USA > Maine > First Maine bugle, 1893 (history of 1st Maine Cavalry) > Part 32
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FIRST MAINE BUGLE.
with a different sort of grandeur -- and we left it with a fool that we had but just begun to become acquainted with :. works of Nature, after all, and were inclined to sympathize .. ; the poet who writes :
As if to bar the dawn's first light These ruby gates are hung; As if from Sinai's frowning height These riven tablets flung. This greensward, girt with tongues of flame, With spectral pillars strewn, Not strangely did the savage name A haunt of gods unknown.
With torrents wild and tempest blast, And fierce volcanic fires, In secret mounds bas Nature cast Her monoliths and spires. TO THE SUMMIT OF PIKE'S PEAK.
The next day we were at the station of the Manitou and Pike's Peak Railway early, and learned, to our joy, that train were to run to the summit, and that we were to have the pla- ure of climbing the mountain in the first train of the sea. : ). This day was my long ago ambition satisfied, and I stood on til summit of Pike's Peak. What a wonderful ride it was. Bei trying to give you some idea of this ride, a few words abch: this railway, " the highest and most wonderful in the world. may not be out of place :
In two respects only does this railway differ to any great extent from ordinary r. roads. The first and foremost of these is the very heavy grade, that, in a few i short of nine miles makes an elevation of 7,518 feet; and the other is the system rack rails that forms a continuous track upon which the ninety different cogs of " locomotive operate. These rails are two in number, set 1 5-S inches apart, and! i vary in weight from 21 to 31 1-2 pounds per foot; the heavier ones being used in : = steeper inclines of the grade. Each rack rail is eighty inches long, and so place . to break joints; the teeth are staggard also. thus always giving the six differer: . . wheels of the locomotive a bearing on the rack. The track is of standard ga : ' . a roadbed from fifteen to twenty-two feet in width. The four bridges are constr .. " of iron resting firmly upon granite foundations of solid masonry. There is a curs uous absence of trestle work on the whole line. To prevent the moving of sloth; the track, which is within the dim shade of possibility, owing to its enormous w and the effect that the varying temperature has upon the iron and steel, n than one hundred and forty-six anchors have been firmly set into the solid r ..
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THE COUNTRY FOR WHICH YOU FOUGHT.
in the absence of that material, deeply embedded in the heavily ballasted roadbed. These anchors are placed at from two to six hundred feet apart, according to the grade. The exact length of the road is 46,992 feet and the average elevation over- come 844.8 feet to the mile, making an average grade of sixteen per cent. The mis. imum grade is twenty-five per cent. The locomotives are peculiar in appearance and weigh twenty-five tons each. They push the cars on the ascent andi prece le them on the descent, thus giving perfect control over the coaches, which not being couple l to the engine, can, if desired, be let down independently of the engine. Extending fr m the sides of the locomotive cog wheels, are the six corrugated surfaces upon which the steam and hand brakes do their work. Either of these brakes is sufficiently powerful to stop the locomotive and train in case of an emergency. The cylinders of the engines are also fitted with the water brake and are utilized on the downward jaune; as air compressors, and by their use the speed of the train can be further regulan: 1. The coaches are elegant, largely of glass to facilitate observation along the route. Each has a capacity for fifty persons, and the seats are so arranged that passengers have at all times a level sitting.
I was not very much interested in the fact that we were pass- ing the Shady Springs, or Gog and Magog, or that Echo Falls were on the right, or in any of the details of the grand, scenery all around. As while in the Black Canyon of the Gunnison, I was attracted by the whole. Perhaps, after making the ascent several times, I might become so well acquainted with the scene in its entirety that I might be interested in the details. But on this, my first trip, I wished to look and look and look and see all I could. And I did. We rode through and among rocks and woods, and rocks and woods, all the time climbing higher. all the time finding new and grand and ever varying scenery. I was as one enchanted. Even after we were above the timber line, where were no vegetation and less variety of rock and mountain, the charm still remained, for we had a broader and wider view, and could see mountains that were miles away. And still the little Italic engine puffed and struggled, as if striv- ing its best to reach the summit, and working so hard that there was at times a feeling as if one ought to get out and help it draw up the car of excursionists. Above the timber line we found snow in large quantities, and for a mile or more we rode through a cut in the solid snow reaching half way to the top of the car windows. We were told that the snow does not entirely disap- pear from the mountain during the summer, and we believed it. for here it was the latter part of June, and the snow was two or
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FIRST MAINE BUJGLE.
