USA > New York > The Ninth New York heavy artillery : a history of its organization, services in the defe battles, and muster-out, with accounts of life in a rebel prison, personal experiences, names and addresses of surviving members, personal sketches and a complete roster, pt 1 > Part 7
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"Oh, lonely, weary are the hours, Since I crossed the hills to Nadjie."
There was no parade precision about roll-call, but every man must respond to his name or be accounted for if he would save himself trouble. Sometimes there were responses aside from the stereotyped "here" which followed the first sergeant's call of one's name, as when, on a particularly cold spring morning, just after the accession of several recruits, for the first time were heard the words, "Patrick O'Rourke," though that was not the name. In the richest of brogue, from the extreme left of the line came immediately, "Hare; and d-d sorry fur it, too."
Mess-call was heard with pleasure by those to whose sharp- ened appetites food was ever welcome, though the interpreta- tion might not captivate Delmonico's diners. It ran thus:
"Soupy, soupy, soupy, without any bean, Porky, porky, porky, without any lean, Coffee, coffee, coffee, without any cream."
It is a sad comment on human nature that when there was plenty of work to do, the line of men responding to the sur- geons' call was a long one. It is a wonder that many surgeons, except in case of actual wounds, did not have in mind the Scriptural words: "All men are liars;" still, the best of men under fire and on the march all hated fatigue duty. This is one of the interpretations of the call, based on the surgeon's fre- quent prescriptions. Had castor oil been equally rhythmic, that also had been heard in the version:
"Get your quinine, get your quinine,
'Twill cure your ills, 'twill cure your pains, Get your q-u-i-n-i-n-e-e-e-e."
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Another version often heard was:
"Are you all dead? are you all dead? No, thank the Lord, there's a few left yet, There's a few-left-yet."
After all, what the soldiers wanted was an excuse from duty rather than medicine. One man persisted in wearing shoes too short for him, thus crippling his feet, and his commonly ac- cepted title was "Old Sore-toes." He seldom failed to re- spond to the call, and he did precious little duty. "I had a cold sweat last night," or, "I feel all played out," called for an exhibiting of the tongue, a test of the pulse and the regular prescription of castor oil and quinine. The surgeons knew their men pretty well and seldom did them an injustice. When, on a march, the weakling wanted to ride in the ambulance, he would frequently be told that if he didn't feel better after a while he could ask the doctor again. Some did; more didn't.
When the day was done and, at 9 o'clock, it was time for "lights out," the bugle-call that sounded on the evening air was as sweet as-
"Horns of elfland faintly blowing!"
Whatever the soldier forgets or remembers, the notes of taps will never fail his memory, and sleepily he follows the de- licious melody as it swells, and anon sinks away in dying echoes. To soldierly ears it said, "Put out your lights," re- peated four or five times, though another and more popular wording was, "Go to bed," repeated in same manner. In the defenses, passed from fort to fort; from hill-top to hill-top, each night it encircled the Capital with a chain of linked sweetness unexcelled since "the morning stars sang together and all the sons of God shouted for joy."
Every company had a certain number of mechanics, and these men made themselves useful in building under the direc- tion of government engineers nearly everything that made up the forts and their equipments. Batteries, rifle-pits, and walls. all of them continued to make of the vicinity anything but an ideal farming section. Letters came from home with due regu- larity, at least to many of the boys, and visitors from the home locality were not infrequent. The members of Company B will not forget the job some of them put up on one of their visitors who found the dispensary with the liquid entertainment af-
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forded there exceedingly pleasant. Having prevailed on one of the attendants to act as guard, when at a late hour the party broke up, they were halted and all save the visitor skulked according to programme, he dodged back into the dis- pensary, and, with his boots on, crawled into bed with a colored boy, who vainly protested against such intrusion. Failing to hush the cries of the contraband, and expecting the guard to enter at any moment, the unhappy civilian determined to make a grand rush, and darted forth, but the make-believe guard was equally alert, and having listened to his pleadings for quiet with the negro-boy, he commanded a halt, and brought his gun to a firing posture, at the same time cocking it. The omi- nous click of the hammer produced an immediate halt, and the gentleman was arrested as a suspicious character and for dis- turbing the quiet of the camp. He claimed to be a guest of one of the surgeons and desired his protection, but the latter heeded not his appeal. Then he turned to another well-known citizen of Wayne county, and he too denied any and all ac- quaintance, absolutely refusing to recognize the incidents brought forward by the visitor, though at last he did allow that he had seen the arrested man drunk in Georgetown. The situation was becoming more involved, and the poor man's hair was fairly standing on end with fright. when he claimed to be a second cousin of one of his tormentors, who finally granted that he had seen the man "up North," and the boys ended the farce, but the visitor never forgot the scare, nor the colored boy the white man's anxiety to sleep with him.
