USA > Maine > The story of one regiment; the Eleventh Maine infantry volunteers in the war of the rebellion > Part 12
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It is fair to presume from this that a well-directed effort at this time would have secured possession of this railroad, so vital to the combinations of the Confederate defense of Charleston and Savannah ; not only this railroad, but of the one leading to the interior. General Beauregard warned the Confederate War De- partment on May 2d : "It must not be lost sight of that my communications with Savannah can be ent by the enemy, without the use of a large force, whenever he may choose to attempt it. Furthermore, it were then but a simple and easy military operation for a column-not a large one-to penetrate to Branchville, not more than thirty-five miles from Pocotaligo, and thus entirely interrupt my communications with the interior, as a glance at the map will show."
But nothing of this sort was attempted by Hunter ; or, indeed, by any other commander of the Department, all operations, except. an occasional inoperative raid like that just described (unless the bringing of slaves out of the land of bondage were an accepted purpose of our military operations), being conducted well under the covering fire of gunboats.
A revival of religion took place among the soldiers at Beaufort, the diarists setting down, " Solliers' prayer meetings, " all through April and May. Sunday services were held before Colonel Plais- led's quarters, the brigade band furnishing the music. All sorts
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of profane recreation were frowned on now. Chaplain Wells was in his glory, and the catechism bade fair to supersede Casey.
The health of the regiment was good here, as it had been since shortly after our landing on St. Helena Island. But there had been cases of congestive fever that took fatal turns with terrible rapidity. Surgeon Bates died on the Cahawba before we landed at Beaufort, after an illness of but four days, and Lieutenant But- ler, of D Company, died April 14th, the Tuesday after doing guard duty on Saturday.
Surgeon Bates joined the regiment at Camp Scott, before York- town, and did good service for the year he was with us. Lieu- tenant Butler, a young officer of high promise, joined at York- town in the fall of 1862.
Private Baker, of A Company, died in the evening of May 8th, after being on brigade drill the day before.
While at Beaufort the rations were excellent, abundant, and of great variety ; as, indeed, they were in all parts of this Department. Morton jots down : "Hominy, peas, potatoes, bacon." Commis- sary Sergeant Maxfield was kept busy issuing fresh beef and soft bread ; noting, for May 18th, that there were 416 enlisted men to issue rations to. Blackberries were plenty, the negroes bringing quantities of them into the camps for sale. And for the first time, the companies had mess-tables. Since entering service we bad fallen in when a meal call was sounded, and, marching in single file to the cook-house, each man with his tin plate and cup in his hands, presented these to the cooks as we filed by the cook-house. One cook would load the plate with beans, or boiled beef, or what- ever the meal was composed of, and the other would fill the cup with coffee if it were breakfast, and with tea if supper. (At noon we quafed aqua, more or less pura.) The soldier would return to his tent, or seat himself wherever on the company ground was most convenient, and, making a table of his knees, would enjoy his meal as best he could.
But now enterprising men of each company took old shelter tents (" A" tents had been issued for the companies) and pieces of old duck, which they tacked on a frame, making a long, wide. and sufficiently high ness-room. In this they built a long table, with stationary benches arranged along each side. Here the cooks set out the meals, the men turning their plates and cups into the cook-house, a detailed dishwasher caring for them, and once more
-
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we afe our meals in something like the manner in which we had been brought up.
A number of furloughs and leaves of absence were now given our men and officers, and more had their applications in, and still more were contemplating entering applications, when an order from General Hunter told them that no more would be granted. This was unpleasant news to those contemplating a trip home. I remember that old John Day, of D, was enraged at the quench- ing of his hope, and while expressing his opinion of Hunter's action " boldly," a favorite expression with " Grief," was inter- rupted by a jeering question as to " what he enlisted for, anyway.". The excitable old fellow just tore his blouse from his back, and, throwing it on the ground, danced on it, while brandishing his big fists at his tormentor, and shouting in his stentorian voice : " What did I enlist for ? To fight ! To fight ! Come on ! Come on ! and I'll show you what I enlisted for, you mean rascal you !" And it was through John brooding over his disappointment that the men of Company D lost their breakfast beans one morning. John was doing duty in the cook-honse, and, although usually as amiable as a man need be, was in a very irritable condition of mind for a few days, and liable to blaze into a rage at any time. He was digging the bean kettle out of its hole on the morning of one of these days, and as he placed the spade well under the kettle, some one of the boys made some incautious remark that touched John's storm center, and he just gave one wild yell, and made one mighty fling, and the kettle went flying into the air, bomb fashion. Reaching a fair altitude, it turned over, and a shower of aromatic, appetizing, baked-to-a-turn beans came pouring down on the now wildly shouting victims of John's wrath.
