USA > Ohio > The Fourteenth Ohio national guard- the Fourth Ohio volunteer infantry > Part 7
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As soon as the men became efficient in the ordin- ary drills, their education in warfare was broadened by long marches. The regiment, or sometimes only bat- talions and even companies were formed and often started out on various sorts of expeditions. At one time the First Battalion was given sealed orders and a day's rations and told to pack up and go to McFarland's gap to see how many men could be forced through it in a given length of time under certain circumstances. They were instructed to ascertain the best route to the gap and also other routes, and it was made a part of their duty to make a topographical map of the country through which they passed. In a day or two after that the Second Battalion was started in a different direc- tion and then the Third Battalion was given similar orders. Companies were taken out to be drilled in "extended order," and often the drill was "extended" to the furthermost parts of the park. Many an imaginary foe was driven from its position by a terrific
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charge up Snodgrass hill, one of the more elevated points of the park.
On several occasions the whole regiment and even the whole brigade was taken out on such expeditions. Two divisions once formed two armies to oppose each other in a sham battle. The men were given pro- visions and blank cartridges and the division to which the Fourth Ohio belonged was started out to find the other division and drive it from its position. This was fun in a way, but the battle came very near to being more than a mere "sham."
The lines of battle were formed much as they would have been in an enemy's country and started through the camp. All went well until Captain White and his company (B) started to pass through the camp of a Pennsylvania battery. The sentry on one of the posts thought that he should not permit the grass to be trampled upon promiscuously in his camp and he promptly ordered Company B to halt. The company had not made a reputation for halting unless so ordered by its captain and the boys of Company B were not disposed in any way to break the record on this occasion. Consequently they did not halt and the Pennsylvanian called out "the guard." The guard responded very well and so did the officer of the guard, but Captain White ordered his company forward. It seemed for a moment that something would happen, and even as it was Sergeant Hunt would have been thrust with an artillery sabre had it not been for the plate buckle on his belt. While this was going on Colonel Coit came up and put the officer of the Penn-
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sylvania guard under arrest and the company went on, winning the first blood for the regiment in the Spanish war.
The battle must have been very interesting to the officers who occupied a cool position at the top of the hill, where they could see all the operations, but it was not so pleasant for the fellows who had to move from one point to the other under the rays of the boiling Georgia sun. The enemy was duly discovered and fired upon, but the officers in charge decided the battle in favor of the defense.
The funniest part of the whole expedition oc- curred after the battle had been declared off and the troops started back to camp. The general and his staff were completely lost. In some way they had wan- dered out in the bushes to "reconnoiter" and before they were aware they could not find the way back to the line of march. The line waited some time, but no officers appearing, Colonel Coit assumed command of the brigade and took them back to camp.
One of the lessons in the art of war which was thought to be among the more valuable, was the in- struction in the quickness and regularity of forming camp. Companies at first and then battalions and the regiment was taken out to the parade ground and ex- ercised in the setting up of shelter tents. By the execution of given orders it became possible, after a few days' practice, for the Fourth Ohio to stop from the march, stack arms, set up their tents and arrange a regular camp in less than five minutes. Then at the sounding of the "general," the bugle signal for
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breaking camp, the regiment could be formed and ready for marching in almost as remarkably quick time.
Had the regiment engaged in the long campaign, which, at that time seemed more than probable, this drill would certainly have been very valuable, but as it was, shelter tent camps were only pitched at Newport News on the morning of arrival there and near Guayama on the evening of August 13. On neither occasion was there any particular haste required and on neither occasion did every man of the command have his shelter tent.
No one who lived at the camp will ever forget the way in which the surface of Chickamauga park was disturbed by the fatigue details. If a man did not respond to roll call without an excuse, or if he violated the thousand and one other rules of camp, he was slated for a fatigue detail. In charge of a non-com- missioned officer, the men were given picks and shovels and put to work digging sinks. There were sinks from four to seven feet deep for all imaginable pur- poses and many a hard day's task was required to com- plete them.
