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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/34895-8.txt b/34895-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..efab6d1 --- /dev/null +++ b/34895-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,1149 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of History of the Second Massachusetts +Regiment of Infantry: A prisoner's diary, by Samuel M. Quincy + +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: History of the Second Massachusetts Regiment of Infantry: A prisoner's diary + A paper read at the officers' reunion in Boston, May 11, 1877 + +Author: Samuel M. Quincy + +Release Date: January 9, 2011 [EBook #34895] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 2ND MASS. REG. PRISONER'S DIARY *** + + + + +Produced by Sam W. and 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.) + + + + + + + + + + HISTORY + OF THE + SECOND MASSACHUSETTS REGIMENT OF INFANTRY. + + + A PRISONER'S DIARY. + + A PAPER READ AT THE OFFICERS' REUNION IN BOSTON, + MAY 11, 1877, + + BY + + SAMUEL M. QUINCY, + + CAPTAIN SECOND MASSACHUSETTS REGIMENT OF INFANTRY. + BREVET BRIGADIER GENERAL VOLUNTEERS. + + + BOSTON: + George H. Ellis, Printer, 141 Franklin Street. + 1882. + + + + PRIVATELY PRINTED FOR THE ASSOCIATION. + + + + +A PRISONER'S DIARY. + + +The committee's announcement, that on this evening there would be read +by me a paper relating to the history of the regiment, I fear may have +awakened false expectations. But it was suggested that a little +personal history of my own experiences, from the moment when that +terrific flank fire caused the regiment to leave me for dead on the +field of Cedar Mountain to the moment when, three months later, I +again came under the stars and stripes at Aiken's Landing, would +interest former comrades for a short time to-night. It is safe to say, +perhaps, that our regiment passed through every possible experience of +the war. In all the various scenes of suffering and endurance, both +physical and mental, which the war could offer, the Second +Massachusetts was represented; and in that view, perhaps, the personal +adventures of those who, while separated from the corps, always +considered its membership the highest of honors, may be considered as +forming part of the general history of the regiment itself. + +I was fortunate enough to find in my blouse pocket, after acute +physical suffering had in a measure given place to the prisoner's +worst enemy, the leaden vacuity of ennui, a little duodecimo almanac +and diary for 1862, with half a lead pencil. With these, by dint of +fine writing, I succeeded in keeping a sort of journal of daily +events, with my reflections thereupon, during the whole period of my +captivity, the last entry being comprised in the words, "_A free man +at Willard's_." From this journal, I shall make copious extracts, +believing that words then written will reproduce the situation better +than any subsequent description from memory. + +At about 2 P.M. on the 8th of August, the long roll was beaten in the +camp of the Second Massachusetts, at Little Washington. As has often +happened, we fell in only to fall out again with the news that it only +meant get ready to march; and in fact it was nearly five before we +were off. The heat during the first hour or two of the march was +severe, but the latter part was by moonlight and very pleasant. Still, +I find it recorded that some unfortunate and unseasoned recruits, who +had just joined us from home with knapsacks heavy with five times what +they really needed, were utterly played out before the sun was down. +And here I take up the narration as I find it in the little book +referred to, with an occasional interpolation and explanation which +will be marked as such in brackets. + +_August 14, 1862._--One week to-day since the fight. Let us attempt a +_résumé_. On arriving at Culpeper, Friday night, after a moonlight +march which about played out the unfortunate recruits with their heavy +knapsacks, we lay down in a field, Stephen and I cracking my provision +box, which had come on with the blankets. [This was Lieutenant Stephen +Perkins of Company A with whom I had become intimate, and who shared +with me a great and innocent passion for tea. Whichever of us was +known to possess a supply of the article was sure of a visit from the +other at his camp fire after a march. Before separating that night, I +remember he said to me, "Sam, we shall see more fighting soon: I feel +it; there is a battle in the air." There was, indeed, and it ended the +battle of life for him.] We then slept on the moor, to the sound of +freshly arriving troops and wagons. In the morning, we find an army +around us. After a breakfast at the sound of the triangle [for by this +unmilitary instrument did Johnson, our caterer, call the officers' +mess to meals], under the sun, we fall in and take arms, but have +hardly done so when we stack them again and proceed to stake out +ground for a camp. But this is just done and tents beginning to rise +when Sherman, of Pope's staff, rushes by to head-quarters at a rate +which "spared not for spoiling of his steed," and which caused us to +hold our hands in expectation for a moment; and, sure enough, in two +minutes we were again in line, and this time off under a blazing sun, +though for once without our knapsacks. Through Culpeper and about six +or seven miles further in a fiery furnace hotter even than that of +Shadrach & Co. Near the front, heard a little firing. Sergeant Parsons +fell with sun-stroke. Left two recruits with him and pushed on for the +right, where at last, panting and half dead, we got into a wood where +we stacked arms and fell down behind them. The half hour of breeze and +shade which ensued made men of us once more, so that when my company +was ordered to skirmish we were actually able to do it. The firing of +artillery commenced at about 3 P.M., as I should judge, pretty heavy +and well-sustained. Ned Abbott's company and mine were ordered to +report forward, and deployed our skirmishers on the garden fence, with +reserves behind; and there, for a couple of hours, we watched the +swayings of the artillery fight, timing the explosion of the heavy +shells, and watching the varying intervals between the shots of the +rebel batteries. At last, as the sun seemed not more than an hour +high, and just as Ned Abbott, lying by my side in the rear of our +skirmishers, had expressed his disbelief in the fight's coming off +that afternoon, an orderly, followed by Pitman of Banks' staff, came +up to where Gordon was sitting on his horse near us, watching the +field through his glass; and it seemed, for the first time, that +something was going wrong. I was near enough to hear that he wanted a +regiment of Gordon's brigade to report, as I understood it, to Banks +at the centre. "You must take him your regiment, then," said Gordon to +Colonel Andrews. Abbott and I jumped to our feet, and were ordered to +rally our men on the battalion; and hardly, panting and breathless, +had we resumed our places in line when the regiment advanced by the +right of companies to the front, until we had cleared the garden, and +then by company into line. + +Then commenced the furious and incessant roll and crash of musketry, +leaving, as Copeland expressed it, no interval in which a single other +shot could have been inserted. We plunged over the ditch and crashed +through a wood, out of which came Crane of the Third Wisconsin, +covered with blood, and reeling in his saddle, until after about a +quarter of a mile we came to a fence with a wheat-field beyond. In +this, a brigade of rebels were in line, but what they were firing at +we couldn't see. We opened fire and then were ordered to cease--why, I +don't know, as I could see no one between us and them. But, as their +line advanced, we soon re-opened fire, as the converging storm of +balls hailed upon us. + +How long this lasted, I could not tell. Their red flags advanced, but +large gaps were opening in their lines. Finally, the bullets seemed to +come from all sides at once. Pattison, my lieutenant, shouted in my +ear that Cary was down, and he had been ordered to take his company; +and he left. Then the red flags seemed close upon the fence, and it +seemed to me that the right had fallen back; and I started across the +little gap in the fence to see. Yes, the right had gone; but in that +instant I caught it, first in the right leg, then through the left +foot, and in that same instant the enemy were upon us, or rather upon +me, for what was left of my company had gone with the rest. Though +staggering, I had not yet fallen, when one rushed up, aimed at my head +with "Surrender, G--d d--n your soul!" which I did. But if I had known +then, what now I know, I would have lain there for dead till they were +gone, and then dragged myself slowly toward our side. [This refers to +the fact that one of the first pleasing pieces of information +communicated to me by my captors, who were surprised that I did not +already know it, was that, by special orders of Jeff. Davis, none of +Pope's officers were to be treated as prisoners of war or paroled, but +kept as hostages to be hanged from time to time in retaliation for +any such execution of guerrillas as was threatened in Pope's +celebrated orders, of which we then had not yet heard.] + +But as it was [the journal resumes], I gave up my sword and pistol, +sat down, borrowed my captor's knife, ripped my trousers open and shoe +off, and examined damages. An awful hole in foot and little one in +leg, at the bottom of which the bullet was plainly visible. Seeing +this, the Confederate gentleman to whom I then belonged was seized +with a desire to perform a surgical operation with the knife referred +to, but yielded to my remonstrance and request that he would be +satisfied with having put it in, and allow some gentleman of the +medical staff to undertake the bullet's extraction. Two of them then +offered to take me across the wheat-field to where their own wounded +were, asking me at the same time what money I had for them. They did +not offer any violence or undertake to search me. Had they done so, +they would have made prize of my money-belt, containing over $90 in +greenbacks and a gold watch. I gave them some ten or twelve gold +dollars which I had in my pocket, reserving one by great good luck, as +will presently appear. Then they carried me across the field, with +each arm affectionately round a rebel neck. As I passed the fence +where the right had been, there lay poor Ned,--who half an hour before +had joked about being two hours in action without losing a man,--with +white, waxen face against the dead leaves. It was just light enough +for me to recognize him. Who else of the officers had fallen, I did +not know, save that Cary was down, as Pattison had told me, before our +lines gave way. With occasional halts, they carried me across the +field, and put me down among a groaning mass of wounded of both sides. +The men next me gave me water and a knapsack for my head, a man came +along with a canteen of whiskey and I got a drink. The moon rose full +over the trees, and the cannonade recommenced. I got a piece of the +wounded rebel's blanket next me over my shoulder, lay as near him as I +could; for, though the day had been blazing, the night mist and loss +of blood made me shiver; and I slept. Once I was waked by some one +attempting to pull off my seal ring; but he desisted when I pulled my +hand away, remarked, "A handsome ring," and went on. Very likely he +thought me dead, as my companion under the blanket was by that time. + +Before daylight, the pain of my shattered bones brought me again to +consciousness. Somehow, I hated to see the sky begin to brighten, +knowing how soon the sun would blaze furiously down upon us. And yet I +didn't seem to realize the horrors of the position, but looked upon +myself as acting a part for which I had expected to be cast, and with +the stage business of which I was perfectly familiar; and all the +wounded took it more or less as a business matter. As the sun rose, I +gradually dragged myself under trees with the rest of the groaning +set, leaving those who had died to sleep it out. A rebel soldier +passed with two canteens on. "What will you sell me one of those +canteens for?" said I. "I'll give you a dollar." He laughed and was +passing on. "A gold dollar," said I. He stopped: "What, Yank! Have you +got a gold dollar?" "Yes," said I, "you go to the branch, fill the +canteen with fresh water, and here's the dollar." If he had been a +wretch, he might have taken it away and left me to die, for there was +no one else near except wounded; but, after considering a few minutes, +he went off to the stream, filled the canteen, brought it to me, took +the dollar, and left. And that canteen, I think, saved my life; for +soon the sun rose so that no more shade could be had. I tore up my +handkerchief, bound my wounds, and kept them moist, kept the canteen +under me and took little sips when my thirst became unbearable, and so +got through the day, making the water last until evening. By and by, +they began to pick up the wounded by threes and pairs, in ambulances. +When, however,--I should think about 3 P.M.,--there were about five or +six of us left, and I the only Yankee, a sudden rush of men through +the woods and stampede of wagons down the road, with an accompaniment +of "Yankees are coming!" swept every sound man away from us. Every +man that had legs used them at double quick. Then the prayers of the +wounded to the wagoners, as they flogged their teams past: "Oh, take +me away from here, help me into a wagon; for God's sake, don't leave +me to the Yankees!" One poor fellow, all of whose clothes had been +taken off by the surgeon engaged on his wounds, raised himself, stark +naked and covered with blood, against a tree, and implored every +teamster in turn to stop and take him in. The effect was grisly. It +struck me that, if they were really coming, some of the rebs then +rushing by might take occasion to settle one Yankee "_en passant_": so +I got my blouse off, covered myself with dead rebel sergeant's coat, +and lay low. A section of artillery extricated itself from the wagons, +and wheeled into battery; and, finding myself just in point-blank +range, I succeeded by painful endeavor in getting behind a big stump. + +But, alas! the excitement subsided, the wagons were stopped and +ordered back, officers cursed the originators of the panic, and it was +all over. But a real charge or a few shots just then would have +started "secesh" with a rush, and saved the captain of Company E, +Second Massachusetts Volunteers. After awhile, an ambulance came and +picked up the last two of us and carried us to where the hospital +flies were pitched. My driver, after making sure that nobody heard +him, informed me that he had always been for the Union, and voted +against "secesh"; "and when they started this war," said he, "I swore +they'd have to fight it out without me; but I was wrong there, for +they've got me." He drove me up to a fly under which were some dozen +or twenty wounded on hospital cots. At first, they said there was no +room; but then somebody discovered that his neighbor was dead, and +suggested that the Yankee might take his place. So they moved the dead +man out under the eaves inside the guys, and gave me the cot. The +surgeon examined and bound up my foot, relieving me with the assurance +that it would probably stay on, though I should be always lame. The +bullet came out of my leg very easily, for, oddly enough, it hadn't +pierced my drawers, but had carried them deep into the leg in a sort +of bag. A thunder-storm now burst upon us, and with the first gust +down came our house, over living and dead. After a long staggering and +flapping, they got her set again. The rain thundered on the canvas and +cascaded in sheets over the dead man under the eaves, but he was +beyond even water cure. The scene was dismal: in the intervals of +rain, they took to burying legs and arms upon the hill, and it would +not have made a bad slide for a stereoscope, on the whole. But, as +night fell, I took my supper with some relish,--a piece of hard-tack +and ham, given me by a rebel private on the field,--and with the help +of the dead rebel's blanket of last night, which I had sense enough to +bag when they picked me up, I slept once more. + +In the morning, they sent me in an ambulance or "avalanche," as they +call it, to head-quarters. Thought at first I was going before Felix +or Stonewall himself; turned out to be General Hill. He came and +looked into the ambulance. "What regiment?" "Second Massachusetts." +"Let's see, Gordon's old regiment?" "Yes." "Best regiment in Banks' +army; cut all to pieces, though: I've been over the ground," and exit. +He ordered me sent to Orange Court House; countermanded, and they +dumped me out by a blacksmith's shop. A surgeon came along and ordered +me sent to Rapidan Station, on the box seat of an "avalanche"; and an +awful "avalanche" it was,--four men with legs and arms off inside. It +was eight miles over rocks and through rivers, and generally such a +drive of damnation as never entered into the heart of man to conceive. +Luckily, I kept my strength; but why the inside passengers didn't die +before we got half way is the marvel. "The lamentable chorus, the cry +of agony, the endless groan," as we bounced and jolted over corduroy +road and river bed, was an ill thing to hear. We arrived at