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 39
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[January,
.
WILLIAM A. BULLITT, LIEUTENANT-COLONEL, THIRD KENTUCKY. Commanding Sixty-fifth at Missionary Ridge.
120
1864.]
WE LEAVE BLAINE'S CROSS-ROADS.
487
Cross-roads, where the boys had been for a month enjoying them- selves so luxuriously. We were received with tremendous cheers and yells. When the Sixty-fourth convalescents found that their regiment had re-enlisted and was on its way home, nearly all of them wanted to join the veteran procession. They were given the opportunity to do so and at once started back to Chat- tanooga. Going part of the way by rail and steamboat. they over- took the regiment at that place, and went rejoicing on their northward way. The non- veterans of the Sixty-fourth were temporarily attached to the Sixty-fifth, forming a company commanded by Lieutenant Hinman.
On the 15th of Jan- uary the brigade took its departure from Blaine's Cross-roads. We left it as gladly as, two years before, we bade farewell to Hall's Gap -we did not believe - we could find a more wretched place. We passed Strawberry Plains - still barren of strawberries - 小 crossed the Holston river, and during that day and the next marched twenty- DUNCAN THOMPSON, SERGEANT, COMPANY G, SIXTY-FOURTH. Mortally wounded at Rocky Face Ridge, May 9th, 1864. five miles farther to Dan- dridge, on the French Broad river. Here we found Wood's division in camp. On the 17th there was a spirited attack by a considerable rebel force. We did not get fairly into the fight, but that was not our fault. The brunt fell upon the One Hundred and Twenty-fifth Ohio, which lost its adjutant and four men killed and a dozen or more wounded. We were ordered to establish a camp, but we had scarcely begun when we marched away to a ford of the French Broad, and built a bridge by means
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488
SIXTY-FIFTH DRAWS ANOTHER BLANK.
[January,
of wagons placed in the water at intervals, connected by timbers. We bivouacked upon a large island in the stream, but at ten o'clock that night we were routed out, recrossed the river and headed once more for Strawberry Plains. All night the column swept on, scarcely halting till daylight. Nobody could imagine the pur- pose of all this playing hide and seek, and probably 110 one has ever found out to this day. So far as can be judged it was a scare, rumors having been rife for some days that Longstreet had been re-inforced and had turned to inflict con- dign punishment upon us for having forced him to forego the pleasure of tak- ing Knoxville. As a mat- ter of fact, Longstreet was making his way back to Virginia, and the rebel force which made itself so conspicuous at Dandridge was nothing but a small body of cavalry.
After lying quiet a day we drew quarter rations and set out for Knoxville, where we arrived on the 2Ist, after a galloping march which severely tried our soles as well as our JOHN W. LEIDIGH, SERGEANT MAJOR, AND SECOND LIEUTENANT, SIXTY-FOURTH. souls. An order came for another of Harker's veter- an regiments to march to- ward the north star. Again lots were cast and the Sixty-fifth drew another blank, the prize going to the Fifty-first Illinois. Lieu- tenant Colonel Bullitt was an excellent soldier, but the boys thought he wasn't "worth shucks" when it came to drawing cuts.
Loud grumbling was caused by an order for us to again double on our track, march back to Strawberry Plains and thence
881
1864.]
OFF AT LAST FOR "GOD'S COUNTRY."
489
on toward Bull's gap. An hour later this most unwelcome order was countermanded, and we were directed to march to Loudon. We arrived there on the 25th, crossed the Tennessee river on flat- boats, and went into camp. On the third day thereafter, the Sixty-fifth-barring the non-veterans-was thrown into a state of delirious excitement by an order to start at once for Chattanooga, en route for "God's country. " The non-veterans of the Sixty- fourth and Sixty-fifth were transferred to the Third Kentucky.
