USA > New York > History of the Tenth regiment of cavalry New York state volunteers, August, 1861, to August, 1865, pt 2 > Part 32
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569
EXPERIENCE OF CAPTAIN B. B. PORTER, CO. G.
a better country where we could get something to eat. Very lame and sore from the previous night's march, we started out and came to a guide-board directing to a ferry that crossed Broad River. We took the road that led to the ferry. About midnight we met three officers who escaped at the same time we did and had a negro guide with them. Our party was already too big and we did not join them. Their guide told us that we could not cross the river where we expected to, but would have to go up the river about ten miles. With these instructions we started up the river. About 3 A. M., in the direction of Columbia, we heard the cannon roar, and knew that Sherman had attacked the city, but concluded to keep on our course. At these welcome sounds we threw up our hats in joy, but made no unnecessary noise in our demonstrations. After traveling according to directions until nearly day, we came back to the same guide-board that we left the night before. This was rather discouraging, but we turned back, took another road, but soon camped in a thick piece of woods where we could have a fire, for we were not dry from the recent storm. Firing in the direction of Co- lumbia had been kept up all night, or morning rather, at intervals, and also during the day.
February 15th .- As we were between two railroads, we could hear the cars going almost constantly, and believed the rebels were evacuating the city. As we had nothing to eat, our first business after night was to find some provisions. After traveling a couple of miles we came to some negro quarters, and Lieuten- ants Johnson and Smith visited them while the rest lay behind the fence waiting their return. They were successful in getting some corn-meal and a bottle of sorghum molasses. Each took a small handful of meal and traveled on, fearing to stop and cook it, for we learned from the darkies that the bridge we intended to cross was guarded and that a party of rebels, with about one hundred of Sher- man's men as prisoners, had passed that day and gone to Winsboro. We con- cluded to change our course-take the same road and endeavor to flank the rebel army on the other side, where there were no rivers to cross; but we had the railroad, which was no doubt well guarded. Very cautiously we proceeded, and before morning reached the suburbs of Winsboro. This town we flanked, and soon came to the railroad, which was guarded, we knew, by the small fires we could see. One at a time we passed the pickets safely and struck across the coun- try without taking any road and traveled by the stars. We camped in a deep ravine but a short distance from the main road and railroad, and only a few miles from where we escaped. Here we made mush all day in a pint cup, while Beau- regard was retreating past us but a short distance off. We heard fighting going on all day, February 17th, and came to the conclusion that Sherman must be in Columbia by that time, as the firing was much nearer at night than it was in the morning.
Our prospects were good and we determined to make our way back to Colum- bia, and in doing so keep as clear of the main roads as possible to avoid pickets and stragglers, for there were too many of us together to flank pickets success- fully. At night huge fires loomed up in the direction of Columbia, and some negroes informed us it was Columbia burning, and also that the woods were on fire, which subsequently proved correct. We started across the country as near in the direction of Columbia as possible, and at the same time flank the rebel army. An occasional gun was fired during the night, which proved we were not
570
HISTORY OF THE TENTH REGIMENT OF CAVALRY.
far from forces of some kind, but we were getting along finely. Came to some negro shanties and procured something to eat for all hands. Learned, too, that Sherman's forces were only seven miles from where we were, but the rebels were between. We kept on with good success parallel with the rebel lines, as we sup- posed.
On the morning of the 18th we camped in a small but thick grove of pines not far from a house. As the country was thickly settled, we could find no very se- cure place. During the day we heard no firing. In the afternoon a wench and a little yellow girl came carefully down in the woods toward us. The wench said she had seen a little smoke come up through the tops of the trees from our fire that we had in the morning. She said nothing, but thought there must be Yankees " down dar," and consequently as soon as she got a chance came down to see. Her name was Manda. She had never seen a Yankee before, and it was a long time before we could get her near us. Her visit was most opportune, for we were destitute of eatables. She talked with us some time and promised to bring us something to eat as soon as it was dark. Before night we heard troops camp- ing in the edge of the same woods we were in. Crawling quietly down in the bottom of a deep ravine we lay still, awaiting events. We were sure they were rebels, for had they been Yankees the wench would have told them and we should have been found, for we instructed her to that effect. We lay still until about ten o'clock at night, when we heard a low whistle near us. After several signals of the same kind we answered it, and it proved to be an emissary from Manda with word for us to stay where we were and she would soon bring us something to eat. Six hundred rebels had camped near the house, and she had been obliged to cook for them all the while and could not get away before. True to her prom- ise, she came with a basket of pork, potatoes, and bread, which was most thank- fully received.
