10 Oc I & Emma
Amandus & our Cozens Maria & Mary Kelley attended Catholic Church after
which we went to the Hospital Boat & from that we went to the hospitals
& amongst the sick & wounded 5 Oc I was on dress perade evening I
preached in the tent 30th Reg text Gal 6th 1st & 2nd v
SOURCE: Edgar R.
Harlan, Currator, Annals of Iowa, 3rd Series, Vol. 15, No. 2,
October 1925, p. 92
Wounded men are
taken out from among us to be sent back. All windows are ordered closed. Owing
to this order two of our fellows rigged up a skeleton dummy and dressed in blue
and a cap which they stood at the window. Soon after it was fired upon, and an
hour later it was poked up at another window and two guns banged at it. Soon
after they swung it up at another window. Two more Rebel guns burned powder.
Every time the glass was scattered over the room to the annoyance of men, but
when they growled the fellows yelled out we have got to have air. This time a
sergeant and several guards with bayonetted guns came up to look after the dead
and wounded, but found none. The boys dissected their artificial Yankee and the
event was a mystery to Rebels until in the afternoon at a later performance,
the trick was discovered by a man posted on the stairway and an officer of the
prison came up and vented his wrath very savagely, but did not find the fellows
who had fooled them.
SOURCE: John Worrell
Northrop, Chronicles from the Diary of a War Prisoner in Andersonville
and Other Military Prisons of the South in 1864, p. 47
This afternoon, when riding down to Huttonville, I met three or four hundred sorry-looking soldiers. They were without arms. On inquiry, I found they were a part of the secession army, who, finding no way of escape, had come into our lines and surrendered. They were badly dressed, and a hard, dissolute-looking lot of men. To use the language of one of the soldiers, they were "a milk-sickly set of fellows," and would have died off probably without any help from us if they had been kept in the mountains a little longer. They were on their way to Staunton. General McClellan had very generously provided them with provisions for three days, and wagons to carry the sick and wounded; and so, footsore, weary, and chopfallen, they go over the hills.
An unpleasant rumor is in camp to-night, to the effect that General Patterson has been defeated at Williamsport. This, if true, will counterbalance our successes in Western Virginia, and make the game an even one.
The Southern soldiers mentioned above are encamped for the night a little over a mile from here. About dusk I walked over to their camp. They were gathered around their fires preparing supper.
Many of them say they were deceived, and entered the service because they were led to believe that the Northern army would confiscate their property, liberate their slaves, and play the devil generally. As they thought this was true, there was nothing left for them to do but to take up arms and defend themselves. While we were at Buckhannon, an old farmer-looking man visited us daily, bringing tobacco, cornbread, and cucumber pickles. This innocent old gen[tle]man proves to have been a spy, and obtained his reward in the loss of a leg at Rich mountain.
SOURCE: John Beatty, The Citizen-soldier: Or, Memoirs of a Volunteer, p. 30-1
We are still in the
harbor at Memphis awaiting orders. Eight hundred and fifty wounded men were
brought to this place yesterday from Vicksburg. Grant is still hammering away
at that seemingly impregnable fortress. The weather is extremely hot, which
renders our situation, huddled together as we are, very uncomfortable.
Yesterday we steamed up the river about a mile to a fine grove, and all went on
shore while the crew gave the old boat a thorough cleaning. This morning our
surgeon ordered us all on shore as a "sanitary measure." We marched
off by companies, each company going where it chose, but to different points.
We went to Court House Square and disbanded. It was like being transferred from
a gloomy prison to "smiling fields and shady groves.” The square contains
about five acres; is enclosed by an iron fence; is thickly set with trees of
different varieties the brave old oak, with its spreading branches and
delicious shade; the gorgeous magnolia, the tree of paradise; the orange and
lemon, with an almost endless variety of evergreens. Near the center of the
square is a bust of General Jackson, cut in marble.
On one side of the
pedestal is inscribed those memorable words of that grand old patriot: "The
Federal Union; it Must Be Preserved." I noticed the word
"Federal" was partly obliterated, and inquired the cause. A citizen
told me it was done by a Rebel Colonel at the beginning of the war; that his
men, still cherishing some regard for the hero of New Orleans, took him outside
the city and shot him. At four o'clock we were marched on board our prison
ship.
SOURCE: David Lane,
A Soldier's Diary: The Story of a Volunteer, 1862-1865, p. 48-9
Appearances and talk
on the streets last night indicated that they had news that worried them. This
morning I learned from a sergeant, that General Stuart is killed. Our cavalry
are troubling the railroads, the long bridge mentioned near Burkville, they
destroyed. Several hundred start from other prisons to Georgia. There are some
wounded here, thus far no medical attendance. Considerable excitement in the
street occasioned by several bodies of troops leaving for the front to join
Lee's army.
SOURCE: John Worrell
Northrop, Chronicles from the Diary of a War Prisoner in Andersonville
and Other Military Prisons of the South in 1864, p. 47
On the 5th instant a scouting party, under Captain Lawson, started for Middle Fork bridge, a point eighteen miles from camp. At eight o'clock last night, when I brought the battalion from the drill-ground, I found that a messenger had arrived with intelligence that Lawson had been surrounded by a force of probably four hundred, and that, in the engagement, one of his men had been killed and three wounded. The camp was alive with excitement. Each company of the Third had contributed five men to Captain Lawson's detachment, and each company, therefore, felt a special interest in it. The messenger stated that Captain Lawson was in great need of help, and General McClellan at once ordered four companies of infantry and twenty mounted men to move to his assistance. I had command of the detachment, and left camp about nine o'clock P. M., accompanied by a guide. The night was dark. My command moved on silently and rapidly. After proceeding about three miles, we left the turnpike and turned onto a narrow, broken, bad road, leading through the woods, which we followed about eight miles, when we met Captain Lawson's detachment on its way back. Here we removed the wounded from the farm wagon in which they had been conveyed thus far, to an ambulance brought with us for the purpose, countermarched, and reached our quarters about three o'clock this morning.
