General Mitchell gave the officers a very interesting lecture this evening. He is indefatigable. The whole division has become a school.
Had five lieutenants before me. Lesson: grand guards and other outposts.
SOURCE: John Beatty, The Citizen-soldier: Or, Memoirs of a Volunteer, p. 95
The General summoned the officers of his division about him and went through the form of sending out advanced guard, posting picket, grand guards, outposts, and sentinels. During these exercises we rode fifteen or twenty miles, and listened to at least twenty speeches. My horse was very gay, and I had the pleasure of running many races. I learned something, and am learning a little each day. Had the lieutenants in my school again tonight. Lesson: detachments, reconnoissances, partisans, and flankers.
SOURCE: John Beatty, The Citizen-soldier: Or, Memoirs of a Volunteer, pp. 95-6
The officers dress better, as a rule, than in West Virginia. The only man who has not, in this regard, changed for the better, is the Major. He continues the careless fellow he was. Occasionally he makes an effort to have his boots polished; but finds the day altogether too short for the work, and abandons the job in despair.
SOURCE: John Beatty, The Citizen-soldier: Or, Memoirs of a Volunteer, p. 96
Every day we have the roar of artillery, the rattle of musketry, the prancing of impatient steeds, the marching and countermarching of battalions, the roll of the drum, the clash and clatter of sabers, and the thunder of a thousand mounted men, as they hurry hither and yon. But nobody is hurt; it is all practice and drill.
SOURCE: John Beatty, The Citizen-soldier: Or, Memoirs of a Volunteer, p. 96
People who live in houses would hardly believe one can sleep comfortably with his nose separated from the coldest winter wind by simply a thin cotton canvas; but such is the fact.
SOURCE: John Beatty, The Citizen-soldier: Or, Memoirs of a Volunteer, p. 96
General Dumont called. He is to-day commandant of the camp. The General is an eccentric genius, and has an inexhaustible fund of good stories. He uses the words "damned" and "bedamned" rather too often; but this adds, rather than detracts, from his popularity. He dispenses good whisky at his quarters very freely, and this has a tendency also to elevate him in the estimation of his subordinates.
General Mitchell never drinks and never swears. Occasionally he uses the words "confound it" in rather savage style; but further than this I have never heard him go. Mitchell is military; Dumont militia. The latter winks at the shortcomings of the soldier; the former does not.
SOURCE: John Beatty, The Citizen-soldier: Or, Memoirs of a Volunteer, pp. 96-7
We are not studying so much as we were. The General's grasp has relaxed, and he does not hold us with a tight reign and stiff bit any longer.
There is a great deal of sickness among the troops; many cases of colds, rheumatism, and fever, resulting from exposure. Passing through the company quarters of our regiment at midnight, I was alarmed by the constant and heavy coughing of the men. I fear the winter will send many more to the grave than the bullets of the enemy, for a year to come.
SOURCE: John Beatty, The Citizen-soldier: Or, Memoirs of a Volunteer, p. 97
A body of cavalry got in our rear last night and attempted to destroy the Nolan creek bridge; but it was driven off by the guard, after a sharp engagement, in which report says nine of the enemy were killed and six of our men.
The enemy is doing but little in our front. A night or two ago he ventured to within a few miles of our forces on Green river, burnt a station-house, and retired.
SOURCE: John Beatty, The Citizen-soldier: Or, Memoirs of a Volunteer, p. 97
The Colonel returned at noon. I was among the first to visit him. He greeted me very cordially, and called God to witness that he had never spoken a disparaging word of me. Busy bodies and liars, he said, had created all the trouble between us. He had heard that charges were to be preferred against him; he knew they could not be sustained, and believed it an attempt of his enemies to injure him and prevent his promotion. He affirmed that he had enlisted from the purest of motives, and entered into a general defense of his acts as an officer and gentleman. I listened respectfully to his statement, and then said: "Colonel, if your conduct has been such as you describe, you need not fear an investigation. I hold in my hand the charges and specifications of which you have heard. They are signed by my hand. I make them believing them to be true. If false, the court will so find, and I shall be the one to suffer. If true, you are unfit to command this regiment or any other, and it should be known. I present the charges to you, the commanding officer of the Third Regiment, and with them a written request that they be forwarded to the General commanding the division." He took the package, tore open the envelope, and seated himself while he read.
In less than an hour Captains Lawson and Wing called on me to report that the Colonel would resign if I would withdraw the charges. I consented to do so.
SOURCE: John Beatty, The Citizen-soldier: Or, Memoirs of a Volunteer, pp. 97-8
Had dress parade this evening, at which the Colonel officiated, it being his first appearance since his return.
Ascertaining that he had not sent in his resignation, I wrote him a note calling attention to the promise made on the 29th instant, and suggesting that it would be well to terminate an unpleasant matter without unnecessary delay.