The captain of one of the companies, though a brave officer, had queer notions of what he might exact of his men. He had bought a condemned government horse and then tried to keep him at the expense of the boys, who maintained their regular fund. He thought the extra bread of the men which they were wont to trade for milk, etc., would keep his steed nicely, and so ordered them to cease trading; such tyranny was resented of course, and all hoped that something might happen to that horse, and eventually he appeared minus his switch. All were happy but the captain, and he was raging; but the perpetrator of the deed was not revealed till many years after the war. The horse was disposed of, and the boys were again permitted to do as they liked with their own.
In Fort Bayard. Company F boys varied the monotony a
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little by playing a practical joke on Lieutenant L.'s colored steward Jim. It was about the time when the government was organizing certain colored regiments, and active negroes were in request. Jim was bright, active and good natured. and about seventeen years old. He was universally popular, but the sol- diers must have their fun. One day in Washington he had seen a squad of colored soldiers, armed and equipped, escorting some recruits to headquarters. Somehow or other it came into his head that they "just gobbled up ebery nigger dat dey come cross," as he put it. He was so frightened lest he, too, be taken, he left his errand undone and started for home as fast as his legs would carry him. He told his lieutenant how he had been chased and that only his superior swiftness saved him, and for some time Washington errands were not entrusted to Jim, for neither love nor money could induce him to venture near the city. Knowing his mortal terror the boys determined to give him the fright of his life, and selecting a night when the lieutenant was away from his company, they chose one of their number who was well suited to play the part, and plentifully covering his face and hands with burnt cork, dressed him in a sergeant's uniform. Then they put him into quarters near those of Jim. The participants were properly placed, when a messenger was sent for Jim, who duly responded. No sooner had he entered the door than one of the soldiers said, "Jim, we are sorry to lose you, but the time has come when you must go to the front and help fight the rebels." Jim looked anxious and turned his big eyes about till they seemed all whites. "You know the government is raising a colored regiment in Wash- ington, and the officers are taking every able-bodied young negro they can find. Somehow they have learned that you are here as a servant and that you are trying to keep out of their sight. so the colonel has sent a sergeant after you. If you do not go, or try to escape, he will kill you." Poor Jim's black face was actually growing white with misery, for he had seen the black sergeant seated in the farther end of the quarters. At this moment the sergeant arose and said. "You black rascal. I want you, and if you try to run away, I'll shoot you," at the same time showing his pistol. Jim asked permission to go to his tent to get some articles of clothing, and was closely followed by the sergeant. The earthworks ran along in front of Jim's quarters, and beyond them extended miles of open fields and
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woods. It was expected that Jim would take a chance of escape here, and he did. He cleared the works at a bound and made for the woods. "Halt;" but the only sound sent back from the darkness was the whack of Jim's big feet as they bore him with deerlike fleetness to the refuge of the forest. The boys were certain that they heard the clatter of his flight for at least five minutes, though their own laughter must have drowned some of the noise he made. Taps sounding soon after, silence fell upon the camp, but the fugitive did not return till late the following night, and for several weeks he was in a con- dition of constant alarm. When, however, the whole scheme was unfolded to him, he laughed as heartily as the boys them- selves.
