iixhrurp <xf

of

	GIFT OF
MR.	& MRS. E. M. ZIMMELE

DAYS AND EVENTS

I 860- I 866

^a^\nrcArrYVTy\Siy

• r»

Days and Events

1 860 -1 866

By THOMAS L. LIVERMORE

Late Colonel of the i8th New Ila-fnpsh'.re Volunteers

i % %

1 1

^^ilW.\«

t I 1 1

1 ^1 ' i ■

'^•M III

1*1' 4t 1

•1 *| • -1

• 1 i

« yi

■»ij«

BOSTON AND NEW YORK

Houghton Mifflin Company

The Rivcrsule Prejs Cambridge 1920

«l «

♦» <»

^ 1 *.'*

% (^

•I i 9 f I • i

- . iff

-1 VI «f V ^f I

v% .«f <«! #1 ?| f I I ^1 I ^ I ■

ifiaH I • 1

i ^1 if 'I

iv^f^l I I

. %f ri .§

A| ^i>i^,> I ^ «*• 'ki (iiU\ j\ /i «i ^'1 •lii'^i i

, '^- ^''' "tj li? ?>•■. ^* ■

it 19 i« |V t<i t"^

- M i> «^ l> l;» tv . i 'v

^i «> 1*' rr i» 1? #* '•i' It

_: f^ ^t. |« t« l:% «.^ < ■ V

r*. '? 1.*. i-t Sit, tt

* .«> ..« n ■• ■ •■ ■ f, V ^

* r •♦ *

f

j i

i % t'> «• .'.

\

•IH«Mlii|*"

*i '•" U i't .. .

% I* li

^.«^ »;» i» l« U 1^ U «* »^ I* i«'|« le^H'i,-

<* i* iv i% It :v •

« U 1^ li !«: ^ Ir t« !<« Ia 3.^

, & 19 H i# i# ' jfr J*

*'. 1% J* -^^ tf

•'''»* 5* fA '•*. ■■■

Days and Events

1 860 -1 866

By THOMAS L. LIVERMORE

Late Colonel of the l8th New Hampshire Volunteers

BOSTON AND NEW YORK

Houghton Mifflin Company

The Riverside Press Cambridge 1920

■ ,ri9.r

COPYRIGHT, 1920, BY HARRIS LIVERMORE ALL RIGHTS RKSSRV&O

FOREWORD

This narrative of Colonel Livermore's war experience was com- menced immediately after the conclusion of the Civil War, while its events were still fresh in his mind.

Though often urged by the members of his family to publish the work, he always declined, giving as his reason that the events related were often so personal in their nature that they could better be published after his death.

His children have pardonably found interesting the narrative of his experience as well as his comments on persons and events. Accordingly, in the hope that the author's living friends and acquaintances, as well as those who, though not having known him, are interested generally in the Civil War, may find the text profitable, this book is offered to the public, without alteration, and substantially without omission.

If the author's style, at times, may seem unfinished, it must be remembered that he was but twenty-two years of age at the commencement of the work.

Through the courtesy of the Military Historical Society, of which Colonel Livermore was for many years the president, the book is published under the seal of the Society.

Thomas L. Livermore, Jr. Grace Liverjviore Wells Robert Livermore Harris Livermore

INTRODUCTION

Thomas Leonard Livermore was a rare personality. To those who were intimate with him in his later life it seemed as if he had

t -

been preordained for distinction.

Nature, to begin with, had been lavish in her gifts to him. Of martial figure, with a face inviting confidence, with a voice sound- ing sincerity, joined to engaging manners and native joyousness, he disarmed criticism and won men by the mere force of person- ality. As one got below the surface, he found a rare sense of justice, clean-cut integrity, desire for service, intelligent appreciation of men and events, sobriety of judgment, and measureless patriotism.

It was well said by a great preacher that when you go to buy wheat in open market, you do not ask by what road did it get there, but is the wheat good. In human life, however, when you test good wheat, when you recognize character, which is but an- other name for destiny, you naturally wish to trace the ways, oft- times the mysterious ways, that have been trodden to produce the particular development that has excited your admiration or your curiosity. It is natural, therefore, to ask. By what paths did the Tom Livermore we loved and honored come to be.''

The brief record, he was born in Galena, Illinois, February 7, 1844, and died in Boston, January 9, 1918, measures his span of life. Judged by the words of the Psahnist, he had his allotted term of years.

Judged by the benediction that Buddh asked from Sujata, "Mayest thou achieve," his was a full life.

Judged by what he gave and by what he received, his was a happy life. What, then, shaped his destiny.''

At seven years of age we find him crossing the plains from the outpost town of Galena to tlie far-away California, a three months' journey across trackless wastes, through deep cafions and over

viii INTRODUCTION

mountain passes, living in the open, in a riot of health-giving, exhilarating sunshine and breezes, or breasting mountain storms and the thousand perils of flood and field. Young Tom rode all the way on horseback, and saw day after day the vision of an endless horizon, or maybe the grandeur of snow-topped mountains and sunrises and sunsets of overwhelming beauty. He learned to love the grand and beautiful in nature and imbibed that fearless and adventurous spirit so pronounced in after years. He learned, too, something of that masterly horsemanship which ever distinguished him.

The day-by-day and every-day attention to the needs of the hour, to the details of life, to promote the comfort and safety of the men and women of his journey, the meeting with all sorts and conditions of men in outpost towns and mining camps, made a man of the boy faster than books and schools could do. To one who has himself traveled on horseback over the old Mormon trail, over plain and mountain, and camped by broad rivers, among the cottonwoods and near the beaver-dams, and has seen his wagons stalled on ascents, or jumped down arroyos into cafions'and moun- tain passes dark and gloomy, who has breathed the life-giving air, has felt the freedom from all that trammels man, and has shouted in the mere joy of living, young Tom's experience comes with a conviction of results which mere description cannot bring.

Many of the youth of to-day stagnate and morally rot in brokers' offices, watching the ticker, when a boundless land full of oppor- tunity is calling them to be up and doing, to quit tliemselves like men and play the game for the development of God's own country.

Years rolled by and the still young Tom, with California behind him, entered Lombard University at Galesburg, Illinois, and there remained until the outbreak of the War of the Rebellion. To the first call for troops he answered, "Here am I." He hurried from Galena to Washington so as to be nearest the fighting-line and into the fight before the war ended.

At Poolesville, Maryland, the First New Hampshire Infantry

INTRODUCTION ix

Regiment was encamped. Tom, stretching his years to eighteen, was enlisted as a private, June 24, 1 861, and began then and there that four years of service as a soldier of the Union set forth in the pages of Days and Events.

Of this inartificial narrative of day-by-day service, let it be said that in its variety, in its pictures of the vicissitudes of a sol- dier's life, in its vividness, in its unconscious betrayal of the writer's own thoroughness, cheerfulness, fearlessness, and good- fellowship, it causes the pulse to quicken and the blood to tingle, as if sharing his daily life.

Through all the grades from private to colonel, through all the battles, sieges, fortunes that he passed, you get evidences of these fibrous qualities of the man that culminate in character. Through it all, too, you find the education of the young boy of the plains cropping out in a quickness and resourcefulness born of a bold and adventurous spirit and a knowledge of men, rare in youth, but gained by him through contact with them at life's beginning.

At twenty-one years of age, with plenty of honor, little money, and his way to make, we find Colonel Thomas Livermore at Mil- ford, New Hampshire, out of the Service and inclined to go to South America as a rancher, as his love for out-of-door life, for adventure, and for horsemanship invited him to do; but circum- stances prevailed over inclination, and instead he became a lawyer, for which he says he had no predilection. During his practice at the bar in Boston, there always seemed an unexpressed undertone that he had not yet found his real place in life, although he was a good lawyer, with growing practice, devoted friends and clients, and approved by the bench and his associates at the bar.

But the call came to him to assume the agency and management of the Amoskeag Mills in Manchester. Here he found a congenial occupation in enterprises of pith and moment, where he came per- sonally into touch with affairs and men and where his capacity was tested day by day, where the responsibilities assumed and the work done showed in results. He was in essence a business man of

X INTRODUCTION

grasp, vision, and enthusiasm, with sobriety of judgment and a compelling thoroughness.

Resuming his practice in Boston after a seven years' absence, he was called once more from the law into his great and final career, as vice-president of the Calumet & Heck Mining Com- pany, and for twenty-one years he demonstrated his capacity by the same thoroughness and devotion that had always distinguished him. At the expiration of this service, he voluntarily withdrew, with the confidence of his associates unimpaired and with memo- rable expressions of friendship and affection.

From this time forward he seemed living his whole self more than ever. Never was he richer in service than when he passed to the beyond ; never was he held in higher honor; never more beloved. It was reflected in every word written or uttered in his memory.

But "Taps" had sounded, and the brave soldier, the unselfish citizen, the stanch patriot, the loyal friend, "wrapped the drapery of his couch about him and lay down to pleasant dreams."

Peace be unto him.

Henry M. Rogers 309 Beacon Street, Boston November 29, 191 9

AUlliOR'S NOTE

Every day, almost, I am at loss to recall the incidents of certain days and events of tlie last six years. Nearly two years ago I pur- chased this book in which to set down the reminiscences of my campaigns, but ever since claims of one kind and another have con- stantly imposed themselves upon my attention until to-day, when I sit down to fill the first page.

At a day as early as this I find that in my leisure moments I in- cline to dreams of the past war. I love to recall the forms of my old tent mates and comrades in arms, to hear again the jest and repartee, to see their weather-browned and bearded faces light with the tales they told, to pass in review their demeanor in camp and in fight, their friendly sentiments, their peculiarities, their forms clad in blue, tlieir horses, their equipments, and their valiant deeds; a thousand things which come and go like the shadows around their camp-fires.

I resolve to devote an hour or more each week hereafter to put- ting down here as nearly in sequence as possible all that I remember of the war. This book will be my talisman in years to come when I am at loss to invoke the spirits of the past. But perchance when I am gone, this will come to the eyes of some who will not under- stand all there is to excuse some little wanderings from the path of morality on the part of the characters who will appear and of the one who writes, and it may be that over such events as these I shall pass in silence, saying, once for all, that soldiers who appreciated the fact that they wore their lives upon their sleeves generally were inclined to seize the pleasures of the world as old Time winged them on. Diim vivimtis, vivamus.

For myself I will say that, although I do not regret any of these departures (because regrets are vain), yet there are those which may be recorded and those which may not that I would not make again were I again to shoulder my musket. T. L. L.

MiLFORD, N.H., March 31, 1867

DAYS AND EVENTS I 860-1 866

DAYS AND EVENTS: 1 860-1 866

CHAPTER I

While I was at Lombard University in Galesburg, Illinois, I be- came convinced that it would be best for me to accept the offer of an appointment to the Military Academy at West Point by the Honorable M. W. Tappan, then member of Congress from the Second District of New Hampshire, made by Mr. Bainbridge Wadleigh.

At any rate, I wrote to Mr. Wadleigh and accepted the offer if not then too late. The answer came that three days before the appoint- ment had been made, but that the appointee had a bunion on his toe which it was thought would incapacitate him. I wrote to my father that I wanted to come home to get ready, and received per- mission. I began to get my clothes ready, and was the more san- guine of an appointment when the Honorable E. B. Washbume, of Galena, also promised my father that he would appoint me on the occurring of a vacancy.

The war broke out, and upon the call for ^seventy-five thousand men, a company was at once raised in Galena. Mr. Chetlaine, who was the most active in raising it and who was elected captain, asked me to join, but so confident was I that I would go to West Point, I told him that I was already enlisted for West Point. (Captain Chetlaine afterwards became a general of negro troops in Ten- nessee, and I think quite prominent.)

This company was raised in three days, I think, and the citizens were very anxious to aid. The uniforms were made in town — gray pantaloons, blue frock coats with flat brass buttons, blue caps, and shoes, and I recollect that one man was such a giant that there could not be found a pair of shoes to fit him. A meeting was had on

4 DAYS AND EVENTS

Sunday night when the company was brought in together. There was a large congregation present, for it was understood that it was especially for the soldiers. After the services a subscription and con- tribution was taken up for the soldiers' families, and it amounted to $1200, of which my father gave ^50.

This company was drilled a little before it went off, and among those who aided in this was Mr. U. S. Grant, a leather dealer in Galena, who had been a captain in the army, a quiet, respectable, diligent man who drilled his squad well. I sat by and watched him drill them. Mr. Grant, after going to Springfield to aid in fitting out troops, was made colonel of an Illinois regiment, and in 1864 was given the commission of Lieutenant-General of the United States Armies, and soon after placed in command, and in 1866 the grade of General being created he was appointed to that office. The for- tunes of individuals in our army illustrated completely the bene- fits of our form of government, under which the humblest man may hope to rise by merit to the most exalted eminence.

During my stay in Galena, Mr. Rawlins, a lawyer, delivered a fine oration upon the death of S. A. Douglas. This Mr. Rawlins afterwards went into the army, as major, I think, and is now brig- adier-general, U.S.A., and chief of staff with General Grant. The troops gathered around Washington from the East, and at Cairo from the West, and we waited for the storm of war which was ex- pected soon to burst. Information reached me from New Hampshire which convinced me that an appointment from that quarter to West Point was not to be expected, and at that time there was no vacancy in the Galena district. The rumors of war and the gallant aspect of many regiments depicted in the papers began to inflame me toward an inclination to go to the war. I had already heard my father say to some ladies that if I were old enough I should go to the war, and finally, one day, while riding into town from our farm he said to me, " Leonard, if I were you I should like to go to Washington and join some good regiment"; to which I replied that it was just my desire, and we came to the conclusion that it would

DAYS AND EVENTS 5

be well for me to go out and join some good regiment like the New York 7tii, for three months, and then, if in the autumn there should be a chance for West Point, I should have had a little training be- fore entering. I was actuated in preferring Washington to Cairo by the supposition then prevalent that the war would only last two or three months, and would be ended by the battle which was expected at Manassas Junction, and as I wished to be in the battle, Washington seemed to be the place for me.

That was on Friday or Saturday, I think, and to me it seemed the sooner away the better, so I prepared to start on Sunday night. My father thought I had better carry a bowie knife, as times might be troublesome where I should be, before I reached a regiment; he also gave me a pistol, and eighty dollars, the half of which I thought would be enough to defray my expenses, but his generous heart prompted him to insist on my taking all, as he said he knew that soldier's fare was hard without money. Everything ready and good- bye said to tlie family, I went into town with my father, and then at his office door he said to me "God bless you" and left me. I was aware that my enlistment would bring hazards and that I might never get back to see him, but I did not think, as I watched him de- parting, that he would die before the war had closed. How gladly would I endure toil and pain and privation to bring him back to be repaid the kindness he showed me. I took the cars for Chicago and hurried off for Washington by way of Fort Wayne, Pittsburg, and Harrisburg — from there on the next morning, I think. On the train with me was a company of U.S. Infantry with its three officers and Major Abercrombie and his wife and two daughters. The men were in a forward car and the major and family and three other officers were in the car with me. Their free-and-easy manner somewhat surprised me, or rather was unusual, especially when they (the officers) drew a brandy bottle and took their horns before all. But to-day I can look back and see myself in some instances full as free- and-easy. The captain of the company was named Wright, I think, and I have sometimes wondered if he was identical with Major-

6 DAYS AND EVENTS

General H. G. Wright, but am almost satisfied that he was not, as the latter appears by the Register to have been graduated into the Engineers.

From Pittsburg to Harrisburg we crossed the Alleghany Moun- tains. It was breaking day when we started down the farther slope, and standing on the platform at times, and at others looking from the car windows, I watched with wonder the declivities down which we rushed in safety. Close by, the sides of the mountains clad with forests rose at hand, beneath, deep valleys and dark gorges opened to view, and far away could be seen the bases of the mountains, the track of streams, and sometimes farmhouses. Once I can remember a curve so sharp that while we rode down the side of one mountain, directly on our flank we could see the track above us which we had just passed over, strongly suggestive of another road. My im- pressions of these mountain views arise from another trip over them the other way in December, 1863, as well as from the first one, and may be somewhat confused. At the base of the mountains we entered into the valley of the Juniata, and for miles coursed along by its beautiful waters, where murmuring between verdure- clad banks it fringed the slopes of lofty mountains.

At Harrisburg we were obliged to stop over for some cause, a few hours, and I took the opportunity to visit the State House, and saw what seemed to me then a very handsomely furnished Senate Chamber or Hall of Representatives.

Arrived in Washington (by the way, after having visited in Bal- timore my aunt's family where I was received very kindly, and was taken to see the sights and where I left my trunk), I took up quar- ters at the National Hotel and looked about me for a chance to en- list well. My idea was that the war would close in a campaign, and as Manassas Junction seemed then to be the field on which the war would be decided, it was my intention to get into a regiment which would go there; but I could not very well ascertain what troops would go, and as the 7th New York had left for home the ist New Hampshire Volunteers was my best resort, for some friends from

DAYS AND EVENTS 7

Milford were in it. The Honorable M. W. Tappan commanded, and New Hampshire was my second birthplace, so to speak. The regi- ment was at Poolesville, Maryland. A stage ran to Rockville, and I decided to take that method of conveyance.

While lingering in Washington for two or three days, I satisfied my desire to see the public buildings, and it was while visiting the Senate Chamber that I heard Senator Baker in a part of his reply to John C. Breckinridge, who still sat in his place. The times were very productive of treachery, and every movement of the Southern- ers was watched, and I shall never forget the words of the noble- looking Baker when he said of Breckinridge's speech, "They are but the polished words of treason!" The streets of Washington resounded with the tramp of battalions, and preparation for war was everywhere apparent. The militia around the city presented a queer medley of costumes : the Highlanders of the 79th New York stalked about the sidewalks in tartan and bare legs; the Garibaldi Guards indulged in a Babylonian confusion of tongues, red shirts, linen trousers, and straw hats; the neat New York City militia regiments were trimly attired in fancy-trimmed blue uni- forms; and others exhibited gray swallow-tails, or the green of rifle corps; and the gaudiest of all were the red baggy trousers, sashes, and turbans of the irrepressible Zouaves.

But Washington and its sights and pleasures were not my ob- jects of pursuit, and mounting the stage I reached Rockville in the afternoon or somewhere near it. There conveyance ended, and as I had not learned to march yet, I gave a man five dollars to carry me to Poolesville. We overtook a drunken man on the way on horse- back, a friend of my driver's, and as he seemed to like it, I changed seats with him, and we jogged along until we reached the town. The regiment was camped a little beyond, and purchasing a lot of pipes and tobacco as a peace oflfering for my comrades to be, ere long I approached the camp. One thing which was novel and exhilarating during the latter part of my ride was the sound of cannon ahead, which came from Conrad's Ferrj^ on the Potomac, where the rebels

8 DAYS AND EVENTS

from the other side were firing at some companies of the rst on this side, and I could imagine the glory of war about to break upon me. The camp was in a grove beside the water, and the white tents visible through the trees were as welcome a sight as home, when, as twilight approached, I saw the end of my journey of over a thousand miles. I think that this was on or about the 13th of June.

I made my way to the colonel's tent and, gaining admission, made myself and my errand known to him. Colonel Tappan, whom I shall ever remember with the most friendly feelings, received me with great cordiality, and in response to my application to enlist, said, "Certainly, you are of just such men as we want." I had hardly got through when Blanchard, my old schoolmate and friend, came out of the adjutant's office where he was clerk, and we had the most friendly meeting. I at once went to his Company "F" and took up my quarters beside him. The cannon were considered as liable to be the forerunners of an engagement that night, perhaps; so get- ting a musket and set of accouterments I donned the latter, and asked B. to show me how to charge bayonets with the former, and that done I considered myself all right for any conflict which might call for our services. I think that we slept all accoutered and with our arms in our hands. My sleep was a little disturbed by the unaccus- tomed tread of the sentry close by, and perhaps a little by the feet of the men who slept on the opposite side, for we slept eight in each of our little tents, and as only four could lie on one side, four more were put on the other, and we were wedged in dovetail fashion. The night passed without an alarm, and morning brought news that the fighting had all been done at long range across the river and now had ceased, and I do not recollect any further collision there while we stayed. It was necessary for me to get a uniform from Wash- ington, or Kalorama Heights, where the regimental baggage was stored, so an opportunity to go with the chaplain, N. W. Parker, was seized, and we started in a carriage, I think, or ambulance. Nothing special occurred on the journey, except a call upon two

DAYS AND EVENTS 9

handsome young ladies at Damestown whom the chaplain had scraped acquaintance with before.

