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diff --git a/40477-8.txt b/40477-8.txt deleted file mode 100644 index 29f67b4..0000000 --- a/40477-8.txt +++ /dev/null @@ -1,4683 +0,0 @@ -The Project Gutenberg EBook of With Fire and Sword, by Samuel H. M. Byers - -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: With Fire and Sword - -Author: Samuel H. M. Byers - -Release Date: August 11, 2012 [EBook #40477] - -Language: English - -Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 - -*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK WITH FIRE AND SWORD *** - - - - -Produced by Greg Bergquist, Cathy Maxam, and the Online -Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This -file was produced from images generously made available -by The Internet Archive/American Libraries.) - - - - - - - - - -WITH FIRE AND SWORD - - - - -[Illustration] - - - - -[Illustration: W. T. Sherman] - -[Illustration: S. H. M. Byers.] - - - - - With Fire and Sword - - BY - MAJOR S. H. M. BYERS - - OF GENERAL SHERMAN'S STAFF - - Author of "Sherman's March to the Sea," "Iowa - in War Times," "Twenty Years in - Europe," and of other books - - - [Illustration] - - - NEW YORK - THE NEALE PUBLISHING COMPANY - 1911 - - - - -Copyright, 1911, by - -THE NEALE PUBLISHING COMPANY - - - - -CONTENTS - - - PAGE - - -CHAPTER I 11 - - My enlistment in the Union Army--The "Bushwhackers" of Missouri--The - Quantrells and the James Brothers--Cutting a man's head off--My - first adventure in the war--Capturing a guerrilla. - - -CHAPTER II 22 - - We leave Missouri and go South--The prisoners of Donelson--The taking - of New Madrid--"Kindly bury this unfortunate officer"--Quaker guns - at Shiloh--The killing of the colonel. - - -CHAPTER III 29 - - Iuka, the fiercest battle of the war, 217 men out of 482 of my - regiment are shot--The awful rebel charge at Corinth--Moonlight on - the battlefield--Bushels of arms and legs--Tombstones for - fireplaces--One of Grant's mistakes. - - -CHAPTER IV 40 - - An unlucky campaign led by General Grant--Holly Springs burned up--The - first foragers--Some modern Falstaffs--Counting dead men. - - -CHAPTER V 49 - - The laughable campaign of the war--An army floating among the tree - tops of the Yazoo Pass. - - -CHAPTER VI 54 - - Grant's new plan at Vicksburg--Running the Vicksburg batteries--An - hour and a half of horror--The batteries are passed--The most - important event in the war. - - -CHAPTER VII 63 - - Crossing the Mississippi on gunboats and steamers--Battle of Port - Gibson--How General Grant looked to a private soldier--A boy from - Mississippi--Fights at Raymond--Battle of Jackson in a - thunderstorm--Digging his brothers' grave--Grant in battle--Saving a - flag--How men feel in battle--An awful spectacle--The critical - moment of General Grant's life--A battlefield letter from him to - Sherman. - - -CHAPTER VIII 87 - - Assaults on the walls of Vicksburg--Logan in battle--An army mule--A - promotion under the guns of Vicksburg--A storm of iron hail at - Vicksburg--The Vicksburg clock--The town surrenders--The glad - news--Reading my first order to the regiment--My regiment put on - guard in the captured city--Eight days' furlough in four years of - war. - - -CHAPTER IX 102 - - Sherman's army floats across the Tennessee River at - midnight--Washington at the Delaware nothing compared to this--We - assault Missionary Ridge--An awful battle--My capture. - - -CHAPTER X 111 - - In Libby Prison--Life there--"Belle Isle"--All prisons bad--The great - escape--"Maryland, My Maryland." - - -CHAPTER XI 119 - - Escaping from Macon--An adventure in Atlanta--In the disguise of a - Confederate soldier--My wanderings inside the Confederate army and - what I experienced there--I am captured as a spy--How I got out of - it all. - - -CHAPTER XII 137 - - Under fire of our own guns at Charleston--Trying to capture a railway - train--The secret band--Betrayed--The desolation of Charleston. - - -CHAPTER XIII 144 - - Living in a grave--An adventure in the woods of South Carolina--Life - in the asylum yard at the capital of South Carolina--The song of - "Sherman's March to the Sea"--How it came to be written--Final - escape--The burning up of South Carolina's capitol. - - -CHAPTER XIV 174 - - The army in the Carolinas--General Sherman sends for me--Gives me a - place on his staff--Experiences at army headquarters--Sherman's life - on the march--Music at headquarters--Logan's violin--The General's - false friend--The army wades, swims, and fights through the - Carolinas--I am sent as despatch bearer to General Grant--A strange - ride down the Cape Fear River in the night--General Terry--Learn - that my song "The March to the Sea" is sung through the North, and - has given the campaign its name--I bring the first news of Sherman's - success to the North--An interview with General Grant. - - -CHAPTER XV 198 - - Washington City in the last three days of the war--Look, the - President!--_The last man of the regiment._ - - - - -PREFACE - -In war some persons seek adventures; others have them in spite of -themselves. It happened that the writer of this book belonged to a -regiment that seemed to be always in the midst of great experiences. It -was, in fact, one of the few regiments that absolutely fought themselves -out of existence. It was mustered in a thousand strong; it lost seven -hundred and seventy-seven men by death, wounds, and disease. The -fragment that was left over was transferred to a cavalry command. When -the writer finally escaped from prison, after many months of confinement -and many thrilling adventures both in prison and in the army of the -enemy, he was mustered out as a "supernumerary officer." His command had -ceased to exist. He was literally the _last man of the regiment_. Of the -eighty of his regiment who had been taken to prison with him all but -sixteen were dead. Of the nine captured from his own company all were -dead but one. - -While with his command he had served as a private soldier, as sergeant, -and as adjutant. On escaping from prison he was for a time on General -Sherman's staff and was selected to run down the Cape Fear River and -carry the great news of Sherman's successes to the people of the North. - -He kept a diary every day in the four years of war and adventure. The -substance of the facts related here is from its pages; occasionally they -are copied just as they are there set down. The book is not a history of -great army movements, it is simply a true tale of the thrilling -experiences of a subordinate soldier in the midst of great events. - - - - -With Fire and Sword - - - - -CHAPTER I - - My enlistment in the Union Army--The "Bushwhackers" of Missouri--The - Quantrells and the James Brothers--Cutting a man's head off--My - first adventure in the war--Capturing a guerrilla. - - -I am writing down these sketches of adventures of mine from a daily -journal or diary kept by me throughout the four years of the Civil War. -Its pages are crumpled and old and yellow, but I can read them still. - -Fate so arranged it that I was the very first one to enlist in my -regiment, and it all came about through a confusion of names. A -patriotic mass-meeting was held in the court-house of the village where -I lived. Everybody was there, and everybody was excited, for the war -tocsin was sounding all over the country. A new regiment had been -ordered by the governor, and no town was so quick in responding to the -call as the village of Newton. We would be the very first. Drums were -beating at the mass-meeting, fifes screaming, people shouting. There was -a little pause in the patriotic noise, and then someone called out, -"Myers to the platform!" "Myers! Myers! Myers!" echoed a hundred other -voices. Mr. Myers never stirred, as he was no public speaker. I sat -beside him near the aisle. Again the voices shouted "Myers! Myers!" -Myers turned to me, laughed, and said, "They are calling you, Byers," -and fairly pushed me out into the aisle. A handful of the audience -seeing Myers would not respond, did then call my own name, and both -names were cried together. Some of the audience becoming confused called -loudly for me. "Go on," said Myers, half-rising and pushing me toward -the platform. - -I was young,--just twenty-two,--ambitious, had just been admitted to the -bar, and now was all on fire with the newly awakened patriotism. I went -up to the platform and stood by the big drum. The American flag, the -flag that had been fired on by the South, was hanging above my head. In -a few minutes I was full of the mental champagne that comes from a -cheering multitude. I was burning with excitement, with patriotism, -enthusiasm, pride, and my enthusiasm lent power to the words I uttered. -I don't know why nor how, but I was moving my audience. The war was not -begun to put down slavery, but what in the beginning had been an -incident I felt in the end would become a cause. - -The year before I had been for many months on a plantation in -Mississippi, and there with my own eyes had seen the horrors of slavery. -I had seen human beings flogged; men and women bleeding from an -overseer's lash. Now in my excitement I pictured it all. I recalled -everything. "And the war, they tell us," I cried, "is to perpetuate this -curse!" In ten minutes after my stormy words one hundred youths and men, -myself the first, had stepped up to the paper lying on the big drum and -had put down our names for the war. - -We all mustered on the village green. Alas, not half of them were ever -to see that village green again! No foreboding came to me, the -enthusiastic youth about to be a soldier, of the "dangers by flood and -field," the adventures, the thrilling scenes, the battles, the prisons, -the escapes, that were awaiting me. - -Now we were all enthusiasm to be taken quickly to the front, to the -"seat of war." We could bide no delay. Once our men were on the very -point of mobbing and "egging" our great, good Governor Kirkwood, because -for a moment he thought he would be compelled to place us in a later -regiment. However, we were immediately started in wagons for the nearest -railroad, fifty miles away. - -At the town of Burlington, on the 15th of July, 1861, we were mustered -into the service as Company B of the Fifth Iowa Infantry. Our colonel, -W. H. Worthington, was a military martinet from some soldier school in -Kentucky. His sympathies were with his native South. Why he was leading -a Northern regiment was a constant mystery to his men. - -The regiment spent scant time in Burlington, for in a little while we -were whisked down the Mississippi River in a steamer to St. Louis, and -soon joined the army of Frémont, organizing at Jefferson City to march -against General Price, who was flying toward Springfield with the booty -he had gained in his capture of Mulligan and his men at Boonville. Now -all began to look like war. Missouri was neither North nor South; she -was simply hell, for her people were cutting one another's throats, and -neighboring farmers killed each other and burned each other's homes. The -loyal feared to shut their eyes in sleep; the disloyal did not know if a -roof would be above their heads in the morning. Brothers of the same -family were in opposing armies, and the State was overrun by Southern -guerrillas and murderers. The Quantrells, the James Brothers, and other -irregular and roaming bands of villains rode everywhere, waylaying, -bushwhacking, and murdering. - -We followed General Price's army to the Ozark Mountains, marching day -and night--the nights made hideous by the burning of homes on the track -of both the armies, while unburied corpses lay at the roadside. We -marched half the nights and all the days and just as we got close enough -to fight, the Washington politicians caused Frémont to be removed from -his command. Frémont had been ahead of his time. He had freed some -slaves, and the dough-faced politicians were not yet ready for action of -that character. - -The campaign had been to no purpose. Some of our regiment, indignant at -the removal of their general, had to be guarded to prevent mutiny and -disorder. Now we turned about and made the long march back to the -Missouri River. Half that cold winter was spent near Syracuse, in -guarding the Pacific Railway. We lived in wedge tents, and spite of the -cold and snow and storm, our squads by turn tramped for miles up and -down the railroad in the darkness every night. What terrible tales, too, -we had in our little tents that winter, of the deeds of Quantrell's men. -It did not seem possible that the South could set loose a lot of -murderers to hang on the skirts of our army, to "bushwhack" an honorable -foe, burn villages, destroy farms, and drive whole counties into -conditions as frightful as war was in the Middle Ages. Only savage -Indians fought that way. Yet Quantrell's band of murderers was said to -be on the payroll of the Confederate States. Here and there, however, -his guerrilla outlaws met with awful punishment, and horrible incidents -became the order of the day and night. - -I recall now how a prize was once offered by one of our commanders for -the head of a certain man among those desperate murderers, a desperado -with a band of men that knew no mercy. His troop of riders had -ambuscaded almost scores of our soldiers, and innocent farmers who did -not happen to like his ways were strung up to trees as unceremoniously -as one would drown a kitten. The offered prize of a thousand dollars -stimulated certain of our men in taking chances with this beast of the -Confederacy, and a corporal of our cavalry learned of the desperado's -occasional visits at night to his home, only a dozen miles away from -where we were camped. Several nights he secretly watched from a thicket -near the cabin for the bandit's return. Once in the darkness he heard a -horse's hoofs, and then a man dismounted and entered at the door. The -evening was chilly, and a bright fire in the open fireplace of the cabin -shone out as the man entered. - -The corporal, who had disguised himself in an old gray overcoat, knocked -for entrance, and pretended to be a sick Confederate going on a furlough -to his home not far away. He was cautiously admitted and given a seat by -the open fire. He had no arms, and to the bandit and his wife his story -of sickness and a furlough seemed probable enough. The two men and the -one woman sat in front of the fireplace talking for an hour. The -corporal, with the guerrilla sitting within a few feet of him, thought -of the prize, and of his comrades murdered by this man. But what could -he do? Suddenly the thought came, "I must kill or be killed." Outside -there was only darkness and silence; inside the cabin, the low voices of -these three people and the flickering fire. - -The corporal glanced about him. There was no gun to be seen that he -could seize. The guerrilla's big revolver hung at his belt. While -sitting thus, a bit of burning wood rolled out onto the hearth. The -guerrilla stooped over to put it in its place. Instantly the corporal -saw his chance and, springing for the iron poker at the fireside, dealt -the guerrilla a blow on the head that stretched him dead on the cabin -floor. In an instant his big jackknife was out of his pocket and in the -presence of the screaming wife the brute severed the man's head from his -body. Then he left the cabin, mounted his horse in the thicket, and in -the darkness carried his ghostly trophy into camp. It is a horrible ride -to think of, that dozen miles, with the bleeding head of a murdered man -on the saddle bow. - -So the awful things went on all that winter in Missouri. As for myself, -I was tramping about as a corporal, helping in a small way to keep the -great railroad free from marauders and in possession of the Union army. - -I don't know how it happened, but one morning our colonel, who had -always treated me with extreme gruffness, though he well knew I did my -duties with patriotic zeal, sent for me to come to his tent. I was a -little alarmed, not knowing what was about to happen to me. The colonel -called me by name as I entered, saluting him cap in hand, and for once -he actually smiled. - -"Corporal," he said dryly, as if suddenly regretting his smile, "I have -noticed that you always did the duty assigned you with promptness. I -need a quartermaster sergeant. You are the man." - -I was almost paralyzed with astonishment and pleasure. I stood stock -still, without a word of gratitude. At last, recovering myself, I -explained that I had enlisted expecting to fight, and not to fill some -easy position with the trains. - -"If I could only be allowed to find a substitute," I ventured to say, -"in case of a fight, so I might share the danger with my comrades, I -would like the promotion." - -Again the colonel tried to smile. "You probably will change your mind; -you will find excitement enough," he remarked, dismissing me. - -I was hardly installed in my new post when to my surprise I was ordered -by the colonel to take a good horse and ride twelve miles across the -lone prairies and carry a message to a command at the village of Tipton. -Instantly my mind was excited with the hopes of an adventure. I don't -know, even now, just why I was selected for the venturesome undertaking. -I knew there was scarcely a road and not a house in the whole distance. -I knew, too, the whole country was full of murderous guerrillas. But -nevertheless I was full of elation. This was the kind of a thing I had -hoped for when I enlisted. - -Light flakes of snow were falling when, with exultant spirits, I started -from the camp. The trip outward proved uneventful, for nothing happened -to me on my way. As I was returning, however, at a point halfway across -the prairie I was surprised to see a man in gray, probably a guerrilla, -ride out of a long slough or hollow to my left and gallop into the road -directly ahead of me. He was in complete gray uniform, wore a saber, and -had revolvers at his saddle bow. The man glanced back at me, and I saw -him reaching for his pistols. "Here comes my first fight in the war," I -thought instantly, "out here alone on the prairie." Save my one -half-loaded revolver, strapped to my waist, I was unarmed. The stranger, -without firing, galloped faster. I, too, galloped faster, the distance -between us remaining about the same. Each of us now had a pistol in his -hand, but it looked as if each were afraid to commence the duel. If the -stranger checked his horse to give him breath, I checked mine. If he -galloped again, I, too, put spurs to my animal. Imagining that other -guerrillas must be lurking quite near, I was not over-anxious to bring -on the engagement, and I suppose the armed man felt much the same way, -for he could not have thought that I was in such a place absolutely -alone. So neither fired. We just looked at each other and galloped. -Finally we approached a little wood, and in a twinkling he turned into a -path and was out of sight. I did not care to follow him to his -hiding-place just then, and quickly galloped to our camp a few miles -off. - -Before midnight that night I, with a dozen of my regiment, surrounded -the little wood and a cabin secreted in its center. Approaching, we -looked into the windows, and, sure enough, there, roasting his feet in -front of an open fire, sat my rider of the day. When three of us -suddenly entered the house and demanded his surrender he sprang for a -rifle that stood like a poker by the fireside, aimed it at me, and -shouted "Never! Surrender yourself." A bayonet that instant against his -breast brought him to terms, however. There followed a little farewell -scene between him and his wife, who poured bottles of wrath on the heads -of the "bluecoats," and our captive--my captive--was hurried to the -guardhouse at the camp. It had been a perfectly bloodless encounter, but -next morning it turned out that I had by chance captured one of the most -dangerous guerrillas in Missouri. - - - - -CHAPTER II - - We leave Missouri and go South--The prisoners of Donelson--The taking - of New Madrid--"Kindly bury this unfortunate officer"--Quaker guns - at Shiloh--The killing of the colonel. - - -It was a trifling incident, this capture, compared with the dreadful -things I have referred to as going on in Missouri that memorable first -year of the Civil War. A great volume would not contain the record of -them all. The first dead men I saw while in the army were eight Missouri -farmers murdered by guerrillas and left lying in the hot sun and dust at -the roadside. The sight moved me as no great battle ever did afterward. - -One half of the male population of Missouri was trying to kill the other -half. They were not opponents from different far-off sections fighting, -but near neighbors, and nothing seemed too awful or too cruel for them -to do. How I pitied the women and children who lived in the State in -those awful days! - -General Sherman's designation of war as "hell" found more confirmation -in the dreadful raids, outrages, and murders by Quantrell's guerrillas -in Missouri than in the bloodiest battles of the four years' conflict. - -Now for months my regiment, with others, had chased up and down, and all -over that unhappy old State of Missouri, trying to capture and punish -these bands of murderers. On the old steamboat _War Eagle_, too, we -paddled for weeks along the "Muddy Missouri" River, landing every here -and there to have a little brush with guerrillas who had fired on our -boat from the banks or from secret recesses in the woods. It was rare -that we could catch them or have a real fight. Their kind of war meant -ambuscades and murder. - -At last an end came to this dreadful guerrilla-chasing business in -Missouri so far as we were concerned, anyway. We were to stop running -after Price's ubiquitous army too. We were no longer to be the victims -of ambuscades and night riding murderers. - -The glad news came to my regiment that we were to be transferred to the -South, where the real war was. - -One morning we left the cold and snow, where we had lived and shivered -in thin tents all the winter, left the thankless duty of patrolling -railroads in the storm at midnight, and marched in the direction of St. -Louis. A long, cold, miserable march it was too, hurrying in the daytime -and freezing in our bivouacs in the snow and woods at night. Many a man -we left to sicken and die at some farmhouse by the roadside. Our -destination was New Madrid, where we were to be a part of Pope's army in -the siege and capture of that town. - -As we were about to embark on boats at St. Louis we beheld in the snow -and storm many steamers anchored out in the pitiless waters of the -Mississippi River. These vessels were loaded with shivering thousands in -gray and brown uniforms, the prisoners whom General Grant had captured -at the battle of Fort Donelson. There were twelve or fifteen thousand of -them. Seeing this host of prisoners made us feel that at last the Union -army had a general, although we had scarcely heard of U. S. Grant -before. This army of prisoners taken in battle was his introduction to -the world. - -Shortly we were before New Madrid, and the siege conducted by General -Pope commenced. The town was defended by strong forts and many cannon, -but its speedy capture by us helped to open up the Mississippi River. It -was a new experience to us, to have cannonballs come rolling right into -our camp occasionally. Yet few men were injured by them. We were in more -danger when a fool officer one day took our brigade of infantry down -through a cornfield to assault a gunboat that lay in a creek close by. - -The Rebel commander had expected us, and had his grape shot and his hot -water hose, and such things all ready for us. We went out of that -cornfield faster than we went in. This was real war, the thing my -regiment had been so longing for, in place of chasing murderers and -guerrillas in Missouri. - -We entered New Madrid one morning before daylight. The enemy had left in -awful haste. I recall finding a dead Rebel officer, lying on a table in -his tent, in full uniform. He had been killed by one of our shells. A -candle burned beside him, and his cold hands closed on a pencil note -that said, "Kindly bury this unfortunate officer." His breakfast waited -on a table in the tent, showing how unexpected was his taking off. - -Our victory was a great one for the nation, and it put two stars on the -shoulder straps of General Pope. It made him, too, commander of the -Eastern army. - -A comrade in Company A of my regiment had been wounded a few days before -and had died in the enemy's hands. I now found his grave. At its head -stood a board with this curious inscription: "This man says he was a -private in the Fifth Iowa Regiment. He was killed while trying to attend -to other people's business." - -Our command was now hurried to the Shiloh battlefield, of course too -late to be of any use. But we took part in the long, wonderful, and -ridiculous siege of Corinth, under Halleck, when our great army was held -back by red tape, martinets, and the fear of a lot of wooden guns that -sat on top of the enemy's breastworks, while that enemy, with all his -men, and with all his guns, and bag and baggage, was escaping to the -south. Our deeds were no credit to anybody, though here and there we had -a little fight. - -One incident of great importance, however, happened to my regiment here. -It was the death of our colonel. One night when he was going the rounds -of the picket lines out in the woods he was shot dead by one of our own -men. The sentinel who did the killing declared that Rebels had been -slipping up to his post all night, and when he would hail with "Who goes -there?" they would fire at him and run into the darkness. He resolved to -stand behind a tree the next time and fire without hailing. By some -accident Colonel Worthington and his adjutant were approaching this -sentinel from the direction of the enemy. Suddenly the sentinel held his -gun around the tree and fired. The bullet struck the colonel in the -forehead, killing him instantly. As he fell from his horse the adjutant -sprang to the ground and cried, "Who shot the officer of the day?" "I -fired," exclaimed the sentinel, and he then told of his experiences of -the night. He was arrested, tried, and acquitted. Yet there were many -among us who believed that the colonel had been intentionally murdered. -He was one of the most competent colonels in the army, but among his -soldiers he was fearfully unpopular. He was, however, a splendid -disciplinarian, but this was something the volunteers did not want. In -their minds the colonel had been only a petty tyrant, and not even -wholly loyal. With a different disposition he certainly would have been -a distinguished soldier. He was one of the most military-looking men in -the whole army, but friends he had none. More than once his life had -been threatened by soldiers who regarded themselves as having been -treated badly by him. - -His body was brought into camp the next morning and lay in his tent in -state. He was given a military funeral, and the horse that was bearing -him when he was killed was led behind his coffin. - -After his death numbers of the men of the regiment were indignant, when -they found among his papers warrants and commissions intended by the -governor for them, commissions that had never been delivered. Their -promotions had never come about. Now they knew why. - -Worthington was succeeded by Colonel C. L. Matthies, one of the -bravest, best, and most loved commanders of our army. Later Matthies was -made a general, and at the close of the war died of wounds received in -battle. - -Although I was quartermaster sergeant of the regiment, I was always -careful that this should not keep me away from the command when enduring -hard marches or when engagements were coming on. When in camp I kept my -rifle in one of the ammunition wagons (of several of which I had -charge), but if the alarm sounded my rifle was on my shoulder and I was -the private soldier in the ranks of the company. I deserved no special -credit for this. I was only doing my duty. We had muzzle-loading Whitney -rifles and bayonets. The equipment and rations we carried in weight -would have been a respectable load for a mule. - - - - -CHAPTER III - - Iuka, the fiercest battle of the war, 217 men out of 482 of my - regiment are shot--The awful Rebel charge at Corinth--Moonlight on - the battlefield--Bushels of arms and legs--Tombstones for - fireplaces--One of Grant's mistakes. - - -All that summer, after taking Corinth, we chased up and down the State -of Mississippi, trying to get fair battle with the Rebel army. At last -the chance came, and for my regiment it was an awful one--the battle of -Iuka. - -The battle of Iuka took place on the 19th of September, 1862. It was -fought by a handful of the troops of General Rosecrans against half the -army of General Price. Grant was only a few miles away, but although -commander-in-chief, he knew nothing of the hardest-fought battle of the -Civil War until it was over. - -One morning before daylight while camped in the woods near Jacinto half -expecting to be attacked, we heard that Price's army was in Iuka, some -eighteen miles away, and that if we would hurry there and attack from -one side, General Grant, with Ord's troops, would attack from another -side. How eagerly the regiment made the forward march on that beautiful -autumn day! The woods were in their fairest foliage, and it seemed too -lovely a day for war and bloodshed. The bugles played occasionally as -the men hurried along, but not a shot was fired. No noise like war fell -on the soldiers' ears as they tramped over the beautiful country road -toward the Tennessee River. They had time for reflection as they -marched, and they knew now they were going to battle. There had been no -time for letters or farewells, and each thought the other one, not -himself, most likely to fall in the coming engagement. - -There were only 482 of my little regiment now marching there, hoping, -almost praying, the enemy might only wait. How little anyone dreamed -that before the sun set 217 of that little command would be stretched -dead or dying among the autumn leaves! - -It was just two o'clock when the regiment ran on to the army of the -enemy, lying in line right across the road close to Iuka. My own -regiment was in the advance. Instantly it, too, was in line of battle -across that road, and in a few minutes absolutely the fiercest little -conflict of the war began. Our brigade was fearfully outnumbered. -Rosecrans, had ten thousand soldiers within five miles of the -battlefield, yet let three or four small regiments and a battery do all -the fighting. Ten miles away, in another direction, lay General Grant -and General Ord, with many other thousands, as silent as if paralyzed. -An unlucky wind blew, they said, and the sound of our cannon, that was -to have been the signal for them to attack also, was unheard by them. - -Charge after charge was made upon our little