USA > Indiana > The soldier of Indiana in the war for the union, Vol. I > Part 5
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48
THE SOLDIER OF INDIANA.
frowning rocks, and the ravines and gorges in which a thou- sand men might hide. Day lighted up the shaggy woods, and rugged cliffs, and discovered the blushing laurel and the bright azalea. Vigilance did not relax. The woods were scoured, the rocks explored, the army halted, while the treach- erous turns of the crooked road were examined. The moun- tain farms were deserted, the houses closed, and no signs of life were visible, except now and then an anxious face peering through a curtained window. About half-past seven the enemy's pickets first seemed aware of the approach of our troops. They fired, but immediately fled. Just as the last were driven in, our army came in full view of the position to be occupied. In less than an hour it was successfully dis- posed on heights, which hemmed in the enemy, and General Morris had established his head-quarters in the house of Elliott, a noted Secessionist, who looked on with trembling rage, while the Stars and Stripes were placed above his un- worthy door. In this prefatory skirmish, a private in the Ninth, William T. Girard, was killed.
Garnett's camp was hidden by two conical eminences, which, being densely wooded, furnished a fine cover for skir- mishing purposes. It extended over about a hundred and fifty acres, and had a fine position, with a mountain wall behind it as a background and a shelter. General McClellan had already advanced from Buckhannon, and he issued orders to Morris, by all means to avoid an engagement, until the heavy column should appear in the rear. Whatever General Morris's long-tried patience, his troops had no inclination to employ themselves in the culture of a passive virtue, and they engaged in skirmishing with a zeal that threatened to anticipate McClellan's movements. Feats were daily per- formed, which, years from now, when veterans repeat tales of their youth to eager listeners, will thrill many a shuddering fireside.
Sylvester Brown, a tall private of the Sixth, in the face of six Rebels, who were behind an earthwork of rude construction, carried from a tree, where they had been cooking and resting, a quantity of blankets and some cooking-utensils, Placing them safely, he returned; but, as he was again carrying a
49
SKIRMISHING.
parcel of blankets away, the Rebels stood up, took deliberate aim, and fired. He wheeled around, fired with steady hand, and stepping proudly and firmly as on dress-parade, reached his comrades, who surrounded him with offers of assistance. " I am shot," he said, " but the cowards don't know it!" and he would not be moved down to the hospital, lest they should see that he was wounded.
West of the Staunton turnpike, and not far from the Rebel works, was an old field, with here and there a clump of black- berries, a group of dead trees, or a pile of logs. On the east was a dense wood, with an undergrowth of laurel. One day field and wood were alive with skirmishers. In the wood the Rebels were comparatively safe, but our soldiers in the field must creep stealthily from log to tree, and from tree to bush, take aim with keen glance and rapid hand. A youth, with delicate face and form and light curling hair, lay behind a log near the road. He had in his hand a revolver, which he had taken from a dead Rebel officer the day before. Restless and impatient, he determined to cross the road and penetrate the dangerous wood. With swift step he put the thought into execution, cleared the road, hid in the thicket. A few min- utes, and two shots were fired; then on the evening air rose a scream, so awful that no man who heard it will forget it to his dying day. Mortal agony was in that shrill cry. The skirmishers in the field sprang to their feet, and drew in- stantly together. The hasty and perilous resolve was made to dash into the wood. In the laurel, a few steps from the road, they found the bleeding, lifeless body of the reckless boy. He was John Auten, of the Ninth.
The hill known as Girard Hill, was taken from a regiment of Georgians, by fifteen privates without any officers. In the attack, two soldiers, Bierce and Boothroyd, advanced within fifteen paces of the enemy's fortifications, and here Boothroyd received a wound in the neck, which paralyzed him. His comrade immediately caught him in his arms and carried him and his gun full twenty rods, bullets falling around them at every step.
In the afternoon of the 10th of July, two large bodies of troops were seen from a high hill in the neighborhood, leaving
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50
THE SOLDIER OF INDIANA.
the Rebel camp. Instant preparations were made to meet them, and in less than two hours the Fourteenth Ohio and Ninth Indiana were actively engaged with twelve hundred Georgians. The Rebels came forward under cover of the woods, holding their cavalry ready to charge whenever our men should attempt to move in anything like military order. Suddenly the Federals advanced, and poured in a sharp volley. The Rebel cavalry, taking advantage of the movement, pro- ceeded to take them in flank. The Federals rapidly retreated, and, as they retreated, threw out a couple of shells. In their turn, the Confederates drew back, shouting, " Now, give it to them !" and springing forward at the same time, the Federals poured in another volley. The enemy wavered and fell fur- ther back, but recovered in a moment and dashed forward.
