USA > New York > The last campaign of the Twenty-second regiment, N.G., S.N.Y. June and July, 1863 > Part 2
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We had heard, it is true, from passing buggies, and strag-
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gling squads of paroled prisoners, that the village itself had been evacuated ; but all had united in asserting that the rebels were still very near, several stating that they were just on the outskirts of the place. Under these circumstances an ordinary mind would think that there was no necessity for hurrying. The Reserves were " gone in," and if there was the least danger, common sense required that the men should be brought into the city as fresh as possible ; but our commander did not see things in that light, and consequently walked de- liberately into a trap, which came within a hair's breadth of proving fatal to the whole command.
- The skirmishers had been called in before this, and the march had been rapid ; it now became "forced." That meant, in this instance, a march pursued without regard to the health, comfort or fatigue of the troops, against the ex- postulations of the surgeons ; where speed is such an object that everything must be disregarded, and well or ill, suffering or not, the men must push on.
And we did push on, and from our halt, more than ten miles from Carlisle, till we prepared to meet the enemy in the city, no rest was allowed. When we arrived at Kingston, a small but patriotic village on the road, where the women stood at their doors with piles of bread and apple butter, all expected, as a matter of course, that we would be allowed to rest and eat something ; but notwithstanding that no rations had been received since the morning of the previous day, (except a little bread obtained by a few of the lucky ones at Hogestown), and although it was now noon, yet our Brig- adier refused to allow a moment's halt, and the men were compelled to close up and march away from the food that stood ready for them. Any one who thinks this was not a sacrifice had better try the experiment.
For a little while the march continued as usual. Thirteen
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miles passed ; a few quietly dropped out ; all were growling, not loud but deep. Fourteen, more vacancies-fifteen-the weather growing oppressive with the sultry heat of mid-day. No shade, no water, no rest; no complaining now, but men dropping out with frightful rapidity. All those who were not pure " grit" had given in previously, and from this time every man kept up till he fell from sheer exhaustion. On ' every side you would see men flush, breathe hard, stagger to the side of the road and drop almost senseless ; but still the column went on.
At one time the entire left wing of the Thirty-seventh, on arriving at the crest of a hill, rebelled, and halted where they stood. It would have been well if the whole brigade had followed their example ; but as the Twenty-second pressed on, regimental pride was aroused, an officer snatched up the colors and rushed forward, cheering on his men ; and closing up as best they could, every man, able to walk, rallied himself once more, and pushed forward. Colonel Roome, of the Thirty-seventh, gave out carly, exhausted by illness and the fatigues of the previous day, but followed his regiment in a wagon ; and many other officers were compelled to imitate his example. But as there were neither ambulances nor wagons, nothing in truth for the' transportation of the sick but what could be picked up on the road, the great majority of the disabled not only here but throughout our subsequent march, had to be left where they gave out.
We finally halted a mile from Carlisle, and formed into line of battle to repel an attack from the rebels, then found to be in the vicinity. But in place of the two regiments, that started eleven hundred strong, only about three hun- dred men could be mustered on halting, and even these were almost completely exhausted ; while the remainder of the brigade were stretched in groups along the roadside, striv-
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ing to collect their scattered forces sufficiently to enable them to overtake the column, and seven men in the Twenty- second reported by the surgeon as ruptured, afforded an ad- ditional proof, if one were necessary, of the severity of the march.
The mere distance marched was not so great, as neces- sarily to have produced such a result, the same troops sub- sequently marched much farther without a tithe of the suffer- ing, but it was a great mistake to compel militia, exhausted by previous labor and privation, to undergo such an ordeal without food or rest, and its effect on the morale and dis- cipline of the troops can readily be conceived by any one.
At last the march was finished, and we were at Carlisle, but so were the rebels. For awhile there was mounting in hot haste, riders galloping back to hurry up strag- glers ; and the brigade rapidly formed into line, amid hurried consultations of field officers, muttered curses from captains who, like Rachel, mourned for their companies "because they were not," and the other unmistakable signs which in- dicate nervous anxiety at headquarters. After an hour or so spent on tenter-hooks, somebody told somebody some- thing which resulted in our marching ahead, expecting to have to fight at any moment. But no enemy exhibited himself, and passing through the principal street of Carlisle, we raised the American flag amid great enthusiasm.
