USA > Ohio > The story of the Sherman brigade. The camp, the march, the bivouac, the battle; and how "the boys" lived and died during four years of active field service > Part 16
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42
"This is the species which, during the late war, infested so grievously both Union and rebel soldiers, from whom it received the characteristic name of grayback."
This is the name that strikes the ear of the veteran. It has the old familiar sound and there can be no mistake about it. The learned writer just quoted goes on to discuss the subject in this way :
" The reason that it was so prevalent in the late war was that the sol- diers, from the necessities of the service, were unable to wash their cloth- ing as often as they would have done at home, and nineteen out of twenty had nothing but cold water to wash it in. Now, almost every species of insect will revive after an immersion of several hours in cold water, where- as water of such a temperature that you cannot bear your finger in it for one second, will immediately destroy any insect whatever that is immersed in it."
A million or two of men in this country who have had more or less experience-generally more-with the pediculus, will agree that this is a true and logical statement of the case. It makes us think that the person who wrote it must have "been there." We always found it useless to try to drown the grayback. A cold bath, even prolonged for hours, seemed only to invigorate and give him a fresh start. In fact he rather liked it, and always came up smiling after it, with an appetite sharpened by his abstinence. The boiling scheme was the only thorough and effective means of putting the pediculus in such a condition that he would cease from troubling. It not only disposed of him, together with all "his sisters, his cousins, and his aunts," but it also brought to an til- timely end all the eggs or "nits," thus preventing the birth of a new generation to join the devastating forces. Herein lay the great advantage of very hot water over that sanguinary and uni- versal but less effective weapon, the thumb-nail. Although the latter slew its hundreds of millions, and was a good deal better than nothing, the process was siower than the boiling, requiring much time, zeal and perseverance. You always had to hunt for
(13)
---------
194
HE WAS NO RESPECTER OF PERSONS.
[May,
your pediculus and catch him first. It is true that there was gen- erally little difficulty in finding plenty of game without a long hunt. When you really had him sandwiched between the thumb- nails you were pretty sure to "get the deadwood " on him. But one at a time, when there were so many, was a tedious method : and the thumb-nail could not, like the foaming camp-kettle, reach out into the future, as it were, and cut off myriads yet unborn. If you killed all in sight and left the nits, the new crop would be swarming in every seam in a week.
How to get rid of the grayback was one of the absorbing problemis of the war. It was most decidedly a personal and prac- tical question, and interested the soldier far more than those other questions of state sovereignty, confiscation, finance, and the ne- gro, which put the statesmen at Washington to their best trumps. Indeed, the minds of the soldiers were exercised with far greater activity in planning campaigns against the pediculus, than in thinking about those which were directed against Lee, and Bragg, and Hood, and Joe Johnston.
This arch enemy of the soldier was no respecter of persons. Like the rain, which falls alike upon the just and the unjust, the pediculus preyed incessantly upon Union and rebel. But for this fact it might have been imagined that he was a diabolical inven- tion of the enemy. As it was, he feasted and fattened, with equal enjoyment, upon those who wore the blue and the gray. Nor had he any reverence for rank. Those whose shoulders were decorated with bars, and leaves, and eagles, and stars, seemed to taste just as good to the pediculus as did the corporeal juices of the private soldier. It may not be an entirely pleasant circum- stance to recall, but it is true that thousands of men who are now occupying high positions in law, theology, medicine, and politics, or in commercial life, ornaments to polite society, thirty odd years ago used to be sitting around under the trees in the south, "skir- mishing" for the pediculus, or crowding the fires under the camp kettle to "get the bulge" on their tormentors. I may remark here that it is not easy to imagine a more picturesque and spirited scene than the army presented at certain times and places, when the conditions were favorable to the operations of the pediculus. I will not attempt to paint the picture. It will present itself to
:
1862.]
A GENERAL WHO "SKIRMISHED."
195
the old soldier at the merest suggestion, while it might do violence to the sensibilities of some whose eyes may fall upon these pages.