" Rally to your logs!" was now the cry of the Federals, and back they fled behind trees and logs and blackberry bushes. Shells were again thrown among the assailants, and again they fled to their sheltering woods. The Ohio and In- diana boys broke cover, and forward they dashed once more. Further, further they went until Milroy, who had charge of a gun, sprang upon a log and shouted, waving his hat, “ Fall back, boys! We're going to fire another shell!" He stood several minutes, his head inclined, listening intently. At length through the tumult he distinguished the shout from his boys : " Fire more to the right!" The enemy scattered be- fore this well-directed shell, and could not again be rallied.
" What troops are you?" it is said a Georgian shouted from behind a tree before any shells were thrown. " Ohio and Indiana Volunteers," was shouted in reply. "Can't make me believe that," called out the Georgian. "You need n't tell me that Volunteers stand fire that way." He was probably convinced they were Volunteers when he heard them, if through the din he could hear, singing out their own orders : "Now give it to them!" "Rally to your logs !" and the like.
John R. Smith, a young, brave fellow, who had walked thirty miles to volunteer, fell in this skirmish.
Milroy's men, like their leader, were madly in love with danger. It is said that one of them took a newspaper, and
51
EVACUATION AND PURSUIT.
marching up the road at the foot of the hill, asked the Rebels if they would n't like to hear the news. " Yes !" they shouted. He unfolded his paper and began: " Great battle at Manas- sas Gap : one thousand Rebels killed; ten thousand wounded ; nearly all the rest taken prisoners. All traitors to be hung, and their property confiscated." Here the bullets began to hail around him, and he beat a retreat.
It was almost impossible to restrain our men from making an assault that night. They had no longer expectation or hope of hearing the booming of McClellan's guns the other side of Laurel Hill. The next day they were early on the alert, eager at every point for skirmishing; but the enemy could not be induced to show himself. Not a gun was seen or heard, while the blows of the axe and the crash of falling timber never ceased. It was surmised that General Garnett had determined to make a last stand here, and was strength- ening his intrenchments. Early the following morning, a horseman, without saddle, whip, or spurs, beating his horse on with his sword, came galloping to head-quarters, and an- nounced that the Rebels had evacuated.
Intelligence so contrary to expectation and so disagreea- ble was received with suspicion, and General Morris ordered three officers, Captain Benham, Sergeant-Major Gordon, and Dr. Fletcher, with a company, to inspect. He also sent orders to Colonels Dumont and Milroy to march without a mo- ment's delay to the enemy's camp. In five minutes both regiments were on the march. Along the smooth mountain road, past the blackberry field, and around the wooded knoll, they went, expecting to meet an open, or to hear an am- bushed foe. Uninformed of the reported evacuation, their surprise and suspicion increased with every step. Not with fear, but with some trepidation, they looked towards a turn in the road before them, which might expose them to the raking fire of the enemy's cannon; but instead of bristling guns, the turn revealed a long line of unmanned intrenchments, silent batteries, and deserted tents.
" Where are General Garnett and his men ?" asked Dr. Fletcher, who was first to cross the Rebel intrenchments, of a frightened woman in a solitary house. " They 's done gone," she said.
52
THE SOLDIER OF INDIANA.
He went into an old log house on Mustoe's farm, and found some eight or ten wounded Rebels. They handed him a note addressed to " Any officer of the U. S.," asking that mercy be shown to these wounded men. The men , themselves begged him not to have them hung!
