In Camp And Field

CopyrtgMeS, 1887, by The A. X. Kfllogg Xewspapfr Contpany. SKCTION I - IXTKODCCTOKT - TUK PltlVATK SOLDIER. I i N the four years intervening between April 15, ISfil, when President Lincoln made his flrst cali for troops - 75,000 in number - and April 9, 1885, when Lee surrendered at Appomattox, twenty-six hundred thousand men, in round numbers, were enrolled in the Union armies. In the first half of tho war these armies met with varying fortune - now good, now ill - but in tho latter half they encountered almost unbroken success, and carne to be magnificent specimens of war's terrible machinery. How these armies were wielded, how maneuvered, how fought, has been well told by those highest in command - Grant, Shernian, McClellan. How corps, división, brigade and regiment were hurled against a powerful and valiant foe, at one time breakmg his lines, striking bim down and giving defeat; at another receiving severe punishment - falling back, reeling, bleeding and beaten- all this, together with the thousand and one incidents of battle-tield, has been related by Howard, Humphrey, Pope, Doubleday, Cox, Kilpatrick, and many other oflicers of prominence and distinction. But of the private soldier, the unit, the var atvm, so to speak, many of which in aggregation made the regiment, brigade, división, corps and army, the story has not been so fully told. Of the great armies of twenty odd years ago, this individual unit, the private soldier, the American volunteer, viewed in more ways than one, seemed a living, breathing, walking paradox. As a citizen he prided himself upon his large liberty and peculiar privileges - upon his right to think, speak, act, vote and live as he pleased, and of even a hint of infringement upon these prerogatives he was specially jealous. Yet, -vhen duty scemed to cali, this same proud American citizan promptly enlisted and immediately surrendered two oí the three inalienable rights spoken of by Jefferson - liberty and the pursuit oí happiness - and with cheerf ulness stood in constant prospect of losing the third- Ufe. And as an integral prt oí those grand orgauizations, the armies of the Potomac, Tennessee, Cumberland, etc. - those mighty engines of destruction that in the last years of the war moved to their deadly work with almost machine-likejprecision- this erstwhile citizen was a model soldier, and uncomplainingly endured untold hardship, bravely faced danger in a thousand forms and heroically met death upon a thousand battle-iields. We laúd, reveré, nay, almost idolize, the successful leaders in the late war, but it does seem as though the full measure of justice and honor had not been bestowed upon the private soldier. How did he view the causes and opening of the war? Let us see. Of his number a large class were of a different political 'party from that which came in power March 4, 1861. The party creed of this large class caused them- nay, the whole drift of their political teachings, the whole force of their political instincts had long caused them to thiiik, feel and voice a current expression of that time: "This whole trouble has been brought on by the politicians- especially by the Abolitionists of Massachusetts and the pro-slavery hot-heads ofi South Carolina." But notwithstanding the views of this class as to the causes oí the war, from the time the old flag was fired upon at Fort Sumter till the end, four years later thousands, aye, tens and hundreds of thousands oí these men flew to arms, and were as brave as the bravest. true as the truest, and in untold numbers sealed their devotion to flag and country with their life's biood. ! But of the private soldier in general, whether DemoeratorRepublican: Not only did he surrender agreeable occupation and leave plow, bench, counter or school ; noV only did he leave the place of his birth and lear himself f rom the loved scènes and as-' sociations of childhood; not only did hebid farewell to home and kindred, may be forever; not only did he encounter disease and death in myriad forms; not only did he go into battle bravely; but all this in the first years of the war he often did in the face of discouragement, defeat and disaster. This was notably true with the Army of the Potomac, and nothing in the whole history of the war is finer, nobler, grander, than the long, patiënt persistence and brave, dogged determination of that wonderful organization under four years' strain of the most trying circumstances. At Buil Run in July, 1861, this army when only partly organized and but half disciplined, met disaster and disgrace. But this reverse served only to rouse its energies, and it at once set about thorough reorganization under that skilled organizer McClellan, and af ter nine months of tedious drill and preparation, entered upon the Peninsular campaign and worked its laborious wav from Fort Monroe to the Chickahominy. But instead of