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 19
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Our company commanders, during the first few months, either did not study the "Revised Army Regulations" with proper in- dustry, or they failed to appreciate the force and importance of certain paragraphs which provided that they must be held re- sponsible and duly account for every article of arms, accouter- ments, clothing, and camp and garrison equipage in the possession of their men, and even for every round of ammunition issued to them. When things were done "according to Hoyle" company commanders receipted to the quartermaster or ordnance officer for all these things and took receipts of their mnen for clothing drawn by them. The outfit of a full company was worth some thou- sands of dollars, and from time to time, as articles were lost or worn out, others were drawn. Quarterly reports, in triplicate, were required to be made, showing the exact number or quantity of everything on hand ; and if there had been a shrinkage since the last report, every item must be properly accounted for, even down to the insignificant little tompion-a wooden "dingus" to put
231
1862.]
OUR OFFICERS IN TROUBLE.
in the muzzle of the musket, worth about a cent. One copy of each report was forwarded to the grand sachems at Washington for their examination, which was usually about a year behind.
For a time few, if any, of the company commanders made reports at all, took receipts for clothing issued, or kept track of anything. Matters went on swimmingly for five or six months, when the officers began to be prodded by impressive notifications from Washington. What a buzzing there was in camp one pay- day, when the paymaster blandly informed the officers that the greenback spigot had been turned off and their pay stopped until their reports were duly made out and forwarded!
The officers were thrown into a panic. Byron very accurate- ly described their condition when, writing of the ball at Brussels on the eve of Waterloo, he said:
"Ah! then and there was hurrying to and fro, And gathering tears and tremblings of distress !"
In this case there were probably no tears, but a great deal of language more or less sheolic was "shed" when the unlucky of- ficers found what a pickle they were in. The paymaster had dammed the flow of greenbacks, and they did the same thing to the paymaster. Company commanders had changed without re- ceipts having been given; from each company twenty or thirty men had died or were in hospitals or on detached service, and their arms and accouterments were scattered all over the continent. How to obtain vouchers for all these things that would "pass muster" at Washington was a most perplexing question. But it had to be done and they set about it. Affidavits were made out by dozens and to these the orderly sergeants did some tall swearing.
At length the tangle was straightened out, but it took many days to do it. By the stoppage of their pay the officers were re- duced to a condition bordering on mendicancy. By sending home for money or borrowing of the men they managed to rub along and eke out an existence until the paymaster came again. There- after accounts were scrupulously kept and reports were made with as much regularity as the exigencies of active campaigning would permit. The second crop of officers took warning from the woes of their predecessors, and fairly earned the ten dollars a month ex- tra which was allowed each company commander for his respon-
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A JOKE ON COLONEL HARKER.
[July,
sibility and bother in this respect. None of them ever paid the government for anything that was lost; a way to get out of it was always found.
A short distance from Colonel Harker's headquarters was a small stream in which the soldiers were permitted, and encouraged, to bathe. If a man neglected the opportunity to cleanse his person with proper frequency he was sometimes put in charge of a guard and compelled to do so at the point of the bayonet. Almond Allerton, of Company B, Sixty-fifth, had a singularly dark skin. The hue was so striking that one day when he was splashing in the stream with his comrades Colonel Harker, who, seated upon a camp-stool, at a respectful distance, was watching the bathers, took him to be a mulatto. His indignation was instantly aroused. It was all right for his soldiers, but he wasn't going to have niggers capering about in a state of nudity so near his tent. He dispatched a corporal of the guard, to convey a message of this purport and arrest the offender. When the cor- poral returned and acquainted him with the facts there was a protracted season of hilarity at headquarters. For months there- after the remembrance of this incident afforded Colonel Harker much amusement, and he often told it as a good joke upon him- self.
Before leaving Mooresville, I am tempted to recount briefly the adventures of a party of twenty officers and men of the Sixty- fifth who went a-fishing. Four miles from camp there was a stream which, according to common report, was certain to yield good results. The party obtained permission to go, taking with them a wagon, and their arms, as these might possibly come handy. We had no hooks or lines, but Horner, the sutler, had a seine which he kindly loaned us. Upon reaching the stream we posted a couple of sentinels and plunged into the water with the seine. Two hours of hard work gave us only half a dozen small fishes. We had brought scarcely anything in the way of rations except coffee, as we fully expected to dine on fresh fishı. But we bestirred ourselves, and half an hour's active foraging yielded a bountiful supply of other edibles.