The Seventh and Ninth were joined at the camp by two companies of Ohio artillery, under Colonel Barnett, and pushed forward on the road to Beverly. It was now evident that the felling of trees, the day before supposed to be for the purpose of strengthening the intrenchments, was the work of the rear-guard, to delay pursuit. The road was blocked up with every possible obstacle, and strewed with the effects of the Rebels. The pursuit was continued ten miles, without further interruption than was necessary to drag trees out of the road ; but at Leeds Creek was brought to an abrupt halt, by the want of a bridge, which the Rebels had broken up. While the bridge was undergoing repairs, a foraging party was sent out to obtain food from the neighboring farmers ; but it returned with such a scanty supply, that even after one or two provision-wagons came up, many a man was unable to obtain a morsel. Near night the Fourteenth Ohio arrived. The advance was commanded by Captain Ben- ham, U. S. E., one of those unfortunate individuals who have a peculiar facility for winning dislike ; but not hunger, fa- tigue, nor Benham could cool the ardor of the troops, and they lay down on the ground to sleep with the utmost sat- isfaction.
General Morris arrived at Leeds Creek some time after dark, and was led among the sleeping forms of tired soldiers to an old log house, in which Captain Benham directed him by his voice, as no light could be obtained. The members of the staff lay on the ground, with the other soldiers, and endured a pelting rain.
Meantime events were occurring at Rich Mountain, which changed the course of the retreat, and consequently of the pursuit. At three o'clock on the morning of the 12th, the same morning Morris started in pursuit of Garnett, General Rosecrans, with the Eighth, Tenth, Thirteenth Indiana, and Nineteenth Ohio, left McClellan's camp west of Rich Moun-
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53
RICH MOUNTAIN.
tain, and proceeded along the line of hills southeast of the enemy's intrenchments, with the purpose of entering the Bev- erly road on the mountain-top, and of attacking the camp from the east. General McClellan was to assault the west as soon as the firing should announce the commencement of the attack.
General Rosecrans occupied about nine hours in cutting his way through the woods, climbing the rocks, logs, and stumps, and wading the streams. The guide was David Hart, whose father's farm was on the top of the mountain, and who had escaped from the Rebels by this route. Colonel Lander, who had spent the greater part of his life in explor- ing and engineering expeditions in the far West, and whose experience in military, mountain, backwoods, and every va- riety of wild, adventurous, and exposed life, was unusual, accompanied the guide, and declared the difficulties of the march unequalled. The bushes were wet, the air was ex- cessively cold and full of rain; and rain began to fall in the course of the morning. About noon they reached the top of the mountain, but instead of descending and quietly taking possession of the Rebel rear, according to the plan, they were here saluted by a volley from Rebel pickets, whose attack was followed by cannon; and they found themselves in the presence of a large body of the enemy. A courier, sent by McClellan to Rosecrans, had taken the broad Beverly road which led directly through the Confederate camp, and had of course been obliged to give up his despatches. In con- sequence, a body of twenty-five hundred men, with three can- non, had been sent to the top of the mountain, and had there thrown up hastily some intrenchments.
Rosecrans made an attempt to form his command into line, but it was found impossible, on account of the irregu- larities of the position; the troops were therefore ordered to advance at intervals and fire; then throw themselves on the ground. The Confederates fired steadily and rapidly, but the screen of bushes prevented their taking correct aim, and they fired generally too low. General Rosecrans attempted again to form the troops into line, and after much difficulty, result- ing partly from the nature of the ground, partly from the rain
54
THE SOLDIER OF INDIANA.
which was now pouring down, and partly from the eagerness of the men to rush pell-mell into battle, he finally succeeded. The Eighth was ordered to take the right, the Tenth the centre, one half of the Thirteenth (the other half had been sta- tioned at the forks of a road in the rear, with instructions to hold the point at all hazards) the left. The Ohio regiment was the reserve. The Thirteenth immediately advanced some dis- tance to the left and down the hill, to flank the enemy. While directing its movements, Colonel Sullivan suddenly found him- self face to face with a Rebel of immense size. The Colonel raised his sword and the Rebel his rifle. The sword bent and the rifle missed, but the Colonel's face was burned with the flash; and if one of his soldiers had not seen his danger, shoved him aside, and brought the Rebel to the ground, his first battle would probably have been his last. Some delay was occasioned by the Tenth, under a misapprehen- sion of orders, taking the right. It marched down to with- in three hundred yards of the enemy, and engaged him hotly for thirty minutes, unassisted by the Eighth, which, the mis- take having been discovered, was ordered to face about and march to the right. Both regiments showed great steadi- ness in march, countermarch, and actual battle.