We had a case of disappointed love in the regiment last night. A sergeant of Captain Mitchell's company was engaged to a girl of Athens county. They were to be married upon his return from the war, and until within a month have been corresponding regularly. Suddenly and without explanation she ceased to write, why he could not imagine. He never, however, doubted that she would be faithful to him. His anxiety to hear from home increased, until finally he learned from her brother, a soldier of the Eighteenth Ohio, that she was married. Strong, healthy, good-looking fellow that he was, this intelligence prostrated him completely, and made him crazy as a loon. He imagined that he was in hell, thought Dr. Seyes the devil, and so violent did he become that they had to bind him.
This morning he is more calm, but still deranged. He thought the straws in his bunk were thorns, and would pluck at them with his fingers and exclaim: "My God, ain't they sharp?" Captain Mitchell called, and the boys said: "Sergeant, don't you know him?" "Yes," he replied, "he is one of the devils." The Captain said: "Sergeant, don't you know where you are?" "Of course I do; I'm in hell." When they were binding him he said: "That's right; heap on the coals; put me in the hottest place." While Dr. Seyes was preparing something to quiet him—laudanum, perhaps he said: "Bring on your poison; I'll take it."
The boys, while living roughly, exposed to hardships and dangers, think more of their sweethearts than ever before, and are constantly recurring, in their talk, to the comfortable homes and pleasant scenes from which they are for the present separated.
SOURCE: John Beatty, The Citizen-soldier: Or, Memoirs of a Volunteer, pp. 98-100
We had orders to
cook three days' rations, and be ready to take up the line of march by three
o'clock P. M., but as it was pay-day, and as the paymaster did not get through
by that hour, the order was countermanded, and we did not move. We were paid
for four months and twenty-two days' service, from 1st of January to the 22d of
May, 1862, one hundred and thirteen dollars and sixty cents to each private.
SOURCE: Richard R.
Hancock, Hancock's Diary: Or, A History of the Second Tennessee
Confederate Cavalry, pp. 199
* As I was badly
poisoned with poison oak vine I did not go on the above named scout, but
remained with the wagons, which, for safety, were moved about seven miles
nearer the railroad, where they remained until the 16th; then they were moved
back and met the regiment near the old camp, half mile west of the Tombigbee.
About this time
General Beauregard went to Bladen Springs, Alabama, on account of ill health,
leaving General Bragg in command of the army, now in the vicinity of Tupelo,
Mississippi, on the Mobile and Ohio Railroad.
SOURCE: Richard R.
Hancock, Hancock's Diary: Or, A History of the Second Tennessee
Confederate Cavalry, pp. 199
After moving on up
within ten miles of Jacinto (about thirty from camps) Colonel Barteau learned
that the Federals were at Marietta, in his rear. Thinking that they were
attempting to cut him off, and if possible capture his whole regiment, he
turned to the right, crossed the Tombigbee, and came down on the east side to
Fulton, where he remained for the night. Colonel Barteau thus gave the Federals
a complete dodge, and returned unmolested.
SOURCE: Richard R.
Hancock, Hancock's Diary: Or, A History of the Second Tennessee
Confederate Cavalry, pp. 200
The regiment crossed
the river and encamped half mile from it. They reported that the Federals
were moving east toward Chattanooga in large force.
SOURCE: Richard R.
Hancock, Hancock's Diary: Or, A History of the Second Tennessee
Confederate Cavalry, pp. 200
The regiment
recrossed the river and encamped in sight of Fulton, in a beautiful bottom on
the west side of town.
SOURCE: Richard R.
Hancock, Hancock's Diary: Or, A History of the Second Tennessee
Confederate Cavalry, pp. 200
A scout went out and
burned a lot of cotton in order to prevent the Federals from
getting it.
SOURCE: Richard R.
Hancock, Hancock's Diary: Or, A History of the Second Tennessee
Confederate Cavalry, pp. 200
W. C. Hancock and
three others, who went out the day before, returned. They reported that they
went to Marietta, but found no Federals there.
Major Morton, with a
part of our regiment, went out on a scout in the direction of luka.
SOURCE: Richard R.
Hancock, Hancock's Diary: Or, A History of the Second Tennessee
Confederate Cavalry, pp. 200
A number of our
regiment went to preaching in Fulton. News coming to church that the Federals
were not far off, and moving in the direction of Fulton, we did not remain to
hear that preacher bring his remarks to a close, but went to camps in haste to
prepare to receive the enemy. However, in place of coming to Fulton, the
Federals crossed Tombigbee some distance above Fulton, cutting off Major
Morton's scout from camps.
SOURCE: Richard R.
Hancock, Hancock's Diary: Or, A History of the Second Tennessee
Confederate Cavalry, pp. 200
The Federal scout,
said to be about one hundred and ten, turned, recrossed Tombigbee, and went
back through Marietta. Morton returned to camps in the evening without having
any collision with the enemy.
SOURCE: Richard R.
Hancock, Hancock's Diary: Or, A History of the Second Tennessee
Confederate Cavalry, pp. 201
We moved camps from
the west to the south-east of, and half a mile from, Fulton, on the Smithville
road.
SOURCE: Richard R.
Hancock, Hancock's Diary: Or, A History of the Second Tennessee
Confederate Cavalry, pp. 201
