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 2 > Part 2
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July 31. Rations better than expected.
August 1. I make it that we have walked 250 miles and have ridden 300 to reach this prison.
August 2. The prisoners from the Crater (July 30) came in to-day. Some sixty or more officers were put into our first floor, General Bartlett* from Massachusetts, having only one leg, is among them.
August 3. Nothing to do but read Bible and hunt lice.
August 4. Officers left, they say, for Georgia. Others came down from Lynchburg. No soup to-day.
August 5. Gave $12 for three dozen onions. Sold some at fifty cents a piece; had ten left after giving three for a ration of bread. Got my money back.
*The famous mine explosion, July 30, '64, Petersburg. Gen'l Wm. F. Bartlett had lost a leg at Yorktown in 1862. Fortunately for him, it was his wooden leg which was shattered in the mine. The follow- ing is from his journal, printed in his life, p. 120:
Tuesday, August 2. Carried in a dirty wagon without any cover to the prison; a filthy place, an old warehouse and stores. We were in the first floor,about 300, as thick as we could lie. No ventilation. I saw the doctor in the morning; he said he would send me to the hospital. I could not eat anything; am feverish and so weak. No crutches. I have to be partly carried, partly hop along, when I move. Rations issued, corn- bread, thick loaf, and bacon. I can't touch either; still drink water. If I do not get away from here very soon, I never shall. Wagon came for me about six, an open wagon or cart, used to carry bacon in, all covered with dirt and grease; gravel spread on the bottom to cover the grease; ride over rough road to hospital; am in a tent, old and ragged, but airy; good breeze. (Small-pox.) (The general was re- tained in Danville till the 26th, when he was sent to Richmond, where he was held till Sept. 24. Evidently he did not like prison life any bet- ter than the rest of us .- A. S. R.)
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August 6. Scrubbed the floor, making it smell better than it did before. Three of us are making a pair of pants out of a shelter-tent.
August 7. Some pork, sent down from the North; black bean soup for supper.
August 8. Soup gave me summer complaint; 9, nothing of note; 10, rations very poor, soup makes us sick; 11, still poor ra- tions; 12, get Richmond Enquirer.
'August 13. Five hundred prisoners came into the prison to- day, mostly from the valley.
August 14. Reading the Bible through; 15, weather very warm; Company K man, Wheater, died last night.
August 16. River water roilly; the best I ever drank of the kind.
August 17. With Dunbar brought water from the river. Got extra loaf of bread.
August 18. Rebs took from us to-day about all we had left, as haversacks, rubber blankets, etc.
August 19. Sick increasing; 25, got a cup of salt and some bread for bringing water.
August 26. A new bake-oven gives us better bread. Some pork instead of rusty bacon.
August 27. Guards bring in fruit, etc., to sell, but it comes high, thus: apples, §2 to $4 per dozen; peaches, $2 to $5 per dozen; onions, $3 to $6 per dozen.
August 29. Surgeon took names of sick and wounded, ex- pecting to send to Richmond for exchange. Wagered an oyster soup with York that we would be out of here in six weeks.
August 30. We were searched again for valuables. About 300 sick and wounded left for Richmond this afternoon; 31, lonesome since others left.
September 6. News of the fall of Atlanta.
September 8. Bet an oyster dinner with Riggs that we should be within our lines six weeks from to-day.
September 9. Rations grow smaller.
September 12. Rebs throwing up rifle-pits across the river, near bridge.
September 13. So cold that many have to walk all night to keep warm.
September 14. Crave fat meat; cold corn-bread with cold water hardly enough; beans not fit to eat.
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September 15. Fifteen men went out of No. 6 to work for the rebels.
September 16. Twenty men are working to-day.
September 19. Allowed to make chip fires, in the yard, for crust coffee and toasted corn-bread.
September 20. Inspected by rebel General Gardner. Squads of sick sent away for parole or exchange.
September 21. Men and negroes are working on fortifica- tions.
September 22. Men are sought for to serve in getting out coal, parole of honor; also men are solicited to enlist in the rebel army.
September 24. One hundred and nineteen men come into No. 1 from No. 6.
September 25. Six hundred new prisoners come into No. 6; hardtack instead of corn-bread.
September 28. Six men detailed to serve as butchers for the prisoners. (We never saw much of their work .- A. S. R.)
