There McCook 'sent them to breakfast,' and we all began to win- There was where the grape-shot took me, just as we began to win.
"Now a shroud of snow and silence over everything was spread, And but for this old, blue mantle, and the old hat on my head, I should not have even doubted to this moment I was dead ; For my footsteps were as silent as the snow upon the dead !
"Death and silence! Death and silence! Starry silence overhead! And behold a mighty tower, as if builded to the dead, To the heaven of the heavens lifted up its mighty head! Till the Stars and Stripes of heaven all seemed waving from its head ?
"Round and mighty based it towered-up into the infinite, And I knew no mortal mason could have built a shaft so bright; For it shone like solid sunshine; and a winding stair of light Wound around it and around it till it wound clear out of sight!
'And, behold, as I approached it with a rapt and dazzled stare- Thinking that I saw old comrades just ascending the great stair- Suddenly the solemn challenge broke of 'Halt! and who goes there?' 'I'm a friend,' I said, 'if you are.'-'Then advance, sir, to the stair!'
"I advanced-that sentry, Doctor, was Elijah Ballantyne- First of all to fall on Monday, after we had formed the line- "Welcome, my old Sergeant, welcome! Welcome by the countersign!' And he pointed to the scar there under this old cloak of mine!
"As he grasped my hand I shuddered-thinking only of the grave- But he smiled, and pointed upward, with a bright and bloodless glaive- 'That's the way, sir, to headquarters.' 'What headquarters? 'Of the brave!' 'But the great tower?' 'That was builded of the great deeds of the brave!'
"Then a sudden shame came o'er me at his uniform of light- At my own, so old and tattered, at his so new and bright. 'Ah!' said he, 'you have forgotten the new uniform to-night! Hurry back, for you must be here at just twelve o'clock to-night.'
"And the next thing I remember, you were sitting there, and I- Doctor, it is hard to leave you. Hark! God bless you all! Good bye! Doctor, please to give my musket and my knapsack, when I die, To my son-to my son that's coming-he won't get here till I die!
393
A BLESSING WITH THE MUSKET.
"Tell him his old father blessed him, as he never did before- And to carry that old musket-Hark! a knock is at the door- Till the Union-see it opens." "Father! father! speak once more!" " Bless you!" gasped the old gray Sergeant, and he lay and said no more.
When the Surgeon gave the heir-son the old Sergeant's last advice, And his musket and his knapsack-how the fire flashed in his eyes He's on the march this morning, and will march on till he dies- He will save this bleeding country, or will fight until he dies!
394
THE SOLDIER OF INDIANA.
CHAPTER XXX.
CORINTHI.
"Thus was Corinth lost and won."
-Byron's Seige of Corinth.
DURING the ten days following the battle of Shiloh there was no small degree of suffering in the National army on the Tennessee, especially among General Buell's troops, who, after their forced march of twenty, thirty or forty miles, ren- dered doubly hard by the necessity of avoiding the long trains of lumbering wagons in the narrow road, were unprovided with the shelter of tents, blankets or overcoats. Rain poured down almost the whole time; the stench of the battle-field was intolerable; heavy details were made for the burial of the dead, for laying corduroy roads, for bridging swamps, and for bringing supplies from the river; and a large number of troops was required to reconnoiter the country and to guard the camps. Privation and hardship were borne with patience, and toil was performed with cheerfulness, but their effect was severe, and the number of sick in the hospitals increased daily, until the slow wagon train arrived.
On receiving intelligence of the battle, Major General Halleck immediately left St. Louis to assume command at Pittsburg Landing. He devoted himself during several weeks to the reorganization of the army, which was now increased by the arrival of General Pope with twenty thousand men, and of a few regiments which General Grant had left behind at Paducah, Fort Henry and Fort Donelson, to one hundred thousand. He divided it into three corps, called the Army of the Tennessee, the Army of the Ohio, and the Army of the Mississippi, under the command of General Thomas, General Buell and General Pope. The corps of General Thomas formed the right wing, and included five divisions, his own, Hurlburts, Sherman's, Davis' and that
395
PROMOTIONS.
of General Smith, who died at Savannah. Buell had the center with the fourth division of his old army, which had accompanied him from Nashville, and Pope held the left, with three divisions, under Paine, Stanley and Hamilton. The reserve consisted of McClernand and Wallace's division, and was under the command of McClernand.