Arrived at the old camp, I got my uniform, a blue blouse, gray trousers, and gray cap with a red band, and then we went into Washington and put up at the National Hotel. I have an indistinct recollection of finding at the post-office for me an anonymous note asking me to meet a friend somewhere, and at any rate learning that the ist IV lassachu setts Volunteers had just arrived in the city. Either apprised by the note or aware before that Harris Gray was in that regiment, I went to a house where his company was quar- tered and, after waiting some time, met him, one of the best friends of my boyhood. We had a long and kindly talk, and I slept with him that night at the National. Early in the morning, having deposited my citizen's clothes in the office, I bade farewell to Harris and started away for camp with the chaplain. That was the last time I was to set my eyes on my dear old chum. He afterwards passed a most creditable examination and was appointed a medical cadet. He went to the hospitals in St. Louis, and there contracted the dis- ease which, after reaching home, carried him from this world, hav- ing, I am told, happily been attended by her whom he loved most of all the world on his last couch.

Once more In camp at Poolesvllle, I took upon myself the duties of a soldier. Captain Edgerly, a kind soul and a good soldier, treated me kindly, and under his tuition I learned Scott's Manual of Arms and the company evolutions in a limited manner. Colonel Tappan told me that when there was a vacancy he would promote me, but I do not remember that during my term In the regiment I ever longed for promotion, and as none ever occurred my desires were not tested. I see by one of my father's letters that Colonel Tappan promised me to intercede for me with the President for an appoint- ment to West Point, and he asks me why I did not remind him of it afterwards when In Washington ; but I am not able to recall why now.

The camp was full of jollity in the cool parts of the day, and the rest of the time was spent in keeping cool under the trees or drill,

lo DAYS AND EVENTS

picket, guard, or police duties. There were some comical characters in the regiment with whom we had great fun, and the negroes aided us in that particular with their dancing and singing.

While on guard in the middle of the night, I challenged the sur- geon of the regiment, Dr. Crosby, and his answer and my reply were construed by him in such a way as to be a great joke. The next day it went the rounds among the officers as a very funny thing, but the actor was unknown ; finally I divulged myself as the actor, and the true state of the case, but the original was adhered to and my reputation for a joker was established in spite of myself. One thing I had nearly forgotten to tell I must record in connection with my enlistment, which is that, being only seventeen years old, I was under the age necessary to become an enlisted man, so I called my- self eighteen, and the little fiction passed well if indeed my captain did not well understand it. From our camp at the headquarters of the regiment to Conrad's Ferry, where there were three or four com- panies stationed to guard the line at the Potomac, it was five miles, and along this road pickets were posted at intervals, partly, I think, to guard the road and partly to warn the camp of any crossing made by the rebels from the Virginia side. Owing to Colonel T.'s favor, I was detailed to conduct the reliefs to the pickets and was given a mount from the team horses. The duty was very pleasant, as I was very fond of riding, and excitement, too, was not wanting in my new employment. I sometimes caught the pickets asleep, and once removed their arms from the sleepers on a post and did not reveal their whereabouts until they were well frightened.

Colonel Tappan also employed me to ride with him on the "grand rounds," and I used to rattle away at a lively gait at his heels. My favorite mount was a great white horse, and no doubt in the night I answered for Death on a pale horse. The passion for fast riding, which never has left me, possessed me, and my evolutions aston- ished Colonel T., who sent home the doubtful compliment that I feared "neither man nor devil," and he has since related my gallops down hill at my rapid pace.

DAYS AND EVENTS ii

Colonel W., of our regiment, was a dark little man, as erect as a drill sergeant, terribly profane, a Mexican soldier, and a splendid one when sober, which was perhaps half the time, and I believe that he was a great favorite notwithstanding his drunkenness. One night I had to ride to Conrad's Ferry with the officer who had been or was acting adjutant at that post. We were to ride to Colonel W.'s quar- ters, and I rode amicably and sociably alongside him and he called me by my name and was very friendly. Now in later days if as an enlisted man I had been detailed to ride with an officer, I should have considered myself an "orderly" and accordingly ridden in my place in the rear, but in those days I was ignorant of military eti- quette, as indeed was nearly every one around me, and, too, Colonel T. himself called me "a sort of an amateur aide" after- wards.

This officer, who I am inclined to think was a popinjay, did not know my place, and rode as before related until we got to Colonel W.'s tent. He then came out and mounting his horse rode on with us. He did not know me, I think, and I do not know that if he had he would have done differently, but at any rate he at once in- structed me in etiquette in this wise. "Private, your place is on the left of your superior officers," so we ranged ourselves, he on the right, popinjay next, and I next. Now I was in awe of this soldier of Mexican campaigns then, and supposed he was au fait in that line, but I can afford to laugh now, as I do not recollect ever since then hearing the greatest "Regular" martinet call an en- listed man "Private," nor do I recall that exhibition of etiquette in which an orderly was allowed to leave his place in the rear and ride beside his commander. To be sure, my position, as a poster of pickets, in an officer's place, before, and at the same time a private, was anomalous, but Colonel W., I think, did not know of it, and if he had intended to treat me otherwise than as an orderly, would hardly have called me a "private." I do not know that I should have recollected this incident had not the exacting adjutant, in a \'ery ridiculous manner, changed his base and, at the first oppor-

12 DAYS AND EVENTS

tunity, taken up the cue and addressed me as "Private" in a very military tone: the ass in the lion's skin.

We spent a little more than two weeks in this camp and killed time very well. I had ample opportunity to get acquainted with my company. It was of very good material, and out of the number, about eighty, forty or more were officers afterwards. The time came when I was to take my last ride as orderly in this regiment. On the night of the 2d of July, I was ordered to ride with Lieutenant Batch- elder, regimental quartermaster, and mounting my steed, I fol- lowed him, or rode beside him, far up the Potomac to a picket sta- tion, and then, getting on the towpath, we rattled away down the river to Conrad's Ferry. He was a rapid rider, and I did my best to keep up with him. Once a hanging vine, fast at both ends, caught my neck in its loop and nearly hung me or dragged me from the horse, but I managed to haul hirri up and disengage myself. This was the nearest I ever came to being hung. I think that Mr. Batch- elder carried orders to pack up; at any rate, when we arrived at Conrad's Ferry the companies there began to pack up, and re- linquishing now my horse I got a cup of coffee and something to eat and started off before light with them on the towpath for the Monocacy River, where we were to meet the rest. I got along very well until the last, when I began to grow sick, and upon arriving I was very ill. The regiment was paraded for the 4th of July in a hol- low square, and although ready to sink I stood it out. During the day I went with some fellows to a lane lined with cherry trees and ate my fill. I then got some milk, and also was treated to some whis- key which was procured at the riverside from an old store, and my diarrhoea was cured by this novel treatment.

The rebels were reputed to be upon the other bank of the Poto- mac, and some of the men swam across, but orders were issued to stop it. Desiring, however, to perform some achievement to com- memorate this day I got permission from Colonel Tappan to swim across, and did so; that is to say, I swam the little distance neces- sary and waded the rest. I got an ear or two of wheat from the

DAYS AND EVENTS 13

opposite shore, which I have now, and came back without seeing a rebel. I recall very well the circumstance that our sentinels called the hour of the night and "All is well" here. (Some of the men were said to have conversed witli tlie rebel pickets on the other shore and two of our men were taken prisoners by them, but, as I have said, I saw none when I went across, although I looked for them.)

CHAPTER II

On the morning of the 5th we marched on the towpath to Point of Rocks, so named, I suppose, from the lofty cHff which rises on the Maryland side here. We camped, and I took a swim in the Ohio-Chesapeake Canal. On the 6th, I think, my company was among those which took cars under Colonel T. for Sandy Hook, and having arrived we were informed that the enemy were ahead at Harper's Ferry and we braced ourselves for a fight, but upon arriving at the end of the destroyed railroad bridge, we discovered none and bivouacked until evening. We saw some ironclad railroad cars on the track and the marks of bullets, fired from the other side evidently. Everything on the other side but the dwelling-houses looked black and charred, for the whole of the government build- ings had been burned by Lieutenant Jones upon the approach or rumored approach of the rebel army. The bridge had been destroyed afterwards by the rebels upon evacuation.

At 7 P.M. the rest had joined us and we started up the towpath, and climbing the heights we marched nearly all night, and crossing a bridge over Antietam Creek, we bivouacked near Sharpsburg, as tired as we could well be. The morning sun awoke us by throwing his rays in our faces. The people came out and viewed us curiously. We got our breakfast, and at nine o'clock were moving on the turn- pike for Williamsport. The day was very hot and our feet began to blister; many fell exhausted, but I managed to keep up, and at night was refreshed in the cool waters of the Potomac, which we forded at Williamsport. On Monday morning we started again and passed through the field of a skirmish which had taken place the day be- fore, it was said between the ist Wisconsin and others and a part of the rebel army under Johnston. A house beside the road was rent by a cannon shot, a wheatfield was trampled down in ragged lanes, some cartridge coverings lay in the road, and on the right there were

DAYS AND EVENTS 15

some new graves from which projected the hands or feet, as we sup- posed, of rebels. This was my first sight at a battle-field. It was called "Falling Waters" — I suppose from a beautiful and rapid stream two or three yards wide which ran across the road near by, the waters of which were perfectly clear and as cold it seemed as ice.

Martinsburgwas reached about noon, and we there saw assembled Patterson's army of 20,000 or more. We thought that our marches had been pretty hard ones, and for new men they were so, but if in later days, as then, I could have had my knapsack carried in a wagon and made twelve miles a day, I should not have considered it very hard.

We halted here five days. We spent the time in repairing clothes, in doing picket duty, and in trading our pistols off to new regiments which came and had not learned, as we had, that however handy a pistol might be in a fight, it was a nuisance to carry. The 2d Massa- chusetts Volunteers, a three-years regiment, came to us here and I for the first time saw a well-disciplined volunteer regiment. They were dressed and equipped in Regular Army fashion and were a splendid-looking set of men. Some of our men were foolish enough to groan at the officers of this regiment on account of their rigid discipline, but I trow that many of these very ones have seen the benefits of such since then. There was a beautiful spring which threw out great quantities of pure cold water here in a hollow near our camp. I recollect it, perhaps, because it was my duty to help the cooks once while we were here, when it became my duty to be a hewer of wood and a drawer of water, to build fires, heat the water, and wash the dishes. Blanchard and I made a successful foray and bought a hen from a woman for a quarter. We put it in a pan to make a stew, and while B. sat on a fence watching it, I went after flour to thicken the broth. When I returned, not understanding the manner of cooks, I tipped the whole in (a pint) without preliminary fixing, and the result was a broth in which swam numerous little pellets of flour, wet upon the outside and dry as dust on the inside, and I got laughed at well.

1 6 DAYS AND EVENTS

The rebels were said to be in our vicinity, and I recollect once going out as a volunteer with Captain Bell (afterwards colonel of the 4th and killed at Fort Fisher, North Carolina, January, 1865) to scout a little, and once was on picket when we were cautioned ex- tremely about the rebels. On the 15th we marched away toward Winchester with all the army. Once on the road we went into line of battle with a battery in front of us. No rebels came, and some went to playing cards. I sharpened my bayonet with a stone. By and by we marched again, and once the gray-headed old General Patterson rode up the road to the head of the column- We opened ranks to let him through, faced inwards, and presented arms. (I wish it could have been bayonets to make him prisoner.) We came to Bunker Hill in the afternoon and some cavalry in front of us chased some rebels away from there, and we went into bivouac. We ex- pected to meet the rebels soon, and Blanchard says our field officers made us speeches, to raise our courage, I suppose, which there was no need of, for we thirsted for battle. We stayed here all the next day, and on the fatal morning of the 17th we marched away toward Charleston. We privates knew nothing of the position of affairs then, but have read since that it was thus, letting the following out- lines represent the country.

S^^^^

DAYS AND EVENTS 17

Johnston, the rebel commander, had retreated to Winchester, and there he was on the i6th when we were lying still. He had 17,000 men and we 20,000 or more. Two courses lay open to Pat- terson ; one was to move on and attack him, the other to get onto the fords of the Shenandoah and keep him from crossing; and ac- cording to General Sanford's testimony before the Committee of Congress on the Conduct of the War, General Scott sent orders to General P. to attack Johnston if strong enough, but if not, to place himself so as to prevent his junction with Beauregard. General Sanford, whom I saw at Bunker Hill, a white-haired, hand- some man, was in advance and was about to place himself on the Opequan Creek within five miles of Winchester, from whence he could easily move to the Shenandoah and bar Johnston's way. But old Patterson was frightened, or pretended to be, by an alleged re- port that Johnston had been reinforced by 20,000 from Beauregard, and marched us to Charleston; and as for his story about the un- willingness of certain regiments to stay and fight because their time was out, we heard nothing of it, and I believe it was only another specimen of the mendacity exhibited in his letter to Colonel E. D. Townsend, July 18, 1861, wherein he said the enemy had stolen no march on him, etc.^

Well, Johnston marched on the same morning for the Shenandoah with 8000 men, crossed it, on the next day reached the Manassas Gap Railroad, mounted the cars, and was at Bull Run before the fight opened on the 21st. The rest of his army followed him the day after and arrived during the battle of Bull Run and turned the scale. The probability is that if Patterson had attacked, he would have at least prevented tl;at junction. Bull Run would have been ours and mayhap the war would have been closed. Some may say that it was better to have it because it produced Emancipa- tion. But although I can never cease to be thankful that slavery is dead, yet 500,000 lives have fled beyond the confines of this world, more suffering has been caused than slavery would have entailed for ' See Greeley's American Conjlict, vol. i, p. 539, n. 10.

1 8 DAYS AND EVENTS

a hundred years (longer than it would have lasted even in peace), and a debt weighs us down which would have purchased all the slaves for freedom twice over. Such, however, is the fortune of war; there are constantly recurring turning-points, where, had but a feather burdened the other side of the scale, nations would have perished or countries been saved.

Charleston was a place of interest to us for the reason that there John Brown was hung. It proved a town of rather more cleanliness than Virginia towns in general, and had nice shade trees on some of the streets. We camped in a wheatfield on the road to Winchester, just outside, and from thence we wandered through the town to see the sights and get some eatables. The tree by which John Brown's gallows stood and the jail where he was confined were visited, but I got hold of a memento which I could carry home, a tangible re- minder of old John Brown. I found the man who (as he averred) made the coffin, and he took, from a drawer I think, a piece of what he said was one of its boards. I accepted it as a veracity and took it away to New Hampshire and gave it to Aunt Lizzie for her cabinet of curiosities. I cannot recollect now whether the man sold or gave it to me; if I could I might be able to become skeptical, perhaps.

A pouring rain rendered it very uncomfortable one day, and I can see now the men of my company standing around the cook's fire, each one receiving his rations of soup and coffee with the rain dripping down our backs. I do not think that good humor was prev- alent, for I can recollect one man, who, in getting his coffee, some- how let some of it drop on a comrade, who, enraged and evidently burned, threw his plate of soup in number one's face, and the roars of pain from the combatants, their ludicrous oaths, and the shouts of the lookers-on were sufficient to set us all in good humor. I went on picket once while here, I think on the turnpike to Winchester.

On Sunday the 2ist we marched to Bolivar Heights and there camped. We went on picket on the side of the steep hill, where Blan- chard and I found difficulty in restraining ourselves from sliding down feet foremost. We heard of the battle of Bull Run either on

DAYS AND EVENTS 19

Sunday, 2ist, when it was fought, or the next day. My own feeling was that of deep chagrin at not having been present, although now I can say that if it would still have been defeat of the same kind, then I am glad I was not one of the runaways. The regiment re- mained some time in camp here, and we roamed all around seeing the sights, bathing in the Potomac, and trading with other regi- ments. \^'e found a cave on the cliff beside the Potomac near the raiU road which ran to Martinsburg. It perhaps would be considered a rent in the interior of the mountain rather than a cave, for it cleft the rock up and down for many feet and ran far into the hill. I ex- plored it partly once, and found cool water running from springs, sinuous passages, narrow apertures, steep acclivities, and now and then a widening, but never a great room.

We were paid off here in gold, and afterwards I got leave of Colonel Tappan to go to Washington ahead of the regiment, which was to go home in two or three days, with permission to rejoin it at Baltimore. He told me to write my own furlough, which I did with a pencil on a scrap of paper, which, with his signature, passed me wherever I wanted to go. I found at Sandy Hook a regiment from New York on a train about starting for Washington, so I jumped aboard and went with them to the Relay House and then took a car for Washington. Arrived at the National Hotel, I walked in, ragged, sunburned, and dirty, with my knapsack and other fixings slung on, and halting at the clerk's counter, brought my musket to an "order" or "rest," and called boldly for a room. The landlord, no doubt, thought I was a pretty hard-looking specimen and a pri- vate soldier at that, so he looked dubious, upon which I presented the check for the clothes I had left there, and he became reassured. I went up to quarters, deposited arms, put on a clean face, and went out to see the sights. On the next day Colonel Tappan arrived and publicly in the office shook my hand and treated me like an officer, rather than a private, which I imagined rather made the hotel people's eyes stick out. In later days such a thing probably would not have transpired, for soldiers did not take their arms on furlough

20 DAYS AND EVENTS

nor did they do as I did. For the purpose of seeing what chance there was for West Point, I went up to the House of Representa- tives and called out Mr. Washburne, of Galena. He told me that he saw none, and my hopes for West Point grew very faint if they were not entirely extinguished at that time. Taking the train for Baltimore, I arrived in the evening and walked up to Aunt Man- ning's. On the way I heard one of a party of ladies and gentlemen say, as I passed them, "The last of the Mohicans." Arrived at the door, the folks scarcely knew me, and Skip, the little dog, regarded me as an enemy; but a bath, a pair of trousers whose seat was whole, and a white shirt made me a passable being, and I sat down among my ever-hospitable and kind relatives to talk over my campaign and eat some supper. In a day or two the regiment came along, and filling my arms and pockets with boiled crabs and other eat- ables I joined them and gladdened the hearts of my messmates with good cheer. I got my trunk among the baggage of the " field and staff," and getting into a box car bade good-bye to my cousins and started for home with a jolly crew around me.

Arrived at Philadelphia, we were treated to a nice supper at the Cooper Refreshment Saloon and rolled on to New York. We marched up Broadway with colors flying from our standards and the seats of our trousers, with trophies on our bayonets, laughter on our faces, and shouts on our tongues. The regiment when it came out, with its neat gray swallow-tailed coats and trousers trimmed with red, attracted universal admiration, but now the well-earned title of "Tappan's Ragged Zouaves" was a complete chapter on our appearance. The one glory of our regi- ment which dimmed all others must, I think, however, have re- mained as resplendent as ever, and that was "Saxy" Pike, our drum major, and his uniform. The former clad in the latter, which consisted of brilliant light-blue trousers well striped, a double- breasted blue broadcloth coat with broad "fishbones" of gold slashed from button to button in front, a black skin shako tower- ing, with its peacock's feather, two feet or more above the six

DAYS AND EVENTS 21

of the wearer, would march down the parade, now swinging his silver-headed baton four or five feet in length, now whirling it like a cavalrjTnan in the moulinet, now balancing it in the air, and now throwing it perpendicularly up ten or fifteen feet seemingly, and present a truly inspiring sight entirely eclipsing "field and staff." 1

One night I recollect, in Poolesville, there were some ladies down to witness our parade. "Saxy" was out in full glory and went down the line whirling his baton and planting his feet with the pride of a war horse. Just in the center of the line, in full view, an envious branch took "Saxy's" shako off and necessitated the ignominy of reaching down to raise his plumed crest.

