USA > Indiana > The soldier of Indiana in the war for the union, Vol. I > Part 7
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The last week in July witnessed the return of the six reg- iments from the mountains of Virginia and the meadows of Maryland. They were engaged in no great battle in the three months' campaign ; they did not suffer with heat nor with cold; they had no experience of malarious swamps and rivers, of thirsty sands, or of Southern prisons ; and what- ever hardships they endured were made light by the prospect of a speedy termination. The veterans, who have tramped from one end of the Republic to the other, and back again ; who have besieged cities, blockaded islands, and bombarded fortresses; who have swept backward and forward, like a surging sea, upon a battle-field, not one hour, nor four, but
morris
BRUG DET: WATCH G MOPRIS
71
GENERAL MORRIS.
all day and all night; may smile at the three-months' cam- paign, and talk of summer soldiers. But it should not be forgotten that these six regiments were among the pioneers of the war. They first sprang to arms, they first shouted the battle-cry of freedom, they first stood the shock of battle, they baptized the now truly sacred soil of Virginia with Indiana blood; and it is their dead who lead the stately but sad procession of Indiana's heroes.
The laurels won in the West Virginia campaign were not divided. The name of Morris does not occur in McClel- lan's reports. The nation, rejoiced in its hour of need to find a great man, did not criticise nor doubt, but confidingly placed the laurel wreath upon the offered head. Morris, who, in spite of the restraint laid upon him by his slow and strat- egetical superior, had shown himself quick, skilful, and pru- dent, and had won the greater part of the success unaided, made no attempt to gain public attention. He quietly with- drew to the duties of civil life. His indignant friends ob- tained for him at length from the seemingly unwilling Gov- ernment the position of major-general, but could not induce its acceptance. As for the privates who were engaged in the three-months' campaign, hundreds of them, brave, intelligent, patient men, are still in the war, and are still privates.
6
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THE SOLDIER OF INDIANA.
CHAPTER VII.
RESPONSE TO THE SECOND CALL OF THE PRESIDENT. - TROOPS STATIONED IN WEST VIRGINIA.
AFTER the organization of the six regiments of three-months' men, twenty-nine companies remained in Camp Morton, and sixty-eight in different parts of the State, in readiness, and begging for acceptance. Governor Morton, convinced that the President would call for additional forces, and that the State legislature, then in session, would provide by law for the organization of troops for the defence of the State, issued orders for five regiments of twelve-months' Volunteers. Camps of rendezvous were established in the following places :- Twelfth : Camp Morton, Indianapolis ; Thirteenth : Camp Sullivan, Indianapolis ; Fourteenth : Camp Vigo, Terre Haute; Fifteenth : Camp Tippecanoe, Lafayette ; Sixteenth : Camp Wayne, Richmond.
The State legislature did more than accede to the prop- osition of Governor Morton. It provided for the employ- ment of six regiments, and declared that they should be subject to the order of the Governor of the State to fill any requisition made for troops on Indiana by the President of the United States.
For the Seventeenth a camp of rendezvous was estab- lished at Camp Morton. Colonel Joseph J. Reynolds was appointed brigadier-general. General Reynolds is a citizen of Lafayette. He received his education at West Point. His name appears attached to the "Army Register of 1840," in conformity with a regulation requiring the names of five of the most distinguished cadets to be reported for this pur- pose at each annual examination. The legislature also made a law for the organization of the militia, and divided the militia into two classes - sedentary, and active. The seden- tary militia comprised all persons liable to bear arms under the State constitution, except those enrolled in the active
RESPONSE TO THE SECOND CALL OF THE PRESIDENT. 73
militia. The active militia, called also the home legion, con- sisted of all such citizens between the ages of eighteen and forty-five as should enroll themselves and take the oath of allegiance to the United States and the State of Indiana. The State furnished these persons with arms, equipments, and ammunition, and paid the expenses of drills. When called into active service, they were to receive the same pay as corresponding grades in the United States Army. They were to provide themselves with uniforms similar to that of the United States troops, and on being taken into the ser- vice of the General Government, were to receive compensa- tion for the cost of their uniform.
On the 3d of May the President issued a proclamation, calling for Volunteer forces to serve three years or during the war. Four regiments were assigned to Indiana, accom- panied by an earnest injunction to the Governor to call for no more; or if more were already called for, to reduce the number by discharge.