I will not undertake to give the details of Captain Lawson's skirmish. I may say, however, that the number of the enemy killed and wounded, lacerated and torn, by Corporal Casey, was beyond all computation. Had the rebels not succeeded in getting a covered bridge between themselves and the invincible Irishman, he would, if we may believe his own statement, have annihilated the whole force, and brought back the head of their commanding officer on the point of his bayonet.
SOURCE: John Beatty, The Citizen-soldier: Or, Memoirs of a Volunteer, p. 14-5
We were rejoiced this morning to hear of Rosecrans' success, and, at the same time, not well pleased at the escape of the enemy under cover of night. We were ordered to move, and got under way at eight o'clock. On the road we met General Rosecrans and staff. He was jubilant, as well he might be, and as he rode by received the congratulations of the officers and cheers of the men.
Arriving on yesterday's battlefield, the regiment was allowed a half hour for rest. The dead had been gathered and placed in a long trench, which was still open. The wounded of both armies were in hospital, receiving the attention of the surgeons. There were a few prisoners, most of them too unwell to accompany their friends in retreat.
Soon after reaching the summit of Rich mountain, we caught glimpses of Tygart's valley, and of Cheat mountain beyond, and before nightfall reached Beverly and went into camp.
SOURCE: John Beatty, The Citizen-soldier: Or, Memoirs of a Volunteer, p. 26-7
Started at half-past
six A.M., passing Millville and Philmont, to Millburg, where we saw a lot of
wounded rebels, and went into camp at five o'clock. Eighteen miles.
SOURCE: John Lord
Parker, Henry Wilson's Regiment: History of the Twenty-second
Massachusetts Infantry, the Second Company Sharpshooters and the Third Light
Battery, in the War of the Rebellion, p. 269
At four o'clock this
morning "all was wrong." We were aroused from the most miserable
attempt at sleep our boys ever dreamed of trying. It was a mercy to awaken us;
only we were so stiff, sore, cold, and hungry, that it was most impossible to
get up at all. We were covered with dirt and frost. Our guns were in fearful
condition, and we were ordered to clean them and be ready for the road in half
an hour. That was good; no chance to eat anything or clean up ourselves; but
such is the luck of war. At six A.M. we started on our second day's tramp. Had
you asked any of the company, they would have said, "We have been tramping
a week." Our colonel gave us a good word this morning, in passing, saying
we had done well. We are satisfied; for although "Rawle's Mill" was
not an extensive affair, but very few men being engaged, it was an ugly
encounter for raw material, fired upon, as we were, while up to our waists in
water; the unknown force of the enemy, apparently on top of the hill, under
cover, and having a perfect knowledge of the "lay of the land.”
After a steady march
of about twelve miles, we entered Williamston, where we halted, broke ranks,
and had a picked-up dinner, and made ourselves comfortable for two hours or so.
Williamston is a pretty little town on the Roanoke. We foraged considerably;
most every man having something. The gunboats here effected a junction with us,
bringing extra rations, &c.
We visited the
wounded, calling on Charley Roberts, who was hit last night. He looks pretty
white, but is doing well, and will probably be sent to New Berne on one of the
boats. A few of us found a piano in one of the houses, and after moving it to
the piazza, Ned Ramsay played, and we sang home tunes for a while, having a
large audience on the lawn. Soon after the officers broke up our fun, by Fall
in E," and as that was what we came for, we "fell in," and
recommenced our walk at three P.M., marching about five miles, when we pitched
camp for the night. Parsons has been made sergeant for his coolness and bravery
in taking prisoners.
SOURCE: John Jasper
Wyeth, Leaves from a Diary Written While Serving in Co. E, 44 Mass.
Dep’t of North Carolina from September 1862 to June 1863, p. 19
At 7 A.M. started
for Rebel lines with flag of truce. Colonel McKibbin and Captain Swain.
Spent day there. Subject: endeavor to get our wounded. Did not get inside Rebel
lines. Met Major Dorn, Colonel Hutchins, Captain Wooley, and Lieutenant
Haskett, of General Wofford's staff.
SOURCE: Archibald
Gracie, The Truth about Chickamauga, p.
386
Ambulances went into
Rebel lines to get our wounded.
SOURCE: Archibald
Gracie, The Truth about Chickamauga, p.
386
VIRGINIA GIRLS OF SWEET SIXTEEN DID NOT LOVE
US.
Weather hot; two
more trains of Rebel wounded pass. Report that General Wadsworth and others of
our valuable generals are killed. At 2 p. m. our train moves for Lynchburg. It
is composed of horse and cattle cars all crowded. Charlotteville is beautifully
located in a fertile valley. About one mile west is the University of Virginia,
founded by Thomas Jefferson. In the vicinity of this edifice were about
twenty-five girls. Observing us, they waved their hands in greeting; we waved.
We were going slowly; they ran across the green toward Discovering their
mistake they bounded up and down and cried "You damned Yankees!"
Screaming contemptuously they went back as fast as they came. Procuring a Rebel
flag they flirted it at us.
Sweet Virginia maids,
You love the soil where born;
But you bear a flag that fades;
Yet I forgive your scorn.
You know not what you do,
Nor do I court debate;
I'll fling a kiss to you,
As you bestow your hate.