entering Richmond from here as had been the hope, the issue of seven bloody days of battle, ending with Malvern HiU,' July 1, 1862, iound the army at Karrison's Landing on Ihe James, crippled, bleeding, exhausted, but not crushed- the victim of divided council-i. But not long was the army allowed rest, for soon in large detachment it was ordered to join Pope in Northern Virginia; where for a short time it became identifled with the organized but shorMived army of Virginia, and met misfortune in several engagement late in August, 1862, and on the 29th of that month at Groveton. -the second Buil Run- encountered serious defeat. Beaten, but net overwhelmed, the army sullenly feil back upon Washington, again the victim of divided councils. The enemy, emboldened by success, now Boupht to invado the North, but the Army of the Potomac, again under the loved but not faulUess McClellan, interposed and aX South Mountain inflicted Lee with severa loss, and at Antietam, ttiree days later, September 17, 1862, with almost crushing defeat. But in what seemed almost the hour of victory, McClellan was superseded aqd the command devolved upon the amiable, patriotio and magnanimous Burnside, nnder whom was sustained disastrous defeat at Fredericksburg December 13-14, 1S62. "Fighting Joe Hooker" now eame to tha front and was given the command, but under him no botter success was attained, and at Chancelorsvillo May 2, 1863, the long suffering army again met disaster. The old enemy, divided councils, was, perhaps, even more dangerous than Lee's well-trained battalions. Again was the ene m y omboldened, nay,almost intoxicated, by success,and for the second time sought to invade the North. Baltimore, Harrisburg and the rich lields of Pennsylvania, aye, the very heart of the North, Lee with his victorious army tried to grasp. But once more the Army of the Potomao was encountered, now commanded by the noble Meade, and at Gettysburg, for three days- July 1, 2 and 3, 1863, the fiery, impetuous South ron tried in vainto dislodge f rom Culp's Hili, Little Round Top, Big Round Top and Cemetery Hill the tenacious, stubborn Northerner. In the spring of 1864 came Grant, and then followed the bloody battles of the Wilderness, Spotsylvania and Cold Harbor. But through all the terrible slaughter the army passed right on, satisfled with the lixed purpose of the Commander-in-Uhief- no more divided councils, no more turning back, but on through battle and blood, on through long wearying siege, on through blood and battle to the ünal end at Appomattox. The writer never belonged to the Army" of the Potomac, never was near it, and for three years served in a Western army, more than a thousand miles distant from the Easteru theater of war. But the line courage in the face of disaster, willingness to again aud again give battle wben almost certain defeat was in prospect, hardihood, fortitude and dogged determination at all times manifested by the Army of the Potomac, long since won his admiration. Grand old army! What patriot heart can read your history and not swell with pride? At times unwisely commanded, too often suftering for the sins of others, prematurely fought at Buil Run, stricken with deadly disease in the swamps of the Chickihominy, for fourlong years torn and bleeding with shot and shell, through no fault of yours more often def eated than victorious, but in spite of all ever ready to again and again meet the foe- all this, and more that words can not teil, to your credit. May your glory never be dimmed, may every page in your history grow brighter and brighter with the flight ui time, but may it ever be kept in memory that every noble thing in your career of hardship, fidelity, fortitude and blood came in large measure from the bravery, intelligence, patriotism, inate worth and fine manhood of your private soldier! SECTION' II-IílMliDlATE CAUSES AND BREAKIXG OUT OF THK WAR. During the spring and summer of 1860 four Presidential tickets were put in the field for the ensuing election in November. John C. Breckeiiridge, of Kentucky, was the candidate of the Southern Democracy, who favored the extensión of slavery at all hazards; Stephen A. Douglas, of Illinois, was the candidate of the Northern or conservative wing of the Democratie party. John Bell, of Tennessee, was put up as a non-partisan, a so-called Constitution and Union candidate, and Abraham Lincoln, of Illinois, represented the Republican party. From the organization of their party, four years before, the Republicans had avowed their opposition to the f urther extensión of slavery, and as the campaign progressed the Southern papers and orators openly declared the intention of the slave States to withdraw from the Union in the e vent of Lincoln' s election. By most people in the North, more especially those idenüfled with the Republican party, this declaration was looked upon as an idle threat. Election