September 29. Soup gave all those who ate it a terrible sum- mer complaint. Sorry mess of it.
October 4. Hear it reported that thirty-five prisoners have been sworn into the rebel army.
October 7. Hear that Jeff. Davis was in Danville yesterday. and spoke at the railroad station. (This must have been on the return of Davis from a visit to Augusta to confer with Generals Hardee. Cobb, Beauregard and others .- A. S. R.)
October 10. Men at work on the fortifications make a break: seventy-five of them escape .*
*The leader of this break was Charles F. Porter of the 18th Connect- icut, who for many years has been a fellow member with me in Post 10, G. A. R., in Worcester, Mass. With others he had accepted Major Morfit's invitation to work on the fortifications across the river, with the full purpose of using the opportunity to escape. These same works, Jefferson Davis, in April, 1865, declared to be faultily located and constructed. They began working on the 8th, and on their re- turn to the prison, No. 6, were treated any way but pleasantly by their comrades. On Monday, the 10th, they overpowered the guard and left. Forty-five men made the start towards liberty. Sixteen suc- ceeded in reaching the Union lines. Nine prisoners, including Porter, traveled westward, and, Nov. 30, gave themselves up to General Stoneman, near Knoxville, Tenn. On the 12th of Oct. Colonel Morfit, presumably on account of this outbreak, was relieved of his command in Danville .- A. S. R.
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October 11. One hundred men sent as sick to Richmond.
October 14. With other sick, leave Danville for Richmond at dark; 15-16, Richmond is an improvement on Danville.
October 17. Went down the river on a flag-of-truce boat. Leave it at Aikin's landing; cross one and a half miles to Va- rina. Those who can't walk are carried.
October 18. On Union flag-of-truce boat New York. There are 400 of us; many are dying.
October 19. Start for Annapolis.
October 20. Reached Annapolis before daylight; sick go to St. John's Hospital, others to Camp Parole; 21-24, in hospital; November 3, furlough home. (He did not return to the regi- ment .- A. S. R.)
FROM MONOCACY TO DANVILLE.
The first of three papers, read by the writer of this volume, before the Rhode Island Soldiers and Sailors' Historical Society in Provi- dence, 1889, 1890, 1891.
Captured in battle on Saturday, the ninth day of July, 1864, at Monocacy, or Frederick Junction, Md., the sun was well up his eastern way when we, under Confederate guard and guid- ance, turned our backs on the burning stubble of the battle- field-dotted here and there with the naked bodies of our com- rades slain, and took a road of which we knew only that it led southward. I have since learned that it was called the George- town pike. It wascrooked and dusty; but not so much so as those which we had found in Virginia. A request to go out of the line to satisfy myself as to the identity of a dead man, lying by the fence, is refused by the philosophical guard, who tells me that I am better off without knowing. "For if he is your friend you will have just so much more to trouble you, and so long as you don't know, why, you may think him living. If he is not the man you are thinking of, it isn't worth your time to investi- gate." Such cool reasoning as that I thought worthy of the Mussulmans who burned the Alexandrine Library. At any rate my curiosity and interest were not satisfied. The ascent from the valley is gradual, and as we wend our way, we re- peatedly turn to look at the scene that is to be indelibly painted on memory's canvas. The river; the railroad. with its iron bridge; the turnpike bridge, now smoking in ruins; the big stone mill, near whose base I heard the last order, "Elevate
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your pieces, men"; Colonel Thomas's house, around which the tide of battle had surged the day before, and lastly, the wheat- field, whence on that 9th of July, we had seen two harvests gathered: the one in the early morn of wheat, the staff of life, and the other at eve of men, and the reaper thereof was Death. Every feature of this scene prints itself on our memories, till finally the friendly hill shuts off the view and we can now give ourselves entirely to our immediate surroundings.
Marching in any way, under a July sun, in the Southern states, is not particularly pleasant. In our own lines, where one could to some extent pick his own way, provided he did not straggle too much, a man found walking wearisome; but under the direction of an enemy, whose march was largely a forced one, where we must keep in place and plod along. the course became especially tedious. It soon became obvious, however, that we had more friends among the people whom we met than our guards had. It was a very common thing to find tubs of newly drawn water placed by the roadside to sat- isfy the tormenting thirst engendered by the excessive heat. Of our approach, I suppose the people had been informed by the enemy, who had started very early in his attempt to sur- prise Washington. The kind and sympathetic looks of many dwellers along the road, to say nothing of some pleasant words now and then heard, went far to alleviate the pain of our con- dition.