We were introduced to the grayback before we had been a month in active service. At Bardstown, Lebanon, Hall's Gap, Green River and Nashville we became somewhat acquainted with him, but we never knew him, in all his length and breadth and height and depth, so to speak, until we joined the great army in front of Corinth. I well remember seeing, one day, a celebrated, robust brigadier - general, who was afterward Presi- dent of the United States, engaged in chasing the pe- diculus along the seams of his nether garment, which was spread out upon his knees in regulation style. The general had wandered - 6. some distance back of his headquarters, and getting behind the largest tree he could find he applied his en- ergies to the work of "skir- mish ng," while the setting sun cast a mellow glow over the touching scene. Not far away, behind other large trees, were two of his staff officers similarly en- JOEL P. BROWN, CAPTAIN, SIXTY-FIFTH. gaged-cracking jokes and graybacks.
But in all our experience I do not think we ever found the pedtculus quite as numerous and active as during that terrible midsummer march from Bridgeport to Louisville, in August and September of 1862. For the grayback, that campaign was a con- tinual picnic. For weeks not one man in ten had a change of clothing, or even two shirts. We tramped through the heat and dust, sometimes night and day, with but rare opportunities for washing either our clothes or our persons. Water, soap and leisure
--
----- --
196
THE NICE YOUNG MAN'S EXPERIENCE.
[May,
time were all about equally scarce. We had no tents, and scarcely anything else-except graybacks. In spite of our utmost efforts to curtail his enjoyment, the pestiferous little insect had a pro- longed season of riotous living. We had hardly a camp kettle to a regiment, and there was little chance to do any boiling. When a squad of afflicted men were fortunate enough to secure the use of a kettle they generally wandered about in puris naturalibus above the latitude of the waistband, while the boiling water was doing its perfect work. All have heard of the urchin whose shirt was drying upon a bush while he ran about without any. When a passer-by questioned him respecting his scanty apparel, he re- plied by asking : "What does a boy want of a thousand shirts?" The soldiers on this march might well have given a similar an- . swer, although we did feel as though two of these intimate gar- ments would not be an over-supply.
The experience of a fresh and tender recruit in forming the acquaintance of the pediculus was often amusing to the tough- hided old veterans. In the fall of 1862 there was a chap who joined our regiment soon after we left Louisville. He was one of your real nice young fellows, who, evidently, when a lad, had always been a good boy; whose mother had kept his face clean and his head well harrowed by the fine tooth comb. He had not been with us more than a week wlien one day his eye discovered a pediculus vaguely rambling about on the sleeve of his blouse, apparently on the lookout for an opening by which to reach the department of the interior. He had never seen one before in his life, and probably did not know till that moment that there was such a thing in the whole realm of animated nature.
" What sort of a bug is that?" he asked a tall, brown corpo- ral who was famous as a grayback fighter.
"That's a grayback !" said the corporal.
"A what?"
"A grayback ! Hain't ye never heerd tell of graybacks?"
"No, I never did !" said the recruit solemnly.
"Well," said the corporal, "ye'll know all about 'em pretty sudden, sure's ye're born. They're the darndest things ye ever saw. One o' these days ye'll take off yer clothes and lay 'em `down and they'll just crawl right away before yer eyes! Man
৳
1862.]
HOW THEY MULTIPLIED.
197
alive, that's a louse! Ye'd better get behind a tree somewhere and peel yerself, and go to skirmishin' !"
No one who saw it can ever forget the look of supreme and unutterable disgust that spread over the face of that nice young man as he turned and walked sadly away. He went as far as he could get, where he thought nobody would witness his disgrace and humiliation, and there he spent an hour in communing with himself and examining the innermost recesses of his garments. When he returned he looked as if he were ready to sell his share in the old flag for a mess of pottage, or anything else he could get, and quit. But it may be said of him that he developed into a most excellent soldier. A year later he didn't make any fuss about shedding his clothes and boiling them whenever he had a chance, as the necessities of the case required. But we all felt as he did when we first met the pediculus. that was destined to stick to us " closer than a brother."
Perhaps too much space has already been given to this part of our theme, but I cannot pass to the next without mentioning two interesting facts, the first bearing upon the wonderfully rapid increase of the pediculus. It used to be a perpetual conundrum to the boys " where in thunder" they all came from. In a book now lying before me it is stated that a German naturalist-whose name nobody could pronounce if I should give it-has brought his mathematics to bear on the question and finds that two female pediculi will, in eight weeks, become the mothers and grandmoth- ers of a posterity numbering not less than ten thousand! Some people might not believe this, but no old soldier will for a mo- ment doubt the correctness of the statement. If there is any mistake in the figures he will say they are too small rather than too large. Indeed, if required to give his opinion under oath, re- membering the multitudes that came like the plague of lice that was visited upon the Egyptians, he would place the product of eight weeks at nearer ten million than ten thousand.
