USA > Maine > First Maine bugle, 1892 (history of 1st Maine Cavalry) > Part 12
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S. A. FULLER, Chap.
Hubbard, N. H., Nov. 6th, 1891. [Hist. p. 673.]
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FIRST MAINE BUGLE.
$350 POR THE PRIVILEGE OF ENLISTING IN OUR REGIMENT.
FOSTORIA, Mich., Dec. 1891.
April 7th, 1865, I, with my company, was dismounted and advanced through some woods, and when we came out of the woods to a creek with a temporary bridge, some forded the creek, some went over the bridge up a high bluff, and the r.b., were just over the bluff not far from Farmville, if I remember rightly. It was as we came out of the woods that I was hit in the wrist. I was in the act of taking a bead on a Johnny of the bluff with my carbine at my shoulder ; that brought my left arm at the front, a bullet caught me on the wrist joint, and al- though I was not considered badly wounded, the effects have been with me ever since. I have not had the proper use of my hand, and in many of life's occupations I find it difficult.
I well remember our last engagement the night we advanced up so near the rebel army and built temporary breastworks and waited for morning. the skirmish line we sent back and the line of battle that advanced, our falling back and the colored troops that went in, the flag of truce sent by Geneneral Loc and the glorious news of Lee's surrender, our march to Peters- burg, our going over to the village of Ettrick, our encampment from April to August, including our trip down to South Boston. N. C., where we heard of Johnston's surrender- all glorious re- membrances in our minds.
After we went into camp at Ettrick, I was detailed to General Charles H. Smith as orderly. I was the boy who brought the dispatch to turn in the horses and start for home.
I will give you some facts as regards my service in the late war. At the time of the rebellion I was an orphan boy bound out to J. H. Johnson, East Machias, Me. In 1862 I was seven teen years of age. I enlisted in the First Maine Heavy Artil- lery by first giving Mr. Johnson $100 that I was to have at twenty-one years of age. I went on as far as Bangor to be examined, in company with Loring I. Hanscom, brother of Sylvanus Hanscom, both of whom afterwards became members of Co. F, First Maine Cavalry. Lieutenant Harris of Co. F.
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RECOLLECTIONS OF MIDDLETOWN AND BULL RUN. 25
was their brother-in-law. I was ou examination rejected as being too young and small, and they gave me a pass back to East Machias. I was much disappointed to go home and not see any service. However, I stayed at home until the call for men in the fall of 1863. Some towns were paying large bounties to fill quotas. East Machias gave $250, if I remember rightly. Any way I wanted to go into the army, but Mr. Johnson would not let me go unless I signed off my right to the $ioo due at twenty one and the town bounty of $250. I thought it tough, but did it and enlisted in the First Maine Cavalry, Co. B, in December, 1863. In due time I joined the company and was with the regiment every day, except a little time at City Point Hospital, until ordered home.
The town records of East Machias will verify all I have told of myself, and A. J. Hanscom of East Machias was recruiting officer, with whom I enlisted, and was partner with Mr. Johnson in lumbering. He will substantiate all.
ORIN W. GOOCH.
[ Ifist., pp. 491 and 680.]
Recollections of Middletown and Bull Run. S. SAGINAW, Mich., Dec. 21st, 1891. GEN. J. P. CILLEY :
Dear Comrade: I received the BUGLE all right. I like it very much ; it brings me back to the spring of 1862. I was one of Captain Summat's " boys " until after Banks' retreat, when he said he would call us men henceforth, which he did: 1 was only fifteen years of age at the time. I shall always re- member that retreat. I was within twenty feet of you at Mid- dletown when that shell wounded you. I think Captain Summat should have had the credit of saving the other companies that were behind-Cos. A. M and E-for when we made that charge down the pike and the head of the column was piling up, Captain Summat led us by column left through the fields and into the woods out of reach of their guns. We were rear
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guard all the way to Williamsport. I well remember the change we made in the street at Winchester. It was made to save part of our infantry that was retreating. We charged down the street right up to the rebels, then turned another street and shot our revolvers at them as we turned the corner. It checked their advance. We then rode out of the city by another street where the buildings on one side were all on fire and the inhohi- tants were shooting from windows and housetops.
I remember when we got our first carbines, the Burnside. I think cach company got twelve. I got one; it made me thinh I was a inan. At the time I was one of the best shots in the company. We had a good chance to use them on General Pope's retreat, near Brandy Station.