The second call of the President, and also the first, were no doubt limited by the want of arms; as, while Southern traitors were occupying positions in the United States Gov- ernment, the armories in the Northern States had been almost stripped, and the contents sent South. On the 19th of April, fifteen thousand muskets in Harper's Ferry Armory had been destroyed, to prevent their falling into the hands of the Con- federates; and the Springfield Armory, the only other de- pendence, was capable of producing only about twenty-five thousand muskets annually. Much time must necessarily elapse before arms could be brought from Europe. In addi- tion to the want of arms, the President and his Council were greatly embarrassed by the continued discovery of traitors in high places, and by the state of the treasury, which was pur- posely reduced to bankruptcy by the preceding administration.
In pursuance of the orders from the War Department, the Thirteenth, Fourteenth, Fifteenth, and Seventeenth regiments were transferred to the United States service in an incomplete state. Governor Morton's policy of getting Indiana's quota for three years accepted before any attempt was made to re- organize the three-months' men, prevented the confusion that
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THE SOLDIER OF INDIANA.
prevailed among the Volunteers of one of the neighboring States, the Governor of which commenced to form the three- years' regiments from the three-months' troops ; and had also the effect of giving to Indiana six more regiments than would otherwise have been allotted to the State. The Twelfth and Sixteenth embraced all who declined to enter the United States service for three years.
Before the close of the three months, the Thirteenth was already in the field and actively engaged. The colonel of this regiment, Jeremiah Sullivan, was a young man, little more than thirty years old, but had served some time in the navy, and learned there the importance and value of disci- pline, - a lesson now to be put in practice to the advantage of himself and others. He arrived in Indianapolis from Madi- son, and reported to Governor Morton, with a company of one hundred and two men, the Thursday after the fall of Sumter. He was appointed commandant of a post, and engaged in disciplining Volunteers, until, on the 4th of July, he left In- dianapolis as Colonel of the Thirteenth. Having arrived at Buckhannon on the 8th, and the next day reached McClellan's camp, twelve miles east, the regiment was in time to join in Rosecrans's morning-walk over the rocks of Rich Mountain. In the engagement with Colonel Pegram's rear, the Thirteenth bore the hottest of the enemy's fire, and suffered loss in pro- portion. Seven men were killed on this their first battle-field, and just seven days after their hopeful farewell to home. They were buried with tenderness and care. Their graves were covered with green sod, and marked with slabs inscribed with name and age. A simple and transitory tribute, - but their memory will ever be kept green.
The Fourteenth and Fifteenth regiments followed in the wake of the Thirteenth as far as McClellan's camp. These two regiments were made up respectively of Volunteers from the western, southwestern, and northern portions of the State. The colonel of the Fourteenth was Nathan Kimball, a grad- uate of Asbury University, and a physician in Loogootee. He was a captain in the Second Indiana regiment in the Mexican War, and distinguished himself in the battle of Buena - Vista by the skill with which, during the retreat, he
75
FOURTEENTH AND FIFTEENTH.
brought off his men in company form, and the coolness and bravery with which he conducted them back to the battle- field, and fought with them during the day. When Colonel Bowles, who had given the disgraceful order to retreat, made his appearance at dress-parade after the court martial, the spirited captain refused to be inspected by him, and marched his men off the parade-ground. He was court-martialled for this offence, but his sword was soon returned to him.
The colonel of the Fifteenth was George D. Wagner, from Pine Village, a man of energy and nerve, who with few early advantages had made his way to a prominent place in the State Senate, and was President of the State Board of Agriculture.
During the 12th of July, all McClellan's by no means in- significant army stood ready for battle, awaiting the concerted signal, - the sound of firing from the rear of Pegram's camp. They waited in vain, and moved only when a messenger from Rosecrans brought information of the defeat and flight of the enemy. General McClellan then took up the line of march to Beverly, which place he made his head-quarters until called to a wider field. About the same time Rosecrans went towards the Kanawha, which the Rebel General Wise was threatening, and which was important as commanding the road to Cumberland Gap and to loyal East Tennessee.