There were between 600 and 700 of us, many from the 3d Division of the 6th Corps, and others from the one hundred days men whom Ohio had sent into the fray. It was their first and only experience, and many of them were in for a longer stay in rebel prisons than their whole term of enlistment called for. Speaking, once, of the little aid afforded by them at the Monocacy extremity, to a Vermont soldier who did valiant service on that day, he very graphically replied, "Hundred days men! Pshaw! They were only honey to draw the flies." I have many times since wondered whether I did just right in refusing a drink from my canteen to a tall, muscular Ohio man of the above category, who was marching unencumbered by anything save his uniform. "Where is your canteen?" said I. "I threw it away so that I could run," he very candidly an- swered. Moved by everything save admiration I assured him that he might run for his water. I know there was little of
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the Sir Philip Sidney in this reply of mine; but unlike the case of the great Briton and the dying soldier, I did not think his need greater than mine. Our first halt was at a pleasant little village, called Urbana, where a kind citizen, perhaps Columbus Winsor by name, of strong Union sympathies, sets out several barrels of sweet crackers for our comfort, and bids us help ourselves. Many intervening years have not wholly effaced the regret that was mine over my inability to get what I deemed my share of those toothsome morsels, nor my admiration for the man who thus remembered those in bonds as bound with them.
It was while halting here that a rebel major, mounted upon a mule, propounded to me the question as to why the Yankees always called the Southern soldiers "Johnnies." I assured him of my inability to ascribe it to any other reason than the well- known fact that johnny-cake was supposed to be the great source of life in the South. This appeared to him a not un- likely cause, and thereupon entering into general conversation, I found him an exceedingly agreeable gentleman. I soon learned, moreover, that personally there could be very little animosity between the rebels and the men they guarded. The difference lay in the causes that they represented.
We had gone only about four miles from our starting-place, and the time must have been near noon, but the command "Forward" to a soldier, bond or free, is seldom more welcome than the parental summons to arise in the morning is to the farmer's tired and sleepy boy. The country through which we were marching seemed a veritable paradise. Soon after pass- ing through Hyattstown. I picked up a letter. written from Georgia to a relative-I thought a brother-in the rebel army. In this missive the writer distinctly narrated the circumstances of several cases of bushwhacking. He set forth in the shooting of unsuspecting soldiers by concealed civilians, in one case an uncle, for which offense the latter was summarily hanged. He also told of situations where he could have polled one for the Confederacy, but fear of Yankee vengeance, he frankly con- fessed, prevented. This interesting and valuable letter I retained for several days, till, fearful lest finding it in my possession, my captors might think it grounds for ill-treating me, I threw it away, first. however, tearing it up. In these days of general denials of all rebel atrocities and of sympathy with the Rebel- lion. such written testimony as the above would have a particu- lar value.
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Our forward movement is unfraught with special interest until we pass through the hamlet of Clarksburg. Near the out- skirts of the village an aged man is sitting at an open window. the house being very near the street. An elderly lady, appar- ently his wife, is leaning past him with hands extended upon the window-sill. So dust-begrimed are we that I do not wonder at her long mistaking us for a part of the rebel throng which all day long has been passing her door. Suddenly light dawns upon her, and raising her hands, with an astonished tone she exclaims: "Why, they are our men!" At once I eagerly ask. "Who are our men?" "Why, Union men, of course." Utterly heedless of the laws supposed to govern prisoners, we forgot our situation and laughed and cheered. But the nearest guard, not liking such demonstrations, thrust his bayonet through the window and thus drove from sight the good old dame, who seemed to us for the nonce another Barbara Frietchie.
Near here I picked up a copy of army tactics, prepared ex- pressly for those desiring to be examined for commission in colored regiments. I remember well the thought that possibly, during the period of my retention, I might be able to stow away enough military knowledge to enable me to pass suc- cessfully the examinations on my release, but this, too, I dropped the first time we were drawn up to be searched for val- uables, not knowing how my captors might look upon a would- be officer among colored men. For aught I knew, the first man to throw it away did so for reasons similar to mine. To tell the truth I had several spells of carrying books while in the army, spells, however, that became much less intense as the heat and length of marches increased. I found many boys of similar tastes and experiences.