It may be a source of satisfaction to some to know by what particular mechanical process the pediculus used to imbibe his nourishment from their bodies. The book to which I have al- luded says that he inserts a little tube and then draws the blood and juices from the body by means of a perfect suction pump.
·
--------
--
198
THE TUNEFUL MOSQUITO.
[May,
If this be true, the amount of pumping done during the four years of the war was prodigious. We may now consider these things calmly, and perhaps with some degree of interest, but then we knew little and cared less about the scientific questions in- volved. We only knew that, whether the pediculus satisfied his appetite by pumping or chewing, or some other process, he rarely failed to "get there."
Doubtless there will be very little difference of opinion as to what insect deserves to stand next to the head in this class of army pests. I am sure I will be justified in giving this place to the mosquito-more familiarly known as the "skeeter ;" the sci- entific men call him culex pipiens, but we prefer the foriner. The other name of the grayback was only used for the sake of polite- ness. The mosquito was often quite as numerous as the pedic- ulus, and nearly as universal. ] It was rarely that his song was not heard, during the greater portion of the year, on the march and around the camp-fire. In low, damp regions, when the weather was warm, swarms of these bloodthirsty insects drove the soldiers to the very borders of distraction. They sometimes came literally in clouds that filled the air, the hum of a million wings swelling in maddening chorus. The book says a mosqui- to's wings vibrate three thousand times a minute. The soldier who has heard them buzzing in and around his ears will certify that this is not an over-estimate. Time and agair. he found sleep possible only by curling up under his blanket and covering every inch of his head, hands and feet, at the imminent risk of being smothered. Not always could the mosquitoes be baffled even in this way, for they would sometimes prod their bills through a thick blanket, and pierce their victim. Then the latter would rush madly out of his tent and heap on the fire something that would make a great smudge. Sitting down in the thickest of the smoke he would weep, and cough, and sneeze, and strangle, and swear-even this deplorable condition being preferable to the tor- ments of the "skeeters." This picture is not overdrawn; such experiences were common in many localities, from the Chicka- hominy to the Rio Grande.
Nature does not make a mosquito all at once. It is hardly a thing to brag of to make him at all. He is the result of a gradual
ஹெர்
1862.]
AS USUAL, FEMALES MAKE THE TROUBLE.
199
process of development, or evolution, as the learned men say. The female lays her eggs on the water. It were a good thing if they would all drown, but they don't. From the eggs are hatched little "wrigglers " that grow and flop around in the water a few days, when they change to a wholly different form. They are then called pupa-whatever that means. For three or four days they lie around with their humped backs at the surface of the water, contriving to swim a little by quick jerks of the tail, like a shrimp or a lobster. Then they stretch them- selves out and burst. and the mosquitoes come forth . with sharpened beaks and wings attuned to melody. It would seem that the re- sult of so much effort ought to be a thing of beauty and a joy forever, but the fact is that the product is not worth the labor.
Professor Riley, the government entomologist, says it is only the female mosquito that bites, and that the same is true of all the tribe of insects. We must accept this statement as true, for Professor Riley is paid his salary for finding MOSES H. QUINN. ASSISTANT SURGEON, SIXTY-FOURTH. out such things; but it must be confessed it is a little hard on the gentle sex. If it is not true, Mr. Riley should be sued for libel. We usually look for beauty and perfection and all that in the female sex, and it is not pleasant to have our ideal so rudely destroyed. It is strictly ortho- dox, however, to fix upon the original woman in the Garden of Eden a large part of the responsibility for all our woes in this world. and the female mosquitoes appear properly to share this odium. The males just fly around and sing and buzz, but never bite
..
.
200
THE JUMPING FLEA.