In March General Wallace was promoted Major General, in acknowledgement of his gallantry before Donelson. He was Indiana's first Major General. In the same month Colonel Manson was made Brigadier General, as a reward for his services at Mill Spring, and Colonel Hascall was advanced to the same position. The former was succeeded in the command of the Tenth regimentby Lieutenant-Colonel Kise; the latter in the command of the Seventeenth by Lieu- tenant-Colonel Wilder, who had already distinguished himself in Western. Virginia, having led the regiment at Cheat Mountain and Greenbrier, and in most of the severe skir- mishes under General Reynolds and General Rosecrans.
In April Colonels Hovey and Veatch were promoted for distinguished services at Shiloh. They were succeeded, the one by Lieutenant-Colonel Morgan, the other by Lieutenant- Colonel Spicely, who had two weeks before been appointed to the place of Lieutenant-Colonel Gerber. Several other changes were made in regimental commanders. Colonel Wilson, who resigned in March, was now succeeded in the command of the Fortieth by Lieutenant-Colonel Blake. In the place of Colonel Bridgeland, who also resigned, Lieuten- ant-Colonel Ed. McCook was appointed to the command of the Second cavalry.
To the Indiana troops who were engaged at Shiloh were added during the four ensuing weeks the Second cavalry, only thirty-five of which were on the ground on the 7th, the Seven- teenth, Fifty-First and Fifty-Eighth regiments, belonging to General Wood's division, but unable with all the speed they could use to join in the battle; the Tenth; the Fifty-Third, which left Camp Morton the middle of March, but had a slow journey round by Cairo and St. Louis; the Fifty-Ninth, which came from New Madrid; the Forty-Eighth from Padu- cah, and the Fifty-Second from Fort Henry. The Fifty-
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THE SOLDIER OF INDIANA.
second was put in Lauman's brigade, the Fifty-Ninth and Forty-Eighth were brigaded together, under General Buford, in the second division of the Army of the Mississippi, and were not separated during the war. The Eleventh Indiana battery, Sutermeister's, also arrived immediately after the battle. It was placed in the reserve artillery, which was inde- pendent of any division, and was under the command of Colonel Barnett, a pleasant and intelligent volunteer officer from Ohio.
"Our camp," writes a young Lieutenant in the battery, April 26th, "is about two miles from the river, near where the hardest fighting was done. We are, as it were, in a grave-yard, and this we know not only by the sight of graves. The army is moving gradually, to-day one brigade going a little beyond the advance, and in a few days another some- what beyond that.
"Since leaving Nashville the battery has had sixteen mule teams, six mules to cach. It should have five more to carry the requisite amount of ammunition. It still attracts atten- tion. There are other siege-guns here, but none rifled, I think. Our company would be called by some an abolition concern. We have eight contrabands hired for cooking, and this in spite of General Buell's order excluding them."
The army reached from Hamburg's Landing to Crump's, and filled the woods for many miles along the river with the din of military life. When it moved from the river towards Corinth the extremity of each wing was thrown back in echelons to prevent a flank attack. Grant, in whom Halleck evidently had the utmost confidence, was, to the disgust of the country and the displeasure of the army, appointed second in command. General Halleck excited no enthusiasm, his reserve and taciturnity were even forbidding, but he was felt to be great, and where there is genuine force of character men will excuse many deficiencies. General Pope, who joined the army the lastof May, also forced an acknowledgement of ability and earnestness from all who came in contact with him. For Buell and the division Generals who fought at Shiloh, their troops con- ceived that sort of affection which can exist only between those who worthily share danger and suffering. The army was well
397
GREAT PREPARATIONS.
provided with wagons, forage, provisions, hospital stores and all that could be necessary for the comfort of so vast a body of men.
