HEADQUARTERS 54TH REGT.
O. V. U. S. A.,
CAMP NEAR PADUCAH, KY.,
February 21, 1862.
I arrived safely with my regiment yesterday morning, and am
now encamped at a point about a mile and a half west of Paducah. Our voyage
down the river was made safely and without accident. I think it a little
doubtful whether you received my hurried letter written during the voyage, and
therefore am disposed to recapitulate, even at the risk of giving you stale news,
the circumstances of our departure from Camp Dennison. As I told you in one of
our conversations I have considered marching orders as being near at hand for
some weeks, and so endeavored to arrange my regimental matters that I should
not be taken unawares, but I hardly expected them to come as they did, by
telegraph, and on Sunday. I was very strongly tempted to pass that Sunday with
you. Camp had become intensely disagreeable, the weather was cold, inclement,
and the ground in a horrible condition, and I thought how very comfortable it
would be to take a good Sunday dinner with you and have a nap afterwards on the
lounge upstairs, enveloped in my new dressing gown, you were so good as to toil
over for me, but again I thought if any accident were to occur to the regiment
if I were away, that I would never forgive myself or be forgiven by my superior
officers, and that at the present time I owed my whole time, at whatever
sacrifice, to my country; therefore I resisted all the temptations and
blandishments of home, and well it was that I did so. Oh! how bitterly have
some of my officers and even privates regretted that they absented themselves,
and at what terrible cost will they be to get to their regiment. I had gone
through the duties of the day, which for Sunday in camp, or rather garrison,
consists of an inspection of the barracks and soldiers with their arms and
accoutrements, and was finishing my tour of the hospital when up rode an
adjutant, his horse in a foam, and hurriedly handing me a paper, asked me when
I could be ready to march. I looked at my watch, coolly took his paper, which
was a telegraphic despatch or order, and replied: "In fifteen
minutes." He looked at me incredulously and was about to ride off. I
called to him, ''Stop, Sir, I will show you my troops in marching order within
fifteen minutes, and leave it to you to report the fact." Within ten minutes
from that time my soldiers were in line with blankets rolled and knapsacks
packed, ready to march a thousand miles. The Adjutant, an old English soldier,
by the bye, who was in the Crimean war and has been to India with troops,
looked on in astonishment. But cars could not be put upon the railroad before
nine o'clock the next morning, and all night I kept the men up cooking rations
for three days. I sat up all night myself, and, of course, was about bright and
early in the morning. My boys were all eager for the start. I had but one
craven hound who deserted me, and he, I am sorry to say, was from . . . His
name was . . . and he must be published to the world as a coward and a perjured
liar. At nine o'clock as I sat on horseback at the head of the column with my
staff about me, an orderly rode over to say that the cars would be ready by the
time that I had marched to the depot. The cavalry regiment had sent their band
and an escort, and with my own band we made fine music, and I flatter myself a
gallant appearance. At the depot we were met by Colonel Burnett of the artillery
with his band, and every officer of distinction at camp was there to bid me
farewell. They gave me a good send-off. Few troops have left Camp Dennison
under pleasanter auspices, and sooth to say I was loath to leave the old camp
after all, for there I have spent some pleasant days "under the greenwood
tree, and in winter and rough weather." I was so careful to get the troops
on board and to see the last man on, that I got left myself and was somewhat
thrown out of my calculations. However it ended well enough, for my farewell to
you and the dear children would have been heartbreaking all round, and perhaps
wholly unnerved me. As usual in moments of great excitement with me, I had lost
my appetite, and did not want a great deal to set me back at a time when I
required all my faculties at hand. It is just as bad to march troops from home
the first time they leave their homes as to march them in battle to the charge.
One of my companies was from Cincinnati, and it was almost heartbreaking to see
the leavetakings between mother and son, husband and wife, sister and brother.
All classes were represented, and I was compelled to put a stop to the terrible
scenes mingled with considerable drunkenness (for the soldiers had so many
friends that their canteens were well filled and continually replenished with
whiskey) by ordering the captain of the boat of which I took charge in person
to run her over to the Kentucky shore. My whole time was taken up as a matter
of course, and I tried in vain for an opportunity to come to you. We sailed
down the river without adventure worth relating, save that our soldiers fought
terribly among each other, at least those who were drunk, and we lost one man
by drowning, and another whose skull was fractured accidentally by a shovel. I
arrived at Paducah at about six o'clock on the evening of Wednesday the 19th
inst. As soon as the boat landed and before my report was written, I was waited
upon by General Sherman, who is the commandant of this post, and by him shown
on board a steamer lying a little farther down stream from our boat, which was
thoroughly stowed, rammed, packed, and crowded with prisoners from the enemy,
captured at Fort Donaldson, together with five thousand stand of arms. The
prisoners were of high and low degree. I was introduced to one or two colonels
and several other officers. The men, in my judgment, do not well compare with
ours. I think we can always whip them about three to five. They fought
magnificently, however, at Fort Donaldson, and lost probably on their side
about three thousand killed and wounded. On our side there were thirteen
hundred wounded and five hundred killed. We took thirteen thousand three
hundred and thirty-six prisoners — these figures are reliable. The hospitals
here are perfect charnel houses. . . .
When General Sherman had got through his business with me
and had offered the hospitalities of his headquarters, I returned to the boats.
The Fannie McBumie, the one in which I sailed, arrived first, and while
I was inspecting the prisoners and arms, the Ben Franklin, the boat that
had my other detachments, arrived. I was engaged during the night in preparing
for disembarkation and at seven o'clock the next morning had my troops, horses,
tents, supplies all off; at eight o'clock marched to General Sherman's
headquarters, one of the finest regiments, as he told Colonel Stuart in my
hearing, he had ever seen. The morning was fine and the boys looked splendidly.
We are now, as I told you, encamped at a point about a mile and a half west of
the city of Paducah, containing some ten thousand inhabitants. My troops are
well bestowed in tents, and I have taken to myself a house of some twelve or
fifteen rooms for my headquarters. It was occupied, I believe, by a
secessionist, and has fine grounds, stables, etc., about it. I am very much
more comfortable than at Camp Dennison. My regiment has the post of honor, and
with a battery of artillery guard the encampment. There are a great many troops
here. I cannot say nearly how many, for I have not information. I should think
twelve or fifteen thousand. General Halleck, under whose command my regiment is
placed, is concentrating vast forces here. He anticipates a forward movement.
We are ordered to hold ourselves in readiness to march at a moment's notice.
SOURCE: Walter George Smith, Life and letters of
Thomas Kilby Smith, p. 181-5
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