USA > New York > Memories of the 149th Regt. N. Y. Vol. Inft., 3d Brig., 2 Div., 12th and 20th A. C > Part 13
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formed his command that during the preceding night Johnny had quietly folded his tent and crossed the river. The " golden opportunity", as the newspaper correspondents put it, had passed ; but the poor tired, hungry soldiers accepted the situ- ation with becoming resignation. Of course the men felt some chagrin that Lee had stolen away and crossed the river in safety. They preferred to have fought it out then and there and gone home to their families, but still they had just been through a great battle where they were on the defensive, and after a great struggle, succeeded. The new commanding general had done well, but what might be the result of an offensive move- . ment against Lee's desperate army, backed against the Potomac on chosen ground, was uncertain. The Union army was not so much larger in numbers as to give it great advantage over its opponent, whom the men knew would and could fight, there- fore they were not disposed to cavil with what seemed to be a disposition of Providence.
Early next morning the ed Division resumed its march on the road and turnpike by which it came to Sharpsburg. This was a smart little village presenting a fair business appearance, but showing battle marks and many evidences of the immediate contact of the army. The trunks of the shade trees were covered with bullet marks, and many of their tops were brokeu off and carried away by shot and shell.
At noon Antietam Creek was crossed at Antietam Iron Works, where a halt was made for dinner. The country about the Iron Works, and on the line of the afternoon march, was wild, rugged and picturesque. During the afternoon the column passed over a hill, and at night went into camp on the western shoulder of Maryland Heights, in the vicinity of Harper's Ferry.
On the following morning the division marched down to the Potomac River, along the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal. under Maryland Heights to Sandy Hook and thence up the hill to Pleasant Valley, where it went into camp within a stone's throw of the old place occupied by the regiment the preceding Fall.
CHAPTER XVIII.
PLEASANT VALLEY TO ELLIS'S FORD.
WHEN occupying Pleasant Valley, it was generally under- stood that the stay of the army was temporary, but it marked a period in the Summer campaign and gave the men an oppor- tunity to wash and change their clothes, the officers to make pay and muster rolls, send forward reports and transact general business. The men knew the enemy could not disturb them and therefore enjoyed a restfulness which comes from knowl- edge of personal security. The warm weather, the fields cov- ered with grass and grain, and the trees in full foliage made the surroundings entirely different from what they were when the regiment was there the Fall before, and the men enjoyed the change and the beauty of the scenery. One of the changes which had occurred since the former visit was the erection of a stone fortress on Maryland Height-, where the signal station was formerly located. There might have been other changes which were not seen, as active duties did not permit absence from camp, but this fortification all could see as it was outlined against the sky before every one's eyes.
The opportunity for laundry work was limited, so the boys went down to the river and washed their woolens, making them too small for future use. Some were caught with them damp when ordered to march, and hence were early risers, drying clothes before a fire on the morning of departure.
At five o'clock Sunday morning, July 19th, the 12th Corps moved towards Sandy Hook. The day, in keeping with its name, was bright and clear, still there was a bank of light
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fleecy cloud- hanging over the valley, just above the river, ob- seuring Loudon Heights, except its top appearing clear and sharp against the soft blue sky beautifully vignetted by the soft tleeey mist below. Under the clouds the river ran rippling along over and among the rocks in its bed, while along its southern shore was the moving column of troops passing down the other side, making a picture of peculiar interest and beauty not often seen.
From Sandy Hook the troops moved first up the stream, un- der Maryland Heights to Harper's Ferry, then over the Poto- mae and Shenandoah River-, the former by means of a pontoon bridge and the latter by a wire one resting on three stone piers,
AT HOME. ELLI-'S FORD.
built by Union soldiers the preceding Fall, and thence down the southern shore of the Potomac into Loudon Valley. Har- per's Ferry looked rough, ragged and dirty, as usual, but the scenery in it- vicinity lost none of it- charms by familiarity. It seemed, if anything, more beautiful than it ever did before. The clouds soon disappeared before the morning sun, which shone bright and clear on the rocky heights, tinted by the fo- Kage of clinging shrubs and vines, and stained by mineral wa-
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ters, making them soft and agreeable to the eyes. Having had a change of raiment and a little rest, the men were full of ani- mal spirits, and to their eyes the place never had a grander or more pleasing appearance than on this beautiful Sabbath morn- ing.
