USA > Ohio > In the 50th Ohio serving Uncle Sam : memoirs of one who wore the blue > Part 5
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As some one has truthfully said, "They warmed our hearts like sunshine and cheered our souls like old wine, give us hope for the future and blotted out the past"; what encouragements and good cheer they gave us; how we did prize those sweet messages ; how we did bless the man that first invented paper, ink and pens. Yes, their letters to us were what the green oasis is to the weary traveler in the desert. They were refreshing and restful. God pity the soldier that has no kind friends to write to him; his lot is a hard one.
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CHAPTER VIII.
Camp at Muldraugh's Hill (Continued) Watching for John Morgan-News of His Capture-We Bid Our Old Camps Good Bye.
The rumor in regard to John Morgan entering Kentucky again proved true, as it was at this time that he started on his famous raid through Kentucky, Indiana and Ohio.
He came in over the Columbia and Lebanon turnpike, the same route that we took our memorial ride after him on New Year's Day. He attacked a small force of our men on the hill south of Green River bridge, and was handsomely repulsed ; leav- ing them, he made his way to Lebanon, where he attacked another small force of our men, and defeated them taking them prisoners, and if I remember rightfully, his brother was killed in this en- gagement.
He marched his prisoners as far as Springfield, a short distance from Lebanon, and there he paroled them, and proceeded on his way. His movements from this on are familiar to all who have read the history of this daring raider, and his bold troops as he had burnt the trestle here on one of his former raids. We all sup- posed he would try the same feat again, and this caused us to be very watchful while he was anywhere near our vicinity. We were called out every morning at 2 o'clock, and would remain in our forts and breastworks until after daylight, and we kept this up, I think, for nearly a week.
One morning during the time, probably the last morning, we were called out. We were lounging about in the fort and rifle pits, and it was just beginning to get daylight when there were three reports like the discharge of cannon following each other in rapid succession at the lower trestle, where the first batallion was encamped ; in an instant every man was on his feet, and in his rightful place in the works. My gun squad rushed to their places, and we run the gun up, and had her muzzle sticking out the port hole ready for business. At first we thought sure that Morgan had opened the ball at the lower camp, and we stood and listened and watched till long after daylight, but all was quiet after those three discharges. We found out at last that the boys were blasting some rocks out of the way down there, and had let them off at that hour in the morning to have a joke on us of the second
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batallion. Well, they had their joke all right, for it raised quite a little breeze among us for a short time.
Some of the boys told the following little joke on a certain captain in our batallion. That morning when the three blasts went off, this captain wished to deploy his men as skirmishers along the rifle pits, but laboring under a little bit of excitement, he for- got his tactics, so he gave the following command: "Company ! as skirmishers, along the breastworks, fly out," but the boys did not move, seeing which, the captain continued: "Fly out, boys, fly out, been in the service for nearly a year and don't know how to fly out yet." Whether the poor captain really used such language or not, I am not prepared to say, but I know the boys run the joke on him pretty strong, and did not permit him to forget it for many a long day.
There had been a bunch of hogs running about our camp for sometime. Lieutenant Colonel Elsner had put up notices, warning the owners if they did not take their hogs away before a certain . date, he would not be responsible for them. The date of the warn- ing had run out, and the hogs were still running about camp in good condition, and Colonel Elsner before dismissing us that morning, gave each company permission to slaughter one of those fat hogs, so if the first batallion did have the joke on us in regards to the rock blasting, we were one ahead of them on the fresh pork business. Thus John Morgan passed us by, and went on his way, but I have no doubt his scouts viewed our camps and fortifications from a distance, and perhaps the General took a peep at them himself. I have sometimes thought that perhaps he would have given us a call if his pursuers had not crowded him so close, but as it was, he had to keep moving for fear the boys in blue would close in on him. Then again I have thought it was not his intention to do much fighting on this raid. Self interest was- the moving cause of his actions. His chief object was plunder ; to astonish the natives, and build up for himself a grand reputa- tion as a daring and fearless raider, in all of which, he was in a manner successful, though in the final wind-up he landed in prison.