I wish I had a flower;
I'd toss it on the lea.
It might perfume this hour
You sour so on me!
Indeed, I love you, quite
You so much remind
Of Northern girls as bright,
Sweet girls I left behind.
Your scorn is hot and keen
As Yankee girls, I trow;
Though you are sweet sixteen,
Still sweeter girls I know!
But when this war is o'er
And purged your blood, that's bad
The Union we'll restore
And you'll not be so mad.
Yes, when this war is over
And the Union is restored,
You may want a Yankee lover,
And not try to feel so bored.
Coquette with old Secech!
Indeed,, it seems quite sad
That such could make a mash
On girls and be their fad!
Some brutal nigger-driver,
Who glories in his lash,
Some slavery conniver
Might favor such a mash.
But your dear Alma Mater
Is Jefferson's own school;
He was a slavery hater;
T. J. - he was no fool!
Haughty maids, good-day-
When shall we meet again?
You don't seem to like my way,
Mad maids of Old Virgin.
A woman passing,
said: "It is hard times; the people had not reckoned on the possibility of
failure; for myself I did not deem it possible that all their lofty
expectations would be realized."
SOURCE: John Worrell
Northrop, Chronicles from the Diary of a War Prisoner in Andersonville
and Other Military Prisons of the South in 1864, p. 41-2
I was visited by my
Colonel to-day. He introduced the subject of reducing my hospital force. I was
extra-polite, and replied that I had not the slightest objection, provided it
was done with the understanding that it would shift the responsibility of the
care of the sick from my shoulders to those of others. The subject was dropped,
and will hardly be renewed. The jealousy existing in the military towards the
medical department of the army astounds me. The military commanders claiming
that the medical have no authority except through them, has driven the medical
officers to assume the other extreme, and claim that they are the only officers
in the army who are really independent of command. This quarrel is often
bitter, and makes not only themselves uncomfortably captious, but subjects the
sick and wounded to suffering whilst these settle their unnecessary quarrels.
SOURCE: Alfred L.
Castleman, The Army of the Potomac. Behind the Scenes. A Diary of
Unwritten History; From the Organization of the Army, by General George B.
McClellan, to the close of the Campaign in Virginia about the First Day
January, 1863, p. 19
BEHIND THE ENEMY'S GUNS; LEE AND LONGSTREET.
Up at earliest dawn. Feeling quite well. The sound of battle was in our ears. The ground is very foul here; a winter camp and a fresh battle ground. Dead cavalrymen, killed yesterday are in our midst, our men bury them. At daylight Longstreet's corps came up on a forced march, moving close to us; it was two hours passing. General Longstreet and staff call at General Lee's headquarters, a hundred yards distant. The fore part of last night several batteries were hurried past, sent, I think, to Lee's right. I think this early fighting is to facilitate a movement by our left wing around Lee's right. Hard to get water. They let a few men out with canteens under guard. When Longstreet returned to his column he was accompanied by General Lee. A short time they stood together dismounted, with bared heads, opposite us on the other side of Longstreet's cheering columns hastening to battle. Grave concern was on their faces. Magnificent men; but I felt oppressed with the fact of their attitude toward their country, fighting to disrupt it, to maintain a claim of right to perpetuate slavery by unlimited extension; to curse the whole country as it curses the South. Educated to serve the Nation, sworn to do it, they break their oaths by acts most treasonable, justifying their course by the flimsy pretext of the acts of their states in seceding because a president, not their choice is elected. It is apalling how men of large ability and boasted dignity, stultify themselves! the greater the men the greater their responsibility for wrongful acts. The roar of deadly battle this good morning witnesseth their and their associates sin. What wretched perversion of the sentiment of patriotism! Their cause fails, God rules! General Lee and staff passed close to me at 7 o'clock, galloping to the front. He has a pleasant face, peculiarly impressive but stern; an imperative temperament that inspires confidence, admiration and fear, the austere features lighted by geniality and persistent characteristics signifying strength of nature, but liable to act from illogical and dangerous influence that appeals to prejudice, narrow pride, warped by false traditions; a bent of character when once it espouses illegitimate conclusions, devotes his best ability to accomplish ends his better judgment had condemned.
The battle had
opened at 5 o'clock, our sixth corp[s] attacking. Firing terrific, nearer this
point than last night but farther west, came nearer steadily, our forces
driving till Longstreet's corp[s] reached the field, overlapping our line and
regained the position from which our forces had driven them. Had our attack
occurred an hour earlier, decisive defeat of the Rebel forces engaged must have
resulted before Longstreet could have arrived. Our lines are reported in
confusion and falling back.
The rest of our
party who avoided capture last night, are brought in after trying all night to
escape. Officers are as humble as privates, look full as serious over
prospects. Talk of exchange as soon as the campaign is over, July at the
farthest. But the duration of this campaign is uncertain. A great disaster on
either side would need it. If there are no decisive results, and a prospect of
transferring the struggle to the vicinity of Richmond—Butler is already near
there—it will be longer than any other Virginia campaign. Lee will get no peace
as long as Grant maintains a position between Fredericksburg and Richmond,
until he is in his stronghold; then Lee's fate will be settled. Fortunate we
shall be if we see our lines by September. By 8 a. m. fighting ceased; wounded
coming in fast. Confederates taken to field hospitals, our wounded put with us.