Lieutenant-Colonel Campbell resigned his commission while here. He left us on the 26th of May. An excellent officer, he had proved his mettle in the Peninsula campaign, himself leading the companies that took part in the Battle of Fair Oaks into action. And as he was an amiable gentleman, as well as a brave one, his loss was much regretted by both the officers and the enlisted men of the regiment. He was one of the first to succumb to the deadly ennui arising from the lack of military enterprise in this Department.
Within the next few months other resignations followed that of Colonel Campbell, and, had we not reentered active service when
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we did, the chances are that very many of the best officers of the regiment, and largely the ones that gave it its high military repu- tation on Morris Island and during the campaign of 1864, would have resigned their commissions. Like John Day, they volunteered to fight, not to garrison navy-guarded towns, and pass their days in idleness. Nor was this dissatisfaction confined to the officers, who could resign ; it prevailed among the men as well, who could not. In fact, we were now all actually sighing for the brave old days of the Peninsula, and would have jumped for joy, from colonel to drummer boy, at an order to join the Army of the Potomac. For every man worthy of the name, while willing to serve his country in a subordinate position, if he must, was ambitious for promotion. And how was a man to gain promotion, unless some one occupy- ing a position above should vacate it ? Not that we would have willed that any particular superior should be killed, but we could not help thinking what a series of promotions a well-directed bul- let could effect. The colonel is killed, say. That means a step up for the lieutenant-colonel, for the major, for a captain, for a first lieutenant, for a second lieutenant, for a first sergeant, for a sergeant, for a corporal, and for a private. The new-made corpo- ral is sorry enough for the colonel ; but, really, his just-donned stripes are a consolation, and if it is the will of God that he gain an additional stripe on the same terms -- well, it is not for him to object to the doings of Omnipotence.
There is little more in the diaries of our sojourn in Beaufort. Reviews by Generals Saxton and Hunter, school exhibition of the proficiency attained by negro children in learning the A B C's, divine services, prayer meetings, brigade drills, fatigue duty on the fortifications, picket duty on the wonderful Beaufort and Charleston shell road, with its bordering wood of magnificent moss-draped live oaks, fill the diaries until May 31st, when they all record that we had received orders to pack up and leave Beau- fort for Fernandina, Fla., to relieve the Seventh New Hampshire ; and all seem quite willing to go, agreeing with Morton that, on the whole, Beaufort was a "dull old town."
. CHAPTER XIV.
FERNANDINA, FLA.
We Sail from Beaufort to Fernandina-Colonel Plaisted as Post Com- mander, and his Staff-The Arrangement of Troops-Details for De- tached Service -- A Night Alarm-Outpost Duty -- " Halt ! Who Comes There ? "-The " Shakes," and Lieutenant Dunbar's Diary of a Personal Experience-Incidents of our Life in Fernandina-We Are Ordered to Morris Island.
ON the 4th of June we bade good-by-a final one, it proved to be-to the Fifty-second and One Hundred and Fourth Pennsyl- vania Regiments, and, going on board the steamer Boston, sailed to Hilton Head. Here we anchored, that Colonel Plaisted might go ashore to receive his orders from General Hunter. The brigade band, that had accompanied us so far on our journey, now gave us a farewell concert before returning to Beaufort. Colonel Plaisted coming on board, we set out again, and at four o'clock in the afternoon crossed the bar. Daylight of the 5th found us off the Florida coast, and during the forenoon we entered the harbor of Fernandina.
