USA > Pennsylvania > History of the Fifteenth Pennsylvania volunteer cavalry which was recruited and known as the Anderson cavalry in the rebellion of 1861-1865; > Part 23
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A WILD RIDE BY A COURIER AT CHICKAMAUGA.
CHAS. M. BROUGH, COMPANY A, OGDEN, UTAH.
I T was not often that "soft things" fell to my lot during my service in the various campaigns in which the Fifteenth Penn- sylvania Volunteer Cavalry took a prominent part, but finally one came that I specially liked.
I was assigned to courier duty at the headquarters of General Rosecrans at Chattanooga, and felt that here I might in some way so distinguish myself as to deserve a promotion, but, alas! it never came. When the forward movement out of Chattanooga began, resulting in the great battle of Chickamauga, I was among those selected to carry messages from the Commanding General to the various corps and division Commanders. When the engagement was on in earnest and headquarters were established at the Widow Glenn's house all of us were kept on the go with orders. All old soldiers recognize the extra-hazardous nature of the duty.
Among the very last messages, if not the last, sent by the Com- manding General on that eventful day at Chickamauga was that carried by me. I had explicit instructions from "Old Rosey" him- self to find Gen. Jeff. C. Davis, a division Commander in General Crittenden's Corps, and to deliver to him personally the message I was given and to lose no time, as it was of the very greatest importance.
I knew that General Davis' division should be on the extreme right of General Crittenden's Twenty-first Army Corps, so I set out as fast as my faithful old sorrel would carry me. Amid fly- ing minie balls, grape and canister and other missiles poured in by Longstreet's Virginians, who had arrived fresh from Lee's army, I made my way to find General Davis. Before reaching my ob- jective point I was informed that General Davis and his division had been transferred during the night to the extreme left, so I was obliged to retrace my way toward the place directed by one of General Thomas' staff.
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A Wild Ride by a Courier at Chickamauga.
In a little while I struck General Van Cleve's Division, just in time to see them break in the terrible onslaught made by Long- street's fresh troops. The old General, with tears streaming down his face, begged his men to stand, but it was not in the make-up of human nature to withstand the awful charge of the boys in gray, who outnumbered our boys two to one. Of course, the confusion of retreat and rout, the cries of the wounded and groans of the dying all tended to make a scene that was indelibly impressed upon my memory.
As we were carried onward by the rush to the rear I learned that General Davis with his division had, at daylight that morning, returned to his old position and assumed his place on the extreme right of our line of battle, so I wheeled about, and between our lines of artillery in the background and our infantry now re- formed in the front I made my way, at breakneck speed, to my original destination. Speeding along I felt a minie tear the fore- finger and knuckle of my bridle hand, and as I saw the blood spurting from the wound, and heard the roar and thunder of artillery and the rattle of musketry all around and about me, I wondered whether General Davis would ever see the important message I carried. A little farther along old sorrel stopped a minie in his throat, cutting the throatlatch of his bridle, but miss- ing by a thread only his windpipe. That made him mad, and he just flew over the ground, bleeding like a stuck hog, his nostrils distended and his eyes flashing fire. He didn't go any too fast for me, and I was glad when at last I came in sight of a place which but a few minutes before had been occupied by General Davis' Division, but which his troops had abandoned, forced back by the impetuous Longstreet and his splendid troops.
Just then Gen. Phil. Sheridan and his staff rode up, with his grand division of veterans at his heels. They were already in line, and as they went into the fray it looked to me as though the rebels could not possibly stand before that terrific fire, followed up by a charge and a yell that always sends the blood coursing a little faster through a soldier's veins ; but Longstreet, swinging on a pivot, as it were, threw a division of fresh troops to the aid of Bragg's regulars, and by virtue of overwhelming numbers forced our boys back. This movement gradually and finally resulted in a general rout.
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As soon as I could decide what to do I rode up to General Sheridan and informed him I had a dispatch for General Davis and wanted to know where to find him. He replied, "I don't know, my boy; but it's too late. Let me see it." He tore it open and read it, saying, "Too late! too late !"