line, and the Eleventh Ohio -Battery, which the regiment was protecting, was taken and retaken three -times. There were no breastworks, yet that one little brigade of -Hamilton's division stood there in the open and repulsed assault after -assault. It was the Iowa, the Missouri, and the Ohio boys against the -boys of Alabama and Mississippi, and the grass and leaves were covered -with the bodies in blue and gray. Not Balaklava, nor the Alma, saw such -fighting. It was a duel to the death. For hours the blue and the gray -stood within forty yards of each other and poured in sheets of musketry. -Every horse of the battery at the left of my regiment was killed, and -every gunner but one or two was shot and lying among the debris. No -battery in the whole four years' war lost so many men in so short a -time. Antietam, Gettysburg, the Wilderness, could show nothing like it. -Only the setting sun put an end to what was part of the time a hand to -hand conflict. One daring Rebel was shot down and bayoneted clear -behind the line of Company B, where he had broken through to seize the -flag of my regiment. - -That night the enemy slipped away, leaving hundreds and hundreds of his -dead and wounded on the field. With a few lanterns our men then went -about and tried to gather up the wounded; the dead were left till -morning. There were 782 Union men lying there in their blood that long -night, 608 of them out of a single small brigade. While mothers and -sisters at home were praying for the safety of these dear ones at the -front, their spirits that night were leaving their torn bodies in the -dark and ascending heavenward. Five of my eight messmates of the day -before were shot. It was not a question who was dead, or wounded, but -who was _not_. Fifteen officers of our little half regiment were dead or -wounded. The enemy lost more than one thousand men in trying to destroy -that single brigade and its Ohio battery. - -The burying party the next morning found nineteen dead Rebels lying -together at one place. At another spot 182 Rebel corpses lay in a row -covered by tarpaulins. The enemy had not had time to bury them. - -It was a principle among our generals that if a command fought well in a -battle or got cut all to pieces, that was the particular command to be -put at the very front in the next hard scrap. And so it was that within -two weeks my regiment was placed outside the breastworks at Corinth, to -wait and receive another awful assault. - -The night before the battle of Corinth the Fifth Iowa Regiment lay -across the Purdy road, in the bright moonlight. I remained awake all -night, talking with a comrade who shared my blanket with me. Poor Jimmy -King! he survived the war only to be murdered later on a plantation in -Mississippi. As we lay there in the wagon road, the awful losses of my -regiment at Iuka kept us thinking there in the moonlight what would -happen on the morrow. When morning came the firing opened, and for all -that day the battle raged fiercely at the left and center left, we -getting the worst of it, too. The Rebels were charging works that they -themselves had built when they held the town during Halleck's siege. -General Haccelman and many other of our officers had fallen. Our own -division, though fighting some, had lost but few men. That evening an -order came for us--Hamilton's Division--to assault the enemy's left -flank at midnight. Before the hour came, however, the move was decided -to be too dangerous, and we changed our position to one nearer the -forts. All the night we lay there under the brightest moonlight I ever -saw. Under the same quiet moonlight, and only six hundred yards away -from us, also lay the victorious Rebel army. They believed Corinth as -good as taken, but they had only captured our outer lines of forts. Yet -it looked very bad for us. Every house in town was full of our wounded -and our dead lay everywhere. - -Once in the night I slipped away from the bivouac and hurried to the old -Tishimingo Hotel, to see a lieutenant of my company, who had been shot -through the breast. Never will I forget the horrible scenes of that -night. The town seemed full of the groans of dying men. In one large -room of the Tishimingo House surgeons worked all the night, cutting off -arms and legs. I could not help my friend. It was too late, for he was -dying. "Go back to the regiment," he said, smiling, "all will be -needed." - -It was a relief to me to get back into the moonlight and out of the -horror, yet out there lay thousands of others in line, only waiting the -daylight to be also mangled and torn like these. The moon shone so -brightly the men in the lines, tired though they were, could scarcely -sleep. There the thousands lay, the blue and the gray, under the same -peaceful moon, worshiping the same God, and each praying for dear ones -North and South they would never again see. God could not answer the -prayers of the men in both armies that night. Had He done so, all would -have been killed on the morrow. At early daybreak I again went to see my -lieutenant. As I entered the building a cannonball from the enemy -crashed through the house and killed four soldiers by the stairway. My -friend, with many others, was being carried out to die elsewhere. - -It was soon full day. In one of the rooms I saw the floors, tables, and -chairs covered with amputated limbs, some white and some broken and -bleeding. There were simply bushels of them, and the floor was running -blood. It was a strange, horrible sight,--but it was war. Yes, it was -"hell." I hastened back to the lines. Nine o'clock came, and now we knew -that the great assault was to be made. We looked for it against our own -division, as we lay in the grass waiting. Suddenly we heard something, -almost like a distant whirlwind. My regiment rose to its feet, fired a -few moments at scattering Rebels in our front, and were amazed to see a -great black column, ten thousand strong, moving like a mighty -storm-cloud out of the woods and attacking the forts and troops at our -left. Instantly we changed direction a little and, without further -firing, witnessed one of the greatest assaults of any war. It was the -storming of Fort Robinett. The cloud of Rebels we had seen divided -itself into three columns. These recklessly advanced on the forts, -climbing over the fallen trees and bending their heads against the awful -storm of grape and canister from all our cannon. A perfect blaze of -close range musketry, too, mowed them down like grass. Even a foe could -feel pity to see brave men so cruelly slaughtered. - -When the assault had failed and the noise of battle was stilled, I -hurried down in front of Robinett. My canteen was full of water and I -pressed it to the lips of many a dying enemy--enemy no longer. Our grape -shot had torn whole companies of men to pieces. They lay in heaps of -dozens, even close up to the works. General Rogers, who had led a -brigade into the hopeless pit, lay on his back, dead, with his flag in -his hand. _He was the fifth one to die carrying that flag._ When I -reached him some cruel one had stripped him of his boots. Another had -taken his fine gold watch. - -In this attack on Corinth the brave Southerners lost 5000 wounded, and -we buried 1423 of their dead on the battlefield. Our own loss had been -2200 dead and wounded. That night I stood guard under an oak tree on the -battlefield among the unburied dead. Many of the wounded, even, had not -yet been gathered up. The moon shone as brightly as the night before, -while thousands who had lain there under its peaceful rays before the -battle were now again sleeping, but never to waken. - -Our regiment now pursued the flying Rebels with great vigor. The -quantities of broken batteries, wagons, tents, knapsacks, guns, etc., -strewn along the roads behind them were immense. At the Hatchie River -the Rebels were momentarily headed off by a division under Hurlbut that -had hurried across from Bolivar. A seven hours' battle was fought at the -bridge, but the Rebels got away in another direction. Possibly the best -friend I had in the world, save my kin, was killed at that bridge. It -was Lieutenant William Dodd, a classmate in school. His head was shot -off by a cannonball just as his regiment was charging at the bridge. - -The pursuit of the enemy was being pushed with vigor when the army was -ordered to desist and return to camp. It was an astounding order, as it -was in our power to destroy the defeated and flying columns. That order -was one of the mistakes of Grant's earlier days as a commander. Indeed, -we of the rank and file had little confidence in Grant in those days. We -reflected that at Shiloh he was miles away from the battlefield at the -critical moment. Sherman had saved the Union army from destruction -there. At Iuka, Grant, though commander, did not even know a battle was -going on. At Corinth he was forty miles away, and now, when we had the -enemy almost within our grasp, he suddenly called us back. Rosecrans -protested. It was in vain. The order, more imperative than before, was -repeated. It required months, and great events, to make Grant the hero -of the army which he afterward became. - -This entry I find in my diary in one of those days: "Our commander of -the district is General U. S. Grant, who took Donelson; but aside from -that one hour's fighting, and a little fighting at Shiloh, the troops -know little about him. Rosecrans is at present the hero of this army, -and, with him leading it, the boys would storm Hades." - -With the mercury at one hundred, the dust in the roads ankle deep, and -the whole atmosphere yellow and full of it, the regiments exhausted by -the pursuit, and yet disgusted at our recall, slowly tramped their way -back to Corinth. Now I visited my wounded companions in the hospital. On -inquiry for certain ones I learned that they were dead and lying out in -the improvised graveyard near by. - -For some reason the dead at Hatchie Bridge were not buried. A week after -the battle my brother rode by there on a cavalry expedition and made the -horrible discovery that hogs were eating up the bodies of our dead -heroes. _That too was war._ - -We now camped on the edge of the town and went on building still other -and greater forts. Many of the soldiers made huts for themselves. It was -getting cooler now, and little fireplaces were built in the huts and -tents. Brick was scarce, and in a few instances the men used the stone -slabs from a graveyard close at hand. It seemed vandalism, but the dead -did not need them and the living did. - - - - -CHAPTER IV - - An unlucky campaign led by General Grant--Holly Springs burned up--The - first foragers--Some modern Falstaffs--Counting dead men. - - -In a month's time, or by November 2, 1862, the army, reorganized, our -division led by Quimby, and Grant in command of the whole force, started -on that very first disastrous campaign for the rear of Vicksburg. Grant -had some thirty thousand soldiers to march with him by way of Grand -Junction and Holly Springs, and another thirty thousand men, under -Sherman, he sent down the Mississippi River to attack Vicksburg from -another direction. We marched in mud and wind and rain till nearly -Christmas, the enemy constantly retreating before us. We made a -tremendous supply station at Holly Springs and left it in charge of a -garrison. There were supplies there for a hundred thousand men, besides -a million dollars' worth of captured cotton. - -Just as we were confident of overtaking and destroying the enemy, we -were stunned by the tidings that a great column of Rebel cavalry had -dashed in behind our army. With torches and firebrands they had burned -Holly Springs to the ground, and had destroyed all the army stores. -There was not a potato or cracker or a pound of bacon left. How I -remember that dark night when Van Dorn's cavalry got behind us in the -country lanes of Mississippi! I had been started back to a hospital in -Holly Springs, for my eyes had been inflamed for days. Just as my little -freight train reached the suburb of what had been the town, the rear -guard of the enemy rode out at the other side. The morning that I -arrived there was nothing there but smoke, and ashes, and ruins, and a -smell of coal oil over all. A million dollars' worth of our army -supplies had been burned up in a night. The pretty town, too, was in -ashes, and Van Dorn's bold cavalry swung their sabers in the air and -rode away laughing. General Grant's father and mother, in the town at -the time on their way to visit their illustrious son with the advance of -the army, were captured, but politely paroled and left among the ruins. - -The loss of the town was a disgrace to the North. There was a fort -there, solidly built of cotton bales and occupied by a colonel and a -thousand troops. The colonel forgot what our ancestors did with cotton -bales at New Orleans, and promptly threw up the sponge. But then Colonel -Murphy was not General Jackson. With the loss of Holly Springs and the -destruction of our base of supplies there was nothing for that whole -army of Grant's to do but to trudge its weary way back to Corinth and -Memphis, through the mud and the wind and the rain. - -The tragical part of that campaign was taking place at the same moment -down by the Yazoo River, right under the guns of Vicksburg. Grant, when -he marched out of Memphis, had sent Sherman and thirty thousand men down -the river in steamboats to attack Vicksburg from one side while he -should hurry along with another thirty thousand men and pound it from -the other side. Sherman and his heroes made the awful assaults at -Chickasaw bayou we read of, never dreaming of the fiasco that had -befallen the main army at Holly Springs. Not one word of the news ever -reached him--and then in swamps and bayous his soldiers waded in water -halfway to their necks and assaulted impregnable hills and breastworks. -Two thousand men were killed or mangled to no purpose. Some of the -heroic fighting of the war was done in that Yazoo slaughter pen, and -then Sherman and his crippled army withdrew in utter failure. - -Vicksburg was safe for awhile. - -My own duty in that unlucky campaign with Grant had been to search the -country in the neighborhood of our camps and bivouacs for additional -supplies. Many a time, with a dozen or twenty men for guards, and a -couple of six-mule teams, we would venture miles from camp to confiscate -bacon, flour, poultry, or whatever else a soldier could eat. On my -return to the regiment with a wagon full of good things, the companies -would set up a cheer for the quartermaster sergeant. The colonel always -allowed me to choose the guards who should accompany me. Many a time our -little squad got back to camp by the skin of their teeth, chased by -guerrillas or some wandering band of Rebel cavalry. Our habit was, when -we found a plantation with something to spare on it, to post sentinels -in the lanes in every direction, while a few of us with the aid of the -negroes loaded the wagons. If all went well, the procession, followed by -the slaves we freed and took with us, went back to camp in state. -Sometimes there was indecorous haste in getting home, owing to our -sentinel firing his gun in warning of near danger. More than one of the -boys of those venturous excursions, to this day, have not yet come back -to camp. - -On one of these excursions one day we were surprised by a little party -of rangers, but we took their leader captive, and with him a fine -Kentucky charger and a splendid rifle. The brigade colonel presented to -me the rifle I myself had captured, for my "bravery," he said, but the -splendid thoroughbred he took for himself. Alas! this rifle, the -testimonial of my adventure, was burned up when the Rebel cavalry took -Holly Springs. I had left it there to send North some day. - -These excursions after food that I have described must have been the -forerunners of Sherman's great forage parties later, on his "march to -the sea." It was easy enough to feed an army that way, if men could be -found to take the risk. Sherman's later forage parties were so strong -that the risk was reduced to fun. - -I copy from my diary here (1862): - -"Now the enemy is in front of us. He is on our flank and all around us. -It is dangerous to venture a mile from camp alone. In fact, orders are -strict for every man and every officer to stay close to his regiment day -or night. - -"On all the plantations along our way in this campaign there are signs -of war. The cotton gins, the fences, the barns, are all gone,--burned by -raiders of both armies, who have scouted through this same country time -and again. The weather is often gloomy; the fenceless fields are brown -and naked; the big houses left standing on the plantations look lone and -desolate. There is no song of birds. The army wagons, in long trains, -and the soldiers in great strung-out columns of blue, go over the soft -ground across the fields, along what once was lanes and country roads, -almost in silence. Here and there a skirmish of musketry at some creek -crossing or at some wood is the only noise heard. This state of -Mississippi, like the whole South, sees the desolation of war. But the -big, white, lone houses on the deserted lawns, with their low verandas -about them, are not wholly unoccupied. Though the arms-bearing men of -the country are every one in the army fighting us, the women and the -children and the slaves are still at home. These slaves desert their -mistresses and come into the Union camps at night by hundreds, bearing -their bundles on their heads and their pickaninnies under their arms. - -"As Rebel cavalry bands are rioting all around us, the strictest orders -are given about leaving camp. But those who slipped away without leave -the oftenest were themselves officers. Numbers of these went off almost -nightly, to pay their devoirs to ladies whom they happened to admire at -neighboring plantations. These women, glad enough of the compliments of -the Federal officers, let it be very clearly understood that they were -nevertheless true-blue Rebels. Things as to the war were simply glossed -over in conversation, and both the lady and the officer sometimes had a -delightful evening, even if the delight on the officer's part was in -violation of duty. Sometimes these visits led to ridiculous -terminations. War is not all tragedy." - -Again I copy from the journal of that December: - -"The other night three of the officers of our brigade, Captain H---- and -Lieutenants D---- and O---- got themselves into a pretty mess by leaving -camp to visit at a plantation. The laughable facts are these: We had -stopped two or three days, to mend bridges over the Yocona River. -General Grant had asked our brigade commander to report the names of -three officers for promotion. Captain H---- and two lieutenants were -selected. Among the private soldiers these men were not regarded as -deserving honor. On the contrary, they were looked upon as common -braggarts. Some politician at home, probably, had moved the wires for -their promotion. As it happened, these three officers were the worst -offenders of all, as to leaving camp without orders for the purpose of -visiting Rebel ladies at neighboring plantations. Some of the staff -heard of this and determined to unmask them. Some Rebel uniforms were -secured from prisoners in our hands, and one dark night when the captain -and his friends were away from camp at the home of a Mrs. S----, -visiting, a dozen of us in disguise were sent to surround the house. -Instantly there was a cry among the women of "guerrillas!" -"Confederates!" "Confederates!" "Friends!" and a bonny blue Rebel flag -was waved in the doorway. We were indeed a desperate-looking lot, but -the women met the supposed Rebel guerrillas almost with embraces. The -captain and his two lieutenants we pulled from under the bed by their -heels, and threatened them with instant death. The women begged us only -not to kill them in the house. The officers, on their knees, pleaded for -their lives. It was agreed that they should simply give up their swords, -be paroled, and allowed to return to camp. At headquarters the next -morning, in explanation of the loss of their swords, they told a -wonderful and Falstaffian tale of being overwhelmed by Van Dorn's -guerrillas the night before, and of their miraculous escape to camp. -That moment they were confronted with their surrendered swords and their -signatures to their paroles. There was a fine collapse at headquarters -that morning. The names of the three gentlemen were sent to General -Grant the same day, I understand. But not for promotion." - -I had a little taste of life in the hospital that December. My eyes got -worse. For a little time I was in a fine private home in Holly Springs, -for the town, after its burning by Van Dorn, had been retaken by us. -Every room in the house had its floors filled with the sick and the -dying of both armies. Long years after that, while on shipboard -returning from Europe, I made by chance the acquaintance of Mrs. Kate -Sherwood Bonner, the authoress, who as a girl had lived in Holly -Springs. We talked of the war times, and it transpired that the mansion -where I had witnessed such distressful scenes among the dead and dying -was her father's home. - -I saw General Grant's father and mother there in Holly Springs daily. At -the capture of the town they had been taken as stated, and released, the -father on parole. - -I was now sent to Memphis, as I was still in hospital. The hospital here -was in the old Overton Hotel, which was crowded with hundreds of -wounded. The room used as a dead house was filled every night. It was -across the court and below my own room. I could see the corpses -distinctly, as the window was left open. It was my habit, a strange one, -when I awoke in the morning, to look over and count the corpses of men -who had been carried in there while I had been sleeping. It seems now a -ghastly business enough. - - - - -CHAPTER V - - The laughable campaign of the war--An army floating among the tree - tops of the Yazoo Pass. - - -In a little time, February, 1863, Grant's army was again off to try for -Vicksburg. This time it was to go on that campaign, so laughable now, -but romantic always, called the "Yazoo Pass expedition." We were to go -down the Mississippi River in big steamers to Helena, and there transfer -ourselves on to a fleet of little steamers, cut the levee into the -overflooded country, and try floating a whole army a hundred miles -across the plantations and swamps of Mississippi. - -My eyes were well again, and I was happy to join our regiment and be one -of the aquatic throng. Just as we were getting on to the boat at Memphis -two of my company managed to get shot by the provost guard. They had -been full of liquor, and refused to go to the steamer. They had been -heroes at Iuka. How unlucky now to get crippled for life in a drunken -brawl! - -On the 22d of March, near Helena, my regiment went aboard the pretty -little schooner called the _Armada_. Shortly, dozens of these small -boats, crowded with regiments, accompanied by gunboats, were floating -about, awaiting the order to sail through a big cut that our engineers -had made in the river levee and get down the pass into Moon Lake. The -Mississippi was high and raging. All the low-lying country for half a -hundred miles was flooded till it looked like a vast sea, with forests -of trees standing in its midst. Here and there, too, a plantation, -higher than the surrounding country, was noticeable. The first pass into -Moon Lake was but a mile long. But through that pass swirled and roared -the waters of the Mississippi, so suddenly let loose by the break in the -levee. - -At just four in the evening our little steamer got the order to turn out -of the river and into the rushing waters of the pass. We would not have -been more excited at being told to start over Niagara Falls. Our engines -are working backward and we enter the crevasse slowly, but in five -minutes the fearful, eddying current seized us, and our boat was whirled -round and round like a toy skiff in a washtub. We all held our breath as -the steamer was hurled among floating logs and against overhanging -trees. In ten minutes the rushing torrent had carried us, backward, -down into the little lake. Not a soul of the five hundred on board the -boat in this crazy ride was lost. Once in the lake we stopped, and with -amazement watched other boats, crowded with soldiers, also drift into -the whirl and be swept down the pass. It was luck, not management, that -half the little army was not drowned. - -Now for days and days our little fleet coursed its way toward Vicksburg -among the plantations, swamps, woods, bayous, cane-brakes, creeks, and -rivers of that inland sea. Wherever the water seemed deepest that was -our course, but almost every hour projecting stumps and trees had to be -sawn off under the water to allow our craft to get through. Sometimes we -advanced only four or five miles a day. At night the boat would be tied -to some tall sycamore. Here and there we landed at some plantation that -seemed like an island in the flood. The negroes on the plantation, -amazed at our coming, wondered if it was the day of Jubilee or if it was -another Noah's flood and that these iron gunboats arks of safety. - -We soldiers, if not on duty pushing the boat away from trees, had -nothing to do but sleep and eat and read. Most of the soldiers slept on -the decks, on the guards, and on the cabin floors. Four of us had a -little stateroom. I had with me a copy of Shakespeare, cribbed by one -of the boys somewhere, and the Bard of Avon was never studied under -stranger circumstances. - -The Yazoo Pass, though not so crazy as the crevasse we had come through, -was nevertheless bad and dangerous. Two of our craft sank to the bottom, -but the soldiers were saved by getting into trees. All the boats were -torn half to pieces. One day as we pushed our way along the crooked -streams amid the vine-covered forests we ran onto a Rebel fort built on -a bit of dry land. In front of it were great rafts that completely -obstructed our way. An ocean steamer was also sunk in the channel in -front of us. To our amazement we learned that it was the _Star of the -West_, the ship that received the first shot fired in the war of the -Rebellion. That was when it was trying to take supplies to Fort Sumter. -Our gunboats shelled this "Fort Greenwood" in vain, and now Rebels were -gathering around and behind us and guerrillas were beginning to fire on -the boats. The waters, too, might soon subside, and our fleet and army -be unable to get back into the Mississippi. We could not go ahead. -Suddenly the orders came to turn about and steam as fast as possible to -a place of safety. - -By April 8 we had made the journey through the woods and cane-brake back -to the pass. The picturesque farce was ended. We could now hunt some -other road to Vicksburg. We know nothing of what the generals thought of -this fiasco, but we private soldiers had great fun, and the long stay on -the boats had been a rest from hard campaigning. We had not lost a man. -A whole campaign and not a soldier lost! - - - - -CHAPTER VI - - Grant's new plan at Vicksburg--Running the Vicksburg batteries--An - hour and a half of horror--The batteries are passed--The most - important event in the war. - - -The attempt on Vicksburg was not to be given up. In the spring of 1863 -the whole army moved down the Mississippi to begin one of the most noted -campaigns of history. - -A real sane notion had gotten hold of Grant, and of scarcely anyone -else. That notion was, if possible, to get across the Mississippi -_below_ the town (Sherman had failed trying it above) and throw the -whole army on to the fortifications at the rear. If the town's defenders -should be bold and come out and fight us, so much the better. We wanted -that. - -Soon General Grant built long stretches of wagon roads and corduroy -bridges that ran snakelike for forty miles among the black swamps, -cane-brakes, and lagoons on the west bank of the Mississippi River. He -then marched half his army down these roads to a point below Vicksburg, -below Grand Gulf, and bivouacked them on the shore of the river. The -other half, of which my regiment was a part, remained near the river -above the city. Possibly we were twenty-five thousand men there. - -One night these twenty-five thousand bivouacked along the levees of the -great river were all in great excitement. "Coming events were casting -their shadows before." - -It must have been some great event was about to happen that April night -of 1863, for the Assistant Secretary of War was there, and General Grant -and General Sherman were there, waiting and watching in the greatest -suspense. What was going to happen? Some one hundred and fifty private -soldiers were going to perform a deed that should help make American -history. The success of a whole army and the capture of the best -fortified city on the American continent depended on the heroism of this -handful of private soldiers on this April night. No wonder the -government at Washington sat by the telegraph and anxiously awaited -every scrap of news sent from Grant's army before Vicksburg. He was to -open the Mississippi River. That very day, almost, the government at -Washington sent a letter urging General Grant to hurry. "In my opinion," -telegraphed General Halleck for the President, "_this is the most -important operation of the war. To open the Mississippi River would be -better than the capture of forty Richmonds._" - -General Grant realized the mighty things he had at stake. - -But what availed it to collect his soldiers there? In front of him, in -high flood, swept the mightiest river on the continent; he had not a -boat to cross with, and the enemy laughed and dared him from the other -side. His fleet of steamboats was forty miles and more up the river, and -between him and that fleet were four miles of hostile batteries strong -enough to blow a fleet to pieces. In fact, every hill, hollow, and -secret place above and below the city hid a dozen cannon. All the way -from Vicksburg down to Warrentown was a fort. - -What could be done? Without some steamers on which to cross, the game -was blocked, and Vicksburg, strong as Sebastopol itself, might stand -there forever and the Mississippi River be blockaded to the end of the -war. Two or three of Grant's ironclad gunboats had run past these awful -batteries one night, their sides banged to pieces and their iron mail -scooped up as if it had been made of putty. One of them was sunk. But -these iron tubs could not serve as ferryboats for forty thousand men. -Then, the scheme was proposed to cover some of the wooden steamboats -with cotton bales and on a dark night try and rush them past the -batteries. The boat captains, however, would not risk it with their own -crews, even had they as a rule been willing, and so the commands of the -army asked for _volunteers_ from the private