In the morning (February 19th) we still occupied our position. At reveillé a rebel band struck up and gave us a little music and then moved out, much to our relief. Manda had promised to let us know as soon as they had gone and bring us something more to eat. This day was Sunday. Manda cooked and brought us a couple of chickens that she had saved by killing and putting in her bed while the rebels were there. Her husband, whose name was Bill, came to the ' conclusion to escape with us. He was one quarter Indian, one half white, and one quarter negro. He said he could show us the way to Columbia and avoid all the roads. This plan of his going along and acting as guide I was much pleased with, but all the rest were against it and thought it the most dangerous thing possible. This was settled very easily, though, for I told them they might go on as they wished and I would take the guide and go with him ; but when it came night I heard nothing of separation, and we traveled along very well with good success until near morning, when we almost ran on to some rebel pickets, but we flanked them at a good distance. Daylight coming on, we were obliged to stop in an open piece of woods, where we could hear troops but a short distance off. Under a tree-top we crawled and lay all day without standing up, for fear we should be discovered. The woods had been set on fire, and we were threatened with being burned out before night, but darkness came before the fire reached us.
This was February 20th. As soon as it was dark enough to venture out we took a circuituous route and flanked the picket-post that we came near going up
571
EXPERIENCE OF CAPTAIN B. B. PORTER, CO. G.
to in the morning on the other side. Before we were well under way, it was near 10 P. M. Fearing to travel any road now, we took a course from the start directly toward Columbia. Most of our march'was through an alinost impenetrable thicket and across numerous swamps and creeks. Each creek was known to our guide, and he also knew the distance from each one to Columbia. Huge fires lighted up the horizon immediately on our course, and we knew we should reach them long before day. At length we came to an almost impassable swamp and creek, the water being about four feet deep and the underbrush very thick. It was about three hundred feet across, and took us nearly two hours to cross it, but safely we all reached dry land again, cold, wet, and almost tired out.
Large fires were but just over a small hill from us, and perhaps a rebel camp -we knew not. We soon took up our line of march in the following order: Single file, about three rods apart ; myself first, Johnson next, Lieutenant Crossley, Captain Getman, and Lieutenant Smith, with the negro well in the rear. With the utmost caution we proceeded to investigate our front and soon learned it was the woods on fire. Seeing no one and hearing no human sounds, we passed through the line of fire and kept our course due south. Old trees, stumps, and logs all ablaze looked like lines of picket-fires in front of us. We were expect- ing every moment to be halted, but kept on our course, not knowing what else to do. After marching about a mile through the burnt woods and approaching every fire with distrust, we suddenly came to a standstill by a voice singing out :
"Halt ! Who comes there ?"
Every one dropped on the ground and commenced crawling away except my- self. I gave the answer, "Friend," and commenced moving slowly into the shade of a large tree.
" Who are you ?" said the sentinel, and I heard his gun click as he cocked it and I suppose brought it to bear upon me.
" An escaped prisoner," said I.
" Corporal of the Guard, here's a man who says he is an escaped prisoner. -Advance," said he.
His tone and dialect convinced me at once that he was no rebel, and I felt so certain of it that I called to the rest to come on ; we were all right. At the same time I caught a glance of the sentinel's blue clothes and the "U. S." on his belt.
Surrounded by Yankees once more our joy knew no bounds, and a happier set of beings I never saw. We danced, sang, and thanked God that we were once more under the protection of the Stars and Stripes and with Sherman's noble army. A sergeant conducted us to division headquarters, where we were pro- vided with plenty to eat and a good fire to sit by until morning, for we were too happy to sleep.