The Confederates were also reinforced, re-organized and again well prepared for battle. "For the first time," said Beauregard, "we shall meet the foe in strength that should give us victory. Let the impending battle decide our fate, whether we are to be freemen or the vile slaves of those who are free only in name, and who but yesterday were vanquished, although in largely superior numbers, in their own encamp- ment on the ever-memorable field of Shiloh." Not only was every preparation made by the armies for a battle of a mag- nitude hitherto unknown, and which would probably decide the fate of the war, but also by the two opposing districts of the country. All churches put up prayers for the suc- cess of one side or the other. All civil officers and all women of the land engaged in preparing sanitary stores for one side or the other. The Governors of the Northwestern States, with hundreds of nurses and surgeons, and a fleet of steamboats, collected at Pittsburg Landing, and awaited the momentous day. Governor Morton applied to the Secretary of War for permission to appoint two additional assistant surgeons to each regiment in the army of General Halleck. The permission was granted, and he sent about seventy sur- geons to that army. The movement led to the amendment of the law by which a third surgeon was added to each regiment. Governor Morton visited all the Indiana regiments, and affectionately exhorted them to do their duty, and to remem- ber in the dread hour which was close at hand that all loyal eyes and hearts were upon them.
On Thursday morning, May 12th, Indiana met with a calamity in the death of Miles J. Fletcher, Superintendent of Public Instruction, as he was on his way to Pittsburg Landing. In Governor Morton's annual message for 1862 occurs the following tribute to the memory of Professor Fletcher:
" The death of Miles J. Fletcher was a misfortune to the State. Possessed of fine talents, highly educated, endowed with every accomplishment that can make a man attractive in society, with a heart full of the warmest affections and the
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THE SOLDIER OF INDIANA.
most generous impulses, he united with all these an indom- itable energy of character that gave him no rest, and ever pressed him forward in the path of duty. His industry was a marvel, and the amount of labor he accomplished wonderful. The duties of his office he discharged, not scantily as a task, but with a devotion and pleasure that were satisfied only with a full performance. The cause of education he regarded as of the first importance, and the vocation and calling of the educator the most honorable and dignified, next to that of the Christian minister. The misfortunes of his country deeply afflicted him, and notwithstanding the delight he took in the performance of his official duties, and his untiring devotion to the education of youth, he would have resigned his office and gone to the field had he not been dissuaded by his friends, who urged that he could serve his country better in the position he then held. He devoted much time, labor and money to the care of the sick and wounded soldiers. He visited the hospitals and the fields of battle to hunt up and minister to the neglected and the dying, and in carrying a wounded man upon a steamboat at Pittsburg Landing, shortly after the battle of Shiloh, suffered a bodily injury, from which most likely he could never recover. When he was killed he had started upon another mission of mercy to the army. I was standing by his side at the moment of his death, and never before did I have brought home to me in full force that passage of Scripture which declares that 'In the midst of life we are in death.' Had I been asked a moment before who, among all the young men of Indiana, bade fairest for a life of great usefulness and fame, I would have answered Miles J. Fletcher."
General Halleck advanced with a prudence which was more than commensurate with the vast interests at stake. His progress was scarcely perceptible, and at every halt he threw up intrenchments which were stronger than the fortifications of Corinth. Trees were felled, roads were made, streams and swamps were bridged. Expeditions were sent out to seize advanced positions, to cut the communications of Corinth on the East and West, and to scour the country. An expe- dition to Purdy, under General Wallace, suffered great hard-
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BEFORE CORINTH.
ship from exposure to a long continued and furious storm. Another to Wilmington, under General Paine, had two severe struggles with the enemy before the place was permanently taken. A daring raid to the south of Corinth cut the Mobile road.