We lay on a wharf in New York waiting to be shipped one night, and one or more of the men rolled over into the water to be drowned. One of the great "Sound steamers" took us aboard and sailed away, for Norwich, I think, and there we took cars for New Hampshire. We reached Nashua as the light was dawning and proceeded on to Concord immediately. I was glad to see New Hampshire once more. At Concord we were received by a great crowd and were escorted by the Governor's Horse Guards, a body which, clad in brilliant hussar uniform, contrasted very strongly with our dirty and ragged gray. The regiment was granted a fur- lough of a day or two while the discharges were being made out, but as Captain Edgerly desired m.e to aid in making them out for our company I stayed. He gave me quarters in his own room at the Phoenix and treated me very well. A newspaper entitled "The Democratic Standard" published an article in which we soldiers were vilified in such terms as "Lincoln's hirelings," and what few of us were there became considerably enraged that such insults should be put upon us by a rebel s>Tnpathizer and there was con- siderable talk on the streets. The publishers, evidently frightened

" On Thursday, June 6, 1867, at Concord I again saw "Saxy" clad in the in- evitable shako and coat, and assisting with his baton at the inauguration cere- monies of Governor Harriman.

2 2 DAYS AND EVENTS

at the unlcx)ked-for resentment, then began to issue only half- sheets of that edition and refused to let the others with the rebel article go out of the office. I went up into the office, I think with one or tv\-o others, and demanded a paper; they proffered the wrong half-sheet. I then gave them an expression of my opinion and scared them into unlocking a safe, and from a large pile taking the half-sheet with the article in it and giving it to me. On the street I showed it to some soldiers and we made our comments upon it, and I went back to my work. Shortly afterwards I heard a tumult up street, and looking out discovered a party of our fellows trying to get into the office of the "Standard." I rushed up as soon as I could. The inmates had fastened the doors and were threatening to shoot. Some, I think, mounted the piazza and effected an entrance through a window; one of the editors fired a pistol without hurting any one, I believe, and then they retreated up garret. Our fellows began to pile out the forms and tj-pe, etc., and to build a bonfire of it in the street. To make my- self useful, and to allay the fears of the citizens that the fire would spread, I piled up the fuel as it came neatly and soon had a roar- ing fire as well-behaved as Vulcan's, no doubt. This finished the "Standard," and now they have a suit pending in court against Concord for damages. Bad luck to them!

CR^PTER III

Our discharges granted August 12, 1861, our company went to Nashua, where we were kindly entertained at a banquet under the trees, given by the citizens. Blanchard and I hurried away for the evening train, and I once more approached, with feehngs of happiness, Milford, although my absence had been only a little over a year.

Good friends received me and I laid down my knapsack, haver- sack, and canteen, doffed my cap and blouse, and told my stories of the first campaign while I rested. That I should have drifted back to Milford through such a course of events is strange enough, or would have been in a prediction, but it and the whole of my subsequent career would not have been had I not made two friends; and to this I may ascribe it all, and another event which I can look to with as many thanks as to all the rest. Mr. Wad- leigh had evinced friendship for me when a schoolboy, and had, just before I went out West, offered me the appointment to West Point which the Honorable M. W. Tappan had referred to him if he desired. I had refused as before related and afterwards repented. This giving me a quasi-acquaintance with Colonel Tappan and my friendship for Blanchard had induced me to join the 1st. With the ist I necessarily came to New Hampshire to be discharged. Hinc omnes illce res quas scribam.

The old haunts and old friends engaged my attention for three or four weeks, but in the meantime I was looking around me for another way to leap. The prospects for an appointment for West Point, East and West, were very slight if not entirely gone, and I had written to my father that I was willing to enter the army again, and as I had been recommended in Galena, before I went to the 1st, to try for a second lieutenancy in a company there, I had asked him if I had better come out there and enter the army. Always patriotic, he wrote me by all means to enter the army, as

2 4 DAYS AND EVENTS |

the Government needed all the men it could get; that companies were raised with difficulty in Galena, and that he could see no ; advantage for me in coming out there; and finally to raise a com- 1 pany if I could, and to go as a cook even, if I could no other way. ' I believe that I needed no urging to go into the army again, but my beardless cheek was not hard enough to answer for a recruit- ing officer; so as Mr. Stanyan, of Milford, was enlisting a com-i pany for the 5th, I put my name down once more with Blanchard's j on the 14th of September, 1861. It was an understanding between I Mr. Stanyan and myself that he should use his influence to get me i the second lieutenancy of his company. But the companies of thei 5th were made up before he could get in, and his company was' then recruited for some other regiment. I do not think that! there were many at that time who believed that the war would , last six months, and I certainly became fearful lest I should lose j a chance to fight at all. I wrote to Colonel Cross, who was raising i the 5 th, that I wanted to go into his regiment, and inquired if I j could get a commission on the warrant of sergeant major, to which ' he replied that all were appointed, and I was only relieved by Lieutenant J. B. David, of Amherst, who one day offered me the place of first sergeant in Company "K" of the 5th, of which he i was first lieutenant. I accepted, and obtaining my enlistment ! papers of Captain Stanyan started for Concord. Blanchard con- 1 eluded to stay with Captain S. and we parted, reluctantly, on my [ part certainly. |

Arrived at Concord I went over into the camp with Lieutenant !

David and was presented to Captain , a man of medium height I

with a decidedly Roman, perhaps Israelitish nose, black whiskers, . owing part of their color to dye, a face wrinkled very much at | the corners of his eyes, which twinkled in a manner half common ! to rogues and half to good-natured numskulls. He accepted me ■ as his first sergeant and my name was placed on the roll of the j company. A leisure space gave me a chance to look around. The ; camp was laid out in what the colonel called the Spanish style. 1 There were five rows of tents, each ending on a square of which ,

DAYS AND EVENTS 25

they made one side. On the other side were an equal number, on the third were the tents of the field and staflf, and in the center of the fourth side tlie guardhouse was the only obstacle between the square and the parade grounds. The company officers' tents were at the end of their men's farthest from the square, and between them and the company quarters were the cook tents. The follow- ing diagram will show the form of the camp.

A €1 ^ M A

^^tel^^atji^ .

The sides of the parade square should be represented as equal. Our tents were cones nineteen feet in a diameter at the base, sup- ported by a pole set on a metal tripod which would close up when taken down. The top of the tent was open but protected by a cap which could be drawn tightly around it by cords which reached down on the outside. Under the tripod sheet-iron stoves with open bottoms were set on the ground, the pipes reaching up through the cap or sometimes stopping short, when the smoke escaped through the top after blacking the tent on its passage.

The colonel, whose reputation had excited my curiosity, was seen busily engaged around the camp in every department, now directing the quartermaster, now receiving new detachments, now superintending drill, and now trying a horse. It was in the latter operation that I saw the first display of his peculiar "roughing." A lot of the men, with the greenness of New Hampshire farmers, crowded round him watching his novel equestrianism while the horse plunged and curveted in great style. Evidently disliking their freedom, he rode his horse at them in such a reckless way that they suddenly dispersed. He was a man six feet tall or more, had red hair which curled in a silken fringe around his bald head, his whiskers

2 6 DAYS AND EVENTS

were of the same color, full and beautiful, his carriage was erect, his shoulders broad, and waist small. His features were rather soft, but his eyes were brilliant and blue, and could flash well, and withal he had a fair skin and rosy cheeks. He was a handsome man. He had been a printer and had set up type with the famous Artemus Ward in Lancaster. He had traveled over a great part of the coun- try as a correspondent of, I think, the " Cincinnati Times " and was editor of the same afterwards, I think. He told me that he had traveled over every railroad and steamboat line in the country, and had attended the sessions of nearly if not all the legislatures in his capacity as correspondent. He wandered away to Mexico and engaged himself in the service of the Mexican Government in the civil wars. He was raised to the rank of lieutenant-colonel and was at Huermante and Guadalajara. He was also in Arizona, and in the Mounted Rifles in our service as a lieutenant, where he was intimate with Longstreet and Ewell, afterwards generals in the rebel army, and owned a silver mine with one or both of them. He fought a duel with Monry, the editor of the "Arizona Gazette," and was shot once by a Mexican caballero when getting on his horse, and he showed me the wound, or rather scar, on his ankle which the ball made. I did not know much of this when I went into the regiment, but learned it from his own lips afterwards when I had been promoted and had a share of his confidence. He told me then, too, poor man, that he had been very intimate with the Governor of one of the Mexican States or cities, Jesus Inigo, by name, that he was near marrying his daughter, and that if ever he married, he should go back and marry her as her father wanted him to in by- gone days. The colonel was apt to talk a great deal, and, as has been said, it is possible that he did not always confine himself to the truth, but I never had occasion when I discovered an untruth, and shall not say now that I disbelieved one of those stories he told me. The companies arrived in camp ununiformed and were put to drill at once. The company to which I was assigned, or rather to which I went, was made up of a squad from Plaistow and vicinity,

DAYS AND EVENTS 27

one from Bennington and vicinity and some from other parts of this State. George Farnham the bugler, Thomas Law, and Samuel Dol- bear were all I knew, I think. The former I had known in Mount Vernon, as an opponent, if anything, in our school imbroglios; the next was a good-natured boy below me in school in Milford, and the latter I had not known. The squad from Bennington came under Second Lieutenant F. W. Butler and wanted German Breed, one of their number, for first sergeant. The one from Plaistow desired a fellow by the name of Frost, and Lieutenant David supported me. At any rate, I went to drilling the company and soon was made first sergeant. Breed having received the grade of fiftli sergeant, and Frost having joined another regiment, I think, or left to join one.

Our company was given the letter "K," and a uniform consist- ing of brogans, light-blue trousers and overcoat with cape, and dark-blue blouse and frock coat, and to cap us a helmet-like struc- ture of dark-gray or blue-mixed "waterproof" cloth, with a vizor before and behind, the top resembling a squash, and the whole lined and padded, I think. This was a New Hampshire cap, and al- though it would do in a row to keep blows from the head and was good to protect the neck from rain, yet in summer it was a swelter- ing concern. I got a furlough of three or four days In which to come home and say good-bye, and then, returning to camp, waited with impatience the departure of the regiment for the seat of war, still fearing that I should lose the chance of participating in a battle.

Governor Berry came over to Camp Jackson one day and pre- sented us our colors. We were drawn up in hollow square to receive them, and after they were presented Colonel Cross stepped out, and In a clear voice which all could hear made a speech considera- bly different in tone from those of roseate hue which recruits were accustomed to hear. It has ever been in my memory because it proved so true, and was in the manly tone of a soldier who knew whereof he spoke. I do not recall his words, but the import was that we took those colors to fight under; that it was not to be play and glitter of glory altogether, but that we might expect to leave many

2 8 DAYS AND EVENTS

of our number on the fields where we were to uphold them; and that we should brace ourselves with the resolution to maintain their glory and our honor even at the cost of life and limb to all or any. It was a grand speech; it did not excite the greatest enthusiasm, I think, because it predicted what finally came, death, hardship, and peril, but it was grand truth; and its sincerity was attested on every field by tlae wounds of the speaker, until at last he laid his lofty form down to die.

On the 28th of October, when the frosts already whitened the herbage around our camp, we struck our tents at the sound of "The General" on the bugles, when the pins having been pulled up, as the last note ceased, every tent fell in one direction, as if an invisible and unfelt tempest had swept for an instant through the camp. Everything loaded in our wagons, and our Enfield rifles in hand, accouterments, canteens, knapsacks, and haversacks on our shoulders, we marched to Concord, where we slept in halls over- night (my company and others in the Phoenix), and away we started on the 29th by rail for Fall River, I think, and thence by boat for New York. I had almost forgotten to mention that my uniform gave me considerable pleasure (barring the cap), for in addition to the rest, as first sergeant a pair of brilliant "scales" adorned my shoulders, a worsted sash lent crimson to my waist, and a pair of blue chevrons adorned my arms to tell what dignitary possessed them, and two stripes of dark blue an inch wide carried my rank from my hips to my shoes. Our steamer landed at Jersey City, where we took cars for Philadelphia. Some mulatto stewards aboard the steamer had sold liquor to some of the men, and Colonel Cross, finding It out, put them under guards and in handcuffs, and when we boarded the cars, took them with us, and carr}'-ing them some miles into New Jersey, stopped the train in an uninhabited place and put them off. We got to Philadelphia on the evening of the 30th and were treated at the Cooper Refreshment Saloon in a splendid manner. The hospitality of the Union citizens of this place was un- bounded through the whole war. They had a great hall fitted up at

DAYS AND EVENTS 29

the landing where troops disembarked, filled it with tables and seats, attached great kitchens and ample washrooms, and here every soldier who passed could wash, eat, and drink in the most cleanly, bountiful, and satisfactory manner, and be waited on, I think, by the fair ladies themselves, at times, who contributed to keep it up, though my memory or information is not clear on this point. I say three cheers for the City of Brotherly Love.

Arrived at Baltimore on the 31st, I had just time to see Cousin Harry at the depot when we moved on toward Washington. But when we had almost begun to look for the environs of that city of magnificent distances, the train halted in the vicinity of a camp on one hand and a deserted camping-ground and another camp on the otlier, and we disembarked at Bladensburg and stacked our arms on a gentle slope bare of verdure, close to where the 2d New Hampshire had struck its tents that very day, I think.

The regiment over the railroad I am pretty sure was the 26th Michigan. Tlie 4th Rhode Island Volunteers was in the other camp and shared their supper with us in a very kind way, for our own rations and tents failed to reach us that night; and rolling ourselves in our blankets we made our first bivouac.

Tents were pitched on the next day and we went at our duties. We were at first under the command of General Casey, who came out from Washington one day to review us, and took us on a march, part-way back to Washington. We were marching by sections, when we halted and attempted a countermarch, but were so green that we made a sad blunder. We were soon put in a brigade under the command of Brigadier-General O. O. Howard with the 4th Rhode Island and 45th and 8ist Pennsylvania Regiments. One of the first things the general did was to take us all before his quarters, and conduct religious services Iiimself. We drilled vigorously, and I soon found that I knew as much, if not more, than my company officers about it, certainly more than the captain, and was more than once placed in charge of the company on drill while they were elsewhere. And indeed I studied the tactics hard.

CHAPTER IV

On the 3d of November we marched without tents for Marlbor- ough, Maryland, as I suppose, to see that the elections were carried on free from rebel interference. The distance was fifty miles, and the rain falling in our road made it muddy and slippery. We made the march in two days and, resting one, marched back in two more, and it was a severe trial for new soldiers. Drill and parades again occupied our attention for three weeks, and we began to do very well, and to smell for a fight still more earnestly.

Our major was a very savage-looking man. He had a dark com- plexion, stem eyes, and flowing black beard. His favorite horse was a large bobtailed bay, as impetuous as his master, and he used, on drill, to ride him at full speed to place guides and fix lines, and some- times rode rudely against the sergeants who were on the flanks of the companies, apparently regardless of their safety, and we began to think it was rather cowardly, or at any rate overbearing, but of course were dumb. But a master came for the major, and gave us the privilege of laughing at him in our sleeves when he came out in his master's chains. One day we were on the field witli all our sashes and scales on, drawn up in array for review (by General Howard, I think), and waiting for the reviewing officer to appear

and receive our salute, when Major came out of his quarters,

and staggered down the rear of our line, and just as we were ready for the salute, he appeared in front of the brigade, and roared out in stentorian tones, "Shoulder! Arms!" As everything and every- body was silent, and no one expecting such a contretemps, he made a sensation, and finally, after some confusion around him, he was got away and we could once more keep our eyes to the front. There was some fuss about this, but an apology or something of the kind fixed it, and the major retained his commission, and I was rather glad of it, for he proved himself a brave officer in his one fight. Day

DAYS AND EVENTS 31

and night while we lay here, heavy trains thundered by our camp, on the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad, drawn by the double-decker en- gines often, which were new to our eyes, and which were laden down witli troops and munitions of war; and I do not think that it is ex- aggeration to say that no hour passed without one or more trains. The supplies and troops which poured in convinced us of the mag- nitude of the strife expected, and we longed for the day when our dreams should no longer be disturbed by those who passed us in advance.

Thanksgiving Day in New Hampshire approached, and we pre- pared to celebrate by a dinner and games, but on the night before an order came to march on the next morning. We then took occa- sion to grumble a little, but it's an ill wind that blows nobody good, and ours blew us a sight at Washington and the passage of the Po- tomac. A march of five or six miles brought us to the Capitol, and then, forming column by company, we gratified our curiosity and our pride by marching down Pennsylvania Avenue and showing the spectators what a strapping regiment the 5 th New Hampshire was.

We crossed Long Bridge, passed through Alexandria, and camped for the night near Fairfax Seminary, and on the next morning marched for a spot on the side of a hill at the base of that on which stood Fort Worth, and here we made a camp. It was a forbidding spot, for running from the rear to the front were a succession of small hills and ravines on and in which our streets were to lie; the ground, too, was filled with roots and stumps, but when we got our axes and shovels we speedily made the ground clear, and then we began to elevate our tents on "stockades" after this fashion: We dug a circular trench in the ground of the shape and size of the bot- tom of our tents; in this we set split pine logs on end, with the smooth side in, and firmly fastened them in with dirt, and piled it up around them. The logs were from three to five feet above the ground, and on top we set our tents, and fastened them down; we then plastered the cracks with mud and put little stoves in the

32 DAYS AND EVENTS

center with pipe projecting from the top of the tents. And in these habitations we went into winter quarters.

The 6ist New York Volunteers had replaced the 45th Pennsyl- vania Volunteers, and the 64th New York came finally to replace the 4th Rhode Island, which went to join Bumside's expedition. On our right as far as we could see there were hills; in our front there were scattered houses, hills, clearings, woods, the stumps and limbs of the trees which had furnished us with timber in the distance; the Orange & Alexandria Railroad, which came from the latter place, passed along on our left and into our front until it was hid behind the hills; and the turnpike which led out to Fairfax Court House. On our left in our own brigade came in order the 64th New York, 61 St New York, and 8ist Pennsylvania; across the road beyond were two other brigades, which with ourselves composed a division under Brigadier-General E. V. Sumner. Beyond them other troops lay around Fort Lyon, and behind us was Fort Worth. And now that order had assumed its place, the scene was martial and in- spiring. White tents covered the hills; brilliant flags went up and fluttered out in the morning breezes only to be taken in when the sun went down. Blue-clad soldiers were exercising on every open spot, orderlies came and went from different headquarters, and to aid the scene tlie pleasing clangor of bugles and roll of drums, with the screaming of fifes, rolled over the hills and kept alive the lis- teners, while the flash of the glistening guns of batteries as they wheeled in the sun, and the occasional roar of a gun from the forts assured us of an attempt to keep the Lord on our side.

A regular routine of duty was established and was as follows: Before daylight in the morning tlae bugles sounded the reveille and were immediately followed by tlae drums and fifes playing a series of tunes — always the same order. At the first sound the men routed out of their bunks, hurried on their clothes and buckled on their accouterments, and then as rapidly as possible assumed their places under arms on the color line in front of the camp, where, such was their familiarity with it, they each one arrived in his place,

DAYS AND EVENTS 33

although it was dark, and the line was only marked by being worn, and was perhaps six hundred feet long. This practice we understood to be for the purpose of drilling the men to take their place in case of night alarms, and the line was generally formed with such regu- larity tliat firing or the march might have commenced at once. The roll at first was called by each first sergeant in his own company as soon as possible, and the men dismissed; and it became a race to rouse out the men, get on the line, call the roll, and get into quarters first. I used to be up before reveille and get my men roused, and as I had my roll of ninety-eight names in memory I used to be the first generally. The adjutant inquired how I managed to call my roll in the dark, and upon informing him he doubted my ability to do it by memory correctly, and I think directed me to call from paper, but I think I continued to do nearly the same, although perhaps "on the sly." Finally, the slow sergeants were so eclipsed that some of us used to get our companies back to quarters before they began to call their rolls, and the adjutant and other officers who were slow in getting out were uncertain whether we had been out at all; so the order was issued that we should not begin to call our rolls until the drums had played, and then we were to report at the center to the adjutant and dismiss our companies on our return.