His staff officers tried to rally the broken troops, and General Sheridan himself grasped the flag from his standard bearer and waving it, rode among them, begging his men to halt and re-form ; but it availed nothing, and turning to everybody around him, said, "It's time for all of us to get away from here."
Nothing that was human could stand before that hail of shot and shell. I have often wondered how it was that anybody ever escaped at all, and why it was that men didn't lose their senses in the confusion and uproar of retreat and rout.
I followed General Sheridan and his staff as they galloped after the troops which had broken, and as soon as I got within sight of headquarters, rejoined my comrades and told the story of how I delivered General Davis' message to General Sheridan.
My hand and finger carried a bandage for several weeks, al- though I reported for duty every day, and to this day a big scar can be seen where the bullet tore the flesh away-a silent testi- mony, to the truth of my story.
I never had anything, except my wife and children, that I loved more than I did my old sorrel, and many and many a time I "swiped" some delicacy for him denying myself. His throat never got altogether well while we were companions in the ser- vice.
Last winter, while spending a few months in Mississippi, I met and became acquainted with Capt. Wm. Lewis, of the Mississippi College Rifles, who was in the Chickamauga campaign as senior Captain in command of the regiment that led the charge of Longstreet's troops on the eventful day that Davis' and Sheridan's Divisions were repulsed. He told me that while they captured our positions and drove our boys helter-skelter from the field, yet they suffered fearfully in killed and wounded, losing many of their bravest officers and men, and were mighty glad when our troops retreated first. He himself was badly wounded, and was laid up for repairs for a period of six or eight months.
CHICKAMAUGA'S STRICKEN FIELD.
BY LIEUTENANT CHARLES S. HINCHMAN, PHILADELPHIA.
I T was in the afternoon of the first day's fight.at Chickamauga, on September 19, 1863, when General Rosecrans' headquarters were at Widow Glenn's house, that a Captain of Confederate infantry was captured and brought into our headquarters from the fighting lines for examination, and on being questioned by Col. W. J. Palmer, answered that his regiment was a part of Long- street's Corps, and that all but Pickett's Division of the corps was there, giving when asked, the names of several regimental, bri- gade and division Commanders, when they left Virginia, time occupied in cars in transit, and that they had just arrived (thus solving our wonderment at the number of locomotive whistles we had heard the preceding day and night, evidently bringing up re- inforcements), and that as soon as unloaded they were given their rations and ammunition and placed in position.
We had obtained the information that Longstreet was coming a couple of days before the battle began, through a reconnaissance of the enemy's front, made by Colonel Palmer and part of our regiment, when several prisoners were captured, who being at once questioned by the Colonel were found to belong to Longstreet's command which was already arriving in our front, who said that Longstreet and his corps had been sent to Bragg to help recapture Chattanooga. We think this gave the first information to General Rosecrans that induced him to hasten the closing up to the left of our long expanded line, an expansion found necessary to draw Bragg's army out of Chattanooga and enable us to take that highly strategic point, which was never afterward retaken by the enemy. The report was not then fully credited, but set down as possibly the boastful talk of prisoners. Realizing the importance of this Confederate Captain's confirming statement, Colonel Palmer im- mediately reported it to General Rosecrans, who asked that the Captain be brought to him. I remember well General Rosecrans' examination and his effort to trip the Captain up by sharply
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asking the names of the different Confederate Commanders in re- verse order to those first given, and noted the flush in the Cap- tain's face when he thought his word was doubted, and saw the lines of care deepen on our General's face as the doubt changed into conviction that in addition to Bragg's army already rein- forced by Maj. Gen'1 W. H. T. Walker's Reserve Corps, mainly from Mississippi, he was also facing General Longstreet with the greater part of his fighting corps from the Army of Northern Virginia. General Rosecrans, after dismissing the prisoner and his guard, remarked that he "had the assurance of the authorities at Washington that such movements of the Army of the Potomac would be ordered in Virginia as would prevent Lee from detach- ing any part of his army to help Bragg," and after a pause said he "could not understand why this had not been done." One of the prisoners of the lot taken with the Captain told us they had been unloading all night close in rear of their line of battle, and held in readiness to be put in where most needed.
