USA > Maine > The sword of honor; a story of the civil war > Part 3
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Dec. 26. Had a hard day's journey and at night encamped near the state road that leads to Georgia. Have been on allowance since Saturday, only three bites of bread and meat for twenty-four hours. Distance made twelve miles.
Dec. 27. Crossed the state road at daylight. We are now four miles past Scott's Creek Balsam Moun- tain, which took us all day to cross, encamping at night in a rain storm at the foot of Catalouch Moun- tain. Distance made only eight miles.
Dec. 28. It rained all last night and this morning commenced snowing, and continued all day. God only knows whether we shall be able to stand the ex- posure and suffering we are hourly called upon to
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endure. Seems as if there must be a limit to our strength and power to suffer. Are now living on raw corn and wet chestnuts which we find in these mountains, for our food gave out a number of days ago. Teeth and gums are so sore from eating this kind of food that it is painful to open and close our months. Distance made today nine miles.
. Dec. 29. Snowed again last night, continuing until morning. No sleep for any of us. Went to a house for food, also directions, for we are almost starved, Found a good Union man who fed us and gave us the information wanted. Distance ten miles.
Dec. 30. Slept in a house last night, and if ever I enjoyed the protection of a roof it was on this occasion, for we have had nothing but the heavens for a covering for many days; rain, snow and cold to contend with, always with wet feet and frequently thoroughly wet from head to foot for several days at a time-hungry, tired and discouraged ; the protection of this roof and a full stomach once more makes me think life is worth struggling for a little while longer. We are now within one mile of the main road to Knoxville, which I hope we can take, for we have suffered so much in the mountains that I want to leave them at once and forever. The party have concluded to take to the mountains again, for we hear there are guards on the road. Started over the mountains once more, but after going four miles, three of us vowed we could go no farther through the mountains, but would take the road, guards or no guards; so we left the main party with one of our Third Maine Lieutenants (S. L. Gilman), while Anderson, Childs and myself started for the public
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highway. As we were approaching the house of a loyal Tennesseean we barely escaped capture. Un- known to us four rebel cavalrymen were being fed in the house, and as we jumped the fence to enter, the wife chanced to come to the door just in the nick of time; seeing us she motioned us to go back. We hurriedly secreted ourselves and after the rebs had filled up, mounted their horses and drove off, we took our turn, and got a square meal from the same table the Johnnies had vacated.
Dec. 31. Remained at this house all night, for we were too tired to continue our trip.
Jan. 1, 1864. Went six miles last night with the rebel cavalry just ahead of us, but as long as we keep them there we are all right. Stopped at night at Jimmy Caldwell's, a good Union man, who after feeding us hid us in his barn, not thinking it safe for us to remain in his house.
Jan. 2. Remained in the barn during the day, were fed by loyal Union women; took the road again at dark, making twelve miles very comfortably during the night, for we are now travelling on the public highway.
Jan. 3. Hid during the day and night. Are near- ing our lines. Must be cautious and not get captured when so near God's country.
Jan. 4. Took the road at daylight and made sixteen miles during the day.
Jan: 5. Came into the Union lines at noon today meeting a squad of the Tenth Michigan cavalry, who were out foraging or rather getting fodder for their horses. Slept at night in the camp of First Ohio heavy artillery. Distance made nineteen miles.
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Made a portion of it on one of the army wagons out with the Tenth Michigan, gathering forage.
Jan. 6. Pressed three horses of the farmers and rode to Knoxville, some twenty-five miles distant, entering that city Jan. 7, after being on the road seven weeks.
CHAPTER IV.
No human being can imagine our feelings as we entered that city except he has been in the same identical condition. We could hardly realize our situation; we were more like children than men; would first laugh at our good fortune and then could not keep back the tears when we knew it was all true-at last in God's country and our suffer- ings at an end! We were like a man condemned and then at the last moment receiving a pardon, for we were hoping against hope during our entire trip; we hoped to get through, yet there were so many things to prevent it; the slightest accident or care- lessness in any unguarded moment would have proved our ruin. We did not feel safe to speak above a whisper until we were in the lines at Knox- ville, and for days after our arrival, we would speak to each other in low, unnatural voices.
