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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/32031-8.txt b/32031-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..820db1d --- /dev/null +++ b/32031-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,1768 @@ +Project Gutenberg's A Raw Recruit's War Experiences, by Ansel D. Nickerson + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: A Raw Recruit's War Experiences + +Author: Ansel D. Nickerson + +Release Date: April 17, 2010 [EBook #32031] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK A RAW RECRUIT'S WAR EXPERIENCES *** + + + + +Produced by The Online Distributed Proofreading Team at +https://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images +generously made available by The Internet Archive/American +Libraries.) + + + + + + + + + +[Illustration: THE "RAW RECRUIT."] + + + + + A RAW RECRUIT'S + WAR EXPERIENCES. + + + BY + ANSEL D. NICKERSON, + Late Private Co. B, Eleventh Rhode Island Volunteers. + + + PROVIDENCE: + PRINTED BY THE PRESS COMPANY. + 1888. + + + + FOR PRIVATE DISTRIBUTION ONLY. + + + + AFFECTIONATELY INSCRIBED + To My Wife, + WHOSE PATRIOTIC SPIRIT PROMPTED + ME TO OFFER MY SERVICES + TO MY COUNTRY. + + + + "The neighing troop, the flashing blade, + The bugle's stirring blast, + The charge, the dreadful cannonade, + The din and shout are past." + + + + +APOLOGY. + + +This "war paper" was first read before the Rhode Island Soldiers and +Sailors Society, in Providence, October 19, 1886. Subsequently it was read +at the annual winter reunion of the Eleventh Rhode Island Regiment +(January 27, 1887), two companies of which regiment (B and F) were +recruited in Pawtucket, the former commanded by Captain Charles W. +Thrasher and Lieutenant Thomas Moies, and the latter by Captain Edward +Taft. It has since been read several times before other associations and +societies. The paper was not intended for publication, nor was it +originally broken into chapters, and in allowing it to be published, the +author permits the urgent requests of numerous friends to outweigh his own +judgment. It does not assume to be a connected or detailed history of the +regiment; nor is it the history of any one company of the regiment; nor is +it the diary of an officer of the regiment, but simply what its title +indicates, "A RAW RECRUIT'S WAR EXPERIENCES." More is said about Company B +than of any other company in the Eleventh Regiment for the reason that the +aforesaid "raw recruit's war experiences" were especially identified with +that company. Being personal recollections, and to a large extent the +recital of personal incidents connected with the nine months' campaign of +the regiment in Virginia, must be my apology for the frequent use of the +personal pronoun I. + +As the events of which I speak occurred at a period in our country's +history when a spade was called a spade, and among a class of men who +could not be justly accused of ambiguity of expression, my paper will be +found to contain more than one "strong, old-fashioned English word, +familiar to all who read their Bibles." + +To those comrades whose war experiences were of a very different character +from my own, and into whose hands this unpretentious little volume may +fall, I trust that the recital of some of the ludicrous scenes in camp and +on the march, rather than the harrowing descriptions of sanguinary +battles, may not prove wholly unwelcome. + +A. D. N. + +PAWTUCKET, R. I., + +_April, 1888._ + + + + +CONTENTS. + + + CHAPTER I. + + THE "RAW RECRUIT" ENLISTS AND GOES INTO CAMP 1 + + + CHAPTER II. + + OFF FOR THE SEAT OF WAR--THE KNAPSACKS 11 + + + CHAPTER III. + + AT MINER'S HILL--FIRST DEATH--THE "LONG ROLL" 18 + + + CHAPTER IV. + + THE CONVALESCENT CAMP--SCENES GRAVE AND GAY 27 + + + CHAPTER V. + + AT "THE FRONT"--NORFOLK AND SUFFOLK 34 + + + CHAPTER VI. + + PASTIMES IN CAMP--RELIGIOUS SERVICES 40 + + + CHAPTER VII. + + BAKED BEANS--THE DEACON'S ADVICE--STEAMED OYSTERS 46 + + + CHAPTER VIII. + + THE ELEVENTH LOSES TWO COLONELS 51 + + + CHAPTER IX. + + YORKTOWN--HOME AGAIN--MUSTERED OUT 57 + + + CHAPTER X. + + "HONOR TO WHOM HONOR IS DUE" 61 + + + + +A Raw Recruit's War Experiences. + + + + +CHAPTER I. + + +During the winter preceding the firing upon Sumter, I was one of a group +of young fellows of about my own age who regularly assembled evenings at +the corner grocery of the village where we lived, to listen to older +persons discuss the affairs of the nation and all other matters, moral, +intellectual and social, as is the nightly custom in country groceries, +and particularly the probabilities of war between the North and the South, +which, I will say in passing, every day grew more probable. Each several +barrel-head in that grocery seemed to know its own occupant, and for any +one else to have appropriated it to his own use, especially had he been a +young man, would, I am sure, have been deemed an unpardonable breach of +courtesy. The grocer himself was the acknowledged spokesman of the +company, and never allowed himself to be "switched off" from the subject +in hand, however pressing the demands of his waiting customers. He did +not believe there would be any war; but in the event that the South should +"kick in the traces," as he expressed it, "our boys would only have to arm +themselves with brooms and go down there and give 'em a thrashing." This +_sweeping_ assertion was received with liberal applause by all of his +hearers, the impatient customers not excepted. + +I hope I shall not detract from your favorable estimate of the grocer's +patriotism when I add that, being a dealer in brooms himself, he remarked +that he "would like nothing better than a contract to supply the +government with them." I hardly need mention the fact that the grocer was +a genuine specimen of the Yankee, and always kept an anchor to the +windward and his eyes wide open for the main chance. "They all did it"--in +war times. + +I only mention this incident in illustration of the opinion which our +northern people generally had in the winter of '60 and '61 as to the +likelihood of a war with the South, and their estimate as to what would be +necessary to suppress a rebellion against the government in that section +of the country if, unfortunately, one should break out. + +But, as we all know, the groceryman proved a false prophet. When the news +of the attack upon Fort Sumter came, it found me setting type in the +"Gazette and Chronicle" printing office in Pawtucket, where I had been +regularly employed as apprentice and journeyman since 1846. "All work and +no play" had made Jack a pretty dull boy indeed, and the war promised a +vacation, temporary or permanent, which I had long been seeking, and which +I at once made up my mind that I would avail myself of at the earliest +possible opportunity. As the war news became more and more interesting, +filling the paper nearly full every week to the exclusion of less +important matters, I became more and more determined to give the country +the benefit of my services. Very many of my associates had enlisted and +gone "to the front," and I could not satisfy myself with any good reason +for longer remaining at home when men were so much needed to defend the +honor of the old flag and assist in upholding the integrity of the +government in its day of greatest peril. In the language of that good old +hymn, I realized that + + "I can but perish if I go," + +and said: + + "I am resolved to try." + +And I did. With what result will be seen. + +I expected to encounter opposition at home, and consequently I kept my +plans to myself. A year had passed away, and yet I was not enrolled among +the "boys in blue." Three hundred thousand nine months' volunteers were +called for by President Lincoln, and proclamation was made that if the +necessary quota from each State was not filled by the fifteenth of August, +1862, a draft would be resorted to. I concluded to step in out of the +draft. War meetings were held almost every night in the old Armory Hall on +High street in Pawtucket. I was a regular attendant in the capacity of +reporter for the newspaper upon which I was employed. The speakers were +generally men past middle life, whose principal business seemed to be to +urge the young men to volunteer, and not to volunteer themselves. One +evening, for some reason, there was a dearth of speakers, and after a +while some one in the audience called out my name, and soon the call +became so loud and so general that I was compelled to respond. I ascended +the platform, and, as nearly as I can remember, I spoke as follows: "Young +men, one thing has especially impressed me this evening. Every speaker who +has preceded me has said to you, '_Go!_' Now, boys, I say _Come!_" and +turning to a recruiting officer who sat on my right, I said, "Put my name +down!" I think it was the shortest speech I ever made; at any rate, I know +it was the best received. There seemed to be no bounds to the enthusiasm +which was manifested, and the recruiting business in Pawtucket at once +received a "boom." + +After the meeting was over and congratulations were ended, I went home. +Now began the "tug of war." The house was silent--very silent--and so was +I. I didn't sleep much that night. In my wakefulness I concluded not to +say anything to my family about what I had done, but leave her to learn +the news from some other source. But this little scheme was upset very +early in the morning by the lady of the house asking me concerning the war +meeting of the previous evening, and the names of the speakers. After +giving her such general information as I possessed, I hesitatingly +informed her that she had had the honor of entertaining one of the +speakers over night. Woman like, she then wanted to know if anybody +enlisted. Things were getting pretty close home now. The ice must be +broken. I told her that several persons enlisted, and gave her the names +of some of them; and, after a moment's hesitation, I said, "I don't know +what you will think, or say, when I tell you that I was one of them, and +that I am going to the war." Judge of my surprise, and of my own +depreciated estimate of what I had previously considered my great +patriotism, when she exclaimed, "_Well, all I have got to say is, that if +I had been a man, I should have gone long ago_." The ice was pretty +effectually broken now, and what I feared might prove a council of war, +was turned into a council of peace. That speech settled the whole business +for me, and I was ready, yea, anxious, to shoulder my musket and go "to +the front" immediately; in fact, I wished I had gone before. Woman's work +in the war! I fear it has not been fully appreciated or justly +acknowledged. The patriotism, the heroism and the sacrifice were not +confined to the soldiers. They knew little of the inexpressible longings, +the fears, the prayers, the yearning hopes, the terrible suspense, of +those at home who loved them. What pen can truthfully describe the weary +watching and waiting of the wives and mothers, the daughters and sisters, +during those long four years of fire and blood? God bless them, one and +all! + +Several weeks elapsed between the time of enlistment and going into camp. +At last we were ordered to report on Dexter Training Ground, in +Providence, the name of the camp being "Camp Stevens," in honor of Major +General Isaac Ingalls Stevens, who was killed September 1st, 1862, in the +battle of Chantilly, Virginia, while leading his division in a charge. To +very many of the members of the regiment, their first military experience +began on Camp Stevens, and truthfulness to history compels me to add that +with no small number of the enlisted men it ended there, they being unable +to "pass muster," or, in other words, to endure the severe ordeal to which +they were subjected by the chief mustering officer, Captain William +Silvey, of the regular army. I had entertained fears from the start that I +would be "thrown out" on account of a supposed pulmonary difficulty. I +"braced up" as best I could for the examination. Captain Silvey looked me +squarely in the face as I stood in line, and placing one of his hands upon +my breast, he struck with the other a blow which seemed hard enough to +fell an ox, and then remarked "All right!" I could not have been made more +happy than I was by his decision if he had knocked me down. He settled one +thing at any rate which had long been a disputed question in our family, +namely, that my breathing apparatus was "all right." + +After the examinations were concluded, the "lucky ones" were sworn in and +marched down to the quartermaster's department to receive their +equipments. The "pride, pomp and circumstance of glorious war" had never +possessed any great charm for me. I had belonged to an engine company and +a Sunday-school, but never to a military company; in fact, until I went on +to Camp Stevens I do not remember ever to have had a musket in my hand. +This will serve to explain why, when all of the members of my company had +been supplied with arms, the officer in command called attention to the +fact that I had my gun wrong side before, my hand grasping the lock or +hammer instead of the "guard." The suggestion that I should join the +"awkward squad" was sufficiently exasperating to have almost induced me to +throw up my commission. + +But a still further humiliation was in store for me. At our first drill in +the manual of arms, among the other orders given was, "ram cartridge," +when the officer in charge discovered that I had inserted the wrong end of +the ramrod into the muzzle of the gun, I having found the hollow space in +the large end very convenient in which to insert the ball of my little +finger in sending the imaginary cartridge to its destination. Fortunately +for me, no further opportunities for demonstrating my fitness for +promotion in the "awkward squad" were furnished me, and my leisure hours +were spent in acquiring proficiency in drill. How well I succeeded will +appear. + +While we were on Camp Stevens we had a great many visitors. Among those +whom I shall ever remember was that "grand, square and upright" citizen of +Pawtucket, Charley Chickering. It so happened that the day he visited us, +I was performing guard duty around the camp. I noticed that my portly +friend, as he paraded up and down the sidewalk opposite me, seemed deeply +interested in my movements. Presently he came across the street and walked +alongside of me awhile as I paced my beat back and forth. He was silent. +So was I. But at length that ominous chuckle of his began to be heard, or +perhaps I should say a series of chuckles, which all who are acquainted +with him so well know always precedes his quaint and original utterances. +I fancied that my martial air and my dexterity in handling my musket, +although I knew it did bob around considerably when carried at "support," +or perpendicularly, was to evoke from my old friend and schoolmate a +compliment. But judge of my surprise when instead he opened upon me as +follows, his every word being punctuated with one of those peculiar +chuckles to which I have referred: "Nickerson,--I--admire--your-- +patriotism,--but--I--swear--I--can't--compliment--you--on--your-- +soldierly--bearing." + +I confess that I experienced considerable difficulty in learning to keep +step, but, like the raw Irish recruit, I stoutly maintained that the +trouble was with "the other b'ys; they wouldn't kape step wid me." + + + + +CHAPTER II. + + +It was on the afternoon of the sixth of October, 1862, when we kissed our +wives and sweethearts, and + + "With our guns upon our shoulders, + And our bayonets by our sides," + +left Camp Stevens for the seat of war. We were in anything but light +marching order when we broke camp. To this day the remembrance of those +back-breaking knapsacks makes me weary. Feminine ingenuity seemingly +exhausted itself in conjuring up all sorts of things, describable and +indescribable, that could make life a burden to a "raw recruit," a +wheelbarrow being needed for their transportation. But the size of those +knapsacks grew "beautifully less" shortly after leaving home, a blanket +and overcoat being all that were absolutely needed in active service, and +often one of these proved a burden rather than a necessity. In addition to +clothing enough to have overstocked one of the numerous Palestine +merchants on Chatham street, in New York, there were, among other things, +family Bibles, pocket Testaments, prayer-books and dictionaries, +Pilgrim's Progress, Old Farmer's Almanac, photograph and autograph albums, +ambrotypes and daguerreotypes, diaries, razors, mirrors of various sizes, +boxes of blacking, button-hooks, collars and cuffs, corkscrews, tooth +powder, brushes for the hair, teeth and boots, whisk brooms, clothing and +hat brushes, combs, shaving utensils, slippers, clothes-wringers, +frying-pans and patent coffee-pots, soap, towels, napkins, pins, needles +and thread, buttons of various dimensions, boots and shoes, both thick and +thin, hair oil and pomade, matches, pipes, tobacco, plug and fine cut, +rolls of linen bandages and bundles of lint, Pain Killer, Jamaica ginger, +Seidlitz powders, pills, cayenne pepper, and almost everything else but +umbrellas. Then there were the equipments provided by the +government,--haversack, canteen, cartridge box and sixty rounds of +cartridges, not to mention the musket,--until our appearance resembled the +pictures of the dromedaries crossing the Great Desert which I saw in the +geography in my school days. When we embarked on the cars at Olneyville, +bound for New York, and unslung those corpulent knapsacks, the sense of +relief which we experienced was, I fancy, somewhat akin to that felt by +Bunyan's pilgrim when he dropped his burden. Indeed, it seemed like +getting out from under a haystack or a mountain. + +From New York to Washington our trip possessed no features uncommon to +other regiments. From Philadelphia to the National Capital we were +transported in freight cars, a new experience to all of us, but one to +which we became accustomed before we saw Rhode Island again. It was at +Perryville, Maryland, that we had our first glimpse of the devastation +wrought by war. Here the extensive bridge across the Susquehanna had been +burned by the enemy, and we were transferred in detachments across the +river to Havre de Grace in a small steamer. We arrived in Washington about +ten o'clock on one of the most beautiful moonlight nights I ever saw. Our +arrival was expected by some of our friends who had enlisted earlier than +ourselves, and they were at the railroad station to welcome us. + +Immediately upon landing from the cars we were marched to the "Soldiers' +Retreat" for refreshments. No soldier who has frequented that place needs +to be told that we beat a hasty retreat therefrom. I am very confident +that the most of the men would gladly have taken the next train back to +Rhode Island, if the matter of return tickets had not been entirely +overlooked by the master of transportation. + +How marked the contrast between our reception in Washington and in +Philadelphia! Even to this day pleasant memories remain of the hospitality +dispensed to our regiment by the patriotic ladies of the "City of +Brotherly Love," at the famous "Cooper Shop Volunteer Refreshment Saloon," +a hospitality which was extended to all of the "boys in blue" who passed +through Philadelphia on their way to the National Capital. + +Fancy our feelings when we were informed that our first night in +Washington must be spent in this same unsavory "Soldiers' Retreat." Acting +upon the maxim that "what cannot be cured must be endured," and in +unquestioned obedience to orders, we spread our blankets upon the hard, +dirty floor, and taking our huge knapsacks for pillows we wrapped our +mantles (poetry for army overcoats) about us and laid down to pleasant +dreams of home, and feather beds, and hair mattresses, and other comforts +and luxuries to which we had been so long accustomed as to have wholly +failed to appreciate them at their proper value. Truly in our case, +distance lent enchantment. But to come down to solid, matter-of-fact +prose, we didn't sleep much that night anyway. Whether it was the effects +of the heat of the preceding day when we were marching through Baltimore +at a "double quick," with those burdensome knapsacks breaking our backs, +or whether it was the souvenirs left by our comrades-in-arms who had +occupied that same floor the previous night, I cannot positively affirm, +but this one thing I know, that we _scratched_ out a miserable existence +until morning, when, after declining without thanks to regale ourselves +with the so-called coffee which was furnished us, which our boys affirmed +was poor water spoilt, and the turning of the cold shoulder upon the salt +junk which was so temptingly spread before us, we cheerfully obeyed the +order of our Colonel to "fall in," and were soon wending our way to East +Capitol hill, near the east branch of the Potomac, where, our tents not +having arrived, we encamped in the open air, which was far preferable to +spending a second night at the "Soldiers' Retreat." The soil where we +encamped was of a clayey nature, and the surface as free from moisture as +polishing powder, and when we awoke on the following morning we had very +much the appearance of having slept in an ash-pit. + +We remained here but a day or two, when we received orders to join General +Casey's Division, and bidding adieu without regrets to "Camp Misery," as +our boys had named the spot, we were soon on our way across Chain Bridge, +and in due season found ourselves on the "sacred soil" of Virginia. + +I can never forget a laughable scene which was enacted on Pennsylvania +avenue by Company B while on this march. We were on the extreme left of +the line. In front of a tonsorial saloon on the avenue our boys espied a +Dutchman who formerly carried on business in Pawtucket. The surprise at +the unexpected meeting was mutual on the part of the barber and the boys. +It was his habit when a customer entered his shop to inquire as to whether +he preferred the water hot or cold, but for any one to repeat the question +in his presence, whether on the street or elsewhere, was sure to stir up +the barber's ire. Immediately upon seeing him standing in front of his +shop, our boys began to sing out, "Vater hot, or vater cold?" The old +Dutchman became terribly excited, and the result was that that portion of +the procession which was composed of Company B became sadly demoralized. +As soon as our officers took in the situation, order was at once +restored, and a few minutes of "double quick" enabled us to regain our +position in line. But no sooner had this been done than we saw coming +directly toward us, down the avenue, a regiment which had the appearance +of having just come from "the front." It was a new and strange sight to +us, those "battle-scarred veterans" of the war, and we made up our minds +that the right thing for us to do was to tender them a reception. Without +any orders from our officers, and without even their knowledge, we +immediately came to "company front" and presented arms, to the great +amusement and evident astonishment of those old soldiers. This action on +our part caused us to receive a well-merited reprimand from our officers, +and it was the first and only performance of the kind in which Company B +bore a conspicuous part. + + + + +CHAPTER III. + + +Of the movements of the Eleventh regiment while in Virginia, I will not +weary you with a rehearsal in detail. Our first regular camp was +established on Miner's Hill, the extreme outer part of the defenses of +Washington, and when we reached it on a cold, raw, blustering day late in +the fall of 1862, the wind filling our eyes and mouths with a blinding and +grinding dust, it was the most dismal and dreary-looking place that I ever +saw--with the single exception of Seekonk Plains. We remained here about +three months, building and stockading our winter quarters, drilling and +doing picket duty, and making occasional raids when we felt sure that the +enemy was a safe distance from us. We were in General Robert Cowdin's +brigade, which comprised, in addition to our own regiment, the Fortieth +Massachusetts, the Twenty-second Connecticut, the One Hundred and +Forty-first New York, and the Sixteenth Virginia Battery. + +Company B had a fund of one thousand dollars which was raised by the +patriotic citizens of Pawtucket and Central Falls for the purpose of +enabling the officers to procure for the members of the company, among +other things, some articles for the table when we were in camp which were +not to be found on the government "bill of fare." In consequence of this +"company fund" we had a greater share of "extras" than any other company +in the regiment while we were encamped in the vicinity of Washington. +Among those "extras" were milk for our coffee and tea (fresh when it could +be obtained, and condensed at other times); writing paper, envelopes and +stamps; a copy of the Washington "Daily Chronicle" for each mess, and a +weekly pictorial paper; blacking, oil, sand paper, emery paper, polishing +powder, soap, matches, green apples, tallow candles and other delicacies +of the season. The extra candles were used on special occasions, such as +the reception of friends from home, and so forth. Naturally enough the +members of the other companies looked upon us at times with envious eyes. +The historian of the regiment writes thus of Company B: "Their company +fund was large, their friends with money many, and their visitors, who +always remembered them handsomely, numerous." We did, indeed, have quite a +number of visitors from home while we were encamped near Washington, and +I can assure you that their visits were always occasions of great pleasure +to us. Later they became like angels' visits, "few and far between." + +The first death in our company occurred at Miner's Hill, and the funeral +ceremonies were deeply impressive. The ambulance containing the remains of +our dead comrade was preceded by an escort composed of the +non-commissioned staff of the regiment, (the deceased having held the +position of regimental hospital steward,) and sixteen men of Company B, in +command of the first sergeant, accompanied by the drum corps. The officers +and men of Company B followed in the rear of the procession. Arriving on +the parade ground, the coffin was taken from the ambulance and placed on a +stretcher, when appropriate services were performed by the chaplain, +consisting of prayer, the reading of scripture, and brief remarks, after +which three volleys were fired and the remains of Jacob S. Pervear, Jr., +were replaced in the ambulance to be conveyed to Washington and thence to +the home of the deceased in Pawtucket. + +In the course of his remarks, the chaplain used the following very +appropriate poetical quotation: + + "Ye number it in days since he + Strode up the foot-worn aisle, + With his dark eye flashing gloriously, + And his lip wreathed with a smile; + Oh, had it been but told you then + To mark whose lamp was dim, + From out those ranks of fresh-lipped men, + Would ye have singled him? + + * * * * + + "His heart, in generous deed and thought, + No rivalry might brook, + And yet, distinction claiming not, + There lies he--go and look." + +The occasion was of a very mournful character, and it was not without +effect upon some of the hardest men in the regiment, for young Pervear was +greatly beloved by all. + +One Sunday, when instead of going to church I was doing picket duty on the +line of the Norfolk and Petersburg railroad, I halted an old man who was +riding along in a dilapidated two-wheeled vehicle, to which was attached a +still more dilapidated horned beast which, apparently, from time +immemorial had served for its owner all the requirements of a horse. In +answer to my inquiry whether he was a Union man, the old fellow gave me +the following reply: "Stranger, I was born in the Union; I have always +lived in the Union; I have always loved the old Union, and I love her +still; I have always voted for the old Union; and, stranger, when I die, +whether I go to heaven or hell, I shall stick by the old Union!" All +doubts as to his loyalty having been dispelled, I grasped him warmly by +the hand, and, whispering in his ear, said, "Old man, _stick_!" + +Perhaps I should have stated ere this that in addition to my duties as a +soldier, I combined those of a "war correspondent." My letters were +generally written in the evening in my tent, lying prone upon my face, the +light being furnished by a dripping tallow candle which was stuck into the +top of a bayonet whose point was inserted in the earth. Here, under such +circumstances, I criticised the conduct of the war, and directed campaigns +as best I could. I mention this fact at this time because the incident +just related has already appeared in print. + +An incident which has not appeared in print, but which made a deep +impression upon the "family men" of the regiment, occurred on a beautiful +Sunday afternoon while on dress parade at Miner's Hill. General Robert +Cowdin, the brigade commander, was frequently an interested observer on +these occasions. At the time to which I refer, he was accompanied by a +lady friend from Washington, who held by the hand a beautiful little boy +of four or five years of age. The sight of the little fellow, particularly +when he let go his mother's hand and ran about and shouted in his childish +glee, so affected the men that it was almost impossible to preserve a +steady line and secure prompt obedience to orders. Men whom I had seldom +or never before seen exhibit any emotion were moved to tears by the sight +and the remembrance of dear ones at home, and many of them were heard to +say that they would willingly part with a month's pay just to take the +little fellow in their arms for a moment, while a Pawtucket man, who had a +wife but no children, said he would give all his bounty money and throw +the "cow" in, just to kiss the little fellow's mother--_for his wife's +sake_. The order to "march off your companies" cut short other equally +complimentary expressions concerning the mother and her darling boy. + +One of the most ludicrous events which occurred in our regiment was on a +very dark night when the "long roll" sounded for the first time. We were +at once ordered under arms, it being whispered among the "knowing ones" +that we were likely to have a brush with the enemy before daylight, while +the officers knew it was only to "break in" the men, to see how they would +behave in the time of actual service. There was a hurrying to and fro of +officers of all grades; signal lights were swung here and there in +response to similar signals which could be seen quite a distance away; the +surgeons were overhauling and sharpening their instruments and filing +their saws and getting out large quantities of lint and bandages; all +orders were given in a whisper, and everything betokened speedy and +decisive action, the time having come for our men to cover themselves with +glory--or shame. + +In Company B there was an Irishman named Mike Cassidy. He was an old man, +and when he got into line it was evident that he was sleeping soundly when +the order fell upon his ears to "turn out," and that he had not been able +in the darkness to find his entire wardrobe, or if he found it, that he +did not have time to get properly inside of it. But he had his old and +trusty musket, with which he had often declared he could alone whip the +whole Southern Confederacy if they would only give him time. Time was +what Mike most needed. He always had time enough, but it was "behind +time," save when the order was given to "fall in for rations." But it +happened on that particular night some member of his "mess" whose musket +was without a tube or nipple upon which to put a cap, had appropriated +Cassidy's to his own use. I seem now to see Cassidy as he appeared in line +on that dark night trying to put a percussion cap on that nippleless gun. +Comrade, did you ever swear? Do you think you ever heard anybody swear? +You should have heard Cassidy. He swore vengeance upon all of his +comrades, and declared that if he was killed, his ghost would forever +haunt the man who stole the nipple from his gun. "Here I am," he +exclaimed, "with no nipple on me gun, and the whole dommed Confederacy +right on us!" + +In the midst of all the excitement which he occasioned by his vociferous +tones and profane explosives, the order came to "break ranks," and poor +Cassidy was the laughing-stock of the whole company. I believe he forgave +the rank and file for what he termed the "sell," but he said he would +never forgive the officers--and I am confident that he never did. + +A large number of the members of the Eleventh regiment reënlisted upon the +expiration of their term of service. Cassidy was, I think, among them. But +be that as it may, a very funny story is told about his trying to get a +pension on account of some real or fancied injury received while in an +engagement. The chief of the board of examiners asked him where he was +wounded. Mike placed his hand on his left breast and said, "About here, +sor." The examiner exclaimed: "Why, man, if you had been hit there you +would have been killed on the spot, for the bullet would have gone right +through your heart!" + +"I know it, sor," replied Cassidy, "but, bejabers, me heart was in me +mouth." + + + + +CHAPTER IV. + + +All were in high glee and the mythical goose occupied an elevated position +when we "broke camp" and left Miner's Hill. The intelligent contraband who +used to visit us every morning to dispose of his "baked fried pies" was +promptly on hand to collect the small sums from the boys which still +remained unpaid; and after the line had begun to move, another darkey, who +had been doing the washing for a large number of persons connected with +the regiment, and one of whose customers--presumably an officer--had +failed to meet his obligations, kept up with the regiment for a mile or +more, running along the line from one company to the other, peering into +the faces of all, and shouting at the top of his voice, "_Some gemman here +owes me free cents!