It was a severe blow to General Rosecrans to feel that he had this added force to fight. He had been Longstreet's classmate at West Point, and well knew his ability as a skilful and deter- mined fighter, and evidently felt that Longstreet's Corps was rushed through by rail from Virginia to make Bragg strong enough to defeat us, when he (Rosecrans) had every reason to expect such movements would have been made in Virginia as would have kept Longstreet's Corps there.
The orders already given to the several Corps Commanders of our army showed that concentration of our long thin strategic line, from right to left, covering Chattanooga, was considered necessary, and additonal orders were sent to hurry the closing up.
Sunday morning the last of General Negley's Division, which had been ordered up from Crawfish Springs, passed Widow Glenn's house, and without halting his marching troops, General Negley had his pioneers and escort clear a way through the garden fence to General Rosecrans' headquarters to ask for latest orders. Just then the sun, which had risen over the tree-tops, shone through the folds of his silk headquarter flag, as General Negley's stand- ard bearer uncased and shook it out. It seemed to us like a glori- ous omen of success. General Negley, superbly mounted, checked his horse close to General Rosecrans, and saluting asked,
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Chickamauga's Stricken , Field.
"Any further orders, General?" Rosecrans impetuously strode toward Negley, saying rapidly: "General, I shall expect a good account from you today," to which Negley replied, "You shall have it, General," and saluting, with the single command, "for- ward!" joined his marching command until it was placed in posi- tion whence the continuous roar of musketry fire from both lines of battle and the sound of shrieking and exploding shells overhead showed all that the battle was again on in earnest.
During the cold night between the two days' battle, while the respective lines lay on their arms, Colonel Palmer courteously sug- gested putting our blankets together, and endeavoring to get a little needed rest. and yet to be ready for instant call by making our bed at the foot of a tree nearby the headquarter house, whilst General Rosecrans, in his old army overcoat with some hardtack in his pockets and a soldier's canteen full of cold tea, strung over his shoulder, paced back and forth alongside of and between our blankets and the house where some of his staff rested. The night being cold and frosty and the responsibility great, he kept awake· and alert for news from all parts of the army, munching hardtack and taking an occasional drink of cold tea as he walked.
Before noon of the second day's fight headquarters were moved to Dyer's Hill. about a mile toward the left from Widow Glenn's, and while there a gap was made in our line of battle by the movement of General Wood's Division out of line, whilst a charg- ing column of the enemy was in motion from the rebel lines to en- deavor to pierce our ranks ; this gap enabled them to push through our line of battle and overwhelm our troops at that point; they became panic-stricken on being fired on in flank and rear. All previous orders had been written in the headquarters' order book, and sent by our couriers and orderlies, but as the men came run- ning back toward the hill on which headquarters then stood, Gen- . eral Rosecrans' Chief of Staff asked Colonel Palmer to give him a well-mounted officer, and on Colonel Palmer calling me, the verbal order was given to find General McCook and tell him that the General commanding desired him to throw his whole corps into this gap "in column of divisions doubled on the center." It took but a moment to swing into the saddle of my gallant little gray, and to put her on a dead run to where General McCook was sup- posed to be between Widow Glenn's and Crawfish Springs. En
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History of the Fifteenth Pennsylvania Cavalry.
route and near Widow Glenn's house I found General McCook's Chief of Staff and gave him the order, and emphasized the need for haste in execution. He said he was already doing all he could to close up, and would do all he could to carry out General Rose- crans' orders. Upon asking him where General McCook could be found, as I wanted to give him also the order in person, this staff officer replied "God only knows; I don't," but thought "the General might be found between there and Crawfish Springs." Continuing down the Crawfish Springs road, I left it only when satisfied, by soldiers I met, that General McCook was not there. My mare being then pretty well winded, I took a slower gait returning to give her needed rest, and on nearing the Widow Glen's house the sound of distant firing from Thomas' front and a rather ominous stillness around was noticeable, and the troops and retreating men I saw on my way down had disappeared, although signs of heavy shelling were still all around the house, in dismounted guns and caissons, and dead horses and men, and the house knocked to pieces. Surprised in not finding any of our troops in sight, I rode up onto the top of one of the eastern side spurs of Missionary Ridge to take observations, but seeing nothing visible on either side I then turned to make a short cut through the woods toward the road leading to Bloody Pond and to Dyer's whence I had started, and just before I reached it, I found myself so close in front of a marching column of "Confederates feeling their way" that the whites of their eyes could be plainly seen. Their officer's call of "Surrender! we've got you," I heard dis- tinctly as soon as I saw them, and realized that I had ridden into them between their flanking skirmishers who began a cross-fire immediately. It must have looked to them like a sure capture ; but not relishing the invitation to surrender, I swung my little gray around and put both spurs in and dashed up the hill, hearing plainly their cries of "Halt, you Yankee
, we'll kill you!" accentuated by the ping of their rifle-balls as they whizzed by, and the thuds as they struck the ground and raised small puffs of dust where they struck around and under my mare's feet. I knew I was taking des- perate chances, and have never understood why they did not kill my mare and self, both making an easy mark, un- less, feeling oversure of capturing us, they did not aim carefully
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Chickamauga's Stricken Field.