the +railroad about dusk, just as I was calculating about how much longer +I could stand it without fainting, and they put us out on the grass +among those already arrived. The train came along after dark, and, +finding that I must shift for myself or be left in the field, I made +my painful way on hands and knees, among horses' feet and under the +awful "avalanche," to the platform, where, after a while, they picked +me up and put me aboard; turned seat back, put my foot up, and slept. + +An interval of broken oblivion in the dark car, with occasional +wakings to a semi-consciousness of rumbling wheels, brakes, and once +familiar railroad sounds, mingled strangely with groans, cries, +stench, squalor, and misery. But, as the night was only a succession +of frightful dreams, I didn't undertake to decide which was reality, +but took the benefit of the doubt, which was a species of relief. But +with the gray dawn illusions vanished, and the miserable reality stood +out, bald and unmistakable. Where we were going, I didn't know; but +after a while the impression seemed to prevail that it wasn't +Richmond, but Staunton; and at about twelve we arrived here. The train +at once became a menagerie, wherein the Yankee wild beasts were +stirred up and stared at by the town. One citizen, I remember, was +turned out of the car by a rebel sergeant for insulting the prisoners. +They took us out at last, one or two rebs who had died in the night +being first served. Finally, about evening, they took the two Yankee +captains, in almost an upside-down position, with heads in straw and +feet in air, through the town to the hospital, women coming to the +windows with various expressions of countenance, pity being the +scarcest. I've often seen them look out to see soldiers pass, but +never expected to figure in this sort of a pageant for their +edification. + +[The reflections and moralizings on my situation, which follow, it was +my first impulse to omit from this paper entirely; but on the whole I +decide to let them stand as I find them, requesting only that comrades +will consider them as given in a sort of family confidence.] + +Of my life, if life it may be called [continues the diary], in this +place, I desire to make no record, the _olim haec meminisse_ principle +having no application here. Let the waters of oblivion cover it +forever, if I am ever again a free man. To lie a crippled and helpless +butt for the exulting Philistine and his women ten thousand times +worse than himself, while such tremendous history is being made of +which we can only guess at the reality, is a living death. And with +such a companion! What is happening behind the impenetrable curtain +between us and the North? Until the news that God has abdicated and +Satan reigns is confirmed beyond a peradventure, so long will I +believe that the right will triumph in the end. But where the end may +be, this year or twenty hence, _quien sabe_? + +Of my own chances for life and liberty, I cannot even guess. The +blackness of darkness surrounds me on every hand, with no perceptible +ray or glimmer from any quarter, as yet. But, doubtless, many a man +who thinks he sees his path of life stretching away in far perspective +is really as blind as I, and can discern no further beyond his nose. +When the tide of war shall turn, as turn it will, what will be done +with us? where shall I be,--here or in the Libby? Well, each place has +its merits: here, enough to eat and no bracelets; there, the company +of gentlemen. Oh Harry Russell! if you and I were together to cheer +each other with regimental chat, or gallant Major Jim, _sans peur et +sans reproche_, in your company I could suffer and be strong unto the +end. But I fear that, through desperate wounds, his mortal body has +had no longer strength to retain the soul of one of the bravest +Christian gentlemen that ever drew sword for the right since the world +began. + +And Stephen, my friend, man of culture, reading, and intellect, whose +only complaint of camp life was the loss of time and opportunity for +the growth of mind,--that such lights should be forever extinguished +by the bullets of men so few degrees above the brute level, saddens +the soul. And shall all this have been in vain? Answer, freemen and +gentlemen of the North, with unborn generations waiting: to bless or +curse your memory,--answer now! + +[The above allusion to "no bracelets" refers to the assertion of a +Richmond paper, immediately communicated to us by way of cheering our +spirits, that Pope's officers, on arriving at the Libby, had all been +handcuffed. But, although this proved to be erroneous, yet my own +boast of no bracelets in the hospital was somewhat premature, as the +following incident will show. One evening after supper, just as a +half-drunk rebel officer had become so abusive to us that I almost +expected the cowardice of a blow, entered the sergeant of the guard, +who put a stop to that fun, but, to our great disgust, after the +officer had gone, produced a pair of handcuffs, which he informed us +he was ordered to apply to "that Yankee," indicating Captain Bush of +the Twenty-eighth New York, who, being wounded in the arm, was walking +up and down the room, which no one else was able to do. (This officer, +by the way, had voluntarily accompanied his regiment into action, +armed with a cane, being under arrest and deprived of his sword.) His +wound was severe, and the surgeon had expressed doubts of saving the +arm. We all remonstrated against the barbarity of handcuffing the only +man whom it would really hurt. No use: he had got his orders, and on +went the irons. Bush didn't say a word, but, after the sergeant had +gone, with a sharp stick which his neighbor whittled out for him, and +a piece of string poked into the lock of the handcuff, succeeding in +pulling back the catch, and slipped one wrist out. The other, he +didn't mind. Before the ward surgeon came round the next morning, he +slipped it in again. The surgeon was indignant,--not at the barbarity, +but at the interference with his case,--and off he rushed to the +surgeon in command, to have the handcuffs removed. But all he obtained +was an order that Bush be sent to Richmond, handcuffs and all. We +heard, however, that the ward surgeon had them removed as soon as Bush +was clear of the hospital yard. + +The story we heard, probably true, was that Hay, the medical director +in command, reading the account of the Richmond handcuffing, one night +when he was tight, was fired with the idea of emulating such a noble +example, and ordered the bracelets to be applied at once to any Yankee +who was well enough to be walking about. Even our visitors were rather +ashamed of this performance, and invented an absurd story that Bush +had tried to escape,--a man with a shattered arm trying to escape from +the only chance of saving it!] + +[Journal resumed.] It seems that an opportunity may turn up for +sending this little book off to the North by a man who will shortly +get his parole, and I think will undertake to smuggle it through. +These jottings have been almost my only resource to pass away the +leaden hours. With no companion to whom I can open my soul, I must +soliloquize, if only to convince myself that I have not yet sunk to +the level of my surroundings. + +_Saturday, September 20._--Six weeks to-day since the fight in which +we became dead to the world. "Hope springs eternal," etc. If it +didn't, how many would turn their faces to the wall! One man got his +everlasting furlough the other day, just at supper time; but they +pulled the sheet over his face and went on with the bread and +molasses; and, when that was over, down he went to the dead-house. + +This, in my opinion, is for the country the very moment of convulsion +and travail, out of which some new state of things,--the commencement +of some new era,--for better or for worse, will surely come. "When the +pain is sorest, the child is born; and the night is darkest before the +dawn of the day of the Lord at hand." But at this critical moment to +be walled up alive, where only faint echoes and uncertain sounds from +the great fields reach us,--the fields where our fellow-soldiers are +playing out the great game of the age is,--a chance of war, and +nothing to complain of while we still live. A great battle has been in +Maryland, and, although they make it out that we were worsted, yet +from signs and tokens we draw our own inferences. First and greatest, +the women haven't been up to crow victory over the Yankee prisoners, +_ergo_ the first despatch did not announce a success; the doctors have +said nothing, and last night Dr. Hay, with a dozen others and all the +dressers that could be spared, left for Maryland. Charley, the nigger, +yesterday reported that the folks in town felt very bad about it. +Reports fly about of fifty thousand killed and wounded on both sides; +and, as they can't know ours, theirs must have been tremendous to have +started such reports. (Here come the women to the menagerie.) At all +events, it's such a victory as they can't stand a repetition of; and +now, if the North will pour in reinforcements, there may be a glimmer +of daylight for the cause, if not for me. + +A man has come into this room, wounded at Port Republic, First +Sergeant Seventh Ohio, the most awful specimen of emaciation that I +ever saw or would have believed consistent with the vital spark. The +articulation of each joint, covered only by the tense polished skin, +is as distinct as in a skeleton. + +Another horror: a rebel deserter, who was put in with the Yankees in +order to be under guard, has just been sheared, on account of one of +the plagues of Egypt; and his head was a sight to dream of, not to +tell. He had been living in the woods since he deserted, was +immediately taken down with typhoid fever, and I thought wanted to +die. + +The room now consists as follows, beginning with my next neighbor: +Corporal James Shipp, known as Jimmy, the pet of the room, doctors and +nurses inclusive: a nice, simple-hearted boy of seventeen, brave and +good; shot in shoulder, scapula taken out; recovering. Private Smith, +Forty-sixth Pennsylvania: good fellow, apparently; has taken laudanum +enough to float a ship, and seems to be getting fat on it. + +The skeleton sergeant comes next. He keeps a journal, and his wound +drives me from the room, whenever opened. + +The deserter and company. He wouldn't have needed John Phoenix's +tape-worm, in order to use the editorial "we." + +A bragging squirt of a Georgian, who got scratched in the finger in +Maryland, and marched all the way here to save his precious hide and +boast of the Yankees he had killed. + +George Peet, Fifth Ohio: a good young fellow; lost his foot the other +day, after six weeks trying to save it. + +Henry Shaw, One Hundred and Second New York: a little, white-headed +Harlemite, a little conceited; talks a little better English than the +rest of them; shot in back; recovering. + +Arthur Jordan, Tenth Maine: obliging, pleasant, nice fellow; had the +measles, and was sent to the "measly ward," from which he has just +made his escape on his own hook, returning here at the risk of being +put in the guard-house. + +Sergeant Henry Holloway, Fifth Connecticut: the only one with whom I +can fraternize at all; a railroad man, engine driver, etc., infected +with the insubordinate ideas natural to his regiment; otherwise, a +good fellow. + +Captain ----, ---- ----, selfishness incarnate. It takes all sorts of +men to make up a world, but let us hope that it takes few such as he. + +_Thursday, September 25._--Great news in yesterday's paper. It seems +Pope's officers have been paroled. That is a glimmer of daylight, and +looks as if the winter might not be passed in shop ward No. 7, or the +Libby. General Prince is courteously alluded to as "the ringleader of +the gang." For pure malignity of venom, these Richmond editors would +beat even the witches' toad that was stewed after his month's nap +under the stone. + +_Sunday, 28th._--Away with visions of home and ease! Wilder Dwight has +been killed, and I am Major, I suppose.... Now to play the man and be +prepared to go to the majority in either sense, when God's will is. + +Just had a visit from Joshua Munroe,--and a cheering visit, indeed,--a +descendant of Israel Munroe of Lexington fight, and here an Israelite +among the Philistines. Rebel soldier, just leaving for his regiment, +shakes hands all round with our men, who enjoin him to take care of +himself. And how soon these men may be putting daylight through each +other! Note: I have experienced from rebel privates almost uniform +kindness, good-fellowship, _camaraderie_; they treat one as +fellow-soldier. And as for our men, they fraternize as though the +strawberry mark of brotherhood was on every arm. All the insult, all +the bitterness and ill-treatment, have come from officers and citizens +of high position in society, and from the women, whose envenomed +tongues are let loose upon the wounded prisoner without mercy. This +space [referring to the space in the diary under the printed date of +Saturday, May 24] is the date of our midnight fight on the dark road; +and this [Sunday 25] of our fight and flight to the Potomac, when hell +broke loose in Winchester town; and this Sunday is just such another, +cool and bright; and this morning [Monday, May 26] A, B, E, and K, +were left on picket at the fence and in woods, with a section of +Cothran, under Lieutenant Peabody. That was the work that tried our +souls. Ned and Dick, brave fellows, both gone before. "We a little +longer wait, but how little who can know!" + +Two men have died on this floor within the last twelve hours,--the old +man Carter with the consumption, and the lieutenant with the typhoid, +the former last night and the latter just now. This afternoon +[Wednesday, May 28], we crossed the river; and how good camp was! + +_Monday, October 6._--Got letters from home last night, through Jim +Savage, who still lives,--God be praised!--though with one leg off, +and a shattered shoulder. Add to that that we are promised the parole +of the yard; add to that orders expected for Richmond in a few days. +I'll bet my knapsack will be packed when the assembly beats. However, +we'll not count this chicken before he chips the shell, as +old ---- has tried to addle the egg all he could. + +_Tuesday, October 7._--One chicken incubated and made his appearance. +Hay, yesterday afternoon, in the intervals of carving below (the +hospital operating room was immediately beneath us), sends up word +that, if we will write out our parole of the yard, he will sign it. +And old ---- not being on hand to botch the thing, I cooked up a +document, got it signed and sent down, to which the illustrious chief +then affixed his sign-manual, and we are henceforward free of yard and +grounds. Bully for that! [I remember now, I was the first to test the +document's efficacy, for we could hardly believe that it would really +pass us out. The guard stopped me, of course, called the corporal, and +finally decided that it was a genuine thing; and I hobbled painfully +down four steep flights and out,--looked up and saw the rest all +crowding to the window and waving hands and hats to see me actually +emerge, like a rat, from the trap which had held us through long weary +months.] I find that the art of crutch progression is quite a science, +and has its outside edges and its backward rolls, etc., which are not +to be learned without much practice and balancing. Up and down stairs +with ease, confidence, and grace, is somewhat of an attainment. + +_Thursday, 9th._--Struggled out to pond and washed; first decent wash +for three months. Had to steal a piece of black soap, and push out a +board over the mud,--hard work for a cripple. Stopped in at +carpenter's shop and saw Dr. Hay slice an arm off, _secundum artem_. + +_October 13._--Suffering with the first cold snap. The sergeant's +wound keeps every window open, and we might as well or better be _sub +Jove frigido_. Rumors of small-pox pervade the air. + +_Tuesday, 14th._--An alarm of small-pox yesterday afternoon in our +ward turned out false, I believe, but has scared everybody most out of +their wits. It seems, however, there were cases elsewhere; for, +endeavoring to visit the pond again, I was stopped by a guard, and +told that some tents just pitched by the shore contained the small-pox +patients, whom no one was allowed to approach within one hundred +yards. After they had recovered or died, the tents were set on fire as +they stood. + +_Wednesday, 15th._--To-day, I followed Dr. Hay's trail all day, bent +on a personal interview, until I earthed him at last in his office; +and the result is that we are off for Richmond to-morrow. [I had seen +the Richmond paper with the official list of Yankees paroled from the +Libby, among whom were several whom I knew to be Pope's officers; and +I determined not to rot another day, as food for Confederate vermin, +without claiming my rights as prisoner of war. So when, after repeated +rebuffs, my obstinacy prevailed and Hay gave orders to let me in, he +wasn't in a good humor. But I told him, I forget in what terms, that I +had discovered that I was no longer a hostage liable to be hanged in +retaliation for the execution of guerrillas, but a prisoner of war, +with all that that implied, and that, in behalf of all who were able +to travel, I demanded to be sent to the Libby. He said we were better +off where we were. I agreed, but told him I would suffer anything