USA > Indiana > The soldier of Indiana in the war for the union, Vol. II > Part 11
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CITIZENS ON THE HOUSE TOPS.
" GETTYSBURG, July 17, 1863.
MY DEAR MINA: Your request that I should tell you 'all I've passed through,' I am afraid I cannot comply with, for I have lived a lifetime in the past few weeks, and yet, to look back, it seems like some fearful dream. God grant that you, that none I love, may ever pass through such scenes, or wit- ness such bloody, fearful sights! Words can give you no conception. It was perfect agony. Not for worlds would I go through it again.
" The next time I hear the Rebels are coming, I'll believe, instead of laughing at the idea of such a thing; and I will leave this region of country, if I have to walk. We were in their possession three days. Their treatment of us was most courteous and kind; they did not take from us even a chicken; they did, however, take our cherries, currants, on- ions and potatoes, but that we thought no hardship.
" The first day's battle was, as you have learned by the papers, to the west of the town, at which end we live. Our house stands right on the Harrisburg road-along which most of the rebel force came-just at the edge of the town.
"On Tuesday morning, June 30, the Rebels were seen cautiously creeping up the hills to the west of Gettysburg. I saw the piekets. They were planting batteries to com- mand the town, when our cavalry dashed in and charged ont the Chambersburg pike. The Rebels, supposing our men were in force, retired without firing a gun. Had our troops been a few hours later, the Rebels would have had possession of the beautiful hills around us, and our fate would have been sealed; for our men say, had one army had possession of the hills around Gettysburg, no force, no mat- ter how great its strength, could have taken it.
"On Wednesday morning at nine o'clock, cannonading was heard, but very distant. All citizens were ordered off the streets. Immediately you could see the house tops cov- ered with ladies, as well as gentlemen, watching the battle. Our family repaired to the attic, and from the windows we could see the movements of our troops. It was not long until we very distinctly heard the mournful whiz of the Rebel shells, as they came thick and fast through the woods just
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THE SOLDIER OF INDIANA.
beyond us. But it was not until I saw the fences on our own premises torn down, and cannon placed all around us, one battery just in our back yard, that I began to realize our danger. Then we shut up the house and went into the cel- lar, taking with us provision to give our men, and rags for the wounded. Though the shells fell thick around us, shat- tering trees, knocking bricks out of the house, &c., Cousin Jennie stood on the cellar steps, cutting bread, spreading it with apple butter, and giving it to our poor men, who had been marched double-quick for miles without any breakfast. The poor fellows were so grateful, and would say, "Courage, ladies, we'll drive the rebs!" At one time, our troops were ordered to make a stand and hold our house, but afterward were ordered to give them half the town. Our main force fell back to Cemetery Hill, at the extreme end of the town from us. How I wish we could boast that a Rebel had never walked our streets but as a prisoner; but twice has that foul flag waved in triumph over Gettysburg. Our men retired, fighting every step of the way. The firing of the musketry was more rapid than the tieking of a watch, and it seemed that for every gun fired there was a shriek. Oh, it was aw- ful! How I wished for Cousin Jennie's courage; but all I could do was to sit in the cellar corner and cry. About four o'clock in the afternoon, the Rebels had possession of us. They made a charge through our hall. We were obliged to open our house for the wounded. Near dark, some of our wounded came staggering into the cellar, covered with blood; the cellar floor was muddy with blood and water, the latter of which had been poured on their wounds. I shall never forget the sight that greeted us as we came up from the cel- lar. The moon was shining brightly in the heavens, while on the earth, scattered everywhere, were the dead, and the wounded moaning with pain; our yard and house were full. I actually thought I had been transferred to some strange place, so different did it seem from the home I had seen in the morning. Though the fighting was still going on, it was almost nothing in comparison to a few hours before. The Rebels took their wounded from our house, to the rear of their army; so we went to work and took up carpets, brought
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LEE UNDER THE HOSPITAL FLAG.
down beds, and tried to make our wounded as comfortable as possible. Our army's centre rested on Cemetery Hill, where we had a number of guns, and which we could dis- stinctly see from our door; and as the Rebels only held half the town, we were in the centre and near the front of the Rebel army. Our troops paid respect to the flag that floated over our house, and it was only a stray shell that came near us, after the first day's battle.
