USA > Michigan > Wayne County > Detroit > History of the Twenty-fourth Michigan of the Iron brigade, known as the Detroit and Wayne county regiment > Part 6
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HISTORY OF THE TWENTY-FOURTH MICHIGAN.
Seventh Wisconsin, and Nineteenth Indiana, to which, now, the Twenty-fourth Michigan was added. It was the Fourth Brigade, First Division and First Army Corps. General Gibbon commanded the brigade, General Doubleday the division, and General Hooker the corps. At this time the corps was immediately commanded by General John F. Reynolds while General Hooker was recovering from his Antietam wound. We were truly in a fighting brigade, a fighting division and a fighting corps, all commanded by fighting generals.
DRILL.
When not on the march or in action, drill, drill, drill, is the business of the soldier. It is tiresome, but necessary. No one can be a good soldier without it. A mistake on the battle-field in not properly giving or understanding how to execute a command, might cost many lives. In this discipline our Colonel is determined that the Twenty-fourth shall rank among the most efficient regiments in the service. Hence it is kept on battalion drill for six hours each day, and in the quickstep and other evolutions of the soldier school for an hour-and-a-half each day. This duty, with dress parade at 5 o'clock, quite occupied our time.
DRESS PARADE.
The dress parade is a feature of army life. It usually occurs daily, near evening. Each company is expected to turn out in full and every man in neat appearance. The Orderly or First Sergeants form the companies, each on its respective ground. The men " fall in," which consists of their forming a line, the tallest man on the right and so on down the line, the shortest being on the left. The band strikes up a lively tune and marches to the parade ground. Each company is marched out by its commanding officer, and all arranged in their proper places in battle line.
The band ceases its music; the Adjutant orders the battalion to present arms, and each gun is brought to a perpendicular before the body. Turning and saluting the commanding officer of the regiment who stands several rods in front of the regiment, he announces to him that the parade is formed. The Adjutant then marches to a position behind the Colonel. The manual of arms is usually gone through with, and the band playing a lively piece, marches at quick step, then counter marches the whole length of the line, returning to their place of starting. The Adjutant then takes a
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FIRST MONTHS OF ARMY LIFE.
position as before and tells the orderlies to report by calling them to the center of the regiment. Each orderly makes a report, "all present or accounted for." They then outward face and double quick to their posts. The Adjutant next reads any orders or communications that are to be made to the regiment, when the line officers march from their respective companies to the center of the regiment, face the Colonel, and in line all come forward, keeping step to the music. They halt a few spaces before the Colonel, saluting in the usual way. The Colonel gives any instructions he has for them and dismisses them. The several companies are marched back to their grounds and break ranks.
THE SOLDIER'S HOUSE.
The regiment was supplied with "French shelter tents." A piece of drilling six feet square, (impervious to rain unless punctured by pin or torn) with pieces of rope fixed to each corner, is allowed to each man. Two of these stretched over a pole upon two stakes, and the corners stretched out and fastened to the ground with wooden
BURNSIDE BRIDGE AT ANTIETAM.
pins to which the pieces of rope are tied, with a third piece on the gable, form a shelter for three soldiers. In camp, these tents arc arranged in rows, and three or four hundred of them in a regiment or brigade, form quite a village of such out door habitations, When on the march without knapsacks, this piece of tent is rolled up with the soldier's blanket and the ends tied in horse-collar shape. It is then
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HISTORY OF THE TWENTY-FOURTH MICHIGAN.
slung over one shoulder and under the opposite arm. The soldier is now in light marching order, with his haversack for his food, his canteen for water, and with his gun and accoutrements.
BATTERY B.
Attached to the Iron Brigade was Battery B, Fourth United States Artillery, popularly known as "Gibbon's Battery," after our brigade general. It was in the Mexican war and had a history. It is said that the General had a brother in the insurgent army who boasted that he would capture this Battery at any cost. The attempt was made here at Antietam, the foe charging up to the very muzzles of his guns, and were knocked down by the artillerists with their ramrods. At this critical moment, General Gibbon himself sighted some of the guns which were double shotted with grape and canister. The carnage was terrible. The Battery was not taken but lost severely in men. On Saturday, October II, twenty men of the Twenty-fourth Michigan were detailed to duty in this Battery.
ARMY BALLOON- MARCHING ORDERS, ETC.
In a ravine near our camp was Professor Lowe's balloon which made several ascensions each day, to note the dispositions of the enemy's troops over the river. Strong picket guards were posted on each side of the Potomac. Soldiers were restricted to their regimental lines, under penalty of being sent to work on the fortifications at Harper's Ferry.
