USA > Maine > History of the Thirteenth Maine regiment from its organization in 1861 to its muster-out in 1865 > Part 4
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to camp before dark. From there the prisoners and refugees were soon sent to New Orleans.
On the 28th of April, Col. Dow was appointed Brig- adier General, and Lieut. Col. Rust received his well- deserved promotion to Colonel, being mustered in that rank June 3rd. The vacancies thus created were filled by the promotion of Major Hesseltine to Lieutenant- Colonel and Capt. Grover of Co. H to Major. Several vacancies in the list of officers were caused by death or resignation, and will be more particularly mentioned in the roster of the regiment.
Early in April, the vessels of Porter's mortar fleet were seen to spread their white wings and start for the mouth of the Mississippi. April 6th, seven regiments of infantry and two batteries of artillery were put on board of transports for the same destination; but, as Commodore Farragut sent word that he was having much difficulty in getting his larger vessels over the bar, they landed again. At last, on the 15th, news was re- ceived that the fleet was all over the bar and ready for business ; and immediately the troops reembarked and started for the scene of action. While these troops were on shore, awaiting orders, occurred the grand review, already mentioned, of all the troops on the island.
On the 18th we began to hear the bombardment of Fort Jackson by the mortar ficet. For six days and nights, with but short intermissions, we could hear the tremendous reports of the fifteen-inch mortars ; cach report seeming almost to jar Ship Island, although the distance was about sixty miles in an air line. Then the noise ceased, and we remained in suspense till a vessel arrived with news of Farragut's gallant passage of the forts, and also brought orders for the departure of more of the troops. Soon word came of the surrender of Forts Jackson and Saint Philip, the fall of New Orleans, and of the evacuation of the forts at the entrance of Lake Pontchartrain. Regiment after regiment then went for-
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ward, till early in May only the Thirteenth remained on the island.
The reason for the Thirteenth being selected to re- main on the island the writer has never learned. The most probable reason was the wretched condition of our clothing. For several weeks, at that time, many of the men were absolutely without pants and had to be ex- cused from dress-parade and guard duty for that reason, while nearly the whole regiment was in rags; but after all the other troops had gone new dress uniforms were issued, thus enabling the regiment to present a respec- table appearance.
About the first of July the military authorities decided that it was not necessary to retain the whole regiment on the island, as the place could be securely held by the gunboats ; so two companies were retained for a guard, and the rest ordered into the defences of New Orleans. July 5th, Co. C left the island for Fort Pike, on the strait called the Rigolets, and Co. K for Fort Macomb, on Pass Chef Menteur, these being the two entrances to Lake Pontchartrain. July 8th the regiment was paid off, but only received four months' pay, although entit- led to six. Half of this payment was in specie and half in greenbacks, this being the only time during its term of service that the regiment received money worth its face value. That evening, Companies G, H, and I, left for Fort Jackson, and Company A. for the Quarantine Station. Then in the evening of July 11th, Companies B and E left for Fort Saint Philip; leaving Companies D) and F to endure existence in a place which General Butler declared to be the most dreaded place of confine- ment to which he ever ordered prisoners to be sent.
COL. HENRY RUST, JR.