All the boys did not take equally kindly to their rations, at least till they had become hardened somewhat. As a recruit, came a young man of gentle rearing, to whose palate coarse army fare was by no means fitted. The tin plate upon which lay a boiled potato and a big piece of "salt-horse" or pork did not rouse his appetite to any great extent. Indeed, his face was wont to assume an air of disgust, which was extremely amusing to his better inured comrades, whom nothing phased. One day when a squad returned from several hours' work at road-building fairly famished, and to whom quantity was of vastly more consequence than quality, boiled hominy was the chief item of food, and it didn't take the men long to dispose of the seemingly scanty supply. This was particularly true of B-, a good but quite rough soldier, whose native bluntness of speech several years' experience on the Erie canal had not polished in the least. His hunger was still far from being ap- peased, and he began to look about for a chance, like Oliver Twist, to secure "more." There was the poor recruit daintily tasting his coarse fare, his stomach on the verge of rejection even then, while his face wore its chronic "I-wish-I-were-at- home" look. It frequently happened that the hominy contained large white worms having brown heads. The hungry soldiers, inured to all sorts of hardships, had learned long before either to shut their eyes when eating this dish or to just spoon the obnoxious wiggler and eat what was left. B- seeing the lad'; disgust chose him for his victim, and approaching asked him how he liked his hominy. To which query came the reply that he didn't like it, he never was used to eating such stuff. "Do
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OUT FOR FUN.
Alonzo Bowen (I) and Michael Murphy (I). "Yank" Gifford (F) and "Charley" Keen (F).
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you find any worms in your dish?" This terribly shocked the boy, and he replied, "No, did you?" "Oh, yes," said B-, "two big ones," and opening his mouth, "Can't you see their entrails between my teeth?" though he used a much shorter and more expressive word than entrails. Alas for the fastidious youth, who rushed out to do what the whale did when tired of Jonah, and long before he returned B- had saved him any further apprehension as to that special dish of hominy.
Some readers may recall the German, John L .. and his reli- gious experience as already related. He was a good soldier, al- ways in the best of trim, his clothes, gun and equipment as bright as a new pin. He was apparently used to the strictest discipline, and we thought he had been in the German army. He was far from being a talkative man, rather stern in his nature, always quiet, not much given to joking, having a violent temper when injured; on the whole, just a little pecul- iar. Of course the boys liked to play jokes at John's expense. One of his peculiarities was his evident care for a very fine tobacco-box which he carried. He chewed the fine-cut variety. and was exceedingly chary in parting with any of it to his com- rades, who were quite likely to ask for a chew. On a certain occasion, one of John's associates, a rollicking, devil-may-care sort of fellow, named Bill B., found a nest of young mice in his quarters; they were quite innocent of covering and were not more than an inch long. To Bill's ingenious mind here was a chance for fun, so he says to his bunkies: "We'll get John L. in here, and one of you ask him for a chew of tobacco. If he complies pass the box along to me, after you have helped your- self. and when I take a chew, I will put these two little mice into his box." The prospect was delightful. and John was in- veigled over to the quarters of the conspirators, who were ready for him, where, according to programme. one of the boys, Wesley W., asked John for a taste of his fine-cut. The latter was in an unusually gracious mood, and at once passed his cherished box to the mischievous fellow, who in turn handed it to Bill. Everything worked to a charm, and the infant mice were speedily and effectually hidden in the box, which, com- ing back to its owner, was placed in his pocket, and he soon re- turned to his own quarters at the end of the street. The tor- mentors anxiously awaited developments, which were not long in coming. In about fifteen minutes, they heard a vell and an
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oath, and soon saw a mad Dutchman coming for them; they scattered like a covey of partridges, and could not be found. John had opened his box to take a chew, and without looking at what he was doing picked up with the tobacco one of the live mice; but he had not chewed the quid a great while before he ejected the mingled mass of Virginia weed and mouse with the exhibition just described. The gang had to steer clear of him for several days; indeed he never forgave Bill B., whom he considered the chief villain in the play, but the officers, who soon learned the story, and the rest of the company enjoyed the joke immensely.
Nor was picket duty devoid of incident, as some of the mem- bers of - Company could testify. The station was possibly four miles from the forts, and about the soldiers were the farms of men outwardly loval, but at heart, we thought, arrant rebels. dis- posed to give the enemy every possible bit of information. Any- thing taken from them was to us very much like "spoiling the Egyptians"; but Colonel Morris, commanding the brigade, was a strict disciplinarian, and all depredations were sternly frowned upon by him and the offenders severely punished. On the morning in question, a bright one of midsummer, the boys, some four in number, had relieved the old pickets and soon began to look about for their noon-day meal.
