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diff --git a/44865-0.txt b/44865-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..2e89419 --- /dev/null +++ b/44865-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,17178 @@ +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 44865 *** + +[A Transcribers' Note follows the text.] + +[Illustration: _Photo by Brady._ _Eng^d by Geo E Perine N.Y._ +Albert D. Richardson] + + + + + THE + SECRET SERVICE, + THE FIELD, THE DUNGEON, + AND + THE ESCAPE. + + "Wherein I spoke of most disastrous chances, + Of moving accidents, by flood and field; + Of hairbreadth 'scapes i' the imminent deadly breach; + Of being taken by the insolent foe, + And sold to slavery; of my redemption thence." + OTHELLO. + + BY + ALBERT D. RICHARDSON, + TRIBUNE CORRESPONDENT. + + Hartford, Conn., + AMERICAN PUBLISHING COMPANY. + JONES BROS. & CO., PHILADELPHIA, PA., AND CINCINNATI, OHIO. + R. C. TREAT, CHICAGO, ILL. + 1865. + + Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1865, + BY ALBERT D. RICHARDSON, + In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States for + the District of Connecticut. + + TO + Her Memory + WHO WAS NEAREST AND DEAREST, + WHOSE LIFE WAS FULL OF BEAUTY AND OF PROMISE, + THIS VOLUME + IS TENDERLY INSCRIBED. + + + + +List of Illustrations. + + + I.--PORTRAIT OF THE AUTHOR Facing Title-page. + II.--A GROUP OF ARMY CORRESPONDENTS: Facing page 17 + Portraits of Messrs. + Charles C. Coffin, Boston _Journal_; + Junius H. Browne, New York _Tribune_; + Thomas W. Knox, New York _Herald_; + Richard T. Colburn, New York _World_; + L. L. Crounse, New York _Times_; + William E. Davis, Cincinnati _Gazette_, and + William D. Bickham, Cincinnati _Commercial_ + III.--THE MISSISSIPPI CONVENTION VIEWED BY A Opposite page 83 + TRIBUNE CORRESPONDENT + IV.--OPENING OF THE BATTLE OF ANTIETAM.--GENERAL Opposite page 281 + HOOKER + V.--FACSIMILE OF AN AUTOGRAPH LETTER OF PRESIDENT page 321 + LINCOLN + VI.--THE CAPTURE, WHILE RUNNING THE REBEL BATTERIES Opposite page 343 + AT VICKSBURG + VII.--INTERIOR VIEW OF A HOSPITAL IN THE SALISBURY Opposite page 415 + PRISON + VIII.--THE MASSACRE OF UNION PRISONERS ATTEMPTING Opposite page 419 + TO ESCAPE FROM SALISBURY, NORTH CAROLINA + IX.--ESCAPING PRISONERS FED BY NEGROES IN THEIR Opposite page 441 + MASTER'S BARN + X.--FORDING A STREAM Opposite page 471 + XI.--"THE NAMELESS HEROINE" PILOTING THE ESCAPING Opposite page 501 + PRISONERS OUT OF A REBEL AMBUSH + + + + +CONTENTS. + + + I.--THE SECRET SERVICE. + CHAPTER I. 17 + Going South in the Secret Service.--Instructions from + the Managing Editor.--A Visit to the Mammoth Cave of + Kentucky.--Nashville, Tennessee.--Alabama Unionists.--How + the State was Precipitated into the Rebellion.--Reaching + Memphis.--Abolitionists Mobbed and Hanged.--Brutalities of + Slavery. + CHAPTER II. 31 + In Memphis.--How the Secessionists Carried the Day.--Aims + of the Leading Rebels.--On the Railroad.--A Northerner + Warned.--An Amusing Dialogue.--Talk about Assassinating + President Lincoln.--Arrival in New Orleans.--Hospitality + from a Stranger.--An Ovation to General Twiggs.--Braxton + Bragg.--The Rebels Anxious for War.--A Glance at the + Louisiana Convention. + CHAPTER III. 43 + Association with Leading Secessionists.--Their Hatred of + New England.--Admission to the Democratic Club.--Abuse of + President Lincoln.--Sinking Buildings, Cellars and Walls + Impossible.--Cemeteries above Ground.--Monument of a + Pirate.--Canal Street.--The Great French Markets.--Dedication + of a Secession Flag in the Catholic Church.--The Cotton + Presses.--Visit to the Jackson Battle-ground.--The + Creoles.--Jackson's Head-Quarters.--A Fire in the + Rear.--A Life Saved by a Cigar.--A Black Republican + Flag.--Vice-President Hamlin a Mulatto.--Northerners leaving + the South. + CHAPTER IV. 57 + How Letters were Written and Transmitted.--A System of + Cipher.--A Philadelphian among the Rebels.--Probable fate + of a _Tribune_ Correspondent, if Discovered.--Southern + Manufactures.--A Visit to a Southern Shoe Factory.--Where + the Machinery and Workmen came from.--How Southern Shoes + were Made.--Study of Southern Society.--Report of a + Slave Auction.--Sale of a White Woman.--Girls on the + Block.--Husbands and Wives Separated.--A most Revolting + Spectacle.--The Delights of a Tropical Climate. + CHAPTER V. 71 + A Northerner among the Minute Men.--Louisiana Convention.--A + Lively Discussion.--Boldness of the Union Members.--Another + Exciting Discussion.--Secessionists Repudiate their Own + Doctrines.--Despotic Rebel Theories.--The Northwest + to Join the Rebels.--The Great Swamp.--A Trip through + Louisiana.--_The Tribune_ Correspondent Invited to a Seat in + the Mississippi Convention. + CHAPTER VI. 81 + The Mississippi State-House.--View of the Rebel + Hall.--Its General Air of Dilapidation.--A Free-and-Easy + Convention.--Southern Orators.--The Anglo-African + Delegate.--A Speech Worth Preserving.--Familiar Conversation + of Members.--New Orleans Again.--Reviewing Troops.--New + Orleans Again.--Hatred of Southern Unionists.--Three + Obnoxious Northerners.--The Attack on Sumter.--Rebel Bravado. + CHAPTER VII. 91 + Abolition Tendencies of Kentuckians.--Fundamental + Grievances of the Rebels.--Sudden Departure from New + Orleans.--Mobile.--The War Spirit High.--An Awkward + Encounter.--"Massa, Fort Sumter has gone Up."--Bells + Ringing.--Cannon Booming.--Up the Alabama River.--A + Dancing Little Darkey.--How to Escape Suspicion.--Southern + Characteristics and Provincialism.--Visit to the Confederate + Capital.--At Montgomery, Alabama.--Copperas Breeches _vs._ + Black Breeches.--A Correspondent under Arrest. + CHAPTER VIII. 105 + A Journey Through Georgia.--Excitement of the + People.--Washington to be Captured.--Apprehensions about + Arming the Negroes.--A Fatal Question.--Charleston.--Looking + at Fort Sumter.--A Short Stay in the City.--North + Carolina.--The Country on Fire.--Submitting to Rebel + Scrutiny.--The North Heard From.--Richmond, Virginia.--The + Frenzy of the People.--Up the Potomac.--The Old Flag Once + More.--An Hour with President Lincoln.--Washington in + Panic.--A Regiment which Came Out to Fight.--Baltimore + under Rebel Rule.--Pennsylvania.--The North fully + Aroused.--Uprising of the whole People.--A _Tribune_ + Correspondent on Trial in Charleston.--He is Warned to + Leave.--His Fortunate Escape + II.--THE FIELD. + CHAPTER IX. 125 + Sunday at Niagara Falls.--View from the Suspension + Bridge.--The Palace of the Frost King.--Chicago, a + City Rising from the Earth.--Mysteries of Western + Currency.--A Horrible Spectacle in Arkansas.--Patriotism + of the Northwest.--Missouri.--The Rebels bent on + Revolution.--Nathaniel Lyon.--Camp Jackson.--Sterling Price + Joins the Rebels.--His Quarrel with Frank Blair.--His + Personal Character.--St. Louis in a Convulsion.--A Nashville + Experience.--Bitterness of Old Neighbors.--Good Soldiers for + Scaling Walls.--Wholesome Advice to Missouri Slaveholders + CHAPTER X. 141 + Cairo, Illinois.--A Visit from General McClellan.--A little + Speech-making.--Penalty of Writing for _The Tribune_.--A + Unionist Aided to Escape from Memphis by a Loyal Girl.--The + Fascinations of Cairo.--The Death of Douglas.--A Clear-headed + Contraband.--A Review of the Troops.--"Not a Fighting Nigger, + but a Running Nigger."--Capture of a Rebel Flag + CHAPTER XI. 151 + Missouri Again.--The Retributions of Time.--A Railroad + Reminiscence.--Jefferson City.--A Fugitive Governor.--"Black + Republicanism."--Belligerent Chaplain.--A Rebel Newspaper + Converted by the Iowa Soldiers.--Two Camp Stories of the + Marvelous + CHAPTER XII. 157 + Chicago.--Corn, not Cotton, is King.--Curious Reminiscences + of the City.--A Visit to the Grave of Douglas.--Patriotism of + the Northwestern Germans.--Their Social Habits.--Cincinnati + in the Early Days.--A City Founded by a Woman.--The + Aspirations of the Cincinnatian.--Kentucky.--Treason and + Loyalty in Louisville.--A Visit to George D. Prentice.--The + first Union Troops of Kentucky.--Struggle in the Kentucky + Legislature.--What the Rebel Leaders Want.--Rousseau's + Visit to Washington.--His Interview with President + Lincoln.--Timidity of the Kentucky Unionists.--Loyalty of + Judge Lusk. + CHAPTER XIII. 173 + Western Virginia.--Campaigning in the Kanawha Valley.--A + Bloodthirsty Female Rebel.--A Soldier Proves to be a Woman + in Disguise.--Extravagant Joy of the Negroes.--How the + Soldiers Foraged.--The Falls of the Kanawha.--A Tragedy of + Slavery.--St. Louis.--The Future of the City.--A disgusted + Rebel Editor. + CHAPTER XIV. 181 + The Battle of Wilson Creek.--Daring Exploit of a + Kansas Officer.--Death of Lyon.--His Courage and + Patriotism.--Arrival of General Fremont.--Union Families + Driven Out.--An Involuntary Sojourn in Rebel Camps.--A + Startling Confederate Atrocity. + CHAPTER XV. 189 + Jefferson City, Missouri.--Fremont's Army.--Organization + of the Bohemian Brigade.--An Amusing Inquiry.--Diversions + of the Correspondents.--A Polite Army Chaplain.--Sights + in Jefferson City.--"Fights mit Sigel."--Fremont's + Head-Quarters.--Appearance of the General.--Mrs. + Fremont.--Sigel, Hunter, Pope, Asboth, McKinstry.--Sigel's + Transportation Train.--A Countryman's Estimate of Troops. + CHAPTER XVI. 199 + A Kid-gloved Corps.--Charge of Fremont's Body-guard.--Major + White.--Turning the Tables.--Welcome from the Union Residents + of Springfield.--Freaks of the Kansas Brigade.--A Visit to + the Wilson-Creek Battle-Ground.--"Missing."--Graves Opened + by Wolves.--Capture of a Female Spy.--Fremont's Farewell to + His Army.--Dissatisfaction Among the Soldiers.--Spurious + Missouri Unionists.--The Conduct of Secretary Cameron and + Adjutant-General Thomas. + CHAPTER XVII. 213 + Rebel Guerrillas Outwitted.--Expedition to Fort + Henry.--Scenes in the Captured Fort.--Commodore Foote in + the Pulpit.--Capture of Fort Donelson.--Scenes in Columbus, + Kentucky.--A Curious Anti-Climax.--Hospital Scenes. + CHAPTER XVIII. 225 + Down the Mississippi.--Bombardment of Island Number + Ten.--Sensations under Fire.--Flanking the Island.--Daily + Life on a Gunboat.--Triumph of Engineering Skill.--The + Surrender. + CHAPTER XIX. 235 + The Battle of Shiloh.--With the Sanitary Commission.--A + Union Orator in Rebel Hands.--Grant and Sherman in + Battle.--Hair-breadth 'Scapes.--General Sweeney.--Arrival of + Buell's Army.--The Final Struggle.--Losses of the Two Armies. + CHAPTER XX. 243 + Grant under a Cloud.--He Smokes and Waits.--Military + Jealousies.--The Union and Rebel Wounded. + CHAPTER XXI. 247 + An Interview with General Sherman.--His Complaints about + the Press.--Sherman's Personal Appearance.--Humors of the + Telegraph.--Our Advance upon Corinth.--Weaknesses of Sundry + Generals.--"Ten Thousand Prisoners Taken."--Halleck's + Faux Pas at Corinth.--Out on the Front.--Among the + Sharp-shooters.--Halleck and the War Correspondents. + CHAPTER XXII. 259 + Bloodthirstiness of Rebel Women.--The Battle of + Memphis.--Gallant Exploit of the Rams.--A Sailor + on a Lark.--Appearance of the Captured City.--The + Jews in Memphis.--A Rebel Paper Supervised.--"A Dam + Black-harted Ablichiness."--Challenge from a Southern + Woman.--Valuable Currency.--A Rebel Trick.--One of Sherman's + Jokes.--Fictitious Battle Reports.--Curtis's March through + Arkansas.--The Siege of Cincinnati. + CHAPTER XXIII. 275 + With the Army of the Potomac.--On the War-Path.--A Duel in + Arizona.--How Correspondents Avoided Expulsion.--Shameful + Surrender of Harper's Ferry.--General Hooker at + Antietam.--"Stormed at with Shot and Shell."--A Night Among + the Pickets.--The Battlefield. + CHAPTER XXIV. 287 + The Day after the Battle.--Among the Dead.--Lee Permitted + to Escape.--The John Brown Engine-House.--President Lincoln + Reviewing the Army.--Dodging Cannon Balls.--"An Intelligent + Contraband."--Harper's Ferry.--Curiosities of the Signal + Corps.--View from Maryland Hights. + CHAPTER XXV. 299 + Marching Southward.--Rebel Girl with Sharp Tongue.--A Slight + Mistake.--Removal of General McClellan.--Familiarity of the + Pickets.--The Life of an Army Correspondent.--A Negro's Idea + of Freedom.--The Battle of Fredericksburg.--A Telegraphic + Blunder.--The Batteries at Fredericksburg.--A Disappointed + Virginian.--The Spirit of the Army under Defeat. + CHAPTER XXVI. 311 + Reminiscences of President Lincoln.--His Great Canvass + with Douglas.--His Visit to Kansas.--His Manner of Public + Speaking.--High Praise from an Opponent.--A Deed without + a Name.--Sherman's Quarrel with the Press.--An Army + Correspondent Court-Martialed.--A Visit to President + Lincoln.--Two of his "Little Stories."--His familiar + Conversation.--Opinions about McClellan and Vicksburg.--Our + best Contribution to History. + CHAPTER XXVII. 327 + Reminiscences of General Sumner.--His Conduct in Kansas.--A + Thrilling Scene in Battle.--How Sumner Fought.--Ordered Back + by McClellan.--Love for his Old Comrades.--Traveling Through + the Northwest.--A Visit to Rosecrans's Army.--Rosecrans in a + Great Battle.--A Scene in Memphis. + III.--THE DUNGEON. + CHAPTER XXVIII. 337 + Running the Vicksburg Batteries.--Expedition Badly + Fitted Out.--"Into the Jaws of Death."--A Moment of + Suspense.--Disabled and Drifting Helplessly.--Bombarding, + Scalding, Burning, Drowning.--Taking to a Hay + Bale.--Overturned.--Rescued from the River.--The Killed, + Wounded, and Missing. + CHAPTER XXIX. 347 + Standing by Our Colors.--Confinement in the Vicksburg + Jail.--Sympathizing Sambo.--Parolled to Return Home.--Turning + the Tables.--Visit from Many Rebels.--Interview with Jacob + Thompson.--Arrival in Jackson, Mississippi.--Kindness of + Southern Rebels.--A Project for Escape. + CHAPTER XXX. 357 + A Word with a Union Woman.--Grierson's Great Raid.--Stumping + the State.--An Enraged Texan Officer.--Waggery of a Captured + Journalist.--The Alabama River.--Atlanta Editors Advocate + Hanging the Prisoners.--Renegade Vermonters. + CHAPTER XXXI. 365 + Arrival in Richmond.--Lodged in Libby Prison.--Sufferings + from Vermin.--Prisoners Denounced as Blasphemous.--Thieving + of a Virginia Gentleman.--Brutality of Captain + Turner.--Prisoners Murdered by the Guards.--Fourth of July + Celebration.--The Horrors of Belle Isle. + CHAPTER XXXII. 373 + The Captains Ordered Below.--Two Selected for Execution.--The + Gloomiest Night in Prison.--Glorious Revulsion of + Feeling.--Exciting Discussion in Prison.--Stealing Money + from the Captives.--Horrible Treatment of Northern + Citizens.--Extravagant Rumors among the Prisoners. + CHAPTER XXXIII. 381 + Transferred to Castle Thunder.--Better than the + Libby.--Determined Not to Die.--A Negro Cruelly Whipped.--The + Execution of Spencer Kellogg.--Steadfastness of Southern + Unionists. + CHAPTER XXXIV. 387 + A Waggish Journalist.--Proceedings of a Mock Court.--Escape + by Killing a Guard.--Escape by Playing Negro.--Escape by + Forging a Release.--Escaped Prisoner at Jeff Davis's Levee. + CHAPTER XXXV. 393 + Assistance from a Negro Boy.--The Prison Officers + Enraged.--Visit from a Friendly Woman.--Shut up in a + Cell.--Stealing from Flag-of-Truce Letters.--Parols + Repudiated by the Rebels.--Sentenced to the Salisbury + Prison.--Abolitionists before the War. + CHAPTER XXXVI. 401 + The Open Air and Pure Water.--The Crushing Weight of + Imprisonment.--Bad News from Home.--The Great Libby + Tunnel.--Escape of Colonel Streight.--Horrible Sufferings + of Union Officers.--A Cool Method of Escape.--Captured + through the Obstinacy of a Mule.--Concealing Money when + Searched.--Attempts to Escape Frustrated.--Yankee Deserters + Whipped and Hanged. + CHAPTER XXXVII. 411 + Great Influx of Prisoners.--Starving in the Midst of + Food.--Freezing in the Midst of Fuel.--Rebel Surgeons + Generally Humane.--Terrible Scenes in the Hospitals.--The + Rattling Dead-Cart.--Cruelty of our Government.--General + Butler's Example of Retaliation. + CHAPTER XXXVIII. 419 + Attempted Outbreak and Massacre.--Cold-blooded Murders + Frequent.--Hostility to _The Tribune_ Correspondents.--A + Cruel Injustice.--Rebel Expectations of Peace.--The Prison + Like the Tomb.--Something about Tunneling.--The Tunnelers + Ingeniously Baffled. + IV.--THE ESCAPE. + CHAPTER XXXIX. 427 + Fifteen Months of Fruitless Endeavor.--A Fearful Journey + in Prospect.--A Friendly Confederate Officer.--Effects + of Hunger and Cold.--Another Plan in Reserve.--Passing + the Sentinel.--"Beg Pardon, Sir."--Encountering Rebel + Acquaintances. + CHAPTER XL. 435 + "Out of the Jaws of Death."--Concealed in Sight of the + Prison.--Certain to be Brought Back.--Commencing the Long + Journey.--Too Weak for Traveling.--Severe March in the Rain. + CHAPTER XLI. 441 + A Cabin of Friendly Negroes.--Southerners Unacquainted + with Tea.--Walking Twelve Miles for Nothing.--Every Negro + a Friend.--Touching Fidelity of the Slaves.--Pursued by a + Home-Guard.--Help in the Last Extremity.--Carried Fifteen + Miles by Friends + CHAPTER XLII. 449 + A Curious Dilemma.--Food, Shelter, and Friends.--Loyalty of + the Mountaineers.--A Levee in a Barn.--Visited by an Old + Friend.--A Day of Alarms.--A Woman's Ready Wit.--Danger + of Detection from Snoring.--Promises to Aid Suffering + Comrades.--A Repentant Rebel + CHAPTER XLIII. 461 + Flanking a Rebel Camp.--Secreted among the Husks.--Wandering + from the Road.--Crossing the Yadkin River.--Union + Bushwhackers.--Union Soldiers "Lying Out."--An Energetic + Invalid + CHAPTER XLIV. 469 + Money Concealed in Clothing.--Peril of Union + Citizens.--Fording Creeks at Midnight.--Climbing the Blue + Ridge.--Crossing the New River at Midnight + CHAPTER XLV. 477 + Over Mountains and Through Ravines.--Mistaken for Confederate + Guards.--A Rebel Guerrilla Killed.--Meeting a Former + Fellow-Prisoner.--Alarm about Rebel Cavalry.--A Stanch old + Unionist.--The Greatest Danger.--A Well Fortified Refuge + CHAPTER XLVI. 487 + Dan Ellis, the Union Guide.--In Good Hands at Last.--Ellis's + Bravery.--Lost! A Perilous Blunder.--A most Fortunate + Encounter.--Rejoining Dan and His Party.--A Terrible March + CHAPTER XLVII. 495 + Fording Creeks in the Darkness.--Prospect of a Dreary + Night.--Sleeping among the Husks.--Turning Back in + Discouragement.--An Alarm at Midnight.--A Young Lady for a + Guide.--The Nameless Heroine. + CHAPTER XLVIII. 503 + Among the Delectable Mountains.--Separation from + Friends.--Union Women Scrutinizing the Yankee.--"Slide + Down off that Horse."--Friendly Words, but Hostile + Eyes.--Hospitalities of a Loyal Patriarch.--"Out of the Mouth + of Hell." + +[Illustration: RICHARD T. COLBURN, "NEW YORK WORLD". CHARLES C. COFFIN, +"CARLETON" - "BOSTON JOURNAL". WILLIAM E. DAVIS, "CINCINNATI GAZETTE". +JUNIUS H. BROWNE, "NEW YORK TRIBUNE". L. L. CROUNSE, "NEW YORK TIMES". +W. D. BICKHAM, "CINCINNATI COMMERCIAL". THOMAS W. KNOX, "NEW YORK +HERALD". A GROUP OF ARMY CORRESPONDENTS. Eng^d. by Geo. E. Perine, +N.Y.] + + + + +THE FIELD, THE DUNGEON, AND THE ESCAPE. + +I. + +THE SECRET SERVICE. + + + + +CHAPTER I. + + I will go on the slightest errand now to the antipodes that + you can desire to send me on.--MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING. + +Early in 1861, I felt a strong desire to look at the Secession movement +for myself; to learn, by personal observation, whether it sprang from +the people or not; what the Revolutionists wanted, what they hoped, and +what they feared. + +But the southern climate, never propitious to the longevity of +Abolitionists, was now unfavorable to the health of every northerner, +no matter how strong his political constitution. I felt the danger of +being recognized; for several years of roving journalism, and a good +deal of political speaking on the frontier, had made my face familiar +to persons whom I did not remember at all, and given me that large and +motley acquaintance which every half-public life necessitates. + +Moreover, I had passed through the Kansas struggle; and many former +shining lights of Border Ruffianism were now, with perfect fitness, +lurid torches in the early bonfires of Secession. I did not care +to meet their eyes, for I could not remember a single man of them +all who would be likely to love me, either wisely or too well. But +the newspaper instinct was strong within me, and the journalist who +deliberates is lost. My hesitancy resulted in writing for a roving +commission to represent THE TRIBUNE in the Southwest. + +[Sidenote: THE MANAGING EDITOR.] + +A few days after, I found the Managing Editor in his office, going +through the great pile of letters the morning mail had brought him, +with the wonderful rapidity which quick intuition, long experience, and +natural fitness for that most delicate and onerous position alone can +give. For the modern newspaper is a sort of intellectual iron-clad, +upon which, while the Editorial Captain makes out the reports to his +chief, the public, and entertains the guests in his elegant cabin, the +leading column, and receives the credit for every broadside of type +and every paper bullet of the brain poured into the enemy,--back out +of sight is an Executive Officer, with little popular fame, who keeps +the ship all right from hold to maintop, looks to every detail with +sleepless vigilance, and whose life is a daily miracle of hard work. + +The Manager went through his mail, I think, at the rate of one letter +per minute. He made final disposition of each when it came into his +hand; acting upon the great truth, that if he laid one aside for future +consideration, there would soon be a series of strata upon his groaning +desk, which no mental geologist could fathom or classify. Some were +ruthlessly thrown into the waste-basket. Others, with a lightning +pencil-stroke, to indicate the type and style of printing, were placed +on the pile for the composing-room. A few great packages of manuscript +were re-enclosed in envelopes for the mail, with a three-line note, +which, while I did not read, I knew must run like this:-- + + "MY DEAR SIR--Your article has unquestionable merit; but by + the imperative pressure of important news upon our columns, + we are very reluctantly compelled," etc. + +[Sidenote: PRELIMINARY INSTRUCTIONS.] + +There was that quick, educated instinct, which reads the whole from +a very small part, taking in a line here and a key-word there. Two +or three glances appeared to decide the fate of each; yet the reader +was not wholly absorbed, for all the while he kept up a running +conversation: + +"I received your letter. Are you going to New Orleans?" + +"Not unless you send me." + +"I suppose you know it is rather precarious business?" + +"O, yes." + +"Two of our correspondents have come home within the last week, after +narrow escapes. We have six still in the South; and it would not +surprise me, this very hour, to receive a telegram announcing the +imprisonment or death of any one of them." + +"I have thought about all that, and decided." + +"Then we shall be very glad to have you go." + +"When may I start?" + +"To-day, if you like." + +"What field shall I occupy?" + +"As large a one as you please. Go and remain just where you think best." + +"How long shall I stay?" + +"While the excitement lasts, if possible. Do you know how long you +_will_ stay? You will be back here some fine morning in just about two +weeks." + +"Wait and see." + +Pondering upon the line of conduct best for the journey, I remembered +the injunction of the immortal Pickwick: "It is always best on these +occasions to do what the mob do!" "But," suggested Mr. Snodgrass, +"suppose there are two mobs?" "_Shout with the largest_," replied Mr. +Pickwick. Volumes could not say more. Upon this plan I determined to +act--concealing my occupation, political views, and place of residence. +It is not pleasant to wear a padlock upon one's tongue, for weeks, nor +to adopt a course of systematic duplicity; but personal convenience and +safety rendered it an inexorable necessity. + +[Sidenote: A RIDE THROUGH KENTUCKY.] + +On Tuesday, February 26th, I left Louisville, Kentucky, by the +Nashville train. Public affairs were the only topic of conversation +among the passengers. They were about equally divided into enthusiastic +Secessionists, urging in favor of the new movement that negroes +already commanded higher prices than ever before; and quasi Loyalists, +reiterating, "We only want Kentucky to remain in the Union as long +as she can do so honorably." Not a single man declared himself +unqualifiedly for the Government. + +A ride of five hours among blue, dreamy hills, feathered with timber; +dense forests, with their drooping foliage and log dwellings, in the +doors of which women and little girls were complacently smoking their +pipes; great, hospitable farm-houses, in the midst of superb natural +parks; tobacco plantations, upon which negroes of both sexes--the women +in cowhide brogans, and faded frocks, with gaudy kerchiefs wrapped like +turbans about their heads--were hoeing, and following the plow, brought +us to Cave City. + +I left the train for a stage-ride of ten miles to the Mammoth Cave +Hotel. In the midst of a smooth lawn, shaded by stately oaks and +slender pines, it looms up huge and white, with a long, low, one-story +offshoot fronted by a deep portico, and known as "the Cottages." + +[Sidenote: THE CURIOSITIES OF WHITE'S CAVE.] + +Several evening hours were spent pleasantly in White's Cave, where +the formations, at first dull and leaden, turn to spotless white +after one grows accustomed to the dim light of the torches. There are +little lakes so utterly transparent that your eye fails to detect +the presence of water; stone drapery, hanging in graceful folds, and +forming an exquisitely beautiful chamber; petrified fountains, where +the water still trickles down and hardens into stone; a honey-combed +roof, which is a very perfect counterfeit of art; long rows of +stalactites, symmetrically ribbed and fluted, which stretch off in a +pleasing colonnade, and other rare specimens of Nature's handiwork +in her fantastic moods. Many of them are vast in dimension, though +the geologists declare that it requires _thirty_ years to deposit a +formation no thicker than a wafer! Well says the German proverb "God is +patient because he is eternal." + +With another visitor I passed the next day in the Mammoth Cave. +"Mat," our sable cicerone, had been acting in the capacity of guide +for twenty-five years, and it was estimated that he had walked more +than fifty thousand miles under ground. The story is not so improbable +when one remembers that the passages of the great cavern are, in the +aggregate, upwards of one hundred and fifty miles in length, and that +it has two hundred and twenty-six known chambers. The outfit consisted +of two lamps for himself and one for each of us. Cans of oil are kept +at several interior points; for it is of the last importance that +visitors to this labyrinth of darkness should keep their lamps trimmed +and burning. + +[Sidenote: THE MAMMOTH CAVE.--LUNG COMPLAINTS.] + +The thermometer within stands constantly at fifty-nine Fahrenheit; and +the cave "breathes just once a year." Through the winter it takes one +long inspiration, and in summer the air rushes steadily outward. Its +vast chambers are the lungs of the universe. + +In 1845, a number of wood and stone cottages were erected in the +cavern, and inhabited by consumptive patients, who believed that the +dry atmosphere and equable temperature would prove beneficial. After +three or four months their faces were bloodless; the pupils of their +sunken eyes dilated until the iris became invisible and the organs +appeared black, no matter what their original color. Three patients +died in the cave; the others expired soon after leaving it. + +Mat gave a vivid description of these invalids flitting about like +ghosts--their hollow coughs echoing and reechoing through the cavernous +chambers. It must have looked horrible--as if the tomb had oped its +ponderous and marble jaws, that its victims might wander about in this +subterranean Purgatory. A cemetery would seem cheerful in comparison +with such a living entombment. Volunteer medical advice, like a motion +to adjourn, is always in order. My own panacea for lung-complaints +would be exactly the opposite. Mount a horse or take a carriage, and +ride, by easy stages at first, across the great plains to the Rocky +Mountains or California, eating and sleeping in the open air. Nature is +very kind, if you will trust her fully; and in the atmosphere, which is +so dry and pure that fresh meat, cut in strips and hung up, will cure +without salting or smoking, and may be carried all over the world, her +healing power seems almost boundless. + +The walls and roof of the cave were darkened and often hidden by +myriads of screeching bats, at this season of the year all hanging +torpid by the claws, with heads downward, and unable to fly away, even +when subjected to the cruel experiment of being touched by the torches. + +[Sidenote: METHODIST CHURCH.--FAT MAN'S MISERY.] + +The Methodist Church is a semi-circular chamber, in which a ledge forms +the natural pulpit; and logs, brought in when religious service was +first performed, fifty years ago, in perfect preservation, yet serve +for seats. Methodist itinerants and other clergymen still preach at +long intervals. Worship, conducted by the "dim religious light" of +tapers, and accompanied by the effect which music always produces in +subterranean halls, must be peculiarly impressive. It suggests those +early days in the Christian Church, when the hunted followers of Jesus +met at midnight in mountain caverns, to blend in song their reverent +voices; to hear anew the strange, sweet story of his teachings, his +death, and his all-embracing love. + +Upon one of the walls beyond, a figure of gypsum, in bass-relief, is +called the American Eagle. The venerable bird, in consonance with +the evil times upon which he had fallen, was in a sadly ragged and +dilapidated condition. One leg and other portions of his body had +seceded, leaving him in seeming doubt as to his own identity; but the +beak was still perfect, as if he could send forth upon occasion his +ancient notes of self-gratulation. + +Minerva's Dome has fluted walls, and a concave roof, beautifully +honey-combed; but no statue of its mistress. The oft-invoked goddess, +wearied by the merciless orators who are always compelling her to leap +anew from the brain of Jove, has doubtless, in some hidden nook, found +seclusion and repose. + +We toiled along the narrow, tortuous passage, chiseled through the +rock by some ancient stream of water, and appropriately named the Fat +Man's Misery; wiped away the perspiration in the ample passage beyond, +known as the Great Relief; glanced inside the Bacon Chamber, where the +little masses of lime-rock pendent from the roof do look marvelously +like esculent hams; peeped down into the cylindrical Bottomless Pit, +which the reader shall be told, confidentially, _has_ a bottom just one +hundred and sixty feet below the surface; laughed at the roof-figures +of the Giant, his Wife, and Child, which resemble a caricature from +Punch; admired the delicate, exquisite flowers of white, fibrous +gypsum, along the walls of Pensacola Avenue; stood beside the Dead Sea, +a dark, gloomy body of water; crossed the Styx by the natural bridge +which spans it, and halted upon the shore of Lethe. + +[Sidenote: A RIDE DOWN THE LETHE.] + +Then, embarking in a little flat-boat, we slowly glided along the +river of Oblivion. It was a strange, weird spectacle. The flickering +torches dimly revealed the dark inclosing walls, which rise abruptly a +hundred feet to the black roof. Our sable guide looked, in the ghastly +light, like a recent importation from Pluto's domain; and stood in the +bows, steering the little craft, which moved slowly down the winding, +sluggish river. The deep silence was only broken by drops of water, +which fell from the roof, striking the stream like the tick of a clock, +and the sharp _ylp_ of the paddle, as it was thrust into the wave to +guide us. When my companion evoked from his flute strains of slow +music, which resounded in hollow echoes through the long vault, it grew +so demoniac, that I almost expected the walls to open and reveal a +party of fiends, dancing to infernal music around a lurid fire. I never +saw any stage effect or work of art that could compare with it. If one +would enjoy the most vivid sensations of the grand and gloomy, let him +float down Lethe to the sound of a dirge. + +[Sidenote: THE STAR CHAMBER.--MAGNIFICENT DISTANCES.] + +We first saw the Star Chamber with the lights withdrawn. It revealed +to us the meaning of "darkness visible." We seemed to _feel_ the dense +blackness against our eye-balls. An object within half an inch of them +was not in the faintest degree perceptible. If one were left alone +here, reason could not long sustain itself. Even a few hours, in the +absence of light, would probably shake it. In numberless little spots, +the dark gypsum has scaled off, laying bare minute sections of the +white limestone roof, resembling stars. When the chamber was lighted +the illusion became perfect. We seemed in a deep, rock-walled pit, +gazing up at the starry firmament. The torch, slowly moved to throw a +shadow along the roof, produced the effect of a cloud sailing over the +sky; but the scene required no such aid to render it one of marvelous +beauty. The Star Chamber is the most striking picture in all this great +gallery of Nature. + +My companion had spent his whole life within a few miles of the cave, +but now visited it for the first time. Thus it is always; objects which +pilgrims come half across the world to see, we regard with indifference +at our own doors. Persons have passed all their days in sight of Mount +Washington, and yet never looked upon the grand panorama from its +brow. Men have lived from childhood almost within sound of the roar of +Niagara, without ever gazing on the vast fountain, where mother Earth, +like Rachel, weeps for her children, and will not be comforted. We +appreciate no enjoyment justly, until we see it through the charmed +medium of magnificent distances. + +[Sidenote: POLITICAL FEELING IN KENTUCKY.] + +Throughout Kentucky the pending troubles were uppermost in every heart +and on every tongue. One gentleman, in conversation, thus epitomized +the feeling of the State:-- + +"We have more wrongs to complain of than any other slave community, for +Kentucky loses more negroes than all the cotton States combined. But +Secession is no remedy. It would be jumping out of the frying-pan into +the fire." + +Another, whose head was silvered with age, said to me:-- + +"When I was a boy here in this county, some of our neighbors started +for New Orleans on a flat-boat. As we bade them good-by, we never +expected to see them again; we thought they were going out of the +world. But, after several months, they returned, having come on foot +all the way, through the Indian country, packing[1] their blankets and +provisions. Now we come from New Orleans in five days. I thank God to +have lived in this age--the age of the Railroad, the Telegraph, and the +Printing Press. Ours was the greatest nation and the greatest era in +history. But that is all past now. The Government is broken to pieces; +the slave States can not obtain their rights; and those which have +seceded will never come back." + +[1] Vernacular for carrying a load upon the back of a man or animal. + +An old farmer "reckoned," as I traveled a good deal, that I might know +better than he whether there was any hope of a peaceable settlement. +If the North, as he believed, was willing to be just, an overwhelming +majority of Kentuckians would stand by the Union. "It is a great pity," +he said, very earnestly, in a broken voice, "that we Americans could +not live harmoniously, like brethren, instead of always quarreling +about a few niggers." + +My recollections of Nashville, Tennessee, include only an unpalatable +breakfast in one of its abominable hotels; a glimpse at some of its +pleasant shaded streets and marble capitol, which, with the exception +of that in Columbus, Ohio, is considered the finest State-house on the +continent. + +Continuing southward, I found the country already "appareled in the +sweet livery of spring." The elm and gum trees wore their leafy +glory; the grass and wheat carpeted the ground with swelling verdure, +and field and forest glowed with the glossy green of the holly. The +railway led through large cotton-fields, where many negroes, of both +sexes, were plowing and hoeing, while overseers sat upon the high, +zig-zag fences, armed with rifles or shot-guns. On the withered stalks +snowy tufts of cotton were still protruding from the dull brown +bolls--portions of the last year's crop, which had never been picked, +and were disappearing under the plow. + +[Sidenote: COTTON-FIELDS.--AN INDIGNANT ALABAMIAN.] + +A native Kentuckian, now a young merchant in Alabama, was one of +my fellow-passengers. He pronounced the people aristocratic. They +looked down upon every man who worked for his living--indeed, upon +every one who did not own negroes. The ladies were pretty, and often +accomplished, but, he mildly added, he would like them better if they +did not "dip." He insisted that Alabama had been precipitated into the +revolution. + +"We were _swindled_ out of our rights. In my own town, Jere +Clemens--an ex-United States senator, and one of the ablest men in the +State--was elected to the convention on the strongest public pledges +of Unionism. When the convention met, he went completely over to the +enemy. The leaders--a few heavy slaveholders, aided by political +demagogues--dared not submit the Secession ordinance to a popular vote; +they knew the people would defeat them. They are determined on war; +they will exasperate the ignorant masses to the last degree before they +allow them to vote on any test question. I trust the Government will +put them down by force of arms, no matter what the cost!" + +The same evening, crossing the Alabama line, I was in the "Confederate +States of America." At the little town of Athens, the Stars and Stripes +were still floating; as the train left, I cast a longing look at the +old flag, wondering when I should see it again. + +[Sidenote: "OUR CORRESPONDENT" AS A NEW MEXICAN.] + +The next person who took a seat beside me went through the formula +of questions, usual between strangers in the South and the Far West, +asking my name, residence, business, and destination. He was informed, +in reply, that I lived in the Territory of New Mexico, and was now +traveling leisurely to New Orleans, designing to visit Vera Cruz and +the City of Mexico before returning home. This hypothesis, to which +I afterward adhered, was rendered plausible by my knowledge of New +Mexico, and gave me the advantage of not being deemed a partisan. +Secessionists and Unionists alike, regarding me as a stranger with no +particular sympathies, conversed freely. Aaron Burr asserts that "a lie +well stuck to is good as the truth;" in my own case, it was decidedly +better than the truth. + +My querist was a cattle-drover, who spent most of his time in traveling +through Alabama, Mississippi and Louisiana. He declared emphatically +that the people of those States had been placed in a false position; +that their hearts were loyal to the Union, in spite of all the arts +which had been used to deceive and exasperate them. + +At Memphis was an old friend, whom I had not met for many years, and +who was now commercial editor of the leading Secession journal. I knew +him to be perfectly trustworthy, and, at heart, a bitter opponent of +Slavery. On the morning of my arrival, he called upon me at the Gayoso +House. After his first cordial greeting, he asked, abruptly: + +[Sidenote: A HOT CLIMATE FOR ABOLITIONISTS.] + +"What are you doing down here?" + +"Corresponding for _The Tribune_." + +"How far are you going?" + +"Through all the Gulf States, if possible." + +"My friend," said he, in his deep bass tones, "do you know that you are +on very perilous business?" + +"Possibly; but I shall be extremely prudent when I get into a hot +climate." + +"I do not know" (with a shrug of the shoulders) "what you call a +hot climate. Last week, two northerners, who had been mobbed as +Abolitionists, passed through here, with their heads shaved, going +home, in charge of the Adams' Express. A few days before, a man was +hung on that cottonwood tree which you see just across the river, upon +the charge of tampering with slaves. Another person has just been +driven out of the city, on suspicion of writing a letter for _The +Tribune_. If the people in this house, and out on the street in front, +knew you to be one of its correspondents, they would not leave you many +minutes for saying your prayers." + +After a long, minute conversation, in which my friend learned my plans +and gave me some valuable hints, he remarked: + +[Sidenote: AIMS AND ANIMUS OF SECESSIONISTS.] + +"My first impulse was to go down on my knees, and beg you, for God's +sake, to turn back; but I rather think you may go on with comparative +safety. You are the first man to whom I have opened my heart for years. +I wish some of my old northern friends, who think Slavery a good thing, +could witness the scenes in the slave auctions, which have so often +made my blood run cold. I knew two runaway negroes absolutely starve +themselves to death in their hiding-places in this city, rather than +make themselves known, and be sent back to their masters. I disliked +Slavery before; now I hate it, down to the very bottom of my heart." +His compressed lips and clinched fingers, driving their nails into his +palms, attested the depth of his feeling. + + + + +CHAPTER II. + + Thus far into the bowels of the land Have we marched on + without impediment.--RICHARD III. + + +While I remained in Memphis, my friend, who was brought into familiar +contact with leading Secessionists, gave me much valuable information. +He insisted that they were in the minority, but carried the day because +they were noisy and aggressive, overawing the Loyalists, who staid +quietly at home. Before the recent city election, every one believed +the Secessionists in a large majority; but, when a Union meeting was +called, the people turned out surprisingly, and, as they saw the old +flag, gave cheer after cheer, "with tears in their voices." Many, +intimidated, staid away from the polls. The newspapers of the city, +with a single exception, were disloyal, but the Union ticket was +elected by a majority of more than three hundred. + +[Sidenote: SECESSION AIMS AND GRIEVANCES.] + +"Tell me exactly what the 'wrongs' and 'grievances' are, of which I +hear so much on every side." + +"It is difficult to answer. The masses have been stirred into a vague, +bitter, 'soreheaded' feeling that the South is wronged; but the leaders +seldom descend to particulars. When they do, it is very ludicrous. +They urge the marvelous growth of the North; the abrogation of the +Missouri Compromise (done by southern votes!), and that Freedom has +always distanced Slavery in the territories. Secession is no new or +spontaneous uprising; every one of its leaders here has talked of it +and planned it for years. Individual ambition, and wild dreams of a +great southern empire, which shall include Mexico, Central America, +and Cuba, seem to be their leading incentives. But there is another, +stronger still. You can hardly imagine how bitterly they hate the +Democratic Idea--how they loathe the thought that the vote of any +laboring man, with a rusty coat and soiled hands, may neutralize that +of a wealthy, educated, slave-owning gentleman." + + "Wonder why they gave it such a name of old renown, + This dreary, dingy, muddy, melancholy town." + +[Sidenote: SPRING-TIME IN MEMPHIS.] + +Thus Charles Mackay describes Memphis; but it impressed me as the +pleasantest city of the South. Though its population was only thirty +thousand, it had the air and promise of a great metropolis. The long +steamboat landing was so completely covered with cotton that drays and +carriages could hardly thread the few tortuous passages leading down +to the water's edge. Bales of the same great staple were piled up to +the ceiling in the roomy stores of the cotton factors; the hotels were +crowded, and spacious and elegant blocks were being erected. + +A few days earlier, in Cleveland, I had seen the ground covered with +snow; but here I was in the midst of early summer. During the first +week of March, the heat was so oppressive that umbrellas and fans were +in general use upon the streets. The broad, shining leaves of the +magnolia, and the delicate foliage of the weeping willow, were nodding +adieu to winter; the air was sweet with cherry blossoms; with + + ----"Daffodils + That come before the swallow dares, and take + The winds of March with beauty; violets dim, + But sweeter than the lids of Juno's eyes, + Or Cytherea's breath." + +[Sidenote: CAPTAIN MCINTIRE, LATE OF THE ARMY.] + +On the evening of March 3d I left Memphis. A thin-visaged, +sandy-haired, angular gentleman in spectacles, who occupied a car-seat +near me, though of northern birth, had resided in the Gulf States +for several years, as agent for an Albany manufactory of cotton-gins +and agricultural implements. A broad-shouldered, roughly dressed, +sun-browned young man, whose chin was hidden by a small forest of +beard, accepted the proffer of a cigar, took a seat beside us, and +introduced himself as Captain McIntire, of the United States Army, who +had just resigned his commission, on account of the pending troubles, +and was returning from the Texian frontier to his plantation in +Mississippi. He was the first bitter Secessionist I had met, and I +listened with attent ear to his complaints of northern aggression. + +The Albanian was an advocate of Slavery and declared that, in the +event of separation, his lot was with the South, for better or for +worse; but he mildly urged that the Secession movement was hasty and +ill advised; hoped the difficulty might be settled by compromise, +and declared that, traveling through all the cotton States since Mr. +Lincoln's election, he had found, everywhere outside the great cities, +a strong love for the Union and a universal hope that the Republic +might continue indivisible. He was very "conservative;" had always +voted the Democratic ticket; was confident the northern people would +not willingly wrong their southern brethren; and insisted that not more +than twenty or thirty thousand persons in the State of New-York were, +in any just sense, Abolitionists. + +Captain McIntire silently heard him through, and then remarked: + +"You seem to be a gentleman; you may be sincere in your opinions; +but it won't do for you to express such sentiments in the State of +Mississippi. They will involve you in trouble and in danger!" + +[Sidenote: AN AMUSING COLLOQUY.] + +The New-Yorker was swift to explain that he was very "sound," favoring +no compromise which would not give the slaveholders all they asked. +Meanwhile, a taciturn but edified listener, I pondered upon the German +proverb, that "speech is silver, while silence is golden." Something +gave me a dim suspicion that our violent fire-eater was not of southern +birth; and, after being plied industriously with indirect questions, he +was reluctantly forced to acknowledge himself a native of the State of +New Jersey. Soon after, at a little station, Captain McIntire, late of +the Army of the United States, bade us adieu. + +At Grand Junction, after I had assumed a recumbent position in +the sleeping-car, two young women in a neighboring seat fell into +conversation with a gentleman near them, when a droll colloquy ensued. +Learning that he was a New Orleans merchant, one of them asked:-- + +"Do you know Mr. Powers, of New Orleans?" + +"Powers--Powers," said the merchant; "what does he do?" + +"Gambles," was the cool response. + +"Bless me, no! What do you know about a gambler?" + +"He is my husband," replied the woman, with ingenuous promptness. + +"Your husband a gambler!" ejaculated the gentleman, with horror in +every tone. + +"Yes, sir," reiterated the undaunted female; "and gamblers are the best +men in the world." + +"I didn't know they ever married. I should like to see a gambler's +wife." + +"Well, sir, take a mighty good look, and you can see one now." + +The merchant opened the curtains into their compartment, and +scrutinized the speaker--a young, rosy, and rather comely woman, with +blue eyes and brown hair, quietly and tastefully dressed. + +"I should like to know your husband, madam." + +"Well, sir; if you've got plenty of money, he will be glad to make +_your_ acquaintance." + +"Does he ever go home?" + +"Lord bless you, yes! He always comes home at one o'clock in the +morning, after he gets through dealing faro. He has not missed a single +night since we were married--going on five years. We own a farm in this +vicinity, and if business continues good with him next year we shall +retire to it, and never live in the city again." + +All the following day I journeyed through deep forests of heavy +drooping foliage, with pendent tufts of gray Spanish moss. The +beautiful Cherokee rose everywhere trailed its long arms of vivid +green; all the woods were decked with the yellow flowers of the +sassafras and the white blossoms of the dogwood and the wild plum. +Our road stretched out in long perspective through great Louisiana +everglades, where the grass was four feet in hight and the water ten or +twelve inches deep. + +[Sidenote: FEELING TOWARD PRESIDENT LINCOLN.] + +It was the day of Mr. Lincoln's inauguration. One of our passengers +remarked: + +"I hope to God he will be killed before he has time to take the oath!" + +Another said: + +"I have wagered a new hat that neither he nor Hamlin will ever live to +be inaugurated." + +[Sidenote: WHAT A MISSISSIPPI SLAVEHOLDER THOUGHT.] + +An old Mississippian, a working man, though the owner of a dozen +slaves, assured me earnestly that the people did not desire war; but +the North had cheated them in every compromise, and they were bound to +regain their rights, even if they had to fight for them. + +"We of the South," said he, "are the most independent people in the +universe. We raise every thing we need; but the world can not do +without cotton. If we have war, it will cause terrible suffering in the +North. I pity the ignorant people of the manufacturing districts there, +who have been deluded by the politicians; for they will be forced to +endure many hardships, and perhaps starvation. After Southern trade is +withdrawn, manufactures stopped, operatives starving, grass growing in +the streets of New York, and crowds marching up Broadway crying 'Bread +or Blood!' northern fanatics will see, too late, the results of their +folly." + +This was the uniform talk of Secessionists. That Cotton was not +merely King, but absolute despot; that they could coerce the North +by refusing to buy goods, and coerce the whole world by refusing to +sell cotton, was their profound belief. This was always a favorite +southern theory. Bancroft relates that as early as 1661, the colony of +Virginia, suffering under commercial oppression, urged North Carolina +and Maryland to join her for a year in refusing to raise tobacco, that +they might compel Great Britain to grant certain desired privileges. +Now the Rebels had no suspicion whatever that there was reciprocity +in trade; that they needed to sell their great staple just as much as +the world needed to buy it; that the South bought goods in New York +simply because it was the cheapest and best market; that, were all the +cotton-producing States instantly sunk in the ocean, in less than five +years the world would obtain their staple, or some adequate substitute, +from other sources, and forget they ever existed. + +[Sidenote: WISCONSIN FREEMEN VS. SOUTHERN SLAVES.] + +"I spent six weeks last summer," said another planter, "in Wisconsin. +It is a hot-bed of Abolitionism. The working-classes are astonishingly +ignorant. They are honest and industrious, but they are not so +intelligent as the nig-roes of the South. They suppose, if war comes, +we shall have trouble with our slaves. That is utterly absurd. All my +nig-roes would fight for me." + +A Mississippian, whom his companions addressed as "Judge," denounced +the Secession movement as a dream of noisy demagogues: + +"Their whole policy has been one of precipitation. They declared: 'Let +us rush the State out of the Union while Buchanan is President, and +there will be no war.' From the outset, they have acted in defiance +of the sober will of the masses; they have not dared to submit one of +their acts to a popular vote!" + +Another passenger, who concurred in these views, and intimated that he +was a Union man, still imputed the troubles mainly to agitation of the +Slavery question. + +"The northern people," said he, "have been grossly deceived by their +politicians, newspapers, and books like 'Uncle Tom's Cabin,' whose very +first chapter describes a slave imprisoned and nearly starved to death +in a cellar in New Orleans, when there is not a single cellar in the +whole city!" + +Midnight found us at the St. Charles Hotel, a five-story edifice, with +granite basement and walls of stucco--that be-all and end-all of New +Orleans architecture. The house has an imposing Corinthian portico, +and in the hot season its stone floors and tall columns are cool and +inviting to the eye. + +[Sidenote: HOSPITALITY OF A STRANGER.] + +"You can not fail to like New Orleans," said a friend, before I left +the North. "Its people are much more genial and cordial to strangers +than ours." I took no letters of introduction, for introduction was +just the thing I did not want. But on the cars, before reaching the +city, I met a gentleman with whom I had a little conversation, and +exchanged the ordinary civilities of traveling. When we parted, he +handed me his card, saying: + + "You are a stranger in New Orleans, and may desire some + information or assistance. Call and see me, and command me, + if I can be of service to you." + +He proved to be the senior member of one of the heaviest wholesale +houses in the city. Accepting the invitation, I found him in his +counting-room, deeply engrossed in business; but he received me with +great kindness, and gave me information about the leading features of +the city which I wished to see. As I left, he promised to call on me, +adding: "Come in often. By the way, to-morrow is Sunday; why can't you +go home and take a quiet family dinner with me?" + +I was curious to learn the social position of one who would invite +a stranger, totally without indorsement, into his home-circle. The +next day he called, and we took a two-story car of the Baronne street +railway. It leads through the Fourth or Lafayette District--more like +a garden than a city--containing the most delightful metropolitan +residences in America. Far back from the street, they are deeply +imbosomed in dense shrubbery and flowers. The tropical profusion of the +foliage retains dampness and is unwholesome, but very delicious to the +senses. + +The houses are low--this latitude is unfavorable to climbing--and +constructed of stucco, cooler than wood, and less damp than stone. They +abound in verandas, balconies, and galleries, which give to New Orleans +a peculiarly mellow and elastic look, much more alluring than the cold, +naked architecture of northern cities. + +[Sidenote: AN AGREEABLE FAMILY CIRCLE.] + +My new friend lived in this district, as befits a merchant prince. +His spacious grounds were rich in hawthorns, magnolias, arbor-vitæs, +orange, olive, and fig trees, and sweet with the breath of +multitudinous flowers. Though it was only the tenth of March, myriads +of pinks and trailing roses were in full bloom; Japan plums hung ripe, +while brilliant oranges of the previous year still glowed upon the +trees. His ample residence, with its choice works of art, was quietly, +unostentatiously elegant. There was no mistaking it for one of those +gilt and gaudy palaces which seem to say: "Look at the state in which +Cr[oe]sus, my master, lives. Lo, the pictures and statues, the Brussels +and rosewood which his money has bought! Behold him clothed in purple +and fine linen, faring sumptuously every day!" + +Three other guests were present, including a young officer of the +Louisiana troops stationed at Fort Pickens, and a lady whose husband +and brother held each a high commission in the Rebel forces of Texas. +All assumed to be Secessionists--as did nearly every person I met in +New Orleans upon first acquaintance--but displayed none of the usual +rancor and violence. In that well-poised, agreeable circle the evening +passed quickly, and at parting, the host begged me to frequent his +house. This was not distinctively southern hospitality, for he was born +and bred at the North. But in our eastern cities, from a business man +in his social position, it would appear a little surprising. Had he +been a Philadelphian or Bostonian, would not his friends have deemed +him a candidate for a lunatic asylum? + + NEW ORLEANS, _March 6, 1861_. + +Taking my customary stroll last evening, I sauntered into Canal +street, and suddenly found myself in a dense and expectant crowd. +Several cheers being given upon my arrival, I naturally inferred that +it was an ovation to _The Tribune_ correspondent; but native modesty, +and a desire to blush unseen, restrained me from any oral public +acknowledgment. + +[Sidenote: TRIBUNE LETTERS.--GENERAL TWIGGS.] + +Just then, an obliging by-stander corrected my misapprehension by +assuring me that the demonstration was to welcome home General Daniel +E. Twiggs--the gallant hero, you know, who, stationed in Texas to +protect the Government property, recently betrayed it all into the +hands of the Rebels, to "prevent bloodshed." His friends wince at the +order striking his name from the army rolls as a coward and a traitor, +and the universal execration heaped upon his treachery even in the +border slave States. + +They did their best to give him a flattering reception. The great +thoroughfare was decked in its holiday attire. Flags were flying, and +up and down, as far as the eye could reach, the balconies were crowded +with spectators, and the arms of long files of soldiers glittered in +the evening sunlight. One company bore a tattered and stained banner, +which went through the Mexican war. Another carried richly ornamented +colors, presented by the ladies of this city. There were Pelican flags, +and Lone Star flags, and devices unlike any thing in the heavens above, +the earth beneath, or the waters under the earth; but nowhere could I +see the old National banner. It was well; on such occasion the Stars +and Stripes would be sadly out of place. + +[Sidenote: BRAXTON BRAGG.--MR. LINCOLN'S INAUGURAL.] + +After a welcoming speech, pronouncing him "not only the soldier of +courage, but the patriot of fidelity and honor," and his own response, +declaring that _here_, at least, he would "never be branded as a +coward and traitor," the ex-general rode through some of the principal +streets in an open barouche, bareheaded, bowing to the spectators. He +is a venerable-looking man, apparently of seventy. His large head is +bald upon the top; but from the sides a few thin snow-white locks, +utterly oblivious of the virtues of "the Twiggs Hair Dye,"[2] streamed +in the breeze. He was accompanied in the carriage by General Braxton +Bragg--the "Little-more-grape-Captain-Bragg" of Mexican war memory. By +the way, persons who ought to know declare that General Taylor never +used the expression, his actual language being: "Captain Bragg, give +them----!" + +[2] In Mexico, General Twiggs, while applying some preparation to a +wound in his head, found it restoring his hair to its natural color. +An enterprising nostrum-vender at once placed in market and advertised +largely something which he styled the "Twiggs Hair Dye." Dr. Holmes +makes the incident a target for one of his Parthian arrows:-- + + "How many a youthful head we've seen put on its silver crown! + What sudden changes back again, to youth's empurpled brown! + But how to tell what's old or young--the tap-root from the sprigs, + Since Florida revealed her fount to Ponce de Leon Twiggs?" + + +President Lincoln's Inaugural, looked for with intense interest, has +just arrived. All the papers denounce it bitterly. _The Delta_, which +has advocated Secession these ten years, makes it a signal for the +war-whoop:-- + + "War is a great calamity; but, with all its horrors, it is + a blessing to the deep, dark, and damning infamy of such + a submission, such surrenders, as the southern people are + now called upon to make to a foreign invader. He who would + counsel such--he who would seek to dampen, discourage, or + restrain the ardor and determination of the people to resist + all such pretensions, is a traitor, who should be driven + beyond our borders." + +"Foreign invader," is supposed to mean the President of our common +country! The "submission" denounced so terribly would be simply the +giving up of the Government property lately stolen by the Rebels, and +the paying of the usual duties on imports! + + _March 8._ + +[Sidenote: LOUISIANA CONVENTION.] + +The State convention which lately voted Louisiana out of the Union, +sits daily in Lyceum Hall. The building fronts Lafayette Square--one +of the admirable little parks which are the pride of New Orleans. Upon +the first floor is the largest public library in the city, though it +contains less than ten thousand volumes. + +In the large hall above are the assembled delegates. Ex-Governor +Mouton, their president, a portly old gentleman, of the heavy-father +order, sits upon the platform. Below him, at a long desk, Mr. Wheat, +the florid clerk, is reading a report in a voice like a cracked bugle. +Behind the president is a life-size portrait of Washington; at his +right, a likeness of Jefferson Davis, with thin, beardless face, and +sad, hollow eyes. There is also a painting of the members, and a copy +of the Secession ordinance, with lithographed _fac similes_ of their +signatures. The delegates, you perceive, have made all the preliminary +arrangements for being immortalized. Physically, they are fine-looking +men, with broad shoulders, deep chests, well-proportioned limbs, and +stature decidedly above the northern standard. + + + + +CHAPTER III. + + I will be _correspondent_ to command, And do my spiriting + gently.--TEMPEST. + +[Sidenote: INTRODUCTION TO REBEL CIRCLES.] + + +The good fortune which in Memphis enabled me to learn so directly +the plans and aims of the Secession leaders, did not desert me in +New Orleans. For several years I had been personally acquainted with +the editor of the leading daily journal--an accomplished writer, and +an original Secessionist. Uncertain whether he knew positively my +political views, and fearing to arouse suspicion by seeming to avoid +him, I called on him the day after reaching the city. + +He received me kindly, never surmising my errand; invited me into +the State convention, of which he was a member; asked me to frequent +his editorial rooms; and introduced me at the "Louisiana Democratic +Club," which had now ripened into a Secession club. Among prominent +Rebels belonging to it were John Slidell and Judah P. Benjamin, of +Jewish descent, whom Senator Wade of Ohio characterized so aptly as "an +Israelite with Egyptian principles." + +Admission to that club was a final voucher for political soundness. The +plans of the conspirators could hardly have been discussed with more +freedom in the parlor of Jefferson Davis. Another friend introduced +me at the Merchants' Reading-room, where were the same sentiments and +the same frankness. The newspaper office also was a standing Secession +caucus. + +[Sidenote: INTENSITY OF THE SECESSION FEELING.] + +These associations gave me rare facilities for studying the aims +and animus of the leading Revolutionists. I was not compelled to ask +questions, so constantly was information poured into my ears. I used +no further deceit than to acquiesce quietly in the opinions everywhere +heard. While I talked New Mexico and the Rocky Mountains, my companions +talked Secession; and told me more, every day, of its secret workings, +than as a mere stranger I could have learned in a month. Socially, +they were genial and agreeable. Their hatred of New England, which +they seemed to consider "the cruel cause of all our woes," was very +intense. They were also wont to denounce _The Tribune_, and sometimes +its unknown Southern correspondents, with peculiar bitterness. At first +their maledictions fell with startling and unpleasant force upon my +ears, though I always concurred. But in time I learned to hear them +not only with serenity, but with a certain quiet enjoyment of the +ludicrousness of the situation. + +I had not a single acquaintance in the city, whom I knew to be a Union +man, or to whom I could talk without reserve. This was very irksome--at +times almost unbearable. How I longed to open my heart to somebody! +Recently as I had left the North, and strongly as I was anchored in +my own convictions, the pressure on every hand was so great, all +intelligence came so distorted through Rebel mediums, that at times I +was nearly swept from my moorings. I could fully understand how many +strong Union men had at last been drawn into the almost irresistible +tide. It was an inexpressible relief to read the northern newspapers at +the Democratic Club. There, even _The Tribune_ was on file. The club +was so far above suspicion that it might have patronized with impunity +the organ of William Lloyd Garrison or Frederick Douglass. + +[Sidenote: REBEL NEWSPAPERS AND PRESIDENT LINCOLN.] + +The vituperation which the southern journals heaped upon Abraham +Lincoln was something marvelous. The speeches of the newly elected +President on his way to Washington, were somewhat rugged and uncouth; +not equal to the reputation he won in the great senatorial canvass with +Douglas, where debate and opposition developed his peculiar powers and +stimulated his unrivaled logic. The Rebel papers drew daily contrasts +between the two Presidents, pronouncing Mr. Davis a gentleman, scholar, +statesman; and Mr. Lincoln a vulgarian, buffoon, demagogue. One of +their favorite epithets was "idiot;" another, "baboon;" just as the +Roman satirists, fifteen hundred years ago, were wont to ridicule the +great Julian as an ape and a hairy savage. + +The times have changed. While I write some of the same journals, not +yet extinguished by the fortunes of war, denounce Jefferson Davis +with equal coarseness and bitterness, as an elegant, vacillating +sentimentalist; and mourn that he does not possess the rugged common +sense and indomitable perseverance displayed by Abraham Lincoln! + +While keeping up appearances on the Mexican question, by frequent +inquiries about the semi-monthly steamers for Vera Cruz, I devoted +myself ostensibly to the curious features of the city. Odd enough it +sounded to hear persons say, "Let us go _up_ to the river;" but the +phrase is accurate. New Orleans is two feet lower than the Mississippi, +and protected against overflow by a dike or levee. The city is quite +narrow, and is drained into a great swamp in the rear. In front, new +deposits of soil are constantly and rapidly made. Four of the leading +business streets, nearest the levee, traverse what, a few years ago, +was the bed of the river. Anywhere, by digging two feet below the +surface, one comes to water. + +The earth is peculiarly spongy and yielding. The unfinished Custom +House, built of granite from Quincy, Massachusetts, has sunk about +two feet since its commencement, in 1846. The same is true of other +heavy buildings. Cellars and wells being impossible in the watery +soil, refrigerators serve for the one, and cylindrical upright wooden +cisterns, standing aboveground, like towers, for the other. + +[Sidenote: CEMETERIES ABOVE THE GROUND.] + +In the cemeteries the tombs are called "ovens." They are all built +aboveground, of brick, stone, or stucco, closed up with mortar and +cement. Sometimes the walls crack open, revealing the secrets of the +charnel-house. Decaying coffins are visible within; and once I saw a +human skull protruding from the fissure of a tomb. Here, indeed, + + "Imperial Cæsar, dead, and turned to clay, + Might stop a hole to keep the wind away." + +Despite this revolting feature, the Catholic cemeteries are especially +interesting. About the humblest of the monuments, artificial wreaths, +well-tended rose-beds, garlands of fresh flowers, changed daily, and +vases inserted in the walls, to catch water and attract the birds, +evince a tender, unforgetful attention to the resting-place of departed +friends. More than half the inscriptions are French or Spanish. Very +few make any allusion to a future life. One imposing column marks the +grave of Dominique You, the pirate, whose single virtue of patriotism, +exhibited under Jackson during the war of 1815, hardly justifies, upon +his monument, the magnificent eulogy of Bayard: "The hero of a hundred +battles,--a chevalier without fear and without reproach." + +In New Orleans, grass growing upon the streets is no sign of +decadence. Stimulated by the rich, moist soil, it springs up in +profusion, not only in the smaller thoroughfares, but among the bricks +and paving-stones of the leading business avenues. + +[Sidenote: THE FRENCH QUARTER OF NEW ORLEANS.] + +Canal street is perhaps the finest promenade on the continent. It is +twice the width of Broadway, and in the middle has two lines of trees, +with a narrow lawn between them, extending its entire length. At night, +as the long parallel rows of gas-lights glimmer through the quivering +foliage, growing narrower and narrower in perspective till they unite +and blend into one, it is a striking spectacle--a gorgeous feast of +the lanterns. On the lower side of it is the "French Quarter," more +un-American even than the famous German portion of Cincinnati known +as "Over the Rhine." Here you may stroll for hours, "a straggler from +another civilization," hearing no word in your native tongue, seeing +no object to remove the impression of an ancient French city. The +dingy houses, "familiar with forgotten years," call up memories of old +Mexican towns. They are grim, dusky relics of antiquity, usually but +one story high, with steep projecting roofs, tiled or slated, wooden +shutters over the doors, and multitudinous eruptions of queer old +gables and dormer windows. + +New Orleans is the most Parisian of American cities. Opera-houses, +theaters, and all other places of amusement are open on Sunday nights. +The great French market wears its crowning glory only on Sunday +mornings. Then the venders occupy not only several spacious buildings, +but adjacent streets and squares. Their wares seem boundless in +variety. Any thing you please--edible, drinkable, wearable, ornamental, +or serviceable--from Wenham ice to vernal flowers and tropical +fruits--from Indian moccasins to a silk dress-pattern--from ancient +Chinese books to the freshest morning papers--ask, and it shall be +given unto you. + +[Sidenote: FRENCH MARKET ON SUNDAY MORNING.] + +Sit down in a stall, over your tiny cup of excellent coffee, and you +are hobnobbing with the antipodes--your next neighbor may be from +Greenland's icy mountains, or India's coral strand. Get up to resume +your promenade, and you hear a dozen languages in as many steps; while +every nation, and tribe, and people--French, English, Irish, German, +Spanish, Creole, Chinese, African, Quadroon, Mulatto, American--jostles +you in good-humored confusion. + +Some gigantic negresses, with gaudy kerchiefs, like turbans, about +their heads, are selling fruits, and sit erect as palm-trees. They look +like African or Indian princesses, a little annoyed at being separated +from their thrones and retinues, but none the less regal "for a' that." +At every turn little girls, with rich Creole complexions and brilliant +eyes, offer you aromatic bouquets of pinks, roses, verbenas, orange +and olive blossoms, and other flowers to you unknown, unless, being a +woman, you are a botanist by "gift of fortune," or, a man, that science +has "come by nature." + +Upon Jackson Square, a delicious bit of verdure fronting the river, +gloom antique public buildings, which were the seat of government in +the days of the old Spanish _régime_. Near them stands the equally +ancient cathedral, richly decorated within, where devout Catholics +still worship. Its great congregations are mosaics of all hues and +nationalities, mingling for the moment in the democratic equality of +the Roman Church. + +Attending service in the cathedral one Sunday morning, I found the +aisles crowded with volunteers who, on the eve of departure for +the debatable ground of Fort Pickens, had assembled to witness the +consecration of their Secession flag, a ceremonial conducted with great +pomp and solemnity by the French priests. + +In the First Presbyterian Church, the Rev. Dr. Palmer, a divine of +talent and local reputation, might be heard advocating the extremest +Rebel views. The southerners had formerly been very bitter in their +denunciation of political preaching; but now the pulpit, as usual, made +obeisance to the pews, and the pews beamed encouragement on the pulpit. + +[Sidenote: PRESSING COTTON BY MACHINERY.] + +If I may go abruptly from church to cotton--and they were not far apart +in New Orleans--a visit to one of the great cotton-presses was worthy +of note. It is a low building, occupying an entire square, with a +hollow court in the center. It was filled with heaped-up cotton-bales, +which overran their limits and covered the adjacent sidewalks. Negroes +stood all day at the doors receiving and discharging cotton. The bales +are compressed by heavy machinery, driven by steam, that they may +occupy the least space in shipping. They are first condensed on the +plantations by screw-presses; the cotton is compact upon arrival here; +but this great iron machine, which embraces the bales in a hug of two +hundred tons, diminishes them one-third more. The laborers are negroes +and Frenchmen, who chant a strange, mournful refrain in time with their +movements. + +The ropes of a bale are cut; it is thrown under the press; the great +iron jaws of the monster close convulsively, rolling it under the +tongue as a sweet morsel. The ropes are tightened and again tied, +the cover stitched up, and the bale rolled out to make room for +another--all in about fifty seconds. It weighs five hundred pounds, but +the workmen seize it on all sides with their iron hooks, and toss it +about like a schoolboy's ball. The superintendent informed me that they +pressed, during the previous winter, more than forty thousand bales. + +[Sidenote: THE BARRACKS.--THE NEW ORLEANS LEVEE.] + +The Rebels, with their early _penchant_ for capturing empty forts and +full treasuries, had seized the United States Branch Mint, containing +three hundred thousand dollars, and the National barracks, garrisoned +at the time by a single sergeant. Visiting, with a party of gentlemen, +the historic Jackson battle-ground, four miles below the city, I +obtained a glimpse of the tall, gloomy Mint, and spent an hour in the +long, low, white, deep-balconied barracks beside the river. + +The Lone Star flag of Louisiana was flying from the staff. A hundred +and twenty freshly enlisted men of the State troops composed the +garrison. Three of the officers, recent seceders from the Federal army, +invited us into their quarters, to discuss political affairs over +their Bourbon and cigars. As all present assumed to be sanguine and +uncompromising Rebels, the conversation was one-sided and uninteresting. + +We drove down the river-bank along the almost endless rows of ships +and steamboats. The commerce of New Orleans, was more imposing than +that of any other American city except New York. It seemed to warrant +the picture painted by the unrivaled orator, Prentiss, of the future +years, "when this Crescent City shall have filled her golden horn." The +long landing was now covered with western produce, cotton, and sugar, +and fenced with the masts of hundreds of vessels. Some displayed the +three-striped and seven-starred flag of the "Southern Confederacy," +many the ensigns of foreign nations, and a few the Stars and Stripes. + +We were soon among the old houses of the Creoles.[3] + +[3] Creole means "native;" but its New Orleans application is only to +persons of French or Spanish descent. + +These anomalous people--a very large element of the +population--properly belong to a past age or another land, and find +themselves sadly at variance with America in the nineteenth century. +They seldom improve or sell their property; permit the old fences and +palings to remain around their antique houses; are content to live +upon small incomes, and rarely enter the modern districts. It is even +asserted that old men among them have spent their whole lives in New +Orleans without ever going above Canal street! Many have visited Paris, +but are profoundly ignorant of Washington, New York, Philadelphia, and +other northern cities. They are devout Catholics, sudden and quick in +quarrel, and duelling continues one of their favorite recreations. + +[Sidenote: VISIT TO THE JACKSON BATTLE-GROUND.] + +We stopped at the old Spanish house--deeply embowered in +trees--occupied as head-quarters by General Jackson, and saw the upper +window from which, glass in hand, he witnessed the approach of the +enemy. The dwelling is inhabited, and bears marks of the cannon-balls +fired to dislodge him. Like his city quarters--a plain brick edifice, +at one hundred and six, Royal-street, New Orleans--it is unchanged in +appearance since that historic Eighth of January. + +A few hundred yards from the river, we reached the battle-ground +where, in 1815, four thousand motley, undisciplined, half-armed +recruits defeated twelve thousand veterans--the Americans losing +but five men, the British seven hundred. This enormous disparity is +explained by the sheltered position of one party behind a breastwork, +and the terrible exposure of the other in its march, by solid columns, +of half a mile over an open field, without protection of hillock or +tree. A horrible field, whence the Great Reaper gathered a bloody +harvest! + +[Sidenote: INCIDENTS OF THE BATTLE.] + +The swamp here is a mile from the river. Jackson dug a canal between +them, throwing up the earth on one side for a breastwork, and turning +a stream of water from the Mississippi through the trench. The British +had an extravagant fear of the swamp, and believed that, attempting +to penetrate it, they would be ingulfed in treacherous depths. So +they marched up, with unflinching Saxon courage, in the teeth of +that terrible fire from the Americans, ranged four deep, behind the +fortification; and the affair became a massacre rather than a battle. + +The spongy soil of the breastwork (the tradition that bales of cotton +were used is a fiction) absorbed the balls without any damage. It first +proved what has since been abundantly demonstrated in the Crimean +war, and the American Rebellion--the superiority of earthworks over +brick and stone. The most solid masonry will be broken and battered +down sooner or later, but shells and solid shot can do little harm to +earthworks. + +Jackson's army was a reproduction of Falstaff's ragamuffins. It was +made up of Kentucky backwoodsmen, New Orleans clergymen, lawyers, +merchants and clerks; pirates and ruffians just released from the +calaboose to aid in the defense; many negroes, free and slave, with +a liberal infusion of nondescript city vagabonds, noticeable chiefly +for their tatters, and seeming, from their "looped and windowed +raggedness," to hang out perpetual flags of truce to the enemy. + +Judah Trouro, a leading merchant, while carrying ammunition, was +struck in the rear by a cannon-ball, which cut and bore away a large +slice of his body; but, in spite of the awkward loss, he lived many +years, to leave an enviable memory for philanthropy and public spirit. +Parton tells of a young American who, during the battle, stooped +forward to light a cigar; and when he recovered his position saw that +a man exactly behind him was blown to pieces, and his brains scattered +over the parapet, by an exploding shell. + +[Sidenote: A PECULIAR FREE NEGRO POPULATION.] + +More than half of Jackson's command was composed of negroes, who were +principally employed with the spade, but several battalions of them +were armed, and in the presence of the whole army received the thanks +of General Jackson for their gallantry. On each anniversary the negro +survivors of the battle always turned out in large numbers--so large, +indeed, as to excite the suspicion that they were not genuine. + +The free colored population, at the time of my visit, was a very +peculiar feature of New Orleans. Its members were chiefly of San +Domingo origin; held themselves altogether aloof from the other +blacks, owned numerous slaves, and were the most rigorous of masters. +Frequently their daughters were educated in Paris, married whites, and +in some cases the traces of their negro origin were almost entirely +obliterated. This, however, is not peculiar to that class. It is very +unusual anywhere in the South to find persons of pure African lineage. +A tinge of white blood is almost always detected. + +Our company had an invaluable cicerone in the person of Judge +Alexander Walker, author of "Jackson and New Orleans," the most clear +and entertaining work upon the battle, its causes and results, yet +contributed to American history. He had toiled unweariedly through +all the official records, and often visited the ground with men who +participated in the engagement. He pointed out positions, indicated +the spot where Packenham fell, and drew largely upon his rich fund of +anecdote, tradition, and biography. + +A plain, unfinished shaft of Missouri limestone, upon a rough brick +foundation, now marks the battle-field. It was commenced by a +legislative appropriation; but the fund became exhausted and the work +ceased. The level cotton plantation, ditched for draining, now shows +no evidence of the conflict, except the still traceable line of the +old canal, with detached pools of stagnant water in a fringe of reeds, +willows, and live oaks. + +A negro patriarch, with silvery hair, and legs infirm of purpose, +hobbled up, to exhibit some balls collected on the ground. The bullets, +which were flattened, he assured us, had "hit somebody." No doubt they +were spurious; but we purchased a few buckshots and fragments of shell +from the ancient Ethiop, and rode back to the city along avenues lined +with flowers and shrubbery. Here grew the palm--the characteristic tree +of the South. It is neither graceful nor beautiful; but looks like an +inverted umbrella upon a long, slender staff. Ordinary pictures very +faithfully represent it. + +[Sidenote: ALL ABOUT A "BLACK REPUBLICAN FLAG."] + + NEW ORLEANS, _March 11, 1861_. + +We are a good deal exercised, just now, about a new grievance. The +papers charged, a day or two since, that the ship Adelaide Bell, from +New Hampshire, had flung defiant to the breeze a Black Republican flag, +and that her captain vowed he would shoot anybody attempting to cut it +down. As one of the journals remarked, "his audacity was outrageous." +_En passant_, do you know what a Black Republican flag is? I have never +encountered that mythical entity in my travels; but 'tis a fearful +thing to think of--is it not? + +The reporter of _The Crescent_, with charming ingenuousness, describes +it as "so much like the flag of the late United States, that few would +notice the difference." In fact, he adds, it _is_ the old Stars and +Stripes, with a red stripe instead of a white one immediately below +the union. Of course, we are greatly incensed. It is flat burglary, +you know, to love the Star Spangled Banner itself; and as for a Black +Republican flag--why, that is most tolerable and not to be endured. + +Captain Robertson, the "audacious," has been compelled, publicly, +to deny the imputation. He asserts that, in the simplicity of his +heart, he has been using it for years as a United States flag. But the +newspapers adhere stoutly to the charge; so the presumption is that the +captain is playing some infernal Yankee trick. Who shall deliver us +from the body of this Black Republican flag? + +If it were possible, I would like to see the "Southern Confederacy" +work out its own destiny; to see how Slavery would flourish, isolated +from free States; how the securities of a government, founded on the +right of any of its members to break it up at pleasure, would stand +in the markets of the world; how the principle of Democracy would +sustain itself in a confederation whose corner-stones are aristocracy, +oligarchy, despotism. This is the government which, in the language of +one of its admirers, shall be "stronger than the bonds of Orion, and +benigner than the sweet influences of the Pleiades." + +[Sidenote: VICE-PRESIDENT HAMLIN A MULATTO.] + +A few days since, I was in a circle of southern ladies, when one of +them remarked: + +"I am glad Lincoln has not been killed." + +"Why so?" asked another. + +"Because, if he had been, Hamlin would become President, and it would +be a shame to have a mulatto at the head of the Government." + +A little discussion which followed developed that every lady present, +except one, believed Mr. Hamlin a mulatto. Yet the company was +comparatively intelligent, and all its members live in a flourishing +commercial metropolis. You may infer something of the knowledge of +the North in rural districts, enlightened only by weekly visits from +Secession newspapers! + +We are enjoying that soft air "which comes caressingly to the brow, and +produces in the lungs a luxurious delight." I notice, on the streets, +more than one premonition of summer, in the form of linen coats. The +yards and cemeteries, smiling with myriads of roses and pinks, are +carpeted with velvet grass; the morning air is redolent of orange and +clover blossoms, and nosegays abound, sweet with the breath of the +tropics. + +[Sidenote: NORTHERNERS LIVING IN THE SOUTH.] + + _March 15._ + +Men of northern nativity are numerous throughout the Gulf States. +Many are leading merchants of the cities, and a few, planters in the +interior. Some have gone north to stay until the storm is over. A +part of those who remain out-Herod the native fire-eaters in zeal for +Secession. Their violence is suspicious; it oversteps the modesty +of nature. I was recently in a mixed company, where one person was +conspicuously bitter upon the border slave States, denouncing them as +"playing second fiddle to the Abolitionists," and "traitors to southern +rights." + +"Who is he?" I asked of a southern gentleman beside me. + +"He?" was the indignant reply; "why, he is a northerner, ---- him! +He is talking all this for effect. What does he care about our +rights? He don't own slaves, and wasn't raised in the South; if it +were fashionable, he would be an Abolitionist. I'd as soon trust a +nigger-stealer as such a man!" + + + + +CHAPTER IV. + + 'Tis my vocation, Hal; 'tis no sin for a man to labor in his + vocation.--KING HENRY IV. + + +The city was measurably quiet, but arrests, and examinations of +suspected Abolitionists, were frequent. In general, I felt little +personal disquietude, except the fear of encountering some one who knew +my antecedents; but about once a week something transpired to make me +thoroughly uncomfortable for the moment. + +[Sidenote: PREPARING AND TRANSMITTING CORRESPONDENCE.] + +I attended daily the Louisiana Convention, sitting among the +spectators. I could take no notes, but relied altogether upon memory. +In corresponding, I endeavored to cover my tracks as far as possible. +Before leaving Cincinnati, I had encountered a friend just from New +Orleans, and induced him to write for me one or two letters, dated in +the latter city. They were copied, with some changes of style, and +published. Hence investigation would have shown that _The Tribune_ +writer began two or three weeks before I reached the city, and thrown a +serious obstacle in the way of identifying him. + +My dispatches, transmitted sometimes by mail, sometimes by express, +were addressed alternately to half a dozen banking and commercial firms +in New York, who at once forwarded them to _The Tribune_ editorial +rooms. They were written like ordinary business letters, treating of +trade and monetary affairs, and containing drafts upon supposititious +persons, quite princely in amount. I never learned, however, that they +appreciably enlarged the exchequer of their recipients. Indeed, they +were a good deal like the voluminous epistles which Mr. Toots, in his +school-boy days, was in the habit of writing to himself. + +[Sidenote: GUARDING LETTERS AGAINST SCRUTINY.] + +I used a system of cipher, by which all phrases between certain private +marks were to be exactly reversed in printing. Thus, if I characterized +any one as "patriot and an honest man," inclosing the sentence in +brackets, it was to be rendered a "demagogue and a scoundrel." All +matter between certain other marks was to be omitted. If a paragraph +commenced at the very edge of a sheet, it was to be printed precisely +as it stood. But beginning it half across the page indicated that it +contained something to be translated by the cipher. + +The letters, therefore, even if examined, would hardly be comprehended. +Whether tampered with or not, they always reached the office. I never +kept any papers on my person, or in my room, which could excite +suspicion, if read. + +In writing, I assumed the tone of an old citizen, sometimes remarking +that during a residence of fourteen years in New Orleans, I had never +before seen such a whirlwind of passion, etc. In recording incidents I +was often compelled to change names, places, and dates, though always +faithful to the fact. Toward the close of my stay, the correspondence +appearing to pass unopened, I gave minute and exact details, designing +to be in the North before the letters could return in print. + +[Sidenote: A PHILADELPHIAN AMONG THE REBELS.] + +Two incidents will illustrate the condition of affairs better than any +general description. Soon after Mr. Lincoln's election, a Philadelphian +reached New Orleans, on a collecting tour. One evening he was standing +in the counting-room of a merchant, who asked him:-- + +"Well, now you Black Republicans have elected your President, what are +you going to do next?" + +"We will show you," was the laughing response. + +Both spoke in jest; but the bookkeeper of the house, standing by, with +his back turned, belonged to the Minute Men, who, that very evening, +by a delegation of fifty, waited on the Philadelphian at the St. James +Hotel. They began by demanding whether he was a Black Republican. +He at once surmised that he was obtaining a glimpse of the hydra +of Secession, beside which the armed rhinoceros were an agreeable +companion, and the rugged Russian bear a pleasant household pet. His +face grew pallid, but he replied, with dignity and firmness: + +"I deny your right to ask me any such questions." + +The inquisitors, who were of good social position and gentlemanly +manners, claimed that the public emergency was so great as to justify +them in examining all strangers who excited suspicion; and that he +left them only the alternative of concluding him an Abolitionist and +an incendiary. At last he informed them truthfully that he had never +sympathized with the Anti-Slavery party, and had always voted the +Democratic ticket. They next inquired if the house which employed him +was Black Republican. + +"Gentlemen," he replied, "it is a _business_ firm, not a political one. +I never heard politics mentioned by either of the partners. I don't +know whether they are Republicans or Democrats." + +He cheerfully permitted his baggage to be searched by the Minute +Men, who, finding nothing objectionable, bade him good-evening. But, +just after they left, a mob of Roughs, attracted by the report that +an Abolitionist was stopping there, entered the hotel. They were very +noisy and profane, crying--"Let us see him; bring out the scoundrel!" + +His friend, the merchant, spirited him out of the house through a back +door, and drove him to the railway station, whence a midnight train +was starting for the North. His pursuers, finding the room of their +victim empty, followed in hot haste to the dépôt. The merchant saw them +coming, and again conveyed him away to a private room. He was kept +concealed for three days, until the excitement subsided, and then went +north by a night train. + +[Sidenote: SECESSION VS. SINCERITY.] + +One of the clerks at the hotel where I was boarding had been an +acquaintance of mine in the North ten years before. Though I now saw +him several times a day, politics were seldom broached between us. But, +whenever they came up, we both talked mild Secession. I did not believe +him altogether sincere, and I presume he did me equal justice; but +instinct is a great matter, and we were cowards on instinct. + +During the next summer, I chanced to meet him unexpectedly in Chicago. +After we exchanged greetings, his first question was-- + +"What did you honestly think of Secession while in New Orleans?" + +"Do you know what I was doing there?" + +"On your way to Mexico, were you not?" + +"No; corresponding for _The Tribune_." + +His eyes expanded visibly at this information, and he inquired, with +some earnestness-- + +"Do you know what would have been done with you if you had been +detected?" + +"I have my suspicions, but, of course, do not know. Do you?" + +"Yes; you would have been hung!" + +"Do you think so?" + +"I am sure of it. You would not have had a shadow of chance for your +life!" + +My friend knew the Secessionists thoroughly, and his evidence was +doubtless trustworthy. I felt no inclination to test it by repeating +the experiment. + +[Sidenote: A MANIA FOR SOUTHERN MANUFACTURING.] + +The establishment of domestic manufactures was always a favorite theme +throughout the South; but the manufactures themselves continued very +rudimentary. The furniture dealers, for example, made a pretense of +making their own wares. They invariably showed customers through their +workshops, and laid great stress upon their encouragement of southern +industry; but they really received seven-eighths of their furniture +from the North, having it delivered at back-doors, under cover of the +night. + +Secession gave a new impetus to all sorts of manufacturing projects. +The daily newspapers constantly advocated them, but were quite +oblivious of the vital truth that skilled labor will have opinions, and +opinions can not be tolerated in a slave community. + +One sign on Canal-street read, "Sewing Machines manufactured on +Southern Soil"--a statement whose truth was more than doubtful. The +agent of a rival machine advertised that his patent was _owned_ in New +Orleans, and, therefore, pre-eminently worthy of patronage. Little +pasteboard boxes were labeled "Superior Southern Matches," and the +newspapers announced exultingly that a candy factory was about to be +established. + +But the greatest stress was laid upon the Southern Shoe Factory, on +St. Ferdinand-street--a joint stock concern, with a capital of one +hundred thousand dollars. It was only two months old, and, therefore, +experimental; but its work was in great demand, and it was the favorite +illustration of the feasibility of southern manufactures. + +[Sidenote: VISIT TO THE SOUTHERN SHOE FACTORY.] + +Sauntering in, one evening, I introduced myself as a stranger, drawn +thither by curiosity. The superintendent courteously invited me to go +through the establishment with him. + +His physiognomy and manners impressed me as unmistakably northern; but, +to make assurance doubly sure, I ventured some remark which inferred +that he was a native of New Orleans. He at once informed me that he was +from St. Louis. When I pursued the matter further, by speaking of some +recent improvements in that city, he replied: + +"I was born in St. Louis, but left there when I was twelve months old. +Philadelphia has been my home since, until I came here to take charge +of this establishment." + +The work was nearly all done with machinery run by steam. As we walked +through the basement, and he pointed out the implements for cutting +and pressing sole-leather, I could not fail to notice that every one +bore the label of its manufacturer, followed by these incendiary words: +"Boston, Massachusetts!" + +Then we ascended to the second story, where sewing and pegging +were going on. All the stitching was done as in the large northern +manufactories, with sewing-machines run by steam--a combination of +two of the greatest mechanical inventions. Add a third, and in the +printing-press, the steam-engine, and the sewing-machine, you have the +most potent material agencies of civilization. + +[Sidenote: WHERE ITS FACILITIES CAME FROM.] + +Here was the greatest curiosity of all--the patent pegging-machine, +which cuts out the pegs from a thin strip of wood, inserts the awl, +and pegs two rows around the sole of a large shoe, more regularly and +durably than it can be done by hand--all in less than twenty-five +seconds. Need I add that it is a Yankee invention? One machine for +finishing, smoothing, and polishing the soles came from Paris; but +all the others bore that ominous label, "Boston, Massachusetts!" In +the third story, devoted to fitting the soles and other finishing +processes, the same fact was apparent--every machine was from New +England. + +The work was confined exclusively to coarse plantation brogans, +which were sold at from thirteen to nineteen dollars per case of +twelve pairs. Shoes of the same quality, at the great factories in +Milford, Haverhill, and Lynn, Massachusetts, were then selling by the +manufacturers at prices ranging from six to thirteen dollars per case. +In one apartment we found three men making boxes for packing the shoes, +from boards already sawed and dressed. + +"Where do you get your lumber?" I asked. + +"It comes from Illinois," replied my cicerone. "We have it planed and +cut out in St. Louis--labor is so high here." + +"Your workmen, I presume, are from this city?" + +"No, sir. The leading men in all departments are from the North, +mainly from Massachusetts and Philadelphia. We are compelled to pay +them high salaries--from sixty to three hundred dollars per month. The +subordinate workmen, whom we hope soon to put in their places, we found +here. We employ forty-seven persons, and turn out two hundred and fifty +pairs of brogans daily. We find it impossible to supply the demand, and +are introducing more machinery, which will soon enable us to make six +hundred pairs per day." + +[Sidenote: HOW "SOUTHERN" SHOES WERE MADE.] + +"Where do you procure the birch for pegs?" + +"From Massachusetts. It comes to us cut in strips and rolled, ready for +use." + +"Where do you get your leather?" + +"Well, sir" (with a searching look, as if a little suspicious of being +quizzed), "_it_ also comes from the North, at present; but we shall +soon have tanneries established. The South, especially Texas, produces +the finest hides in the country; but they are nearly all sent north, to +be tanned and curried, and then brought back in the form of leather." + +Thanking the superintendent for his courtesy, and wishing him a very +good evening, I strolled homeward, reflecting upon the _Southern_ Shoe +Factory. It was admirably calculated to appeal to local patriotism, and +demonstrate the feasibility of southern manufacturing. Its northern +machinery, run by northern workmen, under a northern superintendent, +turned out brogans of northern leather, fastened with northern pegs, +and packed in cases of northern pine, at an advance of only about one +hundred per cent. upon northern prices! + +New Orleans afforded to the stranger few illustrations of the +"Peculiar Institution." Along the streets, you saw the sign, "Slave +Dépôt--Negroes bought and sold," upon buildings which were filled +with blacks of every age and of both sexes, waiting for purchasers. +The newspapers, although recognizing slavery in general as the +distinguishing cause which made southern gentlemen gallant and +"high-toned," and southern ladies fair and accomplished, were yet +reticent of details. They would sometimes record briefly the killing +of a master by his negroes; the arrest of A., charged with being an +Abolitionist; of B., for harboring or tampering with slaves; of C.