The next time I remember being under fire was at the last battle of Bull Run. Our company, or part of it, was sent to General Porter; he kept us scouting and skirmishing all the first day, and the next day three of us were sent to Colonel Warren. He had command of the Fifth New York Zouaves and the Tenth New York Infantry. A. F. Bickford, or Frank, as we called him, a man by the name of Young, and myself, carried dispatches for him. Young had borrowed my horse to carry a dispatch and left me his, when the rebels made that charge in mass. We were all mixed up with the rebs. We asked the colonel what we should do. He said, " Skedaddle, and follow me." This we tried to do but he was soon out of sight Bickford got out of the mass first and waited for me. Those were the times I was under fire in the glorious old First Maine Cavalry, but I went out again in the Thirty-Grst Maine Infantry and saw lots of bard fighting as our record will show. I was wounded at Cold Harbor, June, 1864, and was laid up three months. I then returned and was with the regiment until it was mustered out.
Yours in F. C. and I ... LUCIEN W. LYON.
[See p. 537, Hist.]
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THE ANDROSCOGGIN ASSOCIATION.
The Androscoggin Association.
Never have I heard more interesting stories and incidents told than those narrated at the meeting of the Androscoggin Association, Feb. 27th, 1892, and these stories were punctuated and embellished by an intermittent fire of comments and ex- planations as witty as the stories were good. Among the best of these was Comrade George L. Duston's narrative of his ex- periences on Stoneman's Raid and in the Brandy Station fight, where he was captured, which was brought out by Henry Little's personal allusion to Duston and his army name, and helped along by Little's continual acts as prompter. Lowell followed, and under the fiction of having been asleep, gave a most laughable travesty of Duston's account by leaving out the element of time and massing the incidents as following each other in quick succession.
Charles E. Moulton gave a little gem of a story for the special interest of the children present, which put to silence all inter- ruptions and can thus be refold with the same effect that it pro- duced at the time.
SERGEANT NORRIS' SQUIRREL.
Sergeant Richard Norris, [Hist., p. 632, ] was the same sergeant who stole the "small calf" March 30, 1865 ( Hist., p. 387.) He was an old English soldier who misplaced his h's in a pro- nounced English manner. He was assigned to Co. I at time of transfer, but for some cause afterwards placed in Co. L. One day, when asked to what company he belonged, he replied, " I was hup in Hi Co., but now I ham down in Hell Co." He took great pride in his cavalry hat and always went into fight bare- headed, removing his hat from his head and placing it inside his shirt bogom, about the only place he could bestow it, for our soldiers' wardrobe was only a pair of trousers, a woolen shirt and a blouse. The full dress uniform of the cavalry dif- fered from the above and from the infantry soldier's by substituting a short jacket for the blouse, while the infantry had a coat. The infantry boys used to maliciously say that the reason why cavalrymen wore a jacket was to allow their friends to
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FIRST MAINE BUGLE.
admire the reinforcements on their trousers, essential to endure the wearing influence of the hard Mcclellan saddle. Norris, when asked the reason of his fighting bareheaded, always re- plied that the rebs had ruined one hat by shooting through it and he did not intend they should destroy, in like manner. another. In the midst of a fight one day while dismounted, the sergeant came upon a young squirrel at the foot of a tree, par- alyzed with fright or confused by the noise. Hastily pickin him up, he placed him in his hat and his hat in its usual battle place. After the battle was over, be had opportunity to feed and care for his squirrel. The old fellow's heart, for he was then forty-five years of age, seemed to open fully to the squir- rel as the first thing in his life that he could care for, watch over and love. All his spare moments were spent in feeding, petting and caring for his squirrel. He would sit for hours stroking its soft fur and talking to it. He would tell and retell to his pet the dimensions and architecture of the mansion he designed to build for him after the war was over, of the dining room below. the nice chamber above and a gymnasium at one side, the kind of wood he should use in constructing the house, and the colors of paints used to adorn the building.
The subject was so sacred to his old fatherly heart that none of the boys ever thought of laughing at him as the old story of the squirrel's mansion was diuned into the ears of his little bosom companico.