At length the three regiments fell back, and the reserve was ordered forward. . It advanced to a fence in line with the breastworks, fired one round, then gave three cheers to the Indiana boys, who fixed their bayonets with a clang which resounded along the lines, and rushed forward to charge bayonets. One man alone of the enemy stood his ground. He coolly touched the match to his cannon, at the same moment received a ball in his heart, and fell dead.
A general race now followed, so exciting that our men were with difficulty recalled and reformed in line of battle, to receive the enemy from the foot of the mountain. But instead of following up the attack, the Confederates, as well in the camp as on the top of the mountain, thought all was lost, and sought safety in the woods, leaving their works, tents, stores, cannon, and indeed all they had. The engage- ment lasted over an hour. On the battle-field was found a sword, inscribed with the testimony of the gratitude of the
55
SURRENDER OF COLONEL PEGRAM.
State of Virginia to Midshipman Taylor, for his valorous defence, on two occasions, of a United States frigate.
General Rosecrans was very conspicuous in this battle. He was as cool and skilful as he was brave, and no higher praise of his bravery can be given than to say it equalled that of his men. They were all as brave as lions, but inclined to be regardless of orders, unless accompanied by a rap with the flat side of the sword. Even wounds did not quench or cool their ardor; more than one man with a disabled leg crawled to a stone and loaded for a comrade, or himself continued firing. The only banner in the engagement was that of the Eighth, the motto of which was : " ABOVE US OR AROUND US."
The next day, after thirty-six hours' wandering in the woods through rain and mud, without rest and without food, Colonel Pegram and about six hundred of his command surrendered themselves prisoners of war. They formed a melancholy procession. Colonel Pegram wore an expression of the deep- est sadness, and the forlorn young faces of many students from Hampden Sydney College appealed to the hearts of the victors. The captain of the students was one of their pro- fessors. Did he feel shame, or is that last safeguard of the soul lost to the traitor ?
On the day of Pegram's surrender, General Garnett was within three miles of Beverly, on his way either to unite his force - which at the outset of his retreat numbered five thou- sand, - with that of Pegram, and then to give battle, or to proceed for greater security to the fastnesses of the Cheat Mountains. When he received the unwelcome intelligence, he turned and retraced his march to Leeds Creek, from which point a mountain-road leads northeast through the little town of New Interest, to St. George, Tucker County. He entered this road early in the morning. The rain fell and continued to fall in torrents, making a deep, sticky mud of the clay soil, which the feet of the fugitives worked thin, and left rolling down the hills after them in sluggish streams. Proofs of their fatigue and of the lessening distance between them and their pursuers became more and more numerous to the latter. Knapsacks, trunks, clothes, beds, cards, everything that could be thrown away, marked the route. Rebel axes forming bar-
56
THE SOLDIER OF INDIANA.
ricades, and loyal axes, clearing away obstructions, answered to each other. Rebel pickets protecting laborers were driven in. A Rebel banner was taken, and borne back along the whole line. Every step increased the exhilaration of the National troops. As they waded a rocky, roaring stream, some freak of mem- ory suggested the singularly spirited old hymn : " On Jordan's stormy banks I stand." A thousand voices joined, and hill, and wood, and rock echoed and reechoed the exalted strain.
The Cheat River, an exceedingly crooked and rapid stream, crossing the road repeatedly, and always difficult of passage, delayed the enemy. At the first ford, Captain Benham dis- covered the baggage-train at rest. He proposed an attack as soon as Barnett's artillery and Dumont's regiment should have come up; but the thoughtless firing of a musket gave warning, and set the train in motion. At the second ford, the Confederates were found to have left a few skirmishers. The advance opened a brisk fire, and cleared the adjacent wood. At the third ford, Carrick's, the rear of the wagon-train was standing. "Don't shoot," cried the teamsters, " we're going to surrender ! "
The river at this point runs between a precipitous bluff of some fifty to eighty feet on the right, and low meadows on the left. The road on the left passes between the meadow- ground and the river, parallel to the river. The Confederates were strongly posted on the high bank, and hidden from view by a rail-fence and a tangled thicket of laurel.