H ENRY RUST, JR., formerly of Norway, Maine, the first Lient-Colonel of the Thirteenth, like its Major, was called from service in one of the earlier Maine regiments to take a field position in the Thirteenth. A member of the fa- mous Norway Light Infantry before the war-the graduates of which received no less than forty-six distinct commissions in the war of the rebellion -- he entered the First Maine as Ser- geant in April, 1861, being mustered-out as First Lient. Ang. 5. same year; immediately he recruited a company for the Tenth Maine, and was instered as Captain in October: while in camp at Baltimore with the Tenth, he was called to the Lient .- Coloneley of the Thirteenth, being mnstered in that grade. Dec. 10, 1861, when only four companies of the regi- ment had been organized. Lient .- Col. Rust commanded the battalion of six companies from Boston to New York. thence to Ship Island. on the first trip South. and when Col. Dow was made Brigadier-General, Lient .- Col. Rast was promoted to a full Coloneley. and assigned the post-commandership of Ship Island. Early in 1863 he was transferred to the commander- ship of Forts Jackson and St. Phillip. In Angust he was or- dered to court-martial service at New Orleans; thence ap- pointed provost-marshal and president of a board of enroll- ment for a Louisiana congressional district. being thus oven- pied until Jan. 1st, 1864, when he rejoined his regiment on the Southern Texas coast, only to be at once made an acting brigadier, in a brigade of five regiments. in which were the 13th and 15th Maine. When the troops went to the Missis- sippi to enter upon the Red River campaign. Col. Rust re- turned to his own command as regimental commander. On the long march and in all the engagements np to Cane Cross- ing. he commanded bis regiment: then he became commander of the Second Brigade of Emory's Division. retaining that command from April 23d to July Ist. He was regimental enannander in the marche, and connter-marches through Washington. Maryland, and up and down the Shenandoah; led it home on veteran furlough and returned with it to Har- per's Ferry and Martinsburg; here ( Det. 1864) he again became brigade and post-commander; he commanded the forees which went to the support of Kelley at Cumberland, Md., and New Creek: thenve returning to his former command at Martins- burg. He was mustered out with the regiment and returned with it to Maine.
As a Maine paper said of him when he came to the Thir- teenth. the regiment always found Col. Rust to be "a gentle- man by nature and by cultivation; " and he ever enjoyed the respect of his officers and the love and confidence of his men. In action no laver officer ever unsheathed a sword, and in every emergency he heroically acquitted himself.
Col. Rust beated at Haverhill. Mass .. after the war. and died July. Isst, in the 4Sth year of his age. A widow and one daughter survive him.
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CHAPTER IV.
" In the Louisiana Lowlands Low."
'Tis a wild spot, and hath a gloomy look; The bird sings never merrily in the trees, And the young leaves seem blighted. A rank growth Spreads poisonously round, with power to taint
With blistering dews the thoughtless hand that dares To penetrate the covert. Cypresses
Crowd on the dank, wet earth; and stretched al length, The cayman-a ft dweller in such home-
Slumbers, half-buried in the sedgy grass.
Beside the green ooze where he shelters him, A whooping crane erects his skeleton form, And shrieks in flight. Two summer ducks, aroused To apprehension, as they hear his cry, bash up from the lagoon, with marvelous haste Following his guidance. Meetly taught by these, And startled at our rapid, near approach,
The steel-jawed monster, from his grassy bed, Crawls slowly to his slimy, green abode, Which straight receives him. You behold him now, His ridgy back aprising as he speeds, In silence, to the centre of the stream, Whence his head peers alone.
[ William Gilmore Simmis.
HIE whole of southeastern Louisiana is a swamp ; and were it not for the works of man, it would all be overflowed at every period of high water in the Mississippi. For hundreds of miles banks of earth. called levees, are raised to a height of from two to ten feet according to the location, on one or both sides of the river, to keep it within its banks at high water. At
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low water the natural banks are several feet above the surface of the river.
These levees are usually sufficient; but when the riv- er rises to an unusual height, especially if at the same time there is a strong wind, some weak place in the levee gives way, and " the king comes to his own again." Then hundreds, and sometimes thousands of square miles, are overflowed to a depth of several feet ; great numbers of animals, both wild and domestic, and often many people, are drowned ; buildings are destroyed, floated away or greatly damaged ; and the crops of that year much delayed or sometimes ruined. If the erev- asse, as it is called, occurs early in the spring, at the opening of the Ohio and Upper Mississippi, it usually merely delays planting and somewhat injures the crop ; but if it is at the time of the June rise, when the floods come down from the Missouri, the crops for that year are ruined and it becomes a national calamity.
Geologists tell us that in some past age an arm of the Gulf of Mexico extended north of the present mouth of the Ohio River, which then emptied into salt water in- stead of into the Mississippi. In the myriads of years which have since elapsed, the debris brought down by the rivers and the accumulation of decayed vegetation, have filled up the arm of the gulf, so that it now forms the Lower Mississippi valley. The processes of deposit and accumulation did not then cease ; but the river has thrust a narrow tongue of land over fifty miles into the present limits of the gulf and its work is still going on ; the delta, as it is called from the numerous mouths through which the river pours its mighty volume of wa- ter into the gulf, making a slow but perceptible advance each year.