At I o'clock Sunday morning, October 12, our commissariat was aroused to prepare two days' cooked rations at once. Orders to march were momentarily expected, to intercept Stuart's cavalry, which was making a complete circuit around our army. But ere our rations were cooked, they had recrossed to the Virginia shore, and were climbing up the opposite bank, loaded with plunder, just as our cavalry arrived at the river. Our camp, which was agog all Sunday over this affair, settled down to duty again.
Now that we are in the field, the soft bread and luxuries that we enjoyed at Camp Shearer have given place to hard tack, beef, pork, coffee, sugar and rice. The soldier's ration is more than he can ordinarily eat when he gets it, but for one reason and another, he scarcely ever gets it. Sometimes the fault of the dishonest contractor,
-
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FIRST MONTHS OF ARMY LIFE.
frequently the delays attending the circumstances of war for which no one can be blamed.
INSPECTION-THE BATTLE-FIELD -VISITORS.
Thursday, October 16, at 2 o'clock, our regiment was again inspected by General Gibbon, who is a thorough soldier by education and practice. The regiment did credit to itself in its evolutions, and officers from veteran regiments present declared that no other surpassed us for our limited instruction. Our officers were marched to the center, when the General complimented them saying, "The regiment was the best drilled after such a short time of service of any he had ever reviewed," an encomium of which we all felt highly proud.
The review over, about 500 of the regiment, headed by Colonel Morrow, visited the Antietam battlefield near by. No pen can describe the scenes enacted on this field of blood. The ground was stamped level and hard by troops and artillery. The dead were buried, some singly where they fell; others in trenches and heaps. On one stake was inscribed, "Here lie 150 bodies, Ga. and S. C." Many were insufficiently buried, and here and there was seen a foot or hand, or a skull protruding. Lee did not bury many of his men at all, when granted an armistice to do so, but in violation of his agreement, bent all his energies in digging a way for escape under the canal tow-path, leaving his dead for our forces to bury.
Friday, October 17, marked the advent to camp of several wives of our officers : Mrs. Flanigan, Mrs. Owen and Mrs. Rexford, also Mrs. W. Y. Rumney, wife of our sutler. They received a hearty welcome, and the regiment was again under woman's refining influences. Their arrival was the amusing occasion for several of the officers that night to search the camp for new quarters to sleep, or shiver about some campfire.
CAMP PENNIMAN.
Monday, October 20. While out on battalion drill this morning an order came to march in fifteen minutes, which caused a lively double- quicking for camp. Tents were struck, rations and accoutrements packed, and the men in line by the required time. A march of six miles up the river, through Bakerville, brought us to a fine, healthy location away from the effluvia of the Antietam battle-ground, and served as an outpost for a foray of the enemy. Our new abode was named "Camp Penniman," in honor of Hon. E. J. Penniman, of
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HISTORY OF THE TWENTY-FOURTH MICHIGAN.
Plymouth. Three days' rations were ordered to be kept constantly in our haversacks which kept us in moving expectations. The soldiers know not when or where they are to go. Rumors are afloat about this, that, or something else, but scarcely ever do the men, when on the march, know their destination. Regimental inspection was ordered for Friday morning, but after standing in line all day, awaiting the inspecting officers, we proceeded to our tents. The farce seemed likely to be repeated the next day, but they finally came and the unpleasant performance was ended once more.
14 +
HURRAH FOR THE UNION!
CHAPTER IV.
MARCH TO THE RAPPAHANNOCK.
RAIN STORM MARCH-CAMP MISERY.
A MID a hard, freezing rainstorm on Sunday afternoon, October 26, we were ordered to strike tents and march in one hour. Our blankets and tentstrips were rolled into packs, and at 3 o'clock we moved off in the mud and slop, wet and cold. We marched back to Bakerville, thence along the edge of Antietam battlefield, by Smoketown Hospital to Keedysville ; thence south across the road by which we marched to Sharpsburg. Too dark to march, the soldier in our front is scarcely seen. Filing into an open field, we bivouacked for the' night, calling the place "Camp Misery." It was on a sloping field without grass, and in lying down anywhere, one soon found himself wet with running water from the hill top. Rails were soon brought from the nearest fence, fires built, and all night long while drying one side of our bodies, the other was getting wet from the drenching rain. And thus the miserable night was passed. [For route see map in last chapter.]
CAMP COMFORT - CAMP HICKEY.