As the Fourteenth Ohio advanced, a blaze of fire lighted up the bank and revealed the ambuscade. The Fourteenth halted, and, without a change of position, returned the fire. Barnett's artillery and the Ninth Indiana hastened to its sup- port. The latter, being on the left, was obliged to fire ob- liquely, although the men crowded together, and next to the Fourteenth were thirty deep. The firing on both sides was rapid and fierce. Garnett's men aimed too high, and did little execution. Colonel Dumont, approaching through the meadow, (he had avoided the road on account of the mud,) heard the firing and ordered his men to advance on the run. He was met by a command from Captain Benham to cross the river three hundred yards above the ford, climb the hill,
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57
DEATH OF GENERAL GARNETT.
and attack the enemy in the rear. Without stopping, Colonel Dumont dashed straight through the river, dismounted, and climbed the hill by the aid of bushes and ledges of rock, which it was necessary to grasp at almost every step. Man by man, one company, two companies, almost three com- panies, followed, and reached the top, when an order was re- ceived to bring back the men, and to charge the enemy at the ford and at the guns. Unfortunately, Captain Benham had been told that the ascent of the bluff, except at the ford, was impracticable. His first order, had it not been countermanded, would certainly have resulted in the capture of a large por- tion, if not the main body of the enemy, without further pursuit or fighting.
Not a foot of ground lay between the river and the almost perpendicular bank. The river-bed was covered with loose · rolling boulders. The current was rapid. The water in many places was waist-deep. Artillery was firing from each side. As might be expected under such circumstances, the passage from one point to the other was rapidly made. Guns and ammunition, held at arm's length, were kept dry.
Not until Dumont reached the road and appeared on his right, did the enemy turn to fly. A running fight ensued, and was continued to the fourth and last ford. Here again the enemy endeavored to rally. Through the tumult rose the clear, loud voice of General Garnett, cheering and urg- ing his men to stand. In vain; and he stood with raised hand appealing to them, a single Georgian youth by his side, when a ball entered his back, and he fell. At the same mo- ment fell his companion. They lay together, the General in his gorgeous Southern uniform, and the boy in his rustic butternut, when our advance approached, both dying. Colo- nel Dumont's pitying heart yearned towards the fallen Gar- nett, and he requested Gordon, who was always at the point of danger, to stay and guard the body. Gordon obeyed. He closed the eyes, tied up the chin, and straightened the stif- fening limbs. No true and loyal man was ever more honor- ably cared for than this disloyal General. He fell strangely, in the rear of his flying army, and deserted by his own troops. Perhaps he was the victim of mortification and despair.
58
THE SOLDIER OF INDIANA.
The sense of honor in the Southern gentleman is keener than the sense of right, and while it arms a man with daring cour- age, robs him of the nobler qualities of patience and fortitude. It impels him to rush on death rather than bear defeat.
Our soldiers buried the Georgian boy with gentle and respectful hands. The honor they showed him was no con- ventional thing.
In consideration of the exhausted condition of his troops, who had marched, almost entirely without food, twenty-seven miles, eighteen of which had been over a frightful mountain road, and in a pitiless rain, General Morris reluctantly ordered the pursuit to be abandoned. Colonel Milroy, however, like a man running down-hill, could not check himself short of two miles further. The closing sentence of an address which the General issued the next day, is : " Your cheerful endurance of the privations you have undergone, and are now undergo- ing, from the necessarily scanty supply of provisions, and the hardships of the march of yesterday over roads almost impas- sable, and through the storm of rain and battle, is-in the language of the immediate commander of the advance col- umn, Captain Benham -most heroic, beyond all praise of mine, and such as your country only can fully appreciate and reward."
About forty wagons and teams were captured in the pur- suit, also the colors of every regiment engaged. A Georgia banner was inscribed with the favorite Southern maxim, " Cotton is King." Eighteen or twenty were killed, and sixty- three prisoners were taken. Of Morris's army, two were killed and six wounded. The bluff on which the Rebel dead lay, was a ghastly sight, and blanched the cheek of the sturdiest.
The prisoners were not guarded, and were treated with cordial good-nature. Yet our men could not restrain their curiosity in regard to the desertion of Garnett, nor tire of asserting that they would stand by Morris to the last. Among the prisoners was a surgeon by the name of Car- rington. He was captured under a stable, but, even in this trying situation, did not lose his self-possession. He intro- duced himself as a member of one of the first Virginia
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