"The college, which is quite near us, was also taken as a hospital. From the cupola, there is a splendid view of the country for miles around, and there, under the protection of the hospital flag, stood General Lee, taking note of both armies, and sending dispatches all over the field. General Ewell and staff took tea with us Wednesday evening. We, being in their power, kept quiet as to our sentiments, until they commenced the subject. We then very warmly ex- pressed our feelings, and told them they were unwelcome guests. Many of them were handsome and intelligent, and all polite and accommodating. Seeing there were none but ladies in the house, the General gave us a guard to protect us. General Ewell wanted to make his quarters with us; but, as we could not, or rather would not, put ourselves to any trouble to give him two private rooms, he went else- where to sleep, but came for breakfast, bringing with him Generals Early and Rhodes. Some of us, myself among the number, having been so frightened by Wednesday's fight, General Ewell gave us two wagons to take us to the rear, where there was less danger, and sent one of his staff with us for protection. Auntie, Cousin Jennie and the servant were all that had courage to remain. The house we stopped at happened to be General Jenkins' headquarters. I really liked him. He was struck by a shell in Thursday's fight, and could not go into battle on Friday.
"Thursday and Friday, I was three miles away from the fighting. Though I could hear it, I saw none of its horrors.
"Sunday morning, when I came home, both armies had gone; the voice of booming cannon was hushed, and in its stead was heard the rumbling wheels of ambulances, which covered every field and road, bearing away the wounded.
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Every one has house and hands full, notwithstanding news- paper slanders, which I hope you do not believe. If the Rebels are going to invade your State, as they have this, I would advise you to pack up and go as far north as you can. Your affectionate cousin,
ANNIE YOUNG."
General Lee, according to his usual policy when his losses were great, made no report; but it is computed that thirty- four thousand dead and wounded (more men than are in Indianapolis) were strewn among the green fields of Gettys- burg on that "Glorious Fourth." Of these, sixteen thousand belonged to the Army of the Potomac. Ten thousand Reb- els, who had received no hurt in the battle, were captured. Six thousand six hundred and forty-three Union soldiers were taken by the enemy. The whole Union loss was twenty- three thousand one hundred and eighty-six. The total Rebel loss was about twenty-eight thousand.
Indiana suffered heavily. The Nineteenth, Colonel Wil- liams, had thirty-four killed, one hundred and nineteen wounded, fifty-seven missing-more than two thirds of the regiment. General Meredith, beside being struck on the head by the fragment of a shell, was severely bruised by the fall of his horse.
The Twentieth had thirty-two killed, one hundred and nine wounded, and eleven missing-largely over one-third of its numbers. For the second time, its Colonel was killed in battle.
Colonel Wheeler served as Captain in the Twentieth, seven months; as Major, seven months; as Lieutenant Col- onel, seven months; and three months as Colonel. He was a brave and beloved officer.
The Fourteenth, Colonel Cavins, had seven killed and twenty-three wounded. Captain John P. Blinn, former Ad- jutant of the Fourteenth, was mortally wounded while doing duty as aide to General Harrow. He died a Christian sol- dier.
The Twenty-Seventh lost twenty-one killed, ninety-six wounded, and several missing. Colonel Colgrove was in
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LOSSES IN REGIMENTS.
command of a brigade. His faithful horse, which bore the marks of Winehester, Cedar Mountain, Antietam and Chan- cellorsville, was shot through both fore-legs at Gettysburg, and permanently disabled.
The Seventh lost two killed, nine wounded and ten missing.
The Third cavalry, Colonel Chapman, had five killed, twenty-three wounded and seven captured. Major Lemon, an esteemed and efficient officer, was mortally wounded.
Howard's escort, the two companies of which consisted respectively of eighty-five and eighty-six men, lost one man.
Rev. Mr. Monfort, the Indiana Military Agent in Wash- ington, started to the battle field with five assistants and with supplies for the wounded, on the fifth of July. He had so much difficulty in securing means of conveyance, that in two days he only reached Littletown, eight miles from Get- tysburg. He made a report, of which the following is an extract :
"At Littletown, hundreds of wounded were in church and school house, in barns and shops. Here we found Dr. Gar- ver, Assistant Surgeon of the Nineteenth Indiana Volunteers, sick, but giving his attention to the wounded, and having been detailed to wait upon Lieutenant Colonel Dudley, who was dangerously wounded, and who has since lost a leg by amputation.
"Along the line of travel, we met hundreds of the wounded, who, being able to walk, but bearing in many cases danger- ous hurts, had been permitted to make their way as best they could to the nearest depot, which was some twenty-seven miles from Gettysburg.