to +know that my name was on the list to be paroled when my turn came, and +that it was my right to have it there. Finally he said, "Will you be +ready to start before light to-morrow?" "Let me go back for my +blanket," said I, "and I'll start now." "Well," said he, "go back, and +tell all who the ward surgeon says are able, to be ready by half-past +four." I saluted, faced about, and was in the doorway when he stopped +me and, seeming to recover his temper, asked me and any of my friends +who could to come over to his office after supper and take a farewell +drink.] In the evening [the journal resumes], we attended in Dr. Hay's +office, to take a social drink. Hay talked fire and fury, "secesh" +running up as the whiskey ran down. A lawyer and colonel joined in, +and the telegram of the Governor of North Carolina to the Governor of +South Carolina was so often quoted that I was fain to back down from +what was fast becoming a three-minute crowd. We had an amputation to +diversify the spree,--soldier brought in, who I suspect had applied +for a discharge by shooting off two fingers of his right hand. They +were badly mangled, so Hay put him down on the floor and took them off +again, short metre, not without cutting his own in the operation, he +was so tight. I came away then, fearing that my crutches might not be +as whiskey-proof as erst was wooden leg of Sawin, and the descent of +the front steps requiring that eye, hand, and foot (literally, foot) +should keep true time. There wasn't much sleep in No. 7 that night, +and early next morning we were off, leaving George and the skeleton +sergeant, who is fast going down to the dead, though he doesn't know +it. We had an awful trip, being detained six hours by a smash-up of +the night before, killing seven and wounding seventy-five,--a mere +skirmish. Shortly before we arrived, at about 1 A.M., an officer came +through the car, caught sight of my shoulder-straps, stopped: "You are +a captain?" "Yes." "Have you got any federal greenbacks?" "Yes, a +few." "Well, I want some to pay a debt I owe at the North, and I'll +give you Confederate money for them. You'll want some, for you'll +probably lie for months in the Libby, and you'll die if you don't send +out and buy good food." Said I, "Thank you, I guess I'll hold on to my +greenbacks till I get there." + +The fact that nearly all the hospital officials had made the same +request on various pretexts was significant enough to me. At 2 A.M., +we arrived, where I now write, in the Libby prison, being received +with the once familiar cry of "Corporal of the Guard, Post No. 1." The +corporal came and let us in. The officer, cross and sleepy (the +infernal traitor, Peacock, by the way), sent us to the hospital +department, up three flights,--immense room in large tobacco +warehouse, lighted with a single dip, which only made darkness +visible. A ragged young nurse, with his hair on end, welcomed us to +the scene of despair. We were put on cots of sacking, with nothing +under or over us, and shivered ourselves into oblivion. The next +morning, the familiar notes of reveille on the fife, accompanied by +the bass and snare-drum of the side-show, which Andrews used to detest +so, brought us again to consciousness. I was about to put my head out +of the window, but was forcibly informed that I'd better not, unless I +wanted it shot off. This day, a party went off which we had hoped to +join, but were disappointed; and a squad of sixty odd came in from +Macon, Georgia. I thought that I had seen filth, squalor, and +wretchedness before, but I never even conceived the meaning of the +words; and what these men had been through would have been incredible, +except to those who saw them. They said the Libby was heaven, in +comparison to what they had come from. Saw a dress-parade of the +regiment on duty here, which would have shamed the cadets for +measliness of turnout. + +_Saturday._--In hell, _alias_ the Libby prison. + +_Sunday._--This morning before breakfast, little spitfire clerk came +up to take our paroles. I could have embraced the little devil, but I +didn't, only waited till my name was called, when I toed the mark +_instanter_, and quite won his heart with the promptitude with which I +recited my descriptive list, insomuch that he asked me to take a +letter to his sweetheart. After this, the wretched crew were packed +into coaches and wagons, under command of the black-hearted traitor +Captain Peacock, and we left Libby, the sergeant and I being in with +two half-dead wretches of the Macon crowd, swarming with vermin. + +But after a miserable jolt of fifteen miles, our nigger driver pointed +out the boat lying in a distant bend. "And dar de flag," said he with +a grin, "ober de starn," indicating a small red streak, which was "the +star-spangled banner, Oh, long may it wa-a-ve," etc. I confess to +embracing the staff when I got aboard, and realized that Jeff. Davis +himself couldn't take me away without a fight. But before they let us +go aboard there was a long and to us incomprehensible delay of nearly +two hours, during which we lay on the grass just above the landing and +watched the boat, the flag, and the blue uniforms, with longing eyes. +[We learned afterward that Captain Peacock, while strutting up and +down the wharf in full Confederate uniform, had been recognized by one +of the deck hands who had belonged to his former New York regiment. +The said deck hand pointed him out to a friend, with the remark, +"Look at his forehead, and you'll see traitor written there." This +being overheard by Mr. Peacock, he demanded an apology for the insult, +swearing that, if refused, he would march us all back to the Libby. +How they pacified him I don't know, but at the end of two hours he had +cooled off enough to let us go aboard. I was the first who received +permission to go, whereat I bounced on to my one foot and two +crutches, picked up my blanket, and charged down the hill. The rebel +sentry, who hadn't yet got his orders to pass us, charged bayonets on +me for an instant, but, on a sign from Peacock, shouldered arms again; +and the next moment I was embracing the flag-staff, as afore +mentioned. The Sanitary Commission received us with open arms and some +delicious milk-punch, and in a few minutes we were under full steam +out of rebeldom, Sergeant Holloway and I leaning on the guards, +watching the foam fly past, and singing, _sotto voce_,--"We're going +home, we're going home, we're going home to die no more!" + +We were two days on board the flag-of-truce boat. The next cot to mine +was occupied by a man of a Massachusetts regiment, taken at the first +Bull Run. He was almost a skeleton, and the worst case of chills and +fever I ever saw. The second day being a shake day, he couldn't eat +his rations, and offered them to me. He said he thought he was dying. +"But," said he, "I don't complain now I've got out of hell, and I +shall live long enough to get back into God's country and die there, +which is all I've been praying for for months."] + +_Monday._--Aboard the "Commodore," off Fortress Monroe, waiting for +orders, which have just come, for Washington. And here we are at +Washington, waiting orders again. When I find myself once more a free +man in Willard's Hotel, I shall turn down the leaf of my experiences +as prisoner of war to the rebels. + +Now for philosophy. Captain gone ashore, and fearful rumors pervade +the boat about Annapolis, New York, etc. Well, it can be but a day or +two, and we are out of rebeldom. I've kept well so-- ["Far" would have +been the next word, but marching orders intervened, and the next +entry, in big letters at the bottom of the page, reads] A FREE MAN AT +WILLARD'S! + +And the first act of the free man aforesaid was to purchase some +underclothes at the furnishing store, which luckily had not closed for +the night, and to proceed therewith to the bath-room, where hot water +and soap speedily restored that self-respect which is so difficult to +retain after one is conscious of not being the only inhabitant of +one's garments. The next day, I drew my pay and replaced my ragged +blouse, bullet-pierced trowsers, and torn Confederate cap (given me on +the field to replace my broad-brimmed felt, which a Georgia gentleman +fancied), by the jauntiest uniform clothes I could find, after which I +sallied out on the avenue; and the first man I met was the captain of +the "Commodore," who at first insisted that I was mistaken, as he had +never seen me before in his life; and only my crutches and wounded +foot at last convinced him that I was the same man who had talked to +him about Harry Russell, the day before. The next day, it was just the +other way. Smart young officer rushes up: "Hallo, Captain Quincy! +thought it must be you. How are you?" "Well," said I, "I'm glad you +thought it was I; but whether it's you or not I'm sure I don't know, +for I should say I had never set eyes on you before." "What, you don't +know the man you identified yesterday?" And it turned out to be a +lieutenant of a Western regiment, and fellow-prisoner, all of whose +clothing in the Libby consisted of shirt, trowsers, and army blanket +pinned over his shoulders. Arriving in Washington, without a cent, I +had identified him at the pay department, while still in his blanket, +from which chrysalis the all-potent greenback had evoked as shiny a +blue-and-brass butterfly as any on the avenue. + +This concludes my prison history. I was never again taken, though +coming pretty near it once or twice in Louisiana, where, as an officer +of colored troops, my experiences might have been much more severe +than those above recounted. If the story has interested former +comrades or assisted in drawing closer the link which binds together +the survivors of the old regiment, I can only rejoice that the +committee asked me to relate it to you. + + + + +Transcriber's Note + +As much of this work is a direct extract from a diary, spelling, +grammar and omission of words are preserved as printed. + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of History of the Second Massachusetts +Regiment of Infantry: A prisoner's diary, by Samuel M. Quincy + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 2ND MASS. REG. 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Quincy. + </title> + <style type="text/css"> + p {margin-top: .75em; text-align: justify; margin-bottom: .75em;} + + h1 {text-align: center; clear: both; font-weight: normal;} + + h2 {text-align: center; clear: both; padding-top: 2em;} + + body {margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%;} + + .hidden {display: none;} + + .pagenum { /* uncomment the next line for invisible page numbers */ + /* visibility: hidden; */ + position: absolute; left: 92%; font-style: normal; font-size: smaller; text-align: right;} + + .bbox {border: 2px black solid; padding: 1em; margin-top: 3em; margin-bottom: 3em;} + + .center {text-align: center;} + .smcap {font-variant: small-caps;} + + .lrgfont {font-size: 150%;} + .smlfont {font-size: 90%;} + .vsmlfont {font-size: 75%;} + .tinyfont {font-size: 50%;} + + .padtop {padding-top: 3em;} + .padbase {padding-bottom: 3em;} + + </style> + </head> +<body> + + +<pre> + +The Project Gutenberg EBook of History of the Second Massachusetts +Regiment of Infantry: A prisoner's diary, by Samuel M. Quincy + +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: History of the Second Massachusetts Regiment of Infantry: A prisoner's diary + A paper read at the officers' reunion in Boston, May 11, 1877 + +Author: Samuel M. Quincy + +Release Date: January 9, 2011 [EBook #34895] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 2ND MASS. REG. PRISONER'S DIARY *** + + + + +Produced by Sam W. and 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> + + + + + +<h1 class="padtop padbase">HISTORY<br /> +<br /> +<span class="tinyfont">OF THE</span><br /> +<br /> +SECOND MASSACHUSETTS REGIMENT OF INFANTRY.</h1> + + +<p class="center lrgfont">A PRISONER’S DIARY.</p> + +<p class="center padtop">A PAPER READ AT THE OFFICERS’ REUNION IN BOSTON,<br /> +MAY 11, 1877,</p> + +<p class="center vsmlfont padtop padbase">BY</p> + +<p class="center lrgfont">SAMUEL M. QUINCY,</p> + +<p class="center vsmlfont padbase">CAPTAIN SECOND MASSACHUSETTS REGIMENT OF INFANTRY.<br /> +BREVET BRIGADIER GENERAL VOLUNTEERS.</p> + + +<p class="center padtop padbase smcap">BOSTON:<br /> +<span class="smlfont">George H. Ellis, Printer, 141 Franklin Street.</span><br /> +1882.</p> + + +<p class="center padtop padbase vsmlfont">PRIVATELY PRINTED FOR THE ASSOCIATION.</p> + + + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_3" id="Page_3">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>3]</a></span></p> + +<h2>A PRISONER’S DIARY.</h2> + + +<p>The committee’s announcement, that on this evening +there would be read by me a paper relating to the history of +the regiment, I fear may have awakened false expectations. +But it was suggested that a little personal history of my own +experiences, from the moment when that terrific flank fire +caused the regiment to leave me for dead on the field of +Cedar Mountain to the moment when, three months later, +I again came under the stars and stripes at Aiken’s Landing, +would interest former comrades for a short time to-night. +It is safe to say, perhaps, that our regiment passed through +every possible experience of the war. In all the various +scenes of suffering and endurance, both physical and mental, +which the war could offer, the Second Massachusetts +was represented; and in that view, perhaps, the personal +adventures of those who, while separated from the corps, +always considered its membership the highest of honors, +may be considered as forming part of the general history of +the regiment itself.</p> + +<p>I was fortunate enough to find in my blouse pocket, after +acute physical suffering had in a measure given place to the +prisoner’s worst enemy, the leaden vacuity of ennui, a little +duodecimo almanac and diary for 1862, with half a lead +pencil. With these, by dint of fine writing, I succeeded in +keeping a sort of journal of daily events, with my reflections +thereupon, during the whole period of my captivity, the last +entry being comprised in the words, “<i>A free man at +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_4" id="Page_4">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>4]</a></span> +Willard’s</i>.” From this journal, I shall make copious extracts, +believing that words then written will reproduce the situation +better than any subsequent description from memory.</p> + +<p>At about 2 P.M. on the 8th of August, the long roll was +beaten in the camp of the Second Massachusetts, at Little +Washington. As has often happened, we fell in only to fall +out again with the news that it only meant get ready to +march; and in fact it was nearly five before we were off. +The heat during the first hour or two of the march was +severe, but the latter part was by moonlight and very pleasant. +Still, I find it recorded that some unfortunate and +unseasoned recruits, who had just joined us from home with +knapsacks heavy with five times what they really needed, +were utterly played out before the sun was down. And +here I take up the narration as I find it in the little book +referred to, with an occasional interpolation and explanation +which will be marked as such in brackets.</p> + +<p><i>August 14, 1862.</i>—One week to-day since the fight. Let +us attempt a <i>résumé</i>. On arriving at Culpeper, Friday night, +after a moonlight march which about played out the unfortunate +recruits with their heavy knapsacks, we lay down in a +field, Stephen and I cracking my provision box, which had +come on with the blankets. [This was Lieutenant Stephen +Perkins of Company A with whom I had become intimate, +and who shared with me a great and innocent passion for +tea. Whichever of us was known to possess a supply of the +article was sure of a visit from the other at his camp fire +after a march. Before separating that night, I remember he +said to me, “Sam, we shall see more fighting soon: I feel +it; there is a battle in the air.” There was, indeed, and it +ended the battle of life for him.] We then slept on the +moor, to the sound of freshly arriving troops and wagons. +In the morning, we find an army around us. After a breakfast +at the sound of the triangle [for by this unmilitary instrument +did Johnson, our caterer, call the officers’ mess to meals], +under the sun, we fall in and take arms, but have hardly +done so when we stack them again and proceed to stake out +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_5" id="Page_5">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>5]</a></span> +ground for a camp. But this is just done and tents beginning +to rise when Sherman, of Pope’s staff, rushes by to +head-quarters at a rate which “spared not for spoiling of his +steed,” and which caused us to hold our hands in expectation +for a moment; and, sure enough, in two minutes we were +again in line, and this time off under a blazing sun, though +for once without our knapsacks. Through Culpeper and +about six or seven miles further in a fiery furnace hotter +even than that of Shadrach & Co. Near the front, heard a +little firing. Sergeant Parsons fell with sun-stroke. Left +two recruits with him and pushed on for the right, where +at last, panting and half dead, we got into a wood where we +stacked arms and fell down behind them. The half hour of +breeze and shade which ensued made men of us once more, +so that when my company was ordered to skirmish we were +actually able to do it. The firing of artillery commenced at +about 3 P.M., as I should judge, pretty heavy and well-sustained. +Ned Abbott’s company and mine were ordered to +report forward, and deployed our skirmishers on the garden +fence, with reserves behind; and there, for a couple of hours, +we watched the swayings of the artillery fight, timing the +explosion of the heavy shells, and watching the varying +intervals between the shots of the rebel batteries. At last, +as the sun seemed not more than an hour high, and just as +Ned Abbott, lying by my side in the rear of our skirmishers, +had expressed his disbelief in the fight’s coming off that +afternoon, an orderly, followed by Pitman of Banks’ staff, +came up to where Gordon was sitting on his horse near us, +watching the field through his glass; and it seemed, for the +first time, that something was going wrong. I was near +enough to hear that he wanted a regiment of Gordon’s brigade +to report, as I understood it, to Banks at the centre. +“You must take him your regiment, then,” said Gordon to +Colonel Andrews. Abbott and I jumped to our feet, and were +ordered to rally our men on the battalion; and hardly, panting +and breathless, had we resumed our places in line when +the regiment advanced by the right of companies to the +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_6" id="Page_6">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>6]</a></span> +front, until we had cleared the garden, and then by company +into line.