Some have lain all night, are chilled badly. It is hard to see so many bleeding
men shot through faces, arms, legs, bodies, broken limbs, distorted mouths, one
with eye-ball dangling on his cheek, blood clotted on his face, neck and
breast. They let us help them from ambulances. They cry for water, some stupid,
some shaking with chills and crying for blankets. Rebels claim they whipped us
yesterday; but they have no advantage except in position; in that they are
losing. They admit two generals killed and Longstreet wounded. Fog clears away;
gets pleasant.
LEAVE BATTLE LINE FOR PRISON—INTERVIEW REBEL
OFFICER.
At 10 a. m. about
700 prisoners started for Orange Court House. Day hot, road dusty. We meet
supply trains, ambulances, troops and a few conveyances with civilians pushing
to the front, and for twenty miles groups of stragglers limping on, some lying
down, the hardest looking lot of men ever seen trying to get to their commands.
As we met the troops they cried, "What brigade's that?" "Are you
on to Richmond?" "Where's Grant?" We were told that already a
large portion of his army was north of the Rappahannock. Sneers, jeers and
words of contempt we did not notice; but when they told us we were whipped we
replied bitterly, "You fool yourselves." Till noon we march fast, the
guard keeping ranks closed up, threatening if one lagged. We suffered with thirst,
wallowed in a constant cloud of dust, panted with heat and chafed over our
terrible luck.
Our guard claims to
be General Lee's bodyguard; better men than the general run of Rebel soldiers.
They grew sociable and easy with us. We halted at noon near a creek in woods by
the roadside, until lately an army camp, and rested an hour. Bathing my head
and neck freely in the stream, I felt better. A man about forty years old, a
Captain, was eager to talk politics. I saw him talking to one of our soldiers
who was irritated by his secesh notions, which he put forward in a good natured
but overbearing way. The boy could not stand it and "blew on him" and
took another seat. Anxious for a little Copperhead philosophy from a
Southerner, I took a position nearly in front of him, my friend Thompson on my
right, and called him out. The group that listened were convinced that Northern
sympathizers are of the Virginia stripe, the same bird that can see only in the
night of slavery and Southern rights and the art of secession; and while he
believed in secession he was not of the "fire-eater" temperament but
would have preferred the further way round to the same point. That is, he
preferred that the slavery question be settled in favor of slaveholders in the
Union. But "Black Republicans" and "Nigger Stealers" had
seized the bridge, and the South had gone all one way by the Secession
route." "We conservatives fell in at last feeling elated and
sure," said he, "that when we get secession, friends at the North
will help us to pin to the wall the radicals, hang abolishionists, suppress
every newspaper like old Greeley's and stop the incendiary preaching against
slavery, and reestablish the Union on Southern ideas proclaimed by Alexander
H. Stephens in his inauguration speech, making slavery the chief
cornerstone of a new government."
We accepted his
declaration as very frank and representative of so-called Virginia
conservatives. Consequently they rejoiced to see a party crying down the
administration, praying that that party shall rise to power, in Northern
States, hurl every man from positions of trust that does not believe in the
policy of the extreme Southern leaders on the slavery doctrine, with the
fiercenes of vigilance committees. I had read much of this many times in stanch
newspapers, ratification speeches and in platforms. While in his mind lurked a
love for Union, he said: "First and always the independence of the South
must be the end of this war." If Northern "doe-faces" would
still whine for a Union on "time-honored principles" namely, on any
terms dictated by Calhoun disciples, their manhood and patriotism is a nullity.
A thousand times have I wept and raved that Northerners should palaver over
this deliberate treason of the South, failing to see the issue so plain that he
who runs may read. There never was a more direct conflict of principles than
this in which America is engaged.
To detail all was
said is impossible. I give some points to show his logic. I open by saying it
was foolish to "flare up," that we ought to be able to talk even if
we were prisoners, but if we could not express our views we had nothing to say;
that if free discussion had been allowed by the South for the last thirty years
instead of hanging Northerners for expressing opinions we would thought better of
each other, the problem would have been solved without war.
Tis home is at
Leesburg, Va., in Union lines. His wife resides there. He had known General Lee
many years and from the first was ready to follow him either way in this
contest; so was all northern Virginia. He confirmed my assertion that if Lee
had stood for the Union and offered his services, that the majority of
Virginians would have been on the side of the Union, and there would have been
no State of West Virginia; also that Lee deprecated secession, regarded it
revolutionary and contrary to the intention of the founders of the government,
and if successfully it would multiply the very evils slaveholders complain of.
But he justified his ultimate course by the fact that his State had seceded, that
it had a right to secede, and that his duty to Virginia was paramount to his
allegiance to the national government.
"A majority of Southern men are States
rights," said he, "and when it appeared that the South would secede,
State after State, it was plain to Southerners that the Union had gone to
pieces,—nothing left to hang to, even if every Northern State should legalize
nigger slavery and embellish all Northern political platforms with Southern
notions about that 'peculiar institution.' Southern rights, secession, and
slavery is the prevailing trend, out and out slave confederacy the aim. No man
of character can live in the South and attain success without slaves, or an
heirdom, pecuniarily or socially. A slave holder has standing; it is a
certificate of character, a credential that takes him everywhere, to be master
and owner of labor. He holds the church in his hand, and in his grip the
politicians and the state. The press must be his tool. He is master of society
as well as his slaves; commands respect from centers of fashion and trade, even
in England and France regardless of professed aversion to slavery. You had not
a merchant in New York, of wealth and influence, who did not cater to the hated
slave-power; always will out of the Union the same as in."