_" The only satisfaction he got was that he would be +paid when "the cruel war was over." + +The Eleventh regiment saw but little service in the field. Our regimental +colors bear the names of no battles in which we were engaged, although we +took part in several very lively skirmishes, and for an entire day stood +in line in a broiling sun, expecting every moment to be ordered to take +part in a fight which was going on directly in front of us, across the +river at Suffolk, Virginia. The roar of the artillery and the rattle of +the musketry saluted our ears from morning until night; the ambulances +passed by us all day long with the wounded and the dying, and some of our +men who were on guard at the hospitals, which comprised the churches, +rendered assistance as nurses. As matters turned, however, the rebels +retreating, the services of our regiment were not required. But had they +been, there is no reason to doubt that the Eleventh would have acquitted +itself in such a manner as to have done honor to the State which sent it +into the field. One who knew the Eleventh regiment well, writes as follows +concerning it: "I feel warranted in saying, without fear of contradiction, +that no State sent into the service during the war, any better regiment, +in everything that goes to make a good regiment, than this nine months' +regiment; and I do not hesitate to say here and everywhere, that in the +character of the enlisted men, in the fidelity with which they performed +every duty, disagreeable as well as agreeable, it had no superior." + +But while little opportunity was given the Eleventh regiment to acquire +distinction in the field, yet it performed a service which, while bringing +no renown to the regiment, was as important as it was disagreeable, and +which subjected not only the men but the officers to very many unpleasant +experiences. I now refer to the arduous duty which the regiment performed +at the Convalescent Camp, midway between Washington and Alexandria. Here +we found between ten thousand and fifteen thousand old soldiers who had +been discharged from the hospitals in and around Washington, waiting to be +sent home or back to their regiments. Long lines of ambulances went back +and forth every day between the camp and Washington, carrying those to +whom transportation to their homes or regiments had been furnished, and +bringing from the hospitals others to take their vacant places. The camp +was in a very filthy condition when we arrived there, and the men greatly +demoralized. Of course our appearance as a guard over these old soldiers +was anything but welcome, and they were not slow in acquainting us with +the fact. For a time it seemed as if only the most extreme measures on our +part would prevent such insubordination as we should be unable to +control. Our duties were not only very disagreeable, but they were +performed at that season of the year when mud was for the most part of the +time nearly knee-deep, and frozen feet were no novelty. + +Here, day by day, our eyes witnessed the terrible effects of war upon +human life. Men who had been wounded in battle and were recovering from +their injuries were hobbling about on canes and crutches, while wounded +arms were supported by various ingenious devices. Some had lost a leg, +some both legs, some an arm, and some both arms. Others had an eye gone, +an ear torn off, a jaw which had been crushed into fragments. The wounds +were of every conceivable sort, and in every part of the body, from the +crown of the head to the sole of the foot. They had been shot in the head, +in the face, in the neck, in the shoulders, the arms, the legs, and the +feet. They had been shot through the chest, through the lungs, through the +hips and through the thighs. While here and there, gathered in small +groups, were victims of disease contracted in camp or on the march, whose +looks plainly indicated that they realized that there was but a step +between them and death. In recalling these scenes even at this late day, +my heart sickens as those pale faces and gaunt forms again rise up before +me, and I thank God that "the cruel war is over." + +An entire paper might be written of the experiences--grave and gay--at +Convalescent Camp. For the most part of the three winter months that we +were there, the time passed away very slowly, and all were anxious for a +change. Before we left, the external appearance of the camp had been +greatly improved, and the convalescents generally had become reconciled to +our presence among them, and less inclined to "run the guard" than at +first, a few object lessons as to the sure results of such doings on their +part causing them to regard "discretion as the better part of valor." +However, candor compels me to say that when we left for Suffolk, no +regrets at our departure were expressed by the convalescents, and as we +passed through the camp on our way to take the cars for Alexandria, their +taunts and jeers came near provoking an unpleasant collision, which, +however, was happily averted by the coolness and firmness of our officers. +Whatever else concerning the war an Eleventh Rhode Island man may forget, +you can be sure that it will not be his unpleasant personal experiences at +the Convalescent Camp. + +Permit me to relate an incident that occurred there in which I bore a +conspicuous part, and which has afforded me much more amusement since than +it did at the time. + +As I have already remarked, while we were on duty at the Convalescent +Camp, time hung heavily upon our hands, and quite a number of the members +of the regiment who had "influential friends" in Washington obtained +furloughs to visit home. Among those who sought the autograph of Drake +DeKay, by whom all furloughs were signed, and whose signature looked as if +it was written with his thumb about a month after a buzz-saw had got its +work in on the first joint, was the "raw recruit" of Company B. Others +received their furloughs, but mine tarried. I began to fear that my +"influential friends" had "got left"--at home. One afternoon, as I was +sitting in my tent ruminating as to how I would surprise my friends by +coming home unexpectedly, particularly my family, and as to how I would +spend my time while there, an orderly from the colonel's headquarters came +to our first sergeant and told him that the colonel wanted him to send a +man there immediately. Our first sergeant knowing that I expected a +furlough, and being willing to have a little fun at my expense, told me +that the colonel wished to see me at once. Getting myself together in the +best style I could at such short notice, and expecting to receive my +furlough and start for home by the evening train, I speedily reported +myself at the colonel's quarters. Judge of my great surprise when, instead +of the colonel stepping to the door of his tent with the coveted furlough +in his hand, and politely requesting me to accept it with his compliments, +and wishing me a pleasant visit home and a safe return, the aforesaid +orderly informed me that the colonel wished me to go to the blacksmith's +and keep the flies off his horse while he was being shod. I obeyed orders +as a matter of course, the flies were kept off, the horse was eventually +shod, my furlough never came, and my ways of spending it at home were +never realized. Such are the fortunes of war. The private soldier +proposes, and the officer opposes--that is, as a general thing. + + + + +CHAPTER V. + + +"Jumping from the frying-pan into the fire," the most of us thought when +we reached Alexandria, after leaving the Convalescent Camp, and found that +we were to be furnished with transportation to Norfolk on the old steamer +"Hero," which, as the "Argo," ran between Providence and Rocky Point long +"befo' de wah." We thought our accommodations could never be worse than +they were when we landed at the "Soldiers' Retreat" in Washington, but had +a rivalry existed between the two concerns, the "Hero" would have most +effectually distanced its competitor. It seemed, indeed, as if extra pains +had been taken by somebody to make our condition as uncomfortable and +unsatisfactory as possible. A cold rainstorm was prevailing when we went +on board the steamer. There were no sleeping accommodations whatever for +the men, and even the floor of the cabin which the officers occupied was +covered with sheets of boiler-iron, strewn helter-skelter here, there and +everywhere. The decks, where the men were huddled together like sheep, +were covered with mud and water several inches deep, our clothing was +damp, the air foul, and everything about as disagreeable as it could well +be. If we had been left in the starch over night we could not have been +more stiff the next morning than we were. Yet few complaints were heard, +the men generally preferring almost anything to longer remaining to guard +sick and disabled soldiers, especially where our room was better than our +company. + +In course of time--that is, very slow time--Norfolk was reached, and when +transportation could be obtained we piled into freight cars and were soon +on our way through the famous Dismal Swamp to Suffolk. Here we found the +Fourth regiment, and the reception which the boys gave us was next to +getting back to Rhode Island itself. I will not attempt to speak in detail +of what was done at Suffolk by our regiment. It was the pleasantest place +which we visited while we were away from home, and the service being more +active than any which we had previously performed, it was more congenial +and satisfactory to the men. Our camp was delightfully located, and the +occasional sharp skirmishes which we had with the rebels, who were just +across the Nansemond river, together with numerous expeditions to the +Blackwater and thereabouts, served to keep the regiment in good condition +and remove all apprehensions of demoralization because of inactivity. + +There were a large number of Union troops at Suffolk before our arrival. +The weather soon became very hot, and previous to their departure the +deaths were numerous. Daily the solemn processions wended their way to the +populous city of the dead. The funerals usually took place in the morning +just before sunrise, or at night just after sunset. I seem now to hear the +dirges played by the bands, and the volleys fired by the soldiers over the +graves of their dead comrades. + +Upon my return home, I learned that among those in the rebel army while I +was at Suffolk was a young man who learned his trade with me in the +"Chronicle" office in Pawtucket, and who went to Alabama several years +before the "late unpleasantness." At the close of the war he returned to +the North and again became a loyal citizen. + +On one of the expeditions to which I have referred, the Eleventh regiment +marched to the extreme front, three miles from Blackwater bridge, throwing +out Company F as pickets one mile in advance, who were soon engaged by the +enemy, and a brisk skirmish ensued which lasted until dark, when +hostilities ceased for that day. On the following afternoon, while three +of the companies of the regiment were picketing the front, they were +attacked in a spirited manner by six companies of a Mississippi regiment +deployed as skirmishers. Company B was sent forward as a support, but soon +deployed as skirmishers. The firing continued several hours, the enemy +being steadily driven back, leaving their dead on the field. Several +prisoners were captured. Obeying orders to fall back to Windsor, the +picket companies acted as rear guard. On this expedition the regiment was +absent from Suffolk eleven days, and was attached to the division under +command of General Corcoran. This was the nearest approach to a +hand-to-hand encounter with the enemy that the regiment had during its +term of service, and the two Pawtucket companies occupied the most exposed +and conspicuous positions. + +It was at this time that Lieutenant Thomas Moies came near being shot by a +man who belonged to one of the companies of the Eleventh which were in the +rear of Company B. The affair to which I refer occurred just in the edge +of the woods, between daylight and dark. Lieutenant Moies, with an old +straw hat on his head, and in advance of his men, was cautiously crawling +along on his hands and knees in the underbrush up to the enemy's line. +Having satisfied himself that the enemy was falling back, he rose up, and +a member of Company C observing his hat mistook it for the head-gear of +one of the rebels, as their uniform always lacked uniformity, and +immediately fired. Fortunately for Lieutenant Moies, and to the great joy +of the entire regiment, the man who fired failed to obey the stereotyped +order to "fire low," and the misdirected bullet went over the head of our +esteemed lieutenant, and his valuable life was spared. + +Since this paper was prepared, Lieutenant Moies has been "mustered out." I +knew him well as a neighbor and as a soldier. Together we slept on the +field with the same starry canopy for our covering, and together on the +weary march we shared the scanty contents of the same haversack and drank +from the same canteen. For him, "war's glorious art" had no allurements. +He loved his quiet home and the peaceful pursuits of life, and when he +gave himself to the service of his country it was because, being a true +patriot, he felt that its claims upon him were greater than those of +family and friends. + + "Wife, children and neighbor, + May mourn at his knell; + He was lover and friend + Of his country as well." + +His rank in the service, when measured by the army standard, was a +subordinate one, but had his shoulders been covered with eagles or stars, +he could not have been other than the same quiet, unassuming +citizen-soldier that he was, winning by his modest demeanor, sterling +integrity, and kindliness of heart, the esteem of his brother officers, +and the love and affection of his men. I know whereof I speak, when I say +that no officer who went from Rhode Island was more respected and beloved +by his command than was Lieutenant Thomas Moies, and by none is his death +more sincerely mourned than by those who served under him in Virginia in +1862-3. Such was the man--such was the soldier. + + + + +CHAPTER VI. + + +Elsewhere I have spoken of an "unconditional surrender" Union man whom I +overhauled while on picket duty on the Norfolk and Petersburg railroad. +All southern men--and women, too, as to that matter--were not so loyal as +that old man was, as is shown by the following incident which occurred on +the morning of our arrival in Suffolk. While marching down the principal +street we were halted for a few minutes. Immediately all the doorsteps of +the houses were appropriated by our men to their own use. My doorstep +belonged to a house which had all the appearance of being occupied by one +of the "first families." Presently a well dressed, intelligent looking, +elderly lady appeared at the door and inquired what regiment ours was. +Before time was given me to reply, a comrade who was sharing the step with +me, said, "One Hundred and Eleventh Rhode Island!" She then asked, "Is +that in North Carolina?" To assist her in locating "Little Rhody," I +remarked that Massachusetts was its nearest neighbor, presuming that all +southerners knew where the "bottled up" hero of Dutch Gap belonged when +at home. Having straightened out her geography, which seemed considerably +mixed, she then wanted to know what we came out there for. I told her we +came to fight for the Union. With considerable fire in her eye, and +vinegar in her tone, she replied, "They tell me you've come down here to +fight for the nasty niggers; and if I were a man, I would resist to the +death before _I_ would do such a thing!" Here the conversation was +suddenly interrupted by the order to "fall in," and I left the old lady +soliloquizing upon the causes which led to the war, and its probable +result to both North and South. Whether she had confounded Rhode Island +with Roanoke Island by reason of the similarity of names, or whether our +sudden appearance in front of her residence had caused her to lose her +reckoning generally, I am not sure. Possibly she was not up in geography. + +We had our pastimes when in camp. While we were at Suffolk it was not an +uncommon thing just after supper to see the men of Companies I and K +(commonly known as the Young Men's Christian Association companies) +holding prayer-meetings in the open air and singing revival melodies at +the ends of their streets, while the men of the other companies, at the +ends of their streets, would be dancing to the music of a violin or banjo, +or singing songs of a less spiritual character than those of the +Y. M. C. A. companies, all having a good time in their way, and neither +infringing nor trespassing upon the rights of the others, although some of +the men in the regiment, I feel compelled to say, were not the embodiment +of all the Christian virtues. + +While we were in winter quarters on Miner's Hill, the religiously inclined +men of the regiment erected a log chapel in which to hold services in the +evening and on Sundays. No church bell summoned them to worship, but a few +taps of the drum or a few notes from the bugle, or, better still, the +singing of some old, familiar hymn learned in boyhood in New England +homes, served as a "church call," and from every part of the camp the men +came to reverently worship the God of battles. I like good church music, +but believe me when I say that I would not exchange the memory of one of +those grand old hymns which "the boys" used to sing with "the spirit, and +the understanding also," at their meetings in that old log chapel, and +into which they threw their whole souls, for all of the so called +"classical music" which I have since heard rendered by grand organ and +artistic quartette on two continents. + +One Sabbath while we were in Suffolk, a special service for the soldiers +who were on duty there was held in one of the churches, the chaplains of +the various regiments officiating. The house was filled to its utmost +capacity,--the galleries, the aisles, the pulpit steps and the +vestibule,--while many were unable to find even standing room. At the +close of the sermon, officers and men knelt together at the same altar, +their confessions and supplications ascending to a common Father, and, +irrespective of distinctive creed or belief, partook of the Lord's Supper, +realizing as never before the truth that "God is no respecter of persons;" +and to one at least of that company of reverent worshipers, the Master's +words, "This do in remembrance of ME," had a deeper significance than ever +before. + +Religious services were also held at the Convalescent Camp, for there were +some faithful Christian men even there who did not forget their religious +vows when the fortunes of war called them away from their homes and +accustomed places of worship. At one of the evening meetings in the large +tent, which was filled to its utmost limits, an invitation was given to +those present who were striving, as "soldiers of the cross," to render +faithful service to the Captain of their salvation, to raise the right +hand. In response to the request, a large number of hands were raised. It +occurred, however, to the leader of the meeting that some were there whose +right arms had been shot off, and to such he gave opportunity to raise the +left hand--and there were quite a number raised. But the most affecting +sight was when a few men who had lost both arms in battle, and had only +stumps remaining, rose to their feet and gave evidence of their loyalty to +their Lord and Master. Such men could well sing at the close of the +service: + + "God of all nations! sovereign Lord, + In Thy dread name we draw the sword; + We lift the starry flag on high, + That fills with light our stormy sky. + + "From treason's rent, from murder's stain, + Guard Thou its folds till peace shall reign, + Till fort and field, till shore and sea, + Join our loud anthem, PRAISE TO THEE!" + +I used to be greatly amused at times at the kind of literature which +reached us when in camp from kind friends at home who were solicitous +concerning our moral welfare. Sometimes it was very evident that a book or +tract smuggled itself into the package sent which had never been "passed +upon" by any member of the Christian Commission. Just think of placing a +cook-book in the hands of a man who had been living for months on +hard-tack and salt junk, with no prospect of a change in diet for months +to come! + +I am reminded, in this connection, of an incident which occurred in one of +the hospitals in Washington. A kind-hearted Christian lady passed through +the wards one day distributing religious tracts. She placed one in the +hands of a young soldier who was occupying one of the numerous cots. As +she turned away from him on her mission of love, she heard him laugh. The +good woman's feelings were hurt, and retracing her steps she mildly +rebuked him for his seeming rudeness and ingratitude. He begged her pardon +and assured her that no discourtesy was intended, and remarked that he was +amused by the inappropriateness of the title of the tract she had given +him, "The Sin of Dancing," when both of his legs had been shot off. + + + + +CHAPTER VII. + + +In common with soldiers generally, the _ménu_ of our company was somewhat +limited in variety, and the dishes served did not materially differ from +day to day. Sunday, however, was an exception to this general rule when we +were in camp. In accordance with the time-honored New England custom, on +Sunday morning we had _our_ "baked beans." If we did not always remember +to keep the Sabbath day holy, we certainly never forgot that it was the +day for baked beans; and I sometimes thought that the appearance of that +article of food on Sunday morning served us better than a Church calendar +or the "Old Farmer's Almanac" could have done as a reminder how the day +should be spent. + +Our cook had a novel way of cooking or baking beans. He soaked them in the +usual style, parboiled them in a large kettle, and then put them in a +deep, iron mess-pan, generous slices of pork being placed on top of the +beans. A hole was then made in the ground a foot or two feet deep and the +bottom well filled with live coals, and on top of the coals was placed +the iron mess-pan with its savory contents. Upon the cover of the pan was +then placed more live coals, and the whole covered with turf well tamped +down. This was done on Saturday afternoon, and on Sunday morning the beans +came out of their improvised oven piping hot and in no wise inferior to +those which furnished the staple article of the Sunday morning meal in so +many New England homes. + +Burns tells us that "the well-laid schemes of mice and men gang aft +agley." On one occasion it occurred that we encamped one Saturday +afternoon on an old battlefield, and as it was known that we were to +remain there over Sunday, our cook began the usual preliminary work +whereby he was to furnish the company with baked beans on the following +morning. It so happened that at the spot where the hole was dug in the +ground an unexploded shell was buried a little farther down, and after the +live coals and the bean pot had been deposited in the earth long enough to +form a mutual acquaintance and become warm friends a loud explosion was +heard, and immediately the beans took an upward tendency and the air was +completely filled with them, confirming the assertion of Artemas Ward +that the "festive bean, when baked, is a _very lively fruit_." + +The spring of 1863 was particularly favorable to the development of +typhoid fever, and a good many men in our regiment were in the hospital +with that disease. The surgeon ordered a gill of whiskey to be served to +every man daily, and as an inducement for him to "put it where it would do +the most good"--at least in the surgeon's opinion--he was told that he +would not be excused from duty if reported on the sick list. The whiskey +was usually taken by the men and put into their canteens with the water, +but in very many cases it did not take such a roundabout way in reaching +its destination. In my "mess" was a good, orthodox, prohibitionist deacon, +a man whose example I was told before leaving home that I could +consistently follow in all things--especially in _spiritual_ things. One +day he remarked to me that he had observed that I did not take my ration +of whiskey when it was dealt out. I told him that I had not felt the need +of it. He replied that he was very much afraid of the typhoid fever, and +had no scruples in regard to the taking of a little whiskey as a +precautionary measure, and if I was going to continue to refuse to take +my ration of it, he wished I would let it be poured into my canteen, and +he would turn it into his own when we got back to our quarters;--"only be +careful," said he, "that there is no water in your canteen." After that I +allowed the whiskey to be poured into my canteen; but the good deacon's +argument as to its being a preventive for typhoid fever was so convincing +that I did not allow it to be transferred to his. + +As is well known, a wide and almost impassable gulf of difference exists +between the officers and the rank and file in the regular army. But I had +not been long in the volunteer service before I discovered that +considerable difference existed even there between the private soldier and +the officer. To illustrate. While in Suffolk there happened to be an "r" +in the month. Walking along the principal street one day, I espied in the +window of a restaurant a card, upon which was printed or painted in +letters of large dimensions these two words: "STEAMED OYSTERS." Visions of +Pawtucket and Providence river bivalves immediately came up before me, and +I then and there resolved to have a good square meal of "steamed oysters," +even though it should pecuniarily impoverish me. So, entering the +restaurant, I seated myself upon one of the unoccupied high stools at the +oyster bar. And here I will remark that I could not have felt the +importance of my elevated position any more if my blouse had been covered +with shoulder-straps. Presently the proprietor of the establishment +presented himself, and eyeing me with an air of indifference almost +amounting to contempt, he asked me what I wanted. I replied, "Steamed +oysters." I confess I was somewhat surprised and considerably "down in the +mouth" when he informed me that he couldn't sell steamed oysters to a +private soldier. My suggestion that he might overcome the difficulty by +_giving them to me_, failed to secure the much-coveted bivalves, and I +retired from the restaurant a sadder but wiser man than when I entered it. + +As I remarked at the outset, there was considerable difference between the +private soldier and the officer even in the volunteer service; and this +was, as I have shown, particularly true as to which one should eat steamed +oysters. But the line had to be drawn somewhere, I suppose, and so at +Suffolk they drew it at steamed oysters, and, unfortunately for the man +who was serving his country at thirteen dollars a month, he "got left." + + + + +CHAPTER VIII. + + +While the Eleventh regiment was in service only nine months, and was never +in action as a full regiment, yet it lost in that time two colonels. A +certain fatality appeared to await those who were sent to take command of +the regiment during the early part of its term of service. It seemed at +one time as if the regiment was raised for the sole purpose of giving +those who were to become colonels of other Rhode Island regiments an +opportunity to perfect themselves in battalion drill and other military +movements before assuming command elsewhere--a sort of stepping-stone, as +it were, to something which was considered more desirable. There was, for +instance, Colonel Edwin Metcalf, who went out with us and who left us to +take command of the Third Rhode Island. Then there was Colonel Horatio +Rogers, who came to us from the Third regiment and remained less than two +weeks, leaving us to take command of the Second Rhode Island. The next to +put in an appearance was Colonel George E. Church, who had previously +served as lieutenant-colonel of the Seventh Rhode Island. He remained +with us until the expiration of our term of enlistment. + +It is not within the province of a private soldier--more especially a "raw +recruit"--to criticise his superiors, and consequently I will not attempt +it, notwithstanding this is the "piping time of peace," and all fear of +the guard-house has forever vanished. I will say, however, that all of the +officers named had their peculiarities, and that our lieutenant-colonel +was peculiarly peculiar; and yet I believe him to have been every inch a +soldier--at any rate, there was no such word as fear in his dictionary. He +was in command when the regiment came the nearest to being in an +engagement, and I fancy I see him now, mounted on his horse and riding at +the head of the column, wearing a moth-eaten blouse and an exceedingly +dilapidated straw hat, with a very black "T. D." clay pipe stuck in his +mouth, the bowl downwards. He looked more like the "cowboy" of modern +times than the pictures of military heroes which I used to see in my +school-books when a boy. This was our lieutenant-colonel--John Talbot +Pitman. He had good "staying qualities." He never threw up his commission, +nor did he die. He remained with us to the last, and rose considerably in +the estimation of the men after his appearance at the head of the regiment +at the time I have just mentioned. Men everywhere--especially +soldiers--admire pluck. Our lieutenant-colonel had pluck, even though at +times his heart seemed somewhat lacking in tenderness. He never winked at +any breach of discipline on the part of an officer or a private while he +was in command of the regiment. If at times he appeared to have too little +consideration for his men, he never failed to exact the fullest measure of +consideration for them from all others. + +Colonel Metcalf, as I have stated, came to us first, and was the first to +leave us. Universal regret on the part of officers and men was felt when +he took his departure for Hilton Head. + +Colonel Rogers did not remain with us long enough for us to learn to like +him or dislike him. He came to us "sp'ilin' for a fight," his heart's +desire all the time he was with us was to fight, and when he found that he +couldn't fight the rebels with us, he began to fight the War Department +for a "change of base;" and in order to have peace within our own borders, +and in response to a very general demand on the part of the loyal North +for a vigorous prosecution of the war, coupled with a declaration on the +part of certain northern newspapers that no further delay in pushing "On +to Richmond" would be tolerated without a satisfactory reason being given +therefor, the authorities at Washington compromised matters by sending the +plucky colonel to the Second Rhode Island regiment, where he "honored his +regiment, his State and himself by his gallant deeds." It is, however, but +simple justice to the Eleventh regiment to say that the men were hopeful +that Colonel Rogers' vigorous and persistent efforts with the War +Department to relieve them from the disagreeable duty which they were +performing at the Convalescent Camp would be crowned with success. Service +in the field was coveted. + +Colonel Rogers was a strict disciplinarian. The surgeon of the regiment +was a great lover of horses. It was said of him, before he entered the +service, that if he was sent for in a case of expected immediate death, +and he had an opportunity while on the road to trade a good horse for a +better one, he would always let his patient take the chances.