and wanted to get the mare for themselves. Reaching a point where the brown-leaved bushes and trees gave us some cover, I made over the ridge, and soon found, just before dark, on a wood road leading to the Dry Valley road, General Wilder's mounted infantry brigade, and riding up to him I offered to guide him and his men across or around the ridge, in order to get in rear of the rebel force from which I had just escaped, so that he could bag and take them in with his brigade. His reply to this offer and as to where headquarters or General Rosecrans could be found, as near as I can remember was, "Young man, we've had enough of it for to-day. I am going to take my command into Chattanooga if I can, and would advise you to try to get there," which was acted upon until I found some of our own command near Rossville.
A few years after, meeting one of the Confederate Generals who fought at Chickamauga (or Dead Man's River, as its Indian name so appropriately signifies), he was asked why they did not follow up their advantage and attempt to drive us into the Ten- nessee River on the evening of that memorable day, and he re- plied "We wanted to bad enough, but were so near used up we could not."
HOW TWO OF US GOT LOST AFTER CHICKAMAUGA.
ENOCH W. MARPLE, COMPANY E, WIL'KES-BARRE, PA.
S OME time during the morning of September 20, 1863, while Company E was near headquarters during the battle of Chickamauga, we were ordered to take the bits out of the mouths of our horses and feed them some corn on the cob which we had carried with us. Before the horses had time to eat more than two or three mouthfuls our infantry lines were broken, and the company was at once sent to assist tlie balance of the Regiment in the effort to stop the retreat.
Company E was placed on the right of the line and Gabe Mc- Cahan and myself on the extreme left, McCahan being the last man on the line. After staying in this position for a long time- everything in our neighborhood becoming very quiet, no strag- glers and not a soul in sight-McCahan suggested that I go up the hill which was between my post and the next man to my left, and ask how long we were to stay there. I did so, and much to my surprise found no one there, the Regiment evidently having been called in and the man over the top of the hill neglecting to pass the word tous. How long we had been there alone we never found out.
We were in a quandary, as we could not find anyone who knew anything about the whereabouts of the Regiment. We wandered over to the main road, and there saw the never-to-be-forgotten sight of the demoralized and scattered portion of the army in retreat. It was an awful sight, which the writer is entirely unable to adequately describe. The road and adjoining woods and fields were crowded with baggage and ammunition wagons, with and without drivers. Some were stuck in the woods, with their mules still hitched to them. There were parts of batteries of artillery. One had two horses, one gun and a few men, which they said was all they had left. We saw all kinds of stragglers, any number of wounded men and horses, and, in fact, every part of the army seemed to be represented. We met about twenty mounted men who were lost. We held a sort of council of war, and finally
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decided to go down the road toward the battlefield and see what was there. We went only about half a mile, when we ran into and were fired on by rebel cavalry pickets or an advance guard just around a turn in the road. Of course we fell back rather hastily, and so did everything that could move along the road, as far as we could see. There was no stopping to ask what was the matter, but at the first shot the whole business got about as lively a move on as possible. Some more teams got stuck in the woods, their drivers leaving them and going with the crowd. This lasted for a few minutes, when everything quieted down again, and McCahan and myself started toward Chattanooga to try and find our Regiment.