But now he had passed beyond our jurisdiction, our camps on Muldraugh's Hill settled down once more to our regular routine duty. The boys once more made their morning calls on Mother Casey under the hill to get their accustomed glass of chain light- ning, and everything and everybody moved along in the same old
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beaten track as before, only we scanned the papers eagerly from day to day to see where the bold riders were, and what they were doing, and must say we were somewhat surprised when we learned they had crossed the Ohio River, and were raiding through the State of Indiana. Then again came the news they had entered our own beautiful State of Ohio, and were forging ahead almost at the gates of the Queen City, and we knew not but what the next news that would be flashed over the wires would be that they had captured the city, and that General Morgan had pitched his head- quarters' tent on Fountain Square. But instead in a few days, we received the joyful news that the Yankee troops had finally cornered the wily rebel chief, and compelled him to surrender and that our General Burnside had assigned Morgan and some of his officers, quarters in the Ohio Penitentiary, where they could rest for a few days in security.
The following appears in a letter to my father, dated July 28th :
"The news of Morgan's capture was received here yesterady with great rejoicing. Yes, we all feel happy over it, for we have all lost more sleep watching for Morgan since we entered the ser- vice than from any other cause. Guess General Burnside will see to it that he won't disturb our rest for a while at least, but he certainly did give our men a race for their money. One big ad- vantage he had being in the lead he got all the fresh horses he wanted, while our forces were obliged to use their jaded animals, almost the entire trip.
Well, it has given the Indiana and Ohio people a little taste of war, and they will have something to think of and talk over for sometime to come.
"There is a rumor in camp today that we are ordered to Mobile, but I judge it came in over the grapevine "Telaliegraph" line, and like a great many other rumors we have had, will prove to be a joke. There are some of the boys who take delight in starting these groundless rumors, as there is a class that is always ready to believe any old tale that is told them, and this is great sport for those who operate the grapevine line."
We found our tents pretty hot in the daytime, toward the last of July and the first of August, so that when we had no duty to perform, we sought the pleasant shade of the trees near camp, and many a letter was written under their cool and sheltering boughs.
All was quiet in our camp on Muldraugh's Hill at this time, except a false alarm now and then when some nervous picket on the outpost would fire on some innocent cow or hog that he would, in his over-wrought imagination, take to be the foe trying to steal
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a march on him. A shot or two by the pickets would alarm the camp and cause us all to be called out under arms, and remain there until the officers of the day would visit the outpost where the firing had taken place, and learn what the trouble was. We had a number of such alarms while guarding those trestles.
In one instance, I remember, the picket fired on and killed an old sow that belonged to Mother Casey, the chain lightning dealer. I do not remember how the matter was settled, but this fatal shot made quite a number of orphans, as the old sow had a nice litter of young pigs at the time.
Some of the boys had a trick of getting down by the railroad with a stick and, as the passenger trains would be passing, knock the passengers' hats off, as they would lean out the windows to get a peep at our camp. Several lost their fine hats in this way before the commanding officers found it out and put a stop to the boys' fun.
I don't want the reader to get the impression that the Fiftieth Ohio boys were any more vicious than the boys in other regiments, but will say that for downright, Simonpure devilishness, the boys of the Fiftieth would keep their end of the log up without over- taxing their muscles a particle. Some of them were just simply bubbling over with mischief at all hours.
A few of the boys would scrap among themselves at times, but the main reason of this, I think I can safely say, was because they got too much of Mother Casey's chain lightning aboard. Two of Company "K's" boys had a small scrap at the supper table one evening and one of them had a hole cut in his head with a rock, and bled like a stuck hog. We none of us sympathized with him a great deal, for he was quite a quarrelsome chap when drinking, and, this day, he had been at Mother Casey's or somewhere else, and was loaded to the guards with chain lightning or "Kill me quick," and that got him into trouble. When he was sober, there was no trouble to get along with him and if there was a hog or sheep anywhere near camp, you could bet your bottom dollar he would have one for his mess, but this stone business settled him down. I do not remember that the boys had any more trouble with him afterwards.