An old darkey who passed that way told us that two miles down the stream the fish were abundant and we could not fail
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233
PROCEEDS OF A FISHING TRIP.
1862.]
to get as many as we wanted, so we jumped into the wagon and drove to the spot indicated. We dragged the creek with our seine, again and again, but with no better success than before. We then gave it up and wended our way back to camp. I find in my diary the following inventory of the proceeds of the expe- dition : Suckers, 4; bass, 2 ; catfish, 1; turtles, 3; eels, 1; quarters of pork, 4; ditto mutton, 4: bushels roasting ears, 3; ditto pota- toes, 2; quarts berries, 20; chickens, 6: mosquito bites, ad infinitum. But we had great sport, and it was vastly more pleasant than drilling under a July sun.
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CHAPTER XXI.
THE "SIAMESE TWINS" SEPARATED.
A WILD RUSH FROM MOORESVILLE-LUNACY AT HEADQUARTERS-A JOURNEY BY RAIL-THE SIXTY-FOURTH AND THE BATTERY STOP AT STEVENSON-THE SIXTY-FIFTH GOES TO BRIDGEPORT-FIVE WEEKS OF IDLENESS AND HUNGER -- BATHING IN THE TENNESSEE-TRADING WITH THE JOHNNIES-COFFEE FOR TOBACCO-OLD JACK AND THE ORDERLY-LIEUTENANT-COLONEL FRENCH RESIGNS-RECRUITING DETAILS SENT TO OHIO-MATTERS AT STEVENSON-BUILDING A FORT-SCOUTING AND RECONNOITERING.
W E HAD expected to remain at Mooresville several weeks, and perhaps months, but on the evening of July 17th there was a great racket in the camp. At dress parade an order was read for us to strike tents at three in the morning and be ready to march at daylight. After the parade was dismissed we proceeded leisurely to make the nec- essary arrangements, but in less than half an hour a staff officer
234
SHOULDER-STRAPS GONE CRAZY.
[July,
dashed up with an order for us to pull up stakes and load wagons immediately. Nobody knew what was up, nor were we ac- customed to ask any questions under such circumstances, however much our curiosity might be aroused. We all fell to work and in an incredibly short time, amidst much bustle and excitement, tents and baggage were packed on the wagons, and we were waiting for the sound of the drum to fall in. But there did not seem to be at headquarters a very clear idea of what was to be done, or how to do it, for presently came the command to unpack the wagons and prepare to spend the night. Another half hour, when' some of the tents were already up, order number four was received. It directed us to reload the wagons and form line immediately.
By this time it seemed that everybody had gone crazy, but we obeyed orders, and at last managed to get started. We moved almost on the run a mile and a half to Mooresville station, where a train of thirty freight cars stood waiting for us. Tents, camp equipage, ammunition and stores were hastily loaded, the empty wagons being left to follow at their leisure. The soldiers were directed to stow themselves on board the train as best they could. Half of them entered the cars, filling up the space that remained, and the rest clambered to the top and took "deck-passage." After lifting and scrambling and shouting for two hours the work of stowage was finished. Just before midnight the engine screamed and we started in the direction of Chattanooga.
The night ride was most tedious and disagreeable, particularly to the several hundred men who occupied the roofs of the cars. The road was very rough, and the constant jerking and rocking ren- dered sleep alike difficult and dangerous. Our eyes were filled with smoke and cinders, the air was raw and damp, and our blankets did not suffice to keep us comfortable.
At daylight we stopped half an hour at Huntsville, where General Buell then had his headquarters. There were evidences here of a "scare" of some kind, for at that early hour hundreds of soldiers and negroes were at work throwing up intrenchments around the town. We sought diligently for information respect- ing the cause of all the trouble, but without success. The sol- diers at Huntsville seemed to be as much in the dark as ourselves.
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1862.]
THE SIXTY-FIFTH ANCHORS AT BRIDGEPORT.
