USA > Wisconsin > History of the 6th Wisconsin Battery : with roster of officers and members; also proceedings of Battery reunions, speeches, &c > Part 4
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the one in which he imagines himself a renowned sol- . die1. His fancy perhaps pictures himself as starting out in his grand career no higher than a private soldier. But ac- cording to the books he has read, it is an easy matter to be- come the hero of some adventure and rise first to the dignity of stripes upon the sleeve of his jacket, and then two plain straps upon the shoulder. And then what opportunities are before him. He weaves a romance for himself after the pattern of the stories. Mounted upon a coal-black war-horse, at the head of a gallant band of followers he charges a battery. They dash on through the dense smoke of the battle field. The hissing bullets and plunging shells shriek past them dealing death on every side ; but he bears a charmed life, and pressing on with thinning ranks they meet the enemy in a hand to hand conflict. He mows them down with his sabre in his strong right arm, while with a death dealing revolver in his left hand he scatters them like chaff in the wind, and they flee in dismay. The victory is ours. The next scene : He stands before his Commander-in-Chief and under the admiring eyes of the whole army he re- ceives his promotion. Now his opportunities are doubled. He distinguishes himself again and again, until at last, with stars upon his shoulders, at the head of tlie victorious army, accompanied by a retinue of General and staff-officers, with banners waving in the breeze, and bands playing their most inspiring National airs, he enters the gates of the conquered city, the last stronghold of the enemy, who lay down their arms in token of submission as he approaches.
And will the boy's dreams stop here ? No ! His country would delight to honor the hero who had brought vic- tory to her arms and he is chosen President, like Wash- ington.
Yes, when we were boys we were willing to stop here. If we could gain the position and renown of George Washington, we were content; but I imagine the boy of the future will look farther if not higher ; he will have another military hero and President in his mind's eye as
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a pattern to be imitated. After two terms as the highest officer in the greatest Nation that e'er the sun shown on, he will, like Washington, decline a re-election, but will not like him retire to his farm to live and die in private ; but will travel in Foreign Lands and receive the admira- tion and homage of the titled aristocracy of Europe and the whole world, when weary of this to return for more hon- ors from the Republic, his Native Land.
This is but a dim outline, a faint sketch of those splen- did castles in the air that boys build in their flights of youthful fancy. But how much of the scalitics of a sol- dier's life enter into those dreams? Comrades, how much did you foresee of them when you enlisted in the 6th Battery ?
I shall never forget how the conceit was taken out of me when a boy of ten or eleven years. I had mace up my mind that I was born to be a soldier. I was brave as a lion / thought, (though I recollect a little circumstance that casts some doubt in my mind now upon that sub- ject.) I was sent on an errand to a farm-house in. the country a half mile or so. I rather enjoyed the errand in prospect, for a little girl about my own age lived there whom I thought was the prettiest girl in the world. When I got in sight of the gate a large Newfoundland dog came out barking, as most farm dogs will at passers by. That settled me. I couldn't get up courage to go any farther and went home whining the excuse that the big dog wouldn't let me go in the gate. But as I was saying, I thought I was brave enough to be a soldier, and my father had promised to try and get me into the West Point school when I got old enough. But I went to a circus, and there, in a fight, saw one man beat another to death with a murderous sling-shot. I turned away faint and sick at heart ; and as I went home I thought of my chosen career, and then and there renounced my am- bition to become a soldier ; for I concluded it took sterner stuff than I to pass through scenes of blood and carnage without flinching. I think the impression left by that occurrence has never been effaced; for to this day a
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street fight possesses no attraction to me. I feel more like turning away in horror from the sight. Another in- cident, a sad accident that you all remember, happened in the carlier days of our soldiering which made a deep impression upon my mind. It was our mimic battle on the drill ground at New Madrid. Each section of three guns, with their limbers caissons, 36 horses and as many men, came rushing at a fierce gallop trom opposite sides of the broad field. " Into Battery," rang the call from the bugle and almost while yet in full gallop the guns were unlimbered, faced to the front, horses and limbers to the rear and instantly the continuous roar of artillery was re-echoing from shore to shore of the broad Missis- ippi. Suddenly through an opening in the dense smoke I saw a form dashed to the earth from