He owned slaves when
the war began; he had thirty-three. He said: "You nigger stealers got all
but one, and he is a cook in Lee's army." Then to my surprise he said:
"I never did
believe slavery right; it began by stealing and piracy, and you fellows mean it
shall end the same way. It is practically the curse, of the South, degrading to
the master morally; degrading to the mass who never did and never can hold
slaves; yet the mass are the bone and sinew of its strength. Slavery is to be
the cornerstone of the Confederacy; but that stone rests upon the bare backs of
the non-slave holding rank and file. They must be our military strength. They
are not and cannot be our industrial strength; that belongs to the slaves under
the whip. The wealth, social and political power, lie with slave owners; they
are the land owners; they rule the white mass as effectually and at less cost
than they control the blacks. The future of the South is a military empire and
necessarily a wealthy power."
I endorsed his
prophesy, if the South should succeed, and asked: "If slavery is not
right, why are you fighting to maintain it? Why will it not be abolished? He
said:
"The South has
made it a permanent system not only of domestic importance, but a state policy,
a source of social, economical and political strength. The abolishionists are
not strong enough
to abolish it;
secession has placed it beyond their reach. It is an accomplished fact. If the
Confederacy is not recognized this summer it will be be [sic] after the fall election. The wealth power of the North, then,
through commercial and financial interests, will be weighed against you."
"You are
deluded, Sir, in assuming that secession, if successful, will put slavery
beyond the growing power of abolishionism. Freedom is progressive; your boast
arrays civilization and progress against you. Again you are wrong in assuming
that the Confederacy will be recognized this year or next. The rabid spirit of
the slave power has called into greater force the love of liberty, the
principle written in the
Declaration of Independence, than has been known for ages. The very fact
that your great men of Virginia today repudiate Washington, Jefferson, Henry
and Madison, convicts you of treason to the spirit of '76. Your apparent chance
of success as it seemed to exist has gone. You stole States, forts, arms, men
trained at government cost, until we had nothing left in the South and but
little in the North. We then proposed to coax you to old fashioned loyalty
patched with a new slavery grant. But you thought you had it all. We now
propose to restore the Union and purge it of slavery. Instead of recognition
you will see that secession will go to pieces and your Confederacy will
collapse. We were unprepared for this fight, you boasted you were ready. We are
now ready and your power must wane. It will cost less to save the Union without
slavery than with it. Should you now offer to accept our first purpose, to save
the Union, with slavery, the North would scorn it. The trend is against your
scheme of a black Utopia, a slave owning, slave breeding, slave selling, slave
working empire.
"Had the
Democrats of the North done as they might have done you would not have been
here, boys. Abe Lincoln could not have carried on the war. The abolishionists
will have a sweet time up North this fall if they run McClellan for
president." "What did you expect they would do?"
"Do what they
said they would, oppose the draft and war by force, not let the abolishionists
rule."
"Is it possible
you expected what you call the Democrats would assist you?"
"We cal'lated
their opposition to Lincoln would prevent war, but they kept still and let him
control the people and gave him power in Congress and had not nerve to oppose
him."
"But it was
your party that gave him power in Congress by seceding; they boasted North that
Lincoln could not choose his Cabinet except by sanction of a Democratic
Senate."
"Yes, but we
had seceded, and there would have been less bloodshed had they shed some."
"You deceived
yourselves."
"Should not
have been deceived had Seymour led the New York riot. When he was elected
Governor the South rejoiced; New York would send no more men and when that riot
came up we expected great things; but instead of running it he let it run
itself; he might have helped us there."
"What, you
don't suppose Horatio Seymour is in sympathy with secession! He will stand for
the Union till the last." My aim was to make them believe that the North
is a unit. So I added: "The people of the South have, and will rely in
vain upon this element; the mere difference of opinion never will injure our
strength. The North is as one man on the question of Union and never will give
it up; they can whip you and will do it."
"See what they
will do if they elect McClellan, he is your best man; you never ought to have
removed him."
"Will you come
back into the Union if he should be elected?"
"Never; we'd be
d----d fools to come into the Union then. Never; until all States shall have
adopted policies favorable to slavery!"
He said the administration
would have interfered with slavery if they had not gone to war. I quoted from
the Chicago resolutions, speeches and the resolutions of Congress after they
had seceded and left the power in the hands of the Republicans, showing they
were anxious to give them every guarantee not to interfere with the local
establishment of slavery by legislation; that they persisted in revolt and
measures were adopted accordingly. "You invited war," I said,
"and that invites the use of the war power against slavery. After it is
over you may resume rightful relations in other matters but slavery will be
ended."
"Well, niggers
run into Pennsylvania and they would not let them come back."
"Recognize your
Confederacy; will not the nigger go over? Will it not be an inducement to run
away? Will your fugitive slave law apply?"
"Yes, they may
run away."
"Will we as a
nation give them up?"
"I don't know;
reckon not."
"What will you
do if we don't?"
"We'll fight
for them."
"What have you
gained there?"
"It's a state
right to secede; you deny it, we establish it."
"Could you
maintain a Confederacy three years?"
"I presume not;
South Carolina'd kick up a muss in six months and raise h--l."
"Then the other
States would have to assume the obligations of the Confederacy; this would
produce discontent; what would you do?"
"Well, I s'pose
we'd whip her back."
Taking him by the
buttonhole, I said: "Where are your state rights, man?"
Amid the shouts of
the boys he laughed, frowned, colored, and was much agitated, and said:
"Damn her; she
and Massachusetts ought to've been shoved into the ocean years ago."
"That can't be
done; you'd whip her back and that is precisely what we are doing only on a
larger scale. Can you blame us for whipping you back?"
"Never can do
it. We will have our independence; without that there will not be a slave in
the South; a man is a fool that thinks we are fighting for compromise, or will
give up till we are whipped, or force you to concede our rights."
