USA > Massachusetts > Record of the service of the Forty-fourth Massachusetts volunteer militia in North Carolina, August 1862 to May 1863 > Part 20
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About 4 r. M. we started on our return to New Berne. When nearly across the bridge we stopped, and adjusting the camera took views of the bridge (600), the town above (579), and the town below (598); also the river, including Castle Island and Rodman's Point (593). Another ten-hours ride, broken only by a short halt at Vanceboro', and we were again at the Gaston House, tired and sleepy.
Thursday was comfortably cool, and we spent the day in roam- ing about the town, taking views and recalling old memories.
On Friday morning we took the train for Kinston, reaching there about 11 A. M. We inspected the station (614, 621) and the fields beyond; then drove to the scene of the battle. We first went to the field in which the right wing formed on that memorable Sunday morning. As one experience of passing through the swamp was enough for a lifetime, we returned by the road which our left wing had taken (616). The little church on the farther side of the swamp was burned several years ago, and the field is now so overgrown with trees that not a glimpse of the bridge or the town beyond could be had. The old house (619), used as a hospital, was there, its front still showing where it had been struck with bullets. The owner was just beginning to repair. On visiting the bridge (617) we looked over the side to see where the man in gray uniform had lain the Sunday we crossed it in December, 1862. The channel of the river is now deep and the current strong. A view down the river (618) shows the jetties recently built by the United States Government to im- prove navigation. After our battle the Confederates built strong and elaborate works to protect the bridge against another attack. We found them in the same dilapidated state as were similar field- works erected during the war. The only places that looked at all natural were the hospital and the bridge, the latter being a duplicate of the one burned by our forces when we recrossed the
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river. Its days are numbered, as the material of an iron bridge which is to take its place was being unloaded from the cars while we were in Kinston. We left that evening, reaching Goldsboro' about midnight. We can say with much more certainty than we could have said on former occasions, "The object of the expedi- tion has been accomplished."
On our way home we visited Richmond, sailed down the James River, passing Fort Darling, Malvern Hill, Harrison's Landing, Bermuda Hundred, City Point, and other places of historical interest, to Norfolk, whence we took steamer for Boston, reaching home Friday night, after an absence of eighteen days. The North Carolina part of the trip might be accomplished in ten days by using the railroad only.
The visit was exceedingly interesting. Those who had been in the Southern army were particularly cordial, and anxious to do all they could to make our trip agreeable. All were hospita- ble, and hoped that more of the boys who wore the blue in North Carolina would pay them a visit.
On our return from North Carolina I obtained all the informa- tion possible from those who were present at the burial of com- rades Morse and Rollins, near Rawle's Mills, Nov. 2, 1862. This I sent to the superintendent of the National Cemetery at New Berne, with a request that the remains of these men might be removed to that place. Sometime afterwards I received the letter of which a copy is given below, showing that the removal had been accomplished : -
UNITED STATES NATIONAL CEMETERY, OFFICE OF SUPERINTENDENT, NEW BERNE, N. C., May 22, ISS5.
Mr. WM. G. REED, Sec. 44th Mass. Vols. Assoc., 24 F.x. Pl., Boston, Mass.
SIR, - In compliance with your request, you are informed that the bodies of the three United States soldiers at Rawle's Mills, North Carolina, have been disinterred, brought to this cemetery, and reinterred. They were in fair preservation, and each readily recognized from your descrip- tion. Their numbers are as follows : Charles Morse, Company E, Forty- fourth Massachusetts, grave No. 3256 ; Charles E. Rollins, Company C, Forty-fourth Massachusetts, grave No. 3257 ; - King, Marine Artillery, grave No. 3258.
Very respectfully, your obedient servant, ED. TAUBENSPECK, Superintendent.
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FORTY-FOURTH MASSACHUSETTS INFANTRY.
Aside from the pleasure derived from again seeing those places so prominent in our memories of army life, there is a peculiar gratification in having been the means of securing the removal of the remains of those fallen comrades from neglected graves to the beautiful resting plice provided by the United States Government.
CHAPTER XIII.
MEDICAL AND SURGICAL NARRATIVE.
HE medical and surgical care of a thou- sand men under the exceptional cir- cumstances of army life is no trifling matter. If the history of a regiment is not written in blood, the unusual conditions of camp and field entail no small amount of risk, suffering, and death upon its members, and of labor and responsibility on its medical staff. These results are largely increased by the youth and inexperience of the men who compose a regiment. The Forty-fourth was made up in large part of boys accustomed to all the luxuries of city and suburban life. The average age was about twenty-two years; the average height, five feet eight inches; and the average weight, one hun- dred and thirty-seven pounds.
