USA > Maine > History of the First Maine cavalry, 1861-1865, V. 1 > Part 24
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There was considerable growling at being called upon at such short notice, at such an hour, in such weather, for it was bitter cold ; but there was no help for it. By daylight the regiment was in motion and marched to Bealton Station, where a halt was made, two days' rations of hard bread were issued, and three other regiments joined the expedition, which was under command of Col. Smith, while Lieut Col. Boothby was in com- mand of the regiment. The halt here was a long one, and the men suffered severely from the cold air of that December morn- ing. After a while the column started, and the men began to recover their warmth and spirits. The command crossed the Rappahannock at Sulphur Springs, halted at Jefferson for din- ner, marched a few miles further, and then bivouacked for the night.
Information had been received at Gen. Gregg's headquar- ters that the rebel Gen. Rosser with his force had gone to Front Royal to intercept Gen. Crooke, and this expedition was sent out to intercept Rosser. Five regiments were ordered to join the First Maine in the expedition, but the two regiments in the First brigade did not get the order, the courier being captured between Fayetteville and Warrenton, and did not report. Col. Smith sent back word at night that these two regiments had not joined him, and asked permission to finish the expedition with what force he had, and received orders in return to do so. It was thought at the time a little curious that the fighting force of the brigade should be sent off under a regimental commander, but the result justified this action.
One of Co. G, as good and true a man as ever lived, whose
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lips a drop of intoxicating liquor never passed, got intoxicated that night in a novel manner. He was suffering severely with an aching tooth, and his tent-mate advised him, as a friend, to try a whiff of tobacco smoke. He finally concluded to do so, and his comrade gave him a clay pipe, black as a coal-a perfect gem for old smokers - filled and lighted. The suffering hero smoked it a few moments, and thinking he had got enough. handed it back, saying he felt easier, and then prepared to "turn in," that he might get to sleep before the tooth com- menced aching again. As he was about to lie down he was puzzled at the strange antics of those steady old blankets. He had known them for more than a year, and they had never been intoxicated before. He mused a while, and then broke out with : " I wish - somebody would -hold those blankets - while I get in." He was thoroughly laughed at, to be sure, but he got a good night's sleep.
Next morning the column was in motion at daylight, and proceeded, ria Amisville, Gaines' cross-roads, Little Washing- ton and Sperryville, to Thornton's Gap, in the Blue ridge. meeting with no serious obstructions, although the advance encountered along the way quite a force of Gilmore's men. The march of this day was a pleasant one, and when in the afternoon the Blue ridge was crossed, it was most pleasant. As the column made the ascent the centre and rear could see the advance in half a dozen places at once, winding up the mountain-side, each visible portion being at a different altitude. making a picture well worth seeing and never to be forgotten. reminding the boys of the engraving in the school-books of "Napoleon crossing the Alps," and, naturally, bringing up many pleasant memories of school-boy days. When half way up the gap the boys could at once see the advance and the rear. winding along above and below, and from the highest point they had a good view of the rear of the column, of the mountains towering far above them on either hand, and of a large stretch of country behind them over which they had just passed, with a stray village here and there to add variety to the scene. None who enjoyed that march will forget it as long as memory lin- gers. When partially down the other side the command halted
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EXPEDITION TO LURAY.
a a little house on the side of the mountain, surrounded by "feral buildings, including a granary. tannery, etc .. where torage and rations were procured, an officer being put in charge to see that everything was done decently and in order. After loading up. the column proceeded nearly through the gap, and vamped for the night where there were plenty of rails for camp- tires and plenty of hay for horses and beds, and the boys went to bed happy.
Next morning a couple of inches of snow covered everything, while more was flying, and the boys waked up cross enough to tight like tigers. The discomforts of packing up in the snow were overcome, however, and the column was again in motion by daylight, the regiment being rear guard. The snow stopped falling and the sun came out soon after starting, and then the hoys forgot the unpleasant moments of the early morning as they looked back on the mountains and saw crags and peaks, trees and shrubs, all covered with snow, glistening in the sun. the whole making a picture fit to be a companion piece of that of the day before. It was but a short march to the village of Luray, which was entered without much opposition.