[May,
anybody. In accepting this theory as correct we are forced to believe that Mormonism prevails largely among them. Judging from our experience, each of the males must have a very large family of wives, who are always hungry. The long black mark which we are unwillingly compelled to score against the tender sex is made still longer and blacker by the fact that the female mosquitoes not only do all the biting, but they produce all the eggs to keep up the supply of wrigglers, which in the fullness of time are developed into a new generation. The following ex- tract from Professor Riley will be appreciated :
"Those who have traveled in summer on the lower Mississippi, or in the northwest, have experienced the torments which these frail flies can, inflict ; at times they drive everyone from the boat, and on the Northern Pacific, railroad trains can sometimes only be run with any degree of com- fort by keeping a smudge in the baggage car, and the doors of all the coaches open to the fumes. The bravest man on the fleetest horse dares not cross some of the more rank and dank prairies of northern Minnesota in June. It is well known that Father De Smet once nearly died from mosquito bites, his flesh being so swollen around the arms and legs that it literally burst. Mosquitoes have caused the rout of armies and the deser- tion of cities."
The gnat is simply an abridged edition of the mosquito. They are almost identical, except as to size, and it is the female gnat that makes all the trouble. She does the best she can to equal the mosquito, and our experience tells us that she comes as near to it as could possibly be expected of her. If her bill isn't quite so long, she can't help it.
The flea is a very nimble insect. He is sometimes called, by a slight paraphrase of scripture, "the wicked flea," as will be seen by reference to Proverbs, chapter XXVIII, verse I. The peculi- arity of the flea is his marvelous jumping ability, and the con- sequent difficulty of catching him. He can jump quicker and farther in proportion to his size than any other created being. Sometimes you want him, and want him bad, but like the Irish- man, you "put your finger on him and he isn't there." In this respect the flea is wiser and smarter than his fellows. Most of the bugs and insects that pester the human family are so intent upon their biting and blood-sucking that they are wholly obliv- ious to personal safety. While they are gorging themselves they
1862.]
THE QUIET BUT PERSISTENT WOODTICK.
201
think of nothing else, until there comes a well-directed blow, and they go to join the innumerable caravan. But it isn't so with the flea. He is a believer in the Hudibrastic theory that:
He who bites and jumps away May live to bite another day.
He keeps the danger flag flying when upon his forays, and when- ever his quick eye detects a hostile demonstration he takes one of those jumps that have made his name a proverb. The trouble of catching a flea appears to have been recognized in the ancient days. Let the reader refer again to his Bible-I suppose every old soldier has one-and read I Samuel, chapter XXIV, verse 14, and chapter XXVI, verse 20.
- ....
-
-
Referring to our scientific book we find that there are ten distinct varieties of fleas. We have to do with the one known as the "human flea," which is very fastidious in his tastes, and preys only upon the human race. The flea that was such a close companion of the army mule was altogether a different species. We need not trouble ourselves about him, for we can trust the mule to do his own kicking. It is not often that the human flea gets so good a chance as the war afforded him. At some times and places the fleas were exceedingly annoying, infesting cloth- ing, blankets and straw, and biting and hopping around in a way that effectually prevented sleep, and was most trying to the tem- per. It was their agility in always getting away that made a fellow mad in spite of himself. Even after the lapse of all these years, it is hardly possible for any old soldier to think of the pes- tiferous army flea with any degree of calmness.
Now let us address ourselves for a moment to that industrious bug, the woodtick. He will be vividly remembered by all who slept in the leaves before Corinth. We found him occasionally at other points in our devious wanderings, but nowhere so numerous and robust as on the field of Shiloh. The woodtick never made any noise or fuss. In the most quiet way imaginable he carried out the purposes for which, in the economy of nature, he was de- signed. You could always tell when there was a mosquito around, but it was not so with the woodtick. He had a most exasperating way of getting under our clothes when we were asleep. The woodtick never slept, and access to our bodies was
- ---
202
PECULIARITIES OF THE WOODTICK.
[May,
not difficult through the holes in our garments-either those that belonged there or those resulting from the wear and tear of the service. Then he would look around to find some tender spot and settle down to his work. As a general rule you didn't know he was there until he had burrowed nearly or quite under the skin. He could do this in a very short. time. On getting up in the morning you would feel, perhaps on the arm, or the succu- lent part of the leg, an itching sensation, something like that which was excited by the pediculus, only a good deal more so. Applying the hand to the spot, your touch, if at all sensitive, would detect a small lump which was not there before. After a little experience you would know right away that you had a woodtick, or that he had vou, according to the view you took of the matter. So you would at once prepare for inspection by tak- ing off such portion of your clothing as the case might require, depending on the location of the lump. If it happened to be around where you couldn't get at it, you would ask a comrade to diagnose the case and apply the remedy.