the muzzle of piece No. 5 which stood nearly facing me, at the same instant the shattered pieces of the rammer whizzed past. " Cease firing " came the order, and hastening to the 5th piece we found the cannoneers tenderly raising the limp and. lifeless form of one of our most genial and lively comrades, S. J. Gould. I don't know how the rest of you . felt but I couldn't help thinking that if this was the re- sult of playing at war what would the reality be? And do you recollect the first time we were ever under mus- ketry fire, at the west of Corinth Oct. 3d, as we were changing front upon a hill, with the battle in fierce prog- ress in front upon lower ground in the timber? A volley of musket balls at long range whizzed over our heads. ? How well we remember the sound of the drawn out luss of the bullet at long range. We came to be perfectly fa- miliar with it in later days, as also with the spiteful spit of the same deadly missile at short range. One of these bullets coming at random passed between the Captain and myself who role in advance of the battery, and passed through the less of two men walking one behind the other, Berger and Demner, I believe were the men. Here again it seemed as if fate had marked us, for if one bullet at long range placed two men hors de combat, what would be left of us after a regiment had fired a few rounds at
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us at short range? But the next day when the real danger was upon us we forgot it all. We did not stop to listen to the shower of bullets that incessantly swept around us. In- stead we listened to the sharp detonations of our own guns as they sent double loads of canister into the ranks of the advancing host, and the cheers of our cannoneers as the enemy were mown down by scores. Our calloused hearts were not moved by the sight of hideous wounds, heaps of dead and dying, or streams of blood. What is the cause of this? Is it the excitement of the moment that causes us to forget the misery ? and yet we cannot forget while it is before our very eyes ; or is it the whole- sale slaughter that makes us indifferent, while one bleed- ing body would cause us to faint? or is it a beneficent plan of nature that gives us strength as we need it to bear the burden that God gives us to bear ?
It was only the grand, the heroic, the chivalric portion of military life that we saw in our visions of the future, and how comparatively little of all that we realized ! It is true, a few pages of our history might pass into litera- ture along side of the chivalric stories of Walter Scott. Had we a poet among us he might have immortalized the heroic deeds of the old Sixth Battery. It is of no use for my feeble language to try to portray them. They are indeliibly written in the memory of every member ; and the least allusion to them strikes a chord that vi- brates in unison with the warlike strains which commem- orate the heroic deeds of the world's victorious armies. But those few deeds of valor, those few moments of war- like inspiration and excitement, what were they compared with the three or four long years of weary days that dragged along in the monotony of camp drudgery, the daily duties of guard and drill, the sweeping and clear- ing of camp grounds, care of horses, cleansing and bright- ening equipments, digging earthworks and building for- tifications. The constant struggle to keep ahead of dirt, disease and vermin, the irksome confinement to the nar- row limits of a camp surrounded by guards, who exer- cise equal vigilance in preventing passage from either
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direction, except the passer be in possession of the " open sesame," a pass from head-quarters. These are only mi- nor difficulties when compared with the actual hardships and privations which we were often called upon to en- dure. The long, weary marches in inclement weather,on the road from early morn till late at night-lucky if we can find a diy spot of ground for a bed, water for coffee that is not too thick with mud to flow-and a few hard- tack in our havresacks ; then we try and get a short rest, broken by the driving rain or snow, or the chilling wind that creeps under our scanty covering of blankets, as we lay at the mercy of the weather. Even under these hard- ships the average soldier does not grumble, but you will find him extracting some fun from everything. For in- stance, if the rain be falling in torrents and the ground fast becoming a shallow lake, you will hear some one as he gropes about in the darkness hunting for a dry knoll calling out in imitation of the leadsman on board a river boat. "Mark twain " "and a half three." "Four feet," etc. But if you wish to strip the last vestige of romance from our "soldier boy," prostrate him with one of the many diseases incident to a Southern climate, and put him in the hospital. Here he will dream no more of warlike honors, but his mind will drift back to his pleas- ant home in the North, the gentle mother, wife or sister who would bathe his feverish brow, bring cool water for his parched lips, constantly watch and nurse him back to health and strength. Comrades "you know how it is yourself" you have felt it .would be a luxury to be sick nigh unto death, if you could only be at home.