After our long tedious trip through the mountains of South Carolina, North Carolina, and Tennessee we were fit subjects for the sick list, and, after re- porting to the Commander of the post, we were admitted to the Government Hospital for rest and shelter, and to get eight months' dirt from our persons, and a change of clothing. The day following our arrival in Knoxville, Lieut. Gilman with his party of
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South Carolina Outliers came in: they too were given quarters in the Government Hospital and all, both Southerners and Yankees, were treated with uniform kindness.
As our regiment had been out of service since the previous June by reason of expiration of its three years of honorable service, we of the Third Maine were ordered to report to our State capital for final muster out, while Lieut. Childs of the Sixteenth Maine, whose command was still in the field, was ordered to report to Washington for orders.
We were given transportation home. On our papers or blanks was the notice that we were officers who had successfully escaped from Southern prisons, which secured us many acts of kindness and atten- tion on our way north. We obtained two months' pay at Louisville, Kentucky, so were in good condi- tion to enjoy the trip home. Arrived at Augusta, Maine, Jan. 28, 1865, where I was mustered out and paid all due mne from the U. S. Government.
The war at this time seemed nearly over. Yet no one could tell how long it might last, and after I got over my fatigue and had replaced some of the flesh lost in my long captivity, I had a strong desire to get back to the army again; so after remaining at home about six weeks I was commissioned by the Governor as First Lieutenant of one of the four companies forming at Augusta to recruit the Nineteenth Maine,
-
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then in the field; but when we joined them in the Valley we found their ranks had been filled from other sources. Our command of four companies was then made into a battalion called the First Maine Un- attached Battalion. Our senior Captain, Calvin S. Brown, was commissioned Lieutenant Colonel, and I was made his Adjutant. Thus I served the last twelve months of my army life.
The surrender of the Army of Northern Virginia and all troops under the Confederate flag took place when we had been at the front but a short time, and after the grand review of the Potomac and Western armies at Washington most of the troops were mus- tered out. At this time some troops had to be retained to garrison southern cities, do Freedman's work, and also many other duties. With the last enlisted com- mands our battalion was retained and served its en- tire time, one year, being mustered out April 5, 1866, twelve months after Lee's surrender.
This last term of service as a soldier was one of pleasant and light duties, in marked contrast to my life and experience in the field with our ever hard- worked and fighting Brigade, for as a Brigade or Regiment we never knew what it was to have an easy time.
CHAPTER V.
About July 1, the Battalion was sent to Charleston, South Carolina, the city that had held me a prisoner only the September before, while taking the shot and shell from Foster's guns. I took much pleasure in visiting my old prison quarters and rejoiced in the change in my surroundings. About July 20, our command was ordered to relieve a colored regiment then on duty in upper South Georgia, stationed in Greenville, Abbeeville, Laurens and Anderson; dis- tricts away up toward the mountains, with head- quarters at Anderson Court House. When I found we were going into this section of the state, I thought it would be strange if we did not see many familiar spots and come across some of the tried and true negroes, now freedmen, who had been our friends and guides; where we had traveled as helpless refugees through the entire length of three of the dis- tricts which our command was to garrison.
On our way up the country we stopped one day at Columbia, and the condition of the city at this time was in marked contrast to what it was when I was there a Yankee prisioner. In the meantime Sherman had made his memorable March to the Sea, and the city of Columbia was half laid in ashes from the de- vastations of both Union and Confederate armies. I
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visited my old prison camp of the November before, I found what was left of my miserable apology of a brush tent that had served such good purpose in sheltering me from the cold; visited the spring where we got our water, the spot where we broke through the lines on the twentieth of November. I also found the hut of Captain Jack Adams, Nine- teenth Massachusetts Infantry, where he used to hold forth. (He was a leader of men, even in prison.)