As it had been at Camp Bushnell and as it is in all military camps, there were all sorts of rumors floated at all times. Strange to say, the further from the probable truth the rumors were, the more believers they had. Many of these rumors, however, were well founded. Headquarters actually furnished material for a large majority of them, and what part of the re- mainder the newspapers did not supply the fertile
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brain of some designing soldier did. Orders came in one day to prepare to move on the next. The prepara- tions would be made and then the order was revoked, only to be succeeded by another order within a day or two. It was at one time intended to send the regiment to Cuba, and shortly before the first expedition was started for Cuba the strength of the regiment was in- creased to 106 men to each company. Officers were sent back to Ohio to do the recruiting. Battalion Adjutant Harry W. Krumm represented the first bat- talion, Captain W. L. Vincent the second and Major John L. Sellers the third. The recruits had not been drilled into thorough soldiers when orders came to drop certain of them in order to reduce the strength of the regiment, and thus it went until the expedition to Cuba had left and Santiago had fallen.
The receipt of the news of this event was the oc- casion of great demonstrations in Chickamauga park. Headed by the band and the regimental colors, the officers of the regiment called at brigade headquarters to congratulate General Haines. After paying their respects to the general they proceeded to the camp of the Fourth Pennsylvania, where they were joined by the drum corps and the officers and men of that regi- ment and a parade was formed through the Fourth Ohio camp to the Third Illinois. Here the bands played, the men cheered and each of the three colonels made addresses. After all had quieted down, the men went to their tents to drown their sorrow at not being able to help, in the solitude of their tents.
After the fall of Santiago, rumors came thick and fast. Orders were likewise numerous, but the plan
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of issuing and immediately revoking orders was con- tinued, so that things generally were in a very un- settled condition to say the least. Finally an order came which was never revoked. This order directed the Second brigade to take transportation at Rossville, a small station between Lytle and Chattanooga, and from there proceed through Lexington, Kentucky, to Newport News, Virginia, where transportation would be in waiting to take the regiment to Porto Rico under an expedition in command of General Brooke. So many orders had been received and then revoked that the men did not really believe that they would leave the park at all, hence the order did not create a con- siderable stir. Travel rations, of which more will be said later on, were issued to the regiment and all the baggage packed and made ready to be transported. No one was to be left behind on this expedition and everybody was happy.
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CHAPTER VIII.
TO NEWPORT NEWS, VIRGINIA.
The March to Rossville-To Chattanooga-Delays-The Trip Through Kentucky-Receptions Along the Line- Up the Alleghenies-Peep at Piedmont Valley-"On to Richmond"-At Newport News-A "Pup Tent" Camp- Reception-Dynamite Guns-Company F Becomes a Battery-Changes of Officers-Delays and More Ru- mors-Transport "St. Paul"-Transferring Baggage- Waiting Orders-Off to Sea.
On the morning of July 22, the camp of the Fourth Ohio at Chickamauga park ceased to exist. To the music of the most stirring tunes which the band could play, the boys bid farewell to the camp that had been their home for sixty-seven days. The road over which the march was made to Rossville was probably the worst that the most of the men had ever seen. The dust was from three to eight inches deep and when the feet of the men struck the bottom, the dust raised so thick that it was utterly impossible to distinguish persons four feet away. It can well be imagined that the men suffered terribly under these circumstances, but the number who dropped out of ranks was very small. Considering the dust, the con- dition of the weather and the rate at which the march was started, the Fourth Ohio made a record in that march of which they may well feel proud.
Thev reached the station in good time, but it was late before the train reached Chattanooga and
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even then the delays were almost innumerable, so that it was long after morning of the next day when the train bearing the Fourth reached Lexington. The route thus far had been over the "Queen and Crescent" line, but at this point the trains were transferred to the line of the Chesapeake and Ohio. Quite a number of Ohio people had come as far as Lexington to take a final farewell to the boys they loved so well, and when the heavy-laden trains steamed out of Camp Bradley to the cheer of the boys of the Fourth Kentucky who were camped there, many were the eyes that were moistened with an impulsive tear and many were the misgivings that prevailed within an heroic breast.