The river is constantly changing its channel, either by washing away its banks or by cutting across bends in time of flood. Every part of the Lower Mississippi valley has, probably, at some past time, been the bed of
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the river ; the numerous lakes now seen there, with but few exceptions, being each a section of the old river bed. At present the general course of the river is near the bluff's at the east side of the valley. The highest of this alluvial land is close to the river and gradually descends, either to a bavon, the home of the alligator and gar- pike, and often a minor outlet of the river, or to a swamp of live-oak and cypress; infested with the dead- ly water-moccasin. South of Baton Rouge the whole territory on both sides of the Mississippi, as far west as the Atchafalava, is intersected by a close network of bayous, many of them navigable.
In the suburbs of New Orleans is a small tract of land, known as the Gentilly Ridge, rising a few feeet above the water ; and, with this exception, the writer knows of no naturally dry land till the first, bluff, per- haps twenty-five feet in height, is reached at Baton Rouge, two hundred and thirty miles from the mouth of the river.
1755029
The soil is of unknown depth and inexhaustible fer- tility, but under the almost vertical midsummer sun, ita mass of decaving vegetation is a hotbed of malaria, which between May and November makes the country almost deadly to unacclimated northerners. In addi- tion to this, owing to the disgraceful filthiness of the towns, especially New Orleans -- where the streets are only cleaned by the rain and the only scavenger is the turkey-buzzard-yellow fever, when imported, rages fearfully ; though the occasional winter frosts prevent it from originating and usually from lasting through the winter. In the season of 1853 one-tenth of the whole population of New Orleans died of this terrible disease, and various other years have nearly as shocking a record.
The Lower Mississippi valley is also the favorite sum- mer resort of the most active and blood-thirsty mosqui- toes known to entomologists. They infest the whole territory in such myriads that their number on any
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square mile can be expressed only by such figures as are used by astronomers to denote the distance to the fixed stars. From April to November they are constantly active ; and only when fully exposed to the rays of the sun. or else within a close mosquito net, can one escape their attacks.
In this locality, the discomforts and dangers of which I have not in the least exaggerated, the soldiers of the Thirteenth Maine, by orders from headquarters, were now stationed ; and here, contrary to their own wishes, they remained for over thirteen months. How impor- tant their duty was, and how faithfully they performed . it, will hereafter appear ; but it may be better under- stood after a short description of the forts in which they were stationed and of the location of the same.
Forts Pike and Macomb, where companies C and K were stationed, were small but well-built forts command- ing the passes at the entrance of Lake Pontchartrain, through which the rear of the city of New Orleans can be reached from the gulf. They each mounted not far from forty guns. The duty of the troops stationed there, though apparently of minor importance and though re- quiring but a small garrison, was very necessary ; it be- ing principally to prevent any unauthorized comuni- cation between New Orleans and Mobile.
Constant care was required, as every vessel passing had to be examined; but, owing to the paralysis of trade, the vessels were nearly all small oyster and fish- ing boats. While the duty was not very hard it was extremely monotonous ; being scarcely varied except by rare visits to New Orleans, which was about thirty miles distant. either by steamer or by a very poor road. The post, comprising the two forts and small works in the vicinity, was commanded by a field officer of the 26th Massachusetts. till the 24th of August, 1862, when he was relieved by Lient. Col. Hesseltine. Company C remained but a few weeks at Fort Pike, when it was
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relieved by a detachment of the 31st Massachusetts. It then joined Company K at Fort Macomb, where the two companies remained more than a year. Details were stationed a part of the time in Battery Bienvenu and Tower Dupre, small works in the vicinity.