--f. +m. c. (free man of color)--for violating one of the many laws that +hedged him in; and, very rarely, of D., for cruelty to his slaves. +But their advertising columns were filled with announcements of slave +auctions, and long descriptions of the negroes to be sold. Said _The +Crescent_: + +[Sidenote: STUDYING SOUTHERN SOCIETY.] + + "We have for a long time thought that no man ought to be + allowed to write for the northern Press, unless he has passed + at least two years of his existence in the Slave States of + the South, doing nothing but studying southern institutions, + southern society, and the character and sentiments of the + southern people." + +There was much truth in this, though not in the sense intended by the +writer. Strangers spending but a short time in the South _were_ liable +to very erroneous views. They saw only the exterior of a system, which +looked pleasant and patriarchal. They had no opportunity of learning +that, within, it was full of dead men's bones and all uncleanness. +Northern men were so often deceived as to make one skeptical of +the traditional acuteness of the Yankee. The genial and hospitable +southerners would draw the long bow fearfully. A Memphis gentleman +assured a northern friend of mine that, on Sundays, it was impossible +for a white man to hire a carriage in that city, as the negroes +monopolized them all for pleasure excursions! + +One of my New Orleans companions, who was frank and candid upon +other subjects, used to tell me the most egregious stories respecting +the slaves. As, for instance, that their marriage-vows were almost +universally held sacred by the masters; the virtue of negro women +respected, and families rarely separated. I preserved my gravity, +never disputing him; but he must have known that a visit to any of the +half-dozen slave auctions, within three minutes' walk of his office, +would disprove all these statements. + +[Sidenote: REPORTING A SLAVE AUCTION.] + +These slave auctions were the only public places where the primary +social formation of the South cropped out sharply. I attended them +frequently, as the best school for "studying southern institutions, +southern society, and the character and sentiments of the southern +people." + +I remember one in which eighty slaves were sold, one after another. A +second, at which twenty-one negroes were disposed of, I reported, _in +extenso_, from notes written upon blank cards in my pocket during its +progress. Of course, it was not safe to make any memoranda openly. + +The auction was in the great bar-room of the St. Charles Hotel, a +spacious, airy octagonal apartment, with a circular range of Ionic +columns. The marble bar, covering three sides of the room, was doing a +brisk business. Three perturbed tapsters were bustling about to supply +with fluids the bibulous crowd, which by no means did its spiriting +gently. + +The negroes stood in a row, in front of the auctioneer's platform, with +numbered tickets pinned upon their coats and frocks. Thus, a young +woman with a baby in her arms, who rolled his great white eyes in +astonishment, was ticketed "No. 7." Referring to the printed list, I +found this description: + + "7. Betty, aged 15 years, and child 4 months, No. 1 + field-hand and house-servant, very likely. Fully guaranteed." + +In due time, Betty and her boy were bid off for $1,165. + +[Sidenote: SALE OF A WHITE GIRL.] + +Those already sold were in a group at the other end of the platform. +One young woman, in a faded frock and sun-bonnet, and wearing gold +ear-rings, had straight brown hair, hazel eyes, pure European features, +and a very light complexion. I was unable to detect in her face the +slightest trace of negro lineage. Her color, features, and movements +were those of an ordinary country girl of the white working class in +the South. A by-stander assured me that she was sold under the hammer, +just before I entered. She associated familiarly with the negroes, and +left the room with them when the sale was concluded; but no one would +suspect, under other circumstances, that she was tinged with African +blood. + +The spectators, about two hundred in number, were not more than +one-tenth bidders. There were planters from the interior, with broad +shoulders and not unpleasing faces; city merchants, and cotton factors; +fast young men in pursuit of excitement, and strangers attracted by +curiosity. + +Among the latter was a spruce young man in the glossiest of broadcloth, +and the whitest of linen, with an unmistakable Boston air. He lounged +carelessly about, and endeavored to look quite at ease, but made a very +brilliant failure. His restless eye and tell-tale countenance indicated +clearly that he was among the Philistines for the first time, and held +them in great terror. + +There were some professional slave-dealers, and many nondescripts who +would represent the various shades between loafers and blacklegs, in +any free community. They were men of thick lips, sensual mouths, full +chins, large necks, and bleared eyes, suggesting recent dissipation. +They were a "hard-looking" company. I would not envy a known +Abolitionist who should fall into their unrestrained clutches. No +prudent life-insurance company would take a risk in him. + +The auctioneer descanted eloquently upon the merits of each of his +chattels, seldom dwelling upon one more than five minutes. An herculean +fellow, with an immense chest, was dressed in rusty black, and wore a +superannuated silk hat. He looked the decayed gentleman to a charm, and +was bid off for $840. A plump yellow boy, also in black, silk hat and +all, seemed to think being sold rather a good joke, grinning broadly +the while, and, at some jocular remark, showing two rows of white +teeth almost from ear to ear. He brought $1,195, and appeared proud of +commanding so high a figure. + +[Sidenote: WOMEN ON THE BLOCK.] + +Several light quadroon girls brought large prices. One was surrounded +by a group of coarse-looking men, who addressed her in gross language, +shouting with laughter as she turned away to hide her face, and rudely +manipulating her arms, shoulders, and breasts. Her age was not given. +"That's the trouble with niggers," remarked a planter to me; "you never +can tell how old they are, and so you get swindled." One mother and her +infant sold for $1,415. + +Strolling into the St. Charles, a few days later, I found two sales +in full career. On one platform the auctioneer was recommending +a well-proportioned, full-blooded negro, as "a very likely and +intelligent young man, gentlemen, who would have sold readily, a year +ago, for thirteen hundred dollars. And now I am offered only eight +hundred--eight hundred--eight hundred--eight hundred; _are_ you all +done?" + +On the opposite side of the room another auctioneer, in stentorian +tones, proclaimed the merits of a pretty quadroon girl, tastefully +dressed, and wearing gold finger and ear rings. "The girl, gentlemen, +is only fifteen years old; warranted sound in every particular, an +excellent seamstress, which would make her worth a thousand dollars, +if she had _no other qualifications_. She is sold for no fault, but +simply because her owner must have money. No married man had better buy +her; she is too handsome." The girl was bid off at $1,100, and stepped +down to make way for a field-hand. Ascending the steps, he stumbled and +fell, at which the auctioneer saluted him with "Come along, G-d d--n +you!" + +[Sidenote: MOTHERS AND CHILDREN.--"DEFECTS."] + +Mothers and their very young children were not often separated; but I +frequently saw husbands and wives sold apart; no pretense being made +of keeping them together. Negroes were often offered with what was +decorously described as a "defect" in the arm, or shoulder. Sometimes +it appeared to be the result of accident, sometimes of punishment. I +saw one sold who had lost two toes from each foot. No public inquiries +were made, and no explanation given. He replied to questions that his +feet "hurt him sometimes," and was bid off at $625--about two-thirds of +his value had it not been for the "defect." + +Some slaves upon the block--especially the mothers--looked sad and +anxious; but three out of four appeared careless and unconcerned, +laughing and jesting with each other, both before and after the sale. +The young people, especially, often seemed in the best of spirits. + +[Sidenote: A MOST REVOLTING SPECTACLE.] + +And yet, though familiarity partially deadened the feeling produced +by the first one I witnessed, a slave auction is the most utterly +revolting spectacle that I ever looked upon. Its odiousness does not +lie in the lustful glances and expressions which a young and comely +woman on the block always elicits; nor in the indelicate conversation +and handling to which she is subjected; nor in the universal infusion +of white blood, which tells its own story about the morality of the +institution; nor in the separation of families; nor in the sale of +women--as white as our own mothers and sisters--made pariahs by an +imperceptible African taint; nor in the scars and "defects," suggestive +of cruelty, which are sometimes seen. + +All these features are bad enough, but many sales exhibit few of them, +and are conducted decorously. The great revolting characteristic lies +in the essence of the system itself--that claim of absolute ownership +in a human being with an immortal soul--of the right to buy and sell +him like a horse or a bale of cotton--which insults Democracy, belies +Civilization, and blasphemes Christianity. + +In March, there was a heavy snow-storm in New York. Telegraphic +intelligence of it reached me in an apartment fragrant with orange +blossoms, where persons in linen clothing were discussing strawberries +and ice-cream. It made one shiver in that delicious, luxurious climate. +Blind old Milton was right. Where should he place the Garden of Eden +but in the tropics? How should he paint the mother of mankind but in + + ----"The flowing gold + Of her loose tresses," + +as a blonde--the distinctive type of northern beauty? + + + + +CHAPTER V. + + There's villany abroad; this letter shall tell you + more.--LOVE'S LABOR LOST. + +[Sidenote: NORTHERNERS AND THE MINUTE MEN.] + + +Nearly every northerner whom I heard of in the South, as suffering +from the suspicion of Abolitionism, was really a pro-slavery man, +who had been opposing the Abolitionists all his life. I recollect an +amusing instance of a man, originally from a radical little town in +Massachusetts, who had been domiciled for several years in Mississippi. +While in New England, during the campaign after which Mr. Lincoln was +elected, he expressed pro-slavery sentiments so odious that he was with +difficulty protected from personal violence. + +He was fully persuaded in his heart of hearts of the divinity of +Slavery; and, I doubt not, willing to fight for it. But his northern +birth made him an object of suspicion; and, immediately after the +outbreak of Secession, the inexorable Minute Men waited upon him, +inviting him, if he wished to save his life, to prepare to quit the +State in one hour. He was compelled to leave behind property to the +amount of twenty thousand dollars. His case was one of many. + +Even from a Rebel standpoint, there was an unpleasant injustice about +this. Perhaps Democrats were almost the only northerners now in the +South--Republicans and Abolitionists staying away, in the exercise of +that discretion which is the better part of valor. + +I well remember thinking, as I strolled down to the post-office one +evening, with a long letter in my pocket, which gave a minute and +bitterly truthful description of the slave auctions: + +[Sidenote: A LIVELY DISCUSSION.] + +"If the Minute Men were to pounce upon me now, and find this dispatch, +no amount of plausible talking could save me. There would be a vacancy +on _The Tribune_ staff within the next hour." + +But when the message was safely deposited in the letter-box, I +experienced a sort of relief in the feeling that if the Rebels were +now to mob or imprison me, I should at least have the satisfaction of +knowing they were not mistaking souls; and that, if I were forced to +emulate Saint Paul in "labors more abundant, in stripes above measure, +in pains more frequent, in deaths oft," I should, in their code, most +richly have earned martyrdom. + + NEW ORLEANS, _March 17, 1861_. + +Yesterday was a lively day in the Convention. Mr. Bienvenu threw a hot +shot into the Secession camp, in the shape of an ordinance demanding +a report of the official vote in each parish (county) by which the +delegates were elected. This would prove that the popular vote of the +State was against immediate Secession by a majority of several hundred. +The Convention would not permit such exposure of its defiance of the +popular will; and, by seventy-three to twenty-two, refused to consider +the question. + +A warm discussion ensued, on the ordinance for submitting the +"Constitution of the Confederate States of America" to the popular +vote, for ratification or rejection. The ablest argument against it +was by Thomas J. Semmes, of New Orleans, formerly attorney-general of +Louisiana. He is a keen, wiry-looking, spectacled gentleman, who, in +a terse, incisive speech, made the best of a bad cause. The pith of +his argument was, that Republican Governments are not based upon pure +Democracy, but upon what Mr. Calhoun termed "concurring majorities." +The voters had delegated full powers to the Convention, which was +the "sublimated, concentrated quintessence of the sovereignty of the +people." + +[Sidenote: BOLDNESS OF UNION MEMBERS.] + +The speaker's lip curled with ineffable scorn as he rang the changes +upon the words "mere numerical majorities." Just now, this is a +favorite phrase with the Rebels throughout the South. Yet they all +admit that a majority, even of one vote, in Mississippi or Virginia, +justly controls the action of the State, and binds the minority. I wish +they would explain why a "mere numerical majority" is more oppressive +in a collection of States than in a single commonwealth. + +Mr. Add Rozier, of New Orleans, in a bold speech, advocated submitting +the constitution to the people. On being asked by a member--"Did you +vote for the Secession ordinance several weeks ago?" he replied, +emphatically:-- + +"No; and, so help me God, I never will!" + +A spontaneous outburst of applause from the lobby gave an index of the +stifled public sentiment. Mr. Rozier charged that the Secessionists +knew they were acting against the popular will, and dared not appeal to +the people. Until the Montgomery constitution should become the law of +the land, he utterly spurned it, spat upon it, trampled it under his +feet. + +Mr. Christian Roselius, also of this city, advocated the ordinance +with equal boldness and fervor. He insisted that it was based on +the fundamental principle of Republicanism--that this Convention +was no Long Parliament to rule Louisiana without check or limit; +and he ridiculed with merciless sarcasm Mr. Semmes's theory of the +"sublimated, concentrated quintessence of the sovereignty of the +people." + +The inexorable majority here cut off debate, calling the previous +question, and defeated the ordinance by a vote of seventy-three to +twenty-six. + +This body is a good specimen of the Secession Oligarchy. It appointed, +from its own members, the Louisiana delegates to the Convention of all +the seceded States which framed the Montgomery Constitution, and now it +proposes to pass finally upon their action, leaving the people quite +out of sight. + +[Sidenote: ANOTHER EXCITING DISCUSSION.] + + _March 21._ + +Another exciting day in the Convention. Subject: "The adoption of the +Montgomery Constitution." Five or six Union members fought it very +gallantly, and denounced unsparingly the plan of a Cotton Confederacy, +and the South Carolina policy of trampling upon the rights of the +people. The majority made little attempt to refute these arguments, +but some of the angry members glared fiercely upon Messrs. Roselius, +Rozier, and Bienvenu, who certainly displayed high moral and physical +courage. It is easy for you in the North to denounce Secession; but to +oppose it here, as those gentlemen did, requires more nerve than most +men possess. + +The speech of Mr. Roselius was able and bitter. This was not a +constitution; it was merely a league--a treaty of alliance. It sprung +from an audacious, unmitigated oligarchy. It was a retrogression of +six hundred years in the science of government. We were told (here +the speaker's sarcasm of manner was ludicrous and inimitable, drawing +shouts of laughter even from the leading Secessionists) that this +body represented the "sublimated, concentrated quintessence of the +sovereignty of the people!" + +He supposed that Cæsar, when he crossed the Rubicon--Augustus, when +he overthrew the Roman Republic--Cromwell, when he broke up the Long +Parliament--Bonaparte, when he suppressed the Council of Five Hundred +at the point of the bayonet--Louis Napoleon, when he violated his +oath to the republic, and ascended the imperial throne--were each +the "sublimated, concentrated quintessence of the sovereignty of the +people." + +[Sidenote: SECESSION IN A NUTSHELL.] + +Like the most odious tyrannies of history, it preserved the forms of +liberty; but its spirit was crushed out. The Convention from which +this creature crept into light had imitated the odious government of +Spain--the only one in the world taxing exports--by levying an export +duty upon cotton. He was surprised that the Montgomery legislators +failed to introduce a second Spanish feature--the Inquisition. One was +as detestable as the other. + +Mr. Roselius concluded in a broken voice and with great feeling. His +heart grew sad at this overthrow of free institutions. The Secession +leaders had dug the grave of republican liberty, and we were called +upon to assist at the funeral! He would have no part in any such +unhallowed business. + +Mr. Rozier, firm to the last, now offered an amendment: + + That in adopting the Montgomery Constitution, "the sovereign + State of Louisiana _does expressly reserve the right to + withdraw from the Union created by that Constitution, + whenever, in the judgment of her citizens, her paramount + interests may require it_." + +This, of course, is Secession in a nutshell--the fundamental principle +of the whole movement. But the leaders refused to take their own +medicine, and tabled the proposition without discussion. + +Mr. Bienvenu caused to be entered upon the journal his protest +against the action of the Convention, denouncing it as an ordinance +which "strips the people of their sovereignty, reduces them to a +state of vassalage, and places the destinies of the State, and of the +new Republic, at the mercy of an uncommissioned and irresponsible +oligarchy." + +The final vote was then taken, and resulted in one hundred and one yeas +to seven nays; so "the Confederate Constitution" is declared ratified +by the State of Louisiana. + +[Sidenote: DESPOTIC THEORIES OF THE REBELS.] + + _March 25._ + +The Revolutionists can not be charged with any lack of frankness. _The +Delta_, lamenting that the Virginia Convention will not take that State +out of the Union, predicts approvingly that "some Cromwellian influence +will yet disperse the Convention, and place the Old Dominion in the +Secession ranks." _De Bow's Review_, a leading Secession oracle, with +high pretensions to philosophy and political economy, says, in its +current issue: + + "All government begins with usurpation, and is continued by + force. Nature puts the ruling elements uppermost, and the + masses below, and subject to those elements. Less than this + is not a government. The right to govern resides with a very + small minority, and the duty to obey is inherent with the + great mass of mankind." + +To-day's _Crescent_ discusses the propriety of admitting northern +States into the Southern Confederacy, "when they find out, as they soon +will, that they can not get along by themselves." It is quite confident +that they will, ere long, beg admission--but predicts for them the fate +of the Peri, who + + ----"At the gate + Of Eden stood, disconsolate, + And wept to think her recreant race + Should e'er have lost that glorious place." + +They must not be permitted to enter. Upon this point it is inexorable. +It will permit no compunctious visitings of nature to shake its fell +purpose. + +[Sidenote: THE NORTHWEST TO JOIN THEM.] + +I know all this sounds vastly like a joke; but _The Crescent_ is +lugubriously in earnest. In sooth, these Rebels are gentlemen of +magnificent expectations. "Sir," remarked one of them, a judge, too, +while conversing with me this very day, "in seven years, the Southern +Confederacy will be the greatest and richest nation on earth. We +shall have Cuba, Central America, Mexico, and every thing west of the +Alleghanies. We are the natural market of the northwestern States, and +they are bound to join us!" + +Think of that, will you! Imagine Father Giddings, Carl Schurz, and +Owen Lovejoy--the stanch Republican States of Wisconsin, Michigan, and +even young Kansas--whose infant steps to Freedom were over the burning +plowshare and through the martyr's blood--knocking for admission at the +door of a Slave Confederacy! Is not this the very ecstasy of madness? + + _March 26._ + +That virtuous and lamented body, the Louisiana Convention, after a very +turbulent session to-day, has adjourned until the 1st of November. + +_The Crescent_ is exercised at the presence here of "correspondents +of northern papers, who indite _real falsehoods and lies_ as coolly +as they would eat a dinner at the Saint Charles." _The Crescent's_ +rhetoric is a little limping; but its watchfulness and patriotism are +above all praise. The matter should certainly be attended to. + +[Sidenote: THE SWAMP--A TRIP THROUGH LOUISIANA.] + +We are still enjoying the delights of summer. The air is fragrant with +daffodils, violets, and roses, the buds of the sweet olive and the +blossoms of the orange. I have just returned from a ride through the +swamp--that great cesspool of this metropolis, which generates, with +the recurrence of summer, the pestilence that walketh in darkness. + +It is full of sights strange to northern eyes. The stagnant pools +of black and green water harmonize with the tall, ghastly dead +trees, from whose branches depend long fleeces of gray Spanish moss, +with the effect of Gothic architecture. It is used in lounges and +mattresses; but when streaming from the branches, in its native state, +reminds one of the fantastic term which the Choctaw Indians apply to +leaves--"tree-hair." + +The weird dead trunks, the moss and the water, contrast strikingly +with the rich, bright foliage of the deciduous trees just glowing +into summer life. The balmy air makes physical existence delicious, +and diffuses a luxurious languor through the system. Remove your hat, +close your eyes, and its strong current strokes your brow lovingly and +nestles against your cheek like a pillow. + + * * * * * + +During the last week in March, I went by the New Orleans and Great +Northern Railway to Jackson, Mississippi, where the State Convention +was in session. + +There is not in Louisiana a hill two hundred feet high. Along the +railroad, smooth, grassy everglades give place to gloomy swamps, dark +with the gigantic cypress and the varnished leaves of the laurel. + +On the plantations, the white one-story cabins of the negroes stood +in long double rows, near the ample porched and balconied residences +of the planters. Young sugar-cane, resembling corn two or three weeks +old, was just peering through the ground. Noble live-oaks waved their +drooping boughs above the fields. The Pride-of-China tree was very +abundant about the dwellings. It produces a berry on which the birds +eagerly feed, though its juice is said to intoxicate them. As they do +not wear revolvers or bowie-knives, it is rather a harmless form of +dissipation. + +[Sidenote: LIFE IN THE CITY OF JACKSON.] + +Jackson was not a paradise for a man of my vocation. Containing four +or five thousand people, it was one of those delightful villages, +calling themselves cities, of which the sunny South by no means enjoys +a monopoly--where everybody knows everybody's business, and where, upon +the advent of a stranger, the entire community resolves itself into a +Committee of the Whole to learn who he is, where he came from, and what +he wants. + +In a great metropolis, espionage was easily baffled; but in Jackson, an +unknown chiel, who looked capable of "takin' notes," to say nothing of +"prentin' 'em," was subject to constant and uncomfortable scrutiny. + +Contrasted with the bustle of New Orleans, existence seemed an unbroken +seventh-day rest, though a dire certainty possessed me, that were my +errand suspected, e'en Sunday would shine no Sabbath day for me. + +Some months later, a refugee, who had resided there, pictured vividly +to me the indignant and bewildered astonishment of the Jacksonians, +when, through a stray copy of _The Tribune_, they learned that one of +its correspondents had not only walked with them, talked with them, and +bought with them, but, less scrupulous than Shylock, had been ready to +eat with them, drink with them, and pray with them. + +At this time the Charleston papers and some northern journals declared +_The Tribune's_ southern correspondence fictitious, and manufactured at +the home office. To remove that impression touching my own letters, I +wrote, on certain days, the minutest records of the Convention, and of +affairs in Jackson, which never found their way into the local prints. + +Mournfully metropolitan was Jackson in one respect--the price of +board at its leading hotel. The accommodations were execrable; but I +suppose we were charged for the unusual luxury of an unctuous Teutonic +landlord, who bore the formidable patronymic of H-i-l-z-h-e-i-m-e-r! + + "----Ph[oe]bus, what a name, + To fill the speaking-trump of future fame!" + +[Sidenote: REPORTING THE MISSISSIPPI CONVENTION.] + +The Convention was discussing the submission of the Montgomery +Constitution to the people. The chief clerk, with whom I formed a +chance acquaintance, kindly invited me to a chair beside his desk, and +as I sat facing the members, explained to me their capacity, views, +and antecedents. Whether an undue inquisitiveness seemed to him the +distinguishing quality of the New Mexican mind, he did not declare; but +once he asked me abruptly if I was connected with the press? With the +least possible delay, I disabused his mind of that peculiarly unjust +misapprehension. + +After a long discussion, the Convention, by a vote of fifty-three +to thirty-two, refused to submit the Constitution to the people, and +ratified it in the name of Mississippi. Seven Union members could not +be induced to follow the usual practice of making the action unanimous, +but to the last steadfastly refused their adherence. + + + + +CHAPTER VI. + + ----My business in this State Made me a looker-on here in + Vienna.--MEASURE FOR MEASURE. + + I whipped me behind the arras, and there heard it agreed + upon.--MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING. + + JACKSON, MISS., _April 1, 1861_. + +[Sidenote: THE MISSISSIPPI STATE HOUSE.] + + +The Mississippi State House, upon a shaded square in front of my +window, is a faded, sober edifice, of the style in vogue fifty years +ago, with the representative hall at one end, the senate chamber at the +other, an Ionic portico in front, and an immense dome upon the top. +Above this is a miniature dome, like an infinitesimal parasol upon a +gigantic umbrella. The whole is crowned by a small gilded pinnacle, +which has relapsed from its original perpendicular to an angle of +forty-five degrees, and looks like a little jockey-cap, worn jantily +upon the head of a plethoric quaker, to whom it imparts a rowdyish air, +at variance with his general gravity. + +The first story is of cracked free-stone, the front and end walls of +stucco, and the rear of brick. As you enter the vestibule two musty +cannon stand gaping at you, and upon one of them you may see, almost +any day, a little "darkey" sound asleep. Whether he guards the gun, or +the gun guards him, opens a wide field for conjecture. + +Ascending a spiral stairway, and passing along the balustrade which +surrounds the open space under the dome, you turn to the left, through +a narrow passage into the representative hall. Here is the Mississippi +Convention. + +[Sidenote: VIEW OF THE REPRESENTATIVE HALL.] + +At the north end of the apartment sits the president, upon a high +platform occupying a recess in the wall, with two Ionic columns upon +each side of him. Before him is a little, old-fashioned mahogany +pulpit, concealing all but his head and shoulders from the vulgar gaze. +In front of this, and three or four feet lower, at a long wooden desk, +sit two clerks, one smoking a cigar. + +Before them, and still lower, at a shorter desk, an unhappy Celtic +reporter, with dark shaggy hair and eyebrows, is taking down the speech +of the honorable member from something or other county. In front of his +desk, standing rheumatically upon the floor, is a little table, which +looks as if called into existence by a drunken carpenter on a dark +night, from the relics of a superannuated dry-goods box. + +Upon one of the columns at the president's right, hangs a faded +portrait of George Poindexter, once a senator from this State. Further +to the right is an open fire-place, upon whose mantel stand a framed +copy of the Declaration of Independence, now sadly faded and blurred, +a lithographic view of the Medical College of Louisiana, and a pitcher +and glass. On the hearth is a pair of ancient andirons, upon which a +genial wood fire is burning. + +[Sidenote: GENERAL AIR OF DILAPIDATION.] + +The hypocritical plastering which coated the fireplace has peeled +off, leaving bare the honest, worn faces of the original bricks. Some +peculiar non-adhesive influence must affect plastering in Jackson. In +whole rooms of the hotel it has seceded from the lath. Judge Gholson +says that once, in the old State House, a few hundred yards distant, +when Seargeant S. Prentiss was making a speech, he saw "an acre or +two" of the plastering fall upon his head, and quite overwhelm him for +the time. The Judge is what Count Fosco would call the Man of Brains; +he is deemed the ablest member of the Convention. He was a colleague +in Congress of the lamented Prentiss, whom he pronounces the most +brilliant orator that ever addressed a Mississippi audience. + +On the left of the president is another fire-place, also with a sadly +blurred copy of the great Declaration standing upon its mantel. The +members' desks, in rows like the curved line of the letter D, are +of plain wood, painted black. Their chairs are great, square, faded +mahogany frames, stuffed and covered with haircloth. As you stand +beside the clerk's desk, facing them, you see behind the farthest row a +semi-circle of ten pillars, and beyond them a narrow, crescent shaped +lobby. Half-way up the pillars is a little gallery, inhabited just now +by two ladies in faded mourning. + +In the middle of the hall, a tarnished brass chandelier, with pendants +of glass, is suspended from the ceiling by a rod festooned with +cobwebs. This medieval relic is purely ornamental, for the room is +lighted with gas. The walls are high, pierced with small windows, whose +faded blue curtains, flowered and bordered with white, are suspended +from a triple bar of gilded Indian arrows. + +Chairs of cane, rush, wood and leather seats--chairs with backs, and +chairs without backs, are scattered through the hall and lobby, in +pleasing illustration of that variety which is the spice of life. The +walls are faded, cracked, and dingy, pervaded by the general air of +mustiness, and going to "the demnition bow-wows" prevalent about the +building. + +The members are in all sorts of social democratic positions. In the +open spaces about the clerk's desk and fire-places, some sit with +chairs tilted against the wall, some upon stools, and three slowly +vibrate to and fro in pre-Raphaelite rocking-chairs. These portions +of the hall present quite the appearance of a Kentucky bar-room on a +winter evening. + +[Sidenote: A FREE AND EASY CONVENTION.] + +Two or three members are eating apples, three or four smoking cigars, +and a dozen inspect their feet, resting upon the desks before them. +Contemplating the spectacle yesterday, I found myself involuntarily +repeating the couplet of an old temperance ditty: + + "The rumseller sat by his bar-room fire, + With his feet as high as his head, and higher," + +and a moment after I was strongly tempted to give the prolonged, +stentorian shout of "B-O-O-T-S!" familiar to ears theatrical. Pardon +the irreverence, O decorous _Tribune_! for there is such a woful dearth +of amusement in this solemn, funereal city, that one waxes desperate. +To complete my inventory, many members are reading this morning's +_Mississippian_, or _The New Orleans Picayune_ or _Delta_, and the rest +listen to the one who is addressing the Chair. + +They impress you by their pastoral aspect--the absence of urban +costumes and postures. Their general bucolic appearance would assure +you, if you did not know it before, that there are not many large +cities in the State of Mississippi. Your next impression is one of +wonder at their immense size and stature. Of them the future historian +may well say: "There were giants in those days." + +All around you are broad-shouldered, herculean-framed, +well-proportioned men, who look as if a laugh from them would bring +this crazy old capitol down about their ears, and a sneeze, shake +the great globe itself. The largest of these Mississippi Anakim is a +gigantic planter, clothed throughout in blue homespun. + +[Illustration: THE MISSISSIPPI CONVENTION VIEWED BY A TRIBUNE +CORRESPONDENT.] + +You might select a dozen out of the ninety-nine delegates, each of whom +could personate the Original Scotch Giant in a traveling exhibition. +They have large, fine heads, and a profusion of straight brown hair, +though here and there is a crown smooth, bald, and shining. Taken for +all in all, they are fine specimens of physical development, with +frank, genial, jovial faces. + +[Sidenote: SOUTHERN ORATORS--ANGLO-AFRICAN DIALECT.] + +The speaking is generally good, and commands respectful attention. +There is little _badinage_ or satire, a good deal of directness and +coming right to the point, qualified by the strong southern proclivity +for adjectives. The pungent French proverb, that the adjective is the +most deadly enemy of the substantive, has never journeyed south of +Mason & Dixon's line. + +The members, like all deliberative bodies in this latitude, are mutual +admirationists. Every speaker has the most profound respect for the +honest motives, the pure patriotism, the transcendent abilities of the +honorable gentleman upon the other side. It excites his regret and +self-distrust to differ from such an array of learning and eloquence; +and nothing could impel him to but a sense of imperious duty. + +He speaks fluently, and with grammatical correctness, but in the +Anglo-African dialect. His violent denunciations of the Black +Republicans are as nothing to the gross indignities which he offers +to the letter _r_. His "_mo's_," "_befo's_," and "_hea's_" convey +reminiscences of the negress who nursed him in infancy, and the little +"pickaninnies" with whom he played in boyhood. + +The custom of stump-speaking, universal through the South and West, +is a capital factory for converting the raw material into orators. Of +course there are strong exceptions. This very morning we had an address +from one member--Mr. D. B. Moore, of Tuppah county--which is worthy +of more particular notice. I wish I could give you a literal report. +Pickwick would be solemn in comparison. + +[Sidenote: A SPEECH WORTH PRESERVATION.] + +Mr. Moore conceives himself an orator, as Brutus was; but in attempting +to cover the whole subject (the Montgomery Constitution), he spread +himself out "very thin." I will "back" him in a given time to quote +more Scripture, incorrectly, irreverently, and irrelevantly, than any +other man on the North American continent. + +His "like we" was peculiarly refreshing, and his history and classics +had a strong flavor of originality. He quoted Patrick Henry, "_Let_ +Cæsar have his Brutus;" piled "Pelion upon _Pelion_!" and made Sampson +kill Goliah!! He thought submitting the Secession ordinance to the +people in Texas had produced an excellent effect. Previous to it, the +_New York Tribune_ said: "Secession is but a scheme of demagogues--a +move on the political chess-board--the people oppose it." But afterward +it began to ask: "How is this? What does it all mean? The people seem +to have a hand in it, and to be in earnest, too." The tone of Mr. +Seward also changed radically, he observed, after that election. + +Mr. Moore spoke an hour and a half, and the other members, though +listening courteously, betrayed a lurking suspicion that he was a +bore. In person he resembles Henry S. Lane, the zealous United States +Senator-elect from Indiana. The sergeant-at-arms, who, in a gray coat, +and without a neckerchief, walks to and fro, with hands in his pockets, +looks like the unlovely James H. Lane, Senator-expectant from Kansas. + +Shall I give you a little familiar conversation of the members, as +they smoke their post-prandial cigars in the hall, waiting for the +Convention to be called to order? Every mother's son of them has a +title. + +[Sidenote: FAMILIAR CONVERSATION OF MEMBERS.] + +JUDGE.--Toombs is a great blusterer. When speaking, he seems determined +to force, to drive you into agreeing with him. Howell Cobb is another +blusterer, much like him, but immensely fond of good dinners. Aleck +Stephens is very different. When _he_ speaks, you feel that he desires +to carry you with him only by the power of reason and argument. + +COLONEL.--I knew him when he used to be a mail-carrier in Georgia. He +was a poor orphan boy, but a charitable society of ladies educated him. +He is a very small man, with a hand no wider than my three fingers, +and as transparent as any lady's who has been sick for a year. He +always looked like an invalid. If you were to cut his head off, I don't +believe he would bleed a pint.[4] + +[4] He never weighed over ninety-six pounds, and, to see his attenuated +figure bent over his desk, the shoulders contracted, and the shape of +his slender limbs visible through his garments, a stranger would select +him as the John Randolph of our time. He has the appearance of having +undergone great bodily anguish.--_Newspaper Biography of Alexander H. +Stephens._ + +MAJOR.--Do you know what frightened Abe Lincoln out of Baltimore? +Somebody told him that Aleck Stephens was lying in wait for him on a +street corner, with a six-pounder strapped to his back. When he heard +that, he _sloped_. [Loud laughter from the group.] + +JUDGE.--Well, Lincoln has been abused immensely about his flight +through Baltimore; but I believe the man acted from good motives. He +knew that his partisans there meant to make a demonstration when he +arrived, and that they were very obnoxious to the people; he had good +reason to believe that it would produce trouble, and perhaps bloodshed; +so he went through, secretly, to avoid it. + +[Sidenote: NEW ORLEANS AGAIN--REVIEWING TROOPS.] + + NEW ORLEANS, _April 5, 1861_. + +The Second Louisiana Zouaves were reviewed on Lafayette Square last +evening, before leaving for Pensacola. They are boyish-looking, and +handle their muskets as if a little afraid of them, but seem to be +the raw material of good soldiers. They are luridly grotesque, in +closely-fitting, blue-tasseled, red fez caps, blue flannel jackets and +frocks, faced with red, baggy red breeches, like galvanized corn-sacks, +and gutta-percha greaves about their ankles. + + _April 6._ + +All the Secession leaders except Senator Benjamin declare there will +be no war. He asserts that war is sure to come; and in a recent speech +characterized it as "by no means an unmixed evil." + +The Fire-Eaters are intensely bitter upon the border States for +refusing to plunge into the whirlpool of Secession. They are bent +on persuading or driving all the slave States into their ranks. +Otherwise they fear--indeed, predict frankly--that the border will +gradually become Abolitionized, and extend free territory to the Gulf +itself. They are quite willing to devote Kentucky and Virginia to the +devastation of civil war, or the embarrassment of a contiguous hostile +republic, which would not return their run-away negroes.[5] But they +will move heaven and earth to save themselves from any such possible +contingency. + +[5] By the last census report, the whole number of escaping fugitives +in the United States, in the year 1860, was eight hundred and three, +being a trifle over _one-fiftieth of one per cent._ upon the whole +number of slaves. Of these, it is probable that the greater part +fled to places of refuge in the South, the Dismal Swamp, everglades +of Florida, southern mountain regions, and the northern States of +Mexico.--_Everett's New York Oration, July 4, 1861._ + + _April 8._ + +The recent warlike movements of the National Government cause +excitement and surprise. At last, the people begin to suspect that they +have invoked grim-visaged war. The newspapers descant upon the injury +to commerce and industry. Why did they not think of all this before? + +[Sidenote: THREE OBNOXIOUS NORTHERNERS.] + +It is vouchsafed to few mortals to learn, before death, exactly what +their associates think of them; but your correspondent is among +the favored few. The other evening, I was sitting with a Secession +acquaintance, in the great exchange of the St. Charles Hotel, when +conversation turned upon the southern habit of lynching people who +do not happen to agree with the majority. He presumed enough upon my +ignorance to insist that any moderate, gentlemanly Republican might +come here with impunity. + +"But," he added, "there are three men whose safety I would not +guarantee." + +"Who are they?" + +"Governor Dennison, of Ohio, is one. Since he refused to return that +fugitive slave to Kentucky, he would hardly be permitted to stay in New +Orleans; at all events, I should oppose it. Then there is Andy Johnson. +He ought to be shot, or hanged, wherever found. But for him, Kentucky +and Tennessee would have been with us long ago. He could not remain +here unharmed for a single hour." + +"And the third?" + +"Some infernal scoundrel, who is writing abusive letters about us to +_The New York Tribune_." + +"Is it possible?" + +"Yes, sir, and he has been at it for more than a month." + +"Can't you find him out?" + +"Some think it is a Kentuckian, who pretends to be engaged in +cattle-trading, but only makes that a subterfuge. I suspect, however, +that it is an editor of _The Picayune_, which is a Yankee concern +through and through. If he is caught, I don't think he will write many +more letters." + +I ventured a few words in palliation of the Governor and the Senator, +but quite agreed that this audacious scribbler ought to be suppressed. + +[Sidenote: ATTACK ON SUMTER--REBEL BOASTING.] + + _April 12._ + +Telegraphic intelligence to-day of the attack upon Fort Sumter causes +intense excitement. _The Delta_ office is besieged by a crowd hungry +for news. The universal expectation of the easy capture of the fort is +not stronger than the belief that it will be followed by an immediate +and successful movement against the city of Washington. The politicians +and newspapers have persuaded the masses that the Yankees (a phrase +which they no longer apply distinctively to New Englanders, but to +every person born in the North) mean to subjugate them, but are arrant +cowards, who may easily be frightened away. Leading men seldom express +this opinion; yet _The Crescent_, giving the report that eight thousand +Massachusetts troops have been called into the field, adds, that if +they would come down to Pensacola, eighteen hundred Confederates would +easily "whip them out." + + "God help them if the tempest swings + The pine against the palm!" + + + + +CHAPTER VII. + + ----Thou sure and firm-set earth, Hear not my steps, + which way they walk, for fear Thy very stones prate of my + whereabout.--MACBETH. + +[Sidenote: ABOLITION TENDENCIES OF KENTUCKIANS.] + +There were two of my acquaintances (one very prominent in the Secession +movement) with whom, while they had no suspicion of my real business, +I could converse with a little frankness. One of them desired war, on +the ground that it would unite the inhabitants of all the border slave +States, and overpower the Union sentiment there. + +"But," I asked, "will not war also unite the people of the North?" + +"I think not. We have a great many earnest and bold friends there." + +"True; but do you suppose they could stand for a single week against +the popular feeling which war would arouse?" + +"Perhaps you are right," he replied, thoughtfully, "but it never +occurred to me before." + +My other friend also talked with great frankness: + +"We can get along very well with the New England Yankees who are +permanently settled here. They make the strongest Secessionists we +have; but the Kentuckians give us a great deal of trouble. They were +born and raised where Slavery is unprofitable. They have strong +proclivities toward Abolitionism. The constituents of Rozier and +Roselius, who fought us so persistently in the Convention, are nearly +all Kentuckians." + +[Sidenote: TWO CHIEF CAUSES OF SECESSION.] + +"Slavery is our leading interest. Right or wrong, we have it and we +must have it. Cotton, rice, and sugar cannot be raised without it. +Being a necessity, we do not mean to allow its discussion. Every thing +which clashes with it, or tends to weaken it, must go under. Our large +German population is hostile to it. About all these Dutchmen would be +not only Unionists, but Black Republicans, if they dared." + +Perhaps it is the invariable law of revolutions that, even while the +revolters are in a numerical minority, they are able to carry the +majority with them. It is certain that, before Sumter was fired on, +a majority in every State, except South Carolina, was opposed to +Secession. The constant predictions of the Rebel leaders that there +would be no war, and the assertions of prominent New York journals, +that any attempt at coercion on the part of the Government would be met +with armed and bloody resistance in every northern city and State, were +the two chief causes of the apparent unanimity of the South. + +The masses had a vague but very earnest belief that the North, in some +incomprehensible manner, had done them deadly wrong. Cassio-like, they +remembered "a mass of things, but nothing distinctly; a quarrel, but +nothing wherefore." The leaders were sometimes more specific. + +"The South," said a pungent writer, "has endured a great many wrongs; +but the most intolerable of all the grievances ever thrust upon her was +the Census Report of 1860!" There was a great deal of truth in this +remark. One day I asked my New Orleans friend: + +"Why have you raised all this tempest about Mr. Lincoln's election?" + +[Sidenote: FUNDAMENTAL GRIEVANCE OF THE REBELS.] + +"Don't deceive yourself," he answered. "Mr. Lincoln's election had +nothing to do with it, beyond enabling us to rouse our people. Had +Douglas been chosen, we should have broken up the Union just as +quickly. Had Bell triumphed, it would have been all the same. Even if +Breckinridge had been elected, we would have seceded before the close +of his term. There is an essential incompatibility between the two +sections. _The South stands still, while the North has grown rich and +powerful, and expanded from ocean to ocean._" + +This was the fundamental grievance. Very liberal in his general +views, he had not apparently the faintest suspicion that Slavery was +responsible for the decadence of the South, or that Freedom impelled +the gigantic strides of the North. + +Yet his theory of the Rebellion was doubtless correct. It arose from +no man, or party, or political event, but from the inherent quarrel +between two adverse systems, which the fullness of time had ripened +into open warfare. His "essential incompatibility" was only another +name for Mr. Seward's "Irrepressible Conflict" between two principles. +They have since recorded, in letters of blood, not merely their +incompatibility, but their absolute, aggressive, eternal antagonism. + +During the second week in April, I began to find myself the object of +unpleasant, not to say impertinent, curiosity. So many questions were +asked, so many pointed and significant remarks made in my presence, as +to render it certain that I was regarded with peculiar suspicion. + +At first I was at a loss to surmise its origin. But one day I +encountered an old acquaintance in the form of a son of Abraham, +who had frequently heard me, in public addresses in Kansas, utter +sentiments not absolutely pro-slavery; who knew that I once held a +modest commission in the Free State army, and that I was a whilom +correspondent of _The Tribune_. + +[Sidenote: SUDDEN DEPARTURE FROM NEW ORLEANS.] + +He was by no means an Israelite without guile, for he had been chased +out of the Pike's Peak region during the previous summer, for robbing +one of my friends who had nursed him in sickness. Concluding that he +might play the informer, I made an engagement with him for the next +afternoon, and, before the time arrived, shook from my feet the dust of +New Orleans. Designing to make a _détour_ to Fort Pickens on my way, I +procured a ticket for Washington. The sea was the safer route, but I +was curious to take a final look at the interior. + +On Friday evening, April 12th, I left the Crescent City. In five +minutes our train plunged into the great swamp which environs the +commercial metropolis of the Southwest. Deep, broad ditches are cut for +draining, and you sometimes see an alligator, five or six feet long, +and as large as the body of a man, lying lazily upon the edge of the +green water. + +The marshy ground is mottled with gorgeous flowers, and the palmetto +is very abundant. It does not here attain to the dignity of a tree, +seldom growing more than four feet high. Its flag, sword-shaped leaves +branch out in flat semicircular clusters, resembling the fan palm. Its +tough bulbous root was formerly cut into fine fragments by the Indians, +then bruised to a pulp and thrown into the lake. It produced temporary +blindness among the fishes, which brought them to the surface, where +they were easily caught by hand. + +With rare fitness stands the palmetto as the device of South Carolina. +Indeed, it is an excellent emblem of Slavery itself; for, neither +beautiful, edible, nor useful, it blinds the short-sighted fish coming +under its influence. + +To them it is + + ----"The insane root, Which takes the reason prisoner." + +A ride of four miles brought us to Lake Pontchartrain, stretching away +in the fading sunlight. Over the broad expanse of swelling water, +delicate, foamy white caps were cresting the waves. + +[Sidenote: THE WAR SPIRIT IN MOBILE.] + +We were transferred to the propeller Alabama, and, when I woke the next +morning, were lying at Mobile. With a population of thirty thousand, +the city contains many pleasant residences, embowered in shade-trees, +and surrounded by generous grounds. It is rendered attractive by its +tall pines, live oak, and Pride-of-China trees. The last were now +decked in a profusion of bluish-white blossoms. + +The war spirit ran high. Hand-bills, headed "Soldiers wanted," and +"Ho! for volunteers," met the eye at every corner; uniforms and arms +abounded, and the voice of the bugle was heard in the streets. All +northern vessels were clearing on account of the impending crisis, +though some were not more than half loaded. + +Mobile was very radical. One of the daily papers urged the imposition +of a tax of one dollar per copy upon every northern newspaper or +magazine brought into the Confederacy! + +The leading hotel was crowded with guests, including many soldiers _en +route_ for Bragg's army. It was my own design to leave for Pensacola +that evening, and look at the possible scene of early hostilities. +A Secession friend in New Orleans had given me a personal letter to +General Bragg, introducing me as a gentleman of leisure, who would be +glad to make a few sketches of proper objects of interest about his +camps, for one of the New York illustrated papers. It added that he had +known me all his life, and vouched completely for my "soundness." + +[Sidenote: SUSPICIONS AROUSED--AN AWKWARD ENCOUNTER.] + +But a little incident changed my determination. Among my +fellow-passengers from New Orleans were three young officers of the +Confederate army, also bound for Fort Pickens. While on the steamer, I +did not observe that I was an object of their special attention; but +just after breakfast this morning, as I was going up to my room, in the +fourth story of the Battle House, I encountered them also ascending the +broad stairs. The moment they saw me, they dropped the subject upon +which they were conversing, and one, with significant glances, burst +into a most violent invective against _The Tribune_, denouncing it as +the vilest journal in America, except Parson Brownlow's _Knoxville +Whig!_ pronouncing every man connected with it a thief and scoundrel, +and asserting that if any of its correspondents could be caught here, +they would be hung upon the nearest tree. + +This philippic was so evidently inspired by my presence, and the eyes +of the whole group glared with a speculation so unpleasant, that I felt +myself an unhappy Romeo, "too early seen unknown and known too late." I +had learned by experience that the best protection for a suspected man +was to go everywhere, as if he had a right to go; to brave scrutiny; to +return stare for stare and question for question. + +So, during this tirade, which lasted while, side by side, we leisurely +climbed two staircases, I strove to maintain an exterior of serene and +wooden unconsciousness. When the speaker had exhausted his vocabulary +of hard words, I drew a fresh cigar from my pocket, and said to him, +"Please to give me a light, sir." With a puzzled air he took his cigar +from his mouth, knocked off the ashes with his forefinger, handed it to +me, and stood regarding me a little curiously, while, looking him full +in the face, I slowly ignited my own Havana, returned his, and thanked +him. + +They turned away apparently convinced that their zeal had outrun their +discretion. The look of blank disappointment and perplexity upon the +faces of those young officers as they disappeared in the passage will +be, to me, a joy forever. + +Pondering in my room upon fresh intelligence of the arrest of +suspicious persons in General Bragg's camp, and upon this little +experience, I changed my plan. As Toodles, in the farce, thinks he +"won't smoke," so I decided not to go to Pensacola; but ordered a +carriage, and drove down to the mail-boat St. Charles, which was to +leave for Montgomery that evening. + +I fully expected during the afternoon to entertain a vigilance +committee, the police, or some military officials who would invite +me to look at Secession through prison bars. It was not an inviting +prospect; yet there was nothing to do but to wait. + +The weather was dreamy and delicious. My state-room looked out upon the +shining river, and the rich olive green of the grassy shore. Upon the +dull, opaque water of a broad bayou beyond, little snowy sails flashed, +and a steamer, with tall black chimneys, left a white, foamy track in +the waters, and long clouds of brown smoke against the sky. + +[Sidenote: "MASS'R, FORT SUMTER'S GONE UP!"] + +At three o'clock in the afternoon, while I was lying in my state-room, +looking out drowsily upon this picture, a cabin-boy presented his sooty +face at the door and said, "Mass'r, Fort Sumter's gone up!" + +[Sidenote: BELLS RINGING AND CANNONS BOOMING.] + +The intelligence had just arrived by telegraph. The first battle of +the Great War was over, and seventy-two men, after a bombardment of +two days, were captured by twelve thousand! In a moment church and +steamboat bells rang out their notes of triumph, and cannon belched +forth their deep-mouthed exultation. A public meeting was extemporized +in the street, and enthusiastic speeches were made. Mindful of my +morning experience, I did not leave the boat, but tried to read the +momentous Future. I thought I could see, in its early pages, the +death-warrant of Slavery; but all else was inscrutable. + +There was a steam calliope attached to the "St. Charles." That evening, +when the last bell had rung, and the last cable was taken in, she left +the Mobile landing, and plowed slowly up the river to the shrill notes +of "Dixie's Land."[6] + +[6] Dixie's Land is a synonym for heaven. It appears that there was +once a good planter named Dixie, who died at some period unknown, to +the intense grief of his animated property. They found expression for +their sorrow in song, and consoled themselves by clamoring in verse +for their removal to the land to which Dixie had departed, and where +probably the renewed spirit would be greatly surprised to find himself +in their company. Whether they were ill treated after he died, and thus +had reason to deplore his removal, or merely desired heaven in the +abstract, nothing known enables me to assert. But Dixie's Land is now +generally taken to be the Seceded States, where Mr. Dixie certainly is +not at the present writing.--_Russell's Diary in America._ + +The Alabama is the "most monotonously beautiful of rivers." In the +evening twilight, its sinuous sweep afforded a fine view of both +shores, timbered down to the water's edge. Dense foliage, decked in the +blended and intermingled hues of summer, gave them the appearance of +two soft, smooth cushions of variegated velvet. + +After dark, we met the descending mail-boat. Our calliope saluted her +with lively music, and the passengers assembled on the guards, greeting +each other with the usual huzzas and waving of hats and handkerchiefs. + +On Sunday morning, the inevitable calliope awoke us--this time, +with sacred music. At many river landings there was only a single +well-shaded farm-house on the bank, with ladies sitting upon the +piazzas, and white and negro children playing under the magnificent +live-oaks. At others, a solitary warehouse stood upon the high, +perpendicular bluff, with an inclined-plane railway for the conveyance +of freight to the water. At some points the country was open, and a +great cotton-field extended to the river-bank, with a weather-beaten +cotton-press in the midst of it, like an old northern cider-mill. + +[Sidenote: A TERPSICHOREAN YOUNG NEGRO.] + +Planters, returning from New Orleans and Mobile, were met at the +landings by their negroes. The slaves appeared glad to see them, and +were greeted with hearty hand-shakings. At one landing the calliope +struck up a lively strain, and a young darkey on the bank, with the +Terpsichorean proclivity of his race, began to dance as if for dear +life, throwing his arms and legs in ludicrous and extravagant fashion. +His master attempted to cuff his ears, but the little fellow ducked his +head and danced away, to the great merriment of the lookers-on. The +negro nurses on the boat fondled and kissed the little white children +in their charge most ardently. + +I saw no instance of unkind treatment to slaves; but a young planter on +board mentioned to me, as a noteworthy circumstance, that he had not +permitted a negro to be struck upon his plantation for a year. + +A Texian on board the boat was very bitter against Governor Houston, +and, with the usual extreme language of the Rebels, declared he would +be hanged if he persisted in opposing the Disunionists. An old citizen +of Louisiana, too, became so indignant at me for remarking I had always +supposed Douglas to sympathize with the South, that I made haste to +qualify the assertion. + +[Sidenote: LEADING CHARACTERISTICS OF SOUTHERNERS.] + +Our passengers were excellent specimens of the better class of +southerners. Aside from his negrophobia, the southern _gentleman_ +is an agreeable companion. He is genial, frank, cordial, profoundly +deferential to women, and carries his heart in his hand. His social +qualities are his weak point. To a northerner, passing through his +country during these disjointed times, I would have said: + +"Your best protection is to be 'hail fellow, well met;' spend money +freely, tell good stories, be liberal of your private brandy-flask, +and your after-dinner cigars. If you do this, and your manners are, +in his thinking, gentlemanly, he can by no means imagine you a Yankee +in the offensive sense. He pictures all Yankees as puritanic, rigid, +fanatical, and talking through the nose. 'What the world wants,' says +George William Curtis, 'is not honesty, but acquiescence.' That is +profoundly true here. Acquiesce gracefully, not intemperately, in the +prevailing sentiment. Don't hail from the State of Massachusetts; don't +'guess,' or use other northern provincialisms; don't make yourself +conspicuous--and, if you know human nature, you may pass without +serious trouble." + +Our southerner has little humanity--he feels little sympathy for a man, +_as_ a man--as a mere human being--but he has abundant warmth toward +his own social class. Not a very high specimen himself, he yet lays +infinite stress upon being "a gentleman." If you have the misfortune to +be poor, and without credentials, but possess the manners of education +and good society, he will give you kinder reception than you are likely +to obtain in the bustling, restless, crowded North. + +[Sidenote: SOUTHERN PROVINCIALISMS.] + +He affects long hair, dresses in unqualified black, and wears kid +gloves continually. He pronounces iron "_i_-ron" (two syllables), and +barrel "barl." He calls car "kyah" (one syllable), cigar "_se_-ghah," +and negro "_nig_-ro"--never negro, and very rarely "nigger." The +latter, by the way, was a pet word with Senator Douglas. Once, while +his star was in the ascendant, some one asked Mr. Seward: + +"Will Judge Douglas ever be President?" + +"No, sir," replied the New York senator. "No man will ever be President +of the United States who spells negro with two g's!" + +These southern provincialisms are sometimes a little startling. +Conversing with a young man in the senior class of a Mississippi +college, I remarked that men were seldom found in any circle who had +not some sympathy or affinity with it, to stimulate them to seek it. +"Yes," he replied, "something to _aig them on_!" + +The forests along the river were beautiful with the brilliant green +live-oak festooned with mistletoe, the dark pine, the dense cane, the +spring glory of the cottonwood and maple, the drooping delicate leaves +of the willow, the white-stemmed sycamore with its creamy foliage, and +the great snowy blossoms of the dog-wood. + +With a calliope, familiarity breeds contempt. Ours became an +intolerable nuisance, and induced frequent discussions about bribing +the player to stop it. He was apparently animated by the spirit of the +Parisian who set a hand-organ to running by clockwork in his room, +locked the apartment, went to the country for a month, and, when he +returned, found that two obnoxious neighbors, whom he wished to drive +away, had blown out their brains in utter despair. + +While I was pleasantly engaged in a whist-party in the cabin, this +fragment of a conversation between two bystanders reached my ears: + +"A spy?" + +"Yes, a spy from the North, looking about to obtain information for old +Lincoln; and they arrested one yesterday, too." + +[Sidenote: CONFEDERATE CAPITOL AT MONTGOMERY.] + +This was a pleasing theme of reflection for the timid and contemplative +mind. A passenger explained the matter, by informing me that, at one of +the landings where we stopped, telegraphic intelligence was received +of the arrest of two spies at Montgomery. The popular impression +seemed to be, that about one person in ten was engaged in that +not-very-fascinating avocation! + +In Indian dialect, Alabama signifies, "Here we rest;" but, for me, it +had an exactly opposite meaning. We awoke one morning to find our boat +lying at Montgomery. Reaching the hotel too early for breakfast, I +strolled with a traveler from Philadelphia, a pretended Secessionist, +to the State House, which was at present also the Capitol of the +Confederacy. + +Standing, like the Capitol in Washington, at the head of a broad +thoroughfare, it overlooks a pleasant city of eight thousand people. +The building is of stucco, and bears that melancholy suggestion of +better days which seems inseparable from the Peculiar Institution. + +The senate chamber is a small, dingy apartment, on whose dirty walls +hang portraits of Clay, Calhoun, and two or three Alabama politicians. +The desks and chairs were covered with antiquated public documents, and +the other _débris_ of legislative halls. While returning to the hotel, +we heard from a street loafer a terse description of some model slave: + +"He is just the best nigger in this town. He knows enough to work well, +and he knows nothing else." + +We were also informed that the Virginia Convention had passed a +Secession ordinance. + +"This is capital news; is it not?" said my Philadelphia companion, with +well-assumed glee. + +For several days, in spite of his violent assertions, I had doubted his +sincerity. This was the first time he broached the subject when no one +else was present. I looked steadily in his eye, and inquired: + +"Do you think so?" + +His half-quizzical expression was a satisfactory answer, even without +the reply: + +"I want to get home to Philadelphia without being detained on the way." + +[Sidenote: "COPPERAS BREECHES" VS. "BLACK BREECHES."] + +In the hotel office, two well-dressed southerners were discussing the +omnipresent topic. One of them said: + +"We shall have no war." + +"Yes, we shall," replied the other. "The Yankees are going to fight for +a while; but it will make no difference to us. We have got copperas +breeches enough to carry this war through. None of the black breeches +will have to shoulder muskets!" + +The reader should understand that the clothing of the working whites +was colored with a dye in which copperas was the chief ingredient; +while, of course, the upper, slaveholding classes, wore "customary +suits of solemn black." This was a very pregnant sentence, conveying in +a few words the belief of those Rebels who instigated and impelled the +war. + +[Sidenote: A CORRESPONDENT IN DURANCE VILE.] + +The morning newspapers, at our breakfast-table, detailed two +interesting facts. First, that "Jasper,"[7] the Charleston +correspondent of _The New York Times_, had been seized and imprisoned +in the Palmetto City. Second, that Gen. Bragg had arrested in his +camp, and sent under guard to Montgomery, "as a prisoner of war," the +correspondent of _The Pensacola_ (Fla.) _Observer_. This journalist was +an enthusiastic Secessionist, but had been guilty of some indiscretion +in publishing facts touching the strength and designs of the Rebel +army. His signature was "Nemo;" and he now bade fair to be No One, +indeed, for some time to come. + +[7] This gentleman went to Charleston openly for _The Times_, and +constantly insisted that a candid and truthful correspondent of +any northern paper could travel through the South without serious +difficulty. He was daily declaring that the devil was not so black as +he is painted, denying charges brought against Charlestonians by the +northern press, and sometimes evidently straining a point in his own +convictions to say a kind word for them. But, during the storming of +Sumter, he was suddenly arrested, robbed, and imprisoned in a filthy +cell for several days. He was at last permitted to go; but the mob had +become excited against him, and with difficulty he escaped with his +life. No other correspondent was subjected to such gross indignities. +"Jasper" reached Washington, having obtained a good deal of new and +valuable information about South Carolina character. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII. + + I reckon this always, that a man is never undone until he be + hanged.--TWO GENTLEMEN OF VERONA. + + +I now began to entertain sentiments of profound gratitude toward the +young officer, at Mobile, who kept me from going to Fort Pickens. +Rejecting the tempting request of my Philadelphia companion to remain +one day in Montgomery, that he might introduce me to Jefferson Davis, I +continued my "Journey Due North." + +[Sidenote: EFFECT OF CAPTURING FORT SUMTER.] + +When we reached the cars, my baggage was missing. The omnibus agent, +who was originally a New Yorker, and probably thought it precarious for +a man desiring to reach Washington to be detained, even a few hours, +kindly induced the conductor to detain the train for five minutes while +we drove back to the Exchange Hotel and found the missing valise. The +event proved that delay would have been embarrassing, if not perilous. + +A Georgian on the car-seat with me, while very careful not to let +others overhear his remarks, freely avowed Union sentiments, and +asserted that they were predominant among his neighbors. I longed to +respond earnestly and sincerely, but there was the possibility of a +trap, and I merely acquiesced. + +The country was intoxicated by the capture of Sumter. A newspaper on +the train, several days old, in its regular Associated Press report, +contained the following: + +[Sidenote: WASHINGTON TO BE CAPTURED.] + + MONTGOMERY, Ala., Friday, _April 12, 1861_. + + An immense crowd serenaded President Davis and Mr. Walker, + Secretary of War, at the Exchange Hotel to-night. The former + was not well, and did not appear. Secretary Walker, in a + few words of electrical eloquence, told the news from Fort + Sumter, declaring, in conclusion, that before many hours the + flag of the Confederacy would float over that fortress. No + man, he said, could tell where the war this day commenced + would end, but he would prophesy that the flag which here + streams to the breeze would float over the dome of the old + Capitol at Washington before the first of May. Let them test + Southern courage and resources, and it might float eventually + over Faneuil Hall itself. + +An officer from General Bragg's camp informed me that all preparations +for capturing Fort Pickens were made, the United States sentinels on +duty upon a certain night being bribed; but that "Nemo's" intimation of +the intended attack frustrated it, a copy of his letter having found +its way into the post, and forewarned and forearmed the commander. + +Everybody was looking anxiously for news from the North. The +predictions of certain New York papers, that the northern people would +inaugurate war at home if the Government attempted "coercion," were +received with entire credulity, and frequently quoted. + +There was much admiration of Major Anderson's defense of Sumter; but +the opinion was general, that only a military sense of honor dictated +his conduct; that now, relieved from a soldier's responsibility, he +would resign and join the Rebels. "He is too brave a man to remain with +the Yankees," was the common remark. Far in the interior of Georgia, I +saw fragments of his flag-staff exhibited, and highly prized as relics. + +We dined at the little hamlet of West Point, on the line between +Alabama and Georgia, and stopped for two evening hours at the bustling +city of Atlanta. Our stay was enlivened by a fresh conversation in +the car about northern spies and reporters, who were declared to be +infesting the country, and worthy of hanging wherever found. + +[Sidenote: APPREHENSION ABOUT ARMING THE NEGROES.] + +We spent the night in pursuit of sleep under difficulties, upon a rough +Georgia railway. The next morning, the scantiness of the disappearing +foliage indicated that we were going northward. In Augusta, we passed +through broad, pleasant shaded streets, and then crossed the Savannah +river into South Carolina. Companies of troops, bound for Charleston, +began to come on board the train, and were greeted with cheering at all +the stations. A young Carolinian, taking me for a southerner, remarked: + +"The only thing we fear in this war is that the Yankees will arm our +slaves and turn them against us." + +This was the first statement of the kind I heard. Persons had said many +times in my presence that they were perfectly sure of the slaves--who +would all fight for their masters. In the last article of faith they +proved as deluded as those sanguine northerners who believed that slave +insurrections would everywhere immediately result from hostilities. + +At Lee's Station we met the morning train from Charleston. Within +two yards of my window, I saw a dark object disappear under the +cow-catcher; and a moment after, a woman, wringing her hands, shrieked: + +"My God! My God! Mr. Lee killed!" + +Lying on the track was a shapeless, gory mass, which only the clothing +showed to be the remains of a human being. The station-keeper, +attempting to cross the road just in advance of the train, was struck +down and run over. His little son was standing beside him at the very +moment, and two of his daughters looking on from the door of his +residence, a few yards away. In the first bewilderment of terror, they +now stood wildly beating their foreheads, and gasping for breath. In +strange contrast with this scene, a martial band was discoursing lively +music, and people were loudly cheering the soldiers. Buoyant Life and +grim Death stood side by side and walked hand in hand. + +Our train plunged into deep pine woods, and wended through large +plantations, whose cool frame houses were shaded by palmetto-trees. The +negro men and women, who stood in the fields persuading themselves that +they were working, handled their hoes with indescribable awkwardness. A +sketch of their exact positions would look ridiculously unnatural. They +were in striking contrast with the zeal and activity of the northern +laborer, who moves under the stimulus of freedom. + +[Sidenote: LOOKING AT THE CAPTURED FORTRESS.] + +In the afternoon, we passed through the Magnolia Cemetery, and in view +of the State Arsenal, with the palmetto flag waving over it. The Mills' +House, in Charleston, was crowded with guests and citizens, half of +them in uniform. After I registered my name, a brawny fellow, with +a "plug-ugly" countenance, looked over my shoulder at the book, and +then regarded me with a long, impudent, scrutinizing stare, which I +endeavored to return with interest. In a few seconds his eyes dropped, +and he went back to his seat. + +I strolled down the narrow streets, with their antiquated houses, to +the pleasant Battery, where several columbiads, with pyramidal piles of +solid shot between them, pointed at Fort Sumter. Down the harbor, among +a few snow-white sails, stood the already historic fortress. The line +of broken roof, visible above the walls, was torn and ragged from Rebel +shots. At the distance of two miles, it was impossible, with the naked +eye, to identify the two flags above it. A bystander told me that they +were the colors of South Carolina and of the Confederacy. + +The devices of treason flaunting in the breeze where the Stars and +Stripes, after being insulted for months, were so lately lowered in +dishonor, were not a pleasant spectacle, and I turned slowly and sadly +back to the hotel. In its reading-room, among the four or five papers +on file, was a copy of _The Tribune_, whose familiar face was like the +shadow of a great rock in a weary land. + +[Sidenote: A SHORT STAY IN CHARLESTON.] + +The city reeled with excitement. In the evening martial music and +huzzas came floating up to my window from a meeting at the Charleston +Hotel, where the young Virginian Hotspur, Roger A. Pryor, was one of +the prominent speakers. Publicly and privately, the Charlestonians were +boasting over their late Cadmean victory. They had not heard from the +North. + +I hoped to remain several days, but the public frenzy had grown so +uncontrollable, that every stranger was subjected to espionage. One +could hardly pick up a newspaper without seeing, or stand ten minutes +in a public place without hearing, of the arrest of some northerner, +charged with being a spy. While the lines of retreat were yet open, it +was judicious to flee from the wrath to come. + +Designing to stop for a while in North Carolina, whose Rip Van Winkle +sleep seemed proof against any possible convulsion, I took the midnight +train northward. A number of Baltimoreans on board were returning +home, after assisting at the capture of Sumter. They were voluble and +boisterous Rebels, declaring in good set terms that Maryland would +shortly be revolutionized, Governor Hicks and Henry Winter Davis +hanged, and President Lincoln driven out of Washington. They averred +with great vehemence and iteration that the Yankees were all cowards, +and could easily be "whipped out;" but when one, whose denunciations +had been peculiarly bitter, was asked: + +[Sidenote: THE COUNTRY ON FIRE.] + +"Are you going home through Washington?" + +"Not I," was the reply. "Old Abe might have us nabbed!" + +We were soon on the clayey soil of the Old North State, which, to the +eye, closely resembles those regions of Ohio near Lake Erie. Hour after +hour, we rode through the deep forests of tall pines, from which the +bark had been stripped for making rosin and turpentine. + +My anticipations of quiet proved altogether delusive. President +Lincoln's Proclamation, calling for seventy-five thousand soldiers, +had just arrived by telegraph, and the country was on fire. It was the +first flush of excitement here, and the feeling was more intense and +demonstrative than in those States which had become accustomed to the +Revolution. Forts were being seized, negroes and white men impressed +to labor upon them, military companies forming, clergymen taking up +the musket, and women encouraging the determination to fight the +"Abolitionists." All Union sentiment was awed into utter silence. + +While the train was stopping at Wilmington, a telegram, announcing that +Virginia had passed a Secession ordinance, was received with yells +of applause. Sitting alone at one end of the car, I observed three +fellow-passengers, with whom I had formed a traveling acquaintance, +conferring earnestly. Their frequent glances toward me indicated +the subject of the conversation. As I had said nothing to define my +political position, I resolved to set myself right at once, should they +put me to the test. One of them approached me, and remarked: + +"We just have news that Virginia has seceded." + +I replied, with considerable emphasis: "Good! That will give us all the +border States." + +Apparently satisfied, he returned to his friends, and they said no +more to me upon the all-absorbing question. + +[Sidenote: SUBMITTING TO REBEL SCRUTINY.] + +A fragment of conversation which occurred near me, will illustrate the +general tone of remark. A young man observed to a gentleman beside him: + +"We shall have possession of Washington before the first of June." + +"Do you think so? Lincoln is going to call out an army of one hundred +and fifty thousand men." + +"Oh, well, we can whip them out any morning before breakfast. Throw +three or four shells among those blue-bellied Yankees and they will +scatter like a flock of sheep!" + +Up to this day I had earnestly hoped that a bloody conflict between +the two sections might be averted; but these remarks were so +frequent--the opinion that northerners were unmitigated cowards seemed +so universal,[8] that I began to look with a great deal of complacency +upon the prospect which the South enjoyed of testing this faith. It was +time to ascertain, once for all, whether these gentlemen of the cotton +and the canebrake were indeed a superior race, destined to wield the +scepter, or whether their pretensions were mere arrogance and swagger. + +[8] Of course the folly was not all on one side. Few northerners, up +to the attack on Sumter, thought the Rebels would do any thing but +threaten. And long after this error was exploded, our ablest journals +were fond of contrasting the resources of the two sections, and +demonstrating therefrom, with mathematical precision, that the war +could not last long; that the superiority of the North in men and money +would make the subjugation of the South a short and easy task. But they +did not commit the egregious blunder of imputing cowardice to any class +of native-born Americans. + +It seemed impossible for the southern mind to comprehend that he +who never blusters, or flourishes the bowie-knife, who will endure a +great deal before fighting, who would rather suffer a wrong than do +a wrong, is, when roused, the most dangerous of adversaries--a fact +so universal, that it has given us the proverb, "Beware the fury of a +patient man." + +[Sidenote: THE NORTH HEARD FROM.] + +New York papers, issued after receiving intelligence of the fall of +Sumter, now reached us, and both in their news and editorial columns +indicated how suddenly that event had aroused the whole North. The +voice of every journal was for war. _The Herald_, which one morning +spoke bitterly against coercion, received a visit during the day from +several thousand tumultuous citizens, who left it the alternative of +running up the American flag or having its office torn down. By the +presence of the police, and the intercession of leading Union men, +its property was saved from destruction. In next morning's paper +appeared one of its periodical and constitutional somersaults. Its four +editorial articles all cried "War to the knife!" + +The Rebels were greatly surprised, half appalled, and doubly +exasperated at the unexpected change of all the northern papers which +they had counted friendly to them; but they also shouted "War!" even +louder than before. + +At Goldsboro, where we stopped for supper, a small slab of marble, +standing upon the mantel in the hotel office, had these words upon it: + + "Sacred to the memory of A. Lincoln, who died of a broken + neck, at Newburn, April 16, 1861." + +[Sidenote: AN INEBRIATED PATRIOT.] + +Before the train started again, a young patriot, whose articulation was +impeded by whisky, passed through it, asking: + +"S'thr any ---- Yankee onth'strain? F'thr's a ---- Union man +board these cars, Ic'nwhip him by ---. H'rahfr Jeff. Davis +nth'southrncnfdrcy!" He afterward amused himself by firing his revolver +from the car door. At the next station he stepped out upon the +platform, and repeated: + +"H'rah fr Jeff. Davis n'th'Southrn Confdrcy!" Another patriot among the +bystanders at the station promptly responded: + +"Good. Hurra for Jeff. Davis!" + +"Yre th'man fr me," responded our passenger; "Come 'n' takeadrink. All +fr Jeff. Davis here, ain't you?" + +"Yes, sir." + +"Thatsallrightth'n. But what d'you elect that ---- Abolitionist, Murphy, +t'th' Leg'slature for?" + +"_I'm_ Murphy," replied the patriot, who had been standing in the +group, but now sprang forward belligerently. "Who calls _me_ an +Abolitionist?" + +"Beg y'r padon sr. Reck'n you ain't the man. But who _is_ that +Abolitionist you 'lected here? 's name's Brown, 'sn't it? Yes, that's +it. ---- Brown; y'ought t'hang _him_!" + +Just then the whistle shrieked and the train moved on, amid shouts of +laughter. + +At six o'clock next morning, we reached Richmond. Here, also, I had +hoped to stop, but the caldron was seething too hotly. Rebel flags were +everywhere flying, the newspapers all exulted over the passage of the +Secession ordinance, and some of them warned northerners and Union men +to leave the country forthwith. The tone of conversation, too, was very +bitter. The farther I went, the intenser the frenzy; and, beginning to +wonder whether there was any safe haven south of Philadelphia or New +York, I continued northward without a moment's unnecessary delay. + +The railway accommodations grew better in exact ratio to our approach +to Mason and Dixon's line, and northern physiognomies were numerous +on the train. At Ashland, a few miles north of Richmond, the first +palatable meal since leaving the Alabama River was set before us. All +the intervening distance, to the epicurean eye, stretched out in a +dreary perspective of bacon and corn bread. + +[Sidenote: THE OLD DOMINION IN A FRENZY.] + +Half the passengers were soldiers. Every village bristled with +bayonets. At Fredericksburgh, one of the polished F. F. V.'s on +the platform presented his face at our window, and asked what the +unmentionable-to-ears-polite all these people were going north for? As +the passengers maintained an "heroic reticence," he exploded a fresh +oath, and went to the next car to pursue his investigations. + +A citizen of Richmond, who occupied the seat with me, satisfied that I +was sound on the Secession question, assured me that it had been very +difficult to get the ordinance through the Convention; that trouble +was anticipated from Union men in Western Virginia; that business in +Richmond was utterly suspended, New York exchange commanding a premium +of fifteen per cent. + +"We are fearful," he added, "of difficulty with our free negroes. There +are several thousand in Richmond, many of whom are intelligent, and +some wealthy. They show signs of turbulence, and we are perfecting an +organization to hold them in check. I sent the money to New York this +morning for a quantity of Sharp's rifles, ordering them to be forwarded +in dry-goods boxes, that they might not excite suspicion." + +He added, that Ben McCulloch was in Virginia, and had perfected a +plan by which, at the head of Rebel troops, he was about to capture +Washington. As we progressed northward, the noisy Secession element +grew small by degrees, and beautifully less. At Acquia Creek, we left +the cars and took a steamer up the Potomac. + +[Sidenote: THE OLD FLAG ONCE MORE.] + +A quiet gentleman, who had come on board at Richmond, impressed +me, through that mysterious freemasonry which exists among +journalists--indeed, between members of all professions--as a +representative of the Fourth Estate. In reply to inquiries, he informed +me that he had been reporting the Virginia Convention for _The Richmond +Enquirer_, but, being a New Yorker, had concluded, like Jerry Blossom, +he wanted "to go home." He described the Convention, which at first +had an emphatic majority for the Government; but in time, one Union +man after another was dragooned into the ranks, until a bare Secession +majority was obtained. + +The ordinance explicitly provided that it should not take effect until +submitted to the popular vote; but the State authorities immediately +assumed that it would be ratified. Senator Mason wrote a public letter, +warning all Union men to leave the State; and before the time for +voting arrived, the Secessionists succeeded in inaugurating a bloody +conflict upon the soil, and bringing in armies from the Gulf States. It +was then ratified by a large majority. + +We steamed up the Potomac, passed the quiet tomb at Mount Vernon, which +was soon to hear the clangor of contending armies, and early in the +afternoon came in sight of Washington. There, at last, thank God! was +the old Starry Banner, flying in triumph over the Capitol, the White +House, the departments, and hundreds of dwellings. Albeit unused to the +melting mood, my heart was full, and my eyelids quivered as I saw it. +Until that hour, I never knew how I loved the old flag! + +Walking down Pennsylvania avenue, I encountered troops of old friends, +and constantly wondered that I had been able to spend ten weeks in the +South, without meeting more than two or three familiar acquaintances. + +[Sidenote: AN HOUR WITH PRESIDENT LINCOLN.] + +A body-guard for the President, made up entirely of citizens of Kansas, +armed with Sharp's rifles, was on duty every night at the White House. +It contained two United States Senators, three members and ex-members +of Congress, the Chief-Justice of the Supreme Court, and several +editors and other prominent citizens of that patriotic young State. + +With two friends, I spent an hour at the White House. The President, +though overwhelmed with business, received us kindly, and economized +time by taking a cup of tea while conversing with us, and inquiring +very minutely about affairs in the seceding States. + + "Uneasy lies the head that wears a crown," + +though the crown be only the chaplet of a Republic. + +This man had filled the measure of American ambition, but the +remembered brightness of his face was in strange contrast with the +weary, haggard look it now wore, and his blushing honors seemed pallid +and ashen. There was the same honest, kindly tone--the same fund of +humorous anecdote--the same genuineness; but the old, free, lingering +laugh was gone. + +"Mr. Douglas," remarked the President, "spent three hours with me +this afternoon. For several days he has been too unwell for business, +and has devoted his time to studying war-matters, until he understands +the military position better, perhaps, than any one of the Cabinet. +By the way," continued Mr. Lincoln, with his peculiar twinkle of the +eye, "the conversation turned upon the rendition of slaves. 'You know,' +said Douglas, 'that I am entirely sound on the Fugitive Slave Law. I +am for enforcing it in all cases within its true intent and meaning; +but, after examining it carefully, I have concluded that a negro +insurrection is a case to which it does not apply.'" + +[Sidenote: PANIC IN WASHINGTON.] + +I had not come north a moment too early. The train which brought me +from Richmond to Acquia Creek was the last which the Rebel authorities +permitted to pass without interruption, and the steamer, on reaching +Washington, was seized by our own Government, and made no more regular +trips. Before I had been an hour in the Capital, the telegraph wires +were cut, and railway tracks in Maryland torn up. Intelligence of +the murderous attack of a Baltimore mob on the Sixth Massachusetts +regiment, _en route_ for Washington, startled the town from its +propriety. + +Chaos had come again. Washington was the seat of an intense panic. An +attack from the Rebels was hourly expected, and hundreds of families +fled from the city in terror. During the next two days, twenty-five +hundred well-officered, resolute men could undoubtedly have captured +the city. The air was filled with extravagant and startling rumors. +From Virginia, Union refugees were hourly arriving, often after narrow +escapes from the frenzied populace. + +Massachusetts soldiers, who had safely run the Baltimore gantlet of +death, were quartered in the United States Senate Chamber. They had +mustered with characteristic promptness. At 5 o'clock one evening, +a telegram reached Boston asking for troops for the defense of the +imperiled Capital. At 9 o'clock the next morning, the first company, +having come twenty-five miles from the country, stacked arms in +Faneuil Hall. At 5 o'clock that night the Sixth Regiment, with full +ranks, started for Washington. They were fine-looking fellows, but +greatly embittered by their Baltimore experience. In a very quiet, +undemonstrative way, they manifested an earnest desire for immediate +and active service. + +[Sidenote: "CAME OUT TO FIGHT!"] + +The bewilderment and terror which had so long rested like a nightmare +on the National authorities--which for months had left almost every +leading Republican statesman timid and undecided--was at last over. +The echoes of the Charleston guns broke the spell! The masses had been +heard from! Then, as at later periods of the war, the popular instinct +was clearer and truer than all the wisdom of the politicians. + +During the three days I spent in Washington, the city was virtually +blockaded, receiving neither mails, telegrams, nor re-enforcements. +Martial law, though not declared, was sadly needed. Most of the +Secessionists had left, but enough remained to serve as spies for the +Virginia Revolutionists. + +I left for New York, by an evening train crowded with fleeing +families. Most of them went west from the Relay House, deterred from +passing through Baltimore by the reign of terror which the Rebels had +inaugurated. The most zealous Union papers advocated Secession as +their only means of personal and pecuniary safety. The State and city +authorities, though professedly loyal, bowed helpless before the storm. +Governor Sprague, with his Rhode Island volunteers, had started for +Washington. Mayor Brown telegraphed him, requesting that they should +not come through Baltimore, as it would exasperate the people. + +"The Rhode Island regiment," was Sprague's epigrammatic response, +"came out to fight, and may just as well fight in Maryland as in +Virginia." It passed unmolested! + +[Sidenote: BALTIMORE UNDER REBEL RULE.] + +We found Baltimore in a frenzy. The whole city seemed under arms. The +Union men were utterly silenced, and many had fled. The only person I +heard express undisguised loyalty was a young lady from Boston, and +only her sex protected her. Several persons had been arrested as spies +during the day, including two supposed correspondents of New York +papers. + +Baltimore, for the time, was worse than any thing I had seen in +Charleston, New Orleans, or Mobile. Through the evening Barnum's hotel +was filled with soldiers. Stepping into the office to make arrangements +for going to Philadelphia, I encountered an old acquaintance from +Cincinnati, now commanding a Baltimore company under arms: + +"If Lincoln persists in attempting to send troops through Maryland," +said he, "we are bound to have his head!" + +Another Baltimorean came up and began to question me, but my +acquaintance promptly vouched for me as "a true southern man," and I +escaped annoyance. The same belief was expressed here which prevailed +throughout the whole South, that northern men were cowards; and persons +actually alluded to the attack upon the unarmed Massachusetts troops as +an act of bravery. + +Leaving Baltimore, I took a carriage for the nearest northern railway +point. The roads were crowded with families leaving the city, and +infested by Rebel scouts and patrols. Union citizens were helpless. One +of them said to us: + +"For God's sake, beg the Administration and the North not to let us be +crushed out!" + +We hoped to take the Philadelphia cars, twenty-six miles out, but a +detachment of Baltimore soldiers that very morning had passed up the +railroad, destroying every bridge; smoke was still rising from their +ruins. We were compelled to press on and on, until, in the evening, +after a ride of forty-six miles, we reached York, Pennsylvania. + +[Sidenote: THE NORTH FULLY AROUSED.] + +Here, at last, we could breathe freely. But both railroads being +monopolized by troops, we were compelled, wearily, to drive on to the +village of Columbia, on the Susquehanna river. There we began to see +that the North, as well as the South, was under martial rule. Armed +sentinels peremptorily ordered us to halt. + +On identifying the driver, and learning my business, they allowed us to +proceed. At the bridge, the person in charge declined to open the gate: + +"I guess you can't cross to-night, sir," said he. + +I replied by "guessing" that we could; but he continued: + +"Our orders are positive, to let no one pass who is not personally +known to us." + +He soon became convinced that I was not an emissary of the enemy; and +the sentinels escorted us across the bridge, a mile and a quarter in +length. We proceeded undisturbed to Lancaster, arriving there at two +o'clock, after a carriage-ride of seventy miles. Thence to New York, +communication was undisturbed. + +The cold-blooded North was fully aroused. Rebel sympathizers found +themselves utterly swept away by a Niagara of public indignation. In +Pennsylvania, in New York, in New England, I heard only the sentiment +that talking must be ended, and acting begun; that, cost what it might, +in money and blood, all must unite to crush the gigantic Treason which +was closing its fangs upon the throat of the Republic. + +[Sidenote: UPRISING OF THE WHOLE PEOPLE.] + +The people seemed much more radical than the President. In all public +places, threats were heard that, if the Administration faltered, +it must be overturned, and a dictatorship established. Against the +Monumental City, feeling was peculiarly bitter. All said: + +"If National troops can not march unmolested through Baltimore, that +city has stood long enough! Not one stone shall be left upon another." + +I had witnessed a good deal of earnestness and enthusiasm in the South, +but nothing at all approaching this wonderful uprising of the whole +people. All seemed imbued with the sentiment of those official papers +issued before Napoleon was First Consul, beginning, "In the name of the +French Republic, _one and indivisible_." + +It was worth a lifetime to see it--to find down through all +the _débris_ of money-seeking, and all the strata of politics, +this underlying, primary formation of loyalty--this unfaltering +determination to vindicate the right of the majority, the only basis of +republican government. + +The storm-cloud had burst; the Irrepressible Conflict was upon us. +Where would it end? What forecast or augury could tell? Revolutions +ride rough-shod over all probabilities; and who has mastered the logic +of civil war? + +Here ended a personal experience, sometimes full of discomfort, but +always full of interest. It enabled me afterward to look at Secession +from the stand-point of those who inaugurated it; to comprehend Rebel +acts and utterances, which had otherwise been to me a sealed book. It +convinced me, too, of the thorough earnestness of the Revolutionists. +My published prediction, that we should have a seven years' war unless +the country used its utmost vigor and resources, seemed to excite a +mild suspicion of lunacy among my personal acquaintances. + +[Sidenote: A TRIBUNE CORRESPONDENT ON TRIAL.] + +I was the last member of _The Tribune_ staff to leave the South. By +rare good fortune, all its correspondents escaped personal harm, while +representatives of several other New York journals were waited upon by +vigilance committees, driven out, and in some cases imprisoned. It was +a favorite jest, that _The Tribune_ was the only northern paper whose +_attachés_ were allowed in the South. + +Its South Carolinian correspondence had a peculiar history. Immediately +after the Presidential election, Mr. Charles D. Brigham went to +Charleston as its representative. With the exception of two or three +weeks, he remained there from November until February, writing almost +daily letters. The Charlestonians were excited and indignant, and +arrested in all five or six persons whom they unjustly suspected. + +Finally, about the middle of February, Mr. Brigham was one day +taken into custody, and brought before Governor Pickens and his +cabinet counselors, among whom Ex-Governor McGrath was the principal +inquisitor. At this time the Southern Confederacy existed only in +embryo, and South Carolina claimed to be an independent republic. +The correspondent, who had great coolness and self-control, and knew +a good deal of human nature, maintained a serene exterior despite +the awkwardness of his position. After a rigid catechisation, he was +relieved to find that the tribunal did not surmise his real character, +but suspected him of being a spy of the Government. + +His trial took place at the executive head-quarters, opposite the +Charleston Hotel, and lasted from nine o'clock in the morning until +nine at night. During the afternoon, the city being disturbed by one +of its daily reports that a Federal fleet had appeared off the bar, he +was turned over to Mr. Alexander H. Brown, a leading criminal lawyer, +famous for his skill in examining witnesses. Mr. Brown questioned, +re-questioned, and cross-questioned the vagrant scribe, but was +completely baffled by him. He finally said: + +"Mr. Brigham, while I think you are all right, this is a peculiar +emergency, and you must see that, under the circumstances, it will be +necessary for you to leave the South at once." + +[Sidenote: HE IS WARNED TO DEPART.] + +The "sweet sorrow" of parting gladdened his journalistic heart; but, at +the bidding of prudence, he replied: + +"I hope not, sir. It is very hard for one who, as you are bound to +admit, after the most rigid scrutiny, has done nothing improper, who +has deported himself as a gentleman should, who sympathizes with you as +far as a stranger can, to be driven out in this way." + +The attorney replied, with that quiet significance which such remarks +possessed: + +"I am sorry, sir, that it is not a question for argument." + +The lucky journalist, while whispering he would ne'er consent, +consented. Whereupon the lawyer, who seemed to have some qualms of +conscience, invited him to join in a bottle of wine, and when they had +become a little convivial, suddenly asked: + +"By the way, do you know who is writing the letters from here to _The +Tribune_?" + +"Why, no," was the answer. "I haven't seen a copy of that paper for six +months; but I supposed there was no such person, as I had read in your +journals that the letters were purely fictitious." + +"There _is_ such a man," replied Brown; "and thus far, though we have +arrested four or five persons, supposing that we had found him, he +completely baffles us. Now, when you get home to New York, can't you +ascertain who he is, and let us know?" + +[Sidenote: TRIBUNE REPRESENTATIVES IN CHARLESTON.] + +Mr. Brigham, knowing exactly what tone to adopt with the "Chivalry," +replied: + +"Of course, sir, I would not act as a spy for you or anybody else. +However, such things have a kind of publicity; are talked of in saloons +and on street-corners. If I can learn in that way who _The Tribune_ +correspondent is, I shall deem it my duty to advise you." + +The lawyer listened with credulity to this whisper of hope, though +a well-known Rebel detective, named Shoubac--a swarthy, greasy, +uncomfortable fellow, with a Jewish countenance--did not. He remarked +to the late prisoner: + +"You haven't fooled _me_, if you have Brown." + +But Mr. Brigham was allowed to depart in peace for New York. +_The Tribune_ afterward had in Charleston five or six different +correspondents, usually keeping two there at a time for emergencies. +Often they did not know each other personally; and there was no +communication between them. When one was arrested, there was always +another in reserve to continue the correspondence. Mr. Brigham, who +remained in the home editorial rooms, retouched the letters just enough +to stamp them as the work of one hand, and the baffled authorities went +hopelessly up and down to cast out the evil spirit which troubled their +peace, and whose unsuspected name was legion. + + + + +II. + +THE FIELD. + + + + +CHAPTER IX. + + Cry Havoc! and let slip the dogs of War.