While a prisoner at Columbia the guard under command of an officer [Captain Martin] used to visit our camp every morning, make us fall into line, count us off, see how many Yankees they had lost during the night, and report the number left to receive rations. Captain Martin did us many little acts of kindness which if known to the post commander would have cost him his commission.
After leaving Columbia our first stop was at An- derson, and while the command were disembarking I jumped on my horse and rode to a little cottage near the depot. Seeing a man in the yard I asked him if he would oblige me with a glass of water. His face seemed familiar, but at the moment I could not tell when or where I had seen him. On his return from the house it flashed into my mind that he was Martin, our old prison Captain. When I addressed him by name and told him who I was he seemed greatly pleased to renew the acquaintance. He invited mc
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to his house, and introduced me to his family. I found him a man of culture and refinement, who had lost all his property by the war, and was now teach- ing school as a means of support.
Our command was divided into five different towns, with headquarters at Anderson, it being the largest town in our sub-district. I was appointed Assistant Adjutant General by General Ames at Columbia to make contracts with the planters and freedmen throughout the region where our command was located, and to do other duties of a similar nature. This, of course, threw me into direct contact with all the freedmen and planters for many miles around, and with scores of negroes whom I had met only & few months before when I was a refugee, trying to hide my face from anything but a black man. Seven months before I was avoiding the white man's house and presence as a pestilence; now I was invited to share the best his house afforded, not out of respect for me or for the Government I represented, but rather to make a favorable impression, hoping by so doing to influence me to make his contract with the freedman favorable to him rather than to the blacks. Some of the negroes did not remember me, while very many did, and some of the latter were afraid even at this late day, to have the fact that they had ever met me before made known to their former masters; they thought these men might still do them
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harm for their acts of humanity to us escaping Union prisoners. It was, indeed, strange to be found sitting at the table as a guest, partaking of the hospitality of these Southerners on whose plantations I had skulked and whose hen roosts had been robbed to feed me; with some of the very same negroes whose hands had brought us food in the woods or thicket of some damp and cold swamp-waiting on the table.
We held our tongues, not from fear of wounding the feelings of the planter, but to save the negroes. I think they were needlessly alarmed, as they were receiving kind treatment from their former owners.
Before I forget it, let me say just here that all con- tracts made by the planter and freedman, and they were many in the season of 1865, were considered very unjust by the planter; that they gave the negroes too large a proportion of the crops, and stipulated too many conditions for their benefit. The planter may have been right in his complaints, but it was the only means at my disposal by which I could reach the entire number of negroes who had been my only friends when friendship was most needed, and re- turn a portion of the great debt due them.
We remained in this location until the following April, some eight months. It was among our duties to assist all destitute loyal Southern people in the way of issuing Government rations, proof of their loyalty being a necessary requisite. We had many
E
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applications, some worthy and others not. To one of the former I wish to draw your attention. One night in December when we were without a guide and were much in want of information and food, we were obliged to go to a house for these, and found a poor widow by the name of Prince, who after feeding us took us to the band of Outliers in the mountains. The night before we started for the mountains she asked if I would give her a paper showing what she had done for us, as it might do her some good should any Federal troops pass through that section. I was only too glad to do this, trusting that at some future time it might help her, although there was little chance for Union troops to be so far up the country.
I made a simple statement of what she had done for us and recommended her to the kindness of any future Federal officer or soldier who might read the document.
One day in August, nine months afterwards, the orderly came to my quarters and said there was a woman outside who wanted to see the Yankee officer who was giving food to the loyal whites. I told him to admit her. A true type of a poor white woman came in. She made known her wants, telling me she was a widow with three children to support, and as the Government was helping such she had applied, assuring me she was and always had been loyal to the Union.
.
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To my inquiry "how can you prove all this?" she took from her bosom a neatly folded paper and handed it to me. The writing seemed familiar, and looking at the bottom of the sheet I saw my own signature where I had placed it the December before. As soon as I recovered from my surprise I asked her if she had ever seen me? She said she reckoned not. "Don't you remember feeding four Yankee officers some time last winter and then taking them to the Outliers' camp in the mountains?" She replied she did. "Well, Mrs. Prince, I am one of those Yankees, the one who wrote that letter."