soldiers. Desperate as the -undertaking seemed, one hundred and fifty Union soldiers stepped forward -and offered to run these steamboats past the guns. The writer was one of -these volunteers. But too many had offered to take the risk. The -required number was selected by lot, and the most I could do that -historic night was to stand on the river levee in the dark and watch my -comrades perform one of the most heroic acts of any war. It was hardly a -secret. The whole army was excited over the desperate proposal. The -enemy must have heard of it, and been doubly prepared to destroy us. "If -Grant's attempt prove successful he can destroy the whole Confederate -army, take Vicksburg, and open the Mississippi River." No wonder the -Washington officials sat by the telegraph day and night just then -awaiting great news. - -The moon was down by ten o'clock of the night of April 16. Under the -starlight one hardly saw the dark river or the cane-brakes, swamps, and -lagoons along its border. The whole Northern fleet lay anchored in -silence. Grant's army too, down below, was silent and waiting. A few -miles below us lay Vicksburg, dark, sullen, and sleeping. Not a gun was -being fired. A few lonesome Confederate river guards floated above the -town in rowboats watching to give the alarm at the approach of any foe -on the water. - -Three mysterious looking Northern steamboats, with crews of volunteer -soldiers on board, lay out in the middle of the Mississippi River in -front of Milliken's Bend, a dozen miles above Vicksburg. Down in the -dark hold of each vessel stand a dozen determined men. They have boards, -and pressed cotton, and piles of gunny sacks beside them there, to stop -up holes that shall be made pretty soon by the cannon of the enemy. They -have none of war's noise and excitement to keep them up--only its -suspense. They are helpless. If anything happens they will go to the -bottom of the river without a word. Above the decks the pilot-houses are -taken off and the pilot wheels are down by the bows, and the pilot will -stand there wholly exposed. Lashed to the sides of each of the three -little steamers are barges piled up with bales of hay and cotton. They -look like floating breastworks. Anchored still a little further down the -stream seven gunboats also wait in silence. They will lead these -steamboats and try the batteries first. The boats must all move two -hundred yards apart. That is the order. - -All is suspense. For a little while the night grows darker and more -silent; the moon now is down. The thousands of soldiers standing on the -levee waiting, and watching to see them start, almost hold their -breath. At the boats there is no noise save the gurgling of the water as -it grinds past the hulls of the anchored vessels. That is all the noise -the men waiting down in the dimly lighted hulls can hear. On a little -tug, near by, General Grant, the commander of the Western armies, waits -and listens. The Assistant Secretary of War is at his side. In a yawl, -farther down the stream, General Sherman ventures far out on the dark -river to watch events. All is ready, all is suspense. Just then a -lantern on the levee is moved slowly up and down. It is the signal to -start. Down in Vicksburg the unexpectant enemy sleeps. Their guards out -on the river, too, almost sleep; all is so safe. Quietly we lift anchors -and float off with the current. Our wheels are not moving. There is a -great bend in the river, and as we round it the river guard wakened, -sends up a rocket, other rockets too go up all along the eastern or -Vicksburg shore. That instant, too, a gun is fired from a neighboring -bluff. We are discovered. "Put on all steam," calls the captain, and our -boats move swiftly into the maelstrom of sulphur and iron, for the enemy -opens fire vigorously. The enemy sets houses on fire all along the levee -to illuminate the river, bonfires are lighted everywhere, and suddenly -the whole night seems but one terrific roar of cannon. The burning -houses make the river almost as light as day. We see the people in the -streets of the town running and gesticulating as if all were mad; their -men at the batteries load and fire and yell as if every shot sunk a -steamboat. On the west side of the river the lagoons and cane-brakes -look weird and dangerous. The sky above is black, lighted only by sparks -from the burning houses. Down on the river it is a sheet of flame. One -of the steamers and a few of the barges have caught fire and are burning -up, the men escaping in life-boats and by swimming to the western shore. -The excitement of the moment is maddening, the heavy fire appalling, -while the musketry on the shore barks and bites at the unprotected -pilots on the boats. Ten-inch cannon and great columbiads hurl their -shot and shell into the cotton breastworks of the barges or through the -rigging of the steamers. The gunboats tremble from the impact of shot -against their sides, and at times the little steamers are caught in the -powerful eddies of the river and are whirled three times around right in -front of the hot firing batteries. - -_Five hundred and twenty-five shells and cannonballs are hurled at the -hurrying fleet._ The flash of the guns, the light of the blazing houses, -make the night seem a horrible tempest of lightning and thunder. -Sherman, sitting out there alone in his yawl on the dark river, has -witnessed awful spectacles, but this is the sight of a lifetime. "It -was," he exclaimed, "_a picture of the terrible not often seen_." And -amid all this roar and thunder and lightning and crash of cannonballs -above, the men down in the holds of the boats--they are the real -heroes--stand in the dim candle-light waiting, helpless, ignorant of -events, and in terrible suspense, while sounds like the crash of worlds -go on above their heads. Once some of them climb up to the hatchways and -look out into the night. One look is enough! What a sight! The whole -Mississippi River seems on fire, the roar of the gunboats answering the -howling cannon on the shore, the terrific lightnings from the batteries, -the screeching shells above the decks. It was as if hell itself were -loose that night on the Mississippi River. For one hour and thirty -minutes the brave men stood speechless in the holds of the boats while -hell's hurricane went on above. They lived an age in that hour and a -half, and yet a thousand of us in Grant's army tried to volunteer that -we, too, might have this awful experience. - -Daylight saw the little fleet safe below Vicksburg, where thousands of -soldiers welcomed it with cheers. No such deed had ever been done in the -world before. Only one boat and some barges were lost, and only a few -of the soldiers were hurt. The cotton bales had proved a miracle of -defense. In a week still other steamers, though with greater loss, -passed the batteries. - -We know the rest. On these same boats Grant's army would ferry across -the Mississippi, and there on the other side fight five battles and win -them all. Vicksburg will be surrounded and assaulted and pounded and its -soldiers starved, till, on the nation's birthday, thirty thousand of its -brave defenders will lay down their arms forever. - - - - -CHAPTER VII - - Crossing the Mississippi on gunboats and steamers--Battle of Port - Gibson--How General Grant looked to a private soldier--A boy from - Mississippi--Fights at Raymond--Battle of Jackson in a - thunderstorm--Digging his brothers' grave--Grant in battle--Saving a - flag--How men feel in battle--An awful spectacle--The critical - moment of General Grant's life--A battlefield letter from him to - Sherman. - - -Now that the boats were below the city, we were to begin the Vicksburg -campaign in earnest. All the troops that had been left camped on the -river levee above at Milliken's Bend hurried by roundabout roads through -cane-brakes and swamps to the point where our little boats had anchored -after running past the batteries that night. Here we joined the rest of -the army, and the ferrying of thousands of soldiers across the great -river day and night at once commenced. - -My own regiment was put on to one of the iron gunboats and ferried over -the Mississippi at a point close to Grand Gulf. Here our river navy had -silenced the Rebel forts. It was the first gunboat I had ever seen. Its -sides bore great scars, indentations made by the enemy's batteries on -the preceding day. We hurried on and became a part of the reserve at the -hot battle of Port Gibson, as we ourselves did no fighting. In a -plantation yard, close by my regiment, lay our wounded as they were -carried back from the front. It was a terrible sight. Many had been torn -by shrapnel and lay there on the grass in great agony. Some seemed with -their own hands to be trying to tear their mangled limbs from their -bodies. The possession of all Vicksburg did not seem worth the pain and -the agony I saw there that afternoon. That was war; and it was "hell," -sure enough. - -The next day, when the battle was over, I was at a negro cabin getting a -loaf of corn bread. I suddenly heard a little cheering down by the -river, where some men were putting down pontoons in place of the bridge -burned by the enemy. I went down at once, and as I stood by the river -bank I noticed an officer on horseback in full general's uniform. -Suddenly he dismounted and came over to the very spot where I was -standing. I did not know his face, but something told me it was -Grant,--Ulysses Grant,--at that moment the hero of the Western army. -Solid he stood, erect, about five feet eight in height, with square -features, thin, closed lips, brown hair, brown beard, both cut short, -and neat. "He must weigh one hundred and forty or fifty pounds. Looks -just like the soldier he is. I think he is larger than Napoleon, but not -much; he is not so dumpy, his legs are not so short, and his neck is not -so short and thick. He looks like a man in earnest, and the Rebels think -he is one." - -This was the first time I saw Grant. I think I still possess some of the -feeling that came over me at that moment as I stood so near to one who -held our lives, and possibly his country's life, in his hands. How -little I dreamed that some day I would have the great honor of sitting -beside him at my own table. Yet this occurred. - -Now he spoke, "Men, push right along; close up fast, and hurry over." -Two or three men on mules attempted to wedge past the soldiers on the -bridge. Grant noticed it, and quietly said, "Lieutenant, arrest those -men and send them to the rear." Every soldier passing turned to gaze on -him. But there was no further recognition. There was no McClellan -begging the boys to allow him to light his cigar by theirs; no inquiring -to what regiment that exceedingly fine marching company belonged; there -was no Pope bullying the men for not marching faster, reproving officers -for neglecting trivial details remembered only by martinets; there was -no Bonaparte posturing for effect; no pointing to the pyramids, no -calling the centuries to witness. There was no nonsense, no sentiment. -Only a plain business man of the republic there for the one single -purpose of getting that army across the river in the shortest time -possible. In short, it was just plain General Grant, as he appeared on -his way to Vicksburg. On a horse near by, and among the still mounted -staff, sat the General's son, a bright-looking lad of perhaps eleven -years. Fastened to his little waist by a broad yellow belt was his -father's sword--that sword on whose clear steel was yet to be engraved -"Vicksburg," "Spotsylvania," "The Wilderness," "Appomattox." The boy -talked and jested with the bronzed soldiers near him, who laughingly -inquired where we should camp that night; to which the young field -marshal replied, "Oh, over the river." - -"Over the river!" Ah, that night we slept with our guns in our hands, -and another night, and another, saw more than one of our division, and -of my own regiment, camped over the river--in that last tenting -ground--where the réveille was heard no more forever. - -My own command crossed the bridge that night by torchlight. It was a -strange weird scene. Many of the Rebel dead--killed beyond the stream by -our cannon before our approach--still lay at the roadside or in fields -unburied. At one turn in the road my regiment marched close by a Rebel -battery that had been completely destroyed. Men, horses, and all lay -there dead in indiscriminate heaps. The face of one boy lying there -among the horses I shall never forget. It was daylight now, the bright -sun was just rising, when I left the ranks a moment to step aside to see -that boy. He was lying on his back. His face was young and fair, his -beautiful brown hair curled almost in ringlets, and his eyes, brown and -beautiful, were wide open; his hands were across his breast. A -cannonball had in an instant cut away the top of his head in as straight -a line as if it had been done with a surgeon's saw. There had been no -time for agony or pain. The boy's lips were almost in a smile. It was a -Mississippi battery that had been torn to pieces there, and it may be -that in a home near by a mother stood that morning praying for her boy. -The South had such war costs as well as the North. - -My regiment now entered on all those rapid marches and battles in the -rear of Vicksburg--Raymond, Jackson, Champion Hills, and the assaults on -the breastworks about the city. For days we scarcely slept at all; it -was hurry here and quickstep there, day or night. None of us soldiers or -subordinates could tell the direction we were marching. We had few -rations, little water, and almost no rest. We had left our base at the -river, and in a large sense we were cut off and surrounded all the time. -The capture of a Rebel scout at once changed everything. Through him -Grant learned how hurrying divisions of the enemy were about to unite. A -quick move could checkmate everything. Indeed, it was nothing but a -great game of chess that was being played, only we, the moving pieces, -had blood and life. At one time Grant's army was as likely to be -captured as to capture. My regiment, like all the others, hurried along -the country roads through dust that came to the shoe top. The atmosphere -was yellow with it. The moving of a column far away could be traced by -it. We followed it in the way that Joshua's army followed the mighty -cloud. As we passed farms where there was something to eat the captains -would call out to a dozen men of the line to hurry in, carry off all -they could, and pass it over to the companies still marching. It was a -singular looking army. So whole regiments tramped along with sides of -bacon or sheaves of oats on the points of their bayonets. We dared not -halt. When we bivouacked, long after dark, often it was the dust of the -roadside. We always lay upon our arms. Sometimes there was a little -fire, oftener there was none. The fat bacon was eaten raw. - -My regiment was in advance at the engagement at Raymond; also at -Jackson. At Jackson it rained and thundered fearfully during the battle. -A Rebel battery was on a green slope right in front of us, pouring a -terrible shelling into us as we approached it from the Raymond road. The -shocks of thunder so intermingled with the shocks from the guns that we -could not tell the one from the other, and many times a sudden crash of -thunder caused us all to drop to the ground, fearing a cannonball would -cut its swath through the regiment. We were marching in columns of -fours. Shortly, we formed line of battle, and in rushing to the left -through a great cane-brake, while we were advancing in battle line under -a fire of musketry, the order was given to lie down. - -We obeyed quickly. How closely, too, we hugged the ground and the -depression made by a little brook! While I lay there it happened that my -major (Marshall) was close behind me on horseback. He had no orders to -dismount. I could glance back and see his face as the bullets zipped -over our heads or past him. He sat on his horse as quiet as a statue, -save that with his right hand he constantly twisted his mustache. He -looked straight into the cane-brake. He was a brave man. Could the enemy -behind the forests of cane have seen where they were firing he would not -have lived a minute. Shortly there was roaring of cannon and quick -charges at the other side of the town. Jackson was won. - -At daylight the next morning we hurried in the direction of Champion -Hills. At our left, as we went down the road, the battlefield of the day -before was strewn with corpses of our own men. In a few minutes the -brave Seventeenth Regiment of Iowa had lost 80 men at this spot, out of -350 engaged in an assault. My friend Captain Walden received honorable -mention, among others, for gallantry in this Jackson charge. A few -hundred yards off I noticed a man in a field quite alone, digging in the -ground. Out of curiosity I went to him and asked what he was doing alone -when the regiments were all hurrying away. A brown blanket covered -something near by. He pointed to it and said that two of his brothers -lay dead under that blanket. He was digging a grave for them. He went on -with his work and I hurried to overtake my command. This was the 15th of -May, 1863. I did not know it then, but shortly I was to see General -Grant in the midst of battle. I was to see several other things, and -feel some of them also. - -My situation as to the Fifth Regiment was a peculiar one; being the -quartermaster sergeant, I belonged to no company in particular. The -good colonel, however, knowing my love for adventure, and that I was -never lacking in duty, allowed me to attach myself to any company I -liked, provided only, that there was a reliable substitute performing my -duties with the train at the rear. I had no trouble in securing such a -substitute, usually found among the slightly wounded soldiers. - -Since we crossed the Mississippi I had marched and carried my rifle all -the way,--had been in every skirmish and engagement. Sometimes I tramped -along with my old Company B of Newton, sometimes I went with the extreme -left of the regiment. I was no more heroic than all the others in the -command, but I was fond of the risk and the excitement of battle. I -would have resigned my warrant as quartermaster sergeant in a moment -rather than miss a hard march or an engagement, let the chance be what -it might. I think my love of adventure, and my seeking it so often away -from my proper post of duty at the rear, was often the occasion of -amused comment. Once when marching at the left I heard our surgeon, -Carpenter, cry out to another officer riding beside him: "There's a -fight to-day. Look out. The sign's sure. The quartermaster sergeant has -got his gun." - -None of us private soldiers now really knew in what direction we were -marching. We heard only that the enemy was concentrating at Edwards -Ferry Station, between us and Big Black River. General Crocker of my -State was now leading our division, and the magnificent General -McPherson commanded the army corps. The night of May 15 the division -bivouacked in the woods by the side of a road that leads from Bolton -toward Vicksburg. We marched hard and late that day. The morning of the -16th my regiment was up and getting breakfast long before daylight. The -breakfast consisted of some wet dough cooked on the ends of ramrods; -nothing more. - -Troops were hurrying past our bivouac by daylight. Once I went out to -the roadside to look about a bit. It was scarcely more than early -daylight, yet cannon could occasionally be heard in the far distance, -something like low thunder. As I stood there watching some batteries -hurrying along I noticed a general and his staff gallop through the -woods, parallel with the road. They were leaping logs, brush, or -whatever came in their way. It was General Grant, hurrying to the front. -Shortly came the orders, "Fall in!" and we too were hurrying along that -road toward Champion Hills. By ten o'clock the sound of the cannon fell -thundering on our ears, and we hurried all we could, as riders came back -saying the battle had already begun. As we approached the field the -sound of great salvos of musketry told us the hour had surely come. The -sound was indeed terrible. - -At the left of the road we passed a pond of dirty water. All who could -broke ranks and filled canteens, knowing that in the heat of the fight -we would need the water terribly. I not only filled my canteen, I filled -my stomach with the yellow fluid, in order to save that in the canteen -for a critical moment. Just then there was in front of us a terrific -crashing, not like musketry, but more like the falling down of a -thousand trees at once. Our brigade, a small one, was hurried into line -of battle at the edge of an open field that sloped down a little in -front of us and then up to a wood-covered ridge. That wood was full of -the Rebel army. Fighting was going on to the right and left of us, and -bullets flew into our own line, wounding some of us as we stood there -waiting. There was an old well and curb at the immediate right of my -regiment, and many of our boys were climbing over each other to get a -drop of water. Soon the bullets came faster, zipping, zipping among us, -thicker and thicker. We must have been in full view of the enemy as we -stood there, not firing a shot. Our line stood still in terrible -suspense, not knowing why we were put under fire without directions to -shoot. Zip! zip! zip! came the Rebel bullets, and now and then a boy in -blue would groan, strike his hand to a wounded limb or arm, drop his gun -and fall to the rear; or perhaps he fell in his tracks dead, without -uttering a word. We too, who saw it, uttered no word, but watched -steadily, anxiously at the front. - -Then General Grant himself rode up behind us, and so close to the spot -where I stood, that I could have heard his voice. He leaned against his -little bay horse, had the inevitable cigar in his mouth, and was calm as -a statue. Possibly smoking so much tranquillized his nerves a little and -aided in producing calmness. Still, Grant was calm everywhere; but he -also smoked everywhere. Be that as it may, it required very solid -courage to stand there quietly behind that line at that moment. For my -own part, I was in no agreeable state of mind. In short, I might be -killed there at any moment, I thought, and I confess to having been -nervous and alarmed. Every man in the line near me was looking serious, -though determined. We had no reckless fools near us, whooping for blood. -Once a badly wounded man was carried by the litter-bearers--the drummers -of my regiment--close to the spot where the General stood. He gave a -pitying glance at the man, I thought,--I was not twenty feet away,--but -he neither spoke nor stirred. Then I heard an officer say, "We are going -to charge." It seems that our troops in front of us in the woods had -been sadly repulsed, and now our division was to rush in and fight in -their stead, and the commander-in-chief was there to witness our -assault. Two or three of us, near each other, expressed dissatisfaction -that the commander of an army in battle should expose himself, as -General Grant was doing at that moment. When staff officers came up to -him, he gave orders in low tones, and they would ride away. One of them, -listening to him, glanced over our heads toward the Rebels awhile, -looked very grave, and gave some mysterious nods. The colonel who was -about to lead us also came to the General's side a moment. He, too, -listened, looked, and gave some mysterious nods. Something was about to -happen. - -"My time has probably come now," I said to myself, and with a little bit -of disgust I thought of the utter uselessness of being killed there -without even firing a shot in self-defense. The suspense, the anxiety, -was indeed becoming fearfully intense. Soon General Grant quietly -climbed upon his horse, looked at us once, and as quietly rode away. -Then the colonel came along the line with a word to each officer. As he -came near me he called me from the ranks and said: "I want you to act -as sergeant-major of the regiment in this battle." I was surprised, but -indeed very proud of this mark of confidence in me. "Hurry to the left," -he continued. "Order the men to fix bayonets--quick!" I ran as told, -shouting at the top of my voice, "Fix bayonets! fix bayonets!" I was not -quite to the left, when I heard other voices yelling, "Forward! quick! -double quick! forward!" and the line was already on the run toward the -Rebels. I kept up my shouting, "Fix bayonets!" for by some blunder the -order had not been given in time, and now the men were trying to get -their bayonets in place while running. We were met in a minute by a -storm of bullets from the wood, but the lines in blue kept steadily on, -as would a storm of wind and cloud moving among the tree-tops. Now we -met almost whole companies of wounded, defeated men from the other -division, hurrying by us, and they held up their bleeding and mangled -hands to show us they had not been cowards. They had lost twelve hundred -men on the spot we were about to occupy. Some of them were laughing -even, and yelling at us: "Wade in and give them hell." We were wading in -faster than I am telling the story. - -On the edge of a low ridge we saw a solid wall of men in gray, their -muskets at their shoulders blazing into our faces and their batteries -of artillery roaring as if it were the end of the world. Bravely they -stood there. They seemed little over a hundred yards away. There was no -charging further by our line. We halted, the two lines stood still, and -for over an hour we loaded our guns and killed each other as fast as we -could. The firing and the noise were simply appalling. Now, I was not -scared. The first shot I fired seemed to take all my fear away and gave -me courage enough to calmly load my musket at the muzzle and fire it -forty times. Others, with more cartridges, fired possibly oftener still. -Some of the regiments in that bloody line were resupplied with -cartridges from the boxes of the dead. In a moment I saw Captain Lindsey -throw up his arms, spring upward and fall dead in his tracks. Corporal -McCully was struck in the face by a shell. The blood covered him all -over, but he kept on firing. Lieutenant Darling dropped dead, and other -officers near me fell wounded. - -I could not see far to left or right, the smoke of battle was covering -everything. I saw bodies of our men lying near me without knowing who -they were, though some of them were my messmates in the morning. The -Rebels in front we could not see at all. We simply fired at their lines -by guess, and occasionally the blaze of their guns showed exactly where -they stood. They kept their line like a wall of fire. When I fired my -first shot I had resolved to aim at somebody or something as long as I -could see, and a dozen times I tried to bring down an officer I dimly -saw on a gray horse before me. Pretty soon a musket ball struck me fair -in the breast. "I am dead, now," I said, almost aloud. It felt as if -someone had struck me with a club. I stepped back a few paces and sat -down on a log to finish up with the world. Other wounded men were there, -covered with blood, and some were lying by me dead. I spoke to no one. -It would have been useless; thunder could scarcely have been heard at -that moment. My emotions I have almost forgotten. I remember only that -something said to me, "It is honorable to die so." I had not a thought -of friends, or of home, or of religion. The stupendous things going on -around me filled my mind. On getting my breath a little I found I was -not hurt at all,--simply stunned; the obliquely-fired bullet had struck -the heavy leather of my cartridge belt and glanced away. I picked up my -gun, stepped back into the line of battle, and in a moment was shot -through the hand. The wound did not hurt; I was too excited for that. - -The awful roar of battle now grew more terrific, if possible. I wonder -that a man on either side was left alive. Biting the ends off my -cartridges, my mouth was filled with gunpowder; the thirst was -intolerable. Every soldier's face was black as a negro's, and, with -some, blood from wounds trickled down over the blackness, giving them a -horrible look. Once a boy from another part of the line to our left ran -up to me crying out: "My regiment is gone! what shall I do?" - -There was now a little moment's lull in the howling noise; something was -going on. "Blaze away right here," I said to the boy, and he commenced -firing like a veteran. Then I heard one of our own line cry, "My God, -they're flanking us!" I looked to where the boy had come from. His -regiment had indeed given way. The Rebels had poured through the gap and -were already firing into our rear and yelling to us to surrender. In a -moment we would be surrounded. It was surrender or try to get back past -them. I ran like a racehorse,--so did the left of the regiment, amid a -storm of bullets and yells and curses. I saved my musket, anyway. I -think all did that,--but that half-mile race through a hot Mississippi -sun, with bullets and cannonballs plowing the fields behind us, will -never be forgotten. My lungs seemed to be burning up. Once I saw our -regimental flag lying by a log, the color-bearer wounded or dead. I -cried to a comrade flying near me, "Duncan Teter, it is a shame--the -Fifth Iowa running." - -Only the day before Teter had been reduced to the ranks for some offense -or another. He picked up the flag and with a great oath dared me to stop -and defend it. For a moment we two tried to rally to the flag the men -who were running by. We might as well have yelled to a Kansas cyclone. -Then Captain John Tait, rushing by, saw us, stopped, and, recognizing -the brave deed of Corporal Teter, promoted him on the spot. But the -oncoming storm was irresistible, and, carrying the flag, we all again -hurried rearward. We had scarcely passed the spot where I had seen Grant -mount his horse before the charge when a whole line of Union cannon, -loaded to the muzzle with grape-shot and canister, opened on the howling -mob that was pursuing us. The Rebels instantly halted, and now again it -seemed our turn. A few minutes rest for breath and our re-formed lines -once more dashed into the woods. In half an hour the battle of Champion -Hills was won, and the victorious Union army was shortly in a position -to compel the surrender of the key to the Mississippi River. Grant's -crown of immortality was won, and the jewel that shone most brightly in -it was set there by the blood of the men of Champion Hills. Had that -important battle failed, Grant's army, not Pemberton's, would have -become prisoners of war. Where then would have been Vicksburg, -Spotsylvania, Richmond, Appomattox? - -Six thousand blue- and gray-coated men were lying there in the woods, -dead or wounded, when the last gun of Champion Hills was fired. Some of -the trees on the