The route up Loudon Valley, during the forenoon, was the same passed over in December. The men took things easy, sauntered along from one piece of woods to another, and rested frequently in the shade of the trees. About eleven o'clock the command halted for dinner near a house with a small barn. "The generals went berry gathering, while the line and field of- ficers enjoyed their after-dinner pipes lying upon the ground. Presently there was a commotion about the barn, the men were destroying everything they could get their hands on, and a thick black smoke issued from the building, which was on fire. The owner of the premises was a guerrilla and captured one of the men the Fall before. The man had returned from captiv- ity and was now his acenser. His saddle and equipments were found under the hay in the barn, he was made a prisoner, and the boys were meting out punishment by burning his posses- sions, The proceedings were summary and irregular, but the provocation was great, and the generals kept on picking black- berries with their backs to the scene of disorder.
Early in the afternoon the command went into camp in the vicinity of a gap in the Shorthills through which passed the road leading to Hillsborough. When the men entered the open fields it was warm, so they dropped on the ground for rest. They had not lain long before it was discovered that the tiekl was covered with ground blackberries as hiscious as could be and as large as a man's thumb. The men filled their cups to supplement their evening meal. Loudon Valley at this time was covered with these berries, and for a few days the men gorged themselves with them. They ate them raw, they ate them with milk, they stewed them with their crackers, and used them in every conceivable manner. Prior to this the soldiers had been troubled with summer complaint to such an extent as
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to interfere with army duties, but from this time forward the blackberry diet effected a cure.
On the second day the command moved at six o'clock in the morning and sauntered leisurely along until about half-past five in the afternoon and went into camp on a high piece of ground overlooking the valley at a place called Snickersville, at the month of Snicker's Gap in the Blue Ridge. So far the trip had been one more of pleasure than otherwise, as the men marched only an hour or two at a time and then laid down in the shade of the woods for a similar period. The sky was bright and clear and everything looked cheerful and pleasant.
The invasion of the loyal States by Lee's army, among other things, resulted in a change in the conduet of the war on the part of the Federals. Lee sent out foragers and made heavy drafts upon the people of Maryland and Pennsylvania to sup- ply his army. Partially in retaliation, and partially to eripple the resources of the Confederates, after crossing the Potomac the Federals instituted a new order of things by sending ont foragers, and as much as possible taking from the people sup- plies needed by the army. Foragers were regularly detailed and instructed for the purpose, and were directed to give re- eeipts for property taken whenever it was possible, so that loy- al people might receive pay from the government. The sys- tem was not one of unlicensed pluinder, but one well regulated and directed by general orders from the head of the army. It was a new experience for the boys to enter a farmer's posses- sions and help themselves, and therefore not strange that there should have been some abuses of the system before its uses and purposes were fully understood.
At the noon halt a complaint was made to Gen. Geary of two men in the regiment who had entered the house of two women and taken away bed-quilts, wearing apparel and other articles not within the scope of general orders. The two men were recognized and their guilt established, whereupon they were sentenced to be drummed through camp to the tune of the " Rogne's March". When the division halted it was closed
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in column by regiments in mass, bringing it into a compact body where one could overlook the whole standing in the reg- imental lines. The fifers and drummers, led by a sergeant, preceded the culprits, followed by a squad of men with charged bayonets. The procession moved up the front of one regiment and then down another, and so on until it had passed before the whole command. At first the culprits made light and de- risive remarks and sang out to the bystanders that they were recruiting for the 149th and invited all who wished to join to fall in, but before the performance was over their nonehalence and hilarity were changed to grief and they wept like children. The regiment during its term of service had its share of the escapades of the command, but this was one of which it was not proud, and felt deeply humiliated.
