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 23
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The enthusiasm of our Indiana comrades was plentifully shared by the Ohioans. It was "God's country" and that was enough. It was a feast for our eyes, even though long months and years must pass before our feet might press its soil. The air resounded with cheers, which burst forth spontaneously all along the line. We halted for several hours, and the men were ordered to bathe. Never was an order obeyed with greater alacrity. There was a general scamper for the river, and in ten minutes the edge of the stream for a mile was fairly alive with thousands of men, swimming and splashing about with great enjoyment. Few who had the privilege of that glorious bath in the Ohio, after the long days and nights of marching, through heat and dust, have forgotten its reviving and exhilarating effect upon body and mind. When, soon after sundown, we responded to the beat of the drum, all were in the best of spirits.
The night was clear and cool, and as we marched briskly on the air was vocal with songs and choruses, which made up in force and volume whatever they may have lacked in harmony. "Rally 'Round the Flag," "Red, White and Blue" and "John Brown's Body," were sung by whole regiments at a time, with an effect that 110 language can describe. After marching three hours we went into camp. We had not seen our wagons since we left Cave City, and we had nothing except what was upon our backs. Very few had knapsacks, and many had no blankets.
September 25th we followed the pike for eight miles, when we took a by-road and crossed to the Ohio river again where it was said we would pass the night. Just at dark, however, we were ordered to push on to Louisville, seven miles distant. Three miles from the city we passed the pickets of the Ninety-eighth .
1862.]
28 1
BIVOUACKING IN LOUISVILLE.
Illinois, a new regiment just entering the field. They were dressed in brand new uniforms and the shine had not yet dis- appeared from their accouterments. The brown and ragged vet- erans, as they filed past, greeted them with:
"How's all the folks to home?"
"Young feller, you'd better shed that paper collar!"
"You'll have to leave yer bandboxes behind !"
"Had any hardtack and sowbelly yet?"
"Jest look at we-uns and see what you've got ter come to !"
The fledgelings grinned, but it is likely that our appearance gave them a better idea of what soldiering was than anything they had yet seen.
We were fully three hours in making the remaining three miles. The city was swarming with troops. It was full before we arrived, and it was no easy matter to find places to stow away the brigades and divisions of Buell's army. We hitched along a few rods at a time, stopping and starting alternately, every few minutes. The column would stretch out a little way and then gather itself up, much after the manner of an inchworm, and just about as fast. It was unspeakably tedious, and everybody's pa- tience gave out entirely. At length, chilled with the night air, and wet with copious dews, we threw ourselves upon the ground in a vacant square in the outskirts of the city. We had reached the goal at last. The memorable march to Louisville was ended. Exactly nine months had elapsed since we left Louisville on our first march. During that time we had traveled on foot more than twelve hundred miles-and now, here we were again, precisely where we started on our career of glory. Our army-then known as the Army of the Ohio-had wrested from the enemy a great extent of territory, covering portions of four states, and all of this was now relinquished, save, alone, the city of Nashville.
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[September,
CHAPTER XXVI.
GIRDING FOR ANOTHER CHASE.
WE WERE A HARD LOOKING CROWD-RAGS, DUST AND GRAYBACKS- SOL. BANBURY'S DILEMMA-A RUSH OF NEW REGIMENTS-THE SEVENTY-THIRD INDIANA JOINS OUR BRIGADE -PLENTY OF RATIONS AND A MEAGER SUPPLY OF CLOTHING BUT NO TENTS-SHOOTING OF GENERAL NELSON- COLONEL YOUNG WAS DEMORALIZED- ORDERS TO MARCH.
N OT often has the sun looked down upon such a ragged, forlorn and seedy gathering of tramps, seemingly in the last stage of vagabondage, as when it rose next morning over the bivouacs of Buell's army. Speaking of our own brigade, when we left Bridgeport and Stevenson we were but indifferently provided with clothing. Our line of sup- plies had for some time been so uncertain that the shortage was even more marked in the quartermaster's than in the commissary department. The wear and tear of our five weeks of arduous campaigning had been most disastrous to our wardrobes. We had not received during that time even so much as a pair of stockings. The consequence was that there were few whose
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1862.]