three feet deep and packed in so closely that the cut through it was like a cut through the solid roch. We had been told many stories of the ill effects of the rarified air at the top of mountain and the unpleasant and often serious results of a visit, that some of the party were a little anxious. Now and th. i one found a little difficulty in breathing, or noticed that the voices of the others sounded far away, or experienced wons slight discomfort, but there was nothing to really take away any of the pleasure of the trip. I noticed a slight ringing of the ears, once or twice, similar to that which I experienced at tio lowest altitude we reached on the outward journey, but the inconvenience was fleeting. At last we were at the top, and more than fourteen thousand feet above the level of the sea. The view here was broad enough to satisfy most any one. On the one hand we could see a range of mountains more than a hundred miles away, and one hundred and thirty miles long. On the other side was the plain, where the cyc roamed at v ..!! without regard to distance. Some of the party said they could see Bunker Hill, but they were New Englanders, and very lidly prejudiced. Perhaps an idea of our height may best be given by stating that we could look down upon the city of Colorad. Springs, seven miles from the base of the mountain, and could see only the streets. We were so high that anything no talle than the biggest house in that city did not show at all-but the streets were plainly defined, being of a different color. It was a strange sensation, being so high that a city of considerab !. size was as nothing, and we received a new idea of how very small are the works of man, after all, compared with the works of Nature. We had a lunch at the top-the highest meal we ever ate, though the price was very reasonable. The ride doon was somewhat faster than the ride up, and the little Italic engine did not have to work so hard. But it was just as enjoyable. and we left the little station at the terminus of the road with the lines of the poet running through our minds :
Into the boundless air so thin and cold. Far up above the line of living green, Rises thy granite peak, gray, grand, serene. Thy seamed sides, all broken, rugged, bold,
THE COUNTRY FOR WHICH YOU FOUGHT.
Speak of volcanic ages yet untold, And tow'ring high through riven clouds is seen Thy summit glistening in the sunlight sheen, All undisturbed by storms that thee enfold.
The morning sun gilds first thy top. His last Ray fires thy crest --- an oriflamme it seems, While shadows deepen over vale and plain. In thy deep chasms th' eternal snows heldt fast Keep ever fresh and full the living streams, That in cascades now fall and fall again.
CAVE OF THE WINDS.
We still had two or three hours for sight-seeing before the train left for Denver, but among so many points of interest as Manitou contains it was difficult to decide how to pass that time. Ed and I finally decided to visit a cave. But there are two caves at Maniton-the Cave of the Winds and the Grand Cay- erns. We were told that one was as interesting as the other --- that each had its particular attractions, but both were well worth visiting. The matter was settled when we were told that the Cave of the Winds was up Williams Canyon. We had not even then had enough of canyons, and wished to see one under different circumstances. So we chose the Cave of the Winds. We found ourselves in the canyon almost before we were out of sight of the Cliff House, and had we not found the cave we should still have been satisfied with the walk. All canyons are different, though all have some general characteristics, but any canyon looks differently according to the standpoint from which it is viewed -- whether it is merely glanced at while flying through on the train, or examined at leisure while walking through it. This was our first experience of the latter manner of view, and we enjoyed it so much that even to-day we are unable to deter- mine which canyon left upon us the most pleasant memories. There we were, mere mites amid our surroundings, standing between hills which arose on cither hand hundreds of feet, nearly perpendicular now, now broken by the forces of Nature during hundreds of years, now shelving - always changing. We felt remarkably small as we walked through that can- yon and beheld all around us those immense masses of rock
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FIRST MAINE BUGLE.