Fernandina is situated on the inner, or Cumberland Sound, side of Amelia Island, a large island on the most northern part of the Florida coast. Amelia Island is sixteen miles in length by four in width, and is separated from the mainland by Cumberland Sound, a waterway of from two to four miles in width. Fernandina is in sight of the Georgia coast ; indeed, the waters of the St. Mary's River, part of the dividing line of the two States, help make the harbor of Fernandina. At the northern extremity of the island is Fort Clinch, a work designed for the defense of Fernandina, and which was forcibly occupied by the Confederate forces in the spring of 1861, to be retaken by the fleet some months later. Old Fernandina: or " Oldtown " as we called it, is a small hamlet just below this fort, between which hamlet and Fernandina itself is a wide swamp that is crossed by a corduroy road. Fernandina was a village of two or three thousand inhabitants before the war,
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and then, as now, a port of entry, and the terminus of the Florida & Gulf Railroad. It is now a more thriving town than it was before the war ; is a lumber manufacturing center, has a court- house, a newspaper office, a Catholic academy, five white and four colored churches, and is a popular health-resort, summer and winter, steamers running three times a week to Savannah and Charleston, presenting quite a different picture from the rambling, ruined village that we knew ; nearly every house, large and small, swarming with vagrant negroes, the few white natives, mostly women, remaining secluded in their poverty-stricken homes, rarely showing themselves in the idle streets that once teemed with busi- ness life and the animation of prosperity.
The Seventh New Hampshire having departed, we were left alone to guard this not very important port, one that the Confed- crates found so unsuited to the necessities of their cause that, as Admiral Ammen says, "though they fought for Port Royal they made us a present of Amelia Island," evacuating it on the approach of our fleet, and the only sight the invading Yankees got of the enemy was a glimpse of a fast-receding train of cars carrying away their rear guard.
Companies A and I were stationed at the railroad bridge, which is six miles from Fernandina, where they occupied an old house, and, quite unmolested by the Confederates, amused themselves as best they could with boating, shooting alligators, and in catching fish and crabs.
Companies E and C, and later G, went into Fort Clinch. The other companies, B, D, F. II, and K, pitched their " A" tents on a pleasant rise of ground just on the edge of Fernandina, and close to the water.
The following order was issued by Colonel Plaisted on assuming command of the post :
HEADQUARTERS, U. S. FORCES, FERNANDINA, FLA., June 7, 1863.
General Order No. 1.
In accordance with Special Order No. 304, Headquarters, De- partment of the South. the undersigned assumes command of this post.
'The following commissioned officers of the Eleventh Maine Vols. are hereby announced on the staff of the Post Commander,
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and, in their respective departments, will be obeyed and respected accordingly :
First. Lieut. and Adjt. Henry O. Fox, Post Adjutant.
Captain Samuel G. Sewall, Post Commissary.
First Lieut. John Ham, R. Q. M., Post Quartermaster.
Captain F. W. Sabine, Provost Marshal.
First Lieut. A. G. Mudgett, Asst. Provost Marshal.
Asst. Surgeon R. L. Cook, Health Officer.
(Signed,) H. M. PLAISTED, Colonel Eleventh Maine Vols., Commanding Post. Official :
(Signed,) HENRY O. Fox, Post Adjutant.
These were only the beginning of the details necessary to a post organization. There was a provost guard, a pilot crew, a signal station detail to man the tall signal tower and scan the Atlantic through a big telescope for passing vessels, reporting to us by hoisting flags when one was in sight, whether it was steam or sail, going north or south, going by or steering for the harbor entrance. These, with other details, some ornamental, others use- ful, left Major Spofford a weak force for camp guard and picket duty. Major Spofford was now in command of the companies of the garrison of Fernandina, while the companies at the railroad bridge were under the command of Captain Merrill until July tth, when Company I was withdrawn and joined the garrison at Fernandina, leaving Company A at the bridge with Lieu- tenant Holt in command. The troops at Fort Clinch were under command of Captain Nickels. Each command reported directly to post headquarters.