C'ol. Smith had learned the night before, from a prisoner and from citizens, that Rosser had made his way back, and was out of the way. It had also been reported to the colonel that there was in the village a large manufactory of cavalry and artillery equipments for the Confederate government, and this he determined to destroy. So the buildings were set on fire and burned, together with several thousand saddles and sets of equipments. finished and in process.
But this visit to Luray was made an occasion of joy to the men. as well as of destruction to rebel property. Tobacco was found in large quantities and confiscated with due liberality. much to the gratification of a large majority of the men ; and a little incident in this connection will illustrate the sudden changes of feeling soldiers sometimes experienced. Co. G was serving as rear .guard, and did not enter the village, but was shawn up just outside. After the rest of the column had been in the village a few moments, Capt. Taylor, of Co. L. then in stamand of a battalion, came riding back in haste, saying :
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"Col. Boothby wants the number of your men, quick!" The boys supposed, of course, that this meant fight, and there was a general tightening of saddle-girths, examination of carbines and ammunition, and of the blankets and other household goods on the saddles, in preparation for the coming contest, while Orderly Sergt. Little hastily counted the men and rode off to report. There was a moment or two of anxious waiting. when the orderly returned with his arms full of tobacco, to be divided among the men. And this was for what the number of men was wanted. Col. Smith had determined there should be no general pillaging, or unsoldierly conduct, therefore orders were given not to have the men dismount in the town. Then meat, tobacco, etc., were collected and distributed under the direction and supervision of the colonel himself, and in this distribution the rear guard was not forgotten. In this affair the men were splendidly held.
When it is remembered that this occurred on the twenty- third of December, -two days before Christmas, -and that the preparations for Christmas dinner were ample, it will be seen that the boys, especially the rear guard, had the best chance in the world to forage. Christmas geese and turkeys. ready for the spit, were captured, and in many instances the boys helped themselves to well-cooked dinners prepared for other mouths. Pork, just cured sufficiently to keep it, - the sweetest pork the boys ever ate, the fat of which could almost be drank, so sweet was it, - was captured in large quantities. Christmas pies, bread, etc., were also confiscated, while the boys took occasion to supply themselves with missing saddle- straps, bridles, and other needed equipments and parts of equipments. In short, the boys concluded that they had vis- ited Luray just in time, and left it in the best of spirits.
This incident is told of the many that enlivened this visit : When the rear guard was drawn up in line just outside the village, the boys noticed in front of them a nice row of bee- hives, and it was not long before they were enjoying the honey. in spite of the bees, for which they did not seem to care. Capt. Taylor, who could not bear to see anything that was not strictly in accordance with Army Regulations, drove the boy-
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RETURN FROM LURAY.
away from the hives ; but either the temptation proved too strong and he attempted to help himself to just a bit, or else he remained there to protect the honey ; at any rate. the bees, in spite of his efforts in their behalf, attacked him en masse, and he left with rather more haste and less grace than did the boys.
About noon the column was in motion, homeward bound. The ascent of the mountain, or rather of the gap, was made in much the same manner as on the day previous, only that the tannery connected with the house where the rations and forage were procured the night before, was burned by order. At that time a man was exempted from conscription in the rebel army if he started a tannery, as the government was in quite as much need of leather as of men. Many will remember the piteous appeal of the woman of the house to Col. Smith, of whom it should be said she formed a most favorable opinion from his conduct during the confiscation of rations the day before, and by whose order the torch had been applied : "O general, some of your rude boys have set our shop a-fire; won't you send some men to put the fire out?" But the colonel did not sympathize with the woman just then, at least not practically. In going down the other side of the mountain a short cut was made, and some time saved, by dismounting and leading the horses, without any regard to the road, down declivities which it would have been madness to attempt to ride. At Sperry- ville, at the base of the mountain, more tanneries were burned, and others were destroyed along the road - five in all, besides the large one at Luray. From Sperryville to Little Washing- ton the command met little squads of the enemy all along, and on reaching the last named place, met quite a squad, which the advance charged, killing one man. Between Sperryville and Little Washington, also, the advance met a covered wagon, drawn by two horses, in which was a Confederate mail, and a quantity of medicines, bearing every evidence of having been smuggled. Wagon, horses, driver, mail and medicines were compelled to join the column. The column passed through Little Washington just after dark, and soon after went into camp. The weather was quite cold, but the boys were in good spirits.