battlefield were tall magnolias, and many of their -limbs were shot away. The trees were in full bloom, their beautiful -blossoms contrasting with the horrible scene of battle. Besides killing -and wounding three thousand of the enemy, we had also captured thirty -cannon and three thousand prisoners. - -When the troops went off into the road to start in pursuit of the flying -enemy, I searched over the battlefield for my best friend, poor Captain -Poag, with whom I had talked of our Northern homes only the night -before. He lay dead among the leaves, a bullet hole in his forehead. -Somebody buried him, but I never saw his grave. Another friend I found -dying. He begged me only to place him against a tree, and with leaves to -shut the burning sun away from his face. While I was doing this I heard -the groaning of a Rebel officer, who lay helpless in a little ditch. He -called to me to lift him out, as he was shot through both thighs, and -suffering terribly. "Yes," I said, "as soon as I get my friend here -arranged a little comfortably." His reply was pathetic. "Yes, that's -right; help your own first." I had not meant it so. I instantly got to -him and, with the aid of a comrade, pulled him out of the ditch. He -thanked me and told me he was a lieutenant colonel, and had been shot -while riding in front of the spot where he lay. I eased his position as -best I could, but all that night, with many another wounded soldier, -blue and gray, he was left on the desolate battlefield. - -Now I realized how terrible the fire had been about us,--for some -comrades counted two hundred bullet marks on a single oak tree within a -few feet of where the left of the regiment had stood loading and firing -that awful hour and a half. Most of the bullets had been fired too high, -else we had all been killed. Near by lay the remains of a Rebel battery. -Every horse and most of the cannoneers lay dead in a heap, the caissons -and the gun carriages torn to pieces by our artillery. Never in any -battle had I seen such a picture of complete annihilation of men, -animals, and material as was the wreck of this battery, once the pride -of some Southern town--its young men, the loved ones of Southern homes, -lying there dead among their horses. That was war! - -Some weeks after this battle, and after Vicksburg had been won, my -regiment was marched in pursuit of Joe Johnston, and we recrossed this -same battlefield. We reached it in the night and bivouacked on the very -spot where we had fought. It was a strange happening. Our sensations -were very unusual, for we realized that all about us there in the woods -were the graves of our buried comrades and the still unburied bones of -many of our foes. Save an occasional hooting owl the woods were sad and -silent. Before we lay down in the leaves to sleep the glee club of -Company B sang that plaintive song, "We're Tenting To-night on the Old -Camp Ground." Never was a song sung under sadder circumstances. All the -night a terrible odor filled the bivouac. When daylight came one of the -boys came to our company and said, "Go over to that hollow, and you will -see hell." Some of us went. We looked but once. Dante himself never -conjured anything so horrible as the reality before us. After the battle -the Rebels in their haste had tossed hundreds of their dead into this -little ravine and slightly covered them over with earth, but the rains -had come, and the earth was washed away, and there stood or lay hundreds -of half-decayed corpses. Some were grinning skeletons, some were -headless, some armless, some had their clothes torn away, and some were -mangled by dogs and wolves. The horror of that spectacle followed us -for weeks. That, too, was war! - -I have written this random but true sketch of personal recollections of -a severe battle because it may help young men who are anxious for -adventure and war, as I was, to first realize what war really is. My -experiences probably were the same as hundreds of others in that same -battle. I only tell of what was nearest me. A third of my comrades who -entered this fight were lost. Other Iowa and other Western regiments -suffered equally or more. General Hovey's division had a third of its -number slain. I have been in what history pronounces greater battles -than Champion Hills, but only once did I ever see two lines of blue and -gray stand close together and fire into each other's faces for an hour -and a half. I think the courage of the private soldiers, standing in -that line of fire for that awful hour and a half, gave us Vicksburg, -made Grant immortal as a soldier, and helped to save this country. - -But I must return to that afternoon of the battle. All that could be -assembled of our men gathered in line in a road near the field. It was -nearly dark. Sergeant Campbell walked about, making a list of the dead -and wounded of Company B. As I was not now on the company rolls, being -quartermaster sergeant, my name was not put down as one of the wounded. -Nor, seeing how many were sadly torn to pieces, did I think my wound -worth reporting. Shortly General Grant passed us in the road. Knowing -well how the regiment had fought in the battle, he rode to where our -colors hung over a stack of muskets and saluted them. We all jumped to -our feet and cheered. He spoke a few words to the colonel and rode on -into the darkness. That night we marched ahead, and in the morning -bivouacked in the woods as a reserve for troops fighting at the Black -River bridge. _There it was that Grant reached the crisis of his -career._ While sitting on his horse waiting to witness a charge by -Lawler's brigade, a staff officer overtook him, bringing a peremptory -order from Washington to _abandon the campaign_ and take his army to -Port Hudson to help General Banks. That moment Grant glanced to the -right of his lines and saw a dashing officer in his shirt sleeves -suddenly come out of a cluster of woods, leading his brigade to the -assault. It was General Lawler, and in five minutes the Rebel -breastworks were carried, the enemy in flight or drowning in the rapid -river. Then Grant turned to the staff officer and simply said, "_See -that charge! I think it is too late to abandon this campaign._" The -movements that were to make him immortal went on. Had that order of -Halleck's, written of course without knowledge of the recent victories, -been followed, Banks, and not Grant, would have been first commander in -the West. Had Lawler's charge failed just then and the battle been lost, -Grant could have had no excuse for not obeying the order that staff -officer held in his hand, directing him to abandon what turned out to be -one of the great campaigns of history. While sitting there in his saddle -at the close of that charge, General Grant wrote a little note in -pencil, the original of which is among my treasured souvenirs of the -war: - - "DEAR GENERAL: Lawler's brigade stormed the enemy's works a few - minutes since; carried them, capturing from two thousand to three - thousand prisoners, ten guns, so far as heard from, and probably - more will be found. The enemy have fired both bridges. A. J. Smith - captured ten guns this morning, with teams, men, and ammunition. I - send you a note from Colonel Wright. - - "Yours, - "U. S. GRANT, M. G. - - "TO MAJOR GENERAL SHERMAN." - - - - -CHAPTER VIII - - Assaults on the walls of Vicksburg--Logan in battle--An army mule--A - promotion under the guns of Vicksburg--A storm of iron hail at - Vicksburg--The Vicksburg clock--The town surrenders--The glad - news--Reading my first order to the regiment--My regiment put on - guard in the captured city--Eight days' furlough in four years of - war. - - -The next morning (the 18th) my regiment crossed the pontoon bridge over -the Big Black and marched eight miles further toward Vicksburg. Now we -knew we were getting close to the Richmond of the West. As we crossed -the Black River we gazed with curiosity at the half-burned bridge from -which so many unfortunates had been hurled into the water by our -artillery the day before. After Lawler's charge thousands had tried to -get over the stream by the trestle-work and bridge, or by swimming. -General Osterhaus, seeing the fugitives from a high point where he -stood, cried out to his batteries: "Now, men, is the time to give them -hell." Twenty cannon instantly hurled their iron missiles at the bridge, -and the flying soldiers fell to the ground or into the foaming river, -almost by hundreds. "Lost at Black River," was the only message that -ever reached the home of many a Southern soldier of that day. - -On the 19th, at two o'clock, a terrible assault was made by the army on -the walls of Vicksburg. My own regiment, still in McPherson's corps, lay -close to the Jackson wagon road and under a tremendous thundering of the -enemy's artillery. We suffered little, however. Once I was ordered to -help some men build sheds of brush for the wounded. This was in a ravine -behind us. In an hour the work was done, and as I crept up the slope to -get forward to my regiment again I heard the loud voice of some officer -on horseback. It was General John A. Logan. The enemy's artillery was -sweeping the field at this point, but I could still hear Logan's voice -above the battle, cheering a number of soldiers that were near. "We have -taken this fort and we have taken that," he cried in tones that were -simply stentorian. "We are giving them hell everywhere." He was in full -uniform, his long black hair swept his shoulders, his eyes flashed fire, -he seemed the incarnation of the reckless, fearless soldier. He must -have thought cannonballs would not hurt him. For five minutes, perhaps, -I stood in a little dip in the ground, comparatively protected, while -he rode up and down under a storm of cannonballs, calling at the top of -his warrior's voice. I expected every moment to see him drop from his -horse, but nothing happened, and I went on to the line where all our men -were closely hugging the ground. Soon I, too, was stretched on the -ground, making myself as thin as I could. - -On the 20th we advanced still closer to the frowning works. It was only -a thousand yards to the forts of Vicksburg. We moved up in the darkness -that night. I think no one knew how close we were being taken to the -enemy. We lay down in line of battle and in the night our line was moved -a little. When daylight came my regiment was no little astonished to -find that we were on an open place in full view of the enemy. A comrade -and I rose from the ground and commenced our toilet, by pouring water -into each other's hands from our canteens. Almost at that moment the -Rebels had caught sight of our men lying there in long lines so close to -them, and instantly commenced throwing shells at us. My friend and I -left our morning toilet uncompleted and, seizing our rifles, we all -stood in line waiting. We could see the flags of the enemy above the -forts distinctly. With a glass the gunners could be seen at their guns, -hurling shot and shell at us. We were in a perilous and helpless -position. We were also very tired and hungry, for we had had nothing -whatever to eat. But here we stayed, and by the next morning our -skirmishers had advanced so close to the Vicksburg forts that the Rebel -gunners could reach us but little. Our gunboats too, down in the river -now commenced hurling mighty bombs and balls into the city. - -On the morning of the 22d of May all the batteries of the army and the -big guns of the river fleet bombarded the city for an hour, and under -the fog and the smoke of the battle the infantry advanced to assault the -works. It was a perilous undertaking. The day was fearfully hot; the -forts, ten feet high, were many and powerful; the ditches in front of -them were seven feet deep. That made seventeen feet to climb in the face -of musketry. In battle line, my regiment ran down into the ravines in -front and then up the opposite slope to the smoking breastwork. - -The colonel had ordered me to fasten two ammunition boxes across a mule -and follow the regiment into the assault. I was to lead my mule. A -soldier with a bush was to beat him from behind, so as to hurry him over -an exposed bit of ground at our front. The moment my mule appeared in -full sight of the enemy the bullets commenced whizzing past us. The -mule, true to his ancestral instinct, commenced pulling backward. -Yelling and pounding and pulling helped none at all. Two or three -bullets struck the boxes on his back, and before we had pulled him half -across he braced himself, held his ears back, and stood stock still. -That moment the bridle came off. My assistant dodged back to our rifle -pit and I hurried down to the ravine in front. The mule, too, as luck -would have it, also ran now,--ran down into the ravine beside me, right -where he was wanted. I tied him to a little bush and, awful as the -situation about me was, I almost laughed to see the antics of that -animal's ears as the bullets whizzed past him. - -My regiment was all lying against the hill close up to the fort. In -front of them was the ditch seven feet deep, beyond them an armed fort -ten feet high, emitting a constant blaze of cannon and musketry. The sun -was broiling hot. I crept along the line of the regiment and gave -ammunition to every company; then I crept back a little to where my mule -was still alive and his ears still at their antics. Lying there in the -line beside the boys, roasting in the sun and suffering from the -musketry in front, was our brave Colonel Boomer, leading the brigade. He -asked me once what I was doing, and, when I told him, he gave me some -compliments in a kind, but sad, low tone. Now I saw a company of men -creep by me, dragging little ladders in their hands. They were to make a -rush and throw these ladders across the ditch of the forts for the -assaulters to cross on. They were all volunteers for a work that seemed -sure death. I looked in each hero's face as he passed me, knowing almost -that he would be dead in a few minutes. Scarcely a dozen of them -returned alive. My regiment, with the rest of the assaulters, was simply -being shot to pieces without a hope of getting into the forts. We fell -back under the smoke of the battle as best we could, only to be led into -an assault at another point. McClernand had sent Grant word that he had -taken a fort on our left. He wanted help to hold it. - -Our division, now led by Quimby, was double quicked to the next place of -assault. I saved my mule. Again I strapped two ammunition boxes over his -back and followed the regiment. This time I did not risk my mule so -close in the battle, but took all the cartridges I could carry in my -arms and went to the left of the regiment. Once I saw a body lying on -the grass by me, with a handkerchief over the face. I went up and -looked. It was our own Colonel Boomer, who had spoken so kindly to me in -the morning. A useless charge had already been made by the brigade and -he, with many brave men, was dead. Some of my own company lay dead there -too. One of them had come from Iowa and joined his brother in the -company that very morning. All the assaulting of the 22d of May and all -the sacrifice of life had been for nothing. Vicksburg was not taken. - -Now commenced the regular siege of the city. We hid ourselves behind -ridges, in hollows, and in holes in the ground, as best we could. -Communication with our gunboats on the Yazoo was opened, and we had -plenty to eat and ammunition enough to bombard a dozen cities. Then the -bombardment commenced indeed, and lasted to the end, forty-four days. We -often threw three hundred cannonballs and shells a day into the city. -The whole Rebel army was also hidden in holes and hollows. All the -people of Vicksburg lived in caves at the sides of the hills or along -the bluffs of the river. Their homes now were like swallows' nests, with -small entrances in the face of hills and bluffs and big, dug-out -chambers inside. It was a strange life. With the eternal hail of cannon -over them day and night, and starvation a familiar figure to them, it -must have been a horrible one. - -Now we advanced our rifle pits and trenches and mines close up to the -Rebel forts, though our main lines lay in the ravines and on the ridge -a few hundred feet farther back. As for me, when not looking after the -ammunition, a trifling duty now, I was in the trenches with the others. - -One morning when out there at the front among our riflemen, who were -forever blazing day and night at every Rebel fort and rifle pit, I -noticed our good Colonel Matthies creeping along the trench to where I -was. He had a package of brown paper in his hand. Imagine my surprise -and pride to have him come to me and say: "Sergeant, this officer's sash -is yours." Then he announced my appointment as adjutant of the regiment. -He had been made a general now, and would soon leave for his new -command. This sash was one that he had worn and honored on many a -battlefield. Is it any wonder that now, after the long and perilous -years, it is preserved by me as a souvenir of honor? Soon after, I went -to a sutler's store on the Yazoo River to buy a sword and uniform. In -those days swords were not given to officers by committees in dress -coats, until they had been earned. This little trip to get my sword -almost cost me my life. My path to the river, six miles away, lay partly -along a ridge and partly close to an empty Rebel fort. This fort showed -scarcely any signs of having ever been used. I stayed all night with -the sutler, whom I knew very well, and at noon on a hot day started, on -my big yellow government horse, to go back to my regiment. My sword was -buckled on me and my new uniform was tied in a bundle on my saddle-bow. -It was too hot to ride fast, and my horse almost slept as he slowly -carried me close by the seemingly abandoned fort. Suddenly there was a -crash and a whole volley of musketry rattled about my ears. My poor -horse fell dead. It was a quick awakening, but I managed to pull my -bundle from the saddle-bow and to escape into a ravine where our own -troops lay. There I learned that the fort had been occupied by the -Rebels in the night, while I was with the sutler. It was a close call -for me. One of the boys declared he could save my saddle and bridle. -"Take them as a present," I said, "if you can get them." He crept up to -where my dead horse lay, and as he rose to his feet to undo the saddle -another volley from the fort hastened him to the ravine. I laughed. "If -your saddle and bridle were made of gold and silver," he shouted at me -as he ran back, "I wouldn't try it again." - -Slowly and without perceptible advance the siege went on. The little -battery that my regiment had saved at Iuka was still with us and behind -some breastworks at our immediate right. It was no uncommon thing to -see even Grant himself come along and stop and watch Captain Sears' guns -knock the dirt up from some fort in front of us. One day this battery -wounded a man who was running between two Rebel breastworks. The enemy -tried to secure his body, but every soul that showed himself for an -instant was shot by our riflemen. For half an hour this shooting over -one poor man's body was kept up, until it seemed that a battle was -taking place. - -Now our lines were so close together that our pickets often had a cup of -coffee or a chew of tobacco with the Rebel pickets at night. Drummer -Bain, of my company, had a brother among the soldiers inside Vicksburg. -One night he met him at the picket line, and together they walked all -through the beleagured town. But such things were dangerous business and -had to be kept very quiet. The weather was now very warm and fine, some -of the nights clear moonlight, and when the guns had stopped their -roaring many a time in the quiet night we heard the bell clock on the -Vicksburg Court House measuring out the hours. It is said that this -clock never stopped for an instant in all the siege, nor under the -hundred cannon that rained iron hail into the town. At night, too, the -big mortars from our fleet some miles from us tossed mighty bombs into -the air, that sailed like blazing comets and fell at last among the -people hidden in their caves. - -One day Governor Kirkwood of Iowa visited our regiment and made a speech -to us in a hollow back of our line. We cheered, and the Rebels, hearing -us and knowing we must be assembled in masses, hurled a hundred -cannonballs and shells over our heads, yet I think few were hurt. This -was the 3d of June. Every night that we lay there on the line we went to -sleep fearing to be waked by an attack from the army of Rebels under -Johnston, now assembled at our rear. This was the force we most feared, -not the army we had penned up in Vicksburg. Nevertheless, the batteries -in front of us gave us enough to do to prevent any ennui on our part. On -the 15th of June the enemy got one big gun in a position to rake from -our left the ravine in which my regiment was lying. We all stuck close -to our little caves on the ridge side, and few got hurt. In the meantime -we were working day and night putting more breastworks in front of us, -though we were now but four hundred yards away from the Rebel lines. -Here, as many times elsewhere, I copy from my diary. "Last night, the -16th, the major of our regiment, Marshall, took two hundred men and -worked all night digging new ditches and building breastworks. It was -rainy and muddy. The Rebels heard us at the work and in the darkness -slipped up and captured a few men. Some of the enemy, however, also got -taken in. This is the kind of work that is going on every night until -daybreak, and then we fire bullets all the day into the enemy's lines, -to prevent their repairing their forts. The cannonading and the rifle -shooting never cease. The roar is simply incessant, and yet when off -duty we sleep like newborn babes. - -"All the region we are in is hills and ravines, brush and cane-brake, -with here and there a little cotton field. Nature defends Vicksburg more -than a dozen armies could. She has built scores of positions around the -town strong as anything at Sevastapol." - -The rumors kept coming of a purposed attack on our rear. On the 20th of -June, at four o'clock in the morning, all the cannon on Grant's lines -and all the cannon on the gunboats opened fire on the town and thundered -at it for six mortal hours. They must have been awful hours for the -people inside. No such cannonading ever took place on the continent -before or since. We private soldiers did not know the exact object of -this fearful bombardment. The Rebels probably lay in battle line, -expecting an assault, and must have suffered greatly. - -In the night of the 22d of June, at midnight, rumors again came of a -great Rebel army marching on our rear. It was a beautiful moonlight -night, and my regiment, together with whole divisions of the army, -received orders to hurry back toward Black River, where cavalry -skirmishing had taken place. No battle came on, but for two days we lay -in line of battle, or else built breastworks for defense. - -On the 3d of July, as we were bivouacked in a little wood, news came -that the whole Rebel army in Vicksburg had prepared to surrender the -next day, the Nation's jubilee day. Instantly the regiment was ordered -to fall in. I had no little pride in reading to the men the dispatch -from General Grant announcing the great news. It was the first order I -had ever read to the regiment as its adjutant, and its great importance -gratified me much. The whole command acted as if they were drunken or -had suddenly lost their minds. Privates and officers shook hands and -laughed and wept, while majors and colonels turned somersaults on the -grass. It was indeed a great moment to us all. Twenty-seven thousand -men, with twenty-four generals and one hundred and eighty cannon, was a -great capture. We all knew we had made history on that day. - -Now the whole Rebel army passed out along the roads where we lay. I sat -on a rail fence near our bivouac and watched the host go by. The -officers all looked depressed, but the soldiers seemed glad the suspense -and danger were over and that now they could have enough to eat. Our -regiment freely divided with them all we had. - -"After a few days pursuit of Johnston's army at our rear (now suddenly -our front), my regiment is ordered into Vicksburg. We pass in over the -breastworks that had been so terrible to us a few days before. Looking -at them, I wonder at our hardihood in assaulting them. It would be hard -to climb through these ditches and into these forts even were no cannon -and no deadly muskets behind them. - -"My regiment is put on duty as a city guard. It now seems strange enough -to be guarding the very town and the very forts we had so recently been -assaulting. There are other troops here, but the Fifth Iowa is the guard -proper. We find the town badly battered up, with terrible signs of war -everywhere. There, too, were the graves of the dead and brave defenders. -If wrong, they still had been brave men." Years afterward, a shaft was -put up to their memory, and on it I read these words: - - "We care not whence they came, - Dear in their lifeless clay, - Whether unknown, or known to fame, - Their cause and country's still the same, - They died, and they wore the gray." - -The weather continued hot while we were there guarding the town, and the -place was very sickly; many citizens and very many colored soldiers -died. It was pitiable to see how little people cared, even our own -soldiers, whether these poor negro soldiers died or lived. Our own -regiment suffered little, yet on July 28 seventy were in the hospital. -We camped at Randolph and Locust streets, and spite of the mercury's -being 100 degrees in the shade, had pleasant soldier times. I mounted -the guard every morning and then spent most of the day reading to the -colonel, who was sick. - -In September I secured a leave of absence to go North. For the only time -during the four years' war I visited my home. I was there but eight -days, half of my time having been lost by the steamer I was on sticking -on sandbars. - -I saw strange sights in the North in those few days--women and children -and old men reaping the fields; home guards training at every village; -cripples and hospitals everywhere. Yet in spite of war prosperity was -blessing the North. - - - - -CHAPTER IX - - Sherman's army floats across the Tennessee River at - midnight--Washington at the Delaware nothing compared to this--We - assault Missionary Ridge--An awful battle--My capture. - - -On my return from my home to my regiment I found it had been transported -to Memphis, where, as a part of General Sherman's army corps, we were -now to make a forced march to relieve Rosecrans' army at Chattanooga. -Chickamauga had been lost. The Union army lying under Lookout Mountain -was starving and its destruction almost certain. We made now the march -of four hundred miles from the Tennessee River, at Florence, in twenty -days, without incident. On the 22d of November, 1863, we beheld the -heights of Lookout Mountain and Missionary Ridge. - -November 23, 1863, and the great battle of Chattanooga was about to -begin. The victorious Rebel army, seventy-five thousand strong, lay -intrenched along the heights of Missionary Ridge and on top of Lookout -Mountain. My regiment was in Sherman's corps that had just hurried -across from Memphis. We had marched twenty miles a day. Now this corps -was to form the left of Grant's forces, cross a deep river in the -darkness, and assault the nearly inaccessible position of Bragg's army. -That night we lay in bivouac in the woods close by the Tennessee River. -We very well knew that 116 rude pontoon boats had been built for us and -were lying hidden in a creek near by. We had almost no rations for the -army. As for the horses and mules, they had already starved to death by -the thousands, and were lying around everywhere. Rosecran's army had -been virtually besieged, and was about to starve or surrender when Grant -came on to the ground and took command. When Sherman's corps got up it -was decided to stake all on a great battle. If defeated, we should -probably all be lost. All the men in Sherman's corps who were to make -the first great assault realized that, and they realized also the danger -we were now to encounter by attempting to cross that rapid river in the -night. - -Midnight came and all were still awake, though quiet in the bivouac. At -two o'clock we heard some quiet splashing in the water. It was the sound -of muffled oars. The boats had come for us. Every man seized his rifle, -for we knew what was coming next. "Quietly, boys, fall in quietly," said -the captains. Spades were handed to many of us. We did not ask for -what, as we knew too well. Quietly, two by two, we slipped down to the -water's edge and stepped into the rude flatboats that waited there. "Be -prompt as you can, boys; there's room for thirty in a boat," said a tall -man in a long waterproof coat who stood on the bank near us in the -darkness. Few of us had ever before heard the voice of our beloved -commander. Sherman's kind words gave us all cheer, and his personal -presence, his sharing the danger we were about to undertake, gave us -confidence. - -In a quarter of an hour a thousand of us were out in the middle of the -river afloat in the darkness. Silent we sat there, our rifles and our -spades across our knees. There was no sound but the swashing of the -water against the boats. We had strange feelings, the chief of which was -probably the thought: Would the enemy on the opposite bank fire into us -and drown us all? Every moment we expected a flash of musketry or a roar -of cannon. We did not know that a ruse had been played on the pickets on -the other side; that a boatload of our soldiers had crossed farther up -and in the darkness caught every one of them without firing a shot. One -only got away. Who knew how soon all of Braggs' army might be alarmed -and upon us? - -In half an hour we were out on the opposite bank and creeping along -through the thicket, a spade in one hand a rifle in the other. What -might happen any moment we knew not. Where was that escaped picket? And -where was Braggs' army? Instantly we formed in line of battle and -commenced digging holes for ourselves. We worked like beavers, turn -about; no spade was idle for one moment. Daylight found us there, two -thousand strong, with rifle pits a mile in length. Other brigades got -over the river, pontoons soon were down; still other troops, whole -divisions, were across, and forty cannon were massed close to the -crossing to protect us. What a sight was that for General Bragg, when he -woke up that morning at his headquarters' perch, on top of Missionary -Ridge! All that day we maneuvered under heavy cannonading and drove the -enemy from hill to hill at our front. Some of the troops did heavy -fighting, but the Rebels only fell back to their great position on the -Ridge. - -That night my regiment stood