The preliminary encampment at Readville was, for a time, a sort of picnic, at which daily drill was relieved by moonlight promenades to the strains of the Boston Brass Band. The daily routine was enlivened by the stirring notes of Dan Simpson's drum and Si Smith's fife. The severity of commissary diet was tempered by an abundant overflow from home tables. Nothing was too good for the " flower of the youth of Boston," and these "pets of many a household " for a time, like Dives, fared sump- tuously every day. Contractors' shoddy was rejected for custom- made uniforms, fancy boots took the place of army shoes, and Short's knapsacks were provided by the generosity of the busi- ness men of Boston.
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FORTY-FOURTH MASSACHUSETTS INFANTRY.
Meanwhile the surgeons were occupied with preparations for the sterner duties of the campaign in prospect. The cheery notes of the surgeon's call for the first time resounded through the camp. As it soon became a favorite air for all sorts of im- provised words, descriptive of the disease most prevalent at the time, it is reproduced here.
The personnel of the surgical staff and hospital officers was as follows; namely : -
Surgeon Dr. Robert Ware.
Assistant-Surgeon
Dr. Theodore W. Fisher.
Hospital Steward
William C. Brigham.
Wardmaster
James B. Brewster, Co. D.
Hospital Cook
Seth J. Hobbs, Co. G.
Nurse
Noah W. Brooks, Co. C.
Thomas J. Barnaby, Co. G.
This list was subsequently increased, according to the hospital muster-roll of Feb. 28, 1863, as follows : -
Clerk Henry W. Littlefield, Co. D.
Assistant-Cook H. Clay Cross, Co. E.
Nurse
Joseph F. Dean, Co. F.
66
Andrew H. Curry, Co. H.
Harrison Parker, 2d, Co. H.
Benjamin F. Bates, Co. 1.
=
Charles H. Roberts, Co. E.
George H. Ray, Co. C.
66 Cummings D. Whitcomb, Co. C.
¥
William A. Smallidge, Co. C.
John H. Pearce, Co. E.
Dr. Ware was a graduate of Harvard, of the class of 1852, and of the Medical College. class of 1856, and was a son of one of its most distinguished professors, Dr. John Ware. He had had some experience as a surgeon of the Sanitary Commission on board a hospital steamship in the Peninsular Campaign, and was in every way well qualified for his place. Dr. Fisher, after a business and academic education, graduated at Harvard
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MEDICAL AND SURGICAL NARRATIVE.
Medical College in the class of 1861, and had had two years' experience in hospital service at the Boston Lunatic Hospital and as Resident Physician to the city institutions in Boston Harbor. He applied for a surgeoncy in a three years' regiment, but had not practised the requisite number of years.
It was soon found by the surgeons that, in consequence of the great pressure for admission to this regiment, some physically unfit men had been passed by the examining physicians of the cities and towns. Deception as to age had been practised to some extent, and boys under eighteen, puny and undeveloped, had been passed, through their own urgency to enlist. This necessitated a re-examination of every man by the regimental surgeons. This duty was thoroughly performed at Readville, every member of the regiment being stripped, inspected, and tested in various ways. Confession of weakness or disability could only be extorted after actual discovery. As an example of this pressure, a squad of young men from Walpole refused to enlist unless one of their number, named Hartshorne, whose foot had been partially disabled, was passed. Richard V. De Peyster, of Framingham, of good family and in good circumstances, being rejected for near-sightedness, insisted on going in some capacity, if only as company cook. He was passed and assigned for duty in the stretcher corps, and at Rawle's Mill was wounded in the thigh and lost an arm while carrying his stretcher. Necessarily many slender youths were admitted; but they were believed to be sound, and proved better able to hold out on long marches than some older and heavier men, even of the veteran regiments.
The regiment was also re-vaccinated in all cases requiring it. Hospital stores and extra medical supplies were secured from governmental and private sources. Welcome addition to the hospital fund was made by friends of the regiment. Our stock of Government whiskey and sp. vin. Gall. was supplemented by Hungarian wine, cherry cordial, arrack, tinto Madeira of 1816, and old port which had mellowed in the cellars of the Emperor of Brazil! Let this be no reflection on the regiment or its offi- cers, for it was professedly and actually a temperate regiment. When it became necessary to issue whiskey and quinine rations as a prophylactic against malaria, alcohol, water, and cayenne
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FORTY-FOURTHI MASSACHUSETTS INFANTRY.
pepper were substituted for whiskey by the surgeons, and no soldier is known to have acquired a dangerous hankering for this mixture.