For some reason, Colonel Plaisted feared an attack on Fernan- dina. But, probably because we did not have hisinformation, this fear was not a general one. The enemy could not want that little town, so open to naval operations, and the gunboat Potomski lying in the harbor would prevent any attempt, if there was any wish, to disturb us. But there were alarms. The citizens would signal across the sound with lights, moving them up and down at windows, according to some code that we did not get an inkling of. These signals would be answered by moving lights on the mainland. Probably the Confederates, who occupied the further shore, were kept informed of our force and positions. And again, it may be that, as many of the Confederate troopers on the in ainland were natives of Fernandina, they were only in com-
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munication with wives and sweethearts. General Finegan, the commander of the Confederate forces then in Florida, was a native of Fernandina, his great house in the suburbs of the town standing in testimony to his wealth and local importance. It was now but a hive of negroes.
One night there was an alarm. It was rumored that the Con- federates would cross the mouth of the harbor in boats, and, land- ing near Fort Clinch, would assault it. Of course, there was a commotion. I remember that Colonel Plaisted rode to the camp guard-house, of which I was unfortunate enough to be in charge as sergeant of the guard, and, routing us out, ordered me to fall the men in and follow him. He led us to the road that runs from Fernandina to Oldtown, and into the swamp that lies between the old and the new towns-a swamp that was an impass- able jungle of trees and tangled grapevines, the haunt of alliga- tors and snakes, and the breeding place of a most bloodthirsty breed of mosquitoes-led us down into the head of the narrow corduroy road running across this swamp, and bade us stand there and hold the pass at all hazards ; for all I now remember, throwing out a few encouraging words about the fame of Ther- mopyle and the immortal Three Hundred. Then he turned his horse and rode away towards Fernandina, with his orderly at his heels, leaving us in the midst of a dense and over-thickening cloud of bayonet-billed mosquitoes. The enemy ? Suppose he was to land at Oldtown, take Fort Clinch, and put Captain Nickels and its garrison to the sword, must we stand there and be eaten alive ? Not if we knew it. We forthwith resolved our- selves into a council of war, with the result that we marched our- selves to the high land overlooking the swamp, where the night breeze swept the pursuing mosquitoes back into their haunts. Then, after stationing a guard between us and Fernandina to prevent our alert commander from surprising us, we went into bivouac, confident that our danger did not lie towards Fort Clinch, for no rebel was yet so desperate as to be willing to tread that stretch of mosquito, alligator, snake infested swamp road in the darkness of a moonless night,
The picket duty was the only really hard duty, and it was especially hard on the few non-commissioned officers now with the companies garrisoning Fernandina, as so many of these offi- cers were away on furlough and detached service. Take D, for
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example. First Sergeant Bassett went North on recruiting service. Sergeant Young then acted as First Sergeant, Sergeant Blake was serving as Provost Sergeant, and Sergeant Francis was away on sick leave, so that Sergeant Brady had to do sergeant's service for the company on camp and picket duty. This brought him on picket about every fourth day, leaving him only just time enough to enjoy his fit of the " shakes," to do his camp guard tour, and attend to his fatigue duty, before he was again on the outposts. And the other sergeants and corporals with the com- panies in Fernandina had a similar experience.
But I must confess that this picket service was more arduous than dangerous. It was confined to a line of isolated posts on the south side of Fernandina. The line stretched across the railroad, and was mainly intended to cover the direction of the railroad, the only way the enemy could get at us except by boating across the sound and eluding the naval picket boats. This railroad, after crossing to Amelia Island, runs to Fernandina through a series of swamps, the southern portion of the island consisting of swamps largely, in which rise hummocks of comparatively dry ground. If the enemy should have surprised the company guard- ing the bridge (A), and scattered it, the noise of the fight would have been a sufficient alarm to the Fernandina garrison ; but should the enemy have landed from boats below the bridge, between it and Fernandina, then our picket posts would have served to give the alarm.
A train of cars, with a locomotive, was kept ready for any emergency that might arise at the bridge, a competent locomotive engineer, detailed from the First New York Engineers, reporting at the post for duty. This train made daily trips between Fer- nandina and the bridge.
The picket posts were set on hummocks, or rises of ground in the midst of the alligator and snake infested swamps, where a breed of the most sanguinary mosquitoes filled the air at night to an extent that not only made it impossible for a man to sleep, but forced him to keep his already mosquito-net-covered head in a thick smudge of smoke. We slept all we could in the day time, as we could not sleep at all at night, except on the blessed ones when heavy thunderstorms broke over the island. One of these stormy nights I remember well. Officers of the day did not often honor our out-of-the-way posts with night visits. The rough
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wood road, running through swamps where alligators were wal- lowing and moccasin snakes gliding, with clouds of mosquitoes ready to attack any blooded creature, deterred any but the most zealous of these officers from riding over it at night.