"So we might as
well have it out and end the matter, slavery question and all."
"Yes, sir; we
agree on that."
"We are going
to do it," shouted the boys.
Giving him a Union
hardtack and receiving one of his, feeling heartily thankful that we had over
an hour's talk with an officer of Lee's bodyguard, we pursued our dreary
journey, considerably rested.
TALKS AND INCIDENTS AT GORDONSVILLE.
Passing Mine Run we
got a view of that formidable position which we invested in December last and
realized the wisdom of General Meade's caution in retiring. The most important
place on the route is Old Verdersville where we raided her public wells. Many
of our men were overcome with thirst, heat and cramps. Griffith and I had some
dried currants and Jamaica ginger which we distributed much to their relief. It
was eight in the evening, and very dark when we arrived at Orange Court House.
They put us in the court house yard which is paved with cobble stones and
surrounded by an iron fence, so crowded that there was not room for all to lie
down. We had come 25 miles, was faint, tired, dejected; had eaten but little
all day, piecing out the remnant of rations drawn May 3 and 4, not knowing when
the Rebels would issue any.
SOURCE: John Worrell
Northrop, Chronicles from the Diary of a War Prisoner in Andersonville
and Other Military Prisons of the South in 1864, p. 30-8
This morning we learn that Rome is in danger of an attack from Hood's northward bound column. We are early ordered into line, and soon we move out from our camp near the Etawah river. We do not march far until our advance is checked, when a brisk skirmish commences. All day we keep up a running fire with a considerable force of rebels with artillery, supposed to be a brigade sent out by Hood to reconnoiter. In the evening we return to camp with the loss of one man from Company F—private Hugh H. Porter, mortally wounded. And so another good soldier has fallen; another name to be added to the Union's roll of honor; a name with the prefix of private, but none the less worthy. As we look over the Seventh's mortality list, we see the name of none who was truer and more valiant than Hugh H. Porter, of gallant old Company F.
Since our return from the Allatoona Pass, one of the Seventh's drummer boys has died; little Willie White, of Company H. His brother John fell a victim at Allatoona. Willie was left at Rome; he did not accompany the regiment, but when he heard of his brother's death, it weighed so heavily upon him as to prostrate him upon a bed of sickness, and soon he passed away—dies from grief, uttering as his last words: "Oh! what will mother do now?" We buried him in the soldiers' cemetery near the Etawah River, and a little white board marks the lonely spot where the Seventh's drummer boy sleeps. General Hood, with his half starved army, has crossed the Coosa River, moving northward, making but a slight feint on Rome. Sherman's army is now swarming in and around Rome. Hood is far to the northward, and all is quiet on the Etawah and Coosa Rivers. It is evident that Sherman is contemplating a movement that will shake the Confederacy and startle the world. The military are all active. Last night we chanced to be in Rome at the midnight hour. Who is that stately personage pacing to and fro in front of yonder tent? The guard tells us that it is Major General Sherman. He is in his night dress. Hood was then crossing the Tennessee. We know that some gigantic scheme is revolving in that master mind; a scheme the grandest and the boldest that ever flashed upon the world's greatest military minds, as the sequel will show when the future's sealed scroll shall have been unfolded a little way.
The wounded have all been sent northward. Noble company! May they soon recover and return to us again, for the regiment seems crippled without them. Ere we leave Rome we learn of the death of First Lieutenant and Adjutant J. S. Robinson and Sergeant Edward C. Nichols, of Company H—died from wounds received in the battle at Allatoona. Thus two more gallant soldiers have passed away. Long and patiently they endured their suffering, but at last the brittle thread of life broke, and these soldiers are now at rest. The indications as present are that we will soon leave Rome; how soon, we know not. The soldiers are conjecturing, but all is wrapped in mystery since Sherman has left Hood free to operate against Nashville. But for the present we are compelled to let the curtain hang; by and by it will be swung back; until that time we will wait.
We are now camped upon the banks of Chicamauga, a name that has gone to history inscribed with deeds of blood. This evening companies D, H and I receive marching orders, and under the command of Lieutenant Sullivan of company I, (the captains of companies having been left back at Athens to settle their mule accounts with the A. Q. M,) we now move down the railroad. We stop and draw rations at Ringgold, after which we move on about two miles and go into camp for the night. The country every where along the railroad is all desolated. Trains pass up this evening from Atlanta loaded with wounded soldiers from Sherman's army, which tell us that there has been a fearful work of blood down there.
SOURCE: Daniel Leib Ambrose, History of the Seventh Regiment Illinois Volunteer Infantry, p. 246
I suppose you have heard how we whipped the Yankees on both this side and the north side of the James River. The killed and wounded fell into our hands here at Petersburg, and we have been attending to their wounded all day to-day. Our loss was very small. Wilcox's Division was occupying a part of our line that was not assaulted, and therefore it was not engaged. We now have strong hopes of being able to hold Petersburg and Richmond.
This war can never end until the fanatics, both North and South, are gotten rid of. They are influenced solely by their blind, senseless passions, and reason never enters their heads. It is always such discontented, worthless wretches who bring about revolutions. The North is still infested with such characters, and the South is not far behind. If we could get those hot-headed fools in South Carolina who composed that meeting at Columbia recently and put them in the army and get them all killed off, it would be much better for us. What a pity we cannot have them killed, but they cannot be made to fight. I do not believe that Boyce will fight a duel with such a man as Tradewell, for he must have more sense than to do that.
My box is not here yet. I will continue to keep on the lookout for it until it arrives. My dinner will soon be ready and I think it will be fine, for I shall have white cabbage, bacon, potatoes and biscuit.