</p> + +<p>Then commenced the furious and incessant roll and crash +of musketry, leaving, as Copeland expressed it, no interval +in which a single other shot could have been inserted. We +plunged over the ditch and crashed through a wood, out of +which came Crane of the Third Wisconsin, covered with +blood, and reeling in his saddle, until after about a quarter +of a mile we came to a fence with a wheat-field beyond. In +this, a brigade of rebels were in line, but what they were +firing at we couldn’t see. We opened fire and then were +ordered to cease—why, I don’t know, as I could see no +one between us and them. But, as their line advanced, we +soon re-opened fire, as the converging storm of balls hailed +upon us.</p> + +<p>How long this lasted, I could not tell. Their red flags +advanced, but large gaps were opening in their lines. +Finally, the bullets seemed to come from all sides at once. +Pattison, my lieutenant, shouted in my ear that Cary was +down, and he had been ordered to take his company; and +he left. Then the red flags seemed close upon the fence, +and it seemed to me that the right had fallen back; and I +started across the little gap in the fence to see. Yes, the +right had gone; but in that instant I caught it, first in the +right leg, then through the left foot, and in that same instant +the enemy were upon us, or rather upon me, for what +was left of my company had gone with the rest. Though +staggering, I had not yet fallen, when one rushed up, aimed +at my head with “Surrender, G—d d—n your soul!” which +I did. But if I had known then, what now I know, I +would have lain there for dead till they were gone, and then +dragged myself slowly toward our side. [This refers to the +fact that one of the first pleasing pieces of information +communicated to me by my captors, who were surprised +that I did not already know it, was that, by special orders +of Jeff. Davis, none of Pope’s officers were to be treated +as prisoners of war or paroled, but kept as hostages to be +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_7" id="Page_7">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>7]</a></span> +hanged from time to time in retaliation for any such execution +of guerrillas as was threatened in Pope’s celebrated +orders, of which we then had not yet heard.]</p> + +<p>But as it was [the journal resumes], I gave up my sword +and pistol, sat down, borrowed my captor’s knife, ripped my +trousers open and shoe off, and examined damages. An +awful hole in foot and little one in leg, at the bottom of +which the bullet was plainly visible. Seeing this, the Confederate +gentleman to whom I then belonged was seized +with a desire to perform a surgical operation with the knife +referred to, but yielded to my remonstrance and request +that he would be satisfied with having put it in, and allow +some gentleman of the medical staff to undertake the bullet’s +extraction. Two of them then offered to take me across +the wheat-field to where their own wounded were, asking +me at the same time what money I had for them. They +did not offer any violence or undertake to search me. Had +they done so, they would have made prize of my money-belt, +containing over $90 in greenbacks and a gold watch. I +gave them some ten or twelve gold dollars which I had +in my pocket, reserving one by great good luck, as will +presently appear. Then they carried me across the field, +with each arm affectionately round a rebel neck. As I +passed the fence where the right had been, there lay poor +Ned,—who half an hour before had joked about being two +hours in action without losing a man,—with white, waxen +face against the dead leaves. It was just light enough for +me to recognize him. Who else of the officers had fallen, +I did not know, save that Cary was down, as Pattison had +told me, before our lines gave way. With occasional halts, +they carried me across the field, and put me down among a +groaning mass of wounded of both sides. The men next me +gave me water and a knapsack for my head, a man came along +with a canteen of whiskey and I got a drink. The moon rose +full over the trees, and the cannonade recommenced. I got +a piece of the wounded rebel’s blanket next me over my +shoulder, lay as near him as I could; for, though the day had +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_8" id="Page_8">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>8]</a></span> +been blazing, the night mist and loss of blood made me +shiver; and I slept. Once I was waked by some one attempting +to pull off my seal ring; but he desisted when I +pulled my hand away, remarked, “A handsome ring,” and +went on. Very likely he thought me dead, as my companion +under the blanket was by that time.</p> + +<p>Before daylight, the pain of my shattered bones brought +me again to consciousness. Somehow, I hated to see the +sky begin to brighten, knowing how soon the sun would blaze +furiously down upon us. And yet I didn’t seem to realize +the horrors of the position, but looked upon myself as acting +a part for which I had expected to be cast, and with the +stage business of which I was perfectly familiar; and all +the wounded took it more or less as a business matter. As +the sun rose, I gradually dragged myself under trees with the +rest of the groaning set, leaving those who had died to sleep +it out. A rebel soldier passed with two canteens on. +“What will you sell me one of those canteens for?” said +I. “I’ll give you a dollar.” He laughed and was passing +on. “A gold dollar,” said I. He stopped: “What, Yank! +Have you got a gold dollar?” “Yes,” said I, “you go to +the branch, fill the canteen with fresh water, and here’s +the dollar.” If he had been a wretch, he might have taken +it away and left me to die, for there was no one else near +except wounded; but, after considering a few minutes, he +went off to the stream, filled the canteen, brought it to me, +took the dollar, and left. And that canteen, I think, saved +my life; for soon the sun rose so that no more shade could +be had. I tore up my handkerchief, bound my wounds, and +kept them moist, kept the canteen under me and took little +sips when my thirst became unbearable, and so got through +the day, making the water last until evening. By and by, +they began to pick up the wounded by threes and pairs, in +ambulances. When, however,—I should think about 3 P.M.,—there +were about five or six of us left, and I the only Yankee, +a sudden rush of men through the woods and stampede +of wagons down the road, with an accompaniment of “Yankees +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_9" id="Page_9">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>9]</a></span> +are coming!” swept every sound man away from us. +Every man that had legs used them at double quick. Then +the prayers of the wounded to the wagoners, as they flogged +their teams past: “Oh, take me away from here, help me +into a wagon; for God’s sake, don’t leave me to the Yankees!” +One poor fellow, all of whose clothes had been taken +off by the surgeon engaged on his wounds, raised himself, +stark naked and covered with blood, against a tree, and implored +every teamster in turn to stop and take him in. +The effect was grisly. It struck me that, if they were +really coming, some of the rebs then rushing by might take +occasion to settle one Yankee “<i>en passant</i>”: so I got my +blouse off, covered myself with dead rebel sergeant’s coat, +and lay low. A section of artillery extricated itself from +the wagons, and wheeled into battery; and, finding myself +just in point-blank range, I succeeded by painful endeavor +in getting behind a big stump.</p> + +<p>But, alas! the excitement subsided, the wagons were +stopped and ordered back, officers cursed the originators of +the panic, and it was all over. But a real charge or a few +shots just then would have started “secesh” with a rush, +and saved the captain of Company E, Second Massachusetts +Volunteers. After awhile, an ambulance came and picked +up the last two of us and carried us to where the hospital +flies were pitched. My driver, after making sure that nobody +heard him, informed me that he had always been for the +Union, and voted against “secesh”; “and when they started +this war,” said he, “I swore they’d have to fight it out without +me; but I was wrong there, for they’ve got me.” He +drove me up to a fly under which were some dozen or twenty +wounded on hospital cots. At first, they said there was no +room; but then somebody discovered that his neighbor was +dead, and suggested that the Yankee might take his place. +So they moved the dead man out under the eaves inside the +guys, and gave me the cot. The surgeon examined and +bound up my foot, relieving me with the assurance that it +would probably stay on, though I should be always lame. +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_10" id="Page_10">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>10]</a></span> +The bullet came out of my leg very easily, for, oddly +enough, it hadn’t pierced my drawers, but had carried them +deep into the leg in a sort of bag. A thunder-storm now +burst upon us, and with the first gust down came our house, +over living and dead. After a long staggering and flapping, +they got her set again. The rain thundered on the canvas +and cascaded in sheets over the dead man under the eaves, +but he was beyond even water cure. The scene was dismal: +in the intervals of rain, they took to burying legs and arms +upon the hill, and it would not have made a bad slide for a +stereoscope, on the whole. But, as night fell, I took my +supper with some relish,—a piece of hard-tack and ham, +given me by a rebel private on the field,—and with the help +of the dead rebel’s blanket of last night, which I had sense +enough to bag when they picked me up, I slept once more.</p> + +<p>In the morning, they sent me in an ambulance or “avalanche,” +as they call it, to head-quarters. Thought at first +I was going before Felix or Stonewall himself; turned out +to be General Hill. He came and looked into the ambulance. +“What regiment?” “Second Massachusetts.” +“Let’s see, Gordon’s old regiment?” “Yes.” “Best regiment +in Banks’ army; cut all to pieces, though: I’ve been +over the ground,” and exit. He ordered me sent to Orange +Court House; countermanded, and they dumped me out by +a blacksmith’s shop. A surgeon came along and ordered +me sent to Rapidan Station, on the box seat of an “avalanche”; +and an awful “avalanche” it was,—four men with +legs and arms off inside. It was eight miles over rocks and +through rivers, and generally such a drive of damnation as +never entered into the heart of man to conceive. Luckily, +I kept my strength; but why the inside passengers didn’t +die before we got half way is the marvel. “The lamentable +chorus, the cry of agony, the endless groan,” as we +bounced and jolted over corduroy road and river bed, was +an ill thing to hear. We arrived at the railroad about +dusk, just as I was calculating about how much longer I +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_11" id="Page_11">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>11]</a></span> +could stand it without fainting, and they put us out on the +grass among those already arrived. The train came along +after dark, and, finding that I must shift for myself or be +left in the field, I made my painful way on hands and knees, +among horses’ feet and under the awful “avalanche,” to the +platform, where, after a while, they picked me up and put +me aboard; turned seat back, put my foot up, and slept.</p> + +<p>An interval of broken oblivion in the dark car, with +occasional wakings to a semi-consciousness of rumbling +wheels, brakes, and once familiar railroad sounds, mingled +strangely with groans, cries, stench, squalor, and misery. +But, as the night was only a succession of frightful dreams, +I didn’t undertake to decide which was reality, but took the +benefit of the doubt, which was a species of relief. But with +the gray dawn illusions vanished, and the miserable reality +stood out, bald and unmistakable. Where we were going, I +didn’t know; but after a while the impression seemed to +prevail that it wasn’t Richmond, but Staunton; and at +about twelve we arrived here. The train at once became a +menagerie, wherein the Yankee wild beasts were stirred up +and stared at by the town. One citizen, I remember, was +turned out of the car by a rebel sergeant for insulting the +prisoners. They took us out at last, one or two rebs who +had died in the night being first served. Finally, about +evening, they took the two Yankee captains, in almost an +upside-down position, with heads in straw and feet in air, +through the town to the hospital, women coming to the windows +with various expressions of countenance, pity being +the scarcest. I’ve often seen them look out to see soldiers +pass, but never expected to figure in this sort of a pageant +for their edification.</p> + +<p>[The reflections and moralizings on my situation, which +follow, it was my first impulse to omit from this paper +entirely; but on the whole I decide to let them stand as +I find them, requesting only that comrades will consider +them as given in a sort of family confidence.]</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_12" id="Page_12">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>12]</a></span> +Of my life, if life it may be called [continues the diary], in +this place, I desire to make no record, the <i>olim haec meminisse</i> +principle having no application here. Let the waters +of oblivion cover it forever, if I am ever again a free man. +To lie a crippled and helpless butt for the exulting Philistine +and his women ten thousand times worse than himself, +while such tremendous history is being made of which we +can only guess at the reality, is a living death. And with +such a companion! What is happening behind the impenetrable +curtain between us and the North? Until the +news that God has abdicated and Satan reigns is confirmed +beyond a peradventure, so long will I believe that the right +will triumph in the end. But where the end may be, this +year or twenty hence, <i>quien sabe</i>?</p> + +<p>Of my own chances for life and liberty, I cannot even +guess. The blackness of darkness surrounds me on every +hand, with no perceptible ray or glimmer from any quarter, as +yet. But, doubtless, many a man who thinks he sees his +path of life stretching away in far perspective is really as +blind as I, and can discern no further beyond his nose. +When the tide of war shall turn, as turn it will, what will +be done with us? where shall I be,—here or in the Libby? +Well, each place has its merits: here, enough to eat and +no bracelets; there, the company of gentlemen. Oh Harry +Russell! if you and I were together to cheer each other +with regimental chat, or gallant Major Jim, <i>sans peur et +sans reproche</i>, in your company I could suffer and be +strong unto the end. But I fear that, through desperate +wounds, his mortal body has had no longer strength to +retain the soul of one of the bravest Christian gentlemen +that ever drew sword for the right since the world began.</p> + +<p>And Stephen, my friend, man of culture, reading, and intellect, +whose only complaint of camp life was the loss of +time and opportunity for the growth of mind,—that such +lights should be forever extinguished by the bullets of men +so few degrees above the brute level, saddens the soul. And +shall all this have been in vain? Answer, freemen and +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_13" id="Page_13">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>13]</a></span> +gentlemen of the North, with unborn generations waiting: to +bless or curse your memory,—answer now!