No, comrades, our anticipations then were as much dif- ferent from the realization as they have been since we ceased to be soldiers and became citizens again. For we did not stop dreaming when we became familiar with the realities of a soldier's life, but the current of our dreams was changed. We no longer dreamed of military glory, but of advancement in civil life. We mapped out the course of our lives when we should become our own mas- ters again. And how many of us thought that at this
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day 1878, we would be no farther toward the goal of our ambition than we are. But such is life! and thus will it ever be till man can be content to take what good he can from the little things of the present which really make up the whole of life, instead of longing for some- thing great in the dim and uncertain future.
But comrades I did not intend to preach a sermon to you. You expect me to recall to you some of the inci- dents of those days when " we went soldiering." I will hastily go over some of the ground that we marched over together "In days of Auld Lang Syne." Oh, those days, weeks and months at Racine where we spent our first half year. We thought then after being mustered into the United States Service, and placed under the com- mand of such an important officer as Colonel Foster, that we had begun soldier life in earnest. How strictly we had to obey orders then. How closely confined to camp with only a limited number of passes per day, which seemed a terribly small number when compared with the one hun- dred and sixty odd men who wanted an occasional airing outside of camp. I fear you almost learned to hate your buglers and orderly sergeant who were always calling you to some duty or other. Those early reveilles, in- numerable drill calls, roll calls, guard calls, fatigue calls, etc. But three times a day we played tunes that were better appreciated when the breakfast, dinner and supper calls brought you into line to march into the old mess- house. The old mess-house, can we ever forget that in- stitution ? My recollection of the fare is rather dim, but can recall the soup with an occasional dish-rag for vari- ety, fried pork, and stewed beef alternately, good baker's bread and molasses, with army coffee. You all know what kind of a drink that is. Not a very inviting bill of fare; but we had wonderful appetites then, and with our healthy out-door living and exercise, we put on flesh like fattening hogs. But you all recollect it didn't last long, for when we got down into the swamps of Missouri the shakes and the fever and that other chronic disease of the soldier soon took off all superfluous flesh. Another
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recollection of the last useful days of the old mess-house when the weather began to grow piercing cold and the early reveille called us from under our warm blankets to stand in line in the face of the chilling blasts that swept over Lake Michigan, until one hundred and sixty men could be got into line and their names called and re- sponded to, one after another, and then perhaps ten or fifteen minutes, which seemed an hour, to wait before the doors would be opened; and then to sit down to coffee that would almost freeze in the cup; tin plates, knives and forks full of frost. Surely this was getting uncomfortable, to say the least ; and we voted the thing a nuisance, and there came a change. We now had to cook our own grub in an eight by ten tent, occupied by six men, cookstove and furniture. What a lesson such an ex- perience would be to the woman who is always . anting another back kitchen built on, to cook in. But we en- joyed it, and still grew fit and healthy, notwithstanding the seeming exposure of living through a cold Winter on the shores of Lake Michigan, with only the thickness of cotton canvas between us and the freezing winds. Neither can we forget the furloughs, when we. went home to meet again the friends from whom we had parted, we thought until the war should close. Those first leaves of absence, when the newly gained importance and responsibility sat heavily upon our Post Commander's Head, were limited to five days ; half of which must be spent in going and re- turning. We too, felt the necessity of implicit obedience, and should we chance to stay but one day beyond the limit of our furloughs, we expected nothing could save us from court-martial and severe punishment, perhaps death, for desertion. But in the language of the soldier that "soon played out," and when the intense cold of Winter caused a mutinous feeling in regard to guard duty which soon put an end to that, and we were allowed some freedom to pass our evenings especially as we chose, then the life which was becoming irksome began to be more endurable. Long furloughs were given, and I think most of us can look back to that winter as one of
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the pleasantest in our lives. We thought then that we were rapidly learning to be soldiers, and we were becom- ing skilled in marching and handling guns, but in later days we smiled at the recollection of what we considered then the hardships of a soldier's life. We also learned a little of that art then unnamed, which we afterwards found ample opportunity to cultivate. But it fell to the lot of the Seventh Kansas to furnish the enduring name to that branch of the service, entirely separate from, yet still accessory to the subsistence department.