As an offset to the foregoing. it is related that at this same nooning a neighboring smoke-house, filled with well-enred ba- con and hams, was broken open and the contents distributed among the members of the regiment, giving to each a nice ad- dition to his dinner.
Soon after entering the service several members of the drum corps were found to be incompetent, and so its duties were per- formed by three or four persons. During the Summer it was often stated that this corps was to have a large addition to its numbers and much was said of the quality of the new recruits. During the day these long-expected recruits arrived and were standing by the roadside, ready to join, when the regiment passed. The men looked and were grievously disappointed. for the rag-shag and bob-tail of the earth were before them. The sequel proved first impressions correct, for their efficiency was no better than their outward appearance, and that was abominable. They slank out of existence in some mysterious manner, and in a few days the corps was the same as before. If they had been decently elad it would have been some com- pensation, for here was no opportunity to fit them, and they looked like a lot of ragged and dirty boo; blacks.
The pike leading from Leesburg to Snicker's Gap joins one
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coming from Fairfax Court House just west of camp. At the intersection of these roads was the village of Snickersville, a pleasant little place of two or three hundred inhabitants, but at this time presenting an unkempt appearance owing to con- tact with the army. Everything had a quiet and Sabbath-like appearance, unlike Northern villages of a corresponding ehar- aeter, and there were no church spires.
From the hill above camp was a beautiful view of London Valley extending easterly to the Catoetin Mountains ten or fifteen miles away. The range known as Shorthills terminates two or three miles north of Snickersville, and the Blue range, so formidable in and about Harper's Ferry, at this place dwindles to a low range of hills sloping up gradually westward from Snickersville. In the valley coull be seen villages and different clusters of buildings. The lines separating the cleared from the wooded lands were well defined, marking the landscape like a checker-board for miles away. At different places could be seen the parked wagon trains and camps of different corps of the army.
Many members of the regiment went through the gap and took a look into Shenanhoah Valley, and examined the barricade of logs and stones thrown across the road commanding the ap- proach from the west. Near the apex of the divide, between the two valleys, was a small house, the occupant of which was sitting on the front steps as a party of men passed, reading " Baxter's Call to the Unconverted". Perhaps it was on ae- count of his garden being occupied by a lot of army black- smiths showing cavalry horses. Some skirmishing had taken place between the Union and Confederate troops near this place, but at this time there was no great number of Confed- erates in view.
The second day after arriving at Snickersville a new camp was laid ont with considerable formality, giving rise to the im- pression that the division was to remain for some time ; as the surroundings were pleasing, the men were gratified ; but in the night they were awakened by the usual announcement that
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reveille would sound at two and the command move at four in the morning. Some of the risers at the early hour of two o'clock were surprised with a command to march before break- fast, which they ate on the way. The orders were to report without delay at Ashby's Gap and the march was made with considerable haste, partially through fields and by-ways, in a southerly direction to that place. It was hot and the march fatiguing and oppressive. The first place approached was Upperville, situate on the turnpike from Aldie to Ashby's Gap, which was shunned by passing through the fiells to the right and striking the turnpike west. It looked like a smart little village of several hundred inhabitants in the midst of shade trees, and had a neat and tidy appearance when seen with its tin roofs gleaming between the foliage.
About noon the column halted and Gen. Geary with his staff dismounted and entered the residence of a planter, while the men sat at the roadside under the shade of the trees to rest. The men were hungry and faint and desired to stop for dinner, but the General soon appeared and encouraged them to further fasting by the assurance that after a short march he would halt for the day. On the men marched until about three o'clock in the afternoon and halted as was supposed for the night ; but before partaking of food were again ordered forward and moved southerly for ten miles without break or halt to the railroad and then westward into Manassas Gap several miles before going into camp. It was then nine o'clock in the even- ing. The heat, fatigue and hunger made the march a trying one, but late in the afternoon the men could hear the discharge of artillery and small arms in the distance, and the excitement kept them in their places. The men were grateful for rest even though they lay on their arms.
