NEAR FT. PILLOW, Tenn., April 14.
EDITOR GAZETTE:– The fleet under command of Gen. Pope, comprising about thirty boats and transports, left New Madrid last evening for extreme Dixie. We were glad to leave our old camp at New Madrid for new scenes. While there I had the pleasure of seeing several citizens of Davenport who came down on the Metropolitan; ‘twas worth a half month’s pay to get a shake of their hands! They were anxious to get something taken at Island No. 10, so I took them to a pile of plunder consisting of shot guns, muskets, cartridge boxes, &c., and picked out several articles for them.
We landed early this morning on the Tennessee side, where we lay a short time, then ran a little further and made fast to the Arkansas shore, where we are now lying, just above Com. Foote’s fleet of gunboats. The Commodore has been sending the enemy at the Fort a few bombs, by way of introduction, this afternoon, but with what success I have not learned. We are stationed near the J. D. Perry, which is the flag boat, carrying the General and his staff. ‘Tis a beautiful sight to me to see a fleet loaded with about 20,000 men, with all the armament and munitions of the war of modern invention, from a siege gun down to a revolver. They are infantry, artillery, cavalry, regulars and volunteers, men who have been obliged to lie down upon deck or on a barge, exposed to the damp night air, after eating a hard cracker for supper, and sleep; and this they have done without a murmur of complaint about hard fare. Each man knows the importance of the cause too well to complain. When he left his home he went cheerfully and bravely forth to breast hard fare and meet like a soldier his fate, whatever it might be.
One of our little steam tugs has just been destroyed by fire. I saw the last man get off, when the boat commenced to whirl round, taking a dozen different turns in as many minutes. Upon the jack-staff there was a small flag, the stars and stripes, which waved there in spite of the flames, which seemed to make huge leaps as of they were trying to devour it. There it waved, and showed plainly every star until the fire subsided.
‘Tis nearly sundown, and musquitoes [sic] are coming about too thick entirely to make it pleasant for writing. Our boys call them the “Arkansas Lancers,” and they are like good soldiers in one respect, for when one stabs me and I kill him, a dozen more volunteers come to revenge his death.
APRIL 16. – Nothing of importance has transpired since the 14th inst., only that the two fleets are fast increasing, viz: that of Gen. Pope and the musquito [sic] fleet – the latter will outnumber all the enemies in the world! Several more boats have arrived and I am told there are now at New Madrid some twenty-five more, which when they arrive, will make the largest fleet of boats that ever went down the Mississippi. Yesterday the mortar boats below us were engaged at intervals throwing shells into Fort Pillow. I am told that it was done to keep their attention while the sappers and miners were at work cutting a canal through to a bayou, to enable us to show them another Island No. 10 trick.
Yours resp’y
G. W. B.,
Co. C, 2d Iowa Cav.
– Published in The Davenport Daily Gazette, Davenport, Iowa, Saturday Morning, April 26, 1862, p. 2
EDITOR GAZETTE:– The fleet under command of Gen. Pope, comprising about thirty boats and transports, left New Madrid last evening for extreme Dixie. We were glad to leave our old camp at New Madrid for new scenes. While there I had the pleasure of seeing several citizens of Davenport who came down on the Metropolitan; ‘twas worth a half month’s pay to get a shake of their hands! They were anxious to get something taken at Island No. 10, so I took them to a pile of plunder consisting of shot guns, muskets, cartridge boxes, &c., and picked out several articles for them.
We landed early this morning on the Tennessee side, where we lay a short time, then ran a little further and made fast to the Arkansas shore, where we are now lying, just above Com. Foote’s fleet of gunboats. The Commodore has been sending the enemy at the Fort a few bombs, by way of introduction, this afternoon, but with what success I have not learned. We are stationed near the J. D. Perry, which is the flag boat, carrying the General and his staff. ‘Tis a beautiful sight to me to see a fleet loaded with about 20,000 men, with all the armament and munitions of the war of modern invention, from a siege gun down to a revolver. They are infantry, artillery, cavalry, regulars and volunteers, men who have been obliged to lie down upon deck or on a barge, exposed to the damp night air, after eating a hard cracker for supper, and sleep; and this they have done without a murmur of complaint about hard fare. Each man knows the importance of the cause too well to complain. When he left his home he went cheerfully and bravely forth to breast hard fare and meet like a soldier his fate, whatever it might be.
One of our little steam tugs has just been destroyed by fire. I saw the last man get off, when the boat commenced to whirl round, taking a dozen different turns in as many minutes. Upon the jack-staff there was a small flag, the stars and stripes, which waved there in spite of the flames, which seemed to make huge leaps as of they were trying to devour it. There it waved, and showed plainly every star until the fire subsided.
‘Tis nearly sundown, and musquitoes [sic] are coming about too thick entirely to make it pleasant for writing. Our boys call them the “Arkansas Lancers,” and they are like good soldiers in one respect, for when one stabs me and I kill him, a dozen more volunteers come to revenge his death.
APRIL 16. – Nothing of importance has transpired since the 14th inst., only that the two fleets are fast increasing, viz: that of Gen. Pope and the musquito [sic] fleet – the latter will outnumber all the enemies in the world! Several more boats have arrived and I am told there are now at New Madrid some twenty-five more, which when they arrive, will make the largest fleet of boats that ever went down the Mississippi. Yesterday the mortar boats below us were engaged at intervals throwing shells into Fort Pillow. I am told that it was done to keep their attention while the sappers and miners were at work cutting a canal through to a bayou, to enable us to show them another Island No. 10 trick.
Yours resp’y
G. W. B.,
Co. C, 2d Iowa Cav.
– Published in The Davenport Daily Gazette, Davenport, Iowa, Saturday Morning, April 26, 1862, p. 2
No comments:
Post a Comment