day 1860 feil on November 6, and in the West the day was mild, clear and beautiful. Just forty-four days later, December 30, South Carolina withdrew from the Union by formally passing an ordinance of secession. Several of her sister States of the South epeedily followed, and as early as February 15, 1861. but little more than three months after Lincoln's eleotion, a convention of seceded States met at Montgomery, Ala., to draft a constitution for, and organize the Southern Confederacy. These momentous events, what seemed to be the wreek of the good ship of State, the going to pieces of the Old Union, produced a profound shock throughout the whole country. A shock that was feit by all, even those in the most remóte and sparsely-settled sections. During the winter of 1860-1 the writer was attending school in a quiet little lage, twenty miles distant f rom the nearest railway station. The mail was earried by a boy on horseback, who went with the outgoing mail to the railway station one day and returned the next with incoming mail matter. The papers were eagerly watched as with their heavy headlines thoy announeed the meeting of first one and another secession convention in tha cotton States and the severance by these of the bonds which held thcm in the Union. All this to the older school boy was terrible work, and grated harshly upon hia young heart that had early been thrilled by the story of the revolutionary fatfiers who sacrificed so much to make possiblei tha Federal Union, and carne strangely to tiis mind so thoroughly imbued with the, noble words oí Webster as found in the school readers, pleading for the perma-' nence and perpetuity of that Union. ] The inhabitants of the little village! watched with intense interest the even! of the day, and as the time drew near for' the mail-boy's arrival picked their way along the sidewalkers1 streets and gathered in a little company in mild weather upon the porch in front of the store and looked intently down the road, through the grove of timber, whence was expected the newspapers. By and by the mail-boy, mounted on his horse with the mail bag securely tied behind his saddle, came in sight and urged his steed to a jogging trot as he saw the waiting crowd. One of the two or three daily papers taken in the village was at once seized apon by somo one of the party, who mounted a box or barrel and read the latest news to the eager crowd. As spring approached there was mach said about the critical condition of Major Anderson at Fort Moultrie, about the firiag, apon the steamship, Star of the West, in Charleston harbor, by the South Carolinians, about the right and feasibility of coerción by the National Government, and flnally when Major Anderson evacuated Fort Moultrie and occupied Fort Sumter all eyes were concentrated upon him and his little band. One day about the middle of April after floods of rain had fallen the mail boy came in with an extra number of daily papers. These in unusually ex.ra heavy head-lines had the words: "Fort Sumter Fallsl" " Heroic Defense by the Garrison I" ty-six tlours oí Terriflc Bombardment I" "The War Begun!" "Cali by the President for Seventy-five Thousand Troops!" Then followed several columns giving the history of the whole afEair, the noble defense of the little garrison and the soldierly bearing of the commandant. Major Anderson. Anderson became the hero of the hour, the papers were fllled with eulogistic notices of him and narrativos of his life. About this time the writer inquired of one much older than himself- one of the village sages- who in his judgment would lead the Union armies and be the bright, shining light of the war the answer was : "Major Anderson, unquestionably." Grant was at that time fllling a menial or at least an inferior place in a leather store at Galena, obscure there as everywhere, not having in his wildest dreams a glimpse of what the future had in store for him. As to Anderson, he was speedily made a Brigadier-General and given a commandinKentucky; but f rom f ailing health, or some such cause, afterwards retired from active command and soon passed wholly out of public notice. Immediately upon the fall of Fort Sumter, Lincoln promptly issued a cali for seventy-flve thousand volunteers. The writer remembers his amazement at the number of troops called for. The reasons for this amazement were these : The combined array- American and French- at the siege of Yorktown numbered only sixteen thousand men ; yet this army was the largest and in every way the most complete of any under Washington's immediate command during the revolutionary war, and in ten days' time compelled the surrender of Cornwallis and his eight tnousand troops, and thus conquered the independence of the oolonies. General Scott terminated the Mexican war, and triumphantly entered the City of Mexico with less than eleven thousand men. But the war of the rebellion