picket at the front. The ground was cold -and wet, none of us slept a wink, and we were almost freezing and -starving. We had not slept, indeed, for a hundred hours. It had been one -vast strain, and now a battle was coming on. All that night we who were -on the picket line could hear the Rebel field batteries taking position -on Missionary Ridge, to fight us on the morrow. The morning of the 25th -dawned clear and beautiful. Instantly whole divisions of troops -commenced slaughtering each other for the possession of single hills and -spurs. At times the battle in front of Sherman was a hand to hand -encounter. My own brigade was so close that the Rebels even threw stones -down upon us. Over to the far right Hooker's men were in possession of -Lookout Mountain, and were breaking in on the enemy's left flank. - -It was two o'clock when our division, my own regiment with it, received -orders from Sherman to fix bayonets and join in the assault on -Missionary Ridge. General J. E. Smith led the division, and General -Matthies, our former colonel, led the brigade. We had to charge over the -open, and by this time all the cannon in the Rebel army were brought to -bear on the field we had to cross. We emerged from a little wood, and at -that moment the storm of shot and shell became terrific. In front of us -was a rail fence, and, being in direct line of fire, its splinters and -fragments flew in every direction. "Jump the fence, men! tear it down!" -cried the colonel. Never did men get over a fence more quickly. Our -distance was nearly half a mile to the Rebel position. - -We started on a charge, running across the open fields. I had heard the -roaring of heavy battle before, but never such a shrieking of -cannonballs and bursting of shell as met us on that charge. We could -see the enemy working their guns, while in plain view other batteries -galloped up, unlimbered, and let loose at us. Behind us our own -batteries (forty cannon) were firing at the enemy over our heads, till -the storm and roar became horrible. It sounded as if the end of the -world had come. Halfway over we had to leap a ditch, perhaps six feet -wide and nearly as many deep. Some of our regiment fell into this ditch -and could not get out, a few tumbled in intentionally and stayed there. -I saw this, and ran back and ordered them to get out, called them -cowards, threatened them with my revolver; they did not move. Again I -hurried on with the line. All of the officers were screaming at the top -of their voices; I, too, screamed, trying to make the men hear. "Steady! -steady! bear to the right! keep in line! Don't fire! don't fire!" was -yelled till we all were hoarse and till the awful thunder of the cannon -made all commands unheard and useless. - -In ten minutes, possibly, we were across the field and at the beginning -of the ascent of the Ridge. Instantly the blaze of Rebel musketry was in -our faces, and we began firing in return. It helped little, the foe was -so hidden behind logs and stones and little breastworks. Still we -charged, and climbed a fence in front of us and fired and charged again. -Then the order was given to lie down and continue firing. That moment -someone cried, "Look to the tunnel! They're coming through the tunnel." -Sure enough, through a railway tunnel in the mountain the gray-coats -were coming by hundreds. They were flanking us completely. - -"Stop them!" cried our colonel to those of us at the right. "Push them -back." It was but the work of a few moments for four companies to rise -to their feet and run to the tunnel's mouth, firing as they ran. Too -late! an enfilading fire was soon cutting them to pieces. "Shall I run -over there too?" I said to the colonel. We were both kneeling on the -ground close to the regimental flag. He assented. When I rose to my feet -and started it seemed as if even the blades of grass were being struck -by bullets. As I ran over I passed many of my comrades stretched out in -death, and some were screaming in agony. For a few minutes the whole -brigade faltered and gave way. - -Colonel Matthies, our brigade commander, was sitting against a tree, -shot in the head. Instantly it seemed as if a whole Rebel army was -concentrated on that single spot. For a few moments I lay down on the -grass, hoping the storm would pass over and leave me. Lieutenant Miller, -at my side, was screaming in agony. He was shot through the hips. I -begged him to try to be still; he could not. Now, as a second line of -the enemy was upon us, and the first one was returning, shooting men as -they found them, I rose to my feet and surrendered. "Come out of that -sword," shrieked a big Georgian, with a terrible oath. Another grabbed -at my revolver and bellowed at me "to get up the hill quicker than -hell." It was time, for our own batteries were pouring a fearful fire on -the very spot where we stood. I took a blanket from a dead comrade near -me, and at the point of the bayonet I was hurried up the mountain. We -passed lines of infantry in rifle pits and batteries that were pouring a -hail of shells into our exposed columns. Once I glanced back, -and--glorious sight!--I saw lines of bluecoats at our right and center, -storming up the ridge. - -In a few minutes' time I was taken to where other prisoners from my -regiment and brigade were already collected together in a hollow. We -were quickly robbed of nearly everything we possessed and rapidly -started down the railroad tracks toward Atlanta. While we were there in -that little hollow General Breckenridge, the ex-Vice President of the -United States, came in among us prisoners to buy a pair of Yankee -gauntlets. I sold him mine for fifteen dollars (Confederate money). - -General Grant's victorious army was already over the Ridge and in rapid -pursuit. Taking the Ridge and Lookout Mountain cost the Union army well -on to six thousand dead and wounded. The Rebels lost as many, or more, -so that twelve thousand human beings were lying dead, or in agony, that -night among the hills of Chattanooga. Not long before, thirty thousand -had been killed and wounded, on both sides, close to this same Ridge. -Forty-two thousand men shot for the possession of a single position. -_That was war._ - -That night as the guards marched us down the railroad we saw train after -train whiz by loaded with the wounded of the Rebel army. The next day -when they halted us, to bivouac in the woods, we were amazed to see -quite a line of Union men from East Tennessee marching along in -handcuffs. Many of them were old men, farmers, whose only crime was that -they were true to the Union. They were hated ten times worse than the -soldiers from the North. These poor men now were allowed no fire in the -bivouac, and had almost nothing to eat. "They will everyone be shot or -hanged," declared the officer of our guard to me. I do not know what -happened to these poor Tennesseeans. Shortly after, we Northern -prisoners were put aboard cattle cars and started off for Libby Prison -at Richmond, most of us never to see the North or our homes again. - - - - -CHAPTER X - - In Libby Prison--Life there--"Belle Isle"--All prisons bad--The great - escape--"Maryland, My Maryland." - - -The story of Libby Prison at Richmond has been told so often I shall not -dwell on details about it here. Besides, the experiences of one man -there were not materially different from the experiences of another. I -was to stay there some seven months, always in the same room, and -oftenest denied the poor privilege of looking out of the window. Our -lives were to be very wretched there. That is now a thread-worn tale. At -their very best, war prisons in every country are wretched places. One's -friends do not stand guard there; it is our enemies. They are not penal -establishments; they are simply places for keeping captives who, until -in our so-called civilized days, would have been put to death on the -battlefield. - -Our little company of captives from Chattanooga reached Libby Prison -just after daylight of December 8, 1863. As we crossed the big bridge -over the James River we looked down into the stream and saw "Belle -Isle." It was a cold wet sandbar, and there, shivering in the wind, we -saw five thousand ragged and emaciated human beings. They were prisoners -of war. Some of them were from my own regiment. Most of them were never -to see their homes again. The tales of their experiences would stagger -human belief. These were all private soldiers; the commissioned officers -were to be locked up in Libby Prison. - -The old tobacco warehouse of Libby & Son had been transformed into a -monster guardhouse for officers captured from the Federal army. Little -the two old tobacco merchants must have dreamed with what infamy their -names would go down to history, through no fault of their own. - -The big brick building stood close to the James River. It had no glass -in its windows, and the cold wind from the bay swept through its vast -rooms day and night. Six hundred other prisoners were already there on -our arrival, picked up from many battlefields. - -Libby Prison was three stories high and its floors were divided into -several rooms each. The prisoners slept on the floor, with only old army -blankets around them. When thus lying down, the floor was entirely -covered with shivering human beings. Each group of half a dozen men had -extemporized tables, made from old boxes. A few seats were made by -cutting barrels in two. At night the seats, and whatever else might be -there, were piled on top of the tables, while the prisoners stretched -themselves on the floor to try to sleep. In my diary of the time I read: -"The food doled out to us is miserable and scanty in the extreme. A -species of corn bread, ground up cobs and all, and a little rice form -the principal part of the ration. The fact that this bread is burned -black outside and is raw inside renders it more detestable. Occasionally -letters from the North reach us by a flag of truce, and at very rare -intervals a prisoner is allowed to receive a little box of coffee, -sugar, and salt, sent to him by his friends in the North." - -As the time went on this privilege was denied us. The high price of -everything South in the war times was the flimsy excuse for giving the -captured ones so little. - -Prices of provisions were indeed terrible in Richmond. This list I -copied from a Richmond paper, December 20, 1863: Bacon, $3 per pound; -potatoes, $18 per bushel; turkeys, $25 each; sugar, $3 per pound; beef, -$1 per pound; butter, $5 per pound; shad, $34 per pair; whisky, $75 a -gallon. This was in the discounted money of the Confederates. - -The beginning of the new year 1864 came in cold and gloomy. We could -keep warm only by running and jumping and pushing each other about the -prison. I was in the upper east room, and had for messmates Captains -Page and Bascom and Lieutenants Austin and Hoffman, all of my own -regiment. In the little box of provisions sent me by my mother in the -North was a copy of a Latin grammar, put there by good old Professor -Drake, my former school-teacher. Evidently he thought the mind needed -feeding as well as the body. I took the hint and studied the book -faithfully. I recited to Major Marshall, and eight times I went through -this Latin grammar. I had nothing else to do, but Latin is no go on an -empty stomach. When, later, I got out of prison Latin was as strange to -me as if I had never seen a grammar in my life. My memory had been -well-nigh ruined by my confinement. One day, fearing our escape, the -authorities put iron bars on all our windows. They did not think to put -glass in them to keep the cold air out. - -On the night of February 10 occurred the famous escape of one hundred -and nine prisoners. For many weeks certain officers had been missing. -They were in the earth under the prison, digging a tunnel to liberty. -The length of this secret tunnel, dug under the prison, under stone -walls, under the street and under the very feet of the guards, was -eighty-six feet. - -Forty-six nights were consumed in digging it. Only certain of the -prisoners knew anything about it. On the night of the escape I was told -of it. I stood in the dark at an upper window and watched the prisoners -as they came out at the farther end of the tunnel and slipped away. I -did not try to enter the tunnel when I heard of it; there was already -five times as many men in the cellar as could possible get away by -daylight. As it was, a third of those escaping were captured and brought -back again to the prison. - -On the 20th of March some exchanged Confederates were sent into Richmond -under flag of truce. The President, Jefferson Davis, and all the -dignitaries welcomed them. The President also came into Libby Prison one -day, possibly to see with his own eyes and hear with his own ears if all -the terrible tales of hardship and cruelties occurring there were true. -Whatever conclusion he may have reached, the hard lines of our life in -the prison were not visibly altered. They have been told of a hundred of -times. - -All the nights now it was very cold. I had but one blanket. I, like all -the others, slept on the floor, and in my clothes, with my boots under -my head for a pillow. One night,--it was at the close of February, -1864,--we in the prison were greatly excited over a report that Union -cavalry under Generals Kilpatrick and Dahlgren were making a raid on -the city for the purpose of releasing us. It was raining outside, and -very dark, but we were sure we heard the Union cannon close at hand. We -thought the hour of our deliverance had come. Instantly, but secretly, -we organized ourselves into bands to break out and help. - -Soon Major Turner, the prison commander, came into the prison, making -mysterious threats of something awful that would happen should we lift a -single hand. Some negro help about the prison whispered to us all that, -under Turner's direction, they had been compelled to carry thirty kegs -of gunpowder into the cellar of the prison. Rumor said that it was -Turner's intention, if our troops should get into Richmond, to blow up -the prison and destroy us. A horrible plan, if true. Sadly for us, the -great raid proved a failure. Dahlgren was killed, and his body was -mutilated and exposed to an enraged public at one of the railroad depots -in the city. These things were not done by honorable Confederate -soldiers, but by irresponsible home guards and undisciplined rowdies. - -Now we saw no hopes of ever getting away. We would at last all die here, -we thought. The nights seemed colder than ever; perhaps our blood was -getting thinner. Some of us played chess; numbers sat with cards in -their hands from early morning till bedtime. A few, experts with the -knife, made bone rings and the like to sell, and so increased their -rations a little. Generally now the rations were getting poorer, if such -a thing were possible. Many prisoners were breaking down and were -carried out to die. My own health--and I was young and strong--was -beginning to give way. Once I fell on the floor in an utter swoon from -weakness and hunger. From Andersonville, where the private soldiers -were, came the horrible reports that "all were dying." - -One day a lot of Marylanders, most of whom had run through the Union -lines from Baltimore, were organized into a battalion called "The -Maryland Line." They were led by Marshall Wilder. They were marched past -the prison, singing "Maryland, My Maryland." It was the first time I -ever heard the song sung by Southerners. The music seemed to stir the -whole city.[A] - - [A] Years afterwards I wrote a song to this music myself ("The Song - of Iowa"). To this day it is well known, and has become the official - State song. - -Great battles were being fought in Virginia, and sometimes Grant's -soldiers approached close to Richmond. Before daylight of May 7 our -captors, fearing mutiny and escape, placed all the prisoners in cattle -cars and hurried us across the Confederacy to Macon, Ga. For seven -long, dreary, awful months I had been in one room in Libby Prison, with -little to eat or wear. It all seems a horrible dream as I write of it -now. - -Now there were rumors that we were to be taken to a prison farther -South. - - - - -CHAPTER XI - - Escaping from Macon--An adventure in Atlanta--In the disguise of a - Confederate soldier--My wanderings inside the Confederate army and - what I experienced there--I am captured as a spy--How I got out of - it all. - - -I have related how suddenly we prisoners were hurried from Libby Prison -in Richmond to the town of Macon in Georgia. - -It was now the hot summer of 1864, that summer when Sherman, only a -hundred and fifty miles from our prison, was having a battle every day. -He was marching and fighting his way to Atlanta. Seven hundred of us, -all Federal officers, were now penned up in a hot stockade. I copy a -page from my diary: - -"The walls here at Macon prison are twelve feet high. Sentries are -posted near the top of them on a platform running around the outside. -Their orders are to shoot any prisoners seen approaching the dead line. -This dead line is simply marked off by an occasional stake, and is -twelve feet inside the surrounding wall. It is fearfully hot here inside -this stockade. The ground is pure sand, reflecting the sun's rays -powerfully. We had no cover of any kind at first, save the blankets -stretched over pine sticks. It is as hot here at Macon as it was cold at -Libby Prison." - -We tried digging a tunnel by which to escape. It was four feet under -ground and seventy-five feet long. It was barely ready when some spy -revealed it, and our chance was lost. For my own part, I was determined -to get away. The food was now again horrible, and all kinds of -indignities and insults were heaped upon the prisoners. One night during -a hard rain I attempted to escape through a washout under the stockade. -I remained by the spot till nearly midnight, not knowing that I was -being watched every moment. As I was about to give up the attempt and go -away Captain Gesner, of a New York regiment, came to the little brook -for a cup of water. The guard who had been watching me then fired, and -Gesner dropped dead. They came in with lanterns to see who had been -killed, and the guard who had fired related how he had watched the man -for nearly two hours trying to escape. I did not dare say that it was I, -not poor Gesner, who had been trying to get away. - -Now I contemplated, too, a different means of escape. It was to get a -Rebel uniform, escape from the stockade by some means, and enter the -Rebel army in disguise, trusting my chance to get away during the first -battle. - -There was but one gate or door to the stockade, and this door was kept -constantly closed. It was guarded by a sentinel who stood, gun in hand, -immediately above it while a corporal stood watch below. Once a day a -few guards and officers entered this door, closed it behind them, and -formed us into lines for counting. I had studied a small map of the -country for days, and by dint of trading tobacco, etc., with an -occasional guard who was dying for the weed I acquired, piece by piece, -a pretty decent Rebel uniform. This I kept buried in the sand where I -slept. July 15, 1864, came around. My term of enlistment expired that -day. I had been in the Union army three years; was it not a good time to -give the Rebels a trial? There were a few old sheds not far from the -gate, and in one of these one morning about nine o'clock I waited with a -friend, and saw the sergeants and the guards come in, when the bell -rang, to count the prisoners. I had resurrected my Rebel uniform and had -quietly slipped it on. It fitted amazingly. My friend was lingering -there, simply to see what would become of me. He has often declared -since then that he expected me to be shot the moment I should approach -the dead-line. - -The prisoners were some way off, in rows, being counted. I stepped from -under cover and quickly walked up to and over the dead-line by the gate. -The guard walking above brought his gun from his shoulder, halted, and -looked at me. I paid no attention, but knocked, when the door opened, -and the corporal stepped in the opening and asked what I wanted. "The -lieutenant misses a roll-list, and I must run out and bring it from -headquarters," I answered, pushing by him hurriedly. There was no time -for questions, and the corporal, before getting over his surprise, had -passed me out as a Rebel sergeant. I quickly turned the corner, passed a -number of "Johnnies" sitting on the grass drinking coffee and went -straight up to the commandent's tent, near the edge of the wood, but did -not go in. I had not looked behind me once, but expected every moment to -hear a bullet whizzing after me. I passed behind the tent, walked slowly -into the wood, and then ran my best for an hour. - -I was outside of prison. How free, how green, how beautiful all things -seemed! It was the joy of years in a few minutes. Of course I was -instantly missed at the roll-call, and bloodhounds were soon upon my -track. I avoided them, however, by different maneuvers. I changed my -course, shortly repassed the prison pen on the opposite side, and went -back and up into the city of Macon. After wandering through its streets -for an hour I again took to the woods. That night I slept in a swamp of -the Ocmulgee River. What bedfellows I had!--frogs, lizards, bats, and -alligators. But it was better than the inside of a war prison. All the -next day I lay in a blackberry patch, fearing to move, but feasting on -the luscious, ripe berries. What a contrast it was to my previous -starving! Never in this world shall I enjoy food so again. - -Near to me was a watering-station for the railway to Atlanta. As I lay -in the bushes I heard trains halting all the day. With night came a -glorious moon. Such a flood of heaven's own light I had never seen -before. By ten at night a long, empty train halted, and in two minutes I -had sprung from the bushes and was inside of an empty freight car. In -ten minutes more I stood in the door of the car watching the fair farms -and the hamlets of Georgia sleeping under the glorious moonlight, while -I was being hurled along heaven knew where. - -That was the strangest ride of my life. The conductor came along when we -were near Atlanta, swinging his lantern into the cars, and found a -strange passenger. He threatened all sorts of things if my fare were not -paid, of course I had no money, but I put myself on my dignity, told him -I was a convalescent soldier coming back from a furlough, and dared him -or any other civilian to put me off the train. That ended the colloquy, -and just before daylight the whistle screamed for Atlanta, and I was -inside the lines of Hood's army. - -I left the train and in a few moments was tucked away in the haymow of a -barn near the station. So far, good; but daylight brought a squad of -Rebel cavalry into the barn, who, to my dismay, soon commenced climbing -up to the mow for hay for their horses. My presence of mind was about -leaving me utterly when I happened to notice an empty sugar hogshead in -the corner of the mow. Before the Rebels were up I was in it, and there -I sat and perspired for six mortal hours. Those hours were days, every -one of them. All of this time Sherman's army, then besieging Atlanta, -was throwing shells into our neighborhood. At last, at last! the Rebels -saddled their horses and rode out of the barnyard. - -I was not long in changing my headquarters. For days and days I walked -up and down Atlanta among the troops, to the troops, away from the -troops, always moving, always just going to the regiment, to which I had -attached myself as ordnance sergeant. I was very careful, however, to -keep far away from that particular regiment. I knew its position, its -chief officers, knew, in fact, the position of every brigade in Hood's -army. It was to my interest, under the circumstances, to know them well, -for I was continually halted with such exclamations as, "Hallo! which -way? Where's your regiment? What you doing away over here?" A hundred -times I was on the point of being arrested and carried to my alleged -command. For every man I met I had a different tale, to suit the -circumstances. At night I slept where I could--under a tree, behind a -drygoods box; it made little difference, as my lying down on the ground, -hungry, pillowless, and blanketless, and fearing every moment to be -arrested, could not be called sleeping. This life was growing monotonous -at last; the more so as, aside from an occasional apple, I had nothing -at all to eat. - -About the fifth day I overheard an old Irishman, hoeing among his -potatoes, bitterly reviling the war to his wife. I made his acquaintance -and discovered our sentiments as to the rebellion to be very nearly -identical. Under the most tremendous of oaths as to secrecy, I told who -I was and that I was absolutely starving. If he would help me, I knew -how to save his property when Sherman's army should enter. That it would -enter, and that Atlanta would be razed to the ground, and every human -being's throat cut, he had not a doubt. Still, if detected in secreting -or feeding me, he would be hanged from his own door-post. There was no -doubting that, either. - -However, that night I slept in his cellar and was fed with more than the -crumbs from his table. It was arranged that I should wander about the -army day-times, and come to his cellar--unknown to him, of course--about -ten every night, when his family were likely to be in bed. The outside -door was to be left unlocked for me. Prisoners did not carry timepieces -in the South. Mine disappeared with my pistols on the battlefield of -Chattanooga, and as an unfortunate result I went to my den in the cellar -an hour too early one evening. None of my protector's family seemed to -have been aware of the guest in the cellar. - -I was sitting quietly in a corner of the dark, damp place when the -trap-door opened above and a young lady, bearing a lamp, descended and -seemed to be searching for something. It was a romantic -situation--destined to be more so. Groping about the cellar, the young -lady approached me. I moved along the wall to avoid her. She unluckily -followed. I moved farther again. She followed, cornered me, screamed at -the top of her voice, dropped the lamp, and fainted. In half a minute -three soldiers who had happened to be lunching upstairs, the old lady, -and my friend, her husband, rushed down the steps, armed with lights. -The old gentleman recognized me and was in despair. I think I too was in -despair, but, rightfully or wrongfully, I took to my heels and escaped -through the door which I had entered, leaving the fainting girl, the -despairing father, and the astonished soldiers to arrange matters as -they might. The girl recovered, I learned years afterward, and her -father's house was one of the few that escaped the flames when Sherman -started to the sea. - -From that night on I slept again at the roadsides, and as for rations, I -might say I did not have any. The weather was terribly hot, but I spent -my days wandering from regiment to regiment and from fort to fort, -inspecting the positions and the works. I knew if I did get through, all -this would be equal to any army corps for Sherman. - -Once I crept into a little deserted frame house and, happening to find -an old white palmetto hat there, I changed it for my own, on account of -the heat. I then laid my Rebel jacket and cap under the boards and, -fastening my pantaloons up with a piece of broad red calico that -happened to be with the hat, sallied out, seeing what I could see. I -very soon saw more than I had calculated on. I had wandered well off to -the right of the army and was quietly looking about when a squad of -cavalry dashed in, shouting, "The Yankees are on us!" There was a -regiment of infantry close by, which sprang to its feet, and every man -in sight was ordered to seize a gun and hurry to the front. I, too, was -picked up, and before I had time to explain that I was just going over -to my division a gun was in my hands and I was pushed into the line. The -whole force ran for a quarter of an hour into the woods, firing as they -ran, and shouting. Suddenly, as a few shots were fired into us, we -stopped and formed line of battle. - -The skirmish was soon over. Some cavalry had flanked the Yanks and -brought them in, and while their pockets were being gone through with by -my fellow-soldiers I slipped to the rear, and was glad to get back into -my own cap and jacket. - -I lay in the little empty house that night. Sherman's army had been -banging at the city fearfully, and setting houses on fire all night. It -was a little revenge, I presume, for the losses in the skirmish in which -I had taken so picturesque a part. These shelled houses had emptied -their occupants into the street, and a little after daylight I noticed a -family, with its worldly baggage piled on a one-mule wagon, stop in -front of my residence. "Here's a house out of range of bullets. Why not -move in?" I heard a manly voice call to the women and children, -following with the traps. "Move in," I thought to myself. "Well, they -can stand it, if I can." The house consisted of but one large room, -unceiled, and reaching to the rafters, with the exception of a small -compartment, finished off and ceiled, in one corner. On top of this -little compartment were my headquarters. - -In they moved, bag and baggage, and the women folks soon commenced -preparing a meal outside, under the shadows of the front door. This -half-finished room had been used as a butcher shop in the past, it -seemed, and the meat hooks in the corner had served me as a ladder to -mount to my perch on the ceiling. "Now, Johnny," chirped the wife, "do -run uptown and buy some red and white muslin. We will make a Union flag, -and when Sherman gits in, as he's bound to, we're jest as good Union -folks as he is. You know I'm dyin' for real coffee. I'm tired of chicory -and Injun bread, and I don't keer if Sherman's folks is in to-morrow. -We'll draw government rations, and be Union." - -These good people were probably "poor trash" of the South, not caring -much which way the war went provided they could get rations. Their -general talk, however, was of the real Rebel character, and it was an -unsafe place for me to stop in. In an hour the banquet before the front -door was prepared, and all hands went out to partake. Soon they were -joined by a Rebel soldier, who seemed to be on a half-hour's furlough -to visit the young lady of the party, whom I took to be his sweetheart. -Sherman's army, I was sorry to learn from this soldier, was being simply -"mowed out of existence." "All the woods about Atlanta were as a reeking -corpse." Sherman himself was in flight northward. - -By looking more closely through a chink in the weather-boarding of my -hiding-place I discovered that he was reading all this dreadful -information from a Copperhead newspaper from Chicago, and then I felt -easier. - -Again, there was the talk about money purses made of Yankee's scalps and -finger rings from Yankee bones; and during the dinner I was no little -astonished to see this valiant Southerner exhibit to his eager listeners -a veritable ring, rough and yellow, made, as he said, from the bones of -one of Sherman's cavalrymen. This was probably brag. - -The banquet of cucumbers, chicory, and Injun bread was about -terminating. My soldier with the ring had used up his furlough and was -gone. The house was still empty, and it was now, or never, if I proposed -getting down from my perch without alarm. My plan was silently to climb -down the meat hooks which I had ascended and to slip out at the still -open back door of the house. On peeping over the edge of the ceiling, -however, what was my amazement to see a bull-dog of immense proportions -tied to one of my hooks! - -Here was a "situation"! He was sound asleep, but had an amiable -countenance. I dropped a bit of plaster on his nose. He looked up -amazed, and smiled. Then I smiled, and then he smiled again; and then I -carefully crept down, patted him on the head, said good-by in a whisper, -and in a twinkling was out at the back door. My gratitude to this dog is -boundless. - -I had found it unsafe to be about houses, and again I took my lodgings -in the field. Again I was busy, just _going to my division_, but never -getting there. Once, near the sacred quarters of a brigadier, the guard -arrested me. I protested, and our loud talk brought the brigadier to the -rescue. I explained how I was "just going to my regiment," and how my -pass had been lost, and the necessity of my going on at once. The -brigadier took in the situation at a glance, and with a pencil wrote me -a pass, good for that day. - -Fighting was going on about Atlanta constantly, but with so many -apparent reverses to our arms that I feared I should never get away. - -The memorable 22d of July came, and with it the most terrific fighting -on Hood's right, and in fact all round the semi-circle about the city. A -division, with my Alabama regiment, entered the battle on Hood's right -wing, and I followed, at a safe distance, as an ordnance sergeant. -Everybody was too busy and excited to ask me questions, and in the hope -that Hood would be defeated and an opportunity for getting through the -lines be at last presented, I was feeling good. Hundreds, thousands -possibly, of wounded men fell back by me, but all shouting, "The Yankees -are beaten, and McPherson is killed." - -It was too true! McPherson had fallen and, if reports were correct, -Sherman's army had met with an awful disaster. For me, there was nothing -left but to get back to the rear and try another direction. I knew that -Sherman's advance was at the ford, at Sandtown, on the Chattahoochie -River, at our left. Could I only get there, I might still be saved. I -had now been seen among the Rebel forts and troops so much that there -was the greatest danger of my being recaptured, and shot as a spy. On -the night of the 22d I took refuge under a hedge, near to a field -hospital. - -No food and no sleep for days was killing me. Still there was no rest, -for all the night long I heard the groans of the poor fellows whose arms -and legs were being chopped off by the surgeons. The whole night was -simply horrible. I might have died there myself; I wonder that I did -not. Only the hope of escape was keeping me alive. I had not eaten a -pound of food in days. - -Daylight of the 23d came. It was my birthday. Auspicious day, I thought, -and again my hopes gave me strength and courage to work my way past -lines of infantry and cavalry. - -All day, till nearly sunset, I had crept around in the woods, avoiding -sentinels, and now I was almost in sight of the longed-for goal. It was -not a mile to the ford. When darkness set in I should swim the river and -be a free man. More, I had news that would help Sherman's army to -capture Atlanta. A thousand pictures of home, of freedom, peace, were -painting themselves in my mind. One hour more, and all would be well. - -Hark! a shot, and then a call to halt and hold up my arms. I was -surrounded in a moment by fifty cavalrymen who had been secreted in the -bushes--how or where I know not. We were in sight of the river, and the -Union flag was just beyond. It was no use here to talk about being a -Confederate. I was arrested as a spy, and in great danger of being shot -then and there, without a hearing. I was partly stripped, searched -thoroughly, and then marched between two cavalrymen to General Ross, of -Texas, who, with his staff, was also at a hidden point in the woods. -General Ross treated me kindly and gave me lunch and a blanket to rest -on. It was his duty, however, to send me to the division headquarters, -to be tried. I was again marched till nine at night, when I was turned -over to General H----. He was sitting by a fire in the woods roasting -potatoes and reviling the Yankees. As I was arrested as a spy, and to be -tried, I deemed it best to say nothing. "Try to escape from me tonight," -shouted General H----, as if he were commanding an army corps, "and I'll -put you where there is no more 'scaping." Through the whole night a -soldier sat at my head with a cocked pistol, but for the first time in -days I slept soundly. Why not? The worst had happened. By daylight a -guard marched me up to the city, where Hood had army headquarters in the -yard of a private residence. - -On the way there my guard, a mere boy, was communicative, and I -persuaded him to show me the paper that was being sent around with me, -from one headquarters to another. I read it. Sure enough, I was -considered a spy, and was being forwarded for trial. The paper gave the -hour and place of my capture, with the statement that one of those -capturing me had seen me inspecting a fort on the previous Sunday. - -When we reached Hood's tents, in the dooryard of the Atlanta mansion, I -was turned over to a new guard, and the document brought with me was -carelessly thrown into an open pigeon-hole of a desk out on the grass by -a clerk who seemed too much disturbed about other matters to ask where -the guard came from or what I was accused of. I, at least, noticed where -the paper was put. There was the most tremendous excitement at -headquarters. Orderlies and officers were dashing everywhere at once, -fighting was constantly going on, and an immediate retreat seemed to be -determined. I was left that night in a tent with a few other prisoners, -among them two deserters, sentenced to be shot. Close by on the lawn was -the desk where the clerk had deposited my paper. Our guard was very -accommodating, or very negligent, for he allowed different persons to go -in and out from our tent at all hours during the night. Daylight brought -the provost-marshal general to the tent, to dispose of the prisoners. -The name of each was called, and all but myself were taken out, heard, -and sent off. - -"And who are you?" he said, pleasantly enough to me. I stepped forward. -The clerk was asked for the paper, but it was gone. "It certainly had -been misplaced," said the clerk, in embarrassment. He had put it in that -particular pigeon-hole. I testified to that myself, and added,--this -sudden inspiration coming to me in the emergency,--that "it was of -little consequence, as it was from an officer,--I didn't know whom,--who -had simply picked me up as an escaped prisoner." The provost-marshal -took me aside and asked me if I had been about the works or the troops -any. I told him my name, that I was really an escaped prisoner, and that -I had just walked up from Macon and had hoped to get away. "You have had -a hard time of it," he said, "and I almost wish you had got away. I hope -you will soon be free," he added, "and that the cruel war is almost -over." It was a sudden and great relief to me to know that now I was not -to be regarded as a spy. What became of the "papers" and the charges -against me afterward in the midst of war excitements, I never knew. The -next night the provost-marshal sent me under guard back to Macon prison -whence I had escaped. - - - - -CHAPTER XII - - Under fire of our own guns at Charleston--Trying to capture a railway - train--The secret band--Betrayed--The desolation of Charleston. - - -I was scarcely returned to the Macon prison again when two hundred of -us, all officers, were selected to be placed under the fire from our -navy then bombarding Charleston. By some wonderful fiction of military -law the "Confederates," as the Rebels called themselves, pretended to -regard the bombardment of Charleston as a crime. I do not remember now -how the selection of victims to be sent to Charleston was made one -evening about the end of July, 1864. This, however, happened that night, -to add adventure and excitement to the Charleston trip. The greater -number of those selected were members of a "Secret Band" of prisoners -who had resolved to mutiny or to do any act in our power that could -result in our escape from captivity. I recall how Major Marshall one -afternoon secretly administered to me the oath of this desperate band. -With my hand on my heart I swore to instantly obey every order given to -me by the "head captain." I was to ask no questions, but to strike, -whenever told; to kill, no matter whom, even were my own brother to be -the victim. I was ready to do anything. I had been mistreated and -starved long enough. Death could be little worse than all of us had been -undergoing for months. The news coming to us from our prison comrades at -Andersonville was perfectly horrible. History had never related the like -of it. We received the _Telegraph_, a Macon newspaper, into the prison -pen every morning. At the head of one of its columns each day the editor -reported the awful number of poor starving creatures who had died at -Andersonville the day before. It was not unlike the reports of the -number of dumb beasts killed each day in the Chicago slaughter pens. -Pretty soon I learned that the eighty comrades of my regiment captured -with me at Missionary Ridge were nearly every one dead. The details of -their sufferings were too horrible to dilate upon. WE WONDERED SOMETIMES -IF GOD HAD FORSAKEN THE WORLD. - -We who joined the "Band," and took the awful oath we did, knew what it -all meant. Outside our stockade loaded cannon waited but the least alarm -to fire upon us. On top of the stockade guards walked day and night with -orders to instantly kill any prisoner who should approach within twelve -feet of the high wall. We were only eight hundred prisoners all told, -and nothing to fight with but naked hands. Outside whole regiments armed -to the teeth lay with guns in their hands waiting to destroy every one -of us should we offer to escape. What was our chance? Almost nothing; or -if anything, death! Still we resolved to try. - -Then came that night when we were to get on the cars and start for -Charleston. Instantly the word was passed along for every member of the -secret "Band" to quietly arm himself with a short club, made from our -bunks and sheds, and to keep it hid under his coat or blanket. Now we -were counted and put into a train of box cattle cars. Twenty-five -prisoners were in a car, and in the side door of each car stood a guard -with his loaded musket. We who were not leaders of the "Band" wondered -what desperate thing we were about to try. I do not know where the tools -came from, but when the train was well in motion, and the noise deadened -our movements, a big hole, large enough to permit a man to creep -through, was knocked in the end of each car. The darkness, the crowd in -the cars and the noise prevented the guards knowing what was going on. -This was the first "_vestibule_" railroad train ever made. - -Shortly now one of our leaders came creeping along from car to car, and -in a low voice he told us what was about to happen. The train on its way -to Charleston would halt close to the sea at a little town called -Pocotaligo. We knew that some ships of the Union navy lay out in the -water there, scarce a dozen miles away. The design was to seize on our -guards as we reached the village, disarm them, kill them, if necessary, -ditch the train, destroy the road and the telegraph, and then escape to -the ships. I think not a soul of us doubted the likelihood of our -success. We would be free men on the morrow if all went well. It would -be two or three o'clock in the night when the train would pass the point -of action. Every one of us had his club and his pocket knife in his hand -ready to strike. At the proper moment Colonel ----, our leader, with -three comrades, was to spring through the end of the front car where he -was, onto the tender, seize the engineer and fireman and wave a lantern -violently as a signal for us to suddenly lay hold of every Rebel soldier -on the train. Ten miles out from Pocotaligo our hearts beat in terrible -excitement. No one spoke; we only waited. It was silence, all save the -rumbling of the car wheels. So far our guards seemed in perfect -ignorance of the approaching danger. Five miles out, so sure were we of -success, a few began to act without waiting for the signal. In one or -two of the cars the guards had been suddenly seized and their muskets -were in our hands. In the car where I was, one of the astonished guards, -finding himself without a gun, coolly said: "And what are you 'uns going -to do with we 'uns?" It was a tremendous moment, as the train sped along -in the dark. Three miles to Pocotaligo; two miles; one mile. With quick -beating heart I leaned from our car door, straining my eyes for the -lantern signal. Then the whistle blew loudly, but the train only -hastened its speed, and in two minutes, instead of stopping, we shot -past the station at lightning speed. - -What had happened? Were we discovered? Not a signal had been given to -us. In the morning we were all hurried inside the jail yard of -Charleston. Now we knew it all. At the crucial moment our leader _had -lost his nerve_ and _become a coward_; or had he betrayed us? He had not -waved the lantern, though he had captured it, and held it in his hand. -We were now much alarmed as to what would be done with us for seizing -the guards. We might lose our lives. Colonel ----, the false leader, was -taken to another prison to save him from being torn to pieces by his own -comrades. - -The newspapers of Charleston that morning contained flaming articles, -describing how a terrible catastrophe had been averted by the cowardice -or treason of one man. Where they got the details of the proposed -capture of the train, no one will ever know. Was the leader simply a -coward, or was he paid for betraying us? - -After a while we were transferred to what was called the "Roper -Hospital." It was close to the jail, and the danger of being killed by -the shells from our own fleet was still very great, though, in fact, few -of us were hurt. The yellow fever was to be a greater scourge than -Yankee cannon. - -Our fleet officers had learned the locality where the prisoners were -guarded, and fired their shells mostly in other directions. It was a -grand spectacle at night--the soaring through the heavens of so many -blazing bombshells and their bursting in the city. Parts of Charleston -that we could see were perfect pictures of desolation; whole quarters -stood in black ruins and uninhabited. The weather was exceedingly hot, -and the yellow fever broke out and raged fearfully among both prisoners -and guards. It seemed as if we should all die there. At last they -transported us away to a little open field in the woods, close to the -town of Columbia, the capital of South Carolina. - -The surgeon of the prison camp at Charleston was Dr. Todd, a brother of -President Lincoln's wife. A more rabid Secessionist was nowhere to be -found. It was a curious situation, that the brother-in-law of the great -President should be so attached to the country's opponents. - -On our way to the prison at Columbia Major Marshall of my regiment and -two captains escaped from the train and reached the North by tramping at -night through the mountains of North Carolina and Tennessee. They had -horrible experiences for many weeks. - - - - -CHAPTER XIII - - Living in a grave--An adventure in the woods of South Carolina--Life - in the asylum yard at the capital of South Carolina--The song of - "Sherman's March to the Sea"--How it came to be written--Final - escape--The burning up of South Carolina's capital. - - -Now we were near the capital of South Carolina. It is our third prison. -We were placed in a cleared field among the pine woods, a few miles from -the town. Here we spent a part of a terrible winter exposed to the storm -and rain. We had no shelter save such as we made at last of sticks and -logs that we were allowed to carry in from the neighboring wood. Our -food was wretched, we had almost no clothing, and the weather was very -bad nearly all the time. We were surrounded by a line of guards. A -battery constantly in readiness to fire on us should an alarm be given -stood near by. Our food was still the half-cooked corn and cobs -together, with quantities of a poor and sickly sorghum molasses. We -heard that the Rebel army was living little better than we were. In -ridicule of the rations the prisoners dubbed this prison pen "Camp -Sorghum." Every man among us was sick with diarrhoea. The little -grave-yard for the prisoners near by grew rapidly. The details of our -life in this miserable camp I shall not relate. They were simply too -horrible. As for myself,--my only shelter was a hole in the ground, four -feet deep, four feet wide and eight feet long. It was covered with -boughs and earth. Lieutenant Morris and myself occupied this living -grave for months. We had a tiny fire-place of clay built in the end of -it, where we burned roots, and the long rainy nights we two sat there -alone, reading an old newspaper by our root-light or talking of our -far-away homes. One very stormy night our water-soaked roof fell in on -us, and then we were compelled to walk about in the rain. I wonder now -that any soul survived the miseries of that camp. Valley Forge was -paradise compared to it. But all this misery was a part of war. - -Naturally, numbers ran the guard lines at this woeful prison pen and -escaped into the woods. Firing by the sentinels on these escaping -prisoners was a common occurrence on dark nights. Here and there an -officer was killed, and sometimes under circumstances that marked the -sentinel a common murderer. A battery of loaded cannons stood outside -the guard line, with orders to open on the prisoners should five musket -shots be heard. With the constant escaping of prisoners at night these -five fatal shots could occur at any hour. - -For my own part, I resolved to again attempt escape, but my efforts -failed again, and twice in succession. I recall with a shudder how one -night late in November my friend, Lieutenant Ecking of New York, was -foully murdered. He had bribed a guard to let two or three of us run -across the line that night at midnight. The bribe was to consist of a -silver watch. Some of these men were easily bribed. They were not -regular Confederate soldiers, but usually cowardly home guards, who -regarded the murdering of a helpless prisoner a heroic act. - -When midnight came three of us were secreted close to the dead line. As -soon as the bribed sentinel came to his post and commenced walking up -and down his beat Lieutenant Ecking rose and approached him. The night -was clear moonlight. The moment Ecking had crossed the dead line, and -was holding the watch up to the guard, the coward shot him dead. For -this outrage the home guard received a furlough. - -About this time, too, Lieutenant Turbayne was murdered by a guard for -mistaking the ringing of a bell. Some of us had been permitted to go out -on parole and carry in wood at stated times. Without notice, this -privilege was suspended, but the bellman, by mistake, rang as usual. -Turbayne started for the dead line. "Go back, halt!" shouted a sentinel. -Turbayne turned to obey, but was instantly shot in the back and dropped -dead. There was a furious commotion among the prisoners. The guards, -too, collected about the spot. The Rebel officer in charge left his -lunch and walked over also. He held in his hand a great piece of pumpkin -pie, and continued eating from it as he stood there by the corpse of the -man they had murdered. There was almost a mutiny in the prison camp, and -one proper leader at that moment would have put an end to the whole -Rebel outfit. In the end it would have been death to the whole of us. - -Previous to this threatened outbreak I had again tried my own chance at -escaping. It was now November 4, 1864, a cold blustering day, and the -prisoners in their rags and almost barefooted stood and shivered in the -naked field. At four o'clock a dozen were paroled and allowed to go out -to the woods and carry in some fuel. - -Lieutenant Fritchie and myself managed to mix ourselves among this -little paroled company, and forgot to return to the enclosure. We helped -a little in the fuel getting, and then suddenly disappeared in the pine -forests. For some days we crept about in the great pine woods, scarcely -knowing our direction or where we were going. Our leaving had been so -sudden that we were planless. Here and there we stumbled onto a darkey, -who never hesitated to bring us corn hoe cake or whatever eatables he -might happen to have in his cabin. The slaves universally were the -prisoners' friends, and they knew a hundred times more about the war and -its object than their plantation masters ever supposed. Many an escaping -prisoner was fed by them and, with the north star as a guide, conducted -to safety. Many an army movement was made possible by loyal negroes. -Barring an occasional Union white man, they were the only friends the -soldiers had in the South. - -Lieutenant Fritchie and I had some queer adventures while we wandered -about the woods of South Carolina during this little leave of absence -from the Confederates. We did not see a single white man, save one, and -he tried to shoot us. One night we lodged in an open-topped corn-crib, -not knowing in the darkness that we were quite close to an inhabited -farmhouse. When daylight came we peeped over the corn-crib and were much -astonished to see a woman at her wash-tub on the back porch of a cabin -close by. She must have seen our heads, for that very moment she stopped -her washing and entered the cabin. Shortly she appeared again, followed -by a man, who took one long steady look at the corn-crib; then he -entered the cabin, and we knew it was to get his gun. Very quick -resolution and action on our part became advisable. A little plowed -field only separated our corn-crib, at the back, from a thick piece of -woods. In a moment the man was out again on the porch, bearing a musket. - -"Drop to the ground behind the crib and run to the woods," said -Fritchie. "I'll keep watch on the man. I'll drop down too. When you are -across wave your hand if he is not coming, and then I'll run." In a -moment's time I was running across the plowed field, keeping the crib -between me and the porch of the cabin. The man with the musket never saw -me. I waved to Fritchie; he, too, started on the run, and to this hour I -laugh to myself when I picture to my mind Fritchie, a short, stumpy -fellow, tumbling absolutely heels over head in his haste to cover that -bit of plowed ground. - -Very shortly we heard bloodhounds bellowing. We knew too well what that -meant. Numbers of escaping prisoners had been torn to pieces by them. -That was the common way of catching runaway slaves and prisoners of war -down South. They hunt "niggers" that way to-day down there. - -By hard running, turns and counter-turns, and frequent crossing and -recrossing little streams, we threw the dogs off our track, and slept -until night in the thicket. The wind blew hard and cold that night, and -as we stood secreted under a thorn-tree by the roadside two men passed, -so close we could have touched them. Something told us they, too, were -escaping prisoners. We tried to attract their attention enough to be -sure. One of us spoke, scarcely more than whisper. Instantly and in -alarm the two men bounded away like scared wolves. Days afterward we -found out that they had been not only fleeing prisoners, but were, -indeed, two of our personal friends. - -The next night was fair, and a full round moon lighted up the sandy -desert with its oasis of tall, immense pine trees. The white winding -road of sand that seemed to have been abandoned for a hundred years was -almost trackless. Here and there, too, we saw an abandoned turpentine -camp, the spiles still in the trees and the troughs lying rotting at -their feet. - -There was nothing but silence there, and loneliness, and moonlight. Here -in the quiet night, if anywhere in the world, two poor escaping -prisoners of war would be in no danger of a foe. - -For hours we trudged along, going where we knew not, when suddenly to -our amazement two mounted cavalrymen stood right in our way and called -to us to surrender. There was nothing to do but to obey. Our capture -had been an accident. These two officers, a captain and a lieutenant, -had been riding the country trying to catch some deserters from their -army and had blundered on to us. They started with us to Lexington jail, -some miles away. The captain rode a dozen yards or so ahead, with a -revolver in his hand. I trudged along in the sand at his side, -faithfully hanging on to his stirrup strap. The lieutenant and Fritchie -followed us in a like manner in the moonlight. It seems to have been a -romantic occasion, when I think of it now; we two Federals and these two -Confederates, there alone in the moonlight, and the big pine trees and -the white sands about. I could not help reflecting, though, how many a -captured prisoner had never been accounted for. Possibly we should never -see Lexington jail. It would be an easy thing for these men to leave our -bodies there in the sand somewhere. There were few words at first as we -plodded our slow way in the moonlight. At last my captain and I entered -into lively conversation about the South in general, and then both of us -hoped the war would soon come to an end. To my surprise the young -captain confided to me that he was, at heart, a Union man. "And why in -the Confederate army?" I asked, in astonishment. "Because," said the -captain, "everybody in my village in South Carolina is. I would have -been hooted to death had I remained at home. My father is a rich man; he -is opposed to the war, but he, too, is in the service at Richmond." - -"Under the circumstances," I said, "I being Union, and you being Union, -why not look the other way a moment and let me try the time required to -reach yonder clump of trees." "No, not a thought of it," he answered -almost hotly. "You are my prisoner, I will do my duty." The subject was -dropped, and in half an hour Fritchie and I were inside a stone cell in -Lexington jail. "You can lie down on the stone floor and sleep if you -want to," the jailer said, crustily. The two young officers said a -cheery good-by and went away. - -Before daybreak the door of our cell opened again and the gruff jailer -called, "Which of you is Adjutant Byers." Then he pushed a basket and -blanket in to me, and a little note. The basket was full of good warm -food and the little note, in a woman's hand, said: "With the compliments -of the captain's wife." - -I think tears came to the eyes of both of us there in that cell that -night. It was among the few kindnesses I ever experienced in the -Confederacy. Of course it was a woman's act. The captain had gone to his -home near by and told his wife about his prisoners, and here was the -remembrance. The world is not so bad after all, we said to each other, -Fritchie and I. - -The next day the jailer paraded us out in the corridor, and I think all -the people in the county came to see us, to remark on us, and touch us -with their hands. Most of these men, women, and children had absolutely -never seen a Northern man before, and a Yankee soldier was a greater -curiosity than a whole menagerie of polar bears. I saw the ignorance of -the "poor white trash" of the South that day. Not one in twenty of them -knew what the war was about. The negroes had a more intelligent notion -of affairs than did the people of the Carolinas. - -In a few days Fritchie and I were conducted back to our prison pen near -Columbia, South Carolina. - -Shortly they moved us once more. This time to the high-walled yard of -the lunatic asylum, inside the city. As they marched us through the -streets we could see how beautiful the little capital of South Carolina -was. It had handsome shops and residences, and beautiful shade trees -everywhere gave it a most attractive appearance. It was almost the best -known city of the South and here the fatal heresy of secession had been -born. As we went along the streets a mob of people gathered around us, -hooting and hissing their hatred at us, just as they had done that -first time we were taken through the town. A few wanted the guards to -give them a chance to hang us. It was a sorry sight--this band of -ragged, helpless, hungry loyalists being led like slaves and animals -through the hooting, threatening crowd. That mob, thirsting for our -blood, did not dream what was about to happen. - -Here now in Columbia we were walled in just as we had been at Macon, and -our lives continued in much the same hardship as before. Only here I do -not recall that any prisoner was murdered. It is right to say, too, that -the outrages so often committed on prisoners here and elsewhere in the -South were not by the regular Confederate soldiers, but by home guards -usually set over us. It seems now, when I recall it, that life was not -quite so bad here. We soon had some boards given us; so we built sheds -to live in. As for myself, I, with three or four comrades, lived in a -little wedge tent. It was very cold and midwinter now. I scarcely slept -at night, but walked about to keep warm. It was on one of these midnight -tramps that it occurred to me to write the song, "Sherman's March to the -Sea." I recur to it here because it gave its name to the great campaign -it celebrates. - -The story of how it came to be written cannot perhaps be wholly without -interest. During the days that Sherman's army was tramping from Atlanta -toward Savannah we prisoners were not permitted to have any news from -the outside of any kind whatever. There was a fear that if we knew what -was going on a mutiny might follow. We were constantly being told by our -guards that Sherman's invading army was being headed off or destroyed. -In the beginning we feared these stories to be true, but the uneasy -actions and sullen looks of our captors soon began to belie their -statements. As said, three or four of us prisoners occupied a little -wedge tent. A negro had recently been allowed to