Monday, October 27, morning came, cold, but the storm had ceased. Hardtack and coffee were swallowed in a biting, cold wind, and we were again in line for the march. A halt was made for two brigades to pass. Ranks were broken and in a few moments scores of fires were blazing from Maryland fence rails. Our clothes were dried and we moved on happy again. After a march of ten miles over the Blue Ridge Mountains, we encamped in Pleasant Valley and called the place "Camp Comfort."
Tuesday, October 28, eleven o'clock, found us on the road again, passing by log houses, over South Mountain, via Crampton's Gap, through Birkettsville and Petersville, halting for the day about two miles from Berlin on the Potomac. Our location was called "Camp Hickey," after Reverend Manasseh Hickey of Detroit Conference. We were in the midst of marshalled legions, six miles below Harper's
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HISTORY OF THE TWENTY-FOURTH MICHIGAN.
Ferry, waiting our turn to cross on the pontoons over which troops were passing day and night into Virginia. Here our knapsacks arrived from Washington and we welcomed them for the clothing they contained. An opportunity was given for such of the Twenty-fourth as desired, to enlist in the regular army. Colonel Morrow feelingly discouraged the idea, giving good reasons for our remaining a " Volunteer," a name full of glory and honor. Not a man enlisted from our regiment.
BACK IN OLD VIRGINIA -CAMP HENNESSY.
Thursday, October 30. Our turn to cross the Potomac will come in two hours. Our sick are hastily forwarded to Washington by rail. The regiment was assembled and Chaplain Way invoked the guidance of the Lord of Hosts as we should move on in the holy cause of our country's rescue, and that our friends in far away Michigan may be permitted to welcome us to hearth and home when our task is done. Tents were struck, knapsacks slung and off we moved for the Potomac
CROSSING POTOMAC AT BERLIN, MD., ON PONTOONS, OCTOBER 30, 1862.
which was crossed to the tune of Yankee Doodle. This day our lady visitors left us, and as we moved up the Virginia bank, they stood on the opposite shore of the river waving a tearful adieu.
Winding our way up the steep Virginia bank of the Potomac, we traversed once more the "sacred soil," as the Virginians boastingly termed the earth of that State. By the quickstep we made good time
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MARCH TO THE RAPPAHANNOCK.
over excellent roads for about eight miles, passing through Lovettsville and about 9 o'clock, encamped in a field sheltered on two sides by pine woods. Our temporary home was named "Camp Hennessy," after Father Hennessy, of Detroit. Fires were built with Virginia rails, coffee made, and soon we slept again in Secessia.
CAMP DUNCAN STEWART-RAIDING.
Friday, October 31. In the afternoon, after being mustered for pay, we moved forward a couple of miles and pitched our tents in an orchard, the trees of which were loaded with the fruitage of the season. The location was called "Camp Duncan Stewart," after Detroit's generous citizen whom the mob was going to hang at the war meeting on the Campus Martius, for his Unionism.
The camp was on the farm of a man who, with several sons, was in the enemy's army. This fact becoming known to the brigade, in less than twenty minutes, a large straw stack was carried away by the armful for bed- ding, and all out-build- ings were stripped of vegetables and every- thing eatable, turkeys and chickens included, unless they roosted high. A guard soon ended the raiding and the plunder was ordered returned, but many a fowl with its neck wrung, and other booty were concealed beneath RAIDING A STRAW STACK. the men's blankets on which they were "resting" after their two mile march, when the searching detail passed around. The men justified their conduct on the ground that we were in a secession State, and that it was no worse than the enemy treated Union men. Right or wrong it was one of the evils that Virginia had brought upon herself when she left the Union.
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HISTORY OF THE TWENTY-FOURTH MICHIGAN.
THE SOLDIER'S KNAPSACK.
The soldier's knapsack forms an important part of his outfit. To him, it is like a trunk for the traveller, except he lugs it on his back or shoulders. With this filled with winter clothing, and with his shelter tent, blanket, three days' rations, canteen, belt, gun and sixty rounds of cartridges, each soldier has a load of burdensome weight. At the several halting places on the march, many articles of clothing, etc., were thrown away to lighten their burdens. Then each knapsack frequently contained articles presented by friends, - such as bibles, mirrors, brushes, and home souvenirs, not to mention half a dozen ambrotypes of as many of the "girls they left behind them." As the load, in weight a burden to a mule, is borne along amid the rays of a southern sun, article after article is tossed by the wayside, even the ambrotypes of all but the soldier's best girl. Carefully looking at each one of these, he thought
"How happy he could be with either, etc."