283
SOL. BANBURY'S DILEMMA.
clothes were not more or less ragged, while many were absolutely in tatters. The stony pike was hard on shoes. During the last few days men marched absolutely with bare feet, or with old rags wrapped around them to protect them from the stones. Hun- dreds only kept the fragments of their shoes upon their feet by the aid of strings and straps. In this condition as to our feet, and many with armless blouses, or trousers through which knees protruded. it may well be believed that we looked inore like a
motley throng of wayworn vagrants, than a body of Christian patriots.
I remember how Sol. Banbury, of Company A, Sixty-fifth, was made the butt of countless jokes. His pantaloons "petered out" at a very important point, so that for several days he was in the condi- tion of having, as the schoolboys say, "a letter in the postoffice." He had no cloth to repair the dam- age, and the good-natured gibes of his comrades- particularly those who marclied beliind him-drove him almost to distraction. Finally he cut a large piece JOHN C. ZOLLINGER, QUARTERMASTER AND CAPTAIN, SIXTY-FIFTH. from one leg of his trousers near the bottom, managed in some way to raise a needle and thread, and applied it, like a great plaster, to fill the aching void.
And the undergarments, such as had any! Perhaps I ought to draw a veil over the picture they presented, lest I shock eyes and ears polite. In a former chapter I alluded to the ravages of the pediculus vestimenti, or grayback, during this campaign, and will not now dwell long upon the subject. The most fertile imagination cannot conceive anything exceeding the reality. No
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THE CITIZENS WERE KIND.
[September,
man, from the generals down to the negro scullions, could escape the vermin. To be in such a condition was a most distressing humiliation, but under such circumstances as had for weeks sur- rounded us it was simply an utter impossibility to avoid it. But it almost made one feel like committing suicide. Those days are long past. Probably few of us have even seen a grayback since we were mustered out of the service, nor do we ever want to see one.
Had Bragg's artillery been thundering at the gates of Louis- ville it would scarcely have wakened us, so soundly did we sleep the night of our arrival. An hour after daylight we were routed out and ordered to get breakfast and hold ourselves in readiness for anything that might turn up. Nothing did turn up that day, however, and we did little but draw rations, eat and sleep.
The people of Louisville seemed really glad to see us-and no doubt they were-much more so than when we first "invaded" the city, at the end of the previous year. There appeared to have been a marked growth of Union sentiment during the in- terval. The nights were cold, and for the first two or three days, in the chaos that reigned, the head quartermasters left us wholly unprovided with fuel. There was a disposition among the shiv- ering men to assault the fences and outbuildings for material with which to feed the scanty fires, but this, of course, could not be permitted in Louisville. Kind-hearted citizens supplied us with cordwood and much in the way of provisions. Many officers and soldiers were invited to restaurants and to private houses and bountifully fed. It goes without saying that none of these invi- tations were declined. Some of those bibulously disposed were taken to saloons, where the citizens "set 'em up" in the luxuri- ant style peculiar to Kentucky.
The scare through the north, and particularly in the states bordering on Kentucky, caused by the approach of Bragg's army, was prodigious. At Cincinnati multitudes of "home guards" and "squirrel hunters" were gathered, while the new regiments, or- ganized under the last call of the president, were being hurried to Louisville with all possible speed. Thousands of these men had not drilled for a single day, and never saw an army musket until put into their hands in the trenches around Louisville. It was
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1862.]
OUR BRIGADE IS REINFORCED.
285
this large force, raw and undisciplined though it was, that saved the city. So far as Buell's army was concerned, Bragg could have taken and destroyed Louisville and whirled away before we could reach him. Most of the new regiments were distributed through Buell's army, one or two being assigned to each brigade. To ours was added the Seventy-third Indiana, Colonel Hathaway, then fully nine hundred strong. It looked like a brigade of itself.
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On the 27th we transferred our bivouac to a point two miles south of the city, where we remained four days. We were still without tents, nor was it possible for us to get any at this time, as the supply had been wholly exhausted in equipping the new levies of troops. So we continued to lead a gypsy life, through storm and sun, sleeping on the ground with nothing between us and the stars. Kind-hearted ladies from the city visited the biv- ouacs, bringing delicacies for the sick and suffering and minister- ing to their needs. From hundreds of miles away came anxious and loving friends to see once more husbands, sons and brothers, who had been so long separated from them. Among these was the father of the writer. It was the last time I ever saw him, as he died three months later, while we were on the Stone river campaign.