Our first camp was south of Clarksburg, and as our haver- sacks, filled on the field of Monocacy, were yet distended, there was nothing unusual in our preparation of coffee and consump- tion of hard-tack, nor in the refreshing sleep that soon fell upon us.
All the way down our guards had jokingly told us of the gay time expected by them on their entering Washington, remarks that we took more in the spirit of banter than otherwise, hardly thinking it possible that Early would have the temerity to beard the lion in his den. When, however. on the next day. Monday, the 11th, we turned to the left on passing through
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Rockville, we knew that at least a feint was to be made. This was a little before noon, about the time that the Confederates reached the head of Seventh street, and found that the delay at Monocacy had been fatal to success here, for old soldiers from the 6th Corps had reached the Capital in time to save it. He who saw and heard the strife from another standpoint may never know the relief afforded to the people of Washington when those veterans, bearing the Greek cross, marched through their midst. Never till then, I trow, had they appreciated the magic import of the figure seen by Constantine and which he followed to victory. In hoc signo, they felt that they were safe. What confidence the movement of well-tried regiments begets! Taking the place of the government clerks, the hos- pital convalescents and the veteran reserves, these old soldiers were ready to give to the Confederate commander an assurance that he was not Early enough for them. As one rebel told me, the Union men were placed so as to completely entrap the attacking force, and only luck prevented this consummation.
But to my personal observations. Between Rockville and Washington we were drawn up in line and thoroughly searched. Money was the chief object of rebel cupidity, and all that could be found was seized. In expectation of such an event, the men having money had carefully concealed it, so that the net re- sults must have been exceedingly meagre. It was here, thus drawn up, that I first saw ex-Vice-President Breckinridge. I remember him as one of the finest looking men I ever saw. His face was so classically cut, and his eye so piercing, at any distance, that now with an interval of nearly twenty-four years, I can see him as he sat his horse and directed his men. I remember thinking, too, that an ex-vice-president might and ought to be in better business than seeking to destroy the place where, for four years, he had been the recipient of so many honors. In addition to seeing General Early often, we saw Rodes and MeCausland, who were the most conspicuous leaders in this expedition.
The day itself was one of the hottest of a very hot summer, and many, both Federal and Confederate, were overcome by the heat. While traveling this road southeast from Rockville, we saw mortar shells sent up from the defenses, and the curves described by them were most beautiful. Exploding high in air, at times, they gave a superb display of pyrotechnics, though
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I must confess that our admiration was somewhat tempered with apprehension lest "some droppings might fall on us." To be wounded or killed was not longed for at any time, but certainly we didn't fancy blows from the hands of our friends.
The afternoon was half spent when we filed to our left into an apple orchard and were ordered to camp. We had passed Silver Spring, the home of Montgomery Blair, and from the nearness of the firing I concluded that we were pretty close to the head of Seventh street. I recall very vividly that several times during that afternoon, the early evening and the day following, shells from our own batteries went shrieking through the tops of the trees under which we were lying. It required, however, no great acumen to understand that the Confederates were not finding matters to their satisfaction. The noise of the encounter on the 12th was great, and the rebel yell, varied by Union shouts, seemed as vivid as ever. Our Confederate foes must have thought the 6th Corps well- nigh ubiquitous, for they had left behind them the blue cross at Monocacy, and here they were confronted by the same em- blem, though the color was white. The red was there, too, ready for the fight, if necessary. Little did we think then that President Lincoln was himself witnessing the discomfiture of the enemy and the victory of our friends and comrades.
The night of the 12th had shut down upon us and was well advanced when we were ordered out, and this time our faces were set away from the Capital. By the light of Montgomery Blair's burning mansion, we marched away for the Confed- eracy. We then said that the house was destroyed in retalia- tion for the destruction of Governor Letcher's home in Lexing- ton, burned by Hunter; but General Early has since disclaimed any complicity in the matter. He has personally told me that he found, on facing Fort Stevens, that the purpose for which he was sent by Lee had been subserved, i. e., some troops, he knew not how many, had been drawn from Petersburg, and this very arrival, while it blocked his entrance, lessened Lee's dan- ger. He had not, from the moment of finding 6th Army Corps men there, entertained the possibility of getting into Wash- ington. Opposed as we were to the cause of the Rebellion. yet I think we can afford a little praise for this affair, though an unrelenting foe. in his leading his men by forced marches over many hundreds of miles, through a not over friendly
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country in some cases, down to the very Capital of the nation. Nothing but final sucess was wanting to make him the Alaric of the century.