But as all these dear charmers are far away, he resolves no longer to make his back a traveling daguerrean gallery. So, selecting out the one of his best girl to keep, he says good-bye to the pictures of Miss Nettie and Miss Susan as they go humming down among the rocks or over into some stream.
MARCH TO PURCELLSVILLE-CAMP TOWERS.
Saturday, November I. Breaking camp at 10 o'clock, we went twelve miles on the quickstep to Purcellsville, in Loudon County. It was our hardest march so far, excepting our rain march on Sunday last. We bivouacked in a fine grove of oak and walnut trees and called the place "Camp Towers." Sunday was a beautiful day which we enjoyed in our forest home. Colonel Morrow gave the men some good advice how to act in battle, and Surgeon Beech instructed us what to do in case we should be wounded, to prevent a loss of blood, saying that a bayonet could be run through a man almost anywhere without killing him, which braced up somewhat our expectations of human life. Some cannonading was heard towards Snicker's Gap, six miles away, and Company F was sent out on picket duty. During the afternoon, a council of war was held at a house near by. Generals McClellan and Burnside were present on the veranda in front, where they were observed by many for half an hour. We were ordered to keep under arms, but had a good night's rest. No more will the huge
.
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MARCH TO THE RAPPAHANNOCK.
baton flourish ahead of our band at guardmount and dress parade, our fife and drum majors having been sent home this day as unnecessary appendages.
MARCHING THROUGH FAUQUIER COUNTY.
The morning of Monday, November 3, found us in marching array again, this marching being a part of the soldier's business. We were kept standing by our guns until noon, when we marched seven miles with but one halt, to Snickersville at the foot of the Blue Ridge, halting in a cornfield for bivouac.
Tuesday, November 4. Another march of six or seven miles brought us a mile southeast of Bloomfield. Lieutenant Flanigan led the regiment as Colonel Morrow was in command of the brigade. He organized his brigade staff by selecting Lieutenant D. V. Bell for acting assistant Commissary, and Lieutenant Whiting as Aide. General Gibbon was in command of a division. Scarcely an ablebodied man was seen hereabouts. The women were saucy secessionists, the young ladies singing secession songs. The raiding of flocks and poultry continues. The old regiments are more expert, but the new ones soon learn.
On the 5th, the regiment moved rapidly about fifteen miles to Piedmont in Fauquier County, on the Manassas Gap railroad, the gap being seen clearly in the west. The roads were rough and rocky. We encamped near McClellan's headquarters and numerous signal rockets of lurid red, white and blue, were sent burning through the sky. Company D was sent on picket, the enemy's pickets being in view, as disclosed by their campfires.
GUARDING THE WAGON TRAIN-COLONEL MORROW'S OLD HOME.
On Thursday the 6th, the Twenty-fourth Michigan was detailed to guard the wagon train, while Colonel Morrow with the rest of the Iron brigade got an early start ahead. The corps this day marched by company front through fields; the artillery, baggage and ammunition trains moving in the road, thus guarded against an expected raid. Longstreet's corps of the enemy was at Warrenton, our destination, but it moved out as the Iron Brigade came in at 5 o'clock.
This is the town in which Colonel Morrow was born and sported in early boyhood. Directly facing the road by which he entered the town at the head of the Iron Brigade, stood the house in which he (6)
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HISTORY OF THE TWENTY-FOURTH MICHIGAN.
spent his childhood hours. In yonder graveyard his mother lies buried. The town now is bitterly disloyal. Not a welcome voice was heard nor a Union flag displayed. All houses and buildings were closed and a few old secession flags fluttered in the northern· breeze. The Iron Brigade moved out on the Sulphur Springs road about a mile and went into camp.
.
WARRENTON, VIRGINIA.
TRIALS OF THE MARCH-TIIE DESERTED HOME.
All day the Twenty-fourth Michigan plodded along for eighteen miles in rear of the wagon-train, which was stretched out for several miles, halting at many intervals for the teams to get out of some axle-deep mire hole. Scarcely would one wagon get pried out ere the next driver would get his wagon stuck in the same place. The enemy's guerrillas got their work in on a part of the train far away from the Twenty-fourth, and destroyed some of the wagons.
We passed through White Plains village early, the most dismal and forsaken looking town we ever saw -- not a human soul, nor
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MARCH TO THE RAPPAHANNOCK.
fence, nor house-shutter to be seen. Desolation reigned supreme, each house a veritable "Deserted Mansion."