235
We were soon off again, and after a brief halt at Stevenson, reached Bridgeport, Alabama, about eleven o'clock. Casting our eyes ahead we saw that we were again upon the bank of the Tennessee river, having passed over a great bend of that stream which we had already twice crossed-at Pittsburg Landing and at Decatur. Stretching across the river was a long row of bare and blackened piers, where the bridge had been, and it was evident that our excursion by rail had come to an end. We unloaded ourselves and our baggage and pitched our camp a short distance south of the railroad, and a quarter of a mile from the river. It was a very bad location, nearly a mile from the nearest spring, and this fact led us to think it very probable that we would re- main there for some time. Only the Sixty-fifth Ohio, of the Twentieth brigade, went to Bridgeport. The other regiments and the Sixth battery stopped at Stevenson. The only regiment at Bridgeport when we arrived was the Thirty-ninth Indiana, of McCook's division. The latter was mostly at Battle Creek, six miles up the river, where at this time lay a very considerable fraction of Buell's army -some seventeen thousand men.
We remained at Bridgeport five weeks. Our life there had its measure of discomforts, but was not wholly unpleasant, as "soldiering" goes. After a week's stay where we first pitched our tents we moved the camp to a much more desirable spot, oc- cupying a hill on the opposite side of the railroad track. Bridge- port was to us a sort of "watering place," the river affording fa- cilities for bathing that were daily improved. The rebels were in force at Chattanooga, twenty-eight miles distant. They occupied the intervening territory and their outposts dotted one side of the river, while we picketed the other. During most of the time a spirit of comity brooded over the liostile lines. The rebels ap- peared to be as fond of bathing as we were, and an almost contin- ual truce existed, by mutual consent. It was tacitly understood. if not actually agreed, that the pickets should not fire at one an- other across the river. It was a game that two could play, and the occasional killing or wounding of a soldier on either side would be but wanton cruelty, and could have no possible effect upon the armies. The truce was very rarely violated. Often a hundred men were splashing in the water on either side, at the
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236
"GRACE, MERCY AND PEACE."
[July,
same time. There was more or less badinage constantly going on between the bathers. One day a rebel, who may have had an inkling of future movements, shouted across the river:
"I say, Yanks, you'd better, look out; there'll be the d -- 1 to pay one of these days! We're goin' ter make you sick!"
"All right" was the answer, "we're ready fer ye, and if ye ever give us a chance we'll lick ye out o' yer boots !. You fellars keep runnin' all the time and don't give us any show for a fight!"
"You just keep yer eye skinned fer a fight and yer 'll see a right smart un 'fore long! But, I say, when ye goin' ter take Chattanooga?"
"Some fine morning, `fore breakfast!"
"I allow ye'll git mighty hungry if ye wait fer yer break- fast till yer git Chattanooga!"
And in fact it was more than a year before we "got there."
At this time the stream was low and the water so shallow that a man could wade most of the way if he wished to cross. About midway there was an island that was duly respected as neutral ground. Here they often met, Union and rebel, to have a quiet smoke and chat together, or to do a little in the way of barter. The rebels were always glad to get coffee and salt, for which they would give tobacco, of which they had plenty, and which our boys were not always able to get in sufficient quantity to satisfy their desires. Our supply of coffee was rather short at this time, but if a soldier was real hungry for tobacco he would manage to scrape together enough to make a dicker. The transaction would be carried on about in this way :
"Hello, Johnny, want to trade ?"
"Yaas, what you got?"
"Coffee ! Got any terbacker ?"
"Dead loads of it !"
"All right fetch it along !"
Then they would start for the island, where these commercial negotiations were concluded. If it was necessary to swim they would keep their goods dry by a contrivance for carrying them over the head and hield by the teeth, or by putting them in a can or vessel of some sort and floating them across the deep water on
1862.]
BATTALION DRILL UNDER DIFFICULTIES.
237
a board. The trade would soon be made on an equitable basis, and after a pleasant chat they would bid each other goodbye in the most friendly way and return, each to his side of the river. For two or three weeks the soldiers intermingled in this way. The practice was, however, regarded with disfavor by the officers in both armies, and it was finally stopped. One day in the early part of August there came a shout from the rebel side :
"Hello, Yanks, can't trade any more !"
"Why, what's up now?"
"Oh, nothin' I reckon, only we got orders ag'in' it !"
A day or two later "orders ag'in' it" were issued on our side of the river, and that was the last of the trading, unless it was done "on the sly." But the batbing continued without molesta- tion, almost up to the day of our departure.