Generally when we moved the squirrel occupied his pockets or rested on his shoulders or roamed his body at will. but in every fight, when the hat came off into it went the squirrel and both were pressed close to his heart. In battle after battle, both the squirrel and hat went safely through the showers of lead. till at Reams Station a bullet pierced hat and squirrel, and the warm blood of the squirrel flowed down the soldier's side. The old fellow was nearly heart broken.
The turrets and revolving courts of the squirrel mansion, like castles on the Spanish main, lay wrecked and ruined in mid air. Hle carried him for a day or so and then through the hushed ranks of his comrades withdrew one side to bury him. As he
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ISAAC S. MAXWELL, Co. K. Ist D. C. Co. A. Ist Me. Cav. Lewiston. Hist. p. 475.
HORATIO S. LIBBY, Ist Lieut. Co. C. Melrose, Mass. Hist. p. 501.
JONATHAN X. PODOT S Ist Live C. C. Chelsea, Naar. Hist. p. 501.
...
TEMPO.
Sorgt. Co. K. 1.0 2 and Co. A. I. M . AUF IT Hist. p 450
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EDWARD F. CORNELL, Co. 1. Port Allegheny, Pa. Hist. p. 660.
HENRY LITTLE Sert. Col & Autor . Hist. F. 5 0.
MILION FAR
DEATH OF LIEUT. MOUNTFORT. 29
rose with tears in his eyes and took up his mutilated hat, he tried to choke down his grief by saying. "My dear hat, I do not know where I can carry you safely now, unless I place you behind the re-inforcements on my trousers."
The next day Sergeant Norris was badly wounded but his manner showed it was merely an ordinary and expected incident.
J. P. CILLEY.
Death of Lieutenant Mountfort.
The following account of the death of Lieutenant Mountfort, at Sycamore Church, was related by Sergeant Peter J. Dresser, of Co. A, to the members of the Androscoggin Association :
Co. K was on the reserve at the church, under Captain John WV. Freeze, and our picket line was about one-half mile from us; thence the line extended down a road at right angles from the reserve where we had our horse picketed, about two miles. About four A. M., before light, we heard an attack on the vi- dettes ; we immediately reinforced the picket line from the re- serve. Captain Freeze, Lieut Mountfort and myself were close together when we met the enemy. We were using our sixteen shooters the best we knew how for some time; we soon heard firing in our rear. Captain Freeze and myself fell back to where we left our horses and that was the last I saw of the captain, as he was thrown from his horse and taken to the rear early in the morning. After falling back to the church and mounting our horses we found the rebels thicker than bees, had hard work getting our horses but succeed after a while, and then fell back about one-fourth of a mile and formed a line on the road to City Point; then fell back some three or four miles and formed another line and as soon as the stragglers came in, we advanced again towards Sycamore church and arrived there about four P. M., where we found Lieutenant Mountfort lying on the ground, stripped of all his clothes except his shirt. The officer in com- mand (I do not remember his name), said to me, as I was then
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in command of Co. K, that I could do as I chose with his body, either take it back to City Point and have it embalmed or ha. . him buried where we found him. I chose the former, got some clothes, strapped him across the saddle of a led horse and proceeded towards City Point, where I arrived about ten P. M.L. found an embalmer, but he was so full of business that he could not attend to it, but kindly directed me to another one. I found him and told him ! had no money but if he would embahn ti body of the lieutenant and send it home to his family that hi would be sure of his pay. This he consented to do, and I went back about one mile to a camping place where I could graze my horse during the night, as he had had nothing since the night before, and I was soon dreaming of home and friends. In the morning I went back and got some clothes to send the body home and learned how the lieutenant wa- killed. He was shot through the back, the ball going directly through the heart, and received a clip on his forehead that broke his skull.
My next move was to find the command. I found it during the day and learned that most of my company were prisoners. I think as I remember that nineteen were taken. My tent's crew were all prisoners.
Stafford B. Jones was wounded severely and taken prisoner, but he lived to get home.
Samuel Thorn died in a rebel prison.
Fred Allen was wounded and died in prison. Most of them never lived to get out of prison.
That was our last duty in the District of Columbia Cavalry. I think it was about two weeks after that we were transferred to the old First Maine. I was a non-commissioned officer, the highest left with the company, and I think I had command of the company about two weeks, when we were assigned to Co. A. in Captain Cole's company, where I remained until the close of the rebellion.
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BOWDOIN BOYS IN LABRADOR.
BOWDOIN BOYS IN LABRADOR.