" No figure stirred to go or come, No face looked forth from open shut or casement; No chimney smoked; there was no sign of home, From parapet to basement. No dog was on the threshold, great or small, No pigeon on the roof, no household creature; No cat demurely dozing on the wall,
Not one domestic feature."
CAMP FLANIGAN-SHORT RATIONS.
It was midnight ere we reached Warrenton, through which we passed by moonlight, moving on to a position near our brigade. Weary and footsore, each man dropped down upon the ground for a little rest, but awoke in the morning to find himself covered with snow. We were in a thick wood, and the place was named "Camp Flanigan."
During our tarry here the regiment experienced its first dearth of food, being two days without bread or other eatables. Colonel Morrow returned to us, and every little while "hardtack" was yelled out through the camp in impatient tones. For some reason our supplies were not up. At the end of two days a grist mill was seized, our millers set to grinding, and rations of corn meal were provided. This was cooked into mush, hoe-cake, and in other ways, as each man preferred. It continued to snow, and a cold wind, with a dearth of rations and smoky tents, rendered this a most disagreeable camp.
REMOVAL OF GENERAL MCCLELLAN.
Monday, November 10, 1862. General McClellan having been relieved :from command of the army, took his farewell leave of the troops this day. ? Each brigade was drawn up in line as he rode by with uncovered head, his staff following. A few rods behind them rode his successor, General Burnside, and staff. The retiring General was cheered by his old troops. Considerable discussion, in field and press, followed his deposition. There had not been entire harmony between him and the President and War Office, for many months. He had one plan and the Washington officials seemed to have another, at almost every stage of the war thus far. Politics entered
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HISTORY OF THE TWENTY-FOURTH MICHIGAN.
MAJOR-GENERAL GEORGE B. MCCLELLAN.
largely into the debate, and as our regiment had served under him only thirty days, it seems inappropriate to discuss the matter in this volume.
He issued the following farewell address :
HEADQUARTERS OF THE ARMY OF THE POTOMAC, CAMP NEAR RECTORTOWN, VA., NOV. 7, 1862.
Officers and Soldiers of the Army of the Potomac :
An order of the President devolves upon Major-General Burnside the command of this Army. In parting from you, I cannot express the love and gratitude I bear to you. As an army you have grown up in my care. In you I have never found doubt or coldness. The battles you have fought under my command will probably live in our Nation's history. The glory you have achieved over mutual perils and fatigues, the graves of our comrades fallen in battle and disease, the broken forms of those whom wounds and sickness have disabled, the strongest associations which can exist among men, unite us by an indissoluble tie. We shall ever be comrades in supporting. the Constitution of our Country and the Nationality of its people.
GEORGE B. MCCLELLAN, Major-General U. S. A.
Some inconsiderate inferiors importuned him to ignore the President's order of removal and march his army on Washington. All such foolish proposals met with a most decisive rebuke in the above- terse, appropriate and patriotic farewell, which can but command. respect from friend and critic.
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MARCH TO THE RAPPAHANNOCK.
DRAWING AND COOKING RATIONS.
As at home, so in the army, eating is an essential part of life. In new regiments, it is customary to have a cook for each company, who with an assistant is detailed to prepare food for the men. Several large sized camp kettles form part of their outfit in which they boil the beef, pork, beans, etc. When the order " Fall in for rations" is given, the men form in line with their tin cups and tin plates. The freshly cooked food is frequently all given out before some at the end of the line get any-the fault of the stupid miscalculations of the cook, how much to give each man, or of the selfish "hog" who usually manages to get a double share. Dissatisfaction results and the company's cook dies early. His history like his epitaph is brief. He is fired back into the ranks and a new system adopted.
The orderly with a detail goes to the Regiment's Quartermaster and draws the company's rations of beef, pork, sugar, ground coffee, rice, etc., which are divided up in a more even way. The raw beef or pork is cut into pieces about the size of a tea cup, and then the men gather around the orderly or non-commissioned officer having the distribution in charge, like chickens around a hen, and as each man's name is called, he walks up and gets one or more day's rations, which he can cook to suit himself. If wasteful of his rations, he alone suffers.
Cooking rations is another feature of army life. Sometimes the pork is fried in tin plates, sometimes, like the beef, a slice is stuck on the end of a ramrod and held over the campfire, a hardtack being usually held under in order not to lose any of the grease that melts out of it. Our bread is of cracker, shape and thickness, about four inches square, and very hard-hence the name " hardtack." The boxes containing it frequently were marked "B. C." evidently the manufacturer's initials, but the soldiers insisted that it stood for " Before Christ," when the stuff must have been made.
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