Drilling was resumed as soon as we were fairly settled in camp, notwithstanding the extreme heat. There was very little ground suitable for maneuvering, particularly for battalion drill, but we charged over logs and stumps and crashed through the brush in the most reckless manner. Lieutenant-colonel French was an old Mexican war soldier, and could handle a regiment skillfully. He resigned and left for home early in August, and Major Olds succeeded to the command. The major was a thorough gentleman, a scholar, and a patriot, but in the inscru- table wisdom of Providence he was not built for a great soldier. A battalion drill among the stumps and bushes at Bridgeport was too much for him. He tried it once or twice, carrying open in his hand Hardee's "School of the Battalion," to find out what to do next, how to do it, and what commands to give. He usually succeeded in getting the regiment tangled into a knot that was only straightened out by each company commander rallying his men to the colors on a new line. Then Major Olds gave it up, and we had no more battalion drills while we lay at Bridgeport.
We revived the habit, which we had formed in front of Corinth, of getting up every morning at an absurdly early hour and standing at arms until daylight. There were occasional alarms which caused a general scramble to get into line. During the last two weeks of our stay, when both armiies began to show symp- toms of activity, these were of nightly occurrence. Once we were
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238
A DEFICIENCY OF "GRUB."
[August,
thrown into a high state of inflammation by a report that Colonel Harker had fought a large force of rebels at Stevenson, with the Sixty-fourth Ohio and Fifty-first Indiana, and had defeated them, with great slaughter on both sides. It turned out to be only that a picket had shot a pig.
One night, between eleven and twelve o'clock, thecry of fire ran through the camp. We all turned out and discovered that a small building near the depot was in flames. The fire was im- agined to be a scheme of the enemy, and we were hurried under arms and into line, where we stood like a row of stoughton- bottles while a detail of men went down and ex- tinguished the fire. Then we turned in again.
Our greatest cause of grief here was the alarming and protracted deficiency in the commissary department. For weeks our long and slender line of supply was the special object at which the efforts of the rebel cav- alry were directed. They 1 were successful to a much greater degree than we could CHRISTIAN M. BUSH, CAPTAIN, SIXTY-FIFTH. have wished. They tore up the railroad track, burned bridges, and captured trains loaded with supplies, destroying what they could not carry away. As the inevitable result of these con- stant raids our haversacks were most of the time in a state of collapse. We were put on half rations very soon after our ar- rival, and by the 10th of August we were reduced to one quarter of the regulation allowance. Then it was found necessary to dole out the meager pittance each day. If an issue was made for three or five days, as had been the custom, the soldiers, thinking
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1862]
SOME UNSATISFACTORY FORAGING.
239
only of the present, would eat the whole in one or two days and be left entirely without visible means of support. There were many days when the men really went hungry. When the ra- tions fell so low the drills were considerately reduced to two, and finally to one each day-just enough to afford needed ex- ercise. The scanty stores were strongly guarded, but in spite of the vigilance of the sentries, now and then a box of hardtack or a side of bacon would be abstracted at night, carried to camp, and divided among the friends of the purloiners.
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There were some organized attempts at foraging, and more or less was done in an individual way. That region had, however, been so long occupied by troops that there was little left to ap- pease the hunger of either man or beast. Once a detail of men accompanied a train of cars several miles beyond Stevenson, where a quantity of green corn, by this time pretty well hardened, and vegetables of various kinds was obtained and brought to camp. We bewailed the almost total lack of fresh meat, which we only saw at long intervals and in very small quantities. Once a few sheep were brought in, slaughtered, and issued to the regiment. They were chiefly bones, and our whole company only had one small quarter, weighing six or eight pounds. Whenever miem- ory recalls Bridgeport, the leading thought is of a long-continued desire to eat something, akin to the yearning of the children of Israel for the flesh-pots of Egypt.
One day a flag of truce appeared on the Confederate side of the river. Its object was to obtain permission for a lady and her servants to pass through the lines, enroute to her home in Ten- nessee, with the body of her husband, who had been killed in one of the battles in Virginia. This reasonable request was granted and the party crossed the river in boats. The distress of the lady in her affliction aroused the sympathies of all who witnessed the scene. She was permitted to continue her journey by rail, after an officer had exercised the legitimate and proper precaution of opening the coffin, to ascertain that it contained nothing con- traband of war.