--JULIUS CÆSAR. + + +Sancho Panza passed away too early. To-day, he would extend his +benediction on the man who invented sleep, to the person who introduced +sleeping-cars. The name of that philanthropist, by whose luxurious aid +we may enjoy unbroken sleep at the rate of twenty-five miles an hour, +should not be concealed from a grateful posterity. + +[Sidenote: A SUNDAY AT NIAGARA FALLS.] + +Thus I soliloquized one May evening, when, in pursuit of that "seat +of war," as yet visible only to the prophetic eye, or in newspaper +columns, I turned my face westward. It were more exact to say, "turned +my heels." Inexorable conductors compel the drowsy passenger to ride +feet foremost, on the hypothesis that he would rather break a leg than +knock his brains out. + +I was detained for a day at Suspension Bridge; but life has more +afflictive dispensations, even for the impatient traveler, than a +Sunday at Niagara Falls. Vanity of vanities indeed must existence be to +him who could not find a real Sabbath at the great cataract, laying his +tired head upon the calm breast of Nature, and feeling the pulsations +of her deep, loving heart! + +Eight years had intervened since my last visit. There was no second +pang of the disappointment we feel in seeing for the first time any +object of world-wide fame. In Nature, as in Art, the really great, +however falling below the ideal at first glance, grows upon the +beholder forever afterward. + +Though the visiting season had not begun, the harpies were waiting +for their victims. Step out of your hotel, or turn a corner, and one +instantly pounced upon you. But, though numerous, they were quiet, and +decorous manners, even in leeches, are above all praise. + +Everybody at the Falls is eager to shield you from the extortion of +everybody else. The driver, whom you pay two dollars per hour; the +vender, who sells you Indian bead-work at a profit of one hundred per +cent.; the guide, who fleeces you for leading to places you would +rather find without him--each warns you against the other, with +touching zeal for your welfare. And the precocious boy, who offers a +bit of slate from under the Cataract for two shillings, cautions you to +beware of them all. + +[Sidenote: VIEW FROM THE SUSPENSION BRIDGE.] + +As you cross the suspension bridge, the driver points out the spot, +more than two hundred feet above the water, where Blondin, of +tight-rope renown, crossed upon a single strand, with a man upon his +shoulders, cooked his aerial omelet, hung by the heels, and played +other fantastic tricks before high heaven. + +[Sidenote: PALACE OF THE FROST KING.] + +From the bridge you view three sections of the Cataract. First, is the +lower end of the American Fall, whose deep green is intermingled with +jets and streaks of white. Its smooth surface conveys the impression of +the segment of a slowly revolving wheel rather than of tumbling water. +Beyond the dense foliage appears another section, parted in the middle +by the stone tower on Goat Island. Its water is of snowy whiteness, +and looks like an immense frozen fountain. Still farther is the great +Horse-shoe Fall, its deep green surface veiled at the base in clouds of +pure white mist. + +Here, at the distance of two miles, the Falls soothe you with their +quiet, surpassing beauty. But when you reach them on the Canada side, +and go down, down, beneath Table Rock, under the sheet of water, you +feel their sublimity. As you look out upon the sea of snowy foam below, +or through the rainbow hues of the vast sweeping curtain above, the +earth trembles with the unceasing thunder of the cataract. + +In winter the effect is grandest. Then, from the bank in front of the +Clifton House, you look down on upright rocks, crowned with pinnacles +of ice, till they rise half way to the summit, or catch glimpses of the +boundless column of water as it strikes the torrent below, faintly seen +through the misty, alabaster spray rising forever from its troubled +bed. Hundreds of white-winged sea-gulls graze the rapids above, and +circle down to plunge in the waters below. + +Attired in stiff, cold, water-proof clothing, which, culminating in a +round oil-cloth cap, makes you look like an Esquimaux and feel like a +mummy, you follow the guide far down dark, icy stairs and paths. + +Look up ninety feet, and see the great torrent pour over the brink. +Look down seventy feet from your icy little shelf, and behold it plunge +into the dense mist of the boiling gulf. Through its half-transparent +sheet, filtered rays of the bright sunshine struggle toward your eyes. +You are in the palace of the Frost King. Ice--ice everywhere, from your +slippery foothold to the huge icicles, fifty feet long and three feet +thick, which overhang you like the sword of Damocles. + +Admiration without comparison is vague and unsatisfactory. Less +glorious, because less vast, than the matchless panorama seen from the +summit of Pike's Peak, this picture is nearly as impressive, because +spread right beside you, and at your very feet. Less minutely beautiful +than the exquisite chambers of the Mammoth Cave, its great range and +sweep make it more grand and imposing. + +Along the Great Western Railway of Canada, the country closely +resembles northern Ohio; but the people have uncompromising English +faces. A well-dressed farmer and his wife rode upon our train all day +in a second-class car, without seeming in the least ashamed of it--a +moral courage not often exhibited in the United States. + +At Detroit, an invalid, pale, wasted, unable to speak above a whisper, +was lying on a bed hastily spread upon the floor of the railway +station. Her husband, with their two little boys bending over her in +tears, told us that they had been driven from New Orleans, and he +was now taking his dying wife to their old home in Maine. There were +few dry eyes among the lookers-on. A liberal sum of money was raised +on the spot for the destitute family, whose broken pride, after some +persuasion, accepted it. + +[Sidenote: CHICAGO RISING FROM THE EARTH.] + +The next morning we reached Chicago. In that breezy city upon the +lake shore, property was literally rising. Many of the largest brick +and stone blocks were being elevated five or six feet, by a very nice +system of screws under their walls, while people were constantly +pouring in and out of them, and the transaction of business was not +impeded. The stupendous enterprise was undertaken that the streets +might be properly graded and drained. This summoning a great metropolis +to rise from its vasty deep of mud, is one of the modern miracles of +mechanics, which make even geological revelations appear trivial and +common-place. + +[Sidenote: MYSTERIES OF WESTERN CURRENCY.] + +The world has many mysteries, but none more inscrutable than Western +Currency. The notes of most Illinois and Wisconsin banks, based on +southern State bonds, having depreciated steadily for several weeks, +gold and New York exchange now commanded a premium of twenty per cent. +The Michigan Central Railway Company was a good illustration of the +effect of this upon Chicago interests. That corporation was paying +six thousand dollars per week in premiums upon eastern exchange. Yet +the hotels and mercantile houses were receiving the currency at par. +One Illinois bank-note depreciated just seventy per cent., during the +twelve hours it spent in my possession! + +In Chicago I encountered an old friend just from Memphis. His +association with leading Secessionists for some time protected him; +but the popular frenzy was now so wild that they counselled him, as he +valued his life, to stay not upon the order of his going, but go at +once. + +The Memphians were repudiating northern debts, and, with unexampled +ferocity, driving out all men suspected of Abolitionism or Unionism. +More than five thousand citizens had been forced or frightened away, +and in many cases beggared. A secret Committee of Safety, made up of +prominent citizens, was ruling with despotic sway. + +Scores of suspected persons were brought before it daily, and, if they +could not exculpate themselves, sentenced to banishment, with head half +shaved, to whipping, or to death. Though, by the laws of all slave +States, negroes were precluded from testifying against white men, this +inquisition received their evidence. My friend dared not avow that he +was coming North, but purchased a ticket for St. Louis, which was then +deemed a Rebel stronghold. + +[Sidenote: A HORRIBLE SPECTACLE IN ARKANSAS.] + +As the steamer passed Osceola, Arkansas, he saw the body of a man +hanging by the heels, in full view of the river. A citizen told him +that it had been there for eight days; that the wretched victim, upon +mere suspicion of tampering with slaves, was suspended, head downward, +and suffered intensely before death came to his relief. + +All on board the crowded steamboat pretended to be Secessionists. But +when, at last, nearing Cairo, they saw the Stars and Stripes, first +one, then another, began to huzza. The enthusiasm was contagious; and +in a moment nearly all, many with heaving breasts and streaming eyes, +gave vent to their long-suppressed feeling in one tumultuous cheer for +the Flag of the Free. Of the one hundred and fifty passengers, nearly +every man was a fleeing Unionist. + +The all-pervading railroad and telegraph in the North began to show +their utility in war. Cairo, the extreme southern point of Illinois, +now garrisoned by Union troops, was threatened by the enemy. The +superintendent of the Illinois Central Railway (including branches, +seven hundred and four miles in length) assured me that, at ten hours' +notice, he could start, from the various points along his line, _four +miles_ of cars, capable of transporting twenty-four thousand soldiers. + +[Sidenote: PATRIOTISM OF THE NORTHWEST.] + +The Rebels now began to perceive their mistake in counting upon +the friendship of the great Northwest. Indeed, of all their wild +dreams, this was wildest. They expected the very States which claimed +Mr. Lincoln as from their own section, and voted for him by heavy +majorities, to help break up the Union because he was elected! Though +learning their delusion, they never comprehended its cause. After the +war had continued nearly a year, _The New Orleans Delta_ said: + + "The people of the Northwest are our natural allies, and + ought to be fighting on our side. It is the profoundest + mystery of these times how the few Yankee peddlers and + school-marms there have been able to convert them into our + bitter enemies." + +On the mere instinct of nationality--the bare question of an undivided +republic--the West would perhaps fight longer, and sacrifice more, +than any other section. Its people, if not more earnest, are much +more demonstrative than their eastern brethren. Their long migration +from the Atlantic States to the Mississippi, the Missouri, or the +Platte, has quickened and enlarged their patriotism. It has made our +territorial greatness to them no abstraction, but a reality. + +No one else looks forward with such faith and fervor to that great +future when man shall "fill up magnificently the magnificent designs of +Nature;" when their Mississippi Valley shall be the heart of mightiest +empire; when, from all these mingling nationalities, shall spring the +ripe fruitage of free schools and free ballots, in a higher average Man +than the World has yet seen. + +Our train from Chicago to St. Louis was crowded with Union troops. +Along the route booming guns saluted them; handkerchiefs fluttered from +windows; flags streamed from farm-houses and in village streets; old +men and boys at the plow huzzaed themselves hoarse. + +Thus, at the rising of the curtain, the northwestern States, worthy +offspring of the Ordinance of Eighty-seven, were sending out-- + + "A multitude, like which the populous North Poured never from + her frozen loins." + +Four blood-stained years have not dimmed their faith or abated their +ardor. "Wherever Death spread his banquet, they furnished many guests." +What histories have they not made for themselves! Ohio, Iowa, Kansas, +Wisconsin--indeed, if we call their roll, which State has not covered +herself with honor--which has _not_ achieved her Lexington--her +Saratoga--her Bennington--though the battle-field lie beyond her +soil?[9] + +[9] Now (April, 1865), while we are witnessing some of the closing +scenes of the war, subscriptions to the popular loan of the Government +come pouring in from the West more largely, according to wealth and +population, than from any other section. + +[Sidenote: MISSOURI REBELS BENT ON REVOLUTION.] + +In St. Louis I found at last a "seat of war." Recent days had been +full of startling events. The Missouri Legislature, at Jefferson City, +desired to pass a Secession ordinance, but had no pretext for doing so. +The election of a State Convention, to consider this very subject, had +just demonstrated, by overwhelming Union majorities, the loyalty of the +masses. Claiborne Fox Jackson, the Governor, was a Secessionist, and +was determined to plunge Missouri into revolution. This flagrant, open +warfare against the popular majority, well illustrated how grossly the +Rebels deceived themselves in supposing that their conduct was impelled +by regard for State Rights, rather than by the inherent antagonism +between free and slave labor. + +Camp Jackson, commanded by Gen. D. M. Frost, was established at +Lindell Grove, two miles west of St. Louis, "for the organization and +instruction of the State Militia." It embraced some Union men, both +officers and privates. Frost and his friends claimed that it was loyal; +but the State flag, only, was flying from the camp, and its streets +were named "Davis Avenue," "Beauregard Avenue," etc. + +[Sidenote: NATHANIEL LYON AND CAMP JACKSON.] + +An envoy extraordinary, sent by Governor Jackson, had just returned +from Louisiana with shot, shell, and mortars--all stolen from the +United States Arsenal at Baton Rouge. The camp was really designed as +the nucleus of a Secession force, to seize the Government property in +St. Louis and drive out the Federal authorities. But the Union men were +too prompt for the Rebels. Long before the capture of Fort Sumter, +nightly drills were instituted among the loyal Germans of St. Louis; +and within two weeks after the President's first call for troops, +Missouri had ten thousand Union soldiers, armed, equipped, and in camp. + +The first act of the Union authorities was to remove by night all the +munitions from the United States Arsenal near St. Louis, to Alton, +Illinois. When the Rebels learned it, they were intensely exasperated. +The Union troops were commanded by a quiet, slender, stooping, +red-haired, pale-faced officer, who walked about in brown linen coat, +wearing no military insignia. He was by rank a captain; his name was +Nathaniel Lyon. + +On the tenth of May, Capt. Lyon, with three or four hundred regulars, +and enough volunteers to swell his forces to five thousand, planted +cannon upon the hills commanding Camp Jackson, and sent to Gen. Frost +a note, reciting conclusive evidence of its treasonable intent, and +concluding as follows: + + "I do hereby demand of you an immediate surrender of your + command, with no other conditions than that all persons + surrendering shall be humanely and kindly treated. Believing + myself prepared to enforce this demand, one-half hour's time + will be allowed for your compliance." + +This contrasted so sharply with the shuffling timidity of our civil +and military authorities, usual at this period, that Frost was +surprised and "shocked." His reply, of course, characterized the +demand as "illegal" and "unconstitutional." In those days there were +no such sticklers for the Constitution as the men taking up arms +against it! Frost wrote that he surrendered only upon compulsion--his +forces being too weak for resistance. The encampment was found to +contain twenty cannon, more than twelve hundred muskets, many mortars, +siege-howitzers, and shells, charged ready for use--which convinced +even the most skeptical that it was something more than a school for +instruction. + +The garrison, eight hundred strong, were marched out under guard. There +were many thousands of spectators. Hills, fields, and house-tops were +black with people. In spite of orders to disperse, crowds followed, +jeering the Union troops, throwing stones, brickbats, and other +missiles, and finally discharging pistols. Several soldiers were hurt, +and one captain shot down at the head of his company, when the troops +fired on the crowd, killing twenty and wounding eleven. As in all such +cases, several innocent persons suffered. + +Intense excitement followed. A large public meeting convened that +evening in front of the Planter's House--heard bitter speeches from +Governor Jackson, Sterling Price, and others. The crowd afterward +went to mob _The Democrat_ office, but it contained too many resolute +Unionists, armed with rifles and hand-grenades, and they wisely +desisted. + +[Sidenote: STERLING PRICE JOINS THE REBELS.] + +Sterling Price was president of the State Convention--elected as +an Unconditional Unionist. But, in this whirlwind, he went over to +the enemy. An old feud existed between him and a leading St. Louis +loyalist. Price had a small, detached command in the Mexican war. +Afterward, he was Governor of Missouri, and candidate for the United +States Senate. An absurd sketch, magnifying a trivial skirmish into a +great battle, with Price looming up heroically in the foreground, was +drawn and engraved by an unfortunate artist, then in the Penitentiary. +It pleased Price's vanity; he circulated it largely, and pardoned out +the suffering votary of art. + +[Sidenote: SEVERE LOSS TO THE UNIONISTS.] + +When the Legislature was about voting for United States Senator, Frank +Blair, Jr., then a young member from St. Louis, obtained permission to +say a few words about the candidates. He was a great vessel of wrath, +and administered a terrible excoriation, pronouncing Price "worthy the +genius of a convict artist, and fit subject for a Penitentiary print!" +Price was defeated, and the rupture never healed. + +At the outbreak of the Rebellion, Price was far more loyal than men +afterward prominent Union leaders in Missouri. In those chaotic days, +very slight influences decided the choice of many. By tender treatment, +Price could doubtless have been retained; but neither party regarded +him as possessing much ability. + +His defection proved a calamity to the Loyalists. He was worth twenty +thousand soldiers to the Rebels, and developed rare military talent. +Like Robert E. Lee, he was an old man, of pure personal character, +sincerity, kindness of heart, and unequaled popularity among the +self-sacrificing ragamuffins whom he commanded. He held them together, +and induced them to fight with a bravery and persistency which, Rebels +though they were, was creditable to the American name. With a good +cause, they would have challenged the world's acclamation. + +At this time the President was treating the border slave States with +marvelous tenderness and timidity. The Rev. M. D. Conway declared, +wittily, that Mr. Lincoln's daily and nightly invocation ran: + + "O Lord, I desire to have Thee on my side, but I _must_ have + Kentucky!" + +Captain Lyon was confident that if he asked permission to seize Camp +Jackson, it would be refused. So he captured the camp, and then +telegraphed to Washington--not what he proposed to do, but what he +_had_ done. At first his act was disapproved. But the loyal country +applauded to the echo, and Lyon's name was everywhere honored. Hence +the censure was withheld, and he was made a Brigadier-General! + +[Sidenote: ST. LOUIS IN A CONVULSION.] + +Governor Jackson burned the bridges on the Pacific Railroad; the +Missouri Legislature passed an indirect ordinance of Secession, and +adjourned in a panic, caused by reports that Lyon was coming; a Union +regiment was attacked in St. Louis, and again fired into the mob, with +deadly results. The city was convulsed with terror. Every available +vehicle, including heavy ox wagons, was brought into requisition; every +outgoing railway train was crowded with passengers; every avenue was +thronged with fugitives; every steamer at the levee was laden with +families, who, with no definite idea of where they were going, had +hastily packed a few articles of clothing, to flee from the general and +bloody conflict supposed to be impending between the Americans and the +Dutch, as Secessionists artfully termed the two parties. Thus there +became a "Seat of War." + +Heart-rending as were the stories of most southern refugees, some were +altogether ludicrous. In St. Louis, I encountered an old acquaintance +who related to me his recent experiences in Nashville. Grandiloquent +enough they sounded; for his private conversation always ran into stump +speeches. + +[Sidenote: A NASHVILLE EXPERIENCE.] + +"One day," said he, "I was waited on by a party of leading Nashville +citizens, who remarked: 'Captain May, _we_ know very well that you +are with us in sentiment; but, as you come from the North, others, +less intimate with you, desire some special assurance.' I replied: +'Gentlemen, by education, by instinct, and by association, I am a +Southern man. But, gentlemen, when you fire upon that small bit of +bunting known as the American flag, you can count me, by Heaven, as +your persistent and uncompromising foe!' The committee intimated to +me that the next train for the North started in one hour! You may +stake your existence, sir, that the subscriber came away on that +train. Confound a country, anyhow, where a man must wear a Secession +cockade upon each coat-tail to keep himself from being kicked as an +Abolitionist!" + +Inexorable war knows no ties of friendship, of family, or of love. +Its bitterest features were seen on the border, where brother was +arrayed against brother, and husband against wife. At a little Missouri +village, the Rebels raised their flag, but it was promptly torn down by +the loyal wife of one of the leaders. I met a lady who had two brothers +in the Union army, and two among Price's Rebels, who were likely soon +to meet on the battle-field. + +In St. Louis, a Rebel damsel, just about to be married, separated from +her Union lover, declaring that no man who favored the Abolitionists +and the "Dutch hirelings" could be her husband. He retorted that he had +no use for a wife who sympathized with treason; and so the match was +broken off. + +[Sidenote: BITTERNESS OF OLD NEIGHBORS.] + +I knew a Union soldier who found at Camp Jackson, among the prisoners, +his own brother, wounded by two Minié rifle balls. He said: "I am sorry +my brother was shot; but he should not have joined the traitors!" Of +course, the bitterness between relatives and old neighbors, now foes, +was infinitely greater than between northerners and southerners. The +same was true everywhere. How intensely the Virginia and Tennessee +Rebels hated their fellow-citizens who adhered to the Union cause! +Ohio and Massachusetts Loyalists denounced northern "Copperheads" +with a malignity which they never felt toward South Carolinians and +Mississippians. + + ST. LOUIS, _May 20, 1861_. + +When South Carolina seceded, the slave property of Missouri was worth +forty-five millions of dollars; hence she is under bonds to just that +amount to keep the peace. With thirteen hundred miles of frontier, she +is "a slave peninsula in an ocean of free soil." Free Kansas, which +has many old scores to clear up, guards her on the west. Free Iowa, +embittered by hundreds of Union refugees, watches her on the north. +Free Illinois, the young giantess of the prairie, takes care of her +on the east. This loyal metropolis, with ten Union regiments already +under arms, is for her a sort of front-door police. Missouri, in the +significant phrase of the frontier, is _corraled_.[10] + +[10] From the Spanish _corral_, a yard. Upon our frontier it is used, +colloquially, as a verb, to signify surrounded, captured, completely in +the power, or at the mercy, of another. + +Here, at least, as _The Richmond Whig_, just before going over to the +Rebels, so aptly said: "Secession is Abolitionism in its worst and most +dangerous form." + +Rebels glare upon Union men like chained wild beasts. Citizens, +walking by night, remember the late assassinations, and, like Americans +in Mexican towns, cast suspicious glances behind. Secessionists +utter fierce threats; but since their recent severe admonition that +Unionists, too, can use fire-arms, and that it is not discreet to +attack United States soldiers, they do not execute them. + +Captain Lyon, who commands, is an exceedingly prompt and efficient +officer, attends strictly to his business, exhibits no hunger for +newspaper fame, and seems to act with an eye single to the honor of the +Government he has served so long and so faithfully. + +[Sidenote: GOOD SOLDIERS FOR SCALING WALLS.] + +Among our regiments is the Missouri First, Colonel Frank P. Blair. +Three companies are made up of German Turners--the most accomplished +of gymnasts. They are sinewy, muscular fellows, with deep chests and +well-knit frames. Every man is an athlete. To-day a party, by way of +exercise, suddenly formed a human pyramid, and commenced running up, +like squirrels, over each other's shoulders, to the high veranda upon +the second story of their building. In climbing a wall, they would not +require scaling-ladders. There are also two companies from the Far +West--old trappers and hunters, who have smelt gunpowder in Indian +warfare. + +Colonel Blair's dry, epigrammatic humor bewilders some of his visitors. +I was sitting in his head-quarters when a St. Louis Secessionist +entered. Like nearly all of them, he now pretends to be a Union man, +but is very tender on the subject of State Rights, and wonderfully +solicitous about the Constitution. He remarked: + +"I am a Union man, but I believe in State Rights. I believe a State may +dissolve its connection with the Government if it wants to." + +"O yes," replied Blair, pulling away at his ugly mustache, "yes, you +can go out if you want to. Certainly you can secede. But, my friend, +you can't take with you one foot of American soil!" + +[Sidenote: MISSOURI AND THE SLAVEHOLDERS.] + +A citizen of Lexington introduced himself, saying: + +"I am a loyal man, ready to fight for the Union; but I am +pro-slavery--I own niggers." + +"Well, sir," replied Blair, with the faintest suggestion of a smile on +his plain, grim face, "you have a right to. We don't like negroes very +much ourselves. If _you_ do, that's a matter of taste. It is one of +your privileges. But if you gentlemen who own negroes attempt to take +the State of Missouri out of the Union, in about six months you will be +the most----niggerless set of individuals that you ever heard of!" + + + + +CHAPTER X. + + Only we want a little personal strength, And pause until + these Rebels, now afoot, Come underneath the yoke of + Government.--KING HENRY IV. + + +Cairo, as the key to the lower Mississippi valley, is the most +important strategic point in the West. Immediately after the outbreak +of hostilities, it was occupied by our troops. + +As a place of residence it was never inviting. To-day its offenses +smell to heaven as rankly as when Dickens evoked it, from horrible +obscurity, as the "Eden" of Martin Chuzzlewit. The low, marshy, +boot-shaped site is protected from the overflow of the Mississippi and +Ohio by levees. Its jet-black soil generates every species of insect +and reptile known to science or imagination. Its atmosphere is never +sweet or pure. + +[Sidenote: GENERAL MCCLELLAN AT CAIRO.] + +On the 13th of June, Major-General George B. McClellan, commander of +all the forces west of the Alleghanies, reached Cairo on a visit of +inspection. His late victories in Western Virginia had established his +reputation for the time, as an officer of great capacity and promise, +notwithstanding the high heroics of his ambitious proclamations. This +was before Bull Run, and before the New York journals, by absurdly +pronouncing him "the Young Napoleon," raised public expectation to an +embarrassing and unreasonable hight. + +In those days, every eye was looking for the Coming Man, every ear +listening for his approaching footsteps, which were to make the earth +tremble. Men judged, by old standards, that the Hour must have its +Hero. They had not learned that, in a country like ours, whatever is +accomplished must be the work of the loyal millions, not of any one, or +two, or twenty generals and statesmen. + +[Sidenote: A LITTLE SPEECH-MAKING.] + +McClellan was enthusiastically received, and, to the strains of the +"Star Spangled Banner," escorted to head-quarters. There, General +Prentiss, who had so decided a _penchant_ for speech-making, that +cynics declared he always kept a particular stump in front of his +office for a rostrum, welcomed him with some rhetorical remarks: + + * * * * "My command are all anxious to taste those dangers + which war ushers in--not that they court danger, but that + they love their country. We have toiled in the mud, we have + drilled in the burning sun. Many of us are ragged--all of + us are poor. But we look anxiously for the order to move, + trusting that we may be allowed to lead the division." + +The soldiers applauded enthusiastically--for in those days the anxiety +to be in the earliest battles was intense. The impression was almost +universal throughout the North that the war was to be very brief. +Officers and men in the army feared they would have no opportunity to +participate in any fighting! + +McClellan responded to Prentiss and his officers in the same strain: + + * * * "We shall meet again upon the tented field; and + Illinois, which sent forth a Hardin and a Bissell, will, + I doubt not, give a good account of herself to her sister + States. Her fame is world-wide: in your hands, gentlemen, I + am sure it will not suffer. The advance is due to you." + +Then there was more applause, and afterward a review of the brigade. + +[Sidenote: PENALTY OF WRITING FOR THE TRIBUNE.] + +General McClellan is stoutly built, short, with light hair, blue eyes, +full, fresh, almost boyish face, and lip tufted with a brown mustache. +His urbane manner truly indicates the peculiar amiability of character +and yielding disposition which have hurt him more than all other +causes. An officer once assured me that McClellan had said to him: "My +friends have injured me a thousand times more than my enemies." It was +certainly true. + +Now, seeing his features the first time, I scanned them anxiously for +lineaments of greatness. I saw a pleasant, mild, moony face, with +one cheek distended by tobacco; but nothing which appeared strong or +striking. Tinctured largely with the general belief in his military +genius, I imputed the failure only to my own incapacity for reading +"Nature's infinite book of secrecy." + +One evening, at Cairo, a man, whose worn face, shaggy beard, matted +locks, and tattered clothing marked him as one of the constantly +arriving refugees, sought me and asked: + +"Can you tell me the name of _The Tribune_ correspondent who passed +through Memphis last February?" + +He was informed that that pleasure had been mine. + +[Sidenote: A LOYAL GIRL'S ASSISTANCE.] + +"Then," said he, "I have been lying in jail at Memphis about fifty +days chiefly on your account! The three or four letters which you +wrote from there were peculiarly bitter. Of course, I was not aware of +your presence, and I sent one to _The Tribune_, which was also very +emphatic. The Secessionists suspected me not only of the one which I +did write, but also of yours. They pounced on me and put me in jail. +After the disbanding of the Committee of Safety I was brought before +the City Recorder, who assured me from the bench of his profound +regrets that he could find no law for hanging me! I would have been +there until this time, but for the assistance of a young lady, through +whom I succeeded in bribing an officer of the jail, and making my +escape. I was hidden in Memphis for several days, then left the city +in disguise, and have worked my way, chiefly on foot, aided by negroes +and Union families, through the woods of Tennessee and the swamps of +Missouri up to God's country." + +The refugee seemed to be not only in good health, but also in excellent +spirits, and I replied: + +"I am very sorry for your misfortunes; but if the Rebels must have one +of us, I am very glad that it was not I." + +Nearly four years later, this gentleman turned the tables on me very +handsomely. After my twenty months imprisonment in Rebel hands, among a +crowd of visitors he walked into my room at Cincinnati one morning, and +greeted me warmly. + +"You do not remember me, do you?" he asked. + +"I recognize your face, but cannot recall your name." + +"Well, my name is Collins. Once, when I escaped from the South, you +congratulated me at Cairo. Now, I congratulate you, and I can do it +with all my heart, in exactly the same words. I am very sorry for your +misfortunes; but if the Rebels must have one of us, I am very glad that +it was not I!" + +After our troops captured Memphis, I encountered the young lady who +aided Mr. Collins in escaping. She was enthusiastically loyal, but her +feeling had been repressed for nearly two years, when the arrival of +our forces loosened her tongue. She began to utter her long-stifled +Union views, and it is my deliberate opinion that she has not stopped +yet. She is now the wife of an officer in the United States service. + +[Sidenote: THE FASCINATIONS OF CAIRO.] + + CAIRO, _May 29_. + +A drizzly, muddy, melancholy day. Never otherwise than forlorn, Cairo +is pre-eminently lugubrious during a mild rain. In dry weather, +even when glowing like a furnace, you may find amusement in the +contemplation of the high-water mark upon trees and houses, the +stilted-plank sidewalks, the half-submerged swamps, and other diluvian +features of this nondescript, saucer-like, terraqueous town. You may +speculate upon the exact amount of fever and ague generated to the +acre, or inquire whether the whisky saloons, which spring up like +mushrooms, are indigenous or exotic. + +In downright wet weather you may calculate how soon the streets will be +navigable, and the effect upon the amphibious natives. It is difficult +to realize that anybody was ever born here, or looks upon Cairo as +home. Washington Irving records that the old Dutch housewives of New +York scrubbed their floors until many "grew to have webbed fingers, +like unto a duck." I suspect the Cairo babies must have fins. + +Long-suffering, much-abused Cairo! What wounds hast thou not received +from the Parthian arrows of tourists! "The season here," wrote poor +John Phenix, bitterest of all, "is usually opened with great _éclat_ by +small-pox, continued spiritedly by cholera, and closed up brilliantly +with yellow fever. Sweet spot!" + +Theorists long predicted that the great metropolis of the Mississippi +valley--the granary of the world--must ultimately rise here. Many +proved their faith by pecuniary investments, which are likely to be +permanent. + +Possessed by a similar delusion, Illinois, for years, strove to +legislate Alton into a vast commercial mart. But, in spite of their +unequaled geographical positions, Cairo and Alton still languish in +obscurity, while St. Louis and Cincinnati, twin queens of this imperial +valley, succeed to their grand heritage. + +Nature settles these matters by laws which, though hidden, are +inexorable. Even that mysterious, semi-civilized race, which swarmed +in this valley centuries before the American Indian, established their +great centers of population where ours are to-day. + +[Sidenote: THE DEATH OF DOUGLAS.] + + _June 4._ + +Intelligence of the death of Senator Douglas, received last evening, +excites profound and universal regret. Though totally unfamiliar +with books, Mr. Douglas thoroughly knew the masses of the Northwest, +down to their minutest sympathies and prejudices. Beyond any of his +cotemporaries, he was a man of the people, and the people loved him. +Never before could he have died so opportunely for his posthumous +fame. Nothing in his life became him like the leaving of it. His last +speech, in Chicago, was a fervid, stirring appeal for the Union and +the Government, and for crushing out treason with an iron hand. His +emphatic loyalty exerted great influence in Illinois. His life-long +opponents forget the asperities of the past, in the halo of patriotism +around his setting sun, and unite, with those who always idolized him, +in common tribute to his memory. + +We have very direct intelligence from Tennessee. The western districts +are all Secession. Middle Tennessee is about equally divided. East +Tennessee, a mountain region, containing few slaves, is inhabited +by a hardy, primitive, industrious race. They are thoroughly, +enthusiastically loyal.[11] + +[11] Through severest trials, and cruel neglect from our Government, +they never swerved a hair's-breadth. Before our troops opened East +Tennessee, enough left their homes, coming stealthily through the +mountains and enlisting in the Union army, to make sixteen regiments. + +[Sidenote: A CLEAR-HEADED NEGRO.] + +The felicitous decision of Major-General Butler, that slaves of the +enemy are "contraband of war," disturbs the Rebels not a little, +even in the West. A friend just from Louisiana, relates an amusing +conversation between a planter and an old, trusted slave. + +"Sam," said his master, "I must furnish some niggers to go down and +work on the fortifications at the Balize. Which of the boys had I +better send?" + +"Well, massa," replied the old servant, shaking his head oracularly, "I +doesn't know about dat. War's comin' on, and dey might be killed. Ought +to get Irishmen to do dat work, anyhow. I reckon you'd better not send +any ob de boys--tell you what, massa, nigger property's mighty onsartin +dese times!" + +Scores of fugitives from the South arrive here daily, with the old +stories of insult, indignity, and outrage. Several have come in with +their heads shaved. To you, my reader, who have never seen a case of +the kind, it may seem a trivial matter for a person merely to have one +side of his head laid bare, but it is a peculiarly repulsive spectacle. +The first time you look upon it, or on those worse cases, where +free-born men of Saxon blood bear fresh marks of the lash, you will +involuntarily clinch your teeth, and thank God that the system which +bears such infernal fruits is rushing upon its own destruction. + + _June 8._ + +The heated term is upon us. We are amid upper, nether, and surrounding +fires. At eight, this morning, the mercury indicated eighty degrees +in the shade. How high it has gone since, I dare not conjecture; +but a friend insists that the sun will roast eggs to-day upon any +doorstep in town. I am a little incredulous as to that, though a pair +of smarting, half-blistered hands--the result of a ten minutes' walk +in its devouring breath--protest against absolute unbelief. Officers +who served in the War with Mexico declare they never found the heat so +oppressive in that climate as it is here. The raw troops on duty, who +are sweltering in woolen shirts and cloth caps, bear it wonderfully +well. + +A number of Chicago ladies are already here, acting as nurses in the +hospital. The dull eyes of the invalids brighten at their approach, and +voices grow husky in attempting to express their gratitude. According +to Carlyle, "in a revolution we are all savages still; civilization has +only sharpened our claws;" but this tender care for the soldier is the +one redeeming feature of modern war. + +[Sidenote: A REVIEW OF THE TROOPS.] + + _June 12._ + +A review of all the troops. The double ranks of well-knit men, with +shining muskets and bayonets, stretch off in perspective for more than +a mile. After preliminary evolutions, at the word of command, the +lines suddenly break and wheel into column by companies, and marching +commences. You see two long parallel columns of men moving in opposite +directions, with an open space between. Their legs, in motion, look for +all the world like the shuttles in some great Lowell factory. + +The artillerists fire each of their six-pounders three times a minute. +They discharge one, dismount it, lay it upon the ground, remove the +wheels from the carriage, drop flat upon their faces, then spring up, +remount the gun, ready for reloading or removing, all in forty-five +seconds. + +Standing three hundred yards from the cannon, the column of smoke, +white at first, but rapidly changing to blue, shoots out twenty-five or +thirty feet from the muzzle before you hear the report. + +The flying flags, playing bands, galloping officers, long lines of our +boys in blue, and sharp metallic reports, impress you with something of +the pomp and circumstance of glorious war. + +But Captain Jenny, a young engineer officer, quietly remarks, that +he once witnessed a review of seventy thousand French troops in the +Champ de Mars, and in 1859 saw the army of seventy-five thousand men +enter Paris, returning from the Italian wars. Colonel Wagner, an old +Hungarian officer, who has participated in twenty-three engagements, +assures you that he has looked upon a parade of one hundred and forty +thousand men, whereupon our little force of five thousand appears +insignificant. Nevertheless, it exceeds Jackson's recruits at New +Orleans, and is larger than the effective force of Scott during the +Mexican war. + +[Sidenote: A "RUNNIN' NIGGER!"] + +Our first contraband arrived here in a skiff last night, bearing +unmistakable evidences of long travel. He says he came from +Mississippi, and the cotton-seed in his woolly head corroborates the +statement. I first saw him beside the guard-house, surrounded by a +party of soldiers. He answered my salutation with "Good evenin', +Mass'r," removing his old wool hat from his grizzly head. He smiled +all over his face, and bowed all through his body, as he depressed his +head, slightly lifting his left foot, with the gesture which only the +unmistakable darkey can give. + +"Well, uncle, have you joined the army?" + +"Yes, mass'r" (with another African salaam). + +"Are you going to fight?" + +"No, mass'r, I'se not a fightin' nigger, I'se a runnin' nigger!" + +"Are you not afraid of starving, up here among the Abolitionists?" + +[Sidenote: CAPTURING A REBEL FLAG.] + +"Reckon not, mass'r--not much." + +And Sambo gave a concluding bow, indescribable drollery shining through +his sooty face, bisected by two rows of glittering ivory. + + _June 13._ + +A reconnoitering party went down the Mississippi yesterday upon a +Government steamer, under command of Colonel Richard J. Oglesby, +colloquially known among the Illinois sovereigns of the prairie as +"Dick Oglesby." + +Twenty miles below Cairo, we slowly passed the town of Columbus, Ky., +on the highest bluffs of the Mississippi. The village is a straggling +collection of brick blocks, frame houses, and whisky saloons. It +contains no Rebel forces, though seven thousand are at Union City, +Tenn., twenty-five miles distant. + +On a tall staff, a few yards from the river, a great Secession flag, +with its eight stars and three stripes, was triumphantly flying. + +Turning back, after steaming two miles below, the boat was stopped at +the landing; the captain went on shore, cut down the flag, and brought +it on board, amid cheers from our troops. The Columbians looked on in +grim silence--all save four Union ladies, who, + + "Faithful among the faithless only they," + +waved handkerchiefs joyfully from a neighboring bluff. + +Each star of the flag bore the name in pencil of the young lady who +sewed it on. The Maggies, and Julias, and Sues, and Kates, and Sallies, +who thus left their autographs upon their handiwork, did not anticipate +that it would so soon be scrutinized by Yankee soldiers. And, +doubtless, "Julia K----," the damsel whose star I pilfered, scarcely +aspired to the honor of furnishing a relic for _The Tribune_ cabinet. + + + + +CHAPTER XI. + +And thus the whirligig of Time brings in his revenges.--TWELFTH NIGHT, +OR WHAT YOU WILL. + +Bloody instructions, which being taught, return To plague the +inventors.--MACBETH. + +[Sidenote: THE RETRIBUTIONS OF TIME.] + + +On the 15th of June I returned from Cairo to St. Louis. Lyon had gone +up the Missouri River with an expedition, which was all fitted out and +started in a few hours. Lyon was very much in earnest, and he knew the +supreme value of time in the outset of a war. + +How just are the retributions of history! Virginia originated State +Rights run-mad, which culminated in Secession. Behold her ground +between the upper and nether mill-stones! Missouri lighted the fires +of civil war in Kansas; now they blazed with tenfold fury upon her +own soil. She sent forth hordes to mob printing-presses, overawe the +ballot-box, substitute the bowie-knife and revolver for the civil +law. Now, her own area gleamed with bayonets; the Rebel newspaper was +suppressed by the file of soldiers, civil process supplanted by the +unpitying military arm. + +Governor Claiborne F. Jackson, in 1855, led a raid into Kansas, which +overthrew the civil authorities, and drove citizens from the polls. +Now, the poisoned chalice was commended to his own lips. A hunted +fugitive from his home and his chair of office, he was deserted by +friends, ruined in fortune, and the halter waited for his neck. Thomas +C. Reynolds, late Lieutenant-Governor, by advocating the right of +Secession, did much to poison the public mind of the South. He, too, +found his reward in disgrace and outlawry; unable to come within the +borders of the State which so lately delighted to do him honor! + +[Sidenote: A RAILROAD REMINISCENCE.] + +I followed Lyon's Expedition by the Pacific railway. The president +of the road told me a droll story, which illustrates the folly that +governed the location of the railway system of Missouri. The Southwest +Branch is about a hundred miles long, through a very thinly settled +region. For the first week after the cars commenced running over it, +they carried only about six passengers, and no freight except a live +bear and a jar of honey. The honey was carried free, and the freight +on Bruin was fifty cents. Shut up in the single freight car, during +the trip, he ate all the honey! The company were compelled to pay two +dollars for the loss of that saccharine esculent. Thus their first +week's profits on freight amounted to precisely one dollar and fifty +cents on the wrong side of the ledger. + +The Rebels had now evacuated Jefferson City, and our own troops, +commanded by Colonel B[oe]rnstein, a German editor, author, and +theatrical manager, of St. Louis, were in peaceable possession. The +soldiers were cooking upon the grass in the rear of the Capitol, +standing in the shade of its portico and rotunda, lying on beds of +hay in its passages, and upon carpets in the legislative halls. They +reposed in all its rooms, from the subterranean vaults to the little +circular chamber in the dome. + +[Sidenote: UNTAINTED WITH "B. REPUBLICANISM."] + +Governor and Legislature were fled. With Colonel B[oe]rnstein, I went +through the executive mansion, which had been deserted in hot haste. +Sofas were overturned, carpets torn up and littered with letters +and public documents. Tables, chairs, damask curtains, cigar-boxes, +champagne-bottles, ink-stands, books, private letters, and family +knick-knacks, were scattered everywhere in chaotic confusion. Some of +the Governor's correspondence was amusing. The first letter I noticed +was a model of brevity. Here it is--its virgin paper unsullied by the +faintest touch of "B. Republicanism." + + "JEFFERSON CITY, fed. 21nd 1861. + + "_to his Honour Gov._ C. F. JACKSON.--Please Accept My + Compliments. With a little good Old Bourbon Whisky Cocktail. + Made up Expressly in St Louis. fear it not. it is good. + And besides it is not even tainted with B. Republicanism. + Respectfully yours, + + "P. NAUGHTON." + +There was a ludicrous disparity between the evidences of sudden flight +on all sides and the pompous language of the Governor's latest State +paper, which lay upon the piano in the drawing-room: + + "Now, therefore, I, C. F. Jackson, Governor of the State + of Missouri, do issue this my proclamation, calling the + militia of the State, to the number of FIFTY THOUSAND, into + the service of the State. * * * Rise, then, and drive out + ignominiously the invaders!" + +Beds were unmade, dishes unwashed, silver forks and spoons, belonging +to the State, scattered here and there. The only things that appeared +undisturbed were the Star Spangled Banner and the national escutcheon, +both frescoed upon the plaster of the gubernatorial bedroom. + +As we walked through the deserted rooms, a hollow echo answered to the +tramp of the colonel and his lieutenant, and to the dull clank of their +scabbards against the furniture. + +General Lyon opened the war in the West by the battle of Booneville. +It lasted only a few minutes, and the undisciplined and half-armed +Rebel troops, after a faint show of resistance, retreated toward the +South. Lyon's command lost only eleven men. + +[Sidenote: A BELLIGERENT CHAPLAIN.] + +During the engagement, the Rev. William A. Pile, Chaplain of the First +Missouri Infantry, with a detail of four men, was looking after the +wounded, when, coming suddenly upon a party of twenty-four Rebels, he +ordered them to surrender. Strangely enough, they laid down their arms, +and were all brought, prisoners, to General Lyon's head-quarters by +their five captors, headed by the reverend representative of the Church +militant and the Church triumphant. + +Messrs. Thomas W. Knox and Lucien J. Barnes, army correspondents, +zealous to see the first battle, narrowly escaped with their +lives. Appearing upon a hill, surveying the conflict through their +field-glasses, they were mistaken by General Lyon for scouts of the +enemy. He ordered his sharpshooters to pick them off, when one of his +aids recognized them. + + BOONEVILLE, MO., _June 21_. + +The First Iowa Infantry has arrived here. On the way, several slaves, +who came to its camp for refuge, were sent back to their masters. + +[Sidenote: HUMORS OF THE IOWA SOLDERS.] + +The regiment contains many educated men, and that large percentage of +physicians, lawyers, and editors, found in every far-western community. +On the way here, they indulged in a number of freaks which startled +the natives. At Macon, Mo., they took possession of _The Register_, a +hot Secession sheet, and, having no less than forty printers in their +ranks, promptly issued a spicy loyal journal, called _Our Whole Union_. +The valedictory, which the Iowa boys addressed to Mr. Johnson, the +fugitive editor, in his own paper, is worth perusing. + + "VALEDICTORY. + + "Johnson, wherever you are--whether lurking in recesses of + the dim woods, or fleeing a fugitive on open plain, under + the broad canopy of Heaven--good-by! We never saw your + countenance--never expect to--never want to--but, for all + that, we won't be proud; so, Johnson, good-by, and take care + of yourself! + + "We're going to leave you, Johnson, without so much as + looking into your honest eyes, or clasping your manly + hand--even without giving utterance, to your face, of 'God + bless you!' We're right sorry, we are, that you didn't stay + to attend to your domestic and other affairs, and not skulk + away and lose yourself, never to return. Oh, Johnson! why did + you--how could you do this? + + "Johnson, we leave you to-night. We're going where bullets + are thick and mosquitos thicker. We may never return. If we + do not, old boy, remember us. We sat at your table; we stole + from your 'Dictionary of Latin Quotations;' we wrote Union + articles with your pen, your ink, on your paper. We printed + them on your press. Our boys set 'em up with your types, used + your galleys, your 'shooting-sticks,' your 'chases,' your + 'quads,' your 'spaces,' your 'rules,' your every thing. We + even drank some poor whisky out of your bottle. + + "And now, Johnson, after doing all this for you, you won't + forget us, will you? Keep us in mind. Remember us in your + evening prayers, and your morning prayers, too, when you + say them, if you do say them. If you put up a petition at + mid-day, don't forget us then; or if you awake in the solemn + stillness of the night, to implore a benison upon the absent, + remember us then! + + "Once more, Johnson--our heart pains us to say it--that + sorrowful word!--but once more and forever, Johnson, GOOD-BY! + If you come our way, Call! Johnson, adieu!" + +One of the privates in the regular army has just been punished with +fifty lashes on the bare back, for taking from a private house a lady's +furs and a silk dress. + +This morning I passed a group of the Iowa privates, resting beside the +road, along which they were bringing buckets of water to their camp. +They were debating the question whether a heavy national debt tends +to weaken or to strengthen a Government! These are the men whom the +southern Press calls "ignorant mercenaries." + + ST. LOUIS, _July 12_. + +_The Missouri State Journal_, which made no disguise of its sympathy +with the Rebels, is at last suppressed by the military authorities. It +was done to-day, by order of General Lyon, who is pursuing the Rebels +near Springfield, in the southwest corner of the State. Secessionists +denounce it as a military despotism, but the loyal citizens are +gratified. + +[Sidenote: CAMP TALES OF THE MARVELOUS.] + +Are you fond of the marvelous? If so, here is a camp story about +Colonel Sigel's late engagement at Carthage: + +A private in one of his companies (so runs the tale), while loading +and firing, was lying flat upon his face to avoid the balls of the +Rebels, when a shot from one of their six-pounders plunged into the +ground right beside him, plowed through under him, about six inches +below the surface, came out on the other side, and pursued its winding +way. It did not hurt a hair of his head, but, in something less than a +twinkling of an eye, whirled him over upon his back! + +If you shake your head, save your incredulity for _this_: A captain +assures me that in the same battle he saw one of Sigel's artillerists +struck by a shot which cut off both legs; but that he promptly raised +himself half up, rammed the charge home in his gun, withdrew the +ramrod, and then fell back, dead! This is, at least, melo-dramatic, and +only paralleled by the ballad-hero + + ----"Of doleful dumps, + Who, when his legs were both cut off, + Still fought upon his stumps." + + + + +CHAPTER XII. + + Who can be * * * * * Loyal and neutral in a moment? No + man.----MACBETH. + + Why, this it is when men are ruled by women.----RICHARD III. + + +It was a relief to escape the excitement and bitterness of Missouri, +and spend a few quiet days in the free States. Despite Rebel +predictions, grass did not grow in the streets of Chicago. In sooth, it +wore neither an Arcadian nor a funereal aspect. Palatial buildings were +everywhere rising; sixty railway trains arrived and departed daily; +hotels were crowded with guests; and the voice of the artisan was heard +in the land. Michigan Avenue, the finest drive in America, skirting +the lake shore for a mile and a half, was crowded every evening with +swift vehicles, and its sidewalks thronged with leisurely pedestrians. +It afforded scope to one of the two leading characteristics of +Chicago residents, which are, holding the ribbons and leaving out the +latch-string. + +[Sidenote: CORN NOT COTTON IS KING.] + +I did not hear a single cry of "Bread or Blood!" As the city had over +two million bushels of corn in store, and had received eighteen million +bushels of grain during the previous six months, starvation was hardly +imminent. War or peace, currency or no currency, breadstuffs will find +a market. Corn, not cotton, is king; the great Northwest, instead of +Dixie Land, wields the sceptre of imperial power. + +The elasticity of the new States is wonderful. Wisconsin and Illinois +had lost about ten millions of dollars through the depreciation of +their currency within a few months. It caused embarrassment and +stringency, but no wreck or ruin. + +Reminiscences of the financial chaos were entertaining. New York +exchange once reached thirty per cent. The Illinois Central Railroad +Company paid twenty-two thousand five hundred dollars _premium_ on a +single draft. For a few weeks before the crash, everybody was afraid of +the currency, and yet everybody received it. People were seized with +a sudden desire to pay up. The course of nature was reversed; debtors +absolutely pursued their creditors, and creditors dodged them as +swindlers dodge the sheriff. Parsimonious husbands supplied their wives +bounteously with means to do family shopping for months ahead. There +was a "run" upon those feminine paradises, the dry-goods stores, while +the merchants were by no means anxious to sell. + +Suddenly prices went up, as if by magic. Then came a grand crisis. +Currency dropped fifty per cent., and one morning the city woke up +to find itself poorer by just half than it was the night before. The +banks, with their usual feline sagacity, alighted upon their feet, +while depositors had to stand the loss. + +[Sidenote: CURIOUS REMINISCENCES OF CHICAGO.] + +Persons who settled in Chicago when it was only a military post, many +hundred miles in the Indian country, relate stories of the days when +they sometimes spent three months on schooners coming from Buffalo. +Later settlers, too, offer curious reminiscences. In 1855, a merchant +purchased a tract of unimproved land near the lake, outside the city +limits, for twelve hundred dollars, one-fourth in cash. Before his +next payment, a railroad traversed one sandy worthless corner of it, +and the company paid him damages to the amount of eleven hundred +dollars. Before the end of the third year, when his last installment +of three hundred dollars became due, he sold the land to a company of +speculators for twenty-one thousand five hundred dollars. It is now +assessed at something over one hundred thousand. + +[Sidenote: VISIT TO THE GRAVE OF DOUGLAS.] + +On a July day, so cold that fires were comforting within doors, and +overcoats and buffalo robes requisite without, I visited the grave of +Senator Douglas, unmarked as yet by monumental stone. He rests near his +old home, and a few yards from the lake, which was sobbing and moaning +in stormy passion as the great, white-fringed waves chased each other +upon the sandy shore. + +With the arrival of each railway train from the east, long files of +immigrants from Norway and northern Germany come pouring up Dearborn +street, gazing curiously and hopefully at their new Land of Promise. +One of the many railroad lines had brought twenty-five hundred within +two weeks. There were gray-haired men and young children. All were +attired neatly, especially the women, with snow-white kerchiefs about +their heads. + +They were bound, mainly, for Wisconsin and Minnesota. Men and women +are the best wealth of a new country. Though nearly all poor, these +brought, with the fair hair and blue eyes of their fatherland, honesty, +frugality, and industry, as their contribution to that great crucible +which, after all its strange elements are fused, shall pour forth the +pure and shining metal of American Character. + +[Sidenote: SOCIAL HABITS OF THE GERMANS.] + +Missouri, at the commencement of the war, had two hundred thousand +Germans in a population of little more than one million. Almost to a +man, they were loyal, and among the first who sprang to arms. + +In the South, they were always regarded with suspicion. The Rebels +succeeded in dragooning but very few of them into their ranks. Honor to +the loyal Germans! + +According to some unknown philosopher, "an Englishman or a Yankee is +capital; an Irishman is labor; but a German is capital and labor both." +Cincinnati, at the outbreak of the Rebellion, contained about seventy +thousand German citizens, who for many years had contributed largely to +her growth and prosperity. + +A visit to their distinctive locality, called "Over the Rhine," with +its German daily papers, German signs, and German conversation, is a +peep at Faderland. + +Cincinnati is nearer than Hamburg, the Miami canal more readily crossed +than the Atlantic, and that "sweet German accent," with which General +Scott was once enraptured, is no less musical in the Queen City than +in the land of Schiller and Göethe. Why, then, should one go to +Germany, unless, indeed, like Bayard Taylor, he goes for a wife? The +multitudinous maidens--light-eyed and blonde-haired--in these German +streets, would seem to remove even that excuse. + +When Young America becomes jovial, he takes four or five boon +companions to a drinking saloon, pours down half a glass of raw brandy, +and lights a cigar. Continuing this programme through the day, he +ends, perhaps, by being carried home on a shutter or conducted to the +watch-house. + +But the German, at the close of the summer day, strolls with his +wife and two or three of his twelve children (the orthodox number in +well-regulated Teutonic families) to one of the great airy halls or +gardens abounding in his portion of the city. Calling for Rhein wine, +Catawba, or "_zwei glass lager bier und zwei pretzel_," they sit an +hour or two, chatting with friends, and then return to their homes like +rational beings after rational enjoyment. The halls contain hundreds +of people, who gesticulate more and talk louder during their mildest +social intercourse than the same number of Americans would in an affray +causing the murder of half the company; but the presence of women and +children guarantees decorous language and deportment. + +The laws of migration are curious. One is, that people ordinarily go +due west. The Massachusetts man goes to northern Ohio, Wisconsin, or +Minnesota; the Ohioan to Kansas; the Tennesseean to southern Missouri; +the Mississippian to Texas. Great excitements, like those of Kansas +and California, draw men off their parallel of latitude; but this is +the general law. Another is, that the Irish remain near the sea-coast, +while the Germans seek the interior. They constitute four-fifths of the +foreign population of every western city. + +[Sidenote: THE EARLY DAYS OF CINCINNATI.] + +In 1788, a few months before the first settlement of Cincinnati, +seven hundred and forty acres of land were bought for five hundred +dollars. The tract is now the heart of the city, and appraised at +many millions. As it passed from hand to hand, colossal fortunes were +realized from it; but its original purchaser, then one of the largest +western land-owners, at his death did not leave property enough to +secure against want his surviving son. Until 1862, that son resided +in Cincinnati, a pensioner upon the bounty of relatives. As, in the +autumn of life, he walked the streets of that busy city, it must have +been a strange reflection that among all its broad acres of which his +father was sole proprietor, he did not own land enough for his last +resting-place. "Give him a little earth for charity!" + +Many high artificial mounds, circular and elliptical, stood here when +the city was founded. In after years, as they were leveled, one by +one, they revealed relics of that ancient and comparatively civilized +race, which occupied this region before the Indian, and was probably +identical with the Aztecs of Mexico. + +Upon the site of one of these mounds is Pike's Opera House, a gorgeous +edifice, erected at an expense of half a million of dollars, by a +Cincinnati distiller, who, fifteen years before, could not obtain +credit for his first dray-load of whisky-barrels. It is one of the +finest theaters in the world; but the site has more interest than the +building. What volumes of unwritten history has that spot witnessed, +which supports a temple of art and fashion for the men and women of +to-day, was once a post from which Indian sentinels overlooked the +"dark and bloody ground" beyond the river, and, in earlier ages, an +altar where priests of a semi-barbaric race performed mystic rites to +propitiate heathen gods! + +[Sidenote: A CITY FOUNDED BY A WOMAN.] + +Cincinnati was built by a woman. Its founder was neither carpenter nor +speculator, but in the legitimate feminine pursuit of winning hearts. +Seventy years ago, Columbia, North Bend, and Cincinnati--all splendid +cities on paper--were rivals, each aspiring to be the metropolis of +the West. Columbia was largest, North Bend most favorably located, and +Cincinnati least promising of all. + +But an army officer, sent out to establish a military post for +protecting frontier settlers against Indians, was searching for a +site. Fascinated by the charms of a dark-eyed beauty--wife of one of +the North Bend settlers--that location impressed him favorably, and he +made it head-quarters. The husband, disliking the officer's pointed +attentions, came to Cincinnati and settled--thus, he supposed, removing +his wife from temptation. + +[Sidenote: THE ASPIRATIONS OF THE CINCINNATIAN.] + +But as Mark Antony threw the world away for Cleopatra's lips, this +humbler son of Mars counted the military advantages of North Bend as +nothing compared with his charmer's eyes. He promptly followed to +Cincinnati, and erected Fort Washington within the present city limits. +Proximity to a military post settled the question, as it has all +similar ones in the history of the West. Now Cincinnati is the largest +inland city upon the continent; Columbia is an insignificant village, +and North Bend an excellent farm. + +In architecture, Cincinnati is superior to its western rivals, and +rapidly gaining upon the most beautiful seaboard cities. Some of its +squares are unexcelled in America. A few public buildings are imposing; +but its best structures have been erected by private enterprise. The +Cincinnatian is expansive. Narrow quarters torture him. He can live +in a cottage, but he must do business in a palace. An inferior brick +building is the specter of his life, and a freestone block his undying +ambition. + +From the Queen City I went to Louisville. Though communication with +the South had been cut off by every other route, the railroad was open +thence to Nashville. + +[Sidenote: TREASON AND LOYALTY IN LOUISVILLE.] + +Kentucky was disputed ground. Treason and Loyalty jostled each +other in strange proximity. At the breakfast table, one looked up +from his New York paper, forty-eight hours old, to see his nearest +neighbor perusing _The Charleston Mercury_. He found _The Louisville +Courier_ urging the people to take up arms against the Government. +_The Journal_, published just across the street, advised Union men to +arm themselves, and announced that any of them wanting first-class +revolvers could learn something to their advantage by calling upon its +editor. In the telegraph-office, the loyal agent of the Associated +Press, who made up dispatches for the North, chatted with the +Secessionist, who spiced his news for the southern palate. On the +street, one heard Union men advocate the hanging of Governor Magoffin, +and declare that he and his fellow-traitors should find the collision +they threatened a bloody business. At the same moment, some inebriated +"Cavalier" reeled by, shouting uproariously "Huzza for Jeff. Davis!" + +Here, a group of pale, long-haired young men was pointed out as +enlisted Rebel soldiers, just leaving for the South. There, a troop of +the sinewy, long-limbed mountaineers of Kentucky and East Tennessee, +marched sturdily toward the river, to join the loyal forces upon +the Indiana shore. Two or three State Guards (Secession), with +muskets on their shoulders, were closely followed by a trio of Home +Guards (Union), also armed. It was wonderful that, with all these +crowding combustibles, no explosion had yet occurred in the Kentucky +powder-magazine. + +While Secessionists were numerous, Louisville, at heart loyal, +everywhere displayed the national flag. Yet, although the people tore +to pieces a Secession banner, which floated from a private dwelling, +they were very tolerant toward the Rebels, who openly recruited for +the Southern service. Imagine a man huzzaing for President Lincoln and +advertising a Federal recruiting-office in any city controlled by the +Confederates! + +[Sidenote: PRENTICE OF THE LOUISVILLE JOURNAL.] + +"The real governor of Kentucky," said a southern paper, "is not Beriah +Magoffin, but George D. Prentice." In spite of his "neutrality," which +for a time threatened to stretch out to the crack of doom, Mr. Prentice +was a thorn in the side of the enemy. His strong influence, through +_The Louisville Journal_, was felt throughout the State. + +Visiting his editorial rooms, I found him over an appalling pile of +public and private documents, dictating an article for his paper. Many +years ago, an attack of paralysis nearly disabled his right hand, and +compelled him ever after to employ an amanuensis. + +His small, round face was fringed with dark hair, a little silvered by +age; but his eyes gleamed with their early fire, and his conversation +scintillated with that ready wit which made him the most famous +paragraphist in the world. His manner was exceedingly quiet and modest. +For about three-fourths of the year, he was one of the hardest workers +in the country; often sitting at his table twelve hours a day, and +writing two or three columns for a morning issue. + +At this time, the Kentucky Unionists, advocating only "neutrality," +dared not urge open and uncompromising support of the Government. When +President Lincoln first called for troops, _The Journal_ denounced his +appeal in terms almost worthy of _The Charleston Mercury_, expressing +its "mingled amazement and indignation." Of course the Kentuckians were +subjected to very bitter criticism. Mr. Prentice said to me: + +"You misapprehend us in the North. We are just as much for the Union as +you are. Those of us who pray, pray for it; those of us who fight, are +going to fight for it. But we know our own people. They require very +tender handling. Just trust us and let us alone, and you shall see us +come out all right by-and-by." + +The State election, held a few weeks after, exposed the groundless +alarm of the leading politicians. It resulted in returning to Congress, +from every district but one, zealous Union men. Afterward the State +furnished troops whenever they were called for, and, in spite of her +timid leaders, finally yielded gracefully to the inexorable decree of +the war, touching her pet institution of Slavery. + +[Sidenote: FIRST UNION TROOPS OF KENTUCKY.] + +I paid a visit to the encampment of the Kentucky Union troops, on the +Indiana side of the Ohio, opposite Louisville. "Camp Joe Holt" was on +a high, grassy plateau. Unfailing springs supplied it with pure water, +and trees of beech, oak, elm, ash, maple, and sycamore, overhung it +with grateful shade. The prospective soldiers were lying about on the +ground, or reading and writing in their tents. + +General Rousseau, who was sitting upon the grass, chatting with a +visitor, looked the Kentuckian. Large head, with straight, dark hair +and mustache; eye and mouth full of determination; broad chest, huge, +erect, manly frame. + +His men were sinewy fellows, with serious, earnest faces. Most of them +were from the mountain districts. Many had been hunters from boyhood, +and could bring a squirrel from the tallest tree with their old rifles. +Byron's description of their ancestral backwoodsmen seemed to fit them +exactly: + + "And tall and strong and swift of foot were they, + Beyond the dwarfing city's pale abortions, + Because their thoughts had never been the prey + Of care or gain; the green woods were their portions. + Simple they were, not savage; and their rifles, + Though very true, were yet not used for trifles." + +The history of this brigade was characteristic of the times. Rousseau +scouted "neutrality" from the outset. On the 21st of May, he said from +his place in the Kentucky Senate: + + "If we have a Government, let it be maintained and obeyed. If + a factious minority undertakes to override the will of the + majority and rob us of our constitutional rights, let it be + put down--peaceably if we can, but forcibly if we must. + * * * Let me tell you, sir, Kentucky will not 'go out!' She will + not stampede. Secessionists must invent something new, before + they can either frighten or drag her out of the Union. We + shall be but too happy to keep peace, but we cannot leave the + Union of our fathers. When Kentucky goes down, it will be in + blood! Let that be understood." + +[Sidenote: STRUGGLE IN THE KENTUCKY LEGISLATURE.] + +In that Legislature, the struggle between the Secessionists and the +Loyalists was fierce, protracted, and uncertain. Each day had its +accidents, incidents, telegraphic and newspaper excitements, upon which +the action of the body seemed to depend. + +In firm and determined men, the two parties were about equally divided; +but there were a good many "floats," who held the balance of power. +These men were very tenderly nursed by the Loyalists. + +The Secessionists frequently proposed to go into secret session, but +the Union men steadfastly refused. Rousseau declared in the Senate that +if they closed the doors he would break them open. As he stands about +six feet two, and is very muscular, the threat had some significance. + +Buckner, Tighlman, and Hanson[12]--all afterward generals in the Rebel +army--led the Secessionists. They professed to be loyal, and were very +shrewd and plausible. They induced hundreds of young men to join the +State-Guard, which they were organizing to force Kentucky out of the +Union, though its ostensible object was to assure "neutrality." + +[12] The leniency of the Government toward these men was remarkable. +For many months after the war began, Breckinridge, in the United +States Senate, and Burnett, in the House of Representatives, uttered +defiant treason, for which they were not only pardoned, but paid by the +Government they were attempting to overthrow. As late as August, 1861, +after Bull Run, after Wilson Creek, Buckner visited Washington, was +allowed to inspect the fortifications, and went almost directly thence +to Richmond. When he next returned to Kentucky, it was at the head of +an invading Rebel army. + +[Sidenote: WHAT REBEL LEADERS PRETENDED.] + +"State Rights" was their watchword. "For Kentucky neutrality," first; +and, should the conflict be forced upon them, "For the South against +the North." They worked artfully upon the southern partiality for the +doctrine that allegiance is due first to the State, and only secondly +to the National Government. + +Governor Magoffin and Lieutenant-Governor Porter were bitter Rebels. +The Legislature made a heavy appropriation for arming the State, +but practically displaced the Governor, by appointing five loyal +commissioners to control the fund and its expenditure. + +In Louisville, the Unionists secretly organized the "Loyal League," +which became very large; but the Secessionists, also, were noisy and +numerous, firm and defiant. + +On the 5th of June, Rousseau started for Washington, to obtain +authority to raise troops in Kentucky. At Cincinnati, he met Colonel +Thomas J. Key, then Judge-Advocate of Ohio, on duty with General +McClellan. Key was alarmed, and asked if it were not better to keep +Kentucky in the Union by voting, than by fighting. Rousseau replied: + +"As fast as we take one vote, and settle the matter, another, in some +form, is proposed. While we are voting, the traitors are enlisting +soldiers, preparing to throttle Kentucky and precipitate her into +Revolution as they have the other southern States. It is our duty to +see that we are not left powerless at the mercy of those who will +butcher us whenever they can." + +[Sidenote: ROUSSEAU'S VISIT TO WASHINGTON.] + +Key declared that he would ruin every thing by his rashness. By +invitation, Rousseau called on the commander of the Western Department. +During the conversation, McClellan remarked that Buckner had spent the +previous night with him. Rousseau replied that Buckner was a hypocrite +and traitor. McClellan rejoined that he thought him an honorable +gentleman. They had served in Mexico together, and were old personal +friends. + +He added: "But I did draw him over the coals for saying he would not +only drive the Rebels out of Kentucky, but also the Federal troops." + +"Well, sir," said Rousseau, "it would once have been considered pretty +nearly treason for a citizen to fight the United States army and levy +war against the National Government!" + +When Rousseau reached Washington, he found that Colonel Key, who had +frankly announced his determination to oppose his project, was already +there. He had an interview with the President, General Cameron, and Mr. +Seward. The weather was very hot, and Cameron sat with his coat off +during the conversation. + +As usual, before proceeding to business, Mr. Lincoln had his "little +story" to enjoy. He shook hands cordially with his visitor, and asked, +in great glee: + +"Rousseau, where did you get that joke about Senator Johnson?" + +"The joke, Mr. President, was too good to keep. Johnson told it +himself." + +It was this: Dr. John M. Johnson, senator from Paducah, wrote to +Mr. Lincoln a rhetorical document, in the usual style of the Rebels. +In behalf of the sovereign State, he entered his solemn and emphatic +protest against the planting of cannon at Cairo, declaring that the +guns actually pointed in the direction of the sacred soil of Kentucky! + +[Sidenote: HIS INTERVIEW WITH PRESIDENT LINCOLN.] + +In an exquisitely pithy autograph letter, Mr. Lincoln replied, if he +had known earlier that Cairo, Illinois, was in Dr. Johnson's Kentucky +Senatorial District, he certainly should not have established either +the guns or the troops there! Singularly enough--for a keen sense of +humor was very rare among our "erring brethren"--Johnson appreciated +the joke. + +While Rousseau was urging the necessity of enlisting troops, he +remarked: + +"I have half pretended to submit to Kentucky neutrality, but, in +discussing the matter before the people, while apparently standing upon +the line, I have almost always _poked_." + +This word was not in the Cabinet vocabulary. General Cameron looked +inquiringly at Mr. Lincoln, who was supposed to be familiar with the +dialect of his native State. + +"General," asked the President, "you don't know what 'poke' means? Why, +when you play marbles, you are required to shoot from a mark on the +ground; and when you reach over with your hand, beyond the line, that +is _poking!_" + +Cameron favored enlistments in Kentucky, without delay. Mr. Lincoln +replied: + +"General, don't be too hasty; you know we have seen another man to-day, +and we should act with caution." Rousseau explained: + +"The masses in Kentucky are loyal. I can get as many soldiers as are +wanted; but if the Rebels raise troops, while we do not, our young men +will go into their army, taking the sympathies of kindred and friends, +and may finally cause the State to secede. It is of vital importance +that we give loyal direction to the sentiment of our people." + +At the next interview, the President showed him this indorsement on the +back of one of his papers: + + "When Judge Pirtle, James Guthrie, George D. Prentice, + Harney, the Speeds, and the Ballards shall think it proper + to raise troops for the United States service in Kentucky, + Lovell H. Rousseau is authorized to do so." + +"How will that do, Rousseau?" + +"Those are good men, Mr. President, loyal men; but perhaps some of the +rest of us, who were born and reared in Kentucky, are just as good +Union men as they are, and know just as much about the State. If you +want troops, I can raise them, and I will raise them. If you do not +want them, or do not want to give me the authority, why that ends the +matter." + +Finally, through the assistance of Mr. Chase, who steadfastly favored +the project, and of Secretary Cameron, the authority was given. + +[Sidenote: TIMIDITY OF KENTUCKY UNIONISTS.] + +A few Kentucky Loyalists were firm and outspoken. But General Leslie +Coombs was a good specimen of the whole. When asked for a letter to Mr. +Lincoln, he wrote: "Rousseau is loyal and brave, but a little too much +for coercion for these parts." + +After Rousseau returned, with permission to raise twenty companies, +_The Louisville Courier_, whose veneer of loyalty was very thin, +denounced the effort bitterly. Even _The Louisville Journal_ derided it +until half a regiment was in camp. + +[Sidenote: LOYALTY OF JUDGE LUSK.] + +A meeting of leading Loyalists of the State was held in Louisville, +at the office of James Speed, since Attorney General of the United +States. Garrett Davis, Bramlette, Boyle, and most of the Louisville +men, were against the project. They feared it would give the State to +the Secessionists at the approaching election. Speed and the Ballards +were for it. So was Samuel Lusk, an old judge from Garrard County, who +sat quietly as long as he could during the discussion, then jumped up, +and bringing his hand heavily down on the table, exclaimed: + +"Can't have two regiments for the old flag! By---! sir, he shall have +thirty!" + +A resolution was finally adopted that, when the time came, they all +wished Rousseau to raise and command the troops, but that, for the +present, it would be impolitic and improper to commence enlisting in +Kentucky. + +Greatly against his own will, and declaring that he never was so +humiliated in his life, Rousseau established his camp on the Indiana +shore. After the election, some Secession sympathizers, learning +that he proposed to bring his men over to Louisville, protested very +earnestly, begging him to desist, and thus avoid bloodshed, which they +declared certain. + +"Gentlemen," said he, "my men, like yourselves, are Kentuckians. I +am a Kentuckian. Our homes are on Kentucky soil. We have organized +in defense of our common country; and bloodshed is just the business +we are drilling for. If anybody in the city of Louisville thinks it +judicious to begin it when we arrive, I tell you, before God, you shall +all have enough of it before you get through!" + +The next day he marched his brigade unmolested through the city. +Afterward, upon many battle-fields, its honorable fame and Rousseau's +two stars were fairly won and worthily worn. + + + + +CHAPTER XIII. + + The hum of either army stilly sounds, That the fixed + sentinels almost receive The secret whispers of each other's + watch.--KING HENRY V. + + +[Sidenote: CAMPAIGNING IN THE KANAWHA VALLEY.] + +I spent the last days of July, in Western Virginia, with the command of +General J. D. Cox, which was pursuing Henry A. Wise in hot haste up the +valley of the Kanawha. There had been a few little skirmishes, which, +in those early days, we were wont to call battles. + +Like all mountain regions, the Kanawha valley was extremely loyal. +Flags were flying, and the people manifested intense delight at the +approach of our army. We were very close upon the flying enemy; indeed, +more than once our cavalry boys ate hot breakfasts which the Rebels had +cooked for themselves. + +At a farm-house, two miles west of Charleston, a dozen natives were +sitting upon the door-step as our column passed. The farmer shook +hands with us very cordially. "I _am_ glad to see the Federal army," +said he; "I have been hunted like a dog, and compelled to hide in the +mountains, because I loved the Union." His wife exclaimed, "Thank God, +you have come at last, and the day of our deliverance is here. I always +said that the Lord was on our side, and that he would bring us through +safely." + +[Sidenote: A BLOODTHIRSTY FEMALE SECESSIONIST.] + +Two of the women were ardent Rebels. They did not blame the +native-born Yankees, but wished that every southerner in our ranks +might be killed. Just then one of our soldiers, whose home was in that +county, passed by the door-step, on his way to the well for a canteen +of water. One of the women said to me, with eyes that meant it: + +"I hope _he_ will be killed! If I had a pistol I would shoot him. Why! +you have a revolver right here in your belt, haven't you? If I seen it +before, I would have used it upon him!" + +Suggesting that I might have interfered with such an attempt, I asked: + +"Do you think you could hit him?" + +"O, yes! I have been practicing lately for just such a purpose." + +Her companion assured me that she prayed every night and morning for +Jefferson Davis. If his armies were driven out of Virginia, she would +go and live in one of the Gulf States. She had a brother and a lover +in General Wise's army, and gave us their names, with a very earnest +request to see them kindly treated, should they be taken prisoners. +When we parted, she shook my hand, with: "Well, I hope no harm will +befall you, if you _are_ an Abolitionist!" + +An old citizen, who had been imprisoned for Union sentiments, was +overcome with joy at the sight of our troops. He mounted a great rock +by the roadside, and extemporized a speech, in which thanks to the +Union army and the Lord curiously intermingled. + +Women, with tears in their eyes, told us how anxiously they had +waited for the flag; how their houses had been robbed, their husbands +hunted, imprisoned, and impressed. Negroes joined extravagantly in the +huzzaing, swinging flags as a woodman swings his ax, bending themselves +almost double with shouts of laughter, and exclamations of "Hurrah for +Mass'r Lincoln!" + +Thirteen miles above Charleston, at the head of navigation, we left +behind what we grandiloquently called "the fleet." It consisted of +exactly four little stern-wheel steamboats. + +The people of these mountain regions use the old currency of New +England, and talk of "fourpence ha'pennies" and "ninepences." + +Our road continued along the river-bank, where the ranges of +overhanging hills began to break into regular, densely timbered, +pyramidal spurs. The weather was very sultry. How the sun smote us in +that close, narrow valley! The accoutrement's of each soldier weighed +about thirty pounds, and made a day's march of twenty miles an arduous +task. + +[Sidenote: A WOMAN IN DISGUISE.] + +A private who had served in the First Kentucky Infantry[13] for three +months, proved to be of the wrong sex. She performed camp duties with +great fortitude, and never fell out of the ranks during the severest +marches. She was small in stature, and kept her coat buttoned to her +chin. She first excited suspicion by her feminine method of putting +on her stockings; and when handed over to the surgeon proved to be a +woman, about twenty years old. She was discharged from the regiment, +but sent to Columbus upon suspicion, excited by some of her remarks, +that she was a spy of the Rebels. + +[13] So called, though nearly all its members came from Cincinnati. + +[Sidenote: EXTRAVAGANT JOY OF THE NEGROES.] + +At Cannelton, a hundred slaves were employed in the coal-oil works--two +long, begrimed, dilapidated buildings, with a few wretched houses +hard by. Nobody was visible, except the negroes. When I asked one of +them--"Where are all the white people?" he replied, with a broad grin-- + +"Done gone, mass'r." + +A black woman, whom we encountered on the road, was asked: + +"Have you run away from your master?" + +"Golly, no!" was the prompt answer, "mass'r run away from _me_!" + +The slaves, who always heard the term "runaway" applied only to their +own race, were not aware that it could have any other significance. +After the war opened, its larger meaning suddenly dawned upon them. The +idea of the master running away and the negroes staying, was always to +them ludicrous beyond description. The extravagant lines of "Kingdom +Coming," exactly depicted their feelings: + + Say, darkies, hab you seen de mass'r, + Wid de muffstach on his face, + Go 'long de road some time dis mornin', + Like he's gwine to leave de place? + He seen de smoke way up de ribber + Where de Linkum gunboats lay; + He took his hat and left berry sudden, + And I 'spose he runned away. + De mass'r run, ha! ha! + De darkey stay, ho! ho! + It must be now de kingdom comin', + An' de year ob Jubilo. + +"Dey tole us," said a group of blacks, "dat if your army cotched us, +you would cut off our right feet. But, Lor! we knowed you wouldn't hurt +_us_!" + +At a house where we dined, the planter assuming to be loyal, one of +our officers grew confidential with him, when a negro woman managed to +beckon me into a back room, and seizing my arm, very earnestly said: "I +tell you, mass'r's only just putting on. He hates you all, and wants to +see you killed. Soon as you have passed, he will send right to Wise's +army, and tell him what you mean to do; if any of you'uns remain here +behind the troops, you will be in danger. He's in a heap of trouble," +she added, "but, Lord, dese times just suits _me_!" + +At another house, while the Rebel host had stepped out for a moment, an +intelligent young colored woman, with an infant in her arms, stationed +two negro girls at the door to watch for his return, and interrogated +me about the progress and purposes of the War. "Is it true," she +inquired, very sadly, "that your army has been hunting and returning +runaway slaves?" + +Thanks to General Cox, who, like the sentinel in Rolla, "knew his duty +better," I could reply in the negative. But when, with earnestness +gleaming in her eyes, she asked, if, through these convulsions, any +hope glimmered for her race, what could I tell her but to be patient, +and trust in God? + +[Sidenote: HOW THE SOLDIERS FORAGED.] + +Army rations are not inviting to epicurean tastes; but in the field +all sorts of vegetables and poultry were added to our bill of fare. +Chickens, young pigs, fence-rails, apples, and potatoes, are legitimate +army spoils the world over. + +"Where did you get that turkey?" asked a captain of one of his men. +"Bought it, sir," was the prompt answer. "For how much?" "Seventy-five +cents." "Paid for it, did you?" "Well, no, sir; told the man I would +pay _when we came back_!" + +"Mass'r," said a little ebony servant to a captain with whom I was +messing, "I sees a mighty fine goose. Wish we had him for supper." + +"Ginger," replied the officer, "have I not often told you that it is +very wicked to steal?" + +The little negro laughed all over his face, and fell out of the ranks. +By a "coincidence," worthy of Sam Weller, we supped on stewed goose +that very evening. + +Seen by night from the adjacent hills, our picturesque encampments +gave to the wild landscape a new beauty. In the deep valleys gleamed +hundreds of snowy tents, lighted by waning camp-fires, round which +grotesque figures flitted. The faint murmur of voices, and the ghostly +sweetness of distant music, filled the summer air. + +[Sidenote: THE FALLS OF THE KANAWHA.] + +At the Falls of the Kanawha the river is half a mile wide. A natural +dam of rocks, a hundred yards in breadth, and, on its lower side, +thirty feet above the water, extends obliquely across the stream--a +smooth surface of gray rock, spotted with brown moss. + +Near the south bank is the main fall, in the form of a half circle, +three or four hundred yards long, with a broken descent of thirty feet. +Above the brink, the water is dark, green, and glassy, but at the verge +it looks half transparent, as it tumbles and foams down the rocks, +lashed into a passion of snowy whiteness. Plunging into the seething +caldron, it throws up great jets and sheets of foam. Above, the calm, +shining water extends for a mile, until hidden by a sudden bend in the +channel. The view is bounded by a tall spur, wrapped in the sober green +of the forest, with an adventurous corn-field climbing far up its steep +side. At the narrow base of the spur, a straw-colored lawn surrounds a +white farm-house, with low, sloping roof and antique chimneys. It is +half hidden among the maples, and sentineled by a tall Lombardy poplar. + +Two miles above the fall, the stream breaks into its two chief +confluents--the New River and the Gauley. Hawk's Nest, near their +junction, is a peculiarly romantic spot. In its vicinity our command +halted. It was far from its base, and Wise ran too fast for capture. We +had five thousand troops, who were ill-disciplined and discontented. +General Cox was then fresh from the Ohio Senate. After more field +experience, he became an excellent officer. + +[Sidenote: A TRAGEDY OF SLAVERY.] + +When I returned through the valley, I found Charleston greatly excited. +A docile and intelligent mulatto slave, of thirty years, had never been +struck in his life. But, on the way to a hayfield, his new overseer +began to crack his whip over the shoulders of the gang, to hurry them +forward. The mulatto shook his head a little defiantly, when the whip +was laid heavily across his back. Turning instantly upon the driver, +he smote him with his hayfork, knocking him from his horse, and laying +the skull bare. The overseer, a large, athletic man, drew his revolver; +but, before he could use it, the agile mulatto wrenched it away, and +fired two shots at his head, which instantly killed him. Taking the +weapon, the slave fled to the mountains, whence he escaped to the Ohio +line. + + ST. LOUIS, _August 19, 1861_. + +In the days of stage-coaches, the trip from Cincinnati to St. Louis +was a very melancholy experience; in the days of steamboats, a very +tedious one. Now, you leave Cincinnati on a summer evening; and the +placid valley of the Ohio--the almost countless cornfields of the +Great Miami (one of them containing fifteen hundred acres), where +the exhaustless soil has produced that staple abundantly for fifty +years--the grave and old home of General Harrison, at North Bend--the +dense forests of Indiana--the Wabash Valley, that elysium of chills +and fever, where pumpkins are "fruit," and hoop-poles "timber"--the +dead-level prairies of Illinois, with their oceans of corn, tufts +of wood, and painfully white villages--the muddy Mississippi, +"All-the-Waters," as one Indian tribe used to call it--are unrolled in +panorama, till, at early morning, St. Louis, hot and parched with the +journey, holds out her dusty hands to greet you. + +[Sidenote: THE FUTURE OF ST. LOUIS.] + +No inland city ever held such a position as this. Here is the heart +of the unequaled valley, which extends from the Rocky Mountains to +the Alleghanies, and from the great lakes to the Gulf. Here is the +mighty river, which drains a region six times greater than the empire +of France, and bears on its bosom the waters of fifty-seven navigable +streams. Even the rude savage called it the "Father of Waters," and +early Spanish explorers reverentially named it the "River of the Holy +Ghost." + +St. Louis, "with its thriving young heart, and its old French limbs," +is to be the New York of the interior. The child is living who will see +it the second city on the American continent. + +Three Rebel newspapers have recently been suppressed. The editor of one +applied to the provost-marshal for permission to resume, but declined +to give a pledge that no disloyal sentiment should appear in its +columns. He was very tender of the Constitution, and solicitous about +"the rights of the citizen." The marshal replied: + +"I cannot discuss these matters with you. I am a soldier, and obey +orders." + +"But," remonstrated the editor, "you might be ordered to hang me." + +"Very possibly," replied the major, dryly. + +"And you would obey orders, then?" + +"Most assuredly I would, sir." + +The Secession journalist left, in profound disgust. + + + + +CHAPTER XIV. + + ----He died, To throw away the dearest thing he owed, As + 'twere a careless trifle.---MACBETH. + + The devil can cite Scripture for his purpose.--MERCHANT OF + VENICE. + +[Sidenote: THE BATTLE OF WILSON CREEK.] + + +On the 10th of August, at Wilson Creek, two hundred and forty miles +southwest of St. Louis, occurred the hardest-fought battle of the +year. General Lyon had pursued the Rebels to that corner of the State. +He had called again and again for re-enforcements, but at Washington +nothing could be seen except Virginia. Lyon's force was five thousand +two hundred men. The enemy, under Ben McCulloch and Sterling Price, +numbered over eleven thousand, according to McCulloch's official +report. Lyon would not retreat. He thought that would injure the Cause +more than to fight and be defeated. + +To one of his staff-officers, the night before the engagement, he said: +"I believe in presentiments, and, ever since this attack was planned, +I have felt that it would result disastrously. But I cannot leave the +country without a battle." + +On his way to the field, he was silent and abstracted; but when the +guns opened, he gave his orders with great promptness and clearness. + +He had probably resolved that he would not leave the field alive unless +he left it as a victor. By a singular coincidence, the two armies +marched out before daybreak on that morning each to attack the other. +They met, and for many hours the tide of battle ebbed and flowed. + +Lyon's little army fought with conspicuous gallantry. It contained the +very best material. The following is a list--from memory, and therefore +quite incomplete--of some officers, who, winning here their first +renown, afterward achieved wide and honorable reputation: + + AT WILSON CREEK. AFTERWARD. + Frederick Steele Captain Major-General. + F. J. Herron Captain Major-General. + P. J. Osterhaus Major Major-General. + S. D. Sturgis Major Major-General. + R. B. Mitchell Colonel Major-General. + Franz Sigel Colonel Major-General. + D. S. Stanley Captain Major-General. + J. M. Schofield Major Major-General. + Gordon Granger Captain Major-General. + J. B. Plummer Captain Brigadier-General. + James Totten Captain Brigadier-General. + E. A. Carr Captain Brigadier-General. + Geo. W. Deitzler Colonel Brigadier-General. + T. W. Sweeney Captain Brigadier-General. + Geo. L. Andrews Lieutenant-Colonel Brigadier-General. + I. F. Shepard Major Brigadier-General. + +[Sidenote: DARING EXPLOIT OF A KANSAS OFFICER.] + +During the battle, Captain Powell Clayton's company of the First +Kansas Volunteers, becoming separated from the rest of our forces, +was approached by a regiment uniformed precisely like the First Iowa. +Clayton had just aligned his men with this new regiment, when he +detected small strips of red cloth on the shoulders of the privates, +which marked them as Rebels. With perfect coolness, he gave the order: + +"Right oblique, march! You are crowding too much upon this regiment." + +By this maneuver his company soon placed a good fifty yards between +itself and the Rebel regiment, when the Adjutant of the latter rode up +in front, suspicious that all was not right. Turning to Clayton, he +asked: + +"What troops are these?" + +"First Kansas," was the prompt reply. "What regiment is that?" + +"Fifth Missouri, Col. Clarkson." + +"Southern or Union?" + +"Southern," said the Rebel, wheeling his horse; but Clayton seized him +by the collar, and threatened to shoot him if he commanded his men to +attack. The Adjutant, heedless of his own danger, ordered his regiment +to open fire upon the Kansas company. He was shot dead on the spot by +Clayton, who told his men to run for their lives. They escaped with the +loss of only four. + +[Sidenote: THE DEATH OF LYON.] + +Toward evening Lyon's horse was killed under him. Immediately +afterward, his officers begged that he would retire to a less exposed +spot. Scarcely raising his eyes from the enemy, he said: + +"It is well enough that I stand here. I am satisfied." + +While the line was forming, he turned to Major Sturgis, who stood near +him, and remarked: + +"I fear that the day is lost. I think I will lead this charge." + +Early in the day he had received a flesh-wound in the leg, from which +the blood flowed profusely. Sturgis now noticed fresh blood on the +General's hat, and asked where it came from. + +"It is nothing, Major, nothing but a wound in the head," replied Lyon, +mounting a fresh horse. + +Without taking the hat that was held out to him by Major Sturgis, he +shouted to the soldiers: + +"Forward, men! I will lead you." + +Two minutes later he lay dead on the field, pierced by a rifle-ball +through the breast, just above the heart. + +Our officers held a hurried consultation, and decided not only to +retreat, but to abandon southwest Missouri. Strangely enough, the +coincidence of the morning was here repeated. Almost simultaneously, +the Rebels decided to fall back. They were in full retreat when they +were arrested by the news of the departure of the Federal troops, and +returned to take possession of the field which the last Union soldier +had abandoned eight hours before. + +They claimed a great victory, and with justice, as they finally held +the ground. Their journals were very jubilant. Said _The New Orleans +Picayune_: + + "Lyon is killed, Sigel in flight; southwestern Missouri + is clear of the National scum of invaders. The next word + will be, 'On to St. Louis.' That taken, the whole power of + Lincolnism is broken in the West, and instead of shouting + 'Ho for Richmond!' and 'Ho for New Orleans!' there will + be hurrying to and fro among the frightened magnates at + Washington, and anxious inquiries of what they shall do to + save themselves from the vengeance to come. Heaven smiles on + the armies of the Confederate States." + +[Sidenote: LYON'S COURAGE AND PATRIOTISM.] + +Lyon went into the battle in civilian's dress, excepting only a +military coat. He had on a soft hat of ashen hue, with long fur and +very broad brim, turned up on three sides. He had worn it for a month; +it would have individualized the wearer among fifty thousand men. His +peculiar dress and personal appearance were well known through the +enemy's camp. He received a new and elegant uniform just before the +battle, but it was never worn until his remains were clothed in it, +after the brave spirit had fled, and while our forces were retreating +from Springfield by night. + +Notwithstanding his personal bravery and military education, he always +opposed dueling on principle. No provocation made him recognize the +"code." Once he was struck in the face, but he had courage enough to +refuse to challenge his adversary. For a time this subjected him to +misapprehension and contempt among military men, but, long before his +death, his fellow-officers understood and respected him. + +He seemed to care little for personal fame--to think only of the Cause. +Knowing exactly what was before him, he went to death on that summer +evening "as a man goes to his bridal." Losing a life, he gained an +immortality. His memory is green in the nation's heart, his name high +on her roll of honor. + +[Sidenote: ARRIVAL OF GENERAL FREMONT.] + +On the 25th of July, Major-General John C. Fremont reached St. Louis, +in command of the Western Department. His advent was hailed with great +enthusiasm. The newspapers, West, predicted for him achievements +extravagant and impossible as those which the New York journals had +foretold for McClellan. In those sanguine days, the whole country made +"Young Napoleons" to order. + +With characteristic energy, Fremont plunged into the business of his +new department, where chaos reigned, and he had no spell to evoke +order, save the boundless patriotism and earnestness of the people. + +His head-quarters were established on Chouteau Avenue. He was overrun +with visitors--every captain, or corporal, or civilian, seeking to +prosecute his business with the General in person. He was therefore +compelled to shut himself up, and, by the sweeping refusal to admit +petitioners to him, a few were excluded whose business was important. +Some dissatisfaction and some jesting resulted. I remember three +Kansas officers, charged with affairs of moment, who used daily to be +merry, describing how they had made a reconnoissance toward Fremont's +head-quarters, fought a lively engagement, and driven in the pickets, +only to find the main garrison so well guarded that they were quite +unable to force it. + +[Sidenote: UNION FAMILIES DRIVEN OUT.] + + ST. LOUIS, _August 26, 1861_. + +A long caravan of old-fashioned Virginia wagons, containing rude +chairs, bedsteads, and kitchen utensils, passed through town yesterday. +They brought from the Southwest families who, + + "Forced from their homes, a melancholy train, are seeking in + free Illinois that protection which Government is unable to + afford them in Missouri. At least fifty thousand inoffensive + persons have thus fled since the Rebellion." + + _August 29._ + +We were lately surprised and gratified to learn that a gentleman from +Minnesota had offered an unasked loan of forty-six thousand dollars to +the Government authorities--gratified at such spontaneous patriotism, +and surprised that any man who lived in Minnesota should have forty-six +thousand dollars. The latter mystery has been explained by the +discovery that he never took his funds to that vortex of real estate +speculation, but left them in this city, where he formerly resided. +Moreover, his money was in Missouri currency, which, though at par here +in business transactions, is at a discount of eight per cent. on gold +and New York exchange. The loan is to be returned to him in gold. So, +after all, there is probably as much human nature to the square acre in +Minnesota as anywhere else. + + _September 6._ + +"Egypt to the rescue!" is the motto upon the banner of a new Illinois +regiment. Southern Illinois, known as Egypt, is turning out men for +the Mississippi campaign with surprising liberality; whereupon a fiery +Secessionist triumphantly calls attention to this prophetic text, from +Hosea: "Egypt shall gather them up; Memphis shall bury them!" + +The aptness of the citation is admirable; but he is reminded, in +return, that the pet phrase of the Rebels, "Let us alone," was the +prayer of a man possessed of a devil, to the Saviour of the world! + +[Sidenote: AN INVOLUNTARY SOJOURN WITH REBELS.] + +I have just met a gentleman, residing in southwestern Missouri, whose +experience is novel. He visited the camp of the Rebels to reclaim a +pair of valuable horses, which they had taken from his residence. They +not only retained the stolen animals, but also took from him those +with which he went in pursuit, and left him the alternative of walking +home, twenty-three miles, through a dangerous region, or remaining +in their camp. Fond of adventure, he chose the latter, and for three +weeks messed with a Missouri company. The facetious scoundrels told him +that they could not afford to keep him unless he earned his living; +and employed him as a teamster. He had philosophy enough to make the +best of it, and flattered himself that he became a very creditable +mule-driver. + +Early on the morning of August 10th, he was breakfasting with the +officers from a dry-goods box, which served for a table, when bang! +went a cannon, not more than two or three hundred yards from them, and +crash! came a ball, cutting off the branches just above their heads. +"Here is the devil to pay; the Dutch are upon us!" exclaimed the +captain, springing up and ordering his company to form. + +My friend was a looker-on from the Southern side during the whole +battle. He gives a graphic account of the joy of the Rebels at finding +the body of General Lyon, lying under a tree (the first information +they had of his death), and their surprise and consternation at the +bravery with which the little Union army fought to the bitter end. + +Twenty leading Secessionists are in durance vile here. There is a +poetic justice in the fact that their prison was formerly a slave-pen, +and that they are enabled to study State Rights from old negro quarters. + + _September 7._ + +[Sidenote: A STARTLING CONFEDERATE ATROCITY.] + +The Rebels have just perpetrated a new and startling atrocity. They cut +down the high railroad bridge over the Little Platte River near St. +Joseph. The next train from Hannibal reached the spot at midnight, and +its locomotive and five cars were precipitated, thirty feet, into the +bed of the river. More than fifty passengers were dangerously wounded, +and twenty instantly killed. They were mainly women and children; there +was not a single soldier among them. + + _September 15._ + +General Fremont is issuing written guarantees for their freedom to the +slaves of Rebels. They are in the form of real-estate conveyances, +releasing the recipient from all obligations to his master; declaring +him forever free from servitude, and with full right and authority +to control his own labor. They are headed "Deed of Manumission," +authenticated by the great seal of the Western Department, and the +signature of its commander. Think of giving a man a warranty-deed for +his own body and soul! + +In compliance with imperative orders from the Government, several +regiments, though sadly needed here, are being sent eastward. To the +colonel commanding one of them, the order was conveyed by Fremont in +these characteristic terms: + + "Repair at once to Washington. Transportation is provided for + you. My friend, I am sorry to part with you, but there are + laurels growing on the banks of the Potomac." + +[Sidenote: ORGANIZATION OF THE "BOHEMIAN BRIGADE."] + + + + +CHAPTER XV. + + Why should a man, whose blood is warm within, Sit like his + grandsire cut in alabaster?