I think the 21st day of February, 1865, was the happiest day of my life. Never did the glorious old flag of our Union look half so good to me as on that day. Thus ended my prison-life of eight months' duration, lacking three days. Our party remained with the Third Division of the Fifteenth Army Corps (General Logan's), Brigadier-General John E. Smith commanding, until General Sherman's army reached Fayetteville, N. C. We were twenty-two days with his army. At Fayetteville about forty escaped officers, myself with the rest, were kindly furnished transportation down the Cape Fear River to Wilmington, N. C .. by General Dodge on his dispatch-boat. At Wilmington we were provided
572 HISTORY OF THE TENTH REGIMENT OF CAVALRY.
transportation to Fortress Monroe, and from there to Baltimore and thence to Washington, where I was mustered out of the service after the collapse of the Southern Confederacy, having been'in the service since the 12th of October, 1861.
EXPERIENCE OF W. A. ORSER, OF THE BAND.
THE night after the battle of Trevillian Station, when the First Brigade went into camp, a detail of the provost guard and band was sent out for forage for horses. The party was in command of a sergeant of the Sixth Massachusetts Cavalry ; the detail from the band was T. L. Townley, Metzer, and myself. After a long hunt for corn without success, Townley and Metzer went back ; I remained with the detail. We finally met a squad of eight rebs; there were thirteen of us. The sergeant, who was in the lead, discovered them first, and raised his hand for us to halt, and immediately started at a double-quick countermarch, without fir- ing a shot. As he passed me, I said to him: "Sergeant, why don't you fire on those men ? One shot will send them to cover." His face was of an ashen pale- ness, from fear. His reply to me was: " Oh, no ; don't fire, but get out of this as fast as you can !" He was the first man out of danger, and the result of his cowardice was a stampede and two men captured ; one to die (as I am told) in a Southern prison, and the other to pass a life of misery and pain, as the result of disease contracted by exposure for six months in a rebel prison. We were captured because our horses fell with us. In jumping a ditch the Johnny who captured me rode up and jammed his revolver against my head, with the remark, " Surrender, you d-d Yankee !" I told him I thought he had it all his own way, as I did not believe I could lift the horse. He passed on to the other man, whose name was Lincoln (of the Sixth Massachusetts), and captured him. A reb lieutenant came and helped me up, and commenced hunting for spoils. , As a result I was very soon relieved of what I had that could be of any use to me or them. I was then ordered to mount a little old apology for a horse, and we started back for their lines. Shortly after we reached the main road, we were fired on by a squad of our own men coming in on our right flank. The rebs did not return their fire, but filed left into the woods. That was the last squad of armed Union soldiers I saw for six months, and from what I can learn the last armed Union soldier that my fellow-captive ever saw. That night we were marched five miles, and remained overnight in the house of a citizen, under guard of six men. I believe that five- mile tramp was the hardest I ever made while a soldier. When my horse fell. my right leg was caught under him. It was very painful and was terribly swollen ; every step caused me the most excruciating pain. There was no let-up, nor would they allow me to stop for rest. The next day we were taken to Gordonsville, and locked up in jail with a lot of negroes. We remained there two days, and were taken to Charlotte, where we found a large number of our men, who had been capt- ured during the raid, most of them at Trevillian Station ; there were none of the Tenth New York among them, however ; most of them were from Custer's division. Three days after reaching Charlotte we were all started for Richmond. We were four days on the road ; when we reached Richmond, we were placed in Pemberton
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573
EXPERIENCE OF W. A. ORSER, OF THE BAND.