come into the prison -pen mornings to sell bread to those who had any money with which to buy. -Our little mess got a small loaf now every morning; not more for the -bread, though we needed that badly enough, than for a certain little -roll of paper carefully hidden away in the middle of the loaf. It was a -Columbia morning newspaper printed on soft thin paper and of extremely -small size. Our loyal negro had easily enough been persuaded to hide a -copy of this paper in the bread for us as often as he could have the -chance unobserved. A knowing wink from him told us when to eat our loaf -of bread inside the tent and with one of us watching at the door while -another read in a low voice the news from the invading army. The paper -rolled up was not larger than a walnut. - -It was full of misrepresentations and reports of disasters to Sherman, -to mislead the Georgians and lessen their alarm. Yet between the lines -we easily enough read that Sherman was surely marching on, and -victorious. His columns were coming nearer to us; and how we longed -night and day that he might capture the prison! At last we saw that -there was no hope. He was passing us,--though, but many miles away. - -Then one morning, when we unrolled the little paper in the bread and -read it, we knew that _he had reached the sea_. Savannah had fallen. The -consternation of the Southerners was tremendous. But, next, they -pretended that they could box Sherman up in Savannah and capture his -whole army. - -One December night when I was tramping up and down the prison pen in the -dark, trying to keep warm, I reflected on the tremendous importance of -what Sherman had done. And I wondered what so curious a campaign would -be called. It was not a series of battles--it was a great _march_. And -then the title, and almost the words, of the song came to me. - -The next morning when my tent comrades were out of doors shivering over -a little fire I remained in our little heap of straw, and completed the -verses. - -I went out to the fire and read them to my comrades. A Lieutenant -Rockwell happened to be present and asked permission to make a copy of -the verses. He, with many others, slept on the ground under the hospital -building. One had to crawl on his hands and knees to enter there. There -was a most capable Glee Club among the officers, and they had by some -means secured a flute, violins, and bass viol for accompaniments. They -kept their instruments under the house, too, where they slept. - -Every afternoon this Glee Club was permitted to sing and play on the -little elevated porch of the hospital. The only condition was that -Southern songs should be sung, not less than Northern songs. There was -no trouble about that. The songs of our captors were better than no -songs. Besides, these singers made music. All the crowd of prisoners, -eight hundred now, often stood in front of the little porch to enjoy the -singing. Almost hundreds of the Rebels, too, together with many ladies -of Columbia, climbed up onto the walls, where the guards stood, and -applauded the singers as much as any. - -One drizzly afternoon I was standing by a little persimmon tree in the -midst of the crowd listening to the songs, when Major Isett, leader of -the Glee Club, said: "Now we will have a song about Sherman." To my -astonishment, it was my "Sherman's March to the Sea." - -It was received in a tremendous fashion. Everybody cheered and hurrahed. -The news of Sherman's victories was fresh upon them. In five minutes' -time the good fortune of my song was settled. The name of the author was -loudly called for; someone saw me by the little tree, and I was quickly -hauled to the front and up onto the platform. In a few moments an -unknown officer among the many prisoners became a sort of prison hero. - -Everybody wanted the song, everybody sang it; and clever penmen made a -good thing making copies at twenty dollars apiece, Confederate money. As -a little compliment to me the captain of the prison allowed me to sleep -on the floor of the hospital room. To me that was important, as shall -appear. Later in this narrative, too, will be seen how an exchanged -prisoner, by the name of Tower, who had an artificial leg, carried the -song in this wooden limb through the lines to our soldiers in the North, -where it was sung everywhere and with demonstration. In a week it had -given its name to the campaign, and a million copies of it soon passed -into circulation. - -Lieutenant Rockwell, who had asked my leave to copy the verses that -first morning, was a composer, and there in the dust under the old -hospital he had, unknown to me, written the first music to which the -song was ever sung. Later, it had many other settings, but that one, -though difficult, remained the best. The song has often since been sung -to the air of "The Red, White, and Blue." This is the history of the -song, which I print here as a part of this narrative. - - - SHERMAN'S MARCH TO THE SEA - - Our camp fires shone bright on the mountains - That frowned on the river below, - While we stood by our guns in the morning - And eagerly watched for the foe-- - When a rider came out from the darkness - That hung over mountain and tree, - And shouted, "Boys, up and be ready, - For Sherman will march to the sea." - - Then cheer upon cheer for bold Sherman - Went up from each valley and glen, - And the bugles re-echoed the music - That came from the lips of the men. - For we knew that the stars in our banner - More bright in their splendor would be, - And that blessings from Northland would greet us - When Sherman marched down to the sea. - - Then forward, boys, forward to battle, - We marched on our wearisome way, - And we stormed the wild hills of Resaca,-- - God bless those who fell on that day-- - Then Kenesaw, dark in its glory, - Frowned down on the flag of the free, - But the East and the West bore our standards, - And Sherman marched on to the sea. - - Still onward we pressed, till our banners - Swept out from Atlanta's grim walls, - And the blood of the patriot dampened - The soil where the traitor flag falls; - But we paused not to weep for the fallen, - Who slept by each river and tree; - Yet we twined them a wreath of the laurel - As Sherman marched down to the sea. - - O, proud was our army that morning - That stood where the pine darkly towers, - When Sherman said: "Boys, you are weary, - This day fair Savannah is ours." - Then sang we a song for our chieftain - That echoed over river and lea, - And the stars in our banner shown brighter - When Sherman marched down to the sea. - - [SHERMAN'S MARCH TO THE SEA.--From _Eggleston's Famous War - Ballads_.--General Sherman, in a recent conversation with the editor - of this collection, declared that it was this poem with its phrase, - "march to the sea," that threw a glamour of romance over the - campaign which it celebrates. Said General Sherman: "The thing was - nothing more or less than a change of base; an operation perfectly - familiar to every military man, but a poet got hold of it, gave it - the captivating label, 'The March to the Sea,' and the unmilitary - public made a romance out of it." It may be remarked that the - General's modesty overlooks the important fact that the romance lay - really in his own deed of derring-do; the poet merely recorded it, - or at most interpreted it to the popular intelligence. The glory of - the great campaign was Sherman's and his army's; the joy of - celebrating it was the poet's; the admiring memory of it is the - people's.--EDITOR.] - -As stated, I slept nights now on the floor of the prison hospital. This -added comfort, however, did not tempt me to stay in prison, if I could -get away. Once more we heard that the prisoners were to be carted away -to some safer place, out of the line of Sherman's army, now turned North -and moving rapidly toward us. A night or two before this move of -prisoners really commenced Lieutenant Devine of Philadelphia joined me -in an effort to get away. The walls of the least used room of the -hospital were made of joined boards. By the use of an old case knife, -hacked into a saw, or auger, we managed to cut a hole sufficiently large -to permit us to pull ourselves through and out into an attic above a -little porch. We repaired the boards as best we could and crept out -into the dark hole. It was the attic of the same porch on which our Glee -Club stood when they sang my song. It was a little cramped up place we -were in, where we could neither sit erect nor lie at full length. There -were no guards inside the prison hospital; the night was very dark; the -sick prisoners seemed to be sleeping. A dim lamp hung from the ceiling. -We were not detected. The next night at midnight, when the prisoners -were being marched away, two of them were missing. What a night and day -and part of another night that was for us, crooked and cramped as we -were, in the top of that little porch. - -At the next midnight, when every soul, prisoners, guards and all, seemed -to be gone far away and dead silence was upon the place, Devine and I -crept down from our hiding place. The big gate was closed and locked. By -the aid of a scantling I managed to get up onto the high brick wall. My -surprise was immense to see guards waiting for us outside, and to know -that we were discovered. One of the guards rushed up to his post at the -top of the wall, but he was too late to shoot; we were already in hiding -among the empty board huts and barracks.[B] - - [B] When springing down from the top of that wall I lost my shoes--I - had had them in my hand. I also let fall from my pocket the pages of - this diary. I could not think of losing them, and at the risk of my - life I slipped over the dead line and from under the guard's very - feet, I snatched them up and ran behind one of the huts. - -In a moment the big gate opened and a hundred men rushed in, looking for -the escaping Yankees. They howled, they cursed at us, they set the -barracks on fire. Then amid the męlée and excitement in the dark my -comrade and myself pulled our gray blankets about us, picked up a water -bucket each, and pushed up to the guard at the gate. We were "going for -water," we said. "The lieutenant says the fire must be put out." Without -waiting a reply we hurried out in the darkness. There were some vain -shots after us. - -Shortly we heard the tramp of horses coming toward us. A friendly -culvert in the road into which we dodged afforded us protection while a -whole company of Johnny Rebs rode over our heads. What would they have -thought, that night, had they known it as they went skipping along with -arms and jingling sabers, to confront Sherman's advance guards? - -We were gone. After a while, in the outskirts of the city, we saw a -light in a cabin and a negro walking up and down by the window. Every -negro we knew to be a loyal friend. This one we called out among some -rose bushes in the dooryard. Instantly, and without fear, we told him -who we were and that we were in his power. There is not a question but -he would have been well rewarded had he betrayed us to the Confederate -soldiers in the city that night. Few words were spoken. That morning two -escaped prisoners were secreted under some bean stalks in the garret of -the negro's cabin. The negro's sick wife lay in the single room below. -Had we been discovered now that negro would have been hanged from his -own door lintel. And well he knew it. - -Sherman's army was already pounding at the gates of the town. He was -crossing the river and his shells reached to the capital. This much we -knew from what we could hear in the yard below, for the negro's cabin -stood at the edge of a green lawn where General Chestnut had his -headquarters. We broke a little hole through the siding of the house, -and now could see what the general and his staff were doing. We also -could hear much that was said. Once we thought ourselves discovered, for -we observed two or three of the general's negro servants standing in a -group on the grass looking steadily toward the spot where our little -improvised window was. What on earth were they looking at? - -It was not much the old negro could give us to eat. A little dried beef -and some cold corn bread; that was all, save that once he brought us a -gallon of buttermilk. He had no cow, but he would not tell us where -this, to us, heavenly nectar had come from. - -There was much hurrying of officers back and forth at General Chestnut's -headquarters, and plainly we could see there was great excitement. Our -own negro was kept going back and forth into the town to pick up for us -whatever news he could of the fight going on at the river. After awhile -the cannonading grew louder, and it seemed to us the conflict must be -right at the outskirts of the town. Then we saw General Chestnut -hurriedly ride on to the headquarter's lawn, and we distinctly heard him -say to an officer, "Sherman has got a bridge down. The game's up. We -must evacuate." In a few minutes the sound of the guns increased, and -then we saw General Chestnut call his slaves to him to bid them -farewell. It was a touching scene, amid the dramatic surroundings. He -seemed very kind, and some of them in their ignorance wept. "You will be -free," he said. "Be good." I thought, he too was affected as he mounted -his horse and, followed by his staff, rode away. He was hardly out of -sight when our negro protector came running toward the cabin. He was -tremendously excited. A tall, old cylinder hat he had picked up on the -way was on his head, his eyes bulged out, his hands waved like -windmills; he was celebrating. In a moment the black face and the -cylinder hat shot up the ladder and through the hatch-way to where we -were. - -"God Almighty be thanked!" he cried in a loud voice. "Massa, the Stars -and Stripes are waving above the capital of South Carolina. Praise to -the God Almighty!" - -Sure enough, Union troops, had entered, and a flag from my own State had -been run up on the State House. Instantly we bade him hurry and bring -some Union soldiers to us. In his absence Devine and I stood shaking -each other's hands and thanking God for our deliverance. No slave who -had his chains knocked off that day by the coming of the Union army felt -more thankful than we, freed from the wretchedness and horrors of -fifteen months of imprisonment. Now we could see the Confederate cavalry -evacuating the town. Whole companies passed, each trooper having a sheaf -of oats slung to his saddle bow. Shortly our black friend returned, and -with him two Union soldiers. "It is time to drink, boys," they cried -out, as they fairly forced us to partake of the whisky in their -canteens. When we all went down into the yard I was sure we would be -recaptured, for the Rebel rear-guard was passing close to our cabin. The -flying troops, however, had fish of their own to fry, and were in too -much haste to be looking after us. Now, too, we were surrounded by -General Chestnut's black servants, who were hopping about, giving thanks -for their freedom. I asked one of them what it was they had been looking -at so attentively the day before, when I had seen them gazing right at -our hiding-place. "Ha ha! massa! we just knowed you was up there all the -time. Reckon you didn't like that ar buttermilk what we'uns sent you." -Our negro friend then had made confidents of them, and we had been fed, -without knowing it, on some of the good things from General Chestnut's -kitchen. Should the general ever read this little book, I hope he will -cease wondering what became of his buttermilk that day at Columbia. - -Now, our two soldiers escorted us to a street where some of the army had -halted and stacked arms. A Union flag hung over a stack of muskets, and -no human being will ever know with what thankful heart-beatings and -tears we gathered its silken folds into our arms. Now we knew that we -were free. The terrible days were indeed over, and God's rainbow -illumined our sky. - -In half an hour the victorious veterans of Sherman's army, their great -leader riding before, with bands playing and banners flying, entered the -captured city. My comrade and I stood on a high door-step and saw them -pass. Someone pointed us out to Sherman, and for a moment the whole -moving army was halted till he greeted the freed prisoners. We two -comrades lived a month in that short seventeenth day of February, 1865, -in Columbia. I think we shook hands with a thousand soldiers, even with -many soldiers we had never seen before. It seemed to us that everybody -must be as glad to see us as we were to see them. - -That night Columbia was burned to the ground amid untold horrors. The -conflagration had commenced from bales of cotton that the enemy had -fired and left in the street to prevent falling into the Union hands. A -big wind rose toward evening and the burning cotton flakes were flying -all over the city. It was a terrible spectacle that night. My comrade -and I walked about the streets till nearly morning. Whole squares and -streets were crumbling to ashes and tall buildings tumbled down -everywhere. Here and there, too, there was a terrific explosion. It was -Moscow done over on a smaller scale. A division of Union troops, under -Hazen, was sent into the town to fight the flames and to arrest every -man discovered firing houses or walking around without a pass. So it -happened that my comrade and myself, though but innocent spectators, -were at midnight arrested and taken to provost headquarters. We very -soon explained ourselves and were released and sent to comfortable -quarters, where we slept till late the next day. It was four nights -since we had had any sleep at all. - -But the sights of that awful night will never fade from my memory. Most -of the citizens of Columbia had sons or relations in the Rebel army. -Half of them were dead, the army itself was flying everywhere, and in -the blackness of this terrible night their fortunes were all lost, their -homes were all burning up. Many wandered about wringing their hands and -crying; some sat stolid and speechless in the street watching everything -that they had go to destruction. A few wandered around, wholly demented. -Some of the invading soldiers tried earnestly to extinguish the flames; -others broke into houses and added to the conflagration. Numbers of the -Federal prisoners, who only a few weeks before had been marched through -the streets like felons, had escaped, and what average human nature led -them to do never will be known. There were fearful things going on -everywhere. It was reported that an explosion occurred in one house and -that twenty-four soldiers, carousing there, were lost in the ruins. Most -of the people of Columbia would have been willing to have died that -night, then and there. What had they left to live for? _This, too, was -war._ - -When the army entered in the afternoon, Lieutenant Devine and I, as -related, stood on the high steps of a mansion and watched it pass. -Shortly after a very charming young woman, a Mrs. C----, seeing us, came -down and invited us into her father's house and gave us food. It was the -first real food we had had for many, many months. The lady's father was -a rich jeweler, and, though a Southerner, was a Union man. Her own -husband, however, was somewhere in the Southern army. My comrade and I -spent an entertaining hour in the mansion, and then went and walked -about the city. - -At six o'clock the awful cry, "The town is burning up, the town is -burning up!" was heard everywhere. Devine and I at once thought of Mrs. -C----and our friends of the afternoon, and hurried to their home to -offer help. The flames were already across the street from there. Mrs. -C----'s father was weeping in the drawing-room. Once he took me by the -arm and led me to where we could see his own business establishment -burning to the ground. "There goes the savings of a life," said he, in -bitterness. "There is what the curse of secession has done for us; there -is what Wade Hampton and the other political firebrands have done for -South Carolina." My comrade and I at once began carrying some of the -more valuable goods out of the house for them, doing everything possible -to help them save some remnant from their beautiful and luxurious home. -We ran up and down the mansion stairs until we were almost dead with -exhaustion. Everything we could save we piled into a phaeton that stood -by the yard. Once the lady cried that her child was still in the house, -burning up. Her shrieks pierced even the noise of that fearful night. -Her alarm was without cause, for I soon found the child safe in the arms -of a faithful slave nurse. She had simply carried it out of danger. - -When the walls of the house seemed about to fall, Devine and I took the -loaded buggy, he pulling in the shafts, I pushing behind, and, followed -by the weeping family on foot, we drew it for a mile or more to the -outer edge of the town. Here we left them in safety by a little wood, -yet not knowing if we would ever see them again. Many of our soldiers -were burnt up that night. - -The next day Sherman's army left the ruins of the city behind them and -marched away. They had, however, left supplies of rations for their -unfortunate enemies. A train of empty wagons was also furnished for -those fugitives who wished to follow the army and work their way North. -Hundreds, possibly thousands, left the smoking ruins of their homes and -traveled along with us in every conceivable conveyance that was heard -of. Black and white, slave and free, rich and poor, joined in the -procession behind the army. Mrs. C---- and her father's family were -among them. - -I now tried to find my regiment. It was gone. Many battles and many -marches had so decimated it that the little fragment left had been -disbanded and transferred into a regiment of cavalry. - -Colonel Silsby, of the Tenth Iowa, offered me a place with his mess. I -accepted. The Colonel, as it happened, had charge of perhaps a hundred -prisoners, captured on the march. Naturally, I was interested to go -among them. I soon saw how much better they fared than I had done when -in Southern hands. Two or three of them, as it happened, had been among -the guards who had treated us so badly while we were in the prison known -as "Camp Sorghum," outside of Columbia. They were perfectly terrified -when they learned that I had been there under their charge. They seemed -to fear instant and awful retaliation; but I thought of nothing of the -kind. I was too glad just to be free to be thinking of any vengeance. - -A curious incident now happened. This was the discovery, among these -prisoners, of the husband of the young Mrs. C---- who had given us food -in Columbia and whose belongings I and my comrade had tried to save. He -was overjoyed to learn from me that his wife and child were at least -alive. I instantly went to General Logan, and related to him how this -man's family had been kind to me the day that I escaped. I had no -trouble in securing his release. It was at Logan's headquarters, too, -that I had secured money and an order for provisions to give to Edward -Edwards, the black man who had been the means of my final rescue. His -sick wife had kept him behind, else he would have followed the army. We -left him in Columbia. Years later, as a sign of my gratitude toward this -slave, I dedicated a little volume to him, in which I had described my -prison life. - - - - -CHAPTER XIV - - The army in the Carolinas--General Sherman sends for me--Gives me a - place on his staff--Experiences at army headquarters--Sherman's life - on the march--Music at headquarters--Logan's violin--The General's - false friend--The army wades, swims, and fights through the - Carolinas--I am sent as a despatch bearer to General Grant--A - strange ride down the Cape Fear River in the night--General - Terry--Learn that my song "The March to the Sea" is sung through the - North, and has given the campaign its name--I bring the first news - of Sherman's successes to the North--An interview with General - Grant. - - -It was on this march in the Carolinas that General Sherman sent for me -to come to army headquarters. We were two days away from Columbia. I was -ashamed to go in my prison rags, so I waited. The next day the request -was repeated, and Major Nichols of the staff came and said, "But you -must go, it is an order." And I went. The General was sitting by a -little rail fire in front of his tent, reading a newspaper, when we -approached his bivouac in the woods. I was introduced. He at once told -me how pleased he had been with my song, that I had written in prison -about his army. Devine had given him a copy at that time when he halted -his column to greet us by the door-step at Columbia. "Our boys shall all -sing this song," he said; "and as for you, I shall give you a position -on my staff. Tomorrow you will be furnished a horse and all that you -need; and you must mess with me." - -It would be very hard to express my feelings at this sudden transition -from a prisoner in rags to a post at the headquarters of the great -commander. I was almost overcome, but General Sherman's extreme kindness -of manner and speech at last put me partly at my ease. Shortly a big -colored man, in a green coat, announced dinner. "Come," said the -General, pushing me ahead of him into a tent, where a number of -handsomely uniformed staff officers stood around a table waiting his -approach. I was still in my rags. I could not help noticing the curious -glances of the fine gentlemen, who doubtless were wondering what General -Sherman had picked up now. - -My embarrassment was extreme. The commander however soon told them who I -was, gave me the seat at his right hand, and almost his entire -conversation at the table was directed to me. The officers of the staff -quickly took the General's cue, and I was soon an object of interest, -even to them. - -He directed a hundred questions to me as to the general treatment of -war prisoners in the South, and he, as well as the staff, interested -themselves in all the details of my escape. Telling the story very soon -relieved me of my embarrassment as to my clothes. The horrible tales of -Southern prison pens, however, was nothing new to General Sherman, for -he related to me some of the awful things he had heard of Andersonville -while his army was at Atlanta. - -"At one time," said he, "I had great hopes of rescuing all of them at -one quick blow. I gave General Stoneman a large body of cavalry, with -directions to raid down about Macon. This raid was to go farther, and, -by a quick, secret dash capture Andersonville and release every prisoner -there. It was a chance to do the noblest deed of the war, but it all -failed miserably. Stoneman had not fully obeyed orders, and, instead of -releasing a whole army of suffering captives, he got captured himself, -and, with him, a lot of my best cavalry." - -It happened that I saw General Stoneman the very day he was brought to -the prison. My narrative of how by desperately bold and violent cursing -he denounced and defied his captors, and everything in Rebeldom, greatly -amused Sherman and all at the table. - -Stoneman's awful language and flashing eyes did indeed fairly -intimidate the officer in charge. Evidently he thought he had captured a -tiger. It was a wonder Stoneman was not killed. - -The conversation about the prisoners continued. Twenty-five thousand of -them were starving and dying in Andersonville. "It is one of the awful -fates of war," said the General. "It can't be helped; they would have -been better off had all been killed on the battlefield; and one almost -wishes they had been." After a pause, he continued. "At times, I am -almost satisfied it would be just as well to _kill all prisoners_." The -remark, to me, a prisoner just escaped, seemed shocking. I am sure he -noticed it, for he soon added: "They would be spared these atrocities. -Besides, _the more awful you can make war the sooner it will be over_." - -It would, after all, be a mercy. - -"_War is hell, at the best_," he went on, half in anger, and using an -expression common to him. - -For the moment I thought him heartless, but other remarks made to me, -and to the staff, soon told us that whatever the cruelties imposed on -him as a commander, they were executed with heart-pain and only as plain -duty for the salvation of his own army. He even talked of how glad he -would be to be out of the whole bloody business, once the Union were -restored. But if the rebellion continued all his life, he would stay and -fight it out. - -When the dinner was over each looked about him to find some garment to -give me. This one had an extra coat, that one a pair of trousers, and -another one a hat. In short I was quickly attired in a rather -respectable uniform. - -This matter was just about ended when a beautiful woman was conducted to -Sherman, to ask protection for her home, that was in his line of march. -She was "true blue Union," despite her surroundings. In a moment the -whole atmosphere about the tent was changed. The red-handed warrior, who -a moment before was ready to kill even prisoners, suddenly became the -most amiable, the most gallant and knightly looking man I ever saw. -Beauty, that can draw a soldier with a single hair, had ensnared the -great commander. He had become a gentle knight. The whole army if need -be, would stand stock still to do her one little favor. I now recall how -long after the war I noticed a hundred times this perfectly knightly -gallantry of Sherman toward all women. - -This one particular woman seemed a hundred times more beautiful, more -fascinating, there in the green wood alone, with an army of a hundred -thousand strangers about her, when, pointing her hand toward a great -banner that swung in the wind between two tall pines, she smiled and -cried: "General Sherman, THAT IS MY FLAG TOO." There was a clapping of -hands from all of us, and any one of us would have been glad to be sent -as the protector of her home. - -The great army was now marching, or rather swimming and wading, in the -direction of Fayetteville, N. C. There were heavy rains and the country, -naturally swampy, was flooded everywhere. I soon learned from the staff -where the army had already been. After the end of the march to the sea -and the capture of Savannah, Sherman had started in with sixty thousand -men, to treat South Carolina in the manner he had treated Georgia--march -through it and desolate it. His proposed march northward from Savannah -was regarded by the Southern generals as an impossibility. The obstacles -were so great as to make it a hundred times as difficult as his march -from Atlanta to the sea. But he led a great army of picked veterans, -accustomed to everything, whose flags had almost never known defeat. -Their confidence in their general and in themselves was simply absolute. -So far, in their march from Savannah they had hesitated at nothing. - -It was midwinter, and yet that army had often waded in swamps with the -cold water waist deep, carrying their