Tlie company officers were compelled to come out also and report to a field officer. I recollect one joke that occurred among them. A first lieutenant who had been educated at Norwich Military Acad- emy, and who had a system of tactics by which he used to wind his company up like a tape measure, used to come out with an old short pipe in his mouth, the fire in which would light up his nose in the darkness. This was not a very soldierly habit, and there was great

fun one morning among the officers when Major addressed

him with, "Well, Air. — ■ — , how does your meerschaum color? "

Immediately after roll call first sergeants made out their morning reports, in which every man was accounted for and his condition as to fitness and availability for duty noted. A bugle call and "Peas on a trencher" by the drums and fifes announced breakfast, when

34 DAYS AND EVENTS

the companies fell in and were conducted by the first sergeants to the cook-houses, where the cook dished out the coffee and bread and meat. After breakfast came sick call, when at the sound of the bugle the lame, sick, and lazy turned out to march up to the sur- geon under a sergeant, when that terrible functionary would give the former liniment, the sick pills or quinine or powders, and the latter an admonition to go to their duty, and would send those too sick to stay in quarters to the hospital. An interval of an hour would bring the call for guard mount, when each first sergeant would turn out his detail for guard, inspect them, and march them out on the parade when the band began to play. This ceremony over, a half- hour, perhaps, would bring drill call, when we would turn to drill by company, and exercise in the manual of arms in "facings" and "the step" company movements, skirmish drill, and bayonet exercise.

Captain was as inefficient as ever in drill and used to make

some laughable movements. On one occasion he had rallied the company deployed as skirmishers, by company, and then, being unable to give the necessary order to form platoons, he said, "Get out there as skirmishers, every one of you, or I '11 put you all in the guardhouse." When he was where he could, he did not hesitate to ask me what to do, but in this case the men were too close around us. In two hours the recall would sound, when we would have an hour to rest before dinner, which was called at noon. At one o'clock the non-commissioned officers were sent out under Lieutenant Cross, who had been in the U.S. Engineers as an enlisted man, and the company officers under Lieutenant Rice to drill as skirmishers and in the bayonet exercise; and many of us became efficient in drill in* the latter at the cost of aching arms and legs, for Lieu- tenant Cross was a tough master at it.

We would get in a little before two o'clock, when drill call would again sound and the regiment would form for battalion drill; this continued two hours, and then, upon being dismissed, we proceeded to prepare for inspection and dress parade. The companies were

DAYS AND EVENTS 35

subjected to inspection of arms and dress by the officers, and at re- treat, between five and six o'clock, we marched out for dress pa- rade, which sometimes was had by battalion and sometimes by brigade, and this, when every one was in dress uniform, when the bands played beautifully, and everything was done in a dignified and deliberate way, was a pleasant duty.

After parade (which, by the way, was preceded by roll call) came supper call; at eight or eight-thirty the bugles sounded "tat- too" and the roll was called, and eight-thirty or nine the call to "extinguish lights" was obeyed throughout the men's quarters or if not the officer of the day on his rounds speedily caused it to be, when we all slept the sleep of men who had labored pretty well. This was a regular day's duty during six days, but on Sunday we were inspected in the morning, were excused from drill, and were subjected to religious services, under arms, in a hollow square. On extra days we went through brigade drill, when General Howard drilled us in laborious movements or marched us a few miles with knapsacks on. But this routine was not all of my duties, for I had to see that the men were kept clean, that they served regularly on detail, that they preserved order in camp, that they got their full rations, that they turned out for drill, and too numerous other matters.

With Captain Cross, who afterwards assumed command, I had to be subjected to more rigid discipline, to perform more numerous duties, perhaps, and to exercise more discipline over the men; but I did not suffer the contemptible little vexations which harassed me

under such a weak captain as , such as having a man run to

him to complain of the legitimate exercise of my authority, when he would pretend that he would correct me, and I would have to go to him and tell him how incompatible with discipline such conduct was, and that I could not stay first sergeant if I was to be balked in such ways. Generally I could manage the old fellow pretty well, and in- deed he could afford to aid me in the performance of my duty, for in addition to that I used to aid him by writing love letters for him.

36 DAYS AND EVENTS

He would say, "Orderly, you can write a better hand than I can, so just sit down here and write what I tell you." Seated I would write

at his dictation. "My dear Mrs. " (for the wicked old man

wrote to married ladies sometimes), "I have not heard from you for a long time"; a little more of the same sort and he would pause, and with that I, too, would pause. He would say, "Go on." "What shall I say.''" "Oh, anything, damn it! write a good letter"; and I then would indite an Oriental epistle which he would pronounce first-rate and send off.

The company was divided into five squads, and each squad put under a duty sergeant, except the fifth, which was made up of the smallest men and, as they proved, the most unruly, for the corporal I put over them was unable to manage them, and at last I went down from my quarters in the first to sleep among them, taking Corporal Tom Law with me. Their tricks consisted principally in making noises and smoking after "taps." The corporal and myself commenced a vigorous warfare in this way: At the forbidden time some one would light his pipe, and the fumes would arouse the others who did n't smoke, who would swear that they could n't sleep, and demand a cessation. This would make a racket, but a speedy cure for this was found by throwing a stick or other missile across the tent at the glowing pipe. And if the racket from this or any other little discomfort grew too loud, I would go over and put the contestants down not very gently, and finally I got the squad to be quite peaceable. Some of the men would keep dirty until I obviated it by details to scrub dirty faces with soap and sand, and once by taking three men down to the ice-fringed brooks in front of camp and requiring them to strip and go in, doing the same myself to show them that it was not cruel. TTiere were some attempts at shirking duty, but I got along generally without severe punishment and on the whole had a good company. When I was among the first squad, I used to lie after "taps "and tell the most wondrous stories to amuse my comrades, and then finish by announcing the fabrication.

Once I got into difficulty. An order was read at parade one eve-

DAYS AND EVENTS 37

ning, to the effect that morning reports should be handed in earh'er. On the next morning I forgot it, and was placed under arrest by the adjutant for being twenty minutes late, but was released within an hour or so. The dinner which we were to have had on Thanks- giving was enjoyed on Christmas, when we participated in wres- tling, running, leaping, and chasing a greased pig, the latter opera- tion being a contest between a certain number to grasp and hold a pig well smeared with grease, the victor to have the pig.

Tlie 1st New Hampshire Battery came over once to join us in a drill and sham fight ex parte. The latter was made by the battery assuming position firing and then retreating from an imaginary foe, through our ranks, which were broken by companies to the front, and when the battery had passed, the companies moved forward simultaneously into line and opened fire on the enemy. This re- versed, and other changes of position, all in quick and double-quick

time, was quite a lively scene. Captain and Lieutenant

seemed to dislike Second Lieutenant , and finally treated him

contemptuously and insultingly. I did not know him very well and had neither like nor dislike for him; he was, however, a rather green and boyish fellow to my eyes, and in his six feet six or thereabouts, awkward as well, and possibly the dislike of my superiors some- what infected me. However, Lieutenant soon was selected, as

an educated man, to join the Signal Corps of the army, and we then saw little of him. I think that this treatment prejudiced the colonel against the two superiors, and finally, by trading watches with their men as ill became officers, they in my opinion confirmed his dislike

and drew a catastrophe upon them, though I think was also

marked because he was too ignorant and indolent for a good cap- tain. One day an order came from somewhere above directing that the ofHcers of the 5th should be examined as to their competency to hold their commissions. A brigade board examined them, and in a few days an order from the War Department, dated February 15,

1862, directed the discharge of Captains and and First

Lieutenants and .

38 DAYS AND EVENTS

Now , , and were all of the same genus as to ineffi- ciency, but — — had attended the Norwich Military Academy, and

was a man of good appearance and intelligence, and I do not

believe that some of the officers who were retained could pass a better examination than either of these two. And these facts lead me to believe that who should be sent and who retained was pretty much as the colonel recommended and that he took occasion to rec- ommend. As to the first three, his judgment did not fail him, and

as to Lieutenant , although his conduct certainly was unsol-

dierly, yet it was venial, and he would have been a better and braver officer than some who were retained.

The consternation of our two officers was exceeding, and their calamity must have weighed very heavily. Although I was alive to

's incapacity, yet I saw him go with some sorrow, and with more

bade good-bye to Lieutenant who had been my good friend.

Lieutenant R. E. Cross, the colonel's brother, was made our cap- tain and Second Lieutenant C. O. Ballou, our first lieutenant. Cap- tain Cross had been a soldier in the U.S. Engineers and a sergeant major of cavalry, and had obtained very severe ideas of discipline; he was not illiterate, and although erratic was a good officer, and could bring a company up as well as any officer in that regiment.

Lieutenant Ballou was a man of more culture and information than the most of our officers; was short, fat, a bachelor of thirty- five maybe; was rather testy, quiet, and a good soul, and he had at some time been a Californian.

The new reign in Company "K" brought new institutions and ideas. The captain at once made it known that he expected the best discipline and that the first sergeant was his instrument to efi"ect it. At inspections now every button must be in place and but- toned, every bit of metal polished bright, every gun as clean clear to the bottom of the bore as it could be made, every stitch sewed, every particle of dust absent, every strap in place, every man clean, every one's hair short and combed, every shoe blacked clear around the heels, every knapsack packed with a clean change of under-

DAYS AND EVENTS 39

clothes, and every cartridge, cap, and primer in its place; and if any of these were found wrong, a scowl or reprimand cast at the first sergeant let him know that he had been remiss. When it is consid- ered that the aforesaid sergeant had to keep himself a model soldier and had numerous other duties to perform, it will not be surprising to hear him say that he now had little peace. But to recompense all this I had a captain who could appreciate soldierly bearing and neatness, and who left me to be sole autocrat in my own province and supported my orders with unvarying consistency.

A Sunday morning now was one of anxiety and labor to me. As soon as morning duties were over, I set the men at cleaning up; in an hour or so, I had the corporals inspect the sub-squads and sug- gest improvements; in a little while the sergeants were required to inspect their squads and detect omissions not noticed by the cor- porals or not amended at their suggestion or order. In a short time after this, I inspected the whole company and administered right and left reprimand, order, encouragement, and suggestion to ugly, lazy, weak, and orderly; and then, after an interval to admit of improve- ments, the company was ready for the captain, who would come out and search out all sorts of shortcomings and make the delinquents' and my ears tingle with reproach. After this we were ready for the grand inspection by the colonel or brigade or other officer, and it may not excite suspicion of conceit if I say that after all this it was very seldom that any fault could be found with Company "K."

The lieutenant-colonel held an evening school for the company officers in which they recited and were instructed concerning tac- tics and Regulations, but the colonel took the first sergeants and heard their lessons in tactics and Army Regulations, and questioned and discussed with them two evenings every week, with a view, no doubt, to making good officers of them in the future. Out of the ten, Ricker, Little, Randall, George Cummings, and myself were after- wards promoted to commissions, while the rest never advanced.

Promotion looked far enough away while we lay here until and

the rest were discharged, and even then, although I believed myself

40 DAYS AND EVENTS

more competent than some who were promoted, yet I was passed unnoticed, and the Sergeant Major Cross, First Sergeant Ricker, and Sergeants Lawrence of "D" and Parks of "E" were promoted. I never knew whether my merit was not sufficient in the colonel's

estimation or whether it was a dislike to which caused me to

be passed. First Sergeant Cummings, who was private in my com- pany in the ist Regiment, and who used to be regarded as a stupid fellow, was made sergeant major, and in May following was made

second lieutenant, and a man by the name of was made

second lieutenant of Company "E" in the same month.

The following circumstances make for the supposition that merit was not entirely the cause of promotion. Parks and Lawrence had been promised promotion if they would join the regiment, and al- though the former made a good and brave officer, the latter proved otherwise and slunk out of the service in October, 1862. Cross was probably promised a commission also, and at any rate his position entitled him to the first notice. Ricker had been taken into his cap- tain's tent long before he was promoted and treated like an officer, as one officer was detached from his company. Cummings was a favorite of the ranking captain, Sturtevant, and was a rela- tive, I think, of Captain Barton, into whose company he was pro- moted and proved a drunken good-for-nothing. These make me

think that had Captain been a favorite I should have fared

better. Just as soon as Sergeant Alajor Cummings was promoted, Captain Cross told me I could have his place, but I did not care for it enough to leave my company, which I loved, and so waited until a vacancy came in it, which I think came in thirty days afterwards as will be related. Mine was a stern chase and a long one, but Parks went out disabled by wounds and First Lieutenant Lawrence re- signed on account of disability apparently. Cross accepted the po- sition of aide to General Howard and went out as captain. was

promoted over in his own company, and Cummings and Ricker were passed when I was promoted to major, which I relate, how- ever, rather as remarkable than exultingly.

CHAPTER V

December 6 we marched five miles to the front and went on picket at Edsall's Hill. Here we bivouacked four days, and holding a part in reserve the rest were posted along a line of a mile or two, to keep the rebels off, who were probably engaged in the same thing five miles away. We repeated this several times in the winter. Once we went out when the rain and sleet froze on the twigs and leaves as they fell, which, besides making things uncomfortable, rendered fire-building difficult. But we camped in a large oak forest and the ringing axes soon leveled enough to make us com- fortable, and we used to pile up great piles of logs six or eight feet in length, and as the flames leaped up and lapped around them we took great comfort, whether it was rainy or dry, night or day. We built sheds of rails and sticks covered with rubber blankets which opened to the fire and were quite cozy. We played cards, slept, ate, and drank when not on duty.

One night here a captain saw a rebel near one of his posts, who, challenged, gave no answer; the captain collected a squad and approached the immovable enemy, a shot was fired, I think, and it was demonstrated to be a stump.

There came to us reports of the encounters of ours and the rebel cavalry in the contested country, or rather vacant country, be- tween our lines, and once or twice parties of us crept out in the night and once in the day listening anxiously for the barking of dogs, which our book told us was a sign of moving men, or the noises of a camp, or straining our eyes to see the light of the enemy's camp-fires; but with no result but emptiness or an en- counter with adventurous New Jersey soldiers who held the line to tlie right of us.

Once, however, we ventured farther out. Some officers had been out exploring near Burke's Station on the Orange & Alexandria

42 DAYS AND EVENTS

Railroad, who were invited to sup at a house occupied by one Marshal there; this they agreed to do, but suspected that some- thing lay concealed, and were rewarded by the sight of a squadron of rebel cavalry who rode in just at the hour appointed for tea. At any rate, this was the story which came to us, and accordingly an expedition of a hundred men or so started out under Captain

to look up this house. I was one of the party. We cautiously

marched along the railroad until we approached a cut beyond which the station was supposed to lie. Here a halt was called, and the commanding officer seemed rather loath to approach his in- visible enemy, so two or three of us volunteered to go ahead, which we did until we came to the station, where we found Marshal and his family, in which were two good-looking daughters. They seemed desirous to know who we were, and we said we were Confederate soldiers, and they inquired why we had "U.S." on our belts, to which I made reply that we belonged to a Georgia regiment en- titled the "Under Sun" regiment; whether this convinced them or not I am unable to say, but we returned and guided our main body up without meeting any rebels. Old Marshal was brought away, with all his poultry and cattle which were found about the house, and just as we were leaving a rifle shot was heard up the railroad which was interpreted to be a signal; but we met no rebels nor did any follow us in sight. We were welcomed quite heartily with our booty, and were considered to have done a smart thing; a paper or more at home published an account of it, and we who went ahead were considered to have been bold and quite strategic in our replies. At the time, and long after, I rather felt proud of it; but experience in war on a large scale since then has caused me to ask myself whether it was a thing to be proud of, to which a reply comes. If the people did furnish information to the rebels as sup- posed, then to capture Marshal and his stock was a justifiable matter; and there was danger in going ahead as we did, and possi- bly we averted an encounter by our strategy, and this may be if the gun was a signal. But being one of the rank and file, I did

DAYS AND EVENTS 43

not know certainly the truth nor our orders, and do not know now whether the one justifies the capture or the other made it imperative.

We heard, too, while we were out here that a party of our cavalry went out into this country and laid an ambuscade for a party of rebel cavalry who were expected along the road. They twined wire across the road at the height of a man's neck on horseback, and when the rebel cavalry rode into it many were unhorsed and our people attacked with success. On one occasion we had marched from Camp California to Edsall's Hill, and had there stacked arms, and the pickets were sent out. Colonel Cross deemed it prudent for the reserve to lie in rear of the arms until the posts were manned, and he sent the sergeant major out to order a lot of the men in who had besieged the sutler's wagon upon its arrival. The men did not move, and the colonel went out and laid onto them right and left with his saber, and to all appearances did not distinguish between the back and the edge of it. The men scampered and began to learn that his orders were to be obeyed immediately. The duty on post was not very hard. A squad of ten or more perhaps was posted at a con- venient place under a commissioned officer or sergeant, and from this reliefs were sent out at intervals of two hours, which arrange- ment with three reliefs, as was generally the way, made us stand on two and off four hours. Our business was to keep a sharp look- out for the enemy and to fire if he attempted to pass or approach too near the line. The army was instructed in signals, and a friend must make himself known at a distance by waving the arms or musket in a peculiar manner. Once while commanding a small

post I saw Major riding down the line on horseback, and I

turned out my men and received him at the "present." He stopped and in a maudlin way commanded, " Sergeant, bring your men to a shoUer," which I did; but he repeated his command, and I was unable to do as he wished, as they were already at the "shoulder." He insisted, and fearing to provoke his drunken wrath I caused them to execute a part of the manual ; but no matter what move-

44 DAYS AND EVENTS

ment they executed, he ahvays gave the same mumbled command. I began to grow mad to be so Imposed upon by a drunken superior, and was relieved to see him move after a little darky who, standing near by, seemed to excite his anger. He raced after him, shout- ing, "Stop him! Sergeant!" The little darky ran like mad over the hill in front to a squad of videttes of the 8th Illinois Cavalry, and the major stopped. I sent my men to quarters and did not turn them out again for him. He rode along the line, and just as he had departed, the 8th Illinois fellows came striding over the hill to meet the man who was chasing their darky, and I was quite relieved to have him away.

It happened once at Camp California that an alarm was raised of the enemy's approach, and just after we had returned from Edsall's Hill the long roll was beat in the watches of the night, and we all hurried to arms and the color line, while the echoing drums thundered over the hills and valleys. We marched back to Edsall's Hill, but met no enemy, however, so the regiment stayed there, while Company "K" was detailed to escort General Sumner

back to camp. Before daylight an order came over to Captain

to furnish "an orderly who could ride to General Sumner at once." I hardly knew whether it meant an "orderly sergeant" or not, but suspected that it might be a messenger only he wanted; and at any rate, as the men were tired, and I was certain that / could ride, while not sure of the others, I went myself with no delay. I reported to General Sumner in his room, and had time to see in the candlelight a grave-looking old man, with stem countenance, white hair, and iron-tinged white beard. He said, "You are late. Sergeant!" in a quick tone. I made known that I came immediately on receipt of the order, and he gave me a written order to carry to General Howard, and, furnished with a good horse, I sallied out as proud as a peacock to be mounted. I met the troops after daylight part-way back, marching, and handing the order to General Howard, whom I soon met, I finished my duty. He turned to an aide and directed him to cause the column to halt, and I rode back to camp.