----MERCHANT OF VENICE. + + +In October, General Fremont's forming army rendezvoused at the capital +of Missouri. From afar, Jefferson City is picturesque; but distance +lends enchantment. Close inspection shows it uninviting and rough. The +Capitol, upon a frowning hill, is a little suggestive of the sober +old State House which overlooks Boston Common. Brick and frame houses +enough for a population of three thousand straggle over an area of a +mile square, as if they had been tossed up like a peck of apples, and +left to come down and locate themselves. Many are half hidden by the +locust, ailantus, and arbor-vitæ trees, and the white blossoms of the +catalpas. + +The war correspondents "smelled the battle from afar off." More than +twenty collected two or three weeks before the army started. Some of +them were very grave and decorous at home, but here they were like boys +let out of school. + +They styled themselves the Bohemian Brigade, and exhibited that +touch of the vagabond which Irving charitably attributes to all +poetic temperaments. They were quartered in a wretched little tavern +eminently First Class in its prices. It was very southern in style. +A broad balcony in front, over a cool brick pavement; no two rooms +upon the same level; no way of getting up stairs except by going out +of doors; long, low wings, shooting off in all directions; a gallery +in the rear, deeper than the house itself; heavy furniture, from the +last generation, with a single modern link in the shape of a piano in +the ladies' parlor; leisurely negro waiters, including little boys +and girls, standing behind guests at dinner, and waving long wands +over the table to disconcert the omnipresent flies; and corn bread, +hot biscuits, ham, and excellent coffee. The host and hostess were +slaveholders, who said "thar" and "whar," but held that Secessionists +were traitors, and that traitors ought to be hung. + +[Sidenote: AN AMUSED AFRICAN.] + +The landlord, who was aged, rheumatic, and half blind, labored under +the delusion that he kept the house; but an intelligent and middle-aged +slave, yclept John, was the real brain of the establishment. + +"John," asked one of the correspondents, "does your master really think +he is alive?" + +"'Live, sir? I reckon so." + +"Why, he has been dead these twenty years. He hobbles around, +pretending he exists, just to save funeral expenses." + +John's extravagant enjoyment of this sorry jest beggared description. +He threw himself on the floor, rolled over and over, and roared with +laughter for fifteen minutes. He did not recover his usual gravity for +weeks. Again and again, while waiting upon guests, he would see his +master coming, and suddenly explode with merriment, to the infinite +amazement of the _habitués_ of the house, who suspected that the negro +was losing his wits. + +[Sidenote: DIVERSIONS OF THE CORRESPONDENTS.] + +The Bohemians took their ease in their inn, and held high carnival, +to the astonishment of all its _attachés_, from the aged proprietor +down to the half-fledged negro cherubs. Each seemed to regard as his +personal property the half-dozen rooms which all occupied. The one who +dressed earliest in the morning would appropriate the first hat, coat, +and boots he found, remarking that the owner was probably dead. + +One huge, good-natured brother they called "the Elephant." He was +greatly addicted to sleeping in the daytime; and when other resources +failed, some reckless quill-driver would say: + +"Now, let's all go and sleep with the Elephant." + +Eight or ten would pile themselves upon his bed, beside him and upon +him, until his good-nature became exhausted, when the giant would toss +them out of the room like so many pebbles, and lock his door. + +There was little work to be done; so they discussed politics, art, +society, and metaphysics; and would soon kindle into singing, reciting, +"sky-larking," wrestling, flinging saddles, valises, and pillows. In +some recent theatrical spectacle, two had heard a "chorus of fiends," +which tickled their fancy. As the small hours approached, it was +their unceasing delight to roar imitations of it, declaring, with +each repetition, that it was now to be given positively for the last +time, and by the very special request of the audience. How they sent +that demoniac "Ha! ha! ha!" shrieking through the midnight air! The +following account of their diversions was given by "J. G." in _The +Cincinnati Gazette_. The scenes he witnessed suggested, very naturally, +the nomenclature of the prize-ring: + + Happening to drop in the other night, I found the + representatives of _The Missouri Republican_, _The Cincinnati + Commercial_, _The New York World_, and _The Tribune_, engaged + in a hot discussion upon matrimony, which finally ran into + metaphysics. _The Republican_ having plumply disputed an + abstruse proposition of _The Tribune_, the latter seized an + immense bolster, and brought it down with emphasis upon the + glossy pate of his antagonist. This instantly broke up the + debate, and a general _mêlée_ commenced. _The Republican_ + grabbed a damp towel and aimed a stunning blow at his + assailant, which missed him and brought up against the nasal + protuberance of _Frank Leslie_. The exasperated _Frank_ + dealt back a pillow, followed by a well-packed knapsack. + Then _The Missouri Democrat_ sent a coverlet, which lit + upon and enveloped the knowledge-box of _The Herald_. The + latter disengaged himself after several frantic efforts, + and hurled a ponderous pair of saddle-bags, which passed + so close to _The Gazette's_ head, that in dodging it he + bumped his phrenology against the bed-post, and raised a + respectable organ where none existed before. Simultaneously + _The Commercial_ threw a haversack, which hit _Harper_ in + the bread-basket, and doubled him into a folio--knocking + him against _The World_, who, toppling from his center of + gravity, was poising a plethoric bed-tick with dire intent, + when the upturned legs of a chair caught and tore it open, + scattering the feathers through the surging atmosphere. In + falling, he capsized the table, spilling the ink, wrecking + several literary barks, extinguishing the "brief candle" + that had faintly revealed the sanguinary fray, thus abruptly + terminating hostilities, but leaving the panting heroes + still defiant and undismayed. A light was at last struck; + the combatants adjusted their toilets, and, having lit the + calumets of peace, gently resigned themselves to the soothing + influence of the weed. + +[Sidenote: A POLITE ARMY CHAPLAIN.] + +They did not learn, for several days, that a meek chaplain, with his +wife and three children, inhabited an adjacent apartment. He was at +once sent for, and a fitting apology tendered. He replied that he had +actually enjoyed the novel entertainment. He must have been the most +polite man in the whole world. He is worthy a niche in biography, +beside the lady who was showered with gravy, by Sidney Smith, and who, +while it was still dripping from her chin, blandly replied to his +apologies, that not a single drop had touched her! + +When in-door diversions failed, the correspondents amused themselves by +racing their horses, which were all fresh and excitable. That region, +abounding in hills, ravines, and woods, is peculiarly seductive to +reckless equestrians desiring dislocated limbs or broken necks. + +One evening, the "Elephant" was thrown heavily from his horse, and +severely lamed. The next night, nothing daunted, he repeated the +race, and was hurled upon the ground with a force which destroyed his +consciousness for three or four hours. A comrade, in attempting to stop +the riderless horse, was dragged under the heels of his own animal. His +mild, protesting look, as he lay flat upon his back, holding in both +hands the uplifted, threatening foot of his fiery Pegasus, was quite +beyond description. One correspondent dislocated his shoulder, and went +home from the field before he heard a gun. + +[Sidenote: SIGHTS IN JEFFERSON CITY.] + + JEFFERSON CITY, MO., _October 6, 1861_. + +These deep ravines and this fathomless mud offer to obstinate mules +unlimited facilities for shying, and infinite possibilities of miring. +Last night, six animals and an army wagon went over a small precipice, +and, after a series of somersaults, driver, wagon, and mules, reached +the bottom, in a very chaotic condition. + +Jefferson is strong on the wet weather question. When Lyon got here +in June, he was welcomed by one man with an umbrella. When Fremont +arrived, a few nights ago, he was taken in charge by the same +gentleman, who was floundering about through the mud with a lantern, +seeking, not an honest man, but quarters for the commanding general. + +Most of the troops have gone forward, but some remain. Newly mounted +officers, who sit upon their steeds much as an elephant might walk a +tight rope, dash madly through the streets, fondly dreaming that they +witch the world with noble horsemanship. Subalterns show a weakness for +brass buttons, epaulettes, and gold braid, which leaves feminine vanity +quite in the shade. + +In the camps, the long roll is sometimes sounded at midnight, to +accustom officers and men to spring to arms. Upon the first of +these sudden calls from Morpheus to Mars, the negro servant of a +staff-officer was so badly frightened that he brought up his master's +horse with the crupper about the neck instead of the tail. The mistake +was discovered just in season to save the rider from the proverbial +destiny of a beggar on horseback. + +[Sidenote: "FIGHTS MIT SIGEL."] + +Here is a German private very shaky in the legs; he swears by Fremont +and "fights mit Sigel." Too much "lager" is the trouble with _him_; +and, in serene though harmless inebriety, he is arrested by a file +of soldiers. A capital print in circulation represents a native and +a German volunteer, with uplifted mugs of the nectar of Gambrinus, +striking hands to the motto, "One flag, one country, _zwei lager!_" + +Here is a detachment of Home Guards, whose "uniform is multiform." To +a proposition, that the British militia should never be ordered out of +the country, Pitt once moved the satirical proviso, "Except in case +of invasion." So it is alleged that the Missouri Home Guards are very +useful--except in case of a battle; and I hear one merciless critic +style them the "Home Cowards." This is unjust; but they illustrate the +principle, that to attain good drill and discipline, soldiers should be +beyond the reach of home. + +Camp Lillie, upon a beautiful grassy slope, is the head-quarters +of the commander. In his tent, directing, by telegraph, operations +throughout this great department, or upon horseback, personally +inspecting the regiments, you meet the peculiarly graceful, slender, +compact, magnetic man whose assignment here awoke so much enthusiasm +in the West. General Fremont is quiet, well-poised, and unassuming. +His friends are very earnest, his enemies very bitter. Those who know +him only by his early exploits, are surprised to find in the hero of +the frontier the graces of the saloon. He impresses one as a man very +modest, very genuine, and very much in earnest. + +[Sidenote: A PHYSIOLOGICAL PHENOMENON.] + +His hair is tinged with silver. His beard is sprinkled with snow, +though two months ago it was of unmingled brown. + + "Nor turned it white + In a single night, + As men's have done from sudden fears;" + +but it did blanch under the absorbing labors and anxieties of two +months--a physiological fact which Doctor Holmes will be good enough to +explain to us at his earliest convenience. + +Mrs. Fremont is in camp, but will return to Saint Louis when the +army moves. She inherits many traits of her father's character. +She possesses that "excellent thing in woman," a voice, like Annie +Laurie's, low and sweet--more rich, more musical, and better +modulated, than that of any _tragédienne_ upon the stage. To a broad, +comprehensive intellect she adds those quick intuitions which leap to +results, anticipating explanations, and those proclivities for episode, +incident, and bits of personal analyzing, which make a woman's talk so +charming. + +How much rarer this grace of familiar speech than any other +accomplishment whatever! In a lifetime one meets not more than four +or five great conversationalists. Jessie Benton Fremont is among the +felicitous few, if not queen of them all. + + _October 8._ + +The army is forty thousand strong. Generals Sigel, Hunter, Pope, +Asboth, and McKinstry command respectively its five divisions. + +[Sidenote: SIGEL, HUNTER, POPE, ASBOTH, MCKINSTRY.] + +Sigel is slender, pale, wears spectacles, and looks more like a student +than a soldier. He was professor in a university when the war broke out. + +Hunter, at sixty, and agile as a boy, is erect and grim, with bald head +and Hungarian mustache. + +Pope is heavy, full-faced, brown-haired, and looks like a man of brains. + +Asboth is tall, daring-eyed, elastic, a mad rider, and profoundly +polite, bowing so low that his long gray hair almost sweeps the ground. + +McKinstry is six feet two, sinewy-framed, deep-chested, firm-faced, +wavy-haired, and black-mustached. He looks like the hero of a +melodrama, and the Bohemians term him "the heavy tragedian." + + WARSAW, MO., _October 22_. + +An officer of New York mercantile antecedents, recently appointed +to a high position, reached Syracuse a few days since, under orders +to report to Fremont. He would come no farther than the end of the +railroad, but turned abruptly back to St. Louis. Being asked his +reason, he made this reply, peculiarly ingenuous and racy for a +brigadier-general and staff-officer: + +"Why, I found that I should have to go on horseback!" + +With two fellow-journalists, I left Syracuse four days ago. Asboth's +and Sigel's divisions had preceded us. The post-commandant would not +permit us to come through the distracted, guerrilla-infested country +without an escort, but gave us a sergeant and four men of the regular +army. + +On the way we spent the supper hour near Cole Camp. Our Falstaffian +landlord informed us that two brothers, Jim and Sam Cole, encamped +here in early days, to hunt bears, and that the creek was named in +remembrance of them. Being asked with great gravity the extremely +Bohemian question, "_Which_ of them?" he relapsed into a profound +study, from which he did not afterward recover. + +We made the trip--forty-seven miles--in ten hours. This is a strong +Secession village. Half its male inhabitants are in the Rebel army. +Our officers quarter in the most comfortable residences. At first +the people were greatly incensed at the "Abolition soldiery," but +they now submit gracefully. One of the most malignant Rebel families +involuntarily entertains a dozen German officers, who drink lager-beer +industriously, smoke meerschaums unceasingly, and at night sing +unintermittently. + +We are quartered at the house of a lady who has a son in Price's army, +and a daughter in whom education and breeding maintain constant warfare +with her antipathies toward the Union forces. Being told the other +evening that one of our party was a Black Republican, she regarded him +with a wondering stare, declaring that she never saw an Abolitionist +before in her life, and apparently amazed that he wore the human face +divine! + +[Sidenote: SIGEL'S TRANSPORTATION TRAIN.] + +Sigel, as usual, is thirty miles ahead. He has more _go_ in him +than any other of our generals. Several division commanders are +still waiting for transportation, but Sigel collected horse-wagons, +ox-wagons, mule-wagons, family-carriages, and stage-coaches, and +pressed animals until he organized a most unique transportation train +three or four miles long. He crossed his division over the swift Osage +River--three hundred yards wide--in twenty-four hours, upon a single +ferry-boat. The Rebels justly name him "The Flying Dutchman." + +[Sidenote: A COUNTRYMAN'S ESTIMATE OF TROOPS.] + +The Missourians along our line of march have very extravagant ideas +about the Federal army. We stopped at the house of a native, where ten +thousand troops had passed. He placed their number at forty thousand! + +"I reckon you have, in all, about seventy thousand men, and three +hundred cannon, haven't you?" he asked. + +"We have a hundred and fifty thousand men, and six hundred pieces of +artillery," replied a wag in the party. + +"Well," said the countryman, thoughtfully, "I reckon you'll clean out +old Price _this_ time!" + +[Sidenote: A "KID-GLOVED" CORPS.] + + + + +CHAPTER XVI. + + Once more into the breach, dear friends, once more, Or close + the wall up with our English dead!----KING HENRY V. + +General Fremont's Body Guard was composed of picked young men of +unusual intelligence. They were all handsomely uniformed, efficiently +armed, and mounted upon bay horses. They cultivated the mustache, with +the rest of the face smooth--at least, not a more whimsical decree than +the rigid regulation of the British army, which compelled every man +to shave and wear a stock under the burning sun of the Crimea. Many +denounced the Guard as a "kid-gloved," ornamental corps, designed only +to swell Fremont's retinue. + +Major Zagonyi, commandant of the Guard, with one hundred and fifty of +his men, started with orders to reconnoiter the country in front of us. +When near Springfield, they found the town held by a Rebel force of +cavalry and infantry, ill organized, but tolerably armed, and numbering +two thousand. + +Zagonyi drew his men up in line, explained the situation, and asked +whether they would attack or turn back for re-enforcements. They +replied unanimously that they would attack. + +They _did_ attack. Men and horses were very weary. They had ridden +fifty miles in seventeen hours; they had never been under fire before; +but history hardly parallels their daring. + +[Sidenote: CHARGE OF THE BODY GUARD.] + +The Rebels formed in line of battle at the edge of a wood. To approach +them, the Guard were compelled to ride down a narrow lane, exposed to a +terrible fire from three different directions. They went through this +shower of bullets, dismounted, tore down the high zig-zag fence, led +their horses over in the teeth of the enemy, remounted, formed, and, +spreading out, fan-like, charged impetuously, shouting "Fremont and the +Union." + +The engagement was very brief and very bloody. Though only in the +proportion of one to thirteen, the Guard behaved as if weary of their +lives. Men utterly reckless are masters of the situation. At first, the +Confederates fought well; but they were soon panic-stricken, and many +dropped their guns, and ran to and fro like persons distracted. + +The Guard charged through and through the broken ranks of the Rebels, +chased them in all directions--into the woods, beyond the woods, +down the roads, through the town--and planted the old flag upon the +Springfield court-house, where it had not waved since the death of Lyon. + +Armed with revolvers and revolving carbines, members of the Guard had +twelve shots apiece. After delivering their first fire, there was no +time to reload, and (the only instance of the kind early in the war) +nearly all their work was done with the saber. When they mustered +again, almost every blade in the command was stained with blood. + +Of their one hundred and fifty horses, one hundred and twenty were +wounded. A sergeant had three horses shot under him. A private received +a bullet in a blacking-box, which he carried in his pocket. They lost +fifty men, sixteen of whom were killed on the spot. + +"I wonder if they will call us fancy soldiers and kid-gloved boys any +longer?" said one, who lay wounded in the hospital when we arrived. + +[Sidenote: TURNING THE TABLES.] + +On a cot beside him, I found an old schoolmate. His eye brightened as +he grasped my hand. + +"Is your wound serious?" I asked. + +"Painful, but not fatal. O, it was a glorious fight!" + +It _was_ a glorious fight. Wilson Creek is doubly historic ground. +There first a thousand of our men poured out their blood like water, +and the brave Lyon laid down his life "for our dear country's sake." +Two months later, the same stream witnessed the charge of the Body +Guard, which, in those dark days, when the Cause looked gloomy, +thrilled every loyal heart in the nation. It will shine down the +historic page, and be immortal in song and story. + +Major Frank J. White, of our army, was with the Rebels as a prisoner +of war during the charge. Just before they were routed, fourteen men, +under a South Carolina captain, started with him for General Price's +camp. At a house where they spent the night, the farmer boldly avowed +himself a Union man. He supposed White to be one of the Rebel officers; +but, finding a moment's opportunity, the major whispered to him: + +"I am a Union prisoner. Send word to Springfield at once, and my men +will come and rescue me." + +The Rebels, leaving one man on picket outside, went to bed in the same +room with their prisoner. Then the farmer sent his little boy of twelve +years, on horseback, fourteen miles to Springfield. At three o'clock in +the morning, twenty-six Home Guards surrounded the house, and captured +the entire party. Major White at once took command, and posted _his_ +guards over the crestfallen Confederates. + +While they sat around the fire in the evening, waiting for supper, the +Rebel captain had remarked: + +"Major, we have a little leisure, and I believe I will amuse myself by +looking over your papers." Whereupon he spent an hour in examining the +letters which he found in White's possession. In the morning, when the +party, again sitting by the fire, waited for breakfast, the major said, +quietly: + +"Captain, we have a little leisure, and I think I will amuse myself by +looking over _your_ papers." So the Rebel documents were scrutinized +in turn. White returned in triumph to Springfield, bringing his late +captors as prisoners. A friendship sprang up between him and the South +Carolina captain, who remained on parole in our camp for several days, +and they messed and slept together. + +[Sidenote: WELCOME FROM UNION RESIDENTS.] + +When our troops entered Springfield, the people greeted them with +uncontrollable joy; for they were intensely loyal, and had been under +Rebel rule more than eleven weeks. Scores and scores of National flags +now suddenly emerged from mysterious hiding-places; wandering exiles +came pouring back, and we were welcomed by hundreds of glad faces, +waving handkerchiefs, swinging hats, and vociferous huzzas. + +Fremont had now modified his Proclamation; but the logic of events was +stronger than President Lincoln. The negroes would throng our camp, +and Fremont never permitted a single one to be returned. One slave +appropriated a horse, and, guiding him only by a rope about the nose, +without saddle or bridle, blanket or spur, rode from Price's camp to +Fremont's head-quarters, more than eighty miles, in eighteen hours. + +A brigade of regular troops, under General Sturgis, having marched +from Kansas City, joined us in Springfield. They were under very rigid +discipline, and all their supplies, whether procured from Rebels or +Unionists, were paid for in gold. Sturgis was then very "conservative," +and some of our people denounced him as disloyal. But, like hundreds of +others, inexorable war educated him very rapidly. His sympathies were +soon heartily on our side. He afterward, in the Army of the Potomac, +won and wore bright laurels. + +[Sidenote: FREAKS OF THE KANSAS BRIGADE.] + +The Kansas volunteer brigade, under General "Jim" Lane, also joined us +at Springfield. Their course contrasted sharply with that of Sturgis's +men. They had a good many old scores to settle up, and they swept +along the Missouri border like a hurricane. Sublimely indifferent to +the President's orders, and all other orders which did not please +them, they received over two thousand slaves, sending them off by +installments into Kansas. When the master was loyal, they would +gravely appraise the negro; give him a receipt for his slave, named +----, valued at ---- hundred dollars, "lost by the march of the Kansas +Brigade," and advise him to carry the claim before Congress! + +By some unexplained law, dandies, fools, and supercilious braggarts +often gravitate into staff positions; but Fremont's staff was an +exceedingly agreeable one. Many of its members had traveled over the +globe, and, from their wide experiences, whiled away many hours before +the evening camp-fires. + +On the 31st of October, the correspondents, under cavalry escort, +visited the Wilson Creek battle-ground, ten miles south of Springfield. + +The field is broken by rocky ridges and deep ravines, and covered with +oak shrubs. Picking his way among the brushwood, my horse's hoof struck +with a dull, hollow sound against a human skull. Just beyond, still +clad in uniform, lay a skeleton, on whose ghastliness the storms and +sunshine of three months had fallen. The head was partially severed; +and though the upturned face was fleshless, I could not resist the +impression that it wore a look of mortal agony. It was in a little +thicket, several yards from the scene of any fighting. The poor fellow +was carried there, dying or dead, during the progress of the battle, +and afterward overlooked. Among our lost his name was probably followed +by the sad word "Missing." + + "Not among the suffering wounded; + Not among the peaceful dead; + Not among the prisoners. MISSING-- + That was all the message said. + + "Yet his mother reads it over, + Until, through her painful tears, + Fades the dear name she has called him + For these two-and-twenty years." + +Many graves had been opened by wolves. Bones of horses, haversacks, +shoes, blouses, gun-barrels, shot, and fragments of shell, were +scattered over the field. The trees were scarred with bullets, and +hundreds were felled by the artillery. A six-inch shot would cut down +one of these brittle oaks a foot in diameter. + +[Sidenote: CAPTURE OF A FEMALE SPY.] + +A few miles south of Springfield one of our scouts encountered a +young woman on horseback. Suspecting her errand, he informed her +confidentially that he was a spy from Price's army, who had been +several days in Fremont's camp. Falling into this palpable trap, +the girl told him frankly that _she_ was sent by Price to visit our +forces, and obtain information. She was taken immediately to Fremont's +head-quarters. Her terror was very great on finding herself betrayed. +She told all she knew about the Rebels, and was finally allowed to +depart in peace. The employment of female spies was very common upon +both sides. + +[Sidenote: FREMONT'S FAREWELL TO HIS ARMY.] + +On the 2d of November our whole army was at Springfield. Fremont had +progressed farther south than any other Union commander, from the +Atlantic to the Rio Grande. Detachments of Rebels were within ten miles +of our camps. Emphatic, but entirely false reports from the colonel at +the head of Fremont's scouts,[14] had given the impression that Price's +entire command was very near us; and a great battle was hourly expected. + +[14] This officer was a native Missourian, deemed trustworthy, and +thoroughly familiar with the country. He reported officially to Fremont +that the whole Rebel army was within eleven miles of us, when it was +really fifty miles away. Then, indeed, much later in the war, accurate +information about the enemy seemed absolutely unattainable. Scott, +McClellan, Halleck, Grant, all failed to procure it. Rosecrans was the +first general who kept himself thoroughly advised of the whereabouts, +strength, and designs of the Rebels. + +Fremont was in the midst of an important campaign. His army was most +patriotic, enthusiastic, and promising. His personal popularity among +his troops was without parallel. + +At this moment the official ax fell. He received an order to turn over +his command to Hunter. It was a trying ordeal, but he did a soldier's +duty, obeying silently and instantly. The first intelligence which the +army received was conveyed by this touching farewell: + + SOLDIERS OF THE MISSISSIPPI ARMY: Agreeably to orders this + day received, I take leave of you. Although our army has + been of sudden growth, we have grown up together, and I have + become familiar with the brave and generous spirit which you + bring to the defense of your country, and which makes me + anticipate for you a brilliant career. + + Continue as you have begun, and give to my successor the + same cordial and enthusiastic support with which you have + encouraged me. Emulate the splendid example already before + you, and let me remain, as I am, proud of the noble army + which I have thus far labored to bring together. + +[Sidenote: DISAFFECTION AMONG THE SOLDIERS.] + + Soldiers! I regret to leave you. Sincerely I thank you for + the regard and confidence you have invariably shown me. I + deeply regret that I shall not have the honor to lead you + to the victory which you are just about to win, but I shall + claim to share with you in the joy of every triumph, and + trust always to be fraternally remembered by my companions in + arms. + +Fremont's name had been the rallying-point of the volunteers. Officers +and entire regiments had come from distant parts of the country to +serve under him. All felt the impropriety and cruelty of his removal +at this time. Many officers at once wrote their resignations. Whole +battalions were reported laying down their arms. The Germans were +specially indignant, and among the Body Guard there was much bitterness. + +The slightest encouragement or tolerance from the General would +have produced wide-spread mutiny; but he expostulated with the +malcontents, reminding them that their first duty was to the country; +and, after Hunter's arrival, left the camp before daylight, lest his +appearance among the soldiers, as he rode away, should excite improper +demonstrations. + +A few days moderated the feeling of the troops; for, like all our +volunteers, they were wedded not to any man, but to the Cause. + +In St. Louis, Fremont was received more like a conquering hero than a +retiring general. An immense assembly greeted him. In their enthusiasm, +the people even carpeted his door-step with flowers. + +For weeks before his removal the air had been filled with clamors, +charging him with incompetency, extravagance, and giving Government +contracts to corrupt men. The first attacks upon him immediately +followed his Emancipation Proclamation, issued August 31, 1861. + +[Sidenote: SPURIOUS MISSOURI UNIONISTS.] + +There were many half-hearted Unionists in Missouri. For example, +shortly after the capture of Sumter, General Robert Wilson, of Andrew +County, in a public meeting, served upon the committee on resolutions +reporting the following: + + "_Resolved_, That we condemn as inhuman and diabolical the + war being waged by the Government against the South." + +Eight months after, this same Wilson claimed to be a Union leader, and, +as such, was sent to represent Missouri in the Senate of the United +States! Of course all men of this class waged unrelenting war upon +Fremont. Afterward there was a rupture among the really loyal men; a +fierce quarrel, in which the able but unscrupulous Blairs headed the +opposition, and some zealous and patriotic Unionists co-operated with +them. The President, always conscientious, was persuaded to remove the +General; but afterward tacitly admitted its injustice by giving him +another command. + +Mr. Lincoln also countermanded the Emancipation Proclamation, which was +a little ahead of the times. Still it gratified the plain people, even +then. Tired of the tender and delicate terms in which our authorities +were wont to speak of "domestic institutions" and "systems of labor," +they were delighted to read the announcement in honest Saxon: + + "The property of active Rebels is confiscated for the public + use; and their slaves, if any they have, are hereby declared + Free Men." + +It was a new and pure leaf in the history of the war. + +Of course Fremont made mistakes, though the abuses in his department +were infinitely less than those which disgraced Washington, and which +in some degree are inseparable from large, unusual disbursements of +public money. + +[Sidenote: CONDUCT OF CAMERON AND THOMAS.] + +But he was very earnest. He was quite ignorant of How Not to Do it. +He took grave responsibilities. When red tape hampered him, he cut +it. Unable to obtain arms at Washington--which, in those days, knew +only Virginia--he ransacked the markets of the world for them. When +a paymaster refused to liquidate one of his bills, on the ground of +irregularity, he arrested him, and threatened to have him shot if he +persisted. Able to leave but few troops in St. Louis, he fortified the +city in thirty days, employing five thousand laborers. + +Secretary Cameron and Adjutant-General Thomas visited Missouri, after +Fremont started upon his Springfield campaign. General Thomas did not +hesitate, in railway cars and hotels, to condemn him violently--a +gross breach of official propriety, and clearly tending to excite +insubordination among the soldiers. Cameron dictated a letter, ordering +Fremont to discontinue the St. Louis fortifications as unnecessary, +informing him that his official debts would not be discharged till +investigated, his contracts recognized, or the officers paid whom he +had appointed under the written authority of the President. + +In due time they _were_ recognized and paid. The St. Louis +fortifications proved needful, and were afterward finished. Yet Cameron +permitted the contents of this letter to be telegraphed all over the +country four days before Fremont received it. It seemed designed to +impugn his integrity, destroy his credit, promote disaffection in his +camps, and prevent his contractors from fulfilling their engagements. +Thomas officially reported that Fremont would not be able to move +his army for lack of transportation. Before the report could reach +Washington, the army had advanced more than a hundred miles! + +[Sidenote: DISREGARD OF THE ARMY REGULATIONS.] + +Time, which at last makes all things even, vindicated Fremont's leading +measures in Missouri. His subsequent withdrawal from the field, in +Virginia, was doubtless unwise. It was hard to be placed under a +junior and hostile general; but private wrongs must wait in war, and +resignation proves quite as inadequate a remedy for the grievances of +an officer, as Secession for the fancied wrongs of the Slaveholders. + +Brigadier-General Justus McKinstry, ex-Quartermaster of the Western +Department, was arrested, and closely confined in the St. Louis +arsenal for many months. His repeated demands for the charges +and specifications against him were disregarded. He was at last +court-martialed and dismissed the service, on the charge of malfeasance +in office. Brigadier-General Charles P. Stone was for a long time kept +under arrest in the same manner. These proceedings flagrantly violated +both the Army Regulation, entitling officers to know the charges and +witnesses against them, within ten days after arrest, and the spirit of +the Constitution itself, which guarantees to every man a speedy public +trial in the presence of his accusers. + +Equally reprehensible was the arrest and long confinement of many +civilians without formal charges or trial. States where actual war +existed, and even the debatable ground which bordered them, might be +proper fields for this exercise of the Military Power. But the friends +of the Union, holding Congress, and nearly every State Legislature +by overwhelming majorities, could make whatever laws they pleased; +therefore, these measures were unnecessary and unjustifiable in the +North, hundreds of miles from the seat of war. Utterly at variance with +personal rights and republican institutions, they were alarming and +dangerous precedents, which any unscrupulous future administration may +plausibly cite in defense of the grossest outrages. President Lincoln +was always very chary of this exercise of arbitrary power; but some +of his constitutional advisers were constantly urging it. Secretary +Stanton, in particular, advocated and committed acts of flagrant +despotism. He was a good patent-office lawyer, but had not the faintest +conception of those primary principles of Civil Liberty which underlie +English and American institutions. Even the Magna Charta, in sonorous +Latin, declared: + + "No person shall be apprehended or imprisoned, except by the + legal judgment of his peers, or the law of the land. To none + will we sell, to none will we deny, to none will we _delay_ + right or justice." + +[Sidenote: MILITARY POWER AND THE PRESS.] + +Kindred questions arose touching the Military Power and the Liberty of +the Press. Each northern city had its daily journal, which, under thin +disguise of loyalty, labored zealously for the Rebels. Soldiers could +not patiently read treasonable sheets. On several occasions military +commanders suppressed them, but the President promptly removed the +disability. The sober second thought of the people was, that if editors +and publishers in the loyal North could not be convicted and punished +in the civil courts, they should not be molested. + +General Hunter, succeeding Fremont, evacuated southwestern Missouri. +Before leaving Springfield, besieged with applications for runaway +slaves, he issued orders to deliver them up; but soldiers and officers +in his camps hid them so safely that they could not be found by their +masters. + +[Sidenote: RUDENESS OF GENERAL HALLECK.] + +Hunter's little brief authority lasted just fifteen days, when +he was succeeded by General Halleck--a stout, heavy-faced, rather +stupid-looking officer, who wore civilian's dress, and resembled a +well-to-do tradesman. On the 20th of November appeared his shameful +General Order Number Three: + + "It has been represented that important information + respecting the numbers and condition of our forces is + conveyed to the enemy by means of fugitive slaves who are + admitted within our lines. In order to remedy this evil, it + is directed that no such persons be hereafter permitted to + enter the lines of any camp, or of any forces on the march, + and that any now within our lines be immediately excluded + therefrom." + +Its inhumanity outraged the moral sense, and its falsehood the common +sense, of the country. The negroes were uniformly friends to our +soldiers. After diligent inquiry from every leading officer of my +acquaintance, I could not learn a single instance of treachery. To the +cruelty of turning the slave away, Halleck added the dishonesty of +slandering him. + +When Charles James Fox was canvassing for Parliament, one of his +auditors said to him: + +"Sir, I admire your talents, but d--n your politics!" + +Fox retorted: "Sir, I admire your frankness, but d--n your manners!" + +Many who had official business with Halleck uttered similar +maledictions. To his visitors he was brusque to surliness. Dr. Holmes +says, with great truth, that all men are bores when we do not want +them. Like all public characters, Halleck was beset by those grievous +dispensations of Providence. But a general in command of half a +continent ought, at least, to have the manners of a gentleman; and he +was sometimes so insulting that his legitimate visitors would have +been justified in kicking him down stairs. None of our high officials +equaled him in rudeness, except Mr. Stanton, Secretary of War. + +In January, as a Government steamer approached the landing at +Commerce, Missouri, two women on shore shouted to the pilot: + +"Don't land! Jeff. Thompson and his soldiers are here waiting for you." + +The redoubtable guerrilla, with fifty men, instantly sprang from behind +a wood-pile and fired a volley. Twenty-six bullets entered the cabin +of the retreating boat; but, thanks to the loyal women, no person was +killed or captured. + +[Sidenote: A DROLL FLAG OF TRUCE.] + +One day, a seedy individual in soiled gray walked into Halleck's +private room at the Planter's House, in St. Louis, and, with the +military salute, thus addressed him: + +"Sir, I am an officer of General Price's army, and have brought you a +letter under flag of truce." + +"Where's your flag of truce?" growled Halleck. + +"Here," was the prompt reply, and the Rebel pulled a dirty white rag +from his pocket! + +He had entered our lines, and come one hundred and fifty miles, +without detection, passing pickets, sentinels, guards, and +provost-marshals. Halleck, who plumed himself on his organizing +capacity and rigid police regulations, was not a little chagrined. He +sent back the unique messenger with a letter, assuring Price that he +would shoot as a spy any one repeating the attempt. + + + + +CHAPTER XVII. + + Thou hast most traitorously corrupted the youth of the realm + by erecting a grammar-school.--KING HENRY VI. + + O, 'twas a din to fright a monster's ear, To wake an + earthquake!--TEMPEST. + +[Sidenote: REBEL GUERRILLAS OUTWITTED.] + +In January, Colonel Lawson, of the Missouri Union forces, was captured +by a dozen Rebels, who, after some threats of hanging, decided to +release him upon parole. Not one of them could read or write a line. +Lawson, requested by them to make out his own parole, drew up and +signed an agreement, pledging himself never to take up arms against the +United States of America, or give aid and comfort to its enemies! Upon +this novel promise he was set at liberty. + +On the 3d of February a journalistic friend telegraphed me from Cairo: + + "You can't come too soon: take the first train." + +Immediately obeying the summons, I found that Commodore Foote had gone +up the Tennessee River with the new gunboats. The accompanying land +forces were under the command of an Illinois general named Grant, of +whom the country knew only the following: + +Making a reconnoissance to Belmont, Missouri, opposite Columbus, +Kentucky, he had ventured too far, when the enemy opened on him. +Yielding to the fighting temptation, he made a lively resistance, until +compelled to retreat, leaving behind his dead and wounded. Jefferson +Davis officially proclaimed it a great Confederate success, and Rebel +newspapers grew merry over Grant's bad generalship, expressing the wish +that he might long lead the Yankee armies! + + ----"We, ignorant of ourselves, Beg often for our own harms; + so find we profit By losing of our prayers." + +[Sidenote: EXPEDITION TO FORT HENRY.] + +As the gunboats had never been tested, intense interest was felt +in their success. Approaching Fort Henry, three went forward to +reconnoiter. At the distance of two miles and a half, a twenty-four +pounder rifled ball penetrated the state-room of Captain Porter, +commanding the Essex, passing under his table, and cutting off the feet +of a pair of stockings which hung against the ceiling as neatly as +shears would have cut them. + +"Pretty good shot!" said Porter. "Now we will show them ours." And he +dropped a nine-inch Dahlgren shell right into the fort. + +The next day, a large number of torpedoes, each containing seventy-five +pounds of powder, were fished up from the bottom of the river. The +imprudent tongue of an angry Rebel woman revealed their whereabouts. +Prophesying that the whole fleet would be blown to atoms, she was +compelled to divulge what she knew, or be confined in the guard-house. +In mortal terror she gave the desired information. The torpedoes were +found wet and harmless. Commodore Foote predicted + +"I can take that fort in about an hour and a half." + +The night was excessively rainy and severe upon our boys in blue in +their forest bivouacs; but in the well-furnished cabin of General +Grant's steamer, we found "going to war" an agreeable novelty. + +[Sidenote: ITS CAPTURE BY COMMODORE FOOTE.] + +At mid-day on the 6th, Foote fired his first shot, at the distance +of seventeen hundred yards. Then he slowly approached the fort with +his entire fleet, until within four hundred yards. The Rebel fire was +very severe; but he determined to vindicate the iron-clads or to sink +them in the Tennessee. The wood-work of his flag-ship was riddled by +thirty-one shots, but her iron plating turned off the balls like hail. +All the boats were more or less damaged; but they fully established +their usefulness, and their officers and men behaved with the greatest +gallantry. One poor fellow on the Essex, terribly scalded by the +bursting of a steam drum, learning that the fort was captured, sprung +from his bunk, ran up the hatchway, and cheered until he fell senseless +upon the deck. He died the same night. + +With several fellow-correspondents, I witnessed the fight from the top +of a high tree, up on the river-bank, between the fortification and the +gun-boats. There was little to be seen but smoke. Foote's prediction +proved correct. After he had fired about six hundred shots, just one +hour and fifteen minutes from the beginning, the colors of Fort Henry +were struck, and the gunboats trembled with the cheers and huzzas of +our men. + +The Rebel infantry, numbering four thousand, escaped. Grant's +forces, detained by the mud, came up too late to surround them. +Brigadier-General Lloyd Tilghman, commanding, and the immediate +garrison, were captured. + +In the barracks we found camp-fires blazing, dinners boiling, and +half-made biscuits still in the pans. Pistols, muskets, bowie-knives, +books, tables partially set for dinner, half-written letters, +playing-cards, blankets, and carpet-sacks were scattered about. + +Our soldiers ransacked trunks, arrayed themselves in Rebel coats, +hats, and shirts, armed themselves with Rebel revolvers, stuffed their +pockets with Rebel books and miniatures, and some were soon staggering +under heavy loads of Rebel whisky. + +From the quarters of one officer, I abstracted a small Confederate +flag; the daguerreotype of a female face so regular and classic that, +without close inspection, it was difficult to believe it taken from +life; a long tress of brown hair, and a package of elegantly written +letters, full of a sister's affection. A year afterward I was able to +return these family mementoes to their owner in Jackson, Mississippi. + +[Sidenote: A DELIGHTED NEGRESS.] + +Our shots had made great havoc. Carpet-sacks, trunks, and tables were +torn in pieces, walls and roofs were pierced with holes large enough +for a man to creep through, and cavities plowed in the ground which +would conceal a flour-barrel. A female Marius among the ruins, in the +form of an old negress, stood rubbing her hands with glee. + +"You seem to have had hot work here, aunty." + +"Lord, yes, mass'r, we did just dat! De big balls, dey come whizzing +and tearing 'bout, and I thought de las' judgment was cum, sure." + +"Where are all your soldiers?" + +"Lord A'mighty knows. Dey jus' runned away like turkeys--nebber fired a +gun." + +"How many were there?" + +"Dere was one Arkansas regiment over dere where you see de tents, a +Mississippi regiment dere, another dere, two Tennessee regiments here, +and lots more over de river." + +"Why didn't you run with them?" + +"I was sick, you see" (she could only speak in a whisper); "besides, I +wasn't afraid--only ob de shots. I just thought if dey didn't kill me I +was all right." + +"Where is General Tilghman?" + +"You folks has got him--him and de whole garrison inside de fort." + +"You don't seem to feel very badly about it." + +"Not berry, mass'r!"--with a fresh rub of the hands and a grin all over +her sable face. + +[Sidenote: SCENES IN THE CAPTURED FORTRESS.] + +In the fort, the magazine was torn open, the guns completely shattered, +and the ground stained with blood, brains, and fragments of flesh. +Under gray blankets were six corpses, one with the head torn off and +the trunk completely blackened with powder; others with legs severed +and breasts opened in ghastly wounds. The survivors, stretched upon +cots, rent the air with groans. + +The captured Rebel officers, in a profusion of gold lace, were taken +to Grant's head-quarters. Tilghman was good-looking, broad-shouldered, +with the pompous manner of the South. Commodore Foote asked him: + +"How could you fight against the old flag?" + +"It was hard," he replied, "but I had to go with my people." + +Presently a Chicago reporter inquired of him: + +"How do you spell your name, General?" + +"Sir," replied Tilghman, with indescribable pomposity, "if General +Grant wishes to use my name in his official dispatches, I have no +objection; but, sir, I do not wish to appear at all in this matter in +any newspaper report." + +"I merely asked it," persisted the journalist, "for the list of +prisoners captured." + +Tilghman, whose name should have been Turveydrop, replied, with a lofty +air and a majestic wave of the hand: + +"You will oblige me, sir, by not giving my name in any newspaper +connection whatever!" + +One of the Rebel officers was reminded of the predominance of Union +sentiments among the people about Fort Henry. + +"True, sir," was his reply. "It is always so in these hilly countries. +You see, these d----d Hoosiers don't know any better. For the genuine +southern feeling, sir, you must go among the gentlemen--the rich +people. You won't find any Tories there." + +[Sidenote: COMMODORE FOOTE IN THE PULPIT.] + +The gunboats returned to Cairo for repairs. On the next Sunday morning, +the pastor of the Cairo Presbyterian Church failing to arrive, +Commodore Foote was induced to conduct the services. From the text: + + "Let not your hearts be troubled; ye believe in God; believe + also in me," + +he preached an excellent practical discourse, urging that human +happiness depends upon integrity, pure living, and conscientious +performance of duty. + +The land forces remained near Fort Henry. A few days after the battle, +I stepped into General Grant's head-quarters to bid him good-by, as I +was about starting for New York. + +"You had better wait a day or two," he said. + +"Why?" + +"Because I am going over to capture Fort Donelson to-morrow." + +"How strong is it?" + +"We have not been able to ascertain exactly, but I think we can take +it. At all events, we can try." + +The hopelessly muddy roads and the falling snow were terrible to our +troops, who had no tents; but Grant marched to the fort. On Wednesday +he skirmished and placed his men in position; on Thursday, Friday, and +Saturday, he fought from daylight until dark. On Saturday night, the +sanguine General Pillow telegraphed to Nashville: + + "The day is ours. I have repulsed the enemy at all points, + but I want re-enforcements." + +[Sidenote: THE CAPTURE OF FORT DONELSON.] + +Before dawn on Sunday, the negro servant of a Confederate staff officer +escaped into our lines, and was taken to General Grant. He insisted +that the Rebel commanders were consulting about surrender, and that +Floyd's men were already deserting the fort. A few hours later came a +letter from Buckner, suggesting the appointment of commissioners to +adjust terms of capitulation. Grant wrote in answer: + + "I have no terms but unconditional surrender. I propose to + move immediately upon your works." + +Buckner's response, exquisitely characteristic of the Rebels, +regretfully accepted what he described as Grant's "ungenerous and +unchivalrous terms!" So the North was electrified by a success which +recalled the great battles of Napoleon. + +Grant first invested the garrison with thirteen thousand men. The +enemy's force was twenty-two thousand. For two days, Grant's little +command laid siege to this much larger army, which was protected by +ample fortifications. At the end of the second day, Grant received +re-enforcements, swelling his forces to twenty-six thousand. + +From three to four thousand Rebels, of Floyd's command, escaped from +the fort; others escaped on the way to Cairo, and several thousand were +killed or wounded; but Grant delivered, at Cairo, upward of fifteen +thousand eight hundred prisoners. + +I was in Chicago when these captives, on their way to Camp Douglas, +passed through the streets in sad procession. Motley was the only wear. +A few privates had a stripe on the pantaloons and wore gray military +caps; but most, in slouched hats and garments of gray or butternut, +made no attempt at uniform. Some had the long hair and cadaverous faces +of the extreme South; but under the broad-brimmed hats of the majority, +appeared the full, coarse features of the working classes of Missouri, +Tennessee, and Arkansas. The Chicago citizens, who crowded the streets, +were guilty of no taunts or rude words toward the prisoners. + +Columbus, Kentucky, twenty miles below Cairo, on the highest bluffs of +the Mississippi, was called the Gibraltar of the West, and expected to +be the scene of a great battle. + +On the 4th of March, a naval and land expedition was ready to attack +it. Before leaving Cairo, hundreds of workmen crowded the gunboats, +repairing damages received on the Tennessee River-- + + "With busy hammers closing rivets up, And giving dreadful + notes of preparation." + +Commodore Foote, lame from his Donelson wound, hobbled on board upon +crutches. A great National flag was taken along. + +"Don't forget that," said the commodore. "Fight or no fight, we must +raise it over Columbus!" + +[Sidenote: ARMY AND NAVY OFFICERS CONTRASTED.] + +The leading commanders of the flotilla were from the regular +navy--quiet and unassuming, with no nonsense about them. They were +far freer from envy and jealousy than army officers. Before the war, +the latter had been stationed for years at frontier posts, hundreds +of miles beyond civilization, with no resources except drinking and +gambling, nothing to excite National feeling or prick the bubble of +their State pride. Naval officers, going all over the world, had +acquired the liberality which only travel imparts, and learned that, +abroad, their country was not known as Virginia or Mississippi, but +the _United_ States of America. With them, it was the Nation first, +and the State afterward. Hence, while nearly all southerners holding +commissions in the regular army joined the Rebellion, the navy almost +unanimously remained loyal. + +The low, flat, black iron-clads crept down the river like enormous +turtles. Each had attending it a little pocket edition of a steamboat, +in the shape of a tug, capable of carrying fifty or sixty men, and +moving up the strong current twelve miles an hour. They were constantly +puffing about among the unwieldy vessels like a breathless little +errand-boy. + +[Sidenote: The "Gibraltar of the West."] + +Nearing Columbus, we found that the Rebels had evacuated it twelve +hours before. The town was already held by an enterprising scouting +party of the Second Illinois Cavalry, who had unearthed and raised an +old National flag. Our colors waved from the Rebel Gibraltar, and the +last Confederate soldier had abandoned Kentucky. + +The enemy left in hot haste. Half-burned barracks, chairs, beds, +tables, cooking-stoves, letters, charred gun-carriages, bent +musket-barrels, bayonets, and provisions were promiscuously lying about. + +The main fortifications, on a plateau one hundred and fifty feet high, +mounted eighty-three guns, commanding the river for nearly three miles. +Here, and in the auxiliary works, we captured one hundred and fifty +pieces of artillery. + +[Sidenote: SCENES IN COLUMBUS, KENTUCKY.] + +Fastened to the bluff, we found one end of a great chain cable, +composed of seven-eighths inch iron, which the brilliant Gideon J. +Pillow had stretched across the river, to prevent the passage of our +gunboats! It was worthy of the man who, in Mexico, dug his ditch on +the wrong side of the parapet. The momentum of an iron-clad would have +snapped it like a pipe-stem, had not the current of the river broken it +long before. + +We found, also, enormous piles of torpedoes, which the Rebels had +declared would annihilate the Yankee fleet. They became a standing +jest among our officers, who termed them original members of the Peace +Society, and averred that the rates of marine insurance immediately +declined whenever the companies learned that torpedoes had been planted +in the waters where the boats were to run! + +In the abandoned post-office I collected a bushel of Rebel newspapers, +dating back for several weeks. At first the Memphis journals +extravagantly commended the South Carolina planters for burning their +cotton, after the capture of Port Royal, and urged universal imitation +of their example. They said:-- + + "Let the whole South be made a Moscow; let our enemies find + nothing but blackened ruins to reward their invasion!" + +But when the capture of Donelson rendered the early fall of Memphis +probable, the same journals suddenly changed their tone. They +argued that Moscow was not a parallel case; that it would be highly +injudicious to fire their city, as the Yankees, if they did take it, +would hold it only for a short time; that those who urged applying the +torch should be punished as demagogues and public enemies! But they +abounded in frantic appeals like the following from _The Avalanche_: + +[Sidenote: EXTRACTS FROM REBEL NEWSPAPERS.] + + "For the sake of honor and manhood, we trust no young + unmarried man will suffer himself to be drafted. He would + become a by-word, a scoff, a burning shame to his sex and + his State. If young men in pantaloons will sit behind desks, + counters, and molasses-barrels, let the girls present them + with the garment proper to their peaceable spirits. He that + would go to the field, but cannot, should be aided to do so; + he that can go, but will not, should be made to do so." + +_The Avalanche_ was a great advocate of what is termed the "aggressive +policy," declaring that: + + "The victorious armies of the South should be precipitated + upon the North. Her chief cities should be seized or reduced + to ashes; her armies scattered, her States subjugated, and + her people compelled to defray the expenses of a war which + they have wickedly commenced and obstinately continued. + * * * Fearless and invincible, a race of warriors rivaling + any that ever followed the standard of an Alexander, a Cæsar, + or a Napoleon, the southerners have the power and the will + to carry this war into the enemy's country. Let, then, the + lightnings of a nation's wrath scathe our foul oppressors! + Let the thunder-bolts of war be hurled back upon our + dastardly invaders, from the Atlantic to the Pacific, until + the recognition of southern independence shall be extorted + from the reluctant North, and terms of peace be dictated by a + victorious southern army at New York or Chicago." + +General Jeff. Thompson, a literary Missouri bushwhacker, was termed the +"Swamp Fox" and the "Marion of the Southern Revolution." I found one of +his effusions, entitled "Home Again," in that once decorous journal, +_The New Orleans Picayune_. Its transition from the pathetic to the +profane is a curious anticlimax. + + "My dear wife waits my coming, + My children lisp my name, + And kind friends bid me welcome + To my own home again. + My father's grave lies on the hill, + My boys sleep in the vale; + I love each rock and murmuring rill, + Each mountain, hill, and dale. + + I'll suffer hardships, toil, and pain, + For the good time sure to come; + I'll battle long that I may gain + My freedom and my home. + I will return, though foes may stand + Disputing every rod; + My own dear home, my native land, + I'll win you yet, by ---!" + +[Sidenote: INMATES OF THE UNION HOSPITALS.] + +Our hospitals at Mound City, Illinois, contained fourteen hundred +inmates. A walk along the double rows of cots in the long wards +revealed the sadder phase of war. Here was a typhoid-fever patient, +motionless and unconscious, the light forever gone out from his glazed +eyes; here a lad, pale and attenuated, who, with a shattered leg, had +lain upon this weary couch for four months. There was a Tennessean, +who, abandoning his family, came stealthily hundreds of miles to enlist +under the Stars and Stripes, with perfect faith in their triumph, and +had lost a leg at Donelson; an Illinoisan, from the same battle, with +a ghastly aperture in the face, still blackened with powder from his +enemy's rifle; a young officer in neat dressing-gown, furnished by the +United States Sanitary Commission, sitting up reading a newspaper, +but with the sleeve of his left arm limp and empty; marines terribly +scalded by the bursting boiler of the Essex at Fort Henry, some of +whose whole bodies were one continuous scar. Sick, wounded, and +convalescent were alike cheerful; and twenty-five Sisters of Mercy, +worthy of their name, moved noiselessly among them, ministering to +their wants. + + + + +CHAPTER XVIII. + + Now would I give a thousand furlongs of sea for an acre of + barren ground. The wills above be done! but I would fain die + a dry death.--TEMPEST. + + If it should thunder as it did before, I know not where to + lay my head.--IBID. + + +[Sidenote: STARTING DOWN THE MISSISSIPPI.] + +On the 14th of March, the flotilla again started down the Mississippi, +steaming slowly by Columbus, where Venus followed close upon Mars, in +the form of two women disbursing pies and some other commodities to +sailors and soldiers. The next day we anchored above Island Number Ten, +where Beauregard had built formidable fortifications. + +A fast little Rebel gunboat, called the Grampus, ran screeching away +from the range of our guns. Below her we could read with glasses the +names painted upon the many steamers lying in front of the enemy's +works, and see the guns upon a great floating battery. + +Our gunboats fired one or two experimental shots, and the mortar-rafts, +with tremendous explosions, began to throw their ten-inch shells, +weighing two hundred and fifty pounds each. Great results were expected +from these enormous mortars, but they proved inaccurate. Our shots +fell among the batteries and steamboats of the enemy, throwing up +clouds of dirt and sheets of water. The Rebel guns replied with great +puffs of smoke; but their missiles, bounding along the river, fell +three-quarters of a mile short. + +Light skirmishing in closer range continued for several days. My +own quarters were on the Benton, Commodore Foote's flagship. She was +the largest of the iron-clads, one hundred and eighty-three feet by +seventy, and contained quite a little community of two hundred and +forty men. + +Standing upon the hurricane roof, directly over our bow-guns, we caught +the first glimpse of each shot, a few feet from the muzzle, and watched +it rushing through the air like a round, black meteor, till it exploded +two or three miles away. After we saw the warning puff of smoke, the +time seemed very long before each Rebel shot struck the water near us; +but no more than ten or fifteen seconds ever elapsed. + +When ready to attack the batteries, Commodore Foote said to me: + +"You had better take your place with the other correspondents, upon a +transport in the rear, out of range. Should any accident befall you +here, censure would be cast upon me for permitting you to stay." + +Haunted by a resistless curiosity to learn exactly how one feels under +fire, I persuaded him to let me remain. + +[Sidenote: BOMBARDMENT OF ISLAND NUMBER TEN.] + +Two other iron-clads, the St. Louis and the Cincinnati, were lashed +upon either side of the Benton. Hammocks were taken down and piled +in front of the boilers to protect them; the hose was attached to +reservoirs of hot water, designed for boarders in close conflict; +surgeons scrutinized the edges of their instruments, while our triple +floating battery moved slowly down, with the other iron-clads a short +distance in the rear. We opened fire, and the balls of the enemy soon +replied, now and then striking our boats. + +A deafening noise from the St. Louis shook every plank beneath our +feet. A moment after, a dozen men rushed upon her deck, their faces +so blackened by powder that they would have been taken for negroes. +Two were carrying the lifeless form of a third; several others were +wounded. Through the din of the cannonade, one of her crew shouted to +us from a port-hole that an old forty-two pounder had exploded, killing +and mutilating several men. + +[Sidenote: "HERE COMES ANOTHER SHOT."] + +We obtained the best view from the hurricane deck of the Benton, where +there could be no special danger from splinters. While we stood there, +one of the party was constantly on the look-out, and, seeing a puff of +smoke curl up from the Rebel battery, he would shout: + +"Here comes another!" + +Then we all dropped upon our faces behind the iron-plated pilot-house, +which rose from the deck like a great umbrella. The screaming shot +would sometimes strike our bows, but usually pass over, falling into +the water behind us. + +While the Rebels fired from one battery, there was just sufficient +excitement to make it interesting; but when they opened with two +others, stationed at different points in the bend of the river, their +range completely covered the pilot-house. Dropping behind that shelter +to avoid the missiles in front, we were exposed to a hail of shot from +the side. Thereupon the commodore peremptorily ordered us below, and we +went down upon the gun-deck. + +A correspondent of _The Chicago Times_, who chanced to be on board, +took a position in the stern of the boat, under the impression that +it was entirely safe. A moment after he came rushing in with blanched +face and dripping clothing. A shot had struck within three feet of him, +glancing into the river, and drenching every thing in the vicinity. + +That long gun-deck was alive with action. The executive officer, +Lieutenant Bishop, a gallant young fellow, fresh from the naval school, +superintended every thing. Swarthy gunners manned the pieces; little +powder-boys rushed to and fro with ammunition, and hurrying men crowded +the long compartment. + +There came a tremendous crashing of glass, iron, and wood! An +eight-inch solid shot, penetrating the half-inch iron plating and +the five-inch timber, near the bows, as if they were paper, buried +itself in the deck, and rebounded, striking the roof. In that manner +it danced along the entire length of the boat, through the cabin, the +ward-room, the machinery, the pantry--where it smashed a great deal of +crockery--until, at the extreme stern, it fell and remained upon the +commodore's writing-desk, crushing in the lid. + +A moment before the noisy, agile visitor arrived, the whole deck seemed +crowded with busy men. A moment after, I looked again. A score of +undismayed fellows were comfortably blowing splinters from their mouths +and beards, and brushing them from their hair and faces; but, by a +fortunate accident, not a single one of them was hurt. + +[Sidenote: HOW ONE FEELS UNDER FIRE.] + +As the shot screamed along very near me, my curiosity diminished. I had +a dim perception that nothing in this gunboat life could become me like +the leaving of it. A mulatto cabin-boy, whose face turned almost white +when the missile tore through the boat, shared my sensations. + +"I wish that I was out of it," he said, confidentially; "but I put my +own neck into this yoke, and I have got to wear it." + +Toward evening, some of the enemy's batteries were silent, and +we idlers once more sought the hurricane deck, dodging behind the +pilot-house whenever the smoke puffed from the hostile guns. Once, some +one cried, "There she comes!" and we dropped as usual. Looking up, I +noticed a second engineer standing beside me. + +"Lie down, Blakely!" I said, sharply. + +He replied laughingly, with his hands in his pockets: + +"O no, there is no need of it; one is just as safe here." + +While he spoke, the Rebel shot passed within fifteen inches of his +bloodless face, shaved a sheet-iron ventilator, tore through the +chimney, severed a large wrought-iron rod, struck the deck, plowed +through a half-inch iron plate, neatly cutting it in two, passed under +the next plate, and then came out again, with its force spent, and +rolled languidly against a sky-light. When he felt the rush of air, +Blakely bent back almost double, and thereafter he was among the first +to seek the shelter of the pilot-house. + +[Sidenote: FIFTY SHOTS TO THE MINUTE.] + +From the mortars and the guns on both sides, there were sometimes fifty +shots to the minute. The jarrings and explosions induced head-ache for +hours afterward. The results of the day's bombardment were not very +sanguinary. Our iron-clads were struck scores of times, but few men +were injured. This desultory fighting was kept up for two or three +weeks. + +Meanwhile, General Pope, moving across the country from Cairo with +great enterprise and activity, had defeated the Rebels and captured +their forts at New Madrid, on the Missouri shore of the Mississippi, +eight miles below Island Number Ten. He thus held the river in the rear +of the enemy, preventing steamboats from ascending to them; but he had +not even a skiff or a raft in which he could cross to the Tennessee +bank, and reach the rear of the fortifications. How to supply him with +boats was the great problem. + +Pope was anxious that the commodore should send one of the iron-clads +to him, past the Rebel fortifications. Foote hesitated, as running +batteries was then an untried experiment. + +Pope had an active, hard-working Illinois engineer regiment, which +began cutting a canal, to open communication between the flotilla and +New Madrid; and we waited for results. + +[Sidenote: DAILY LIFE ON A GUNBOAT.] + +I found life on the Benton full of novelty. More than half of her crew +were old salts, and the discipline was the same as on a man-of-war. +Half-hour bells marked the passage of time. Every morning the deck was +holystoned to its utmost possibilities of whiteness. Through each day +we heard the shrill whistle of the boatswain, amid hoarse calls of "All +hands to quarters," "Stand by the hammocks!" etc. + +Even the negro servants caught the naval expressions. One of them, +playing on the guitar and singing, broke down from too high a pitch. + +"Too much elevation there," said he. "I must depress a little." + +"Yes," replied another. "Start again on the gun-deck." + +Exchanging shots with the enemy grew monotonous. Reading, writing, or +playing chess in the ward-room, we carelessly noted the reports from +the Rebel batteries, and some officer from the deck walked in, saying: + +"There's another!" + +"Where did it strike?" asked some one, quite carelessly. + +"Near us," or "Just over us in the woods," would be the reply; and the +idlers returned to their employments. + +My own state-room was within six feet of a thirty-two pounder, which +fired every fifteen minutes during the day. The explosions in no wise +disturbed my afternoon naps. + +On Sunday mornings, after the weekly muster, the men in clean blue +shirts and tidy clothing, and the officers, in full uniform, with all +their bravery of blue and gold, assembled on the gun-deck for religious +service. Hat in hand, they stood in a half circle around the commodore, +who, behind a high stool, upon which the National flag was spread, read +the comprehensive prayer for "All who are afflicted in mind, body, or +estate," or acknowledged that "We have done the things which we ought +not to have done, and left undone the things which we ought to have +done." + +Among the groups of worshipers were seen the gaping mouths of the black +guns, and the pyramidal piles of grape and canister ready for use. +During prayer, the boat was often shaken by the discharge of a mortar, +which made the neighboring woods resound with its long, rolling echoes. +The commodore extemporized a brief, simple address on Christian life +and duty; then the men were "piped down" and dispersed. + +[Sidenote: THE CARONDELET RUNS THE BATTERIES.] + +On a dark April night, during a terrific thunder-shower, the iron-clad +Carondelet started to run the gantlet. The undertaking was deemed +hazardous in the extreme. The commodore gave to her commander written +instructions how to destroy her, should she become disabled; and +solemnly commended him to the mercy and protection of Almighty God. + +The Carondelet crept noiselessly down through the darkness. When the +Rebels discovered her, they opened with shot, shell, and bullets. All +her ports were closed, and she did not fire a gun. It was too dark to +guide her by the insufficient glimpses of the shore obtained from the +little peep-holes of her pilot-house. Mr. D. R. Hoell, an old river +pilot, volunteered to remain unprotected on the open upper deck, among +the rattling shots and the singing bullets, to give information to his +partners within. His daring was promptly rewarded by an appointment as +lieutenant in the navy. + +Upon the flag-ship above intense anxiety prevailed. After an hour, +which seemed a day, from far down the river boomed two heavy reports; +then there was silence, then two shots again. All gave a sigh of +relief. This was the signal that the Carondelet had lived through the +terrible ordeal! + +[Sidenote: WONDERFUL FEAT OF POPE'S ENGINEERS.] + +The Rebels had made themselves very merry over Pope's canal. But, at +daylight on the second morning after this feat of the iron-clad, they +saw four little stern-wheel steamboats lying in front of Pope's camps. +The canal was a success! In two weeks the indefatigable engineers had +brought these steamers from Foote's flotilla, sixteen miles, through +corn-fields, woods, and swamps, cutting channels from one bayou to +another, and felling heavy timber all the way. They were compelled to +saw off hundreds of huge trees, three feet below the water's edge. It +was one of the most creditable feats of the war. + + "Let all the world take notice," said a Confederate + newspaper, "that the southern troops are gentlemen, and must + be subjected to no drudgery." + +The loyal troops, like these Illinois engineers, were men of skilled +industry, proud to know themselves "kings of two hands." + +The Confederates felt that Birnam wood had come to Dunsinane. +Declaring that it was useless to fight men who would deliberately +float gunboats by the very muzzles of their heavy guns, and could run +steamers sixteen miles over dry land, they began to evacuate Island +Number Ten. But Pope had already ferried the greater part of his army +across the river, and he replied to my inquiries: + +"I will have every mother's son of them!" + +[Sidenote: THE REBELS EFFECTIVELY CAGED.] + +He kept his promise. The Rebels were caged. They fled in haste across +the country to Tiptonville, where they supposed their steamboats +awaited them. Instead, they found two of our iron-clads lying in front +of the town, and learned that Pope held the river even ten miles +below. The trap was complete. On their front was Tiptonville, with +the cavernous eyes of the Carondelet and the Pittsburgh ominously +scrutinizing them. At their left was an impassable line of lake and +slough; at their right a dry region, bounded by the river, and held by +our troops; in their rear, Pope's army was hotly pursuing them. Some +leaped into the lake or plunged into the swamps, trying to escape. +Three times the Rebel forces drew up in line of battle; but they +were too much demoralized to fight, and, after a weary night, they +surrendered unconditionally. + +At sunrise, long files of stained, bedraggled soldiers, in butternut +and jeans, began to move sadly into a great corn-field, and stack +their arms. The prisoners numbered twenty-eight hundred. We captured +upward of a hundred heavy guns, twenty-five field-pieces, half a dozen +steamboats, and immense supplies of provisions and ammunition. The +victory was won with trifling loss of life, and reflected the highest +credit both upon the land and water forces. The army and the navy, +fitting together like the two blades of the scissors, had cut the +gordian knot. + +Pope telegraphed to Halleck that, if steamboats could be furnished +him, in four days he would plant the Stars and Stripes in Memphis. +Halleck, as usual, engrossed in strategy, declined to supply the +transportation. + +[Sidenote: THE NORTHERN FLOOD ROLLING ON.] + +But the great northern flood rolled on toward the Gulf, and in its +resistless torrent was no refluent wave. + + + + +CHAPTER XIX. + + Of sallies and retires; of trenches, tents, Of palisadoes, + frontiers, parapets; Of basilisks, of cannon, culverin; And + all the currents of a heady fight.--KING HENRY IV. + +[Sidenote: THE BATTLE OF SHILOH.] + +Simultaneously with the capture of Island Number Ten occurred the +battle of Shiloh. The first reports were very wild, stating our loss +at seventeen thousand, and asserting that the Union commander had been +disastrously surprised, and hundreds of men bayoneted in their tents. +It was even added that Grant was intoxicated during the action. This +last fiction showed the tenacity of a bad name. Years before, Grant was +intemperate; but he had abandoned the habit soon after the beginning of +the war. + +General Albert Sydney Johnson was killed, and Beauregard ultimately +driven back, leaving his dead and wounded in our hands; but Jefferson +Davis, with the usual Rebel policy, announced in a special message to +the Confederate Congress: + + "It has pleased Almighty God again to crown the Confederate + arms with a glorious and decided victory over our invaders." + +I went up the Tennessee River by a boat crowded with +representatives--chiefly women--of the Sanitary Commissions of +Cincinnati, St. Louis, and Chicago. + +[Sidenote: THE REVEREND ROBERT COLYER.] + +One evening, religious services were held in the cabin. A clergyman +exhorted his hearers, when they should arrive at the bloody field, to +minister to the spiritual as well as physical wants of the sufferers. +With special infelicity, he added: + +"Many of them have doubtless been wicked men; but you can, at least, +remind them of divine mercy, and tell them the story of the thief on +the cross." + +The next speaker, a quiet gentleman, wearing the blouse of a private +soldier, after some remarks about practical religion, added: + +"I can not agree with the last brother. I believe we shall best serve +the souls of our wounded soldiers by ministering, for the present, +simply to their bodies. For my own part, I feel that he who has fallen +fighting for our country--for your Cause and mine--is more of a man +than I am. He may have been wicked; but I think room will be found for +him among the many mansions above. I should be ashamed to tell him the +story of the thief on the cross." + +Hearty, spontaneous clapping of hands through the crowded cabin +followed this sentiment--a rather unusual demonstration for a +prayer-meeting. The speaker was the Rev. Robert Colyer, of Chicago. + +With officers who had participated in the battle, I visited every part +of the field. The ground was broken by sharp hills, deep ravines, and +dense timber, which the eye could not penetrate. + +The reports of a surprise were substantially untrue. No man was +bayoneted in his tent, or anywhere else, according to the best evidence +I could obtain. + +But the statements, said to come from Grant and Sherman, that they +could not have been better prepared, had they known that Beauregard +designed to attack, were also untrue. Our troops were not encamped +advantageously for battle. Raw and unarmed regiments were on the +extreme front, which was not picketed or scouted as it should have been +in the face of an enemy. + +Beauregard attacked on Sunday morning at daylight. The Rebels greatly +outnumbered the Unionists, and impetuously forced them back. Grant's +army was entirely western. It contained representatives of nearly every +county in Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, and Wisconsin. + +Partially unprepared, and steadily driven back, often ill commanded and +their organizations broken, the men fought with wonderful tenacity. It +was almost a hand-to-hand conflict. Confederates and Loyalists, from +behind trees, within thirty feet of each other, kept up a hot fire, +shouting respectively, "Bull Run!" and "Donelson!" + +Prentiss' shattered division, in that dense forest, was flanked before +its commander knew that the supporting forces--McClernand on his right +and Hurlbut on his left--had been driven back. Messengers sent to him +by those commanders were killed. During a lull in the firing, Prentiss +was lighting his cigar from the pipe of a soldier when he learned that +the enemy was on both sides of him, half a mile in his rear. With the +remnant of his command he was captured. + +[Sidenote: A UNION ORATOR CAPTURED.] + +Remaining in Rebel hands for six months, he was enabled to indulge in +oratory to his heart's content. Southern papers announced, with intense +indignation, that Prentiss--occupying, with his officers, an entire +train--called out by the bystanders, was permitted to make radical +Union speeches at many southern railway stations. Removed from prison +to prison, the Illinois General continued to harangue the people, and +his men to sing the "Star-Spangled Banner," until at last the Rebels +were glad to exchange them. + +[Sidenote: GRANT AND SHERMAN IN BATTLE.] + +Throughout the battle, Grant rode to and fro on the front, smoking his +inevitable cigar, with his usual stolidity and good fortune. Horses +and men were killed all around him, but he did not receive a scratch. +On that wooded field, it was impossible for any one to keep advised of +the progress of the struggle. Grant gave few orders, merely bidding his +generals do the best they could. + +Sherman had many hair-breadth 'scapes. His bridle-rein was cut off by a +bullet within two inches of his fingers. As he was leaning forward in +the saddle, a ball whistled through the top and back of his hat. His +metallic shoulder-strap warded off another bullet, and a third passed +through the palm of his hand. Three horses were shot under him. He was +the hero of the day. All awarded to him the highest praise for skill +and gallantry. He was promoted to a major-generalship, dating from +the battle. His official report was a clear, vivid, and fascinating +description of the conflict. + +Five bullets penetrated the clothing of an officer on McClernand's +staff, but did not break the skin. A ball knocked out two front teeth +of a private in the Seventeenth Illinois Infantry, but did him no +further injury. A rifle-shot passed through the head of a soldier in +the First Missouri Artillery, coming out just above the ear, but did +not prove fatal. Dr. Cornyn, of St. Louis, told me that he extracted a +ball from the brain of one soldier, who, three days afterward, was on +duty, with the bullet in his pocket. + +More than a year afterward, at the battle of Fredericksburg, Captain +Richard Cross, of the Fifth New Hampshire Infantry, noticed one of his +men whose skull had been cut open by the fragment of a shell, with a +section of it standing upright, leaving the brain exposed. Cross shut +the piece of skull down like the lid of a teapot, tied a handkerchief +around it, and sent to the rear the wounded soldier, who ultimately +recovered. The one truth, taught by field experience to army surgeons, +was that few, if any, wounds are invariably fatal. + +[Sidenote: A GALLANT FEAT BY SWEENEY.] + +At Shiloh, Brigadier-General Thomas W. Sweeney, who had lost one arm +in the Mexican War, received a Minié bullet in his remaining arm, and +another shot in his foot, while his horse fell riddled with seven +balls. Almost fainting from loss of blood, he was lifted upon another +horse, and remained on the field through the entire day. His coolness +and his marvelous escapes were talked of before many camp-fires +throughout the army. + +Once, during the battle, he was unable to determine whether a battery +whose men were dressed in blue, was Rebel or Union. Sweeney, leaving +his command, rode at a gentle gallop directly toward the battery until +within pistol-shot, saw that it was manned by Confederates, turned in +a half circle, and rode back again at the same easy pace. Not a single +shot was fired at him, so much was the respect of the Confederates +excited by this daring act. I afterward met one of them, who described +with great vividness the impression which Sweeney's gallantry made upon +them. + +The steady determination of Grant's troops during that long April +Sunday, was perhaps unequaled during the war. At night companies +were commanded by sergeants, regiments by lieutenants, and brigades +by majors. In several regiments, one-half the men were killed and +wounded; and in some entire divisions the killed and wounded exceeded +thirty-three per cent, of the numbers who went into battle. + +I have seen no other field which gave indication of such deadly +conflict as the Shiloh ridges and ravines, everywhere covered with a +very thick growth of timber-- + + "Shot-sown and bladed thick with steel." + +In one tree I counted sixty bullet-holes; another bore marks of more +than ninety balls within ten feet of the ground. Sometimes, for several +yards in the dense shrubbery, it was difficult to find a twig as large +as one's finger, which had not been cut off by balls. + +A friend of mine counted one hundred and twenty-six dead Rebels, +lying where they fell, upon an area less than fifty yards wide and +a quarter of a mile long. One of our details buried in a single +trench one hundred and forty-seven of the enemy, including three +lieutenant-colonels and four majors. + +But our forces, overpowered by numbers, fell farther and further back, +while the Rebels took possession of many Union camps. At night, our +line, originally three miles in length, was shortened to three-quarters +of a mile. + +[Sidenote: BUELL'S OPPORTUNE ARRIVAL.] + +For weeks the inscrutable Buell had been leisurely marching through +Kentucky and Tennessee, to join Grant. He arrived at the supreme +moment. At four o'clock on that Sunday afternoon, General Nelson, of +Kentucky, who commanded Buell's advance, crossed the Tennessee, and +rode up to Grant and his staff when the battle was raging. + +"Here we are, General," said Nelson, with the military salute, +and pointing to long files of his well-clad, athletic, admirably +disciplined fellows, already pouring on the steamboats, to be ferried +across the river. "Here we are! We are not very military in our +division. We don't know many fine points or nice evolutions; but if you +want stupidity and hard fighting, I reckon we are the men for you." + +That night both armies lay upon their guns, and the opposing pickets +were often within a hundred yards of each other. The groans and cries +of the dying rendered it impossible to sleep. Grant said: + +"We must not give the enemy the moral advantage of attacking to-morrow +morning. We must fire the first gun." + +Just at day-break, the Rebels were surprised at all points of the line +by assaults from the foe whom they had supposed vanquished. Grant's +shattered troops behaved admirably, and Buell's splendid army won +new laurels. The Confederates were forced back at all points. Their +retreat was a stampede, leaving behind great quantities of ammunition, +commissary stores, guns, caissons, small arms, supply-wagons and +ambulances. They were not vigorously followed; but as no effective +pursuit was made by either side during the entire war (until Sheridan, +in one of its closing scenes, captured Lee), perhaps northern and +southern troops were too equally matched for either to be thoroughly +routed. + +[Sidenote: Beauregard Finally Routed.] + +Beauregard withdrew to Corinth, as usual, announcing a glorious +victory. He addressed a letter to Grant, asking permission, under flag +of truce, to send a party to the battle-field to bury the Confederate +dead. He prefaced the request as follows: + + "Sir, at the close of the conflict of yesterday, my forces + being exhausted by the extraordinary length of the time + during which they were engaged with yours on that and the + preceding day, and it being apparent that you had received + and were still receiving re-enforcements, I felt it my + duty to withdraw my troops from the immediate scene of the + conflict." + +Grant was strongly tempted to assure Beauregard that no apologies for +his retreat were necessary! But he merely replied in a courteous note, +declining the request, and stating that the dead were already interred. + +[Sidenote: THE LOSSES ON BOTH SIDES.] + +The losses on both sides were officially reported as follows: + + Killed. Wounded. Missing. Total. + Union 1,614 7,721 3,963 13,298 + Rebel 1,728 8,012 959 10,699 + +The excess of Rebel wounded was owing to the superiority of the +muskets used by the Federal soldiers; and the excess of Union missing, +to the capture of Prentiss' division. + + + + +CHAPTER XX. + + How use doth breed a habit in a man.--TWO GENTLEMEN OF VERONA. + + ----But let me tell the world, If he outlive the envy of + this day, England did never owe so sweet a hope So much + misconstrued.--HENRY IV. + + +It was long after the battle of Shiloh before all the dead were buried. +Many were interred in trenches, scores together. A friend, who was +engaged in this revolting labor, told me that, after three or four +days, he found himself counting off the bodies as indifferently as he +would have measured cord-wood. + +General Halleck soon arrived, assuming command of the combined forces +of Grant, Buell, and Pope. It was a grand army. + +[Sidenote: GRANT UNDER A CLOUD.] + +Grant nominally remained at the head of his corps, but was deprived +of power. He was under a cloud. Most injurious reports concerning his +conduct at Shiloh pervaded the country. All the leading journals were +represented in Halleck's army. At the daily accidental gatherings of +eight or ten correspondents, Grant was the subject of angry discussion. +The journalistic profession tends to make men oracular and severely +critical. + +Several of these writers could demonstrate conclusively that Grant was +without capacity, but a favorite of Fortune; that his great Donelson +victory was achieved in spite of military blunders which ought to have +defeated him. + +[Sidenote: HE SERENELY SMOKES AND WAITS.] + +The subject of all this contention bore himself with undisturbed +serenity. Sherman, while constantly declaring that he cared nothing for +the newspapers, was foolishly sensitive to every word of criticism. But +Grant, whom they really wounded, appeared no more disturbed by these +paper bullets of the brain than by the leaden missiles of the enemy. He +silently smoked and waited. The only protest I ever knew him to utter +was to the correspondent of a journal which had denounced him with +great severity: + +"Your paper is very unjust to me; but time will make it all right. I +want to be judged only by my acts." + +When the army began to creep forward, I messed at Grant's +head-quarters, with his chief of staff; and around the evening +camp-fires I saw much of the general. He rarely uttered a word upon the +political bearings of the war; indeed, he said little upon any subject. +With his eternal cigar, and his head thrown slightly to one side, for +hours he would sit silently before the fire, or walk back and forth, +with eyes upon the ground, or look on at our whist-table, now and then +making a suggestion about the play. + +Most of his pictures greatly idealize his full, rather heavy face. The +journalists called him stupid. One of my _confrères_ used to say: + +"How profoundly surprised Mrs. Grant must have been, when she woke up +and learned that her husband was a great man!" + +He impressed me as possessing great purity, integrity, and amiability, +with excellent judgment and boundless pluck. But I should never have +suspected him of military genius. Indeed, nearly every man of whom, +at the beginning of the war, I prophesied a great career, proved +inefficient, and _vice versâ_. + +[Sidenote: JEALOUSIES OF MILITARY MEN.] + +Military men seem to cherish more jealousies than members of any other +profession, except physicians and _artistes_. At almost every general +head-quarters, one heard denunciations of rival commanders. Grant was +above this "mischievous foul sin of chiding." I never heard him speak +unkindly of a brother officer. Still, the soldier's taint had slightly +poisoned him. He regarded Rosecrans with peculiar antipathy, and +finally accepted the command of our combined armies only on condition +that he should be at once removed. + +Hooker once boasted that he had the best army on the planet. One +would have declared that Grant commanded the worst. There was little +of that order, perfect drill, or pride, pomp, and circumstance, seen +among Buell's troops and in the Army of the Potomac. But Grant's +rough, rugged soldiers would fight wonderfully, and were not easily +demoralized. If their line became broken, every man, from behind a +tree, rock, or stump, blazed away at the enemy on his own account. They +did not throw up their hats at sight of their general, but were wont to +remark, with a grim smile: + +"There goes the old man. He doesn't say much; but he's a pretty hard +nut for Johnny Reb. to crack." + +Unlike Halleck, Grant did not pretend to familiarity with the details +of military text-books. He could not move an army with that beautiful +symmetry which McClellan displayed; but his pontoons were always up, +and his ammunition trains were never missing. + +Though not occupied with details, he must have given them close +attention; for, while other commanding generals had forty or fifty +staff-officers, brilliant with braid and buttons, Grant allowed himself +but six or seven. + +[Sidenote: THE UNION AND REBEL WOUNDED.] + +Within ten days after the battle of Shiloh, nineteen large steamers, +crowded with wounded, passed down the river. In the long rows of cots +which filled their cabins and crowded their guards, Rebel and Union +soldiers were lying side by side, and receiving the same attendance. + +Scores of volunteer physicians aided the regular army surgeons. +Hundreds of volunteer nurses, many of them wives, sisters, and mothers, +came from every walk of life to join in the work of mercy. Hands +hardened with toil, and hands that leisure and luxury left white and +soft, were bathing fevered brows, supporting wearied heads, washing +repulsive wounds, combing matted and bloody locks. + +Patient forms kept nightly vigils beside the couches; gentle tones +dropped priceless words of sympathy; and, when all was over, tender +hands closed the fixed eyes, and smoothed the hair upon the white +foreheads. Thousands of poor fellows carried to their homes, both +North and South, grateful memories of those heroic women; thousands +of hearts, wrung with the tidings that loved ones were gone, found +comfort in the knowledge that their last hours were soothed by those +self-denying and blessed ministrations. + +One man, who had received several bullets, lay undiscovered for eight +days in a little thicket, with no nourishment except rain-water. After +discovery he lived nearly two weeks. At some points the ground was so +closely covered with mutilated bodies that it was difficult to step +between them. One soldier, rigid in death, was found lying upon the +back, holding in his fixed hand, and regarding with stony eyes, the +daguerreotype of a woman and child. It was terribly suggestive of the +desolate homes and bleeding hearts which almost force one to Cicero's +conclusion, that any peace is better than the justest war. + + + + +CHAPTER XXI. + + They are the abstract and brief chronicles of the + time.