and mountain. By and by we thought it about time to lon! for the Cave of the Winds, but for awhile our search was with out result. Then we saw, two or three hundred feet above t ... what looked as though it might be an entrance into the side of the mountain, and after a little further peering about far up u. the air we discovered that this was what we were looking for, as we found running here and there, and zigzagging every way. steps which led thereto. So we climbed until we could appre- ciate the remark that this is called the " Cave of the Wind- because the wind caves before one reaches it. We found a Grand Army comrade in charge, who kindly, seeing the button in my collar, volunteered to guide us through the underground labyrinth himself. It was well for us that he did so, for with- out a guide we should have quickly become lost, while with a good guide, as he proved to be, we could see much. I will no: attempt to describe all the wonders and beauties we saw during our three-quarters of an hour in the heart of the mountain, but will merely say this visit was a very interesting one, and advie! one more to the variety of our experiences on this trip so fal' of new and strange experiences. We saw many wonders and even many beauties, strange as it may seem to talk of beauti .. underground.
HOME AGAIN.
We bade good bye to Manitou with many regrets and with the hope of paying the pleasant little place another visit some time, and took the train for Denver, where we arrived b fore sundown. Here Mr. Lee found friends and left Ed and I to oft own devices, but we did not get lonesome, though he had prosa a most delightful and helpful traveling companion. We wer too tired for sight-seeing that night, and went early to bed Next day we roamed around Denver, filling ourselves weh admiration for this splendid city of brick and stone. With miles of travel about the city we did not see a wooden buildin -dwelling or for business purposes. That night we took to train on the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe road -- which seem C like " getting home again," for Chicago, where we arrived safeh
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THE COUNTRY FOR WHICH YOU FOUGHT.
after a ride full of incident and interest, but which might seem tame compared to some other portions of the trip. We. remained long enough in Chicago to visit some of the Essex family, to transact some business, and to see the Vice President of the United States nominated. This last was doubly inter- esting, from the fact itself, and because the convention was held in a finished wigwam where but a few short weeks before, on our outward trip, we had seen the work of erecting the immense building begin. This gave us a realizing sense of how they "push things " in that great city of the World's Fair. Then came the ride home, paying a visit now and then to old friends and schoolmates on the way, and arriving safely on the twenty- eighth of June. And notwithstanding the pleasures of travel, there was quite as much pleasure in getting home again, in meeting kind friends once more, and even in settling down into the ordinary routine of every-day life.
Comrades -- My story is finished. To you who have followed Ed and I patiently as we have wandered over this great country --- for which you and I fought and for which so many of our brave comrades died -- I will express the hope that you have not found the trip very tedious; that you have perhaps gained a better idea of the extent and grandeur of these United States : and that you may all have a realizing sense of the fact that there is more and grander scenery in this country than in any other part of the globe, and that every true American citizen should make himself acquainted with his own country before going abroad for sight-seeing. So Ed and I bid you a kind good bye.
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FIRST MAINE BUGLE.
With the First Mainc.
Comrade Riley 1 .. Jones-" Jones of G" -- now a resident Saginaw, Mich., recently prepared a paper on his service in : army for the benefit of the class in United States history in t High School of that city, and read it before Gordon Gra Post, G. A. R., the members of the history class being proce; The paper is an excellent running resume of the service of fo regiment, interspersed with personal recollections, and is viny readable for any comrade, whether he served with this of 20: other cavalry regiment, or even if he were a " doughboy." The following distinctively personal experiences and obser tions, are taken from the Saginaw Courier-Herald, which print Comrade Jones' paper entire :
I was a member of an organization known as the First Man Cavalry, organized in October. 1861. For five long montie" endured the rigors of a northern winter amid snow and in sleeping in canvas tents, wading through snow sometimes the feet deep on the level to care for our horses, perfecting om selves in drill and the sabre exercise with frost bitten fin . .. and noses. We endured all that men can endure from cokl .. exposure until it is estimated by good authority that the ri. ment lost more than two hundred men by death and disabi. : on account of the weather and the insufficient means of pri- tion ; that was the hardships of war without glory of fame. V. those who survived had proved themselves picked men, capi of enduring all that humanity can endure, and their rio when in active service is further proof of that fact. The r ment had a record of one hundred and seven engagement being more than any other regiment in the United States sop- ice. I say this in no spirit of boasting over my comtas because I know of other troops recruited from the same c : and towns, just as good men, equally as willing. just as Suave to duty, who saw very little active service, simply because the were not given the opportunity. But there were hundred-
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WITH THE FIRST MAIL.