DAYS AND EVENTS 45

However, the enemy were not reached and the old routine was resumed. The mumps got hold of the regiment, and I was a victim. I went to a house in front of the line and lay in a room with three or four otliers, one of whom lay on a bed unable, as he said, to move on account of rheumatism. I stayed there three days, and managed to squeeze a little fun out of the rheumatic man, by conspiring with the rest to be asleep when he wanted some service. The plan was successful, and as we were like the seven sleepers he had to get up and walk himself, and he then rapidly got well. Something or other caused the brigade to march out beyond Burke's Station, and while bivouacking near the latter place. Captain Cross went down and breakfasted with the Marshals, and in consequence invited me down or ordered me to guard tliem. I went and sat at their table. I never knew whether they recognized me or not as the partial author of their troubles, but hoped they did n't. I cannot recall at this time whether this expedition ensued imme- diately after the alarm last mentioned or not.

Once General Sackett, the Inspector General of the Army, came round to inspect us. We turned out with the rest of the brigade in the most excellent order, and the preliminary inspection went off finely. Just as we started to march in review a furious storm of wind and rain broke upon us, and a part of the brigade ran for quarters, but the 5th, as afterwards in storms of a worse kind, did not falter, but marched squarely around and finished the review. We went into camp to find every tent but three or four prostrated by the wind. The inspection was finished in com- pany streets when the rain ceased.

Once during the winter a pass was sent to me by the colonel, and availing myself of it I went to Alexandria. As the commissary sergeant had to draw bread in the city, he commissioned me to do it for him and gave me his horse to ride, and mounted on him, with my sergeant's sword hanging stifHy by my side, and spurs, sash, and scales on, no doubt I presented an inspiriting spectacle. I tasted some of the dissipation of that dissolute city and came

46 DAYS AND EVENTS

to camp on time a wiser and a poorer man. It was an idea of Captain Cross that I should have separate quarters from the men, and accordingly he gave me an "A" tent which had before been used by the company clerk, and permission to stockade it, which I did, and took little Jim Roberts, our drummer boy of fourteen or fifteen, in with me. I had no stove or fireplace and slept cold for a night or two, but was relieved from doing so any more by an order which reached us in the night of March 8, 1862, to march. The noise of preparation filled the camp, rations were cooked, ammu- nition was distributed, clothing was issued, superfluous baggage was packed for storage, and in short everj^ing was made ready for the march.

The news of the victories of our armies in the West had called out many a round cheer to echo along the hills of Camp California, and while admiring the deeds of our Western comrades we had grown fearful lest the work should all be finished without us. But Colonel Cross had assured us that there would be enough for all, and so we had waited for the order to move on the vaunted strong- hold, Manassas Junction, in front of us; now it had come, and cheerily we set out early on the morning of the loth armed and equipped cap-d-pie; and yet it was like leaving home to forsake the white tents which had sheltered us over three months, and likely enough there were looks of regret cast back as we marched away. As we passed through the Irish Brigade, which stood at rest, a first sergeant spoke to Captain Cross, who then told me that the sergeant was a deserter from the Engineer Corps to which they both had formerly belonged. I mark this because he will appear again in this record and at last I shall set down his death.

Skirmishers were soon thrown out, and that, and the absence of blue coats and tents beside the road, indicated to us that we moved toward the enemy. It rained, the roads grew slippery and heavy, and our legs weary and knapsacks hea\'y. One incident occurred to break the monotony. A man in "B" Company, who once before

DAYS AND EVENTS 47

had displayed a fit of idiotic stubbornness by lying down, scream- ing, and refusing to march, and was nearly sabered by Colonel Cross, lay down again and repeated his old tricks. The provost or rear guard punched him with their bayonets with no effect, for he still lay right in tlie road and roared and kicked. General Howard came along, and endeavored to get him to arise and march by kind words, when the incorrigible tlirew stones at him.

I do not know how the affair terminated, but , after having

been punched and cut full of holes in numerous contests with guards and officers, was finally sentenced to imprisonment or death, but going to the hospital, through mistake, was then dis- charged from the service, thereby saving his worthless life and ridding the regiment of a pest.

Just as twilight approached, we turned out of the road and bivouacked, my company went on picket, and I had a small post in charge. As soon as posts were manned, we had a fire going and looked around for eatables. Through some neglect or mistake we had marched with scant rations, and we were overjoyed to find some sheep, of which one was speedily slain and partly cooked. Just after I had lain down to sleep, one of my men made his kindness everlasting with me by bringing me a nice cup of coffee in which he had put a piece of precious butter, and it was as good as any cream. We marched away in better weather on the next morning, and without any extraordinary events, camped that night at a station on the Orange & Alexandria Railroad called Sangster's, I think. I never shall forget the beauty of that bivouac. The sky was clear and the stars shone brightly overhead. Two hills on either side of the railroad were covered with the troops; the busy hum of the men preparing their evening meals, the tramping of horses, and the braying of mules cheerily filled the air; camp-fires blazed and twinkled on the hillsides to the very summits, and dark forms flitted before them or replenished the blazes until the bugles' mellow peals warned all to bed, and sent us to our dreams with sweet notes lingering in our ears.

48 DAYS AND EVENTS

Our march toward Manassas Junction was resumed In the morning. A rumor had spread through the ranks that that strong- hold had been evacuated, which was confirmed on our arrival at Bull Run where the railroad crosses It. We marched back to Fairfax Court House on the same day or soon after, and pitched our camp just at night; we had not been here more than two hours when we were called upon to fall in and march, and we did not stop until we came to our camp of the morning. It was one of the most vexatious marches I ever knew, for the reason that It seemed to be the result of somebody's blunder. Sergeant Breed, poor fellow, marched that night until he began growing crazy, and was finally persuaded to go back to the Court House, and there he lay down and died In a few days. He was a noble soldier, per- fectly free from vice and as faithful as man could be, and his en- deavor to keep his place on that night march, even when his mind was distracted, was touching in the extreme. His malady was fever, I think.

We camped at first on the bank of Bull Run at the railroad, and while here I went up to see Sergeant Cook of the 8th Illinois Cavalry, camped near by. An order was read to us announcing the formation of Corps (TArmee, In which It was directed that Sedgwick's and Richardson's divisions, some batteries, and the 8th Illinois Cavalry, I believe, should make up the Second Corps, which was to be commanded by General Sumner, while General Richardson was assigned to the command of our division, which was to be the First. There was a line of not very formidable earthworks on the hills east of Bull Run which looked very in- significant, and when we marched over onto the plain at Manassas Junction In a day or two, some scattered redoubts did not Impress us with the boasted strength of this place; and to-day, having seen the works on other fields and campaigned in two winters, I can say that neither weather nor works were sufficient to oppose us while we lay around Washington, and the latter was proven by the evacuation of the rebels at our first move. But this would

DAYS AND EVENTS 49

hardly be worth complaining of did I not have for many pages hence to record the succeeding blunders of General McClellan and the sacrifice of thousands of brave men for nothing. We camped on Alanassas Plain among the log cabins of the rebels with which the country was covered for miles, and we aided our store of hard bread by the flour which we found abandoned in many spots. This camp was a dreary one for me, for a cold which I had caught in my new tent in Camp California hung onto me until I was so hoarse as to be unable to speak aloud, when some of the rogues in my company would refuse to answer at roll call, pretending not to hear my whisper. We could not drink the water of the brooks in safety, for unless we went to die very sources we ran in danger of drinking the juice of the carcasses of horses lying in die water and even sometimes in the spring itself. I was thankful when we marched away, but even then I met new miseries, for we forded creeks with our shoes on and some- times did not dry them until after dark when we lay down by the camp-fires to rest our weary bodies, and in the morning my legs would sometimes be so cramped that they would refuse to be straightened for a moment. My cold grew worse and worse, and the men, as I learned afterwards, considered me as ticketed for the next world. We arrived at Warrenton Junction and lay down in the mud, where I recollect gladly picking a blanket, abandoned by the artillery, out of the mud to aid our scanty shelter of rubber blankets against the wind and rain.

On the 28th the 5th took the advance of the infantry of How- ard's brigade in a reconnoissance to the Rappahannock River, and deploying skirmishers, with 8th Illinois horsemen hovering in our front, we marched away. The enemy's videttes were en- countered at once, but the cavalry kept well in advance and we followed for nearly nine miles, hearing their shots in the distance once in a while, and seeing the flames of the houses or stacks which they fired. The country was quite fresh and there were some nice-looking houses now and then. I recollect that my chief

so DAYS AND EVENTS

desire was to be able to enter one in which I might find an abun- dance of sugar to ease my throat with, but such was not my fortune. We marched in Hne of battle for a long distance, and at length heard the shots of our skirmishers, which now were unaided by the cavalry apparently. Presently we marched by the flank down a slope, and had nearly reached a wood when a strange whirring, a loud explosion, and a humming noise greeted us, and the pieces of shell from a puff of smoke in the air just in front fell near us. The column turned to the right, moved behind the wood and up a hill, which we had hardly mounted when a shot whirled over our heads and struck the earth beyond, followed, I think, by two or three more, none of which hit any one. Some of my men dodged, for which I administered reprimand, and I heartily wish that ever afterwards I had held my head up as well as I did then. But this the first fire I think I encountered without any fear.

The rebels fired the bridge over the Rappahannock and strove to keep us away from it until it was burned. Our skirmishers pressed them pretty hard, but the bridge went up. Our column moved up to the bank of the river, and after a change or two we formed just in rear of one of our batteries, which opened on the rebel batteries on the other side or their troops whom we could plainly see moving up toward the river.

I believe that the rebels replied from an earthwork which we could see around a house, and their shots flew over our heads; but no damage was done, and the night fell to close a very pleas- ant sort of an engagement, for I think there were but one or two men, and those on the skirmish line, who were hurt. The regiment was steady and received great praise from General How- ard. Very weary, hungry, and thirsty, we moved back from the Rappahannock bridge to a piece of woods beside the railroad and threw ourselves down to rest.

CHAPTER VI

The retreat was resumed early on the next morning, and for one I was glad to march toward our supplies, for my rations had given out and I began to grow hungry. However, as we marched along we perceived a numerous drove of cattle and other eatable beasts which had been collected, accompanying us, and it was said that with acquisitions from the various farms on our way back we arrived in camp with twelve hundred head. As we halted, a few minutes to rest, I observed a soldier shoot a pig, to the fallen carcass of which several ran to get a slice of pork, and I among the rest. The most eligible piece I could see was the liver, with which I ran to the fire kindled of rails near by, and then impaling it on a stick I turned it a few times over the blaze and ate it quickly, as the halt was brief and hunger was pressing; and it was good. We got to Warrenton Junction that day and soon after started back along the railroad, and as we went out passed Blenker's division of Dutchmen, who came up to hold that coun- try. On the 2d of April we marched onto the red and dreary plain at Manassas Junction, again lay down amid putrid carcasses and ran in peril of drinking their essence in the streams; but on the 3d, blessed event! we mounted some open platform cars, sat down packed like herring between each other's knees, and were pulled away by a puffing locomotive to Alexandria. I never left a place with such feelings of pleasure at the leaving, as I did then, I think, and it seemed to me, as we sped away from the sight of the dirty cabins, arid fields, earthworks, and debris of burned railroad trains, that I breathed a new air and health in at once. The hills of Camp California were denuded of tents when we passed them, and it seemed like passing a deserted home. We dismounted and bivouacked on a vacant lot in Alexandria, and then luxuriated until tattoo in fresh water from the hydrants and eatables.

52 DAYS AND EVENTS

On the 4th the regiment embarked on two steamers, the bulk under Colonel Cross in a large steamer, the name of which has escaped me, and three or four companies, of which "K" was one, on the Croton, a small steamer, which probably had been used for small water parties before and offered covered passage to only half of us. Tlie rest, and I of those unfortunates, occupied the decks. The novelty of water transportation was very agreeable, and as we steamed away past the wharves at Alexandria and thei shipping, we felt the exhilaration, no doubt, of fair parties on those decks before. It was my first trip down the Potomac, and I watched with the greatest interest the bold bluffs on either side and the green hills beyond. The river was broad and wind- ing, and we often passed close to the base of the bluffs, while the flowing stream put half a mile or more between us and the opposite shore. A few miles down we passed on our left Fort Washington, a noble structure of granite, built on an eminence which commands the channel. The Stars and Stripes floated at the staff, and I believe that we responded to cheers from the garrison, and we left swiftly the rows of frowning guns and yawning embrasures.

We came soon to Mount Vernon, and as I looked on its fair grounds and hospitable-looking mansion, recollections of its former beloved inmate, and of the scenes with whose history his name is linked, crowded into my mind. During all the preceding winter the rebels had succeeded in gready obstructing naviga- tion on the Potomac by their batteries on the right bank, and in- deed so far that it became an extremely hazardous enterprise for a vessel to run down. The reason for allowing this never became apparent to any of us, but Mr. Greeley, in his history of the civil conflict, says that the naval officers protested against it and got McClellan to agree twice to send troops to cooperate in the prevention of this blockade; that he failed to keep his word at both times, and then Captain Claren threw up the command of the Potomac rather than be responsible for such a disgrace. How-

DAYS AND EVENTS 53

ever, when the rebels retreated from their works at Manassas, I presume they abandoned these river batteries, for when we passed by no shot or shell greeted us. We hove to at Port Tobacco, I think, for the night, and resumed our way in the morning. We reached Point Lookout and found so stiff a gale on Chesapeake Bay that the captain of the boat did not dare to put out, saying that he might as well be in the Atlantic; however, the next day brought us to Fort Monroe. Here the James and other minor rivers empty into broad Hampton Roads. At this season the rebels occupied the farther shore toward Norfolk, and I believe that we fancied we could see the rebel batteries at Sewell's Point. In midstream the Ripraps rose, a pile of ragged rocks a few feet out of water, from which the first row of embrasures of a fort rose. On the right the vast walls of Fort Monroe covered the point for acres, and rows of bristling guns pointed from the embrasures and over the parapets. The sandy peninsula around the fort was cov- ered with houses. The blue waters of the Roads were covered with craft of almost every description. Out in the stream lay the noble Minnesota, which so lately had nearly immolated herself upon the Merrimack, and near by, as grimy and as terrible as Vulcan, rode a rarrow raft of iron on top of which a turret of the same metal was displayed, and from a narrow slit an ugly gun poked its muzzle; this was the famous Monitor, which had beaten the Merrimack a few days before. We strained our eyes to see a speck and thin column of smoke far away in the Elizabeth River which was said to be the Merrimack.

!. We cast anchor close by the shore, and then a storm set in, the wind whistled around our decks and drove the searching rain through our clothes; we could have no fire for fear of conflagration, and the only warmth we could find was that of the smokestack, which we huddled around. We had the privilege of cooking our coff'ee in the steamer's galley, but further cooking facilities were not to be had, and we held our ham against the smokestack until it assumed upon the outside the semblance of fried ham. The

54 DAYS AND EVENTS

water washed the decks, and our rubber blankets were the only protection when we lay down; however, as I had charge of three or four boxes of hard bread, I put them side by side and rolled myself up with my bunkmate. Corporal Harrington, upon them, and as he was a large man and the bed not more than thirty inches wide, it took steady nerves and skillful balancing to preserve our positions.

Once we moved up the Roads to Hampton to disembark, but were ordered back and gladly kept our wet decks in preference to muddy roads. We drew up alongside a wharf, and some of us got into a lumber yard near by and made a hut of boards, which kept the wind away and part of the rain, and huddled around a grate- ful blaze, but we were soon ordered aboard and the vessel lay out again. All this did not aid my debility, but I kept up pretty well, and Harrington was a good bedfellow, being large and healthy. He was a tall, straight, rosy-cheeked Irishman, a model soldier and as clean as could be, but could not write. He had been made a corporal for soldierly conduct, and I had taken him as a bunk- mate, he being a willing helper about my duties and a good com- rade. His ambition for promotion was excited by his corporal's chevrons, and I recollect that one night when we lay in bivouac, our blankets rolled around us, and the stars twinkling in our faces, he roused me with "Orderly!" "What?" "Did ye iver know a sarjint that could n't write.'"' "Yes, corporal"; and with a word or two of encouragement I went to sleep.

The rough weather detained us at our anchorage until Friday the nth, and there we lay watching the tides, the waves, and driving rain, and the craft around us. Near by lay the Nauga- tuck, a new-fashioned gunboat for the revenue service, I believe; she was a low craft, in shape something like a tug, and carried a great gun amidships which appeared to move up in time of action in a way sunk in the deck and to fire through a hole in the bow. The monotony was somewhat relieved also by the calls of the boatswains, which were novel to us landsmen, being prolonged

DAYS AND EVENTS 55

whistles followed by something like this in a singing, stentorian voice, "Away! — gigs! — away!" At four in the morning of the nth we moved out past the guns, the walls, and the Ripraps into the blue bay. The weather had turned pleasant, and we ploughed along finely until in three or four hours we passed some rebel huts or works at the mouth of an inlet and immediately ar- rived at Ship Point, where we disembarked over the decks of some barges, and shortly moved into the camp of tlie six companies which had preceded us on the steamer Donaldson (as Adjutant Dodd's "wall-eyed boy's" diary, furnished me by D., informs me); our delay had prevented our wading ashore as the rest had done.

I knew nothing of the movements of the army except of that portion about us immediately, but I was put in hopes of an ad- vance by the details of three hundred men a day which were sent from our regiment to corduroy the roads in front, and we settled down on a sandy point shaded by pines where the salt water gently lapped the shore, and shook ourselves like dogs just out of water. We washed and those of us not on detail rested, and some pursued the succulent oyster in his native beds off our shore.

We had now been over a month without tents and had braved many a rain beneath our rubber blankets, and we welcomed a supply of tents, which enabled us (under our little canvas) to use the rubbers to lie on. The new tents were of French pattern and originally called ''Rentes d'abri"; they were, however, christened "shelter tents" by our officials, whether on account of the ex- treme sparsity of shelter they afforded or not, I am unable to say. At any rate, the piece supplied to each soldier was about six feet six inches square, and on three edges there were rows of button- holes, and beyond them, two or three inches, rows of buttons to correspond, so that by buttoning two together they might be stretched over two guns upiight, or in a tauter fashion over a pole supported by two upright crotches, and make a tent open at each end four feet or thereabouts high, six feet six inches long.

56 DAYS AND EVENTS

and six feet wide, or with four pieces a tent twice as long could be made in which four men could lie comfortably crosswise.

Sergeant Walker and I soon learned to stretch a rubber blanket over one of the little ropes which steadied the poles, and in the triangular space thus made to raise a little platform of earth, on which we placed our knapsacks and traps, and thereby made a pillow and lengthened our tent, and when we had ditched nicely around and tightened ropes and pins, we felt ready for any storm. Such quarters, however, are not tempting enough to keep one in in pleasant weather. On the 15th, says the "wall-eyed boy Ned," we marched. We moved slowly, and once were reviewed by General

Sumner, who expressed dissatisfaction that Lieutenant was

detached, seeming to dislike the idea of taking me to act as second lieutenant, an idea of Captain Cross's, though I do not see that it weakened us any, as I still did most of the duties of first sergeant and carried my gun; and in fact I think I only marched as second lieutenant, which was a very doubtful privi- lege, too, as when I was in my own place I had the pick of the road in front of the company, but there I must march on the flank of the company. The guns at the works around Yorktown thun- dered away daily, and we lingered for days at a safe distance. We went into camp on a flat in front of which ran a stream of pure soft water, along the edge of a wood; this was a prize in that coun- try of lime water, and we enjoyed it very much.

An order named the camp of the army "Winfield Scott," and we settled down for a stay. Our company built an oven of mud, by erecting an arch or angle of sticks, piling mud mortar on top hard, and then burning out the arch, which left the mud baked. This answered to bake beans in, but anytliing which was exposed suffered an adulteration by the particles of clay which persisted in dropping from the walls. The rain, too, threatened to wash it down, but we covered it with an improvised roof of such materials as the woods afforded.