Early in the morning of January 29th the regi- ment drew a scanty supply of rations and started upon its journey, amidst a tempest of farewell shouts from our comrades of the brigade, to which the de- parting veterans responded with rousing cheers. At the last moment three or four of our non-veteran squad "weakened : " the temptation to go home was toc strong for them to resist. Fearing that it might be everlastingly too late, they asked eagerly if they would be permitted to re-enlist. Being informed that the lamp still "held out to JONAS SMITH, FIRST LIEUTENANT, SIXTY-FIFTH. Died at Nashville, Tenn., from acci- dent, June 10th, 1865. burn, " they hastily gath- ered up their belongings and followed the flag. They were greeted with frantic yells by the veterans, and with good- natured scoffs and jeers by those who remained behind.
The march to Chattanooga was devoid of special interest. The distance from Loudon, ninety miles, was covered in four and a half days, which, in view of the awful condition of the roads, was extraordinary. If the men had not been homeward
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490
TO OHIO AND BACK.
[March,
bound, such marching would have caused a constant and copious flow of vigorous language. We stayed at Chattanooga nearly three weeks, dozens of pens being constantly busy in making the many muster-out, muster-in and pay rolls required. While here Captain Orlow Smith, of Company G, received a commission as major, and took command of the Sixty-fifth, relieving Lieutenant-colonel Bullitt, who rejoined his own Sixty-fifth the Third Kentucky.
TIP S. MARVIN, FIRST LIEUTENANT AND QUARTER- MASTER, SIXTY-FOURTH.
Of our trip to Ohio, with new clothes and plenty of money, and our thirty days at home, little need be said. Everywhere the veterans were received with the warmest hospi- tality; homes and hearts were opened wide to them. A few took advantage of the opportunity to get married, enlisting for life under the banner of Hy- men. The boys had free run of the cupboard and drew heavily upon the fam- ily larder. The days passed all too quickly and then, tearing themselves from the loving embraces of their friends, the veterans once more set their faces toward "Dixie's land."
Rendezvousing promptly at Columbus, we received from the state a new stand of colors and whirled away to Cincinnati: thence by boat to Louisville and rail to Nashville, where we ar- rived on the rith of April. Here we met the first disappoint- ment of our career as a veteran regiment. We were informed that we would have to march to Chattanooga-one hundred and fifty miles. We had fully expected to go all the way by rail, and
1864.]
"HOOFING IT" TO CHATTANOOGA.
491
this order started the boys again in their old habit of "kicking"- but they tramped just the same. General Sherman was then as- sembling a great army of a hundred thousand men for the cam- paign to Atlanta, and the railroad was taxed to its utmost capacity in the transportation of supplies of food, clothing and ammuni- tion. It was necessary to have at Chattanooga, as a secondary base, a large accumulation of stores before the opening of the great campaign. This is why "Uncle Billy" made the order, .which provoked so many bad words and blisters, re- quiring all troops and cattle for the army to go forward from Nashville "on the hoof."
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We made the march with comparative comfort in fifteen days. There was no pressing need of haste and we were not crowded to the limit of endurance. Twice we lay over a day for rest. The veterans were too wise to load themselves down with notions from home. Abundance of them had been offered and urged, but they were generally declined with thanks. We had a few recruits who re- JAMES BRANNAN, SIXTH BATTERY. fused to take advice, and started from Nashville with great humps on their backs, but they very soon "shed" everything except the essentials.
Israel O. Gaskill was a recruit who had enrolled himself in Company B, Sixty-fifth, just as the company was to start for the rendezvous, at the expiration of the furlough. He had tried hard to get in before, but was too young. This he thoughit would be his last chance and he ran away from home to enlist. Gaskill felt very proud when he started from Nashville with the regiment,
492
GASKILL'S "ROUT STEP."
April,
with a musket on his shoulder and all the paraphernalia of a soldier strapped and buckled about him. He had not drilled a single hour, but he marched with his gun at a right-shoulder-shift, in strict accordance with the tactics, as far as he knew anything about it. After the column was well drawn out the usual order "Rout step!" was given. This meant, in the phrase of the pres- ent day, "go-as-you-please," each man being free to take his own gait and carry his musket and accouterments in whatever manner he chose. But Gaskill didn't know anything about this and he trudged along with strict military pre- cision.