</p> + +<p>[The above allusion to “no bracelets” refers to the assertion +of a Richmond paper, immediately communicated to us +by way of cheering our spirits, that Pope’s officers, on arriving +at the Libby, had all been handcuffed. But, although +this proved to be erroneous, yet my own boast of no bracelets +in the hospital was somewhat premature, as the following incident +will show. One evening after supper, just as a half-drunk +rebel officer had become so abusive to us that I almost +expected the cowardice of a blow, entered the sergeant of +the guard, who put a stop to that fun, but, to our great disgust, +after the officer had gone, produced a pair of handcuffs, +which he informed us he was ordered to apply to “that Yankee,” +indicating Captain Bush of the Twenty-eighth New +York, who, being wounded in the arm, was walking up and +down the room, which no one else was able to do. (This officer, +by the way, had voluntarily accompanied his regiment +into action, armed with a cane, being under arrest and deprived +of his sword.) His wound was severe, and the surgeon +had expressed doubts of saving the arm. We all remonstrated +against the barbarity of handcuffing the only +man whom it would really hurt. No use: he had got his orders, +and on went the irons. Bush didn’t say a word, but, +after the sergeant had gone, with a sharp stick which his +neighbor whittled out for him, and a piece of string poked +into the lock of the handcuff, succeeding in pulling back the +catch, and slipped one wrist out. The other, he didn’t mind. +Before the ward surgeon came round the next morning, he +slipped it in again. The surgeon was indignant,—not at +the barbarity, but at the interference with his case,—and +off he rushed to the surgeon in command, to have the handcuffs +removed. But all he obtained was an order that Bush +be sent to Richmond, handcuffs and all. We heard, however, +that the ward surgeon had them removed as soon as Bush +was clear of the hospital yard.</p> + +<p>The story we heard, probably true, was that Hay, the +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_14" id="Page_14">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>14]</a></span> +medical director in command, reading the account of the +Richmond handcuffing, one night when he was tight, was +fired with the idea of emulating such a noble example, and +ordered the bracelets to be applied at once to any Yankee +who was well enough to be walking about. Even our visitors +were rather ashamed of this performance, and invented +an absurd story that Bush had tried to escape,—a man with +a shattered arm trying to escape from the only chance of +saving it!]</p> + +<p>[Journal resumed.] It seems that an opportunity may turn +up for sending this little book off to the North by a man +who will shortly get his parole, and I think will undertake +to smuggle it through. These jottings have been almost +my only resource to pass away the leaden hours. With no +companion to whom I can open my soul, I must soliloquize, +if only to convince myself that I have not yet sunk to the +level of my surroundings.</p> + +<p><i>Saturday, September 20.</i>—Six weeks to-day since the fight +in which we became dead to the world. “Hope springs +eternal,” etc. If it didn’t, how many would turn their +faces to the wall! One man got his everlasting furlough +the other day, just at supper time; but they pulled the +sheet over his face and went on with the bread and molasses; +and, when that was over, down he went to the +dead-house.</p> + +<p>This, in my opinion, is for the country the very moment +of convulsion and travail, out of which some new state of +things,—the commencement of some new era,—for better +or for worse, will surely come. “When the pain is sorest, +the child is born; and the night is darkest before the +dawn of the day of the Lord at hand.” But at this critical +moment to be walled up alive, where only faint echoes and +uncertain sounds from the great fields reach us,—the fields +where our fellow-soldiers are playing out the great game +of the age is,—a chance of war, and nothing to complain +of while we still live. A great battle has been in Maryland, +and, although they make it out that we were worsted, +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_15" id="Page_15">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>15]</a></span> +yet from signs and tokens we draw our own inferences. +First and greatest, the women haven’t been up to crow +victory over the Yankee prisoners, <i>ergo</i> the first despatch +did not announce a success; the doctors have said nothing, +and last night Dr. Hay, with a dozen others and all the +dressers that could be spared, left for Maryland. Charley, +the nigger, yesterday reported that the folks in town felt +very bad about it. Reports fly about of fifty thousand killed +and wounded on both sides; and, as they can’t know ours, +theirs must have been tremendous to have started such +reports. (Here come the women to the menagerie.) At +all events, it’s such a victory as they can’t stand a repetition +of; and now, if the North will pour in reinforcements, there +may be a glimmer of daylight for the cause, if not for me.</p> + +<p>A man has come into this room, wounded at Port Republic, +First Sergeant Seventh Ohio, the most awful specimen of +emaciation that I ever saw or would have believed consistent +with the vital spark. The articulation of each joint, covered +only by the tense polished skin, is as distinct as in a skeleton.</p> + +<p>Another horror: a rebel deserter, who was put in with the +Yankees in order to be under guard, has just been sheared, +on account of one of the plagues of Egypt; and his head was +a sight to dream of, not to tell. He had been living in the +woods since he deserted, was immediately taken down with +typhoid fever, and I thought wanted to die.</p> + +<p>The room now consists as follows, beginning with my next +neighbor: Corporal James Shipp, known as Jimmy, the pet +of the room, doctors and nurses inclusive: a nice, simple-hearted +boy of seventeen, brave and good; shot in shoulder, +scapula taken out; recovering. Private Smith, Forty-sixth +Pennsylvania: good fellow, apparently; has taken laudanum +enough to float a ship, and seems to be getting fat on it.</p> + +<p>The skeleton sergeant comes next. He keeps a journal, +and his wound drives me from the room, whenever opened.</p> + +<p>The deserter and company. He wouldn’t have needed +John Phœnix’s tape-worm, in order to use the editorial “we.”</p> + +<p>A bragging squirt of a Georgian, who got scratched in the +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_16" id="Page_16">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>16]</a></span> +finger in Maryland, and marched all the way here to save his +precious hide and boast of the Yankees he had killed.</p> + +<p>George Peet, Fifth Ohio: a good young fellow; lost his +foot the other day, after six weeks trying to save it.</p> + +<p>Henry Shaw, One Hundred and Second New York: a +little, white-headed Harlemite, a little conceited; talks a +little better English than the rest of them; shot in back; +recovering.</p> + +<p>Arthur Jordan, Tenth Maine: obliging, pleasant, nice fellow; +had the measles, and was sent to the “measly ward,” +from which he has just made his escape on his own hook, +returning here at the risk of being put in the guard-house.</p> + +<p>Sergeant Henry Holloway, Fifth Connecticut: the only +one with whom I can fraternize at all; a railroad man, engine +driver, etc., infected with the insubordinate ideas natural to +his regiment; otherwise, a good fellow.</p> + +<p>Captain ——, —— ——, selfishness incarnate. It takes +all sorts of men to make up a world, but let us hope that +it takes few such as he.</p> + +<p><i>Thursday, September 25.</i>—Great news in yesterday’s paper. +It seems Pope’s officers have been paroled. That is a glimmer +of daylight, and looks as if the winter might not be +passed in shop ward No. 7, or the Libby. General Prince is +courteously alluded to as “the ringleader of the gang.” For +pure malignity of venom, these Richmond editors would beat +even the witches’ toad that was stewed after his month’s nap +under the stone.</p> + +<p><i>Sunday, 28th.</i>—Away with visions of home and ease! +Wilder Dwight has been killed, and I am Major, I suppose.... +Now to play the man and be prepared to go to the majority +in either sense, when God’s will is.</p> + +<p>Just had a visit from Joshua Munroe,—and a cheering visit, +indeed,—a descendant of Israel Munroe of Lexington fight, +and here an Israelite among the Philistines. Rebel soldier, +just leaving for his regiment, shakes hands all round with +our men, who enjoin him to take care of himself. And how +soon these men may be putting daylight through each other! +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_17" id="Page_17">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>17]</a></span> +Note: I have experienced from rebel privates almost uniform +kindness, good-fellowship, <i>camaraderie</i>; they treat one +as fellow-soldier. And as for our men, they fraternize as +though the strawberry mark of brotherhood was on every +arm. All the insult, all the bitterness and ill-treatment, have +come from officers and citizens of high position in society, +and from the women, whose envenomed tongues are let loose +upon the wounded prisoner without mercy. This space +[referring to the space in the diary under the printed date of +Saturday, May 24] is the date of our midnight fight on the +dark road; and this [Sunday 25] of our fight and flight to +the Potomac, when hell broke loose in Winchester town; +and this Sunday is just such another, cool and bright; and +this morning [Monday, May 26] A, B, E, and K, were left +on picket at the fence and in woods, with a section of +Cothran, under Lieutenant Peabody. That was the work +that tried our souls. Ned and Dick, brave fellows, both +gone before. “We a little longer wait, but how little who +can know!”</p> + +<p>Two men have died on this floor within the last twelve +hours,—the old man Carter with the consumption, and the +lieutenant with the typhoid, the former last night and the +latter just now. This afternoon [Wednesday, May 28], we +crossed the river; and how good camp was!</p> + +<p><i>Monday, October 6.</i>—Got letters from home last night, +through Jim Savage, who still lives,—God be praised!—though +with one leg off, and a shattered shoulder. Add to +that that we are promised the parole of the yard; add to +that orders expected for Richmond in a few days. I’ll bet +my knapsack will be packed when the assembly beats. +However, we’ll not count this chicken before he chips the +shell, as old —— has tried to addle the egg all he could.</p> + +<p><i>Tuesday, October 7.</i>—One chicken incubated and made +his appearance. Hay, yesterday afternoon, in the intervals of +carving below (the hospital operating room was immediately +beneath us), sends up word that, if we will write out our +parole of the yard, he will sign it. And old —— not being +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_18" id="Page_18">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>18]</a></span> +on hand to botch the thing, I cooked up a document, got it +signed and sent down, to which the illustrious chief then +affixed his sign-manual, and we are henceforward free of +yard and grounds. Bully for that! [I remember now, I +was the first to test the document’s efficacy, for we could +hardly believe that it would really pass us out. The guard +stopped me, of course, called the corporal, and finally +decided that it was a genuine thing; and I hobbled painfully +down four steep flights and out,—looked up and saw the +rest all crowding to the window and waving hands and hats +to see me actually emerge, like a rat, from the trap which +had held us through long weary months.] I find that the +art of crutch progression is quite a science, and has its outside +edges and its backward rolls, etc., which are not to +be learned without much practice and balancing. Up and +down stairs with ease, confidence, and grace, is somewhat +of an attainment.</p> + +<p><i>Thursday, 9th.</i>—Struggled out to pond and washed; first +decent wash for three months. Had to steal a piece of +black soap, and push out a board over the mud,—hard work +for a cripple. Stopped in at carpenter’s shop and saw Dr. +Hay slice an arm off, <i>secundum artem</i>.</p> + +<p><i>October 13.</i>—Suffering with the first cold snap. The +sergeant’s wound keeps every window open, and we might +as well or better be <i>sub Jove frigido</i>. Rumors of small-pox +pervade the air.</p> + +<p><i>Tuesday, 14th.</i>—An alarm of small-pox yesterday afternoon +in our ward turned out false, I believe, but has scared +everybody most out of their wits. It seems, however, there +were cases elsewhere; for, endeavoring to visit the pond +again, I was stopped by a guard, and told that some tents +just pitched by the shore contained the small-pox patients, +whom no one was allowed to approach within one hundred +yards. After they had recovered or died, the tents were set +on fire as they stood.</p> + +<p><i>Wednesday, 15th.</i>—To-day, I followed Dr. Hay’s trail all +day, bent on a personal interview, until I earthed him at +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_19" id="Page_19">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>19]</a></span> +last in his office; and the result is that we are off for Richmond +to-morrow. [I had seen the Richmond paper with the +official list of Yankees paroled from the Libby, among whom +were several whom I knew to be Pope’s officers; and I determined +not to rot another day, as food for Confederate +vermin, without claiming my rights as prisoner of war. So +when, after repeated rebuffs, my obstinacy prevailed and +Hay gave orders to let me in, he wasn’t in a good humor. +But I told him, I forget in what terms, that I had discovered +that I was no longer a hostage liable to be hanged in +retaliation for the execution of guerrillas, but a prisoner of +war, with all that that implied, and that, in behalf of all who +were able to travel, I demanded to be sent to the Libby. +He said we were better off where we were. I agreed, but +told him I would suffer anything to know that my name was +on the list to be paroled when my turn came, and that it +was my right to have it there. Finally he said, “Will you +be ready to start before light to-morrow?” “Let me go +back for my blanket,” said I, “and I’ll start now.” “Well,” +said he, “go back, and tell all who the ward surgeon says are +able, to be ready by half-past four.” I saluted, faced about, +and was in the doorway when he stopped me and, seeming +to recover his temper, asked me and any of my friends who +could to come over to his office after supper and take a farewell +drink.] In the evening [the journal resumes], we attended +in Dr. Hay’s office, to take a social drink. Hay +talked fire and fury, “secesh” running up as the whiskey ran +down. A lawyer and colonel joined in, and the telegram of +the Governor of North Carolina to the Governor of South +Carolina was so often quoted that I was fain to back down +from what was fast becoming a three-minute crowd. We +had an amputation to diversify the spree,—soldier brought +in, who I suspect had applied for a discharge by shooting off +two fingers of his right hand. They were badly mangled, so +Hay put him down on the floor and took them off again, +short metre, not without cutting his own in the operation, +he was so tight. I came away then, fearing that my crutches +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_20" id="Page_20">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>20]</a></span> +might not be as whiskey-proof as erst was wooden leg of +Sawin, and the descent of the front steps requiring that eye, +hand, and foot (literally, foot) should keep true time. There +wasn’t much sleep in No. 7 that night, and early next +morning we were off, leaving George and the skeleton +sergeant, who is fast going down to the dead, though he +doesn’t know it. We had an awful trip, being detained six +hours by a smash-up of the night before, killing seven and +wounding seventy-five,—a mere skirmish. Shortly before +we arrived, at about 1 A.M., an officer came through the car, +caught sight of my shoulder-straps, stopped: “You are a +captain?” “Yes.” “Have you got any federal greenbacks?” +“Yes, a few.” “Well, I want some to pay a debt +I owe at the North, and I’ll give you Confederate money for +them. You’ll want some, for you’ll probably lie for months +in the Libby, and you’ll die if you don’t send out and buy +good food.” Said I, “Thank you, I guess I’ll hold on to my +greenbacks till I get there.”</p> + +<p>The fact that nearly all the hospital officials had made the +same request on various pretexts was significant enough to +me. At 2 A.M., we arrived, where I now write, in the +Libby prison, being received with the once familiar cry of +“Corporal of the Guard, Post No. 1.” The corporal came +and let us in. The officer, cross and sleepy (the infernal +traitor, Peacock, by the way), sent us to the hospital department, +up three flights,—immense room in large tobacco +warehouse, lighted with a single dip, which only made darkness +visible. A ragged young nurse, with his hair on end, +welcomed us to the scene of despair. We were put on cots +of sacking, with nothing under or over us, and shivered ourselves +into oblivion. The next morning, the familiar notes +of reveille on the fife, accompanied by the bass and snare-drum +of the side-show, which Andrews used to detest so, +brought us again to consciousness. I was about to put my +head out of the window, but was forcibly informed that I’d +better not, unless I wanted it shot off. This day, a party +went off which we had hoped to join, but were disappointed; +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_21" id="Page_21">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>21]</a></span> +and a squad of sixty odd came in from Macon, Georgia. I +thought that I had seen filth, squalor, and wretchedness +before, but I never even conceived the meaning of the +words; and what these men had been through would have +been incredible, except to those who saw them. They said +the Libby was heaven, in comparison to what they had +come from. Saw a dress-parade of the regiment on duty +here, which would have shamed the cadets for measliness +of turnout.