--HAMLET. + +[Sidenote: AN INTERVIEW WITH GENERAL SHERMAN.] + + +General Sherman was very violent toward the Press. Some newspapers had +treated him unjustly early in the war. While he commanded in Kentucky, +his eccentricities were very remarkable, and a journalist started the +report that Sherman was crazy, which obtained wide credence. There +was, at least, method in his madness; for his supposed insanity which +declared that the Government required two hundred thousand troops in +the West, though hooted at the time, proved wisdom and prophecy. + +Nevertheless, he was very erratic. When I first saw him in Missouri, +during Fremont's administration, his eye had a half-wild expression, +probably the result of excessive smoking. From morning till night he +was never without his cigar. To the nervous-sanguine temperament, +indicated by his blonde hair, light eyes, and fair complexion, tobacco +is peculiarly injurious. + +While many insisted that no correspondent could meet Sherman without +being insulted, I sought him at his tent in the field; he was absent +with a scouting party, but soon returned, with one hand bandaged from +his Shiloh wound. A staff-officer introduced me: + +"General, this is Mr. ----." + +"How do you do, Mr. ----?" inquired Sherman, with great suavity, +offering me his uninjured hand. + +"Correspondent of _The New York Tribune_," added the lieutenant. + +[Sidenote: HIS COMPLAINTS ABOUT THE PRESS.] + +The general's manner changed from Indian summer to a Texas norther, and +he asked, in freezing tones: + +"Have you not come to the wrong place, sir?" + +"I think not. I want to learn some facts about the late battle from +your own lips. You complain that journalists misrepresent you. How +can they avoid it, when you refuse to give them proper information? +Some officers are drunkards and charlatans; but you would think it +unjust if we condemned all on that account. Is it not equally absurd to +anathematize every man of my profession for the sins of a few unworthy +members?" + +"Perhaps it is. Sit down. Will you have a cigar? The trouble is, that +you of the Press have no responsibilities. Some worthless fellow, +wielding a quill, may send falsehoods about me to thousands of people +who can never hear them refuted. What can I do? His readers do not know +that he is without character. It would be useless to prosecute him. If +he would even fight there would be some satisfaction in that; but a +slanderer is likely to be a coward as well." + +"True; but when some private citizen slanders you on the street or +in a drinking-saloon, you do not find it necessary to pull the nose +of every civilian whom you meet. Reputable journalists have just as +much pride in their profession as you have in yours. This tendency to +treat them superciliously and harshly, which encourages flippant young +staff-officers to insult them, tends to drive them home in disgust, and +leave their places to be supplied by a less worthy class; so you only +aggravate the evil you complain of." + +[Sidenote: SHERMAN'S PERSONAL APPEARANCE.] + +After further conversation on this subject, Sherman gave me a very +entertaining account of the battle. Since I first saw him, his eye had +grown much calmer, and his nervous system healthier. He is tall, of +bony frame, spare in flesh, with thin, wrinkled face, sandy beard and +hair, and bright, restless eyes. His face indicates great vitality and +activity; his manner is restless; his discourse rapid and earnest. He +looks rather like an anxious man of business than an ideal soldier, +suggesting the exchange, and not the camp. + +He has great capacity for labor--sometimes working for twenty +consecutive hours. He sleeps little, nor do the most powerful opiates +relieve his terrible cerebral excitement. Indifferent to dress and to +fare, he can live on hard bread and water, and fancies any one else +can do so. Often irritable, and sometimes rude, he is a man of great +originality and daring, and a most valuable lieutenant for a general +of coolness and judgment, like Grant or Thomas. With one of them to +plan or modify, he is emphatically the man to execute. His purity +and patriotism are beyond all question. He did not enter the army to +speculate in cotton, or to secure a seat in the United States Senate, +but to serve the country. + +Military weaknesses are often amusing. A prominent officer on Halleck's +staff, who had served with Scott in Mexico, had something to do with +fortifying Island Number Ten, after its capture. An obscure country +newspaper gave another officer the credit. Seeking the agent of the +Associated Press at Halleck's head-quarters, the aggrieved engineer +remarked: + +"By the way, Mr. Weir, I have been carrying a paper in my pocket for +several days, but have forgotten to hand it to you. Here it is." + +And he produced a letter page of denial, upon which the ink was not +yet dry, stating that the island had been fortified under the immediate +direction of General ----, the well-known officer of the regular army, +who served upon the staff of Lieutenant-General Scott during the +Mexican war, and was at present ----, ----, and ---- upon the staff of +General Halleck. + +"I rely upon your sense of justice," said this ornament of the staff, +"to give this proper publicity." + +[Sidenote: HUMORS OF THE TELEGRAPH.] + +Mr. Weir, with a keen sense of the ridiculous, sent the long dispatch +word for word to the Associated Press, adding: "You may rest assured +that this is perfectly reliable, because every word of it was written +by the old fool himself!" All the newspaper readers in the country had +the formal dispatch, and all the telegraph corps had their merriment +over this confidential addendum. + +Halleck's command contained eighty thousand effective men, who were +nearly all veterans. His line was ten miles in length, with Grant on +the right, Buell in the center, and Pope on the left. + +The grand army was like a huge serpent, with its head pinned on our +left, and its tail sweeping slowly around toward Corinth. Its majestic +march was so slow that the Rebels had ample warning. It was large +enough to eat up Beauregard at one mouthful; but Halleck crept forward +at the rate of about three-quarters of a mile per day. Thousands and +thousands of his men died from fevers and diarrh[oe]a. + +There was great dissatisfaction at his slow progress. Pope was +particularly impatient. One day he had a very sharp skirmish with the +enemy. Our position was strong. General Palmer, who commanded on the +front, reported that he could hold it against the world, the flesh, and +the devil; but Halleck telegraphed to Pope three times within an hour +not to be drawn into a general engagement. After the last dispatch, +Pope retired, leaving the enemy in possession of the field. How he did +storm about it! + +The little army which Pope had brought from the capture of Island +Number Ten was perfectly drilled and disciplined, and he handled it +with rare ability. Much of his subsequent unpopularity arose from his +imprudent and violent language. He sometimes indulged in the most +unseemly profanity and billingsgate within hearing of a hundred people. + +[Sidenote: WEAKNESSES OF SUNDRY GENERALS.] + +But his personal weaknesses were pardonable compared with those of some +other prominent officers. During Fremont's Missouri campaign, I knew +one general who afterward enjoyed a well-earned national reputation +for skill and gallantry. His head-quarters were the scenes of nightly +orgies, where whisky punches and draw-poker reigned from dark until +dawn. In the morning his tent was a strange museum of bottles, glasses, +sugar-bowls, playing-cards, gold, silver, and bank-notes. I knew +another western officer, who, during the heat of a Missouri battle, +according to the newspaper reports, inspirited his men by shouting: + +"Go in, boys! Remember Lyon! Remember the old flag!" + +He did use those words, but no enemy was within half a mile, and he was +lying drunk on the ground, flat upon his back. Afterward, repenting in +sackcloth and ashes, he did the State some service, and his delinquency +was never made public. + +At Antietam, a general, well known both in Europe and America, was +reported disabled by a spent shell, which struck him in the breast. +The next morning, he gave me a minute history of it, assuring me that +he still breathed with difficulty and suffered greatly from internal +soreness. The fact was that he was disabled by a bottle of whisky, +having been too hospitable to that seductive friend! + +[Sidenote: "JOHN POPE, MAJOR-GENERAL COMMANDING."] + +After the evacuation of Corinth, Pope's reputation suffered greatly +from a false dispatch, asserting that he had captured ten thousand +prisoners. Halleck alone was responsible for the report. Pope was +in the rear. One of his subordinates on the front telegraphed him +substantially as follows: + + "The woods are full of demoralized and flying Rebels. Some of + my officers estimate their number as high as ten thousand. + Many of them have already come into my lines." + +Pope forwarded this message, which said nothing about taking prisoners, +to Halleck, without erasing or adding a line; and Halleck, smarting +under his mortifying failure at Corinth, telegraphed that Pope reported +the capture of ten thousand Rebels. Pope's reputation for veracity was +fatally wounded, and the newspapers burlesqued him mercilessly. + +One of my comrades lay sick and wounded at the residence of General +Clinton B. Fisk, of St. Louis. On a Sunday afternoon the general was +reading to him from the Bible an account of the first contraband. This +historic precedent was the servant of an Amalekite, who came into +David's camp and proposed, if assured of freedom, to show the King of +Israel a route which would enable him to surprise his foes. The promise +was given, and the king fell upon the enemy, whom he utterly destroyed. +While our host was reading the list of the spoils, the prisoners, +slaves, women, flocks and herds captured by David, the sick journalist +lifted his attenuated finger, and in his weak, piping voice, said: + +"Stop, General; just look down to the bottom of that list, and see if +it is not signed John Pope, Major-General commanding!" + +[Sidenote: HALLECK'S FAUX PAS AT CORINTH.] + +At last, Halleck's army reached Corinth, but the bird had flown. No +event of the war reflected so much credit upon the Rebels and so much +discredit upon the Unionists as Beauregard's evacuation. He did not +disturb himself until Halleck's Parrott guns had thrown shots within +fourteen feet of his own head-quarters. Then, keeping up a vigorous +show of resistance on his front, he deserted the town, leaving behind +not a single gun, or ambulance, or even a sick or wounded man in the +hospital. + +Halleck lost thenceforth the name of "Old Brains," which some +imaginative person had given him, and which tickled for a time the ears +of his soldiers. The only good thing he ever did, in public, was to +make two brief speeches. When he first reached St. Louis, upon being +called out by the people, he said: + +"With your help, I will drive the enemy out of Missouri." + +Called upon again, on leaving St. Louis for Washington, to assume the +duties of general-in-chief, he made an equally brief response: + +"Gentlemen: I promised to drive the enemy out of Missouri; I have done +it!" + + HALLECK'S ARMY, BEFORE CORINTH, } + _April 23, 1862_. } + +Heavy re-enforcements are arriving. The woods, in luxuriant foliage, +are spiced with + + "----a dream of forest sweets, + Of odorous blooms and sweet contents," + and the deserted orchards are fragrant with apple and + cherry blossoms. + +[Sidenote: OUT ON THE FRONT.] + + _May 11._ + +Still we creep slowly along. Pope's head-quarters are now within the +borders of Mississippi. Out on his front you find several hundred +acres of cotton-field and sward, ridged with graves from a recent hot +skirmish. Carcasses of a hundred horses, killed during the battle, are +slowly burning under piles of rails, covered with a layer of earth, +that their decay may not taint the atmosphere. + +Beyond, our infantry pickets present muskets and order you to halt. +If you are accompanied by a field-officer, or bear a pass "by order +of Major-General Halleck," you can cross this Rubicon. A third of a +mile farther are our vedettes, some mounted, others lying in the shade +beside their grazing horses, but keeping a sharp look-out in front. +In a little rift of the woods, half a mile away, you see through your +field-glass a solitary horseman clad in butternut. Two or three more, +and sometimes forty or fifty, come out of the woods and join him, +but they keep very near their cover, and soon go back. Those are the +enemy's pickets. You hear the drum beat in the Rebel lines, and the +shrill whistle of the locomotives at Corinth, which is three miles +distant. + + _May 19._ + +Along our entire front, almost daily, the long roll is sounded, and the +ground jarred by the dull rumble of cannonade. The little attention +paid to these skirmishes, where we lose from fifty to one hundred men, +illustrates the magnitude of the war. + +We feel the earth vibrate, and look inquiringly into the office of the +telegraph which accompanies every corps. + +"It is on Buell's center, or on Grant's right," the operator replies. + +If it does not become rapid and prolonged, no further questions are +asked. At night, awakened by the sharp rattle of musketry, we raise our +heads, listen for the alarm-drum, and, not hearing it, roll over in our +blankets, to court again the drowsy god. + +Ride out with me to the front, five miles from Halleck's head-quarters. +The country is undulating and woody, with a few cotton-fields and +planters' houses. The beautiful groves open into delicious vistas of +green grass or rolling wheat; luxuriant flowers perfume the vernal air, +and the rich foliage already seems to display-- + + ----"The tintings and the fingerings of June, + As she blossoms into beauty and sings her Summer tune!" + +Here is a deserted camp of a division which has moved forward. Three or +four adjacent farmers are gathering up the barrels, boxes, provisions, +and other _débris_, left behind by the troops. + +[Sidenote: DRILLING, DIGGING, AND SKIRMISHING.] + +Here is a division on drill, advancing in line of battle, the +skirmishers thrown out in front, deploying, gathering in groups, or +falling on their faces at the word of command. + +Beyond those white tents our soldiers, in gray shirts and blue pants, +are busily plying the spade. They throw up a long rampart notched with +embrasures for cannon. We have already built fifty miles of breastworks. + +A little in the rear are the heavy siege-guns, where they can be +brought up quickly; a little in front, the field artillery, with the +horses harnessed and tied to trees, ready for use at a moment's notice. +Near the workmen, their comrades, who do the more legitimate duty of +the soldier, are standing on their arms, to repel any _sortie_ from the +enemy. Their guns, with the burnished barrels and bayonets glistening +in the sun, are stacked in long rows, while the men stand in little +groups, or sit under the trees, playing cards, reading letters or +newspapers. More than twenty thousand copies of the daily papers of the +western cities and New York are sold in the army at ten cents each. The +number of letters which go out from the camps in each day's mail is +nearly as large. + +When this parapet is completed, we shall go forward a few hundred +yards, and throw up another; and thus we advance slowly toward Corinth. + +Ride still farther, and you find the infantry pickets. The vedettes +are drawn in, if there is any skirmishing going on. From the extreme +front, you catch an occasional glimpse of the Rebels--"Butternuts," as +they are termed in camp, from their cinnamon-hued homespun, dyed with +butternut extract. They are dodging among the trees, and, if you are +wise, you will get behind a tree yourself, and beware how you show your +head. + +[Sidenote: EXPERIENCES AMONG THE SHARP-SHOOTERS.] + +Already one of their sharp-shooters notices you. Puff, comes a cloud +of smoke from his rifle; in the same breath you hear the explosion, +and the sharp, ringing "ping" of the bullet through the air! Capital +shots are many of these long, lank, loose-jointed Mississippians and +Texans, whose rifles are sometimes effective at ten and twelve hundred +yards. Yesterday, one of them concealed himself in the dense foliage of +a tree-branch, and picked off several of our soldiers. At last, one of +our own sharp-shooters took him in hand, and, at the sixth discharge, +brought him down to the ground. This sharp-shooting is a needless +aggravation of the horrors of war; but if the enemy indulges in it, you +have no recourse but to do likewise. + +[Sidenote: HORSES STOLEN EVERY DAY.] + +Stealing is the inevitable accompaniment of camp life--"convey, the +wise" call it. I have a steed, cadaverous and bony, but with good +locomotive powers. There was profound policy in my selection. For +five consecutive nights that horse was stolen, but no thief ever kept +him after seeing him by day-light. In the morning, he would always +come browsing back. My friend and tent-mate "Carlton," of _The Boston +Journal_, had a more vaulting ambition. He procured a showy horse, +which proved the most expensive luxury in all his varied experience. +The special aptitude of the animal was to be stolen. Regularly, seven +mornings in the week, our African factotum would thrust his woolly head +into the tent, and awaken us with this salutation: + +"Breakfast is ready. Mr. Coffin, your horse is gone again." + +By hard search and liberal rewards, he would be reclaimed during +the day from some cavalry soldier, who averred that he had found +him running loose. After being impaled and nearly killed upon a +rake-handle, the poor brute, hardly able to walk ten paces, was stolen +again, and never re-appeared. My friend now remembered his showy steed, +and the last five-dollar note which he sent in fruitless pursuit, among +blessings which brightened as they took their flight. + + CAIRO, ILL., _May 21_. + +[Sidenote: HALLECK EXPELS THE WAR CORRESPONDENTS.] + +General Halleck has expelled all the correspondents from the army, +on the plea that he must exclude "unauthorized hangers-on," to keep +spies out of his camps. His refusal to accept _any_ guaranties of their +loyalty and prudence, even from the President himself, proves that this +plea was a shallow subterfuge. The real trouble is, that Halleck is not +willing to have his conduct exhibited to the country through any other +medium than official reports. "As false as a bulletin," has passed into +a proverb. + +The journalists received invitations to remain, from friends holding +commissions in the army, from major-generals down to lieutenants; but, +believing their presence just as legitimate and needful as that of +any soldier or officer, they determined not to skulk about camps like +felons, but all left in a body. Their individual grievances are nothing +to the public; but this is a grave issue between the Military Power and +the rights of the Press and the People. + + + + +CHAPTER XXII. + + ----Whose tongue Outvenoms all the worms of Nile.--CYMBELINE. + +[Sidenote: BLOODTHIRSTINESS OF REBEL WOMEN.] + + +No history of the war is likely to do full justice to the bitterness +of the Rebel women. Female influence tempted thousands of young men to +enter the Confederate service against their own wishes and sympathies. +Women sometimes evinced incredible rancor and bloodthirstiness. The +most startling illustration of the brutalizing effect of Slavery +appeared in the absence of that sweetness, charity, and tenderness +toward the suffering, which is the crowning grace of womanhood. + +A southern Unionist, the owner of many slaves, said to me: + +"I suppose I have not struck any of my negroes for ten years. When they +need correcting, my wife always does it." + +If he had a horse or a mule requiring occasional whipping, would he put +the scourge in the hands of his little daughter, and teach her to wield +it, from her tender years? How infinitely more must it brutalize and +corrupt her when the victim is a man--the most sacred thing that God +has made--his earthly image and his human temple! + +[Sidenote: THE BATTLE OF MEMPHIS.] + +Before we captured Memphis, the sick and wounded Union prisoners were +in a condition of great want and suffering. Women of education, wealth, +and high social position visited the hospitals to minister to Rebel +patients. Frequently entering the Federal wards from curiosity, they +used toward the groaning patients expressions like this: + +"I would like to give you one dose! You would never fight against the +South again!" + +In what happy contrast to this shone the self-denying ministrations of +northern women, to friend and enemy alike! + +In Memphis, on the evening of June 5th, General Jeff. Thompson, +commanding the Rebel cavalry, and Commodore Edward Montgomery, +commanding the Rebel flotilla, stated at the Gayoso House that there +would be a battle the next morning, in which the Yankee fleet would be +destroyed in just about two hours. + +Just after daylight, the Rebel flotilla attacked ours, two miles above +the city. We had five iron-clads and several rams, which were then +experimental. They were light, agile little stern-wheel boats, whose +machinery was not at all protected against shots. The battle occurred +in full view of the city. Though it began soon after daylight, it was +witnessed by ten thousand people upon the high bluff--an anxious, +excited crowd. The Rebels dared not be too demonstrative, and the +Unionists dared not whisper a word of their long-cherished and earnest +hopes. + +[Sidenote: GALLANT EXPLOITS OF THE RAMS.] + +While the two fleets were steaming toward each other, Colonel Ellet, +determined to succeed or to die, daringly pushed forward with his +little rams, the Monarch and Queen of the West. With these boats, +almost as fragile as pasteboard, he steamed directly into the Rebel +flotilla. One of his rams struck the great gunboat Sterling Price with +a terrific blow, crushing timbers and tearing away the entire larboard +wheel-house. The Price drifted helplessly down the stream and stranded. +Another of Ellet's rams ran at full speed into the General Lovell, +cutting her in twain. The Rebel boat filled and sunk. + +From the shore, it was a most impressive sight. There was the Lovell, +with holiday decorations, crowded with men and firing her guns, when +the little ram struck her, crushing in her side, and she went down +like a plummet. In three minutes, even the tops of her tall chimneys +disappeared under water. Scores of swimming and drowning Rebels in the +river were rescued by boats from the Union fleet. + +One of the rams now ran alongside and grappled the Beauregard, and, +through hose, drenched her decks with scalding water, while her +cannoneers dared not show their heads to Ellet's sharpshooters, who +were within a few feet of them. Another Rebel boat came up to strike +the ram, but the agile little craft let go her hold and backed out. The +blow intended for her struck the Beauregard, which instantly went down, +"hoist with his own petar." + +The Sumter and the Little Rebel, both disabled, were stranded on the +Arkansas shore. The Jeff. Thompson was set on fire and abandoned by her +crew. In a few minutes there was an enormous dazzling flash of light, a +measureless volume of black smoke, and a startling roar, which seemed +to shake the earth to its very center. For several seconds the air was +filled with falling timbers. Exploding her magazine, the Rebel gunboat +expired with a great pyrotechnic display. + +The General Bragg received a fifty-pound shot, which tore off a +long plank under her water-mark, and she was captured in a sinking +condition. The Van Dorn, the only Rebel boat which survived the +conflict, turned and fled down the river. + +The battle lasted just one hour and three minutes. It was the most +startling, dramatic, and memorable display of the whole war. On our +side, no one was injured except Colonel Ellet, who had performed such +unexampled feats with his little rams. A splinter, which struck him in +the leg, inflicted a fatal wound. + +As our fleet landed, a number of news-boys sprang on shore, and, a +moment after, were running through the street, shouting: + +"Here's your _New-York Tribune_ and _Herald_--only ten cents in silver!" + +The correspondents, before the city was formally surrendered, had +strolled through the leading streets. At the Gayoso House they +registered their names immediately under those of the fugacious Rebel +general, and ordered dinner. + +The Memphis Rebels, who had predicted a siege rivaling Saragossa and +Londonderry, were in a condition of stupor for two weeks after our +arrival. They rubbed their eyes wonderingly, to see Union officers and +Abolition journalists at large without any suggestions of hanging or +tarring and feathering. Remembering my last visit, it was with peculiar +satisfaction that I appended in enormous letters to my signature upon +the hotel register, the name of the journal I served. + +[Sidenote: A SAILOR ON A LARK.] + +On the day of the capture, an intoxicated seaman from one of the +gun-boats, who had been shut up for several months, went on shore +"skylarking." Offering his arms to the first two negro women he met, +he promenaded the whole length of Main street. The Memphis Rebels were +suffering for an outrage, and here was one just to their mind. + +"If that is the way, sir," remarked one of them, "that your people +propose to treat southern gentlemen and ladies--if they intend to +thrust upon us such a disgusting spectacle of negro equality, it will +be perilous for them. Do they expect to conciliate our people in this +manner?" + +I mildly suggested that the era of conciliation ceased when the era of +fighting began. The sailor was arrested and put in the guard-house. + +[Sidenote: APPEARANCE OF THE CAPTURED CITY.] + +Our officers mingled freely with the people. No citizens insulted our +soldiers in the streets; no woman repeated the disgraceful scenes of +New Orleans by spitting in the faces of the "invaders." The Unionists +received us as brothers from whom they had long been separated. One +lady brought out from its black hiding-place, in her chimney, a +National flag, which had been concealed there from the beginning of the +war. A Loyalist told me that, coming out of church on Sunday, he was +thrilled with the news that the Yankees had captured Fort Donelson; +but, with a grave face, he replied to his informant: + +"That is sad business for us, is it not?" + +Reaching home, with his wife and sister, they gave vent to their +exuberant joy. He could not huzza, and so he relieved himself by +leaping two or three times over a center-table! + +There were many genuine Rebels whose eyes glared at us with the hatred +of caged tigers. Externally decorous, they would remark, ominously, +that they hoped our soldiers would not irritate the people, lest +it should deluge the streets with blood. They proposed fabulous +wagers that Sterling Price's troops could whip the whole Union army; +circulated daily reports that the Confederates had recaptured New +Orleans and Nashville, and talked mysteriously about the fatality of +the yellow fever, and the prospect that it would soon break out. + +Gladness shone from the eyes of all the negroes. Their dusky faces +were radiant with welcome, and many women, turbaned in bright bandanas, +thronged the office of the provost-marshal, applying for passage to +the North. We found Memphis as torpid as Syria, where Yusef Browne +declared that he saw only one man exhibit any sign of activity, and he +was engaged in tumbling from the roof of a house! But stores were soon +opened, and traders came crowding in from the North. Most of them were +Jews. + +Everywhere we saw the deep eyes and pronounced features of that +strange, enterprising people. I observed one of them, with the +Philistines upon him, marching to the military prison. The pickets +had caught him with ten thousand dollars' worth of boots and shoes, +which he was taking into Dixie. He bore the miscarriage with great +philosophy, bewailing neither his ducats nor his daughter, his boots +nor his liberty--smiling complacently, and finding consolation in +the vilest of cigars. But in his dark, sad eye was a gleam of latent +vengeance, which he doubtless wreaked upon the first unfortunate +customer who fell into his clutches after his release. + +Glancing at the guests who crowded the dining-hall of the Gayoso, one +might have believed that the lost tribes of Israel were gathering there +for the Millennium. + +[Sidenote: GRANT ORDERS AWAY THE JEWS.] + +Many of them engaged in contraband traffic, supplying the Rebels with +food, and even with ammunition. Some months after, these very gross +abuses induced Grant to issue a sweeping ukase expelling all Jews from +his department--an order which the President wisely countermanded. + +The Rebel authorities had destroyed all the cotton, sugar, and +molasses they could find; but these articles now began to emerge from +novel hiding-places. One gentleman had fifty bales of cotton in his +closed parlor. Hundreds of bales were concealed in the woods, in lofts, +and in cellars. Much sugar was buried. One man, entombing fifteen +hogsheads, neglected to throw up a mound to turn off the water; when he +dug for his sugar, its linked sweetness was _too_ long drawn out! The +hogsheads were empty. + +On the 17th of June, a little party of Union officers came galloping +into the city from the country. They were evidently no gala-day +soldiers. Their sun-browned faces, dusty clothing, and jaded horses +bespoke hard campaigns and long marches. + +One horseman, in a blue cap and plain blouse, bore no mark of rank, but +was noticeable for the peculiar brilliancy of his dark, flashing eye. +This modest soldier was Major-General Lew. Wallace; and his division +arrived a few hours after. He established his quarters at the Gayoso, +in the same apartments which had been occupied successively by four +Rebel commanders, Pillow, Polk, Van Dorn, and Price. + +[Sidenote: A REBEL PAPER SUPERVISED.] + +_The Memphis Argus_, a bitter Secession sheet, had been allowed to +continue publication, though its tone was very objectionable. General +Wallace at once addressed to the proprietors the following note: + + "As the closing of your office might be injurious to you + pecuniarily, I send Messrs. Richardson, of _The New York + Tribune_, and Knox, of _The New York Herald_,--two gentlemen + of ample experience--to take charge of the editorial + department of your paper. The business and management will be + left to you." + +The publishers, glad to continue upon any terms, acquiesced, and +thereafter every morning, before _The Argus_ went to press, the +proof-sheets were sent to us for revision. + +The first dress-parade of Wallace's original regiment, the Eleventh +Indiana Infantry, was attended by hundreds of Memphians, curious to +see northern troops drawn up in line. They wore no bright trappings +or holiday attire. Their well-kept arms shone in the fading sunlight, +a line of polished steel; but their soiled uniforms had left their +brightness behind in many hard-fought battles. They went through the +drill with rare precision. The Rebel bystanders clapped their hands +heartily, with a certain unconscious pride that these soldiers were +their fellow-Americans. The spectacle dimmed their faith in their +favorite five-to-one theory. + +"Well, John," asked one of them beside me, "how many regiments like +that do you think one of ours could whip?" + +"I think that whipping one would be a pretty hard day's work!" was the +reply. + +[Sidenote: "A DAM BLACK-HARTED ABLICHINESS."] + +Months before our arrival, a Union employé of the Memphis and Ohio +Railroad sold a watch to a Secession comrade. Vainly attempting to +collect the pay, he finally wrote a pressing letter. The debtor sent +back the dun with this reply: + + "SIR: My privet Apinion is Public express is that you ar A + Dam Black harted ablichiness and if I ever hear of you open + you mouth a gane you will get you head shave and cent Back to + you free nigar Land Whar you be along these are fackes and + you now I can prove them and I will Doet." + +The Loyalist pocketed the affront, "ablichiness" and all, and nursed +his wrath to keep it warm. Meeting his debtor on the street, after the +arrival of our forces, he administered to him a merciless flagellation. +Before our Provost-Marshal it was decided to be a case of "justifiable +assault," and the prisoner was discharged from custody. + +[Sidenote: CHALLENGE FROM A SOUTHERN WOMAN.] + +In the deserted office of _The Appeal_ we found the following +manuscript:-- + + "A CHALLENGE + + "where as the wicked policy of the president--Making war upon + the South for refusing to submit to wrong too palpable for + Southerners to do. And where as it has become necessary for + the young Men of our country, My Brother, in the number To + enlist to do the dirty work of Driving the Mercenarys from + our sunny south. Whose soil is too holy for such wretches to + tramp And whose atmosphere is to pure for them to breathe + + "For such an indignity afford to Civilization I Merely + Challenge any abolition or Black Republican lady of character + if there can be such a one found among the negro equality + tribe. To Meet Me at Masons and dixon line. With a pair of + Colt's repeaters or any other weapon they May Choose, That I + May receive satisfaction for the insult." + + "Victoria E. Goodwin." + "Spring Dale, Miss., April 27, 1861." + +Confederate currency was a curiosity of literature and finance. +Dray-tickets and checks, marked "Good for twenty-five cents," and a +great variety of shinplasters, were current. One, issued by a baker, +represented "twenty-five cents in drayage or confectionary," at the +option of the holder. Another guaranteed to the bearer "the sum of five +cents from the Mississippi and Tennessee Railroad Company, in freight +or passage!" + +[Sidenote: A DROLL SPECIES OF CURRENCY.] + +One of my acquaintances had purchased in Chicago, at ten cents a +dozen, lithographic _fac-similes_ of the regular Confederate notes, +promising to pay to the bearer ten dollars, six months after a treaty +of peace between the United States and the Confederate States. A +Memphis merchant, knowing that they were counterfeit, manufactured only +to sell as curiosities, considered their execution so much better than +the originals, that he gladly gave Tennessee bank-notes in exchange +for them. My friend subsisted at his hotel for several days upon the +proceeds of these _fac-similes_, and thought it cheap boarding. While +Curtis's army was in northern Arkansas, our officers found at a village +druggist's several large sheets of his printed promises to pay, neither +cut nor signed. At the next village one of them purchased a canteen of +whisky, and offered the grocer a National treasury note in payment. The +trader refused it; it was, doubtless, good, but might cause him trouble +after the army had left. He would receive either gold or Confederate +money. The officer exhibited one of these blanks, and asked if he would +take _that_. "O yes," he replied; "it is as good money as I want!" And +he actually sold two hundred and fifty canteens of whisky for those +unsigned shinplasters, cut off from the sheets in his presence! + +Late in June, General Grant, accompanied only by his personal staff, +often rode from Corinth to Memphis, ninety miles, through a region +infested by guerrillas. + +The guests at the Gayoso House regarded with much curiosity the quiet, +slightly-stooping, rural-looking man in cotton coat and broad-brimmed +hat, talking little and smoking much, who was already beginning to +achieve world-wide reputation. + +A party of native Arkansans, including a young lady, arrived in +Memphis, coming up the Mississippi in an open skiff. When leaving +home they expected to encounter some of our gun-boats in a few hours, +and provided themselves only with one day's food, and an ample supply +of champagne. Accustomed to luxury, and all unused to labor, in the +unpitying sun they rowed for five days against the strong current of +the Mississippi, burnt, sick, and famishing. For five nights they slept +upon the ground on the swampy shore, half devoured by musquitoes. At +last they found an ark of safety in the iron-clad St. Louis. + +During a fight at St. Charles, on the White River, the steam-drum of +the gun-boat Mound City was exploded by a Rebel shot. The terrified +gunners and seamen, many of them horribly scalded, jumped into the +water. The Confederates, from behind trees on the bank, deliberately +shot the scalded and drowning wretches! + +[Sidenote: A CLEVER REBEL TRICK.] + +Halleck continued in command at Corinth. From some cause, his official +telegrams to General Curtis, in Arkansas, and Commodore Davis, on +the Mississippi, were not transmitted in cipher; and the line was +unguarded, though leading through an intensely Rebel region. In July, +the Memphis operators, from the difficult working of their instruments, +surmised that some outsider must be sharing their telegraphic secrets. +One day the transmission of a message was suddenly interrupted by the +ejaculation: + +"Pshaw! Hurra for Jeff Davis!" + +Individuality reveals itself as clearly in telegraphing as in the +footstep or handwriting. Mr. Hall, the Memphis operator, instantly +recognized the performer--by what the musicians would call his +"time"--as a former telegraphic associate in the North; and sent him +this message: + +"Saville, if you don't want to be hung, you had better leave. Our +cavalry is closing in on all sides of you." + +After a little pause, the surprised Rebel replied: + +"How in the world did you know me? I have been here four days, and +learned about all your military secrets; but it is becoming a rather +tight place, and I think I _will_ leave. Good-by, boys." + +He made good his escape. In the woods he had cut the wire, inserted one +of his own, and by a pocket instrument perused our official dispatches, +stating the exact number and location of United States troops in +Memphis. Re-enforcements were immediately ordered in, to guard against +a Rebel dash. + +[Sidenote: A BIT OF SHERMAN'S WAGGERY.] + +Later in July, Sherman assumed command. One day, a bereaved man-owner +visited him, to learn how he could reclaim his runaway slaves. + +"I know of only one way, sir," replied the general, "and that is, +through the United States marshal." + +The unsuspecting planter went up and down the city inquiring for that +civil officer. + +"Have you any business with him?" asked a Federal captain. + +"Yes, sir. I want my negroes. General Sherman says he is the proper +person to return them." + +"Undoubtedly he is. The law prescribes it." + +"Is he in town?" + +"I rather suspect not." + +"When do you think he left?" + +"About the time Sumter was fired on, I fancy." + +At last it dawned upon the planter's brain that the Fugitive Slave +Law was void after the people drove out United States officers. He +went sadly back to Sherman, and asked if there was no other method of +recovering his chattels. + +"None within my knowledge, sir." + +"What can I do about it?" + +"The law provided a remedy for you slaveholders in cases like this; but +you were dissatisfied and smashed the machine. If you don't like your +work, you had better set it to running again." + +On the 7th and 8th of March, 1862, occurred the battle of Pea Ridge, +in Arkansas. Our troops were commanded by General Curtis. Vandeveer's +brigade made a forced march of forty-one miles between 2 o'clock A. M., +and 10 P. M., in order to participate in the engagement. The fight was +very severe, but the tenacity of the western soldiers finally routed +the Rebels. + +There chanced to be only one New York correspondent with Curtis's +command. During the battle he was wounded by a fragment of shell. He +sent forward his report, with calm complacency, presuming that it was +exclusive. + +[Sidenote: FICTITIOUS BATTLE REPORTS.] + +But two other New York journalists in St. Louis, hearing of the battle, +at once repaired to Rolla, the nearest railway point, though one +hundred and ninety-five miles distant from Pea Ridge. Perusing the +very meager official dispatches, knowing what troops were engaged, and +learning from an old countryman the topography of the field, they wrote +elaborate accounts of the two days' conflict. + +Indebted to their imagination for their facts, they gave minute details +and a great variety of incidents. Their reports were plausible and +graphic. _The London Times_ reproduced one of them, pronouncing it +the ablest and best battle account which had been written during the +American war. For months, the editors who originally published these +reports, did not know that they were fictitious. They were written only +as a Bohemian freak, and remained the only accounts manufactured by any +reputable journalist during the war. + +After the battle, Curtis's army, fifteen thousand strong, pursued +its winding way through the interior of Arkansas. It maintained no +communications, carrying its base of supplies along with it. When out +of provisions, it would seize and run all the neighboring corn-mills, +until it obtained a supply of meal for one or two weeks, and then move +forward. + +[Sidenote: CURTIS'S GREAT MARCH THROUGH ARKANSAS.] + +Day after day, the Memphis Rebels told us, with ill-concealed glee, +that Curtis's army, after terrific slaughter, had all been captured, or +was just about to surrender. For weeks we had no reliable intelligence +from it. But suddenly it appeared at Helena, on the Mississippi, +seventy-five miles below Memphis, having marched more than six hundred +miles through the enemy's country. Despite the unhealthy climate, the +soldiers arrived in excellent sanitary condition, weary and ragged, but +well, and with an immense train of followers. It was a common jest, +that every private came in with one horse, one mule, and two negroes. + +The army correspondents, disgusted with the hardships and unwholesome +fare of Missouri, Arkansas, Tennessee, and Mississippi, often +predicted, with what they thought extravagant humor:-- + +"When Cincinnati or Chicago becomes the seat of war, all this will +be changed. We will take our ease at our inn, and view battles +æsthetically." + +But in September, this jest became the literal truth. Bragg, leaving +Buell far behind in Tennessee, invaded Kentucky, and seriously +threatened Cincinnati. + +Martial law was declared, and all Cincinnati began arming, drilling, +or digging. In one day, twenty-five thousand citizens enrolled their +names, and were organized into companies. Four thousand worked upon the +Covington fortifications. Newspaper proprietors were in the trenches. +Congressmen, actors, and artists, carried muskets or did staff duty. + +A few sneaks were dragged from their hiding-places in back kitchens, +garrets, and cellars. One fellow was found in his wife's clothing, +scrubbing away at the wash-tub. He was suddenly stripped of his +crinoline by the German guard, who, with shouts of laughter, bore him +away to a working-party. + +New regiments of volunteers came pouring in from Indiana, Michigan, +and the other Northwestern States. The farmers, young and old, arrived +by thousands, with their shot-guns and their old squirrel-rifles. The +market houses, public buildings, and streets, were crowded with them. +They came even from New York and Pennsylvania, until General Wallace +was compelled to telegraph in all directions that no more were needed. + +One of these country boys had no weapon except an old Revolutionary +sword. Quite a crowd gathered one morning upon Sycamore street, where +he took out his rusty blade, scrutinized its blunt edge, knelt down, +and carefully whetted it for half an hour upon a door-stone; then, +finding it satisfactorily sharp, replaced it in the scabbard, and +turned away with a satisfied look. His gravity and solemnity made it +very ludicrous. + +Buell, before starting northward in pursuit of Bragg, was about to +evacuate Nashville. Andrew Johnson, Military Governor of Tennessee, +implored, expostulated, and stormed, but without effect. He solemnly +declared that, if all the rest of the army left, he would remain with +his four Middle Tennessee regiments, defend the city to the last, +and perish in its ashes, before it should be given up to the enemy. +Buell finally left a garrison, which, though weak in numbers, proved +sufficient to hold Nashville. + +[Sidenote: "THE SIEGE OF CINCINNATI."] + +The siege of Cincinnati proved of short duration. Buell's veterans, and +the enthusiastic new volunteers soon sent the Rebels flying homeward. +Then, as through the whole war, their appearance north of Tennessee +and Virginia was the sure index of disaster to their arms. Southern +military genius did not prove adapted to the establishment of a navy, +or to fighting on Northern soil. + +[Sidenote: GLOOMIEST DAYS OF THE WAR.] + +Maryland invaded, Frankfort abandoned, Nashville evacuated, Tennessee +and Kentucky given up almost without a fight, the Rebels threatening +the great commercial metropolis of Ohio--these were the disastrous, +humiliating tidings of the hour. These were, perhaps, the gloomiest +days that had been seen during the war. We were paying the bitter +penalty of many years of National wrong. + + "God works no otherwise; no mighty birth + But comes with throes of mortal agony; + No man-child among nations of the earth + But findeth its baptism in a stormy sea." + + + + +CHAPTER XXIII. + + He that outlives this day and comes safe home, Will stand a + tip-toe when this day is named.--KING HENRY V. + + Much work for tears in many an English mother, Whose sons lie + scattered on the bleeding ground.--KING JOHN. + +[Sidenote: ORDERED TO WASHINGTON.] + + +During the siege of Cincinnati, the Managing Editor telegraphed me thus: + + "Repair to Washington without any delay." + +An hour afterward I was upon an eastern train. + +At the Capital, I found orders to join the Army of the Potomac. It was +during Lee's first invasion. In Pennsylvania, the governor and leading +officials nearly doubled the Confederate army, estimating it at two +hundred thousand men. + +Reaching Frederick, Maryland, I found more Union flags, +proportionately, in that little city, than I had ever seen elsewhere. +The people were intensely loyal. Four miles beyond, in a mountain +region, I saw winding, fertile valleys of clear streams, rich in broad +corn-fields; and white vine-covered farm-houses, half hidden in old +apple-orchards; while great hay and grain stacks surrounded-- + + "The gray barns, looking from their hazy hills + O'er the dim waters widening in the vales." + +The roads were full of our advancing forces, with bronzed faces and +muscles compacted by their long campaigning. They had just won the +victory of South Mountain, where Hooker found exercise for his peculiar +genius in fighting above the clouds, and driving the enemy by an +impetuous charge from a dizzy and apparently inaccessible hight. + +[Sidenote: ON THE WAR-PATH.] + +The heroic Army of the Potomac, which had suffered more, fought harder, +and been defeated oftener than any other National force, was now +marching cheerily under the unusual inspiration of victory. But what +fearful loads the soldiers carried! Gun, canteen, knapsack, haversack, +pack of blankets and clothing, often must have reached fifty pounds +to the man. These modern Atlases had little chance in a race with the +Rebels. + +There were crowds of sorry-looking prisoners marching to the rear; +long trains of ambulances filled with our wounded soldiers, some of +them walking back with their arms in slings, or bloody bandages about +their necks or foreheads; Rebel hospitals, where unfortunate fellows +were groaning upon the straw, with arms or legs missing; eleven of our +lost, resting placidly side by side, while their comrades were digging +their graves hard by; the unburied dead of the enemy, lying in pairs or +groups, behind rocks or in fence corners; and then a Rebel surgeon, in +bluish-gray uniform, coming in with a flag of truce, to look after his +wounded. + +All the morning I heard the pounding of distant guns, and at 4 P. +M., near the little village of Keedysville, I reached our front. On +the extreme left I found an old friend whom I had not met for many +years--Colonel Edward E. Cross, of the Fifth New Hampshire Infantry. +Formerly a Cincinnati journalist, afterward a miner in Arizona, and +then a colonel at the head of a Mexican regiment, his life had been +full of interest and romance. + +[Sidenote: A NOVEL KIND OF DUEL.] + +While living in Arizona he incurred the displeasure of the pro-Slavery +politicians, who ruled the territory. Mowry, their self-styled Delegate +to Congress, challenged him--probably upon the hypothesis that, as a +Northerner, he would not recognize the code; but Cross was an ugly +subject for that experiment. He promptly accepted, and named Burnside +rifles at ten paces! Mowry was probably ready to say with Falstaff-- + + "An' I thought he had been valiant and so cunning in fence, + I'd have seen him damned ere I had challenged him." + +Both were dead shots. Their seconds placed them across the strong +prairie wind, to interfere with their aim. At the first fire, a ball +grazed Mowry's ear. At the second, a lock of Cross's hair was cut off. + +"Rather close work, is it not?" he calmly asked of a bystander. + +At the third fire, Mowry's rifle missed. His friends insisted that he +was entitled to his fire. Those of the other party declared that this +was monstrous, and that he should be killed if he attempted it. But +Cross settled the difficulty by deciding that Mowry was right, and +stood serenely, with folded arms, to receive the shot. The would-be +Delegate was wise enough to fire into the air. Thus ended the bloodless +duel, and the journalist was never challenged again. + +A year or two later, I chanced to be in El Paso, Mexico, shortly after +Cross had visited that ancient city. An old cathedral, still standing, +was built before the landing of the Pilgrims on Plymouth Rock. +Ascending to the steeple, Cross pocketed and brought away the clapper +of the old Spanish bell, which was hung there when the edifice was +erected. + +The devout natives were greatly exasperated at this profanation, and +would have killed the relic-hunting Yankee had they caught him. I heard +from them a great deal of swearing in bad Spanish on the subject. + +Now, when I greeted him, his men were deployed in a corn-field, +skirmishing with the enemy's pickets. He was in a barn, where the balls +constantly whistled, and occasionally struck the building. He had just +come in from the front, where Confederate bullets had torn two rents +in the shoulder of his blouse, without breaking the skin. A straggling +soldier passed us, strolling down the road toward the Rebel pickets. + +"My young friend," said Cross, "if you don't want a hole through you, +you had better come back." + +Just as he spoke, ping! came a bullet, perforating the hat of the +private, who made excellent time toward the rear. A moment after, a +shell exploded on a bank near us, throwing the dirt into our faces. + +[Sidenote: HOW CORRESPONDENTS AVOIDED EXPULSION.] + +We spent the night at the house of a Union resident, of Keedysville. +General Marcy, McClellan's father-in-law and chief of staff, who supped +there, inquired, with some curiosity, how we had gained admission to +the lines, as journalists were then nominally excluded from the army. +We assured him that it was only by "strategy," the details whereof +could not be divulged to outsiders. + +One of the _Tribune_ correspondents had not left the army since the +Peninsular campaign, and, remaining constantly within the lines, +his position had never been questioned. Another, who had a nominal +appointment upon the staff of a major-general, wore a saber and passed +for an officer. I had an old pass, without date, from General Burnside, +authorizing the bearer to go to and fro from his head-quarters at all +times, which enabled me to go by all guards with ease. + +Marcy engaged lodgings at the house for McClellan; but an hour after, +a message was received that the general thought it better to sleep upon +the ground, near the bivouac-fires, as an example for the troops. + +[Sidenote: SHAMEFUL SURRENDER OF HARPER'S FERRY.] + +Last night came intelligence of the surrender, to Stonewall Jackson, of +Harper's Ferry, including the impregnable position of Maryland Hights +and our army. + +Colonel Miles, who commanded, atoned for his weakness with his life, +being killed by a stray shot just after he had capitulated. Colonel +Thomas H. Ford, ex-Lieutenant-Governor of Ohio, who was stationed on +the Hights, professed to have a written order from Miles, his superior +officer, to exercise his own discretion about evacuating; but he could +not exhibit the paper, and stated that he had lost it. He gave up that +key to the position without a struggle. It was like leaving the rim +of a teacup, to go down to the bottom for a defensive point. He was +afterward tried before a court-martial, but saved from punishment, and +permitted to resign, through the clemency of President Lincoln. In any +other country he would have been shot. + +On September 16th, General McClellan established his head-quarters in a +great shaded brick farm-house. + +Under one of the old trees sat General Sumner, at sixty-four erect, +agile, and soldierly, with snow-white hair. A few yards distant, in an +open field, a party of officers were suddenly startled by two shells +which dropped very near them. The group broke up and scattered with +great alacrity. + +"Why," remarked Sumner, with a peculiar smile, "the shells seem to +excite a good deal of commotion among those young gentlemen!" + +It appeared to amuse and surprise the old war-horse that anybody should +be startled by bullets or shots. + +Lying upon the ground near by, with his head resting upon his arm, was +another officer wearing the two stars of a major-general. + +"Who is that?" I asked of a journalistic friend. + +"Fighting Joe Hooker," was the answer. + +With his side-whiskers, rather heavy countenance, and transparent +cheeks, which revealed the blood like those of a blushing girl, he +hardly looked all my fancy had painted him. + +[Sidenote: A CAVALRY STAMPEDE.] + +Toward evening, at the head of his corps, preceded by the pioneers +tearing away fences for the column, Hooker led a forward movement +across Antietam Creek. His milk-white horse, a rare target to Rebel +sharpshooters, could be seen distinctly from afar against the deep +green landscape. I could not believe that he was riding into battle +upon such a steed, for it seemed suicidal. + +In an hour we halted, and the cavalry went forward to reconnoiter. A +few minutes after, Mr. George W. Smalley, of _The Tribune_, said to me: + +"There will be a cavalry stampede in about five minutes. Let us ride +out to the front and see it." + +Galloping up the road, and waiting two or three minutes, we heard three +six-pound shots in rapid succession, and a little fifer who had climbed +a tree, shouted: + +"There they come, like the devil, with the Rebels after them!" + +From a vast cloud of dust, emerged soon our troopers in hot haste and +disorder. They had suddenly awakened a Rebel battery, which opened upon +them. + +"We will stir them up," said Hooker, as the cavalry commander made his +report. + +"Why, General," replied the major, "they have some batteries up there!" + +"Well, sir," answered Hooker, "haven't we got as many batteries as +they have? Move on!" + +[Illustration: OPENING OF THE BATTLE OF ANTIETAM.--GENERAL HOOKER.] + +[Sidenote: "FIGHTING JOE HOOKER" IN BATTLE.] + +McClellan, who had accompanied the expedition thus far, rode back to +the rear. Hooker pressed forward, accompanied by General Meade, then +commanding a division--a dark-haired, scholarly-looking gentleman in +spectacles. The grassy fields, the shining streams, and the vernal +forests, stretched out in silent beauty. With their bright muskets, +clean uniforms, and floating flags, Hooker's men moved on with assured +faces. + + "'Twere worth ten years of peaceful life, + One glance at their array." + +With a very heavy force of skirmishers, we pushed on, finding no enemy. +Our line was three-quarters of a mile in length. Hooker was on the +extreme right, close upon the skirmishers. + +As we approached a strip of woods, a hundred yards wide, far on our +extreme left, we heard a single musket. Then there was another, then +another, and in an instant our whole line blazed like a train of +powder, in one long sheet of flame. + +Right on our front, through the narrow belt of woods, so near that it +seemed that we might toss a pebble to them, rose a countless horde of +Rebels, almost instantly obscured by the fire from their muskets and +the smoke of the batteries. + +My _confrère_ and myself were within a few yards of Hooker. It was a +very hot place. We could not distinguish the "ping" of the individual +bullets, but their combined and mingled hum was like the din of a great +Lowell factory. Solid shot and shell came shrieking through the air, +but over our heads, as we were on the extreme front. + +Hooker--common-place before--the moment he heard the guns, loomed up +into gigantic stature. His eye gleamed with the grand anger of battle. +He seemed to know exactly what to do, to feel that he was master of the +situation, and to impress every one else with the fact. Turning to one +of his staff, and pointing to a spot near us, he said: + +"Go, and tell Captain ---- to bring his battery and plant it there at +once!" + +The lieutenant rode away. After giving one or two further orders with +great clearness, rapidity, and precision, Hooker's eye turned again +to that mass of Rebel infantry in the woods, and he said to another +officer, with great emphasis: + +"Go, and tell Captain ---- to bring his battery here instantly!" + +Sending more messages to the various divisions and batteries, only a +single member of the staff remained. Once more scanning the woods with +his eager eye, Hooker directed the aid: + +"Go, and tell Captain ---- to bring that battery here without one +second's delay. Why, my God, how he can pour it into their infantry!" + +By this time, several of the body-guard had fallen from their saddles. +Our horses plunged wildly. A shell plowed the ground under my rearing +steed, and another exploded near Mr. Smalley, throwing great clouds of +dust over both of us. Hooker leaped his white horse over a low fence +into an adjacent orchard, whither we gladly followed. Though we did not +move more than thirty yards, it took us comparatively out of range. + +[Sidenote: THE REBELS WAVER AND BREAK.] + +The desired battery, stimulated by three successive messages, came up +with smoking horses, at a full run, was unlimbered in the twinkling of +an eye, and began to pour shots into the enemy, who were also suffering +severely from our infantry discharges. It was not many seconds before +they began to waver. Through the rifting smoke, we could see their line +sway to and fro; then it broke like a thaw in a great river. Hooker +rose up in his saddle, and, in a voice of suppressed thunder, exclaimed: + +"There they go, G-d d--n them! Forward!" + +Our whole line moved on. It was now nearly dark. Having shared the +experience of "Fighting Joe Hooker" quite long enough, I turned toward +the rear. Fresh troops were pressing forward, and stragglers were +ranged in long lines behind rocks and trees. + +Riding slowly along a grassy slope, as I supposed quite out of range, +my meditations were disturbed by a cannon-ball, whose rush of air +fanned my face, and made my horse shrink and rear almost upright. The +next moment came another behind me, and by the great blaze of a fire +of rails, which the soldiers had built, I saw it _ricochet_ down the +slope, like a foot-ball, and pass right through a column of our troops +in blue, who were marching steadily forward. The gap which it made was +immediately closed up. + +Men with litters were groping through the darkness, bearing the wounded +back to the ambulances. + +[Sidenote: A NIGHT AMONG THE PICKETS.] + +At nine o'clock, I wandered to a farm-house, occupied by some of our +pickets. We dared not light candles, as it was within range of the +enemy. The family had left. I tied my horse to an apple-tree, and lay +down upon the parlor floor, with my saddle for a pillow. At intervals +during the night, we heard the popping of musketry, and at the first +glimpse of dawn the picket-officer shook me by the arm. + +"My friend," said he, "you had better go away as soon as you can; this +place is getting rather hot for civilians." + +[Sidenote: THE BATTLE OF ANTIETAM.] + +I rode around through the field, for shot and shell were already +screaming up the narrow lane. + +Thus commenced the long, hotly-contested battle of Antietam. Our line +was three miles in length, with Hooker on the right, Burnside on the +left, and a great gap in the middle, occupied only by artillery; while +Fitz-John Porter, with his fine corps, was held in reserve. From +dawn until nearly dark, the two great armies wrestled like athletes, +straining every muscle, losing here, gaining there, and at many points +fighting the same ground over and over again. It was a fierce, sturdy, +indecisive conflict. + +Five thousand spectators viewed the struggle from a hill comparatively +out of range. Not more than three persons were struck there during the +day. McClellan and his staff occupied another ridge half a mile in the +rear. + + "By Heaven! it was a goodly sight to see, For one who had no + friend or brother there." + +No one who looked upon that wonderful panorama can describe or forget +it. Every hill and valley, every corn-field, grove, and cluster of +trees, was fiercely fought for. + +The artillery was unceasing; we could often count more than sixty +guns to the minute. It was like thunder; and the musketry sounded like +the patter of rain-drops in an April shower. On the great field were +riderless horses and scattering men, clouds of dirt from solid shot and +exploding shells, long dark lines of infantry swaying to and fro, with +columns of smoke rising from their muskets, red flashes and white puffs +from the batteries--with the sun shining brightly on all this scene of +tumult, and beyond it, upon the dark, rich woods, and the clear blue +mountains south of the Potomac. + +[Sidenote: FEARFUL SLAUGHTER IN THE CORN-FIELD.] + +We saw clearly our entire line, except the extreme left, where Burnside +was hidden by intervening ridges; and at times the infantry and cavalry +of the Rebels. We could see them press our men, and hear their shrill +yells of triumph. Then our columns in blue would move forward, driving +them back, with loud, deep-mouthed, sturdy cheers. Once, a great +mass of Rebels, in brown and gray, came pouring impetuously through +a corn-field, forcing back the Union troops. For a moment both were +hidden under a hill; and then up, over the slope came our soldiers, +flying in confusion, with the enemy in hot pursuit. But soon after, up +rose and opened upon them two long lines of men in blue, with shining +muskets, who, hidden behind a ridge, had been lying in wait. The range +was short, and the fire was deadly. + +The Rebels instantly poured back, and were again lost for a moment +behind the hill, our troops hotly following. In a few seconds, they +reappeared, rushing tumultuously back into the corn-field. While +they were so thick that they looked like swarming bees, one of our +batteries, at short range, suddenly commenced dropping shots among +them. We could see with distinctness the explosions of the shells, and +sometimes even thought we detected fragments of human bodies flying +through the air. In that field, the next day, I counted sixty-four of +the enemy's dead, lying almost in one mass. + +Hooker, wounded before noon, was carried from the field. Had he not +been disabled, he would probably have made it a decisive conflict. +Realizing that it was one of the world's great days, he said: + +"I would gladly have compromised with the enemy by receiving a mortal +wound at night, could I have remained at the head of my troops until +the sun went down." + +On the left, Burnside, who had a strong, high stone bridge to carry, +was sorely pressed. McClellan denied his earnest requests for +re-enforcements, though the best corps of the army was then held in +reserve. + +The Fifteenth Massachusetts Infantry took into the battle five hundred +and fifty men, and brought out only one hundred and fifty-six. The +Nineteenth Massachusetts, out of four hundred and six men, lost all but +one hundred and forty-seven, including every commissioned officer above +a first lieutenant. The Fifth New Hampshire, three hundred strong, lost +one hundred and ten privates and fourteen officers. Colonel Cross, who +seldom went into battle without receiving wounds, was struck in the +head by a piece of shell early in the day, but with face crimsoned +and eyes dimmed with blood, he led his men until night closed the +indecisive conflict. + +[Sidenote: BEST BATTLE-REPORT OF THE WAR.] + +At night, the four _Tribune_ correspondents, who had witnessed the +battle, met at a little farm-house. They prepared hasty reports, by a +flickering tallow candle, in a narrow room crowded with wounded and +dying. + +Mr. Smalley had been with Hooker from the firing of the first gun. +Twice his horse had been shot under him, and twice his clothing was cut +by bullets. Without food, without sleep, greatly exhausted physically +and mentally, he started for New York, writing his report on a railway +train during the night, by a very dim light. + +Reaching New York at seven in the morning, he found the printers +awaiting him; and, an hour later, his account of the conflict, +filling five _Tribune_ columns, was being cried in the streets by +the news-boys. Notwithstanding the adverse circumstances of its +preparation, it was vivid and truthful, and was considered the best +battle-report of the war. + + + + +CHAPTER XXIV. + + ----Our doubts are traitors. And make us lose the good we oft + might win, By fearing to attempt.--MEASURE FOR MEASURE. + + +In a lull of the musketry, during the battle of Antietam, McClellan +rode forward toward the front. On the way, he met a Massachusetts +general, who was his old friend and class-mate. + +"Gordon," he asked, "how are your men?" + +"They have behaved admirably," replied Gordon; "but they are now +somewhat scattered." + +"Collect them at once. We must fight to-night and fight to-morrow. This +is our golden opportunity. If we cannot whip the Rebels here, we may +just as well all die on the field." + +[Sidenote: THE DAY AFTER THE BATTLE.] + +That was the spirit of the whole army. It was universally expected that +McClellan would renew the attack at daylight the next morning; but, +though he had many thousand fresh men, and defeat could only be repulse +to him, while to the enemy, with the river in his rear, it would be +ruin, his constitutional timidity prevented. It was the costliest of +mistakes. + +Thursday proved a day of rest--such rest as can be found with three +miles of dead men to bury, and thousands of wounded to bring from the +field. It was a day of standing on the line where the battle closed--of +intermittent sharp-shooting and discharges of artillery, but no general +skirmishing, or attempt to advance on either side. + +Riding out to the front of General Couch's line, I found the Rebels and +our own soldiers mingling freely on the disputed ground, bearing away +the wounded. I was scanning a Rebel battery with my field-glass, at the +distance of a quarter of a mile, when one of our pickets exclaimed: + +"Put up your glass, sir! The Johnnies will shoot in a minute, if they +see you using it." + +In front of Hancock's lines, a flag of truce was raised. Hancock--erect +and soldierly, with smooth face, light eyes, and brown hair, the +finest-looking general in our service--accompanied by Meagher, rode +forward into a corn-field, and met the young fire-eating brigadier of +the Rebels, Roger A. Pryor. Pryor insisted that he had seen a white +flag on our front, and asked if we desired permission to remove our +dead and wounded. Hancock indignantly denied that we had asked for a +truce, as we claimed the ground, stating that, through the whole day, +we had been removing and ministering to both Union and Rebel wounded. +He suggested a cessation of sharp-shooting until this work could be +completed. Pryor declined this, and in ten minutes the firing reopened. + +"A great victory," said Wellington, "is the most awful thing in the +world, except a great defeat." Antietam, though not an entire victory, +had all its terrific features. Our casualties footed up to twelve +thousand three hundred and fifty-two, of whom about two thousand were +killed on the field. + +[Sidenote: DOWN AMONG THE DEAD MEN.] + +Between the fences of a road immediately beyond the corn-field, +in a space one hundred yards long, I counted more than two hundred +Rebel dead, lying where they fell. Elsewhere, over many acres, they +were strewn singly, in groups, and occasionally in masses, piled up +almost like cord-wood. They were lying--some with the human form +undistinguishable, others with no outward indication of wounds--in +all the strange positions of violent death. All had blackened faces. +There were forms with every rigid muscle strained in fierce agony, and +those with hands folded peacefully upon the bosom; some still clutching +their guns, others with arm upraised, and one with a single open finger +pointing to heaven. Several remained hanging over a fence which they +were climbing when the fatal shot struck them. + +It was several days before all the wounded were removed from the field. +Many were shockingly mutilated; but the most revolting spectacle I saw +was that of a soldier, with three fingers cut off by a bullet, leaving +ragged, bloody shreds of flesh. + +[Sidenote: LEE PERMITTED TO ESCAPE.] + +On Thursday night the sun went down with the opposing forces face to +face, and their pickets within stone's throw of each other. On Friday +morning the Rebel army was in Virginia, the National army in Maryland. +Between dark and daylight, Lee evacuated the position, and carried his +whole army across the river. He had no empty breastworks with which to +endow us; but he left a field plowed with shot, watered with blood, +and sown thick with dead. We found the _débris_ of his late camps, two +disabled pieces of artillery, a few hundred of his stragglers, two +thousand of his wounded, and as many more of his unburied dead; but not +a single field-piece or caisson, ambulance or wagon, not a tent, a box +of stores, or a pound of ammunition. He carried with him the supplies +gathered in Maryland and the rich spoils of Harper's Ferry. + +It was a very bitter disappointment to the army and the country. + +[Sidenote: THE JOHN BROWN ENGINE-HOUSE.] + + BOLIVAR HIGHTS, MD., _September 25, 1862_. + +Adieu to western Maryland, with the stanch loyalty of its suffering +people! Adieu to Sharpsburg, which, cut to pieces by our own shot and +shell as no other village in America ever was, gave us the warm welcome +that comes from the heart! Adieu to the drenched field of Antietam, +with its glorious Wednesday, writing for our army a record than which +nothing brighter shines through history; with its fatal Thursday, +permitting the clean, leisurely escape of the foe down into the valley, +across the difficult ford, and up the Virginia Hights! Our army might +have been driven back; it could never have been captured or cut to +pieces. Failure was only repulse; success was crowning, decisive, final +victory. The enemy saw this, and walked undisturbed out of the snare. + +Three days ago, our army moved down the left bank of the Potomac, +climbing the narrow, tortuous road that winds around the foot of +the mountains; under Maryland Hights; across the long, crooked ford +above the blackened timbers of the railroad bridge; then up among the +long, bare, deserted walls of the ruined Government Armory, past the +engine-house which Old John Brown made historic; up through the dingy, +antique, oriental looking town of Harper's Ferry, sadly worn, almost +washed away by the ebb and flow of war; up through the village of +Bolivar to these Hights, where we pitched our tents. + +Behind and below us rushed the gleaming river, till its dark, shining +surface was broken by rocks. Across it came a line of our stragglers, +wading to the knees with staggering steps. Beyond it, the broad +forest-clad Maryland Hights rose gloomy and somber. Down behind me, to +the river, winding across it like a slender S, then extending for half +a mile on the other side, far up along the Maryland hill, stretched a +division-train of snowy wagons, standing out in strong relief from the +dark background of water and mountain. + +Two weeks ago shots exchanged between the army of Slavery and the army +of Freedom shrieked and screamed over the engine-house, where, for two +days, Old John Brown held the State of Virginia at bay. A week ago its +walls were again shaken by the thunders of cannonade, when the armies +met in fruitless battle. Last night, within rifle-shot of it, the +President's Proclamation of Emancipation was heard gladly among thirty +thousand soldiers. + +[Sidenote: PRESIDENT LINCOLN REVIEWS THE ARMY.] + + _October 2._ + +President Lincoln arrived here yesterday, and reviewed the troops, +accompanied by McClellan, Sumner, Hancock, Meagher, and other generals. +He appeared in black, wearing a silk hat; and his tall, slender form, +and plain clothing, contrasted strangely with the broad shoulders and +the blue and gold of the major-general commanding. + +He is unusually thin and silent, and looks weary and careworn. He +regarded the old engine-house with great interest. It reminded him, he +said, of the Illinois custom of naming locomotives after fleet animals, +such as the "Reindeer," the "Antelope," the "Flying Dutchman," etc. At +the time of the John Brown raid, a new locomotive was named the "Scared +Virginians." + +The troops everywhere cheered him with warm enthusiasm. + + _October 13._ + +The cavalry raid of the Rebel General Stuart, around our entire +army, into Maryland and Pennsylvania, and back again, crossing the +Potomac without serious loss, is the one theme of conversation. It was +audacious and brilliant. On his return, Stuart passed within five miles +of McClellan's head-quarters, which were separated from the rest of the +troops by half a mile, and guarded only by a New York regiment. Some of +the staff officers are very indignant when they are told that Stuart +knew the interest of the Rebels too well to capture our commander. + + CHARLESTOWN, VIRGINIA, _October 16_. + +A reconnoissance to the front, commanded by General Hancock. The column +moved briskly over the broad turnpike, through ample fields rich with +shocks of corn, past stately farm-houses, with deep shade-trees and +orchards, by gray barns, surrounded by hay and grain stacks--beyond our +lines, over the debatable ground, past the Rebel picket-stations, in +sight of Charlestown, and yet no enemy appeared. + +[Sidenote: DODGING REBEL CANNON-BALLS.] + +We began to think Confederates a myth. But suddenly a gun belched forth +in front of us; another, and yet another, and rifled shot came singing +by, cutting through the tree-branches with sharp, incisive music. + +Two of our batteries instantly unlimbered, and replied. Our column +filled the road. Nearly all the Rebel missiles struck in an +apple-orchard within twenty yards of the turnpike; but our men would +persist in climbing the trees and gathering the fruit, in spite of the +shrieking shells. + +I have not yet learned to avoid bowing my head instinctively as a shot +screams by; but some old stagers sit perfectly erect, and laughingly +remind me of Napoleon's remark to a young officer: "My friend, if that +shell were really your fate, it would hit you and kill you if you were +a hundred feet underground." + +We could plainly see the Rebel cavalry. Far in advance of all others, +was a rider on a milk-white horse, which made him a conspicuous mark. +The sharpshooters tried in vain to pick him off, while he sat viewing +the artillery drill as complacently as if enjoying a pantomime. Some of +our officers declare that they have seen that identical steed and rider +on the Rebel front in every fight from Yorktown to Antietam. + +After an artillery fire of an hour, in which we lost eight or ten men, +the Rebels evacuated Charlestown, and we entered. + +[Sidenote: "HIS SOUL IS MARCHING ON."] + +The troops take a very keen interest in every thing connected with +the historic old man, who, two years ago, yielded up his life in a +field which is near our camp. They visit it by hundreds, and pour into +the court-house, now open and deserted, where he was tried, and made +that wonderful speech which will never die. They scan closely the +jail, where he wrote and spoke so many electric words. As our column +passed it, one countenance only was visible within--that of a negro, +looking through a grated window. How his dusky face lit up behind its +prison-bars at the sight of our column, and the words-- + + "His soul is marching on!" + +sung by a Pennsylvania regiment! + +[Sidenote: AN EMINENTLY "INTELLIGENT CONTRABAND."] + +Our pickets descried a solitary horseman, with a basket on his arm, +jogging soberly toward them. He proved a dark mulatto of about +thirty-five, and halted at their order. + +"Where are you from?" + +"Southern army, Cap'n." + +"Where are you going?" + +"Goin' to you'se all." + +"What do you want?" + +"Protection, boss. You won't send me back, will you?" + +"No, come in. Whose servant are you?" + +"Cap'n Rhett's, of South Caroliny. You'se heard of Mr. Barnwell Rhett, +Editor of _The Charleston Mercury_; Cap'n is his brother, and commands +a battery." + +"How did you get away?" + +"Cap'n gave me fifteen dollars this morning. He said: 'John, go out and +forage for butter and eggs.' So you see, boss" (with a broad grin), +"I'se out foraging. I pulled my hat over my eyes, and jogged along on +the cap'n's horse, with this basket on my arm, right by our pickets. +They never challenged me once. If they had I should have shown them +this." + +And he produced from his pocket an order in pencil from Captain Rhett +to pass his servant John, on horseback, in search of butter and eggs. + +"Why did you expect protection?" + +"Heard so in Maryland, before the Proclamation." + +"What do you know about the Proclamation?" + +"Read it, sir, in a Richmond paper." + +"What is it?" + +"That every slave is to be emancipated after the first day of next +January. Isn't that it, boss?" + +"Something like it. How did you learn to read?" + +"A New York lady stopping at the hotel taught me." + +"Did you ever hear of Old John Brown?" + +"Hear of him! Lord bless you, yes; I've his life now in my trunk in +Charleston. I've read it to heaps of colored folks. They think John +Brown was almost a god. Just say you are a friend of his, and any slave +will kiss your feet, if you will let him. They think, if he was only +alive now, he would be king. How he did frighten the white folks! It +was Sunday morning. I was waiter at the Mills House, in Charleston. +A lady from Massachusetts breakfasted at my table. 'John,' she says, +'I want to see a negro church. Where is the best one?' 'Not any open +to-day, Missus,' I told her. 'Why not?' 'Because a Mr. John Brown has +raised an insurrection in Virginny, and they don't let the negroes go +into the street to-day.' 'Well,' she says, 'they had better look out, +or they will get their white churches shut up, too, one of these days.'" + +[Sidenote: "THE LORD BLESS YOU, GENERAL!"] + +This truly intelligent contraband, being taken to McClellan, replied +very modestly and intelligently to questions about the numbers and +organization of the Rebel army. At the close of the interview, he asked +anxiously: + +"General, you won't send me back, will you?" + +"Yes," replied McClellan, with a smile, "I believe I will." + +"I hope you won't, General" (with great earnestness). "I come to you'se +all for protection, and I hope you won't." + +"Well, then, John, you are at liberty to stay with the army, if you +like, or to go where you please. No one can ever make you a slave +again." + +"May the Lord bless you, General! I thought you wouldn't drive me out. +You'se the best friend I ever had. I shall never forget you till I die." + + BOLIVAR HIGHTS, _October 25_. + +"The view from the mountains at Harper's Ferry," said Thomas Jefferson, +"is worth a journey across the Atlantic." + +[Sidenote: CURIOSITIES OF THE SIGNAL-CORPS.] + +Let us approach it at the lower price of climbing Maryland Hights. The +air is soft and wooing to-day. It is the time-- + + ----"just ere the frost + Prepares to pave old Winter's way, + When Autumn, in a reverie lost, + The mellow daylight dreams away; + When Summer comes in musing mind + To gaze once more on hill and dell, + To mark how many sheaves they bind, + And see if all are ripened well." + +Half way up the mountain, you rest your panting horse at a battery, +among bottle-shaped Dahlgrens, sure at thirty-five hundred yards, and +capable at their utmost elevation of a range of three miles and a half; +black, solemn Parrotts, with iron-banded breech, and shining howitzers +of brass. Far up, accessible only to footmen, is a long breast-work, +where two of our companies repulsed a Rebel regiment. How high the tide +of war must run, when its waves wash this mountain-top! Here, on the +extreme summit, is an open tent of the Signal-Corps. It is labeled: + +"DON'T TOUCH THE INSTRUMENTS. ASK NO QUESTIONS." + +Inside, two operators are gazing at the distant hights, through fixed +telescopes, calling out, "45," "169," "81," etc., which the clerk +records. Each number represents a letter, syllable, or abbreviated word. + +Looking through the long glass toward one of the seven signal-stations, +from four to twenty miles away, communicating with this, you see a +flag, with some large black figure upon a white foreground. It rises; +so many waves to the right; so many to the left. Then a different flag +takes its place, and rises and falls in turn. + +By these combinations, from one to three words per minute are +telegraphed. The operator slowly reads the distant signal to you: +"Two--hundred--Rebel--cavalry--riding--out--of--Charlestown--this-- +way--field-piece--on--road," and it occupies five minutes. Five miles +is an easy distance to communicate, but messages can be sent twenty +miles. The Signal-Corps keep on the front; their services are of great +value. Several of the members have been wounded and some killed. + +[Sidenote: BEAUTIFUL VIEW FROM MARYLAND HIGHTS.] + +You are on the highest point of the Blue Ridge, four thousand feet +above the sea, one thousand above the Potomac. + +Along the path by which you came, climbs a pony; on the pony's back a +negro; on the negro's head a bucket of water; then a mule, bearing a +coffee-sack, containing at each end a keg of water. Thus all provisions +are brought up. Here, in the early morning, you could only look out +upon a cold, shoreless sea of white fog. Now, you look down upon all +the country within a radius of twenty miles, as you would gaze into +your garden from your own house-top. + +You see the Potomac winding far away in a thread of silver, broken +by shrubs, rocks, and islands. At your feet lies Pleasant Valley, a +great furrow--two miles across, from edge to edge--plowed through the +mountains. It is full of camps, white villages of tents, and black +groups of guns. You see cozy dwellings, with great, well-filled barns, +red brick mills, straw-colored fields dotted with shocks of corn and +reaching far up into the dark, hill-side woods, green sward-fields, +mottled with orchards, and a little shining stream. A dim haze rests +upon the mountain-guarded picture, and the soft wind seems to sing with +Whittier: + + "Yet calm and patient Nature keeps + Her ancient promise well, + Though o'er her bloom and greenness sweeps + The battle's breath of hell. + + "And still she walks in golden hours + Through harvest-happy farms, + And still she wears her fruits and flowers, + Like jewels on her arms. + + "Still in the cannon's pause we hear + Her sweet thanksgiving psalm; + Too near to God for doubt or fear, + She shares the eternal calm. + + "She sees with clearer eye than ours + The good of suffering born,-- + The hearts that blossom like her flowers, + And ripen like her corn." + +See the regiments on dress parade; long lines of dark blue, with +bayonets that flash brightly in the waning sunlight. When dismissed, +each breaks into companies, which move toward their quarters like +monster antediluvian reptiles, with myriads of blue legs. + +[Sidenote: BURNSIDE AT HIS TENT.] + +On that distant hill-side, just at the forest's edge, in the midst of a +group of tents, are Burnside's head-quarters. Through your field-glass, +you see standing in front of them the military man whose ambition has +a limit. He has twice refused to accept the chief command of the army. +There stands Burnside, the favorite of the troops, in blue shirt, knit +jacket, and riding-boots, with frank, manly face, and full, laughing +eyes. + +Under your feet are Bolivar Hights, crowned with the tents of Couch's +Corps--dingy by reason of long service, like a Spring snow-drift +through which the dirt begins to sift. You see the quaint old +village of Harper's Ferry, and glimpses of the Potomac--gold in the +sunset--with trees and rocks mirrored in its mellow face. + +The sun goes down, and the glory of the western hills fades as you +slowly descend; but the picture you have seen is one which memory +paints in fast colors. + + + + +CHAPTER XXV. + + A woman moved is like a fountain troubled, Muddy, + ill-seeming, thick, bereft of beauty.--TAMING OF THE SHREW. + +[Sidenote: ON THE MARCH SOUTHWARD.] + + +When the army left Harper's Ferry, on a forced march, it moved, with +incredible celerity, thirty miles in nine days! + +The Virginians east of the Blue Ridge were nearly all hot +Secessionists. The troops, who had behaved well among the Union people +of Maryland, saw the contrast, and spoiled the Egyptians accordingly. +I think if Pharaoh had seen his homestead passed over by a hungry, +hostile force, he would have let the people go. + +In the presence of the army, many professed a sort of loyal neutrality, +or neutral loyalty; but I did not hear a single white Virginian of +either sex claim to be an unconditional Unionist. + +At Woodgrove, one evening, finding that we should not go into camp +before midnight, I sought supper and lodging at a private house of the +better class. My middle-aged host and his two young, unmarried sisters, +were glad to entertain some one from the army, to protect their +dwelling against stragglers. + +[Sidenote: REBEL GIRL WITH A SHARP TONGUE.] + +The elder girl, of about eighteen, was almost a monomaniac upon the +war. She declared she had no aspiration for heaven, if any Yankees were +to be there. She would be proud to kiss the dirtiest, raggedest soldier +in the Rebel army. I refrained from discussing politics with her, and +we talked of other subjects. + +During the evening, Generals Gorman and Burns reached the house to seek +shelter for the night. The officers, discovering the sensitiveness of +the poor girl, expressed the most ultra sentiments. Well educated, and +with a tongue like a rapier, she was at times greatly excited, and the +blood crimsoned her face; but she out-talked them all. + +"By-the-way," asked Burns, mischievously, "do you ever read _The +Tribune_?" + +She replied, with intense indignation: + +"Read it! I would not touch it with a pair of tongs! It is the most +infamous Abolition, negro-equality sheet in the whole world!" + +"So a great many people say," continued Burns. "However, here is one of +its correspondents." + +"In this room?" + +"Yes, madam." + +"He must be even worse than you, who come down here to murder us! Where +is he?" + +"Sitting in the corner there, reading letters." + +"I thought you were deceiving me. That is no _Tribune_ correspondent. I +do not believe you." (To me:) "This Yankee officer says that you write +for _The New York Tribune_. You don't, do you?" + +"Yes, madam." + +"Why, you seem to be a gentleman. It is not true! It's a jest between +you just to make me angry." + +At last convinced, she withheld altogether from me the expected +vituperation, but assailed Burns in a style which made him very glad to +abandon the unequal contest. She relentlessly persisted that he should +always wear his star, for nobody would suspect him of being a general +if he appeared without his uniform--that he was the worst type of the +most obnoxious Yankee, etc. + +At Upperville, the next day, I inquired of a woman who was scrutinizing +us from her door: + +"Have you seen any Rebel pickets this morning?" + +She replied, indignantly: + +"No! Why do you call them Rebels?" + +"As you please, madam; what do you call them?" + +"I call them Southern heroes, sir!" + +[Sidenote: THE NEGROES "WATCHING AND WAITING."] + +The negroes poured into our lines whenever permitted. + +"Well, Uncle," I asked of a white-haired patriarch, who was tottering +along the road, "are you a Rebel, like everybody else?" + +"No, sir! What should I be a Rebel for? I have been wanting to come to +you all a heap of times; but I just watched and waited." + +Watching and waiting! Four millions of negroes were watching and +waiting from the beginning of the war until President Lincoln's +Proclamation. + +On the march, Major O'Neil, of General Meagher's staff, started with a +message to Burnside, who was a few miles on our left. Unsuspectingly, +he rode right into a squad of cavalry dressed in United States uniform. +He found that they were Stuart's Rebels in disguise, and that he was +a captive. O'Neil had only just been exchanged from Libby Prison, and +his prospect was disheartening. The delighted Rebels sent him to their +head-quarters in Bloomfield, under guard of a lieutenant and two men. +But, on reaching the village, they found the head-quarters closed. + +"I wonder where our forces are gone," said the Rebel officer. "Oh, here +they are! Men, guard the prisoner while I ride to them." + +And he galloped down the street to a company of approaching cavalry. +Just as he reached them, they leveled their carbines, and cried: + +"Surrender!" + +He had made precisely the same mistake as Major O'Neil, and ridden +into our cavalry instead of his own. So, after spending three hours in +the hands of the Rebels, O'Neil found himself once more in our lines, +accompanied by three Rebel prisoners. + +The slaveholders complained greatly of the depredations of our army. A +very wealthy planter, who had lost nothing of much value, drew for me a +frightful picture of impending starvation. + +"I could bear it myself," exclaimed this Virginian Pecksniff, "but it +is very hard for these little negroes, who are almost as dear to me as +my own children." + +He had one of the young Africans upon his knee, and it was quite as +white as "his own children," who were running about the room. The only +perceptible difference was that its hair was curly, while theirs was +straight. + +[Sidenote: REMOVAL OF GENERAL MCCLELLAN.] + +At Warrenton, on the 7th of November, McClellan was relieved from the +command of the Army of the Potomac. He issued the following farewell: + + "An order from the President devolves upon Major-General + Burnside the command of this army. In parting from you, I + cannot express the love and gratitude I bear you. As an army, + you have grown under my care; in you I have never found doubt + or coldness. The battles you have fought under my command + will brightly live in our nation's history; the glory you + have achieved, our mutual perils and fatigues, the graves + of our comrades fallen in battle and by disease, the broken + forms of those whom wounds and sickness have disabled, make + the strongest associations which can exist among men. United + still by an indissoluble tie, we shall ever be comrades + in supporting the Constitution of our country and the + nationality of its people." + +McClellan's political and personal friends were aggrieved and indignant +at his removal in the midst of a campaign. Three of his staff officers +even made a foolish attempt to assault a _Tribune_ correspondent, +on account of the supposed hostility of that journal toward their +commander. General McClellan, upon hearing of it, sent a disclaimer and +apology, and the officers were soon heartily ashamed. + +The withdrawal was worked up to its utmost dramatic effect. Immediately +after reading the farewell order to all the troops, there was a final +review, in which the outgoing and incoming generals, with their long +staffs, rode along the lines. Salutes were fired and colors dipped. +At some points, the men cheered warmly, but the new regiments were +"heroically reticent." McClellan's chief strength was with the rank and +file. + +[Sidenote: PICKETS TALKING ACROSS THE RIVER.] + +Burnside pushed the army rapidly forward to the Rappahannock. The +Rebels held Fredericksburg, on the south bank. The men conversed freely +across the stream. One day I heard a dialogue like this: + +"Halloo, butternut!" + +"Halloo, bluebelly!" + +"What was the matter with your battery, Tuesday night?" + +"You made it too hot. Your shots drove away the cannoneers, and they +haven't stopped running yet. We infantry men had to come out and +withdraw the guns." + +"You infantrymen will run, too, one of these fine mornings." + +"When are you coming over?" + +"When we get ready to come." + +"What do you want?" + +"Want Fredericksburg." + +"Don't you wish you may get it?" + +Here an officer came up and ordered our men away. + +The army halted for some weeks in front of Fredericksburg. + +[Sidenote: HOW ARMY CORRESPONDENTS LIVED.] + +By this time, War Correspondence was employing hundreds of pens. +_The Tribune_ had from five to eight men in the Army of the Potomac, +and twelve west of the Alleghanies. My own local habitation was the +head-quarters of Major-General O. O. Howard, who afterward won wide +reputation in Tennessee and Georgia, and who is an officer of great +skill, bravery, and personal purity. + +My dispatches were usually prepared, and those of my associates sent +to me, at night. Before dawn, a special messenger called at my tent +for them, and bore them on horseback, or by railway and steamer, to +Washington, whence they were forwarded to New York by mail or telegraph. + +Correspondents usually lived at the head-quarters of some general +officer, bearing their due proportion of mess expenditures; but they +were compelled to rely upon the bounty of quartermasters for forage for +their horses, and transportation for their baggage. + +Having no legal and recognized positions in the army, they were +sometimes liable to supercilious treatment from young members of staff. +They were sure of politeness and consideration from generals; yet, +particularly in the regular army, there was a certain impression that +they deserved Halleck's characterization of "unauthorized hangers-on." +To encourage the best class of journalists to accompany the army, there +should be a law distinctly authorizing representatives of the Press, +who are engaged in no other pursuit, to accompany troops in the field, +and purchase forage and provisions at the same rates as officers. They +should, of course, be held to a just responsibility not to publish +information which could benefit the enemy. + +Nightly, around our great division camp-fire, negroes of all ages pored +over their spelling-books with commendable thirst for learning. + +[Sidenote: I'D RATHER BE FREE.] + +One boy, of fourteen, was considered peculiarly stupid, and had seen +hard work, rough living, and no pay, during his twelve months' sojourn +with the army. I asked him: "Did you work as hard for your old master +as you do here?" + +"No, sir." + +"Did he treat you kindly?" + +"Yes, sir." + +"Were you as well clothed as now?" + +"Better, sir." + +"And had more comforts?" + +"Yes, sir; always had a roof over me, and was never exposed to rain and +cold." + +"Would you not have done better to stay at home?" + +"If I had thought so, I should not have come away, sir." + +"Would you come again, knowing what hardships were before you?" + +"Yes, sir. I'd rather be free!" + +He was not stupid enough to be devoid of human instinct! + +[Sidenote: THE BATTLE OF FREDERICKSBURG.] + +In December occurred the battle of Fredericksburg. The enemy's position +was very strong--almost impregnable. Our men were compelled to lay +their pontoons across the river in a pitiless rain of bullets from the +Rebel sharpshooters. But they did it without flinching. Our troops, +rank, file, and officers, marched into the jaws of death with stubborn +determination. + +We attacked in three columns; but the original design was that the +main assault should be on our left, which was commanded by General +Franklin. A road which Franklin wished to reach would enable him to +come up in the rear of Fredericksburg, and compel the enemy to evacuate +his strong works, or be captured. Franklin was very late in starting. +He penetrated once to this road, but did not know it, and again fell +back. Thus the key to the position was lost. + +In the center, our troops were flung upon very strong works, and +repulsed with terrible slaughter. It proved a massacre rather than a +battle. Our killed and wounded exceeded ten thousand. + +I was not present at the battle, but returned to the army two or +three days after. Burnside deported himself with rare fitness and +magnanimity. As he spoke to me about the brave men who had fruitlessly +fallen, there were tears in his eyes, and his voice broke with emotion. +When I asked him if Franklin's slowness was responsible for the +slaughter, he replied: + +"No. I understand perfectly well that when the general commanding an +army meets with disaster, he alone is responsible, and I will not +attempt to shift that responsibility upon any one else. No one will +ever know how near we came to a great victory. It almost seems to me +now that I could have led my old Ninth Corps into those works." + +Indeed, Burnside had desired to do this, but was dissuaded by his +lieutenants. The Ninth Corps would have followed him anywhere; but that +would have been certain death. + +Burnside was, at least, great in his earnestness, his moral courage, +and perfect integrity. The battle was better than squandering precious +lives in fevers and dysentery during months of inaction. Better a +soldier's death on the enemy's guns than a nameless grave in the swamps +of the Chickahominy or the trenches before Corinth. + +Ordered to move, Burnside obeyed without quibbling or hesitating, and +flung his army upon the Rebels. The result was defeat; but that policy +proved our salvation at last; by that sign we conquered. + +Every private soldier knew that the battle of Fredericksburg was a +costly and bloody mistake, and yet I think on the day or the week +following it, the soldiers would have gone into battle just as +cheerfully and sturdily as before. The more I saw of the Army of +the Potomac, the more I wondered at its invincible spirit, which no +disasters seemed able to destroy. + +[Sidenote: CURIOUS BLUNDER OF THE TELEGRAPH.] + +In January, among the lookers-on in Virginia, was the Hon. Henry J. +Raymond, of _The Times_. He had a brother in the service, and one day +he received this telegram:-- + + "Your brother's corpse is at Belle Plain." + +Hastening to the army as fast as steam could carry him, to perform the +last sad offices of affection, he found his relative not only living, +but in vigorous health. Through the eccentricities of the telegraph, +the word _corps_ had been changed into _corpse_. + +On the 22d of January, Burnside attempted another advance, designing +to cross the Rappahannock in three columns. The weather for a long time +had been fine, but, a few hours after the army started, the heavens +opened, and converted the Virginia roads into almost fathomless mire. +Advance seemed out of the question, and in two days the troops came +back to camp. The Rebels understood the cause, and prepared an enormous +sign, which they erected on their side of the river, in full view of +our pickets, bearing the inscription, "STUCK IN THE MUD!" + +[Sidenote: THE BATTERIES AT FREDERICKSBURG.] + + ARMY OF POTOMAC, NEAR FALMOUTH, VA., } + _Monday, Nov. 24_. } + +Still on the north bank of the Rappahannock! Upon the high bluffs, +along a line of three miles, twenty-four of our guns point +threateningly toward the enemy. In the ravines behind them a hundred +more wait, ready to be wheeled up and placed in position. + +Upon the hills south of the river, distant from them a thousand to five +thousand yards, Rebel guns confront them. Some peer blackly through +hastily-built earthworks; some are just visible over the crests of +sharp ridges; some almost hidden by great piles of brush. Already we +count eighteen; the cannonading will unmask many more. + + "Ah, what a sound will rise, how wild and dreary, + When the Death-angel touches these swift keys! + What loud lament and dismal _miserere_ + Will mingle with their awful symphonies!" + +In front of our right batteries, but far below and hidden from them, +the antique, narrow, half-ruined village of Falmouth hugs the river. In +front of the Rebel batteries, in full view of both sides, the broad, +well-to-do town of Fredericksburg, with its great factories, tall +spires, and brick buildings, is a tempting target for our guns. The +river which flows between (though Fredericksburg is half a mile below +Falmouth), is now so narrow, that a lad can throw a stone across. + +Behind our batteries and their protecting hills rests the infantry of +the Grand Division. General Couch's corps occupies a crescent-shaped +valley--a symmetric natural amphitheater. It is all aglow nightly +with a thousand camp-fires; and, from the proscenium-hill of General +Howard's head-quarters, forms a picture mocking all earthly canvas. +Behind the Rebel batteries, in the dense forest, their infantry +occupies a line five miles long. By night we just detect the glimmer of +their fires; by day we see the tall, slender columns of smoke curling +up from their camps. + +[Sidenote: A DISAPPOINTED VIRGINIAN.] + +All the citizens ask to have guards placed over their houses; but very +few obtain them. "I will give no man a guard," replied General Howard +to one of these applicants, "until he is willing to lose as much as I +have lost, in defending the Government." The Virginian cast one long, +lingering look at the General's loose, empty coat-sleeve (he lost his +right arm while leading his brigade at Fair Oaks), and went away, the +picture of despair. + +ARMY OF POTOMAC, _Sunday, Dec. 21_. + +The general tone of the army is good; far better than could be +expected. There is regret for our failure, sympathy for our wounded, +mourning for our honored dead; but I find little discouragement and no +demoralization. + +This is largely owing to the splendid conduct of all our troops. The +men are hopeful because there are few of the usual jealousies and +heart-burnings. No one is able to say, "If this division had not +broken," or "if that regiment had done its duty, we might have won." +The concurrence of testimony is universal, that our men in every +division did better than they ever did before, and made good their +claim to being the best troops in the world. We have had victories +without merit, but this was a defeat without dishonor. + +In many respects--in all respects but the failure of its vital +object--the battle of Fredericksburg was the finest thing of the +war. Laying the bridge, pushing the army across, after the defeat +withdrawing it successfully--all were splendidly done, and redound +alike to the skill of the general and the heroism of the troops. + +[Sidenote: HONOR TO THE BRAVE AND BOLD.] + +And those men and officers of the Seventh Michigan, the Nineteenth and +Twentieth Massachusetts, and the Eighty-ninth New York, who eagerly +crossed the river in open boats, in the teeth of that pitiless rain of +bullets, and dislodged the sharpshooters who were holding our whole +army at bay--what shall we say of them? Let the name of every man of +them be secured now, and preserved in a roll of honor; let Congress see +to it that, by medal or ribbon to each, the Republic gives token of +gratitude to all who do such royal deeds in its defense. To the living, +at least, we can be just. The fallen, who were left by hundreds in line +of battle, "dead on the field of honor," we cannot reward; but He who +permits no sparrow to fall to the ground unheeded, will see to it that +no drop of their precious blood has been shed in vain. + + + + +CHAPTER XXVI. + + He hath borne his faculties so meek, hath been So clear in + his great office, that his virtues Will plead like angels, + trumpet-tongued, against The deep damnation of his taking + off.