I will just say here, as I will bring him to the front three or four times before I close this story, that his name was Andrew Jackson Culp.
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Many of the boys, while at Muldraugh's Hill, received boxes of eatables and other useful articles from home. The writer was one among the happy number. I say happy because they came to us as pleasant reminders that we were not forgotten by the loved ones at home. Ah! how we did enjoy those good things that mothers' and sisters' dear hands had prepared for us. How vividly did it bring to our minds the picture of that dear old home, as we once more tasted of the pickles, preserves and sweet- meats, that our kindly old mothers had taken such care to pre- pare. In our minds' eye, we could see father, mother, sisters and brothers as they placed those things lovingly in the box; all were interested, all had something to send the absent one.
Yes, we can even imagine we can see the tears as they silently steal down the furrowed cheeks and drop one by one as sweet messages of love to the soldier boy, as he stands on the lonely picket, with the twinkling stars above him, or lays dreaming in his tent in the quiet hours of night, but could they have looked on our happy, smiling faces as we opened and looked on these precious gifts, they would have been well paid for their loving care and thoughtfulness, for our hearts were filled to overflowing with love. gratitude and joy to know that the dear ones at home still thought of the absent ones, and we fully appreciated their thoughtful kindness in sending us these rich gifts as loving tokens of their remembrance.
The following is an extract from a letter I sent home after receiving my box :
"Fort Sands, Big Run Trestle, L. & N. R. R., August 16, 1863.
"Dear Parents, Brothers and Sisters :- I take the opportunity today of answering your very welcome letter I received a few days ago. It was pleasant news to hear you were all in good health. Please accept my thanks for your very nice letter. The box you sent me reached me with the contents all in a good state of preservation. You may rest assured that I thoroughly enjoyed the many good things that you sent me. The sight of them and the taste of them brought thoughts to my mind of the dear old home, and for a moment I could almost imagine that I was in your midst. What made it doubly dear to me, it came as a birthday gift. I was 20 years of age the 8th of August. I con- sider myself almost a man now. I guess I ought to be, as I weigh 180 pounds, and am in perfect health. I am the heaviest man in Company "K."
"Jerry Ammerman's father was here to see him a few days ago. He said he thought the boys looked fine. Jerry is the bass drummer in our band and is a good boy.
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"The weather here has been extremely warm for sometime. We find it pretty hot in our tents in the day time, but pleasant at night.
"I must not close this letter without telling you that I appre- ciated the things you sent me very much, and I thank you all from the depths of my heart for your kind remembrance of the absent one. May pleasant memories of the pleasure and en- joyment they afforded me linger lovingly in my heart while life shall last. May God bless you all is the fervent wish and prayer of your affectionate son and brother."
This will show the reader how we boys in blue enjoyed the good things sent us from our far-away homes, and do not think for a moment we were selfish with them. No, but we shared them with those who were less fortunate than ourselves, and by so doing, we brought a little of our bright and happy sunshine into their dark lives that perhaps would have been sad and dreary with- out it, and let us hope it made them better men and better soldiers.
"Fort Sands, Ky., September 8, 1863:
"We are having very easy times here at present. We have finished fortifying, so all we do is drill about four hours a day, and once a week stand our turn of guard. The balance of the time each one is trying to see how much pleasure and enjoy- ment he can crowd into the few days that we remain here, for there are rumors in the air that our days here are nearly numbered, and none of us know what our destiny will be when we leave this place, but whatever comes to our lot, we will try to meet it as we have in the past, with that earnest zeal and courage that should animate every true soldier of the Union to keep his name un- tarnished and permit that dear old flag that we all love to be trailed in the dust.
"Quite a number of women and young girls from out in the country visit our camps daily to sell us boy's cakes, pies and fruit. We youngsters have our own fun with them. I wish you could see and taste some of the so-called sweet potatoe pies that are brought in here to sell. We make all kinds of sport of them, and tell the women and girls that they made a mistake and put the shortening in the long way. I did buy some custard pies up in Elizabethtown the other day that were all right; they tasted like the ones mother used to make, and I enjoyed them fine. But those we buy here are simply boiled sweet potatoes wrapped up in a little dough, mixed up with water, and placed in an oven or out in the hot sun and dried. You can imagine how they taste, but as the jackass said when he ate the thistles: 'They do to fill up on.'