The morning light was breaking when on the 13th we passed, for the second time, through Rockville. It may have been five o'clock, for I know the citizens were beginning to make their appearance, and one good old lady quite touched my heart when, through her glasses, she beamed kindly on me and in the sweetest of voices said, "Good morning." How those two trite, commonplace words, so often misapplied, light- ened the burdens of that long, toilsome day! It was a good morning to me only in the thought that I had seen one kind, sympathetic woman who, as she spoke to me, may have been thinking of a boy of her own, possibly at that moment in dis- tress somewhere in this troubled land. All through the hours of that weary day, at high noon and at sultry eve, still rang in my ears those pleasant tones, so that even when our march was prolonged all through the night, it was still to me, "Good morning."
We halted occasionally for rest and food, but nearly all the time we were in motion. The feet of some of the prisoners be- came terribly sore. Those of Charley R-, of my company, seemed like two big blisters, i. e., as though the sole had quite separated from the foot. Great tears would roll down his face. He couldn't keep them back, but not a whimper did any one ever hear from his lips. At one of our halting-places two of our party, being Lieutenant Burton, of Company B, and W. E. Duckett, of K, succeeded in hiding in some shocks of wheat and made good their escape. Others tried it, but were caught. During the 13th we found our guards not quite so dis- posed to discuss the capture of Washington as they had been on Sunday and Monday. In fact, they were exceedingly wasp- ish, and on very slight provocation shouted, "Dry up, Yank!"
Passing through Poolesville, in the gray of dawn, we came to White's Ford, on the Potomac, only a short distance above the scene of the terrible disaster of Ball's Bluff. The river here is wide and shallow, affording an easy passage so far as the depth of water is concerned. But appearances are often decep- tive, for the bottom of the stream is exceedingly slippery. I profited by the misfortunes of those in front of me. Many. trusting to themselves alone, would undertake the passage.
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but slipping upon a smooth stone covered with weeds, down would go their heads and up would turn their heels, thus giv- ing the soldiers involuntary baptisms. Seeing many instances of this, I joined arms with a like-minded friend and thus brao- ing each other we made the transit, dry as to the upper portion of our bodies. This was on the morn of the 14th, and soon after we went into bivouac at a point called Big Spring, so named from the immense pool of water, the first of the large number of ever-flowing springs that we were to encounter on our march. It was nicely walled about and large enough for a hundred cattle to drink from it at the same time. Here we rested, and for the first time essayed to cook our own food, as our escort had been obliged to do all along. When I contrast the living facilities of the Union and Confederate armies, I am amazed that the latter held out as long as they did. The Northern soldier, when he went into camp, tired from his day's march, made his coffee, ate his hard-tack, perhaps gave it a little relish from the piece of salt pork that he had in his haversack, and in twenty minutes was getting welcome rest from "tired nature's sweet restorer."
But not so his Southern foe. When his bivouac came he had no coffee to boil, unless there had recently been a flag of truce, and there was no bread, hard or soft, for him. In the wagons were numerous long-handled, three-legged skillets, hav- ing heavy iron tops. These must be obtained, and the flour dealt out to them had to be cooked, each mess by itself. As there were not dishes enough for all to cook at once, some had to wait their turn. In fact I learned that during a halt some one was cooking constantly. As they did not carry yeast nor anything like it, and as they had but little salt, it must be seen that their bread would not have offended the most ad- vanced hydropath, nor have troubled a Jew, even during the Feast of the Passover. Our Monocacy rations had given out and we were supplied with raw flour, the result, I suppose, of some part of the Maryland foray. Bread-making, thus, was a new experience to us, and we didn't like it. As for myself I must state that I gave up the skillet entirely, and mixing the flour with as little water as possible, adding what salt I could spare, I strung the dough out something like maccaroni, and having wound this around a stick proceeded to warm it through, holding it over the fire, rather a hot task on a July
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