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They had plenty to eat, plenty of tobacco, and the expedition had been a success without the loss of a man, and why should they not be happy? Besides these, there was hay enough in the vicinity to provide them with warm beds as well as supper for the horses. Upon halting for the night the regiment was drawn up in an enclosure, when Lieut. Col. Boothby (who was somewhat near sighted) gave the order to dismount, and added : "Now, men, make some good fires and get your sup- pers, for here are plenty of good rails," pointing to the fence that surrounded the regiment. But this happened to be a stone wall country, and it was a stone wall that he was pointing at, as he discovered when the merriment of the men led him to scan the fence more closely. There was a further march of a couple of miles or more before going into camp that night, but the boys had rails when they finally did stop.
On the return large numbers of geese, turkeys and chickens were captured between Luray and Sperryville. The next morning a good deal of this poultry was alive, and Col. Smith wished to have it concealed, for decency's sake, before the com- mand reached division headquarters. So, many of the men made small holes in their grain sacks, large enough for a goose, turkey, or rooster to put out its head, while the body of the plunder was concealed in the sack. It was a comical sight to see those heads wagging and waving in cadence with the step of the horses, as may easily be imagined.
The regiment reached its camp at Bealton the next night. after a long march, and then there was a season of growling. that for the time drove away all pleasant thoughts of the trip. The boys had a good stock of pork, poultry, etc., but no bread or coffee, though some had brought along a small quantity of flour. All day long they had cheered themselves with the anticipation of a good square meal when they got into camp ; but on their arrival there they found no rations awaiting them. the reason given for which was that the division commissary. when the remainder of the division was supplied, that very day. had refused to issue rations for the men away on this expedi- tion, as he did not know when they would get back. The boys thought this altogether too much, and expressed their feelings
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EXPEDITION TO FRONT ROYAL.
loudly, clearly and openly. It certainly was a cold welcome home.
The raid to Luray is written down as one of the successes of the cavalry force, and Gen. Pleasanton wrote Col. Smith a letter of commendation for the very able manner in which he had conducted the hazardous expedition. A number of slight skir- mishes occurred during the trip, but nothing of any account, and the First Maine had no fighting to do.
From Christmas to New Year's Day the regiment remained near Bealton, the boys working on their winter quarters when they could, the greater portion of which were completed, or so nearly so as to be comfortable, by the first of January. But the regiment was not idle during this time. There was scouting and picketing to be done; there was mud in large quantities to wallow through around camp and in the performance of camp duties ; there were heavy rains to keep comfortable in as best could be done ; and there was a night alarm, nearly every night, causing the boys to leave their warm beds and saddle up in the cold, only to shiver around a while in expectancy and then turn in to wonder what it was all about.