The industry and persistence of the woodtick rendered it de- sirable to dispose of him as soon as possible, for there was no tell- ing where his travels would end if you let him have his own way and carry out his little campaign. If the tick had only his head under the skin it was not a difficult matter. A grasp with thumb and finger, and a quick jerk would separate the blood-distended body from the head, leaving the latter to be removed by a little heroic treatment with a jack-knife. The woodtick never let go, and you couldn't draw him out whole any more than you can a fish-hook after it has entered your finger past the barb. It seemed as though he had a perfect screw in his head, and some- times he was removed by a regular unscrewing motion. The more frequent method, however, was by pulling him in two and getting rid of him in sections. I remember one morning finding three of them boring into the juicy parts of my system. One of them had made such progress that the knife of a surgeon was found necessary for its removal, and I wore a plaster on the spot for a month. As I have said, the most troublesome ticks we ever found, lived-and a good many of them died-in the woods be- tween Pittsburg Landing and Corinth. The woodtick is not
. .
.
1
1862.]
203
SOMETHING ABOUT THE JIGGER.
venomous. It is not likely that he ever killed anybody, but he was responsible for a very large amount of profanity. In size and appearance he was not unlike the bedbug.
The "jigger" was as great a nuisance considering his size, or rather lack of size, as any of the pests that disturbed the peace of mind and body of the American soldier. The jigger is very small, often not more than half as large as the head of a pin. But when we remember how much he could do, small as he was toward making life a bur- den, our hearts are filled with gratitude that nature didn't make the jigger any bigger. The only redeem- ing feature about him was that he was confined to cer- tain localities, and was con- tent with what he could do to annoy us while we were there. He did not insist on sticking by and travel- ing right along with us, like the pediculus. When we rolled up our blankets and moved away he stayed behind and patiently lay in wait for the next sol- diers who might come that way.
MELVILLE C. PORTER, MUSICIAN AND SECOND LIEUTENANT, SIXTY-FIFTH.
The jigger lived chief- ly among the leaves and in the bark of old logs. If the camp was kept thoroughly policed there was comparatively little trouble from this source. If we lay upon the leaves, the annoyance from both jiggers and woodticks was sometimes insufferable. The truth is, there were two or three wholly different species of insects which we were accustomed to group under the convenient name of jiggers. One of them was of a bright red color and so small that you had to look twice be- fore you could see him. But you had no difficulty in feeling him
1
204
A FEW WORDS ABOUT THE BLACK FLY.
[May,
after he had made his way under the skin, causing a keen, smart- ing sensation. If you had half a dozen of them at once, distrib- uted over your body, the pain would almost drive you frantic. The boys often got up in the night and lighted a candle or a torch to hunt jiggers.
The scientists say the correct orthography of the word is "chigoe." The dictionaries also give it in that way, but allow "jigger;" into which, by common nse, the word has degenerated. Our book on entomology says that in Cuba and other tropical countries the chigoe is venomous and exceedingly troublesome to man and beast. It burrows under the nails of the toes and fin- gers, often producing ulcers, with very serious results. The fe- male lays her eggs there, fifty or sixty at a time, and in a few days has a large family ready for business.
The "black fly" is very small, not a quarter of an inch in length, but gifted with great ability as a pest. These flies were rarely found in the open country, but in the swamps and cane- brakes of Mississippi and Alabama they were terrible. Their peculiar method of torture was to get into the ears and nose, and the mouth. if it was not kept tightly closed, and bite and buzz until the victim was well nigh crazed. Horses and mnules were sometimes so beset by countless thousands of these tiny insects that they became almost unmanageable in their desperate efforts to escape from their tormentors. A few times, circumstances compelled us to bivouac for the night among the black flies, but nobody slept any to speak of. They were, if possible, worse than mosquitoes. We did not find them often, but when we did, they made the most of their opportunity.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.