--I do not +wish to be considered as authority for the truthfulness of this +assertion.--One Sunday morning our company was ordered to report in front +of the colonel's "markee" for inspection. While the inspection was going +on, the colonel stood in front of us, and just a little to his left the +surgeon and quartermaster, it being just before divine service, were +driving a horse trade. Naturally enough this attracted the attention of +the men, and it being noticed by Colonel Rogers, he exclaimed in that +melodious tone of voice so characteristic of him: "_Eyes to the front; you +wa'n't ordered down here to inspect the quartermaster's department!_" +Colonel Rogers was, indeed, peculiar. + +In an excellent paper which was read by Captain Charles H. Parkhurst, of +Company C, at a recent reunion of the Eleventh regiment, he thus +contrasted Colonel Metcalf and Colonel Rogers: + +"Colonel Metcalf, as a rule, commanded without saying anything about it. +When Colonel Rogers commanded he couldn't help saying something about it. +No one seeing Colonel Metcalf off duty, or un-uniformed, would have +suspected that he had any command, while the most casual observer looking +at Colonel Rogers, even when asleep, would instinctively know that even +then the colonel, at least, thought that he was in the exercise of +authority." + +Our last commanding officer, Colonel Church, was a thorough soldier and, +like Colonel Rogers, whom he succeeded, a strict disciplinarian. He was, +apparently, a favorite with the officers of the regiment, but his ways +smacked too much of the regular army to have ever made him popular with +volunteer soldiers. It is, however, due Colonel Church to say that while +under his command the regiment attained a high degree of proficiency in +all that characterizes good soldiership, and won for itself much praise +from those who were even superior in rank to its colonel. + +Speaking of the peculiarities of Colonel Church, for he had them too, +perhaps nothing created a greater dislike for him on the part of his men +than the severity of his discipline in regard to very small matters. To +illustrate: The sending of a man to the guard-house because in his +exasperation he so far forgot himself as to raise his hand to brush a fly +off of his nose when on dress parade, was not relished. It might have done +for a holiday, but not in time of war. At any rate, that is the way the +boys looked at it. + + + + +CHAPTER IX. + + +Suffolk was our last regular encampment. From there we went to Yorktown, +expecting to take transportation home, as our term of service had nearly +expired. After remaining there a few days we were, very much to our +surprise, ordered up the peninsula. Somebody evidently made a mistake in +his reckoning, for when we arrived at Williamsburg, only twelve miles +distant from Yorktown, we were ordered back, an order which was not +reluctantly obeyed, although had there been urgent need for the regiment's +services for a longer period, I feel sure that they would have been +cheerfully rendered. + +Upon our return to Yorktown we once more pitched our shelter (or "dog") +tents, and made ourselves as comfortable as we could until transportation +was furnished. Finally we embarked on the steamer "John Rice," and after a +three days' sail arrived in Providence on the afternoon of the sixth of +July, 1863, just nine months to a day from the time we left Rhode Island. + +The reception of the regiment by the patriotic citizens of Providence was +as generous as it was hospitable. The Pawtucket companies (B and F) +reached home just before six o'clock, and were welcomed with the firing of +cannon, the ringing of bells, and other demonstrations of respect and +kindness. After the warm greetings at the railroad station by friends, the +band meanwhile vigorously playing "When Johnny Comes Marching Home," and +other popular airs, a line was formed, (the escort comprising the Home +Guard and officers of the Light Guard,) and moved through the principal +streets, including a march to Central Falls and back. It was a proud day +for the "raw recruit" and his comrades. In marching through the streets of +both places, cheers and the waving of handkerchiefs testified the delight +of the multitude at our safe return. On arriving at the old Armory Hall in +Pawtucket, where, nine or ten months previously, so many of us had +enlisted, and which never looked so well to us before, a bountiful +collation was partaken of, and then, with good judgment on the part of +somebody, the companies were dismissed without being compelled to listen +to speeches from those who, for "prudential reasons," remained at home. + +The second death in Company B occurred on the evening of the first day out +from Yorktown. Frank M. Bliss, the "drummer boy" of the company, had been +sick several days with typhoid fever in the hospital at Yorktown, and his +recovery was considered hopeless when he was carried on board the steamer +by his comrades. The deceased was a son of Captain Albert Bliss, of +Pawtucket, and a young man of excellent qualities. He was very anxious to +serve his country in some capacity, and being only eighteen years of age, +and not physically able to carry the load of an infantry soldier he +enlisted as a drummer, and did good service in that capacity. His remains +were tenderly borne by a detail of his comrades from the steamer to the +home of his afflicted parents, and what in so many other homes was a day +of great joy on account of the return of loved ones, in theirs was a day +of deepest sorrow, for the loved son and brother whose return had been so +long joyously anticipated came not. + +The regiment was paid off and "mustered out" of service in Providence on +the thirteenth day of July, 1863. It left Rhode Island a little more than +one thousand strong. It came back numbering eight hundred and +thirty-eight enlisted men and thirty-eight commissioned officers. During +its absence it lost sixty men by discharge, and seven others by death. +Fifty-five of its members were left behind in various hospitals, and +twenty-five sick men were brought home on the steamer. It is a remarkable +fact in the history of the regiment that not one man was killed in an +engagement with the enemy during its entire nine months' campaign. It is +doubtful whether this has its parallel in any other regiment which entered +the service during the civil war. + +But there were many other things which the soldier had to do besides +fighting. One thing all had to do, namely, _obey orders_, and when that +was done, the soldier had done all that was required of him, all that he +promised to do when he enlisted. The entire regiment never appeared in +line once after we left Providence, so many of the men being detailed for +various kinds of service, such as hospital nurses, ambulance drivers, +wagoners, and so forth. But, comrades, whatever the service performed by +our regiment, it should be esteemed honor and distinction enough for any +one of us to have it said of him, "_This is the country which he helped to +save_." + + + + +CHAPTER X. + + +I have thus imperfectly, and to myself at least very unsatisfactorily, +sketched the nine months' war experiences of a "raw recruit" of the +Eleventh Rhode Island regiment. Whatever has been said, if anything, which +shall provoke criticism, be assured that "naught has been set down in +malice." + +As was said by one whose words I have already quoted, "the men composing +the Eleventh regiment compared favorably with those of other regiments +which went from Rhode Island." Some theories, however, in regard to what +constitutes the best material for soldiers were upset by the results of +our nine months' campaign. In my own company, for instance, the majority +of the men were recruited from the professions and the counting-room. But +before leaving home it was deemed best by the officers to enlist a few men +upon whom they could rely to do the fighting in the event that the classes +to whom I have referred should show the "white feather" in the hour of +trial. Consequently a few "roughs," or "toughs," or "bruisers," or +"scalawags," were introduced into the company. With what result? Just what +every intelligent man should have known at the outset. They were +absolutely good for nothing when we were in camp but to furnish the +company's quota for the guard-house, and when an emergency required their +services they were either drunk or in the hospital by reason of their +excesses. They were, indeed, "invincible in peace and invisible in war." +The best men at home proved the most serviceable in the field. And this I +believe to be true not only of our own company and regiment, but of all +the troops who entered the service of the country. + +All soldiers have a regimental pride and affection. It would sound equally +as strange to hear a man not speak well of his mother, as to hear a +soldier not speak well of his regiment. The rebel General Hill tells of an +Irish soldier belonging to a New Orleans regiment whom he found after the +second day's battle at Gettysburg lying alone in the woods, his head +partly supported by a tree. He was shockingly injured. General Hill said +to him: "My poor fellow, you are badly hurt. What regiment do you belong +to?" He replied: "The Fifth Confederit, sir; and a dommed good regiment +it is." The answer, though almost ludicrous, well illustrates a soldier's +pride in his regiment. + +That the Eleventh did not accomplish all that the men composing it +expected it would when it left Rhode Island is admitted. But that it did +its full duty in the obedience of every order, who will deny? As another +has so well and truthfully said in regard to the regiment, "it had not the +ordering of its own destiny. It went where it was ordered to go, and +performed the duty to which it was assigned, and left no stain to sully +the fair fame and honor of the State or country." While it is true that to +some regiments better opportunities were furnished to achieve distinction +and renown than to others, there is no reason to suppose that the Eleventh +Rhode Island would not have done equally as well under the same +circumstances. + +I am not insensible to the fact that during the war, and for some time +after it was ended, a feeling was entertained by some of the men who first +went out in the three years' regiments that the patriotism of the nine +months' men was stimulated by the bounties which were offered. In Rhode +Island, so far as my knowledge extends, the largest bounty paid any one +person was one hundred and fifty dollars. Would any old soldier, +especially if he has a family or others dependent upon him, consider the +sum mentioned compensation in any adequate sense to induce him again to +become a target for rebel bullets? It cannot be denied that there were +some men--unworthy the name of soldiers--who were induced by the offers of +bounty money to enlist and take the chances of "jumping" the bounty, or of +desertion, but by far the larger proportion of those who enlisted after +the bounties were offered, did so because they were then enabled to leave +those who were dependent upon them for their daily bread in such a +condition as to keep the wolf of starvation from the door in their +absence. + +Every man who, from love of his country, left home and friends to defend +the honor of the old flag in the hour of its assailment by traitorous +hands was a true patriot and deserves well of his fellow-countrymen, and +whether he served for a longer or a shorter period, or whether his service +was performed in the army or in the navy, on land or on sea, he has, by +the faithful discharge of his duty, honored the State which he represented +far more than it can ever honor him, and of him a grateful and +appreciative people will unite in saying, "WELL DONE, GOOD AND FAITHFUL +SERVANT." + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of A Raw Recruit's War Experiences, by +Ansel D. 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Nickerson. + </title> + <style type="text/css"> + + p {margin-top: .75em; text-align: justify; margin-bottom: .75em;} + + h1,h2,h3,h4,h5,h6 {text-align: center; clear: both;} + + hr {width: 33%; margin-top: 2em; margin-bottom: 2em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; clear: both;} + + table {margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;} + + body {margin-left: 12%; margin-right: 12%;} + + .pagenum {position: absolute; left: 92%; font-size: smaller; text-align: right; font-style: normal;} + + .poem {margin-left:15%; margin-right:15%;} + + .right {text-align: right;} + .center {text-align: center;} + .smcap {font-variant: small-caps;} + + .figcenter {margin: auto; text-align: center;} + + a:link {color:#0000ff; text-decoration:none} + a:visited {color:#6633cc; text-decoration:none} + + .spacer {padding-left: 1em; padding-right: 1em;} + .spacer2 {padding-left: 1.5em; padding-right: 1.5em;} + + </style> + </head> +<body> + + +<pre> + +Project Gutenberg's A Raw Recruit's War Experiences, by Ansel D. Nickerson + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: A Raw Recruit's War Experiences + +Author: Ansel D. Nickerson + +Release Date: April 17, 2010 [EBook #32031] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK A RAW RECRUIT'S WAR EXPERIENCES *** + + + + +Produced by The Online Distributed Proofreading Team at +https://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images +generously made available by The Internet Archive/American +Libraries.) + + + + + + +</pre> + + + + +<div class="figcenter"><img src="images/fronttmb.jpg" alt="" /><br /> +<a href="images/front.jpg"><small>Larger Image</small></a></div> +<p class="center">THE “RAW RECRUIT.”</p> + +<p> </p><p> </p><p> </p> +<h1>A RAW RECRUIT’S<br /> +WAR EXPERIENCES.</h1> +<p> </p> +<h4>BY</h4> +<h3>ANSEL D. NICKERSON,</h3> +<h4>Late Private Co. B, Eleventh Rhode Island Volunteers.</h4> +<p> </p> +<h4>PROVIDENCE:<br />PRINTED BY THE PRESS COMPANY.<br />1888.</h4> +<p> </p><p> </p> +<h4>FOR PRIVATE DISTRIBUTION ONLY.</h4> +<p> </p><p> </p> +<h4>AFFECTIONATELY INSCRIBED<br /> +To My Wife,<br /> +WHOSE PATRIOTIC SPIRIT PROMPTED<br /> +ME TO OFFER MY SERVICES<br /> +TO MY COUNTRY.</h4> +<p> </p><p> </p> + +<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="5" summary="poem"> +<tr><td>“The neighing troop, the flashing blade,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">The bugle’s stirring blast,</span><br /> +The charge, the dreadful cannonade,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">The din and shout are past.”</span></td></tr></table> + + +<p> </p><p> </p> +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_v" id="Page_v">[Pg v]</a></span></p> +<h2>APOLOGY.</h2> + +<p>This “war paper” was first read before the Rhode Island Soldiers and +Sailors Society, in Providence, October 19, 1886. Subsequently it was read +at the annual winter reunion of the Eleventh Rhode Island Regiment +(January 27, 1887), two companies of which regiment (B and F) were +recruited in Pawtucket, the former commanded by Captain Charles W. +Thrasher and Lieutenant Thomas Moies, and the latter by Captain Edward +Taft. It has since been read several times before other associations and +societies. The paper was not intended for publication, nor was it +originally broken into chapters, and in allowing it to be published, the +author permits the urgent requests of numerous friends to outweigh his own +judgment. It does not assume to be a connected or detailed history of the +regiment; nor is it the history of any one company of the regiment; nor is +it the diary of an officer of the regiment, but simply what its title +indicates, “<span class="smcap">A Raw Recruit’s War Experiences</span>.” More is said about Company B +than of any other company in the Eleventh Regiment for the reason that the +aforesaid “raw recruit’s war experiences” were especially identified with +that company. Being personal recollections,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_vi" id="Page_vi">[Pg vi]</a></span> and to a large extent the +recital of personal incidents connected with the nine months’ campaign of +the regiment in Virginia, must be my apology for the frequent use of the +personal pronoun I.</p> + +<p>As the events of which I speak occurred at a period in our country’s +history when a spade was called a spade, and among a class of men who +could not be justly accused of ambiguity of expression, my paper will be +found to contain more than one “strong, old-fashioned English word, +familiar to all who read their Bibles.”</p> + +<p>To those comrades whose war experiences were of a very different character +from my own, and into whose hands this unpretentious little volume may +fall, I trust that the recital of some of the ludicrous scenes in camp and +on the march, rather than the harrowing descriptions of sanguinary +battles, may not prove wholly unwelcome.</p> + +<p class="right">A. D. N.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Pawtucket, R. I.</span>,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;"><i>April, 1888.</i></span></p> + + + +<p> </p><p> </p> +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_vii" id="Page_vii">[Pg vii]</a></span></p> +<h2>CONTENTS.</h2> + +<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="5" summary="contents"> +<tr><td colspan="3" align="center"><a href="#Chapter_I">CHAPTER I.</a></td></tr> +<tr><td><span class="smcap">The “Raw Recruit” enlists and goes into camp</span></td><td><span class="spacer"> </span></td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_1">1</a></td></tr> +<tr><td> </td></tr> +<tr><td colspan="3" align="center"><a href="#Chapter_II">CHAPTER II.</a></td></tr> +<tr><td><span class="smcap">Off for the seat of war—The knapsacks</span></td><td> </td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_11">11</a></td></tr> +<tr><td> </td></tr> +<tr><td colspan="3" align="center"><a href="#Chapter_III">CHAPTER III.</a></td></tr> +<tr><td><span class="smcap">At Miner’s Hill—First death—The “long roll”</span></td><td> </td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_18">18</a></td></tr> +<tr><td> </td></tr> +<tr><td colspan="3" align="center"><a href="#Chapter_IV">CHAPTER IV.</a></td></tr> +<tr><td><span class="smcap">The Convalescent Camp—Scenes grave and gay</span></td><td> </td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_27">27</a></td></tr> +<tr><td> </td></tr> +<tr><td colspan="3" align="center"><a href="#Chapter_V">CHAPTER V.</a></td></tr> +<tr><td><span class="smcap">At “the front”—Norfolk and Suffolk</span></td><td> </td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_34">34</a></td></tr> +<tr><td> </td></tr> +<tr><td colspan="3" align="center"><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_viii" id="Page_viii">[Pg viii]</a></span><a href="#Chapter_VI">CHAPTER VI.</a></td></tr> +<tr><td><span class="smcap">Pastimes in camp—Religious services</span></td><td> </td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_40">40</a></td></tr> +<tr><td> </td></tr> +<tr><td colspan="3" align="center"><a href="#Chapter_VII">CHAPTER VII.</a></td></tr> +<tr><td><span class="smcap">Baked beans—The deacon’s advice—Steamed oysters</span></td><td> </td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_46">46</a></td></tr> +<tr><td> </td></tr> +<tr><td colspan="3" align="center"><a href="#Chapter_VIII">CHAPTER VIII.</a></td></tr> +<tr><td><span class="smcap">The Eleventh loses two colonels</span></td><td> </td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_51">51</a></td></tr> +<tr><td> </td></tr> +<tr><td colspan="3" align="center"><a href="#Chapter_IX">CHAPTER IX.</a></td></tr> +<tr><td><span class="smcap">Yorktown—Home again—Mustered out</span></td><td> </td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_57">57</a></td></tr> +<tr><td> </td></tr> +<tr><td colspan="3" align="center"><a href="#Chapter_X">CHAPTER X.</a></td></tr> +<tr><td>“<span class="smcap">Honor to whom honor is due</span>”</td><td> </td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_61">61</a></td></tr></table> + + +<p> </p><p> </p> +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_1" id="Page_1">[Pg 1]</a></span></p> +<h1>A Raw Recruit’s War Experiences.</h1> +<p> </p> +<h2><a name="Chapter_I" id="Chapter_I"></a><span class="smcap">Chapter I.</span></h2> + +<p>During the winter preceding the firing upon Sumter, I was one of a group +of young fellows of about my own age who regularly assembled evenings at +the corner grocery of the village where we lived, to listen to older +persons discuss the affairs of the nation and all other matters, moral, +intellectual and social, as is the nightly custom in country groceries, +and particularly the probabilities of war between the North and the South, +which, I will say in passing, every day grew more probable. Each several +barrel-head in that grocery seemed to know its own occupant, and for any +one else to have appropriated it to his own use, especially had he been a +young man, would, I am sure, have been deemed an unpardonable breach of +courtesy. The grocer himself was the acknowledged spokesman of the +company, and never allowed himself to be “switched off” from the subject +in hand, however pressing the demands of his waiting customers.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_2" id="Page_2">[Pg 2]</a></span> He did +not believe there would be any war; but in the event that the South should +“kick in the traces,” as he expressed it, “our boys would only have to arm +themselves with brooms and go down there and give ’em a thrashing.” This +<i>sweeping</i> assertion was received with liberal applause by all of his +hearers, the impatient customers not excepted.</p> + +<p>I hope I shall not detract from your favorable estimate of the grocer’s +patriotism when I add that, being a dealer in brooms himself, he remarked +that he “would like nothing better than a contract to supply the +government with them.” I hardly need mention the fact that the grocer was +a genuine specimen of the Yankee, and always kept an anchor to the +windward and his eyes wide open for the main chance. “They all did it”—in +war times.</p> + +<p>I only mention this incident in illustration of the opinion which our +northern people generally had in the winter of ’60 and ’61 as to the +likelihood of a war with the South, and their estimate as to what would be +necessary to suppress a rebellion against the government in that section +of the country if, unfortunately, one should break out.</p> + +<p>But, as we all know, the groceryman proved a false prophet. When the news +of the attack upon Fort Sumter<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_3" id="Page_3">[Pg 3]</a></span> came, it found me setting type in the +“Gazette and Chronicle” printing office in Pawtucket, where I had been +regularly employed as apprentice and journeyman since 1846. “All work and +no play” had made Jack a pretty dull boy indeed, and the war promised a +vacation, temporary or permanent, which I had long been seeking, and which +I at once made up my mind that I would avail myself of at the earliest +possible opportunity. As the war news became more and more interesting, +filling the paper nearly full every week to the exclusion of less +important matters, I became more and more determined to give the country +the benefit of my services. Very many of my associates had enlisted and +gone “to the front,” and I could not satisfy myself with any good reason +for longer remaining at home when men were so much needed to defend the +honor of the old flag and assist in upholding the integrity of the +government in its day of greatest peril. In the language of that good old +hymn, I realized that</p> + +<p class="poem">“I can but perish if I go,”</p> + +<p>and said:</p> + +<p class="poem">“I am resolved to try.”</p> + +<p>And I did. With what result will be seen.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_4" id="Page_4">[Pg 4]</a></span>I expected to encounter opposition at home, and consequently I kept my +plans to myself. A year had passed away, and yet I was not enrolled among +the “boys in blue.” Three hundred thousand nine months’ volunteers were +called for by President Lincoln, and proclamation was made that if the +necessary quota from each State was not filled by the fifteenth of August, +1862, a draft would be resorted to. I concluded to step in out of the +draft. War meetings were held almost every night in the old Armory Hall on +High street in Pawtucket. I was a regular attendant in the capacity of +reporter for the newspaper upon which I was employed. The speakers were +generally men past middle life, whose principal business seemed to be to +urge the young men to volunteer, and not to volunteer themselves. One +evening, for some reason, there was a dearth of speakers, and after a +while some one in the audience called out my name, and soon the call +became so loud and so general that I was compelled to respond. I ascended +the platform, and, as nearly as I can remember, I spoke as follows: “Young +men, one thing has especially impressed me this evening. Every speaker who +has preceded me has said to you, ‘<i>Go!</i>’ Now, boys, I say <i>Come!</i>” and +turning to a recruiting officer<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_5" id="Page_5">[Pg 5]</a></span> who sat on my right, I said, “Put my name +down!” I think it was the shortest speech I ever made; at any rate, I know +it was the best received. There seemed to be no bounds to the enthusiasm +which was manifested, and the recruiting business in Pawtucket at once +received a “boom.”