At Racine, jayhawking was not a necessity, but we seemed to have a premonition that a little practice in that line might sometime be of service to us when sup- plies failed to come through the regular channels of the Quarter Master's department. If such really were our motives in our little nocturnal expeditions to the surround- ing country, then they were well timed for in after years we well remember many a time when, after a long day's . weary march, we would have gone supperless to bed upon the cold. wet or frozen ground, with no shelter but the heavens above us ; and no fire even, had it not been for the faculty we had acquired of slyly disobeying those general orders which related to confiscation of private property, when we (private soldiers) saw ' a military ne- cessity in so doing. But I believe the good people of Ra- cine and vicinity made no disturbance over the few ap- ples, chickens, etc., that they missed, although I do rec- ollect something of the old Frenchman and his daughter trying to trace the whereabouts of certain chickens that had mysteriously disappeared ; but they had no better success than did certain officers nearly two years later, when trying to find the missing sutler and commissary stores at Helena, Arkansas. All winter long,as we heard of the success of our armies in the South, the fall of one strong hold after another, we were feverishly anxious to join them for fear the war would be over ere we had a chance to achieve any of the glory. Among all the would-be prophets of the final result, who prophesied that three years more would not see the end ?
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Perhaps you all recollect our rejoicing over those vic- tories , and on Washington's birthday we had a grand time, and hung Jeff Davis in effigy to the flag staff ; another dream, alas! which we never saw fulfilled. A year and a half ago Comrade Keene recalled to your memory the most striking incidents of our service after leaving Racine, and at Spring Green,comrade Jones from the time he joined, so I will not give you a rehash of the same, but still as recollection reviews those years in de- tail, I recall many little episodes that perhaps will entertain you more than any other subject, and as we get together to talk over these old times, the story never seems to get thread-bare or lose its interest.
It is amusing now, to think how promptly and swiftly orders were obeyed and troops moved in those early times of the war. The pending trial of Gen. Porter, for delay and disobedience in obeying orders, recalls some . of our own experience.
On the 9th of March, 1862, we received orders to pro- ceed to St. Louis, immediately. On the 10th another Peremptory order, but the 13th found us still in Racine, and by referring to my diary [ find that I attended a sociable in town on that evening. And not until noon of the 15th did we finally get under way for Dixie. Cold and cheerless was the day ; but our hearts were light, for the hour we had so long anticipated had come, and we were now on our way to actual war to lend our idd to the cause of our country. We remember our halt at Chicago, and the generosity of our officers in furnishing coffee from a restaurant to the whole company. We had not yet learned, as the train halted for a short time to collect a few sticks, build a fire on the ground and from the canteen fill the little coffee kettle, manufactured from an empty fruit can, which each soldier carried in later years, and from the havresack take a ration of cof- fee and brew a cup which not inebriate but wonderfully cheer the heart of the weary, hungry soldier.
Twenty-four hours after leaving Racine we Were on board a St. Louis boat at Alton, Illionis. The warmth
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ADDRESS BY O. J. BURNHAM.
of summer was in the air, and we threw off the blue overcoats that had been so comfortable until now. Three hours later in St. Louis. The most distinct impression I have of St. Louis is a broad levee sloping to the water. lined with steamers, and covered with crowds of people, drays, army wagons and mules, and heaps of merchan- dise, conspicuous among which were great piles of meat, corded up like cord wood ; a convenient lookout for the small boys who climbed up to look over the heads of the crowd to see the disembarking of the troops. Those piles I learned were composed of army bacon, which was to supply the waste of bone and sinew, to our toiling army. We formed a more intimate acquaintance with it afterward. The five mile march through crowded and muddy streets to Benton Barracks was indelibly stamped in my mind by the acute pain in my shoulders, for our knapsacks were packed as full as skill and long practice could pack them, and in addition our heavy overcoats. blankets, and haversacks with rations, made a load which our inexperienced shoulders were hardly able to carry such a long distance, without rest. This was our first and only experience in that line. for which we were truly thankful. Only two days at St. Louis, and then to the front, without a weapon of offence or defence, more deadly than the jacknives we carried in our pockets.