The Fourteenth and Fifteenth were left almost alone guarding the Staunton turnpike from Beverly to Cheat Mountain Pass, fifteen miles east. In a few days they re- ceived a reinforcement of a company of Rangers, and a day later welcomed their new General.
General Reynolds had no staff and no body-guard. A member of General Morris's staff, Dr. Fletcher, formerly fife- major of the Sixth, expressed his desire to remain, and was at once transferred to the new General's staff, which he might be said to form, as for a while there was no other member.
The company of cavalry known as the Bracken Rangers offered itself to the General Government at the beginning of the war, under the President's call for Volunteers; and also to the State of Indiana, under an act of the legislature, passed at the extra session, held in the spring.
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THE SOLDIER OF INDIANA.
The policy of the General Government was not then to raise any but infantry regiments ; and the State authorities declined to organize a force as provided by the act of the legislature. In the early part of June, instructions came from the War Department to have two companies of cav- alry immediately organized and prepared for the field. On the receipt of these orders, Captain Bracken recruited his company, and went into Camp Murphy. Such was the enthusiasm in the formation of this company, that men too late to find a vacancy offered from ten to two hundred dol- lars for the situation of private.
July 19th, the company left Indianapolis. The citizens of Ohio were not yet tired of cheering, and the passage through that State was, as usual, like a triumphal proces- sion. Although it was midnight when the train reached Dayton, thousands stood ready with a joyful greeting and more substantial evidences of consideration. At Webster, between fifty and sixty prisoners, taken at various places, were put under their charge and conducted by them to Bev- erly. While on the route an incident occurred showing the dangers to which travellers and trains are frequently exposed. In a narrow part of the road they met a train of wagons, and the horses attached to a wagon containing fifteen pris- oners became unmanageable and plunged off the road, up- setting and dragging another wagon down the bluff. Tum- bling and rolling, horses and drivers, prisoners and wagons, fell twenty feet together, without breaking a bone.
On their arrival at Beverly, the prisoners took an oath not to bear arms against the United States Government, and were released. Many of them immediately left for Staunton, some not without returning thanks for the kind treatment they had received.
The battles of Laurel Hill, Rich Mountain, and Carrick's Ford had driven the Rebels out of Western Virginia, and beyond the Cheat Mountain Range. The army of General Reynolds, being only an army of occupation, was divided into three camps, forming an almost equilateral triangle, with a mountain bridle-path forming the base line between the Elk Water and the Summit. The Staunton turnpike finds
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BRACKEN S RANGERS.
its way through Cheat Pass; and a branch-road, connecting Huntersville on the east with Huttonville, a village of some half-dozen houses situated directly in the pass on the west, runs a few miles to the south through Elk Water Pass.
General Reynolds established his head-quarters in the field, near Huttonville, and retained at this point the Thirteenth, and nearly half the Bracken Rangers. A small detachment of the latter was sent under Lieutenant Bassett to Elk Water, with the Fifteenth. Colonel Kimball, with the Fourteenth, already had possession of the Summit. Captain Bracken, with the remainder of his company, was also sent to the Summit. The Third Ohio, and batteries, consisting in all of about fourteen guns, were about equally divided among the camps. The whole force consisted of a little more than four thousand. The Summit and Elk Water, by the wagon- road, were eighteen miles apart; Huttonville, between them, was nearer the latter.
The Bracken Rangers were not again together on duty until the following February. Being the only company of mounted men attached to the brigade during most of this time, their duty as scouts, videttes, guards, and messengers was constant, laborious, and dangerous. No expedition or reconnaissance went out from any of the camps without being accompanied by a detachment. of Bracken's cavalry, generally under command of a commissioned officer. The character of the country through which they were operating made it impossible to move off the travelled road, and ren- dered scouting on horseback extremely dangerous. At night, if not on duty, standing picket with horse in hand or mounted, they slept in their blankets, on pine or other boughs cut for the purpose. Such was their mode of life, and such it still is.
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THE SOLDIER OF INDIANA.
1
CHAPTER VIII.
GUARDING THE MOUNTAIN PASSES.