</p> + +<p>After the meeting was over and congratulations were ended, I went home. +Now began the “tug of war.” The house was silent—very silent—and so was +I. I didn’t sleep much that night. In my wakefulness I concluded not to +say anything to my family about what I had done, but leave her to learn +the news from some other source. But this little scheme was upset very +early in the morning by the lady of the house asking me concerning the war +meeting of the previous evening, and the names of the speakers. After +giving her such general information as I possessed, I hesitatingly +informed her that she had had the honor of entertaining one of the +speakers over night. Woman like, she then wanted to know if anybody +enlisted. Things were getting pretty close home now. The ice must be +broken. I told her that several persons enlisted, and gave her the names +of some of them; and, after a moment’s hesitation, I said, “I don’t know +what you will<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_6" id="Page_6">[Pg 6]</a></span> think, or say, when I tell you that I was one of them, and +that I am going to the war.” Judge of my surprise, and of my own +depreciated estimate of what I had previously considered my great +patriotism, when she exclaimed, “<i>Well, all I have got to say is, that if +I had been a man, I should have gone long ago</i>.” The ice was pretty +effectually broken now, and what I feared might prove a council of war, +was turned into a council of peace. That speech settled the whole business +for me, and I was ready, yea, anxious, to shoulder my musket and go “to +the front” immediately; in fact, I wished I had gone before. Woman’s work +in the war! I fear it has not been fully appreciated or justly +acknowledged. The patriotism, the heroism and the sacrifice were not +confined to the soldiers. They knew little of the inexpressible longings, +the fears, the prayers, the yearning hopes, the terrible suspense, of +those at home who loved them. What pen can truthfully describe the weary +watching and waiting of the wives and mothers, the daughters and sisters, +during those long four years of fire and blood? God bless them, one and +all!</p> + +<p>Several weeks elapsed between the time of enlistment and going into camp. +At last we were ordered to report on<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_7" id="Page_7">[Pg 7]</a></span> Dexter Training Ground, in +Providence, the name of the camp being “Camp Stevens,” in honor of Major +General Isaac Ingalls Stevens, who was killed September 1st, 1862, in the +battle of Chantilly, Virginia, while leading his division in a charge. To +very many of the members of the regiment, their first military experience +began on Camp Stevens, and truthfulness to history compels me to add that +with no small number of the enlisted men it ended there, they being unable +to “pass muster,” or, in other words, to endure the severe ordeal to which +they were subjected by the chief mustering officer, Captain William +Silvey, of the regular army. I had entertained fears from the start that I +would be “thrown out” on account of a supposed pulmonary difficulty. I +“braced up” as best I could for the examination. Captain Silvey looked me +squarely in the face as I stood in line, and placing one of his hands upon +my breast, he struck with the other a blow which seemed hard enough to +fell an ox, and then remarked “All right!” I could not have been made more +happy than I was by his decision if he had knocked me down. He settled one +thing at any rate which had long been a disputed question in our family, +namely, that my breathing apparatus was “all right.”</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_8" id="Page_8">[Pg 8]</a></span>After the examinations were concluded, the “lucky ones” were sworn in and +marched down to the quartermaster’s department to receive their +equipments. The “pride, pomp and circumstance of glorious war” had never +possessed any great charm for me. I had belonged to an engine company and +a Sunday-school, but never to a military company; in fact, until I went on +to Camp Stevens I do not remember ever to have had a musket in my hand. +This will serve to explain why, when all of the members of my company had +been supplied with arms, the officer in command called attention to the +fact that I had my gun wrong side before, my hand grasping the lock or +hammer instead of the “guard.” The suggestion that I should join the +“awkward squad” was sufficiently exasperating to have almost induced me to +throw up my commission.</p> + +<p>But a still further humiliation was in store for me. At our first drill in +the manual of arms, among the other orders given was, “ram cartridge,” +when the officer in charge discovered that I had inserted the wrong end of +the ramrod into the muzzle of the gun, I having found the hollow space in +the large end very convenient in which to insert the ball of my little +finger in sending the imaginary cartridge to its<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_9" id="Page_9">[Pg 9]</a></span> destination. Fortunately +for me, no further opportunities for demonstrating my fitness for +promotion in the “awkward squad” were furnished me, and my leisure hours +were spent in acquiring proficiency in drill. How well I succeeded will +appear.</p> + +<p>While we were on Camp Stevens we had a great many visitors. Among those +whom I shall ever remember was that “grand, square and upright” citizen of +Pawtucket, Charley Chickering. It so happened that the day he visited us, +I was performing guard duty around the camp. I noticed that my portly +friend, as he paraded up and down the sidewalk opposite me, seemed deeply +interested in my movements. Presently he came across the street and walked +alongside of me awhile as I paced my beat back and forth. He was silent. +So was I. But at length that ominous chuckle of his began to be heard, or +perhaps I should say a series of chuckles, which all who are acquainted +with him so well know always precedes his quaint and original utterances. +I fancied that my martial air and my dexterity in handling my musket, +although I knew it did bob around considerably when carried at “support,” +or perpendicularly, was to evoke from my old friend and schoolmate a<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_10" id="Page_10">[Pg 10]</a></span> +compliment. But judge of my surprise when instead he opened upon me as +follows, his every word being punctuated with one of those peculiar +chuckles to which I have referred: “Nickerson,—I—admire—your— +patriotism,—but—I—swear—I—can’t—compliment—you—on—your— +soldierly—bearing.”</p> + +<p>I confess that I experienced considerable difficulty in learning to keep +step, but, like the raw Irish recruit, I stoutly maintained that the +trouble was with “the other b’ys; they wouldn’t kape step wid me.”</p> + + +<p> </p><p> </p> +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_11" id="Page_11">[Pg 11]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="Chapter_II" id="Chapter_II"></a><span class="smcap">Chapter II.</span></h2> + +<p>It was on the afternoon of the sixth of October, 1862, when we kissed our +wives and sweethearts, and</p> + +<p class="poem">“With our guns upon our shoulders,<br /> +And our bayonets by our sides,”</p> + +<p>left Camp Stevens for the seat of war. We were in anything but light +marching order when we broke camp. To this day the remembrance of those +back-breaking knapsacks makes me weary. Feminine ingenuity seemingly +exhausted itself in conjuring up all sorts of things, describable and +indescribable, that could make life a burden to a “raw recruit,” a +wheelbarrow being needed for their transportation. But the size of those +knapsacks grew “beautifully less” shortly after leaving home, a blanket +and overcoat being all that were absolutely needed in active service, and +often one of these proved a burden rather than a necessity. In addition to +clothing enough to have overstocked one of the numerous Palestine +merchants on Chatham street, in New York, there were, among other things, +family Bibles, pocket Testaments,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_12" id="Page_12">[Pg 12]</a></span> prayer-books and dictionaries, +Pilgrim’s Progress, Old Farmer’s Almanac, photograph and autograph albums, +ambrotypes and daguerreotypes, diaries, razors, mirrors of various sizes, +boxes of blacking, button-hooks, collars and cuffs, corkscrews, tooth +powder, brushes for the hair, teeth and boots, whisk brooms, clothing and +hat brushes, combs, shaving utensils, slippers, clothes-wringers, +frying-pans and patent coffee-pots, soap, towels, napkins, pins, needles +and thread, buttons of various dimensions, boots and shoes, both thick and +thin, hair oil and pomade, matches, pipes, tobacco, plug and fine cut, +rolls of linen bandages and bundles of lint, Pain Killer, Jamaica ginger, +Seidlitz powders, pills, cayenne pepper, and almost everything else but +umbrellas. Then there were the equipments provided by the +government,—haversack, canteen, cartridge box and sixty rounds of +cartridges, not to mention the musket,—until our appearance resembled the +pictures of the dromedaries crossing the Great Desert which I saw in the +geography in my school days. When we embarked on the cars at Olneyville, +bound for New York, and unslung those corpulent knapsacks, the sense of +relief which we experienced was, I fancy, somewhat akin to that felt by +Bunyan’s pilgrim when he dropped<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_13" id="Page_13">[Pg 13]</a></span> his burden. Indeed, it seemed like +getting out from under a haystack or a mountain.</p> + +<p>From New York to Washington our trip possessed no features uncommon to +other regiments. From Philadelphia to the National Capital we were +transported in freight cars, a new experience to all of us, but one to +which we became accustomed before we saw Rhode Island again. It was at +Perryville, Maryland, that we had our first glimpse of the devastation +wrought by war. Here the extensive bridge across the Susquehanna had been +burned by the enemy, and we were transferred in detachments across the +river to Havre de Grace in a small steamer. We arrived in Washington about +ten o’clock on one of the most beautiful moonlight nights I ever saw. Our +arrival was expected by some of our friends who had enlisted earlier than +ourselves, and they were at the railroad station to welcome us.</p> + +<p>Immediately upon landing from the cars we were marched to the “Soldiers’ +Retreat” for refreshments. No soldier who has frequented that place needs +to be told that we beat a hasty retreat therefrom. I am very confident +that the most of the men would gladly have taken the next train back to +Rhode Island, if the matter of return tickets had<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_14" id="Page_14">[Pg 14]</a></span> not been entirely +overlooked by the master of transportation.</p> + +<p>How marked the contrast between our reception in Washington and in +Philadelphia! Even to this day pleasant memories remain of the hospitality +dispensed to our regiment by the patriotic ladies of the “City of +Brotherly Love,” at the famous “Cooper Shop Volunteer Refreshment Saloon,” +a hospitality which was extended to all of the “boys in blue” who passed +through Philadelphia on their way to the National Capital.</p> + +<p>Fancy our feelings when we were informed that our first night in +Washington must be spent in this same unsavory “Soldiers’ Retreat.” Acting +upon the maxim that “what cannot be cured must be endured,” and in +unquestioned obedience to orders, we spread our blankets upon the hard, +dirty floor, and taking our huge knapsacks for pillows we wrapped our +mantles (poetry for army overcoats) about us and laid down to pleasant +dreams of home, and feather beds, and hair mattresses, and other comforts +and luxuries to which we had been so long accustomed as to have wholly +failed to appreciate them at their proper value. Truly in our case, +distance lent enchantment. But to come down<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_15" id="Page_15">[Pg 15]</a></span> to solid, matter-of-fact +prose, we didn’t sleep much that night anyway. Whether it was the effects +of the heat of the preceding day when we were marching through Baltimore +at a “double quick,” with those burdensome knapsacks breaking our backs, +or whether it was the souvenirs left by our comrades-in-arms who had +occupied that same floor the previous night, I cannot positively affirm, +but this one thing I know, that we <i>scratched</i> out a miserable existence +until morning, when, after declining without thanks to regale ourselves +with the so-called coffee which was furnished us, which our boys affirmed +was poor water spoilt, and the turning of the cold shoulder upon the salt +junk which was so temptingly spread before us, we cheerfully obeyed the +order of our Colonel to “fall in,” and were soon wending our way to East +Capitol hill, near the east branch of the Potomac, where, our tents not +having arrived, we encamped in the open air, which was far preferable to +spending a second night at the “Soldiers’ Retreat.” The soil where we +encamped was of a clayey nature, and the surface as free from moisture as +polishing powder, and when we awoke on the following morning we had very +much the appearance of having slept in an ash-pit.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_16" id="Page_16">[Pg 16]</a></span>We remained here but a day or two, when we received orders to join General +Casey’s Division, and bidding adieu without regrets to “Camp Misery,” as +our boys had named the spot, we were soon on our way across Chain Bridge, +and in due season found ourselves on the “sacred soil” of Virginia.</p> + +<p>I can never forget a laughable scene which was enacted on Pennsylvania +avenue by Company B while on this march. We were on the extreme left of +the line. In front of a tonsorial saloon on the avenue our boys espied a +Dutchman who formerly carried on business in Pawtucket. The surprise at +the unexpected meeting was mutual on the part of the barber and the boys. +It was his habit when a customer entered his shop to inquire as to whether +he preferred the water hot or cold, but for any one to repeat the question +in his presence, whether on the street or elsewhere, was sure to stir up +the barber’s ire. Immediately upon seeing him standing in front of his +shop, our boys began to sing out, “Vater hot, or vater cold?” The old +Dutchman became terribly excited, and the result was that that portion of +the procession which was composed of Company B became sadly demoralized. +As soon as our officers took in the situation,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_17" id="Page_17">[Pg 17]</a></span> order was at once +restored, and a few minutes of “double quick” enabled us to regain our +position in line. But no sooner had this been done than we saw coming +directly toward us, down the avenue, a regiment which had the appearance +of having just come from “the front.” It was a new and strange sight to +us, those “battle-scarred veterans” of the war, and we made up our minds +that the right thing for us to do was to tender them a reception. Without +any orders from our officers, and without even their knowledge, we +immediately came to “company front” and presented arms, to the great +amusement and evident astonishment of those old soldiers. This action on +our part caused us to receive a well-merited reprimand from our officers, +and it was the first and only performance of the kind in which Company B +bore a conspicuous part.</p> + + +<p> </p><p> </p> +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_18" id="Page_18">[Pg 18]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="Chapter_III" id="Chapter_III"></a><span class="smcap">Chapter III.</span></h2> + +<p>Of the movements of the Eleventh regiment while in Virginia, I will not +weary you with a rehearsal in detail. Our first regular camp was +established on Miner’s Hill, the extreme outer part of the defenses of +Washington, and when we reached it on a cold, raw, blustering day late in +the fall of 1862, the wind filling our eyes and mouths with a blinding and +grinding dust, it was the most dismal and dreary-looking place that I ever +saw—with the single exception of Seekonk Plains. We remained here about +three months, building and stockading our winter quarters, drilling and +doing picket duty, and making occasional raids when we felt sure that the +enemy was a safe distance from us. We were in General Robert Cowdin’s +brigade, which comprised, in addition to our own regiment, the Fortieth +Massachusetts, the Twenty-second Connecticut, the One Hundred and +Forty-first New York, and the Sixteenth Virginia Battery.</p> + +<p>Company B had a fund of one thousand dollars which was raised by the +patriotic citizens of Pawtucket and Central<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_19" id="Page_19">[Pg 19]</a></span> Falls for the purpose of +enabling the officers to procure for the members of the company, among +other things, some articles for the table when we were in camp which were +not to be found on the government “bill of fare.” In consequence of this +“company fund” we had a greater share of “extras” than any other company +in the regiment while we were encamped in the vicinity of Washington. +Among those “extras” were milk for our coffee and tea (fresh when it could +be obtained, and condensed at other times); writing paper, envelopes and +stamps; a copy of the Washington “Daily Chronicle” for each mess, and a +weekly pictorial paper; blacking, oil, sand paper, emery paper, polishing +powder, soap, matches, green apples, tallow candles and other delicacies +of the season. The extra candles were used on special occasions, such as +the reception of friends from home, and so forth. Naturally enough the +members of the other companies looked upon us at times with envious eyes. +The historian of the regiment writes thus of Company B: “Their company +fund was large, their friends with money many, and their visitors, who +always remembered them handsomely, numerous.” We did, indeed, have quite a +number of visitors from<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_20" id="Page_20">[Pg 20]</a></span> home while we were encamped near Washington, and +I can assure you that their visits were always occasions of great pleasure +to us. Later they became like angels’ visits, “few and far between.”</p> + +<p>The first death in our company occurred at Miner’s Hill, and the funeral +ceremonies were deeply impressive. The ambulance containing the remains of +our dead comrade was preceded by an escort composed of the +non-commissioned staff of the regiment, (the deceased having held the +position of regimental hospital steward,) and sixteen men of Company B, in +command of the first sergeant, accompanied by the drum corps. The officers +and men of Company B followed in the rear of the procession. Arriving on +the parade ground, the coffin was taken from the ambulance and placed on a +stretcher, when appropriate services were performed by the chaplain, +consisting of prayer, the reading of scripture, and brief remarks, after +which three volleys were fired and the remains of Jacob S. Pervear, Jr., +were replaced in the ambulance to be conveyed to Washington and thence to +the home of the deceased in Pawtucket.</p> + +<p>In the course of his remarks, the chaplain used the following very +appropriate poetical quotation:</p> + +<p class="poem"><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_21" id="Page_21">[Pg 21]</a></span> +“Ye number it in days since he<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Strode up the foot-worn aisle,</span><br /> +With his dark eye flashing gloriously,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">And his lip wreathed with a smile;</span><br /> +Oh, had it been but told you then<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">To mark whose lamp was dim,</span><br /> +From out those ranks of fresh-lipped men,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Would ye have singled him?</span><br /> +<span class="spacer2">*</span><span class="spacer2">*</span><span class="spacer2">*</span><span class="spacer2">*</span><br /> +“His heart, in generous deed and thought,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">No rivalry might brook,</span><br /> +And yet, distinction claiming not,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">There lies he—go and look.”</span></p> + +<p>The occasion was of a very mournful character, and it was not without +effect upon some of the hardest men in the regiment, for young Pervear was +greatly beloved by all.</p> + +<p>One Sunday, when instead of going to church I was doing picket duty on the +line of the Norfolk and Petersburg railroad, I halted an old man who was +riding along in a dilapidated two-wheeled vehicle, to which was attached a +still more dilapidated horned beast which, apparently, from time +immemorial had served for its owner all the requirements of a horse. In +answer to my inquiry whether he was<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_22" id="Page_22">[Pg 22]</a></span> a Union man, the old fellow gave me +the following reply: “Stranger, I was born in the Union; I have always +lived in the Union; I have always loved the old Union, and I love her +still; I have always voted for the old Union; and, stranger, when I die, +whether I go to heaven or hell, I shall stick by the old Union!” All +doubts as to his loyalty having been dispelled, I grasped him warmly by +the hand, and, whispering in his ear, said, “Old man, <i>stick</i>!”</p> + +<p>Perhaps I should have stated ere this that in addition to my duties as a +soldier, I combined those of a “war correspondent.” My letters were +generally written in the evening in my tent, lying prone upon my face, the +light being furnished by a dripping tallow candle which was stuck into the +top of a bayonet whose point was inserted in the earth. Here, under such +circumstances, I criticised the conduct of the war, and directed campaigns +as best I could. I mention this fact at this time because the incident +just related has already appeared in print.</p> + +<p>An incident which has not appeared in print, but which made a deep +impression upon the “family men” of the regiment, occurred on a beautiful +Sunday afternoon while on dress parade at Miner’s Hill. General Robert +Cowdin,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_23" id="Page_23">[Pg 23]</a></span> the brigade commander, was frequently an interested observer on +these occasions. At the time to which I refer, he was accompanied by a +lady friend from Washington, who held by the hand a beautiful little boy +of four or five years of age. The sight of the little fellow, particularly +when he let go his mother’s hand and ran about and shouted in his childish +glee, so affected the men that it was almost impossible to preserve a +steady line and secure prompt obedience to orders. Men whom I had seldom +or never before seen exhibit any emotion were moved to tears by the sight +and the remembrance of dear ones at home, and many of them were heard to +say that they would willingly part with a month’s pay just to take the +little fellow in their arms for a moment, while a Pawtucket man, who had a +wife but no children, said he would give all his bounty money and throw +the “cow” in, just to kiss the little fellow’s mother—<i>for his wife’s +sake</i>. The order to “march off your companies” cut short other equally +complimentary expressions concerning the mother and her darling boy.</p> + +<p>One of the most ludicrous events which occurred in our regiment was on a +very dark night when the “long roll” sounded for the first time. We were +at once ordered<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_24" id="Page_24">[Pg 24]</a></span> under arms, it being whispered among the “knowing ones” +that we were likely to have a brush with the enemy before daylight, while +the officers knew it was only to “break in” the men, to see how they would +behave in the time of actual service. There was a hurrying to and fro of +officers of all grades; signal lights were swung here and there in +response to similar signals which could be seen quite a distance away; the +surgeons were overhauling and sharpening their instruments and filing +their saws and getting out large quantities of lint and bandages; all +orders were given in a whisper, and everything betokened speedy and +decisive action, the time having come for our men to cover themselves with +glory—or shame.</p> + +<p>In Company B there was an Irishman named Mike Cassidy. He was an old man, +and when he got into line it was evident that he was sleeping soundly when +the order fell upon his ears to “turn out,” and that he had not been able +in the darkness to find his entire wardrobe, or if he found it, that he +did not have time to get properly inside of it. But he had his old and +trusty musket, with which he had often declared he could alone whip the +whole Southern Confederacy if they would only give him time. Time<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_25" id="Page_25">[Pg 25]</a></span> was +what Mike most needed. He always had time enough, but it was “behind +time,” save when the order was given to “fall in for rations.” But it +happened on that particular night some member of his “mess” whose musket +was without a tube or nipple upon which to put a cap, had appropriated +Cassidy’s to his own use. I seem now to see Cassidy as he appeared in line +on that dark night trying to put a percussion cap on that nippleless gun. +Comrade, did you ever swear? Do you think you ever heard anybody swear? +You should have heard Cassidy. He swore vengeance upon all of his +comrades, and declared that if he was killed, his ghost would forever +haunt the man who stole the nipple from his gun. “Here I am,” he +exclaimed, “with no nipple on me gun, and the whole dommed Confederacy +right on us!”</p> + +<p>In the midst of all the excitement which he occasioned by his vociferous +tones and profane explosives, the order came to “break ranks,” and poor +Cassidy was the laughing-stock of the whole company. I believe he forgave +the rank and file for what he termed the “sell,” but he said he would +never forgive the officers—and I am confident that he never did.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_26" id="Page_26">[Pg 26]</a></span>A large number of the members of the Eleventh regiment reënlisted upon the +expiration of their term of service. Cassidy was, I think, among them. But +be that as it may, a very funny story is told about his trying to get a +pension on account of some real or fancied injury received while in an +engagement. The chief of the board of examiners asked him where he was +wounded. Mike placed his hand on his left breast and said, “About here, +sor.” The examiner exclaimed: “Why, man, if you had been hit there you +would have been killed on the spot, for the bullet would have gone right +through your heart!”</p> + +<p>“I know it, sor,” replied Cassidy, “but, bejabers, me heart was in me +mouth.”</p> + + +<p> </p><p> </p> +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_27" id="Page_27">[Pg 27]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="Chapter_IV" id="Chapter_IV"></a><span class="smcap">Chapter IV.</span></h2> + +<p>All were in high glee and the mythical goose occupied an elevated position +when we “broke camp” and left Miner’s Hill. The intelligent contraband who +used to visit us every morning to dispose of his “baked fried pies” was +promptly on hand to collect the small sums from the boys which still +remained unpaid; and after the line had begun to move, another darkey, who +had been doing the washing for a large number of persons connected with +the regiment, and one of whose customers—presumably an officer—had +failed to meet his obligations, kept up with the regiment for a mile or +more, running along the line from one company to the other, peering into +the faces of all, and shouting at the top of his voice, “<i>Some gemman here +owes me free cents!</i>” The only satisfaction he got was that he would be +paid when “the cruel war was over.”</p> + +<p>The Eleventh regiment saw but little service in the field. Our regimental +colors bear the names of no battles in which we were engaged, although we +took part in several very lively skirmishes, and for an entire day stood +in line in a<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_28" id="Page_28">[Pg 28]</a></span> broiling sun, expecting every moment to be ordered to take +part in a fight which was going on directly in front of us, across the +river at Suffolk, Virginia. The roar of the artillery and the rattle of +the musketry saluted our ears from morning until night; the ambulances +passed by us all day long with the wounded and the dying, and some of our +men who were on guard at the hospitals, which comprised the churches, +rendered assistance as nurses. As matters turned, however, the rebels +retreating, the services of our regiment were not required. But had they +been, there is no reason to doubt that the Eleventh would have acquitted +itself in such a manner as to have done honor to the State which sent it +into the field. One who knew the Eleventh regiment well, writes as follows +concerning it: “I feel warranted in saying, without fear of contradiction, +that no State sent into the service during the war, any better regiment, +in everything that goes to make a good regiment, than this nine months’ +regiment; and I do not hesitate to say here and everywhere, that in the +character of the enlisted men, in the fidelity with which they performed +every duty, disagreeable as well as agreeable, it had no superior.”</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_29" id="Page_29">[Pg 29]</a></span>But while little opportunity was given the Eleventh regiment to acquire +distinction in the field, yet it performed a service which, while bringing +no renown to the regiment, was as important as it was disagreeable, and +which subjected not only the men but the officers to very many unpleasant +experiences. I now refer to the arduous duty which the regiment performed +at the Convalescent Camp, midway between Washington and Alexandria. Here +we found between ten thousand and fifteen thousand old soldiers who had +been discharged from the hospitals in and around Washington, waiting to be +sent home or back to their regiments. Long lines of ambulances went back +and forth every day between the camp and Washington, carrying those to +whom transportation to their homes or regiments had been furnished, and +bringing from the hospitals others to take their vacant places. The camp +was in a very filthy condition when we arrived there, and the men greatly +demoralized. Of course our appearance as a guard over these old soldiers +was anything but welcome, and they were not slow in acquainting us with +the fact. For a time it seemed as if only the most extreme measures on our +part would prevent such insubordination as we<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_30" id="Page_30">[Pg 30]</a></span> should be unable to +control. Our duties were not only very disagreeable, but they were +performed at that season of the year when mud was for the most part of the +time nearly knee-deep, and frozen feet were no novelty.