had continued only a few months when Lincoln foand need for many more soldiers and was severely criticised for not making his first cali much larger. That cali was for three months' men, as the belief then prevailed that the war would last only a short time and amount to only a "breakfastspett," to use a favorito phrase of that day. The free States responded to the President' cali for troops with alacrity and fllled their quotas with commendable iirumpiness. noT, so tne siave States, most of these sent defiant replies to President Lincoln; even little Delaware responded through itsGovernorthat: "there was no organized militia in the State and no law authoming such organization. " A reply that implied indiflerence to say the best of it Through its executive, Claiborne F. Jackson, another slave State pronounced " the cali illegal, unconstitutional and revolutionary; its objeots to be inhuman and diabolical and would not be complied with by Mis80urL" Governor Magoffln said Kentucky "would furnish n troops for the wieked purpose oí subduing the South." The papers of the time commented freely upon these defiant responses. In the little county wherein the writer dwelt, a company of volonteers was promptly enlisted. At this time the writer, not yet eighteen years of age, did not feel called upon to enlist in his country's service, but passed the spring and summer of 1861 peacefully following the plow. With him, in the early spring for soma weeks at the same farm-house, were five yountf men, a jolly, merry, light-hearted lot of fellows, none of whom were beyond twenty-flve years of age. Two of the number, brothers, Charley aud "Ted," were vigorous, bright, goodnatured, clear-skinned young Englishmen, with just enough brogue in their speech to excite interest. Charley, the younger of the brothers, had bright black eyes, played the violin killfully, was brim full of fun and was tha life, wag and jolliest member oí a jollylot. "Jack, a third one of the number, was noted for good nature and dry wit. Although they all followed the plow "from sun-up till sun-down," seldom wers they too tired to assemble on the back porch of evenings after supper, crack jokes, sing merry songs and listen, while Charley worked from his flddle such oldtime pieces as : "Fisher's Hornpipe," "Arkansaw Traveler;" "Buy aBroom;" "Buffalo Girls," etc., and sometimos upon inch occasions, with the two or three girls about the house, a cotillion dance was improvised in the kitchen. Ai the war progressed, all these young men joined the army, and a brief ramnutry of their history, as illustrative of the fortune of war, may not ba uninteresting. Charley, five months after enlistment, was killed at Belmont, Mo., November 7, 1861-, Grant's lirst battle- shot in the head with a musket-baH. "Jack" enlisted in the falli of 1861, at which time he expressed to the writer the following bit of philosophy : "A feller '1 nerer die till h9 time come3, any how, I recon." Poor Jack's time cama in August, 1864, when he feil before At-, lanta by a bullet wound th?ough his neck.' A third member of the group at the farmhouse, whose name has slipped from memory, in July, 1863, at Jackson, Miss. , had his leg torn off near the body by a cannon ball and died in a few hours from hemorrhage and chock. "Ted" enlisted at the first cali in 1861 and four years later was mustered out, but whether sound in body and limb is not known. The flfth and last of the number went through three years of the war unscathed. Three taken and two lef tl Truly, war reaps a terrible har vest. SECTIOX III- PROGKESS OF THE WAR AS NOTEU FROM A QÜIET M2IGHBORHOOD. Not even many weeks had the war been in progress, when the powers that Ie came to realize that the Southerners were terribly in earnest, that putting down the rebeüion was no child's play, and that for lts accomplishment there would be needed a large number of men and vast suma of money. Congress convened in extra session July 4, 1861, and in his message to that body President Lincoln recommended that four hundred thousand men be enrolled and four hundred raillion dollars be appropriated for war purposes. field About 1800. Property of Dr. Johnson. Congress responded by voting flve hundred thousand men and flve hundred millions of money. While the authorities seemed thus early to realize the magnitude oí the uprising in the South, the people did not seem to do se fully till after the battle of Buil Run. This battle, that at the time seemed so disastrous to the Union cause, oceurred July 21, 1861. The newspapers were filled with' accounts and narrations of the battle, some of them in a little while after referring to it facetiously as Bullie Run. Buil Run thoroughly aroused the Northern people. But this battle, the crisis which was the ímmediate cause of the great uprising in the North that ultimately saved the Union, came almost precisely six months after the