"Didn't ye hear the order 'Rout step?'" said one of the boys. "That means ye can carry yer gun any way ye want to."
"That's jest exackly what I'm doin'!" replied Israel.
It was one evening during this march that Lieutenant John Body, of the Sixty-fifth, had the novel experience of being JETHRO FUNK, SERGEANT, COMPANY F, AND COLOR- BEARER, SIXTY-FIFTH. euchred, although he held both bowers and the ace- a combination which under Killed at Dallas, Ga., May 26, 1864. ordinary circumstances can- not be beaten. Four young officers, weary from the day's tramp, had squatted around a cracker-box, seeking nepenthe in a social game of euchre. Body and McCune were partners, their adver- saries being Moores and Bell. In one of the deals Body was given the three trumps highest in rank-right, left and ace-and two indifferent suit cards. Knowing that according to all rules he had a "cinch" on making at least one point, with a glean of sat-
493
JOHN BODY WAS EUCHRED.
1864.]
isfaction in his eye he declared his purpose to "play it alone," in the hope of scoring four, the prize of a successful "lone hand." It happened that all of the smaller trumps were held by his an- tagonists, but they were only sergeants and corporals and pri- vates, while Body's trumps were brigadier and major-generals. Just how it was done nobody will ever know-whether Moores drew an extra bower out of his sleeve or picked up one of Body's and played it on him-but certain it is that Body was euchred and lost the game. For weeks thereafter his men- tal forces, when not other- wise engaged, were kept busy in the effort to figure out how it happened. It was a standing joke on him to the end of the war.
We reached Chatta- nooga on the 30th of April -just in time to be in at the opening of the cam- paign against Joe Johnston. We found that all the troops of the Fourth corps had returned from East Tennessee, our brigade be- ing in camp near Cleveland -a name that had a home- like sound to Ohio soldiers. After spending three days MICHAEL KEISER, CAPTAIN, SIXTY- FOURTH. in making out pay-rolls and reports, we left Chattanooga on May 3rd, leaving behind company baggage of every kind, even to the books. During this cam- paign the men were to have absolutely nothing except what they carried on their backs-company officers, ditto.
Lieutenant-colonel Whitbeck, having recovered from his wound received at Chickamauga, returned with the regiment from its veteran furlough and was in command. On the 6th we rejoined Harker's brigade at Catoosa Springs, but a few miles from Dalton,
H
494
COMPLIMENTS FOR MAJOR COULTER.
[April,
where lay the rebel army. Vociferous soldiers' greetings were ex- changed with our old comrades, and especially with those of the Sixty-fourth, which had recently returned from Ohio. No man was ever more heartily cheered than was Colonel Harker when the Sixty-fifth first caught sight of him. He acknowledged the com- pliment by lifting his hat and smiling all over his pleasant face.
While at home a few of the veterans supplied themselves with Henry rifles. This was a magazine gun, from which some thirty cartridges could be fired in rapid succession. The boys used them with excellent effect. These were the sort of guns of which a rebel prisoner said: "You load 'em on Sunday and shoot 'em all the week !"
For eighteen months previous to this time Major Samuel L. Coulter, of the Sixty-fourth, had served as assistant adjutant-general, on the staff of Colonel Harker commanding the brigade, discharging the arduous duties of that po- sition with a faithfulness and efficiency that won for GEORGE W. JAMES, FIRST LIEUTENANT, SIXTH BATTERY. him the highest encomiums from his superiors and the confidence and esteem of all with whom he was associated. Near the end of April, 1864, he was, at his own request, relieved from staff duty and returned to his regiment. Colonel Harker issued a general order warmly commending and complimenting Major Coulter for the "zeal, promptness and fidelity" with which he had discharged the duties of adjutant-general of the brigade, his "officer-like bearing and his gallantry on the field of battle." Captain Edward G. Whitesides, of the One Hundred and Twenty- fifth Ohio, was detailed to take his place on the staff.