Nor did we care for company. For, you must know, there were loud complaints from the citizens owning sweet potato and vegetable gardens that during nights their gardens were visited and divers and sundry vegetables removed from the possession of the legal owners. And as the night patrol of the provost guard kept the streets and lanes clear of night-hawking soldiers and marauding negroes, there was a suspicion that the picket posts were taking toll of the gardeners. And whoever worked this out reached a sound conclusion, for when the shades of night began to fall we were accustomed to detail a foraging party to bring in sweet potatoes and green corn. On their returning, we would . prepare for a night's feasting. But we were never caught, and the only result of the complaints made against us was to strain the relations between those liable for picket duty and such mili- tary officials as were so unwise as to appear anxious to discover who really got the potatoes and other vegetables. This they could not learn except by visiting our posts at night, for we never took any plunder into camp, nor could anyone find a scrap of peeling or a bit of a cob around our picket posts. All debris of the sort was carefully buried in the depths of adjacent swamps. The provost marshal did make an unrequited visit to my men when they returned from outpost duty one morning. He might as well have interrogated graven images, for all the information he could get from them.
This night was a stormy one with a high wind, and the air was clear of mosquitoes ; and the alligators were likely to have secluded themselves in swampy shelters, instead of sprawling in the road as was their usual delight of summer nights. The conditions were so favorable that the officer of this particular day decided to visit the picket posts. The thunder was heavy and the lightning flashes fierce and frequent. I was lying under the roof of our hut, stretched out in a hammock belonging to Private Darling, who stood on post at the entrance of the open-sided hut, in which the rest of the boys were huddled, while occupying themselves in roasting corn and sweet potatoes. This picket post was near the extremity of the road by which we made our way to and from
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Fernandina. We suddenly heard the trampling of a galloping horse. The horse was either running away, or his rider was spur- ring him for shelter. Nearer and nearer sounded the hoof-beats. Private Darling cried sharply: "Halt ! Who comes there ?"
Receiving no answer, and the horse galloping on, Darling called to me, "Shall I fire ?" "Certainly," answered I, "if he does not halt." As I rolled to the ground, and called to my men to make ready, we heard Darling call again : " Halt ! Halt ! or I fire." Just then there came a flash of lightning, and we saw our sentry standing in the middle of the roadway, his rifle to his shoulder and pointing at a runaway horse, with a frightened rider, now but a few rods from the sentry. Then we heard a voice cry, from out of the blackness which followed the vivid lightning flash : "For God's sake, don't-don't fire ; I can't hold him in." Then came a crashing and floundering in the roadside bushes, telling us that the scared rider had pulled so frantically at the horse's mouth as to fairly twist him into the swamp. No other officer of the day took the trouble to make a night call on the outposts I had charge of, nor did I think it at all necessary to report their dereliction to the post commander.
The health of the regiment was fairly good while at Fernandina, although nearly every man with it, if not every one, suffered from the " shakes." The varied sensations of this mysterious disease --- all unpleasant-ought not to be forgotten by any victim ; but to refresh aging memories, we will copy the medical description of the malady : " Ague (febris intermittens) is the common name for an intermitting fever accompanied by paroxysms, or fits. Each fit is composed of three stages, the cold, the hot, and the sweating stage. Before a fit the patient has a sensation of debility and distress about the epigastrium, feels weak and disinclined for exertion ; the surface of the body becomes cold, and the bloodless skin shrivels up into the condition termed goose skin (cutis anseris). A cold sensation creeps up the back, and spreads over the body ; the patient shivers, his teeth chatter, his knees knock together ; his face, lips, ears, and nails turn blue; he has pains in his head, back, and Joins. This condition is succeeded by flushes of heat, the coldness gives place to warmth, and the sur- face regains its natural appearance. The warmth continues to increase, the face becomes red and turgid, the head aches, the breathing is deep and oppressive, the pulse full and strong. The
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