Near by was a profusion of blackberries, and it didn't take long to pick all that the boys, including the lieutenant in charge, could eat; but when was man ever perfectly satisfied? They must needs have milk to add to the sugar which their haversacks afforded. Cows were in the neighboring field, and what more natural than that Yankee boys, proficient milkers, should undertake to extract their lacteal riches. One of the soldiers succeeded admirably, for his bovine selection was tractable, but the other boy found his cow quite unwilling to "stand," but persevering he had just begun operations when he heard a strange voice asking him what he was doing. "I guess you can see easily enough." was the careless reply. "Well, I shall report you to the officer of the picket," and the wrathful owner, for such he was, started off for the post, the culprits following closely behind him. True to his threat he proceeded to tell his story to the lieutenant, but at such length that the officer was evidently bored. The soldiers, however, kept right at their eating, and so voraciously that Lieutenant -- feared
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he might lose his share, so saying to the farmer, "I'll punish the rascals," he exclaimed with considerable more emphasis, "Here, I want some of those berries and milk." This so amazed the irate Marylander that he started off, saying, "I'll go straight to Colonel Morris and report the case." This he did and the next morning after we had arrived in camp and while we were cleaning up our guns, the lieutenant came around in accord- ance with Colonel Morris' order, and said, "You are under arrest." One of the boys said, "Do you arrest us for getting berries and milk for you?" "Don't ask too many questions," was the reply. "Well," was the rejoinder, "if we do have to go up, you will remember that you are as deep in the mud as we are in the mire." "Don't worry," said he, "I'll get you out soon;" and sure enough, in less than an hour came an order from headquarters releasing the men. The story, however. does not end here, for it was not long ere the same men had a chance at the farmer, who was a cross, surly fellow, a fair type of the rebel sympathizers in the vicinity. In the fall, when crops were being harvested, on a dark, cloudy day, the same com- rades found themselves again near the same informer. Having brought with them salt pork, bread and coffee, they began to look about them for other viands. Close at hand was the home of the farmer, and back of it was a large pile of potatoes and cabbages. A delegation set forth at once for the farm-house, and while a portion thereof solicited the loan of a big iron kettle from the mistress, the other part made free with the farmer's winter supply. When the woman went for the utensil. which she thought it best to lend, the marauders made off with their booty, which in due time was cooked and eaten, making something of an offset to the rain which had begun to fall. each man consoling himself with the reflection that the vegeta- bles, though stolen and consequently sweet, scarcely more than compensated for the disgrace of an arrest, and Byron made Mazeppa say, "Time at last makes all things even," just as applicable to Cayuga county boys doing duty in Maryland as to Cossack hetman on the Ukrain plains.
It was during the later portion of 1863 that Company L was organized. Its membership was more widely spread over the state than that of any other company in the regiment. It was made up largely of men who had served a full enlistment in the two years' regiments sent out in 1861. This no doubt accounts
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for the high degree of proficiency which the company early attained. Its first captain was. Frank W. Sinclair, promoted from Company I. and its senior first lieutenant was S. Augus- tus Howe, who had put in two years as a member of the 24th New York Infantry, an Oswego county organization. This ad- dition brought the Ninth up to its full number of companies, and the recruits, rapidly coming in, soon filled the regiment to its maximum. The men as they joined were, sent to Fort Simmons, which became the station of the company till ordered to move across the Eastern Branch. Here they began the regular drill and routine duty to which the other companies had long been subjected. The size of the company sometimes made sitting at the mess-table quite crowded, but old soldiers were ready to endure such a small affliction without much complaint. especially as a crowded table was better than none at all.
1864.
Ere the year was ended, the monotony of camp-life was to be sadly marred, but before the stated May-day, came numerous weeks of routine. January 1st found many of the soldiers in possession of luxuries of all sorts, sent down to them from their northern homes, remainders in some cases of Christmas feasts. while others were looking for delayed boxes. One man in a mixed manner grumbles thus in his diary in early '64 days: "Turkeys came. C. got three months, ball and chain, for sleep- ing on his post. New recruit and in poor health." Early in January it is necessary to break up certain liquor-selling places in Georgetown. In the wealth of edibles some of the boys in Company B have a big dinner, with printed invitations. Happy the man who has preserved one of them to this day. All this time many recruits are coming down to join the regiment, and. poor fellows, some of them think they get a cool reception. for on the 9th one man says. "It was so cold that coffee froze in our cups before we could drink it." Nothing but the writer's uniform veracity warrants this insertion, and even now incre- dulity justifies a suspicion that, set out to cool, the liquid may have been left unduly long. On the 15th eighty recruits appear. There is really little stirring during the month, save the arrival of new men and cook-house bickerings, of which every camp is sure to have its part.