Blessed be Carlisle-almost the only place since leaving Philadelphia where cheering had been heard. We could not appreciate too highly the grateful reception we met. The hurrahs of the men, the smiles and waving handkerchiefs of the ladies, made us feel that patriotism still existed in the state ; and when the tired and hungry men were shown to a substantial meal in the merket-house, and waited on by the ladies of the village (who) utterly eclipse any seen on the
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route for good looks as well as hospitality), it was unani- mously resolved that " Mahomet's paradise was a fool to Car- lisle."
Having made some slight amends for their two days' fast, the Twenty-second marched through the city (without finish- ing their supper), having been ordered to support our friends, the Philadelphia battery, in a plan that had been formed at headquarters for cutting off a rebel detachment supposed to be around somewhere ; a supposition that was strictly correct, for a very short time showed that they were all around us. On the way to the position-refreshed and almost as good as new -- uproarious cheers were given for the ladies of Carlisle, the Thirty-seventh, Colonel Roome, for everything, in fact, except our Brigadier, whose approach, from that time forth, was the signal for the deadest kind of silence. A slight which, on this occasion, clicited from that neglected individ- ual an order forbidding " this ridiculous (?) habit of cheer- ing." Circumstances, you know, alter cases.
On reaching the crest of a hill, about two and a half miles south of the village, the artillery was placed "in battery," while the Twenty-second, now pretty well filled up by the arrival of those who had given out from the privation and heat of the march, formed line of battle as supports, and it niay be remarked, as an instance of the pluck and the fatigue of the men, that, though an engagement was momentarily ex- pected, more than three quarters of the rank and file coolly lay down in their places and went to sleep. An hour passed, and the heavy boom of a cannon, and the explosion of a shell, brought even the most weary to their feet. Nothing was to be seen in front ; but the thick columns of smoke ascending from Carlisle, the bright flashes of light and the frequent reports of artillery from the surrounding hills, showed us that the rebels had surrounded the place in overwhelming
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force, and, without affording to the helpless women and children an opportunity to escape, had commenced to shell the town.
Fortunately the moon had not yet risen, and the dusk of the evening concealed us as we stealthily crept back. On arriv- ing we learned that a dash of cavalry had been made into the town, the government barracks and the gas-house fired, and the batteries had at once opened, without further warn- ing. As there were inside, at that time, not more than eight hundred men, and one battery of four guns, and the attacking force numbered four thousand, with a much heavier force of artillery, things commenced to look as though our present journey would be continued via Richmond ; but happily our division commander, General W. F. Smith, proved himself here, as everywhere else, fully equal to the emergency. While a portion of the Twenty-second were deployed as skir- mishers on the flanks of the town, covered by sharpshooters, posted in the windows of the adjoining houses, behind which the artillery were placed, the centre of the town was protected by a force, mainly composed of the recent arrivals, concealed behind the heavy stone wall of the village cemetery. The Thirty-seventh, divided in like manner, were scattered around so as to make the largest possible show-some Rc- serves were also there -- everywhere they should not have been-who were rushing around indiscriminately, and aggra- vating the Thirty-seventh tremendously by disturbing their ranks in so doing.
For the purpose of protecting our flanks, it was found requisite that out-lying pickets or scouts should bo sent as far out to the front as they could go, to give all the notice possible of any advance of the enemy. The service was one of such danger, and the assurances of being "gobbled" by the rebels so great, that the cavalry detailed for that duty
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refused to perform it. Colonel Aspinwall, hearing of this, offered to supply their places. The offer was accepted, and a detail was made from Company D, who were stationed in the vicinity, guarding the barricade across the road. The three men selected, at once advanced without hesitation, and spent the whole night alone, in the extreme front, patrolling the approaches ; and performed their difficult and arduous duty in such a manner as to earn a special compliment from Captain King of the Fourth regulars, the division chief of artillery.