" The road from Littletown was thronged with the wounded-hungry, faint and weary. We met a benevolent gentlemen selling bread at fifty cents per loaf. Others were heard of who had cultivated the grace of benevolence, and could readily ask one dollar per loaf!
"No battle field of which I have knowledge will bear any comparison with Gettysburg.
" It furnishes abundant evidence of the severest contest in which our army has ever been engaged, and that which
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THE SOLDIER OF INDIANA.
intensified the horrors of this conflict is the utter destitution which prevailed for six days after the battle. There had been no supplies to any considerable amount carried with the army, and no train arrived until seven days after the battle. Add to this the fact that the Rebel army had con- sumed the provisions of the surrounding country, and you will be able to judge of the destitution.
"The Surgeon of the Second corps hospital gave me a list of supplies when the army commenced its pursuit of the Rebels: A few stretchers, eight pounds of chloroform, one box of bandages, sixteen rolls of plaster, three pounds of lint- and sixteen hundred wounded!
"Dr. Haines, Assistant Surgeon of the Nineteenth Indi- ana, was left in charge of Seminary Hospital, with several wounded, and without supplies of any kind. Finding in the cellar of a deserted house, a crock of lard, he filled an empty fruit can with lard, took a sheet from a bed, tore off a strip, prepared a wick, and soon a lamp was burning. By this light, he dressed wounds the first evening. Having no band- dages, he went into the town, and entering a house, took from the beds fine sheets, which he converted into bandages and lint.
"Within three hundred yards of the headquarters of the Second corps hospital, I saw, on Sabbath morning of the twelfth instant, twenty-seven bodies of dead Confederates, unburied, the food of worms. The living, too, in many cases, were found, whose wounds were alive with the mag- got. It was not possible, with the supply of surgeons left, to do all that was needed to be done.
"There was very great destitution of food and clothing until Wednesday the 8th, when the railroad, being in running order, supplies were beginning to come in. I should think there were not less than ten thousand soldiers supplied with shirts and drawers, within seven days, by the different relief societies. Provisions came, too, in very great abundance. I had the pleasure of loading a six-mule team, several times, with provisions for our wounded in the different corps hos- pitals.
"Such generosity as was displayed by the citizens of Get-
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HARRY SHALER.
tysburg and surrounding country toward the suffering, has never been surpassed.
"The weather has been favorable to our wounded. I met a number of men upon the battle field, from Indiana, with sorrowing hearts, seeking the resting places of their dead, and surgeons sent from the State, rendering good service wherever needed.
"The gratitude of our brave sufferers, and the commenda- tions which we were compelled quite frequently to hear in regard to our State Administration, caused a feeling of pride that we were Indianians."
On the fourth of July, the Twentieth Indiana was thrown forward as skirmishers, and had a severe engagement, in which it lost one officer and several men.
A number of captures was made by parties or individuals, moving independently over the field. Harry Shaler, a pri- vate in Howard's escort, riding on a distant part of the field, came unexpectedly upon a squad of nineteen Rebels. A poncho, thrown across his shoulders, fortunately concealed his dress. He effected a further disguise by boldly ordering the squad to remove several wounded men from the field. As soon as, under his direction, the party was at a safe dis- tance, he put his revolver to the head of a Lieutenant, the commander of the squad, and demanded his sword. It was reluctantly surrendered. Harry then marched his nineteen prisoners into a Union camp. In another excursion, he cap- tured a captain and five more men, making the sum of his captures amount to twenty-five.
General Schurz, while riding with four of Howard's escort, captured half a Rebel company.
During the night which followed the last Rebel assault, several troops of horsemen penetrated to the enemy's rear and discovered Lee's preparations for retreat. Their reports were confirmed by the next day's reconnoissances.
On the morning of July 7, General Mcade began a forced march through the lower passes of South Mountain, pursu- ing a course which was parallel with that of General Lee, although somewhat longer. Steady rains and heavy roads impeded progress, but the pursuers were in superb spirits.
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The nearest approach to complaint to be found in a number of private letters written at this period, occurs in the follow- ing odd passage from Charlie Noble:
"General Howard and staff are at dinner. They sit down to a table and have all the good grub they want, while we poor dogs have to cook our own meals-a piece of salt junk and a cup of coffee. But all right. If my time was out, I'd enlist again. A braver man than General Howard never blowed his nose. He is called the Ney of the Army of the Potomac."