"Some of the boys did have a habit awhile back of slipping out into the country after roll call at night to court the girls, but the Colonel got onto their game and sent out and had them arrested and put them on double duty and had them digging up
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stumps at his headquarters. That has put a damper on the court- ing biz.
"Lieutenant Pine is at Louisville on Court Martial duty, and Captain McClure is also on detached service somewhere in Ken- tucky. Company "K" is now under command of Lieutenant John McCloe, of Company "I"; he is a Cincinnatian ; a splendid little officer and one that understands his business. There has been no stirring news from the different armies for sometime. Rosy and Burnside are watching Bragg. Stueele is watching Price; Mead is watching Lee, and Gilmore is throwing Greek fire into Charles- ton, so we may reasonably expect a rumpis to be kicked up among some of them before long, as a storm is almost certain to follow a calm."
Well, the rumors that had been flying through our camps for several days that we were going to move was on the 16th day of September fully confirmed, as on that day we received orders to get ready to march, but did not break camp until the 18th, when we marched as far as Elizabethtown and went into camp. It was with many regrets that we took leave of the camps, where we had passed so many happy days, but we were soldiers serving Uncle Sam and must go where those in command thought we could render the best service; so we sadly turned our backs on the old camp grounds, and marched away, bidding each familiar object an af- fectionate farewell. Yes, the time had finally arrived when we must say good bye to Muldraugh's Hill and all her pleasant as- sociations ; no more should we, as lonely sentinels stand on picket on her borders, with no sound to disturb the solitude through the long dreary night hours but the never-ceasing voices of the whippoorwills ; no more shall the hoot of the owl from his perch in the old dead oak startle us from our pleasant dreams in the quiet hour of midnight; farwell all you fair ones, whose bright and happy faces have so often brought joy and gladness into our hearts ; we must leave you, but rest assured wherever we go, we shall never forget the pleasant hours we have passed together, and we trust your good wishes shall follow us; and last, though not least, those of us who have patronized Mother Casey's under the hill, and have so often been regaled by the contents of her old brown jug, have said good bye to her, as we sipped our fare- well drink, while the tears coursed slowly down our cheeks (was it the strength of the liquor, or the thoughts of parting caused them, who shall say?)
Thus we have said our last good byes. Strangers shall now take up the work where we leave it. Mother Casey shall con-
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tinue to retail chain lightning from the same old brown jug, but it will not be our shin plasters that will help to swell her bank account.
The bright smiles of the fair ones shall still bring joy and gladness into the hearts of the boys in blue, but not for us who shall be far away, The whippoorwills shall still continue their all-night concerts, but other ears than ours shall listen to their music; and the solemn old owl, from his station in the oak, shall look down on the strangers and blinking his eyes shall croak : "Who, who are you?"
CHAPTER IX.
We March to Glasgow and Are Then Sent to Nashville-But Return Again to Glasgow.
When we arrived at Elizabethtown, we proudly unfurled Old Glory to the breeze and marched through the town, led by our band, playing national airs, and went into camp just outside the town limits, it was said at the time to await transportation on the cars; this was on Friday afternoon. Saturday, the paymaster ar- rived and paid us off, but as he deducted the last year's clothing account, there were not many of the boys that received much cash, as we had nearly all overdrawn our amount.
I was put on some kind of guard duty on Saturday ; I do not remember now what it was for, but in the dusk of the evening as I was returning to camp through town, in crossing a little bridge, I stumbled over some obstacle and stooping down and picking it up, I found it to be a pair of holster pistols that belonged to Colonel Strickland, or, at least, were claimed by him the next morning, and I turned them over to him, and he never so much as said : "Thank you," for them.
On Saturday, we were told to be ready to march Sunday morn- ing at 7 o'clock, so I suppose the transportation rumor was one of those grapevine "Telaliegrams."