At half-past two in the morning they were again in line marching westward, and by daylight had made at least three miles on the way. Several stations and hamlets were passed. one of which was called Springfield, and another Markham Station. At sunrise there was a mist hanging over the valley
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which disappeared before nine o'clock, when the men filed into an open field on the right to eat breakfast and load their mus- kets preparatory to action. The discharge of firearms had been heard all the morning and was now loud and near at hand. The immediate prospect of battle does not generally aid a man's appetite, yet the regiment did eat and was grateful for the privilege. When breakfast was over and the men had loaded their arms and formed in line, to their surprise and gratification the firing ceased, and after several hours delay, they were informed the enemy had retreated.
In the afternoon the division fell back in the direction of White Plains and camped for the night on a broad and beautiful lawn, in front of a planter's residence, sloping gradually west- ward down to a road and stream of water.
When the 3d Brigade approached the stream in question there was no bridge, except a solitary log hewn flat on the upper side for foot passengers. The stream was at least twenty- five feet wide and half a leg deep. The men when approach- ing the crossing could see the troops that had preceded them going into camp on the opposite side, and were adverse to ford- ing the stream and spending the evening in drying their shoes and stockings, so each man made an effort to cross on the foot bridge. This took time and Gen. Greene, being of an impatient temperament, did not propose to brook delay. He said it didn't hurt a soldier to wet his feet and they should ford the stream. No one in the line could see the necessity and there- fore reasoned differently. Notwithstanding the General's orders, as each man approached he made a break for the log, determined if any one was to be wet it should be the man be- hind and not him. The General rode down and attempted to push the men into the water by driving his horse against them. but the boys were supple and managed to dodge until finally one poor fellow was cornered where he was obliged either to wade or leap from stone to stone appearing in the stream. He under- took the latter method by using his gun as a vaulting pole. The General was out-witted, and in his wrath shouted to the
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man, " Get that gun ont of the water ! get that gun out of the water!" The men laughed and yelled in derision until the General finally found other duties to occupy his attention, while the command made a crossing as best it could. Every man in the brigade saw the occurrence and disenssed it around the evening camp-fires. The matter was so serions it was ex- pected to be heard from afterwards, and it was, not from the General however, but from the men, who added, "Get that. gun out of the water " to their stock of soft words to be sounded in the ears of the General on the march.
The mansion where the command stopped that night was a magnificent one and was furnished in a most luxurious manner. The generals with their staffs occupied the house, while the infantry with their white shelter-tents occupied the lawn in front, and the artillery and wagon trains the gardens and farm buildings in the rear. The evening was a beautiful one, and the soft mellow light of a full moon shone on all the surround- ing landscape. The mansion was lighted from cellar to garret, and camp-fires burned in the different camps from which smoke ascended in little white columns. A slight mist lay over the stream in the distant valley, soldiers moved to and fro, and a gentle murmur of voices arose from the different camps. After a little a brigade band chiscoursed martial insie from the broad piazza of the house, giving a thrill to the impressions of the scene. It was rumored that the premises in question were the property of a Philadelphian who was then a pay-master in the Union army.
There were many palatial residences passed during the day. and the general appearance of the country indicated that it was one of fertility and wealth. It was a little strange to Northern men to see beautiful homes, such as one would expect to see only in large cities, in out-of-the-way places, for they were not infrequently located where a beautiful view of the surrounding country was commanded without reference to the highways. As a rule the houses of this character were flanked by lesser buildings occupied by plantation hands. During the
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day a halt was made in front of a residence of this sort, the owner of which it was reported was a Confederate colonel and killed in the battle of Gettysburg. The place had been devas- tated by soldiers and the men expressed no regret.