Prison, where we remained but three days, when we were stripped to the skin and searched. Everything we had was taken from us; not even enough clothing left for comfort in many cases. We were then taken across to Libby Prison, where we remained two weeks, and were then started in box and cattle cars for Ander- sonville. When we reached there, we were again searched, and then marched down to the south gate of that hell-hole of misery-that " disgrace to civilization," and assigned to divisions and messes. When I entered the gate of Andersonville Prison it seemed to me that I had left the world behind and entered the council- chamber of misery. The sights that greeted my vision were enough to sicken the stoutest heart. I walked straight across the stockade to the west side, to try to find a place to lie down and rest. It was said at that time there were thirty- five thousand men confined there. The prison was an oblong square and inclosed twenty-four acres of land; twenty feet from the stockade was the dead-line; the creek ran through about the center ; across on the north side of the creek was a swamp, with a little swampy land on the south side. This swamp and creek con- stituted, I should think, about one sixth of all the inclosure ; so you may know how crowded we were. When I reached the dead-line on the west side there was no line up; the extemporized huts and holes ending at that place left a vacant place between them and the stockade. I walked out into that space to make a camp for myself. Some of the men there yelled to me to "come back ; you are over the dead-line !" It did not take me long to get back. After I did get back I looked at the guard, and his back was toward me. Had I made that blunder on the other side, I would never have written this experience. I finally found a little spot on one of the streets, and with my messmate, Curley Stevens, of the Seventh Michigan Volunteers, made that our camping-ground, until they opened eight acres more on the north side, when we moved over there, and did the best we could to make ourselves comfortable. We were joined by two other Michigan boys and extemporized a tepee out of old pieces of blankets and such other bits of cloth as we could get pinned together with pine skewers, and stretched them over a pole. This afforded us shelter from the sun, but not from rain. Under this very poor apology for a tent we stayed while there, living on our pint of meal a day, with a spoonful of stock peas occasionally, and sometimes a couple of spoonfuls of rice (the latter I could not eat). We suffered for want of wood to cook the small ration allowed us. I have paid repeatedly thirty-five and forty cents for a piece of wood the size of my arm, and half as long; and for want of good water I suffered more than for any other necessity. I could not use the water out of the creek or the wells sunk there, because of its effect on the disease I contracted at Brooks's Station, Virginia, in 1862; and it seemed at times that I would die from thirst. In August the spring broke out on our side about half-way or a little more from the creek to the north gate inside the dead-line. After that I fared better for water. This was called the Providence Spring ; it certainly was a godsend to the poor boys confined there.
The first member of the Tenth New York Cavalry that I met there was a man from Company H. He was a sight to behold ; his name I can not give. The last time I saw him before was at Sulphur Springs, just before the fight there in Oc- tober, 1863 ; then he was a happy, rugged, healthy boy; now he was rotting with starvation and scurvy. I did not know him, but he told me who he was. He says : " Bert, I must die in this loathsome place. I am willing to die for my
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HISTORY OF THE TENTH REGIMENT OF CAVALRY.
country, but you do not know how I long to see the old flag again and my com- rades in the old Tenth ; but I never shall-I never shall !" Poor Nelse Dimon, of the same Company, went in a similar way, only his death was caused by chronic diarrhea and starvation. He was very weak when I saw him first ; his thoughts were with his friends at home. He said to me : " Bert, I know I must die here ; it is all right-I am a soldier; I enlisted to place myself between my country and its foes ; but I did not dream of such a death as this ! Oh, how I wish I could see the dear friends at home once more !" The day he died I had him carried to the gate, as they were going to take some out to the hospital. Poor Nelse, with about one hundred others, was left; we brought him back to the mess, and he died in about two hours. How many of the Tenth died there I do not know. I relate these two cases that you may know how our boys suffered in prison. I can never forgive the rebels for the systematized murders they committed in those prison- pens ; and old Wirtz, the fiend in human shape, the last time I saw him was when he was on trial in Washington. Time passed slowly in Andersonville. Rations were brought in an old government wagon, and, when they had unloaded the rations on the south side, they would fill it up with dead men and carry them out, and come back with more rations. The 4th of July was a sorry Independence- day to us. We were notified that we must not congregate in large numbers; if we did, the artillery would open on us. Quite a large assembly happened to get together on the north side, and, sure enough, they fired a shell over the stockade. The boys cheered them and yelled, "Too high, old Dutchy !" The 21st of July the raiders were hung ; there were six of them. They were a terror to the camp, murdering and robbing indiscriminately. A police force was organized to hunt them up. They did their work of murder and robbing.in the night, and it took good detectives to ferret them out. It was done at last, and they were arrested, tried, and found guilty by a court and jury of our own men. The proceedings of the court were sent to the rebel authorities, who approved them and ordered the raiders hung. On the day appointed for their execution a rough scaffold was erected near the south gate; the condemned men were brought into the stockade by beast Wirtz and a guard; he said a few words to the man appointed as hang- man (Limber Jim. they called him). The prisoners were ordered to mount the scaffold; all went up but one. He was a powerful fellow, and, as the others started to go to the scaffold, he says, " Here goes one break for liberty." He ran down toward the swamp, running over every one in his way, but was soon capt- ured and brought back and driven up on the scaffold; the noose was ad- justed, and old sacks thrown over the heads of each, the props were knocked from under the plank they stood on, and I think the necks of all but one were instantly broken. The rope of this one broke, and he was taken up again ; a new noose was made, and he was pushed off into eternity. After this we had more peaceable times. The greatest mortality while I was there was in Au- gust and September. It was said that it averaged one hundred deaths a day. When I look back over the past and remember the terrible scenes of suffering I witnessed among the poor boys there, I wonder how I ever lived to come home. I have known men to come in there apparently strong and healthy, and in three weeks' time be dead. Jeff Davis, in his letters on rebel prisons, says a large major- ity of the men died from despondency. This assertion, with much more that he says, is untrue. Some died from despondency, but the very large majority died
575
EXPERIENCE OF W. A. ORSER, OF THE BAND.