</p> + +<p>Here, day by day, our eyes witnessed the terrible effects of war upon +human life. Men who had been wounded in battle and were recovering from +their injuries were hobbling about on canes and crutches, while wounded +arms were supported by various ingenious devices. Some had lost a leg, +some both legs, some an arm, and some both arms. Others had an eye gone, +an ear torn off, a jaw which had been crushed into fragments. The wounds +were of every conceivable sort, and in every part of the body, from the +crown of the head to the sole of the foot. They had been shot in the head, +in the face, in the neck, in the shoulders, the arms, the legs, and the +feet. They had been shot through the chest, through the lungs, through the +hips and through the thighs. While here and there, gathered in small +groups, were victims of disease contracted in camp or on the march, whose +looks plainly indicated that they realized that there was but a step +between them and death. In recalling these scenes even at this late day, +my heart<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_31" id="Page_31">[Pg 31]</a></span> sickens as those pale faces and gaunt forms again rise up before +me, and I thank God that “the cruel war is over.”</p> + +<p>An entire paper might be written of the experiences—grave and gay—at +Convalescent Camp. For the most part of the three winter months that we +were there, the time passed away very slowly, and all were anxious for a +change. Before we left, the external appearance of the camp had been +greatly improved, and the convalescents generally had become reconciled to +our presence among them, and less inclined to “run the guard” than at +first, a few object lessons as to the sure results of such doings on their +part causing them to regard “discretion as the better part of valor.” +However, candor compels me to say that when we left for Suffolk, no +regrets at our departure were expressed by the convalescents, and as we +passed through the camp on our way to take the cars for Alexandria, their +taunts and jeers came near provoking an unpleasant collision, which, +however, was happily averted by the coolness and firmness of our officers. +Whatever else concerning the war an Eleventh Rhode Island man may forget, +you can be sure that it will not be his unpleasant personal experiences at +the Convalescent Camp.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_32" id="Page_32">[Pg 32]</a></span>Permit me to relate an incident that occurred there in which I bore a +conspicuous part, and which has afforded me much more amusement since than +it did at the time.</p> + +<p>As I have already remarked, while we were on duty at the Convalescent +Camp, time hung heavily upon our hands, and quite a number of the members +of the regiment who had “influential friends” in Washington obtained +furloughs to visit home. Among those who sought the autograph of Drake +DeKay, by whom all furloughs were signed, and whose signature looked as if +it was written with his thumb about a month after a buzz-saw had got its +work in on the first joint, was the “raw recruit” of Company B. Others +received their furloughs, but mine tarried. I began to fear that my +“influential friends” had “got left”—at home. One afternoon, as I was +sitting in my tent ruminating as to how I would surprise my friends by +coming home unexpectedly, particularly my family, and as to how I would +spend my time while there, an orderly from the colonel’s headquarters came +to our first sergeant and told him that the colonel wanted him to send a +man there immediately. Our first sergeant knowing that I expected a +furlough, and being willing to have a little fun at my expense, told<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_33" id="Page_33">[Pg 33]</a></span> me +that the colonel wished to see me at once. Getting myself together in the +best style I could at such short notice, and expecting to receive my +furlough and start for home by the evening train, I speedily reported +myself at the colonel’s quarters. Judge of my great surprise when, instead +of the colonel stepping to the door of his tent with the coveted furlough +in his hand, and politely requesting me to accept it with his compliments, +and wishing me a pleasant visit home and a safe return, the aforesaid +orderly informed me that the colonel wished me to go to the blacksmith’s +and keep the flies off his horse while he was being shod. I obeyed orders +as a matter of course, the flies were kept off, the horse was eventually +shod, my furlough never came, and my ways of spending it at home were +never realized. Such are the fortunes of war. The private soldier +proposes, and the officer opposes—that is, as a general thing.</p> + + +<p> </p><p> </p> +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_34" id="Page_34">[Pg 34]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="Chapter_V" id="Chapter_V"></a><span class="smcap">Chapter V.</span></h2> + +<p>“Jumping from the frying-pan into the fire,” the most of us thought when +we reached Alexandria, after leaving the Convalescent Camp, and found that +we were to be furnished with transportation to Norfolk on the old steamer +“Hero,” which, as the “Argo,” ran between Providence and Rocky Point long +“befo’ de wah.” We thought our accommodations could never be worse than +they were when we landed at the “Soldiers’ Retreat” in Washington, but had +a rivalry existed between the two concerns, the “Hero” would have most +effectually distanced its competitor. It seemed, indeed, as if extra pains +had been taken by somebody to make our condition as uncomfortable and +unsatisfactory as possible. A cold rainstorm was prevailing when we went +on board the steamer. There were no sleeping accommodations whatever for +the men, and even the floor of the cabin which the officers occupied was +covered with sheets of boiler-iron, strewn helter-skelter here, there and +everywhere. The decks, where the men were huddled together like sheep, +were covered with mud and water several inches<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_35" id="Page_35">[Pg 35]</a></span> deep, our clothing was +damp, the air foul, and everything about as disagreeable as it could well +be. If we had been left in the starch over night we could not have been +more stiff the next morning than we were. Yet few complaints were heard, +the men generally preferring almost anything to longer remaining to guard +sick and disabled soldiers, especially where our room was better than our +company.</p> + +<p>In course of time—that is, very slow time—Norfolk was reached, and when +transportation could be obtained we piled into freight cars and were soon +on our way through the famous Dismal Swamp to Suffolk. Here we found the +Fourth regiment, and the reception which the boys gave us was next to +getting back to Rhode Island itself. I will not attempt to speak in detail +of what was done at Suffolk by our regiment. It was the pleasantest place +which we visited while we were away from home, and the service being more +active than any which we had previously performed, it was more congenial +and satisfactory to the men. Our camp was delightfully located, and the +occasional sharp skirmishes which we had with the rebels, who were just +across the Nansemond river, together with numerous expeditions to the +Blackwater and thereabouts, served to keep<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_36" id="Page_36">[Pg 36]</a></span> the regiment in good condition +and remove all apprehensions of demoralization because of inactivity.</p> + +<p>There were a large number of Union troops at Suffolk before our arrival. +The weather soon became very hot, and previous to their departure the +deaths were numerous. Daily the solemn processions wended their way to the +populous city of the dead. The funerals usually took place in the morning +just before sunrise, or at night just after sunset. I seem now to hear the +dirges played by the bands, and the volleys fired by the soldiers over the +graves of their dead comrades.</p> + +<p>Upon my return home, I learned that among those in the rebel army while I +was at Suffolk was a young man who learned his trade with me in the +“Chronicle” office in Pawtucket, and who went to Alabama several years +before the “late unpleasantness.” At the close of the war he returned to +the North and again became a loyal citizen.</p> + +<p>On one of the expeditions to which I have referred, the Eleventh regiment +marched to the extreme front, three miles from Blackwater bridge, throwing +out Company F as pickets one mile in advance, who were soon engaged by the +enemy, and a brisk skirmish ensued which lasted until dark,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_37" id="Page_37">[Pg 37]</a></span> when +hostilities ceased for that day. On the following afternoon, while three +of the companies of the regiment were picketing the front, they were +attacked in a spirited manner by six companies of a Mississippi regiment +deployed as skirmishers. Company B was sent forward as a support, but soon +deployed as skirmishers. The firing continued several hours, the enemy +being steadily driven back, leaving their dead on the field. Several +prisoners were captured. Obeying orders to fall back to Windsor, the +picket companies acted as rear guard. On this expedition the regiment was +absent from Suffolk eleven days, and was attached to the division under +command of General Corcoran. This was the nearest approach to a +hand-to-hand encounter with the enemy that the regiment had during its +term of service, and the two Pawtucket companies occupied the most exposed +and conspicuous positions.</p> + +<p>It was at this time that Lieutenant Thomas Moies came near being shot by a +man who belonged to one of the companies of the Eleventh which were in the +rear of Company B. The affair to which I refer occurred just in the edge +of the woods, between daylight and dark. Lieutenant Moies, with an old +straw hat on his head, and in advance<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_38" id="Page_38">[Pg 38]</a></span> of his men, was cautiously crawling +along on his hands and knees in the underbrush up to the enemy’s line. +Having satisfied himself that the enemy was falling back, he rose up, and +a member of Company C observing his hat mistook it for the head-gear of +one of the rebels, as their uniform always lacked uniformity, and +immediately fired. Fortunately for Lieutenant Moies, and to the great joy +of the entire regiment, the man who fired failed to obey the stereotyped +order to “fire low,” and the misdirected bullet went over the head of our +esteemed lieutenant, and his valuable life was spared.</p> + +<p>Since this paper was prepared, Lieutenant Moies has been “mustered out.” I +knew him well as a neighbor and as a soldier. Together we slept on the +field with the same starry canopy for our covering, and together on the +weary march we shared the scanty contents of the same haversack and drank +from the same canteen. For him, “war’s glorious art” had no allurements. +He loved his quiet home and the peaceful pursuits of life, and when he +gave himself to the service of his country it was because, being a true +patriot, he felt that its claims upon him were greater than those of +family and friends.</p> + +<p class="poem"><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_39" id="Page_39">[Pg 39]</a></span> +“Wife, children and neighbor,<br /> +May mourn at his knell;<br /> +He was lover and friend<br /> +Of his country as well.”</p> + +<p>His rank in the service, when measured by the army standard, was a +subordinate one, but had his shoulders been covered with eagles or stars, +he could not have been other than the same quiet, unassuming +citizen-soldier that he was, winning by his modest demeanor, sterling +integrity, and kindliness of heart, the esteem of his brother officers, +and the love and affection of his men. I know whereof I speak, when I say +that no officer who went from Rhode Island was more respected and beloved +by his command than was Lieutenant Thomas Moies, and by none is his death +more sincerely mourned than by those who served under him in Virginia in +1862-3. Such was the man—such was the soldier.</p> + + +<p> </p><p> </p> +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_40" id="Page_40">[Pg 40]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="Chapter_VI" id="Chapter_VI"></a><span class="smcap">Chapter VI.</span></h2> + +<p>Elsewhere I have spoken of an “unconditional surrender” Union man whom I +overhauled while on picket duty on the Norfolk and Petersburg railroad. +All southern men—and women, too, as to that matter—were not so loyal as +that old man was, as is shown by the following incident which occurred on +the morning of our arrival in Suffolk. While marching down the principal +street we were halted for a few minutes. Immediately all the doorsteps of +the houses were appropriated by our men to their own use. My doorstep +belonged to a house which had all the appearance of being occupied by one +of the “first families.” Presently a well dressed, intelligent looking, +elderly lady appeared at the door and inquired what regiment ours was. +Before time was given me to reply, a comrade who was sharing the step with +me, said, “One Hundred and Eleventh Rhode Island!” She then asked, “Is +that in North Carolina?” To assist her in locating “Little Rhody,” I +remarked that Massachusetts was its nearest neighbor, presuming that all +southerners knew where the “bottled<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_41" id="Page_41">[Pg 41]</a></span> up” hero of Dutch Gap belonged when +at home. Having straightened out her geography, which seemed considerably +mixed, she then wanted to know what we came out there for. I told her we +came to fight for the Union. With considerable fire in her eye, and +vinegar in her tone, she replied, “They tell me you’ve come down here to +fight for the nasty niggers; and if I were a man, I would resist to the +death before <i>I</i> would do such a thing!” Here the conversation was +suddenly interrupted by the order to “fall in,” and I left the old lady +soliloquizing upon the causes which led to the war, and its probable +result to both North and South. Whether she had confounded Rhode Island +with Roanoke Island by reason of the similarity of names, or whether our +sudden appearance in front of her residence had caused her to lose her +reckoning generally, I am not sure. Possibly she was not up in geography.</p> + +<p>We had our pastimes when in camp. While we were at Suffolk it was not an +uncommon thing just after supper to see the men of Companies I and K +(commonly known as the Young Men’s Christian Association companies) +holding prayer-meetings in the open air and singing revival melodies at +the ends of their streets, while the men of the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_42" id="Page_42">[Pg 42]</a></span> other companies, at the +ends of their streets, would be dancing to the music of a violin or banjo, +or singing songs of a less spiritual character than those of the Y. M. C. +A. companies, all having a good time in their way, and neither infringing +nor trespassing upon the rights of the others, although some of the men in +the regiment, I feel compelled to say, were not the embodiment of all the +Christian virtues.</p> + +<p>While we were in winter quarters on Miner’s Hill, the religiously inclined +men of the regiment erected a log chapel in which to hold services in the +evening and on Sundays. No church bell summoned them to worship, but a few +taps of the drum or a few notes from the bugle, or, better still, the +singing of some old, familiar hymn learned in boyhood in New England +homes, served as a “church call,” and from every part of the camp the men +came to reverently worship the God of battles. I like good church music, +but believe me when I say that I would not exchange the memory of one of +those grand old hymns which “the boys” used to sing with “the spirit, and +the understanding also,” at their meetings in that old log chapel, and +into which they threw their whole souls, for all of the so called<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_43" id="Page_43">[Pg 43]</a></span> +“classical music” which I have since heard rendered by grand organ and +artistic quartette on two continents.</p> + +<p>One Sabbath while we were in Suffolk, a special service for the soldiers +who were on duty there was held in one of the churches, the chaplains of +the various regiments officiating. The house was filled to its utmost +capacity,—the galleries, the aisles, the pulpit steps and the +vestibule,—while many were unable to find even standing room. At the +close of the sermon, officers and men knelt together at the same altar, +their confessions and supplications ascending to a common Father, and, +irrespective of distinctive creed or belief, partook of the Lord’s Supper, +realizing as never before the truth that “God is no respecter of persons;” +and to one at least of that company of reverent worshipers, the Master’s +words, “This do in remembrance of <span class="smcap">Me</span>,” had a deeper significance than ever +before.</p> + +<p>Religious services were also held at the Convalescent Camp, for there were +some faithful Christian men even there who did not forget their religious +vows when the fortunes of war called them away from their homes and +accustomed places of worship. At one of the evening meetings in the large +tent, which was filled to its utmost limits, an<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_44" id="Page_44">[Pg 44]</a></span> invitation was given to +those present who were striving, as “soldiers of the cross,” to render +faithful service to the Captain of their salvation, to raise the right +hand. In response to the request, a large number of hands were raised. It +occurred, however, to the leader of the meeting that some were there whose +right arms had been shot off, and to such he gave opportunity to raise the +left hand—and there were quite a number raised. But the most affecting +sight was when a few men who had lost both arms in battle, and had only +stumps remaining, rose to their feet and gave evidence of their loyalty to +their Lord and Master. Such men could well sing at the close of the +service:</p> + +<p class="poem">“God of all nations! sovereign Lord,<br /> +In Thy dread name we draw the sword;<br /> +We lift the starry flag on high,<br /> +That fills with light our stormy sky.<br /> +<br /> +“From treason’s rent, from murder’s stain,<br /> +Guard Thou its folds till peace shall reign,<br /> +Till fort and field, till shore and sea,<br /> +Join our loud anthem, <span class="smcap">Praise to Thee</span>!”</p> + +<p>I used to be greatly amused at times at the kind of literature<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_45" id="Page_45">[Pg 45]</a></span> which +reached us when in camp from kind friends at home who were solicitous +concerning our moral welfare. Sometimes it was very evident that a book or +tract smuggled itself into the package sent which had never been “passed +upon” by any member of the Christian Commission. Just think of placing a +cook-book in the hands of a man who had been living for months on +hard-tack and salt junk, with no prospect of a change in diet for months +to come!</p> + +<p>I am reminded, in this connection, of an incident which occurred in one of +the hospitals in Washington. A kind-hearted Christian lady passed through +the wards one day distributing religious tracts. She placed one in the +hands of a young soldier who was occupying one of the numerous cots. As +she turned away from him on her mission of love, she heard him laugh. The +good woman’s feelings were hurt, and retracing her steps she mildly +rebuked him for his seeming rudeness and ingratitude. He begged her pardon +and assured her that no discourtesy was intended, and remarked that he was +amused by the inappropriateness of the title of the tract she had given +him, “The Sin of Dancing,” when both of his legs had been shot off.</p> + + +<p> </p><p> </p> +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_46" id="Page_46">[Pg 46]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="Chapter_VII" id="Chapter_VII"></a><span class="smcap">Chapter VII.</span></h2> + +<p>In common with soldiers generally, the <i>ménu</i> of our company was somewhat +limited in variety, and the dishes served did not materially differ from +day to day. Sunday, however, was an exception to this general rule when we +were in camp. In accordance with the time-honored New England custom, on +Sunday morning we had <i>our</i> “baked beans.” If we did not always remember +to keep the Sabbath day holy, we certainly never forgot that it was the +day for baked beans; and I sometimes thought that the appearance of that +article of food on Sunday morning served us better than a Church calendar +or the “Old Farmer’s Almanac” could have done as a reminder how the day +should be spent.</p> + +<p>Our cook had a novel way of cooking or baking beans. He soaked them in the +usual style, parboiled them in a large kettle, and then put them in a +deep, iron mess-pan, generous slices of pork being placed on top of the +beans. A hole was then made in the ground a foot or two feet deep and the +bottom well filled with live coals, and on<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_47" id="Page_47">[Pg 47]</a></span> top of the coals was placed +the iron mess-pan with its savory contents. Upon the cover of the pan was +then placed more live coals, and the whole covered with turf well tamped +down. This was done on Saturday afternoon, and on Sunday morning the beans +came out of their improvised oven piping hot and in no wise inferior to +those which furnished the staple article of the Sunday morning meal in so +many New England homes.</p> + +<p>Burns tells us that “the well-laid schemes of mice and men gang aft +agley.” On one occasion it occurred that we encamped one Saturday +afternoon on an old battlefield, and as it was known that we were to +remain there over Sunday, our cook began the usual preliminary work +whereby he was to furnish the company with baked beans on the following +morning. It so happened that at the spot where the hole was dug in the +ground an unexploded shell was buried a little farther down, and after the +live coals and the bean pot had been deposited in the earth long enough to +form a mutual acquaintance and become warm friends a loud explosion was +heard, and immediately the beans took an upward tendency and the air was +completely filled with them, confirming the assertion of Artemas<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_48" id="Page_48">[Pg 48]</a></span> Ward +that the “festive bean, when baked, is a <i>very lively fruit</i>.”</p> + +<p>The spring of 1863 was particularly favorable to the development of +typhoid fever, and a good many men in our regiment were in the hospital +with that disease. The surgeon ordered a gill of whiskey to be served to +every man daily, and as an inducement for him to “put it where it would do +the most good”—at least in the surgeon’s opinion—he was told that he +would not be excused from duty if reported on the sick list. The whiskey +was usually taken by the men and put into their canteens with the water, +but in very many cases it did not take such a roundabout way in reaching +its destination. In my “mess” was a good, orthodox, prohibitionist deacon, +a man whose example I was told before leaving home that I could +consistently follow in all things—especially in <i>spiritual</i> things. One +day he remarked to me that he had observed that I did not take my ration +of whiskey when it was dealt out. I told him that I had not felt the need +of it. He replied that he was very much afraid of the typhoid fever, and +had no scruples in regard to the taking of a little whiskey as a +precautionary measure, and if I was going to continue to<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_49" id="Page_49">[Pg 49]</a></span> refuse to take +my ration of it, he wished I would let it be poured into my canteen, and +he would turn it into his own when we got back to our quarters;—“only be +careful,” said he, “that there is no water in your canteen.” After that I +allowed the whiskey to be poured into my canteen; but the good deacon’s +argument as to its being a preventive for typhoid fever was so convincing +that I did not allow it to be transferred to his.</p> + +<p>As is well known, a wide and almost impassable gulf of difference exists +between the officers and the rank and file in the regular army. But I had +not been long in the volunteer service before I discovered that +considerable difference existed even there between the private soldier and +the officer. To illustrate. While in Suffolk there happened to be an “r” +in the month. Walking along the principal street one day, I espied in the +window of a restaurant a card, upon which was printed or painted in +letters of large dimensions these two words: “<span class="smcap">Steamed Oysters</span>.” Visions of +Pawtucket and Providence river bivalves immediately came up before me, and +I then and there resolved to have a good square meal of “steamed oysters,” +even though it should pecuniarily impoverish me. So, entering<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_50" id="Page_50">[Pg 50]</a></span> the +restaurant, I seated myself upon one of the unoccupied high stools at the +oyster bar. And here I will remark that I could not have felt the +importance of my elevated position any more if my blouse had been covered +with shoulder-straps. Presently the proprietor of the establishment +presented himself, and eyeing me with an air of indifference almost +amounting to contempt, he asked me what I wanted. I replied, “Steamed +oysters.” I confess I was somewhat surprised and considerably “down in the +mouth” when he informed me that he couldn’t sell steamed oysters to a +private soldier. My suggestion that he might overcome the difficulty by +<i>giving them to me</i>, failed to secure the much-coveted bivalves, and I +retired from the restaurant a sadder but wiser man than when I entered it.</p> + +<p>As I remarked at the outset, there was considerable difference between the +private soldier and the officer even in the volunteer service; and this +was, as I have shown, particularly true as to which one should eat steamed +oysters. But the line had to be drawn somewhere, I suppose, and so at +Suffolk they drew it at steamed oysters, and, unfortunately for the man +who was serving his country at thirteen dollars a month, he “got left.”</p> + + +<p> </p><p> </p> +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_51" id="Page_51">[Pg 51]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="Chapter_VIII" id="Chapter_VIII"></a><span class="smcap">Chapter VIII.</span></h2> + +<p>While the Eleventh regiment was in service only nine months, and was never +in action as a full regiment, yet it lost in that time two colonels. A +certain fatality appeared to await those who were sent to take command of +the regiment during the early part of its term of service. It seemed at +one time as if the regiment was raised for the sole purpose of giving +those who were to become colonels of other Rhode Island regiments an +opportunity to perfect themselves in battalion drill and other military +movements before assuming command elsewhere—a sort of stepping-stone, as +it were, to something which was considered more desirable. There was, for +instance, Colonel Edwin Metcalf, who went out with us and who left us to +take command of the Third Rhode Island. Then there was Colonel Horatio +Rogers, who came to us from the Third regiment and remained less than two +weeks, leaving us to take command of the Second Rhode Island. The next to +put in an appearance was Colonel George E. Church, who had previously +served as lieutenant-colonel of the Seventh<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_52" id="Page_52">[Pg 52]</a></span> Rhode Island. He remained +with us until the expiration of our term of enlistment.</p> + +<p>It is not within the province of a private soldier—more especially a “raw +recruit”—to criticise his superiors, and consequently I will not attempt +it, notwithstanding this is the “piping time of peace,” and all fear of +the guard-house has forever vanished. I will say, however, that all of the +officers named had their peculiarities, and that our lieutenant-colonel +was peculiarly peculiar; and yet I believe him to have been every inch a +soldier—at any rate, there was no such word as fear in his dictionary. He +was in command when the regiment came the nearest to being in an +engagement, and I fancy I see him now, mounted on his horse and riding at +the head of the column, wearing a moth-eaten blouse and an exceedingly +dilapidated straw hat, with a very black “T. D.” clay pipe stuck in his +mouth, the bowl downwards. He looked more like the “cowboy” of modern +times than the pictures of military heroes which I used to see in my +school-books when a boy. This was our lieutenant-colonel—John Talbot +Pitman. He had good “staying qualities.” He never threw up his commission, +nor did he die. He remained with us to the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_53" id="Page_53">[Pg 53]</a></span> last, and rose considerably in +the estimation of the men after his appearance at the head of the regiment +at the time I have just mentioned. Men everywhere—especially +soldiers—admire pluck. Our lieutenant-colonel had pluck, even though at +times his heart seemed somewhat lacking in tenderness. He never winked at +any breach of discipline on the part of an officer or a private while he +was in command of the regiment. If at times he appeared to have too little +consideration for his men, he never failed to exact the fullest measure of +consideration for them from all others.</p> + +<p>Colonel Metcalf, as I have stated, came to us first, and was the first to +leave us. Universal regret on the part of officers and men was felt when +he took his departure for Hilton Head.