</p> + +<p><i>Saturday.</i>—In hell, <i>alias</i> the Libby prison.</p> + +<p><i>Sunday.</i>—This morning before breakfast, little spitfire +clerk came up to take our paroles. I could have embraced +the little devil, but I didn’t, only waited till my name was +called, when I toed the mark <i>instanter</i>, and quite won his +heart with the promptitude with which I recited my descriptive +list, insomuch that he asked me to take a letter +to his sweetheart. After this, the wretched crew were +packed into coaches and wagons, under command of the +black-hearted traitor Captain Peacock, and we left Libby, +the sergeant and I being in with two half-dead wretches of +the Macon crowd, swarming with vermin.</p> + +<p>But after a miserable jolt of fifteen miles, our nigger driver +pointed out the boat lying in a distant bend. “And dar de +flag,” said he with a grin, “ober de starn,” indicating a small +red streak, which was “the star-spangled banner, Oh, long +may it wa-a-ve,” etc. I confess to embracing the staff when +I got aboard, and realized that Jeff. Davis himself couldn’t +take me away without a fight. But before they let us go +aboard there was a long and to us incomprehensible delay +of nearly two hours, during which we lay on the grass just +above the landing and watched the boat, the flag, and the +blue uniforms, with longing eyes. [We learned afterward +that Captain Peacock, while strutting up and down the wharf +in full Confederate uniform, had been recognized by one of +the deck hands who had belonged to his former New York +regiment. The said deck hand pointed him out to a friend, +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_22" id="Page_22">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>22]</a></span> +with the remark, “Look at his forehead, and you’ll see traitor +written there.” This being overheard by Mr. Peacock, he +demanded an apology for the insult, swearing that, if refused, +he would march us all back to the Libby. How they pacified +him I don’t know, but at the end of two hours he had cooled +off enough to let us go aboard. I was the first who received +permission to go, whereat I bounced on to my one foot and +two crutches, picked up my blanket, and charged down the +hill. The rebel sentry, who hadn’t yet got his orders to +pass us, charged bayonets on me for an instant, but, on a +sign from Peacock, shouldered arms again; and the next +moment I was embracing the flag-staff, as afore mentioned. +The Sanitary Commission received us with open arms and +some delicious milk-punch, and in a few minutes we were +under full steam out of rebeldom, Sergeant Holloway and +I leaning on the guards, watching the foam fly past, and +singing, <i>sotto voce</i>,—“We’re going home, we’re going +home, we’re going home to die no more!”</p> + +<p>We were two days on board the flag-of-truce boat. The +next cot to mine was occupied by a man of a Massachusetts +regiment, taken at the first Bull Run. He was almost a +skeleton, and the worst case of chills and fever I ever saw. +The second day being a shake day, he couldn’t eat his rations, +and offered them to me. He said he thought he was +dying. “But,” said he, “I don’t complain now I’ve got out +of hell, and I shall live long enough to get back into God’s +country and die there, which is all I’ve been praying for for +months.”]</p> + +<p><i>Monday.</i>—Aboard the “Commodore,” off Fortress Monroe, +waiting for orders, which have just come, for Washington. +And here we are at Washington, waiting orders again. +When I find myself once more a free man in Willard’s +Hotel, I shall turn down the leaf of my experiences as +prisoner of war to the rebels.</p> + +<p>Now for philosophy. Captain gone ashore, and fearful +rumors pervade the boat about Annapolis, New York, etc. +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_23" id="Page_23">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>23]</a></span> +Well, it can be but a day or two, and we are out of rebeldom. +I’ve kept well so— [“Far” would have been the +next word, but marching orders intervened, and the next +entry, in big letters at the bottom of the page, reads] <span class="smcap">A +free man at Willard’s</span>!</p> + +<p>And the first act of the free man aforesaid was to purchase +some underclothes at the furnishing store, which +luckily had not closed for the night, and to proceed therewith +to the bath-room, where hot water and soap speedily +restored that self-respect which is so difficult to retain after +one is conscious of not being the only inhabitant of one’s +garments. The next day, I drew my pay and replaced +my ragged blouse, bullet-pierced trowsers, and torn Confederate +cap (given me on the field to replace my broad-brimmed +felt, which a Georgia gentleman fancied), by the +jauntiest uniform clothes I could find, after which I sallied +out on the avenue; and the first man I met was the captain +of the “Commodore,” who at first insisted that I was mistaken, +as he had never seen me before in his life; and +only my crutches and wounded foot at last convinced him +that I was the same man who had talked to him about +Harry Russell, the day before. The next day, it was just +the other way. Smart young officer rushes up: “Hallo, +Captain Quincy! thought it must be you. How are you?” +“Well,” said I, “I’m glad you thought it was I; but +whether it’s you or not I’m sure I don’t know, for I +should say I had never set eyes on you before.” “What, +you don’t know the man you identified yesterday?” And +it turned out to be a lieutenant of a Western regiment, +and fellow-prisoner, all of whose clothing in the Libby consisted +of shirt, trowsers, and army blanket pinned over his +shoulders. Arriving in Washington, without a cent, I had +identified him at the pay department, while still in his +blanket, from which chrysalis the all-potent greenback had +evoked as shiny a blue-and-brass butterfly as any on the +avenue.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_24" id="Page_24">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>24]</a></span> +This concludes my prison history. I was never again +taken, though coming pretty near it once or twice in Louisiana, +where, as an officer of colored troops, my experiences +might have been much more severe than those above recounted. +If the story has interested former comrades or +assisted in drawing closer the link which binds together the +survivors of the old regiment, I can only rejoice that the +committee asked me to relate it to you.</p> + +<div class="bbox"> +<p><b>Transcriber's Note</b></p> + +<p>As much of this work is a direct extract from a diary, spelling, +grammar and omission of words are preserved as printed.</p> +</div> + + + + + + + + +<pre> + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of History of the Second Massachusetts +Regiment of Infantry: A prisoner's diary, by Samuel M. Quincy + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 2ND MASS. REG. 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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: History of the Second Massachusetts Regiment of Infantry: A prisoner's diary + A paper read at the officers' reunion in Boston, May 11, 1877 + +Author: Samuel M. Quincy + +Release Date: January 9, 2011 [EBook #34895] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 2ND MASS. REG. PRISONER'S DIARY *** + + + + +Produced by Sam W. and 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.) + + + + + + + + + + HISTORY + OF THE + SECOND MASSACHUSETTS REGIMENT OF INFANTRY. + + + A PRISONER'S DIARY. + + A PAPER READ AT THE OFFICERS' REUNION IN BOSTON, + MAY 11, 1877, + + BY + + SAMUEL M. QUINCY, + + CAPTAIN SECOND MASSACHUSETTS REGIMENT OF INFANTRY. + BREVET BRIGADIER GENERAL VOLUNTEERS. + + + BOSTON: + George H. Ellis, Printer, 141 Franklin Street. + 1882. + + + + PRIVATELY PRINTED FOR THE ASSOCIATION. + + + + +A PRISONER'S DIARY. + + +The committee's announcement, that on this evening there would be read +by me a paper relating to the history of the regiment, I fear may have +awakened false expectations. But it was suggested that a little +personal history of my own experiences, from the moment when that +terrific flank fire caused the regiment to leave me for dead on the +field of Cedar Mountain to the moment when, three months later, I +again came under the stars and stripes at Aiken's Landing, would +interest former comrades for a short time to-night. It is safe to say, +perhaps, that our regiment passed through every possible experience of +the war. In all the various scenes of suffering and endurance, both +physical and mental, which the war could offer, the Second +Massachusetts was represented; and in that view, perhaps, the personal +adventures of those who, while separated from the corps, always +considered its membership the highest of honors, may be considered as +forming part of the general history of the regiment itself. + +I was fortunate enough to find in my blouse pocket, after acute +physical suffering had in a measure given place to the prisoner's +worst enemy, the leaden vacuity of ennui, a little duodecimo almanac +and diary for 1862, with half a lead pencil. With these, by dint of +fine writing, I succeeded in keeping a sort of journal of daily +events, with my reflections thereupon, during the whole period of my +captivity, the last entry being comprised in the words, "_A free man +at Willard's_." From this journal, I shall make copious extracts, +believing that words then written will reproduce the situation better +than any subsequent description from memory. + +At about 2 P.M. on the 8th of August, the long roll was beaten in the +camp of the Second Massachusetts, at Little Washington. As has often +happened, we fell in only to fall out again with the news that it only +meant get ready to march; and in fact it was nearly five before we +were off. The heat during the first hour or two of the march was +severe, but the latter part was by moonlight and very pleasant. Still, +I find it recorded that some unfortunate and unseasoned recruits, who +had just joined us from home with knapsacks heavy with five times what +they really needed, were utterly played out before the sun was down. +And here I take up the narration as I find it in the little book +referred to, with an occasional interpolation and explanation which +will be marked as such in brackets. + +_August 14, 1862._--One week to-day since the fight. Let us attempt a +_resume_. On arriving at Culpeper, Friday night, after a moonlight +march which about played out the unfortunate recruits with their heavy +knapsacks, we lay down in a field, Stephen and I cracking my provision +box, which had come on with the blankets. [This was Lieutenant Stephen +Perkins of Company A with whom I had become intimate, and who shared +with me a great and innocent passion for tea. Whichever of us was +known to possess a supply of the article was sure of a visit from the +other at his camp fire after a march. Before separating that night, I +remember he said to me, "Sam, we shall see more fighting soon: I feel +it; there is a battle in the air." There was, indeed, and it ended the +battle of life for him.] We then slept on the moor, to the sound of +freshly arriving troops and wagons. In the morning, we find an army +around us. After a breakfast at the sound of the triangle [for by this +unmilitary instrument did Johnson, our caterer, call the officers' +mess to meals], under the sun, we fall in and take arms, but have +hardly done so when we stack them again and proceed to stake out +ground for a camp. But this is just done and tents beginning to rise +when Sherman, of Pope's staff, rushes by to head-quarters at a rate +which "spared not for spoiling of his steed," and which caused us to +hold our hands in expectation for a moment; and, sure enough, in two +minutes we were again in line, and this time off under a blazing sun, +though for once without our knapsacks. Through Culpeper and about six +or seven miles further in a fiery furnace hotter even than that of +Shadrach & Co. Near the front, heard a little firing. Sergeant Parsons +fell with sun-stroke. Left two recruits with him and pushed on for the +right, where at last, panting and half dead, we got into a wood where +we stacked arms and fell down behind them. The half hour of breeze and +shade which ensued made men of us once more, so that when my company +was ordered to skirmish we were actually able to do it. The firing of +artillery commenced at about 3 P.M., as I should judge, pretty heavy +and well-sustained. Ned Abbott's company and mine were ordered to +report forward, and deployed our skirmishers on the garden fence, with +reserves behind; and there, for a couple of hours, we watched the +swayings of the artillery fight, timing the explosion of the heavy +shells, and watching the varying intervals between the shots of the +rebel batteries. At last, as the sun seemed not more than an hour +high, and just as Ned Abbott, lying by my side in the rear of our +skirmishers, had expressed his disbelief in the fight's coming off +that afternoon, an orderly, followed by Pitman of Banks' staff, came +up to where Gordon was sitting on his horse near us, watching the +field through his glass; and it seemed, for the first time, that +something was going wrong. I was near enough to hear that he wanted a +regiment of Gordon's brigade to report, as I understood it, to Banks +at the centre. "You must take him your regiment, then," said Gordon to +Colonel Andrews. Abbott and I jumped to our feet, and were ordered to +rally our men on the battalion; and hardly, panting and breathless, +had we resumed our places in line when the regiment advanced by the +right of companies to the front, until we had cleared the garden, and +then by company into line. + +Then commenced the furious and incessant roll and crash of musketry, +leaving, as Copeland expressed it, no interval in which a single other +shot could have been inserted. We plunged over the ditch and crashed +through a wood, out of which came Crane of the Third Wisconsin, +covered with blood, and reeling in his saddle, until after about a +quarter of a mile we came to a fence with a wheat-field beyond. In +this, a brigade of rebels were in line, but what they were firing at +we couldn't see. We opened fire and then were ordered to cease--why, I +don't know, as I could see no one between us and them. But, as their +line advanced, we soon re-opened fire, as the converging storm of +balls hailed upon us. + +How long this lasted, I could not tell. Their red flags advanced, but +large gaps were opening in their lines. Finally, the bullets seemed to +come from all sides at once. Pattison, my lieutenant, shouted in my +ear that Cary was down, and he had been ordered to take his company; +and he left. Then the red flags seemed close upon the fence, and it +seemed to me that the right had fallen back; and I started across the +little gap in the fence to see. Yes, the right had gone; but in that +instant I caught it, first in the right leg, then through the left +foot, and in that same instant the enemy were upon us, or rather upon +me, for what was left of my company had gone with the rest. Though +staggering, I had not yet fallen, when one rushed up, aimed at my head +with "Surrender, G--d d--n your soul!" which I did. But if I had known +then, what now I know, I would have lain there for dead till they were +gone, and then dragged myself slowly toward our side. [This refers to +the fact that one of the first pleasing pieces of information +communicated to me by my captors, who were surprised that I did not +already know it, was that, by special orders of Jeff. Davis, none of +Pope's officers were to be treated as prisoners of war or paroled, but +kept as hostages to be hanged from time to time in retaliation for +any such execution of guerrillas as was threatened in Pope's +celebrated orders, of which we then had not yet heard.] + +But as it was [the journal resumes], I gave up my sword and pistol, +sat down, borrowed my captor's knife, ripped my trousers open and shoe +off, and examined damages. An awful hole in foot and little one in +leg, at the bottom of which the bullet was plainly visible. Seeing +this, the Confederate gentleman to whom I then belonged was seized +with a desire to perform a surgical operation with the knife referred +to, but yielded to my remonstrance and request that he would be +satisfied with having put it in, and allow some gentleman of the +medical staff to undertake the bullet's extraction. Two of them then +offered to take me across the wheat-field to where their own wounded +were, asking me at the same time what money I had for them. They did +not offer any violence or undertake to search me. Had they done so, +they would have made prize of my money-belt, containing over $90 in +greenbacks and a gold