1864,]
495
BATTERY BOYS SHOULD GIVE THANKS.
Early in May. 1864, Sergeant Samuel P. Snider-everybody called him "Sam"-of Company D, Sixty-fifth, who had been wounded at Stone River and very severely at Chickamauga, was discharged to accept a commission as captain in the Thirteenth United States colored troops. His departure from the regiment was a source of genuine regret, for none had more friends than he.
The Sixth battery did not accompany Harker's brigade to East Tennessee but remained at Chattanooga. For this the bat- tery boys ought to sing the long meter doxology every day of their lives. They were lucky, having little duty to perforni except to re- pair the damage wrought at Chickamauga. In Deceni- ber the "veteran" fever broke out with great viru- lence, and by the 20th nine-tenths of the battery had re enlisted. On the 26th the company was mus- tered out and re-mustered for "three years more." On the 29th the veterans left for Ohio to enjoy their furlough, those who had not re-enlisted being tem- porarily assigned to the Twentieth Ohio battery. ALBERT C. MATTHIAS, CORPORAL, COMPANY K, SIXTY-FIFTH. The trip to Bridgeport was made by steamboat. Of the trip home Captain Baldwin writes :
"The day was one of the coldest ever experienced in the country, the thermometer hugging zero for several days. The trip on the river was very tedious and uncomfortable, the sharp northern wind cutting to the quick as it passed over the open deck of the steamer. So cold was it that two Indiana .soldiers going home on sick furlough died of cold and exposure. We reached Nashville on the morning of the 30th and after a thor-
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MASINTE
496
THE ARTILLERISTS AT HOME.
[April,
ough warming and a good square meal we boarded the cars and were off for Louisville. After passing Cave City the train struck a broken rail which ditched it and rendered every car unfit for further use. Fortunately no one was severely hurt. Two hospi- tal cars ran into a field, keeping right side up, and did not hurt a single occupant. By dark a freight train was secured and we again started for Louisville, reaching the city about daylight on the morning of the 31st. We reached Indianapolis about noon and here the company fell into the hands of friends. One of the battery sutlers, William Daggett, provided for the comfort of all.
"The morning of Jan- uary 2d found the majority of the members of the com- pany enjoying once more the pleasures of home and the society of their families, for the first time in nearly three years. The veteran furlough passed rapidly amid social gatherings, and was seemingly over before it had scarcely begun. The patriotic citizens of Akron tendered a public dinner to JOHN V. B. MAIN, the veterans of the battery SERGEANT, COMPANY E, SIXTY-FOURTH. and the Twenty-ninth Ohio veteran volunteer infantry. The following day the company rendezvoused at Cleveland and reached Chattanooga early in March. Orders were received to proceed to Nashville with the entire company and bring up artil- lery horses for our own use, and for other commands. This was a ten days' trip and was accomplished without hindrance or moles- tation. Marching the one hundred and fifty miles overland, it gave is an opportunity to see again the country over which we had marched and campaigned for two years. Arriving at Chatta-
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497
1864.]
1
ROELIFF BRINKERHOFF, QUARTERMASTER, SIXTY-FOURTH, CAPTAIN AND A. Q. M. AND BREVET BRIGADIER-GENERAL. First Officer Commissioned in the Sherman Brigade.
(32)
498
THE BATTERY READY FOR BUSINESS.
[April,
nooga, orders were received to put the battery into complete shape for campaigning. Carriages were repaired and painted, harnesses renewed and oiled and ammunition chests filled. During March and April a large number of recruits joined us, and the ist of May found our ranks full and the battery in every respect in first-class condition for active service."