GENERAL REYNOLDS was fully aware of the responsibil- ity of his position, as warden of West Virginia, and he immediately fell to work at the intrenchments. Both pri- vates and officers lustily plied spade and axe until this trin- ity of strongholds seemed invulnerable to any but an im- mensely superior force. The fortifications on the Summit were built where the road makes an abrupt descent on both sides, having no level land on top. The tall white pines, which here grow very close together, were cut down for several acres, - the branches partially lopped and stripped, and the trees arranged around the camp, with the points out. Inside of this felled timber a strong wall of logs was built, and a deep ditch dug. Breastworks were thrown across the road on either side, in a line with the fortifications, and furnished with cannon, which on the east could sweep the approach more than a mile. In the rear of the fortifi- cations there was no opening in the forest, except, at the distance of a mile or two, an old road, long abandoned and almost forgotten. The fortifications of Elk Water spanned the valley, which was about three hundred yards wide. They consisted of a deep and wide trench, and an embankment thrown up with a regular gradation, that the men might step up, shoot, and step back to load, in entire security. At the ends of the embankment were pieces on batteries ranging diagonally across the valley. . The projector was Lieutenant- Colonel Owen.
On a fair day, a veil of blue mist hangs from two mas- sive peaks at the head of the passes, spreads over the jagged outlines, north, east, and south, and lies along the rounded western hills which guard the valley of the Tygart. A small stream, showing in its sweet, transparent water the speckled
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GUARDING THE MOUNTAIN PASSES.
mountain-trout and the white pebbles on its bottom, gives its name, the Elk, to the southern pass. A mile and a quar- ter east of the Summit, the dark cold Cheat dashes along its solitary and pine - bordered way to the Monongahela. Summer never tarries long in the mountain - valleys, and winter is always hovering over the mountain-tops. Even in August snow sometimes falls. In this cold, rugged, yet pict- uresque and beautiful region our soldiers were destined to remain many months. General Lee had collected Garnett's scattered forces immediately after their escape, and so added to them that in August he had an army of sixteen thousand. He fortified a position which nature had already made strong, on the Staunton road, as it ascends the Alleghanies ; and sat down cautiously to watch his foes upon the mountains in his front. Lee is accredited by Pollard, the Southern historian, with a "pious horror of guerrillas." However this may be, our troops are confident that a regularly organized body of bushwhackers, numbering five hundred, was connected with his army, and that, though not acknowledged, they reported to somebody. Their leader was Jim Gum, a man whose appearance was suggestive of Lord Monboddo's theory of the origin of mankind. His matted, tangled locks, wander- ing eyes, and claw-like fingers, -the mournful expression which settled on his face when he was inactive, - were all like those of some wild, shy, vicious, mountain-creature.
The laurel, growing like a dense hedge close to the path and the roadside, afforded a hiding - place and safe retreat to the guerrilla. The teamster on the wagon which carried stores or mail to and from Beverly, Philippi, and Webster ; the cavalry escort of an expedition sent out to buy forage ; the picket at his distant post; the sentinel on duty, not out of sight of camp; fell victims to the sure aim of the stealthy murderer.
On the 9th of August, three cavalry men came dashing into the camp on the Summit, with the information, that, as they, with two other horsemen and one infantry man, were driving cattle along the Staunton road toward the Summit, they had been fired on from the bushes. Unable to turn out of the road with their horses, and unable even
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THE SOLDIER OF INDIANA.
to see the enemy, they had fled, leaving three of their num- ber, bleeding, on the ground. Exactly such an incident had occurred the day but one before, except that two men in- stead of three had fallen. In consequence, the blast which roused the camp explained itself. With no delay, cavalry and infantry followed Colonel Kimball, and traced the steps of the returned party. They had proceeded about four miles, when they met another party, bringing to camp two prisoners taken the day before, near the place of the attack. Colonel Kimball demanded of the prisoners - a sulky, almost idiotic-looking couple - the number and whereabouts of their gang. They refused to answer, - a right which all prisoners but bushwhackers have. Colonel Kimball wasted a few words in exhortations, a few more in threats ; . then, exasper- ated beyond endurance, raised his pistol and fired. In the words of one of the Rangers, " Then and there, in question- ing them, the Colonel shot one of the prisoners, in order to make him talk. After which proceeding the prisoner talked, and was immediately cared for by a surgeon." The wound was not severe. This man was a murderer, and was cap- tured as he lay in wait for assassination. As a partisan ranger or bushwhacker, he was an outlaw. Yet the gener- ous and conscientious Kimball would surely not have fired on an unarmed prisoner, who had not yet received a trial, had he not been greatly exasperated and excited.