The hospital was indebted for luxuries and delicacies for the sick to the Warren Street Society and Fifth Universalist Society, of Boston, the Channing Circle at Newton, and the Soldiers' Aid Society of Waltham. Also to William H. Ireland, Esq., Dr. C. H. Allen, and numerous young ladies of Boston, of whose names I find the following on record: Misses Lizzie G. Cumston, Sadie K. Galloupe, Mary L. Dexter, Nellic E. Lovett, Carrie B. Streeter, Julia Streeter, and Louisa Prescott. May they find perennial youth in these pages! The barrack assigned for hospital pur- poses had a room for use at surgeon's call in front, and a ward with ten beds in the rear. But little sickness prevailed at Read- ville, however, except a mysterious complaint during the first week, attributed by the boys to senna put in the coffee by medical order !
The nurses were daily instructed in the art of bandaging and dressing wounds. A stretcher corps was organized, composed of specially detailed men selected from cach company, to which was added the drum-and-fife corps, and to which afterwards the band belonged, ex officio, according to army regulations. This corps was furnished with stretchers devised by Assistant-Surgeon Fisher, and put in charge of Chaplain Hall, who afterwards gal- lantly led it in every engagement. It was drilled in carrying stretchers over rough ground, fences, and walls, breaking step to prevent swinging. The men were also taught how to make and apply tourniquets and compresses. After the regiment was mus- tered in, the soldiers were more nearly restricted to Government rations. The Sunday inspections grew more rigorous, and the extra dainties, such as cake, pickles, preserves, canned goods, etc., were excluded from the bunks and barracks by order of Surgeon Ware, who thereby got the not uncomplimentary sobriquet of " Old Sanitary."
The regiment having been well prepared for service by con- stant drilling and occasional marches, sailed for New Berne, N. C., October 22, on the " Merrimac," in company with the right wing of the Third Massachusetts Regiment. The hold and bunks had
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MEDICAL AND SURGICAL NARRATIVE.
been previously cleaned and whitewashed by order of Surgeon Ware ; but the men suffered much from overcrowding, bad ventilation, sea-sickness, and inadequate provisions for cooking for so many men. Had the weather been rough, serious conse- quences might have resulted to health. Some colds were con- tracted by the wet ride in open cars from Beaufort to New Berne, and rheumatism made its first call on us.
The day after arrival was spent by the surgeons in securing quarters for a hospital. A house on Craven Street was selected and furnished with twenty-five or thirty beds. Here the sick and wounded were afterwards made very comfortable, thanks to our ample fund and stores. That nothing might be wanting, two stray cows by some fortunate chance found their way into the back yard, and, fed on Government hay, gave milk for the sick until restored to their reputed owners by an order from Provost- Marshal Messenger.
The Tarboro' expedition occurred immediately on the ar- rival of the regiment; and the men, not being fairly acclimated, were put to a severe test in many ways. It lasted a fortnight, and included a skirmish and a march of one hundred and twenty-five miles in seven days. The blankets were all left at "Little" Washington by general order, and the weather proved unusually cold for the season. Our ideal sunny South suffered rapid deterioration in the presence of ice and snow. The latter fell to the depth of several inches, and the stiff cold mud and constant fording of icy creeks shrunk the boys' custom-made boots and produced ugly ulcers and blisters on hundreds of feet. Strips of old linen and junks of mutton tallow, foraged on the way, were served out night and morning, and wide army shoes commanded a premium. Many were forced to cut their boots off and walk in their stockings. Ice formed in the woods an inch and a half thick, and the water froze in our canteens on one or two nights as they lay on the ground beside us; and yet the heat at noon was sufficient, with the unaccustomed pressure of the accoutrements on the chest, to produce many heat-strokes.
The surgeons were constantly busy attending the sick and ex- hausted men, and giving passes to lame ones for the ambulances.
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FORTY-FOURTH MASSACHUSETTS INFANTRY.