"Glasgow, Ky., September 24, 1863.
"We left Elizabethtown Sunday morning at 7 o'clock, march- ing till noon, when we halted for dinner at Camp Nervine at the Red Mills on Nolin Creek. After resting an hour, we resumed our march until night, when we went into camp on Williams'
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branch, Larue County ; distance from Elizabethtown, twenty miles. Next morning, again took up the line of march and at noon crossed Bacon Creek and halted for dinner. After a good rest, we again forged ahead and, at night, reached Mumfordsville on the Green River. We camped below the town in an orchard, and Colonel Strickland treated us to all the beer we wanted to drink. There are several forts around the town and I was told there had been several skirmishes taken place here. It is not much of a town.
"On the morning of the 22nd, we again resumed our march. We were halted to rest a short distance from Mumfordsville, in front of what appeared the residence of a well-to-do farmer. Colonel Strickland and his staff officers seated themselves on the porch, and were conversing very pleasantly with the farmer, when a servant appeared and announced that some of the soldiers had paid a visit to the meathouse, and that there was a ham missing. Colonel Strickland at once became very indignant, and had the regiment called up into line and searched, but no ham was found. So we resumed our march, the boys singing a song, only a few words of which I now recall, and they were: 'Johnnie stole the ham, way down in Alabam.'
"At noon we reached Cave City and halted for dinner, and I think it quite likely the Colonel had fried ham for his dinner. Cave City is not far from the famous Mammoth Cave that we had read and heard so much about. I was told there are quite a num- ber of caves hereabout, and it is for that reason the town has been named Cave City.
"After dinner, we once more took up the line of march, and camped for the night on the banks of Beaver Creek, two miles from Glasgow, and yesterday, the 23rd, we came on into town. There are several regiments here at present, but we are not likely to remain here very long, for the air is full of flying rumors. Will try and keep you posted at home by letter wherever we go.
"We had a very nice march. The country was mostly level that we passed through. We had our knapsacks hauled, and that was quite a relief to us. The distance from here to Eliz- abethtown, I am told, is sixty-five miles.
"You shall hear from me again in a few days."
"Nashville, Tennessee, September 27, 1863.
"The very night after writing you all that letter from Glasgow, we received marching orders, and next morning at daylight we were on the move, and at noon we reached Cave City; distance from Glasgow, twelve miles. We halted and remained there until late in the evening. We were then put aboard the cars, and early yesterday morning, we arrived in Nashville. They have a fine State House here, and what little I have seen of the country around here I am delighted with it. There are several large forts built here ; some of them bombproof, but while the country pleases me, there is an element among the inhabitants here at this time
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that is inclined to be pretty tough, but, as you well know, I never mingle with that class if I can avoid it, but it is almost impossible for a soldier to avoid it always. There is a strong talk in camp that a part of our regiment will be sent back to help guard the railroad between here and Elizabethtown."
"Nashville, Tennessee, October 8, 1863.
"There are but five companies of our regiment here at the present time. Three companies are at Galatin and the other two are at different places guarding the railroad. There are not many troops here at present, and guard duty is pretty heavy. We have. a line to picket around Nashville said to be twenty miles in length. Our five companies guard five miles of the line ; that brings us on duty every third day. I see plenty of rebels here, but they are tame. There is a jail full of them near our camp.
"By the way, it is just a year ago today since we received our first introduction to the Rebs at Perryville, Ky. They did not impress me at that time as being very polite.
"I may not be here when you hear from me again, for as usual the camp is full of rumors."
We did not remain in Nashville many days, and I do not know as any of the boys regretted leaving there, for the guard duty was rather hard on us. Then again it was hardly safe for a man in Nashville at this time to appear on the streets after night, especially if he had any valuables on his person, for the toughs would hold him up and rob him, and, to tell the truth, he was fortunate if he got away with his life. This mugging or robbery came very near causing trouble between the Fiftieth Ohio and another regiment near us one night, but fortunately it was settled without bloodshed, but for a time the outlook was bright for a drawn battle between the two regiments. I believe the trouble arose over a man being knocked down and robbed between the two camps.
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