A mile or two farther, the three wounded men were found lying in the road. The guerrillas had appeared, after their comrades had left, and had fired again on one, Harry Cheyne, adding a second to his already mortal wound. They were taken up and carried carefully to camp. One died that night; another in two days; the third, Harry Cheyne, lay in the hos- pital on the mountain, until he was carried in a litter by his comrades to Beverly, where he lingered two months, an un- complaining sufferer. His fellow-soldiers still speak of him affectionately and sorrowfully. They repeat that he had no hard feelings towards anybody but the man who shot him after he was down.
Only where the power of the United States Government was forcibly felt, that is, only where guerrillas were seized
-
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UNEXPECTED ENGAGEMENTS.
and punished without fail, did this sort of warfare become less prevalent.
General Lee is a strategist, disinclined to bold and dashing movements, averse to bloodshed, and fond of planning. He proposed to surround and entrap the Union troops ; and to accomplish his purpose, divided his forces, sending fifteen hun- dred men, under Colonel Rust of Arkansas, along the road to the northern pass, while he himself crept toward Elk Water. While the former should keep the Summit engaged, the latter was to reach the rear and force the three camps, one after the other, to surrender.
As the opposing forces were daily brought nearer, recon- noitring parties frequently, and at many different points, came in contact. The immense forest, the ragged rocks, the winding course of the two roads and of the few by-paths, by obscuring an approach or an encampment, sometimes brought on unexpected engagements, and were conducive to unanticipated successes. One exhilarating day in August, a day inviting to adventure, Captain Hill of the Twenty- Fourth Ohio, which had lately been added to the little army, and Captain Thomson of the Fourteenth Indiana, left the Summit with about two hundred men, and advanced along the Staunton road two miles beyond our pickets. Here they spent the night. At dawn they renewed their march, although they were now almost within the enemy's outposts. Journeying along the still mountain road, they examined every opening and every ravine. Wherever on their return they might be cut off, they left a small force. At Hanging Rock, a dangerous point at the crossing of the Greenbrier, they left ten men, and pushed across the shallow stream with the re- mainder of their number, now about thirty. A drizzling rain and a heavy mist hid the mountains and obscured the valleys. They saw but a short distance before them, and came unex- pectedly upon the Rebel pickets. Taking advantage of the mist, which concealed, if it did not magnify their number, they boldly attacked the pickets, drove them in, and captured three cavalry horses with equipments. They also captured a guard, quartered at a house on the roadside. Audaciously pressing onward, they turned a spur of the hill and came in
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THE SOLDIER OF INDIANA.
full view of a thousand or more white tents, - infantry form- ing in line of march, and cavalry moving in the meadow be- low to intercept their retreat. One glance was sufficient. The thirty-two invaders of Rebel territory turned their back to the foe, and with the steady tread of men and the rapid tramp of horses behind them, reached and passed Hanging Rock, which the ten pickets were preparing to defend from a body of cavalry approaching by another route. Suspecting an ambush, the enemy at this point stopped the pursuit.
General Lee considered the attainment of the position he had planned by far the most difficult part of his under- taking; and when, after almost incredible exertions in the ascent of precipitous heights, and almost exhausting endur- ance of cold, he succeeded in planting himself on both sides of Elk Water, and Colonel Rust gained the crags of Cheat, he hoped to catch in his open hand the fruits of success. The brave spirits within the mountain fortifications were not prepared to succumb, the less so as they were not aware of the immense superiority in numbers of Lee's army. Since the middle of August, reinforcements, consisting of the Sev- enteenth Indiana and several Ohio regiments, had been re- ceived. General Reynolds now moved his head-quarters and all his available force to Elk Water, and prepared for a vigor- ous defence. The troops had every confidence in their Gen- eral, their cause, and themselves, and saw the gathering and thickening dangers with delight.
During the second week in September, the mountains swarmed with Confederates. They were in front and in the rear; to the right and to the left. General Reynolds kept up constant skirmishing, kept men sleeping in the trenches, and the Rangers with their horses saddled and bridled.
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