There was a very loud call for shoes, clothing and camp equipage for our brigade; we had scarcely so much as a kettle in which to make bean soup. These supplies were tardy in com- ing to us. The extraordinary demand to fit the new troops for the field had rendered it impossible to respond immediately to the demand from the tatterdemalions of Buell's army. We had plenty of rations, but received no clothing until the day before we started out again to look for Bragg, and then but a meager supply. The boys were also anxious to get sight of some more greenbacks. We had not been paid for five months, and for a long time our pocketbooks had been even more empty than our haversacks. It is true there had been little use for money. The usual diversions had become almost obsolete, by reason of the protracted absence of the paymaster. While at Louisville the boys wanted the money which they felt they had labored hard to earn, but they didn't get a stiver. Nobody could borrow; for all : were equally "strapped."
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286
DEATH OF GENERAL NELSON.
[September,
Rumors of Bragg's strength, movements and intentions kept us in a continual ferment. Nobody appeared to know anything that was really true, but hourly the wildest and most fantastic stories flew as if upon the wind, from one camp to another. It was well assured, however, that Bragg would not attempt to take Louisville. Whatever he might have done had he struck swiftly. his opportunity had now passed. The united forces were too strong for him. One other thing seemed reasonably certain, and that was that when the chaotic Union army became solidified and fully organized, there would be an aggressive movement. This was liable to begin at any moment. In view of this uncertainty the men were kept very closely in camp, and were rarely allowed to leave for any purpose. There was every prospect that our stay would be brief. On Sunday, the 28th, there was cannonad- ing in the direction of Bardstown. We stood in line of battle for an hour, and received an order to march that evening, but it was afterward countermanded.
An occurrence deeply regretted by the army, was the shoot- ing of Major-general William Nelson by Brigadier-general Jef- ferson C. Davis, on the 29th, at the Galt House, in an altercation growing out of their official relations. General Nelson was a brave and capable officer. He had commanded the Fourth di- vision of the army since its organization, and during the battle of the second day at Shiloh had shown conspicuous courage and capacity. His harsh, overbearing manner toward his fellow- officers, however, had alienated their friendship. It was his pro- fane and bitter language to General Davis that prompted the fatal shot. The fact that General Davis was acquitted by a court- martial, on the ground of extreme provocation, justifies the belief that the shooting was not wholly without cause. General Davis was a gallant officer, serving in the army of the Cumberland as long as it had an existence, and rising to the command of the Fourteenth corps.
The day before we left Louisville a trifling incident occurred in the camp of the Sixty-fifth, which created as much consterna- tion as would have been caused by a shell from one of Bragg's batteries. A runaway horse attached to a buggy went tearing through the camp at a furious rate. One of the wheels of the
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1862.]
REORGANIZATION OF THE ARMY.
287
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vehicle caught the ropes of Colonel Young's tent and flattened it ยท upon the ground in an instant. The colonel, who was lying asleep upon a cot, scrambled out of the wreck in an advanced stage of demoralization. The horse dashed on over the ground covered with soldiers, but everybody managed to get out of the way and there were no casualties.
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On the afternoon of September 30th, we were directed to put ourselves in readiness for rapid movements, the march to begin the following day. At an early hour next morning, October Ist, bugles and drums resounded throughout the camps that encir- cled Louisville. The seasoned veterans fully comprehended the meaning of the call to arms, and were ready to march and suffer again at the demand of duty. The new troops, thirsting for military glory, uttered brave words and were clamorous to be led against the enemy. We had passed through that stage of a sol- dier's life months before. We knew just how they felt, and how they would feel a few days later.
The army entered upon this campaign in three corps of three divisions each-a plan of organization that ?was [maintained through the war. The First corps was commanded by General McCook; the Second-to which Wood's; division belonged-by General Crittenden; and the Third by General! Gilbert. Subse- quently the corps numbers were changed to avoid duplication, as there were already corps with those designations in the Army of the Potomac. General Buell was commander-in-chief and Gen- eral Thomas second in command. Bragg's army was at and near Bardstown.
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[October,
CHAPTER XXVII.
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AT THE HEELS OF BRAGG.