"The little Lieutenant! Are you the little Lieutenant?" she exclaimed, and when I answered in the affirmative there was a scene. To tell the truth I was "all broke up;" for I had a tender memory for this poor white woman and her acts of unselfish kind- ness.
It did not take us long to get down to business. This time I was the host and she the guest. She in- formed me she was still living in the old place, some seventeen miles from the Court House in Pickens' district. She said that the men who had started with us through the mountains and had turned.back on account of snow and Indians, had been met by the Guard, and many of them killed. Those that went to Knoxville joined the Union army. Some had been killed in late engagements of the war, and
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others had been murdered by the returning Con- federate soldiers when they learned they had joined the Union Army.
Mrs. Prince returned to her home in the mountains with a mule load of rations, full more than the Government allowance for a family no larger than hers, but it was a case that made unusual demands upon my feelings, and I gratified my inclination to return good in its kind, compound interest included.
We remained in this section for a year after the close of the war, and were then mustered out at Hart's Island, New York harbor, in April, 1866.
CHAPTER VI.
As I laid aside my blue uniform, worn almost con- tinuously for five years, I felt that my war experience, though filled with tremendous sacrifices, and with sorrowful recollections, had much in it to look back upon with genuine satisfaction, much of it even with pleasure. That there have been incidents in prison life more eventful than were mine I do not doubt, many perhaps far more thrilling, but I question if there are many records, where a prisoner who has made a successful escape from a rebel prison has, through the chances of war, again visited the scenes of his long and weary tramp, with the opportunity, sanctioned by Government authority, to return some of the many acts of kindness done to the Union refugees by the black men, and a very few loyal whites of the South.
After five years of service in Uncle Sam's army, I went back to civil life with no regrets. I was anxious to again take up the broken threads of a business career, which had been interrupted by the guns of Sumpter in April, 1861, and did so with the consciousness of having served my country to the best of my ability through the trying years of the Civil War.
I deeply regretted the loss of the sword, presented
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to me by my company, and had many times asked myself, who were my captors, and what the history of the sword after its violent separation from me? For eleven anxious years no answer came to my in- quiry.
In May, 1875, while a resident of the city of Lynn, I was surprised by receiving the following corre- spondence from Augusta, Maine, and Columbia, S. C., which will explain itself.
Augusta, Me., May 25, 1875.
H. A. Johnson, Esq.,
Lynn, Mass.
Dear Sir :--
It is with pleasure that I have the privilege of for- warding to you the enclosed letter from Maj. J. HI. Cochrane of Augusta, now in Columbia, S. C. The letter explains itself. I would like to have it re- turned to me, and if at any future time you may want it, I shall be pleased to place it at your disposal.
In order to obtain your address, I visited your friends in Hallowell, and at their request furnished a copy of the letter for publication. As it contains nothing but what is considered by those who knew you a well deserved compliment, I think you can have no objection.
Very respectfully yours,
F. A. CHICK.
THE LATE CAPT. J. C. B. SMITH Twelfth South Carolina Infantry.
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Columbia, S. C., May 19, 1875.
Mr. F. A. Chick,
My Dear Friend :-
I was visited this morning by Capt. J. C. B. Smith, cashier of the Citizens Savings Bank of this city, who, learning that my home is in Maine, desired to obtain the address, if possible, of Lieut. H. A. Johnson, for- merly of Company B, Third Maine Infantry.
Capt. Smith stated that Lieut. Johnson was captured by his command (Company K, Twelfth S. C. Infantry), at the battle of the Wilderness, May 5, 1864, and that he has in his possession the sword and sword belt of Lieut. Johnson which he is desirous of returning to him, if living, or in the event of his death to such of his family, as may appreciate its value. The sword, a very elegant one, was presented (as appears by an inscription plate on one side of its metallic scabbard), to Lient. Johnson by his com- pany. On the opposite side is a similar plate on which is inscribed the name of some twenty battles, commencing with the First Bull Run and ending with Chantilly.