First Lieutenant James P. McElroy and Second Lieutenant George W. Smetts resigned, the latter on account of disability re- sulting from his wound re- ceived at Chickamauga. Second Lieutenant Aaron P. Baldwin was promoted to first lieutenant, and Sergeants George W. James and E. H. Neal to second lieutenants. On the 28th of April the battery arrived at Cleveland, Tennessee, and was assigned its place in the great army that was being assembled for the ad- vance toward Atlanta. The batteries of the Fourth corps, instead of being at- tached one to each infantry , brigade, as heretofore, were organized into an artillery brigade, Major W. F. Good- JUNIUS B. SHAW, COMPANY D, SIXTY-FIFTH. speed, of the First Ohio light artillery, command- ing. This form of organization proved to be convenient and ad- vantageous. Batteries, one or more, were quickly dispatched to any desired point. Habitually, two or three batteries served with each division, although the artillery of the corps was all under the general command of the officer designated for that duty. The Sixth Ohio served almost continuously with Wood's division.
1864.]
CHAPTER XLVI.
WHICH TELLS OF VARIOUS THINGS.
SOME OBSERVATIONS CONCERNING PORTIONS OF A SOLDIER'S OUTFIT- WHITE AND BLACK HAVERSACKS-THE CANTEEN AND ITS VARYING CONTENTS-ITS POST-MORTEM USEFULNESS-THE PONCHO OR "GUM BLANKET"-POPULAR DELUSIONS REGARDING THE BAYONET-ITS
. PRACTICAL USES-CORPS BADGES-SLANG PHRASES IN THE ARMY- "FAC-SIMILE" CONFEDERATE MONEY.
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A FEW observations may here be made concerning some well remembered articles of a soldier's outfit. The hav- ersacks were of two kinds, black and white-that is, when they were new, for after they had been used a while they were all of the same color. The white canvas ones looked very nice and clean at first, but by the end of a month, having served as a receptacle for chunks of bacon and fresh meat, damp sugar tied up in a rag-probably a piece of an old shirt-and veg- etables picked up along the route, it was not a "thing of beauty," but quite the reverse. Theoretically, the haversack would shed water; practically, it did nothing of the sort. Its contents were often a sorry mess, during those protracted seasons of rain when
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CONCERNING HAVERSACKS.
500
[April,
it seemed that we would have to follow the example of Noah and go to building arks. Now and then, in a spasm of reform, a man would try to wash his haversack, but laundry facilities in the army were of the most primitive kind and the result was indiffer- . ent and unsatisfactory. For a few days it might show an improved appearance, but its whiteness was gone forever. In a short time it was blacker than before, and the last state of that haversack was worse than the first. The delusive superiority of the black hav- ersack lay in the fact that at the outset it did not show the dirt and grease and therefore gave less offense to the fastidious and critical eye. It Was all the same to the nose. Indeed, in this
respect it was worse, for, its uncleanness being less ap- parent, it was more likely to be neglected, and the noxious odors that were ex- haled from its dark recesses were the more pungent and overpowering. But there was nothing like getting used to these little things. The fresh recruit would have gone without his din- OTHO M. SHIPLEY, CAPTAIN, SIXTY-FIFTH. ner rather than eat from one of those campaign haver- sacks; but the veteran would drop by the roadside, draw from it a bit of raw pork and a badly soiled hardtack, munch and be thankful. It will be under- stood that these conditions did not exist when we were lying in camp for weeks at a time, with facilities for cleansing, and where new articles could be procured to replace those which had reached the limit of their usefulness. I have written of the haversacks as so many of them were upon the long campaigns, when consid- erations of personal comfort were sunk in the one all-pervading
r864]
THE RECEPTACLE FOR LIQUIDS.