These could not accommodate a tenth part of the stragglers, who were obliged to fall behind and make their slow and painful way into camp in the night. And yet ours was the liveliest regiment in the line, and held out, except for the sore feet, as well as the veteran regiments. The boys enlivened the march with singing, which not only cheered their comrades but the whole line. There was also a deficiency of rations, and many an extra mile was covered in the search for provisions along the route. The first day a mule-team was confiscated ("' convey,' the wise it call ") for the use of the hospital department, and loaded with supplies. This was driven immediately in the rear of the regiment, so that we did not depend on the distant ambulances. At Rawle's Mill, on Sunday evening, Nov. 2, 1862, the regiment was under fire for the first time. This engagement will be described else- where, and by referring to the list of killed and wounded its results will be seen. The first wounded were attended in a grove of pines just before coming to thie creek (Chopper's) on the left of the road. De Peyster and others were taken into a Secesh cabin on the right. Here his arm was amputated by Surgeon Otis, senior at that time and place. One soldier was led out of the fight by two comrades in a frenzied condition, having been made temporarily delirious by the suddenness of the attack. The dead having been buried by Chaplain Hall, who had bravely led the stretcher corps into the creek, the wounded were placed in ambulances and sent forward in charge of the assistant-surgeon, who attended a mortally wounded Rebel in a little house on the way.
At the end of the third day's march thirty disabled men were put on board a gunboat at Hamilton, which had accompanied us on the Tar River. On the fifth day forty more were so disposed of. On our return, these, with the wounded from the skirmish at Rawle's Mill, were sent back to New Berne on board the " North- erner " in charge of Assistant-Surgeon Fisher, getting aground five times on the way. The delay, with the heat, insufficient supplies, and a fearful stench from the horses on the forward deck and the suppurating wounds, caused great discomfort to the sick and wounded.
On our return to New Berne the regimental hospital service
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MEDICAL AND SURGICAL NARRATIVE.
was thoroughly organized by Surgeon Ware, strict orders for the daily routine being issued November 20. Assistant-Surgeon Fisher had charge of the sick in quarters, of whom there were many suffering from diarrhea, bronchitis, and rheumatism, con- tracted on the Tarboro' march. By reference to the Sick Re- port Summary it will be seen that the aggregate number for November was 337, against 206 for October. The barracks, which were of such contracted dimensions as to give but one hundred and fifty cubic feet of air space to each man, were ven- tilated by openings at the ridge and sides, at the expense of the hospital fund. November 21 a detail of twenty-four men was made, selected by the surgeons from a list of twice that number, of an invalid guard, which was sent to garrison a block-house up the Trent River. These were mostly cases of rheumatism, her- nia, and varicose veins, brought on by lying on the wet ground and by continued marching.
The Goldsboro' expedition set out December 11, and returned December 20. In nine days the regiment marched one hundred and fifty miles, bivouacking at night and participating in three engagements with the enemy. The weather was clear, with hot days and frosty nights. A less number fell out of the ranks and there were fewer sunstrokes than on the previous expedition. The men had their blankets this time, and were provided with the low, wide army shoes, thus escaping to a great extent the suffering from sore feet. There were similar creeks to cross, however, and the constant halting and unexpected starting of the column made marching difficult and wearisome.
At Kinston, December 14, as the regiment formed in line of battle, the surgeons were directed by Medical-Director Snelling to station themselves in the edge of some woods and attend to the wounded indiscriminately as they were brought to the rear. This order was complied with for half an hour, when the work of dressing wounds and extracting balls was continued in a little house in the edge of the swamp where the regiment had gone in. In a short time another move was made to a large house full of wounded near the Kinston bridge, where work was in progress till after dark. Fortunately the regiment escaped without wounds, although under fire for some time in the swamp.
240
FORTY-FOURTH MASSACHUSETTS INFANTRY.
At Whitehall the regiment went into line of battle on a hill behind Belger's battery. Two men had just been killed by a shell, when Edwin S. Fisher of Boston, a drummer-boy of Com- pany G, was wounded in the knee, a large flap of integument being torn off and left hanging by the explosion of a shell. He was attended at once by Assistant-Surgeon Fisher, and during the painful and tedious process of stitching the flap into place showed great coolness by calling for a pencil with which to enter the occurrence in his diary. Meanwhile the regiment had moved forward to the extreme front, and Surgeon Ware had collected a number of wounded behind a little cabin on the right flank. When rejoined by the assistant-surgeon the regiment was under a hot fire from rebel sharp-shooters concealed in the tree-tops, and the rear of the line was anything but a pleasant place. Belger's battery, a few yards from hospital headquarters, was losing rapidly in horses and men. Stout Captain Belger, with arms akinibo, ordered the guns loaded with grape and canister, and then shouted, " Fire into the trees! Now, boys, stand by my battery !" A hospital attendant, Joseph F. Dean, of Cam- bridge, Company F, was hit about this time. It was feared the fire of the battery would draw an artillery fire on their frail shelter, so the dead and wounded were put on stretchers and carried to a grove in the rear, where the angry spit of bullets was less frequent. An attempt here to tie the subclavian artery was a failure, the patient dying of hemorrhage from a deep wound in the axilla. George E. Noyes, of West Roxbury, Company K, declined surgical aid, saying he was past help and others needed it more. He died the next day from a wound in the abdomen.