The captain insisted on my coming into an "A" tent to sleep.

I

DAYS AND EVENTS 57

where the second lieutenant belonged; I did so reluctantly, and he then illustrated the equality in which he held Lieutenant Ballou and myself as follows: When the tents were arranged nicely on the street, he directed Lieutenant B. and myself to see that the men put ditches in front and rear of them to carry off the water of the rains, and then went off on some visit. He returned in the midst of a drenching shower and immediately went out to see if the ditches were complete. On some flat ground he discovered a tent or two in danger of being wet inside from insufficient ditches, and returning in a rage, he ordered the first and second lieutenants out to see that they were ditched, and the aforesaid gentlemen went out and stood in the pouring rain until the work was done. It seemed a little harsh then, but if the work was poorly done it was right as far as I was concerned, but I think that Lieutenant Ballou should have been punished in a manner which would not lower him in the eyes of the men.

We moved up on the 27th, so near to the works that we were among those whom General McClellan would not permit to have fires by night for fear (shades of Petersburg!) that they would draw the enemy's missiles, and were attached to the engineer corps or brigade. In the duties assigned to us a part of the regiment went to work to build a tower or observatory near the works, while the rest, including "K" Company, were set to making gabions, fascines, saprollers, and hurdles, and in this new employment w^e found some sport and agreeable novelty. The principal materials required for our besiegers seemed to be gabions which were used to line parapets and embrasures, etc. Captain Cross sent me out into the woods, where material was plenty, with the company, there to stay all day and make gabions. A part of the men were set to cutting long lumber twigs and stiff poles and the rest to building, which was as follows: A round wooden board, about two feet in diameter, scarred with eight notches on the edge, was placed inside eight poles of from two inches to an inch and a half in diameter, which were set in the ground and the notches;

58 DAYS AND EVENTS

then the twigs were woven in and out around the sticks until a cyHndrical basket, two or three feet high, was made, and these neatly trimmed were the gabions. To make thirty of these with about fifty men was considered a good day's work. We were paid by a paymaster on the 29th, and the sergeants' mess luxuriated in English Club sauce, which we found made salt-horse quite palatable. (I had again taken quarters with the company.)

I shall always recollect one day when we were making ga- bions. It rained and we all probably felt a little dismal. A sut- ler's wagon came along laden with provisions for which doubtless some regiment longed ahead; but my men took the characters of "knights of the road" and commanded the sutler to stand and deliver, which he did, and hats, pockets, and hands were filled with cakes, cheese, and bottles of gin in a twinkling; but unlike Robin Hood's men we paid him, and at such rates as three dollars for a pint bottle of gin. Then we worked merrily. Old Gove, third sergeant, put his cakes in his cap and that beside a stump, and then, much to our amusement, stalked bareheaded in the drizzle from gabion to stump and stump to gabion as gravely as if on a funeral. That night, as we marched in a single file, eath couple with a gabion slung on a pole between them, there was a sus- picious wavering from side to side, but we passed the captain as he inspected our work with commendable precision of step, much to my relief. But I think it was that night at inspection that I was immensely amused with one man, who was so tight he could hardly stand steady, putting on his most rigid air and casting a stony glance fifteen paces in front, just as though he was trans- fixed; and well he might, for the captain discovered one who could n't keep straight, and taking him out in front of the company,

said, " , you're drunk," etc., in such a cutting way that it was

a relief when it was over; and I was glad of it, for the fool did n't know when he had had enough.

The 1st of May came, and with it a letter which, while my life lasts, will fix that day in my memory. I had not heard from

DAYS AND EVENTS 59

home, I think, for some time, and this letter from my stepmother brought the overwhelming news that my father had died on his way down the Mississippi at Burlington, Iowa. When I had quite comprehended my calamity, I pursued my duties as usual, though doubtless with a slow step. But the trade which I pursued now taught me to bear everything without complaint, and I bore my sorrow pretty much alone, I tliink, and the many duties pressing upon me left little time for sad reflection.

News came that Yorktown had been evacuated, and we marched to the front. We dallied about awhile, and at the end of one or two days' marching tlirough our works, on the day of the battle at Williamsburg (May 5), bivouacked on the same day. We were close to the York River, and while halted I took the opportunity to visit our works; they were quite enormous, and just behind us was a great battery of Rodman guns not yet opened. The siege in those days seemed to us the embodiment of war on a grand scale, but history says that Magruder, with 15,000 or 20,000 men, kept us at bay with over a hundred thousand men, and why we could not have passed upon the other side of the York River and crossed is more than I can comprehend.

The rain set in to make us miserable and we pitched our tents thankfully on a piece of grass. We lay down for a while, and while reposing on my rubber blanket I felt a queer movement under me, as if an animal were lifting me up in its peregrinations. I pulled the blanket away hastily, and found the earth to be lifted by a mole which worked away so fast that if you attempted to catch him, as the Irishman said, when you put your finger on him he was n't there.

I heard the heavy detonations of artillery for a long time to the north of us, and just before twilight we were ordered to pack up and march. Our route lay through Yorktown, and before we reached the town we passed through several old embankments which our fancy deemed the works made at the siege in the Revolu- tion, but how truly I know not. Little white tags upon sticks up-

6o DAYS AND EVENTS

right on each side of us, it was said, denoted the spots where lay buried torpedoes which were to have blown us up, and we were , told that the prisoners had been set to finding them for us. As i darkness fell, our steps grew more uncertain, and now and then a , shout warned some one of a torpedo, real or imaginary, and of | course to shout "Torpedo!" became a good practical joke. It was I quite dark when we passed through the rebel works, and we could just distinguish by occasional lights their massive proportions. ! The floor of the sallyport through which we marched was a sea of ' soft mud, and concealed in the depths of it a root or some other | obstacle impeded my advancing foot, and down I went flat on my ; belly into the liquid mess. I saved my rifle and face from immer- j sion, but oh! what a plaster covered me in front. I felt badly ' enough, but my misery was doubled when the captain called out through the darkness, "Was that Burleigh?" — weU knowing it j was not; which sarcasm was cruel because Burleigh was the lame, ■ deformed man of the company who shuffled along in the most ; awkward manner. I never forgot it in the captain, and it fairly ! rankled within me in a jocose sense, until afterwards, one day on ; drill, he was marching backwards in front of the company intently i observing its march, while I with pleasure watched his approach ' to a ditch until he marched over the edge; then, although discipline i forbade speaking, I shouted mentally, "Was that Burleigh?"

The road grew worse and the rain poured harder, and it was with difficulty that we kept our ranks closed. To cap my misery my , usual surefootedness deserted me, and I went down two or three i times, but as mud was no terror to me in my condition then, it was not so bad as it might have been. The march was but seven j or eight miles, but seemed a dozen, and it was with unspeakable i gratification that in a ploughed field at an hour after midnight, I lay down with some sharp-cornered rails under me and a fire at my . feet, and regardless of rain and mud slept. The next morning saw j us on the road again, but to hear shortly after our start that j Williamsburg had been fought and now in our front, and tliat '

DAYS AND EVENTS 6i

the 2d New Hampshire had lost heavily. We bivouacked near a ravine in which, in the sandy bed of a stream, some cool springs bubbled up, and we enjoyed their waters internally and externally. We marched back to Yorktown on the next day on a dry and much easier road, and seemingly much shorter, although the same. We camped one day or so on the side of a dreary hill, and then moved up near the bank of the river and put our tents down in a peach orchard; and here for two or three days we luxuriated amid green leaves, pure water, and the breezes from the York which swept by, a broad and beautiful river. While we lay here it was said that some of our men were in bathing, and one stepped up to a stranger in the water and requested him to rub his back, which he agreed to do for a similar favor, after which they went out and our volunteer was astonished to see the stranger put on a general's coat and walk away, saying nothing. It was General Richardson, our division commander.

CHAPTER VII

We were ordered down to the wharf to embark, and after con- siderable fussing were marched aboard the C. Vanderbilt, a large river steamer, and then we steamed up the York. The boat was large and sailed finely and I greatly enjoyed the river scenery and breezes. We disembarked at West Point, and then marched a little way and camped, and then by stages, sometimes slow and sometimes swift, we marched up the Peninsula; upon second thought I recollect that the review mentioned and General Sum- ner's dissatisfaction, related a few pages back, occurred during this march. We moved close by New Kent Court House, and passed a small church in which it was said Washington was married, but Irving says he was married at White House, which I suppose may be the one from which the landing on the Pamunkey is named.

On the 2ist, or a day or two sooner, we found ourselves camped close to the Chickahominy River, though not where we could see it. Tlie atmosphere seemed to teem with miasma from the swamp through which the river ran, and these with the heat prostrated a large number of our men. The malaria worked in a singular manner. Men would be on duty up to the day they must lie down, and then all at once give up, and go to hospital or tent and to bed, some never to rise again. I had not yet recovered fully from my miserable weakness of the spring and seemed to be a fit subject for the disease, and it was not more than a week before the most debilitating diarrhoea seized me. Whiskey was issued to us at this time, but after the first few issues it was rather new and raw, and did not help me any. We used to get a gill a day, and when rations were issued nearly every man in the company, and the little drummer fifteen years old, marched up with a tin cup to take his grog.

DAYS AND EVENTS 63

On the 28th Colonel Cross was ordered to construct a bridge over the Chickahominy capable of bearing up artillery and wag- ons. Colonel C.'s report in the first volume of the New Hampshire Report of the Adjutant-General says on the 25th; through mis- take, I think, though I may be wrong. We marched to the river where the ist Minnesota Regiment, I think, had commenced the construction of a bridge, and went to work. Large details were sent into the water, and there up the stream they cut logs and floated them down to the bridge, where parties built great log piers and laid stringers from one to another, and across these laid logs corduroy fashion. The work was mainly done in the water, sometimes waist-deep, and amid mud and tangled underbrush. The men worked away with spirit, and did not let anything dismay them, and as we were composed largely of men who could wield the axe we got along finely. Details from' the 64th and 69th New York were sent to aid us, and the colonel had a barrel of whiskey broached, at which the soaked soldiers could slake their thirst and fan up their fires ad libitum, and such was the eff'ect of this generosity that the Irishmen of the 69th cheered Colonel Cross as the best of men. By the evening of the 30th, whether three or five days, the bridge was completed seventy rods in length, and it has been considered a remarkably difficult task to perform. General Sumner, I believe, christened it the "Grapevine Bridge," whether from the surrounding vines or its sinuosity, if it had such, I do not know. General McClellan says that it was the only bridge available above Bottom's Bridge to cross on, when Sumner's corps crossed the next day, as the rains had swelled the current so high that the rest were rendered useless.

On the second day of our bridge-building or thereabouts the sur- geon Informed me that unless I lay down and kept still I should be attacked with the fever, and as death was not far from that, I com- plied with his directions and lay down in my shelter tent, a sick man. I could eat nothing which would do me any good, and it seemed as though my viscera were dissolving and passing away;

64 DAYS AND EVENTS

I believe that such was partly the case. The surgeon tried three medicines on three days, with no effect, and he, I think, knew that my condition was critical. Sergeant George F. Goodwin, ordinarily a strong and lusty man, lay near me sick also. Time flew slowly with me unused to such pains and inactivity, and if our camp had remained stationary a week longer I might have been rolled up in my blanket and covered with earth. But before I leave this dreary

spot I must note that here First Lieutenant , an officer of

whom more hereafter, was detected in lending money at very high usury to his men, and for this very unofficerlike conduct he was placed under arrest, and then on parade, while he stood disarmed in the center of a hollow square, he was reprimanded in general or- ders in the most cutting terms, after which he took his sword and went on duty. If I had subjected myself to such disgrace, I think I should have tried hard to leave my bones on the next battle-field. All this time I, as one of the line, was in ignorance of what was transpiring, but the fact was that two corps had been pushed over the river and lay in imminent danger of an attack by the rebels in full force, and on the 31st it came. The enemy attacked the Fourth Corps, and, driving in Casey's division, bade fair to drive the whole back into the river. Orders were sent to General Sumner to move across. He hurried away with the 2d Division, and as soon as they had crossed we were ordered to follow. Of all this I was ignorant, but on the afternoon of the 31st I heard the firing across the river, and presently the regiment was ordered to move. The men began to pack up, and I was under the surgeon's directions to lie still, but I thought that it might be my only battle; that my promotion might depend on this chance; and I already had declined the place of sergeant major when Cummings was promoted in May that I might take a second lieutenancy when I was promoted and in my own company if I could; in short, I could not bear the idea of march- ing so far and enduring so much only to lose the first battle. So I got up, and packed my knapsack, buckled on my equipments, and rifle in hand took my place.

DAYS AND EVENTS 65

We marched along up the river until we came to the bridge, and then crossed its length in safety, though the swollen current al- ready hid some of the timbers and threatened to lift them from their places. On tlie flat on the other side a battery struggled in a morass, but we halted not, and soon the muddy waters, horses, and guns were out of sight. The sounds of musketry were very distinct, sometimes rolling in prolonged volleys; but as we neared and the shades of evening fell, they seemed to be of platoons and companies and fitful. We hurried along anxious to reach the field before it was done, and to our unpracticed ears the volleys seemed to denote the close of the battle. It was a weary march to me, so weak that body and soul did not seem to care for each other's companionship. I sometimes fell down or lagged a little behind in difficult places, but I would not have feared death in my struggle to reach the front, and I kept with my company.

Night closed around us still marching, and the sounds of battle ceased. Our men feared it was over, and some gnimbled; one, Wat- son, said, "This regiment never will get into a fight"; another, Howard, hoped we should; and I cared for nothing but battle, I think. We drew near the field and silence fell on the ranks, and as we marched naught was heard but an occasional low-spoken word, the fall of many feet, and the tinkling of canteens. Once we heard General Meagher bawling for the Irish Brigade, and then we passed him and moved into what seemed a large field with woods around it. Some lights flashed in the distance, and the unaccustomed groans of a wounded man reached our ears, and as the column moved on a movement of the men in front and a word warned us to avoid a hu- man form right in our track. One wounded man, dimly perceived in the darkness, moaned that he was cold. I think I smelled here the damp, mouldy odor which I have attributed to blood on other battle-fields; it might have been only the smell of the torn soil. We filed down silently across the field, and near the railroad went into line of battle, and then lay down on our arms. Some dark forms lay around which might have been the dead, but I chose to lie down

66 DAYS AND EVENTS

and not search. Gove and I lay together, I think, and every little while a whisper would steal along, "Rise up!" "The rebels are coming ! " but every time we lay down again.

We were within three hundred yards of the enemy's lines and we heard them shout, and a speech from one afterwards said to be Longstreet. On our right were woods, in our front the railroad par- allel with our line, running along the edge of a deep wood, and on our left were woods and bush. The darkness was almost impenetra- ble around us, and the eye saw only a black wall where the trees commenced. Colonel Cross in the night, maybe toward morning, walked to the right of our line and entered a tent there standing a little way removed from us. He asked what regiment was there, and was informed by the inmates that the tent was the headquarters of a Texan regiment, or some other rebel regiment, and then he quietly walked back.

As it grew light, we stood to arms, and a party was dispatched into the woods on our right, where they stirred up and drove away a whole nest of rebels, though the regiment the colonel had stum- bled on had discovered its proximity and stolen away before light. At some time early we had changed our position, I think, to the rear and stood in line of battle, and there we waited to give or receive.

A rebel courier rode up In front of us and Inquired, through the twilight, if any one could direct him to General Pryor (a rebel). "Yes," said Colonel Cross, "this way, sir"; and stepping briskly out to him caught his rein and with drawn revolver made him his prisoner. The man had dispatches said to be important and rode a valuable horse; the former the colonel fonvarded to headquarters and the latter to New Hampshire, confiscated to his own use, which last, though conflicting with the rule that captured property be- longs to the Government, was doubtless a tempting thing to do under the circumstances. (Perhaps, though, the colonel paid for the animal.)

The light of the day of June i, Sunday, had hardly crept around

DAYS AND EVENTS 67

the shadows of the woods, when over the railroad, a Httle to the left of our front in the woods, a thundering roll of musketry broke forth, and increased in noise until it was almost deafening; and if there were sliouts and loud commands they were drowned in that awful noise. Bullets commenced to whiz over our heads in piping tones; sometimes they sounded like a very small circular saw cutting through thin strips of wood, and sometimes like great blue flies; some flew high, and some low, but none hit any one that I observed. Presently old General Sumner rode up to our colonel, and said in his deep voice, plain enough for us in the ranks to hear, " If they come out here, give 'em the bayonet; give 'em the bayonet, they can't stand that"; and rode away. The feelings of that first half- hour, while listening to our comrades in front, are indescribable. I can remember, though, that I waited with the most harrowing (if I may use the word) curiosity. The time was now come to shoot for country and liberty; we stood on our first field with the bullets whizzing around us. When would the time come.^ We did not see, that I recollect, any wounded men, and no horror abated the en- thusiasm which the thunders of the fusillade excited; and yet we were all grave, and I for one was patient to rest or go, only the suspense was dreadful.

At length we moved forward in line of battle over the railroad. On the way some of the men in my company, poor fellows, marched into a pit full of water up to their chins, but they kept on. We lay down in the bushes at the edge of the woods and waited again. Up the railroad to our right the rebels we had driven out commenced to fire scattering shots at us, and I think our skirmishers replied. I do not know how near our tioops connected on our right, but I be- lieve that if the rebels could have known our exposed flank to be so near they could have made hot work for us. Some frightened, fleeing rebels came from the front right into our ranks, and were captured and told or shown how their lines must have been broken. In half an hour the musketry commenced subsiding, and suddenly our time came and we were commanded to rise up and march to the

68 DAYS AND EVENTS

left on the railroad. The colonel was near our company on foot when he met General French on the railroad, his usual red face all afire and his eyes winking harder than ever; he was without a staff. The colonel asked him something about the fight, and he stam- mered out in the most excited way that his brigade (the 3d of our division) had met the enemy in the woods and were all cut to pieces. But the colonel, marching gallantly at our head, marched on, and when he had got just in rear of where the fight had been hottest, halted us. I think it was then that we saw two regiments of the Irish Brigade a little farther down the railroad, huddled into masses with their colors flying, trying to charge across the railroad, but as long as we saw them they only lost men and were unable to advance; they yelled, cheered, and swore, but somebody had got them into such an inextricable confusion they could do nothing.

Colonel Cross hurriedly strove to get orders from some one as to where to go in. General Howard had been wounded, and no one in command was near by, but time was not to be lost, so the gallant man ordered his line right forward. Firing had ceased in our front, and we knew not where we should meet our friends or our foes, but we plunged down the embankment into the dense woods and marched boldly ahead. My company struck an old road which lay right in our course, but those on the right penetrated through a jungle tliick and swampy. We soon came to some of our dead men, and saw their blood in our path, and then I saw a man sitting up against a tree with his face toward us; he bore a ghastly wound upon his head, if my memory serves me right, and the poor fellow could not speak, for he motioned with his hand over his shoulder con- stantly, evidently, gallant fellow, telling us that our enemy were there. It was said that we drove in a rebel skirmish line, but this man was the only living creature I saw, and we had gone but a few rods farther, when we were quickly ordered to lie down and to fire by file.

We had eight hundred rifles, and I never shall forget how we made those woods ring with our firing. Tlie rebels opened at once,

DAYS AND EVENTS 69

and the bullets flew in myriads around us, humming deadly songs, hitting our men, and splintering the trees around us so that I thought the fine pieces of wood flew in my face. I, acting as a file closer, had to help keep the men at work, so I kept my eyes on them, and I do not recollect seeing many hit. Whether it was apathy from my sickness or ignorance of battle, or both, that kept my apprehension down, I do not know, but I lay there careless of bullets and death, noting my men and the splintering of the trees. The bushes were thick, and I did not see the rebels, and though per- haps the smell of the burning powder inspirited me a little, yet I was far more indifferent to everytliing than I could have supposed before. Orders had been issued for file closers to reserve their fire until they could aim at officers, and as I saw none I fired not at all, but presently Lieutenant Ballou turned to me and asked if I had fired. I said, "No," and he said I'd better, so I aimed in front low and where I supposed the rebels to be in the smoke, and loaded again. I fired perhaps once, maybe twice more, when we were or- dered to cease firing and rise up. No bullets came then from the rebels, and we moved back a few feet and halted to re-form our line.