from exposure and starvation ; and that, too, with tons of vegetables rotting on the ground within ten miles of them, which the farmers wanted to give to the prisoners ; but Davis and the fiends he had in charge of the prisoners would not allow it. This may seem to be harsh language, but I know that what I say is true. The last of September they began moving the prisoners from Andersonville, and Stevens and myself flanked out and were landed at Charleston, S. C. We were corraled on the race-ground. Before we left Andersonville, R. II. Ferguson, who was a member of our brigade band, and was taken prisoner the day before I was, had joined our mess. He left Andersonville the night before Stevens and myself, and on the way up jumped from the cars and, I am told, made his escape to our lines. Lucky man! very few who tried it succeeded in getting through. We were treated better in Charleston than we were in any other place. The ladies manifested great interest in our welfare, and, notwithstanding the frowns and threats of the guards, they managed to find a way to furnish the boys with many little luxuries and necessities. This was a great surprise to us, as we knew we were where the first gun was fired, and in what we supposed to be the hot-bed of trea- son. Here in Charleston we were cheered by the sound of our guns, and it seemed to us that we were getting nearer home. In the evening we could stand and look out toward Morris Island and see the flash of that big gun ; if we commenced to count immediately on seeing the flash, we could count sixty-eight before we heard the report, and then thirty-eight additional before the shell struck in the city. We remained in Charleston about three weeks, and then were shipped to Florence, S. C., one hundred and two miles northeast. We were a little premature at Flor- ence, because of the yellow fever breaking out in our camp at Charleston. It killed the rebel quartermaster first, and they moved us out mighty soon. The stockade at Florence was not finished, but in a few days was ready for us, and we were turned into it like pigs in a pen, with this difference, that pigs would have cover-we had none. This stockade was built like the one at Andersonville, i. e., of logs eighteen or twenty feet long, standing on end and close together, with about six feet in the ground, and sentry-boxes at equal distances all around it. I should think the Florence Prison inclosed about .twenty-four acres of ground, which was nearly level; a creek ran through near the center; there was no swamp of any importance; in other respects the location was similar to Anderson- ville, with this exception : at Andersonville the creek received the waste from the rebel camp above the stockade, while at Florence it received the wash from a large negro camp above the stockade. We were obliged to use this water in both places, most of the time to drink, and to cook our little ration of meal. The com- mander at Florence (Colonel Iverson) was a man who would have treated the prisoners fairly if he could, but the man who had command of the prison was a counterpart of Wirtz. His name was Jim Barret, a red-haired scoundrel. He resorted to every cruelty that a brain like his could conjure up to punish men for the most trivial causes. I saw more of this at Florence than at Andersonville, because I was outside for three weeks before I was paroled, and had a better chance to see what was going on. I have seen this cruel monster tie men up by the thumbs until they could not touch the ground with their feet, and keep them there until they died in their agony. It was in Florence that I cast my first Republican vote. The rebels requested us to vote as a test of the political status of the prison-a red stock-pen for Lincoln and a light-colored one for Mcclellan.
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