As soon as I can I will send you one hundred and fifty dollars to pay your expenses in coming out. The Government owes me about five hundred dollars, which I hope to be able soon to collect. If you can come by the first of December you can remain at least three months, and I may be able to go back with you in March.
It was well you left Petersburg when you did, for the very next day (April 2) our extreme right was attacked, and, as our line was very thin, it was easily broken. Billie was digging a rifle pit when some Yankees charged it and captured all who were at work on it, and he is now a prisoner.
During the day a few prisoners were brought back, and among them was a smoke-begrimed captain with gray hair. I invited him into my tent and gave him something to eat. He had been in some of the hardest fighting of the war, and he said to me: "You see these white hairs. When I came into the army they were all coal black." As night came on many wounded were brought back to some huts lately occupied by soldiers, but now used by us as a hospital. Among them was Mose Cappocks, and I amputated his thumb. General Hill was killed.
The next day we began to leave, and there was continuous fighting. Our march soon developed into a disastrous retreat, and we were pushed to the extreme every hour of it for eight days. At Sailors Creek we were compelled to abandon our wagons, and they were burned. In one of them I had a new case of the finest surgical instruments. They had recently run the blockade and I hated to see them destroyed. General Kershaw and his young son were captured here. I saw some Yankee spies in gray uniforms marched along with us under guard. They had been captured in our lines, but the surrender occurring so soon afterwards saved them from being hung.
Our retreat was most trying, and when we reached Appomattox on the morning of the 9th General Gordon had a fight and captured a battery. Appomattox is in a basin with high hills on all sides. The Yankees seemed to have surrounded us, and their blue lines, with white flags here and there, came moving in slowly and silently. There was a report in the early morning that we had surrendered, and this made us think it might be true.
I heard some of our men yelling, and saw General Lee and his staff riding towards us, and as he stopped to dismount the men crowded around him to shake his hand and every man was shedding tears. Sad as was the sight, everyone felt relieved that it was all over.
The Yankees camped on the hills, and men from both armies went back and forth on apparently friendly terms. Their wagons, mules, harness and entire equipment was the very best and everything was in perfect condition throughout. All of their wagon covers were white and new. Ours made a sorry spectacle in comparison. I unhitched a little mule from an ambulance, and that afternoon Colonel Hunt, Lieutenant-Colonel Lester, Captain Copeland and I started together for South Carolina.
We had one little fly tent under which we slept at night. Bill Byers, who was mounted on a tall, gaunt horse, joined us before we reached the Catawba River. Copeland's horse gave out and he continued with us on foot. The river was swift and deep at Island Ford, and in crossing only the face and ears of my little mule remained above the surface. We found a farm house near by, where we stood before a blazing fire to dry. The people were very kind to us and gave us the best they had to eat, but our clothes were too dirty and vermin-infested for us to sleep in their houses, so we slept in the barns.
At one house where we stopped and asked for something to eat the man's wife was in a pitiful condition with cancer, but was without medicine to alleviate her suffering. I happened to have a bottle of morphine in my haversack, which I gave her and which was enough to last her for the short time she could live.
We were three weeks on the way, and when I reached my father's home nobody was expecting me. I was completely exhausted, but after getting on some clean, whole clothes and sleeping in a bed once more I felt greatly refreshed. Father has given me a good horse in exchange for my little mule, and I hope to be rested enough to leave here day after to-morrow and go through the county in a buggy for you.
On the 5th we
marched all day on the plank road from Orange Court House to this place. We got
into a hard fight on the left of the road rather late in the afternoon. The
fighting was desperate for two or three hours, with the least cannonading I
have ever heard in a battle. I suppose this was due to the level country and
the thick undergrowth. It is low, flat and entirely unfit for cultivation.
After night Major
Hammond rode up to where we doctors were and told us that about two miles to
the rear there was a poor Yankee who was badly wounded. He insisted that
someone of us go back to help him. I went, and found him paralyzed from a shot
in the back. I gave him water and morphine, and made him comfortable as
best I could. The poor fellow seemed very grateful.
After I returned to
our lines the order came to move back with our medical stores to Orange Court
House. We marched nearly all night, but just before day we were ordered back to
the Wilderness again, and we reached there soon after sunrise. Longstreet came
up about this time, having made a forced march all night. Then the fighting
began in earnest-continuing fearful and desperate all day. The tremendous roar
of the artillery and the rattle of the musketry seemed to make the woods
tremble.
Late in the
afternoon of this day I went among the wounded of the Third Regiment South
Carolina Volunteers and of the Yankees who had fallen into our hands. As usual
on such occasions groans and cries met me from every side. I found Colonel
James Nance, my old schoolmate, and Colonel Gaillard of Fairfield lying side by
side in death. Near them lay Warren Peterson, with a shattered thigh-bone, and
still others who were my friends. Many of the enemy were there. Not far from
these was an old man, a Yankee officer, mortally wounded. I learned that he was
Brigadier-General Wadsworth, once Governor of New York.
I picked up an
excellent Yankee overcoat on the battlefield, but the cape is off. I will have
a sack coat made of it. I also found an India rubber cloth that is big enough
for four men to lie on or to make a tent of. I have never before seen a
battlefield so strewn with overcoats, knapsacks, India rubber cloths and
everything else soldiers carry, except at Chancellorsville. The dead Yankees
are everywhere. I have never before seen woods so completely riddled with
bullets. At one place the battle raged among chinquapin bushes. All the bark
was knocked off and the bushes are literally torn to pieces.
Tell Bob that as
soon as I draw some of the new issue I will send him the pay for your catskin
shoes.