Fort Saint Philip is situated on the left or eastern bank of the Mississippi, about thirty-five miles from the mouth and seventy from New Orleans. The land is so narrow that it is less than four miles in an air line to the waters of the Gulf. The body of the fort was small and of very irregular shape, having no less than seventeen sides. It was intended for about forty guns but had only five-four 8-inch columbiads and one 32- pounder. In an eastern salient, where the flag-staff was placed, could be seen part of the wall of the old fort which, in 1814. shortly before the battle of New Or- leans, had kept the British fleet at bay for several days and finally had driven it away ; thus bravely doing its part toward saving the city. There were two adjoining batteries, called the right and left wings, extending up and down river from the main fort. They each mount- ed about fifteen guns ; 24s, 32s and 42s, with one 6-in. riffe on a pivot carriage. There was also a detached battery of four 11-inch mortars in the rear of the left wing. There were some embrasares for small-arms in the wall of the main fort but no gun casemates, so all the guns were mounted en barbette.
Fort Jackson was a regular, five-sided, casemated fort. It mounted about seventy guns although not fully armed. and had a few more in a small outer water-battery. It was on the opposite side of the river from Fort Saint Philip and slightly below it, though within good support- ing distance. Fort Saint Philip was much more dan- gerous to a hostile fleet, as all its guns could command any point on the river within range, while Fort Jack- son, although much the strongest, could not, owing to
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its form, bring but a part of its guns to bear upon any one point.
The land around the forts was but little above ordin- ary high tides ; and in severe southeast gales it was sometimes all overflowed, thus leaving the forts out at sea. Communication with Fort Saint Philip was only possible by boat, or, at low water, by going on foot to the Quarantine Station, several miles up river; but from Fort Jackson there was a telegraph, and also a road along the levee.
There were some small tracts of forest in the vicinity of the forts, the trees being cypress, live-oak, and such others as can grow on land that is often overflowed with fresh water and sometimes with salt. These woods, with their thickly-growing trees linked together, with vines, and the branches heavily draped with the gray, sad- looking Spanish-moss, are dark and gloomy even in the brightest noonday. They are the winter home of im- mense numbers of woodcock and other similar migra- tory birds, which find in the swampy ground plenty of their favorite food.
The most of the land, however, which is dry enough to produce any vegetation, is covered with eane-brake or an occasional patch of dwarf palmetto. Early in the winter, after the cane is dead, fire is set to it and sweeps through the dry brake, sometimes faster than a man can run-exhibiting all the grandeur, though not the de- structiveness, of a fire on the western prairies. In a few weeks the young cane starts up and is used as a pasturage for cattle, which then for the only time in the year, become really fat; the gnats and mosquitoes being dormant and the feed plenty.
The parapets and glacis of the forts, especially of Saint Philip, were completely honeycombed with rat- holes ; this being the only place within several miles from which they were not liable to be driven out by high water. Judging from their numbers, no attempt
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had ever been made to exterminate them; and they were extremely bold, often entering the barracks in the night and running over the sleeping soldiers. They were a terrible pest to the commissary and the cooks, incessant care being required to prevent the destruction or defil- ing of food. Organized rat-hunts were 'a standing amusement of moonlight evenings ; and the game was so plenty and so bold, that a well aimed club often proved effective.
The waters of southern Louisiana, at that time, were swarming with alligators, which had only just begun to be hunted for their hides; so that the raising of poultry, and especially of ducks and geese, had quite an element of uncertainty. These innense lizards. whose heads, for unadulterated hideousness, would take the prize medal in an impartial competition with a bull moose, were plenty in the vicinity of the forts; and often one could be seen floating with only his eyes out of water, or lying on the bank with his ill-favored countenance wide open, trapping flies. It was said by the inhabitants of the coast, as the bank of the lower Mississippi is called, that an alligator was never known to molest a white man; but that a young negro, or a dog, approaching the water, was in great danger. The soldiers soon lost all fear of them, and were often seen bathing within a few rods of a big alligator-and were never molested.
The duty at the forts, though never dangerous in a military sense, was very exacting ; requiring constant care from all, both officers and men, whether on guard or not. Although the situation of the forts seemed to render a land attack improbable, it was quite within the bounds of possibility for a force from Western Louisi- ana, in small vessels, to reach the immediate vicinity of the forts without discovery, and make a sudden dash up- on them. This, though constantly guarded against, was never attempted ; the object of the enemy, apparently,
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being the city of New Orleans ; but they were never able to reach it.