secession of South Carolina, (December 8J, lübU), tne event which "ürst fired the Southern heart." And during the whole of 1861 it is not, perhaps, saying too much to assert that in organization and allpreparation for the conflict, the South was fully six months in ad vanee of the North. Lato in the summer of 1861, the writer, in a conversatiou with a relativo, at the time a Kouthern sympathizer, remerobers urging in extenuation of a recent Union defeat the fact that our Torces were greatly outnumbered. " Yes," answered the relativo. "Of course the Union soldiers were outnumbered, just as they have been all along, and are most likely to be in the future 1" Inthefirst months of the war the people in the West were specially interested with the progress of event in Missouri. General Fremont had command of the Department of Missouri during most of the summer of 1861, and as he started in with considerable reputation, the people naturally believed he would be one of the prominent figures of the war, but he some way failed to develop as expected. August 10, 1861, was fought the battle of Wilson's creek near Springfleld, Mo., when our forces attacked and greatly demoralized the enemy who outnumbered them three to one. But the Union cause sustained what, at the time, seemed almost irreparable loss in the death of General Lyon. Our forces, after General Lyon's death, feil back to Springfleld, Mo., and llnally to Rolla. General Sigel, upon whom the command devolved, gained much reputation for the masterly manner in which he brought off the little army in the face of a foe which numerically was so much nis superior. General Lyon's death was greatly deplored. He seemed to combine qualities in his person so much needed at the time - qualities lacking in many even in the highest places. His energy, promptness, sagacity and bravery made him a great favorite in the West and gave promise of a brüliant future, had his life been spared. He flrst carne into prominence May 10, 1861, when, as Captain Lyon of the regular army, he promptly seized Camp Jackson at St Louis and thus early saved that city to the Union. Emboldened by Bucce9s at other points, secession in Missouri proposed to make its nest, so to speak, at Camp Jackson within the corporate limits of St. Louis. In this nest, in early May, whole broods of Confedérate soldiers were going through the incubation proeess. But the commandant, General Frost, who possessed ooly the sagacity of a fledgeling, had made a sort of May-day merry-making of drilling and equipping his recruits, and a veritable pleasure-resort of his camp. Here came the city nabobs In tbeir coaches, ladies in carriages, other in buggies, men on horseback and hundreds afoot One day a fat lady in a bnggy, unaccompanied, drove leisurely all about the camp apparently unconcerned, but from under "her" bonnet looked the eagle eyes of Captain Nathaniel Lyon of tho United States army, who carefully took in the whole situation. Shortly afterwards a body of armed soldiers were marched out to Camp Jackson, halted in front of it, when their commander, Captain Lyon, demanded and promptly reoeived the surrender of the Confedérate camp with its twelve hundred embryo soldiers. This bold and sagacious act caused great. rejoicing throughout the West, but specially in such parts of Illinois as were tributary to St. Louis. The newspapers of the day were fllled with accounts of tha affair and Captain Lyon at once carne into prominence. But his career of glory was doomed to be short, as he feil precisely three months later at Wilson's creek. Our little county, as stated in a previous paper, furnished a company of three months' men at the first cali in April, 1861 ; these, before their time had fully expired, carne home on furlough, preparatory to entering the three years' service, for which period they haa re-enlisted. Those from our community carne walking in f rom toward the railroad station one bright June morning, dressed in their fresh, new uniforms: Coats of dark or navy blue, with bright, brass buttons, pants light blue, neat caps with long visors, and their blankets of gray woolen, neatly rolled and thrown gracefully over tneir shoulders. Thus seen, "soldiering" looked inviting to a boy not yet eighteen. During tha summer of 1861 a man carne aionff and hired out upon the farm where the writer was working. He stated that he was from near Springfield, Mo., where he had owaed a well-stocked farm, but that the country being overrun by the contending armies every thin? had been "stripped off," and he was glad to get away. Hia family had gone to some relatives in Indiana while he sought to earn a little money by hard work. He was the first Union refugee seen by the writer. The battle of Buil Run in the East, and Wilson's creek in the West, were the principal engagements during the summer of 1861. The writer remember anxiously watching the