The route from Lexington covered the most pic- turesque section of beautiful Kentucky. The line of the railway stretched through the heart of the blue- grass region and then plunged into the heart of the massive Kentucky hills as though the fate of the war itself was actually in the hands that held the throttle. The panarama thus stretched before the view of the boys who were going forth to do battle, certainly did a great part in teaching them what a grand and beautiful country they were really fighting for.
At Ashland a large party of Portsmouth people came down to see the boys of Company H. They came with well-filled baskets and the soldiers disposed of them in regulation military style.
An amusing circumstance occurred here which served the people of Portsmouth as a lesson in the ap- propriating powers of the soldier. The train was di-
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vided into three sections, one battalion to each. Com- pany H being part of the second battalion was there- fore aboard the second section, but the Portsmouth enthusiasts had not been apprised of that fact. Going up to the first section a pretty Buckeye maid handed up a large basket to one of the boys whose head hung out of the car window and sweetly asked him to give the basket to "my brother." "Why certainly," re- plied the gallant soldier, and reaching down, he pulled into the car one of the handsomest "layouts" that ever came into the view or the stomach of a hungry in- fantryman. Another maid had a cousin for whom she had a basket and the same hard hearted rascal agreed to deliver that basket also, and then the third came from a blushing lass of nineteen who simply wished to remember "a friend." An officer happened just then to see what was going on and the game was spoiled, but there were three baskets of picnic dinner divided among a half dozen Fourth Ohio soldiers be- fore the train had left Kentucky soil, and that officer was not one of the half dozen either.
Just before dusk the train passed along the Ohio river and the men involuntarily flocked to the west side of the train to take a last sight of their native state. The blue Ohio hills stretched away into the lengthening shadows with a grandeur they were never known before to have possessed, and with three lusty cheers for the grand old Buckeye state, the train pulled into West Virginia.
At Huntington, where the first stop was made, a glad surprise was made a feature of the whole trip.
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The history of the regiment as a National Guard or- ganization was known in Huntington and the people of that town did honor to its members by meeting them at the station with hot coffee and fresh sand- wiches for all. The train stopped some minutes for the reception, which was enlivened by a band concert and the exchange of three cheers and a "tiger" for the Fourth Ohio by the Huntingtonians and for the same compliment by the regiment for their West Virginia friends. While this was going on the boys on the train and the girls on the platform were trading roses, fans, handkerchiefs and hair ribbons for brass buttons, hard tack and all sorts of souvenirs.
It was dark when the train bearing the first bat- talion left Huntington, hence there was little interest to the trip from that on until daylight. The train made slow progress in getting up the steep grade during the night, some of the connections being rather bad, so that it was necessary to make numerous stops for repairs. Daylight found the regiment well to the top of the hill, near Cliffton Forge.
Here the most delightful journey that could have been enjoyed anywhere at that season of the year was begun. The train bounded over the hills, across the narrow valleys, through woodland and by the side of rich pastures. It dashed by the way stations where, as had been the case in Kentucky, the village people gathered to see the boys "going to war," and at some of the little mountain villages, the train fairly brushed the bunting, flags and flowers which decorated the buildings and trees in honor of the regiment.
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The men of the Fourth Ohio were treated on that day to the finest views that nature ever spread upon a landscape. On one side the hills towered up into the very bosom of the clouds while on the other side the deep fertile valleys spread out far below the tracks into the distance. Passing through Staunton the train darted through the heart of the mountain, then curved sharply around peaks and cliffs and finally pushed along the side of a steep bluff, where to the right lay the beautiful Piedmont valley, clothed in the most beautiful array which nature could bestow. The gracefully winding turn pike seemed to creep companion-like with the sparkling stream, off to the gentle south, their path leading through fields of ripen- ing grain and waving corn, where were nestled little groves and comfortable farm houses, snugly ensconced in the happy scene as if placed there by the Creator to show above all other places how truly "the heavens declare the glory of God and the firmament showeth His handy work."