Capt. Smith states that it has always been his desire to restore this sword to Lieut. Johnson as an evidence of admiration for his determined bravery when captured, when although surrounded and en- tirely cut off from support, he absolutely refused to surrender, and, in the excitement of the moment, it was with the greatest difficulty that Capt. Smith prevented his men from firing upon Lient. Johnson, who appeared to regard the danger which menaced him with fearless indifference. When disarmed, an excellent revolver was also taken from Lieut. John-
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son, which afterwards was lost or stolen, and Capt. Smith regrets his inability to restore it with the sword.
Being unable to answer the inquiry referred to, but anxious to assist, so far as I can, in giving early effect to the generous purpose of this gallant soldier of the South, who I am assured is one of the most estimable gentlemen in the State, I have to ask you to use this letter in any way that you think will secure the desired information in the least time.
Very truly yours, JAMES H. COCHRANE.
I at once communicated with Capt. Smith and later received the following letter :-
Columbia, S. C., May 27, 1875.
H. A. Johnson, Esq.,
Lynn, Mass.
My dear Sir :-
Your telegram is just received at the hands of Major J. H. Cochrane. I assure you it gives me great pleasure to be the medium by which your beautiful sword, the merited emblem of respect and honor, is now to be restored to you.
Scarcely had the clouds of war been dissipated ere it became my earnest desire to return the weapon, with an expression of my sincere admiration for the gallantry with which you used it, but circumstances have hitherto prevented the execution of my design. I now forward the sword by express and accompany it with a sentiment which is common, I trust, to all sections of our great Country.
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"May all animosities be buried; and hereafter may amity and an earnest cooperation prevail be- tween the States of the Union for the general good." Very truly yours, JOHN C. B. SMITH.
CHAPTER VII.
The following June, at the Reunion of the Third Maine Regiment, just fourteen years after we were mustered into the United States service, the sword was again presented to me by my command in the following words:
COMRADES OF THE OLD THIRD:
Tonight the sword, usually the emblem of war, is the olive branch of peace; the harbinger of the return of true brotherly feeling between the North and the South. It is the assurance that all animosity is ended, all sectional feeling buried in oblivion, and that wes the North and the South, are again brothers in fraternal feeling and in loyalty to our gloriou, national emblem, the stars and the stripes.
Lieut. Johnson, I have now the pleasure to place in your hands this sword, which, through circum- stances beyond your control, was taken from you during the late war. But let me assure you that .even in the act of its surrender to the gallant Captain Smith of South Carolina, you proved yourself true to the trust which the Company put in you when it first presented this sword to you. May you have the pleasure of keeping it for many years, to be drawn only in defense of the rights of our beloved country,
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side by side, and shoulder to shoulder, South Caro- lina and Maine against a common foe.
On receiving the sword I replied as follows: COMRADES :
It is with keenest pleasure and satisfaction that I receive this sword a second time from your hands, not for its mere intrinsic value, but for the associa- tions that are connected with it. Most of you know that it was given me in the field by members of my company, and for this reason it was very dear to me. On that memorable day in the Wilderness, when the fortunes of war threw me into the hands of the enemy, and this sword was taken from me, I felt as it I were parting with a dear friend, and it was not without a struggle, both physical and mental, that I gave it up.
The history of this sword since that hour is not known to us, but that it fell into the hands of a brave Southern soldier we do know, and the respect we should feel for Capt. J. C. B. Smith of the Twelfth South Carolina Infantry is such as one true soldier bears another. This sword may have been worn by my captor and used against our cause in the last months of the rebellion; such are the fickle chances of war.
But, Comrades, the war is over, an event of the past. Its scenes and incidents will always live fresh in our memories, and it is well that they should, for it was a struggle for principle, not glory, for justice
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not possession, and we have a sacred right to cherish in our minds all the fruits and results of that contest,
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