The mountains swarmed with stragglers. The roads were full of wagons and ambulances. Farm houses and barns, all along the route, were crowded with wounded. Buford's cavalry gallantly cleared Boonsboro pass, and the road sev- eral miles eastward, engaging the enemy sharply at Boons- boro, Beaver ereek and Yorktown. The Third Indiana was engaged in skirmishes on the sixth, eighth, ninth and tenth of July.
On the eleventh and twelfth, Meade drew up and sat down before Lee, who, at Williamsport, had been three days waiting for a fall in the Potomae. The Rebel General was strongly intrenched, but he was almost destitute of ammuni- tion, and seemed at last to be within the grasp of the Union army. What, therefore, was the dismay of that army, after waiting two days in grim patience, to find itself on the four- teenth in line before vacated fortifications.
The cavalry alone had a slap at the enemy. In a sharp two hours' engagement with his rear guard, near a pontoon bridge at Falling Waters, it inflicted a loss of sixteen hun- dred, while it suffered a loss of but one hundred and eighty- five.
The escape of Lee was the cause of universal and pro- found regret. "The fruit seemed so ripe, so ready for pluck- ing," sorrowfully remarked President Lincoln, "that it was very hard to lose it."
The much-enduring Army of the Potomac, inured to re- verse though it was, felt the disappointment of its not un- reasonable expectations to be intolerable. The soldiers, however, with characteristic faith in their leader, looked be-
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UNIVERSAL DISAPPOINTMENT.
yond him for a scape-goat. They easily fixed upon Halleck, who, by holding "Fighting Jo. Hooker" and the "Grey Ea- gle" of Indiana under arrest during the glorious days of Gettysburg, had rendered himself obnoxious.
Again young Noble boyishly expressed the general senti- ment: "It was the same," he said, "as if you had a fly be- tween your fingers, and should open one and let it out. 1 do not wish Halleck any harm, but I should like to hear of him kicking the bucket."
Thomas O. Harter, who, the previous year, rendered valu- able assistance to General Pope, while acting in his capacity of spy during the latter part of the Gettysburg campaign, was captured. He was detained several days, but managed to effect his escape before the Rebels crossed the river. He asserted, as the result of his observations, that the Rebels were so reduced in numbers, and so disheartened, that Meade could have tied every man; that if twenty-five reso- lute men had found their way into Williamsport on the night of Sunday, July 12, they could, in the confusion, have destroyed the whole Rebel army.
Disappointment and indignation were not confined to the Northern army nor to the Northern people. The sudden and utter frustration of its haughty hopes struck a forebod- ing terror to the heart of the South. But its spirit was as far as ever from being subdued.
"What though the field be lost?" said the Richmond Dis- patch of July 17, in the words of the fallen angel-
"All is not lost! The unconquerable will And study of revenge, immortal hate, And courage never to submit or yield- All these remain."
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THE SOLDIER OF INDIANA.
CHAPTER VII.
MISCELLANEOUS AFFAIRS IN KENTUCKY AND TENNESSEE.
"As well the soldier dieth who standeth still, as he that gives the heav- iest onset."-Sidney.
On the 24th of October, 1862, General Buell was ordered to transfer his command to General Rosecrans, and to report himself at Indianapolis. In December, a military commis- sion was convened at Cincinnati, to investigate and report upon the operations of the army under the command of Major General D. C. Buell in Kentucky and Tennessee.
After two days' session, it was adjourned to Nashville. The conclusions which were reached by the commission partially exculpated the accused, or suspected, officer, and partially, though not to the same degree, inculpated others.
No evidence worthy of consideration was found against Buell's loyalty.
No censure was pronounced upon his policy toward the inhabitants of disaffected districts, as it was not in violation of orders, nor inconsistent with the conciliatory policy of the Government.
The failure in forestalling Bragg in the possession of Chattanooga, and in dislodging Kirby Smith from East Tennessee, was judged to be due to General Halleck, who, while he ordered prompt movement, required railroad repairs so extended as to render his orders nugatory.
For the invasion of Kentucky, Buell alone was held re- sponsible in the cyes of the commission. Had he been less dilatory in concentrating, he might have joined successful battle with the enemy before the Cumberland Mountains. The odium of the surrender of the troops at Munfordsville was thrown upon General Wright, excepting so far as Buell's failure to attack Bragg south of the Cumberland
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GENERAL BUELL.