regiments in the Union armies who fought more battles during our civil war than have been fought by the British army dur- ing the past one hundred years, and the armies of the Union fought more battles than have been fought by the English armies since the days of William the Conqueror. And the are the men whom our present day pot- house politicians are so fond of denominating, " skulkers in the rear," " pension grab- bers," " coffee coolers," etc. Out upon the vile rabble and scum who thus seek with foul hands to tear the laurels from the brows of as noble a body of men as ever fought for human liberty or human rights.
The first engagement in which the whole regiment. or nearly the whole of it, was under fire was on August 9th, 1862, at the battle of Cedar Mountain. This was the first battle field I was ever over after the fight, and the scenes of that day will never be effaced from my memory. A few days later began the retreat of Pope's army from the advanced position it had taken beyond the Rappahannock river, and on August twentieth we were nearly surprised while on outpost at Brandy Station, but the regiment rallied and held the enemy back from eight in the morning until two in the afternoon and until Pope's artillery and trains were safely across the Rappahannock river. On the twenty-nintl: and thirtieth of August we were engaged at the second battle of Bull Run. When the army first began to give way in that battle our regiment was drawn up in line in an effort to stop stragglers, and that is about the only time I ever knew the First Maine to fail to do what it was ordered. On our way to th battlefield another comrade and myself, while foraging for some- thing more palatable than hard tack, captured two rebel sol lier- whom we escorted to our lines and turned over to the provost marshal. During the summer of 1860, while visiting a cousin by the name of George W. Nye, he made the remark that if he ever met me on the battle field he would expect to see me with a book in my hand. During the second day of this battle I met George for the first time in two years. He recalled the remark he had made and laughingly pointed to a volume of Macauley's History of England strapped to the saddle in front
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of me. Two days later, at the battle of Chantilly, poor Goor gave his life for his country, being killed by a solid shot at Mo- same time and near the same place that the lamented Gow Kearney was killed, and for over thirty years has filled a sol dier's grave near Alexandria, while I remain to tell the story ; our chance meeting on the field of battle. Such is the fortune of war.
From March to November, 1862, we lost in action and wo :: out in service seven hundred horses; how many men I can ey say. You see they kept better count of the horses than the men. At that time the horses cost money, while the men vol- untecred.
At the battle of Fredericksburg, which begun on December eleventh, the regiment crossed the river on the lower pontoon of the morning of the twelfth, and was exposed to a heavy anti! lery fire during most of the forenoon. At noon my company and one other were detailed to support the skirmish line and advanced mounted to the foot of Mary's Heights We were soon relieved however by infantry, for which we were not at all sorry, and rejoined the regiment, which was drawn up in squad- rons supporting a battery of the regular artillery. Here we were exposed to a heavy artillery fire for most of the rest of the day ; we had but few men wounded and I think none kille 1. but every man in the regiment thought he was gone sure evers time one of those big shells came hurling over our heads front Mary's Heights, It is the most trying position in which a soldier can be placed, to stand still doing nothing and be she at, and we were not sorry when the day was over.
On April 6th, 1863, we took part in the parade of the Army of the Potomac, and were reviewed by President Lincoln and Generals Halleck and Hooker. That was the only time I ever saw Mr. Lincoln, but I shall never forget how he looked as h rode down the line. There were twenty-seven regiments 0: cavalry on the field, but I had the impression that he saw ba: little of them, as he appeared to take but little notice of who was going on around hin.
At daylight we started back (on Stoneman's Raid) and thus night, May fourth, went into camp near the Pamunky river and!
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WITH THE FIRST MAINE.
" had a night's sleep for the first time since we started, having been in the saddle almost continuously for five days and four nights. I presume some of our young people think they have at some time in their lives been tired and sleepy, but my opinion is they have a very faint conception of the meaning of the words. I stood picket that morning about half an hour and while expecting every minute to receive a shot from the woods in front, and with the most determined efforts to keep my eyes open, I presume I went to sleep thirty times in as many minutes.