As the firing slackened the dead were buried under direction of Chaplain Hall, and the wounded removed to a general ren- dezvous on the hill. Here more surgical work was done, and Medical-Director Snelling ordered the assistant-surgeon to put the wounded in ambulances without distinction of regiment, al- though a detail of ambulances had been assigned to each regi- ment. This order was disregarded, and all the wounded of the Forty-fourth able to be moved were sent on their way to Golds- boro'. As they passed along the road parallel to the river the
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MEDICAL AND SURGICAL NARRATIVE.
ambulances were fired on by lingering Rebels across the river. Assistant-Surgeon Fisher, who was searching for wounded in the field near the bridge, was also fired at two hours or more after the fight was over. "He means you, Doc .! " said a soldier guarding a pile of knapsacks behind a chimney. Such incidents, as well as the flag-of-truce trick at Goldsboro', were somewhat characteristic of Rebel ideas of honor.
Insensibility to pain was noticed in many cases as a conse- quence of the excitement of battle, as in the cases of Fisher and Noyes already mentioned. At Kinston also a bullet was being extracted with some difficulty from among the bones of the foot, when the soldier, being asked if it hurt, cried out: "Dig away, Doctor, and damn the pain! We've licked 'em!" The con- trasting condition was seen at Whitehall, when a soldier who had accidentally or purposely shot off his right forefinger was bellow- ing like a calf under the process of dressing it, while from a room full of seriously wounded men around him not a groan was heard.
At Goldsboro' the regiment went into line of battle in reserve just out of sight of the field of battle, which was in a fine, open country between the railroad and river. The surgeons rode for- ward, and learning that the objective point of the expedition was in our hands, assisted for several hours at the hospital head- quarters in a large house overlooking the field. In the afternoon they rode down to the front, where Belger's and Morrison's bat- teries, with a regiment in support, were slowly shelling the woods near the railroad bridge. A squad of cavalry occupied the right flank. Just at this moment a white flag was seen waving in the edge of the woods, and the cavalry galloped up to it to bring in the prisoners supposed to be in waiting, when they received a volley which sent them back in haste. The shelling was renewed for half an hour with more vigor, when from beyond the railroad embankment was heard a Rebel yell, shrill, like the screams of a multitude of women and children, and in a moment three regi- ments mounted the bank and charged directly on the batteries. The left one was seen to falter under the artillery fire and seek safety behind the railroad, while the other two regiments came bravely on, the grape and canister cutting great gaps in the ranks till they were compelled to withdraw with great loss. The
16
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FORTY-FOURTH MASSACHUSETTS INFANTRY.
supports coming up also showed the Rebels the hopelessness of their attempt. After this charge Surgeon Ware remained awhile to assist at the general hospital, and Assistant-Surgcon Fisher rejoined the regiment, which went into line of battle across a road in the woods. Here perfect silence was enjoined, and one poor fellow with a spasmodic cough was dosed with opium and hurried to the rear between two comrades, with his handkerchief stuffed into his mouth. Nothing came of all our precautions, and the army took up its line of march through a burning forest towards New Berne.
On our return the same crop of lung and intestinal diseases ap- peared as had followed our Tarboro' expedition, but they were less amenable to treatment. Bronchitis and diarrhoea were re- placed by pneumonia and dysentery. The total number under treatment for December was 331, and the daily average of sick and wounded in hospital and quarters was 85. Our losses on the Goldsboro' expedition may be learned from the tables ap- pended. December 25, the first case of a new and alarming dis- ease occurred in our regiment, proving fatal in a few days. The epidemic, which followed and extended to other regiments, was entirely outside the experience of any of the surgeons in the department. The fever was at first regarded as a virulent type of malarial disease. The autopsy in the case of Henry G. Kim- ball, of Andover, Company G, who died Jan. 1, 1863, made by the assistant-surgcon, showed the presence of inflammation in the membranes of the brain and spinal cord. The disease was afterwards recognized as cerebro-spinal meningitis, which is iden- tical with the disease once known as spotted fever, occurring as an epidemic in Massachusetts between the years 1807 and 1816. The next death was that of John C. Pollitz, Boston, Company F, on January 7. Having been previously well, he came in from guard in the morning, was sent to the hospital, and died the same afternoon. This sudden fatality naturally produced much con- sternation in the regiment. Quinine rations were issued as a prophylactic measure, and Surgeon Ware was untiring in his efforts to determine the cause of the epidemic.
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