Speeding down the mountain side the train soon reached Charlottesville, where it stopped long enough for the sections to get together and for the men to invest in pies and other delicacies at the near-by res- taurants. The delay was longer here than had been intended on account of a breakdown of one of the trucks. The repair was soon made, however, and the journey resumed, so that as it was growing dark, the boys found themselves where their fathers had tried hard to get thirty years before-within the city limits of Richmond. They received a very different recep-
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tion, however, than their ancestors had received, for the boys in blue were welcomed on every hand, and although the stop at Richmond was very short, the town while they were there belonged to the Fourth Ohio.
It was dark when the train left Richmond, so that the scenery from that point was lost, but so much had been enjoyed through the busy day that the boys were glad to retire to their apartments in the tourist sleep- ers to get the third and last night's sleep as the guests of the Chesapeake and Ohio.
The train arrived at Newport News about mid- night, but there was no attempt made to unload until daylight. "Reveille" was sounded earlier than usual, however, and as soon as the boys could be summoned out of their comfortable bunks, the regiment was formed and marched to an assigned camping place in a field near the outskirts of the city and on the banks of the James river.
As soon as the camp was laid out and the work of putting up the shelter tents, or "pup tents," as the boys preferred to call them, was under way, details were made to unload such baggage as was absolutely necessary for the temporary camp. A few cooking utensils, besides the personal baggage of the men and officers was all that was taken off the train at that time. Breakfast was hastily prepared, the old story of digging sinks was completed and the men were allowed the privilege of the James river for bathing purposes. The salt water brought up by the tide was exactly what the boys needed, and the dirt and dust
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that had been collected in the long trip from Chicka- mauga park was afterward referred to as a sand bar in the stream.
The shipping industry of Newport News is very interesting, and the big dry docks near the camp were the first places visited. There were several govern- ment vessels there and many of the boys went aboard to see just what they really were and to learn from personal observation if the navy about which they had heard and read so much and for which they had cheered so loudly and so often, were really all that was represented. It is needless to say that any suspicions that might have been entertained were hastily and permanently removed.
While some of the men were bathing in the river or visiting the dry docks, others took hasty trips to Old Point Comfort and other near-by places of inter- est. The novelty of this also soon wore away and the boys were compelled to resort to the quiet of the camp and simply wait for orders. The weather was the hottest any of them had ever experienced and certainly with the thermometer at one hundred in the shade in a camp on sandy, unshaded soil where rain had not fallen for weeks, it was not to be wondered at that some of the men had no more energy than "the law allowed."
It was here that the first real war-like order was received. It came to Colonel Coit, who was directed to designate one of the companies of his regiment to take charge of some dynamite guns that had been placed in the hands of the brigade. Captain Potter
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having had considerable experience as an artillery officer in the First Ohio Light Artillery when it was a National Guard organization, was made one of the officers and his company (F) was made the "dynamite" company of the brigade.
Acting Ordance Officer First Lieutenant Harry Graham was assigned to the new company and Lieuten- ant Clyde Modie was assigned to A Company to fill the vacancy made by the assignment of Lieutenant Graham. This made the company well equipped for the work they were expected to do and the boys of Company F soon became expert artillerymen. The only other change in the regiment was the discharge of Captain Pritchard of Company H. This placed the command of the company upon Lieutenant Smith, who retained command until after the regiment re- turned home.
The parade grounds at Newport News were hot, sandy weed fields. The brigade camp was arranged just as it had been in Camp Thomas, but there was not room for more than one regiment at a time on the parade ground. The regular evening dress parade came off as usual, however, the Third Illinois taking the field first as the ranking regiment, and the Fourth Ohio next, which in turn was followed by the Fourth Pennsylvania. In this way each regiment was per- mitted to watch the parade of the other two.