Why our friends, the enemy, did not attack and capture the whole party of us remains a mystery to this day-but it is conjectured that some skirmishers of the Thirty-seventh, who were captured at the commencement of the fight, being no way daunted thereat, coolly told such huge stories about the First Division N. Y. S. M., as to " bluff " their captors. It was very evident, at least, that the rebels were wholly in the dark (figuratively as well as literally) respecting the position of our forces ; and being compelled to fire at random, threw their shell around in a manner most disagreeable to witness from our end of their cannon. After at least two hours' rapid firing, the rebels sent in a flag of truce, demand- ing the surrender of the place, very kindly allowing some fif- teen minutes for the women and children, whom they had not already killed, to leave the town to escape the " certain de- struction" which was threatened (à la Beauregard) if the request was refused ; but refused it was by Gen. Smith, in terms more forcible than polite ; so the batteries reopened.
It had now become a clear moonlight night ; a portion of the artillery was so near that the commands of the officers could be distinctly heard, and the incessant flash and roar of the guns, the " screech" of shells flying overhead, and the heavy jar of their explosion among the buildings in the rear, seemed strangely inconsistent with the calm beauty of the
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scene. At times it seemed doubtful whether the incessant uproar was really the bombardment of a quiet village ; for, during the momentary pauses of the cannonade, the chirp of the katydid, and the other peaceful sounds of a country summer night, were heard as though nature could not realize that human beings had sought that quiet spot to destroy each other.
It must not be supposed that any such sentiment, orrin fact any sentiment whatever, was exhibited on our part ; quite the contrary, for as soon as it became evident that no immediate attack would be made, the men, whether crouch- ing at the house windows, or lying on their faces in the wet grass of the cemetery, went to sleep with a unanimity charm- ing to witness ; the heaviest shelling only eliciting a growl from some discontented private, that "it was a blasted humbug for the rebs. to try to keep a fellar awake in that manner ;" the remark ending generally in a prolonged snore that proved the unsuccessfulness of the attempt.
Some time before dawn, preparations were made to receive the attack, which was expected to follow the instant that the first streak of daylight discovered our position. Officers bustled nervously around, the sleepers were cautiously awakened, and all stood to arms with the stern determina- tion to resist to the bitter end ; but judge of our gratifica- tion, when the shelling gradually ceased ; and in a short time the announcement that the rebels had retreated, gave us an opportunity to look around, and ascertain the damages.
From the incessant uproar, the scream and report of the bursting shells, the glare of the flames, the smashing of buildings, and the other sounds incident to a bombardment, which had greeted our ears during the preceding night, the general expectation in the morning was to find the town a heap of ruins, and the great majority, both of troops and inhabitants, bleeding in the streets.
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Never was there a greater mistake. It was really wonder- ful to think that so much cold iron could be fired into a place and cause so little loss of life and limb. To be sure much property had been destroyed, any amount of houses struck, many greatly damaged, and roofs and windows generally looked dilapidated enough ; but, as in the other bombard- ments of the war, the destruction had been far from universal, and the escape of the occupants perfectly miraculous.
:. The citizens, concealed in their cellars, and the soldiers lying flat behind the cemetery walls and in the fields, had almost entirely escaped the iron tempest ; shells had gone under and over any amount of people, but had really hit very few. Some of the townspeople were hurt, but the exact number is unknown. A few of the Reserves who were rushing around the streets, instead of obeying orders and keeping under cover, suffered heavily; the Thirty-seventh, always un- lucky, had some hurt ; while the Twenty-second, with more than their usual good fortune, got off with one or two slightly bruised. The rebel loss is almost unknown, but is supposed to have been severe.
As soon as it was definitely known that the rebels had re- treated, the brigade, dispensing with the little formality of breakfast, marched to the top of a hill, about a mile south of the town ; and after forming line of battle in an oat-field, the men, exhausted by the twenty-five miles' march of the pre- ceding day and the fatigue of the night, with one accord, lay down in the blazing sun and slept till late in the afternoon.