Friday, January 1, 1864, the regiment was again ordered out at daylight, leaving enough in camp to care for it, and joining the remainder of the division, under command of Col. Taylor, of the First Pennsylvania Cavalry, started on an expedition very similar to the expedition to Luray, - to see what there was at Front Royal and vicinity. The weather was warm in the morn- ing, but grew very cold before noon, so much so that the mud of the morning soon froze hard enough to bear man and beast. The command halted briefly at the village of Warrenton and then pushed on to Orleans, a distance of fifteen miles, bivouack- ing in the woods, just beyond the village. Next morning the march was resumed, through Chester Gap to Front Royal. It was a long, tedious day's march. The roads were in the worst possible condition for the smooth shod horses, and every few moments down would go horse and rider ; the streams were all frozen over, with ice so thick at times that the horses could walk on it, and the ice had to be broken before they could be forded : and it was so cold that the men were compelled to walk half the
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time or more to keep warm, and some of the men were so thor- oughly chilled through as to be helpless, and required to be carried. No enemy was found at Front Royal, though he was reported to be the other side of the Shenandoah, but as that river was not then in a fordable condition. the further march west- ward was prevented, and after camping that night in the woods. the next morning the command started to return via Manassas Gap, marching twenty-five miles that day, and bivouacking that night at Oak Hill, near Piedmont, under the mountains, where, fortunately for the boys, there were plenty of rails, the weather still remaining very cold. The roads were still in an execrable condition, impassable in many places for the artillery accompany- ing the expedition, so that the cavalry was compelled to halt and make roads for it. Much of the way the march was on the road-bed of the railroad, the track of which had fallen a victim to the ravages of war. Capt. Taylor, with Cos. D, F, H, and L, and detachments from the other companies, was sent in advance of the column to carry despatches to army headquar- ters. He met a considerable force of Moseby's men near Salen. and a spirited engagement took place, when a charge by Co. H. Capt. Hall, drove the enemy, wounding five of their number. and the detachment had no further trouble. During the day the regiment captured twenty-five prisoners, including five commissioned officers. These men appeared to be spending the holidays with their wives and sweethearts, who thought it hard to be thus rudely parted from them ; but the edicts of war are inexorable. In one instance a reb soldier sat on a fence talking to an elderly lady, till some of the Maine boys walked their horses close up to him and demanded his surrender, when, with a perfect blank look of astonishment he exclaimed : " My God! they are Yankees! Good-by, mother, good-by," and with that parting he was taken along.
On the morrow the command marched to near Warrenton. in a snow storm, which increased the bad condition of the roads, making them slippery and dangerous, while the weather remained very cold. This regiment had the rear in this march. The enemy followed the column all the way from Oak Hill, but made no violent demonstrations. It was a blue look that night
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BUILDING WINTER QUARTERS.
when the regiment went into camp in an open field, with six inches of snow on the ground, no tents, few blankets. and little wood, and it was wonderful how soon the men made themselves comfortable under such untoward circumstances. A diary of the day's march significantly adds at its close : "Officers and men mad and swearing, from colonel down;" and the same diary says: " Men all agree in saying they suffered more from cold on this reconnoissance, or whatever it was, than all before in the service put together. It was a hard, cold time, and what it amounts to no one knows."
Here the regiment remained the day following, being joined by the men left in the camp near Bealton, and the next day, sixth, marched to the vicinity of Warrenton, where word was given out that quarters would be put up for the winter. The boys did not quite relish throwing away their work at Bealton, but there was no help for it, and they could only console them- selves by the thought that they had not been ordered to build winter quarters there, and had worked upon them with an uncertain feeling, and by the knowledge that the experience in architecture had been worth something to them. The camp was laid out with due precision, the company streets being defined under the direction of the colonel before a blow was struck. Each cabin in the several companies was assigned its quota of sacred soil. and the men went to work. A short distance from the camp-ground was a deserted house of ample size, and in a wonderfully short space of time after the line had been dismissed that house was not there, and but little trace of it was left. But the boys had secured a large amount of lumber, nails, and other building materials from it, which was worth its weight in gold to them then. The men went to work with a will on their winter quarters, feeling now that they were building them for good. The quarters were of one general plan,- usually each building was occupied by four men, -- log cabin walls some four feet high, made of white oak logs halved. with the chinks filled in with the sticky mud of the locality, long as two lengths of shelter tent and wide as a shelter tent would make a good roof for. Those of each company were on a line, side to the company street and door in the end, and the camp, when the
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quarters were finished, presented a neat and comfortable appear- ance, equal to any camp in the Army of the Potomac, while the location was excellent, the ground being dry, and wood and water plenty and handy. The chimneys were on the rear, and were made of stone, wood, and mud, many of them being topped off with a barrel. Inside, the quarters were finished according to taste, ideas of comfort, and material at hand. The lumber from the old house spoken of, and others in the vicinity, furnished floors, doors, tables, seats, bunks, and, in short, all the furniture, and the boys made the most of it, while a fire-place in the chimney served to heat the house.