--MACBETH. + +[Sidenote: REMINISCENCES OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN.] + + +The assassination of President Lincoln, while these chapters are in +press, attaches a sad interest to everything connected with his memory. + +During the great canvass for the United States Senate, between Mr. +Lincoln and Mr. Douglas, the right of Congress to exclude Slavery from +the Territories was the chief point in dispute. Kansas was the only +region to which it had any practical application; and we, who were +residing there, read the debates with peculiar interest. + +No such war of intellects, on the rostrum, was ever witnessed in +America. Entirely without general culture, more ignorant of books than +any other public man of his day, Douglas was christened "the Little +Giant" by the unerring popular instinct. He who, without the learning +of the schools, and without preparation, could cope with Webster, +Seward, and Sumner, surely deserved that appellation. He despised +study. Rising after one of Mr. Sumner's most scholarly and elaborate +speeches, he said: "Mr. President, this is very elegant and able, but +we all know perfectly well that the Massachusetts Senator has been +rehearsing it every night for a month, before a looking-glass, with a +negro holding a candle!" + +[Sidenote: HIS GREAT CANVASS WITH DOUGLAS.] + +Douglas was, beyond all cotemporaries, a man of the people. Lincoln, +too, was distinctively of the masses; but he represented their sober, +second thought, their higher aspirations, their better possibilities. +Douglas embodied their average impulses, both good and bad. Upon the +stump, his fluency, his hard common sense, and his wonderful voice, +which could thunder like the cataract, or whisper with the breeze, +enabled him to sway them at his will. + +Hitherto invincible at home, he now found a foeman worthy of his +steel. All over the country people began to ask about this "Honest Abe +Lincoln," whose inexhaustible anecdotes were so droll, yet so exactly +to the point; whose logic was so irresistible; whose modesty, fairness, +and personal integrity, won golden opinions from his political enemies; +who, without "trimming," enjoyed the support of the many-headed +Opposition in Illinois, from the Abolition Owen Lovejoys of the +northern counties, down to the "conservative" old Whigs of the Egyptian +districts, who still believed in the divinity of Slavery. + +Those who did not witness it will never comprehend the universal and +intense horror at every thing looking toward "negro equality" which +then prevailed in southern Illinois. Republican politicians succumbed +to it. In their journals and platforms they sometimes said distinctly: +"We care nothing for the negro. We advocate his exclusion from our +State. We oppose Slavery in the Territories only because it is a curse +to the white man." Mr. Lincoln never descended to this level. In his +plain, moderate, conciliatory way, he would urge upon his simple +auditors that this matter had a Right and a Wrong--that the great +Declaration of their fathers meant something. And--always his strong +point--he would put this so clearly to the common apprehension, and +so touch the people's moral sense, that his opponents found their old +cries of "Abolitionist" and "Negro-worshiper" hollow and powerless. + +His defeat, by a very slight majority, proved victory in disguise. The +debates gave him a National reputation. Republican executive committees +in other States issued verbatim reports of the speeches of both +Douglas and Lincoln, bound up together in the order of their delivery. +They printed them just as they stood, without one word of comment, as +the most convincing plea for their cause. Rarely, if ever, has any man +received so high a compliment as was thus paid to Mr. Lincoln. + +[Sidenote: HIS VISIT TO KANSAS.] + +In Kansas his stories began to stick like chestnut-burrs in the +popular ear--to pass from mouth to mouth, and from cabin to cabin. The +young lawyers, physicians, and other politicians who swarm in the new +country, began to quote from his arguments in their public speeches, +and to regard him as the special champion of their political faith. + +Late in the Autumn of 1859 he visited the Territory for the first and +last time. With Marcus J. Parrott, Delegate in Congress, A. Carter +Wilder, afterward Representative, and Henry Villard, a Journalist, +I went to Troy, in Doniphan County, to hear him. In the imaginative +language of the frontier, Troy was a "town"--possibly a city. But, save +a shabby frame court-house, a tavern, and a few shanties, its urban +glories were visible only to the eye of faith. It was intensely cold. +The sweeping prairie wind rocked the crazy buildings, and cut the faces +of travelers like a knife. Mr. Wilder froze his hand during our ride, +and Mr. Lincoln's party arrived wrapped in buffalo-robes. + +[Sidenote: HIS MANNER OF PUBLIC SPEAKING.] + +Not more than forty people assembled in that little, bare-walled +court-house. There was none of the magnetism of a multitude to inspire +the long, angular, ungainly orator, who rose up behind a rough table. +With little gesticulation, and that little ungraceful, he began, not to +declaim, but to talk. In a conversational tone, he argued the question +of Slavery in the Territories, in the language of an average Ohio or +New York farmer. I thought, "If the Illinoisans consider this a great +man, their ideas must be very peculiar." + +But in ten or fifteen minutes I was unconsciously and irresistibly +drawn by the clearness and closeness of his argument. Link after +link it was forged and welded like a blacksmith's chain. He made few +assertions, but merely asked questions: "Is not this true? If you admit +that fact, is not this induction correct?" Give him his premises, and +his conclusions were inevitable as death. + +His fairness and candor were very noticeable. He ridiculed nothing, +burlesqued nothing, misrepresented nothing. So far from distorting the +views held by Mr. Douglas and his adherents, he stated them with more +strength probably than any one of their advocates could have done. +Then, very modestly and courteously, he inquired into their soundness. +He was too kind for bitterness, and too great for vituperation. + +His anecdotes, of course, were felicitous and illustrative. He +delineated the tortuous windings of the Democracy upon the Slavery +question, from Thomas Jefferson down to Franklin Pierce. Whenever +he heard a man avow his determination to adhere unswervingly to the +principles of the Democratic party, it reminded him, he said, of a +"little incident" in Illinois. A lad, plowing upon the prairie, asked +his father in what direction he should strike a new furrow. The parent +replied, "Steer for that yoke of oxen standing at the further end of +the field." The father went away, and the lad obeyed. But just as he +started, the oxen started also. He kept steering for them; and they +continued to walk. He followed them entirely around the field, and came +back to the starting-point, having furrowed a circle instead of a line! + +[Sidenote: HIGH PRAISE FROM AN OPPONENT.] + +The address lasted for an hour and three-quarters. Neither rhetorical, +graceful, nor eloquent, it was still very fascinating. The people of +the frontier believe profoundly in fair play, and in hearing both +sides. So they now called for an aged ex-Kentuckian, who was the +heaviest slaveholder in the Territory. Responding, he thus prefaced his +remarks:-- + +"I have heard, during my life, all the ablest public speakers--all the +eminent statesmen of the past and the present generation. And while I +dissent utterly from the doctrines of this address, and shall endeavor +to refute some of them, candor compels me to say that it is the most +able and the most logical speech I ever listened to." + +I have alluded in earlier pages, to remarks touching the reports that +Mr. Lincoln would be assassinated, which I heard in the South, on the +day of his first inauguration. Afterward, in my presence, several +persons of the wealthy, slaveholding class, alluded to the subject, +some having laid wagers upon the event. I heard but one man condemn the +proposed assassination, and he was a Unionist. Again and again, leading +journals, which were called reputable, asked: "Is there no Brutus to +rid the world of this tyrant?" Rewards were openly proposed for the +President's head. If Mr. Lincoln had then been murdered in Baltimore, +every thorough Secession journal in the South would have expressed its +approval, directly or indirectly. Of course, I do not believe that the +masses, or all Secessionists, would have desired such a stain upon the +American name; but even then, as afterward, when they murdered our +captured soldiers, and starved, froze, and shot our prisoners, the men +who led and controlled the Rebels appeared deaf to humanity and to +decency. Charity would fain call them insane; but there was too much +method in their madness. + +[Sidenote: A DEED WITHOUT A NAME.] + +Their last, great crime of all was, perhaps, needed for an eternal +monument of the influence of Slavery. It was fitting that they who +murdered Lovejoy, who crimsoned the robes of young Kansas, who aimed +their gigantic Treason at the heart of the Republic, before the +curtain went down, should crown their infamy by this deed without a +name. It was fitting that they should seek the lives of President +Lincoln, General Grant, and Secretary Seward, the three officers most +conspicuous of all for their mildness and clemency. It was fitting +they should assassinate a Chief Magistrate, so conscientious, that his +heavy responsibility weighed him down like a millstone; so pure, that +partisan rancor found no stain upon the hem of his garment; so gentle, +that e'en his failings leaned to virtue's side; so merciful, that he +stood like an averting angel between them and the Nation's vengeance. + +The Rebel newspapers represented him--a man who used neither spirits +nor tobacco--as in a state of constant intoxication. They ransacked +the language for epithets. Their chief hatred was called out by his +origin. He illustrated the Democratic Idea, which was inconceivably +repugnant to them. That a man who sprang from the people, worked with +his hands, actually split rails in boyhood, should rise to the head +of a Government which included Southern gentlemen, was bitter beyond +description! + +[Sidenote: SHERMAN'S QUARREL WITH THE PRESS.] + +On the 28th of December, 1862, Sherman fought the battle of Chickasaw +Bayou, one of our first fruitless attempts to capture Vicksburg. +Grant designed to co-operate by an attack from the rear, but his long +supply-line extended to Columbus, Kentucky, though he might have +established a nearer base at Memphis. Van Dorn cut his communications +at Holly Springs, Mississippi, and Grant was compelled to fall back. + +Sherman's attack proved a serious disaster. Our forces were flung upon +an almost impregnable bluff, where we lost about two thousand five +hundred men, and were then compelled to retreat. + +In the old quarrel between Sherman and the Press, as usual, there was +blame upon both sides. Some of the correspondents had treated him +unjustly; and he had not learned the quiet patience and faith in the +future which Grant exhibited under similar circumstances. At times he +manifested much irritation and morbid sensitiveness. + +[Sidenote: AN ARMY CORRESPONDENT COURT-MARTIALED.] + +A well-known correspondent, Mr. Thomas W. Knox, was present at the +battle, and placed his report of it, duly sealed, and addressed to a +private citizen, in the military mail at Sherman's head-quarters. One +"Colonel" A. H. Markland, of Kentucky, United States Postal Agent, on +mere surmise about its contents, took the letter from the mail and +permitted it to be opened. He insisted afterward that he did this by +Sherman's express command. Sherman denied giving any such order, but +said he was satisfied with Markland's course. + +Markland should have been arrested for robbing the Government mails, +which he was sworn to protect. There was no reasonable pretext for +asserting that the letter would give information to the enemy; +therefore it did not imperil the public interest. If General Sherman +deemed it unjust to himself individually, he had his remedy, like any +other citizen or soldier, in the courts of the country and the justice +of the people. + +The purloined dispatch was left for four or five days lying about +Sherman's head-quarters, open to the inspection of officers. Finally, +upon Knox's written request, it was returned to him, though a map which +it contained was kept--as he rather pungently suggested, probably for +the information of the military authorities! + +Knox's letter had treated the generalship of the battle very tenderly. +But after this proceeding he immediately forwarded a second account, +which expressed his views on the subject in very plain English. Its +return in print caused great excitement at head-quarters. Knox was +arrested, and tried before a military tribunal on these charges:-- + +I. Giving information to the enemy. + +II. Being a spy. + +III. Violating the fifty-seventh Article of War, which forbids the +writing of letters for publication from any United States army without +submitting them to the commanding general for approval. + +The court-martial sat for fifteen days. It acquitted Knox upon the +first and second charges. Of course, he was found guilty of the third. +After some hesitation between sentencing him to receive a written +censure, or to leave Grant's department, the latter was decided upon, +and he was banished from the army lines. + +When information of this proceeding reached Washington, the members +of the press at once united in a memorial to the President, asking +him to set aside the sentence, inasmuch as the violated Article of +War was altogether obsolete, and the practice of sending newspaper +letters, without any official scrutiny, had been universal, with the +full sanction of the Government, from the outset of the Rebellion. +It was further represented that Mr. Knox was thoroughly loyal, and +the most scrupulously careful of all the army correspondents to write +nothing which, by any possibility, could give information to the enemy. +Colonel John W. Forney headed the memorial, and all the journalists in +Washington signed it. + +[Sidenote: A VISIT TO PRESIDENT LINCOLN.] + +One evening, with Mr. James M. Winchell, of _The New York Times,_ and +Mr. H. P. Bennett, Congressional Delegate from Colorado, I called upon +the President to present the paper. + +After General Sigel and Representative John B. Steele had left, he +chanced to be quite at liberty. Upon my introduction, he remarked:-- + +"Oh, yes, I remember you perfectly well: you were out on the prairies +with me on that winter day when we almost froze to death; you were then +correspondent of _The Boston Journal_. That German from Leavenworth was +also with us--what was his name?" + +[Sidenote: TWO "LITTLE STORIES."] + +"Hatterscheit?" I suggested. "Yes, Hatterscheit! By-the-way" +(motioning us to seats, and settling down into his chair, with one +leg thrown over the arm), "that reminds me of a little story, which +Hatterscheit told me during the trip. He bought a pony of an Indian, +who could not speak much English, but who, when the bargain was +completed, said: 'Oats--no! Hay--no! Corn--no! Cottonwood--yes! very +much!' Hatterscheit thought this was mere drunken maundering; but a +few nights after, he tied his horse in a stable built of cottonwood +logs, fed him with hay and corn, and went quietly to bed. The next +morning he found the grain and fodder untouched, but the barn was quite +empty, with a great hole on one side, which the pony had gnawed his way +through! Then he comprehended the old Indian's fragmentary English." + +This suggested another reminiscence of the same Western trip. Somewhere +in Nebraska the party came to a little creek, the Indian name of +which signified weeping water. Mr. Lincoln remarked, with a good +deal of aptness, that, as laughing water, according to Longfellow, +was "Minne-haha," the name of this rivulet should evidently be +"Minne-boohoo." + +These inevitable preliminaries ended, we presented the memorial asking +the President to interpose in behalf of Mr. Knox. He promptly answered +he would do so if Grant coincided. We reminded him that this was +improbable, as Sherman and Grant were close personal friends. After a +moment's hesitancy he replied, with courtesy, but with emphasis:-- + +"I should be glad to serve you or Mr. Knox, or any other loyal +journalist. But, just at present, our generals in the field are more +important to the country than any of the rest of us, or all the rest +of us. It is my fixed determination to do nothing whatever which can +possibly embarrass any one of them. Therefore, I will do cheerfully +what I have said, but it is all I can do." + +There was too much irresistible good sense in this to permit any +further discussion. The President took up his pen and wrote, reflecting +a moment from time to time, the following:-- + +EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, _March 20, 1863_. + + _Whom it may concern_: + + _Whereas_, It appears to my satisfaction that Thomas W. + Knox, a correspondent of _The New York Herald_, has been, + by the sentence of a court-martial, excluded from the + military department under command of Major-General Grant, + and also that General Thayer, president of the court-martial + which rendered the sentence, and Major-General McClernand, + in command of a corps of the department, and many other + respectable persons, are of the opinion that Mr. Knox's + offense was technical, rather than wilfully wrong, and that + the sentence should be revoked; Now, therefore, said sentence + is hereby so far revoked as to allow Mr. Knox to return to + General Grant's head-quarters, and to remain if General + Grant shall give his express assent, and to again leave the + department, if General Grant shall refuse such assent. + + A. LINCOLN. + +[Illustration] + +Reading it over carefully, he handed it to me, and gave a little sigh +of relief. General conversation ensued. Despondent and weighed down +with his load of care, he sought relief in frank speaking. He said, +with great earnestness: "God knows that I want to do what is wise and +right, but sometimes it is very difficult to determine." + +[Sidenote: MR. LINCOLN'S FAMILIAR CONVERSATION.] + +He conversed freely of military affairs, but suddenly remarked: "I am +talking again! Of course, you will remember that I speak to you only as +friends; that none of this must be put in print." + +Touching an attack upon Charleston which had long been contemplated, he +said that Du Pont had promised, some weeks before, if certain supplies +were furnished, to make the assault upon a given day. The supplies were +promptly forwarded; the day came and went without any intelligence. +Some time after, he sent an officer to Washington, asking for three +more iron-clads and a large quantity of deck-plating as indispensable +to the preparations. + +"I told the officer to say to Commodore Du Pont," observed Mr. Lincoln, +"that I fear he does not appreciate at all the value of time." + +[Sidenote: OPINIONS ABOUT MCCLELLAN AND VICKSBURG.] + +The Army of the Potomac was next spoken of. The great Fredericksburg +disaster was recent, and the public heart was heavy. In regard to +General McClellan, the President spoke with discriminating justice:-- + +"I do not, as some do, regard McClellan either as a traitor or an +officer without capacity. He sometimes has bad counselors, but he is +loyal, and he has some fine military qualities. I adhered to him after +nearly all my Constitutional advisers lost faith in him. But do you +want to know when I gave him up? It was after the battle of Antietam. +The Blue Ridge was then between our army and Lee's. We enjoyed the +great advantage over them which they usually had over us: we had the +short line, and they the long one, to the Rebel Capital. I directed +McClellan peremptorily to move on Richmond. It was eleven days before +he crossed his first man over the Potomac; it was eleven days after +that before he crossed the last man. Thus he was twenty-two days in +passing the river at a much easier and more practicable ford than that +where Lee crossed his entire army between dark one night and daylight +the next morning. That was the last grain of sand which broke the +camel's back. I relieved McClellan at once. As for Hooker, I have +told _him_ forty times that I fear he may err just as much one way +as McClellan does the other--may be as over-daring as McClellan is +over-cautious." + +We inquired about the progress of the Vicksburg campaign. Our armies +were on a long expedition up the Yazoo River, designing, by digging +canals and threading bayous, to get in the rear of the city and cut off +its supplies. Mr. Lincoln said:-- + +"Of course, men who are in command and on the spot, know a great deal +more than I do. But immediately in front of Vicksburg, where the river +is a mile wide, the Rebels plant batteries, which absolutely stop our +entire fleets. Therefore it does seem to me that upon narrow streams +like the Yazoo, Yallabusha, and Tallahatchie, not wide enough for a +long boat to turn around in, if any of our steamers which go there ever +come back, there must be some mistake about it. If the enemy permits +them to survive, it must be either through lack of enterprise or lack +of sense." + +A few months later, Mr. Lincoln was able to announce to the nation: +"The Father of Waters again flows unvexed to the sea." + +Our interview left no grotesque recollections of the President's +lounging, his huge hands and feet, great mouth, or angular features. +We remembered rather the ineffable tenderness which shone through his +gentle eyes, his childlike ingenuousness, his utter integrity, and his +absorbing love of country. + +[Sidenote: OUR BEST CONTRIBUTION TO HISTORY.] + +Ignorant of etiquette and conventionalities, without the graces of form +or of manner, his great reluctance to give pain, his beautiful regard +for the feelings of others, made him + + "Worthy to bear without reproach The grand old name of + Gentleman." + +Strong without symmetry, humorous without levity, religious without +cant--tender, merciful, forgiving, a profound believer in Divine love, +an earnest worker for human brotherhood--Abraham Lincoln was perhaps +the best contribution which America has made to History. + +His origin among humble laborers, his native judgment, better than the +wisdom of the schools, his perfect integrity, his very ruggedness and +angularities, made him fit representative of the young Nation which +loved and honored him. + +[Sidenote: A NOBLE LIFE AND HAPPY DEATH.] + +No more shall sound above our tumultuous rejoicing his wise caution, +"Let us be very sober." No more shall breathe through the passions +of the hour his tender pleading that judgment may be tempered with +mercy. His work is done. Nothing could have assured and enlarged his +posthumous fame like this tragic ending. He goes to a place in History +where his peers will be very few. The poor wretch who struck the blow +has gone to be judged by infinite Justice, and also by infinite Mercy. +So have many others indirectly responsible for the murder, and directly +responsible for the war. Let us remember them in no Pharisaic spirit, +thanking God that we are not as other men--but as warnings of what a +race with many generous and manly traits may become by being guilty of +injustice and oppression. + +Some of the President's last expressions were words of mercy for his +enemies. A few hours before his death, in a long interview with his +trusted and honored friend Schuyler Colfax, he stated that he wished to +give the Rebel leaders an opportunity to leave the country and escape +the vengeance which seemed to await them here. + +America is never likely to feel again the profound, universal grief +which followed the death of Abraham Lincoln. Even the streets of her +great Metropolis "forgot to roar." Hung were the heavens in black. +For miles, every house was draped in mourning. The least feeling was +manifested by that sham aristocracy, which had the least sympathy with +the Union cause and with the Democratic Idea. The deepest was displayed +by the "plain people" and the poor. + +What death is happier than thus to be wept by the lowly and oppressed, +as a friend and protector! What life is nobler than thus to be filled, +in his own golden words, "with charity for all, with malice toward +none!" + + + + +CHAPTER XXVII. + + ----It is held That valor is the chiefest virtue and Most + dignifies the haver. If it be, The man I speak of cannot in + the world Be singly counterpoised.--CORIOLANUS. + +[Sidenote: REMINISCENCES OF GENERAL SUMNER.] + + +During the month of March, Major-General Edwin V. Sumner was in +Washington, apparently in vigorous health. He had just been appointed +to the command of the Department of the Missouri. One Saturday evening, +having received his final orders, he was about leaving for his home +in Syracuse, New York, where he designed spending a few days before +starting for St. Louis. + +I went into his room to bid him adieu. Allusion was made to the +allegations of speculation against General Curtis, his predecessor in +the West. "I trust," said he, "they are untrue. No general has a right +to make one dollar out of his official position, beyond the salary +which his Government pays him." He talked somewhat in detail of the +future, remarking, "For the present, I shall remain in St. Louis; but +whenever there is a prospect of meeting the enemy, I shall take the +field, and lead my troops in person. Some men can fight battles over a +telegraph-wire, but you know I have no talent in that direction." + +With his friendly grasp of the hand, and his kindly smile, he started +for home. It proved to him Home indeed. A week later the country was +startled by intelligence of his sudden death. He, who for forty-eight +years had braved the hardships of campaigning and the perils of battle, +until he seemed to have a charmed life, was abruptly cut down by +disease under his own roof, surrounded by those he loved. + + "The breast that trampling Death could spare, + His noiseless shafts assail." + +For almost half a century, Sumner had belonged to the Army of the +United States; but he steadfastly refused to be put on the retired +list. Entering the service from civil life, he was free from +professional traditions and narrowness. Senator Wade once asked him, +"How long were you at the Military Academy?" He replied, "I was never +there in my life." + +The bluff Ohioan sprang up and shook him fervidly by the hand, +exclaiming, "Thank God for one general of the regular Army, who was +never at West Point!" + +[Sidenote: HIS CONDUCT IN KANSAS.] + +During the early Kansas troubles, Sumner, then a colonel, was stationed +in the Territory with his regiment of dragoons. Unscrupulous as +were the Administrations of Pierce and Buchanan in their efforts to +force Slavery upon Kansas, embittered as were the people against the +troops,--generally mere tools of Missouri ruffians--their feelings +toward Sumner were kindly and grateful. They knew he was a just man, +who would not willingly harass or oppress them, and who sympathized +with them in their fiery trial. + +From the outbreak of the Slaveholders' Rebellion his name was one of +the brightest in that noble but unfortunate army which illustrated +Northern discipline and valor on so many bloody fields, but had never +yet gathered the fruits of victory. He was always in the deadliest of +the fighting. He had the true soldierly temperament. He snuffed the +battle afar off. He felt "the rapture of the strife," and went into it +with boyish enthusiasm. + +[Sidenote: A Thrilling Scene in Battle.] + +In exposing himself, he was Imprudence personified. It was the chronic +wonder of his friends that he ever came out of battle alive. At last +they began to believe, with him, that he was invincible. He would +receive bullets in his hat, coat, boots, saddle, horse, and sometimes +have his person scratched, but without serious injury. His soldiers +related, with great relish, that in the Mexican War a ball which +struck him square in the forehead fell flattened to the ground without +breaking the skin, as the bullet glances from the forehead of the +buffalo. This anecdote won for him the _soubriquet_ of "Old Buffalo." + +At Fair Oaks, his troops were trembling under a pitiless storm of +bullets, when he galloped up and down the advance line, more exposed +than any private in the ranks. + +"What regiment is this?" he asked. + +"The Fifteenth Massachusetts," replied a hundred voices. + +"I, too, am from Massachusetts; three cheers for our old Bay State!" +And swinging his hat, the general led off, and every soldier joined in +three thundering cheers. The enemy looked on in wonder at the strange +episode, but was driven back by the fierce charge which followed. + +[Sidenote: HOW SUMNER FOUGHT.] + +This was no unusual scene. Whenever the guns began to pound, his +mild eye would flash with fire. He would remove his artificial teeth, +which became troublesome during the excitement of battle, and place +them carefully in his pocket; raise his spectacles from his eyes and +rest them upon the forehead, that he might see clearly objects at a +distance; give his orders to subordinates, and then gallop headlong +into the thick of the fight. + +Hundreds of soldiers were familiar with the erect form, the snowy, +streaming hair, and the frank face of that wonderful old man who, on +the perilous edge of battle, while they were falling like grass before +the mower, would dash through the fire and smoke, shouting:-- + +"Steady, men, steady! Don't be excited. When you have been soldiers as +long as I, you will learn that this is nothing. Stand firm and do your +duty!" + +Never seeking a dramatic effect, he sometimes displayed quiet heroism +worthy of history's brightest pages. Once, quite unconsciously +reproducing a historic scene, he repeated, almost word for word, the +address of the great Frederick to his officers, before the battle of +Leuthen. It was on the bloody field of Fair Oaks, at the end of the +second day. He commanded the forces which had crossed the swollen +stream. But before the other troops came up, the bridges were swept +away. The army was then cut in twain; and Sumner, with his three +shattered corps, was left to the mercy of the enemy's entire force. + +On that Sunday night, after making his dispositions to receive an +attack, he sent for General Sedgwick, his special friend and a most +trusty soldier:-- + +"Sedgwick, you perceive the situation. The enemy will doubtless open +upon us at daylight. Re-enforcements are impossible; he can overwhelm +and destroy us. But the country cannot afford to have us defeated. +There is just one thing for us to do; we must stand here and die like +men! Impress it upon your officers that we must do this to the last +man--to the last man! We may not meet again; good-by, Sedgwick." + +The two grim soldiers shook hands, and parted. Morning came, but the +enemy, failing to discover our perilous condition, did not renew the +attack; new bridges were built, and the sacrifice was averted. But +Sumner was the man to carry out his resolution to the letter. + +[Sidenote: ORDERED BACK BY MCCLELLAN.] + +Afterward, he retained possession of a house on our old line of +battle; and his head-quarter tents were brought forward and pitched. +They were within range of a Rebel battery, which awoke the general +and his staff every morning, by dropping shot and shell all about +them for two or three hours. Sumner implored permission to capture or +drive away the hostile battery, but was refused, on the ground that +it might bring on a general engagement. He chafed and stormed: "It is +the most disgraceful thing of my life," he said, "that this should be +permitted." But McClellan was inexorable. Sumner was directed to remove +his head-quarters to a safer position. He persisted in remaining for +fourteen days, and at last only withdrew upon a second peremptory order. + +The experience of that fortnight exhibited the ever-recurring miracle +of war--that so much iron and lead may fly about men's ears without +harming them. During the whole bombardment only two persons were +injured. A surgeon was slightly wounded in the head by a piece of shell +which flew into his tent; and a private, while lying behind a log for +protection, was instantly killed by a shot which tore a splinter from +the wood, fracturing his skull; but not another man received even a +scratch. + +After Antietam, McClellan's ever-swift apologists asserted that his +corps commanders all protested against renewing the attack upon the +second morning. I asked General Sumner if it were true. He replied, +with emphasis:-- + +"No, sir! My advice was not asked, and I did not volunteer it. But I +was certainly in favor of renewing the attack. Much, as my troops had +suffered, they were good for another day's fighting, especially when +the enemy had that river in his rear, and a defeat would have ruined +him forever." + +[Sidenote: LOVE FOR HIS OLD COMRADES.] + +At Fredericksburg, by the express order of Burnside, Sumner did not +cross the river during the fighting. The precaution saved his life. Had +he ridden out on that fiery front, he had never returned to tell what +he saw. But he chafed sadly under the restriction. As the sun went down +on that day of glorious but fruitless endeavor, he paced to and fro in +front of the Lacy House, with one arm thrown around the neck of his +son, his face haggard with sorrow and anxiety, and his eyes straining +eagerly for the arrival of each successive messenger. + +He was a man of high but patriotic ambition. Once, hearing General +Howard remark that he did not aspire to the command of a corps, he +exclaimed, "General you surprise me. _I_ would command the world, if I +could!" + +He was called arbitrary, but had great love for his soldiers, +especially for old companions in arms. A New York colonel told me a +laughable story of applying to him for a ten days' furlough, when the +rule against them was imperative. Sumner peremptorily refused it. But +the officer sat down beside him, and began to talk about the Peninsular +campaign--the battles in which he had done his duty, immediately under +Sumner's eye; and it was not many minutes before the general granted +his petition. "If he had only waited," said the narrator, "until I +recalled to his memory some scenes at Antietam, I am sure he would have +given me twenty days instead of ten!" + +His intercourse with women and children was characterized by +peculiar chivalry and gentleness. He revived the old ideal of the +soldier--terrible in battle, but with an open and generous heart. + +To his youngest son--a captain upon his staff--he was bound by unusual +affection. "Sammy" was his constant companion; in private he leaned +upon him, caressed him, and consulted him about the most trivial +matters. It was a touching bond which united the gray, war-worn veteran +to the child of his old age. + +We have had greater captains than Sumner; but no better soldiers, no +braver patriots. The words which trembled upon his dying lips--"May God +bless my country, the United States of America"--were the key-note to +his life. Green be the turf above him! + +[Sidenote: Traveling Through the Northwest.] + + LOUISVILLE, KENTUCKY, _April 5, 1863_. + +For the last week I have been traveling through the States of the +Northwest. The tone of the people on the war was never better. Now that +the question has become simply one of endurance, their Northern blood +tells. "This is hard pounding, gentlemen," said Wellington at Waterloo; +"but we will see who can pound the longer." So, in spite of the +Copperheads--"merely the dust and chaff on God's thrashing-floor"--the +overwhelming sentiment of the people is to fight it out to the last man +and the last dollar. + +You have been wont to say: "The West can be depended on for the war. +She will never give up her great outlet, the Mississippi." True; but +the inference that her loyalty is based upon a material consideration, +is untrue and unjust. The West has poured out its best blood, not on +any petty question of navigation, or of trade, but upon the weightier +issues of Freedom and Nationality. + +The New-Yorker or Pennsylvanian may believe in the greatness of the +country; the Kansan or Minnesotian, who has gone one or two thousand +miles to establish his prairie home, walks by sight and not by faith. +To him, the Great Republic of the future is no rhetorical flourish +or flight of fancy, but a living verity. His instinct of nationality +is the very strongest; his belief the profoundest. May he never need +Emerson's pungent criticism: "The American eagle is good; protect it, +cherish it; but beware of the American peacock!" + +Have you heard Prentice's last, upon the bursting of the Rebel bubble +that Cotton is King? He says: "They went in for cotton, and they got +worsted!" + +[Sidenote: A Visit to Rosecrans's Army.] + + MURFREESBORO, TENNESSEE, _April 10_. + +A visit to Rosecrans's army. I rode yesterday over the historical +battle-ground of Stone River, among rifle-pits and breastworks, great +oaks, with scarred trunks, and tops and branches torn off, and smooth +fields thickly planted with graves. + +It is interesting to hear from the soldiers reminiscences of the +battle. Rosecrans may not be strong in planning a campaign, but the +thundering guns rouse him to the exhibition of a higher military genius +than any other general in our service has yet displayed. The "grand +anger of battle" makes him see at a glance the needs of the occasion, +and stimulates those quick intuitions which enable great captains, at +the supreme moment, to wrest victory from the very grasp of defeat. +Peculiarly applicable to him is Addison's description of Marlborough:-- + + "In peaceful thought the field of death surveyed; + To fainting squadrons sent the timely aid; + Inspired repulsed battalions to engage, + And taught the doubtful battle where to rage." + +[Sidenote: ROSECRANS IN A GREAT BATTLE.] + +During the recent great conflict which began with disaster that would +have caused ordinary generals to retreat, he seemed omnipresent. A +devout Catholic, he performed, before entering the battle, the solemn +rites of his Church. A profound believer in destiny, he appeared like +a man who sought for death. A few feet from him, a solid shot took off +the head of Garasche, his loved and trusted chief of staff. + +"Brave men must die," he said, and plunged into the battle again. + +He had a word for all. Of an Ohio regiment, lying upon the ground, he +asked:-- + +"Boys, do you see that strip of woods?" + +"Yes, sir." + +"Well, in about five minutes, the Rebels will pour out of it, and come +right toward you. Lie still until you can easily see the buttons on +their coats; then drive them back. Do you understand?" + +"Yes, sir." + +"Well, it's just as easy as rolling off a log, isn't it?" + +They laughingly assented, and "Old Rosy," as the soldiers call him, +rode along the line, to encourage some other corps. + +This is an army of veterans. Every regiment has been in battle, +and some have marched three thousand miles during their checkered +campaigning. Their garments are old and soiled; but their guns are +bright and glistening, and on review their evolutions are clockwork. +They are splendidly disciplined, of unequaled enthusiasm, full of faith +in their general and in themselves. + +Rosecrans is an erect, solid man of one hundred and seventy-five +pounds weight, whose forty-three years sit lightly on his face and +frame. He has a clear, mild-blue eye, which lights and flashes under +excitement; an intensified Roman nose, high cheek-bones, florid +complexion, mouth and chin hidden under dark-brown beard, hair faintly +tinged with silver, and growing thin on the edges of the high, full, +but not broad, forehead. In conversation, a winning, mirthful smile +illumines his face. As Hamlet would take the ghost's word for a +thousand pounds, so you would trust that countenance in a stranger +as indicating fidelity, reserved power, an overflowing humor, and +imperious will. + +[Sidenote: A SCENE IN MEMPHIS.] + + MEMPHIS, TENNESSEE, _April 20_. + +Riding near the Elmwood Cemetery, yesterday, I witnessed a curious +feature of Southern life. It was a negro funeral--the _cortège_, +a third of a mile in length, just entering that city of the dead. +The carriages were filled with negro families, and, almost without +exception, they were driven by white men. If such a picture were +exhibited in Boston, would those who clamor in our ears about negro +equality ever permit us to hear the last of it? + + + + +III. + +THE DUNGEON. + + + + +CHAPTER XXVIII. + + We were all sea-swallowed, though some cast again, And by + that destined to perform an act, Whereof what's past is + prologue.--TEMPEST. + + +On Sunday evening, May 3d, accompanied by Mr. Richard T. Colburn, of +_The New York World_, I reached Milliken's Bend, on the Mississippi +River, twenty-five miles above Vicksburg. Grant's head-quarters were +at Grand Gulf, fifty-five miles below Vicksburg. Fighting had already +begun. + +[Sidenote: RUNNING THE VICKSBURG BATTERIES.] + +We joined my associate, Mr. Junius H. Browne, of _The Tribune_, who +for several days had been awaiting us. The insatiate hunger of the +people for news, and the strong competition between different journals, +made one day of battle worth a year of camp or siege to the war +correspondent. Duty to the paper we represented required that we should +join the army with the least possible delay. + +We could go over land, down the Louisiana shore, and, if we safely +ran the gauntlet of Rebel guerrillas, reach Grand Gulf in three days. +But a little expedition was about to run the Vicksburg batteries. If +it survived the fiery ordeal, it would arrive at Grant's head-quarters +in eight hours. Thus far, three-fourths of the boats attempting to run +the batteries had escaped destruction; and yielding to the seductive +doctrine of probabilities, we determined to try the short, or water +route. It proved a very long one. + +[Sidenote: EXPEDITION BADLY FITTED OUT.] + +At ten o'clock our expedition started. It consisted of two great barges +of forage and provisions, propelled by a little tug between them. For +some days, Grant had been receiving supplies in this manner, cheaper +and easier than by transportation over rough Louisiana roads. + +The lives of the men who fitted out the squadron being as valuable +to them as mine to me, I supposed that all needful precautions for +safety had been adopted. But, when under way, we learned that they +were altogether inadequate. Indeed, we were hardly on board when we +discovered that the expedition was so carelessly organized as almost to +invite capture. + +The night was one of the lightest of the year. We had only two buckets, +and not a single skiff. Two tugs were requisite to steer the unwieldy +craft, and enable us to run twelve or fifteen miles an hour. With one +we could accomplish only seven miles, aided by the strong Mississippi +current. + +There were thirty-five persons on board--all volunteers. They +consisted of the tug's crew, Captain Ward and Surgeon Davidson of the +Forty-Seventh Ohio Infantry, with fourteen enlisted men, designed to +repel possible boarders, and other officers and citizens, _en route_ +for the army. + +For two or three hours, we glided silently along the glassy waters +between banks festooned with heavy, drooping foliage. It was a scene +of quiet, surpassing beauty. Captain Ward suddenly remembered that he +had some still Catawba in his valise. He was instructed to behead the +bottle with his sword, that the wine might not in any event be wasted. +From a soldier's cup of gutta-percha we drank to the success of the +expedition. + +[Sidenote: INTO THE JAWS OF DEATH.] + +At one o'clock in the morning, on the Mississippi shore, a rocket shot +up and pierced the sky, signaling the Rebels of our approach. Ten +minutes later, we saw the flash and heard the boom of their first gun. +Much practice on similar expeditions had given them excellent range. +The shell struck one of our barges, and exploded upon it. + +We were soon under a heavy fire. The range of the batteries covered the +river for nearly seven miles. The Mississippi here is very crooked, +resembling the letter S, and at some points we passed within two +hundred yards of ten-inch guns, with point-blank range upon us. As we +moved around the bends, the shots came toward us at once from right and +left, front and rear. + +Inclination had joined with duty in impelling us to accompany the +expedition. We wanted to learn how one would feel looking into the +craters of those volcanoes as they poured forth sheets of flame and +volleys of shells. I ascertained to my fullest satisfaction, as we lay +among the hay-bales, slowly gliding past them. I thought it might be a +good thing to do once, but that, if we survived it, I should never feel +the least desire to repeat the experiment. + +We embraced the bales in Bottom's belief that "good hay, sweet hay hath +no fellow." + +Discretion was largely the better part of my valor, and I cowered +close in our partial shelter. But two or three times I could not resist +the momentary temptation to rise and look about me. How the great +sheets of flame leaped up and spread out from the mouths of the guns! +How the shells came screaming and shrieking through the air! How they +rattled and crashed, penetrating the sides of the barges, or exploding +on board in great fountains of fire! + +[Sidenote: A MOMENT OF SUSPENSE.] + +The moment hardly awakened serene meditations or sentimental memories; +but every time I glanced at that picture, Tennyson's lines rang in my +ears:-- + + "Cannon to right of them, + Cannon to left of them, + Cannon in front of them + Volleyed and thundered; + Stormed at by shot and shell, + Boldly they rode and well, + Into the jaws of death, + Into the mouth of hell + Rode the six hundred!" + +"Junius" persisted in standing, all exposed, to watch the coming shots. +Once, as a shell exploded near at hand, he fell heavily down among the +hay-bales. Until that moment I never knew what suspense was. I could +find no voice in which to ask if he lived. I dared not put forth my +hand in the darkness, lest it should rest on his mutilated form. At +last he spoke, and relieved my anxiety. He had only slipped and fallen. + +Each time, after being struck, we listened for the reassuring puff! +puff! puff! of our little engine; and hearing it, said: "Thus far, at +least, we are all right!" + +Now we were below the town, having run five miles of batteries. Ten +minutes more meant safety. Already we began to felicitate each other +upon our good fortune, when the scene suddenly changed. + +A terrific report, like the explosion of some vast magazine, left us +breathless, and seemed to shake the earth to its very center. It was +accompanied by a shriek which I shall never forget, though it seemed +to occupy less than a quarter of the time consumed by one tick of the +watch. It was the death-cry wrung from our captain, killed as he stood +at the wheel. For his heedlessness in fitting out the expedition, his +life was the penalty. + +[Sidenote: DISABLED AND DRIFTING HELPLESSLY.] + +We listened, but the friendly voice from the tug was hushed. We were +disabled, and drifting helplessly in front of the enemy's guns! + +For a moment all was silent. Then there rose from the shore the shrill, +sharp, ragged yell so familiar to the ears of every man who has been in +the front, and clearly distinguishable from the deep, full, chest-tones +in which our own men were wont to give their cheers. Many times had I +heard that Rebel yell, but never when it was vociferous and exultant as +now. + +Seeing fire among the hay-bales about us, Colburn and myself carefully +extinguished it with our gloved hands, lest the barge should be burnt. +Then, creeping out of our refuge, we discovered the uselessness of our +care. + +That shot had done wonderful execution. It had killed the captain, +exploded the boiler, then passed into the furnace, where the shell +itself exploded, throwing up great sheets of glowing coals upon +both barges. At some stage of its progress, it had cut in twain the +tug, which went down like a plummet. We looked for it, but it had +disappeared altogether. There was some _débris_--chairs, stools, and +parts of machinery, buoyed up by timbers, floating upon the surface; +but there was no tug. + +The barges, covered with bales of dry hay, had caught like tinder, and +now, at the stern of each, a great sheet of flame rose far toward the +sky, filling the night with a more than noonday glare. + +Upon the very highest bale, where the flames threw out his pale face +and dark clothing in very sharp relief, stood "Junius," in a careless +attitude, looking upon the situation with the utmost serenity. My first +thought was that the one thing he required to complete the picture +was an opera-glass. To my earnest injunction to leave that exposed +position, he replied that, so far as safety was concerned, there now +was little choice of places. + +Meanwhile, we were under hotter fire than at any previous moment. In +the confusion caused by our evolutions in the eddies, I had quite lost +the points the of compass, and asked:-- + +"In which direction is Vicksburg?" + +"There," replied "Junius," pointing out into the lurid smoke. + +"I think it must be on the other shore." + +"Oh, no! wait here a moment, and you will see the flash of the guns." + +Just then I did see the flash of more guns than I coveted, and four or +five shots came shrieking toward us. + +Colburn and myself instinctively dropped behind the nearest hay-bales. +A moment after, we were amused to observe that we had sought shelter on +the wrong side of the bales--the side facing the Rebel guns. Our barge +was so constantly changing position that our geographical ideas had +become very confused. + +[Sidenote: BOMBARDING, SCALDING, BURNING, DROWNING.] + +It does not often happen to men, in one quarter of an hour, to see +death in as many forms as confronted us--by bombarding, scalding, +burning, and drowning. It was uncomfortable, but less exciting than one +might suppose. The memory impresses me far more deeply than did the +experience. I remember listening, during a little cessation of the din, +for the sound of my own voice, wondering whether its tones were calm +and equable. There was hurrying to and fro, and groans rent the air. + +"I suppose we can surrender," cried a poor, scalded fellow. + +"Surrender--the devil!" replied Colburn. "I suppose we will fight them!" + +It was very creditable to the determination of our _confrère_; but, to +put it mildly, our fighting facilities just then were somewhat limited. + +[Sidenote: TAKING TO A HAY-BALE.] + +My comrades assisted nearly all wounded and scalded men down the sides +of the barge to the water's edge, and placed them carefully upon +hay-bales. Remaining there, we had every thing to lose and nothing to +gain, and I urged-- + +"Let us take to the water." + +"Oh, yes," my friends replied, "we will after awhile." + +Soon, I repeated the suggestion, and they repeated the answer. It was +no time to stand upon forms. I jumped into the river--twelve or fifteen +feet below the top of our barge. They rolled over a hay-bale for me. +I climbed upon it, and found it a surprisingly comfortable means of +navigation. At last, free from the instinctive dread of mutilation by +splinters, which had constantly haunted me, I now felt that if wounded +at all it must, at least, be by a clean shot. The thought was a great +relief. + +With a dim suspicion--not the ripe and perfect knowledge afterward +obtained--that clothing was scarce in the Southern Confederacy, I +removed my boots, tied them together with my watch-guard, and fastened +them to one of the hoops of the bale. Taking off my coat, I secured it +in the same manner. + +[Sidenote: OVERTURNED BY A SHOT.] + +I was about swimming away in a vague, blundering determination not to +be captured, when, for the first time in my life, I saw a shot coming +toward me. I had always been sceptical on this point. Many persons had +averred to me that they could see shots approaching; but remembering +that such a missile flying toward a man with a scream and a rush would +not quicken his vision, and judging from my own experience, I supposed +they must be deceived. + +Now, far up the river I saw a shot coming with vivid distinctness. +How round, smooth, shining, and black it looked, ricochetting along, +plunging into the water, throwing up great jets of spray, bounding like +a schoolboy's ball, and then skimming the river again! It struck about +four feet from my hay-bale, which was now a few yards from the burning +barge. + +The great sheet of water which dashed up quite obscured me from Colburn +and "Junius," who, upon the bows of the barge, were just bidding me +adieu. At first they thought the shot an extinguisher. But it did me +no greater harm than partially to overturn my hay-bale and dip me into +the river. A little more or less dampness just then was not of much +consequence. It was the last shot which I saw or heard. The Rebels now +ceased firing, and shouted-- + +"Have you no boats?" + +Learning that we had none, they sent out a yawl. I looked about for +a plank, but could find none adapted to a long voyage. Rebel pickets +were on both sides of the river, and Rebel batteries lined it ten or +twelve miles below, at a point which, by floating, one could reach at +daylight. Surrender seemed the only alternative. + +At Memphis, two days before, I had received a package of letters, +including two or three from the _Tribune_ office, and some which +treated of public men, and military strength, movements, and prospects, +with great freedom. One of them, from Admiral Foote, containing some +very kind words, I sorely regretted to lose; but the package was quite +too valuable to be submitted to the scrutiny of the enemy. I kept it +until the last moment, but when the Rebel yawl approached within twenty +feet, tore the letters in pieces and threw them into the Mississippi. + +[Illustration: THE CAPTURE, WHILE RUNNING THE REBEL BATTERIES, AT +VICKSBURG.] + +[Sidenote: RESCUED FROM THE RIVER.] + +The boat was nearly full. After picking me up, it received on board two +scalded men who were floating near, and whose groans were heart-rending. + +We were deposited on the Mississippi shore, under guard of four or five +soldiers in gray, and the yawl went back to receive the remainder. +Among the saved I found Surgeon Davidson. He was unable to swim, but +some one had carefully placed him upon a hay-bale. On reaching the +shore, he sat down upon a stool, which he had rescued from the river, +spread his overcoat upon his knee, and deposited his carpet-sack +beside him. It was the first case I ever knew of a man so hopelessly +shipwrecked, who saved all his baggage, and did not even wet his feet. + +The boat soon returned. To my infinite relief, the first persons who +sprang to the shore were "Junius" and Colburn. Sartorially they had +been less fortunate than I. One had lost his coat, and the other was +without shoes, stockings, coat, vest, or hat. + +There, in the moonlight, guarded by Rebel bayonets, we counted the +rescued, and found that just sixteen--less than half our number--were +alive and unharmed. All the rest were killed, scalded, or wounded. + +Some of the scalded were piteous spectacles. The raw flesh seemed +almost ready to drop from their faces; and they ran hither and thither, +half wild from excruciating pain. + +None of the wounded were unable to walk, though one or two had broken +arms. The most had received slight contusions, which a few days would +heal. + +[Sidenote: THE KILLED, WOUNDED, AND MISSING.] + +The missing numbered eight or ten, not one of whom was ever heard of +afterward. It was impossible to obtain any correct list of their names, +as several of them were strangers to us and to each other; and no +record had been made of the persons starting upon the expedition. + +We were two miles below the city, whither the lieutenant of our guard +now marched us. + + + + +CHAPTER XXIX. + + It is not for prisoners to be too silent.--LOVE'S LABOR LOST. + +[Sidenote: STANDING BY OUR COLORS.] + + +On the way, one of our party enjoined my colleague and myself-- + +"You had better not say _Tribune_ to the Rebels. Tell them you are +correspondents of some less obnoxious journal." + +Months before, I had asked three Confederate officers--paroled +prisoners within our lines:-- + +"What would you do with a _Tribune_ correspondent, if you captured +him?" With the usual recklessness, two had answered:-- + +"We would hang him upon the nearest sapling." + +This remembrance was not cheering; but as we were the first +correspondents of a radical Northern journal who had fallen into the +enemy's hands, after a moment's interchange of views, we decided to +stand by our colors, and tell the plain truth. It proved much the wiser +course. + +One of the rescued men, coatless and hatless, with his face blackened +until he looked like a native of Timbuctoo, addressed me familiarly. +Unable to recognize him, I asked:-- + +"Who are you?" + +"Why," he replied, "I am Captain Ward."[15] + +[15] Commander, not of the tug, whose captain was killed, but of the +soldiers guarding it and the barges. + +[Sidenote: CONFINEMENT IN THE VICKSBURG JAIL.] + +When the explosion occurred, he was sitting on the hurricane roof of +the tug. It was more exposed than any other position, but the officers +of the boat had shown symptoms of fear, and he determined to be where +his revolver would enable him to control them if they attempted to +desert us. + +Some missile struck his head and stunned him. When he recovered +consciousness, the tug had gone to the bottom, and he was struggling +in the river. He had strength enough to clutch a rope hanging over the +side of a barge, and keep his head above water. Permitting his sword +and revolver, which greatly weighed him down, to sink, he called to his +men on the blazing wreck. Under the hot fire of cannon and musketry, +they formed a rope of their belts, and let it down to him. He fastened +it under his arms; they lifted him up to the barge, whence he escaped +by the hay-bale line. + +At Vicksburg, the commander of the City Guards registered our names. + +"I hope, sir," said Colburn, "that you will give us comfortable +quarters." + +With a half-surprised expression, the major replied, dryly:-- + +"Oh! yes, sir; we will do the best we can for you." + +"The best" proved ludicrously bad. Just before daylight we were taken +into the city jail. Its foul yard was half filled with criminals and +convicts, black and white, all dirty and covered with vermin. In its +midst was an open sewer, twelve or fifteen feet in diameter, the grand +receptacle of all the prison filth. The rising sun of that sultry +morning penetrated its reeking depths, and produced the atmosphere of a +pest-house. + +We dried our clothing before a fire in the yard, conversed with the +villainous-looking jail-birds, and laughed about this unexpected result +of our adventure. We had felt the danger of wounds or death; but it +had not occurred to either of us that we might be captured. One of the +private soldiers had paid a dollar for the privilege of coming on the +expedition. To our query whether he deemed the money well invested, +he replied that he would not have missed the experience for ten times +the amount. One youth, confined in the jail for thieving, asked us the +question, with which we were soon to grow familiar:-- + +"What did you all come down here for, to steal our niggers?" + +At noon we were taken out and marched through the streets. "Junius's" +bare and bleeding feet excited the sympathy of a lady, who immediately +sent him a pair of stockings, requesting if ever he met any of "our +soldiers" suffering in the North, that he would do as much for them. +The donor--Mrs. Arthur--was a very earnest Unionist, with little +sympathy for "our soldiers," but used the phrase as one of the habitual +subterfuges of the Loyalists. + +[Sidenote: THE FIRST GLIMPSE OF SAMBO.] + +While we waited in the office of the Provost-Marshal, I obtained a +first brief glimpse of the inevitable negro. Just outside the open +window, which extended to the floor, stood an African, with great +shining eyes, expressing his sympathy through remarkable grimaces and +contortions, bowing, scraping, and + + "Husking his white ivories like an ear of corn." + +Rebel citizens and soldiers were all about him; and, somewhat alarmed, +I indicated by a look that he should be a little less demonstrative. +But Sambo, as usual, knew what he was doing, and was not detected. + +The Provost-Marshal, Captain Wells, of the Twenty-eighth Louisiana +Infantry, courteously assigned to us the upper story of the +court-house, posting a sentinel at the door. + +[Sidenote: PAROLED TO RETURN HOME.] + +Major Watts, the Rebel Agent of Exchange, called upon us and +administered the following parole:-- + +CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA. + +VICKSBURG, MISSISSIPPI, _May 4, 1863_. + + This is to certify, that in accordance with a Cartel in + regard to an exchange of prisoners entered into between + the Governments of the United States of America and the + Confederate States of America, on the 22d day of July, 1862, + Albert D. Richardson, citizen of New York, who was captured + on the 4th day of May, at Vicksburg, and has since been held + as a prisoner of war by the military authorities of the said + Confederate States, is hereby paroled, _with full leave to + return to his country_ on the following conditions, namely: + that he will not take up arms again, nor serve as military + police or constabulary force in any fort, garrison, or + field-work, held by either of said parties, nor as a guard of + prisoners, dépôts, or stores, nor discharge any duty usually + performed by soldiers, until exchanged under the Cartel + referred to. The aforesaid Albert D. Richardson signifying + his full and free consent to said conditions by his signature + hereto, thereby solemnly pledges his word and honor to a due + observance of the same. + + ALBERT D. RICHARDSON. + + N. G. WATTS, _Major Confederate States Army, and Agent for + Exchange of Prisoners_. + +This parole was regular, formal, and final, taken at a regular +point of exchange, by an officer duly appointed under the express +provisions of the cartel. Major Watts informed us that he was prevented +from sending us across the lines at Vicksburg, only because Grant's +operations had suspended flag-of-truce communication. He assured us, +that while he was thus compelled to forward us to Richmond, the only +other point of exchange, we should not be detained there beyond the +arrival of the first truce-boat. + +[Sidenote: TURNING THE TABLES HANDSOMELY.] + +These formalities ended, the major, who was a polite, kind-hearted, +rather pompous little officer, made an attempt at condolence and +consolation. + + "Gentlemen," said he, with a good deal of self-complacency, + "you are a long way from home. However, do not despond; I + have met a great many of your people in this condition; I + have paroled some thousands of them, first and last. In + fact, I confidently expect, within the next ten days, to see + Major-General Grant, who commands your army, a prisoner in + this room." + +We knew something about that! Of course, we were familiar with the size +of Grant's army; and, before we had been many hours in the Rebel lines, +we found Union people who told us minutely the strength of Pemberton. +So we replied to the prophet, that, while we had no sort of doubt of +his seeing General Grant there, it would not be exactly in the capacity +of a prisoner! + +Colburn--who had the good fortune, for that occasion, to be attached to +_The World_, and who, on reaching Richmond, was sent home by the first +truce-boat--came back to Vicksburg in season to be in at the death. One +of the first men he met, after the capture of the city, was Watts, to +whom he rehearsed this little scene, with the characters reversed. + + "Major," said he, with dry humor, "you are a long distance + from home! But do not despond; I have seen a good many of + your people in this condition. In fact, I believe there + are about thirty thousand of them here to-day, including + Lieutenant-General Pemberton, who commands _your_ army." + +[Sidenote: VISITS FROM MANY REBELS.] + +We stayed in Vicksburg two days. Our noisy advent made us objects +of attention. Several Rebel journalists visited us, with tenders of +clothing, money, and any assistance they could render. Confederate +officers and citizens called in large numbers, inquiring eagerly about +the condition of the North, and the public feeling touching the war. + +Some complained that Northern officers, while in confinement, had said +to them: "While we are in favor of the Union, we disapprove altogether +the war as conducted by this Abolition Administration, with its +tendencies to negro equality;" but that, after reaching home, the same +persons were peculiarly radical and bloodthirsty. + +As political affairs were the only topic of conversation, we had +excellent opportunity for preventing any similar misunderstanding +touching ourselves. Courteously, but frankly, we told them that we were +in favor of the war, of emancipation, and of arming the negroes. They +manifested considerable feeling, but used no harsh expressions. Two +questions they invariably asked:-- + + "What are you going to do with us, after you have subjugated + us?" and, "What will you do with the negroes, after you have + freed them?" + +They talked much of our leading officers, all seeming to consider +Rosecrans the best general in the Union service. Nearly all used the +stereotyped Rebel expression:-- + + "You can never conquer seven millions of people on their own + soil. We will fight to the last man! We will die in the last + ditch!" + +We reminded them that the determination they expressed was by no means +peculiar to them, referring to Bancroft, in proof that even the Indian +tribes, at war with the early settlers of New England, used exactly +the same language. We asked one Texan colonel, noticeably voluble +concerning the "last ditch," what he meant by it--if he really intended +to fight after their armies should be dispersed and their cities taken. + +"Oh, no!" he replied, "you don't suppose I'm a fool, do you? As long as +there is any show for us, we shall fight you. If you win, most of us +will go to South America, Mexico, or Europe." + +[Sidenote: INTERVIEW WITH JACOB THOMPSON.] + +On Monday evening, Major-General Forney, of Alabama, sent an officer to +escort us to his head-quarters. He received us with great frigidity, +and we endeavored to be quite as icy as he. With some of his staff +officers, genial young fellows educated in the North, we had a pleasant +chat. + +Jacob Thompson, of Mississippi, Buchanan's Secretary of the Interior, +and now a colonel on the staff of Lieutenant-General Pemberton, was +at the same head-quarters. With the suavity of an old politician, +he conversed with us for two or three hours. He asserted that some +of our soldiers had treated his aged mother with great cruelty. He +declared that Northern dungeons now contained at least three thousand +inoffensive Southern citizens, who had never taken up arms, and were +held only for alleged disloyalty. + +Many other Rebel officers talked a great deal about arbitrary arrests +in the North. Several gravely assured us that, in the South, from the +beginning of the war, no citizen had ever been arrested, except by due +process of law, under charges well defined, and publicly made. We were +a little astounded, afterward, to learn how utterly bare-faced was this +falsehood. + +On Tuesday evening we started for Jackson, Mississippi, in company +with forty other Union prisoners. They were mainly from Ohio regiments, +young in years, but veteran soldiers--farmers' sons, with intelligent, +earnest faces. Pemberton's army was in motion. Our train passed slowly +through his camps, and halted half an hour at several points, among +crowds of Rebel privates. + +The Ohio boys and their guards were on the best possible terms, +drinking whisky and playing euchre together. The former indulged in a +good deal of verbal skirmishing with the soldiers outside, thrusting +their heads from the car windows and shouting:-- + +"Look out, Rebs! The Yankees are coming! Keep on marching, if you don't +want old Grant to catch you!" + +"How are times in the North?" the Confederates replied. "Cotton a +dollar and twenty-five cents a pound in New York!" + +"How are times in the South? Flour one hundred and seventy-five dollars +a barrel in Vicksburg, and none to be had at that!" + +After waiting vainly for an answer to this quenching retort, the +Buckeyes sang "Yankee Doodle," the "Star-Spangled Banner," and "John +Brown's Body lies a-moldering in the Ground," for the edification of +their bewildered foes. + +[Sidenote: ARRIVAL IN JACKSON, MISSISSIPPI.] + +Before dark, we reached Jackson. Though a prisoner, I entered it with +far more pleasurable feelings than at my last visit; for my tongue was +now free, and I was not sailing under false colors. The dreary little +city was in a great panic. Before we had been five minutes in the +street, a precocious young newsboy came running among us, and, while +shouting--"Here's _The Mississippian_ extra!" talked to us incessantly +in a low tone:-- + + "How are you, Yanks? You have come in a capital time. + Greatest panic you ever saw. Everybody flying out of town. + Governor Pettus issued a proclamation, telling the people to + stand firm, and then ran away himself before the ink was dry." + +[Sidenote: KINDNESS FROM SOUTHERN EDITORS.] + +We remained in Jackson three days. Upon parole, we were allowed to +take our meals at a boarding-house several squares from the prison, +and to visit the office of _The Appeal_. This journal, originally +published at Memphis, was removed to Grenada upon the approach of our +forces; Grenada being threatened, it was transferred to Jackson; thence +to Atlanta, and finally to Montgomery, Alabama. It was emphatically a +moving _Appeal_. + +Its editors very kindly supplied us with clothing and money. They +seemed to be sick of the war, and to retain little faith in the Rebel +cause, for which they had sacrificed so much, abandoning property in +Memphis to the amount of thirty thousand dollars. They now published +the most enterprising and readable newspaper in the South. It was +noticeably free from vituperation, calling the President "Mr. Lincoln," +instead of the "Illinois Baboon," and characterizing us not as Yankee +scoundrels, but as "unwilling guests"-- + + "Gentlemen who attempted to run the batteries on Sunday + night, and after escaping death from shot and shell, from + being scalded by the rushing steam, from roasting by the + lively flames that enveloped their craft, were found in the + river by a rescuing party, each clinging tenaciously to a + bale of hay for safety." + +Grant's army was moving toward Jackson. We longed for his approach, +straining our ears for the booming of his guns. The Rebels, in their +usual strain, declared that the city could not be captured, and would +be defended to the last drop of blood. But on the night before our +departure, we were confidentially told that the Federal advance was +already within twenty-five miles, and certain to take the town. + +[Sidenote: A PROJECT FOR ESCAPE.] + +With forty-five unarmed prisoners, we were placed on an ammunition +train, which had not more than a dozen guards. The privates begged +Captain Ward to lead them, and permit them to capture the train. We +all deemed the project feasible. Ten minutes would suffice to blow up +the cars. With twelve guns, we could easily march twenty miles through +those sparse settlements to Grant's forces. + +But there were our paroles! A careful reading convinced us that if we +failed in the attempt, the enemy would be justified, under the laws of +war, in punishing us with death; and, after much debate, we abandoned +the project. + +Rebel officers in Vicksburg had assured us that crossing the +Confederacy from the Mississippi to the Atlantic, upon the Southern +railroads, was a more hazardous undertaking than running the river +batteries. The rolling stock was in wretched condition, and fatal +accidents frequently occurred; but we traveled at a leisurely, +old-fashioned rate, averaging eight miles per hour, making long stops, +and seldom running by night. + + + + +CHAPTER XXX. + + A kind of excellent, dumb discourse.--TEMPEST. + + +It did not require many days of captivity to teach us the infinite +expressiveness and trustworthiness of the human eye. We began to +recognize Union people by their friendly look before they spoke a word. + +[Sidenote: A WORD WITH A UNION WOMAN.] + +Our train stopped for dinner at a secluded Mississippi tavern. At the +door of the long dining-room stood the landlady, an intelligent woman +of about thirty-five. When I handed her a twenty-dollar Rebel note, she +inquired-- + +"Have you nothing smaller than this?" + +"No Confederate money," I answered. + +"State currency will answer just as well." + +"I have none of that--nothing but this bill and United States Treasury +Notes." + +The indifferent face instantly kindled into friendliness and sympathy. + +"Are you one of the prisoners?" + +"Yes, madam." + +"Just from Vicksburg?" + +"Yes." + +"What do you think of the prospect?" + +"Grant is certain to capture the city." + +"Of course he will" (with great earnestness), "if he only tries! The +force there is incapable of resisting him." + +Other passengers coming within hearing, I moved away, but I would +unhesitatingly have trusted that woman with my liberty or my life. + +[Sidenote: GRIERSON'S GREAT MISSISSIPPI RAID.] + +Grierson's raid, then in progress, was the universal theme of +conversation and wonder. That dashing cavalier, selecting his route +with excellent judgment, evaded all the large forces which opposed +him, and defeated all the small ones, while he rode leisurely the +entire length of Mississippi, tearing up railroads and burning bridges. +Occasionally he addressed the people in humorous harangues. To one old +lady, who tremblingly begged that her property might not be destroyed, +he replied:-- + +"You shall certainly be protected, madam. It is not my object to hurt +any body. It is not generally known, but the truth is, I am a candidate +for Governor, and am stumping the State." + +Our slow progress enabled us to converse much with the people, +constantly preaching to them the gospel of the Union. But they had so +long heard only the gospel according to Jefferson Davis, that they paid +little heed to our threatenings of the judgment which was certain to +come. + +In the dense woods which the railways traversed, the pine, the palm and +the magnolia, grew side by side, festooned with long, hairy tufts of +Spanish moss. On the plantations, the young cotton, three inches high, +looked like sprouting beans. + +[Sidenote: AN ENRAGED TEXAN OFFICER.] + +Colburn's solemn waggery was constantly cropping out. In our car +one day he had a long discussion with a brawny Texan officer, who +declared with great bitterness that he had assisted in hanging three +Abolitionists upon a single blackjack,[16] in sight of his own door. He +concluded with the usual assertion:-- + +[16] A species of Southern oak. + +"We will fight to the last man! We will die in the last ditch!" + +"Well, sir," replied Colburn, with the utmost gravity, "if you should +do that and all be killed, we should regret it extremely!" + +Like most Southerners, the Texan was insensible to satire. +Understanding this to be perfectly sincere, he reiterated:-- + +"We shall do it, sir! We shall do it!" + +"Well, sir, as I said before, if you do, and all happen to _get_ +killed, including the very last man himself, of course we of the North +shall be quite heart-broken!" + +Once comprehended, the mock condolence enraged the huge Texan +fearfully. For a few seconds his eyes were the most wicked I ever saw. +He looked ready to spring upon Colburn and tear him in pieces; but it +was the last we heard of his bravado. + +One of our fellow-prisoners had manifested great trepidation while we +lay disabled in front of Vicksburg. He was probably no more frightened +than the rest of us, but had less self-control, running to and fro on +the burning barge, wringing his hands, and shrieking: "My God! my God! +We shall all be killed!" + +[Sidenote: WAGGERY OF A CAPTURED SCRIBE.] + +Three or four days later, Colburn asked him-- + +"Were you ever under fire before Sunday night?" + +"Never," he replied, with uneasy, questioning looks. + +"Well, sir," solemnly continued the satirist, "I think, in view of that +fact, that you behaved with more coolness than any man I ever saw!" + +While we preserved our gravity with the utmost difficulty, the +victim scrutinized his tormentor very suspiciously. But that serious, +immovable face told no tales, and he finally received the compliment +as serious. From that time, it was Colburn's daily delight, to remark, +with ever-increasing admiration:-- + +"Mr. ----, I cannot help remembering how marvelously self-possessed you +were during those exciting minutes. I never saw your coolness equaled +by a man under fire for the first time." + +Before we reached Richmond, the new-fledged hero received his praises +with complacent and serene condescension. He will, doubtless, tell +his children and grandchildren of the encomium his courage won from +companions, who, "born and nursed in Danger's path, had dared her +worst." + +At Demopolis, Alabama, we encountered a planter removing from +Mississippi, where Grierson and Grant were rapidly depreciating slave +property. He had with him a long gang of negroes, some chained together +in pairs, with handcuffs riveted to their wrists. + +While the train stopped, a young fellow from Kentucky, captain and +commissary in the Confederate army, took me up to his room, on pretext +of "a quiet drink." + +"When I went into the war," said he, "I thought it would be a nice +little diversion of about two weeks, with a good deal of fun and no +fighting. Now, I would give my right arm to escape from it; but there +is no such good fortune for me. When you reach the North, write to my +friends at home, giving them my love, and saying that I wish I had +followed their advice." + +A benevolent lady was at the station, with her carriage, distributing +cakes among the Rebel soldiers and the Union prisoners. + +At Selma, a new officer took charge of our party. The post commandant +instructed him how to treat the privates, and, pointing to the two +officers and the three journalists, added:-- + +[Sidenote: THE ALABAMA RIVER AND MONTGOMERY.] + +"You will consider these gentlemen not under your guard, but under your +escort." + +We took a steamer up the Alabama River. As we sat looking out upon the +beautiful stream, it was amusing to hear the comments of the negro +chamber-maids:-- + +"How mean the Southern soldiers look! But just see those Yankees! +Anybody might know that they are God's own people!" + +The pilot of the boat, a native Alabamian, took me aside, stating that +he was an unconditional Union man, and inquiring eagerly about the +North, which, he feared, might abandon the contest. + +We spent Sunday, May 11th, in the pleasant city of Montgomery: +strolling at pleasure through the shaded streets, and at evening taking +a bath in the Alabama, swimming round a huge Rebel ram, then nearly +completed. We gained some knowledge of its character and dimensions, +which, after reaching Richmond, we succeeded in transmitting to the +Government. + +The officer in charge of our party spent the night in camp with his +men, but we slept at the Exchange Hotel. When we registered our names, +the bystanders, with their broad-brimmed hats, long pipes, and heavy +Southern faces, manifested a good deal of curiosity to see what they +termed "two of old Greeley's correspondents." They asked us many +questions of the North, and of our army experiences. Several said +emphatically that, ere long, the people would "take this thing out of +the hands of politicians, and settle it themselves." + +[Sidenote: ATLANTA EDITORS ADVOCATE HANGING US.] + +Reaching Atlanta, we were placed in the filthy, vermin-infested +military prison. Encouraged by the courtesies we had received from +Rebel journals, we sent, through the commandant, a card to one of +the newspaper offices, asking for a few exchanges. The blundering +messenger took it to the wrong establishment, leaving it at the office +of an intensely bitter sheet called _The Confederate_. The next +morning we were not allowed to purchase newspapers. Learning that _The +Confederate_ commented upon our request, we induced an _attaché_ of the +prison to smuggle a copy to us, and found the following leader:-- + + "Last evening some correspondents of _The New York World_ + and _New York Tribune_ were brought here among a batch of + prisoners captured at Vicksburg a few days ago. They had not + been here a half hour before the impudent scamps got one + of the sentinels guarding the barracks to go around to the + newspaper offices in this city with their 'card,' requesting + the favor of some exchange-papers to read. Their impudence is + beyond comprehension, upon any other consideration than that + they belong to the Yankee press-gang. Yankees are everywhere + more impudent than any honest race of people can be, and a + Yankee newspaper-man is the quintessence of all impudence. We + thought we had seen and understood something of this Yankee + accomplishment in times gone by (some specimens of it have + been seen in the South); but the unheard-of effrontery that + prompted these villains, who, caught in company with the + thieving, murdering vandals who have invaded our country, + despoiled our homes, murdered our citizens, destroyed our + property, violated our wives, sisters, and daughters, to + boldly claim of the press of the South the courtesies and + civilities which gentlemen of the press usually extend to + each other, is above and beyond all the unblushing audacity + we ever imagined. They had come along with Northern vandals, + to chronicle their rapes, arsons, plunders, and murders, and + to herald them to the world as deeds of heroism, greatness, + and glory. They are our vilest and most unprincipled + enemies--far more deeply steeped in guilt, and far more + richly deserving death, than the vilest vandal that ever + invaded the sanctity of our soil and outraged our homes and + our peace. We would greatly prefer to assist in hanging these + enemies to humanity, than to show them any civilities or + courtesies. The common robber, thief, and murderer, is more + respectable, in our estimation, than these men; for he never + tries to make his crimes respectable, but always to conceal + them. These men, however, have come into our country with the + open robbers and murderers of our people, for the express + purpose of whitewashing their hellish deeds, and presenting + them to the world as great deeds of virtuous heroism. They + deserve a rope's end, and will not receive their just deserts + till their crimes are punished with death." + +[Sidenote: A PAIR OF RENEGADE VERMONTERS.] + +The Rebel authorities were very sensitive to newspaper censure. With +unusual rigor, they now refused us permission to go outside the prison +for meals, though offering to have them sent in, at our expense, from +the leading hotel. They told us that _The Confederate_ was edited by +two renegade Vermonters. + +"I am not very fond of Yankees, myself," remarked Hunnicutt, the +heavy-jawed, broad-necked, coarse-featured lieutenant commanding the +prison. "I am as much in favor of hanging them as anybody; but these +Vermonters, who haven't been here six months, are a little too violent. +They don't own any niggers. 'Tisn't natural. There's something wrong +about them. If I were going to hang Yankees at a venture, I think I +would begin with them." + +An Irish warden brought us, from a Jew outside, three hundred +Confederate dollars, in exchange for one hundred in United States +currency. For a fifty-dollar Rebel note he procured me a cap of +southern manufacture, to replace my hat, which had been snatched from +my head by a South Carolina officer, passing upon a railroad train +meeting our own. The new cap, of grayish cotton, a marvel of roughness +and ugliness, elicited roars of laughter from my comrades. + +On the journey thus far, we had gone almost wherever we pleased, +unguarded and unaccompanied. But from Atlanta to Richmond we were +treated with rigor and very closely watched. A Rebel officer begged +of "Junius" his fine pearl-handled pocket knife. Receiving it, he at +once conceived an affection for a gold ring upon the prisoner's finger. +Even the courtesy of my colleague was not proof against this second +impertinence, and he contemptuously declined the request. + +[Sidenote: TREATED WITH UNUSUAL RIGOR.] + +The captain in charge of us stated that his orders were imperative to +keep all newspapers from us; and on no account to permit us to leave +the railway carriage. But, finding that we still obtained the daily +journals from fellow-passengers, he made a virtue of necessity, and +gracefully acquiesced. At last, he even allowed us to take our meals at +the station, upon being invited to participate in them at the expense +of his prisoners. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXI + + ----Give me to drink mandragora, That I may sleep out this + great gap of time.--ANTONY AND CLEOPATRA. + +[Sidenote: ARRIVAL IN RICHMOND.] + + +At 5 o'clock on the morning of Saturday, May 16th, we reached Richmond. +At that early hour, the clothing-dépôt of the Confederate government +was surrounded by a crowd of poor, ill-clad women, seeking work. + +We were marched to the Libby Prison. Up to this time we had never been +searched. I had even kept my revolver in my pocket until reaching +Jackson, Mississippi, where, knowing I could not much longer conceal +it, I gave it to a friend. Now a Rebel sergeant carefully examined +our clothing. All money, except a few dollars, was taken from us, and +the flippant little prison clerk, named Ross, with some inquiries not +altogether affectionate concerning the health of Mr. Greeley, gave us +receipts. + +As we passed through the guarded iron gateway, I glanced instinctively +above the portal in search of its fitting legend:-- + + "Abandon all hope who enter here." + +Up three flights of stairs, we were escorted into a room, fifty feet +by one hundred and twenty-five, filled with officers lying in blankets +upon the floor and upon rude bunks. Some shouted, "More Yankees!--more +Yankees!" while many crowded about us to hear our story, and learn the +news from the West. + +[Sidenote: INCARCERATED IN LIBBY PRISON.] + +We soon found friends, and became domesticated in our novel quarters. +With the American tendency toward organization, the prisoners divided +into companies of four each. Our journalistic trio and Captain Ward +ceased to be individuals, becoming merely "Mess Number Twenty-one." + +The provisions, at this time consisting of good flour, bread, and salt +pork, were brought into the room in bulk. A commissary, elected by the +captives from their own number, divided them, delivering its quota to +each mess. + +Picking up two or three rusty tin plates and rheumatic knives and +forks, we commenced housekeeping. The labor of preparation was not +arduous. It consisted in making little sacks of cotton cloth for +salt, sugar, pepper, and rice, fitting up a shelf for our dishes, and +spreading upon the floor blankets, obtained from our new comrades, and +originally sent to Richmond by the United States Government for the +benefit of prisoners. + +The Libby authorities, and white and negro _attachés_, were always +hungry for "greenbacks," and glad to give Confederate currency in +exchange. The rates varied greatly. The lowest was two dollars for one. +During my imprisonment, I bought fourteen for one, and, a few weeks +after our escape, thirty were given for one. + +A prison sergeant went out every morning to purchase supplies. He +seemed honest, and through him we could obtain, at extravagant prices, +dried apples, sugar, eggs, molasses, meal, flour, and corn burnt and +ground as a substitute for coffee. Without these additions, our rations +would hardly have supported life. + +In our mess, each man, in turn, did the cooking for an entire day. In +that hot, stifling room, frying pork, baking griddle-cakes, and boiling +coffee, over the crazy, smoking, broken stove, around which there was a +constant crowd, were disagreeable in the extreme. The prison hours were +long, but the cooking-days recurred with unpleasant frequency. + +We scrubbed our room two or three times a week, and it was fumigated +every morning. At one end stood a huge wooden tank, with an abundant +supply of cold water, in which we could bathe at pleasure. + +[Sidenote: SUFFERINGS FROM VERMIN.] + +The vermin were the most revolting feature of the prison, and the one +to which it was the most difficult to become resigned. No amount of +personal cleanliness could guard our bodies against the insatiate lice. +Only by examining under-clothing and destroying them once or twice a +day, could they be kept from swarming upon us. For the first week, I +could not think of them without shuddering and faintness: but in time I +learned to make my daily entomological researches with calm complacency. + +In Nashville, two weeks before my capture, I met Colonel A. D. +Streight, of Indiana. At the head of a provisional brigade from +Rosecrans's army, he was about starting on a raid through northern +Alabama and Georgia. The expedition promising more romance and novelty +than ordinary army experiences, now grown a little monotonous, I +desired to accompany him; but other duties prevented. I had been +in Libby just four hours, when in walked Streight, followed by the +officers of his entire brigade. We had taken very different routes, but +they brought us to the same terminus. + +Streight's command had been furnished with mules, averaging about two +years old, and quite unused to the saddle. Utterly worthless, they soon +broke down, and with much difficulty, he remounted his men upon horses, +pressed from the citizens; but the delay proved fatal. + +The Rebel General Forrest overtook him with a largely superior +force. Streight was an enterprising, brave officer, and his exhausted +men behaved admirably in four or five fights; but at last, near +Rome, Georgia, after losing one third of his command, the colonel +was compelled to surrender. The Rebels were very exultant, and +Forrest--originally a slave-dealer in Memphis, and a greater falsifier +than Beauregard himself--telegraphed that, with four hundred men, he +had captured twenty-eight hundred. + +Lieutenant Charles Pavie, of the Eightieth Illinois, who commanded +Streight's artillery, came in with his coat torn to shreds; a piece of +shell had struck him in the back, inflicting only a flesh wound. Upon +feeling the shock, he instinctively clapped his hands to his stomach, +to ascertain if there was a hole there, under the impression that the +entire shell had passed through his body! + +[Sidenote: PRISONERS DENOUNCED AS BLASPHEMOUS.] + +The prisoners bore their confinement with good-humor and hilarity. +During the long evenings, they joined in the "Star-Spangled Banner," +"Old Hundred," "Old John Brown," and other patriotic and religious +airs. _The Richmond Whig_, shocked that the profane and ungodly Yankees +should presume to sing "Old Hundred," denounced it as a piece of +blasphemy. + +Captain Brown and his officers, of the United States gunboat +Indianola, were pointed out to me as men who had actually been in +prison for three months. I regarded them with pity and wonder. It +seemed utterly impossible that I could endure confinement for half that +time. After-experiences inclined me to patronize new-comers, and regard +with lofty condescension, men who had been prisoners only twelve or +fifteen months! "The Father of the Marshalsea" became an intelligible +and sympathetic personage, with whom we should have hobnobbed +delightfully. + +[Sidenote: THIEVERY OF A "VIRGINIA GENTLEMAN."] + +Simultaneously with our arrival in Richmond, a Rebel officer of the +exchange bureau received a request from the editor of _The World_, for +the release of Mr. Colburn. It proved as efficient as if it had been +an order from Jefferson Davis. After ten days' confinement in Libby, +Colburn was sent home by the first truce-boat. A thoroughly loyal +gentleman, and an unselfish, devoted friend, he was induced to go, only +by the assurance that while he could do no good by remaining, he might +be of service to us in the North. + +At his departure, he left for me, with Captain Thomas P. Turner, +commandant of the prison, fifty dollars in United States currency. A +day or two afterward, Turner handed the sum to me in Confederate rags, +dollar for dollar, asserting that this was the identical money he had +received. The perpetrator of this petty knavery was educated at West +Point, and claimed to be a Virginia gentleman. + +"Junius" suffered greatly from intermittent fever. The weather was +torrid. In the roof was a little scuttle, to which we ascended by a +ladder. The column of air rushing up through that narrow aperture was +foul, suffocating, and hot as if coming from an oven. At night we +went out on the roof for two or three hours to breathe the out-door +atmosphere. When the authorities discovered it, they informed us, +through Richard Turner--an ex-Baltimorean, half black-leg and half +gambler, who was inspector of the prison--that if we persisted, they +would close the scuttle. It was a refined and elaborate method of +torture. + +On one occasion, this same Turner struck a New York captain in the +face for courteously protesting against being deprived of a little +fragment of shell which he had brought from the field as a relic. A +Rebel sergeant inflicted a blow upon another Union captain who chanced +to be jostled against him by the crowd. + +For slight offenses, officers were placed in an underground cell so +dark and foul, that I saw a Pennsylvania lieutenant come out, after +five weeks' confinement there, his beard so covered with mold that one +could pluck a double handful from it! + +[Sidenote: PRISONERS MURDERED BY THE GUARDS.] + +Prisoners putting their heads for a moment between the bars of the +windows, and often for only approaching the apertures, were liable +to be shot. One officer, standing near a window, was ordered by +the sentinel to move back. The rattling carriages made the command +inaudible. The guard instantly shot him through the head, and he never +spoke again. + +Colonel Streight was the most prominent prisoner. He talked to the +Rebel authorities with imprudent, but delightful frankness. More than +once I heard him say to them:-- + +"You dare not carry out that threat! You know our Government will never +permit it, but will promptly retaliate upon your own officers, whom it +holds." + +When our rations of heavy corn-bread and tainted meat grew very short, +he addressed a letter to James A. Seddon, Confederate Secretary of War, +protesting in behalf of his brigade, and inquiring whether he designed +starving prisoners to death! The Rebels hated him with peculiar +bitterness. + +The five Richmond dailies helped us greatly in filling up the long +hours. At daylight an old slave, named Ben, would arouse us from our +slumbers, shouting:-- + +"Great news in de papers! Great news from de Army of Virginny! Great +tallygraphic news from the Soufwest!" + +[Sidenote: FOURTH-OF-JULY CELEBRATION INTERRUPTED.] + +He disbursed his sheets at twenty-five cents per copy, but they +afterward went up to fifty. + +A lieutenant in Grant's army, while charging one of the batteries in +the rear of Vicksburg, received a shot in the face which entered one +eye, destroying it altogether. Ten days after, he arrived in Libby. He +walked about our room with a handkerchief tied around his head, smoking +complacently, apparently considering a bullet in the brain a very +slight annoyance. + +We attempted to celebrate the Fourth of July. Captain Driscoll, of +Cincinnati, with other ingenious officers, had manufactured from shirts +a National flag, which was hung above the head of Colonel Streight, who +occupied the chair, or rather the bed, which necessity substituted. +Two or three speeches had been made, and several hours of oratory were +expected, when a sergeant came up and said:-- + +"Captain Turner orders that you stop this furse!" + +Observing the flag, he called upon several officers to assist him in +taking it down. Of course, none did so. He finally reached it himself, +tore it down, and bore it to the prison office. A long discussion +ensued about obeying Turner's order. After nearly as much time had +been consumed in debate as it would have required to carry out the +programme, and speak to all the toasts--dry toasts--it was voted to +comply. So the meeting, first adopting a number of intensely patriotic +resolutions, incontinently adjourned. + +[Sidenote: THE HORRORS OF BELLE ISLE.] + +The Rebel authorities confiscated large sums of money sent from home +to the prisoners, and sometimes stopped the purchase of supplies, +asserting that it was done in retaliation for similar treatment of +their own soldiers confined in the North. Still our officers fared +incomparably better than the Union privates who were half starved upon +Belle Isle, in sight of our prison. We did not fully accredit the +reports which reached us touching the sufferings of these prisoners, +though the engravings of their emaciation and tortures in the New +York illustrated papers, which sometimes drifted to us, so enraged +the Rebels, that we often called their attention to them. But our +own paroled officers, who were permitted to distribute among the +privates clothing sent by our Government, assured us that they were +substantially true. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXII. + + Who was so firm, so constant, that this coil Would not infect + his reason?--TEMPEST. + + When sorrows come, they come not single spies, But in + battalions.--HAMLET. + + +[Sidenote: THE CAPTAINS ORDERED BELOW.] + + +On the 6th of July, an order came to our apartments for all the +captains to go down into a lower room. At this time, as usual, there +was constant talk about resuming the exchange. They went below with +light hearts, supposing they were about to be paroled and sent North. +Half an hour after, when the first one returned, his white, haggard +face showed that he had been through a trying scene. + +After being drawn up in line, they were required to draw lots, to +select two of their number for execution, in retaliation for two Rebel +officers, tried and shot in Kentucky by Burnside, for recruiting within +our lines. + +[Sidenote: TWO SELECTED FOR EXECUTION.] + +The unhappy designation fell upon Captain Sawyer, of the First New +Jersey Cavalry, and Captain Flynn, of the Fifty-first Indiana Infantry. +They were taken to the office of General Winder, who assured them +that the sentence would be carried out; and without pity or decency, +selected that hour to revile them as Yankee scoundrels who had "come +down here to kill our sons, burn our houses, and devastate our +country." In reply to these taunts, they bore themselves with dignity +and calmness. + +"When I went into the war," responded Flynn, "I knew I might be +killed. I don't know but I would just as soon die in this way as any +other." + +"I have a wife and child," said Sawyer, "who are very dear to me, but +if I had a hundred lives I would gladly give them all for my country." + +In two hours they came back to their quarters. Sawyer was externally +nervous; Flynn calm. Both expected that the order would be carried out. +We were confident that it would not. I predicted to Sawyer-- + +"They will never dare to shoot you!" + +"I will bet you a hundred dollars they do!" was his impulsive reply. I +said to Flynn-- + +"There is not one chance in ten of their executing you." + +"I know it," he answered. "But, when we drew lots, I took one chance in +thirty-five, and then lost!"