501
purpose of fighting the enemy and ending the war. Most of the officers started out with dainty little haversacks of shining patent leather, only large enough to hold a day's rations and a flask-for medicinal purposes. These little affairs soon lost their beauty. The rain washed off the gloss and the sun curled up the leather until they became sad wrecks. During the early days an officer's reserve supplies were transported in the company wagon or upon the back of a strapping darkey, but in 1864 he was glad enoughi to sling a regulation haver- sack over his shoulder and take pot-luck with the boys. The canteen was the complement of the haver- sack. These two were as inseparable and indispensa- ble to each other as the two legs of a pair of trousers. The canteen was a simple affair, made of tin and cov- ered with woolen cloth, with a strap to throw over the shoulder. It was shaped like the earth, only a good deal more flattened at the poles, its halves being sol- dered together around the equator, so to speak. It would hold about three pints of water, or the same HENRY HILDENBRAND, COMPANY B, SIXTY-FOURTH. quantity of something else -milk, cider, sorghum molasses, or the vigorous and searching "commissary." No soldier ever permitted himself to be long without a canteen. If he lost his own, or a wagon ran over it, he rarely failed to supply himself the next night from some other company or regiment. The soldier who awoke in the morning to find his canteen gone would make a nocturnal raid on some other fellow, and thus keep things moving. The manifold uses of the canteen have already been referred to. Its peculiarity was the
502
USES OF THE OLD CANTEEN.
[April,
fact that its usefulness did not cease when, battered and worn, it was duly and impressively condemned by a "board of survey." Then came into play that wonderful fertility of resource which was constantly exemplified in the daily life of the soldier, by which he was enabled to utilize whatever came to hand to promote
his comfort and well-being. The old canteen was thrown into the fire and the heat soon melted the solder by which the halves were joined. The soldier found himself in possession of two tin basins, eight inches in di- ameter and about two inches deep at the center. One of these he carried in his haversack, or tied by a string upon the outside. Its weight was nothing, and he found uses for it that never entered into the philosophy of the man who made it. A wash basin was omitted from the outfit of the sol- dier and he often used the half-canteen for this pur- . pose. After performing his ablutions he would rinse the basin with a dash of . water-or if he was too hungry for that it made lit- tle difference -- and splitting SAMUEL P. SNIDER, FIRST SERGEANT, COMPANY D, SIXTY- FIFTH. CAPTAIN THIRTEENTH U. S. COLORED TROOPS. the end of a stick for a handle, he had an excellent frying-pan. Tons of swine's flesh were fried in the half- When green corn was at
canteen-and millions of "flapjacks." the right stage he would take a half-canteen, stab it full of holes from the inside with his bayonet, and this made a prime grater, by the aid of which a dish of "samp" was evolved. Sometimes, when on the skirmish line, a soldier found it desirable to have a little intrenchment, in a hurry. With his bayonet to loosen the
1864.]
THE HANDY PONCHO.
503
earth and a half-canteen to scrape it out, he would burrow into the ground and throw up a fortification with a facility that was amaz- ing. These uses for the old canteen were multiplied almost in- definitely. The official existence of the canteen ended when it was condemned and "dropped " from the officer's quarterly re- turns; but it was like the good who die, of whom it is written that "their works do follow them."
Another very convenient and useful article was that which was called by the quarter- master a "poncho" and by the soldiers a "gum blank- et." It was about six and a half feet long by three and a half wide. In the center. running crosswise, was a slit eighteen inches long, through which, when it rained during a march, the soldier poked his head and the poncho enveloped him like a "Mother Hub- bard." Another of its pri- mal uses was to spread upon the damp ground, un- der the woolen blanket. It served many other purposes as well. It was often found convenient to wrap around a leg of pork or mutton which a soldier wanted to smuggle into camp. The JAMES IRVIN, FIRST SERGEANT, COMPANY D, SIXTY- FOURTH. COLOR-BEARER AT STONE RIVER. opening in the center had a flap equipped with buttons, by which it could be closed, and then it would hold very nicely a peck of sweet potatoes or other truck. After they had been in service a few months about half the ponchos had checker-boards penciled or painted upon the inside, and the other half were marked with the necessary
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