</p> + +<p>Colonel Rogers did not remain with us long enough for us to learn to like +him or dislike him. He came to us “sp’ilin’ for a fight,” his heart’s +desire all the time he was with us was to fight, and when he found that he +couldn’t fight the rebels with us, he began to fight the War Department +for a “change of base;” and in order to have peace within our own borders, +and in response to a very general<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_54" id="Page_54">[Pg 54]</a></span> demand on the part of the loyal North +for a vigorous prosecution of the war, coupled with a declaration on the +part of certain northern newspapers that no further delay in pushing “On +to Richmond” would be tolerated without a satisfactory reason being given +therefor, the authorities at Washington compromised matters by sending the +plucky colonel to the Second Rhode Island regiment, where he “honored his +regiment, his State and himself by his gallant deeds.” It is, however, but +simple justice to the Eleventh regiment to say that the men were hopeful +that Colonel Rogers’ vigorous and persistent efforts with the War +Department to relieve them from the disagreeable duty which they were +performing at the Convalescent Camp would be crowned with success. Service +in the field was coveted.</p> + +<p>Colonel Rogers was a strict disciplinarian. The surgeon of the regiment +was a great lover of horses. It was said of him, before he entered the +service, that if he was sent for in a case of expected immediate death, +and he had an opportunity while on the road to trade a good horse for a +better one, he would always let his patient take the chances.—I do not +wish to be considered as authority for<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_55" id="Page_55">[Pg 55]</a></span> the truthfulness of this +assertion.—One Sunday morning our company was ordered to report in front +of the colonel’s “markee” for inspection. While the inspection was going +on, the colonel stood in front of us, and just a little to his left the +surgeon and quartermaster, it being just before divine service, were +driving a horse trade. Naturally enough this attracted the attention of +the men, and it being noticed by Colonel Rogers, he exclaimed in that +melodious tone of voice so characteristic of him: “<i>Eyes to the front; you +wa’n’t ordered down here to inspect the quartermaster’s department!</i>” +Colonel Rogers was, indeed, peculiar.</p> + +<p>In an excellent paper which was read by Captain Charles H. Parkhurst, of +Company C, at a recent reunion of the Eleventh regiment, he thus +contrasted Colonel Metcalf and Colonel Rogers:</p> + +<p>“Colonel Metcalf, as a rule, commanded without saying anything about it. +When Colonel Rogers commanded he couldn’t help saying something about it. +No one seeing Colonel Metcalf off duty, or un-uniformed, would have +suspected that he had any command, while the most casual observer looking +at Colonel Rogers, even when asleep, would<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_56" id="Page_56">[Pg 56]</a></span> instinctively know that even +then the colonel, at least, thought that he was in the exercise of +authority.”</p> + +<p>Our last commanding officer, Colonel Church, was a thorough soldier and, +like Colonel Rogers, whom he succeeded, a strict disciplinarian. He was, +apparently, a favorite with the officers of the regiment, but his ways +smacked too much of the regular army to have ever made him popular with +volunteer soldiers. It is, however, due Colonel Church to say that while +under his command the regiment attained a high degree of proficiency in +all that characterizes good soldiership, and won for itself much praise +from those who were even superior in rank to its colonel.</p> + +<p>Speaking of the peculiarities of Colonel Church, for he had them too, +perhaps nothing created a greater dislike for him on the part of his men +than the severity of his discipline in regard to very small matters. To +illustrate: The sending of a man to the guard-house because in his +exasperation he so far forgot himself as to raise his hand to brush a fly +off of his nose when on dress parade, was not relished. It might have done +for a holiday, but not in time of war. At any rate, that is the way the +boys looked at it.</p> + + +<p> </p><p> </p> +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_57" id="Page_57">[Pg 57]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="Chapter_IX" id="Chapter_IX"></a><span class="smcap">Chapter IX.</span></h2> + +<p>Suffolk was our last regular encampment. From there we went to Yorktown, +expecting to take transportation home, as our term of service had nearly +expired. After remaining there a few days we were, very much to our +surprise, ordered up the peninsula. Somebody evidently made a mistake in +his reckoning, for when we arrived at Williamsburg, only twelve miles +distant from Yorktown, we were ordered back, an order which was not +reluctantly obeyed, although had there been urgent need for the regiment’s +services for a longer period, I feel sure that they would have been +cheerfully rendered.</p> + +<p>Upon our return to Yorktown we once more pitched our shelter (or “dog”) +tents, and made ourselves as comfortable as we could until transportation +was furnished. Finally we embarked on the steamer “John Rice,” and after a +three days’ sail arrived in Providence on the afternoon of the sixth of +July, 1863, just nine months to a day from the time we left Rhode Island.</p> + +<p>The reception of the regiment by the patriotic citizens<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_58" id="Page_58">[Pg 58]</a></span> of Providence was +as generous as it was hospitable. The Pawtucket companies (B and F) +reached home just before six o’clock, and were welcomed with the firing of +cannon, the ringing of bells, and other demonstrations of respect and +kindness. After the warm greetings at the railroad station by friends, the +band meanwhile vigorously playing “When Johnny Comes Marching Home,” and +other popular airs, a line was formed, (the escort comprising the Home +Guard and officers of the Light Guard,) and moved through the principal +streets, including a march to Central Falls and back. It was a proud day +for the “raw recruit” and his comrades. In marching through the streets of +both places, cheers and the waving of handkerchiefs testified the delight +of the multitude at our safe return. On arriving at the old Armory Hall in +Pawtucket, where, nine or ten months previously, so many of us had +enlisted, and which never looked so well to us before, a bountiful +collation was partaken of, and then, with good judgment on the part of +somebody, the companies were dismissed without being compelled to listen +to speeches from those who, for “prudential reasons,” remained at home.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_59" id="Page_59">[Pg 59]</a></span>The second death in Company B occurred on the evening of the first day out +from Yorktown. Frank M. Bliss, the “drummer boy” of the company, had been +sick several days with typhoid fever in the hospital at Yorktown, and his +recovery was considered hopeless when he was carried on board the steamer +by his comrades. The deceased was a son of Captain Albert Bliss, of +Pawtucket, and a young man of excellent qualities. He was very anxious to +serve his country in some capacity, and being only eighteen years of age, +and not physically able to carry the load of an infantry soldier he +enlisted as a drummer, and did good service in that capacity. His remains +were tenderly borne by a detail of his comrades from the steamer to the +home of his afflicted parents, and what in so many other homes was a day +of great joy on account of the return of loved ones, in theirs was a day +of deepest sorrow, for the loved son and brother whose return had been so +long joyously anticipated came not.</p> + +<p>The regiment was paid off and “mustered out” of service in Providence on +the thirteenth day of July, 1863. It left Rhode Island a little more than +one thousand strong. It came back numbering eight hundred and +thirty-eight<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_60" id="Page_60">[Pg 60]</a></span> enlisted men and thirty-eight commissioned officers. During +its absence it lost sixty men by discharge, and seven others by death. +Fifty-five of its members were left behind in various hospitals, and +twenty-five sick men were brought home on the steamer. It is a remarkable +fact in the history of the regiment that not one man was killed in an +engagement with the enemy during its entire nine months’ campaign. It is +doubtful whether this has its parallel in any other regiment which entered +the service during the civil war.</p> + +<p>But there were many other things which the soldier had to do besides +fighting. One thing all had to do, namely, <i>obey orders</i>, and when that +was done, the soldier had done all that was required of him, all that he +promised to do when he enlisted. The entire regiment never appeared in +line once after we left Providence, so many of the men being detailed for +various kinds of service, such as hospital nurses, ambulance drivers, +wagoners, and so forth. But, comrades, whatever the service performed by +our regiment, it should be esteemed honor and distinction enough for any +one of us to have it said of him, “<i>This is the country which he helped to +save</i>.”</p> + + +<p> </p><p> </p> +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_61" id="Page_61">[Pg 61]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="Chapter_X" id="Chapter_X"></a><span class="smcap">Chapter X.</span></h2> + +<p>I have thus imperfectly, and to myself at least very unsatisfactorily, +sketched the nine months’ war experiences of a “raw recruit” of the +Eleventh Rhode Island regiment. Whatever has been said, if anything, which +shall provoke criticism, be assured that “naught has been set down in +malice.”</p> + +<p>As was said by one whose words I have already quoted, “the men composing +the Eleventh regiment compared favorably with those of other regiments +which went from Rhode Island.” Some theories, however, in regard to what +constitutes the best material for soldiers were upset by the results of +our nine months’ campaign. In my own company, for instance, the majority +of the men were recruited from the professions and the counting-room. But +before leaving home it was deemed best by the officers to enlist a few men +upon whom they could rely to do the fighting in the event that the classes +to whom I have referred should show the “white feather” in the hour of +trial. Consequently a few “roughs,” or “toughs,” or<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_62" id="Page_62">[Pg 62]</a></span> +“bruisers,” or “scalawags,” were introduced into the company. With what result? Just what +every intelligent man should have known at the outset. They were +absolutely good for nothing when we were in camp but to furnish the +company’s quota for the guard-house, and when an emergency required their +services they were either drunk or in the hospital by reason of their +excesses. They were, indeed, “invincible in peace and invisible in war.” +The best men at home proved the most serviceable in the field. And this I +believe to be true not only of our own company and regiment, but of all +the troops who entered the service of the country.</p> + +<p>All soldiers have a regimental pride and affection. It would sound equally +as strange to hear a man not speak well of his mother, as to hear a +soldier not speak well of his regiment. The rebel General Hill tells of an +Irish soldier belonging to a New Orleans regiment whom he found after the +second day’s battle at Gettysburg lying alone in the woods, his head +partly supported by a tree. He was shockingly injured. General Hill said +to him: “My poor fellow, you are badly hurt. What regiment do you belong +to?” He replied: “The Fifth Confederit, sir; and a<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_63" id="Page_63">[Pg 63]</a></span> dommed good regiment +it is.” The answer, though almost ludicrous, well illustrates a soldier’s +pride in his regiment.</p> + +<p>That the Eleventh did not accomplish all that the men composing it +expected it would when it left Rhode Island is admitted. But that it did +its full duty in the obedience of every order, who will deny? As another +has so well and truthfully said in regard to the regiment, “it had not the +ordering of its own destiny. It went where it was ordered to go, and +performed the duty to which it was assigned, and left no stain to sully +the fair fame and honor of the State or country.” While it is true that to +some regiments better opportunities were furnished to achieve distinction +and renown than to others, there is no reason to suppose that the Eleventh +Rhode Island would not have done equally as well under the same +circumstances.</p> + +<p>I am not insensible to the fact that during the war, and for some time +after it was ended, a feeling was entertained by some of the men who first +went out in the three years’ regiments that the patriotism of the nine +months’ men was stimulated by the bounties which were offered. In Rhode +Island, so far as my knowledge extends, the largest bounty paid any one +person was one hundred and fifty dollars.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_64" id="Page_64">[Pg 64]</a></span> Would any old soldier, +especially if he has a family or others dependent upon him, consider the +sum mentioned compensation in any adequate sense to induce him again to +become a target for rebel bullets? It cannot be denied that there were +some men—unworthy the name of soldiers—who were induced by the offers of +bounty money to enlist and take the chances of “jumping” the bounty, or of +desertion, but by far the larger proportion of those who enlisted after +the bounties were offered, did so because they were then enabled to leave +those who were dependent upon them for their daily bread in such a +condition as to keep the wolf of starvation from the door in their +absence.</p> + +<p>Every man who, from love of his country, left home and friends to defend +the honor of the old flag in the hour of its assailment by traitorous +hands was a true patriot and deserves well of his fellow-countrymen, and +whether he served for a longer or a shorter period, or whether his service +was performed in the army or in the navy, on land or on sea, he has, by +the faithful discharge of his duty, honored the State which he represented +far more than it can ever honor him, and of him a grateful and +appreciative people will unite in saying, “<span class="smcap">Well done, good and faithful +servant.</span>”</p> + + + + + + + + + + + +<pre> + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of A Raw Recruit's War Experiences, by +Ansel D. 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Nickerson + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: A Raw Recruit's War Experiences + +Author: Ansel D. Nickerson + +Release Date: April 17, 2010 [EBook #32031] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK A RAW RECRUIT'S WAR EXPERIENCES *** + + + + +Produced by The Online Distributed Proofreading Team at +https://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images +generously made available by The Internet Archive/American +Libraries.) + + + + + + + + + +[Illustration: THE "RAW RECRUIT."] + + + + + A RAW RECRUIT'S + WAR EXPERIENCES. + + + BY + ANSEL D. NICKERSON, + Late Private Co. B, Eleventh Rhode Island Volunteers. + + + PROVIDENCE: + PRINTED BY THE PRESS COMPANY. + 1888. + + + + FOR PRIVATE DISTRIBUTION ONLY. + + + + AFFECTIONATELY INSCRIBED + To My Wife, + WHOSE PATRIOTIC SPIRIT PROMPTED + ME TO OFFER MY SERVICES + TO MY COUNTRY. + + + + "The neighing troop, the flashing blade, + The bugle's stirring blast, + The charge, the dreadful cannonade, + The din and shout are past." + + + + +APOLOGY. + + +This "war paper" was first read before the Rhode Island Soldiers and +Sailors Society, in Providence, October 19, 1886. Subsequently it was read +at the annual winter reunion of the Eleventh Rhode Island Regiment +(January 27, 1887), two companies of which regiment (B and F) were +recruited in Pawtucket, the former commanded by Captain Charles W. +Thrasher and Lieutenant Thomas Moies, and the latter by Captain Edward +Taft. It has since been read several times before other associations and +societies. The paper was not intended for publication, nor was it +originally broken into chapters, and in allowing it to be published, the +author permits the urgent requests of numerous friends to outweigh his own +judgment. It does not assume to be a connected or detailed history of the +regiment; nor is it the history of any one company of the regiment; nor is +it the diary of an officer of the regiment, but simply what its title +indicates, "A RAW RECRUIT'S WAR EXPERIENCES." More is said about Company B +than of any other company in the Eleventh Regiment for the reason that the +aforesaid "raw recruit's war experiences" were especially identified with +that company. Being personal recollections, and to a large extent the +recital of personal incidents connected with the nine months' campaign of +the regiment in Virginia, must be my apology for the frequent use of the +personal pronoun I. + +As the events of which I speak occurred at a period in our country's +history when a spade was called a spade, and among a class of men who +could not be justly accused of ambiguity of expression, my paper will be +found to contain more than one "strong, old-fashioned English word, +familiar to all who read their Bibles." + +To those comrades whose war experiences were of a very different character +from my own, and into whose hands this unpretentious little volume may +fall, I trust that the recital of some of the ludicrous scenes in camp and +on the march, rather than the harrowing descriptions of sanguinary +battles, may not prove wholly unwelcome. + +A. D. N. + +PAWTUCKET, R. I., + +_April, 1888._ + + + + +CONTENTS. + + + CHAPTER I. + + THE "RAW RECRUIT" ENLISTS AND GOES INTO CAMP 1 + + + CHAPTER II. + + OFF FOR THE SEAT OF WAR--THE KNAPSACKS 11 + + + CHAPTER III. + + AT MINER'S HILL--FIRST DEATH--THE "LONG ROLL" 18 + + + CHAPTER IV. + + THE CONVALESCENT CAMP--SCENES GRAVE AND GAY 27 + + + CHAPTER V. + + AT "THE FRONT"--NORFOLK AND SUFFOLK 34 + + + CHAPTER VI. + + PASTIMES IN CAMP--RELIGIOUS SERVICES 40 + + + CHAPTER VII. + + BAKED BEANS--THE DEACON'S ADVICE--STEAMED OYSTERS 46 + + + CHAPTER VIII. + + THE ELEVENTH LOSES TWO COLONELS 51 + + + CHAPTER IX. + + YORKTOWN--HOME AGAIN--MUSTERED OUT 57 + + + CHAPTER X. + + "HONOR TO WHOM HONOR IS DUE" 61 + + + + +A Raw Recruit's War Experiences. + + + + +CHAPTER I. + + +During the winter preceding the firing upon Sumter, I was one of a group +of young fellows of about my own age who regularly assembled evenings at +the corner grocery of the village where we lived, to listen to older +persons discuss the affairs of the nation and all other matters, moral, +intellectual and social, as is the nightly custom in country groceries, +and particularly the probabilities of war between the North and the South, +which, I will say in passing, every day grew more probable. Each several +barrel-head in that grocery seemed to know its own occupant, and for any +one else to have appropriated it to his own use, especially had he been a +young man, would, I am sure, have been deemed an unpardonable breach of +courtesy. The grocer himself was the acknowledged spokesman of the +company, and never allowed himself to be "switched off" from the subject +in hand, however pressing the demands of his waiting customers. He did +not believe there would be any war; but in the event that the South should +"kick in the traces," as he expressed it, "our boys would only have to arm +themselves with brooms and go down there and give 'em a thrashing." This +_sweeping_ assertion was received with liberal applause by all of his +hearers, the impatient customers not excepted. + +I hope I shall not detract from your favorable estimate of the grocer's +patriotism when I add that, being a dealer in brooms himself, he remarked +that he "would like nothing better than a contract to supply the +government with them." I hardly need mention the fact that the grocer was +a genuine specimen of the Yankee, and always kept an anchor to the +windward and his eyes wide open for the main chance. "They all did it"--in +war times. + +I only mention this incident in illustration of the opinion which our +northern people generally had in the winter of '60 and '61 as to the +likelihood of a war with the South, and their estimate as to what would be +necessary to suppress a rebellion against the government in that section +of the country if, unfortunately, one should break out. + +But, as we all know, the groceryman proved a false prophet. When the news +of the attack upon Fort Sumter came, it found me setting type in the +"Gazette and Chronicle" printing office in Pawtucket, where I had been +regularly employed as apprentice and journeyman since 1846. "All work and +no play" had made Jack a pretty dull boy indeed, and the war promised a +vacation, temporary or permanent, which I had long been seeking, and which +I at once made up my mind that I would avail myself of at the earliest +possible opportunity. As the war news became more and more interesting, +filling the paper nearly full every week to the exclusion of less +important matters, I became more and more determined to give the country +the benefit of my services. Very many of my associates had enlisted and +gone "to the front," and I could not satisfy myself with any good reason +for longer remaining at home when men were so much needed to defend the +honor of the old flag and assist in upholding the integrity of the +government in its day of greatest peril. In the language of that good old +hymn, I realized that + + "I can but perish if I go," + +and said: + + "I am resolved to try." + +And I did. With what result will be seen. + +I expected to encounter opposition at home, and consequently I kept my +plans to myself. A year had passed away, and yet I was not enrolled among +the "boys in blue." Three hundred thousand nine months' volunteers were +called for by President Lincoln, and proclamation was made that if the +necessary quota from each State was not filled by the fifteenth of August, +1862, a draft would be resorted to. I concluded to step in out of the +draft. War meetings were held almost every night in the old Armory Hall on +High street in Pawtucket. I was a regular attendant in the capacity of +reporter for the newspaper upon which I was employed. The speakers were +generally men past middle life, whose principal business seemed to be to +urge the young men to volunteer, and not to volunteer themselves. One +evening, for some reason, there was a dearth of speakers, and after a +while some one in the audience called out my name, and soon the call +became so loud and so general that I was compelled to respond. I ascended +the platform, and, as nearly as I can remember, I spoke as follows: "Young +men, one thing has especially impressed me this evening. Every speaker who +has preceded me has said to you, '_Go!_' Now, boys, I say _Come!_" and +turning to a recruiting officer who sat on my right, I said, "Put my name +down!" I think it was the shortest speech I ever made; at any rate, I know +it was the best received. There seemed to be no bounds to the enthusiasm +which was manifested, and the recruiting business in Pawtucket at once +received a "boom." + +After the meeting was over and congratulations were ended, I went home. +Now began the "tug of war." The house was silent--very silent--and so was +I. I didn't sleep much that night. In my wakefulness I concluded not to +say anything to my family about what I had done, but leave her to learn +the news from some other source. But this little scheme was upset very +early in the morning by the lady of the house asking me concerning the war +meeting of the previous evening, and the names of the speakers. After +giving her such general information as I possessed, I hesitatingly +informed her that she had had the honor of entertaining one of the +speakers over night. Woman like, she then wanted to know if anybody +enlisted. Things were getting pretty close home now. The ice must be +broken. I told her that several persons enlisted, and gave her the names +of some of them; and, after a moment's hesitation, I said, "I don't know +what you will think, or say, when I tell you that I was one of them, and +that I am going to the war." Judge of my surprise, and of my own +depreciated estimate of what I had previously considered my great +patriotism, when she exclaimed, "_Well, all I have got to say is, that if +I had been a man, I should have gone long ago_." The ice was pretty +effectually broken now, and what I feared might prove a council of war, +was turned into a council of peace. That speech settled the whole business +for me, and I was ready, yea, anxious, to shoulder my musket and go "to +the front" immediately; in fact, I wished I had gone before. Woman's work +in the war! I fear it has not been fully appreciated or justly +acknowledged. The patriotism, the heroism and the sacrifice were not +confined to the soldiers. They knew little of the inexpressible longings, +the fears, the prayers, the yearning hopes, the terrible suspense, of +those at home who loved them. What pen can truthfully describe the weary +watching and waiting of the wives and mothers, the daughters and sisters, +during those long four years of fire and blood? God bless them, one and +all! + +Several weeks elapsed between the time of enlistment and going into camp. +At last we were ordered to report on Dexter Training Ground, in +Providence, the name of the camp being "Camp Stevens," in honor of Major +General Isaac Ingalls Stevens, who was killed September 1st, 1862, in the +battle of Chantilly, Virginia, while leading his division in a charge. To +very many of the members of the regiment, their first military experience +began on Camp Stevens, and truthfulness to history compels me to add that +with no small number of the enlisted men it ended there, they being unable +to "pass muster," or, in other words, to endure the severe ordeal to which +they were subjected by the chief mustering officer, Captain William +Silvey, of the regular army. I had entertained fears from the start that I +would be "thrown out" on account of a supposed pulmonary difficulty. I +"braced up" as best I could for the examination. Captain Silvey looked me +squarely in the face as I stood in line, and placing one of his hands upon +my breast, he struck with the other a blow which seemed hard enough to +fell an ox, and then remarked "All right!" I could not have been made more +happy than I was by his decision if he had knocked me down. He settled one +thing at any rate which had long been a disputed question in our family, +namely, that my breathing apparatus was "all right." + +After the examinations were concluded, the "lucky ones" were sworn in and +marched down to the quartermaster's department to receive their +equipments. The "pride, pomp and circumstance of glorious war" had never +possessed any great charm for me. I had belonged to an engine company and +a Sunday-school, but never to a military company; in fact, until I went on +to Camp Stevens I do not remember ever to have had a musket in my hand. +This will serve to explain why, when all of the members of my company had +been supplied with arms, the officer in command called attention to the +fact that I had my gun wrong side before, my hand grasping the lock or +hammer instead of the "guard." The suggestion that I should join the +"awkward squad" was sufficiently exasperating to have almost induced me to +throw up my commission. + +But a still further humiliation was in store for me. At our first drill in +the manual of arms, among the other orders given was, "ram cartridge," +when the officer in charge discovered that I had inserted the wrong end of +the ramrod into the muzzle of the gun, I having found the hollow space in +the large end very convenient in which to insert the ball of my little +finger in sending the imaginary cartridge to its destination. Fortunately +for me, no further opportunities for demonstrating my fitness for +promotion in the "awkward squad" were furnished me, and my leisure hours +were spent in acquiring proficiency in drill. How well I succeeded will +appear. + +While we were on Camp Stevens we had a great many visitors. Among those +whom I shall ever remember was that "grand, square and upright" citizen of +Pawtucket, Charley Chickering. It so happened that the day he visited us, +I was performing guard duty around the camp. I noticed that my portly +friend, as he paraded up and down the sidewalk opposite me, seemed deeply +interested in my movements. Presently he came across the street and walked +alongside of me awhile as I paced my beat back and forth. He was silent. +So was I. But at length that ominous chuckle of his began to be heard, or +perhaps I should say a series of chuckles, which all who are acquainted +with him so well know always precedes his quaint and original utterances. +I fancied that my martial air and my dexterity in handling my musket, +although I knew it did bob around considerably when carried at "support," +or perpendicularly, was to evoke from my old friend and schoolmate a +compliment. But judge of my surprise when instead he opened upon me as +follows, his every word being punctuated with one of those peculiar +chuckles to which I have referred: "Nickerson,--I--admire--your-- +patriotism,--but--I--swear--I--can't--compliment--you--on--your-- +soldierly--bearing." + +I confess that I experienced considerable difficulty in learning to keep +step, but, like the raw Irish recruit, I stoutly maintained that the +trouble was with "the other b'ys; they wouldn't kape step wid me." + + + + +CHAPTER II. + + +It was on the afternoon of the sixth of October, 1862, when we kissed our +wives and sweethearts, and + + "With our guns upon our shoulders, + And our bayonets by our sides," + +left Camp Stevens for the seat of war. We were in anything but light +marching order when we broke camp. To this day the remembrance of those +back-breaking knapsacks makes me weary. Feminine ingenuity seemingly +exhausted itself in conjuring up all sorts of things, describable and +indescribable, that could make life a burden to a "raw recruit," a +wheelbarrow being needed for their transportation. But the size of those +knapsacks grew "beautifully less" shortly after leaving home, a blanket +and overcoat being all that were absolutely needed in active service, and +often one of these proved a burden rather than a necessity. In addition to +clothing enough to have overstocked one of the numerous Palestine +merchants on Chatham street, in New York, there were, among other things, +family Bibles, pocket Testaments, prayer-books and dictionaries, +Pilgrim's Progress, Old Farmer's Almanac, photograph and autograph