At daybreak on the 25th the corps resumed its march on the pike in the direction of White Plains, at which place it arrived at noon and halted for dinner, passing on the way a place called Rectortown, once a very pleasant village but now blighted by army occupation. At White Plains the halt continued for three hours, during which time Capt. Lindsay, Lieut. Gleason and Lient. Merriam, W. H. Spear, D. H. Billings, J. Kohl, Joseph Shubel, Nelson Gilbert and Thomas Brown left the regiment for Elmira, N. Y., on special duty. Late in the after- noon the brigade went into camp for the night on top of a steep hill just west of the entrance to Thoroughfare Gap, a pass through the Bull Run Mountains. The country from Manassas to Thoroughfare Gap is gently rolling, very fertile, and contains some of the best land in Virginia.
Just west of the Bull Run range is a high steep hill, several miles in length, running parallel with it and concealing the en- trance to Thoroughfare Gap. At daylight on the 20th the command resmed its march around one end of this hill and thence along the railroad into Thoroughfare Gap. The moth- tain, towering up on either side, with its out-crop of white marble at the top, was capped with clouds made gorgeous by the rays of a rising sun. A stream of water runs through the Gap from west to cast, along which is the railroad, leaving a narrow place for the highway. The scenery was agreeable and in marked contrast to that of the low, level and comparatively barren country into which the command was abont to enter.
The two Bull Run battlefield- are only a few miles east of Thoroughfare Gap, and the country for many miles in all directions about them was open and desolate. The first place made was Haymarket, now in ruins, nothing remaining except a church surrounded by chimneys standing monument-like, marking the last resting place of that village. The line of
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march at this place turned to the right in the direction of Gainsville, another little place not so badly ruined as Ilay- market. Here the command left the highway and passed cross- lots through the fields until it struck another road which led south through Greenwich to Warrenton Junction, near which it. went into camp at 9 o'clock in the evening.
After leaving the highway at Gainsville the men were obliged to eross a good sized creek, which, owing to the overhanging banks and the depth of the water, could not be forded. The crossing was made on two or three small logs with the bark on thrown across the stream. It was hot, the boys were weary, and the soles of their shoes from walking over the dry stubble were as slippery as glass. It took time to get over, so the General went on and left one of his staff to superintend the crossing. One of the men of the regiment, loaded down with knapsack, cartridge box, gun and other traps, slipped in at- tempting to eross, but in falling caught hold of the log and swing beneath holding on with his feet and hands, suspended over the water. In his wild efforts to reeover himself, one end of his gun, to which he still clung, dropped in the stream below. Every one who saw his perilous situation stood spell- bound until a wag sang ont in stentorian voice, " Get that gun out of the water !" This was too much, and every one yelled and laughed from the staff officer down to the man clinging to the log. By this sally the spell was broken and a dozen strong arms soon resened the man from his peril. The incident, how- Wer, was too good to keep from head-quarters and the General laughed as heartily as any one at the witticism at his expense.
At Greenwich there was a small church towards which several young ladies were making their way, reminding the men that it was Sunday. There were also a few dwellings and a large mansion surrounded with well kept grounds, which was said to be a part of an English estate. Everything except the house and grounds, which were guarded, looked dreary and desolate. Everywhere east of the Bull Run Mountains the forces were gone, the building- were desperated or burned, the lands were un-
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cultivated and growing up to bushes and weeds, and the scenery was desolate and monotonons. Distribnted along the Orange and Alexandria Railroad were block-houses and small earth- works, and as the railroad had not been in recent use, every- thing looked desolate and shambling. At Catlet's Station there was a small building used as a ticket-office, but all there was left of Warrenton Junction was a few chimneys standing in the midst of burned rubbish.
The head-quarters of Gen. Slocum were located in an old building between Catlet's Station and Warrenton Junction. It had once been a house of considerable pretensions, but was now a desolate wreck with the windows broken in and the doors carried away.
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