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A GENERAL SHAKING-UP.
In February, owing to a small-pox scare, vaccination was the order of the day, and, "Look out for my sore arm." was not infrequently heard. Even the most calloused diary-keeper could not find material for his small pages, except as he re- counted the books and papers read, the letters written and re- ceived. Full many a love-match was made during these winter days, and in rough, noisy barracks the most delightful visions were had of home and happiness to follow, "when this cruel war is over." But cold or warm, bleak or pleasant, picket and guard duty came round with unvarying regularity, and a good soldier, later to fall at Cold Harbor, is sent in under arrest because as corporal he failed to turn out with the guard quick- ly enough. Then came the second March for the dispiriting of the soldiers, but there are many Mark Tapleys among them whom weather influenced very little. The 25th of February brought around an alarm, and Fort Simmons was quickly manned, but as usual it was a false alarm. It is highly credit- able to the rank and file of the Ninth Heavy that a good audi- ence gathered, March 3d, at headquarters to hear a George- town preacher, Brown by name, lecture on "The Martyr Trans- lators of the Bible." Is there any wonder that such men, when the test came, gave a good account of themselves? Later still, in the same place, an equally large and appreciative audience heard an eloquent discourse on temperance.
CHAPTER X.
A GENERAL SHAKING-UP.
The advent of General Grant in Washington and his subse- quent presence in the Army of the Potomac were making a decided impression on all wearers of the blue. The changes in location of Companies C, D, E and G have already been noted. Corresponding activity was also true of the other com- panies. All of them took leave of their long-time quarters, and on the 26th of March made their way to the forts across the Eastern Branch, all this in accordance with General Orders No. 21. whereby the regiment. except the 2d Battalion, was di- rected to form line in the parade ground at Fort Simmons at 4.30 A. M. the 26th, having two days' cooked rations, Company B
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to join at the junction of Military and Georgetown roads. The march began at daybreak, and was a cheerful variation on the long monotony of the forts, passing, as it did, through Wash- ington and across the bridge which spanned the Eastern Branch, sometimes called the Navy Yard bridge. Thence there was a decided scattering of the companies, a large number of forts coming under their care as follows: A at Fort Baker, with the band and regimental headquarters; B, Fort Mahan; F, Forts Dupont, Wagner and Ricketts, with Lieutenants Allen, Pat- terson and Stafford, respectively, in charge; H, Fort Meigs; I. Forts Snyder and Davis, with Captain Hughes and Lieu- tenant Howard commanding; K, Fort Greble; L, Fort Stanton; M, Fort Carroll. Of this range Fort Mahan was the most northerly, and was fully seven miles away from Greble, the most southerly position. At this time the 1st Battalion com- prised the men in Forts Baker, Davis, Dupont, Meigs and Mahan, under Major Snyder, with headquarters at Fort Mahan. The 3d Battalion included the other forts under Major Burgess, with headquarters at Fort Carroll. The 2d Battalion was still in Fort Foote, so the regiment was really in a line of forts ex- tending a distance of quite eleven miles, though communica- tion between Fort Foote and the other fortifications was by water rather than by land. By this latest move, the Ninth was made to have something to do, first and last, with nearly every fort on the Maryland side of the Potomac. The life for the next two months, in each fort, differed very little from that in another, nor from that in the forts recently left near the river, though there were incidents peculiar to each one, as at Fort Mahan Lieutenant Chauncey Fish, just promoted from orderly sergeant, was given a fine sword by Company B; he had only recently returned from a visit home, and with him came, as re- cruits. two of his sons, one of whom was to later fall at Win- chester. As this was a company affair, Sergeant Smith made the presentation, and Sergeant Brock read a reply. The
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