ON THE SAME OLD ROAD TO BARDSTOWN-WOES OF THE NEW TROOPS- HOW THE VETERANS NAGGED THEM-"DRAWING" BLANKETS- BRISK SKIRMISHING AHEAD-SOME VERY HARD MARCHING-BRAGG RETREATS-A MEMORABLE ALL-NIGHT TRAMP-BATTLE OF PER- RYVILLE-WE ARE IDLE SPECTATORS-MYSTERIES THAT CANNOT BE FATHOMED.
T HE movement began soon after daylight, the veterans marching away with their old swinging step, and the raw troops stretching their legs in the effort to keep up. They were going to show the old soldiers that they could march as well as anybody else. There was so much delay in getting the large body in motion that it was past noon when we drew out on the Bardstown pike, the same road by which we had left the city nine months before. We traveled rapidly, bivouacking at night in a field immediately adjoining the one in which we had camped before, after our first day's march. How much longer the miles seemed to us then than now !
The new regiments had precisely the same experience that
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1862.]
IT WAS ROUGH ON THE NEW TROOPS.
289
we did. . They, too, started out with enormous knapsacks, stuffed to their utmost capacity, with two or three blankets and an over- coat strapped upon the top. They stood it bravely for a little while, and then they began to wilt and drop out of ranks. Pres- ently the fence corners on either side of the pike were full of men with bright new uniforms. When Buell's ragged and weather- beaten soldiers entered Louisville they were ridiculed by these fellows in their new clothes. Now it wasour turn to laugh, and many a jest was fired at the poor fellows as they lay by the road- side, nursing their blistered feet. They came limping and groan- ing into camp till midnight. Their knapsacks went through the same reducing process that ours had done. Next day wagon loads of domestic knick-knacks, of all kinds, might have been gathered in and around the camps. Some of our boys were yet without blankets, and not a few supplied themselves that night at the ex- pense of the Seventy-third Indiana. A veteran who wanted a blanket would take a midnight stroll among the sleeping Hoosiers, and when he found a man lying under two blankets he would quietly lift one of them, glide back to his own camp, lie down, roll himself up, and sleep the sleep of the righteous. A good many of the Seventy-third men missed their extra blankets when they awoke. Some of them were at first inclined to make a stir over the matter, but the odds against them were too heavy. They wisely concluded that one blanket apiece was all they wanted to carry, anyway.
The heartless veterans were merciless in firing volleys of gibes at the raw soldiers, who, having fallen out on the march to catch their breath, vainly tried to overtake their regiments. Dur- ing a halt, while the veterans were lying in the fence corners, fringing the road on either side, the stragglers came limping along, humping their backs, staggering under the burden of their pon- derous knapsacks, their faces the picture of misery and wretched- ness. Then the veterans, who had "been there," got in their deadly work:
"Left! Left! Left!"
"Hayfoot; strawfoot! Hayfoot; strawfoot!"
"Here's yer mule !"
"Hey, there, grab a root !"
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290
MAKING IT LIVELY FOR NEW TROOPS.
[October,
"I say, ye better give that knapsack a dose o' physic !"
"Brace up, there, young feller !"
"Hello, there, you ; change step an' ye'll march easier !"
"Don't ye wish ye was home?"
"Git some commissary an' pour into them gunboats !"
"How d'ye like it as fur as ye've got!"
"How's yer sweetheart?"'
"Paymaster's comin', boys; here's a chap with a pay-roll round his neck!" alluding to the paper collars with which so many of the new soldiers started out.
When one of these suffering pilgrims lost his temper-as he was very likely to do-and snapped and snarled in reply, he made a mistake, for the boys only redoubled their efforts to make his life a burden, if, indeed, it could be made any greater burden than it already was. But it was only fun. In case of need those vet- erans would have shared with him their last cracker or cup of coffee. They knew that he was just entering the school ofexperi- ence from which they had graduated, and that he would learn in no other way. He would come to it after a while, just as they did. A year later, when these new men had become soldiers-such as were left of them -- they got even by taking their revenge upon other raw recruits who came to the field.
Soon after we started the next day brisk firing was heard a short distance ahead. It struck us as a singular fact that the army did not, at the first shot, halt, form line of battle, and sit down to wait for the enemy. This time there wasn't quite so much fool- ishness. We just kept right on, and the more the firing increased the faster we went. It proved to be only a cavalry skirmish, the enemy retiring upon the approach of our infantry. Soon three or four ambulances came back filled with wounded, which caused a look of soberness to spread over the faces of the new soldiers. We made but slow progress during the day, as the road was choked with troops, artillery and wagons, and our halts were fre- quent and long. A hard rain set in, and we spent a most dismal night in a miry cornfield, with only such shelter as we could get from rails and cornstalks. We slept but little by reason of the incessant rain. When we fell in at three o'clock to stand at arms for two hours in mud ankle deep, it really seemed quite natural.