watch. I gave them some ten or twelve gold +dollars which I had in my pocket, reserving one by great good luck, as +will presently appear. Then they carried me across the field, with +each arm affectionately round a rebel neck. As I passed the fence +where the right had been, there lay poor Ned,--who half an hour before +had joked about being two hours in action without losing a man,--with +white, waxen face against the dead leaves. It was just light enough +for me to recognize him. Who else of the officers had fallen, I did +not know, save that Cary was down, as Pattison had told me, before our +lines gave way. With occasional halts, they carried me across the +field, and put me down among a groaning mass of wounded of both sides. +The men next me gave me water and a knapsack for my head, a man came +along with a canteen of whiskey and I got a drink. The moon rose full +over the trees, and the cannonade recommenced. I got a piece of the +wounded rebel's blanket next me over my shoulder, lay as near him as I +could; for, though the day had been blazing, the night mist and loss +of blood made me shiver; and I slept. Once I was waked by some one +attempting to pull off my seal ring; but he desisted when I pulled my +hand away, remarked, "A handsome ring," and went on. Very likely he +thought me dead, as my companion under the blanket was by that time. + +Before daylight, the pain of my shattered bones brought me again to +consciousness. Somehow, I hated to see the sky begin to brighten, +knowing how soon the sun would blaze furiously down upon us. And yet I +didn't seem to realize the horrors of the position, but looked upon +myself as acting a part for which I had expected to be cast, and with +the stage business of which I was perfectly familiar; and all the +wounded took it more or less as a business matter. As the sun rose, I +gradually dragged myself under trees with the rest of the groaning +set, leaving those who had died to sleep it out. A rebel soldier +passed with two canteens on. "What will you sell me one of those +canteens for?" said I. "I'll give you a dollar." He laughed and was +passing on. "A gold dollar," said I. He stopped: "What, Yank! Have you +got a gold dollar?" "Yes," said I, "you go to the branch, fill the +canteen with fresh water, and here's the dollar." If he had been a +wretch, he might have taken it away and left me to die, for there was +no one else near except wounded; but, after considering a few minutes, +he went off to the stream, filled the canteen, brought it to me, took +the dollar, and left. And that canteen, I think, saved my life; for +soon the sun rose so that no more shade could be had. I tore up my +handkerchief, bound my wounds, and kept them moist, kept the canteen +under me and took little sips when my thirst became unbearable, and so +got through the day, making the water last until evening. By and by, +they began to pick up the wounded by threes and pairs, in ambulances. +When, however,--I should think about 3 P.M.,--there were about five or +six of us left, and I the only Yankee, a sudden rush of men through +the woods and stampede of wagons down the road, with an accompaniment +of "Yankees are coming!" swept every sound man away from us. Every +man that had legs used them at double quick. Then the prayers of the +wounded to the wagoners, as they flogged their teams past: "Oh, take +me away from here, help me into a wagon; for God's sake, don't leave +me to the Yankees!" One poor fellow, all of whose clothes had been +taken off by the surgeon engaged on his wounds, raised himself, stark +naked and covered with blood, against a tree, and implored every +teamster in turn to stop and take him in. The effect was grisly. It +struck me that, if they were really coming, some of the rebs then +rushing by might take occasion to settle one Yankee "_en passant_": so +I got my blouse off, covered myself with dead rebel sergeant's coat, +and lay low. A section of artillery extricated itself from the wagons, +and wheeled into battery; and, finding myself just in point-blank +range, I succeeded by painful endeavor in getting behind a big stump. + +But, alas! the excitement subsided, the wagons were stopped and +ordered back, officers cursed the originators of the panic, and it was +all over. But a real charge or a few shots just then would have +started "secesh" with a rush, and saved the captain of Company E, +Second Massachusetts Volunteers. After awhile, an ambulance came and +picked up the last two of us and carried us to where the hospital +flies were pitched. My driver, after making sure that nobody heard +him, informed me that he had always been for the Union, and voted +against "secesh"; "and when they started this war," said he, "I swore +they'd have to fight it out without me; but I was wrong there, for +they've got me." He drove me up to a fly under which were some dozen +or twenty wounded on hospital cots. At first, they said there was no +room; but then somebody discovered that his neighbor was dead, and +suggested that the Yankee might take his place. So they moved the dead +man out under the eaves inside the guys, and gave me the cot. The +surgeon examined and bound up my foot, relieving me with the assurance +that it would probably stay on, though I should be always lame. The +bullet came out of my leg very easily, for, oddly enough, it hadn't +pierced my drawers, but had carried them deep into the leg in a sort +of bag. A thunder-storm now burst upon us, and with the first gust +down came our house, over living and dead. After a long staggering and +flapping, they got her set again. The rain thundered on the canvas and +cascaded in sheets over the dead man under the eaves, but he was +beyond even water cure. The scene was dismal: in the intervals of +rain, they took to burying legs and arms upon the hill, and it would +not have made a bad slide for a stereoscope, on the whole. But, as +night fell, I took my supper with some relish,--a piece of hard-tack +and ham, given me by a rebel private on the field,--and with the help +of the dead rebel's blanket of last night, which I had sense enough to +bag when they picked me up, I slept once more. + +In the morning, they sent me in an ambulance or "avalanche," as they +call it, to head-quarters. Thought at first I was going before Felix +or Stonewall himself; turned out to be General Hill. He came and +looked into the ambulance. "What regiment?" "Second Massachusetts." +"Let's see, Gordon's old regiment?" "Yes." "Best regiment in Banks' +army; cut all to pieces, though: I've been over the ground," and exit. +He ordered me sent to Orange Court House; countermanded, and they +dumped me out by a blacksmith's shop. A surgeon came along and ordered +me sent to Rapidan Station, on the box seat of an "avalanche"; and an +awful "avalanche" it was,--four men with legs and arms off inside. It +was eight miles over rocks and through rivers, and generally such a +drive of damnation as never entered into the heart of man to conceive. +Luckily, I kept my strength; but why the inside passengers didn't die +before we got half way is the marvel. "The lamentable chorus, the cry +of agony, the endless groan," as we bounced and jolted over corduroy +road and river bed, was an ill thing to hear. We arrived at the +railroad about dusk, just as I was calculating about how much longer +I could stand it without fainting, and they put us out on the grass +among those already arrived. The train came along after dark, and, +finding that I must shift for myself or be left in the field, I made +my painful way on hands and knees, among horses' feet and under the +awful "avalanche," to the platform, where, after a while, they picked +me up and put me aboard; turned seat back, put my foot up, and slept. + +An interval of broken oblivion in the dark car, with occasional +wakings to a semi-consciousness of rumbling wheels, brakes, and once +familiar railroad sounds, mingled strangely with groans, cries, +stench, squalor, and misery. But, as the night was only a succession +of frightful dreams, I didn't undertake to decide which was reality, +but took the benefit of the doubt, which was a species of relief. But +with the gray dawn illusions vanished, and the miserable reality stood +out, bald and unmistakable. Where we were going, I didn't know; but +after a while the impression seemed to prevail that it wasn't +Richmond, but Staunton; and at about twelve we arrived here. The train +at once became a menagerie, wherein the Yankee wild beasts were +stirred up and stared at by the town. One citizen, I remember, was +turned out of the car by a rebel sergeant for insulting the prisoners. +They took us out at last, one or two rebs who had died in the night +being first served. Finally, about evening, they took the two Yankee +captains, in almost an upside-down position, with heads in straw and +feet in air, through the town to the hospital, women coming to the +windows with various expressions of countenance, pity being the +scarcest. I've often seen them look out to see soldiers pass, but +never expected to figure in this sort of a pageant for their +edification. + +[The reflections and moralizings on my situation, which follow, it was +my first impulse to omit from this paper entirely; but on the whole I +decide to let them stand as I find them, requesting only that comrades +will consider them as given in a sort of family confidence.] + +Of my life, if life it may be called [continues the diary], in this +place, I desire to make no record, the _olim haec meminisse_ principle +having no application here. Let the waters of oblivion cover it +forever, if I am ever again a free man. To lie a crippled and helpless +butt for the exulting Philistine and his women ten thousand times +worse than himself, while such tremendous history is being made of +which we can only guess at the reality, is a living death. And with +such a companion! What is happening behind the impenetrable curtain +between us and the North? Until the news that God has abdicated and +Satan reigns is confirmed beyond a peradventure, so long will I +believe that the right will triumph in the end. But where the end may +be, this year or twenty hence, _quien sabe_? + +Of my own chances for life and liberty, I cannot even guess. The +blackness of darkness surrounds me on every hand, with no perceptible +ray or glimmer from any quarter, as yet. But, doubtless, many a man +who thinks he sees his path of life stretching away in far perspective +is really as blind as I, and can discern no further beyond his nose. +When the tide of war shall turn, as turn it will, what will be done +with us? where shall I be,--here or in the Libby? Well, each place has +its merits: here, enough to eat and no bracelets; there, the company +of gentlemen. Oh Harry Russell! if you and I were together to cheer +each other with regimental chat, or gallant Major Jim, _sans peur et +sans reproche_, in your company I could suffer and be strong unto the +end. But I fear that, through desperate wounds, his mortal body has +had no longer strength to retain the soul of one of the bravest +Christian gentlemen that ever drew sword for the right since the world +began. + +And Stephen, my friend, man of culture, reading, and intellect, whose +only complaint of camp life was the loss of time and opportunity for +the growth of mind,--that such lights should be forever extinguished +by the bullets of men so few degrees above the brute level, saddens +the soul. And shall all this have been in vain? Answer, freemen and +gentlemen of the North, with unborn generations waiting: to bless or +curse your memory,--answer now! + +[The above allusion to "no bracelets" refers to the assertion of a +Richmond paper, immediately communicated to us by way of cheering our +spirits, that Pope's officers, on arriving at the Libby, had all been +handcuffed. But, although this proved to be erroneous, yet my own +boast of no bracelets in the hospital was somewhat premature, as the +following incident will show. One evening after supper, just as a +half-drunk rebel officer had become so abusive to us that I almost +expected the cowardice of a blow, entered the sergeant of the guard, +who put a stop to that fun, but, to our great disgust, after the +officer had gone, produced a pair of handcuffs, which he informed us +he was ordered to apply to "that Yankee," indicating Captain Bush of +the Twenty-eighth New York, who, being wounded in the arm, was walking +up and down the room, which no one else was able to do. (This officer, +by the way, had voluntarily accompanied his regiment into action, +armed with a cane, being under arrest and deprived of his sword.) His +wound was severe, and the surgeon had expressed doubts of saving the +arm. We all remonstrated against the barbarity of handcuffing the only +man whom it would really hurt. No use: he had got his orders, and on +went the irons. Bush didn't say a word, but, after the sergeant had +gone, with a sharp stick which his neighbor whittled out for him, and +a piece of string poked into the lock of the handcuff, succeeding in +pulling back the catch, and slipped one wrist out. The other, he +didn't mind. Before the ward surgeon came round the next morning, he +slipped it in again. The surgeon was indignant,--not at the barbarity, +but at the interference with his case,--and off he rushed to the +surgeon in command, to have the handcuffs removed. But all he obtained +was an order that Bush be sent to Richmond, handcuffs and all. We +heard, however, that the ward surgeon had them removed as soon as Bush +was clear of the hospital yard. + +The story we heard, probably true, was that Hay, the medical director +in command, reading the account of the Richmond handcuffing, one night +when he was tight, was fired with the idea of emulating such a noble +example, and ordered the bracelets to be applied at once to any Yankee +who was well enough to be walking about. Even our visitors were rather +ashamed of this performance, and invented an absurd story that Bush +had tried to escape,--a man with a shattered arm trying to escape from +the only chance of saving it!] + +[Journal resumed.] It seems that an opportunity may turn up for +sending this little book off to the North by a man who will shortly +get his parole, and I think will undertake to smuggle it through. +These jottings have been almost my only resource to pass away the +leaden hours. With no companion to whom I can open my soul, I must +soliloquize, if only to convince myself that I have not yet sunk to +the level of my surroundings. + +_Saturday, September 20._--Six weeks to-day since the fight in which +we became dead to the world. "Hope springs eternal," etc. If it +didn't, how many would turn their faces to the wall! One man got his +everlasting furlough the other day, just at supper time; but they +pulled the sheet over his face and went on with the bread and +molasses; and, when that was over, down he went to the dead-house. + +This, in my opinion, is for the country the very moment of convulsion +and travail, out of which some new state of things,--the commencement +of some new era,--for better or for worse, will surely come. "When the +pain is sorest, the child is born; and the night is darkest before the +dawn of the day of the Lord at hand." But at this critical moment to +be walled up alive, where only faint echoes and uncertain sounds from +the great fields reach us,--the fields where our fellow-soldiers are +playing out the great game of the age is,--a chance of war, and +nothing to complain of while we still live. A great battle has been in +Maryland, and, although they make it out that we were worsted, yet +from signs and tokens we draw our own inferences. First and greatest, +the women haven't been up to crow victory over the Yankee prisoners, +_ergo_ the first despatch did not announce a success; the doctors have +said nothing, and last night Dr. Hay, with a dozen others and all the +dressers that could be spared, left for Maryland. Charley, the nigger, +yesterday reported that the folks in town felt very bad about it. +Reports fly about of fifty thousand killed and wounded on both sides; +and, as they can't know ours, theirs must have been tremendous to have +started such reports. (Here come the women to the menagerie.) At all +events, it's such a victory as they can't stand a repetition of; and +now, if the North will pour in reinforcements, there may be a glimmer +of daylight for the cause, if not for me. + +A man has come into this room, wounded at Port Republic, First +Sergeant Seventh Ohio, the most awful specimen of emaciation that I +ever saw or would have believed consistent with the vital spark. The +articulation of each joint, covered only by the tense polished skin, +is as distinct as in a skeleton. + +Another horror: a rebel deserter, who was put in with the Yankees in +order to be under guard, has just been sheared, on account of one of +the plagues of Egypt; and his head was a sight to dream of, not to +tell. He had been living in the woods since he deserted, was +immediately taken down with typhoid fever, and I thought wanted to +die. + +The room now consists as follows, beginning with my next neighbor: +Corporal James Shipp, known as Jimmy, the pet of the room, doctors and +nurses inclusive: a nice, simple-hearted boy of seventeen, brave and +good; shot in shoulder, scapula taken out; recovering. Private Smith, +Forty-sixth Pennsylvania: good fellow, apparently; has taken laudanum +enough to float a ship, and seems to be getting fat on it. + +The skeleton