albums, +ambrotypes and daguerreotypes, diaries, razors, mirrors of various sizes, +boxes of blacking, button-hooks, collars and cuffs, corkscrews, tooth +powder, brushes for the hair, teeth and boots, whisk brooms, clothing and +hat brushes, combs, shaving utensils, slippers, clothes-wringers, +frying-pans and patent coffee-pots, soap, towels, napkins, pins, needles +and thread, buttons of various dimensions, boots and shoes, both thick and +thin, hair oil and pomade, matches, pipes, tobacco, plug and fine cut, +rolls of linen bandages and bundles of lint, Pain Killer, Jamaica ginger, +Seidlitz powders, pills, cayenne pepper, and almost everything else but +umbrellas. Then there were the equipments provided by the +government,--haversack, canteen, cartridge box and sixty rounds of +cartridges, not to mention the musket,--until our appearance resembled the +pictures of the dromedaries crossing the Great Desert which I saw in the +geography in my school days. When we embarked on the cars at Olneyville, +bound for New York, and unslung those corpulent knapsacks, the sense of +relief which we experienced was, I fancy, somewhat akin to that felt by +Bunyan's pilgrim when he dropped his burden. Indeed, it seemed like +getting out from under a haystack or a mountain. + +From New York to Washington our trip possessed no features uncommon to +other regiments. From Philadelphia to the National Capital we were +transported in freight cars, a new experience to all of us, but one to +which we became accustomed before we saw Rhode Island again. It was at +Perryville, Maryland, that we had our first glimpse of the devastation +wrought by war. Here the extensive bridge across the Susquehanna had been +burned by the enemy, and we were transferred in detachments across the +river to Havre de Grace in a small steamer. We arrived in Washington about +ten o'clock on one of the most beautiful moonlight nights I ever saw. Our +arrival was expected by some of our friends who had enlisted earlier than +ourselves, and they were at the railroad station to welcome us. + +Immediately upon landing from the cars we were marched to the "Soldiers' +Retreat" for refreshments. No soldier who has frequented that place needs +to be told that we beat a hasty retreat therefrom. I am very confident +that the most of the men would gladly have taken the next train back to +Rhode Island, if the matter of return tickets had not been entirely +overlooked by the master of transportation. + +How marked the contrast between our reception in Washington and in +Philadelphia! Even to this day pleasant memories remain of the hospitality +dispensed to our regiment by the patriotic ladies of the "City of +Brotherly Love," at the famous "Cooper Shop Volunteer Refreshment Saloon," +a hospitality which was extended to all of the "boys in blue" who passed +through Philadelphia on their way to the National Capital. + +Fancy our feelings when we were informed that our first night in +Washington must be spent in this same unsavory "Soldiers' Retreat." Acting +upon the maxim that "what cannot be cured must be endured," and in +unquestioned obedience to orders, we spread our blankets upon the hard, +dirty floor, and taking our huge knapsacks for pillows we wrapped our +mantles (poetry for army overcoats) about us and laid down to pleasant +dreams of home, and feather beds, and hair mattresses, and other comforts +and luxuries to which we had been so long accustomed as to have wholly +failed to appreciate them at their proper value. Truly in our case, +distance lent enchantment. But to come down to solid, matter-of-fact +prose, we didn't sleep much that night anyway. Whether it was the effects +of the heat of the preceding day when we were marching through Baltimore +at a "double quick," with those burdensome knapsacks breaking our backs, +or whether it was the souvenirs left by our comrades-in-arms who had +occupied that same floor the previous night, I cannot positively affirm, +but this one thing I know, that we _scratched_ out a miserable existence +until morning, when, after declining without thanks to regale ourselves +with the so-called coffee which was furnished us, which our boys affirmed +was poor water spoilt, and the turning of the cold shoulder upon the salt +junk which was so temptingly spread before us, we cheerfully obeyed the +order of our Colonel to "fall in," and were soon wending our way to East +Capitol hill, near the east branch of the Potomac, where, our tents not +having arrived, we encamped in the open air, which was far preferable to +spending a second night at the "Soldiers' Retreat." The soil where we +encamped was of a clayey nature, and the surface as free from moisture as +polishing powder, and when we awoke on the following morning we had very +much the appearance of having slept in an ash-pit. + +We remained here but a day or two, when we received orders to join General +Casey's Division, and bidding adieu without regrets to "Camp Misery," as +our boys had named the spot, we were soon on our way across Chain Bridge, +and in due season found ourselves on the "sacred soil" of Virginia. + +I can never forget a laughable scene which was enacted on Pennsylvania +avenue by Company B while on this march. We were on the extreme left of +the line. In front of a tonsorial saloon on the avenue our boys espied a +Dutchman who formerly carried on business in Pawtucket. The surprise at +the unexpected meeting was mutual on the part of the barber and the boys. +It was his habit when a customer entered his shop to inquire as to whether +he preferred the water hot or cold, but for any one to repeat the question +in his presence, whether on the street or elsewhere, was sure to stir up +the barber's ire. Immediately upon seeing him standing in front of his +shop, our boys began to sing out, "Vater hot, or vater cold?" The old +Dutchman became terribly excited, and the result was that that portion of +the procession which was composed of Company B became sadly demoralized. +As soon as our officers took in the situation, order was at once +restored, and a few minutes of "double quick" enabled us to regain our +position in line. But no sooner had this been done than we saw coming +directly toward us, down the avenue, a regiment which had the appearance +of having just come from "the front." It was a new and strange sight to +us, those "battle-scarred veterans" of the war, and we made up our minds +that the right thing for us to do was to tender them a reception. Without +any orders from our officers, and without even their knowledge, we +immediately came to "company front" and presented arms, to the great +amusement and evident astonishment of those old soldiers. This action on +our part caused us to receive a well-merited reprimand from our officers, +and it was the first and only performance of the kind in which Company B +bore a conspicuous part. + + + + +CHAPTER III. + + +Of the movements of the Eleventh regiment while in Virginia, I will not +weary you with a rehearsal in detail. Our first regular camp was +established on Miner's Hill, the extreme outer part of the defenses of +Washington, and when we reached it on a cold, raw, blustering day late in +the fall of 1862, the wind filling our eyes and mouths with a blinding and +grinding dust, it was the most dismal and dreary-looking place that I ever +saw--with the single exception of Seekonk Plains. We remained here about +three months, building and stockading our winter quarters, drilling and +doing picket duty, and making occasional raids when we felt sure that the +enemy was a safe distance from us. We were in General Robert Cowdin's +brigade, which comprised, in addition to our own regiment, the Fortieth +Massachusetts, the Twenty-second Connecticut, the One Hundred and +Forty-first New York, and the Sixteenth Virginia Battery. + +Company B had a fund of one thousand dollars which was raised by the +patriotic citizens of Pawtucket and Central Falls for the purpose of +enabling the officers to procure for the members of the company, among +other things, some articles for the table when we were in camp which were +not to be found on the government "bill of fare." In consequence of this +"company fund" we had a greater share of "extras" than any other company +in the regiment while we were encamped in the vicinity of Washington. +Among those "extras" were milk for our coffee and tea (fresh when it could +be obtained, and condensed at other times); writing paper, envelopes and +stamps; a copy of the Washington "Daily Chronicle" for each mess, and a +weekly pictorial paper; blacking, oil, sand paper, emery paper, polishing +powder, soap, matches, green apples, tallow candles and other delicacies +of the season. The extra candles were used on special occasions, such as +the reception of friends from home, and so forth. Naturally enough the +members of the other companies looked upon us at times with envious eyes. +The historian of the regiment writes thus of Company B: "Their company +fund was large, their friends with money many, and their visitors, who +always remembered them handsomely, numerous." We did, indeed, have quite a +number of visitors from home while we were encamped near Washington, and +I can assure you that their visits were always occasions of great pleasure +to us. Later they became like angels' visits, "few and far between." + +The first death in our company occurred at Miner's Hill, and the funeral +ceremonies were deeply impressive. The ambulance containing the remains of +our dead comrade was preceded by an escort composed of the +non-commissioned staff of the regiment, (the deceased having held the +position of regimental hospital steward,) and sixteen men of Company B, in +command of the first sergeant, accompanied by the drum corps. The officers +and men of Company B followed in the rear of the procession. Arriving on +the parade ground, the coffin was taken from the ambulance and placed on a +stretcher, when appropriate services were performed by the chaplain, +consisting of prayer, the reading of scripture, and brief remarks, after +which three volleys were fired and the remains of Jacob S. Pervear, Jr., +were replaced in the ambulance to be conveyed to Washington and thence to +the home of the deceased in Pawtucket. + +In the course of his remarks, the chaplain used the following very +appropriate poetical quotation: + + "Ye number it in days since he + Strode up the foot-worn aisle, + With his dark eye flashing gloriously, + And his lip wreathed with a smile; + Oh, had it been but told you then + To mark whose lamp was dim, + From out those ranks of fresh-lipped men, + Would ye have singled him? + + * * * * + + "His heart, in generous deed and thought, + No rivalry might brook, + And yet, distinction claiming not, + There lies he--go and look." + +The occasion was of a very mournful character, and it was not without +effect upon some of the hardest men in the regiment, for young Pervear was +greatly beloved by all. + +One Sunday, when instead of going to church I was doing picket duty on the +line of the Norfolk and Petersburg railroad, I halted an old man who was +riding along in a dilapidated two-wheeled vehicle, to which was attached a +still more dilapidated horned beast which, apparently, from time +immemorial had served for its owner all the requirements of a horse. In +answer to my inquiry whether he was a Union man, the old fellow gave me +the following reply: "Stranger, I was born in the Union; I have always +lived in the Union; I have always loved the old Union, and I love her +still; I have always voted for the old Union; and, stranger, when I die, +whether I go to heaven or hell, I shall stick by the old Union!" All +doubts as to his loyalty having been dispelled, I grasped him warmly by +the hand, and, whispering in his ear, said, "Old man, _stick_!" + +Perhaps I should have stated ere this that in addition to my duties as a +soldier, I combined those of a "war correspondent." My letters were +generally written in the evening in my tent, lying prone upon my face, the +light being furnished by a dripping tallow candle which was stuck into the +top of a bayonet whose point was inserted in the earth. Here, under such +circumstances, I criticised the conduct of the war, and directed campaigns +as best I could. I mention this fact at this time because the incident +just related has already appeared in print. + +An incident which has not appeared in print, but which made a deep +impression upon the "family men" of the regiment, occurred on a beautiful +Sunday afternoon while on dress parade at Miner's Hill. General Robert +Cowdin, the brigade commander, was frequently an interested observer on +these occasions. At the time to which I refer, he was accompanied by a +lady friend from Washington, who held by the hand a beautiful little boy +of four or five years of age. The sight of the little fellow, particularly +when he let go his mother's hand and ran about and shouted in his childish +glee, so affected the men that it was almost impossible to preserve a +steady line and secure prompt obedience to orders. Men whom I had seldom +or never before seen exhibit any emotion were moved to tears by the sight +and the remembrance of dear ones at home, and many of them were heard to +say that they would willingly part with a month's pay just to take the +little fellow in their arms for a moment, while a Pawtucket man, who had a +wife but no children, said he would give all his bounty money and throw +the "cow" in, just to kiss the little fellow's mother--_for his wife's +sake_. The order to "march off your companies" cut short other equally +complimentary expressions concerning the mother and her darling boy. + +One of the most ludicrous events which occurred in our regiment was on a +very dark night when the "long roll" sounded for the first time. We were +at once ordered under arms, it being whispered among the "knowing ones" +that we were likely to have a brush with the enemy before daylight, while +the officers knew it was only to "break in" the men, to see how they would +behave in the time of actual service. There was a hurrying to and fro of +officers of all grades; signal lights were swung here and there in +response to similar signals which could be seen quite a distance away; the +surgeons were overhauling and sharpening their instruments and filing +their saws and getting out large quantities of lint and bandages; all +orders were given in a whisper, and everything betokened speedy and +decisive action, the time having come for our men to cover themselves with +glory--or shame. + +In Company B there was an Irishman named Mike Cassidy. He was an old man, +and when he got into line it was evident that he was sleeping soundly when +the order fell upon his ears to "turn out," and that he had not been able +in the darkness to find his entire wardrobe, or if he found it, that he +did not have time to get properly inside of it. But he had his old and +trusty musket, with which he had often declared he could alone whip the +whole Southern Confederacy if they would only give him time. Time was +what Mike most needed. He always had time enough, but it was "behind +time," save when the order was given to "fall in for rations." But it +happened on that particular night some member of his "mess" whose musket +was without a tube or nipple upon which to put a cap, had appropriated +Cassidy's to his own use. I seem now to see Cassidy as he appeared in line +on that dark night trying to put a percussion cap on that nippleless gun. +Comrade, did you ever swear? Do you think you ever heard anybody swear? +You should have heard Cassidy. He swore vengeance upon all of his +comrades, and declared that if he was killed, his ghost would forever +haunt the man who stole the nipple from his gun. "Here I am," he +exclaimed, "with no nipple on me gun, and the whole dommed Confederacy +right on us!" + +In the midst of all the excitement which he occasioned by his vociferous +tones and profane explosives, the order came to "break ranks," and poor +Cassidy was the laughing-stock of the whole company. I believe he forgave +the rank and file for what he termed the "sell," but he said he would +never forgive the officers--and I am confident that he never did. + +A large number of the members of the Eleventh regiment reenlisted upon the +expiration of their term of service. Cassidy was, I think, among them. But +be that as it may, a very funny story is told about his trying to get a +pension on account of some real or fancied injury received while in an +engagement. The chief of the board of examiners asked him where he was +wounded. Mike placed his hand on his left breast and said, "About here, +sor." The examiner exclaimed: "Why, man, if you had been hit there you +would have been killed on the spot, for the bullet would have gone right +through your heart!" + +"I know it, sor," replied Cassidy, "but, bejabers, me heart was in me +mouth." + + + + +CHAPTER IV. + + +All were in high glee and the mythical goose occupied an elevated position +when we "broke camp" and left Miner's Hill. The intelligent contraband who +used to visit us every morning to dispose of his "baked fried pies" was +promptly on hand to collect the small sums from the boys which still +remained unpaid; and after the line had begun to move, another darkey, who +had been doing the washing for a large number of persons connected with +the regiment, and one of whose customers--presumably an officer--had +failed to meet his obligations, kept up with the regiment for a mile or +more, running along the line from one company to the other, peering into +the faces of all, and shouting at the top of his voice, "_Some gemman here +owes me free cents!_" The only satisfaction he got was that he would be +paid when "the cruel war was over." + +The Eleventh regiment saw but little service in the field. Our regimental +colors bear the names of no battles in which we were engaged, although we +took part in several very lively skirmishes, and for an entire day stood +in line in a broiling sun, expecting every moment to be ordered to take +part in a fight which was going on directly in front of us, across the +river at Suffolk, Virginia. The roar of the artillery and the rattle of +the musketry saluted our ears from morning until night; the ambulances +passed by us all day long with the wounded and the dying, and some of our +men who were on guard at the hospitals, which comprised the churches, +rendered assistance as nurses. As matters turned, however, the rebels +retreating, the services of our regiment were not required. But had they +been, there is no reason to doubt that the Eleventh would have acquitted +itself in such a manner as to have done honor to the State which sent it +into the field. One who knew the Eleventh regiment well, writes as follows +concerning it: "I feel warranted in saying, without fear of contradiction, +that no State sent into the service during the war, any better regiment, +in everything that goes to make a good regiment, than this nine months' +regiment; and I do not hesitate to say here and everywhere, that in the +character of the enlisted men, in the fidelity with which they performed +every duty, disagreeable as well as agreeable, it had no superior." + +But while little opportunity was given the Eleventh regiment to acquire +distinction in the field, yet it performed a service which, while bringing +no renown to the regiment, was as important as it was disagreeable, and +which subjected not only the men but the officers to very many unpleasant +experiences. I now refer to the arduous duty which the regiment performed +at the Convalescent Camp, midway between Washington and Alexandria. Here +we found between ten thousand and fifteen thousand old soldiers who had +been discharged from the hospitals in and around Washington, waiting to be +sent home or back to their regiments. Long lines of ambulances went back +and forth every day between the camp and Washington, carrying those to +whom transportation to their homes or regiments had been furnished, and +bringing from the hospitals others to take their vacant places. The camp +was in a very filthy condition when we arrived there, and the men greatly +demoralized. Of course our appearance as a guard over these old soldiers +was anything but welcome, and they were not slow in acquainting us with +the fact. For a time it seemed as if only the most extreme measures on our +part would prevent such insubordination as we should be unable to +control. Our duties were not only very disagreeable, but they were +performed at that season of the year when mud was for the most part of the +time nearly knee-deep, and frozen feet were no novelty. + +Here, day by day, our eyes witnessed the terrible effects of war upon +human life. Men who had been wounded in battle and were recovering from +their injuries were hobbling about on canes and crutches, while wounded +arms were supported by various ingenious devices. Some had lost a leg, +some both legs, some an arm, and some both arms. Others had an eye gone, +an ear torn off, a jaw which had been crushed into fragments. The wounds +were of every conceivable sort, and in every part of the body, from the +crown of the head to the sole of the foot. They had been shot in the head, +in the face, in the neck, in the shoulders, the arms, the legs, and the +feet. They had been shot through the chest, through the lungs, through the +hips and through the thighs. While here and there, gathered in small +groups, were victims of disease contracted in camp or on the march, whose +looks plainly indicated that they realized that there was but a step +between them and death. In recalling these scenes even at this late day, +my heart sickens as those pale faces and gaunt forms again rise up before +me, and I thank God that "the cruel war is over." + +An entire paper might be written of the experiences--grave and gay--at +Convalescent Camp. For the most part of the three winter months that we +were there, the time passed away very slowly, and all were anxious for a +change. Before we left, the external appearance of the camp had been +greatly improved, and the convalescents generally had become reconciled to +our presence among them, and less inclined to "run the guard" than at +first, a few object lessons as to the sure results of such doings on their +part causing them to regard "discretion as the better part of valor." +However, candor compels me to say that when we left for Suffolk, no +regrets at our departure were expressed by the convalescents, and as we +passed through the camp on our way to take the cars for Alexandria, their +taunts and jeers came near provoking an unpleasant collision, which, +however, was happily averted by the coolness and firmness of our officers. +Whatever else concerning the war an Eleventh Rhode Island man may forget, +you can be sure that it will not be his unpleasant personal experiences at +the Convalescent Camp. + +Permit me to relate an incident that occurred there in which I bore a +conspicuous part, and which has afforded me much more amusement since than +it did at the time. + +As I have already remarked, while we were on duty at the Convalescent +Camp, time hung heavily upon our hands, and quite a number of the members +of the regiment who had "influential friends" in Washington obtained +furloughs to visit home. Among those who sought the autograph of Drake +DeKay, by whom all furloughs were signed, and whose signature looked as if +it was written with his thumb about a month after a buzz-saw had got its +work in on the first joint, was the "raw recruit" of Company B. Others +received their furloughs, but mine tarried. I began to fear that my +"influential friends" had "got left"--at home. One afternoon, as I was +sitting in my tent ruminating as to how I would surprise my friends by +coming home unexpectedly, particularly my family, and as to how I would +spend my time while there, an orderly from the colonel's headquarters came +to our first sergeant and told him that the colonel wanted him to send a +man there immediately. Our first sergeant knowing that I expected a +furlough, and being willing to have a little fun at my expense, told me +that the colonel wished to see me at once. Getting myself together in the +best style I could at such short notice, and expecting to receive my +furlough and start for home by the evening train, I speedily reported +myself at the colonel's quarters. Judge of my great surprise when, instead +of the colonel stepping to the door of his tent with the coveted furlough +in his hand, and politely requesting me to accept it with his compliments, +and wishing me a pleasant visit home and a safe return, the aforesaid +orderly informed me that the colonel wished me to go to the blacksmith's +and keep the flies off his horse while he was being shod. I obeyed orders +as a matter of course, the flies were kept off, the horse was eventually +shod, my furlough never came, and my ways of spending it at home were +never realized. Such are the fortunes of war. The private soldier +proposes, and the officer opposes--that is, as a general thing. + + + + +CHAPTER V. + + +"Jumping from the frying-pan into the fire," the most of us thought when +we reached Alexandria, after leaving the Convalescent Camp, and found that +we were to be furnished with transportation to Norfolk on the old steamer +"Hero," which, as the "Argo," ran between Providence and Rocky Point long +"befo' de wah." We thought our accommodations could never be worse than +they were when we landed at the "Soldiers' Retreat" in Washington, but had +a rivalry existed between the two concerns, the "Hero" would have most +effectually distanced its competitor. It seemed, indeed, as if extra pains +had been taken by somebody to make our condition as uncomfortable and +unsatisfactory as possible. A cold rainstorm was prevailing when we went +on board the steamer. There were no sleeping accommodations whatever for +the men, and even the floor of the cabin which the officers occupied was +covered with sheets of boiler-iron, strewn helter-skelter here, there and +everywhere. The decks, where the men were huddled together like sheep, +were covered with mud and water several inches deep, our clothing was +damp, the air foul, and everything about as disagreeable as it could well +be. If we had been left in the starch over night we could not have been +more stiff the next morning than we were. Yet few complaints were heard, +the men generally preferring almost anything to longer remaining to guard +sick and disabled soldiers, especially where our room was better than our +company. + +In course of time--that is, very slow time--Norfolk was reached, and when +transportation could be obtained we piled into freight cars and were soon +on our way through the famous Dismal Swamp to Suffolk. Here we found the +Fourth regiment, and the reception which the boys gave us was next to +getting back to Rhode Island itself. I will not attempt to speak in detail +of what was done at Suffolk by our regiment. It was the pleasantest place +which we visited while we were away from home, and the service being more +active than any which we had previously performed, it was more congenial +and satisfactory to the men. Our camp was delightfully located, and the +occasional sharp skirmishes which we had with the rebels, who were just +across the Nansemond river, together with numerous expeditions to the +Blackwater and thereabouts, served to keep the regiment in good condition +and remove all apprehensions of demoralization because of inactivity. + +There were a large number of Union troops at Suffolk before our arrival. +The weather soon became very hot, and previous to their departure the +deaths were numerous. Daily the solemn processions wended their way to the +populous city of the dead. The funerals usually took place in the morning +just before sunrise, or at night just after sunset. I seem now to hear the +dirges played by the bands, and the volleys fired by the soldiers over the +graves of their dead comrades. + +Upon my return home, I learned that among those in the rebel army while I +was at Suffolk was a young man who learned his trade with me in the +"Chronicle" office in Pawtucket, and who went to Alabama several years +before the "late unpleasantness." At the close of the war he returned to +the North and again became a loyal citizen. + +On one of the expeditions to which I have referred, the Eleventh regiment +marched to the extreme front, three miles from Blackwater bridge, throwing +out Company F as pickets one mile in advance, who were soon engaged by the +enemy, and a brisk skirmish ensued which lasted until dark, when +hostilities ceased for that day. On the following afternoon, while three +of the companies of the regiment were picketing the front, they were +attacked in a spirited manner by six companies of a Mississippi regiment +deployed as skirmishers. Company B was sent forward as a support, but soon +deployed as skirmishers. The firing continued several hours, the enemy +being steadily driven back, leaving their dead on the field. Several +prisoners were captured. Obeying orders to fall back to Windsor, the +picket companies acted as rear guard. On this expedition the regiment was +absent from Suffolk eleven days, and was attached to the division under +command of General Corcoran. This was the nearest approach to a +hand-to-hand encounter with the enemy that the regiment had during its +term of service, and the two Pawtucket companies occupied the most exposed +and conspicuous positions. + +It was at this time that Lieutenant Thomas Moies came near being shot by a +man who belonged to one of the companies of the Eleventh which were in the +rear of Company B. The affair to which I refer occurred just in the edge +of the woods, between daylight and dark. Lieutenant Moies, with an old +straw hat on his head, and in advance of his men, was cautiously crawling +along on his hands and knees in the underbrush up to the enemy's line. +Having satisfied himself that the enemy was falling back, he rose up, and +a member of Company C observing his hat mistook it for the head-gear of +one of the rebels, as their uniform always lacked uniformity, and +immediately fired. Fortunately for Lieutenant Moies, and to the great joy +of the entire regiment, the man who fired failed to obey the stereotyped +order to "fire low," and the misdirected bullet went over the head of our +esteemed lieutenant, and his valuable life was spared. + +Since this paper was prepared, Lieutenant Moies has been "mustered out." I +knew him well as a neighbor and as a soldier. Together we slept on the +field with the same starry canopy for our covering, and together on the +weary march we