ON BOARD THE JULIA A. DECKER, OFF BIRD ROCKS, Gulf of St. Lawrence, Sept. 10, 1891.)
While our little vessel is rushing through the blue waters of the gulf. apparently scorning the efforts of the swift little Halifax trader who promised to keep us company from the Straits to the Gut, and who, by dint of good luck and constant attention to sails has thus far kept her word, but is now steadily falling astern and to leeward, I will tell you about the snug little har bors, the bold headlands, barren slopes, and bird-covered rocks, and also the odorous fishing villages and the kind-hearted people with whom she has made us acquainted.
The Bowdoin scientific expedition to Labrador is now familiar with six of the seven wonders in this truly wonderful region. It has visited Grand Falls and " Bowdoin Canyon :" has been bitten by black flies and mosquitoes which only Labrador can produce, both in point of quality and quantity ; has wandered through the carriage roads ( !) and gardens of Northwest River and Hopedale; has dug over, mapped and photographed the prehistoric Eskimo settlements that line the shores, to the north of Hamilton Inlet ; has made itself thoroughly conversant with the great fishing industry that has made Labrador so valuabic. to Newfoundland in particular, and to the codfish consuming world in general; and finally is itself the sixth wonder, in that it has accomplished all it set out to do, though of course not all that would have been done had longer time, better weather and several other advantages been granted it.
It is almost another wonder, too. in the eyes of the Labradore- ans, that we have, without pilot and yet without accident or trouble of any sort, made such a trip along their rocky coast, entered their most difficult harbors, and outsailed their fastest vessels, revenue cutters, traders and fishermen.
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It will be a good many years before the visit of the " Yanlire college boys," the speed of the Yankee schooner and the kill and seamanship of the Yankee captain are forgotten " on the Labrador."
The day after we left, July igth, the mail steamer reached Battle Harbor with the first mail of the season. On board were Mess Bryant and Kenaston, anxiously looking for the Bowdoin party ane estimating their chances of getting to the mouth of Grand River. They brought with them an Adirondack boat, of canoe mod.1. relying on the country to furnish another boat to carry the bulk of their provisions and a crew to man the same.
When the news was received that we were a day ahead, the race began in earnest, the captain of the "Curlew " entering heartily into the sport and doing his best to overhaul the speedy Sankce schooner. When about half way up to Rigolette, on the third day from Battle Harbor, as we were drifting slowly out of "Seal Bight," into which we had gone the previous night to escape the numerous icebergs that went grinding by, the black smoke, and later the spars of the mail steamer were seen over one of the numerous rocky little islets that block the entrance to the bight. The steamer's flag assured us that it was certainly the mail steamer, and many and anxious were the surmises as to whether our rivals were on board, and earnest were the prayer -. for a strong and favoring wind. It soon came, and we bowled along at a rattling pace, our spirits rising as we could see the steamer, in shore, gradually dropping astern. Towards night we neared Domino Run, and losing sight of the steamer, which turned out to make a stop at some wretched little hamlet tha: had been shut out from the outer world for nine months, at about the same time lost our breeze also. But the wind might rise again, and time was precious, so a bright lookout was kept for bergs, and we drifted on through the night. The next morning a fringe of islands shut our competitor from sight, but after an aggravating calm in the mouth of the inlet, we felt a breeze and rushed up towards Rigolette, only to meet the steamer coming out while we were yet several hours from that place.
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BOWDOIN BOYS IN LABRADOR.
Here we had our first experience with the immense deer-flic- of Labrador. Off Mt. Gnat they came in swarms and for self protection each man armed himself with a small wooden paddle and slapped at them right and left, on the deck, the rail, another fellow's back or head, in fact, wherever one was seen to alight The man at the wheel was doubly busy, protecting himself, with the assistance of ready volunteers, from their lance-like bites, and steering the quickly moving vessel.
At last the white buildings and flag-staff which mark all the Hudson Bay Co.'s posts in Labrador, came in sight, snugly ne tled in a little cove, beneath a high ridge lying just to the north-west of it, and soon we were at anchor. Our intention was to get into the cove, but the six knot current swept us by the mouth before the failing breeze enabled us to get in.
After supper the necessary formal call was made on the factor, Mr. Bell, by the professor, armed with a letter of introduction from the head of the company in London, and escorted by three or four of the party. A rather gruff reception, at first met with, became quite genial, when it appeared that we wanted no assist- ance save a pilot. and called only to cultivate the acquaintance of the most important official in Labrador.