sergeant comes next. He keeps a journal, and his wound +drives me from the room, whenever opened. + +The deserter and company. He wouldn't have needed John Phoenix's +tape-worm, in order to use the editorial "we." + +A bragging squirt of a Georgian, who got scratched in the finger in +Maryland, and marched all the way here to save his precious hide and +boast of the Yankees he had killed. + +George Peet, Fifth Ohio: a good young fellow; lost his foot the other +day, after six weeks trying to save it. + +Henry Shaw, One Hundred and Second New York: a little, white-headed +Harlemite, a little conceited; talks a little better English than the +rest of them; shot in back; recovering. + +Arthur Jordan, Tenth Maine: obliging, pleasant, nice fellow; had the +measles, and was sent to the "measly ward," from which he has just +made his escape on his own hook, returning here at the risk of being +put in the guard-house. + +Sergeant Henry Holloway, Fifth Connecticut: the only one with whom I +can fraternize at all; a railroad man, engine driver, etc., infected +with the insubordinate ideas natural to his regiment; otherwise, a +good fellow. + +Captain ----, ---- ----, selfishness incarnate. It takes all sorts of +men to make up a world, but let us hope that it takes few such as he. + +_Thursday, September 25._--Great news in yesterday's paper. It seems +Pope's officers have been paroled. That is a glimmer of daylight, and +looks as if the winter might not be passed in shop ward No. 7, or the +Libby. General Prince is courteously alluded to as "the ringleader of +the gang." For pure malignity of venom, these Richmond editors would +beat even the witches' toad that was stewed after his month's nap +under the stone. + +_Sunday, 28th._--Away with visions of home and ease! Wilder Dwight has +been killed, and I am Major, I suppose.... Now to play the man and be +prepared to go to the majority in either sense, when God's will is. + +Just had a visit from Joshua Munroe,--and a cheering visit, indeed,--a +descendant of Israel Munroe of Lexington fight, and here an Israelite +among the Philistines. Rebel soldier, just leaving for his regiment, +shakes hands all round with our men, who enjoin him to take care of +himself. And how soon these men may be putting daylight through each +other! Note: I have experienced from rebel privates almost uniform +kindness, good-fellowship, _camaraderie_; they treat one as +fellow-soldier. And as for our men, they fraternize as though the +strawberry mark of brotherhood was on every arm. All the insult, all +the bitterness and ill-treatment, have come from officers and citizens +of high position in society, and from the women, whose envenomed +tongues are let loose upon the wounded prisoner without mercy. This +space [referring to the space in the diary under the printed date of +Saturday, May 24] is the date of our midnight fight on the dark road; +and this [Sunday 25] of our fight and flight to the Potomac, when hell +broke loose in Winchester town; and this Sunday is just such another, +cool and bright; and this morning [Monday, May 26] A, B, E, and K, +were left on picket at the fence and in woods, with a section of +Cothran, under Lieutenant Peabody. That was the work that tried our +souls. Ned and Dick, brave fellows, both gone before. "We a little +longer wait, but how little who can know!" + +Two men have died on this floor within the last twelve hours,--the old +man Carter with the consumption, and the lieutenant with the typhoid, +the former last night and the latter just now. This afternoon +[Wednesday, May 28], we crossed the river; and how good camp was! + +_Monday, October 6._--Got letters from home last night, through Jim +Savage, who still lives,--God be praised!--though with one leg off, +and a shattered shoulder. Add to that that we are promised the parole +of the yard; add to that orders expected for Richmond in a few days. +I'll bet my knapsack will be packed when the assembly beats. However, +we'll not count this chicken before he chips the shell, as +old ---- has tried to addle the egg all he could. + +_Tuesday, October 7._--One chicken incubated and made his appearance. +Hay, yesterday afternoon, in the intervals of carving below (the +hospital operating room was immediately beneath us), sends up word +that, if we will write out our parole of the yard, he will sign it. +And old ---- not being on hand to botch the thing, I cooked up a +document, got it signed and sent down, to which the illustrious chief +then affixed his sign-manual, and we are henceforward free of yard and +grounds. Bully for that! [I remember now, I was the first to test the +document's efficacy, for we could hardly believe that it would really +pass us out. The guard stopped me, of course, called the corporal, and +finally decided that it was a genuine thing; and I hobbled painfully +down four steep flights and out,--looked up and saw the rest all +crowding to the window and waving hands and hats to see me actually +emerge, like a rat, from the trap which had held us through long weary +months.] I find that the art of crutch progression is quite a science, +and has its outside edges and its backward rolls, etc., which are not +to be learned without much practice and balancing. Up and down stairs +with ease, confidence, and grace, is somewhat of an attainment. + +_Thursday, 9th._--Struggled out to pond and washed; first decent wash +for three months. Had to steal a piece of black soap, and push out a +board over the mud,--hard work for a cripple. Stopped in at +carpenter's shop and saw Dr. Hay slice an arm off, _secundum artem_. + +_October 13._--Suffering with the first cold snap. The sergeant's +wound keeps every window open, and we might as well or better be _sub +Jove frigido_. Rumors of small-pox pervade the air. + +_Tuesday, 14th._--An alarm of small-pox yesterday afternoon in our +ward turned out false, I believe, but has scared everybody most out of +their wits. It seems, however, there were cases elsewhere; for, +endeavoring to visit the pond again, I was stopped by a guard, and +told that some tents just pitched by the shore contained the small-pox +patients, whom no one was allowed to approach within one hundred +yards. After they had recovered or died, the tents were set on fire as +they stood. + +_Wednesday, 15th._--To-day, I followed Dr. Hay's trail all day, bent +on a personal interview, until I earthed him at last in his office; +and the result is that we are off for Richmond to-morrow. [I had seen +the Richmond paper with the official list of Yankees paroled from the +Libby, among whom were several whom I knew to be Pope's officers; and +I determined not to rot another day, as food for Confederate vermin, +without claiming my rights as prisoner of war. So when, after repeated +rebuffs, my obstinacy prevailed and Hay gave orders to let me in, he +wasn't in a good humor. But I told him, I forget in what terms, that I +had discovered that I was no longer a hostage liable to be hanged in +retaliation for the execution of guerrillas, but a prisoner of war, +with all that that implied, and that, in behalf of all who were able +to travel, I demanded to be sent to the Libby. He said we were better +off where we were. I agreed, but told him I would suffer anything to +know that my name was on the list to be paroled when my turn came, and +that it was my right to have it there. Finally he said, "Will you be +ready to start before light to-morrow?" "Let me go back for my +blanket," said I, "and I'll start now." "Well," said he, "go back, and +tell all who the ward surgeon says are able, to be ready by half-past +four." I saluted, faced about, and was in the doorway when he stopped +me and, seeming to recover his temper, asked me and any of my friends +who could to come over to his office after supper and take a farewell +drink.] In the evening [the journal resumes], we attended in Dr. Hay's +office, to take a social drink. Hay talked fire and fury, "secesh" +running up as the whiskey ran down. A lawyer and colonel joined in, +and the telegram of the Governor of North Carolina to the Governor of +South Carolina was so often quoted that I was fain to back down from +what was fast becoming a three-minute crowd. We had an amputation to +diversify the spree,--soldier brought in, who I suspect had applied +for a discharge by shooting off two fingers of his right hand. They +were badly mangled, so Hay put him down on the floor and took them off +again, short metre, not without cutting his own in the operation, he +was so tight. I came away then, fearing that my crutches might not be +as whiskey-proof as erst was wooden leg of Sawin, and the descent of +the front steps requiring that eye, hand, and foot (literally, foot) +should keep true time. There wasn't much sleep in No. 7 that night, +and early next morning we were off, leaving George and the skeleton +sergeant, who is fast going down to the dead, though he doesn't know +it. We had an awful trip, being detained six hours by a smash-up of +the night before, killing seven and wounding seventy-five,--a mere +skirmish. Shortly before we arrived, at about 1 A.M., an officer came +through the car, caught sight of my shoulder-straps, stopped: "You are +a captain?" "Yes." "Have you got any federal greenbacks?" "Yes, a +few." "Well, I want some to pay a debt I owe at the North, and I'll +give you Confederate money for them. You'll want some, for you'll +probably lie for months in the Libby, and you'll die if you don't send +out and buy good food." Said I, "Thank you, I guess I'll hold on to my +greenbacks till I get there." + +The fact that nearly all the hospital officials had made the same +request on various pretexts was significant enough to me. At 2 A.M., +we arrived, where I now write, in the Libby prison, being received +with the once familiar cry of "Corporal of the Guard, Post No. 1." The +corporal came and let us in. The officer, cross and sleepy (the +infernal traitor, Peacock, by the way), sent us to the hospital +department, up three flights,--immense room in large tobacco +warehouse, lighted with a single dip, which only made darkness +visible. A ragged young nurse, with his hair on end, welcomed us to +the scene of despair. We were put on cots of sacking, with nothing +under or over us, and shivered ourselves into oblivion. The next +morning, the familiar notes of reveille on the fife, accompanied by +the bass and snare-drum of the side-show, which Andrews used to detest +so, brought us again to consciousness. I was about to put my head out +of the window, but was forcibly informed that I'd better not, unless I +wanted it shot off. This day, a party went off which we had hoped to +join, but were disappointed; and a squad of sixty odd came in from +Macon, Georgia. I thought that I had seen filth, squalor, and +wretchedness before, but I never even conceived the meaning of the +words; and what these men had been through would have been incredible, +except to those who saw them. They said the Libby was heaven, in +comparison to what they had come from. Saw a dress-parade of the +regiment on duty here, which would have shamed the cadets for +measliness of turnout. + +_Saturday._--In hell, _alias_ the Libby prison. + +_Sunday._--This morning before breakfast, little spitfire clerk came +up to take our paroles. I could have embraced the little devil, but I +didn't, only waited till my name was called, when I toed the mark +_instanter_, and quite won his heart with the promptitude with which I +recited my descriptive list, insomuch that he asked me to take a +letter to his sweetheart. After this, the wretched crew were packed +into coaches and wagons, under command of the black-hearted traitor +Captain Peacock, and we left Libby, the sergeant and I being in with +two half-dead wretches of the Macon crowd, swarming with vermin. + +But after a miserable jolt of fifteen miles, our nigger driver pointed +out the boat lying in a distant bend. "And dar de flag," said he with +a grin, "ober de starn," indicating a small red streak, which was "the +star-spangled banner, Oh, long may it wa-a-ve," etc. I confess to +embracing the staff when I got aboard, and realized that Jeff. Davis +himself couldn't take me away without a fight. But before they let us +go aboard there was a long and to us incomprehensible delay of nearly +two hours, during which we lay on the grass just above the landing and +watched the boat, the flag, and the blue uniforms, with longing eyes. +[We learned afterward that Captain Peacock, while strutting up and +down the wharf in full Confederate uniform, had been recognized by one +of the deck hands who had belonged to his former New York regiment. +The said deck hand pointed him out to a friend, with the remark, +"Look at his forehead, and you'll see traitor written there." This +being overheard by Mr. Peacock, he demanded an apology for the insult, +swearing that, if refused, he would march us all back to the Libby. +How they pacified him I don't know, but at the end of two hours he had +cooled off enough to let us go aboard. I was the first who received +permission to go, whereat I bounced on to my one foot and two +crutches, picked up my blanket, and charged down the hill. The rebel +sentry, who hadn't yet got his orders to pass us, charged bayonets on +me for an instant, but, on a sign from Peacock, shouldered arms again; +and the next moment I was embracing the flag-staff, as afore +mentioned. The Sanitary Commission received us with open arms and some +delicious milk-punch, and in a few minutes we were under full steam +out of rebeldom, Sergeant Holloway and I leaning on the guards, +watching the foam fly past, and singing, _sotto voce_,--"We're going +home, we're going home, we're going home to die no more!" + +We were two days on board the flag-of-truce boat. The next cot to mine +was occupied by a man of a Massachusetts regiment, taken at the first +Bull Run. He was almost a skeleton, and the worst case of chills and +fever I ever saw. The second day being a shake day, he couldn't eat +his rations, and offered them to me. He said he thought he was dying. +"But," said he, "I don't complain now I've got out of hell, and I +shall live long enough to get back into God's country and die there, +which is all I've been praying for for months."] + +_Monday._--Aboard the "Commodore," off Fortress Monroe, waiting for +orders, which have just come, for Washington. And here we are at +Washington, waiting orders again. When I find myself once more a free +man in Willard's Hotel, I shall turn down the leaf of my experiences +as prisoner of war to the rebels. + +Now for philosophy. Captain gone ashore, and fearful rumors pervade +the boat about Annapolis, New York, etc. Well, it can be but a day or +two, and we are out of rebeldom. I've kept well so-- ["Far" would have +been the next word, but marching orders intervened, and the next +entry, in big letters at the bottom of the page, reads] A FREE MAN AT +WILLARD'S! + +And the first act of the free man aforesaid was to purchase some +underclothes at the furnishing store, which luckily had not closed for +the night, and to proceed therewith to the bath-room, where hot water +and soap speedily restored that self-respect which is so difficult to +retain after one is conscious of not being the only inhabitant of +one's garments. The next day, I drew my pay and replaced my ragged +blouse, bullet-pierced trowsers, and torn Confederate cap (given me on +the field to replace my broad-brimmed felt, which a Georgia gentleman +fancied), by the jauntiest uniform clothes I could find, after which I +sallied out on the avenue; and the first man I met was the captain of +the "Commodore," who at first insisted that I was mistaken, as he had +never seen me before in his life; and only my crutches and wounded +foot at last convinced him that I was the same man who had talked to +him about Harry Russell, the day before. The next day, it was just the +other way. Smart young officer rushes up: "Hallo, Captain Quincy! +thought it must be you. How are you?" "Well," said I, "I'm glad you +thought it was I; but whether it's you or not I'm sure I don't know, +for I should say I had never set eyes on you before." "What, you don't +know the man you identified yesterday?" And it turned out to be a +lieutenant of a Western regiment, and fellow-prisoner, all of whose +clothing in the Libby consisted of shirt, trowsers, and army blanket +pinned over his shoulders. Arriving in Washington, without a cent, I +had identified him at the pay department, while still in his blanket, +from which chrysalis the all-potent greenback had evoked as shiny a +blue-and-brass butterfly as any on the avenue. + +This concludes my prison history. I was never again taken, though +coming pretty near it once or twice in Louisiana, where, as an officer +of colored troops, my experiences might have been much more severe +than those above recounted. If the story has interested former +comrades or assisted in drawing closer the link which binds together +the survivors of the old regiment, I can only rejoice that the +committee asked me to relate it to you. + + + + +Transcriber's Note + +As much of this work is a direct extract from a diary, spelling, +grammar and omission of words are preserved as printed. + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of History of the Second Massachusetts +Regiment of Infantry: A prisoner's diary, by Samuel M. Quincy + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 2ND MASS. REG. 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