1862.]
291
WE ARE FED RATIONS OF GREENBACKS.
We felt that we were getting back into our old way of life again.
At daylight a heavy detail from each regiment of our brigade was sent ahead to build a temporary bridge over Salt river, which work was finished by the time the main body reached the spot. During the day our advance skirmished smartly with the enemy's cavalry. At frequent intervals wounded men were brought to the rear and the carcasses of dead horses were passed. At Mount Washington we struck Salt river a second time and, as we were in too much of a hurry to build a bridge, we plunged in and waded through. Toward evening a rattling fire of musketry was heard, and this time we did file off into the fields and form line of battle. Then we were told to eat our suppers and be ready to move right along. A little later we were surprised at the appear- ance of a paymaster in our midst. Notwithstanding the adverse surroundings he arranged his "lay-out" and proceeded to pay us for four months. He finished the Sixty-fifth about one o'clock in the morning. An agent of the express company was on hand to receive such amounts as the soldiers desired to send home, and nearly all availed themselves of the privilege.
Early on the 4th, Crittenden's corps took the Bloomfield road. Vague rumors floated back from the head of the column that our part in the game was to get on the flank of the enemy and paralyze him. We marched at great speed, constant reports of a fight ahead keeping the excitement at fever heat. When within six miles of Bardstown we rested a couple of hours and then ad- vanced cautiously. By dark we found ourselves within half a mile of town and were officially informed that Bragg had fled, leaving behind many sick and wounded.
Sunday, October 5th, we passed through Bardstown. Bragg had thoroughly stripped the place of everything that could be of value to an army. Everywhere were posted his frantic proclama- tions to the people of Kentucky to rise in their might, rally to his standard, and aid him to expel the invaders from their sacred soil. Wood's division took a rough and stony by-road leading toward Danville. Our march, till eleven o'clock at night, with an extreme scarcity of water, was excessively fatiguing. The Seventy-third Indiana melted almost entirely away. Many of them did not catch up till morning.
292
MORE TERRIBLE MARCHING.
[October,
We did not move next day till nine o'clock. While waiting, some of the boys, exploring in the vicinity, came upon a still- house where there was a large quantity of liquor. Knowledge of this discovery caused a furious scramble to fill canteens. General Wood heard of it and sent a squad of "crusaders," in charge of an officer, with orders to destroy it. They poured out upon the ground more than twenty barrels of the stuff. The boys thought it was a very wanton waste of valuable material. Soon after we started heavy firing broke out ahead, and a messenger came back in hot haste for some artillery. A section of the Sixth Ohio battery dashed forward at full gallop, but the enemy hastily re- treated. At four o'clock we reached Springfield and bivouacked in the fair grounds. General Buell was with us, but left in the evening.
During the forenoon of the 7th there was a continuous stream of troops passing toward Perryville. The road was packed, and at times completely blocked, with infantry, artillery, cavalry and wagons. We started at noon by a route fitly named by the people the "wilderness road." It led us through a barren, hilly region, utterly destitute of water. The heat and suffocating dust were well-nigh overpowering. Night settled down upon us, and still no water, except here and there a stagnant pool, from which the exhausted soldiers swept off the thick scum and dipped up the nauseous liquid to moisten their parched lips. Hour after hour we plodded on, so enveloped in darkness and clouds of dust that one could scarcely discern his file leader. It was a dewless night. There was not a breath of wind to scatter the dust that hung in heavy clouds about us and settled upon our clothing, completely covering us with a mantle of white. All through the long night the spectral column moved, on and still on, many exhausted men sinking helpless by the roadside.
To prevent straggling, a strong guard with fixed bayonets, under Colonel Streight, of the Fifty-first Indiana, marched in rear of the brigade. Most of those who fell out were from the Seventy-third Indiana, which, during the week since it took the field, had left behind, at the various towns through which we passed, more than two hundred men. The poor Hoosiers, limping and hobbling, were hustled along by the guards, many
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