The rebels had gone, and we marched back over the railroad. Our dead lay in some places within three rods of the enemy's. Just as the fight was closing as I have related. Colonel Cross received a shot in the thigh and fell. He said afterwards that he was just about to order a charge when he was shot, but that then he told Lieuten- ant-Colonel Langley to do as he pleased, and he was carried off by some men (whom he sent back as soon as he reached another regi- ment, risking himself with strangers that they might help fight). Colonel Langley alleged that so many men had fallen he thought it best to fall back a little way to re-form, but whether he formed this determination before the rebel fire slacked or not I am ignorant. But it was lucky for him that the rebels left upon our rising or be- fore as they did, for otherwise he would have had hard work to rec- oncile a necessity to re-form with our straight line and undaunted

70 DAYS AND EVENTS

courage. It was said, and probably truly, that the 69th New York, or some other Irish regiment behind our backs, fired wildly into us and killed some of the men in the right companies, and they were reported in the newspapers as having charged and pinned the rebels to the trees with their bayonets. We moved into the open field whence we had moved at light and then counted our killed and wounded. The regiment had lost 186 all told, and among them were Colonel Cross and Major Cook, botli wounded in their legs. As we stood there, old "Fighting Dick" came out of the scene of action with his coat off, looking very much exhausted. There were but few more shots on the field, if any, after our fusillade, and we moved into the adjoining bushes and lay down to rest and watch for the reappearance of the enemy.

Old Davis, a queer old fellow of our company, as he related, stopped when the regiment moved out of tlie woods, to ease him- self, and while there one solitary rebel came through the dead and wounded toward him with the evident intent of capturing him. Old Davis said it made him mad to be subjected to such treatment at such a time, and he rose up, leveled his rifle at his enemy, fired, and killed him, and when he got ready he went up to him, ascertained that he was dead, and took his rifle, which he had carried until he told me the storj^ many a long month afterwards, and I presume he did until he was mustered out in October, 1864.

A singular feeling came over me when we stood counting our losses. Out of my company there were thirteen or more gone. They were here but an hour ago, and now they are dead or prostrate with wounds ! How lavish of life, the most sacred of blessings, we have been! But it is a glorious record to have lost a fifth or more in so short a time and to have beaten. And so went my thoughts. Wliat

occurred to us as singular was that and , the malcontent

and hopeful speakers of the night before, were the only two in our company killed. The fight had waked me up a little. Peter Brennan, a jolly, faithful Irishman in my company, found some fresh biscuit in a dead rebel's haversack and brought tliem to me, and he or some

DAYS AND EVENTS 71

one else provided me with tea, and our second lieutenant, Butler, came over to visit us, and, kind soul, gave me a swig of whiskey from his canteen, and presto! I was a new man, my sickness began fleeing, and I missed no duty from it henceforth. And there was anotlier antidote given me. First Lieutenant Somes, of "I" Com- pany, resigned after "Fair Oaks" (the action just described), and then Frank Butler was promoted to his place and I to be second lieutenant of my own company in place of Butler.

We lay in the bushes all day June i, and the night following, when all the bivouac was still, somewhere in the middle of the night, we were startled from our slumbers by a most hideous yell, which rang through the bush and roused us to arms in a twinkling, where we stood with beating hearts, to receive the enemy, until word was passed along that a private in a nightmare had encoun- tered a rebel who gained hold of his throat, when he vented the yell which woke us. A grumbling chuckle stole along the ranks, which then sank down to slumber again.

When the retreat of the rebels was certain in a day or so, we moved up the railroad track two or three hundred yards toward Richmond, and then to the right two hundred more. How we got there, and how many times we moved, I do not remember, but we got there and pitched our tents and threw up a long line of works breast high, and near our position there was a fort or redoubt into which a battery went. I went down to the house where our wounded were treated, and saw our fellows. The surgeons were at work cut- ting off legs and arms with the most businesslike air, and near by the rebel dead, to the number of hundreds, perhaps, were being buried in a long trench, where they were laid without mark or distinction, side by side, and covered with four or five feet of earth decently and without injury. The surgeons gave chloroform to a wounded rebel and amputated a limb, and while under the effects of the vapors, the poor fellow burst out with "I wish I had a cab- bage," which was comic, notwithstanding the circumstances; but reflection might invest this homely wish with the garden, the cot-

72 DAYS AND EVENTS

tage, and the loved ones who haunted his wandering imagination then, and one might wonder if he ever saw them again, but wonder in vain.

Colonel Cross did not forget his duty in caring for his wound, but directed a lot of arms to be collected from the field and turned in to his credit, which I think I assisted in doing. I could find no shoul- der straps for sale, but I discarded my gun and knapsack, and put as good a blouse on as I could find, and with a sword and belt felt, if I did not look, the officer at last. Captain Cross had obtained a tent from the camp in which Casey's men had been surprised, and it was full of bullet holes, but was a very acceptable shelter; and apropos of this Butler had told us that he saw upon his way through that camp dead men lying in their tents where they had been killed by bullets or bayonets. Captain Cross still persecuted Ballou, and one day instituted a mess into which he drew me and then made Ballou mess alone. It was very uncomfortable for me to be a party to any such treatment, and I was very glad when it ended, which it did shortly.

The pickets raised alarms quite often, and we would rouse to arms at once night or day, and sometimes lie upon them, and once in this month of June, while we lay in the night on our arms. I saw an annular eclipse of the moon.

CHAPTER VIII

I MUST not omit to mention that some new regiments joined our division after Fair Oaks; one was the 2d Delaware and the other the 7th New York Volunteers. I think it was the former regiment which was standing at rest where it arrived, when the men saw a slouchy fellow, wearing an old blouse, pantaloons torn on one leg from the knee down, and an old black hat, walking in front of their line; they commenced laughing at him, but were checked when their colonel saluted him, and it appeared that he was General Richardson. I heard them cheer him, and he answered, saying, "You must not cheer me; it's the men who do the fighting you must cheer." The 8th Illinois Cavalry was in our vicinity, and one of their men met old "Dick" on the railroad and accosted him with "Halloa, old fellow; can you tell me where there 's a sutler.?" Upon which the dear old general answered that he could, and conducted him to where he could see one, pointed it out to him with pains, and left him without disclosing his rank. The 7th New York was a regiment of Dutchmen and Germans, commanded by a handsome man with light complexion, blue eyes, light side whiskers and hair, named Von Schaack, said to be a captain in the Household Guards of Prussia, who, traveling in this country when the war broke out, got leave of absence and came out as major of the regiment and by the casualties of the service had risen to colonel. The regiment had been stationed in barracks at Newport News, and was a very trim battalion with clean clothes and changes in their knapsacks. Their drill was exact, but they had been taught a few changes on the Prussian plan in the manual, such as coming from the " right shoulder shift" to "order," and vice versa ; at least it was supposed to be Prussian, and that movement was so commended to us we adopted it afterwards. This regiment came into our brigade. The men of the 7th were heard to complain that they had had no soft

74 DAYS AND EVENTS

bread for three days, at which our men laughed greatly. Finally we went into camp along the line of breastworks within a few feet of them and devoted ourselves to what we were pleased to call the siege of Richmond.

The woods in front of us were cleared away to the depth of a hun- dred or more yards, and this space our batteries and ourselves over- looked; beyond this in the woods we maintained a continuous picket line which was opposed by tlae rebels' picket line at a dis- tance from it of two hundred yards, more or less. While the lines were in the woods the men were posted where practicable behind the trees, but when it ran into the open ground tliey hid behind the bushes and stumps. Each regiment took its turn at doing picket duty, and did it well or indifferently as the regiment differed from the rest. We soon found out which were reliable on this duty from the num- ber of alarms, for the poor picket line would become alarmed at a single shot sometimes, and imagining that the rebels were ad- vancing would rattle away along the whole front until the whole camp was in arms and somebody would stop them. This did not trouble us much except in standing to arms at first, and we took a deal of grim comfort in doing our own duty without such alarms. But at length our reliability proved our bane, for when one of these regiments would run in we would have to march out and take their places and thus do double duty. The 7th New York occasioned the most of these alarms, but once I recollect marching out to relieve the 8ist Pennsylvania, a portion of which had run in, though the attack was not all fancied, for we found the blood of one of their officers who had been killed in the woods.

When we went out, each man took his tree and there watched intently in his front until relieved. It was the duty of the officers to go to their posts occasionally and see that all of them were awake and alive; this was dangerous in a greater or less degree, as the rebels chose to fire more or less, and at two hundred yards they sometimes made it quite lively work to get from one tree to the other. On occasions this duty was tremendous, as, for instance, once

DAYS AND EVENTS 75

my company was on duty, each man behind his tree, for thirty-six hours, and for some reason unknown to us we had no reHefs. It was excessively hard to keep awake, and I think it was at this time that

we found asleep lying under a bush as he had been stationed.

It was a hard case to punish a man for sleeping who was obliged to lie so long on the ground, but his fault might imperil the army, and the captain ordered him to take post behind the roots of an up- turned stump which barely sheltered him, while the rebels could fire right down a road at him if he showed a hand's-breadth. He moved once and a bullet struck just above him; again, and another came, when he got mad, and then with great care got his rifle up over the stump, aimed and fired at the fellow who abused him; but at the in- stant he fired, Johnny fired, too, and the bullet struck close by him, and then he kept quiet. The captain sent him there with the remark that he thought he would n't sleep much there, and he did n't, I

think, for his life depended on vigilance. Poor in six months,

though, slept his last sleep from wounds received at Fredericksburg. Once on a rainy day we were cold and cross, and for fear of alarm or with a view to cease hostilities between pickets, we were ordered not to fire unless the enemy advanced; but there was a rebel behind a tree who would fire at our men, and I went to Russell, who stood opposite him, to see if he could n't still him. Russell raised his piece, but his hand trembled so that he could n't aim. I got him a drink of whiskey and quinine which warmed him, when he fired, but Johnny reported himself surviving with a rifle ball. Russell tried again, but Johnny lived, and at length Captain Cross came up and took the rifle and fired. We could see the bark fly from the tree, and Johnny kept still thereafter, but whether from lead or caution I knew not. Soon after an officer came down the line to see who was disobeying orders. He inquired of me where the firing was, and I told him that a rebel had been firing, and I am not certain but my sense of justice led me to tell him that I knew of no other, for it seemed inequitable that we might not save our own lives in that way.

76 DAYS AND EVENTS

At another time Charles Bailey reported that he had seen a rebel in the bushes very carefully pull down a tall stem, tie a handker- chief filled with leaves to it, let it spring back, and then, crouched low, begin to agitate it gently, with the evident purpose of inducing. some one to expose himself in firing at it, that he might kill him; that he did fire, but, instead of at the handkerchief, at a point where he supposed his body to be; and that afterwards the handkerchief hung still upon die bush.

When we had our long tour of thirty-six hours I had my station behind a tree from which I sallied out at times to look at the men on post. I had been sitting down behind this tree in the small hours of the morning, and as daylight came I arose and stretched myself; my left arm projected out beyond the tree, and presto! a bullet came and struck a twig just above it. The rebel whom I supposed to have fired it was only two hundred yards away, perhaps less, and it seemed to me whenever I looked at him his face was black; I wondered whether he was a negro, and I have a faint recollection of hearing that somebody killed him afterward.

On one occasion a part of our regiment was on picket just in front of the redoubt before mentioned, when after dark the rebels made an advance, or our men believed they did, and a fusillade of a vio- lent character broke out along the line, whereupon a battery in the redoubt opened upon the rebels, with canister, perhaps, and shortly after one of our men was brought in, his back torn its whole length by one of the missiles from the battery. He had lain down, but the guns were depressed so much that the shot raked the ground almost. The month wore along, and we in our ignorance supposed and hoped that ere long we should march to Richmond, and some climbed the trees and looked wistfully at the spires of the city which were in sight. Sometimes we expected the battle to occur with a fusillade of the pickets, and once a rebel battery threw some shells over the woods which burst over our heads; a piece from one struck my tent, but being nearly spent did not go through, and I picked it up and sent it toMilford (to Mrs. Kibbe, I think).

DAYS AND EVENTS 77

On the 25 th a reconnoissance in force went out from Heintzel- man's corps, which lay on our left, and after a spirited engagement drove the rebel picket line out of sight amid great cheering from our- selves, who had mounted the works and witnessed the encounter. But even tliis success did not tempt our commander to move for- ward, and we still waited and watched. On the 26th we heard the gruff notes of artillery far to our right, and our surmises of a battle were confirmed by the news that Mechanicsville had been fought and won, but under what circumstances we knew not. On the 27th we heard again the sounds of a battle on the right, and sometimes tlie fusillade would be heard muttering far to the right, and then would come nearer and nearer until it would roll down to our own front, when the pickets, nervously expecting the battle, would join in the rattling chorus; but each time the fire subsided and we who had rushed to arms again relinquished them. Our men climbed into the trees and saw the quick flashes of the guns at nightfall, and from them and the rapidly succeeding discharges we knew how hot the fight was. During the day Sergeant Cook, of the 8th Illinois, rode by us, and I engaged in a little conversation with him. The light of another morning found us still waiting for the battle, and again we passed a day of alarms, but now we hoped for a relief from sus- pense, for we struck tents; but we moved only a little to the left, and took post at the works, waiting as we supposed for an attack, but at night we pitched tents again, and then struck them and lay down to sleep.

Tlie rumors which came to us were various : at first the battle was said to have been won, and then a "change of base" was expected and soon, until we closed our eyes with the sage conclusion that Mc- Clellan, having decoyed the main force of the enemy away to our right, was about to advance on our left and carry Richmond by storm. To think of this and then of the real state of affairs is sick- ening. We whipped the rebels at Fair Oaks, but McClellan did not follow up his victory for the reason that he did not dare to send over the rest of the army at New Mechanicsville bridges in front of the

78 DAYS AND EVENTS

rebel batteries, although in four days after he did send over a divi- sion in front of the same batteries. Then he lingered and lingered, waiting for good weather and to make his bridges better, but prom- ising the President that as soon as the river fell he would attack the rebels in their works; yet he did nothing until the 25th, although the weather was good enough and he did cross some troops over the bridges. All this time, after having nearly lost one corps by sepa- rating his army by the river, he had, after defeating the attack upon it, left his army in precisely the same predicament, and wrote that an attack on his part would open the way to defeat in detail, perhaps never reflecting that defeat in detail could come from an attack by the enemy as well. He went over to the right and did the very thing necessary for defeat in either case, by ordering his troops to stay there and receive the attack, and letting his troops on the left remain idle. The rebels did come down on his right, and defeat it after one repulse, and then McClellan ordered it to retreat to our side of the river, and the whole army to move in retreat to Turkey Bend, choosing to do this rather than to stand and fight or as- sault and capture Richmond while the rebels were getting across the Chickahominy.

I have been informed that General Hooker wanted to move for- ward on the 25th, but AlcClellan would n't let him, and General Hincks has informed me since that he condemned McClellan at the same time or before we left Fair Oaks. And, by the way, his regi- ment, the 19th Massachusetts, with another part of the Second Corps, were engaged in the reconnoissance of the 25th. But we were ignorant of all these matters, and on the morning of the 29th we only knew that a defeat had been experienced, which information came to us perhaps with the Irish Brigade, which had been up to help Porter's men on the right who had been defeated by the rebels at Gaines's Mill.

Camps were all dismantled, wagons were loaded and sent away, the whole line of works, with bare tent poles behind it, amid bunks and nests, assumed a lonesome look, and finally the head of our

DAYS AND EVENTS 79

column countermarched away to the left. We passed by the old field in which we had lain on the morning of June i and entered the copse beyond, and here Lieutenant Ballou, with ten men of our company, was detached and sent out toward the railroad and we marched on a little farther, then the rest of us were sent out as skirmishers and tlie regiment moved on. Captain Cross took half of the men and deployed on the other side of the railroad among the buildings around which the Irish Brigade fought June I, while I deployed mine in the edge of the bushes in which we had slept on that night.

Tlie ground had been a commissary's depot where I stood. Around me were tents standing, and the various bunks and arbors of a camp; behind, a few yards, a little ravine ran with whiskey and molasses which had been spilled out; other commissary stores were scattered about, rendered as nearly worthless as they could be by dirt, and just at the left of my line, on the edge of the railroad, a pile of boxes of hard bread, as tall and large as an ordinary dwelling- house, perhaps, said to have contained 8000 boxes, the rations of bread for our army sufficient for three days, was on fire. The flames roared and snapped, and its vicinity was exceedingly hot, and we had a sort of savage joy in seeing the destruction which would keep our rations from the enemy.

Presently there were some shots in front of us from Ballou's party, and then a man. Corporal Law, I think, came running through my line. I stopped him, and he said that five hundred rebels had come on them and they were obliged to run, but I saw no occasion to go yet, so I put Tom in the line, and waited. Presently, to my astonishment, I saw the tall forms of the men of the right section striding back over the railroad in a great hurry for the rear, which struck me with astonishment, as they composed the captain's line. I looked back in vain for the regi- ment, which had moved clear out of sight into the woods, and the last I heard from it was the voice of Captain Rice, who, standing in the plain behind us, cried out, "When you retreat

8o DAYS AND EVENTS

come this way!" I had been under the captain's orders, and I knew not where he was, so I held on still. I heard a shout on my right, and looking saw in among the trees some men in blue ges- ticulating and indicating that the enemy were coming in on my right, but as the enemy had not struck me yet, and my left was well protected by the infernally hot pile of bread, I walked along and cautioned my men (numbering with the one or more from Ballou's force a dozen or so) to hold their ground and to fire when they saw a head. So, crouched behind bushes, boxes, and tents, we waited, and it was not long, for presently the rebels came, and standing in or beyond the bushes opened a lively fusillade upon us. I stood this a little while, and then, thinking they were coming too close, I ordered a retreat. My men came back coolly and with precision, and we halted among the trees a few rods away, where we felt at home. Here I found those who had warned me on my right, they proving to be Ballou and his men. He and I held a council of war, and as the rest seemed to have left us to our fate, we resolved to post our men behind the trees and stay here until we were driven away. So we did, and when the rebels showed themselves in front we banged away at them, and kept them back. We did this a few minutes when a new feature appeared. The roar of a battery behind us was followed by the shriek of a shell which burst in our rear and hurtled in fragments around us, and as there seemed to be no knowledge behind us of the advanced position in which we were fighting, we concluded to retreat far

enough to get out of our own fire. We moved back without ,

for when I ordered my retreat in the first place, he, through slow- ness or fear or something else, had kept still behind a dry-goods box, so one said who was beside him, and we saw him no more. We afterwards learned that he was taken prisoner and carried to Belle Isle, where he died from disease in a month or two. He was a quiet boy and faithful, unclean, but good to have.