With a promise to renew the acquaintance upon our return, we left, and after a hard pull and an exciting moment in getting the boat fast alongside, on account of the terrific current, wc reached the deck and reported.
Our rivals were there, and had hired the only available boat and crew to transport them to North West River. This threw us back on our second plan, viz: to take our party right to the mouth of the Grand River ourselves, which involved a trip inland of one hundred miles to the head of Lake Melville. This it was decided to do, and after some delay in securing a pilot, owing to the transfer at the last moment of the affections of the first man we secured to the other party, John Blake came aboard and we started on our new experience in inland naviga- tion. Just as we entered the narrows, after a stop at John's house to tell his wife where we were taking him, and to give her some medicine and advice from the doctor, we saw our rivals
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starting in the boat they had secured. That was the last an saw of them, till they reached North West River, two days after our party had started up the Grand River.
North West River is the name of the Hudson Bay Co's post at the mouth of the river of the same name, flowing into the western extremity of Lake Melville, about fifteen miles north of the mouth of Grand River. Hamilton Inlet proper extends aboy !! forty miles in from the Atlantic to the " Narrows," a few miles beyond Rigolette, where Lake Melville begins. A narrow arm of the lake extends some unexplored distance cast of the Narrows, south of and parallel to the southern shore of the inlet. The lake varies from five to forty miles in width and is ninety miles long, allowing room for an extended voyage in its capacious bosom. The water is fresh enough to drink at the upper end of the lake, and at the time of our visit was far pleasanter and less arctic for bathing than the water off any point of the Maine coast. About twenty miles from the Nar- rows a string of islands, rugged and barren, but beautiful for their very desolation, as is true of so much of Labrador, nearly block the way, but we found the channels deep and clear, and St. John's towering peak makes an excellent guide to the most direct passage.
One night was spent under way, floating quietly on the lake, so delightfully motionless after the restless movements of Atlan- tic seas. A calm and bright day following, during which the one pleasant swim in Labrador waters was taken by two of us. was varied by thunder squalls and ended in fog and drizzle. causing us to anchor off the abrupt break in the continuous ridge along the northern shore, made by the Muligatawney River. Although in an insecure and exposed anchorage, vet the fact that we were in an inclosed lake gave a sense of security to the less experienced, that the snug and rocky harbors to which we had become accustomed, usually failed to give on account of the roaring of the surf a few hundred yards away. on the other side of the narrow barrier that protected the rocky basin.
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BOWDOIN BOYS IN LABRADOR.
The following day was bright and showery by turns, but the heart's wish of our Grand River men was granted, and while the schooner lay off the shoals at the mouth of the river they were to make famous. they started as will be described, and the rest of the expedition turned towards North West River, hoping they, too, could now get down to their real work.
The noble little vessel was reluctant to leave any of her freight in so desolate a place. in such frail boats as the Rushtons seemed, and in the calm between the thunder squalls, several times turned towards them, as they energetically pushed up the river's mouth, and seemed to call them back as she heavily flapped her white sails. They kept steadily on, however, while the Julia, bowing to a power stronger than herself, and to a fresh puff from the rapidly rising thunder heads, speedily reached North West River.
North West River is a sportsman's paradise. Here we found the only real summer weather of the trip, the thermometer reaching 76º F. on two days in succession, and thunder storms occurring regularly every afternoon. Our gunners and fisher- men were tempted off on a long trip. One party planning to be away two or three days, but returning the following morning, reported tracks and sounds of large animals. They said the rain induced them to return so soon.
Here we found a camp of Montagnais Indians, bringing the winter's spoils of furs to trade at the post for flour and powder, and the other articles of civilization that they are slowly learning to use. They loaf on their supplies during the summer, hunting only enough to furnish themselves with meat, and then starve during the winter if game happens to be scarce. Measurements were made of some twenty-five of this branch of the Kree tribe, hitherto unknown to anthropometric science, and a full collection of household utensils peculiar to their tribe was procured. Several of the Nascopee tribe were with them, the two inter- marrying freely, and were also measured. The latter are not such magnificent specimens of physical development as the Montagnais, but their tribe is more numerous and seems. if anything, better adapted to thrive in Labrador than their more attractive brothers.
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