shared the scanty contents of the same haversack and drank +from the same canteen. For him, "war's glorious art" had no allurements. +He loved his quiet home and the peaceful pursuits of life, and when he +gave himself to the service of his country it was because, being a true +patriot, he felt that its claims upon him were greater than those of +family and friends. + + "Wife, children and neighbor, + May mourn at his knell; + He was lover and friend + Of his country as well." + +His rank in the service, when measured by the army standard, was a +subordinate one, but had his shoulders been covered with eagles or stars, +he could not have been other than the same quiet, unassuming +citizen-soldier that he was, winning by his modest demeanor, sterling +integrity, and kindliness of heart, the esteem of his brother officers, +and the love and affection of his men. I know whereof I speak, when I say +that no officer who went from Rhode Island was more respected and beloved +by his command than was Lieutenant Thomas Moies, and by none is his death +more sincerely mourned than by those who served under him in Virginia in +1862-3. Such was the man--such was the soldier. + + + + +CHAPTER VI. + + +Elsewhere I have spoken of an "unconditional surrender" Union man whom I +overhauled while on picket duty on the Norfolk and Petersburg railroad. +All southern men--and women, too, as to that matter--were not so loyal as +that old man was, as is shown by the following incident which occurred on +the morning of our arrival in Suffolk. While marching down the principal +street we were halted for a few minutes. Immediately all the doorsteps of +the houses were appropriated by our men to their own use. My doorstep +belonged to a house which had all the appearance of being occupied by one +of the "first families." Presently a well dressed, intelligent looking, +elderly lady appeared at the door and inquired what regiment ours was. +Before time was given me to reply, a comrade who was sharing the step with +me, said, "One Hundred and Eleventh Rhode Island!" She then asked, "Is +that in North Carolina?" To assist her in locating "Little Rhody," I +remarked that Massachusetts was its nearest neighbor, presuming that all +southerners knew where the "bottled up" hero of Dutch Gap belonged when +at home. Having straightened out her geography, which seemed considerably +mixed, she then wanted to know what we came out there for. I told her we +came to fight for the Union. With considerable fire in her eye, and +vinegar in her tone, she replied, "They tell me you've come down here to +fight for the nasty niggers; and if I were a man, I would resist to the +death before _I_ would do such a thing!" Here the conversation was +suddenly interrupted by the order to "fall in," and I left the old lady +soliloquizing upon the causes which led to the war, and its probable +result to both North and South. Whether she had confounded Rhode Island +with Roanoke Island by reason of the similarity of names, or whether our +sudden appearance in front of her residence had caused her to lose her +reckoning generally, I am not sure. Possibly she was not up in geography. + +We had our pastimes when in camp. While we were at Suffolk it was not an +uncommon thing just after supper to see the men of Companies I and K +(commonly known as the Young Men's Christian Association companies) +holding prayer-meetings in the open air and singing revival melodies at +the ends of their streets, while the men of the other companies, at the +ends of their streets, would be dancing to the music of a violin or banjo, +or singing songs of a less spiritual character than those of the +Y. M. C. A. companies, all having a good time in their way, and neither +infringing nor trespassing upon the rights of the others, although some of +the men in the regiment, I feel compelled to say, were not the embodiment +of all the Christian virtues. + +While we were in winter quarters on Miner's Hill, the religiously inclined +men of the regiment erected a log chapel in which to hold services in the +evening and on Sundays. No church bell summoned them to worship, but a few +taps of the drum or a few notes from the bugle, or, better still, the +singing of some old, familiar hymn learned in boyhood in New England +homes, served as a "church call," and from every part of the camp the men +came to reverently worship the God of battles. I like good church music, +but believe me when I say that I would not exchange the memory of one of +those grand old hymns which "the boys" used to sing with "the spirit, and +the understanding also," at their meetings in that old log chapel, and +into which they threw their whole souls, for all of the so called +"classical music" which I have since heard rendered by grand organ and +artistic quartette on two continents. + +One Sabbath while we were in Suffolk, a special service for the soldiers +who were on duty there was held in one of the churches, the chaplains of +the various regiments officiating. The house was filled to its utmost +capacity,--the galleries, the aisles, the pulpit steps and the +vestibule,--while many were unable to find even standing room. At the +close of the sermon, officers and men knelt together at the same altar, +their confessions and supplications ascending to a common Father, and, +irrespective of distinctive creed or belief, partook of the Lord's Supper, +realizing as never before the truth that "God is no respecter of persons;" +and to one at least of that company of reverent worshipers, the Master's +words, "This do in remembrance of ME," had a deeper significance than ever +before. + +Religious services were also held at the Convalescent Camp, for there were +some faithful Christian men even there who did not forget their religious +vows when the fortunes of war called them away from their homes and +accustomed places of worship. At one of the evening meetings in the large +tent, which was filled to its utmost limits, an invitation was given to +those present who were striving, as "soldiers of the cross," to render +faithful service to the Captain of their salvation, to raise the right +hand. In response to the request, a large number of hands were raised. It +occurred, however, to the leader of the meeting that some were there whose +right arms had been shot off, and to such he gave opportunity to raise the +left hand--and there were quite a number raised. But the most affecting +sight was when a few men who had lost both arms in battle, and had only +stumps remaining, rose to their feet and gave evidence of their loyalty to +their Lord and Master. Such men could well sing at the close of the +service: + + "God of all nations! sovereign Lord, + In Thy dread name we draw the sword; + We lift the starry flag on high, + That fills with light our stormy sky. + + "From treason's rent, from murder's stain, + Guard Thou its folds till peace shall reign, + Till fort and field, till shore and sea, + Join our loud anthem, PRAISE TO THEE!" + +I used to be greatly amused at times at the kind of literature which +reached us when in camp from kind friends at home who were solicitous +concerning our moral welfare. Sometimes it was very evident that a book or +tract smuggled itself into the package sent which had never been "passed +upon" by any member of the Christian Commission. Just think of placing a +cook-book in the hands of a man who had been living for months on +hard-tack and salt junk, with no prospect of a change in diet for months +to come! + +I am reminded, in this connection, of an incident which occurred in one of +the hospitals in Washington. A kind-hearted Christian lady passed through +the wards one day distributing religious tracts. She placed one in the +hands of a young soldier who was occupying one of the numerous cots. As +she turned away from him on her mission of love, she heard him laugh. The +good woman's feelings were hurt, and retracing her steps she mildly +rebuked him for his seeming rudeness and ingratitude. He begged her pardon +and assured her that no discourtesy was intended, and remarked that he was +amused by the inappropriateness of the title of the tract she had given +him, "The Sin of Dancing," when both of his legs had been shot off. + + + + +CHAPTER VII. + + +In common with soldiers generally, the _menu_ of our company was somewhat +limited in variety, and the dishes served did not materially differ from +day to day. Sunday, however, was an exception to this general rule when we +were in camp. In accordance with the time-honored New England custom, on +Sunday morning we had _our_ "baked beans." If we did not always remember +to keep the Sabbath day holy, we certainly never forgot that it was the +day for baked beans; and I sometimes thought that the appearance of that +article of food on Sunday morning served us better than a Church calendar +or the "Old Farmer's Almanac" could have done as a reminder how the day +should be spent. + +Our cook had a novel way of cooking or baking beans. He soaked them in the +usual style, parboiled them in a large kettle, and then put them in a +deep, iron mess-pan, generous slices of pork being placed on top of the +beans. A hole was then made in the ground a foot or two feet deep and the +bottom well filled with live coals, and on top of the coals was placed +the iron mess-pan with its savory contents. Upon the cover of the pan was +then placed more live coals, and the whole covered with turf well tamped +down. This was done on Saturday afternoon, and on Sunday morning the beans +came out of their improvised oven piping hot and in no wise inferior to +those which furnished the staple article of the Sunday morning meal in so +many New England homes. + +Burns tells us that "the well-laid schemes of mice and men gang aft +agley." On one occasion it occurred that we encamped one Saturday +afternoon on an old battlefield, and as it was known that we were to +remain there over Sunday, our cook began the usual preliminary work +whereby he was to furnish the company with baked beans on the following +morning. It so happened that at the spot where the hole was dug in the +ground an unexploded shell was buried a little farther down, and after the +live coals and the bean pot had been deposited in the earth long enough to +form a mutual acquaintance and become warm friends a loud explosion was +heard, and immediately the beans took an upward tendency and the air was +completely filled with them, confirming the assertion of Artemas Ward +that the "festive bean, when baked, is a _very lively fruit_." + +The spring of 1863 was particularly favorable to the development of +typhoid fever, and a good many men in our regiment were in the hospital +with that disease. The surgeon ordered a gill of whiskey to be served to +every man daily, and as an inducement for him to "put it where it would do +the most good"--at least in the surgeon's opinion--he was told that he +would not be excused from duty if reported on the sick list. The whiskey +was usually taken by the men and put into their canteens with the water, +but in very many cases it did not take such a roundabout way in reaching +its destination. In my "mess" was a good, orthodox, prohibitionist deacon, +a man whose example I was told before leaving home that I could +consistently follow in all things--especially in _spiritual_ things. One +day he remarked to me that he had observed that I did not take my ration +of whiskey when it was dealt out. I told him that I had not felt the need +of it. He replied that he was very much afraid of the typhoid fever, and +had no scruples in regard to the taking of a little whiskey as a +precautionary measure, and if I was going to continue to refuse to take +my ration of it, he wished I would let it be poured into my canteen, and +he would turn it into his own when we got back to our quarters;--"only be +careful," said he, "that there is no water in your canteen." After that I +allowed the whiskey to be poured into my canteen; but the good deacon's +argument as to its being a preventive for typhoid fever was so convincing +that I did not allow it to be transferred to his. + +As is well known, a wide and almost impassable gulf of difference exists +between the officers and the rank and file in the regular army. But I had +not been long in the volunteer service before I discovered that +considerable difference existed even there between the private soldier and +the officer. To illustrate. While in Suffolk there happened to be an "r" +in the month. Walking along the principal street one day, I espied in the +window of a restaurant a card, upon which was printed or painted in +letters of large dimensions these two words: "STEAMED OYSTERS." Visions of +Pawtucket and Providence river bivalves immediately came up before me, and +I then and there resolved to have a good square meal of "steamed oysters," +even though it should pecuniarily impoverish me. So, entering the +restaurant, I seated myself upon one of the unoccupied high stools at the +oyster bar. And here I will remark that I could not have felt the +importance of my elevated position any more if my blouse had been covered +with shoulder-straps. Presently the proprietor of the establishment +presented himself, and eyeing me with an air of indifference almost +amounting to contempt, he asked me what I wanted. I replied, "Steamed +oysters." I confess I was somewhat surprised and considerably "down in the +mouth" when he informed me that he couldn't sell steamed oysters to a +private soldier. My suggestion that he might overcome the difficulty by +_giving them to me_, failed to secure the much-coveted bivalves, and I +retired from the restaurant a sadder but wiser man than when I entered it. + +As I remarked at the outset, there was considerable difference between the +private soldier and the officer even in the volunteer service; and this +was, as I have shown, particularly true as to which one should eat steamed +oysters. But the line had to be drawn somewhere, I suppose, and so at +Suffolk they drew it at steamed oysters, and, unfortunately for the man +who was serving his country at thirteen dollars a month, he "got left." + + + + +CHAPTER VIII. + + +While the Eleventh regiment was in service only nine months, and was never +in action as a full regiment, yet it lost in that time two colonels. A +certain fatality appeared to await those who were sent to take command of +the regiment during the early part of its term of service. It seemed at +one time as if the regiment was raised for the sole purpose of giving +those who were to become colonels of other Rhode Island regiments an +opportunity to perfect themselves in battalion drill and other military +movements before assuming command elsewhere--a sort of stepping-stone, as +it were, to something which was considered more desirable. There was, for +instance, Colonel Edwin Metcalf, who went out with us and who left us to +take command of the Third Rhode Island. Then there was Colonel Horatio +Rogers, who came to us from the Third regiment and remained less than two +weeks, leaving us to take command of the Second Rhode Island. The next to +put in an appearance was Colonel George E. Church, who had previously +served as lieutenant-colonel of the Seventh Rhode Island. He remained +with us until the expiration of our term of enlistment. + +It is not within the province of a private soldier--more especially a "raw +recruit"--to criticise his superiors, and consequently I will not attempt +it, notwithstanding this is the "piping time of peace," and all fear of +the guard-house has forever vanished. I will say, however, that all of the +officers named had their peculiarities, and that our lieutenant-colonel +was peculiarly peculiar; and yet I believe him to have been every inch a +soldier--at any rate, there was no such word as fear in his dictionary. He +was in command when the regiment came the nearest to being in an +engagement, and I fancy I see him now, mounted on his horse and riding at +the head of the column, wearing a moth-eaten blouse and an exceedingly +dilapidated straw hat, with a very black "T. D." clay pipe stuck in his +mouth, the bowl downwards. He looked more like the "cowboy" of modern +times than the pictures of military heroes which I used to see in my +school-books when a boy. This was our lieutenant-colonel--John Talbot +Pitman. He had good "staying qualities." He never threw up his commission, +nor did he die. He remained with us to the last, and rose considerably in +the estimation of the men after his appearance at the head of the regiment +at the time I have just mentioned. Men everywhere--especially +soldiers--admire pluck. Our lieutenant-colonel had pluck, even though at +times his heart seemed somewhat lacking in tenderness. He never winked at +any breach of discipline on the part of an officer or a private while he +was in command of the regiment. If at times he appeared to have too little +consideration for his men, he never failed to exact the fullest measure of +consideration for them from all others. + +Colonel Metcalf, as I have stated, came to us first, and was the first to +leave us. Universal regret on the part of officers and men was felt when +he took his departure for Hilton Head. + +Colonel Rogers did not remain with us long enough for us to learn to like +him or dislike him. He came to us "sp'ilin' for a fight," his heart's +desire all the time he was with us was to fight, and when he found that he +couldn't fight the rebels with us, he began to fight the War Department +for a "change of base;" and in order to have peace within our own borders, +and in response to a very general demand on the part of the loyal North +for a vigorous prosecution of the war, coupled with a declaration on the +part of certain northern newspapers that no further delay in pushing "On +to Richmond" would be tolerated without a satisfactory reason being given +therefor, the authorities at Washington compromised matters by sending the +plucky colonel to the Second Rhode Island regiment, where he "honored his +regiment, his State and himself by his gallant deeds." It is, however, but +simple justice to the Eleventh regiment to say that the men were hopeful +that Colonel Rogers' vigorous and persistent efforts with the War +Department to relieve them from the disagreeable duty which they were +performing at the Convalescent Camp would be crowned with success. Service +in the field was coveted. + +Colonel Rogers was a strict disciplinarian. The surgeon of the regiment +was a great lover of horses. It was said of him, before he entered the +service, that if he was sent for in a case of expected immediate death, +and he had an opportunity while on the road to trade a good horse for a +better one, he would always let his patient take the chances.--I do not +wish to be considered as authority for the truthfulness of this +assertion.--One Sunday morning our company was ordered to report in front +of the colonel's "markee" for inspection. While the inspection was going +on, the colonel stood in front of us, and just a little to his left the +surgeon and quartermaster, it being just before divine service, were +driving a horse trade. Naturally enough this attracted the attention of +the men, and it being noticed by Colonel Rogers, he exclaimed in that +melodious tone of voice so characteristic of him: "_Eyes to the front; you +wa'n't ordered down here to inspect the quartermaster's department!_" +Colonel Rogers was, indeed, peculiar. + +In an excellent paper which was read by Captain Charles H. Parkhurst, of +Company C, at a recent reunion of the Eleventh regiment, he thus +contrasted Colonel Metcalf and Colonel Rogers: + +"Colonel Metcalf, as a rule, commanded without saying anything about it. +When Colonel Rogers commanded he couldn't help saying something about it. +No one seeing Colonel Metcalf off duty, or un-uniformed, would have +suspected that he had any command, while the most casual observer looking +at Colonel Rogers, even when asleep, would instinctively know that even +then the colonel, at least, thought that he was in the exercise of +authority." + +Our last commanding officer, Colonel Church, was a thorough soldier and, +like Colonel Rogers, whom he succeeded, a strict disciplinarian. He was, +apparently, a favorite with the officers of the regiment, but his ways +smacked too much of the regular army to have ever made him popular with +volunteer soldiers. It is, however, due Colonel Church to say that while +under his command the regiment attained a high degree of proficiency in +all that characterizes good soldiership, and won for itself much praise +from those who were even superior in rank to its colonel. + +Speaking of the peculiarities of Colonel Church, for he had them too, +perhaps nothing created a greater dislike for him on the part of his men +than the severity of his discipline in regard to very small matters. To +illustrate: The sending of a man to the guard-house because in his +exasperation he so far forgot himself as to raise his hand to brush a fly +off of his nose when on dress parade, was not relished. It might have done +for a holiday, but not in time of war. At any rate, that is the way the +boys looked at it. + + + + +CHAPTER IX. + + +Suffolk was our last regular encampment. From there we went to Yorktown, +expecting to take transportation home, as our term of service had nearly +expired. After remaining there a few days we were, very much to our +surprise, ordered up the peninsula. Somebody evidently made a mistake in +his reckoning, for when we arrived at Williamsburg, only twelve miles +distant from Yorktown, we were ordered back, an order which was not +reluctantly obeyed, although had there been urgent need for the regiment's +services for a longer period, I feel sure that they would have been +cheerfully rendered. + +Upon our return to Yorktown we once more pitched our shelter (or "dog") +tents, and made ourselves as comfortable as we could until transportation +was furnished. Finally we embarked on the steamer "John Rice," and after a +three days' sail arrived in Providence on the afternoon of the sixth of +July, 1863, just nine months to a day from the time we left Rhode Island. + +The reception of the regiment by the patriotic citizens of Providence was +as generous as it was hospitable. The Pawtucket companies (B and F) +reached home just before six o'clock, and were welcomed with the firing of +cannon, the ringing of bells, and other demonstrations of respect and +kindness. After the warm greetings at the railroad station by friends, the +band meanwhile vigorously playing "When Johnny Comes Marching Home," and +other popular airs, a line was formed, (the escort comprising the Home +Guard and officers of the Light Guard,) and moved through the principal +streets, including a march to Central Falls and back. It was a proud day +for the "raw recruit" and his comrades. In marching through the streets of +both places, cheers and the waving of handkerchiefs testified the delight +of the multitude at our safe return. On arriving at the old Armory Hall in +Pawtucket, where, nine or ten months previously, so many of us had +enlisted, and which never looked so well to us before, a bountiful +collation was partaken of, and then, with good judgment on the part of +somebody, the companies were dismissed without being compelled to listen +to speeches from those who, for "prudential reasons," remained at home. + +The second death in Company B occurred on the evening of the first day out +from Yorktown. Frank M. Bliss, the "drummer boy" of the company, had been +sick several days with typhoid fever in the hospital at Yorktown, and his +recovery was considered hopeless when he was carried on board the steamer +by his comrades. The deceased was a son of Captain Albert Bliss, of +Pawtucket, and a young man of excellent qualities. He was very anxious to +serve his country in some capacity, and being only eighteen years of age, +and not physically able to carry the load of an infantry soldier he +enlisted as a drummer, and did good service in that capacity. His remains +were tenderly borne by a detail of his comrades from the steamer to the +home of his afflicted parents, and what in so many other homes was a day +of great joy on account of the return of loved ones, in theirs was a day +of deepest sorrow, for the loved son and brother whose return had been so +long joyously anticipated came not. + +The regiment was paid off and "mustered out" of service in Providence on +the thirteenth day of July, 1863. It left Rhode Island a little more than +one thousand strong. It came back numbering eight hundred and +thirty-eight enlisted men and thirty-eight commissioned officers. During +its absence it lost sixty men by discharge, and seven others by death. +Fifty-five of its members were left behind in various hospitals, and +twenty-five sick men were brought home on the steamer. It is a remarkable +fact in the history of the regiment that not one man was killed in an +engagement with the enemy during its entire nine months' campaign. It is +doubtful whether this has its parallel in any other regiment which entered +the service during the civil war. + +But there were many other things which the soldier had to do besides +fighting. One thing all had to do, namely, _obey orders_, and when that +was done, the soldier had done all that was required of him, all that he +promised to do when he enlisted. The entire regiment never appeared in +line once after we left Providence, so many of the men being detailed for +various kinds of service, such as hospital nurses, ambulance drivers, +wagoners, and so forth. But, comrades, whatever the service performed by +our regiment, it should be esteemed honor and distinction enough for any +one of us to have it said of him, "_This is the country which he helped to +save_." + + + + +CHAPTER X. + + +I have thus imperfectly, and to myself at least very unsatisfactorily, +sketched the nine months' war experiences of a "raw recruit" of the +Eleventh Rhode Island regiment. Whatever has been said, if anything, which +shall provoke criticism, be assured that "naught has been set down in +malice." + +As was said by one whose words I have already quoted, "the men composing +the Eleventh regiment compared favorably with those of other regiments +which went from Rhode Island." Some theories, however, in regard to what +constitutes the best material for soldiers were upset by the results of +our nine months' campaign. In my own company, for instance, the majority +of the men were recruited from the professions and the counting-room. But +before leaving home it was deemed best by the officers to enlist a few men +upon whom they could rely to do the fighting in the event that the classes +to whom I have referred should show the "white feather" in the hour of +trial. Consequently a few "roughs," or "toughs," or "bruisers," or +"scalawags," were introduced into the company. With what result? Just what +every intelligent man should have known at the outset. They were +absolutely good for nothing when we were in camp but to furnish the +company's quota for the guard-house, and when an emergency required their +services they were either drunk or in the hospital by reason of their +excesses. They were, indeed, "invincible in peace and invisible in war." +The best men at home proved the most serviceable in the field. And this I +believe to be true not only of our own company and regiment, but of all +the troops who entered the service of the country. + +All soldiers have a regimental pride and affection. It would sound equally +as strange to hear a man not speak well of his mother, as to hear a +soldier not speak well of his regiment. The rebel General Hill tells of an +Irish soldier belonging to a New Orleans regiment whom he found after the +second day's battle at Gettysburg lying alone in the woods, his head +partly supported by a tree. He was shockingly injured. General Hill said +to him: "My poor fellow, you are badly hurt. What regiment do you belong +to?" He replied: "The Fifth Confederit, sir; and a dommed good regiment +it is." The answer, though almost ludicrous, well illustrates a soldier's +pride in his regiment. + +That the Eleventh did not accomplish all that the men composing it +expected it would when it left Rhode Island is admitted. But that it did +its full duty in the obedience of every order, who will deny? As another +has so well and truthfully said in regard to the regiment, "it had not the +ordering of its own destiny. It went where it was ordered to go, and +performed the duty to which it was assigned, and left no stain to sully +the fair fame and honor of the State or country." While it is true that to +some regiments better opportunities were furnished to achieve distinction +and renown than to others, there is no reason to suppose that the Eleventh +Rhode Island would not have done equally as well under the same +circumstances. + +I am not insensible to the fact that during the war, and for some time +after it was ended, a feeling was entertained by some of the men who first +went out in the three years' regiments that the patriotism of the nine +months' men was stimulated by the bounties which were offered. In Rhode +Island, so far as my knowledge extends, the largest bounty paid any one +person was one hundred and fifty dollars. Would any old soldier, +especially if he has a family or others dependent upon him, consider the +sum mentioned compensation in any adequate sense to induce him again to +become a target for rebel bullets? It cannot be denied that there were +some men--unworthy the name of soldiers--who were induced by the offers of +bounty money to enlist and take the chances of "jumping" the bounty, or of +desertion, but by far the larger proportion of those who enlisted after +the bounties were offered, did so because they were then enabled to leave +those who were dependent upon them for their daily bread in such a +condition as to keep the wolf of starvation from the door in their +absence. + +Every man who, from love of his country, left home and friends to defend +the honor of the old flag in the hour of its assailment by traitorous +hands was a true patriot and deserves well of his fellow-countrymen, and +whether he served for a longer or a shorter period, or whether his service +was performed in the army or in the navy, on land or on sea, he has, by +the faithful discharge of his duty, honored the State which he represented +far more than it can ever honor him, and of him a grateful and +appreciative people will unite in saying, "WELL DONE, GOOD AND FAITHFUL +SERVANT." + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of A Raw Recruit's War Experiences, by +Ansel D. 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