On our return charge (at Brandy Station) I bore a little too much to the left and coming down near a large white house, came suddenly from the upper side to a terrace about four feet high ; no time to stop or turn, my horse took it with a flying leap of about twenty feet through the air, coming down stiff legged ; the jar nearly drove me through the saddle, and I surely thought my backbone must be four inches shorter at night than it was in the morning.
How many times we were engaged during the Mine Run cam- paign 1 am unable to remember. That portion of it which is most forcibly impressed upon my memory is the night of Decem- ber Ist, 1863. The army was falling back across the river and we were, as usual, rear guard ; it was a bitter cold night, which we passed standing by our horses. The army had all crossed the river by noon of the next day. Our regiment, bringing up the rear, crossed Ely's Ford and halted on the north bank about half an hour before the rebel cavalry appeared on the other side. We skirmished a little with them across the river but they made no attempt to cross. During that day and the pre- ceding night I had a raging toothache added to my other dis- comforts. While the skirmish was going on the surgeon happened to pass. I hailed him, and sitting down by the foot of a tall pine tree was soon relieved of the offending molar and was happy once more, though the bullets were still whis- tling through the branches.
At St. Mary's Church, June 24th, 1864, about three o'clock in the afternoon, as I was firing from behind a fence where I had taken position, a comrade came behind me and suddenly
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FIRST MAINE BUGIF.
fired his carbine so close to my head that it gave me a ter shock, whether from the concussion of the report or a ble from the recoil of the piece I could never tell, but I fought f - the rest of the day with blood running from my ear and, alie . blinded with pain in the ear and head. I know I rated hio very expressive language for firing so close to my head, med then went on loading and firing as fast as I was able. Just the shades of night were falling around us our line retired jun the edge of a wood; I saw the rebel cavalry come charging to- on our line and fired the last shot from my carbine when they were not more than fifty feet away. The next instant I folt. stunning blow on my right shoulder and fell at full length. co my face with a useless right arm flung above my head. Op. and around me I heard as in a dream the rush and tramp .i horses' feet, the clanking of scabbards, and above and clean than all the shrill "Hi-hi" of the rebel yell, And, alas, it on no dream. I staggered to my feet, to find I had been si .: through the shoulder, and that my right arm was totally d abled. I was covered with dust and blood from head to fino and apparently every nerve and muscle in my body was quiser- ing with pain as the result of the terrible strain and suffering 4 that terrible day, and to-day as I write, twenty-nine years after.] feel the throbs of pain through the nerves of my right hand. that have never left me from that day to this, and I have ne .. heard a sound in my left ear since that day. I wonder ben many of the soldier haters who are shrieking themselves hard about pensions would dare the experience of that day for . the gold in the United States treasury to-day. I venture afss not one; the cowardly curs would be dead with fright before the day was half done. To cap the climax of my misery I ve a prisoner in hostile hands. Weak from loss of blood, hopie- from pain and exhaustion, I was robbed of watch, money alol trinkets, and stripped of boots, hat and handkerchief. In : condition I was marched two miles through the woods in stock- ing feet, and lay upon the ground all night without food or water burning with thirst and wishing for relief or death, it mittel not which, to end my suffering. Here ends my personal tem lection of the cavalry service in the army of the Potomac.
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COMRADL TOBIES MILITARY CAREER.
Comrade Leroy H. Tobie's Military Carcer.
Leroy Harmon Tobie, son of the late Edward Parsons and Jane Harmon Tobie, was born in Lewiston, January 18th, 1843. He was educated in the public schools of that town, and when the war broke out, had just commenced business life in the office of the Franklin Company's cotton mill. He was brought up on abolition bread and milk. His father voted the Free Soil ticket when his was the only Free Soil vote cast in the town, and for years kept a station on the underground railroad. Many a time in his younger days young Tobie arose in the morning to find strangers of a dusky hue at the breakfast toble -- runaway slaves bound for Canada, who never felt safe even here in Maine until they had crossed the Canada line. He remembers particularly " Box" Brown and Sojourner Truth ; Box Brown so called because he escaped from slavery by being boxed up and sent North in a wooden box shaped like a coffin, with small holes to breathe through.
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