We took up a new line a hundred yards back and waited events. The rebels did not get very near to us this time. Some one in our

DAYS AND EVENTS 8i

rear, frightened evidently, cried out for us to come in, but we sent a man back to inquire of the colonel if those were the orders, and received word to stay where we were until ordered in. How- ever, a relief was soon sent to us, and we moved back and took post in tlie regiment, which lay along the edge of the woods in which we were. Behind was a large plain on which troops were moving, and we then perceived that the regiment lay in line with a large number of other troops. A few crackling shots and the skir- mish line came in on the run, reporting that the rebels were coming, and we laughed at the sticking-out of Keller's and Cross's eyes. Then we lying down opened fire, and the rattle of musketry con- tinued for a mile on our right. For my own part I could not see the rebels, but the flying bullets proved that they were in front, and we urged the men in their firing, and I never had a jollier time in a fight. Ballou and I saw a stump close to us and took shelter behind it. It was a poor one, though, for a bullet came through it right between us and hit Corporal Gay in the thumb; he was acting as file closer and was behind us. Gay got up and started for the rear. I cried out, "Gay, where are you going.?" in a re- proachful way, and he, turning back and looking at the petty scratch on his thumb, said, half laughing, "I declare I didn't know where I was going"; and I did not distrust him, for he was

an open, honorable man. But , a tall, brawny fellow, got up

in a fright and started for the rear. I jumped at him and caught him by the collar, and tried to lead him back, and his cowardice was so great he was almost dragging me along, when Captain Rice stepped up and, raising his sword over his head, threatening to cleave him down, drove him back.

We cracked away a few minutes, and then the rebels left our front and we threw out skirmishers. I was on the line, and for half an hour or more we watched carefully, suspecting every yellow log or bush, but saw no rebels. Just behind or near me a man lay in a red shirt. I went to him and saw that he was dead drunk; he probably had partaken too freely of the stream of whiskey

82 DAYS AND EVENTS

and molasses. We left him there, and too we left in this place

Lieutenant , who was too drunk to march. It was explained

to me that Captain Cross's party on the skirmish line had been driven in, when I saw them striding away for the rear, and Lieu- tenant Ballou or some of his party said that a whole battalion had come into his front, and that he and some others had fired at one of the officers on horseback and brought him down.

While we lay here our artillery and the enemy's fired at each other. Old Conell went up to a house to get some water and found such a crowd around the pump or well as to prevent his approach, but presently a shell dropped among them or in the house, at which they all ran away but Conell, who then deliberately filled his canteens. Clifford, of our company, who was with the captain in the skirmish, said, either to me or in my presence, that Lieuten- ant Livermore was a brave man, which compliment was perhaps the first of the kind which I had earned, and so has stayed with me until now, and I put it down hoping pardon.

Presently, at about noon, the order to move was given, and the regiment moved out into the plain on the retreat. As we neared a piece of woods our once gallant and trim band filed out of their cover and joined the column, forlorn and dirty, and with instru- ments battered into ugliness. They evidently had been demoralized a little. (I should say that our loss was not great, perhaps half a score, and that this fight has gone by the names of "Peach Or- chard" and "Orchard Station.") Long columns marched away in front of us and on the side of the railroad, the bed of which we pursued. The sun's heat was intense, and our men suffered a great deal. Our march was but two miles or so, however. We halted near Savage's Station and lay down on the ground. By the middle of the afternoon some of our men were sunstruck, and Captain Cross sent one or two to a hospital, not far away, for ice. They suc- ceeded in getting there just before the enemy, who were advancing on our position, and then brought the ice to us, with which we revived our sufferers.

DAYS AND EVENTS 83

At about 4 P.M. the enemy attacked the lines in front, which were concealed from us by a gentle eminence, and soon the roar of battle was quite heavy; added to this the columns of fire and smoke from burning stores, and clouds of dust from moving bodies, made the heat more terrific. Once a great pillar of white smoke shot up hundreds of feet in the air and in sight of all. This was said to be the railroad bridge being blown up, but I have read somewhere since then that a train of cars laden with ammunition, headed by a locomotive, was set to going and then exploded while under headway. Be that as it may, I do not recollect more than one explosion. Some shells flew over our heads and some struck near by, but I do not recall any casualty from them in my regiment. When the musketry grew hot over the hill, we were ordered up to support the line engaged, and lay down pretty near the crest. Standing on this about dusk I saw the Irish Brigade, or a portion of it, charge down the slope on the double-quick and cheering lustily, and I presume they repulsed the enemy, as we were not called on. Tliere were troops from other corps, however, engaged, and I could not see the whole engagement, but the firing gradually grew less heavy, and at perhaps nine o'clock ceased.

We had no idea that we were to run away immediately, and some of us had taken satisfaction in visiting the spot where the 7th New York had lain and taking from the plethoric knapsacks, which they had abandoned, bedding for the night. But we soon were put on the move and left the hospitals and field in the hands of the enemy. The Adjutant General's Report of New Hampshire troops gives Hiram W. Carlton as killed on this day, but I do not think he was killed then, though whether on June i or afterwards I cannot remember. It grew pitch dark and walking became in- secure. Sometimes we were stopped, and we waited for the brigade in front of us to move along, and when we came up to where they had delayed, would find that some declivity or difficult passage had impeded their march, and I have a dim recollection of hearing General Meagher's voice in our front at one of these places. Some-

84 DAYS AND EVENTS

times we hurried along almost at a trot, and passed quickly woods, fields, white with dry grass or weeds, bushes, and stragglers, and finally, at perhaps two in the morning, we caught up with a lot of troops and trains halted, and after marching among them for some time came to a dead stop. Then we heard through the dark- ness General Richardson swearing like a trooper, and after con- siderable of that we moved on. Our weary feet carried us over a narrow bridge on each side of which was blackness. Somehow I learned that when we arrived at this bridge, there were thousands of troops jammed in around the bridge and no one moving, and that old "Dick" with his fusillade of oaths was clearing them out and getting them over, which he did so effectually that at daylight all organized bodies in the column were over.

We climbed a hill, deviated a little to the right, and lay down, tired and sleepy, and our rest on the ground was too sweet to re- linquish without a sigh; but hardly had we made ourselves quiet and comfortable, when the quick command to rise up came to us, and we hurried down the hill again with orders to tear up the bridge, but when we got there a stream of fugitives hurrying across forbade our touching it, and we waited watching them. Here came a regi- ment of stragglers in disorderly haste, some hobbling with sore feet, some too lazy to move very fast in otlier circumstances, and some loaded with too many traps. Among the last was a gray- haired old sergeant of the Irish Brigade, with many years of service indicated by the chevrons on his arm, and the cause of his strag- gling made evident by a woman and child — his wife and child, probably — whom he guarded. It seemed a cruel time for them. Sutlers and bummers, drummers and cooks, came filing along in a stream which grew thinner and thinner, and then the astonishing spectacle of a noble battery greeted our eyes, unattended by in- fantry, and the drivers urging their horses toward the bridge; they had been left by mistake.

The crowd had dwindled to a few flying men when we com- menced taking up the planks and timbers. Our men plunged into

DAYS AND EVENTS 85

the water, and we quickly took up everything on which Hving thing could cross and carried all to our side. The dawn came steal- ing on us and revealed the plain on the other side lonesome and bare, with perhaps a few rebel cavalry who came in sight on the farther edge searching for stragglers and reconnoitering, and the swamp in front of us, black and tangled, seemed to put a barrier between them and us. A few yards above and a few yards below the clearing which had bordered the bridge ceased, and the white- oak trees and tangled brush hid the passes if there were any. This was called the "White-Oak Swamp." We crawled up the hill again and rested by a little house awhile, and then moved a little farther on and halted in column.

CHAPTER IX

The sun rose and darted his fiery rays upon us, and as most of us had eaten, we stuck our rifles up by the bayonets, fastened our blankets in the locks, and lay down in their shade to shun the scorching rays, and sleep. The dust of the barren plain was a sweet couch, and the stifling heat which enveloped us could not prevent profound sleep. A few, perhaps, bestirred themselves to complete the breakfasts which had been begun at our first halt when we had crossed the bridge, but there seemed to be a soothing quiet around us, and we could praise the economy of Nature which made the pleasure of sleep so intense as to requite us almost for our labors and deprivations before. What I thought or dreamed of I do not know, but suddenly, whatever visions of peace hovered around me were dispelled by the thunders of artillery, the shriek of shells, and the horrid humming of their fragments. Hell seemed to have opened upon us. In a twinkling every man was on his feet, the blankets were slung over our shoulders, and the men were in their places, shrinking under the storm, perhaps, but steady and prepared for action. The rebels had planted a large number of cannon on the other side of the swamp, and having pointed them at the host which lay on the plain had fired them all at once. And what a scene it was! As far as the eye could see the tired troops were springing to arms; batteries were whirling into posi- tion or hurrying out of reach with horses on the gallop; wagons drawn by teams of frightened mules, driven by frantic drivers, rattled away to the woods; the teams of six mules which belonged to a pontoon train which were surprised watering at the swamp, fled up the hill and away, leaving their boats; stragglers and non- combatants of all kinds fled in all directions from the fire; while the air was filled with clouds of dust and wreaths of smoke which spread out from the fierce clouds, breathing fire of bursting shells,

DAYS AND EVENTS 87

and the ear was dimmed with explosions, shouts, and a storm of

other noises. Tlie New York Volunteers was said to have run

away when die first shell burst in front of it, and battery,

also of New York, I think, disgraced itself in like manner. But the rest of the troops quickly formed lines of battle, and when we in a very few minutes had reached our position and lain down in line with our faces to the enemy, order had come out of chaos. Near us, in front and rear and right, the troops of our own division lay in parallel lines; on other parts of the plain Smith's division and Naglee's brigade were in similar order, and a few rods in front the welcome sight of Hazzard's battery of our corps, firing with rapidity at the enemy, greeted our eyes. The enemy's fire was unremitting, and from noon until nearly dark we endured the slow torture of seeing our comrades killed, mangled, and torn around us, while we could not fire a shot, as our business was to lie and wait to repel attacks and protect our batteries. With every dis- charge of the enemy's guns, the shells would scream over our heads and bury themselves in the woods beyond, burst over us and deal death in the ranks, or ricochet over the plain, killing whenever they struck a line.

The New York Volunteers in changing position either

attempted to escape to the rear or mistook Its colonel's orders and retreated right down toward us. General Caldwell, who was near, galloped to our rear and cried out, "5th New Hampshire, rise up!"

and we rose, leveled our bayonets, and received the at their

points. This was a decisive barrier to further retreating, and after a little confusion they went back and behaved themselves. We were pleased to have rebuked this cowardice, but were sorry for Colonel , who was a brave man.

The shot hit some of our men ana scattered their vitals and brains upon the ground, and we hugged the earth to escape this horrible fate, but nothing could save a few who fell victims there. I saw a shot strike in the 2d Delaware, a new regiment with us, which threw a man's head perhaps twenty feet into the air, and

88 DAYS AND EVENTS

the bleeding trunk fell over toward us. The men seemed paralyzed for a moment, but presently gathered up the poor fellow's body in a blanket and carried it away. I do not know that I have ever feared artillery as I did then, and I can recollect very well how close I lay to the ground while the messengers of death, each one seemingly coming right into us, whistled over us.

In the midst of the storm I heard my name called. I could not believe that any one could call me to come at such a time, and waited; another call told me that Colonel Langley wanted me. I got up and walked to him with as much composure as I could assume, and he, pointing to a wood perhaps a quarter of a mile away, and the approach to which was under fire all the way, said, "Go over to General Caldwell in that wood and tell him that my men are getting killed where we are lying, and that I wish permis- sion to move back three rods to get behind a knoll which will shelter me." The prospect was frightful, but it did not occur to me to do anything but obey, and I started. Ricker has told me that he lay and bet with a sergeant as to how far I would go before I got killed. I walked, sometimes, perhaps, ran, between the lines, and when I heard the thunder of a salvo stooped low to avoid the shells which whistled over. Men were killed very likely near me as I went, and a shot struck the wood into which I was about to go, but nothing hit me, and I reached the general and delivered my message. He asked how many had been killed, and I replied, I think, seven or eight, and he said, "Certainly! Tell the colonel to move where he pleases if he don't go off the field."

I retraced my steps through the same dangers, and proudly, maybe, delivered the message. I had just reached my place, when the order was given to rise up and face about. A cannon shot came quicker than the wind through my company, and close by me. Tibbetts fell and Nichols fell. We reached the line designated with a few hasty steps, and resumed our line with faces to the front. Nichols got up, and came back to the captain and said, "Captain, I am wounded and want to go to the rear." The poor fellow held

DAYS AND EVENTS 89

up one arm with the other hand, for it dangled only by a strip of flesh. Some men went forward and hastily gathered up Tibbetts in a blanket and bore him away; the shot had gone through his body. We felt a little safer now. Hazzard's battery withdrew, cut to pieces, and with Captain Hazzard mortally wounded ; and for a short time it seemed as if the rebels would fire unmolested, but Pettit galloped up with his battery of lo-pounder Parrotts and went into action, and then iron did fly, and the rebels had their hands full. Captain Keller sat up on a knapsack in front of us and gave warning when the shells were coming, and perhaps saved lives by it; anyhow it was a brave thing to do.

It was not a long time before we perceived that Captain Pet- tit's fire was getting too hot for the rebels, and they only fired at intervals; and at last Pettit would hold up until they fired, when he would fire his whole battery at them, and as his shells went screaming over the tops of the trees to where the smoke was seen, our hearts bounded, for we perceived that their range was almost perfect; the rebels grew timid, and finally toward night they ceased firing, and we felt grateful to Pettit for it.

Once during the afternoon we saw a battery heavily engaged on our side close to the swamp on the right, and I think that we heard in that direction the rattle of musketry, perhaps where the rebels were attempting a crossing. The portion of the pontoon train which was left on the plain was set fire to in the afternoon, and the smoke and flames added to the infernal aspect of affairs. If ever stillness and rest were appreciated, I think it was on the verge of that evening, and even the dusty plain must have assumed a lovely hue when it was no longer disturbed by ricocheting shot.

We found out the handiness of the outfit of the New York

again, for we got from the scattered knapsacks brushes to clean our clothes with. The discipline of our regiment was well illus- trated this day, aside from its coolness in taking position and

driving back the New York, by Colonel Langley's asking

permission to move so short a distance at such a time, and by

90 DAYS AND EVENTS •

poor Nichols's requesting permission to go to the rear when his' arm was nearly severed from his body. He was safely carried] away, but poor Tibbetts found his grave on that field. He was, company clerk, had been a clerk, I think, at home, wrote a finei hand, and was a gentlemanly little fellow. The captain wanted; him to go with the train on this march, but he was determined] to see a fight, and had bravely carried his musket on the retreat! until this time. We were told by those who came from the field] hospital that he did not know that he was mortally hurt and lived i three or four hours, and that he was buried there. i

The sun had set and twilight approached when an order came] for us to move. I should not omit to mention that during the! afternoon on our left troops of ours, mostly out of sight in the woods and bushes, fired briskly for a long time, and that later j the rattle of musketry extended farther to the left and finally tO; the rear of our position. The following map will serve to illustrate! the position of affairs at this period.

When McClellan retreated from his intrenchments, Lee, after! he comprehended the almost inconceivable blunder of our com- mander, sent Alagruder and Huger (whatever their positions as. commanders were) chasing after us on the right flank, Hill andj

DAYS AND EVENTS 91

Longstreet in the center and Jackson on the left flank. It was Alagruder who touched us at Peach Orchard and Savage's Station. He then deflected to the right as well as Hill and Longstreet, and it was Jackson who came up and opened so fiercely on us at the White-Oak Swamp, and it was Hill and Longstreet whose mus- ketry we heard on the left fartlier up the creek; ^ the history cited says that Lee and Jefi"erson Davis accompanied the latter division of the rebels in their attack, and that after encountering our troops at the crossing they waited until 3 p.m. for Magruder and Huger to come and assist them. It probably was the encounter of the divisions of Longstreet and Hill or the right of Jackson which we heard on our left early in the afternoon. But they all moved off to the field in our rear, where the fight raged hottest at evening, or else they gave up the contest on our part of the field and kept still. At any rate, as I have said, firing ceased in our front, and it did in our vicinity on the left, but the rattle of mus- ketry and fierce discharges of artillery were incessant in our rear, and at length, as I have said, the order came to move.

We marched hurriedly out of the plain and into the woods, following a road. We passed some of Rush's lancers, who carried lances with red pennants, apparently stationed or skulking along the road, and probably assuming the latter we laughed at them and called their flags hospital flags (being of the same color). But I have since been told that they fought bravely. A mile or two brought us close to the field, and here we met a stream of men, cannon, and horses coming to the rear, wounded, disabled, and stragglers. They hurried along, seeming jolly, and spreading re- ports of the hotness of the battle. We took the double-quick step and set up a cheer and rushed for the melee. A turn to the left took us into a road in the woods. On the right we caught glimpses and heard the soul-stirring cheers of a line of battle charging the rebels, which I have reason to believe was a part of the Second Corps, a part of the 2d Division, I think, in which General Hincks,

* See Greeley, vol. i, p. i6i.

92 DAYS AND EVENTS

then colonel of the 19th Massachusetts of the Irish Brigade, was wounded, though I may well be mistaken in this, for the fight raged far out of sight on either hand. As we filed in among the trees we recognized the battle-field by the bullets which spattered into the trees about us. We formed line of battle along the edge of the road, lay down, and listened to the roaring around us while we waited our turn. On each side and in front the musketry rolled and cannon flashed and roared, and to this day I can recollect one loud-sound- ing batter}', the roar of which would burst out and echo in the forests with an almost gloomy sound, followed by the long, horrid shriek of its shell; but such was the confusion of positions to us that we could not tell whether it was a battery of friend or foe, nor where its shell sped to with its horrid shriek. Some thought it was a gunboat.

Darkness fell upon us, and still we waited, though once our men fired, I think in the left companies, upon the rebels who were close to us in the bushes, and we took some prisoners who strayed near us. Some of the Pennsylvania Reserves who had been engaged came straggling along from the left, and we thought they were retreat- ing. After a while we were ordered across the road and lay down to rest a little, but a horseman came along and in the darkness held an altercation with Colonel , in which he accused him of leav- ing a battery which had been captured in our front, and threatened

to report him. Colonel asked leave to explain before he did

it, but he swore that he would grant no such leave, and then rode up to Captain Sturtevant, commanding our regiment, and said, "What regiment is this?" "The 5th New Hampshire," said the captain. "You have a fine regiment, Captain," said he; "and now I want you to go in there and capture that batter}' at the point of the bayonet without firing a shot." Word was passed around that this was General Phil Kearny, and we rose and marched silently across the road. By this time the sounds of battle had ceased in our front, but far down to the right the rattle of musketry still vexed the night. We marched into a grassy road over dead bodies,

DAYS AND EVENTS 93

through shadows, and then halted behind a thick hedge or fence, and lay down in line of battle, and here we found not a rebel; but just across the fence, in what seemed to be a field, their torches flashed in their hands as they searched for their wounded, and cries for this regiment and that regiment arose in various quarters as they searched for the wounded of their corps, or some man wounded called his friends. They came very close to us sometimes, and I have the impression that our men reached out and took some of them prisoners as they ventured too near.

Colonel was never censured that I know of, and it was said

to be the fact that he had stood face to face with a rebel regiment and fired until all his ammunition was gone, and that then the rebel commander commanded him to surrender, at which Colonel

charged him with the bayonet and took his colors. The bat-

ter}% I imagine, was nothing but the fence, and that the rebels did not care to move on when it was abandoned, or did not know it was abandoned, was evident. That it was the position of our lines is pretty certain to me, as our dead lay there and the rebels searched beyond it for their wounded.

At last musket and cannon, cheer and curse, had ceased. The whippoorwill with inexpressible melancholy wailed in the woods, the searchers for the wounded now and then spoke, and when one moved on the road, some poor wounded man in the woods would cry mournfully for water or moan for help. The darkness was in- tense and the time the most mournful of my experience on the

field of battle at that time. Colonel had left the regiment,

and I was sent to find him for some purpose, but after wandering down the road awhile I gave it up and came back. In one place there lay asleep a crowd of soldiers on the side of the road. I

waked one, and found they were the New York deployed

as stragglers. There was something said about General being

out of the way, too; where he was is more than I ever knew. At midnight or thereabouts the order came to move silently away, and we shook the men to wake them. The dead men lay so near

94 DAYS AND EVENTS

them that in the darkness they could not be distinguished from the living except by touch, and some, I think, perhaps I, strove to wake a