Mountains made him responsible for that failure. General Wright, relying upon the timely advance of the Army of the Ohio, had given positive orders to the commander of the post to hold out, leaving him no power to consult his own discretion.
In regard to the last disaster, the battle of Perryville, as much blame attached to McCook for delay in entering the field, as to the commander-in-chief for his ignorance of the situation.
The examination relieved General Buell of much of the opprobrium with which his military career had elosed. The deportment of the deposed officer was dignified throughout all the trying scenes to which he was subjected. When first made aware, August 18, that his removal was under con- sideration, and was delayed only at the request of General Halleck, he wrote to the latter, "I beg that you will not in- terpose in my behalf. I respectfully request that I may be relieved. My position is far too important to be occupied by any officer on sufferance. I have no desire to stand in the way of what may be deemed necessary for the public good."
When actually removed, he retired without any of that striving after effect which marked MeClellan's withdrawal from the Army of the Potomac. He now quietly submitted to the sentence of the commission.
It may be that there was no great merit, except in so far as it showed good sense, in the unobtrusive character of his departure from the army. No tender ties united the soldiers and the man who had formed them into an army, and had led them from the Ohio to the distant Tennessee, and from the Tennessee, over the spurs of the Cumberland, baek to the Ohio. They pinned neither their faith nor their love to one who had met with so much failure and so little suceess. Moreover, while most courteous to the citizen, Buell had shown himself cold and inflexible to the soldier. He was so striet a disciplinarian, so severely obedient to regulations, that he seemed to have no sympathy with an individual. If a stroke of his pen, or a shake of his head, might have
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THE SOLDIER OF INDIANA.
mollified an offended or embittered regiment, it was all one to him. He maintained inviolate his proud reserve.
On the eleventh of December, while the Thirty-Fourth Indiana, not yet brigaded, was lying at New Haven, Ken- tucky, Lieutenant Colonel Ryan, at the time in command of the regiment, gave Major John L. Wilson a written leave of absence, informal because without the signature of the General in command, to return to Indiana after his horse. Major Wilson was gone only a few days; but meanwhile General Nelson arrived at New Haven, took command, and reported his absence as requiring discipline. Discipline was administered without notice or investigation, Major Wilson being summarily discharged from the service.
General Nelson, on learning the particulars of the case through Colonel Steele and Lieutenant Colonel Ryan, re- lented, and with Colonel Ammon, just made brigade com- mander, requested the revocation of the sentence and the reinstatement of the dismissed officer. General Buell was inexorable. He maintained that, "Whatever hardship there might be in the case, his general order having gone forth, he could not rescind it, as the precedent would be bad."
The regiment then applied to Governor Morton. Every company sent petitions, containing an aggregate of nine hundred and three names of rank and file, for Major Wilson's re-appointment. After inquiry into the circumstances, Gov- ernor Morton unhesitatingly complied. But Wilson, unwill- ing to forgive an injustice, which, although it was admitted, was not acknowledged by the perpetrator, declined.
The injured officer afterward occupied responsible posi- tions, to one of which, that of Paymaster in the United States Army, he was appointed by President Lincoln, withi the confirmation of Congress.
Such inflexibility of will as General Buell evineed was not calculated to win affection. Doubtless men would greatly admire infallibility in a commander, but in default of that superhuman virtue, they are willing to accept only the magnanimity which is capable of acknowledging and correcting a mistake.
Nashville was the centre of considerable activity during
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COLONEL MILLER AT NASHVILLE.
the progress of the Buell and Bragg marches and counter- marches. Colonel Miller, who succeeded General Dumont in command of the post, continued a strictly just and vigi- lant administration, repressing the effervescing Secessionists within, and restraining the armed Confederates without.
On the night of the fifteenth of August, with fifteen hundred infantry and four pieces of artillery, he set out to make an attack upon Morgan at Gallatin. He arrived at daylight, but suceceded in striking only the rear of the rov- ing chieftain, always as fleet in flight as he was forward in a foray. Miller denied himself the excitement of a pursuit; but he had scarcely set his face again toward Nashville, when Morgan, deceived by his forbearance, came galloping baek, and burst upon him in an impetuous attack. Miller received him with the utmost steadiness, overmastered him, and drove him off faster than he had come up, with the loss of seventeen men killed and many wounded. Miller lost but two.
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