About four o'clock some breakfast (or rather supper), in the shape of a little pork and potatoes, was found; but just as we were getting ready to cat, the dulcet notes of the "assembly" burst upon our unwilling ears, and we had to " fall in," din- uer or no dinner. Of course we obeyed ; but not relishing the il a of marching away from the only meal that had been seen
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for twenty-four hours (a thing which we had been compelled to do more than once before), a grand dash was made at the pans ; and the regiment fell in and marched off, every man with a piece of pork in one hand and a potato in the other eating away for dear life, and forming a tout ensemble not often equalled.
With the exception of a little picket duty, that night and the next day were spent in camp opposite the ruined barracks, and were devoted by all hands to the most energetic resting. To some, the day was blessed by the receipt of their overcoats and rubber blankets. Happy few ! But their joy only mado more melancholy the condition of the great majority whose portables still remained behind, safely stowed in Harrisburg ; so safely, that as far as the owners were concerned, they might as well have been in New York ; so safely, in fact, that the owners of one half of them never found them again. In truth, from the commencement of our " two hours" march until we arrived in New York (just three weeks), neither officers nor privates were ever enabled to change even their under cloth- ing, but soaked by day and steamed by night in the suit they wore the day they started ; a suit which, consequently, in no very long time assumed an indescribable color and condition. Many managed, by hook or by crook, during our subsequent marches, to bog, borrow, or "win," some rubber blankets ; but at least one in six were without that indispensable article, whose absence renders camp life "a lengthened misery long drawn out," and more than one in four were without over- coats; while plates there were none ; spoons were very scarce ; and the use of such things as forks, combs, and even soap, was utterly forgotten, nor could they be procured. Soap, for instance, we would think could be obtained anywhere ; but unfortunately the rebels entertained a notion that if they only washed they would be clean ; an idea which any one, who
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ever saw them, will admit to be too preposterous to require contradiction. But preposterous or not, they acted up to it, and immediately on entering a place proceeded to appropri- ate every square inch of soap that could be found therein; so that when we came along a few days afterward, nothing saponaceous could be obtained for love or money, and in con- sequence, the absence of that essential frequently compelled us to imitate the habits of our "Southern brethren" much closer than was agreeable.
Our stay in Carlisle was pleasant-very pleasant-for in addition to the hospitable treatment we received as individu- als, our regiment was honored by the presentation of a flag from the ladies of the city. But we could not stay there al- ways; and at reveille, on the glorious Fourth of July, without seeing as much as a single fire-cracker, or hearing an allusion to the American cagle, or the flag of our Union, we turned our backs on civilization and marched for the mountains, ta- king a bee-line for Gettysburg, where, although unknown to us, the greatest battle of the war was raging. General Smith having previously detailed the Twenty-second to remain as a guard for the city, we came very near being ingloriously left behind ; but, at the urgent request of Colonel Aspinwall, and to our own infinite gratification, we were permitted to accom- pany the column to the front.
We now formed a portion of a division commanded by Gen. W. F. Smith, composed of that portion of the New York mili- tia formerly stationed in the vicinity of Harrisburg, and who had joined us at Carlisle, consisting, I believe, of the Eighth, Eleventh, and Seventy-first regiments of New York, the Tenth, Thirteenth, Twenty-third, Twenty-eighth, Forty- seventh, Fifty-second, and Fifty-sixth of Brooklyn, the Sev- enty-fourth and Seventy-fifth of Buffalo, and one or two others from the interior of the state, besides two Philadelphia
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batteries, a few Pennsylvania troops, and the regular cavalry from the Carlisle barracks ; and from this time until our return our adventures became identical with those of the whole division.
The day was clear and beautiful, the roads good, and, as we reached the mountains, the scenery became magnificent. General Smith himself directed our progress, and everything seemed propitious. By noon we had accomplished twelve miles almost without fatigue, and took our noonday rest (for under an officer who understood himself, this essen- tial was not tabooed) in the shade of the woods which fringed one of the mountain passes, cagerly seeking information about the battle, which we now learned was in progress, and this time our information was from authentic sources. About three thousand paroled prisoners (principally of the first corps of the Army of the Potomac, captured in the first day's fight at Gettysburg, and released on the Carlisle road, because the rebels had too much on hand to look after prisoners), passed us during the day, in a steady stream ; and from them we learned that we were but one day's march from the battle -. field, and would probably be able to turn the scale of victory if we arrived in time.