[17] + +[17] Our Government, upon learning of this, ordered the commandant at +Fortress Monroe, the moment he should learn, officially or otherwise, +that Sawyer and Flynn had been executed, to shoot in retaliation two +Rebel officers--sons of Generals Lee and Winder. On the reception of +this news in the Richmond papers at daylight one morning, the prisoners +cheered and shouted with delight. As they supposed, that settled the +question. Nothing more was heard about executing our officers; and +soon after, Sawyer and Flynn were exchanged, months before their less +fortunate comrades. + +On the same evening came intelligence that, at an obscure town in +Pennsylvania called Gettysburg, Meade had received a Waterloo defeat, +was flying in confusion to the mountains of Pennsylvania after losing +forty thousand prisoners, who were actually on their way to Richmond. +It was entertaining to read the speculations of the Rebel papers as to +what they could do with these forty thousand Yankees--where they could +find men to guard them, and room for them--how in the world they could +feed them without starving the people of Richmond. + +[Sidenote: THE GLOOMIEST NIGHT IN PRISON.] + +We did not fully believe the report, but it touched us very nearly. +Those reverses to our army came home drearily to the hearts of men who +were waiting hopelessly in Rebel prisons, and weighed them down like +millstones. + +Success kindled a corresponding joy. I have seen sick and dying +prisoners on cold and filthy floors of the wretched hospitals filled +with a new vitality--their sad, pleading eyes lighted with a new hope, +their wan faces flushed, and their speech jubilant, when they learned +that all was going well with the Cause. It made life more endurable and +death less bitter. + +Already suffering from anxiety for Flynn and Sawyer, and disheartened +by the reports from Pennsylvania, we received intelligence that Grant +had been utterly repulsed before the works of Vicksburg, the siege +raised, and the campaign closed in defeat and disaster. It was a very +black night when this grief was added to the first. The prison was +gloomy and silent many hours earlier than usual. Our hearts were too +heavy for speech. + +But suddenly there came a great revulsion. Among the negro prisoners +was an old man of seventy, who had particularly attracted my attention +from the fact that when I happened to speak to him about the National +conflict, he replied, after the manner of Copperheads, that it was a +speculators' war on both sides, in which he felt no sort of interest; +that it would do nobody any good; that he cared not when or how it +ended. I wondered whether the old African was shamming, lest his +conversation should be reported, to the curtailing of his privileges, +or whether he was really that anomaly, a black man who felt no interest +in the war. + +[Sidenote: GLORIOUS REVULSION OF FEELING.] + +But about five o'clock, one afternoon, he came up into our room, and, +when the door was closed behind him, so that he could not be seen by +the officers or guards, he made a rush for an open space upon the +floor, and immediately began to dance in a manner very remarkable for a +man of seventy, and rheumatic at that. We all gathered around him and +asked-- + +"General" (that was his _soubriquet_ in the prison), "what does this +mean?" + +"De Yankees has taken Vicksburg! De Yankees has taken Vicksburg!" and +then he began to dance again. + +As soon as we could calm him into a little coherence, he drew from his +pocket a newspaper extra--the ink not yet dry--which he had stolen +from one of the Rebel officers. There it was! The Yankees _had_ taken +Vicksburg, with more than thirty thousand prisoners. + +Good tidings, like bad, seldom come alone. Shortly after, we learned +that there was also a slight mistake about Gettysburg--that Lee, +instead of Meade, was flying in confusion; and that, while our people +had captured fifteen or twenty thousand Rebels, those forty thousand +Yankee prisoners were "conspicuous for their absence." + +How our hearts leaped up at this cheering news! How suddenly that foul +prison air grew sweet and pure as the fragrant breath of the mountains! +There was laughing, there was singing, there was dancing, which the +old negro did not altogether monopolize. Some one shouted, "Glory, +hallelujah!" Mr. McCabe, an Ohio chaplain, whose clear, ringing tones, +as he led the singing, cheered many of our heaviest hours, instantly +took the hint, and started that beautiful hymn, by Mrs. Howe, of which +"Glory, hallelujah" is the chorus:-- + + "For mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord." + +Every voice in the room joined in it. I never saw men more stirred and +thrilled than were those three or four hundred prisoners, as they heard +the impressive closing stanza:-- + + "In the beauty of the lilies, Christ was born across the sea, + With a glory in His bosom that transfigures you and me; + As He died to make men holy, let _us_ die to make men free!" + +[Sidenote: EXCITING DISCUSSION IN PRISON.] + +Despite reading, conversing, and cutting out finger-rings, +napkin-rings, breast-pins, and crosses, from the beef-bones extracted +from our rations, in which some prisoners were exceedingly skillful, +the hours were very heavy. A debating-club was formed, and much time +was spent in discussing animal magnetism and other topics. Occasionally +we had mock courts, which developed a good deal of originality and wit. + +Late in July, a mania for study began to prevail. Classes were formed +in Greek, Latin, German, French, Spanish, Algebra, Geometry, and +Rhetoric. We sent out to the Richmond stores for text-books, and all +found instructors, as the motley company of officers embraced natives +of every civilized country. + +July 30th was a memorable day. The prisoners had become greatly excited +on the momentous question of small messes _versus_ large messes. There +were only three cooking-stoves for the accommodation of three hundred +and seventy-five officers. A majority thought it more convenient to +divide into messes of twenty, while others, favoring small messes of +from four to eight each, determined to retain those organizations. The +prisoners now occupied five rooms, communicating with each other. + +A public meeting was called in our apartment, with Colonel Streight +in the chair. A fiery discussion ensued. The large-mess party insisted +that the majority must rule, and the minority submit to be formed into +messes of twenty. The small-mess party replied:-- + +"We will not be coerced. We are one-third of all the prisoners. We +insist upon our right to one-third of the kitchen, one-third of the +fuel, and one of the three cooking-stoves. It is nobody's business but +our own whether we have messes of two or one hundred." + +I was never present at any debate, parliamentary, political, or +religious, which developed more earnestness and bitterness. The meeting +passed a resolution, insisting upon large messes; the small-mess party +refused to vote upon it, and declared that they would never, never +submit! The question was finally decided by permitting all to do +exactly as they pleased. + +Prisoners kept in the underground cells heard revolting stories. They +were informed by the guards that the bodies of the dead, usually left +in an adjoining room for a day or two before burial, were frequently +eaten by rats. + +[Sidenote: STEALING MONEY FROM THE CAPTIVES.] + +From want of vegetables and variety of diet, scurvy became common. +With many others, I suffered somewhat from it. On the 13th of August, +Major Morris, of the Sixth Pennsylvania Cavalry, died suddenly from a +malignant form of this disease. His fellow-prisoners desired to have +his body embalmed. The Rebel authorities had one hundred dollars in +United States currency, belonging to the major, but they refused to +apply it to this purpose. Four hundred dollars in Confederate currency +was therefore subscribed by the prisoners. Several brother-officers of +the deceased were permitted to follow the remains to the cemetery. + +[Sidenote: HORRIBLE TREATMENT OF NORTHERN CITIZENS.] + +Thirty or forty Northern citizens were confined in a room under us. +They were thrust in with Yankee deserters of the worst character, and +treated with the greatest barbarity. Their rations were very short; +they were allowed to purchase nothing. We cut a hole through the floor, +and every evening dropped down crackers and bread, contributed from +the various messes. When they saw the food coming, they would crowd +beneath the aperture, with upturned faces and eager eyes, springing to +clutch every crumb, sometimes ready to fight over the smallest morsels, +and looking more like ravenous animals than human beings. Some of +them, accustomed to luxury at home, ate water-melon rinds and devoured +morsels which they extracted from the spittoons and from other places +still more revolting. + +Several schemes of escape were ingenious and original. Impudence was +the trump card. Four or five officers took French leave, by procuring +Confederate uniforms, which enabled them to pass the guards. Captain +John F. Porter, of New York, obtaining a citizen's suit, walked out of +the prison in broad daylight, passing all the sentinels, who supposed +him to be a clergyman or some other pacific resident of Richmond. A +lady in the city secreted him. By the negroes, he sent a message to his +late comrades, asking for money, which they immediately transmitted. +Obtaining a pilot, he made his way through the swamps to the Union +lines, in season to claim, on the appointed day, the hand of a young +lady who awaited him at home. He was an enterprising bridegroom. + +During the long evenings, when we were faint, bilious, and weak from +our thin diet, some of my comrades, with morbid eloquence, would +dwell upon all luxuries that tempt the epicurean palate,--debating, +in detail, what dishes they would order, were they at the best hotels +of New York or Philadelphia. These tantalizing discussions were so +annoying that they invariably drove me from the group, sometimes +exciting a desire to strike those who _would_ drag forward the +unpleasant subject, and keep me reminded of the hunger which I was +striving to forget. + +[Sidenote: EXTRAVAGANT RUMORS AMONG THE PRISONERS.] + +The exchange was altogether suspended, and new prisoners were +constantly arriving, until Libby contained several hundred officers. + +Extravagant rumors of all sorts were constantly afloat among the +captives; hardly a day passing without some sensation story. They were +not usually pure invention; but in prison, as elsewhere during exciting +periods, the air seemed to generate wild reports, which, in passing +from mouth to mouth, grew to wonderful proportions. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXIII. + + I had rather than forty pound I were at home.--TWELFTH NIGHT, + OR WHAT YOU WILL. + +[Sidenote: TRANSFERRED TO CASTLE THUNDER.] + + +On the evening of September 2d, all the northern citizens were +transferred from Libby to Castle Thunder. The open air caused a strange +sensation of faintness. We grew weak and dizzy in walking the three +hundred yards between the prisons. + +That night we were thrust into an unventilated, filthy, subterranean +room, nearly as loathsome as the Vicksburg jail. But we smoked our +pipes serenely, remembering that "Fortune is turning, and inconstant, +and variations, and mutabilities," and wondering what that capricious +lady would next decree. At intervals, our sleep upon the dirty floor +was disturbed by the playful gambols of the rats over our hands and +faces. + +The next morning we were drawn up in line, and our names registered +by an old warden named Cooper, who, in spectacles and faded silk hat, +looked like one of Dickens's beadles. His query whether we possessed +moneys, was uniformly answered in the negative. When he asked if we had +knives or concealed weapons, all gave the same response, except one +waggish prisoner, who averred that he had a ten-inch columbiad in his +vest pocket. + +The Commandant of Castle Thunder was Captain George W. Alexander, +an ex-Marylander, who had participated with "the French Lady"[18] +in the capture of the steamer St. Nicholas, near Point Lookout, and +was afterward confined for some months at Fort McHenry. He formerly +belonged to the United States Navy, in the capacity of assistant +engineer. He made literary pretensions, writing thin plays for the +Richmond theaters, and sorry Rebel war-ballads. Pompous and excessively +vain, delighting in gauntlets, top-boots, huge revolvers, and a red +sash, he was sometimes furiously angry, but, in the main, kind to +captives. He caused us to be placed in the "Citizens' Room," which he +called the prison parlor. Its walls were whitewashed, its four windows +were iron-barred, its air tainted by exhalations from the adjoining +"Condemned Cell," which was fearfully foul. It was lighted with gas, +and had a single stove for cooking, a few bunks, and a clean floor. + +[18] Captain Thomas, in the character of a French lady, took passage +on the steamer at Baltimore, with several followers disguised as +mechanics. Near Point Lookout they overpowered the crew and captured +the vessel, converting her into a privateer. Afterward, while +attempting to repeat the enterprise, they were made prisoners. + +Castle Thunder contained about fifteen hundred inmates--northern +citizens, southern Unionists, Yankee deserters, Confederate convicts, +and eighty-two free negroes, captured with Federal officers, who +employed them as servants in the field. + +[Sidenote: MORE ENDURABLE THAN LIBBY.] + +The prison's reputation was worse than that of Libby; but, as usual, we +found the devil not quite so black as he was painted. We missed sadly +the society of the Union officers, but the Commandant and _attachés_, +unlike the Turners, treated us courteously, never indulging in epithets +and insults. + +In the Citizens' Room were two northerners, named Lewis and Scully, +sent to Richmond in the secret service of our Government, by General +Scott, before the battle of Bull Run, and confined ever since. One of +them was a Catholic, through the influence of whose priest both had +thus far been preserved. But they held existence by a frail tenure, and +I could not wonder that long anxiety had turned Lewis's hair gray, and +given to both nervous, haggard faces. + +In all southern prisons I was forced to admire the fidelity with which +the Roman Church looks after its members. Priests frequently visited +all places of confinement to inquire for Catholics, and minister both +to their spiritual and bodily needs. The chaplain at Castle Thunder was +a Presbyterian. He scattered documents, and preached every Sunday in +the yard or one of the large rooms. He would have given tracts on the +sin of dancing to men without any legs. + +The Rev. William G. Scandlin and Dr. McDonald, of Boston--agents of the +United States Sanitary Commission--were held with us. The doctor was +dangerously ill from dysentery. The Commission had never discriminated +between suffering Unionists and Confederates, extending to both the +same bounty and tenderness; yet the Rebels kept these gentlemen, whom +they had captured on the way to Harper's Ferry with sanitary supplies, +for more than three months. + +[Sidenote: DETERMINED NOT TO DIE.] + +"Junius" was very feeble; but during the weary months which followed, +he manifested wonderful vitality. His indignation toward the enemy, and +his earnest determination not to die in a Rebel prison, greatly helped +his endurance. Like the Duchess of Marlboro', he refused either to be +bled or to give up the ghost. + +A Virginia citizen was brought in on the charge of attempting to trade +in "greenbacks,"--a penitentiary offense under Confederate law. Before +he had been in our room five minutes one of the sub-wardens entered, +asking: + +"Is there anybody here who has 'greenbacks?' I am paying four dollars +for one to-day." + +The negroes were used for scrubbing and carrying messages from the +office of the prison to the different apartments. Invariably our +friends, they surreptitiously conveyed notes to acquaintances in the +other rooms, and often to Unionists outside. + +[Sidenote: A NEGRO CRUELLY WHIPPED.] + +While we were at Libby, an intelligent mulatto prisoner from +Philadelphia was whipped for some trivial offense. His piercing shrieks +followed each application of the lash; one of my messmates, who counted +them, stated that he received three hundred and twenty-seven blows. A +month afterward I examined his back, and found it still gridironed with +scars. + +At the Castle the negroes frequently received from five to twenty-five +lashes. I saw boys not more than eight years old turned over a barrel +and cowhided. One woman upward of sixty was whipped in the same manner. +This negress was known as "Old Sally;" she earned a good deal of +Confederate money by washing for prisoners, and spent nearly the whole +of it in purchasing supplies for unfortunates who were without means. +She had been confined in different prisons for nearly three years. + +The next oldest inmate was a Little Dorrit of a cur, born and raised in +the Castle. Notwithstanding her life-long associations, she manifested +the usual canine antipathy toward negroes and tatterdemalions. + +[Sidenote: THE EXECUTION OF SPENCER KELLOGG.] + +Soon after our arrival, Spencer Kellogg, of Philadelphia, one of our +fellow-prisoners, was executed as a Yankee spy. He had been in the +secret service of the United States, but belonged to the western navy +at the time of his capture. He bore himself with great coolness and +self-possession, assuring the Rebels that he was glad to die for his +country. On the scaffold he did not manifest the slightest tremor. +While the rope was being adjusted, he accidentally knocked off the hat +of a bystander, to whom he turned and said, with great suavity: "I beg +your pardon, sir." + +[Sidenote: STEADFASTNESS OF SOUTHERN UNIONISTS.] + +The loyalty of the southern Unionists was intense. One Tennessean, +whose hair was white with age, was taken before Major Carrington, the +Provost-Marshal, who said to him: + +"You are so old that I have concluded to send you home, if you will +take the oath." + +"Sir," replied the prisoner, "if you knew me personally, I should think +you meant to insult me. I have lived seventy years, and, God helping +me, I will not now do an act to embitter the short remnant of my life, +and one which I should regret through eternity. I have four boys in +the Union army; they all went there by my advice. Were I young enough +to carry a musket I would be with them to-day fighting against the +Rebellion." + +The sturdy old Loyalist at last died in prison. + +There were many kindred cases. Nearly all the men of this class +confined with us were from mountain regions of the South. Many were +ragged, all were poor. They very seldom heard from their families. +They were compelled to live solely upon the prison rations, often a +perpetual compromise with starvation. Some had been in confinement for +two or three years, and their homes desolated and burned. Unlike the +North, they knew what war meant. + +Yet the lamp of their loyalty burned with inextinguishable +brightness. They never denounced the Government, which sometimes +neglected them to a criminal degree. They never desponded, through +the gloomiest days, when imbecility in the Cabinet and timidity in +the field threatened to ruin the Union Cause. They seldom yielded an +iota of principle to their keepers. Hungry, cold, and naked--waiting, +waiting, waiting, through the slow months and years--often sick, often +dying, they continued true as steel. History has few such records of +steadfast devotion. Greet it reverently with uncovered head, as the +Holy of Holies in our temple of Patriotism! + + + + +CHAPTER XXXIV. + + ----One fading moment's mirth, With twenty watchful, weary, + tedious nights.--TWO GENTLEMEN OF VERONA. + +[Sidenote: A WAGGISH JOURNALIST.] + + +We consumed many of the long hours in conversing, reading, and +whist-playing. Night after night we strolled wearily up and down our +narrow room, ignorant of the outer world, save through glimpses, caught +from the barred windows, of the clear blue sky and the pitying stars. + +Still, endeavoring to make the best of it, we were often mirthful and +boisterous. Two correspondents of _The Herald_, Mr. S. T. Bulkley +and Mr. L. A. Hendrick, were partners in our captivity. Hendrick's +irrepressible waggery never slept. One evening a Virginia ruralist, +whose intellect was not of the brightest, was brought in for some +violation of Confederate law. After pouring his sorrows into the +sympathetic ear of the correspondent, he suddenly asked: + +"What are you here for?" + +"I am the victim," replied Hendrick, "of gross and flagrant injustice. +I am the inventor of a new piece of artillery known as the Hendrick +gun. Its range far exceeds every other cannon in the world. A week +ago I was testing it from the Richmond defenses, where it is mounted. +One of its shots accidentally struck and sunk a blockade runner just +entering the port of Wilmington. It was not my fault. I didn't aim at +the steamer. I was just trying the gun for the benefit of the country. +But these confounded Richmond authorities insisted upon it that I +should pay for the vessel. I told them I would see them ---- first, and +they shut me up in Castle Thunder; but I never will pay in the world." + +"You are quite right. I would not, if I were you," replied the innocent +Virginian. "It is the greatest outrage I ever heard of." + +[Sidenote: PROCEEDINGS OF A MOCK COURT.] + +A fellow-prisoner had been elected commissary of our room, to divide +and distribute the rations. One evening a court was organized to try +him for "malfeasance in office." The indictment charged that he issued +soup only when he ought to issue meat--stealing the beef and selling +it for his personal benefit. One correspondent appeared as prosecuting +attorney, another as counsel for the defense, and a third as presiding +judge. + +An extract from a Richmond journal being objected to as testimony, it +was decided that any thing published by any newspaper must necessarily +be true, and was competent evidence in that court. A great deal of +remarkable law was cited in Greek, Latin, German, and French. Counsel +were fined for contempt of court, jurors placed under arrest for going +to sleep. When the spectators became boisterous, the sheriff was +ordered to clear the court-room, and, during certain testimony, the +judge requested that the ladies withdraw. + +The jury returned a verdict of guilty, and, after being harangued +in touching terms upon the enormity of his offense, the culprit was +sentenced to eat a quart of his own soup at a single meal. It was an +hilarious affair for that loathsome place, which swarmed with vermin, +and where the silence was broken nightly by the clanking and rattling +of the chains of convicts. + +Many prison inmates exhibited daring and ingenuity in attempting to +escape. Castle Thunder was vigilantly and securely guarded, with a +score of sentinels inside, and a cordon of sentinels without. + +[Sidenote: ESCAPE BY KILLING A GUARD.] + +In the condemned cell adjoining our room was a Rebel officer named +Booth, with three comrades, under sentence of death on charge of +murder. All were heavily ironed. Nightly, as the time appointed for +their execution approached, they surprised us by dancing, rattling +their chains, and singing. At one o'clock on the morning of October +22d, we were awakened by shouts and musket-shots. The whole Castle was +alarmed, and the guard turned out. + +With a saw made from a case-knife, Booth had cut a hole through the +floor of his cell, his comrades the while singing and dancing to drown +the noise. They were compelled to be very cautious, as a sentinel paced +within six feet of them, under instructions to watch them closely. +Filing off their irons, they descended cautiously through the aperture +into a store-room, where they found four muskets. In the darkness they +removed the lock from the door, and each taking a gun, crept into +another room opening to the street; struck down the sentinel, and +felled a second with the butt of a musket, knocking him ten or twelve +feet. At the outer door, a guard, who had taken the alarm, presented +his gun. Before he could fire, Booth shot him fatally through the head. + +The three late prisoners ran up the street, several ineffectual shots +being fired after them by the guards, who dared not leave their posts. +At the long bridge across the James River they knocked down another +sentinel, who attempted to stop them. Traveling by night through the +woods, they soon reached the Union lines. + +A considerable number of prisoners smeared their faces with croton-oil +to produce eruptions. The surgeon, called in at exactly the right +stage, pronounced the disease small-pox. They were driven toward the +small-pox hospital in unguarded ambulances, from which they jumped +and ran for their lives. It was a profound mystery to the physician +that patients should be so agile, until, examining one face after the +eruptions began to subside, he detected the imposition. + +In Tennessee two Indiana captains were found within the Rebel +lines. They were actually in the secret service of the Government, +reconnoitering Confederate camps; but they passed themselves off as +deserters, and were brought to the Castle. One told me his story, +adding: + +"They offer to release us if we will take the oath of allegiance to +the Southern Confederacy; but I cannot do that. I want to rejoin my +regiment, and fight the Rebels while the war lasts. I must escape, and +I cannot afford to lose any time." + +He kept his own counsel; but the next night took up a plank and +descended to a subterranean room, whence he began digging a tunnel. +After several nights' labor, when almost completed, the tunnel was +discovered by the prison authorities. He immediately commenced another. +That also was found, a few hours before it would have proved a success. +Then he tried the croton-oil, and in ten days he was again under the +old flag. + +[Sidenote: ESCAPE BY PLAYING NEGRO.] + +One prisoner, procuring from the negroes a suit of old clothing, a +slouched hat, and a piece of burnt cork, assumed the garments, and +blackened his face. With a bucket in his hand, he followed the negroes +down three flights of stairs and past four sentinels. Hiding in the +negro quarters until after dark, he then leaped from a window in the +very face of a sentinel, but disappeared around a corner before the +soldier could fire. + +Another was sent to General Winder's office for examination. On the way +he told his stolid guard that he was clerk of the Castle, and ordered +him: + +"Go up this street to the next corner and wait there for me. I am +compelled to visit the Provost-Marshal's office. Be sure and wait. I +will meet you in fifteen minutes." + +The unsuspecting guard obeyed the order, and the prisoner leisurely +walked off. + +Captain Lafayette Jones, of Carter County, Tennessee, was held on the +charge of bushwhacking and recruiting for the Federal army within +the Rebel lines. If brought to trial, he would undoubtedly have been +convicted and shot. He succeeded in deluding the officers of the prison +about his own identity, and was released upon enlisting in the Rebel +army, under the name of Leander Johannes. + +[Sidenote: ESCAPE BY FORGING A RELEASE.] + +George W. Hudson, of New York, had been caught in Louisiana, while +acting as a spy in the Union service. Returning to the prison from a +preliminary examination before General Winder, he said: + +"They have found all my papers, which were sewn in the lining of my +valise. There is evidence enough to hang me twenty times over. I have +no hope unless I can escape." + +He canvassed a number of plans, at last deciding upon one. Then he +remarked, with great nonchalance: + +"Well, I am not quite ready yet; I must send out to buy a valise and +get my clothes washed, so that I can leave in good shape." + +Three or four days later, having completed these arrangements, he +wrote an order for his own discharge, forging General Winder's' +signature. It was a close imitation of Winder's genuine papers upon +which prisoners were discharged daily. Hudson employed a negro to leave +this document, unobserved, upon the desk of the prison Adjutant. Just +then I was confined in a cell for an attempt to escape. One morning +some one tapped at my door; looking out through the little aperture, I +saw Hudson, valise in hand, with the warden behind him. + +"I have come to say good-by. My discharge has arrived." (In a whisper,) +"Put your ear up here. My plan is working to a charm. It is the +prettiest thing you ever saw." + +He bade me adieu, conversed a few minutes with the prison officers, and +walked leisurely up the street. A Union lady sheltered him, and when +the Rebels next heard of Hudson he was with the Army of the Potomac, +serving upon the staff of General Meade. + +[Sidenote: ESCAPED PRISONER AT JEFF. DAVIS'S LEVEE.] + +Robert Slocum, of the Nineteenth Massachusetts Volunteers, was taken +to Richmond as a prisoner of war. In two days he escaped, and procured, +from friendly negroes, citizen's clothing. Then passing himself off +as an Englishman recently arrived in America by a blockade-runner, he +attempted to leave the port of Wilmington for Nassau. Through some +informality in his passport, he was arrested and lodged in Castle +Thunder. Employing an attorney, he secured his release. Still adhering +to the original story, he remained in Richmond for many months. He +frequently sent us letters, supplies, and provisions, and made many +attempts to aid us in escaping. One day he wrote me an entertaining +description of President Davis's levee, at which he had spent the +previous evening. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXV. + + Misery acquaints a man with strange bed-fellows.--TEMPEST. + +[Sidenote: ASSISTANCE FROM A NEGRO BOY.] + + +Several days of our confinement in Castle Thunder were spent in a +little cell with burglars, thieves, "bounty-jumpers," and confidence +men. Our association with these strange companions happened in this +wise: + +One day we completed an arrangement with a corporal of the guard, +by which, with the aid of four of his men, he was to let us out at +midnight. We had a friend in Richmond, but did not know precisely where +his house was situated. We were very anxious to learn, and fortunately, +on this very day, he sent a meal to a prisoner in our room. Recognizing +the plate, I asked the intelligent young Baltimore negro who brought it: + +"Is my friend waiting below?" + +"Yes, sir." + +"Can't you get me an opportunity to see him for one moment?" + +"I think so, sir. Come with me and we will try." + +The boy led me through the passages and down the stairs, past four +guards, who supposed that he had been sent by the prison authorities. +As we reached the lower floor, I saw my friend standing in the street +door, with two officers of the prison beside him. By a look I beckoned +him. He walked toward me and I toward him, until we met at the little +railing which separated us. There, over the bayonet of the sentinel, +this whispered conversation followed: + +"We hope to get out to-night; can we find refuge in your house?" + +"Certainly. At what hour will you come?" + +"We hope, between twelve and one o'clock. Where is your place?" + +[Sidenote: THE PRISON OFFICERS ENRAGED.] + +He told me the street and number. By this time, the Rebel officers, +discovering what was going on, grew indignant and very profane. They +peremptorily ordered my friend into the street. He went out wearing a +look of mild and injured innocence. The negro had shrewdly slipped out +of sight the moment he brought us together, and thus escaped severe +punishment. + +The officers ordered me back to my quarters, and as I went up the +stairs, I heard a volley of oaths. They were not especially incensed +at me, recognizing the fact that a prisoner under guard has a right to +do any thing he can; but were indignant and chagrined at that want of +discipline which permitted an inmate of the safest apartment in the +Castle to pass four sentinels to the street door, and converse with an +unauthorized person. + +[Sidenote: VISIT FROM A FRIENDLY WOMAN.] + +Ten minutes after, a boy came up from the office, with the +message--this time genuine--that another visitor wished to see me. I +went down, and there, immediately beyond the bars through which we +were allowed to communicate with outsiders, I saw a lady who called me +by name. I did not recognize her, but her eyes told me that she was +a friend. A Rebel officer was standing near, to see that no improper +communication passed between us. She conversed upon indifferent +subjects, but soon found opportunity for saying: + +"I am the wife of your friend who has just left you. He dared not come +again. I succeeded in obtaining admission. I have a note for you. I +cannot give it to you now, for this officer is looking; but, when I bid +you good-by, I will slip it into your hand." + +The letter contained the warmest protestations of friendship, saying: + +"We will do any thing in the world for you. You shall have shelter at +our house, or, if you think that too public, at any house you choose +among our friends. We will find you the best pilot in Richmond to take +you through the lines. We will give you clothing, we will give you +money--every thing you need. If you wish, we will send a half dozen +young men to steal up in front of the Castle at midnight; and, for a +moment, to throw a blanket over the head of each of the sentinels who +stand beside the door." + +At one o'clock that night, the Rebel corporal came to our door and +said, softly: + +"All things are ready; I have my four men at the proper posts; we can +pass you to the street without difficulty. Should you meet any pickets +beyond, the countersign for to-night is 'Shiloh.' I know you all, and +implicitly trust you; but some of my men do not, and before passing out +your party of six, they want to see that you have in your possession +the money you propose to give us" (seventy dollars in United States +currency, together with two gold watches). + +This request was reasonable, and Bulkley handed his portion of the +money to the corporal. A moment later he returned with it from the +gas-light, and said: + +"There is a mistake about this. Here are five one-dollar notes, not +five-dollar notes." + +My friend was very confident there was no error; and we were forced +to the conclusion that the guards designed to obtain our money without +giving us our liberty. So the plan was baffled. + +The next morning proved that the corporal was right. My friend _had_ +offered him the wrong roll of notes. We hoped very shortly to try +again, but considerable finessing was required to get the right +sentinels upon the right posts. Before it could be done we were placed +in a dungeon, on the charge of attempting to escape. We were kept there +ten days. + +[Sidenote: SHUT UP IN A CELL.] + +Our fellows in confinement were the burglars and confidence men--"lewd +fellows of the baser sort," without principle or refinement, living +by their wits. They frankly related many of their experiences in +enlisting and re-enlisting for large bounties as substitutes in the +Rebel service; decoying negroes from their masters, and then selling +them; stealing horses, etc. But they treated us with personal courtesy, +and though their own rations were wretchedly short, never molested our +dried beef, hams, and other provisions, which any night they could +safely have purloined. + +Small-pox was very prevalent during the winter months. An Illinois +prisoner, named Putman, had a remarkable experience. He was first +vaccinated, and two or three days after, attacked with varioloid. Just +as he recovered from that, he was taken with malignant small-pox, while +the vaccine matter was still working in his arm, which was almost an +unbroken sore from elbow to shoulder. In a few weeks he returned to the +prison with pits all over his face as large as peas. Small-pox patients +were sometimes kept in our close room for two or three days after +the eruptions appeared. One of my own messmates barely survived this +disease. + +We were allowed to purchase whatever supplies the Richmond market +afforded, and to have our meals prepared in the prison kitchen, by +paying the old negro who presided there. These were privileges enjoyed +by none of the other inmates. Supplies commanded very high prices; it +was a favorite jest in the city, that the people had to carry money +in their baskets and bring home marketing in their porte-monnaies. +Our mess consisted of the four correspondents and Mr. Charles +Thompson, a citizen of Connecticut, whose Democratic proclivities, +age, and gravity, invariably elected him spokesman when we wished to +communicate with the prison authorities. As they regarded us with +special hostility, we kept in the back-ground; but Mr. Thompson's quiet +tenacity, which no refusal could dishearten, and the "greenbacks" which +no _attaché_ could resist, secured us many favors. + +[Sidenote: STEALING FROM FLAG-OF-TRUCE LETTERS.] + +Northern letters from our own families reached us with considerable +regularity. Those sent by other persons were mostly withheld. Robert +Ould, the Rebel Commissioner of Exchange, with petty malignity, never +permitted one of the many written from _The Tribune_ office to reach +us. All inclosures, excepting money, and sometimes including it, +were stolen with uniform consistency. I finally wrote upon one of my +missives, which was to go North: + + "Will the person who systematically abstracts newspaper + slips, babies' pictures, and postage-stamps from my letters, + permit the inclosed little poem to reach its destination, + unless entirely certain that it is contraband and dangerous + to the public service?" + +Apparently a little ashamed, the Rebel censor thereafter ceased his +peculations. + +For a time, boxes of supplies from the North were forwarded to us with +fidelity and promptness. Supposing that this could not last long, we +determined to make hay while the sun shone. One day, dining from the +contents of a home box, in cutting through the butter, my knife struck +something hard. We sounded, and brought to the surface a little phial, +hermetically sealed. We opened it, and there found "greenbacks!" + +Upon that hint we acted. While it was impossible to obtain letters from +the North, we could always smuggle them thither by exchanged prisoners, +who would sew them up in their clothing, or in some other manner +conceal them. We immediately began to send many orders for boxes; all +but two or three came safely to hand, and "brought forth butter in a +lordly dish." Treasury notes were also sent bound in covers of books +so deftly as to defy detection. One of my messmates thus received two +hundred and fifty dollars in a single Bible. The supplies of money, +obtained in this manner, lasted through nearly all our remaining +imprisonment, and were of infinite service. + +[Sidenote: PAROLES REPUDIATED BY THE REBELS.] + +All the prisoners who were taken to Richmond with us had received +identically the same paroles. In every case, except ours, the Rebels +recognized the paroles, and sent the persons holding them through the +lines. But they utterly disregarded ours. We felt it a sort of duty to +keep them occasionally reminded of their solemn, deliberate, written +obligation to us. We first did this through our attorney, General +Humphrey Marshall, of Kentucky. His relations with Robert Ould were +very close. Upon receiving heavy fees in United States currency, he +had secured the release of several citizens, after all other endeavors +failed. The prisoners believed that Ould shared the fees. + +General Marshall made a strong statement of our case in writing, adding +to the application for release: + + "I am instructed by these gentlemen not to ask any favors at + your hands, but to enforce their clear, legal, unquestionable + rights under this parole." + +Commissioner Ould indorsed upon this application that he repudiated the +parole altogether. In reporting to us, General Marshall said: + +"I don't feel at liberty to accept a fee from you, because I consider +your case hopeless." + +[Sidenote: SENTENCED TO THE SALISBURY PRISON.] + +Early in the new year, we addressed a memorial to Mr. Seddon, the +Rebel Secretary of War, in which we attempted to argue the case upon +its legal merits, and to prove what a flagrant, atrocious violation of +official faith was involved in our detention. We plumed ourselves a +good deal on our legal logic, but Mr. Seddon returned a very convincing +refutation of our argument. He simply wrote an order that we be sent to +the Rebel penitentiary at Salisbury, North Carolina, to be held until +the end of the war, as hostages for Rebel citizens confined in the +North, and for the general good conduct of our Government toward them! + +Like the historic Roman, content to be refuted by an emperor who was +master of fifty legions, we yielded gracefully to the argument of the +Secretary who had the whole Confederate army at his back; and thus we +were sent to Salisbury. + +[Sidenote: "ABOLITIONISTS BEFORE THE WAR."] + +On the night before our departure, the warden, a Maryland refugee, +named Wiley, ordered us below into a very filthy apartment, to be ready +for the morning train. We appealed to Captain Richardson, Commandant of +the Castle, who, countermanding the order, permitted us to remain in +our own more comfortable quarters during the night. Ten minutes after, +one of the little negroes came to our room, and, beckoning me to bend +down, he whispered: + +"What do you think Mr. Wiley says about Captain Richardson's letting +you stay here to-night? As soon as the Captain went out, he said: 'It's +a shame for Richardson and Browne to receive so many more favors than +the other prisoners. Why, ---- them, they were Abolitionists before +the war!'" + +On the way to Salisbury we were very closely guarded, but there were +many times during the night when we might easily have jumped from the +car window. + +At Raleigh, a pleasant little city of five thousand people, named in +honor of the great Sir Walter, the temptation was very strong. In +the confusion and darkness through which we passed from one train to +another, we might easily have eluded the guards; but we were feeble, +a long distance from our army lines, and quite unfamiliar with the +country. It was a golden opportunity neglected; for it is always +comparatively easy for captives to escape while _in transitu_, and very +difficult when once within the walls of a military prison. + +On the evening of February 3d we reached Salisbury, and were taken +to the Confederate States Penitentiary. It was a brick structure, one +hundred feet by forty, four stories in hight, originally erected for +a cotton-factory. In addition to the main building, there were six +smaller ones of brick, which had formerly been tenement houses; and a +new frame hospital, with clean hay mattresses for forty patients. The +buildings, which would hold about five hundred prisoners, were all +filled. Confederate convicts, Yankee deserters, about twenty enlisted +men of our navy and three United States officers confined as hostages, +one hundred and fifty Southern Unionists, and fifty northern citizens, +composed the inmates. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXVI. + + The miserable have no other medicine, But only hope.--MEASURE + FOR MEASURE. + + Canst thou not minister to a mind diseased, Pluck from the + memory a rooted sorrow?--MACBETH. + + +Truly saith the Italian proverb, "There are no ugly loves and no +handsome prisons." Still we found Salisbury comparatively endurable. +Captain Swift Galloway, commanding, though a hearty Confederate, was +kind and courteous to the captives. Our sleeping apartment, crowded +with uncleanly men, and foul with the vilest exhalations, was filthy +and vermin-infested beyond description. No northern farmer, fit to be a +northern farmer, would have kept his horse or his ox in it. + +[Sidenote: THE OPEN AIR AND PURE WATER.] + +But the yard of four acres, like some old college grounds, with great +oak trees and a well of sweet, pure water, was open to us during the +whole day. There, the first time for nine months, our feet pressed the +mother earth, and the blessed open air fanned our cheeks. + +Mr. Luke Blackmer, of Salisbury, kindly placed his library of several +thousand volumes at our disposal. Whenever we wished for books we had +only to address a note to him, through the prison authorities, and, in +a few hours, a little negro with a basket of them on his head would +come in at the gate. It seemed more like life and less like the tomb +than any prison we had inhabited before. + +[Sidenote: THE CRUSHING WEIGHT OF IMPRISONMENT.] + +And yet those long Summer months were very dreary to bear, for we had +upon us the one heavy, crushing weight of captivity. It is not hunger +or cold, sickness or death, which makes prison life so hard to bear. +But it is the utter idleness, emptiness, aimlessness of such a life. It +is being, through all the long hours of each day and night--for weeks, +months, years, if one lives so long--absolutely without employment, +mental or physical--with nothing to fill the vacant mind, which always +becomes morbid and turns inward to prey upon itself. + + What exile from his country Can flee himself as well? + +It was doubtless this which gave us the look peculiar to the +captive--the disturbed, half-wild expression of the eye, the +contraction of the wrinkled brow which indicates trouble at the heart. + +We were most struck with this in the morning, when, on first going out +of our sleeping quarters, we passed down by the hospital and stopped +beside the bench where those were laid who had died during the night. +As we lifted the cloth, to see who had found release, the one thing +which always impressed me was the perfect calm, the sweet, ineffable +peace, which those white, thin faces wore. For months I never saw it +without a twinge of envy. Until then I never felt the meaning of the +words, "where the wicked cease from troubling and the weary are at +rest." Until then I never realized the wealth of the assurance, "He +giveth his beloved sleep." + +[Sidenote: BAD NEWS FROM HOME.] + +Some prisoners had an additional weight to bear. They were southern +Unionists--Tennesseans, North Carolinians, West Virginians, and +Mississippians--whose families lived on the border. They knew that +they were liable any day to have their houses robbed or burned by the +enemy, and their wives and little ones turned out to the mercy of the +elements, or the charity of friends. This gnawing anxiety took away +their elasticity and power of endurance. They had far less capacity for +resisting disease and hardship than the northeners, and died in the +proportion of four or five to one. I could hardly wonder at the fervor +with which, in their devotional exercises, night after night, they sung +the only hymn which they ever attempted: + + "There I shall bathe my weary soul + In seas of heavenly rest; + And not a wave of trouble roll + Across this peaceful breast." + +The cup of others, yet, had a still bitterer ingredient, which filled +it to overflowing. I wonder profoundly that any one drinking of it ever +lived to tell his story. They had received bad news from home--news +that those nearest and dearest, finding their load of life too heavy, +had laid it wearily down. During the long prison hours, such had +nothing to think of but the vacant place, the hushed voice, and the +desolate hearth. Hope--the one thing which buoys up the prisoner--was +gone. That picture of home, which had looked before as heaven looks to +the enthusiastic devotee, was forever darkened. The prisoner knew if +the otherwise glad hour of his release should ever come, no warmth of +welcome, no greeting of friendship, no rejoicing of affection, could +ever replace for him the infinite value of the love he had lost. + +[Sidenote: THE GREAT LIBBY TUNNEL.] + +Early in the Spring we were delighted to learn from Richmond that +Colonel Streight had succeeded in escaping from Libby. The officers +constructed a long tunnel, which proved a perfect success, liberating +one hundred and fourteen of them. Streight, whose proportions tended +toward the Falstaffian, was very apprehensive that he could not work +his way through it. Narrowly escaping the fate of the greedy fox which +"stuck in the hole," he finally squeezed through. The Rebels hated him +so bitterly that, by the unanimous wish of his fellow-prisoners, he was +the first man to pass out. A Union woman of Richmond concealed him for +nearly two weeks. The first officers who reached our lines announced +through the New York papers that Streight had arrived at Fortress +Monroe. This caused the Richmond authorities to relinquish their +search; and finally, under a skillful pilot, having traveled with great +caution for eleven nights to accomplish less than a hundred miles, +Streight reached the protection of the Stars and Stripes. + +Our prison rations of corn bread and beef were tolerable, in quantity +and quality. The Salisbury market also afforded a few articles, of +which eggs were the great staple. We indulged extravagantly in that +mild form of dissipation--our mess of five at one time having on hand +seventy-two dozen, which represented, in Confederate currency, about +two hundred dollars. + +We soon made the acquaintance of several loyal North Carolinians. +Citizens of respectability were permitted to visit the prison. Those of +Union proclivities invariably found opportunity to converse with us. +Like all Loyalists of the South, white and black, they trusted northern +prisoners implicitly. The reign of terror was so great that they often +feared to repose confidence in each other, and cautioned us against +repeating their expressions of loyalty to their neighbors and friends, +whose Union sympathies were just as strong as theirs. + +[Sidenote: HORRIBLE SUFFERINGS OF UNION OFFICERS.] + +Captains Julius L. Litchfield, of the Fourth Maine Infantry, Charles +Kendall, of the Signal Corps, and Edward E. Chase, of the First Rhode +Island Cavalry, were imprisoned in the upper room of the factory. +Held as hostages for certain Rebel officers in the Alton, Illinois, +penitentiary, they were sentenced to confinement and hard labor during +the war. In one instance only was the hard labor imposed. In the prison +yard they were ordered to remove several heavy stones a few yards and +then carry them back. For some minutes they stood beside the Rebel +sergeant, silently and with folded arms. Then Chase thus instructed the +guard: + +"Go to Captain Galloway, and tell him, with my compliments, that +perhaps I was just as delicately nurtured as he--that, if he were in +my place, he would hardly do this work, and that I will see the whole +Confederacy in the Bottomless Pit before I lift a single stone!" + +Chase and his comrades were never afterward ordered to labor. Other +Union officers, held as hostages, arrived from time to time. Eight, who +came from Richmond, had been confined one hundred and forty-five days +in that horrible Libby cell where the mold accumulated on the beard of +the Pennsylvania lieutenant. While there they suffered intensely from +cold, ate daily all their scanty ration the moment it was issued, and +were compelled to fast for the rest of the twenty-four hours, save when +they could catch rats, which they eagerly devoured. Some came out with +broken constitutions, and all were frightfully pallid and emaciated. +Starving and freezing are words easily said, but these gentlemen +learned their actual significance. + +Four of them were held for Kentucky bushwhackers, whom one of our +military courts had sentenced to death, which they clearly deserved +under well-defined laws of war. Had they been promptly executed, the +Rebels would never have dared, in retaliation, to hurt the hair of a +prisoners head. But Mr. Lincoln's kindness of heart induced him to +commute their sentence to imprisonment, and made him unwittingly the +cause of this barbarity toward our own officers. + +The hostages were plucky and enterprising, frequently attempting to +escape. One night they suspended from their fourth-story window a rope +which they had constructed of blankets. Captain Ives, of the Tenth +Massachusetts Infantry, descended in safety. A daring and loyal Rebel +deserter, from East Tennessee, named Carroll, who designed to pilot +them to our lines, attempted to follow; but the rope broke, and he fell +the whole distance, striking upon his head. It would have killed most +men; but Carroll, after spending the night in the guard-house, bathed +his swollen head and troubled himself no further about the matter. + +Captain B. C. G. Reed, from Zanesville, Ohio, was constantly trying +to secure his own release. It always seemed to make him unhappy when +he passed two or three weeks without making attempts to escape. They +usually resulted in his being hand-cuffed and ballasted by a ball and +chain, or confined in a filthy cell. + +[Sidenote: A COOL METHOD OF ESCAPE.] + +But, sooner or later, perseverance achieves. Once, while so weak +from inflammatory rheumatism, contracted in a Richmond dungeon, that +he could hardly walk, he made a successful endeavor, in company with +Captain Litchfield. At nine o'clock, on a rainy March night, with their +blankets wrapped about them, they coolly walked up to the gate. They +rebuked the guard who halted them, indignantly asking him if he did not +know that they belonged at head-quarters! Impudence won the day. The +innocent sentinel permitted them to pass. They went directly through +Captain Galloway's office, which fortunately happened to be empty; +reached the outer fence; Litchfield helped over his weak companion, +and the world was all before them, where to choose. They traveled one +hundred and twenty miles, but, in the mountains of East Tennessee, were +recaptured and brought back. + +Nothing daunted, Reed repeated the attempt again and again. Finally, he +jumped from a train of cars in the city of Charleston, found a negro +who secreted him, and by night conveyed him in a skiff to our forces at +Battery Wagner. Reed returned to his command in Thomas's Army, and was +subsequently killed in one of the battles before Nashville. Entering +the service as a private, and fairly winning promotion, he was an +excellent type of the thinking bayonets, of the young men who freely +gave their lives "for our dear country's sake." + +[Sidenote: CAPTURED THROUGH AN OBSTINATE MULE.] + +Early in the summer, our mess was agreeably enlarged by the arrival +of Mr. William E. Davis, Correspondent of _The Cincinnati Gazette_ +and Clerk of the Ohio Senate. Davis owed his capture to the stupidity +of a mule. Riding leisurely along a road within the lines of General +Sherman's army, more than a mile from the front, he was compelled to +pass through a little gap left between two corps, which had not quite +connected. He was suddenly confronted by a double-barreled shot-gun, +presented by a Rebel standing behind a tree, who commanded him to halt. +Not easily intimidated, Davis attempted to turn his mule and ride for +a life and liberty. With the true instinct of his race, the animal +resisted the rein, seeming to require a ten-acre lot and three days +for turning around--wherefore the rider fell into the hands of the +Philistines. + +Books whiled away many weary hours. As Edmond Dantes, in the Count of +Monte Christo, came out from his twelve years of imprisonment "a very +well-read man," we ought to have acquired limitless lore; but reading +at last palled upon our tastes, and we would none of it. + +[Sidenote: CONCEALING MONEY WHEN SEARCHED.] + +Our Salisbury friends supplied us liberally with money. The editors +of the migratory _Memphis Appeal_ frequently offered to me any amount +which I might desire, and made many attempts to secure my exchange. + +The prison authorities sometimes searched us; but friendly guards, or +officers of Union proclivities, would always give us timely notice, +enabling us to secrete our money. One (nominally) Rebel lieutenant, +after we were drawn up in line and the searching had begun, would +sometimes receive bank-notes from us, and hand them back when we were +returned to our own quarters. + +Once, as we were being examined, I had forty dollars, in United States +currency, concealed in my hat. That was an article of dress which +had never been examined. But now, looking down the line, I saw the +guard suddenly commence taking off the prisoners' hats, carefully +scrutinizing them. Removing the money from mine, I handed it to +Lieutenant Holman, of Vermont; but, turning around, I observed that +two Rebel officers immediately behind us had witnessed the movement. +Holman promptly passed the notes to "Junius," who stood near, reading +a ponderous volume, and who placed them between the leaves of his +book. Holman was at once taken from the line and searched rigorously +from head to foot, but the Rebels were unable to find the coveted +"greenbacks." + +The prison officers, under rigid orders from the Richmond authorities, +would sometimes retain money received by mail. Two hundred dollars in +Confederate notes were thus withheld from me for more than a year. +Determined that the Rebel officials should not enjoy much peace of +mind, I addressed them letter after letter, reciting their various +subterfuges. At last, upon my demanding that they should either give me +the money, or refuse positively over their own signatures, the amount +was forthcoming. Thousands of dollars belonging to prisoners were +confiscated upon frivolous pretexts, or no pretext whatever. + +[Sidenote: ATTEMPTS TO ESCAPE FRUSTRATED.] + +Persistent ill-fortune still followed all our attempts to escape. +Once we perfected an arrangement with a friendly guard, by which, at +midnight, he was to pass us over the fence upon his beat. Before our +quarters were locked for the night, "Junius" and myself hid under +the hospital, where, through the faithful sentinel, escape would be +certain. But just then, we chanced to be nearly without money, and +Davis waited for a Union _attaché_ of the prison to bring him four +hundred dollars from a friend outside. The messenger, for the first +and last time in eleven months, becoming intoxicated that afternoon, +arrived with the money five minutes too late. Davis was unable to join +us; we determined not to leave him, expecting to repeat the attempt on +the following night; but the next day the guard was conscribed and sent +to Lee's army. + +These constant failures subjected us to many jests from our +fellow-prisoners. Once, in a dog-day freak, "Junius" had every hair +shaved from his head, leaving his pallid face diversified only by a +great German mustache. He replied to all _badinage_ that he was not the +correspondent for whom his interlocutors mistook him, but the venerable +and famous Chinaman "No-Go." + +[Sidenote: YANKEE DESERTERS WHIPPED AND HANGED.] + +The Yankee deserters, having no friends to protect them, were treated +with great harshness. During a single day six were tied up to a post +and received, in the aggregate, one hundred and twenty-seven lashes +with the cat-o'nine-tails upon their bare backs, as punishment for +digging a tunnel. Many of them were "bounty-jumpers" and desperadoes. +They robbed each newly-arriving deserter of all his money, beating him +unmercifully if he resisted. After being thus whipped, at their own +request their _status_ was changed, and they were sent as prisoners of +war to Andersonville, Georgia. There the Union prisoners, detecting +them in several robberies and murders, organized a court-martial, tried +them, and hung six of them upon trees within the garrison, with ropes +furnished by the Rebel commandant. + +For seven months no letters, even from our own families, were +permitted to reach us. This added much to our weariness. I never knew +the pathos of Sterne's simple story until I heard "Junius" read it one +sad Summer night in our prison quarters. For weeks afterward rung in my +ears the cry of the poor starling: "I can't get out! I can't get out!" + + + + +CHAPTER XXXVII. + + ----- Not a soul But felt a fever of the mad, and played Some + tricks of desperation.--TEMPEST. + + All trouble, torment, wonder, and amazement Inhabit + here.--IBID. + +[Sidenote: GREAT INFLUX OF PRISONERS.] + + +Early in October, the condition of the Salisbury garrison suddenly +changed. Nearly ten thousand prisoners of war, half naked and without +shelter, were crowded into its narrow limits, which could not +reasonably accommodate more than six hundred. It was converted into a +scene of suffering and death which no pen can adequately describe. For +every hour, day and night, we were surrounded by horrors which burned +into our memories like a hot iron. + +We had never before been in a prison containing our private soldiers. +In spite of many assurances to the contrary, we had been skeptical as +to the barbarities which they were said to suffer at Belle Isle and +Andersonville. We could not believe that men bearing the American name +would be guilty of such atrocities. Now, looking calmly upon our last +two months in Salisbury, it seems hardly possible to exaggerate the +incredible cruelty of the Rebel authorities. + +When captured, the prisoners were robbed of the greater part of their +clothing. When they reached Salisbury, all were thinly clad, thousands +were barefooted, not one in twenty had an overcoat or blanket, and many +hundreds were without coats or blouses. + +[Sidenote: STARVING IN THE MIDST OF FOOD.] + +For several weeks, they were furnished with no shelter whatever. +Afterward, one Sibley tent and one A tent was issued to each hundred +men. With the closest crowding, these contained about one-half of them. +The rest burrowed in the earth, crept under buildings, or dragged out +the nights in the open air upon the muddy, snowy, or frozen ground. +In October, November, and December, snow fell several times. It was +piteous beyond description to see the poor fellows, coatless, hatless, +and shoeless, shivering about the yard. + +They were organized into divisions of one thousand each, and subdivided +into squads of one hundred. Almost daily one or more divisions was +without food for twenty-four hours. Several times some of them received +no rations for forty-eight hours. The few who had money, paid from +five to twenty dollars, in Rebel currency, for a little loaf of bread. +Some sold the coats from their backs and the shoes from their feet to +purchase food. + +When a subordinate asked the post-Commandant, Major John H. Gee, "Shall +I give the prisoners full rations?" he replied: "No, G-d d--n them, +give them quarter-rations!" + +Yet, at this very time, one of our Salisbury friends, a trustworthy and +Christian gentleman, assured us, in a stolen interview: + +"It is within my personal knowledge that the great commissary +warehouse, in this town, is filled to the roof with corn and pork. I +know that the prison commissary finds it difficult to obtain storage +for his supplies." + +After our escape, we learned from personal observation that the region +abounded in corn and pork. Salisbury was a general dépôt for army +supplies. + +[Sidenote: FREEZING IN THE MIDST OF FUEL.] + +That section of country is densely wooded. The cars brought fuel +to the door of our prison. If the Rebels were short of tents, they +might easily have paroled two or three hundred prisoners, to go out +and cut logs, with which, in a single week, barracks could have been +constructed for every captive; but the Commandant would not consent. He +did not even furnish half the needed fuel. + +Cold and hunger began to tell fearfully upon the robust young men, +fresh from the field, who crowded the prison. Sickness was very +prevalent and very fatal. It invariably appeared in the form of +pneumonia, catarrh, diarrh[oe]a, or dysentery; but was directly +traceable to freezing and starvation. Therefore the medicines were of +little avail. The weakened men were powerless to resist disease, and +they were carried to the dead-house in appalling numbers. + +By appointment of the prison authorities, my two comrades and myself +were placed in charge of all the hospitals, nine in number, inside the +garrison. The scenes which constantly surrounded us were enough to +shake the firmest nerves; but there was work to be done for the relief +of our suffering companions. We could accomplish very little--hardly +more than to give a cup of cold water, and see that the patients were +treated with sympathy and kindness. + +Mr. Davis was general superintendent, and brought to his arduous duties +good judgment, untiring industry, and uniform kindness. + +"Junius" was charged with supplying medicines to the "out-door +patients." The hospitals, when crowded, would hold about six hundred; +but there were always many more invalids unable to obtain admission. +These wretched men waited wearily for death in their tents, in +subterranean holes, under hospitals, or in the open air. My comrade's +tender sympathy softened the last hours of many a poor fellow who had +long been a stranger to + + "The falling music of a gracious word, + Or the stray sunshine of a smile." + +[Sidenote: REBEL SURGEONS GENERALLY HUMANE.] + +I was appointed to supervise all the hospital books, keeping a record +of each patient's name, disease, admission, and discharge or death. +At my own solicitation, the Rebel surgeon-in-chief also authorized me +to receive the clothing left by the dead, and re-issue it among the +living. I endeavored to do this systematically, keeping lists of the +needy, who indeed were nine-tenths of all the prisoners. The deaths +ranged from twenty to forty-eight daily, leaving many garments to be +distributed. Day after day, in bitterly cold weather, pale, fragile +boys, who should have been at home with their mothers and sisters, +came to me with no clothing whatever, except a pair of worn cotton +pantaloons and a thin cotton shirt. + +Dr. Richard O. Currey, a refugee from Knoxville, was the surgeon in +charge. Though a genuine Rebel, he was just and kind-hearted, doing his +utmost to change the horrible condition of affairs. Again and again he +sent written protests to Richmond, which brought several successive +inspectors to examine the prison and hospitals, but no change of +treatment. + +We were reluctantly driven to the belief that the Richmond authorities +deliberately adopted this plan to reduce the strength of our armies. +The Medusa head of Slavery had turned their hearts to stone. At this +time, they held nearly forty thousand prisoners. In our garrison the +inmates were dying at the rate of thirteen per cent. a month upon the +aggregate. About as many more were enlisting in the Rebel army. Thus +our soldiers were destroyed at the rate of more than twenty-five per +cent. a month, with no corresponding loss to the enemy. + +[Sidenote: TERRIBLE SCENES IN THE HOSPITALS.] + +Frequently, for two or three days, Dr. Currey would refrain from +entering the garrison, reluctant to look upon the revolting scenes from +which _we_ could find no escape. I am glad to be able to throw one ray +of light into so dark a picture. Nearly all the surgeons evinced that +humanity which ought to characterize their profession. They were much +the best class of Rebels we encountered. They denounced unsparingly +the manner in which prisoners were treated, and endeavored to mitigate +their sufferings. + +To call the foul pens, where the patients were confined, "hospitals," +was a perversion of the English tongue. We could not obtain brooms to +keep them clean; we could not get cold water to wash the hands and +faces of those sick and dying men. In that region, where every farmer's +barn-yard contained grain-stacks, we could not procure clean straw +enough to place under them. More than half the time they were compelled +to lie huddled upon the cold, naked, filthy floors, without even that +degree of warmth and cleanliness usually afforded to brutes. The wasted +forms and sad, pleading eyes of those sufferers, waiting wearily for +the tide of life to ebb away--without the commonest comforts, without +one word of sympathy, or one tear of affection--will never cease to +haunt me. + +At all hours of the day and night, on every side, we heard the terrible +hack! hack! hack! in whose pneumonic tones every prisoner seemed to be +coughing his life away. It was the most fearful sound in that fearful +place. + +[Sidenote: THE RATTLING DEAD-CART.] + +The last scene of all was the dead-cart, with its rigid forms piled +upon each other like logs--the arms swaying, the white ghastly faces +staring, with dropped jaws and stony eyes--while it rattled along, +bearing its precious freight just outside the walls, to be thrown in a +mass into trenches and covered with a little earth. + +When received, there were no sick or wounded men among the prisoners. +But before they had been in Salisbury six weeks, "Junius," with better +facilities for knowing than any one else, insisted that among eight +thousand there were not five hundred well men. The Rebel surgeons +coincided in this belief. + +The rations, issued very irregularly, were insufficient to support +life. Men grew feeble before living upon them a single week; but +could not buy food from the town; and were not permitted to receive +even a meal sent by friends from the outside. Our positions in the +hospitals enabled us to purchase supplies and fare better. Prisoners +eagerly devoured the potato-skins from our table. They ate rats, dogs, +and cats. Many searched the yard for bones and scraps among the most +revolting substances. + +They constantly besieged us for admission to the hospitals, or for +shelter and food, which we were unable to give. It seemed almost sinful +for us to enjoy protection from the weather and food enough to support +life in the midst of all this distress. + +On wet days the mud was very deep, and the shoeless wretches wallowed +pitifully through it, seeking vainly for cover and warmth. Two hundred +negro prisoners were almost naked, and could find no shelter whatever +except by burrowing in the earth. The authorities treated them with +unusual rigor, and guards murdered them with impunity. + +No song, no athletic game, few sounds of laughter broke the silence of +the garrison. It was a Hall of Eblis--devoid of its gold-besprinkled +pavements, crystal vases, and dazzling saloons; but with all its +oppressive silence, livid lips, sunken eyes, and ghastly figures, at +whose hearts the consuming fire was never quenched. + +[Illustration: INTERIOR VIEW OF A HOSPITAL IN THE SALISBURY PRISON.] + +Constant association with suffering deadened our sensibilities. We were +soon able to pass through the hospitals little moved by their terrible +spectacles, except when patients addressed us, exciting a personal +interest. + +[Sidenote: CREDULITY OF OUR GOVERNMENT.] + +The credulity and trustfulness of our Government toward the enemy +passed belief. Month after month it sent by the truce-boats many tons +of private boxes for Union prisoners, while the Rebels, not satisfied +with their usual practice of stealing a portion under the rose, upon +one trivial pretext or other, openly confiscated every pound of them. +At the same time, returning truce-boats were loaded with boxes sent +to Rebel prisoners from their friends in the South, and express-lines +crowded with supplies from their sympathizers in the North. + +The Government held a large excess of prisoners, and the Rebels were +anxious to exchange man for man; but our authorities acted upon the +cold-blooded theory of Edwin M. Stanton, Secretary of War, that we +could not afford to give well-fed, rugged men, for invalids and +skeletons--that returned prisoners were infinitely more valuable to the +Rebels than to us, because their soldiers were inexorably kept in the +army, while many of ours, whose terms of service had expired, would not +re-enlist. + +The private soldier who neglects his duty is taken out and shot. +Officials seemed to forget that the soldier's obligation of obedience +devolves upon the Government the obligation of protection. It was +clearly the duty of our authorities either to exchange our own +soldiers, or to protect them--not by indiscriminate cruelty, but by +well-considered, systematic retaliation in kind, until the Richmond +authorities should treat prisoners with ordinary humanity. It was very +easy to select a number of Rebel officers, corresponding to the Union +prisoners in the Salisbury garrison, and give them precisely the same +kind and amount of food, clothing, and shelter. + +[Sidenote: GENERAL BUTLER'S EXAMPLE OF RETALIATION.] + +When the Confederate Government placed certain of our negro prisoners +under fire, at work upon the fortifications of Richmond, General +Butler, in a brief letter, informed them that he had stationed an equal +number of Rebel officers, equally exposed and spade in hand, upon _his_ +fortifications. When his letter reached Richmond, before that day's sun +went down, the negroes were returned to Libby Prison and ever afterward +treated as prisoners of war. But, by the mawkish sensibilities of a +few northern statesmen and editors, our Government was encouraged to +neglect the matter, and thus permitted the needless murder of its own +soldiers--a stain upon the nation's honor, and an inexcusable cruelty +to thousands of aching hearts. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXVIII. + + I have supped full with horrors.--MACBETH. + + The weariest and most loathed worldly life That ache, age, + penury and imprisonment Can lay on nature.--MEASURE FOR + MEASURE. + +[Sidenote: ATTEMPTED OUTBREAK AND MASSACRE.] + + +On the 26th of November, while we were sitting at dinner, John Lovell +came up from the yard and whispered me: + +"There is to be an insurrection. The prisoners are preparing to break +out." + +We had heard similar reports so frequently as to lose all faith in +them; but this was true. Without deliberation or concert of action, +upon the impulse of the moment, a portion of the prisoners acted. +Suffering greatly from hunger, many having received no food for +forty-eight hours, they said: + +"Let us break out of this horrible place. We may just as well die upon +the guns of the guards as by slow starvation." + +A number, armed with clubs, sprang upon a Rebel relief of sixteen men, +just entering the yard. Though weak and emaciated, these prisoners +performed their part promptly and gallantly. Man for man, they wrenched +the guns from the soldiers. One Rebel resisted and was bayoneted where +he stood. Instantly, the building against which he leaned was reddened +by a great stain of blood. Another raised his musket, but, before he +could fire, fell to the ground, shot through the head. Every gun was +taken from the terrified relief, who immediately ran back to their +camp, outside. + +Had parties of four or five hundred then rushed at the fence in half +a dozen different places, they might have confused the guards, and +somewhere made an opening. But some thousands ran to it at one point +only. Having neither crow-bars nor axes they could not readily effect a +breach. At once every musket in the garrison was turned upon them. Two +field-pieces opened with grape and canister. The insurrection--which +had not occupied more than three minutes--was a failure, and the +uninjured at once returned to their quarters. + +The yard was now perfectly quiet. The portion of it which we occupied +was several hundred yards from the scene of the _mêlée_. In our +vicinity there had been no disturbance whatever; yet the guards stood +upon the fence for twenty minutes, with deliberate aim firing into the +tents, upon helpless and innocent men. Several prisoners were killed +within a dozen yards of our building. One was wounded while leaning +against it. The bullets rattled against the logs, but none chanced to +pass through the wide apertures between them, and enter our apartment. +Sixteen prisoners were killed and sixty wounded, of whom not one in ten +had participated in the outbreak; while most were ignorant of it until +they heard the guns. + +[Sidenote: COLD-BLOODED MURDERS FREQUENT.] + +After this massacre, cold-blooded murders were very frequent. Any +guard, standing upon the fence, at any hour of the day or night, could +deliberately raise his musket and shoot into any group of prisoners, +black or white, without the slightest rebuke from the authorities. He +would not even be taken off his post for it. + +One Union officer was thus killed when there could be no pretext that +he was violating any prison rule. + +[Illustration: MASSACRE OF UNION PRISONERS ATTEMPTING TO ESCAPE FROM +SALISBURY, NORTH CAROLINA.] + +Moses Smith, a negro soldier of the Seventh Maryland Infantry, was shot +through the head while standing inoffensively beside my own quarters, +conversing with John Lovell. One of many instances was that of two +white Connecticut soldiers who were shot within their tents. We induced +one of the surgeons to inquire at head-quarters the cause of the +homicide. The answer received was, that the guard saw three negroes in +range, and, knowing he would never have so good an opportunity again, +fired at them, but missed aim and killed the wrong men! It seemed to be +regarded as a harmless jest. + +[Sidenote: HOSTILITY TO "TRIBUNE" CORRESPONDENTS.] + +Though my comrades and myself, either by _finesse_ or bribery, often +succeeded in obtaining special privileges from the prison officers, the +hostility of the Confederate authorities was unrelenting. Our attorney, +Mr. Blackmer, after visiting Richmond on our behalf, returned and +assured us that he saw no hope of our release before the end of the +war, unless we could effect our escape. Robert Ould, who usually denied +that he regarded us with special hostility, on one occasion, in his +cups, remarked to the United States Commissioner: + +"_The Tribune_ did more than any other agency to bring on the war. It +is useless for you to ask the exchange of its correspondents. They are +just the men we want, and just the men we are going to hold." + +Our Government, through blundering rather than design, released a +large number of Rebel journalists without requiring our exchange. +Finally, while among the horrors of Salisbury, we learned that +Edward A. Pollard, a malignant Rebel, and an editor of _The Richmond +Examiner_, most virulent of all the southern papers, was paroled to the +city of Brooklyn, after confinement for a few weeks in the North. This +news cut us like a knife. We, after nearly two years of captivity, in +that foul, vermin-infested prison, among all its atrocities--he, at +large, among the comforts and luxuries of one of the pleasantest cities +in the world! The thought was so bitter, that, for weeks after hearing +the intelligence, we did not speak of it to each other. Mr. Welles, +Secretary of the Navy, was the person who set Pollard at liberty. +I record the fact, not that any special importance attaches to our +individual experience, but because hundreds of Union prisoners were +subjected to kindred injustice. + +[Sidenote: A CRUEL INJUSTICE.] + +At the Salisbury penitentiary was a respectable woman from North +Carolina, who was confined for two months, in the same quarters with +the male inmates. Her crime was, giving a meal to a Rebel deserter! In +Richmond, a Virginian of seventy was shut up with us for a long time, +on the charge of feeding his own son, who had deserted from the army! + +In September, a number of Rebel convicts, armed with clubs and knives, +forcibly took from John Lovell a Union flag, which he had thus far +concealed. After the prisoners of war arrived they vented their +indignation upon the convicts, wherever they could catch them. For +several days, Rebels venturing into the yard were certain to return to +their quarters with bruised faces and blackened eyes. + +[Sidenote: REBEL EXPECTATIONS OF PEACE.] + +During the peace mania, which seemed to possess the North, at the time +of McClellan's nomination, the Rebels were very hopeful. Lieutenant +Stockton, the post-Adjutant, one day observed: + +"You will go home very soon; we shall have peace within a month." + +"On what do you base your opinion?" I asked. + +"The tone of your newspapers and politicians. McClellan is certain to +be elected President, and peace will immediately follow." + +"You southerners are the most credulous people in the whole world. You +have been so long strangers to freedom of speech and the press, that +you cannot comprehend it at all. There are half a dozen public men and +as many newspapers in the North, who really belong to your side, and +express their Rebel sympathies with little or no disguise. Can you +not see that they never receive any accessions? Point out a single +important convert made by them since the beginning of the war. Before +Sumter, these same men told you that, if we attempted coërcion, it +would produce war in the North; and you believed them. Again and again +they have told you, as now, that the loyal States would soon give up +the conflict, and you still believe them. Wait until the people vote, +in November, and then tell me what you think." + +In due time came news of Mr. Lincoln's re-election. The prisoners +received it with intense satisfaction. I conveyed it to the Union +officers, from whom we were separated by bayonets--tossing to them +a biscuit containing a concealed note. A few minutes after, their +cheering and shouting excited the surprise and indignation of the +prison authorities. The next morning I asked Stockton how he now +regarded the peace prospect. Shaking his head, he sadly replied: + +"It is too deep for me; I cannot see the end." + +A private belonging to the Fifty-ninth Massachusetts Infantry, had +left Boston, a new recruit, just six weeks before we met him. In the +interval he participated in two great battles and five skirmishes, was +wounded in the leg, captured, escaped from his guards, while _en route_ +for Georgia, traveled three days on foot, was then re-captured and +brought to Salisbury. His six weeks' experience had been fruitful and +varied. + +That hope deferred which maketh the heart sick, began to tell seriously +upon our mental health. We grew morbid and bitter, and were often upon +the verge of quarreling among ourselves. I remember even feeling a +pang of jealousy and indignation at an account of some enjoyment and +hilarity among my friends at home. + +[Sidenote: THE PRISON LIKE THE TOMB.] + +Our prison was like the tomb. No voice from the North entered its +gloomy portal. Knowing that we had been unjustly neglected by our own +Government, wondering if we were indeed forsaken by God and man, we +seemed to lose all human interest, and to care little whether we lived +or died. But I suppose lurking, unconscious hope, still buoyed us up. +Could we have known positively that we must endure eight months more +of that imprisonment, I think we should have received with joy and +gratitude our sentence to be taken out and shot. + +Frequently prisoners asked us, sometimes with tears in their eyes: + +"What shall we do? We grow weaker day by day. Staying here we shall be +certain to follow our comrades to the hospital and the dead-house. The +Rebels assure us that if we will enlist, we shall have abundant food +and clothing; and we may find a chance of escaping to our own lines." + +I always answered that they owed no obligation to God or man to remain +and starve to death. Of the two thousand who did enlist, nearly all +designed to desert at the first opportunity. Their remaining comrades +had no toleration for them. If one who had joined the Rebels came +back into the yard for a moment, his life was in imminent peril. Two +or three times such persons were shockingly beaten, and only saved +from death by the interference of the Rebel guards. This ferocity was +but the expression of the deep, unselfish patriotism of our private +soldiers. These men, who carried muskets and received but a mere +pittance, were so earnest that they were almost ready to kill their +comrades for joining the enemy even to escape a slow, torturing death. + +[Sidenote: SOMETHING ABOUT TUNNELING.] + +We grew very familiar with the occult science of tunneling. Its _modus +operandi_ is this: the workman, having sunk a hole in the ground +three, six, or eight feet, as the case may require, strikes off +horizontally, lying flat on his face, and digging with whatever tool +he can find--usually a case-knife. The excavation is made just large +enough for one man to creep through it. The great difficulty is, to +conceal the dirt. In Salisbury, however, this obstacle did not exist, +for many of the prisoners lived in holes in the ground, which they were +constantly changing or enlarging. Hence the yard abounded in hillocks +of fresh earth, upon which that taken from the tunnels could be spread +nightly without exciting notice. + +After the great influx of prisoners of war in October, a large +tunneling business was done. I knew of fifteen in course of +construction at one time, and doubtless there were many more. The +Commandant adopted an ingenious and effectual method of rendering them +abortive. + +In digging laterally in the ground, at the distance of thirty or +forty feet the air becomes so foul that lights will not burn, and men +breathe with difficulty. In the great tunnel sixty-five feet long, +by which Colonel Streight and many other officers escaped from Libby +prison, this embarrassment was obviated by a bit of Yankee ingenuity. +The officers, with tacks, blankets, and boards, constructed a pair of +huge bellows, like those used by blacksmiths. Then, while one of them +worked with his case-knife, progressing four or five feet in twelve +hours, and a second filled his haversack with dirt and removed it (of +course backing out, and crawling in on his return, as the tunnel was a +single track, and had no turn-table), a third sat at the mouth pumping +vigorously, and thus supplied the workers with fresh air. + +[Sidenote: THE TUNNELERS INGENIOUSLY BAFFLED.] + +At Salisbury this was impracticable. I suppose a paper of tacks could +not have been purchased there for a thousand dollars. There were none +to be had. Of course we could not pierce holes up to the surface of the +ground for ventilation, as that would expose every thing. + +Originally there was but one line of guards--posted some twenty-five +feet apart, upon the fence which surrounded the garrison, and +constantly walking to and fro, meeting each other and turning back at +the limits of each post. Under this arrangement it was necessary to +tunnel about forty feet to go under the fence, and come up far enough +beyond it to emerge from the earth on a dark night without being seen +or heard by the sentinels. + +When the Commandant learned (through prisoners actually suffering for +food, and ready to do almost any thing for bread) that tunneling was +going on, he tried to ascertain where the excavations were located; +but in vain, because none of the shaky Unionists had been informed. +Therefore he established a second line of guards, one hundred feet +outside of those on the fence, who also paced back and forth in the +same manner until they met, forming a second line impervious to +Yankees. This necessitated tunneling at least one hundred and forty +feet, which, without ventilation, was just as much out of the question +as to tunnel a hundred and forty miles. + + + + +IV. + +THE ESCAPE. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXIX. + + "A good wit will make use of any thing: I will turn diseases + to commodity."--KING HENRY IV. + +[Sidenote: FIFTEEN MONTHS OF FRUITLESS ENDEAVOR.] + + +We were constantly trying to escape. During the last fifteen months of +our imprisonment, I think there was no day when we had not some plan +which we hoped soon to put in execution. We were always talking and +theorizing about the subject. + +Indeed, we theorized too much. We magnified obstacles. We gave our +keepers credit for greater shrewdness and closer observation than +they were capable of. We would not start until all things combined to +promise success. Therefore, as the slow months wore away, again and +again we saw men of less capacity, but greater daring, escape by modes +which had appeared to us utterly chimerical and impracticable. + +Fortune, too, persistently baffled us. At the vital moment when +freedom seemed just within our grasp, some unforeseen obstacle always +intervened to foil our plans. Still, assuming a confidence we did not +feel, we daily promised each other to persist until we gained our +liberty or lost our lives. After the malignity which the Richmond +authorities had manifested toward us, escape seemed a thousand-fold +preferable to release by exchange. + +I should hardly dare to estimate the combined length of tunnels in +which we were concerned; they were always discovered, usually on the +eve of completion. My associate was wont to declare that we should +never escape in that way, unless we constructed an underground road to +Knoxville--two hundred miles as the bird flies! + +Even if we passed the prison walls, the chance of reaching our lines +seemed almost hopeless. We were in the heart of the Confederacy. +During the ten months we spent in Salisbury, at least seventy persons +escaped; but nearly all were brought back, though a few were shot in +the mountains. We knew of only five who had reached the North. + +[Sidenote: A FEARFUL JOURNEY IN PROSPECT.] + +"Junius," certain to see the gloomy side of every picture, frequently +said: "To walk the same distance in Ohio or Massachusetts, where we +could travel by daylight upon public thoroughfares, stop at each +village for rest and refreshments, and sleep in warm beds every night, +we should consider a severe hardship. Think of this terrible tramp +of two hundred miles, by night, in mid-winter, over two ranges of +mountains, creeping stealthily through the enemy's country, weak, +hungry, shelterless! Can any of us live to accomplish it?" + +When at last we did essay it, the journey proved nearly twice as long +and infinitely severer than even he had conceived. + +Among the officers of the prison, were three stanch Union men--a +lieutenant, a surgeon, and Lieutenant John R. Welborn. They were our +devoted friends. Their homes, families, and interests, were in the +South. Attempting to escape, they were likely to be captured and +imprisoned. Remaining, they must enter the army in some capacity, +and they preferred wearing swords to carrying muskets. Hundreds of +Loyalists were in the same predicament, and adopted the same course. + +[Sidenote: A FRIENDLY CONFEDERATE OFFICER.] + +These gentlemen were of service to us in a thousand ways. They supplied +us with money, books, and provisions; bore messages between us and +other friends in the village; and kept us constantly advised of +military and political events known to the officials, but concealed +from the public. + +Lieutenant Welborn came to the garrison only about a month before our +departure. He belonged to a secret organization known as the Sons of +America, instituted expressly to assist Union men, whether prisoners or +refugees, in escaping to the North. Its members were bound, by solemn +oath, to aid brothers in distress. They recognized each other by the +signs, grips, and passwords, common to all secret societies. + +We soon discovered that Welborn was not only of the Order, but a very +earnest and self-sacrificing member. He was singularly daring. At our +first stolen interview he said: "You shall be out very soon, at all +hazards." Had he been detected in aiding us, it would have cost him his +life; but he was quite ready to peril it. + +Beyond the inner line of sentinels, which was much the more difficult +one to pass, stood a Rebel hospital, where all medicines for the +garrison were stored. When we were placed in charge of the Union +hospitals, Mr. Davis was furnished with a pass to go out for medical +supplies. It was the inflexible rule of the prison that all persons +having such passes should give paroles not to escape. Davis would +have assumed no such obligation. But in the confusion incident to the +great influx of prisoners of war, and because it was the business of +several Rebel officers--the Commandant, the Medical Director, and the +Post-Adjutant--instead of the duty of one man to see it done, he was +never asked for the parole. + +A few days later, the prison authorities gave similar passes to +"Junius" and to Captain Thomas E. Wolfe, of Connecticut, master of +a merchant-vessel, who had been a prisoner nearly as long as we. We +attempted to convince them, through several deluded Rebel _attachés_, +that it was essential to the proper conduct of the medical department +that I too should be supplied with a pass. Doubtless we should have +succeeded in time, had not an incident occurred to hasten our movements. + +On Sunday, December 18th, we learned that General Bradley T. Johnson, +of Maryland, had arrived, and on the following day would supersede +Major Gee as Commandant of the prison. Johnson was a soldier who knew +how business should be done, and would doubtless put a stop to this +loose arrangement about passes. Not a moment was to be lost, and we +determined to escape that very night. + +I engaged several prisoners, without informing them for what purpose, +in copying from my hospital books the names of the dead. I felt that, +to relieve friends at home, we ought to make an effort to carry through +this information, as long as there was the slightest possibility of +success. + +[Sidenote: EFFECTS OF HUNGER AND COLD.] + +My own books only contained the names of prisoners who died in the +hospitals. "Out-door patients"--those deceased in their own quarters, +or in no quarters whatever, were recorded in a separate book, by the +Rebel clerk in the outside hospital. I dared not send to him for their +names on Sunday, lest it should excite his suspicion. But the list +from my own records was appalling. It comprised over fourteen hundred +prisoners deceased within sixty days, and showed that they were now +dying at the rate of thirteen per cent. a month on the entire number--a +rate of mortality which would depopulate any city in the world in +forty-eight hours, and send the people flying in all directions, as +from a pestilence! Yet when those prisoners came there, they were young +and vigorous, like our soldiers generally in the field. There was not a +sick or wounded man among them. It was a fearful revelation of the work +which cold and starvation had done. + +When I put on extra under-clothing for the possible journey, it was +without conscious expectation--almost without any hope whatever--of +success. I had assumed the same garments for the same purpose, at +the very least, thirty times before, within fifteen months, only to +be disappointed; and that was enough to dampen the most sanguine +temperament. + +We believed that our attempt, if detected, would be made the excuse for +treating us with peculiar rigor. But, in the event of discovery, we +were likely to be sent back to our own quarters for the night, and not +ironed or confined in a cell until the next morning. + +[Sidenote: ANOTHER PLAN IN RESERVE.] + +Lieutenant Welborn was on duty that day. We made him privy to our plan. +He agreed, if it proved unsuccessful, to smuggle in muskets for us; and +we proposed to wrap ourselves in gray blankets, slouch our hats down +over our eyes, and pass out at midnight, as Rebel soldiers, when he +relieved the guard. Once in the camp, he could conduct us outside. + +On that Sunday evening, half an hour before dark (the latest moment at +which the guards could be passed, even by authorized persons, without +the countersign), Messrs. Browne, Wolfe, and Davis, went outside, as if +to order their medical supplies for the sick prisoners. As they passed +in and out a dozen times a day, and their faces were quite familiar +to the sentinels, they were not compelled to show their passes, and +"Junius" left his behind with me. + +[Sidenote: STOPPED BY THE SENTINEL.] + +A few minutes later, taking a long box filled with bottles in which +the medicines were usually brought, and giving it to a little lad who +assisted me in my hospital duties, I started to follow them. + +As if in great haste, we walked rapidly toward the fence, while, +leaning against trees or standing in the hospital doors, half a dozen +friends looked on to see how the plan worked. When we reached the gate, +I took the box from the boy, and said to him, of course for the benefit +of the sentinel: + +"I am going outside to get these bottles filled. I shall be back in +about fifteen minutes, and want you to remain right here, to take them +and distribute them among the hospitals. Do not go away, now." + +The lad, understanding the matter perfectly, replied, "Yes, sir;" and I +attempted to pass the sentinel by mere assurance. + +I had learned long before how far a man may go, even in captivity, by +sheer, native impudence--by moving straight on, without hesitation, +with a confident look, just as if he had a right to go, and no one had +any right to question him. Several times, as already related, I saw +captives, who had procured citizens' clothes, thus walk past the guards +in broad daylight, out of Rebel prisons. + +I think I could have done it on this occasion, but for the fact that it +had been tried successfully twice or thrice, and the guards severely +punished. The sentinel stopped me with his musket, demanding: + +"Have you a pass, sir?" + +"Certainly, I have a pass," I replied, with all the indignation I could +assume. "Have you not seen it often enough to know by this time?" + +Apparently a little confounded, he replied, modestly: + +[Sidenote: "EXCUSE ME FOR DETAINING YOU."] + +"Probably I have; but they are very strict with us, and I was not quite +sure." + +I gave to him this genuine pass belonging to my associate: + + HEAD-QUARTERS CONFEDERATE STATES MILITARY PRISON, } + SALISBURY, N. C., _December 5, 1864_. } + + Junius H. Browne, Citizen, has permission to pass the inner + gate of the Prison, to assist in carrying medicines to the + Military Prison Hospitals, until further orders. + + J. A. FUQUA, + Captain and Assistant-Commandant of Post. + +We had speculated for a long time about my using a spurious pass, and +my two comrades prepared several with a skill and exactness which +proved that, if their talents had been turned in that direction, they +might have made first-class forgers. But we finally decided that the +veritable pass was better, because, if the guard had any doubt about +it, I could tell him to send it into head-quarters for examination. The +answer returned would of course be that it was genuine. + +But it was not submitted to any such inspection. The sentinel spelled +it out slowly, then folded and returned it to me, saying: + + "That pass is all right. I know Captain Fuqua's handwriting. + Go on, sir; excuse me for detaining you." + +I thought him excusable under the circumstances, and walked out. My +great fear was that, during the half hour which must elapse before I +could go outside the garrison, I might encounter some Rebel officer or +_attaché_ who knew me. + +[Sidenote: ENCOUNTERING REBEL ACQUAINTANCES.] + +Before I had taken ten steps, I saw, sauntering to and fro on the +piazza of the head-quarters building, a deserter from our service, +named Davidson, who recognized and bowed to me. I thought he would +not betray me, but was still fearful of it. I went on, and a few +yards farther, coming toward me in that narrow lane, where it was +impossible to avoid him, I saw the one Rebel officer who knew me better +than any other, and who frequently came into my quarters--Lieutenant +Stockton, the Post-Adjutant. Observing him in the distance, I thought +I recognized in him that old ill-fortune which had so long and +steadfastly baffled us. But I had the satisfaction of knowing that +my associates were on the look-out from a window and, if they saw +me involved in any trouble, would at once pass the outer gate, if +possible, and make good their own escape. + +When we met, I bade Stockton good-evening, and talked for a few minutes +upon the weather, or some other subject in which I did not feel any +very profound interest. Then he passed into head-quarters, and I went +on. Yet a few yards farther, I encountered a third Rebel, named Smith, +who knew me well, and whose quarters, inside the garrison, were within +fifty feet of my own. There were not half a dozen Confederates about +the prison who were familiar with me; but it seemed as if at this +moment they were coming together in a grand convention. + +Not daring to enter the Rebel hospital, where I was certain to be +recognized, I laid down my box of medicines behind a door, and sought +shelter in a little outbuilding. While I remained there, waiting for +the blessed darkness, I constantly expected to see a sergeant, with a +file of soldiers, come to take me back into the yard; but none came. It +was rare good fortune. Stockton, Smith, and Davidson, all knew, if they +had their wits about them, that I had no more right there than in the +village itself. I suppose their thoughtlessness must have been caused +by the peculiarly honest and business-like look of that medicine-box! + + + + +CHAPTER XL. + + ----Wheresoe'er you are That bide the pelting of this + pitiless storm, How shall your houseless heads and unfed + sides, Your looped and windowed raggedness, defend you?