The ride from Birds Pt. to Sykestown I noted in my journal, as upon the roughest rafroad I had ever seen or ever expected to see. But I had never seen the Pine River Valley Narrow Gauge. Friend Keene referred to the march to New Madrid twenty-two miles after tuo o'clock p. M. as an example of complete exhaustion. I always remember itas a lesson which has proved in- valuable. It has saved me from many a bed of sickness. and perhaps, from death. I had been sick ever since our arrival at St. Louis, had eaten nothing for three days ex- cept a dish of oysters procured at Benton Barracks. It seemed an impossibility for me to walk two miles with - out fainting by the way-side, but I started with the rest and soon fell far behind, as their impetuosity took them
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ahead for the first few miles at a furious rate. One friend staid and cheered me on, carrying my blankets and haversack. Mile after mile was passed and to my sur- prise I felt no weaker, and after six or eight miles as we began to overtake stragglers that had given out after the first heat of excitement, my strength and ambition began to return, and we pushed ahead with constantly increas- ing speed until we had overtaken and passed half the company. As a rain came on and we had no shelter, we turnel aside as darkness approached and found an old deserted house, tore up a portion of the floor and built a fire on the ground, with a pole knocked a hole through the roof for the smoke to go through ; and after a lunch from our haversacks, lay down and slept off the weari- ness, and awoke in the morning as well and fresh as ever. That lesson taught me to never give up and go to the hospital while I could possibly stand or keep along with the battery.
You remember the deserted Secesh barracks comfort- ably built for winter quaters, supplied with fire places; cooking utensils, and an abundance of provisions of some kinds, showing that they had been deserted in a hurry. Three weeks later, a jolly prisoner from Island to, told us the story of their sudden departure.
Pope's army had surrounded them on three sides so there wis no possible escape but ana river. Siege guns had been plicel in position during the night within easy range, and in the morning opened fire with a vigor which threatened to blow the fortifications and barracks into atoms. A steamer came under the bank out of reach of the shell, to take away the frightened rebels. The bank here is clay and nearly perpendicular for twenty feet to the water. A broad gang plank was laid from the deck to near the top of the bank, making a steep incline for the men to walk down. Onto the plank they rushed pell mell for safety. It was raining hard, and the mud was deep ; and after the first few passed down, the plank became so slippery with mud that no man could keep his feet at that angle, and as each coming upon the run jumped
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upon the plank his feet slipped from under him and down he sailed to the deck with feet and hands flying in the air. And, said our informant, " For a month afterward you could tell a man from New Madrid by looikng at the seat of his pants."
At first we were shy of the barracks, on account of the vermin which no doubt infested them. Some of us pitched our tents upon the bank of the river in front of them, but a storm coming up in the night the billows of the broad river washed the bank so that it caved for sev- eral feet in width, and some of the tents went down with it, the occupants narrowly escaping with their lives. By degrees we fixed ourselves comfortably in the barrac s, and enjoyed the new life.
But, comrades, I didn't intend to detain you here listen- ing to me so long. Thirty minutes at the outside had I allotted myself to perform this duty, and the time has more than passed already. I also intended to glance over the whole period of our service, mentioning some of the minor incidents that comrades Jones and Keene had omitted for want of time. But we must stop, even if we have reached no stopping place. Besides, we have all done over duty. As a matter of duty and of form, you selected one of your number to address you on this occasion, though why you should have thought of me for that duty is more than I can imagine. Being absent at the time I had no opportunity to decline, and the only course left me was to tacitly accept, or ignominiously bac out. And I believe the 6th Battery always objected to the crawfish method of advancing. Therefore I have performed my duty ; but you whose duty it was to listen would have the most cause for complaint had you not brought it upon yourselves. You have performed your part creditably for which you have my than s.
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