A delay at Newport News had not been expected by any means, and when orders were not forthcoming to board the transports for Porto Rico, the boys began to get uneasy. No complaints were offered the first
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night, but when the boys found that they must lie in their "pup tents" on Tuesday night as well, there was considerable growling. As a matter of course the authorities at Washington lost little sleep on this ac- count, and those who did not like the idea of staying, staid just the same as those who did. Finally the order came on Tuesday to load all necessary baggage on the transport St. Paul. The Fourth Pennsylvania was ordered to the Seneca and the City of Wash- ington and the Third Illinois to the St. Louis. The St. Louis and the St. Paul were sister ships and had been used before the war as pas- senger ships on the Atlantic ocean. They had been leased by the government, however, and they were at this time classed as auxiliary cruisers. They were heavily armed and protected and the St. Paul had been placed in command of Captain Sigsbee, the naval officer who had grown in public favor from having been in command of the battleship Maine at the time she was blown up in Havana harbor. The dis- tinction of being taken away by this officer afforded the boys considerable satisfaction.
Large details were made and placed at the hands of Captain Vincent and several lieutenants and the work of loading the transports was begun. The cars were taken to the piers of the C. & O. R'y and there loaded on barges or lighters and taken out to the transport. In the meantime the camp on the out- skirts of the city was broken up and the regiment marched down to the piers to wait for lighters to take the companies out also. It was expected that the
LANDING PLACE, NEAR ARROYO.
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lighters would be there and that the regiment would board the St. Paul at once, but after a long and weary wait, it was found that the men would have to sleep on shore at least one more night. The camp broken up, the baggage all packed, and everything in an un- settled condition, the regiment was in as unhappy plight as it could have been on American soil. Those who had retained their tents, put them up on the campus surrounding a beautiful summer casino. The owners of the building very kindly consented to the use of the veranda and the upper floor for the accom- modation of those who did not have shelter tents. The arrangement was as satisfactory as it could well have been, and with a few exceptions, where the boys got too near each other or where the boards of the floor were laid "hard side up," they spent the night as happily as the existing state of expectancy would permit.
Thursday morning did not bring with it the encouragement the boys had expected, but another long day of expectant waiting. Every time a whistle blew or a boat approached, everybody strained his eyes to see if it were the lighter. Dinner was served and still the boat did not come, but as suddenly as a summer shower, at 2 o'clock the regiment was called together by the sounding of "assembly," and when the "forward march" was commanded, the regi- ment followed the colors to the wharf, where in a few minutes one lighter took on the whole command. Several Columbus people had come to Newport News, and of course they were on hand to see the regiment
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"heave away." Half the city, where by their gentle- manly manner and soldierly conduct the boys had formed many acquaintances and friends, turned out to give the regiment a parting cheer.
The trip from the pier to the St. Paul was of little interest. The transport could not get near the pier, of course, and she was anchored out in the bay near Old Point Comfort. The baggage had been loaded when the regiment reached the boat and the work of boarding the monster transport took but little time.
When the regiment was all on the boys thought it was time to go, but there was a large supply of Kragg-Jorgensen rifles to load, so that it was not until the next morning that the crew of the St. Paul weighed, anchor and started on the voyage to the scene of the conflict. The first night (Thursday) was not given up entirely to sleep by any means. There was too much to see and talk about. The great vessel had to be ex- plored as a matter of course and the seamen and marines had to be interviewed about the thousands of details, so that few indeed were the eyes that closed in sleep that night.
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CHAPTER IX.
OFF TO PORTO RICO.
Sail on Friday-The Trip Through the Harbor-The St. Paul-"Travel Rations"-"Prime Roast Beef"-Hard Tack and Coffee-Boston Baked Beans-Tomatoes-One Dollar Pies-Sea Sickness-Religious Services at Sea- Fine Weather Voyage-Warlike Preparations-At the Harbor of Ponce-Cruise to Arroyo-Kragg Jorgensen Rifles-End of the Voyage-The Landing.
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