[NOTE.—After two
days of hard fighting at the Wilderness and the same at Spottsylvania, and
failing to break through the Confederate lines, General Grant decided to make
one more determined effort by concentrating in front of the angle in the
Confederate breastworks. About daylight on May 12 a desperate charge was made
upon this angle, which was occupied by General Bradley T. Johnson of Maryland.
This overwhelming charge by the enemy was too much, and the Confederates were
borne down, and General Johnson and his command of four thousand men and twenty
pieces of artillery were captured. General Lee was in the rear with a reserve
force, consisting of McGowan's South Carolina Brigade and some Mississippians,
whom he rushed forward, and they reoccupied the angle. The Federals jumped back
over the works, but did not retreat, and, after fighting all day and a greater
part of the night, both sides were utterly exhausted, and ceased. A large oak
standing on the works was cut down by bullets alone.]
SOURCE: Dr. Spencer
G. Welch, A Confederate Surgeon's Letters to His Wife, p. 93-6
March 14, Evening.
A curious incident
occurred this morning which gave me a full hundred (from both regiments) sick
and wounded to examine and prescribe for and fill out my prescriptions. The
John Adams started for a secret raid up the river at daylight, without
notifying Dr. Minor, the steward and hospital nurse, who were all sleeping on
the boat. It was a good enough joke, but for me not so practical as to make me
crave a repetition. Tonight our sick and wounded are in the hospital. Colonel
Montgomery thought the Lord had grown these handsome shade trees especially for
barricades, and I have never a doubt that the Washington Hotel, with its
sixteen chambers, and a fire-place in each, was especially intended for a
military hospital. Possibly it is because it seems too good to last that I deem
it hazardous to bring our sick ashore, but the two Colonels assure me it is
perfectly safe to do so.
Our belligerent
Chaplain1 is armed with a revolver on each side and a Ballard rifle
on his back. He keeps so persistently on the advanced picket line that I could
scarcely persuade him to conduct the funeral service of a poor fellow who was
shot the other day. Today he got on the track of some cavalry and infantry, and
was certain of surrounding and capturing them, if he could only get permission
from the Colonel. His hatred of slavery is so intense that his prayers are of a
nature to keep his powder dry.
We have burned a
good many houses within a mile of town, to get rid of screens for the enemy
between us and the woods, where rather formidable trees are being felled to
complete our water barricade. The houses are often occupied by women and
children whose husbands and fathers are in the Confederate service. The
Chaplain, being a man of fire, has much to do with this matter. Today, I
questioned him as to his usual mode of proceeding. I found he gave them the
choice of the two governments, but with the explicit statement that their
friends in arms were to be killed soon unless they came in and surrendered. His
division of the effects of these families seems rather scriptural. "What
seems to belong to the woman, I yield to her, but what seems to belong to the
man, I have brought into camp."
Some of these cases
are very pitiful and call out my deepest commiseration. Today I visited a poor
widow who has a son in the rebel service. Her house was burned and she, with
her children, was brought into town. She has not been able to walk a step
during the last five months. On examination I found that her prostration was
due entirely to privations and hardships resulting from war. For more than a
year her food has been "dry hominy" with now and then a little fish.
She was born in Alabama of "poor white" parents. As I talked to her
it seemed to me it must be difficult for her to understand the justice of our
coming here to invade the homes of those who had always earned their bread by
the sweat of their brows.
Yesterday I
conversed with a lady who lives in a pleasant cottage, with her beautiful
little children and her aged mother. Her husband is a captain outside our
barricades and when the Colonel granted her permission to go wherever she
chose, she said so many had gone from the river and coast towns to the interior
that one could scarcely find a barn to stay in or food to subsist on. She
remains here for the present. Her husband was a music teacher and was taken
into the army by conscription. From what I can learn of him through Union men,
I have no doubt he would gladly return to loyalty. What are we to do with such
families? "Things are a little mixed" here in the South, but we must
all suffer the results of our great national sin, some one way, some another.
I have given out
word that the Surgeon of our regiment will cheerfully and gladly attend to the
medical needs of all civilians here. To be the means of relieving suffering is
sufficient compensation, but in this case there is the additional good of being
able to make anti-slavery statements in a satisfactory way.
I never supposed I
could be so much gratified by comparatively level scenery. The river is very
beautiful, – quite clear and of a deep amber color. I cannot tell you how much
I enjoy my evening bath. Dr. Minor usually goes with me. Once, while in the
water, the companies were hurriedly ordered to "fall in," but it
seemed so unnatural that one's bathing should be interfered with that we were
not startled by the alarm.
We find the rebel
women here exceedingly desirous to prove that our soldiers are guilty of all
the outrages they might expect from a long-injured people now in power. Many of
our soldiers are natives of this place and meet their old mistresses here. On
the day of our landing I was over and over implored, by those who knew their
deserts, to protect them from the "niggers." It was an awful turning
of the tables. I quite enjoyed saying "These are United States troops and
they will not dishonor the flag."
Several charges have
been preferred against the soldiers, but thus far, when sifted down, have
proved quite as much against those who complained as against our men. The
Adjutant told me of a lady of easy manners, who had been very much insulted by
a soldier. Close investigation proved that he actually sat on her front
door-step.
That our soldiers do
some outrageous things, I have little doubt. When women taunt them with
language most unbecoming, as they sometimes do, I should be very sorry if they
did not return a silencer. Thus far they have behaved better than any white
regiment has done under such temptations. They "confiscate" pigs and
chickens because their captains connive at it and the Provost Marshal cannot do
everything alone.
1 Rev. James H. Fowler, of Cambridge, Mass.