The soldiers put in a good deal of their leisure time in fash- ioning rings, charms and other trinkets from clam and mussel shells which were found in abundance in the river. Many of
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[August,
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JAMES A. GARFIELD. BRIGADIER-GENERAL, COMMANDING TWENTIETH BRIGADE,
1862.]
24I
OLD JACK AND THE ORDERLY.
these articles were very pretty, evincing no small degree of skill. Most of them were sent to friends at home as mementoes.
Captain Whitbeck, of Company E, Sixty-fifth, had picked up at Mooresville a burly negro named Jack, and taken him along as his servant. He was a great strapping fellow, and as faithful as a watch-dog. The company desk, with all the books and pa- pers, was kept in the captain's tent, and the orderly sergeant had, of necessity, free access. One day two mischievous members of the company took Jack aside and told him very seriously that the stripes on the arms of the orderly were worn as marks of dis- grace, indicating the number of times he had been convicted of theft, and that he must watch him closely and see that he took nothing from the captain's tent. Jack had no idea of rank and took it all as truth. Soon afterward the orderly had occasion to use one of the company books, and entered the tent, the captain being absent. Jack was on hand instantly, and in a gruff voice commanded the orderly to "Lef be dat ar book!" The orderly looked at him in perfect amazement.
"Put dat book down and g'way i'm heah. Yer kaint steal nuffin when ole Jack's lookin' at yer!"
Failing to recognize his authority in the premises the orderly started to go out with the book under his arm, when the negro planted himself squarely at the entrance and said:
"Now jess look a heah, boss, I done tole yer to drap dat book, and ef yer doan' do it yer's gwine ter git hurt!"
The orderly could bear it no longer. Drawing a revolver he pointed it at the darkey's head and forcibly informed him that if he didn't get out of the way he would blow the top of his head off. This put the boot on the other leg and Jack beat a hasty retreat. As the orderly went out he saw the two chaps who had put up the job almost bursting with laughter. The orderly-in other words, the present writer-owned up that it was a very good joke; but he was never able to get on good terms with old Jack. The negro always eyed him with suspicion.
Company B, Sixty-fifth, was deprived of all three of its officers while at Bridgeport. Second Lieutenant John R. Parish -commissioned and acting in that rank but not mustered-died in camp July 31st, after a sudden illness of but a few hours. (16)
242
OFFICERS MAKE HOME-RUNS,
[August.
Captain Henry Camp and First Lieutenant Johnston Armstrong resigned and left for home in August.
By this time a good many officers of the Sixty-fourth and Sixty-fifth had resigned and the vacancies had been filled by pro- motion. In being able to get out of the service, officers had an advantage over those who carried knapsacks and muskets. When an officer's health gave way, or if he felt that he had got enough or had not been rightly treated, he could just resign and quit. The enlisted man had no such option. He could not resign. He had to remain in service until his time expired, or till he was killed or so disabled by wounds or disease as to be of no further value in the field. Before we had been a month in active service the officers began to "get in out of the wet." During the year 1862 no less than sixteen of the Sixty-fourth and eighteen of the Sixty- fifth resigned and we saw them no more There remained barely half the officers who left Camp Buckingham.
The Sixty fourth and Sixty-fifth lost their brass bands early in August. They were mustered out by order of the War Depart- ment. But Chaplain Burns came back to us, after a long absence, · and had a chance to preach to us once before we started to Louis- ville. That sermon had to last us three or four months.
As heretofore stated, all of the brigade except the Sixty-fifth halted at Stevenson, as the terminus of the excursion by railroad from Mooresville. It remained there until the beginning of the retreat into Kentucky, Colonel Harker being in command of the post. The first enterprise in which the troops engaged was the building of a large fort, on a commanding eminence. The work, which was a strong one, was named Fort Harker. In it were placed the guns of the Sixth battery.
There was frequent annoyance from marauding bands of the enemy which were sent across the river. They prowled around, harassing the pickets, gathering in unwary foragers, and making themselves a nuisance on general principles. Colonel Harker fre- quently sent reconnoitering parties to scour the adjacent region and especially to watch the river, but the Johnnies were too sly and very few of them were caught. Once, while Company C of the Sixty-fourth, Captain Robert C. Brown, was on picket in a dense wood, private Jacob Ridenour, at one of the outposts, was
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