clothes and their muskets on their -heads. Half the roads they followed had to be corduroyed, or their -horses would all have been lost in the bottomless mire and swamps. Often -their artillery was for miles pulled along by the men themselves, and -that in the face of the enemy, hidden behind every stream, and ready to -ambush them at every roadside. Over all these infamous wagon roads, -across all these bridgeless rivers and endless swamps, our army now -dragged with it a train of sixty-nine cannon, twenty-five hundred -six-mule wagons, and six hundred ambulances. The tremendous obstacles -they encountered before reaching Columbia they were again to encounter -beyond. Not a bridge was left on any creek or river in the Carolinas. -Roads were built of poles and logs through swamps ten miles wide. -Sherman's army had few rations and no tents. The foragers brought in all -the food they could pick up near the line of march. The little rubber -blankets the soldiers carried were their sole protection from storm. -They were almost shoeless. There were not a dozen full tents in the -army. Officers used tent flies sometimes, but oftener simply rolled -themselves up in their blankets, as their men did. At army headquarters -we had but one large tent, used generally for dining under; so we -usually slept in deserted cabins at the roadside. - -I recall one fearfully stormy night when the General and his staff had -all crept into a little church we found in the woods. The General would -not accept the bit of carpet one of us had improvised into a bed for him -on the pulpit platform. "No," he said, "keep that for some of you young -fellows who are not well." He then stretched himself out on a wooden -bench for the night. I think he never removed his uniform during the -campaign. Day and night he was alert, and seemed never to be really -asleep. We of the staff now had little to do save carrying orders -occasionally to other commanders. - -General Sherman did most of his own writing, and he wrote a rapid, -beautiful hand. We had breakfast by the light of the campfire almost -every morning, and were immediately in the saddle, floundering along -through the mud, always near to, or quite at, the head of the army. At -noon we always dismounted and ate a simple lunch at the roadside, -sometimes washed down by a little whisky. Now and then some one of the -army, recognizing the General riding past, would give a cheer that would -be taken up by brigades and divisions a mile away. There seemed to be -something peculiar about this Sherman cheer, for soldiers far off would -cry out: "Listen to them cheering Billy Sherman." - -On the 3d of March we took Cheraw, and twenty-four cannon, also nearly -four thousand barrels of gunpowder. That day General Logan, General -Howard, General Kilpatrick, General Hazen, and many other notables came -to headquarters. There was a jolly time of rejoicing. - -Here General Logan, who could play the violin, entertained them by -singing my song of "Sherman's March to the Sea," accompanying his voice -with the instrument. A dozen famous generals joined in the chorus. After -the singing, Logan insisted that I should also recite the poem. I did -so, meeting with great applause from the very men who had been the -leaders in the great "March." Alas! save one or two, they are now all -dead. - -Among the captures that day had been eight wagonloads of fine, old wine. -It was now distributed among the different headquarters of the Union -army, and as a result some of the said headquarters were pretty nearly -drunk. One of our staff, at dinner the next day, attempted to explain -his condition of the day before. "Never mind explaining," said General -Sherman crustily, and without looking up, "but only see that the like of -that does not happen again; that is all." That staff officer was a very -sober man the rest of the campaign. - -While we were lying there in Cheraw we heard an awful explosion; the -very earth shook. I supposed it to be an earthquake until a messenger -brought word that a lot of captured gunpowder had exploded and killed -and wounded twenty soldiers. - -As we were crossing on our pontoons over the Pedee River at Cheraw I -noticed a singular way of punishing army thieves. An offender of this -kind stood on the bridge, guarded by two sentinels. He was inside of a -barrel that had the ends knocked out. On the barrel in big letters were -the words: "I am a thief." The whole army corps passed close by him. An -occasional man indulged in some joke at his expense, but the body of -soldiers affected not to see him. The day we entered Cheraw General -Sherman and his staff rode through the country alone for ten miles, -going across from one column to another. It was a hazardous ride, as the -whole country was full of guerrillas. But nothing of note happened to -us. - -On the 8th of March the headquarters staff was bivouacked in the woods -near Laurel Hill. The army was absolutely cut off from everywhere. It -had no base; it was weeks since Sherman had heard from the North or -since the North had heard from him. Now he resolved to try to get a -courier with a message through to Wilmington, at the seaside. An -experienced spy by the name of Pike was selected to float down the Cape -Fear River to ask the commander to try to send a tugboat up, to -communicate with the army. I did not know then that the next one to run -down Cape Fear River would be myself. - -In four days we had taken Fayetteville and its wonderful arsenal, built -years before by the American people, and where now half the war supplies -of the Rebel army were made. - -When the General and his staff first rode into Fayetteville headquarters -were established in the arsenal. The General, wishing to look about the -town for an hour or so, left me in charge. The other officers rode away -with him. Very shortly a well-dressed, fine-looking old Southerner came -to me and complained that his home was being disturbed by some of our -soldiers. He was, he said, an old West Point friend of General -Sherman's. While waiting the return of the commander, he regaled me with -incidents of their early days together in the North and with his -intimacies with one who would now doubtless be overwhelmed with joy at -seeing him. He begged me to observe what would be his reception when the -General should come. Impressed by his conversation, I at once sent a -soldier or two to guard his home. - -Shortly after General Sherman rode in through the arsenal portal and -dismounted. The Southerner advanced with open arms, and for a moment -there was a ray of pleasure illuminating Sherman's face. Then he went -and leaned against a column, and, turning to the Southerner, said, "Yes, -we were long together, weren't we?" "Yes," answered the Southerner, -delighted. "You shared my friendship, shared my bread, even, didn't -you?" continued Sherman. "Indeed, indeed!" the Southerner replied, with -increasing warmth. The General gave the Southerner a long, steady, -almost pathetic look, and answered, "You have betrayed it all; me, your -friend, your country that educated you for its defense. You are here a -traitor, and you ask me to be again your friend, to protect your -property, to send you these brave men, some of whose comrades were -murdered by your neighbors this very morning--fired on from hidden -houses by you and yours as they entered the town. Turn your back to me -forever. I will not punish you; only go your way. There is room in the -world even for traitors." The Southerner turned ashy white and walked -away from us in silence. Sherman sat down with the rest of us to our -noonday lunch. We sat about the portal on stones, or barrels, or -whatever happened to answer for seats. The General could scarcely eat. -Never had I seen him under such emotion; the corners of his mouth -twitched as he continued talking to us of this false friend. The hand -that held the bread trembled and for a moment tears were in his eyes. -For a little while we all sat in silence, and we realized as never -before what treason to the republic really meant. The General spoke as -if he, nor we, might ever live through it all. - -Very soon General Howard rode in to complain anew of the outrages -committed on our troops by men firing from windows as they passed along -the streets. Two or three soldiers had been killed. "Who did this -outrage?" cried Sherman, in a loud and bitter voice, "Texans, I think," -answered General Howard. "Then shoot some Texan prisoners in -retaliation," said Sherman sternly. "We have no Texans," replied Howard, -not inclined, apparently, to carry out the serious, but just order. -"Then take other prisoners, take any prisoners," continued General -Sherman. "I will not permit my soldiers to be murdered." He turned on -his heel and walked away. Howard mounted and rode into the town. What -happened, I do not know. - -On Sunday morning General Sherman asked me to take a walk with him -through the immense arsenal of Fayetteville before he should blow it up. -We were gone an hour, and I was surprised at his great familiarity with -all the machinery and works of the immense establishment. He talked -constantly and explained many things to me. Never more than at that time -was I impressed with the universal knowledge, the extraordinary genius, -of the man. There seemed to be nothing there he did not understand. On -our way back to headquarters I heard him give the order to destroy -everything, to burn the arsenal down, blow it up, to leave absolutely -nothing, and he added the prayer that the American government might -never again give North Carolina an arsenal and forts to betray. He was -very angry now at those who had used the United States property in their -desire to destroy the government itself. He had seen nothing in the war -that seemed so treasonable, unless it was the base ingratitude of those -who entered the service of the Rebellion after having been educated at -West Point at the Government's expense. - -Pretty soon he said to me: "If I can get any kind of a boat up here, I -am going to have you try to reach Wilmington with dispatches." Almost at -that minute a steam whistle sounded in the woods below us. "There it -is," said the General joyfully. "Pike got through." Very soon someone -came running to say a communication had come from the seashore; a little -tug had run the Rebel gauntlet all the way from Wilmington. - -We went in to lunch and the General announced to the staff his intention -of sending me down the river, and off to General Grant with dispatches. -This chance to get word of his movements and his successes to General -Grant and the North was of vast importance, and it moved him greatly. He -left his lunch half finished and commenced writing letters and reports -to the commander-in-chief. That evening at twilight General Sherman -walked with me down to the riverside where the little tug lay waiting. -"When you reach the North," he said, putting his arm around me, "don't -tell them we have been cutting any great swath in the Carolinas; simply -tell them the plain facts; tell them that the army is not lost, but is -well, and still marching." So careful was I as to his injunctions, that -even the newspapers at Washington never knew how the great news from -Sherman reached the North. - -I did not know then, starting down the river with my message, that it -was to be seven years before I was again to see the face of my beloved -commander. - -The Cape Fear River was flooded at this time, a mile wide, in places -even more, and though its banks were lined with guerrillas there could -not be great danger, if we could stay in the middle of the stream, -unless our little boat should get wrecked in the darkness by floating -trees or by running into shallow places. The lights were all put out. -The pilot house and the sides of the boat were covered by bales of -cotton, to protect us against the Rebel bullets. My dispatches to -General Grant were carefully sewed up inside my shirt, and were -weighted, so that I could hastily sink them in the river should we be -captured. A half dozen refugees from Columbia joined us. Among them was -the Mrs. C----, whose property Devine and I had tried to save the night -of the fire. It was a curious and dangerous voyage down that roaring, -flooded river for a woman to be undertaking in the darkness, but this -woman had now undertaken many dangers. Another of my companions on that -strange voyage was Theodore Davis, a corresponding artist of _Harper's -Weekly_. We kept the boat in the channel as far as we could guess it, -and, for the rest, simply floated in the darkness. We went through -undiscovered; not a shot fired at us. Before daylight, so swift had been -the current, we were in Wilmington. - -General Terry had just taken Wilmington and was in command of the city. -Some of my dispatches were for him. He was still in bed, in one of the -fine residences of the place, but instantly arose and urged me to jump -into bed and get some rest while he should arrange to get me immediate -transportation to Grant. I slept till nine, and when I came down to the -drawing-room, now used as headquarters, General Terry asked if perhaps -it were I who wrote the song about Sherman's March from Atlanta seaward. -It had been sung at the theater the night before, he said. I was much -gratified to have him tell me that the whole army had taken it up. "Tens -of thousands of men," he said, "were singing it." I knew, as already -told, that an exchanged prisoner had brought the song through the Rebel -lines in an artificial leg he wore, but it was an agreeable surprise to -now learn of its sudden and tremendous success. - -General Terry impressed me as the handsomest soldier I had seen in the -army--McPherson, the commander of my own corp, only excepted. He was, -too, a refined and perfect gentleman. Looking at him I thought of the -cavaliers of romance. Here was real knighthood, born and bred in the -soil of the republic. The laurels for his heroic capture of Fort Fisher -were fresh on his brow. - -Before noon an ocean steamer, the _Edward Everett_, was ordered to take -me at once to Fortress Monroe. Two of my army friends went along. The -captain, leaving on so short notice, had provided his ship with -insufficient ballast, and to me, a landsman, the vessel's lurchings were -very astonishing. I had never seen the ocean before, and it was not long -till I wished I might never see it again. To add to my alarm, a fierce -tempest sprang up as we passed around Cape Hatteras, and the danger was -no longer imaginary, but very real. The few passengers on the boat might -as well have been dead, so far as any self-help was to be thought of in -case of disaster. Even the captain was very seasick, and, altogether, -passengers and crew were badly scared. For many hours it was nothing but -a fierce blow and a roll about on the mad waters. All things come to an -end; so did this storm, and at last we reached Fortress Monroe, where I -was hurriedly transferred by some sailors in a yawl over to a boat that -had already started up the James toward Richmond. Our captain had -signaled that he had a dispatch bearer from the Carolinas. We had not -gone far until we passed the top of a ship's mast sticking a few feet -above the water. It was the mast of the _Cumberland_, that had gone down -in her fight with the _Merrimac_ with as brave a crew as ever manned a -war boat. - -The steamer I was now on was crowded with officers in bright uniforms, -apparently returning to their regiments. I wondered if all the Eastern -army had been home on a furlough. I could not help contrasting to myself -this ship full of sleek, brightly uniformed officers with the -rough-clad soldiers and officers of the army of Sherman. Sherman's -foragers and veterans of the March to the Sea might have cut an awkward -figure alongside these gay youths just from Washington. - -In the afternoon the ship came to at City Point, and I climbed up the -bank of the river bluff for perhaps a hundred feet, and was soon -directed to the headquarters of the commander-in-chief of the United -States armies. - -When I reached the open door of Grant's famous little cabin a young -officer asked me to come in, and was introducing me to the chief of -staff, Rawlins, who stood there with some letters in his hands. That -instant General Grant showed his face at the door in the back of the -room. I knew who it was at once. He stepped forward to where General -Rawlins was speaking with me, listened to the conversation a moment, and -without any formal introduction, smiled, took me by the hand and led me -into the back room of the cabin shutting the door behind us. He asked me -to sit down, but I first proceeded to rip the dispatches out of my -clothing, and with intense interest watched his features while he sat on -a camp stool by the window, his legs crossed, and read Sherman's letter. -I could see the glow of silent satisfaction as he glanced along the -lines that told of his great lieutenant's successes in the South. He -glanced at another letter I held in my hand. "It is for the President," -I said. "He will be here yet to-night," he answered. "His boat must now -be coming up the bay." - -Then General Grant questioned me as to all I knew about Sherman's army, -the character of the opposition he had met, the condition of his -soldiers, their clothing, the roads, the weather. He also asked me how I -had reached him with the dispatches, coming all the way from the -interior of North Carolina. He seemed to have thought for a moment that -I had come across Virginia on foot. He wanted to know of me again about -the terrible treatment of prisoners in the South. What I told him only -"confirmed," he said, what he had heard from a hundred sources. - -Very shortly he heard the voice of General Ord in the outer room. - -"Come in here, Ord," he said, holding the door open. "Come in and hear -the news from Sherman. Look at that, listen to this," and again he went -through Sherman's letter, reading parts of it aloud. "Good! Good!" cried -Ord, fairly dancing about the cabin, his spurs and saber jingling. "I -was really getting afraid." "Not I, not I, not a bit," exclaimed Grant -enthusiastically, as he rose to his feet. "_I knew my man. I knew -General Sherman._" - -I was astonished now at the simple and perfectly frank manner with which -General Grant talked to me about the situation of the army. I had -ventured to ask if there was any outlook for the immediate fall of -Richmond or a battle. - -"Very great," he answered. "I am only afraid Lee may slip out before we -can get a great blow at him. Any hour this may happen." Just then there -was cannonading. I wondered if a fight were commencing somewhere in the -line already. General Grant did not change a muscle in his face. "Send -out and see what the firing is," he said to an officer quietly, and then -as quietly continued talking, asking me to tell him all I knew of a -recent escapade of Kilpatrick and his cavalry. It happened that I knew -all about it. Only a couple of weeks before Kilpatrick and his -headquarters had been surprised in bed at a bivouac on the flank of -Sherman's army, and were surrounded and some were captured. By a heroic -struggle the cavalry leader had escaped his captors, had instantly -rallied his troops there in the dark woods and given the bold Rebels a -little drubbing. The next day I had been with Sherman at headquarters -and listened to Kilpatrick's recital of his adventure. My own narration -of the night's cavalry fight, reciting how the cavalrymen and his aids -dashed about with nothing on but their shirts, made General Grant smile -very audibly. "I had expected the whole thing to be about as you say," -he exclaimed, in a grateful way, "but the Richmond newspapers which fell -into my hands made a big thing of the so-called capture of Sherman's -cavalry leader." - -Once, as the General rose and stood directly in front of us, I was -astonished to see how small he seemed. I had seen Grant before, but on -horseback or in battle, and, somehow, I had always regarded him as a -rather large, solidly built man. To-day in the little back room of his -cabin, talking with him, I saw how mistaken I had been. General Grant, -as I now saw him, was, in fact, a little man. Several times he rose and -walked about the room. He was not more than five feet seven or eight -inches high, and he could not have weighed more than one hundred and -forty or fifty pounds. He wore a simple fatigue uniform, and his coat -thrown open gave him the appearance of being larger chested than he -really was. His brown hair was neither short nor long, and he wore a -full beard, well trimmed. Had I not known to whom I was talking, or had -I not seen the three stars on his shoulders, I would have supposed -myself in the presence of some simple army captain. There was nothing -whatever about him to announce the presence of genius or extraordinary -ability of any kind. He was in no sense a striking-looking man. His -manner and words to me were kind and earnest. There was an agreeable -look about his mouth and eyes that made him seem very sincere. Indeed, -if any one thing about him impressed me more than another, it was his -apparent sincerity and earnestness. And he looked to me like a man of -great common sense. Of vanity, pretence, or power there was not a single -sign. He could not have looked very greatly different when he was hewing -logs for his house at his father-in-law's farm ten years before, from -what he looked just now, quietly directing a million soldiers in the -greatest war of modern times. - -Like General Sherman, he repeatedly expressed his interest concerning -the terrible experiences I had undergone in Southern prisons. - -"I suppose you will want to get home as quickly as possible, won't you?" -he inquired, "or would you rather remain here awhile and look about the -army?" A steamer was to leave for the North in an hour. Privately, I was -fearing a sudden break-down of my health, and longed for a home that I -had visited but eight days during four long years of war. Then I thought -of my letter to Mr. Lincoln. The General seemed to anticipate my -thought. "Leave the President's letter with me," he said, "if you -choose, and I will give it to him, or stay over and give it to him -yourself." - -There was no man living I was so anxious to see as Abraham Lincoln. And -this was my opportunity. But something like a premonition said, "Go -home." When I expressed my feeling General Grant stepped to the door of -the office room and directed General Rawlins to see that I be provided -with leave of absence and transportation. That little order, signed by -Rawlins, I still possess. - -With an earnest handshake and good-by General Grant thanked me for -bringing him the dispatches. I was not to see him again for many -years.[C] - - [C] At the town of Lucerne in Switzerland there is in front of the - Schweizerhof a quay lined with castanien trees. It overlooks the - beautiful lake. Long years after the war General Grant sat there on a - bench one quiet summer night and talked to me of the time I brought - the news to him from Sherman in the Carolinas. In a few weeks from - that night by the lakeside I had the honor of entertaining my old - commander at my own home, in the city of Zurich, where I was now - representing the government as one of his appointees. The order - naming me to go to Zurich had, on a certain time, been written by his - own hand. - - This night at Zurich proved to be almost the last time I was ever to - see the great commander. His presence and words that evening are - among the treasured memories of my life. - - - - -CHAPTER XV - - Washington City in the last days of the war--Look, the - President!--_The last man of the regiment._ - - -Leaving General Grant's headquarters at City Point was for me a final -good-by to the army. The little steamer _Martin_ carried me down the -James River, up the Chesapeake Bay, and the Potomac, toward the North. I -recall now the strange sensations I had in passing Washington's tomb at -Mount Vernon. The green slopes and the oak wood in front of the old -mansion were in full view. I could even see the front columns of the -house, and someone on the steamer's deck pointed out to me the spot -where stood the simple brick mausoleum where with folded arms slept the -Father of his Country. I could not help reflecting that at that moment -not a hundred miles away stood nearly all George Washington's State's -descendants, with arms in their hands, striving to destroy the -government that he had founded. - -How I enjoyed that ship ride! Here there was no sandy prison pen with -poor, starving, dying comrades lying around; no futile efforts at -escape; no taunts and jeers that the American flag had gone down in -disgrace; now all was free and beautiful, and _mine_. The hated rag of -the Confederacy that had floated over my head and threatened me every -day with death for fifteen long months was gone forever. At the mast of -our little vessel waved the Stars and Stripes, conscious, it seemed to -me, of the free air I was breathing. That was a happy day for me. - -Some time in the following night the wheels of the boat stopped -revolving--there was silence; and when I woke at daylight there was the -land. The ship was fast in the slip at the wharf, and there, too, was -the capital of the republic. I went ashore by myself and wandered into -the city, my mind crowded every moment with the thoughts of what had -taken place here in the last four years. Soldiers I saw everywhere, with -arms and without arms. Negroes, now freedmen, by the ten thousand fairly -darkened the population. With some friends I found a boarding place on -the avenue above the National Hotel. If I wanted to see great men, -notorious men, men making history, all kinds of men, I had only to step -into the corridors of the National. - -I had little or no ready money, nor could I get any until the -government settled my accounts. I waited in Washington for a week. -General Sherman had given me papers that would insure my promotion in -the regular army. I presented them; they were all-sufficient; I needed -only to say the word. But I was sick and tired of war, and would not -have exchanged a glimpse of my Western home for the commission of a -brigadier. - -But while I stayed in Washington what sights I saw! Our capital is now -possibly the finest in the world. Then it was the most hateful; the most -hateful in every way. Militarism, treason, political scoundrelism, and -every other bad ism reigned in every hotel, on every street corner, in -Congress, out of Congress--everywhere; reigned right at the elbows of -loyalty and patriotism such as the world never saw. Society was one -grand conglomeration of everything good and bad. - -Washington City itself was a spectacle. It had no streets, save one or -two--simply dirty unpaved roads. The dirty street cars, pulled by -worn-out horses, were crowded inside and outside by a mass of struggling -politicians, soldiers, gamblers, adventurers, and women. The city was -also full of hospitals; everywhere there were lazarettos and graveyards. -It looked as if half the Union army had dragged itself into the capital -to die. The great Capital building was uncompleted; its dome stood -there covered with scaffoldings and windlasses. The plaza at the east -end of the structure looked like a vast stone quarry. The Washington -Monument had only gotten itself safe above high-water mark; and what -there was of it was in danger of falling down. It stood in the middle of -the flats, the mud and the malaria--the graveyard, in short, that formed -the unsavory prospect from the White House windows. - -Aside from the unfinished government buildings there was not a pretense -of architecture in all Washington. There was nothing beautiful there. -The very atmosphere seemed sickly; fever, malaria, were everywhere. It -was the one city in all creation to get out of as soon as possible. - -Once I tried to get a glimpse of the President. I failed. The White -House gates were held by sentries. "Why do you want to see that old -Ape?" said a man to me one day. I was shocked, and would like to have -killed him. But he was not alone in his vileness. Thousands in -Washington affected to despise Lincoln. I wondered then that it was -regarded safe for him to appear in public. One day a carriage rolled -rapidly up the avenue in front of the National. I heard some men cry, -"Look, the President!" I glanced quickly. A tall, dark man, wearing a -silk hat sat in the carriage; at his side a lady. - -In a moment they were out of sight. There was not a cheer, not a hat -touched, not a hand waved, and yet _that was Abraham Lincoln passing_, -soon to be the greatest man in history. A little wrangle and almost a -fist-fight between some bystanders on the pavement followed; one party -denouncing the President for freeing the "damned niggers"; another -thanking God for the President's noble deed. Such scenes were going on -everywhere all over the capital, pro and con. Approval and hatred. The -best praised, the worst abused mortal in America was just entering on -his second term at the White House. I never even had a glimpse of the -kindly face again. - -At last my accounts were ready. "But your regiment," said the Assistant -War Secretary, "does not exist. What was left of them were all put into -a cavalry troop long ago. _You are the last man of the regiment._" -Across the face of my paper he wrote, "_Discharged as a supernumerary -officer._" That paper lies before me while I write. I was paid off in -shining greenbacks for all the time I had been in prison. - -As to the eighty comrades who had been captured with me that 25th of -November in the assault on Missionary Ridge, all but sixteen were dead. -Nine of my old Company B of the Fifth Regiment were taken prisoners, and -only one of them had survived the horrors of Andersonville. Poor -Cartwright died not long after, and I alone of the little band was left -to tell the story. - - - - -TRANSCRIBER'S NOTE: - - -Obvious typos and printer errors have been corrected without comment. -Other than obvious errors, the author's spelling, grammar, and use of -punctuation are retained as in the original publication. In addition to -obvious errors, the following changes have been made: - - Page 50: "dozen" changed to "dozens" in the phrase, "Shortly, dozens - of these small boats...." - - Page 89: "connonballs" changed to "cannonballs" in the phrase, "... - storm of cannonballs...." - - Page 100: opening quote mark added: "My regiment is put...." - - Page 132: "thousand" changed to "thousands" in the phrase, "Hundreds, - thousands possibly, of...." - - Page 187: "gaunlet" changed to "gauntlet" in the phrase, "... had run - the Rebel gauntlet...." - - Page 192: "cammander" changed to "commander" - - Page 198: "straving" changed to "starving" in the phrase, "... poor, - starving...." - - - - - -End of Project Gutenberg's With Fire and Sword, by Samuel H. M. 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