papers during the summer and autumn of that year, instinctively hopincr to read of the Confedérate being overwhelmed by our torces. But his hopes were not gratilied; that bit of philosophy: "The milis of the gods grind slowly but surely ;" he had yet to learn. During the winter of 1861-2 the writer taught a district school in a remote and sparsely-settled section, seven miles from a post-offlce, where papers a week old were not considered stale. Not till long af ter it was f ought, January 19, 1863, Mili Spring, General Thomas' flrst battle, was read an account of the whole matter. Here the Confedérate forces were beaten and put to flight, General Zoüieofler killed, their linei penetrated and broken at Bowling Green. Even in this early period every neighborhood had one or more representatives in the army, and during the winter the writer remembers serving upon several occasions as amanuensis to some of his employers, who were poor penmen, answering letters from soldiers at the front. Towards night one dreary, foggy day in February, 1862, the boom of cannon was heard away off to the southwest. Next day it was learned that a great victory had been won. That Fort Donelson, on the Tennessee river, had fallen. Pifteen thousand Confederates were reported captured, with all their arms and accoutrements. The cannonading heard proved tobe the firing of a National salute at St Louis, more than forty miles distant. Meeting a party next day who had seen the DaDers and read au account of the whole aftair, the writer inquired the name of the Union commander. The answer was : "General Grant." "Grant!" "Grant!" said the writer, "never heard of him, who is hei what's his rank ! where's ha f rom ?" "Don't know just who he is," was the reply, "except that he is a Brigadier-General and is f rom Illinois." The writer remembers feeling a shade of disappointment at the time that an entirely new and unknown man should all at once come into such prominence and, so to speak, eclipse men with familiar ñames. Fort Donelson surrendered February 17, 1862, and lt mvust have been the evening of February 14 that the salute was heard. It is unusual for cannonading to be heard forty miles and more dis tact, butthe damp, heavy atmosphere of the time together with the level prairie over which the sound wave traversed had much to do with the long distance reached. In singular contrast to this experience was that at Perryville, October 8, 1862, when in the afternoon a severe and bloody battle was fought by McCook'a corps of the army of the Ohio, two and one-nall miles irom the headquarters of the Commanjier, but he notwithstanding iailed to hear the sound oí battle. In a recent article on the battle of Shiloh, General Buell expresses surprise thafc the Commander of the my should unwittingly permit the foe to approach with a large' force, encamp over night within one and one-half miles of his lines and next morning attack with a large army I Kot stranger is it, that another Commander should remain quietly at his headquarters for a whole afternoon in blissful ignorance of the f act that one wing of his army was engaged in perilous battle, but two and onehalf miles distantl But that the latter circumstance happened, Buell himself testifles and offers in explanation the peculiar configuration of the country aad the prevalence of a strong wind from nis headquarters toward the corps engaged. War as well as peace has its anomalies. In the autumn of 1861 the people began to be impatient with what was deemed the needless inacüvity of the Army of the Potomao under McCleüan, and concerning him and that organization the phrase: "All quiet on the Potomac," first used as an expressive indication of no demonstratíon by either friend or foe in Virginia, cama as the period of inaction lengthened, to have a satirioal meaning. McClellan, soon after Buil Run, was called to the command of the Army of the Potomac, and for a tima seemed very popular with the people, and was Boon familiarly called "Litóle Mac," and a short time after the Ifapolam of th$ War. But as the winter drew near and the Army of the Potomac made no demonstration, many begau to question McClellan' fitness for high command, and some even made the remark that he was the "biggest man never to have done any thing on record." His most excellent service in Western Virginia in July, J861, was lor the time forgotten or ignored, and his great ability as an organizer was not vet understood. In April, 1862, in the West all eyes were concentrated upon the Army of the Tennessee at Pittsburg Landing on the Tennessee river. Here on April 6, 1862, Grant came near being overwhelmed, and, for a time, passed under a shadow oí public distrust as dark and forbidding as the previous two months- after the fall of Forts Henry and Donelson- sunshine of popular approval and confidence had been warm and r.&fierir..; [To be Continued in our next.]