The troops worked cheerfully day and night. Life in the enemy's country improved them in all soldierly qualities. They marched with the firm step of veterans. Much more than at any previous time, they were on the alert as skir- mishers and on picket. Stragglers were no longer to be seen.
Orders were peremptory not to bring on a general engage- ment. One day a single Rebel cavalryman rode towards a company of the Thirty-Ninth Indiana, which was scouting, and fired, sending his bullet so close to a private that it went through a tin cup at his belt; but no return fire was allowed, and the bold ranger rode off unmolested.
After the middle of May skirmishing was constant. The orders to avoid an engagement were still enforced, but the skirmishes were often equal in warmth and in the number engaged to the battles of the early part of the war.
The enemy preserved an unbroken front, and fought for every foot of ground; but atlength Halleck threw up redoubts and placed siege-guns so close to Corinth that trains of cars, drums and even voices within the hostile intrenchments could be heard.
At nine o'clock on the morning of May 29th, the enemy's musketry firing ceased. After that hour there were no more close engagements. Towards evening the Confederate bat- teries slackencd their firc, and before night they also ceased. During the night heavy explosions within the enemy's works shook the ground, rousing every camp from sleep. In the morning clouds of smoke hung over the little Confederate city. Cautious examinations were made, but no enemy was discovered, and shortly after daylight Halleck's army, without obstruction or molestation, entered the fortifications of Beau- regard. The town was abandoned by soldiers and citizens, an empty, desolate place, smoking with the worthless refuse of Rebel camps, and mocking its invaders with wooden guns, manned by stuffed images in Rebel uniform.
400
THE SOLDIER OF INDIANA.
A close and vigorous pursuit was kept up more than a week by General Pope. He had several warm skirmishes with the Confederate rear, and took a number of prisoners, but Beauregard's army escaped with little loss in men and still less in munition. The Confederates had so long prac- tised evacuations that they had become expert beyond example. They did not leave in Corinth or lose on the retreat a single piece of ordnance.
The abandonment of Corinth was forced upon the Con- federates by the surrender of New Orleans, the fear of Hal- leck, and the necessities of Richmond; but it was not so great a misfortune as it seemed. It was now too late in the season, and the rivers were too low to allow Halleck to make further progress into the interior, and with the possession of Corinth he was obliged for sometime to rest content.
General Beauregard in his retreat paused at Tuscumbia; finding that position too near the Union army, he proceeded to Baldwin, but finally assembled the main body of his forces at Tupelo.
401
ON TO HUNTSVILLE.
CHAPTER XXX.
ADVANCE TO THE CHARLESTON AND MEMPHIS RAILROAD.
O my country, God through trial brings the man as pure, as strong! O blind giant, shorn and fettered by thy little masters long! Battle of the Dead Cid.
IT will be recollected that when General Buell left Nash- ville to march towards Pittsburg Landing, General Mitchell, at his own request, moved off on an expedition to Huntsville to cut or take possession of the Memphis and Charleston railroad at that point. Although this road was of vital im- portance to the Confederacy, connecting, as it did, the two great Rebel armies in Virginia and Mississippi, and although nearly all the rolling stock of all the railroads from Bowling Green southward was collected on it, Huntsville, the central point between Corinth and Chattanooga, was allowed to remain almost undefended, a false security being induced by the ease with which a concentration of troops could be effected. It was true, however, that only a movement con- ducted with unprecedented secresy and celerity could have the slightest chance of success.
Such an enterprise General Mitchell was capable of lead- ing, and such a one his division was well fitted to carry out. Within ten days after they left Nashville they rebuilt sixty miles of railroad and twelve thousand feet of heavy bridging. When this work was done, Mitchell made Shelbyville his depot of supplies, and from this point advanced with a speed which defied announcement. On the 9th of April he was little more than a long day's march from Huntsville. Early in the morning of the 10th General Turchin's brigade, in which were the Thirty-Seventh Indiana and Simonson's bat- tery, pushed on several hours before the other brigades of the division were roused from sleep. The roads were wretched. They dipped down into unbridged swamps, mounted rugged
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