We made a number of very close escapes from being captured. One time, hearing firing, we went to the top of a hill in the woods and saw some rebel cavalry capture a small wagon train on the other side of the hill. Another time we were going down a road to see some cavalry in the woods, thinking it might be our Regi- ment, when we were informed by a native that they were rebels, and he kindly took us out through the back of his lot into the woods. We finally landed, about dark, in a log house which the family had left. We were so tired that we unsaddled and stayed there all night, regardless of the prospect of being picked up before morning, thinking our chances were no worse there than to be wandering around in the dark. In the morning the family returned, and treated us so well that we would like to have stayed longer until a party came and told us the rebels were half a mile down the road, and coming our way, so we had to light out.
We wandered around all that day looking for the Regiment, chasing up a lot of clues, and finally reached Chattanooga some time after dark without further incident, except seeing several regiments made up of stragglers from different commands. Finally we went into a yard, where we unsaddled and went to sleep on the ground.
Early the next morning hearing the familiar bugle call right over the hill from where we were, we at once saddled up and fol- lowed the sound, found the Regiment and were about to be put under arrest for straggling by Sergeant Burton when our explana- tion made the matter all right, and we were excused.
This was certainly a unique experience, but I hardly think it was appreciated at the time.
BRINGING IN THE CHICKAMAUGA WOUNDED. -
L. R. METZGAR, COMPANY B, SANTA ANA, CAL.
I HAD the honor of serving as one of the orderlies for General Rosecrans and General Garfield, his Chief of Staff, on special duty at headquarters, during and after the battle of Chicka- mauga. I was present on Saturday of the battle, when headquar- ters were on a big fallen tree at Crawfish Springs. I saw the first two prisoners brought in. They belonged to Longstreet's Corps, and thus showed that he had reinforced Bragg. These prisoners acknowledged themselves as Longstreet's men, and were full of swagger and braggadocio, saying that their corps was here and that they would surely "give you hell to-morrow." I regret to say that their threat was literally made good. It seemed to me that right there General Rosecrans lost heart as well as confidence in his ability to achieve victory in the then raging contest.
The next day. that memorable Sunday, our army was falling back on Chattanooga, except General Thomas, the "Rock of Chickamauga," who, after his gallant and heroic stand, followed later. The Army of the Cumberland, scarcely recognizing defeat, entrenched itself at Chattanooga, leaving almost all its wounded lying, mingled with the dead, on the bloody field and in the hands of the enemy. Arrangements were made to bring in our wounded, that they might have such care and attention as was impossible to get from the Confederates, however willing.
I was one of the three detailed to superintend this duty. We three took position at 7 A.M. between the lines of the outpost pickets of both armies, under the protection of a flag of truce. In our rear were over 600 vehicles, of all varieties, hastily gath- ered up for the occasion-poor conveyances, indeed, to carry noble, wounded and dying heroes, but the best we could get. The pickets on both sides, recognizing the "white flag," kindly abstained from shooting at each other in our immediate vicinity. The drivers of our vehicles turned them over to those of the Confederates who
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received them, and in due time they returned them laden with our wounded, dying and some who died "in transit," promiscuously piled in, under and over each other, as best it could be done in the necessary haste.
All day and night long and until noon next day, in a cold, drizzling fall rain, the anxious, dismal, heartrending work went on. We three, without a fire to make even a little black coffee, kept our saddles, munched our hard-tack from our haversacks and drank water from our canteens, occasionally indulging from a smaller one filled with apple-jack tainted with quinine, to ward off chills and fever.
This duty done, and back again in Chattanooga, I once more rode with our loved "Rosey," who, mounted on that superb speckled charger "Blue John," paced a gait that kept an orderly on a gallop, as he visited the entire line of hastily built breast- works. He spoke to and encouraged "the men behind the guns" -- men who, on two crackers and one ear of corn per day, were expected to hurl back the pursuing and eager enemy or die in the trenches. "Be cool! men. Wait until you see the whites of their eyes, shoot low and make every shot count " were the General's orders, responded to with deafening cheers. How well these orders were obeyed is a part of our country's history. Such were some of the incidents of our soldier life and the work of our gal- lant Regiment, whose toil and duties were most varied, arduous and responsible.
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