For several weeks during the siege of Port Hudson, the city was in much danger ; and the garrison of Fort Saint Philip was under orders to be prepared to take a steamer for the city at a moment's notice. On the 25th of June, when the forts were thought to be in danger of surprise and capture by the same force that had lately taken Brashear City, extra precautions were taken ; and from that time till several days after the surrender of Port Hudson, all entrances to the forts were closed at dark and the drawbridges raised, while a close watch was kept during the day. This was done in obedience to orders from New Orleans, and although it was no doubt a wise precaution, it proved to be needless. Dur- ing our whole term at the forts, whenever a sentry dis- charged his rifle, day or night, the long roll was beaten and the whole garrison had to fall in under arms on the parade-ground and await orders. This, however, sel- dom happened ; the occasion that is best remembered being when George Swaney shot the quartermaster's old mule for not halting when challenged.
The principal, and most important duty, was to en- force the stopping and examination of all vessels passing either way ; a Provost Marshal at Fort Jackson exam- ining those going up the river, and one at Fort Saint Philip those going down. [Fort Saint Philip did not commence examining till February, 1863 ; Fort Jack- son doing it all until that time.] This duty was most thoroughly performed ; for not a vessel succeeded in passing without being examined, although some slight attempts were made. Each day after guard-mounting, the garrisons were mustered at the guns and counted off in gun-crews, so that each man knew his place for the next twenty-four hours. Then if at any time, day or night, a vessel did not stop at the firing of a blank cartridge, a shot was fired across her bow and the gar-
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rison of that fort ran to the guns ; each man taking his place ready for duty without orders and without wait- ing for others.
Then if the vessel did not stop, a shot was fired at her and the garrison of the other fort also ran to the guns. Once the choleric commander of a gunboat, magnifying his authority considerably, threatened if he was fired upon, to return the fire; but such threats were of course taken at their real value. It was noth- ing unusual for a garrison to be called to the guns three times in one night.
Fatigue duty was very light ; the most that was per- formed by the soldiers being to fill the cisterns in the forts with water from the river. The water of the Mis- sissippi is notoriously muddy, so it was pumped into immense cisterns and allowed to settle before being used. The pumping was done with fire engines, an i was a rec- reation for the soldiers, it was so great a change from the monotony of drill.
Nearly all the fatigue duty was performed by the " contrabands," several hundred of whom were at the forts ; thus saving the not overabundant strength of the soldiers for their proper military duties. The negroes began to come to the forts about the time of our arriv- al ; and their number increased until they largely out- numbered the garrisons. They lived in huts which they built just outside the forts, and were fed by the commissary, in return for which the men did the fatigue duty, and the women washed the barrack floors and the soldiers' clothing.
Owing to the large amount of sickness, turns of guard duty came much more frequently than seemed agreca- ble. At the best of times, to be on guard once in three days was the regular routine ; but most of the time it was every other day, and sometimes the number of sen- try posts had to be reduced in order to avoid putting men on guard two days in succession. Guard duty was
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often made uncomfortable by the tremendous showers, during which it sometimes seemed as if the bottom of the heavens had fallen out, while the thunder roared continually, and flashes of the sharpest lightning fol- lowed each other with scarcely an interval. To be on guard at the door of a magazine containing many tons of powder, during such a shower, would set almost any one to thinking of what might happen.
Mosquitoes, in their season, made guard duty a tor- ture. Many of the men, when on guard in the night, went veiled as closely as if they were hiving bees, while others carried switch brushes made by stripping pal- metto leaves ; but neither expedient afforded more than partial relief.
During a part of the time a large detail from the reg- iment were doing guard duty up the river ; a part of them guarding some of the canals which lead from the Mississippi to Barataria Bay, in order to prevent the smuggling of supplies into the enemy's lines in Western Louisiana : and a larger number, under a Provost Mar- shal, maintaining order on various plantations. There was a large sugar crop in Plaquemine Parish in 1862 which it was very desirable to secure ; and as the ne- groes were rapidly leaving the plantations rather than work without pay, and were collecting about the Fed- cral camp, where most of them were worse than useless, it was decided by the authorities that they should be employed at fair wages to make the crop ; the guard from the Thirteenth boing detailed to prevent abuse on one side and insubordination on the other.
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