Many a pleasant hour was passed in those quarters that winter, with the cheerful open fire, the kindly feeling of the comrades for each other, cemented by two years of hardship and suffering together, reading and writing, joking, telling stories. singing, playing cards, and in the various ways with which soldiers had by this time so well learned to pass their spare time. Indeed, some of the boys were inclined to pity their friends in Maine who knew not the enjoyment of open fires, or the comfort which to them seemed so great in comparison with their condi- tion the few weeks previous to their settling down for the winter.
Among the pleasures of that winter was the result of adver- tising for lady correspondents, an experiment a few of the boys tried. One comrade had a well-worded advertisement inserted in a Boston paper, which so worked upon the patriotism and kindly sympathies of New England ladies that he received one hundred and twenty-seven answers. A great number of them, of course, were mere nothings, but some of them were so kind in tone and so full of real sympathy as to bring tears to the eyes of those who had expected only fun from the experiment. And who shall say that the influence of such letters was not felt for months afterwards, and the hardships of the service somewhat softened by their memory. Some of them were full of good advice, and some kind ladies took the trouble to send goodly quantities of reading matter, which was doubly acceptable. That the most of the letters were read by the whole company and much fun made of some of them, is true, but it is also true that many of them were answered by different comrades, and
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THE WINTER'S DUTIES.
quite a correspondence sprang up, which served to enliven many an otherwise tedious hour, and that the efforts of the fair writers of those letters to relieve the tedium of the dull routine of camp life were eminently and pleasantly successful. Many of the boys also enjoyed the pleasure of receiving boxes from home, filled with good things to eat and for comfort.
But it was not all rest and enjoyment during that winter. There was plenty of picketing to do, of course, and of course the Maine boys had their share, the daily detail of the regiment being thirty men and one commissioned officer; and occasionally there was a detail of one hundred men for a three days' trip of picket on the Morrisville road. Then there was scouting and reconnoitring, so that though the service was not as arduous as that of the previous winter, the men did not forget how to do a soldier's duty. The weather, too, was at times very cold, and anything but comfortable for this sort of duty. One of the reconnoitring expeditions is thus described by Chaplain Merrill : -
At one o'clock on the morning of February fourth, one hundred and fifty men, under Maj. Thaxter, started on a reconnoissance to Piedmont, on the Alexandria and Winchester pike, near Ashby's Gap. Passing through New Baltimore (memorable as the first safe point reached by the regiment after running the gauntlet of Gen. Lee's army, a few weeks before), and leaving Thoroughfare Gap on the right, the detachment reached White Plains at daybreak. This is a point a little north of the Manassas Railroad, twenty miles northwest from Manassas Junction. Signal lights upon the mountains told that the enemy was apprised of their movements. Leaving White Plains they moved north- and went to Rectortown, capturing a rebel officer early in the morning. When near the town, a few carbine shots, with an accompaniment of yells, signified that the advance had started the game. A squad of rebels had been surprised while making themselves comfortable at a house, and with undignified haste had betaken themselves to the woods. But they were too late, and in a few moments returned under Yankee escort. One thing alone saved their lives. The coats. pants, hats, and boots. worn by nearly all of them, showed unmistakably where they came from. In this uniform some Union soldiers had been surprised and captured. To put a stop to this. Gen. Pleasanton had issued an order to hang on the spot every man found making war on our forces in the United States uniforms. But these men. though clearly rebel soldiers, were unarmed, and hence the order was not executed. Their horses, which were captured. were of more value than the men. Finding no rebels at Rectortown, the command counter- marched a mile or two, and turned off to the right for Salem. capturing two more prisoners, one of whom was an officer. As the advance guard entered
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