So eagerly were we engaged in discussing the chances of the battle, and seeking to reconcile the different accounts we re- ceived, that no one noticed a change in the weather, until the rapid drift of black clouds overhead, and the dull sighing of the trees, warned us that rain was close at hand; in the midst of hurried preparations it came -- not a rain, but a deluge. Hour after hour, in steady perpendicular sheets, the rain descended. In vain were all the ingenious contrivances of leaves and boughs ; in five minutes overcoats were soaked ; in ten. shelter tents sheltered nothing but small lakes; in fifteen, even rubber blankets were useless ; and in less than
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half an hour all were united in the common misery of a thorough ducking. In an incredibly short time, the whole scene was changed : what was formerly the road had been converted, by a stream from the hills, into a torrent mid-leg decp, through which the released prisoners trudged with all the coolness of veterans ; the woods, banks-everything, was flooded with lakes and waterfalls ; and in front, bridges ren- dered insecure, and fords impassable, showed what old Aqua- rias could do when he set fairly to work.
One or two brigades in the advance, suspecting what was coming, pushed on and crossed the ford over Yellow Breeches creek before the worst had come ; but by the time our brigade was ready to follow their example, the creek was no longer fordable, and we were obliged to wait some time before it was safe to attempt to get over; and even though the men event- ually crossed, the baggage, on account of either the ford or the bridges, stayed behind ; thereby acquiring a habit of doing so, which subsequently interfered very seriously with our comfort.
After long waiting, the waters subsided sufficiently to allow us to proceed, and the regiment started, drenched to the skin, but glad enough to get anywhere, if it was only away from those woods; and pushing rapidly forward, a short march over flooded roads gullied by the rain, brought us to what was called the ford.
The popular idea of a "ford" is a clear, shallow sheet of water, more or less broad ;-- at least we expected to see some- thing of the kind. The actual ford we marched up to was a thick wood, filled with tangled thickets, logs, and the name- less floating things of a freshet, through which a mountain torrent, a hundred yards wide, tore and plunged like a mad thing. An hour before it would have been madness to cross ; but now, by felling a few trees across the deepest
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holes, it had been made practicable, though exceedingly diffi- cult, to get over. With pants rolled up as high as they could be coaxed (producing a most extraordinary appearance, as may well be imagined) the troops-by a series of climbing over the stumps, balancing along the slippery and unsteady logs which bridged the holes where the current was too swift and deep to be waded, creeping gingerly with bare legs through thorny thickets, and anon struggling waist-deep through the turbid stream, whose rapid current was filled with floating logs, which inflicted most grievous "wipes" on the extremities of the forders, besides rendering it almost impossible to stand without assistance-proceeded to cross.
Notwithstanding the unpleasantness of the operation, the frequent duckings and the no less frequent bruises from stumps and floating timber, the sight was so supremely ridic- ulous that the misery was forgotten in the fun. Roars of laughter greeted those unfortunates-and their name was legion-who, in their endeavor to keep piece, cartridge-box, coat-tails and other "impedimenta" out of the water, forgot about their footing, until they were reminded by a plunge from a slippery stump, head over cars into the depths of the stream, that that was the first, not the last point, to be kept in mind.
A short distance from the ford a halt was ordered, where the men collected as they struggled over ; each company building huge fires and trying to render themselves a little less uncomfortable. Vain thought ! Scarcely had the fires begun to throw a more cheerful light on the scene, when " Brigade, forward !" was heard from the front, and turning our backs on the comforts we had hoped for, we squattered up the road. "Squattered" is rather a singular word, but it is the only one available to describe the mode of progres- sion up that road. And such a road ! Considered a bad road in fine weather, in a region where there are no good
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