--KING + LEAR. + +[Sidenote: "OUT OF THE JAWS OF DEATH."] + + +At dark, my three friends joined me. We went through the outer gate, in +full view of a sentinel, who supposed we were Rebel surgeons or nurses. +And then, on that rainy Sunday night, for the first time in twenty +months, we found ourselves walking freely in a public street, without a +Rebel bayonet before or behind us! + +Reaching an open field, a mile from the prison, we crouched down upon +the soaked ground, in a bed of reeds, while Davis went to find a friend +who had long before promised us shelter. While lying there, we heard +a man walking through the darkness directly toward us. We hugged the +earth and held our breaths, listening to the beating of our own hearts. +He passed so near, that his coat brushed my cheek. We were beside a +path which led across the field from one house to another. Davis soon +returned, and called us with a low "Hist!" We crept to the fence where +he waited. + +"It is all right," he said; "follow me." + +He led us through bushes and lanes until we found our friend, leaning +against a tree in the rain, waiting for us. + +"Thank God!" he exclaimed, "you are out at last. I wish I could extend +to you the hospitalities of my house; but it is full of visitors, and +they are all Rebels. However, I will take you to a tolerably safe +place. I have to leave town by a night train in half an hour, but I +will tell ---- where you are, and he will come and see you to-morrow." + +[Sidenote: HIDING IN SIGHT OF THE PRISON.] + +He conducted us to a barn, in full sight of the prison; directed us how +to hide, wrung our hands, bade us Godspeed, and returned to his house +and his unsuspecting guests. + +We climbed up the ladder into the hay-mow. Davis and Wolfe burrowed +down perpendicularly into the fodder, as if sinking an oil-well, until +they were covered, heads and all. "Junius" and myself, after two hours +of perspiring labor, tunneled into a safe position under the eaves, +where we lay, stretched at full length, head to head, luxuriating in +the fresh air, which came in through the cracks. + +Wonderfully pure and delicious it seemed, contrasted with the foul, +vitiated atmosphere we had just left! How sweet smelled the hay and the +husks! How infinite the "measureless content" which filled us at the +remembrance that at last we were free! Hearing the prison sentinels, +as they shouted "Ten o'--clock; a--ll's well!" we sank, like Abou Ben +Adhem, into a deep dream of peace. + +Our object in remaining here was twofold. We desired to meet Welborn, +and obtain minute directions about the route, which thus far he had +found no opportunity to give us. Besides, we anticipated a vigilant +search. The Rebel authorities were thoroughly familiar with the habits +of escaping prisoners, who invariably acted as if there were never to +be any more nights after the first, and walked as far as their strength +would permit. Thus exhausted, they were unable to resist or run, if +overtaken. + +[Sidenote: CERTAIN TO BE BROUGHT BACK.] + +The Commandant would be likely to send out and picket all the probable +routes near the points we could reach by a hard night's travel. We +thought it good policy to keep _inside_ these scouts. While they +held the advance, they would hardly obtain tidings of us. We could +learn from the negroes where they guarded the roads and fords, and +thus easily evade them. Our shelter, in full view of the garrison, +and within sound of its morning drum-beat, was the one place, of all +others, where they would never think of searching for us. + +On the second morning after our disappearance, _The Salisbury Daily +Watchman_ announced the escape, and said that it caused some chagrin, +as we were the most important prisoners in the garrison. But it added +that we were morally certain to be brought back within a week, as +scouts had been sent out in all directions, and the country thoroughly +alarmed. Some of these scouts went ninety miles from Salisbury, but +were naturally unable to learn any thing concerning us. + + + II. _Monday, December 19._ + +Remained hidden in the barn. There was a house only a few yards +away, and we could hear the conversation of the inmates whenever the +doors were open. White and negro children came up into the hay-loft, +sometimes running and jumping directly over the heads of Wolfe and +Davis. + +At dark, another friend, a commissioned officer in the Rebel army, +came out to us with a canteen of water, which, quite without food, we +had wanted sadly during the day. He was unable to bring us provisions. +His wife was a Southern lady. Reluctant to cause her anxiety for his +liberty and property, imperiled by aiding us, or from some other +reason, he did not take her into the secret. Like most frugal wives, +where young and adult negroes abound, she kept her provisions under +lock and key, and he found it impossible to procure even a loaf of +bread without her knowledge. + +With his parting benediction, we returned to the field where we had +waited the night before, and found Lieutenant Welborn, punctual to +appointment, with another escaped prisoner, Charles Thurston, of the +Sixth New Hampshire Infantry. + +Thurston had two valuable possessions--great address, and the uniform +of a Confederate private. At ten o'clock, on Sunday night, learning +of our escape, and thinking us a good party to accompany, he walked +out of the prison yard behind two Rebel detectives, the sentinel +taking him for a third officer. Slouching his hat over his face, with +matchless effrontery he sat down on a log, among the Rebel guards. In a +few minutes he caught the eye of Welborn, who soon led him by all the +sentinels, giving the countersign as he passed, until he was outside +the garrison, and then hid him in a barn, half a mile from our place +of shelter. The negroes fed him during the day; and now here he was, +jovial, sanguine, daring, ready to start for the North Pole itself. + +[Sidenote: COMMENCING THE LONG JOURNEY.] + +Welborn gave us written directions how to reach friends in a stanch +Union settlement fifty miles away. It was hard to part from the noble +fellow. At that very moment he was under arrest, and awaiting trial by +court martial, on the charge of aiding prisoners to escape. In due time +he was acquitted. Three months later he reached our lines at Knoxville, +with thirty Union prisoners, whom he had conducted from Salisbury. + +We said adieu, and went out into the starry silence. Plowing through +the mud for three miles, we struck the Western Railroad, and followed +it. Beside it were several camps with great fires blazing in front of +them. Uncertain whether they were occupied by guards or wood-choppers, +we kept on the safe side, and flanked them by wide _détours_ through +the almost impenetrable forest. + +[Sidenote: TOO WEAK FOR TRAVELING.] + +We were very weak. In the garrison we had been burying from twelve to +twenty men per day, from pneumonia. I had suffered from it for more +than a month, and my cough was peculiarly hollow and stubborn. My lungs +were still sore and sensitive, and walking greatly exhausted me. It +was difficult, even when supported by the arm of one of my friends, +to keep up with the party. At midnight I was compelled to lie, half +unconscious, upon the ground, for three-quarters of an hour, before I +could go on. + +We accomplished twelve miles during the night. At three o'clock in the +morning we went into the pine-woods, and rested upon the frozen ground. + + III. _Tuesday, December 20._ + +We supposed our hiding-place very secluded; but daylight revealed that +it was in the midst of a settlement. Barking dogs, crowing fowls, and +shouting negroes, could be heard from the farms all about us. It was +very cold, and we dared not build a fire. None of us were adequately +clothed, and "Junius" had not even an overcoat. It was impossible to +bring extra garments, which would have excited the attention of the +sentinel at the gate. + +We could sleep for a few minutes on the pine-leaves; but soon the +chilly air, penetrating every fibre, would awaken us. There was a road, +only a few yards from our pine-thicket, upon which we saw horsemen and +farmers with loads of wood, but no negroes unaccompanied by white men. + +[Sidenote: SEVERE MARCH IN THE RAIN.] + +Soon after dark it began to rain; but necessity, that inexorable +policeman, bade us move on. When we approached a large plantation, +leaving us behind, in a fence-corner, Thurston went forward to +reconnoiter. He found the negro quarters occupied by a middle-aged man +and woman. They were very busy that night, cooking for and serving the +young white people, who had a pleasure-party at the master's house, +within a stone's throw of the slave-cabin. + +But when they learned that there were hungry Yankees in the +neighborhood, they immediately prepared and brought out to us an +enormous supper of fresh pork and corn-bread. It was now nine o'clock +on Tuesday night, and we had eaten nothing since three o'clock Sunday +afternoon, save about three ounces of bread and four ounces of meat to +the man. We had that to think of which made us forget the gnawings of +hunger, though we suffered somewhat from a feeling of faintness. Now, +in the barn, with the rain pattering on the roof, we devoured supper in +an incredibly brief period, and begged the slave to go back with his +basket and bring just as much more. + +About midnight the negro found time to pilot us through the dense +darkness and pouring rain, back to the railroad, from which we had +strayed three miles. The night was bitterly cold, and in half an hour +we were as wet as if again shipwrecked in the Mississippi. + +For five weary miles we plodded on, with the stinging rain pelting +our faces. Then we stopped at a plantation, and found the negroes. +They told us it was unsafe to remain, several white men being at home, +and no good hiding-place near, but directed us to a neighbor's. There +the slaves sent us to a roadside barn, which we reached just before +daylight. + +[Illustration: ESCAPING PRISONERS FED BY NEGROES IN THEIR MASTER'S +BARN.] + + + + +CHAPTER XLI. + + I am not a Stephano, but a cramp.--TEMPEST. + + Let every man shift for all the rest, and let no man Take + care for himself; for all is but fortune.--IBID. + + +The barn contained no fodder except damp husks. Burrowing into these, +we wrapped our dripping coats about us, covered ourselves, faces and +all, and shivered through the day, so weary that we drowsed a little, +but too uncomfortable for any refreshing slumbers. + +Rising at dark, with skins irritated by atoms of husk which +had penetrated our clothing, we combed out our matted hair and +beards--a very faint essay toward making our toilets. Hats, gloves, +handkerchiefs, and haversacks, were hopelessly lost in the fodder. +Hungry, cold, rheumatic, aching at every joint, we seemed to have +exhausted our slender endurance. + +[Sidenote: A CABIN OF FRIENDLY NEGROES.] + +But a walk of ten minutes took us to a slave-cabin, where, as usual, +we found devoted friends. The old negro killed two chickens, and +then stood outside, to watch and warn us of the patrols, should he +hear the clattering hoofs of their approaching horses. His wife and +daughter cooked supper, while we stood before the blazing logs of the +wide-mouthed fireplace, to dry our steaming garments. + +It was the first dwelling I had entered for nearly twenty months. It +was rude almost to squalor; but it looked more palatial than the most +elegant and luxurious saloon. There was a soft bed, with clean, snowy +sheets. How I envied those negroes, and longed to stretch my limbs upon +it and sleep for a month! There were chairs, a table, plates, knives, +and forks--the commonest comforts of life, which, like sweet cold +water, clean clothing, and pure air, we never appreciate until once +deprived of them. + +[Sidenote: SOUTHERNERS UNACQUAINTED WITH TEA.] + +We eagerly devoured the chickens and hot corn-bread, and drank steaming +cups of green tea, which our ebony hostess, unfamiliar with the +beverage that cheers, but not inebriates, prepared under my directions. +Before starting I had taken the precaution to fill a pocket with +tea, which I had been saving more than a year for that purpose. In +commercial parlance, tea was tea in the Confederacy. The last pound we +purchased, for daily use, cost us one hundred and twenty-seven dollars +in Rebel currency, and we were compelled to send to Wilmington before +we could obtain it even at that price. + +It is an article little used by the Southerners, who are inveterate +coffee-drinkers. All along our route we found the women, white and +black, ignorant of the art of making tea without instructions. Captain +Wolfe assured us that his father once attended a log-rolling in South +Carolina, where, as a rare and costly luxury, the host regaled the +workers with tea at the close of their labors. But, unacquainted with +its use, they were only presented with the boiled leaves to eat! After +this novel banquet, one old lady thus expressed the views of the rural +assembly: "Well, I never tasted this before. It is pleasant enough; but +except for the name of it, I don't consider tea a bit better than any +other kind of greens!" + +Experience on the great Plains and among the Rocky Mountains had +taught me the superiority of tea over all stronger stimulants in +severe, protracted hardships. Now it proved of inestimable service to +us. After a two-hours' halt, refreshed by food and dry clothing, we +seemed to have a new lease of life. Elastic and vigorous, we felt equal +to almost any labor. + +"May God bless you," said the old woman, bidding us adieu, while +earnest sympathy shone from her own and her daughter's eyes and +illumined their dark faces. To us they were "black, and comely too." +The husband led us to the railroad, and there parted from us. + +[Sidenote: WALKING TWELVE MILES FOR NOTHING.] + +At midnight we were twenty-three miles from Salisbury, and three from +Statesville. We wished to avoid the latter village; and leaving the +railway, which ran due west, turned farther northward. In two miles we +expected to strike the Wilkesboro road, at Allison's Mill. We followed +the old negro's directions as well as possible, but soon suspected that +we must be off the route. It was bitterly cold, and to avoid suffering +we walked on and on with great rapidity. Before daylight, at a large +plantation, we wakened a slave, and learned that, since leaving the +railway, we had traveled twelve miles circuitously and gained just one +half-mile on the journey! There were two Allison's Mills, and our black +friend had directed us to the wrong one. + +"Can you conceal us here to-day?" we asked in a whisper of the negro +who gave us this information from his bed, in a little cabin. + +"I reckon so. Master is a terrible war-man, a Confederate officer, +and would kill me if he were to find it out. But I kept a sick Yankee +captain here last summer for five days, and then he went on. Go to the +barn and hide, and I will see you when I come to fodder the horses." + +We found the barn, groped our way up into a hay-loft, under the eaves, +and buried ourselves in the straw. + +[Sidenote: EVERY BLACK FACE A FRIENDLY FACE.] + + V. _Thursday, December 22._ + +The biting wind whistled and shrieked between the logs of the barn, +and, cover ourselves as we would, it was too cold for sleep. The +negro--an intelligent young man--spent several hours with us, asking +questions about the North, brought us ample supplies of food, and a +bottle of apple-brandy purloined from his master's private stores. + +At dark he took us into his quarters, only separated by a narrow +lane from the planter's house, and we were warmed and fed. A dozen +of the blacks--including little boys and girls of ten and twelve +years--visited us there. Among them was a peculiarly intelligent +mulatto woman of twenty-five, comely, and neatly dressed. The poor girl +interrogated us for an hour very earnestly about the progress of the +War, its probable results, and the feeling and purposes of the North +touching the slaves. Using language with rare propriety, she impressed +me as one who would willingly give up life for her unfortunate race. +With culture and opportunity, she would have been an intellectual +and social power in any circle. She was the wife of a slave; but her +companions told us that she had been compelled to become the mistress +of her master. She spoke of him with intense loathing. + +By this time we had learned that every black face was a friendly face. +So far as fidelity was concerned, we felt just as safe among the +negroes as if in our Northern homes. Male or female, old or young, +intelligent or simple, we were fully assured they would never betray us. + +[Sidenote: TOUCHING FIDELITY OF THE SLAVES.] + +Some one has said that it needs three generations to make a gentleman. +Heaven only knows how many generations are required to make a freeman! +But we have been accustomed to consider this perfect trustworthiness, +this complete loyalty to friends, a distinctively Saxon trait. The very +rare degree to which the negroes have manifested it, is an augury of +brightest hope and promise for their future. It is a faint indication +of what they may one day become, with Justice, Time, and Opportunity. + +They were always ready to help anybody opposed to the Rebels. Union +refugees, Confederate deserters, escaped prisoners--all received from +them the same prompt and invariable kindness. But let a Rebel soldier, +on his way to the army, or returning from it, apply to them, and he +would find but cold kindness. + +The moment they met us, they would do whatever we required upon impulse +and instinct. But afterward, when there was leisure for conversation, +they would question us with some anxiety. Few had ever seen a Yankee +before. They would repeat to us the bugbear stories of their masters, +about our whipping them to force them into the Union army, and starving +their wives and children. Professing utterly to discredit these +reports, they still desired a little reassurance. We can never forget +their upturned, eager eyes, and earnest faces. Happily we could tell +them that the Nation was rising to the great principles of Freedom, +Education, and an open Career for every human being. + +Starting at ten o'clock to-night, we had an arduous march over the +rough, frozen ground. Hard labor and loss of sleep began to tell upon +us. I think every member of the party had his mental balance more or +less shaken. Davis was haggard, with blood-shot eyes; "Junius" was +pallid, and threatened with typhoid fever; Wolfe, with a sprained +ankle, could barely limp; I was weak and short of breath, from the +pneumonic affection. Charley Thurston was our best foot, and we always +put him foremost. With his Confederate uniform and his ready invention, +he could play Rebel soldier admirably. + +[Sidenote: PURSUED BY A HOME GUARD.] + +Toward morning we were compelled to stop, build a fire in the dense +pine-forest, and rest for an hour. We were uncertain about the roads, +and just before daylight Charley stopped to make inquiries of an old +farmer. Then we went on, and, as the road was very secluded, were +talking with less discretion than usual, when a twig snapped behind +us. Instantly turning around, we saw the old man following stealthily, +listening to our conversation. We ordered him to halt; but he ran away +with wonderful agility for a septuagenarian. + +The moment he was out of sight, we left the road, and ran, too, in an +opposite direction, fast as our tired limbs could carry us. It would be +a very nice point to determine which was the more frightened, we or our +late pursuer. We afterward learned that he was an unrelenting Rebel and +a zealous Home Guard. He was doubtless endeavoring to follow us to our +shelter, that he might bring out his company, and capture us during the +day. + +Long after daylight we continued running, until we had put five miles +between ourselves and the road. The region was very open, and it seemed +morally certain that we would be discovered through the barking dogs +at some of the farm-houses. But about nine o'clock we halted in a +pine-grove, small but thick, and built a great fire of rails, which, +being very dry, emitted little smoke. There was danger that the blaze +would be discovered; but in our feeble condition we could no longer +endure the inclemency of the weather. + + VI. _Friday, December 23._ + +[Sidenote: HELP IN THE LAST EXTREMITY.] + +Hungry and fatigued, with our feet to the fire, we could sleep an hour +at a time upon the frozen ground before the cold awakened us. When, +after a waiting which seemed endless, the welcome darkness came at +last, it lifted a load from our hearts; we no longer listened anxiously +for the coming of the Guard. + +Starting again, we toiled on with slow and painful steps. We were +entering a region where slaves were few, and we could find no negroes. +"Junius," in a high fever, was so weak that we were almost compelled to +carry him, and his voice was faint as the wail of an infant. Again and +again he begged us to go on, and leave him to rest upon the ground. We +had sore apprehensions that it might become necessary to commit him to +the first friends we found, and press forward without him. + +About eight o'clock Charley entered a little tavern to procure +provisions. He assumed his favorite character of a Rebel soldier, on +parole, going to his home in Wilkes County for the holidays. An old +man was spending the night there. While supper was cooking, he gave to +Charley a recognizing sign of the Sons of America. It was instantly +answered; and, stepping outside, they had an interview. + +Then our new friend stealthily led his three mules from the tavern +stable, through the fields to the road, placed three of us upon them, +and guided us five miles, to the house of his brother, another strong +Union man. The brother warmed us, fed us, and "stayed us with flagons" +of apple-brandy; then brought out two of his mules, and again we +pressed forward. They cautioned us not to intrust the secret of their +assistance to any one, reminding us that it would be a hanging matter +for them. + +[Sidenote: CARRIED FIFTEEN MILES BY FRIENDS.] + +So, on this cold winter night, while we were so stiff and exhausted +that we could barely keep our seats on the steeds they had so +thoughtfully furnished, these kind friends conducted us fifteen miles, +and left us in the Union settlement we were seeking, fifty miles from +Salisbury. + + + + +CHAPTER XLII. + + ----Weariness Can snore upon the flint.--CYMBELINE. + + _Montano._ But is he often thus + + _Iago._ 'Tis evermore the prologue to his sleep.--OTHELLO. + +[Sidenote: CURIOUS CONFUSION OF NAMES.] + + +It was now five o'clock in the morning of Saturday, December 24th, the +seventh day of our escape. Leaving my companions behind, I tapped at +the door of a log-house. + +"Come in," said a voice; and I entered. In its one room the children +and father were still in bed; the wife was already engaged in her daily +duties. I asked: + +"Can you direct me to the widow ----?" + +"There are two widow ----s, in this neighborhood," she replied. "What +is your name?" + +I was seeking information, just then, not giving it; so avoiding the +question, I added: + +"The lady I mean, has a son who is an officer in the army." + +"They both have sons who are officers in the army. Don't be afraid; you +are among friends." + +"Friends" might mean Union or it might mean Rebel; so I accepted no +amendments, but adhered to the main question: + +"This officer is a lieutenant, and his name is John." + +"Well," said she, "they are both lieutenants, and John is the name of +both!" + +I knew my man too well to be baffled. I continued: "He is in the +second regiment of the Senior Reserves; and is now on duty at ----." + +"Oh," said she, "that is my brother!" + +At once I told her what we were. She replied, with a wonderful light of +welcome shining in her eyes: + +"If you are Yankees, all I have to say is, that you have come to +exactly the right place!" + +[Sidenote: FOOD, SHELTER, AND HOSTS OF FRIENDS.] + +And, in exuberant joy, she bustled about, doing a dozen things at once, +talking incoherently the while, replenishing the fire, bringing me a +seat, offering me food, urging her husband to hurry out for the rest of +the party. At last her excitement culminated in her darting under the +bed, and reappearing on the surface with a great pint tumbler filled to +the brim with apple-brandy. There was enough to intoxicate our whole +party! It was the first form of hospitality which occurred to her. +Afterward, when better acquainted, she explained: + + "You were the first Yankee I ever saw. The moment I observed + your clothing, I knew you must be one, and I wanted to throw + my arms about your neck, and kiss you!" + +We heartily reciprocated the feeling. Just then the only woman who had +any charms for us was the Goddess of Liberty; and this, at least, was +one of her handmaidens. + +We were soon by the great log fire of a house where friends awaited +us. Belonging to the secret Union organization, they had received +intelligence that we were on the way. Our feet were blistered and +swollen; mine were frostbitten. We removed our clothing, and were soon +reposing in soft feather beds. At noon, awakened for breakfast, we +found "Junius" had been sleeping like a child, and was now hungry--a +relief to our anxiety. After the meal was over, we returned to bed. + +[Sidenote: LOYALTY OF THE MOUNTAINEERS.] + +Our friends were constantly on the alert; but the house was very +secluded, and they were not compelled to watch outside. There, two +ferocious dogs were on guard, rendering it unsafe for any one to come +within a hundred yards of them. Nearly all the people, Loyal and Rebel, +had similar sentinels. Along the route, we had been anathematizing the +canine race, which often prevented us from approaching negro-quarters +on the plantations; but these were Union dogs, which made all the +difference in the world. + +At dark, we were conducted to a barn, where, wrapped in quilts, we +passed a comfortable night. + + VIII. _Sunday, December 25._ + +Our resting-place was in Wilkes County, North Carolina, among the +outlying spurs of the Alleghanies--a county so strong in its Union +sentiments, that the Rebels called it "the Old United States." Among +the mountains of every Southern State, a vast majority of the people +were loyal. Hilly regions, unadapted to cotton-culture, contained +few negroes; and where there was no Slavery, there was no Rebellion. +Milton's verse-- + + "The _mountain_ nymph, sweet Liberty," + +contains a great truth, the world over. + +[Sidenote: A LEVEE IN A BARN.] + +Our self-sacrificing friends belonged to a multitudinous family, +extending through a settlement many miles in length. They all seemed to +be nephews, cousins, or brothers; and the white-haired patriarch--at +seventy, erect and agile as a boy,--in whose barn we remained to-day, +was father, grandfather, or uncle, to the whole tribe. His loyalty was +very stanch and intense. + +"The Home Guards," said he, "are usually pretty civil. Occasionally +they shoot at some of the boys who are hiding; but pretty soon +afterward, one of them is found in the woods some morning with a hole +in his head! I suppose there are a thousand young men lying out in +this county. I have always urged them to fight the Guards, and have +helped to supply them with ammunition. Two or three times, regiments +from Lee's army have been sent here to hunt conscripts and deserters, +and then the boys have to run. I have a son among them; but they never +wounded him yet. I asked him the other day: 'Won't you kill some of +them before you are ever captured?' 'Well, father,' says he, '_I'll be +found a tryin'!_' I reckon he will, too; for he has never gone without +his rifle these two years, and he can bring down a squirrel every time, +from the top of yon oak you see on the hill." + +The barn was beside a public road, and very near the house of a woman +whose Rebel sympathies were strong. There was danger that any one +entering it might be seen by her or her children, who were running +about the yard. + +But we held quite a _levée_ to-day. I think we had fifty visitors. We +would hear the opening door and stealthy footsteps upon the barn-floor; +then a soft voice would ask: + +"Friends, are you there?" + +We would rise from our bed of hay, and come forward to the front of +the loft, to find some member of this great family of friends, who had +brought his wife and children to see the Yankees. We would converse +with them for a few minutes; they would invariably ask if there was +nothing whatever they could do for us, invite us to visit their house +by night, and express the warmest wishes for our success. They did +this with such perfect spontaneity, with such overflowing hearts, that +it touched us very nearly. Had we been their own sons or brothers, +they could not have treated us more tenderly. This Christmas may have +witnessed more brilliant gatherings than ours; but none, I am sure, +warmed by a more self-sacrificing friendship. + +[Sidenote: VISITED BY AN OLD FRIEND.] + +Among others, we were visited by a conscript, who had been one of our +guards at Salisbury. While at the prison, his great portly form would +come laboring and puffing up the stairs to our quarters; with flushed +face, he would sit down, glance cautiously around to assure himself +that none but friends were present, then question us eagerly about the +North, and breathe out maledictions against all Confederates. + +The Rebels, suspecting him, determined to send him to Lee's army. But +he was just then taken with rheumatism, and kept his quarters for +six weeks! At last, the day before he was to start for Richmond, he +obtained permission of the surgeon to visit the village. He hobbled up +the street, groaning piteously; but, after turning the first corner, +threw away his crutches, plunged into the woods, and made his way home +by night. He now related his experiences with a quiet chuckle, and was +very desirous of serving us. + +He was able to give me a pair of large boots in place of my own, which +lacerated my sore and swollen feet. The sharp rocks, hills, and stumps, +compelled me to have the new boots repaired seven times before reaching +our lines. Two nights' traveling would quite wear out the ill-tanned +leather of the stoutest soles. + +To-day, our friends brought us twice as much food as we wanted, and we +wanted a great deal. At dark, alarmed by a rumor that the suspicions +of the Guard had been excited, they took us several miles into a +neighboring county, to a very secluded house, occupied by the wife and +daughters of an officer in the Confederate army. Here we spent the +night in inviting beds. + +[Sidenote: A DAY OF ALARMS.] + + IX. _Monday, December 26._ + +Our hostess, a comely lady of thirty-five, was a second Mrs. Katie +Scudder--the very embodiment of "Faculty." Her plain log house, with +its snowy curtains, cheap prints, and engravings cut from illustrated +newspapers, was tasteful and inviting. Her five daughters, all clothed +in fabric spun and woven at home--for these people were now entirely +self-dependent--looked as pretty and tidy to uncritical, masculine +eyes, as if robed in silk and cashmere. + +Our pursuit of a quiet refuge proved ludicrously unsuccessful. The day +was diversified by + + "More pangs and fears than wars or women have." + +But the lady bore herself with such coolness, and proved so ready for +every emergency, that we enjoyed them rather than otherwise. + +Early in the morning, while standing a few yards from the house, I saw +her and her daughter suddenly step into the open doorway, quite filling +it with their persons and skirts, and earnestly beckon me to go in +out of sight. Of course, I obeyed. A woman of questionable political +soundness had called; but they attracted her in another direction, +keeping her face turned away from the door, till I was lost to sight. + +[Sidenote: READY WIT OF A WOMAN.] + +Several parties of Rebel cavalry passed down the road. Breckinridge's +army, in the mountains above, had recently dissolved in a great thaw +and break-up, and these were the small fragments of ice floating down +toward Virginia. A squad of a dozen stopped and entered the house, +which was of one story, the length of three large rooms. But the lady +kept them in the kitchen, while we were shut in the other end of the +building. + +Next, the barking dog warned us of approaching footsteps. At her +suggestion, we went up into the corn-loft, above our apartment. The new +visitor was a neighbor, to whom she owed a bushel of corn, and who, +with his ox-cart, had come to collect it. With ready woman's wit, she +said to him: + +"You know my husband is away. I have no fuel. Won't you go and haul me +a load of wood, as a Christmas present?" + +Who could resist such a feminine appeal? The neighbor went for the +wood, while she came laughing in, to tell us her stratagem. We +descended from the corn-loft, and went into a back room, where there +were two beds, one large and the other small, with an open door between +them. Four of us crept under the large bed, one under the small one; +and here we had an experience, ludicrous enough to remember, but not so +pleasant to undergo. + +[Sidenote: DANGER OF DETECTION FROM SNORING.] + +One of our party was an inveterate snorer. Whenever he took a recumbent +position, with his head upon the ground or the floor, he would begin +snoring like a steam-engine. Like all persons of that class, when +reminded of it, he steadfastly vowed that he never snored in all his +life! For a time, he regarded our awakening him, with rebuke and +caution, as a sorry practical joke. + +Thus far, I believe our danger of detection had been greater from this +source than from any other. We had always traveled in single file, +almost like specters, with our leader thrown out as far ahead as we +could keep him in view. Whenever he thought he saw danger, he raised a +warning hand; every man passed the sign back to those in his rear, and +dropped quietly behind a log, or stepped into the bushes, until the +person had passed or the alarm was explained. We walked with softest +footsteps, no man coughing, or speaking above his breath. During the +day we were often concealed in very public places, only a few feet from +the road, where, the ground being covered with snow, we could not hear +approaching footsteps. + +Now, our musical companion chanced to go under the small bed, and +in three minutes we heard his trumpet-tongued snore. At first, we +whispered to him; but we might as well have talked to Niagara. If one +of us went to him, there was danger that the neighbor, who stood upon +the front porch, would see us through the open door; but if we did not, +that fatal snore was certain to be heard. So I darted across the room, +crept in beside my friend, and kept him well shaken until the danger +was over. + +At night, the lady told us that more people had come to her house +during the day than ever visited it in a month before; and we were +marched back through the darkness, to our first place of concealment. + + X. _Tuesday, December 27._ + +In the barn through the whole day. A messenger brought us a note from +two late fellow-prisoners, Captain William Boothby, a Philadelphia +mariner, and Mr. John Mercer, a Unionist, of Newbern, North Carolina, +who had been in duress almost three years. They were now hiding in a +barn two miles from us. They escaped from Salisbury two nights later +than we, paying the guards eight hundred dollars in Confederate money +to let them out. + +Thurston at once joined them. During the rest of the journey, we +sometimes traveled and hid together for several days and nights; but, +when there was special danger, divided into two companies, one keeping +twenty-four hours in advance--the smaller the party, the less peril +being involved. + +Now, for the first time, we began to have some hope of reaching +our lines. But the road was still very long, and fraught with many +dangers. We examined the appalling list of dead, which I had brought +from Salisbury, and talked much of our companions left behind in that +living entombment. Remembering how earnestly they longed and prayed for +some intelligent, trustworthy voice to bear to the Government and the +people tidings of their terrible condition, we pledged each other very +solemnly, that if any one of us lived to regain home and freedom, he +should use earnest, unremitting efforts to excite sympathy and secure +relief for them. + +[Sidenote: PROMISES TO AID SUFFERING COMRADES.] + +It may not be out of place here to say, that upon reaching the North, +before visiting our families, or performing any other duties, we +hastened to Washington, and used every endeavor to call the attention +of the authorities and the country to the Salisbury prisoners. Before +many weeks, all who survived were exchanged; but more than five +thousand--upwards of half the number who were taken to Salisbury five +months before--were already buried just outside the garrison. + +Those five thousand loyal graves will ever remain fitting monuments +of Rebel cruelty, and of the atrocious inhumanity of Edwin M. +Stanton, Secretary of War, who steadfastly refused to exchange these +prisoners, on the ground that we could not afford to give the enemy +robust, vigorous men for invalids and skeletons, and yet refrained +from compelling them to treat prisoners with humanity, by just and +discriminating retaliation upon an equal number of Rebel officers, +taken from the great excess held by our Government. + +[Sidenote: BLIND AND UNQUESTIONING LOYALTY.] + +To-day, as usual, we saw a large number of the Union mountaineers. +Theirs was a very blind and unreasoning loyalty, much like the +disloyalty of some enthusiastic Rebels. They did not say "Unionist," or +"Secessionist," but always designated a political friend thus: "He is +one of the right sort of people"--strong in the faith that there could, +by no possibility, be more than one side to the question. They had +little education; but when they began to talk about the Union, their +eyes lighted wonderfully, and sometimes they grew really eloquent. They +did not believe one word in a Rebel newspaper, except extracts from the +Northern journals, and reports favorable to our Cause. They thought the +Union army had never been defeated in a single battle. I heard them say +repeatedly: + +"The United States can take Richmond any day when it wants to. That it +has not, thus far, is owing to no lack of power, but because it was not +thought best." + +They regarded every Rebel as necessarily an unmitigated scoundrel, and +every Loyalist, particularly every native-born Yankee, almost as an +angel from heaven. + +How earnestly they questioned us about the North! How they longed to +escape thither! To them, indeed, it was the Promised Land. They were +very bitter in their denunciations of the heavy slaveholders, who +had done so much to degrade white labor, and finally brought on this +terrible war. + +They had an abundance of the two great Southern staples--corn-bread and +pork. They felt severely the absence of their favorite beverage, and +would ask us, with amusing earnestness, if they could get coffee when +our armies came. The Confederate substitutes--burnt corn and rye--they +regarded with earnest and well-founded aversion. + +They were compelled to use thorns for fastening the clothing of the +women and children. We distributed among them our small supply of pins, +to their infinite delectation. Davis also gladdened the hearts of +all the womankind by disbursing a needle to each. A needle nominally +represented five dollars in Confederate currency, but actually could +not be purchased at any price. + +A number of the young men "lying out" desired to accompany us to +the North. Some were deserters from the Rebel army; others, more +fortunate, had evaded conscription from the beginning of the war. But +their lives had been passed in that remote county of North Carolina, +and the two hundred and ninety miles yet to be accomplished stretched +out in appalling prospective. They saw many lions in the way, and, +Festus-like, at the last moment, decided to wait for a more convenient +season. It was not from lack of nerve; for some of them had fought +Rebel guards with great coolness and bravery. + +[Sidenote: A REPENTANT REBEL.] + +Our friends feared that one slaveholding Secessionist in the +neighborhood might learn of our presence, and betray us. He did +ascertain our whereabouts, but sent us an invitation to visit his +house, offering to supply all needed food, clothing, and shelter. He +said he foolishly acquiesced in the Revolution because at first it +seemed certain to succeed, and he wished to save his property; but that +now he heartily repented. + +Possibly his conversion was partially owing to remorse for having +persuaded his two sons to enter the Rebel army. One, after much +suffering, had deserted, and was now "lying out" near home. The other, +wounded and captured in a Virginia battle, was still in a Northern +prison, where he had been confined for many months. The father was very +desirous of sending to him a message of sympathy and affection. + +[Sidenote: SANGUINE HOPES OF LOYAL MOUNTAINEERS.] + +But he was an index of the change which had recently come over +Rebel sympathizers in that whole region. The condition of our armies +then was not peculiarly promising. We were by no means sanguine +that the war would soon terminate. But the loyal mountaineers, with +unerring instinct, were all confident that we were near its close, and +constantly surprised us by speaking of the Rebellion as a thing of the +past. We fancied their wish was father to the thought; but they proved +truer prophets than we. + + + + +CHAPTER XLIII. + + Nay, but make haste, the better foot before.--KING JOHN. + + +On the evening of the eleventh day, Wednesday, December 28, we left the +kind friends with whom we had stayed for five days and four nights, +gaining new vigor and inspired by new hope. Their last injunction was: + +"Remember, you cannot be too careful. We shall pray God that you may +reach your homes in safety. When you are there, do not forget us, but +do send troops to open a way by which we can escape to the North." + +In their simplicity, they fancied Yankees omnipotent, and that we could +send them an army by merely saying the word. They bade us adieu with +embraces and tears. I am sure many a fervent prayer went up from their +humble hearths, that Our Father would guide us through the difficulties +of our long, wearisome journey, and guard us against the perils which +beset and environed it. + +[Sidenote: FLANKING A REBEL CAMP.] + +At ten o'clock we passed within two hundred yards of a Rebel camp. +We could hear the neigh of the horses and the tramp of four or five +sentinels on their rounds. We trod very softly; to our stimulated +senses every sound was magnified, and every cracking twig startled us. + +Leaving us in the road a few yards behind, our pilot entered the +house of his friend, a young deserter from the Rebel army. Finding no +one there but the family, he called us in, to rest by the log fire, +while the deserter rose from bed, and donned his clothing to lead us +three miles and point out a secluded path. For many months he had been +"lying out;" but of late, as the Guards were less vigilant than usual, +he sometimes ventured to sleep at home. His girlish wife wished him +to accompany us through; but, with the infant sleeping in the cradle, +which was hewn out of a great log, she formed a tie too strong for him +to break. At parting, she shook each of us by the hand, saying: + +"I hope you will get safely home; but there is great danger, and you +must be powerful cautious." + +At eleven o'clock our guide left us in the hands of a negro, who, after +our chilled limbs were warmed, led us on our way. By two in the morning +we had accomplished thirteen miles over the frozen hills, and reached a +lonely house in a deep valley, beside a tumbling, flashing torrent. + +[Sidenote: SECRETED AMONG THE HUSKS.] + +The farmer, roused with difficulty from his heavy slumbers, informed us +that Boothby's party, which had arrived twenty-four hours in advance of +us, was sleeping in his barn. He sent us half a mile to the house of a +neighbor, who fanned the dying embers on his great hearth, regaled us +with the usual food, and then took us to a barn in the forest. + +"Climb up on that scaffolding," said he. "Among the husks you will find +two or three quilts. They belong to my son, who is lying out. To-night +he is sleeping with some friends in the woods." + +The cold wind blew searchingly through the open barn, but before +daylight we were wrapped in "the mantle that covers all human thoughts." + + XII. _Thursday, December 29._ + +At dark, our host, leaving us in a thicket, five hundred yards from +his house, went forward to reconnoiter. Finding the coast clear, he +beckoned us on to supper and ample potations of apple-brandy. + +[Sidenote: WANDERING FROM THE ROAD.] + +With difficulty we induced one of his neighbors to guide us. Though +unfamiliar with the road, he was an excellent walker, swiftly leading +us over the rough ground, which tortured our sensitive feet, and up and +down sharp, rocky hills. + +At two in the morning we flanked Wilkesboro, the capital of Wilkes +County. To a chorus of barking dogs, we crept softly around it, within +a few hundred yards of the houses. The air was full of snow, and when +we reached the hills again, the biting wind was hard to breathe. + +We walked about a mile through the dense woods, when Captain Wolfe, who +had been all the time declaring that the North Star was on the wrong +side of us, convinced our pilot that he had mistaken the road, and we +retraced our steps to the right thoroughfare. + +We stopped to warm for half an hour at a negro-cabin, where the +blacks told us all they knew about the routes and the Rebels. Before +morning we were greatly broken down, and our guide was again in doubt +concerning the roads. So we entered a deep ravine in the pine-woods, +built a great fire, and waited for daylight. + + XIII. _Friday, December 30._ + +[Sidenote: CROSSING THE YADKIN RIVER.] + +After dawn, we pressed forward, reluctantly compelled to pass near two +or three houses. + +We reached the Yadkin River just as a young, blooming woman, with a +face like a ripe apple, came gliding across the stream. With a long +pole, she guided the great log canoe, which contained herself, a pail +of butter, and a side-saddle, indicating that she had started for the +Wilkesboro market. Assisting her to the shore, we asked: + +"Will you tell us where Ben Hanby lives?" + +"Just beyond the hill there, across the river," she replied, with +scrutinizing, suspicious eyes. + +"How far is it to his house?" + +"I don't know." + +"More than a mile?" + +"No" (doubtfully), "I reckon not." + +"Is he probably at home?" + +"No!" (emphatically). "He is _not_! Are you the Home Guard?" + +"By no means, madam. We are Union men, and Yankees at that. We have +escaped from Salisbury, and are trying to reach our homes in the North." + +After another searching glance, she trusted us fully, and said: + +"Ben Hanby is my husband. He is lying out. I wondered, if you were +the Guard, what you could be doing without guns. From a hill near +our house, the children saw you coming more than an hour ago; and my +husband, taking you for the soldiers, went with his rifle to join his +companions in the woods. Word has gone to every Union house in the +neighborhood that the troops are out hunting deserters." + +We embarked in the log canoe, and shipped a good deal of water before +reaching the opposite shore. We had two sea-captains on board, and +concluded that, with one sailor more, we should certainly have been +hopelessly wrecked. + +A winding forest-path led to the lonely house we sought, where we +found no one at home, except three children of our fair informant +and their grandmother. For more than two hours we could not allay +the woman's suspicions that we were Guards. They had recently been +adopting Yankee disguises, deceiving Union people, and beguiling them +of damaging information. + +As indignantly as General Damas inquires whether he _looks_ like a +married man, we asked the cautious woman if we resembled Rebels. At +last, convinced that we were veritable Yankees, she gave us breakfast, +and sent one of the children with us to a sunny hillside among the +pines, where we slept off the weariness and soreness caused by the +night's march of sixteen miles. + +[Sidenote: AMONG UNION BUSHWHACKERS.] + +At evening a number of friends visited us. As they were not merely +Rebel deserters, but Union bushwhackers also, we scanned them with +curiosity; for we had been wont to regard bushwhackers, of either side, +with vague, undefined horror. + +These men were walking arsenals. Each had a trusty rifle, one or two +navy revolvers, a great bowie knife, haversack, and canteen. Their +manners were quiet, their faces honest, and one had a voice of rare +sweetness. As he stood tossing his baby in the air, with his little +daughter clinging to his skirt, he looked + + ----"the mildest-mannered man, That ever scuttled ship or cut + a throat." + +He and his neighbors had adopted this mode of life, because determined +not to fight against the old flag. They would not attempt the uncertain +journey to our lines, leaving their families in the country of the +enemy. Ordinarily very quiet and rational, whenever the war was spoken +of, their eyes emitted that peculiar glare which I had observed, years +before, in Kansas, and which seems inseparable from the hunted man. +They said: + +[Sidenote: TWO UNION SOLDIERS "LYING OUT."] + +"When the Rebels let us alone, we let them alone; when they come out +to hunt us, we hunt them! They know that we are in earnest, and that +before they can kill any one of us, he will break a hole in the ice +large enough to drag two or three of them along with him. At night +we sleep in the bush. When we go home by day, our children stand out +on picket. They and our wives bring food to us in the woods. When +the Guards are coming out, some of the Union members usually inform +us beforehand; then we collect twenty or thirty men, find the best +ground we can, and, if they discover us, fight them. But a number of +skirmishes have taught them to be very wary about attacking us." + +In this dreary mode of life they seemed to find a certain fascination. +While we took supper at the house of one of them, eight bushwhackers, +armed to the teeth, stood outside on guard. For once, at least, +enjoying what Macbeth vainly coveted, we took our meal in peace. + +Two of them were United States volunteers, who had come stealthily home +on furlough, from our army in Tennessee. They were the first Union +soldiers we had seen at liberty for nearly two years. Their faces were +very welcome, and their worn, soiled uniforms were to our eyes the +reflection of heaven's own blue. Our friends urged us to remain, one of +them saying: + +"The snow is deep on the Blue Ridge and the Alleghanies; the Rebels +can easily trace you; the guerrillas are unusually vigilant, and it is +very unsafe to attempt crossing the mountains at present. I started +for Knoxville three weeks ago, and, after walking fifty miles, was +compelled to turn back. Stay with us until the snow is gone, and the +Guards less on the alert. We will each of us take two of you under our +special charge, and feed and shelter you until next May, if you desire +it." + +[Sidenote: TWO ESCAPING REBEL DESERTERS.] + +The Blue Ridge was still twenty-five miles away, and we determined to +push on to a point where we could look the danger, if danger there +were, directly in the face. The bushwhackers, therefore, piloted us +through the darkness and the bitter cold for seven miles. At midnight, +we reached the dwelling of a Union man. He said: + +"As the house is unsafe, I shall be compelled to put you in my barn. +You will find two Rebel deserters sleeping there." + +The barn was upon a high hill. We burrowed among the husks, at first +to the infinite alarm of the deserters, who thought the Philistines +were upon them. While we shivered in the darkness, they told us that +they had come from Petersburg--more than five hundred miles--and been +three months on the journey. They had found friends all the way, among +negroes and Union men. Ragged, dirty, and penniless, they said, very +quietly, that they were going to reach the Yankee lines, or die in the +attempt. + +Before daylight our host visited us, and finding that we suffered from +the weather, placed us in a little warm storehouse, close beside the +public road. To our question, whether the Guards had ever searched it, +he replied: + +"Oh, yes, frequently, but they never happened to find anybody." + +[Sidenote: AN ENERGETIC INVALID.] + +After we were snugly ensconced in quilts and corn-stalks, Davis said: + +"What an appalling journey still stretches before us! I fear the lamp +of my energy is nearly burned out." + +I could not wonder at his despondency. For several years he had been +half an invalid, suffering from a spinal affection. For weeks before +leaving Salisbury, he was often compelled, of an afternoon, to lie upon +his bunk of straw with blinding headache, and every nerve quivering +with pain. "Junius" and myself frequently said: "Davis's courage is +unbounded, but he can never live to walk to Knoxville." + +The event proved us false prophets. Nightly he led our party--always +the last to pause and the first to start. His lamp of energy was so far +from being exhausted that, before he reached our lines, he broke down +every man in the party. I expect to suffer to my dying day from the +killing pace of that energetic invalid. + + XIV. _Saturday, December 31._ + +Spent all this cold day and night sleeping in the quilts and fodder of +the little store-house. At evening, Boothby's party went forward, as +the next thirty-five miles were deemed specially perilous. + + + + +CHAPTER XLIV. + + Pray you tread softly, that the blind mole may not Hear a + foot-fall!--TEMPEST. + + There's but a shirt and a half in all my company, and the + half shirt is two napkins pinned together and thrown over the + shoulders.--KING HENRY IV. + + +Our emaciated condition, hard labor, and the bracing mountain air, +conspired to make us ravenous. In quantity, the pork and corn-bread +which we devoured was almost miraculous; in quality, it seemed like the +nectar and ambrosia of the immortal gods. It was far better adapted +to our necessities than the daintiest luxuries of civilization. In +California, Australia, and Colorado goldmines, on the New Orleans +_levée_, and wherever else the most trying physical labor is to be +performed, pork and corn-bread have been found the best articles of +food. + +The Loyalists were all ready to feed, shelter, and direct us, but +reluctant to accompany us far from their homes. They would say: + +"You need no guides; the road is so plain, that you cannot possibly +miss it." + +But midnight journeys among the narrow lanes and obscure mountain-paths +had taught us that we could miss any road whatever which was not +inclosed upon both sides by fences too high for climbing. Therefore, we +insisted upon pilots. + +[Sidenote: MONEY CONCEALED IN CLOTHING.] + +Fortunately, I had left Salisbury with a one-hundred-dollar United +States note concealed under the hem of each leg of my pantaloons, +just above the instep, and two more sewn in the lining of my coat. +I had in my portmonnaie fifty dollars in Northern bank-notes, five +dollars in gold, and a hundred dollars in Confederate currency. Davis +brought away about the same amount. We should have left it with our +fellow-prisoners, but for the probability of being recaptured and +confined, where money would serve us in our extremest need. Now it +enabled us to remunerate amply both our white and black friends. +Sometimes the mountaineers would say: + +"We do not do these things for money. We have fed and assisted hundreds +of refugees and escaping prisoners, but never received a cent for it." + +Those whom they befriended were usually penniless. We appreciated +their kindness none the less because fortunate enough to be able to +recompense them. They were unable to resist the argument that, when our +forces came, they would need "green-backs" to purchase coffee. + +[Sidenote: IMMINENT PERIL OF UNION CITIZENS.] + +Every man who gave us a meal, sheltered us in his house or barn, +pointed out a refuge in the woods, or directed us one mile upon our +journey, did it at the certainty, if discovered, of being imprisoned, +or forced into the Rebel army, whether sick or well, and at the risk of +having his house burned over his head. In many cases, discovery would +have resulted in his death by shooting, or hanging in sight of his own +door. + +During our whole journey we entered only one house inhabited by white +Unionists, which had never been plundered by Home Guards or Rebel +guerrillas. Almost every loyal family had given to the Cause some of +its nearest and dearest. We were told so frequently--"My father was +killed in those woods;" or, "The guerrillas shot my brother in that +ravine," that, finally, these tragedies made little impression upon +us. The mountaineers never seemed conscious that they were doing any +heroic or self-sacrificing thing. Their very sufferings had greatly +intensified their love for the Union, and their faith in its ultimate +triumph. + +Drowsily wondering at our capacity for sleep, we dozed through the +first day of the New Year, and the fifteenth of our liberty. After dark +we spent two hours in the house before the log fire. The good woman +had one son already escaped to the North--a fresh link which bound her +mother-heart to that ideal paradise. She fed us, mended our clothing, +and parted from us with the heartiest "God bless you!" + +Her youngest born, a lad of eleven years, accompanied us five miles to +the house of a Unionist, who received us without leaving his bed. He +gave us such minute information about the faint, obscure road that we +found little difficulty in keeping it. + +[Sidenote: FORDING CREEKS AT MIDNIGHT.] + +Through the biting air we pressed rapidly up the narrow valley of a +clear, tumbling mountain stream, whose frowning banks, several hundred +feet in hight, were covered with pines and hemlocks. In twelve miles +the road crossed the creek twenty-nine times. Instead of bridges were +fords for horsemen and wagons, and foot-logs for pedestrians. Cold and +stiff, we discovered that crossing the smooth, icy logs in the darkness +was a hazardous feat. Wolfe was particularly lame, and slipped several +times into the icy torrent, but managed to flounder out without much +delay. He endured with great serenity all our suggestions, that even +though water was his native element, he had a very eccentric taste to +prefer swimming to walking, in that state of the atmosphere. + +At one crossing the log was swept away. We wandered up and down the +stream, which was about a hundred feet wide, but could find not even +the hair which Mahomet discovered to be the bridge over the bottomless +pit. But as canoes are older than ships, so legs are more primitive +than bridges. We e'en plunged in, waist deep, and waded through, among +the cakes of floating ice. + +[Sidenote: "LOOPED AND WINDOWED RAGGEDNESS."] + +Our wardrobes were suffering quite as much as our persons. We did not +carry looking-glasses, so I am not able to speak of myself; but my +colleague was a subject for a painter. Any one seeing him must have +been convinced that he was made up for the occasion; that his looped +and windowed raggedness never could have resulted from any natural +combination of circumstances. The fates seemed to decree that as +"Junius" went naked into the Confederacy (leaving most of his wardrobe +on deposit at the bottom of the Mississippi), he should come out of it +in the same condition. + +Overcoat he had none. Pantaloons had been torn to shreds and tatters +by the brambles and thorn-bushes. He had a hat which was not all a +hat. It was given to him, after he had lost his own in a Rebel barn, +by a warm-hearted African, as a small tribute from the Intelligent +Contraband to his old friend the Reliable Gentleman--by an African who +felt with the most touching propriety that it would be a shame for any +correspondent of _The Tribune_ to go bareheaded as long as a single +negro in America was the owner of a hat! It was a white wool relic of +the old-red-sandstone period, with a sugar-loaf crown, and a broad brim +drawn down closely over his ears, like the bonnet of an Esquimaux. + +His boots were a stupendous refutation of the report that leather was +scarce among the Rebels. I understood it to be no figure of rhetoric, +but the result of actual and exact measurement, which induced him to +call them the "Seven-Leaguers." The small portion of his body, which +was visible between the tops of his boots and the bottom of his hat, +was robed in an old gray quilt of Secession proclivities; and taken for +all in all, with his pale, nervous face and his remarkable costume, he +looked like a cross between the Genius of Intellectuality and a Rebel +bushwhacker! + +[Illustration: THE ESCAPE.--WADING A MOUNTAIN STREAM AT MIDNIGHT.] + +Before daylight, we shiveringly tapped on the door of a house at the +foot of the Blue Ridge. + +"Come in," was the welcome response. + +Entering, we found a woman sitting by the log fire. Beginning to +introduce ourselves, she interrupted: + +"O, I know all about you. You are Yankee prisoners. Your friends who +passed last evening told us you were coming, and I have been sitting up +all night for you. Come to the fire and dry your clothes." + +[Sidenote: STORIES ABOUT THE WAR.] + +For two hours we listened to her tales of the war. The history of +almost every Union family was full of romance. Each unstoried mountain +stream had its incidents of daring, of sagacity, and of faithfulness; +and almost every green hill had been bathed in that scarlet dew from +which ever springs the richest and the ripest fruit. + +Concealment here was difficult; so we were taken to the house of +a neighbor, who also was waiting to welcome us. He took us to his +storehouse, right by the road-side. + +"The Guard," said he, "searched this building last Thursday, +unsuccessfully, and are hardly likely to try it again just yet." + +Soon, lying near a fire upon a warm feather-bed, we wooed the drowsy +god with all the success which the hungry Salisbury vermin, sticking +closer than brothers, would permit. + + XVI. _Monday, January 2._ + +[Sidenote: CLIMBING THE BLUE RIDGE.] + +Before night the guide returned from conducting Boothby's party, and +assured us that the coast was clear. After dark, invigorated by tea +and apple brandy, we followed our pilot by devious paths up the steep, +fir-clad, piny slope of the Blue Ridge. + +The view from the summit is beautiful and impressive; but for our +weariness and anxiety, we should have enjoyed it very keenly. + +A few weeks before, the Unionist now leading us had sent his little +daughter of twelve years, alone, by night, fifteen miles over the +mountains, to warn some escaping Union prisoners that the Guard had +gained a clue to their whereabouts. They received the warning in season +to find a place of safety before their pursuers came. + +We were now on the west side of the Ridge. A heavy rain began to +fall, and, though soaked and weary, we were glad to have our tracks +obliterated, and thus be insured against pursuit. + + "The labor we delight in physics pain;" + +but in this case the effort was so arduous that the panacea was not +very effective. Thomas Starr King tells the story of a little man, who, +being asked his weight, replied: + +"Ordinarily, a hundred and twenty pounds; but when I'm mad, I weigh a +ton!" + +I think any one of our wet, blistered feet, which, at every step, sunk +deep into the slush, would have counterbalanced his whole body! Like +millstones we dragged them up hill after hill, and through the long +valleys which stretched drearily between. Though not hungering after +the flesh-pots of Egypt, we still thought, half regretfully, of our +squalid Salisbury quarters, where we had at least a roof to shelter +us, and a bunk of straw. But we needed no injunction to remember +Lot's wife; for a pillar of salt would have represented a fabulous +sum of money in the currency of the Rebels; and we had no desire to +swell their scanty revenues or supply their impoverished commissary +department. + +[Sidenote: CROSSING THE NEW RIVER AT MIDNIGHT.] + +At midnight we reached New River, two hundred and fifty yards wide. Our +guide took us over, one at a time, behind him upon his horse. We were +probably five hundred miles above the point where this river, as the +Great Kanawha, unites with the Ohio; but it was the first stream we +had found running northward, and its soft, rippling song of home and +freedom was very sweet to our ears. Already our Promised Land stretched +before us, and the shining river seemed a pathway of light to its +hither boundary. Better than Abana and Pharpar, rivers of Damascus, +this was the Jordan, flowing toward all we loved and longed for. It +revived the great world of work and of life which had faded almost to +fable. + +At two in the morning we reached the house of a stanch Unionist, which +nestled romantically in the green valley, inclosed on all sides by dark +mountains. + +[Sidenote: HOSPITALITY AND ORATORY COMBINED.] + +Our new friend, herculean in frame and with a heavy-tragedy voice, came +out where we sat, dripping and dreary, under an old cotton-gin, and +addressed us in a pompous strain, worthy of Sergeant Buzfuz: + +"Gentlemen," said he, "there are, unfortunately, at my house to-night +two wayfarers, who are Rebels and traitors. If they knew of your +presence, it would be my inevitable and eternal ruin. Therefore, unable +to extend to you such hospitalities as I could wish, I bid you welcome +to all which _can_ be furnished by so poor a man as I. I will place you +in my barn, which is warm, and filled with fodder. I will bring you +food and apple brandy. In the morning, when these infernal scoundrels +are gone, I will entertain you under my family roof. Gentlemen, I have +been a Union man from the beginning, and I shall be a Union man to the +end. I had three sons; one died in a Rebel hospital; one was killed +at the battle of the Wilderness, fighting (against his will) for the +Southern cause; the third, thank God! is in the Union lines." + +Here the father overcame the orator; and, with the conjunction of +apple brandy, corn bread, and quilts, we were soon asleep in the barn. + + + + +CHAPTER XLV. + + No tongue--all eyes; be silent.--TEMPEST. + + +At nine in the morning our host awakened us. + +[Sidenote: OVER MOUNTAINS AND THROUGH RAVINES.] + +"Gentlemen, I trust you have slept well. The enemy has gone, and +breakfast waits. I call you early, because I want to take you out of +North Carolina into Tennessee, where I will show you a place of refuge +infinitely safer than this." + +For the first time since leaving Salisbury we traveled by daylight. +Our guide led us deviously through fields, and up almost perpendicular +ascents, where the rarefied air compelled us frequently to stop for +breath. + +We dragged our weary feet up one hill, down another, through ravines of +almost impenetrable laurels, swinging across the streams by the snowy, +pendent boughs, only to find another appalling hight rising before us. +Nothing but the hope of freedom enabled us to keep on our feet. Once, +when near a public road, our guide suddenly whispered. + +"Hist! Drop to the ground instantly!" + +Lying behind logs, we saw two or three horse-teams and sleds pass by, +and heard the conversation of the drivers. + +Our pilot was not agitated, for, like all the Union mountaineers, +danger had been so long a part of his every-day existence, that he had +no physical nervousness. But it was reported that the Guards would +be out to-day, so he was very wary and vigilant. We crossed the road +in the Indian mode, walking in single file, each man treading in the +footsteps of his immediate predecessor. No casual observer would have +suspected that it was the track of more than one man. + +At 4 P.M., we entered Tennessee, which, like the passage of the +New River, seemed another long stride toward home. Approaching a +settlement, we went far around through the woods, persuading ourselves +that we were unobserved. A mile beyond we reached a small log house, +where our friend was known, and a blooming, matronly woman, with genial +eyes, welcomed us. + +"Come in, all. I am very glad to see you. I thought you must be Yankees +when I heard of your approach, about half an hour ago." + +"How did you hear?" + +[Sidenote: MISTAKEN FOR CONFEDERATE GUARDS.] + +"A good many young men are lying out in this neighborhood, and my son +is one of them. He has not slept in the house for two years. He always +carries his rifle. At first, I was opposed to it, but now I am glad +to have him. They may murder him any day, and if they do, I at least +want him to kill some of the traitors first. Nobody can approach this +settlement, day or night, without being seen by some of these young +men, always on the watch. The Guard have come in twice, at midnight, +as fast as they could ride; but the news traveled before them, and +they found the birds flown. When you appeared in sight, the boys took +you for Rebels. My son and two others, lying behind logs, had their +rifles drawn on you not more than three hundred yards away. They were +very near shooting you, when they discovered that you had no arms, and +concluded you must be the right sort of people. In the distance you +look like Home Guards--part of you dressed as citizens, one in Rebel +uniform, and two wearing Yankee overcoats. You are unsafe traveling a +single mile through this region, without sending word beforehand who +you are." + +After dark we were shown to a barn, where we wrapped ourselves in +quilts. During the last twenty-four hours we had journeyed twenty-five +miles, equal to fifty upon level roads, and our eye-lids were very +heavy. + + XVIII. _Wednesday, January 4._ + +This settlement was intensely loyal, and admirably picketed by Union +women, children, and bushwhackers. We dined with the wife of a former +inmate of Castle Thunder. She told us that Lafayette Jones, whose +escape from that prison I have already recorded, remained in the Rebel +army only a few days, deserting from it to the Union lines, and then +coming back to his Tennessee home. + +[Sidenote: A REBEL GUERRILLA KILLED.] + +The Rebel guerrilla captain who originally captured him was notoriously +cruel, had burned houses, murdered Union men, and abused helpless +women. He took from Jones two hundred dollars in gold, promising to +forward it to his family, but never did so. After reaching home, +Jones sent a message to him that he must refund the money at once, +or be killed wherever found. Jones finally sought him. As they met, +the guerrilla drew a revolver and fired, but without wounding his +antagonist. Thereupon Jones shot him dead on his own threshold. The +Union people justified and applauded the deed. Jones was afterward +captain in a loyal Tennessee regiment. His father had died in a +Richmond dungeon, one of his brothers in an Alabama prison, and a +second had been hung by the Rebels. + +The woman told us that another guerrilla, peculiarly obnoxious to +the Loyalists, had disappeared early in November. A few days before +we arrived, his bones were found in the woods, with twenty-one +bullet-holes through his clothing. His watch and money were still +undisturbed in his pocket. Vengeance, not avarice, stimulated his +destroyers. + +[Sidenote: MEETING A FORMER FELLOW-PRISONER.] + +Here we met another of our Castle Thunder fellow-prisoners, named +Guy. The Richmond authorities knew he was a Union bushwhacker, and +had strong evidence against him, which would have cost him his life +if brought to trial. But he, too, under an assumed name, enlisted in +the Rebel army, deserted, returned to Tennessee, and resumed his old +pursuit as a hunter of men with new zeal and vigor. + +He and his companion were now armed with sixteen-shooter rifles, +revolvers, and bowie-knives. Guy's father and brother had both been +killed by the guerrillas, and he was bitter and unsparing. If he ever +fell into Rebel hands again, his life was not worth a rush-light. +But he was merry and jocular as if he had never heard of the King of +Terrors. I asked him how he now regarded his Richmond adventures. He +replied: + +"I would not take a thousand dollars in gold for the experience I had +while in prison; but I would not endure it again for ten thousand." + +Guy and his comrade were supposed to be "lying out," which suggested +silent and stealthy movements; but on leaving us they went yelling, +singing, and screaming up the valley, whooping like a whole tribe of +Indians. Occasionally they fired their rifles, as if their vocal organs +were not noisy enough. It was ludicrously strange deportment for hunted +fugitives. + +"Guy always goes through the country in that way," said the woman. "He +is very reckless and fearless. The Rebels know it, and give him a wide +field. He has killed a good many of them, first and last, and no doubt +they will murder him, sooner or later, as they did his father." + +[Sidenote: ALARM ABOUT REBEL CAVALRY.] + +At night, just as we were comfortably asleep in the barn, our host +awakened us, saying: + +"Five Rebel cavalry are reported approaching this neighborhood, with +three hundred more behind them, coming over the mountains from North +Carolina. I think it is true, but am not certain. I am so well known +as a Union man, that, if they do come, they will search my premises +thoroughly. There is another barn, much more secluded, a mile farther +up the valley, where you will be safer than here, and will compromise +nobody if discovered. If they arrive, you shall be informed before they +can reach you." + +Coleridge did not believe in ghosts, because he had seen too many +of them. So we were skeptical concerning the Rebel cavalry, having +heard too much of it. But we went to the other barn, and in its +ample straw-loft found a North Carolina refugee, with whom we slept +undisturbed. He deemed this place much safer than his home--a +gratifying indication to us that the danger was growing small by +degrees. + + XIX. _Thursday, January 5._ + +This morning, the good woman whose barn had sheltered us mended our +tattered clothing. Her husband was a soldier in the Union service. I +asked her: + +"How do you live and support your family?" + +"Very easily," she replied. "Last year, I did all my own housework, +and weaving, spinning, and knitting, and raised over a hundred bushels +of corn, with no assistance whatever except from this little girl, +eleven years old. The hogs run in the woods during the summer, feeding +themselves; so we are in no danger of starvation." + +Boothby's company, enhanced by the two Rebel deserters from Petersburg, +and a young conscript, formerly one of our prison-guards at Salisbury, +here rejoined us. Our entire party, numbering ten, started again at 3 +p.m. + +The road was over Stony Mountain, very rocky and steep. As we halted +wearily upon its summit, we overlooked a great waste of mountains, +intersected with green valleys of pine and fir, threaded by silver +streams. Our guide assured us that, at Carter's Dépôt, one hundred and +ten miles east of Knoxville, we should find Union troops. Soon after +dark, to our disappointment and indignation, he declared that he must +turn back without a moment's delay. His long-deferred explanation that +the young wife, whom he had left at his lonely log house, was about to +endure + + "The pleasing punishment which women bear," + +mollified our wrath, and we bade him good-by. + +[Sidenote: A STANCH OLD UNIONIST.] + +After dark we found our way, deviously, around several dwellings, +to the house of an old Union man. With his wife and three bouncing +daughters, he heartily welcomed us: + +"I am very glad to see you; I have been looking for you these two +hours." + +"Why did you expect us?" + +"We learned yesterday that there were ten Yankees, one in red breeches +and a Rebel uniform, over the mountain. Girls, make a fire in the +kitchen, and get supper for these gentlemen!" + +While we discussed the meal and a great bucket of rosy apples before +the roaring fire, our host--silver-haired, deep-chested, brawny-limbed, +a splendid specimen of physical manhood--poured out his heart. He +was devoted to the Union with a zeal passing the love of women. How +intensely he hated the Rebels! How his eyes flashed and dilated as he +talked of the old flag! How perfect his faith that he should live to +see it again waving triumphantly on his native mountains! One of his +sons had died fighting for his country, and two others were still in +the Union army. + +[Sidenote: THE MOST DANGEROUS POINT.] + +The old gentleman piloted us through the deep woods, for three miles, +to a friendly house. We were now near a rendezvous of Rebel guerrillas, +reported to be without conscience and without mercy. Their settlement +was known through that whole region as "Little Richmond." We must pass +within a quarter of a mile of them. It was feared that they might have +pickets out, and the point was deemed more dangerous than any since +leaving Salisbury. + +Our new friend, though an invalid, promptly rose from his bed to guide +us through the danger. His wife greeted us cordially, but was extremely +apprehensive--darting to and from the door, and in conversation +suddenly pausing to listen. When we started, she said, taking both my +hands in hers: + +"May God prosper you, and carry you safely through to those you love. +But you must be very cautious. Less than six weeks ago, my two brothers +started for the North by the same route; and when they reached Crab +Orchard, the Rebel guerrillas captured them, and murdered them in cold +blood." + +After leading us two miles, the guide stopped, and when all came up, he +whispered: + +"We are approaching the worst place. Let no man speak a word. Step +lightly as possible, while I keep as far ahead as you can see me. If +you hear any noise, dart out of sight at once. Should I be discovered +with you, it would be certain death to me. If found alone, I can tell +some story about sickness in my family." + +We crept softly behind him for two miles. Then, leading us through a +rocky pasture into the road, he said: + +"Thank God! I have brought another party of the right sort of people +past Little Richmond in safety. My health is broken, and I shall not +live long; but it is a great consolation to know that I have been able +to help some men who love the Union made by our fathers." + +Directing us to a stanch Unionist, a few miles beyond, he returned home. + +At three in the morning, we reached our destination. Davis and Boothby +did pioneer duty, going forward to the house, where they were received +by a clamor of dogs, which made the valleys ring. After a whispered +conference with the host, they returned and said: + +"There is a Rebel traveler spending the night here. We are to stay in +the barn until morning, when he will be gone." + +[Sidenote: THE ALL-DEVOURING VERMIN.] + +We burrowed in the warm hay-mow, and vainly essayed to sleep. The +all-devouring vermin by this time swarmed upon us, poisoning our blood +and stimulating every nerve, as we tossed wearily until long after +daylight. + + XX. _Friday, January 6._ + +At nine o'clock this morning our host came to the hay-loft and awoke us: + +"My troublesome guest is gone; walk down to breakfast." + +He was educated, intelligent, and had been a leader among the +"Conservative" or Union people, until compelled to acquiesce, +nominally, in the war. His house and family were pleasant. But while +we now began to approach civilization, the Union lines steadily +receded. He informed us that we would find no loyal troops east of +Jonesboro, ninety-eight miles from Knoxville, and probably none east of +Greenville, seventy-four miles from Knoxville. + +"But," said he, "you are out of the woods for the present. You are on +the border of the largest Union settlement in all the Rebel States. You +may walk for twenty-four miles by daylight on the public road. Look +out for strangers, Home Guards, or Rebel guerrillas; but you will find +every man, woman, and child, who lives along the route, a stanch and +faithful friend." + +With light hearts we started down the valley. It seemed strange to +travel the public road by daylight, visit houses openly, and look +people in the face. + +Our way was on the right bank of the Watauga, a broad, flashing stream, +walled in by abrupt cliffs, covered with pines and hemlocks. A woman +on horseback, with her little son on foot, accompanied us for several +miles, saying: + +"If you travel alone, you are in danger of being shot for Rebel +guerrillas." + +[Sidenote: MORE UNION SOLDIERS.] + +In the evening a Union man rowed us across the stream. On the left bank +our eyes were gladdened by three of our boys in blue--United States +soldiers at home on furlough. Seeing us in the distance, they leveled +their rifles, but soon discovered that we were not foes. + +Our host for the night beguiled the evening hours with stories of the +war; and again we enjoyed the luxury of beds. + + XXI. _Saturday, January 7._ + +[Sidenote: A WELL-FORTIFIED REFUGE.] + +A friend piloted us eight miles over the rough, snowy mountains, +avoiding public roads. In the afternoon, we found shelter at a white +frame house, nestling among the mountains, and fronted by a natural +lawn, dotted with firs. + +Here, for the first time, we were entirely safe. Any possible Rebel +raid must come from the south side of the river. The house was on the +north bank of the stream, which was too much swollen for fording, +and the only canoe within five miles was fastened on our shore. Thus +fortified on front, flank, and rear, we took our ease in the pleasant, +home-like farmhouse. + +Near the dwelling was a great spring, of rare beauty. Within an area +of twelve feet, a dozen streams, larger than one's arm, came gushing +and boiling up through snow-white sand. By the aid of a great fire, +and an enormous iron kettle, we boiled all our clothing, and at last +vanquished the troublesome enemies which, brought from the prison, had +so long disturbed our peace. + +Then, bathing in the icy waters, we came out renewed, like the Syrian +leper, and, in soft, clean beds, enjoyed the sweet sleep of childhood. + + XXII. _Sunday, January 8._ + +A new guide took us eight miles to a log barn in the woods. After +dining among, but not upon, the husks, we started again, an old lady +of sixty guiding us through the woods toward her house. Age had not +withered her, nor custom staled, for she walked at a pace which made it +difficult to keep in sight of her. + +At dark, in the deep pines, behind her lonely dwelling, we kindled a +fire, supped, and, with fifteen or twenty companions, who had joined us +so noiselessly that they seemed to spring from earth, we started on. + + + + +CHAPTER XLVI. + + If I have wit enough to get out of this wood, I have enough + to serve mine own turn.--MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM. + +[Sidenote: DAN ELLIS, THE UNION GUIDE.] + + +For many months before leaving prison, we had been familiar with the +name of DAN ELLIS--a famous Union guide, who, since the beginning of +the war, had done nothing but conduct loyal men to our lines. + +Ellis is a hero, and his life a romance. He had taken through, in +all, more than four thousand persons. He had probably seen more +adventure--in fights and races with the Rebels, in long journeys, +sometimes bare-footed and through the snow, or swimming rivers full of +floating ice--than any other person living. + +He never lost but one man, who was swooped up through his own +heedlessness. The party had traveled eight or ten days, living +upon nothing but parched corn. Dan insisted that a man could walk +twenty-five miles a day through snow upon parched corn just as well as +upon any other diet--if he only thought so. I feel bound to say that I +have tried it and do not think so. This person held the same opinion. +He revolted against the parched-corn diet, vowing that he would go to +the first house and get an honest meal, if he was captured for it. He +went to the first house, obtained the meal, and was captured. + +After we had traveled fifty miles, everybody said to us, "If you can +only find Dan Ellis, and do just as he tells you, you will be certain +to get through." + +[Sidenote: IN GOOD HANDS AT LAST.] + +We _did_ find Dan Ellis. On this Sunday night, one hundred and +thirty-four miles from our lines, greatly broken down, we reached a +point on the road, waited for two hours, when along came Dan Ellis, +with a party of seventy men--refugees, Rebel deserters, Union soldiers +returning from their homes within the enemy's lines, and escaping +prisoners. About thirty of them were mounted and twenty armed. + +Like most men of action, Dan was a man of few words. When our story had +been told him, he said to his comrades: + +"Boys, here are some gentlemen who have escaped from Salisbury, and are +almost dead from the journey. They are our people. They have suffered +in our Cause. They are going to their homes in our lines. We can't ride +and let these men walk. Get down off your horses, and help them up." + +Down they came, and up we went; and then we pressed along at a terrible +pace. + +In low conversation, as we rode through the darkness, I learned from +Dan and his companions something of his strange, eventful history. At +the outbreak of the war, he was a mechanic in East Tennessee. After +once going through the mountains to the Union lines, he displayed rare +capacity for woodcraft, and such vigilance, energy, and wisdom, that he +fell naturally into the pursuit of a pilot. + +Six or eight of his men, who had been with him from the beginning, were +almost equally familiar with the routes. They lived near him, in Carter +County, Tennessee, in open defiance of the Rebels. When at home, they +usually slept in the woods, and never parted from their arms for a +single moment. + +As the Rebels would show them no mercy, they could not afford to be +captured. For three years there had been a standing offer of five +thousand dollars for Dan Ellis's head. During that period, except when +within our lines, he had never permitted his Henry rifle, which would +fire sixteen times without reloading, to go beyond the reach of his +hand. + +[Illustration: DAN. ELLIS.] + +[Sidenote: An Unequal Battle--Ellis's Bravery.] + +Once, when none of his comrades, except Lieutenant Treadaway, were +with him, fourteen of the Rebels came suddenly upon them. Ellis and +Treadaway dropped behind logs and began to fire their rifles. As the +enemy pressed them, they fell slowly back into a forest, continuing +to shoot from behind trees. The unequal skirmish lasted three hours. +Several Rebels were wounded, and at last they retreated, leaving the +two determined Unionists unharmed and masters of the field. + +Dan usually made the trip to our lines once in three or four weeks, +leading through from forty to five hundred persons. Before starting, he +and his comrades would make a raid upon the Rebels in some neighboring +county, take from them all the good horses they could find, and, after +reaching Knoxville, sell them to the United States quartermaster. + +Thus they obtained a livelihood, though nothing more. The refugees and +escaping prisoners were usually penniless, and Ellis, whose sympathies +flowed toward all loyal men like water, was compelled to feed them +during the entire journey. He always remunerated Union citizens for +provisions purchased from them. + +To-night was so cold, that our sore, lame joints would hardly support +us upon our horses. Dan's rapid marching was the chief secret of his +success. He seemed determined to keep at least one day ahead of all +Rebel pursuers. + +Now that we were safe in his hands, I accompanied the party +mechanically, with no further questions or anxiety about routes; but I +chanced to hear Treadaway ask him: + +"Don't you suppose the Nolechucky is too high for us to ford?" + +"Very likely," replied Dan; "we will stop and inquire of Barnet." + +Upon the mule which I rode, a sack of corn served for a saddle. I was +not accomplished in the peculiar gymnastics required to sit easily upon +it and keep it in place. + +[Sidenote: LOST!--A PERILOUS BLUNDER.] + +Thirsty and feverish, I stopped at the crossing of Rock Creek for a +draught of water and to adjust the corn-sack. Attempting to remount, I +was as stiff and awkward as an octogenarian, and my restive mule would +not stand for a moment. I finally succeeded in climbing upon his back +two or three minutes after the last horseman disappeared up the bank. + +We had been traveling across forests, over hills, through swamps, +without regard to thoroughfares; but I rode carelessly on, supposing +that my mule's instinct would keep him on the fresh scent of the +cavalcade. When we had jogged along for ten minutes, awakening from a +little reverie, I listened vainly to hear the footfalls of the horses. +All was silent. I dismounted, and examined the half-frozen road, but no +hoof-marks could be seen upon it. + +I was lost! It might mean recapture--it might mean reimprisonment and +death, for the terms were nearly synonymous. I was ignorant about the +roads, and whether I was in a Union or Rebel settlement. + +To search for that noiseless, stealthy party would be useless; so I +rode back to the creek, tied my mule to a laurel in the dense thicket, +and sat down upon a log, pondering on my stupid heedlessness, which +seemed likely to meet its just reward. I remembered that Davis owed his +original capture to a mule, and wondered if the same cause was about to +produce for me a like result. + +Mentally anathematizing my long-eared brute, I gave him a part of the +corn, and threw myself down behind a log, directly beside the road. +This would enable me to hear the horse's feet of any one who might +return for me. In a few minutes I was sound asleep. + +When awakened by the cold, my watch told me that it was three o'clock. +Running to and fro in the thicket until my blood was warmed, I resumed +my position behind the log, and slept until daylight was gleaming +through the forest. + +[Sidenote: A MOST FORTUNATE ENCOUNTER.] + +Walking back to the creek, I reconnoitered a log dwelling, so small and +humble that its occupant was probably loyal. In a few minutes, through +the early dawn, an old man, with a sack of corn upon his shoulder, +came out of the house. He evinced no surprise at seeing me. Looking +earnestly into his eyes, I asked him: + +"Are you a Union man or a Secessionist?" He replied: + +"I don't know who you are; but I am a Union man, and always have been." + +"I am a stranger and in trouble. I charge you to tell me the truth." + +"I do tell you the truth, and I have two sons in the United States +army." + +His manner appeared sincere, and he carried a letter of recommendation +in his open, honest face. I told him my awkward predicament. He +reassured me at once. + +"I know Dan Ellis as well as my own brother. No truer man ever lived. +What route was he going to take?" + +"I heard him say something about Barnet's." + +"That is a ford only five miles from here. Barnet is one of the right +sort of people. This road will take you to his house. Good-by, my +friend, and don't get separated from your party again." + +[Sidenote: REJOINING DAN AND HIS PARTY.] + +I certainly did not need the last injunction. Reaching the ford, Barnet +told me that our party had spent several hours in crossing, and was +encamped three miles ahead. He took me over the river in his canoe, +my mule swimming behind. Half a mile down the road. I met Ellis and +Treadaway. + +"Ah ha!" said Dan, "we were looking for you. I told the boys not to be +uneasy. There are men in our crowd who would have blundered upon some +Rebel, told all about us, and so alarmed the country and brought out +the Home Guards; but I knew you were discreet enough to take care of +yourself, and not endanger us. Let us breakfast at this Union house." + + XXIII. _Monday, January 9._ + +"To-day," said Dan Ellis, "we must cross the Big Butte of Rich +Mountain." + +"How far is it?" I asked. + +"It is generally called ten miles; but I suspect it is about fifteen, +and a rather hard road at that." + +About fifteen, and a rather hard road! It seemed fifty, and a very _Via +Dolorosa_. + +We started at 11 A.M. For three miles we followed a winding creek, the +horsemen on a slow trot, crossing the stream a dozen times; the footmen +keeping up as best they could, and shivering from their frequent baths +in the icy waters. + +[Sidenote: A TERRIBLE MOUNTAIN MARCH.] + +We turned up the sharp side of a snowy mountain. For hours and hours +we toiled along, up one rocky, pine-covered hill, down a little +declivity, then up another hill, then down again, but constantly +gaining in hight. The snow was ten inches deep. Dan averred he had +never crossed the mountain when the travel was so hard; but he pushed +on, as if death were behind and heaven before. + +The rarity of the air at that elevation increased my pneumonic +difficulty, and rendered my breath very short. Ellis furnished me with +a horse the greater part of the way; but the hills, too steep for +riding, compelled us to climb, our poor animals following behind. The +pithy proverb, that "it is easy to walk when one leads a horse by the +bridle," was hardly true in my case, for it seemed a hundred times +to-day as if I could not possibly take another step, but must fall out +by the roadside, and let the company go on. But after my impressive +lesson of last night, I was hardly likely to halt so long as any +locomotive power remained. + +Our men and animals, in single file, extended for more than a mile in a +weary, tortuous procession, which dragged its slow length along. After +hours which appeared interminable, and efforts which seemed impossible, +we halted upon a high ridge, brushed the snow from the rocks, and +sat down to a cold lunch, beside a clear, bright spring which gushed +vigorously from the ground. I ventured to ask: + +"Are we near the top?" + +"About half way up," was Dan's discouraging reply. + +"Come, come, boys; we must pull out!" urged Davis; and, following that +irrepressible invalid, we moved forward again. + +As we climbed hill after hill, thinking we had nearly reached the +summit, beyond us would still rise another mountain a little higher +than the one we stood upon. They seemed to stretch out to the crack of +doom. + +[Sidenote: A STORM INCREASES THE DISCOMFORTS.] + +To increase the discomfort, a violent rain came on. The very memory +of this day is wearisome. I pause, thankful to end only a chapter, in +the midst of an experience which, judged by my own feelings, appeared +likely to end life itself. + + + + +CHAPTER XLVII. + + It hath been the longest night That e'er I watched, and the + most heaviest.--TWO GENTLEMEN OF VERONA. + + ----But for this miracle--I mean our preservation--few in + millions Can speak like us.--TEMPEST. + + +As I toiled, staggering, up each successive hill, it seemed that this +terrible climbing and this torturing day would never end. But Necessity +and Hope work miracles, and strength proved equal to the hour. + +At 4 P.M. the clouds broke, the sun burst out, as we stood on the icy +summit, revealing a grand view of mountains, valleys, and streams on +every side. + +After a brief halt, we began the descent. Our path, trodden only by +refugees and prisoners, led by Dan Ellis, had been worn so deep by the +water, that, in many places, our bodies were half concealed! How Dan +rushed down those steep declivities! It was easy to follow now, and I +kept close behind him. + +[Sidenote: FORDING CREEKS IN THE DARKNESS.] + +Twilight, dusk, darkness, came on, and again the rain began to +pour down. We could not see each other five yards away. We pressed +steadily on. We reached the foot of the mountain, and were in a dark, +pine-shadowed, winding road, which frequently crossed a swollen, +foaming creek. At first Dan hunted for logs; but the darkness made this +slow work. He finally abandoned it, and, whenever we came to a stream, +plunged in up to the middle, dashed through, and rushed on, with +dripping garments. Our cavalcade and procession must have stretched +back fully three miles; but every man endeavored to keep within +shouting distance of his immediate predecessor. + +[Sidenote: PROSPECT OF A DREARY NIGHT.] + +"We shall camp to-night," said Dan, "at a lonely house two miles from +the foot of the mountain." + +Reaching the place, we found that, since his last journey, this +dwelling had tumbled down, and nothing was left but a labyrinth of +timbers and boards. We laboriously propped up a section of the roof. +It proved a little protection from the dripping rain, and, while the +rest of the party slowly straggled in, Treadaway went to the nearest +Union house, to learn the condition of the country. In fifteen minutes +we heard the tramp of his returning horse, and could see a fire-brand +glimmering through the darkness. + +"Something wrong here," said Dan. "There must be danger, or he would +not bring fire, expecting us to stay out of doors such a night as this. +What is the news, Treadaway?" + +"Bad enough," replied the lieutenant, dismounting from his dripping +horse, carefully nursing, between two pieces of board, the glowing +firebrand. "The Rebel guerrillas are thick and vigilant. A party of +them passed here only this evening. I tell you, Dan Ellis, we have got +to keep a sharp eye out, if we don't want to be picked up." + +All who could find room huddled under the poorly propped roof, which +threatened to fall and crush them. Dan and his immediate comrades, with +great readiness, improvised a little camp for themselves, so thatching +it with boards and shingles that it kept the water off their heads. +They were soon asleep, grasping their inseparable rifles and near their +horses, from which they never permitted themselves to be far away. + +With my two journalistic friends, I deemed rest nearly as important as +safety, for we needed to accumulate strength. We found our way through +the darkness to the nearest Union house. There was a great fire blazing +on the hearth; but the little room was crowded with our weary and +soaking companions, who had anticipated us. + +[Sidenote: SLEEPING AMONG THE HUSKS.] + +We crossed the creek to another dwelling, where the occupant, a +life-long invalid, was intensely loyal. With his wife and little son, +he greeted us very warmly, adding: + +"I wish I could keep you in my house; but it would not be safe. We will +give you quilts, and you may sleep among the husks in the barn, where +you will be warm and dry. If the Guards come during the night, they +will be likely to search the house first, and the boy or the woman can +probably give you warning. But, if they do find you, of course you will +tell them that we are not privy to your concealment, because, you know, +it would be a matter of life and death for me." + +We found the husks dry and fragrant, and soon forgot our weariness. + + XXIV. _Tuesday, January 10._ + +Breakfasting before daylight, that we might not be seen leaving the +house, we sought our rendezvous. Those who had remained in camp were a +wet, cold, sorry-looking party. + +By nine o'clock, several, who had been among the Union people in the +neighborhood, returned, and held a consultation. The accounts of all +agreed that, fifteen or twenty miles ahead, the danger was great, and +the country exceedingly difficult to pass through. Moreover, the Union +forces still appeared to recede as we approached the places where +they were reputed to be. We were now certain that there were none at +Jonesboro, none at Greenville, probably none east of Strawberry Plains. + +[Sidenote: TURNING BACK IN DISCOURAGEMENT.] + +Eight or ten of our party determined to turn back. Among them were +three Union soldiers, who had seen service and peril. But they said to +us, as they turned to retrace their steps over Rich Mountain: + +"It is useless to go on. The party will never get through in the world. +Not a single man of it will reach Knoxville, unless he waits till the +road is clear." + +Ellis and Treadaway listened to them with a quiet smile. The perils +ahead did not disturb our serenity, because they were so much +lighter than the perils behind. We had left horrors to which all +future possibilities were a mercy. We had looked in at the windows +of Death, and stood upon the verge of the Life To Be. We doubted not +that the difficulties were greatly magnified, and all dangers looked +infinitesimal, along the path leading toward home and freedom. + +Among those who went back was a North Carolina citizen, accompanied +by a little son, the child of his old age. Reluctant to trust himself +again to the tender mercies of the Rebels, he was unaccustomed to the +war-path, and decided to return to the ills he had, rather than fly +to others which he knew not of. Purchasing one of his horses, I was +no longer dependent upon the kindness of Ellis and his comrades for a +steed. + +Before noon we started, following secluded valley paths. The rain +ceased and the day was pleasant. At a Union dwelling we came upon the +hot track of eight guerrillas, who had been there only an hour before. +The Rebel-hunting instinct waxed strong within Dan, and, taking eight +of his own men, he started in fierce pursuit, leaving Treadaway in +charge of the company. + +Before dark we reached Kelly's Gap, camping in an old orchard, beside +a large farm-house with many ample out-buildings. The place was now +deserted. One of our guides explained: + +"A Union man lived here, and he was hanged last year upon that +apple-tree. They cut him down, however, before he died, and he fled +from the country." + +Tying our horses to the trees, we parched corn for supper. Fires were +kindled in the buildings, giving the place a genial appearance as night +closed in. + +[Sidenote: A REBEL PRISONER BROUGHT IN.] + +After dark, Dan and his comrades returned. The whole party of +guerrillas had very narrowly escaped them. They captured one, and +brought him in a prisoner. One of the out-buildings was cleared, and +he was placed in it, under two volunteer guards armed with rifles. He +was not more than twenty-two years old, and had a heavy, stolid face. +He steadily denied that he was a guerrilla, asserting that he had been +in the Rebel army, had deserted from it, taken the oath of allegiance +to the United States while at Knoxville, and was now trying to live +quietly. + +Some of Ellis's men believed that he had broken his oath of allegiance, +and was the most obnoxious of the guerrillas. In his presence they +discussed freely the manner of disposing of him. Some advocated taking +him to Knoxville, and turning him over to the authorities. Others, who +seemed to be a majority, urged taking him out into the orchard and +shooting him. This counsel seemed likely to prevail. Several of the men +who gave it had seen brothers or fathers murdered by the Rebels. + +The prisoner had little intelligence, and talked only when addressed. +I could but admire the external stolidity with which he listened to +these discussions. One of his judges and would-be executioners asked +him: + +"Well, sir, what have you to say for yourself?" + +"I am in your hands," he replied, without moving a muscle; "you can +kill me if you want to; but I have kept the oath of allegiance, and I +am innocent of the charges you bring against me." + +After some further debate, a Union officer from East Tennessee said. + +"He may deserve death, and he probably does. But we are not murderers, +and he shall not be shot. I will use my own revolver on anybody who +attempts it. Let us hear no more of these taunts. No brave man will +insult a prisoner." + +It was at last decided to take him to Knoxville. He bore this decision +with the same silence he had manifested at the prospect of death. + +During this scene Dan was absent. He had gone to the nearest Union +house to learn the news, for every loyal family in a range of many +hundred miles knew and loved him. We, very weary, lay down to sleep +in an old orchard, with our saddles for pillows. Our reflections were +pleasant. We were only seventy-nine miles from the Union lines. We +progressed swimmingly, and had even begun to regulate the domestic +affairs of the border! + +[Sidenote: AN ALARM AT MIDNIGHT.] + +Before midnight some one shook my arm. I rubbed my eyes open and looked +up. There was Dan Ellis. + +"Boys, we must saddle instantly. We have walked right into a nest of +Rebels. Several hundred are within a few miles; eighty are in this +immediate vicinity. They are lying in ambush for Colonel Kirk and his +men. It is doubtful whether we can ever get out of this. We must divide +into two parties. The footmen must take to the mountains; we who are +riding, and in much greater danger--as horses make more noise, and +leave so many traces--must press on at once, if we ever hope to." + +The word was passed in low tones. Our late prisoner, no longer an +object of interest, was allowed to wander away at his own sweet will. +Flinging our saddles upon our weary horses, we were in motion almost +instantly. My place was near the middle of the cavalcade. The man just +before me was riding a white horse, which enabled me to follow him with +ease. + +We galloped along at Dan's usual pace, with sublime indifference to +roads--up and down rocky hills, across streams, through swamps, over +fences--everywhere but upon public thoroughfares. + +[Sidenote: A YOUNG LADY FOR A GUIDE.] + +I supposed we had traveled three miles, when Davis fell back from the +front, and said to me: + +"That young lady rides very well, does she not?" + +"What young lady?" + +"The young lady who is piloting us." + +I had thought Dan Ellis was piloting us, and rode forward to see about +the young lady. + +There she was! I could not scrutinize her face in the darkness, but it +was said to be comely. I could see that her form was graceful, and the +ease and firmness with which she sat on her horse would have been a +lesson for a riding-master. + +[Sidenote: THE NAMELESS HEROINE.] + +She was a member of the loyal family to which Dan had gone for news. +The moment she learned his need, she volunteered to pilot him out of +that neighborhood, where she was born and bred, and knew every acre. +The only accessible horse (one belonging to a Rebel officer, but just +then kept in her father's barn) was brought out and saddled. She +mounted, came to our camp at midnight, and was now stealthily guiding +us--avoiding farm-houses where the Rebels were quartered, going round +their camps, evading their pickets. + +She led us for seven miles. Then, while we remained in the wood, she +rode forward over the long bridge which spanned the Nolechucky River +(now to be crossed a second time), to see if there were any guards +upon it; went to the first Union house beyond, to learn whether the +roads were picketed; came back, and told us the coast was clear. Then +she rode by our long line toward her home. Had it been safe to cheer, +we should certainly have given three times three for the NAMELESS +HEROINE[19] who did us such vital kindness. "Benisons upon her dear +head forever!" + +[19] Nameless no more. The substantial closing of the war, while these +pages are in press, renders it safe to give her name--Miss MELVINA +STEVENS. + +[Illustration: THE "NAMELESS HEROINE" PILOTING THE ESCAPING PRISONERS +OUT OF A REBEL AMBUSH.] + + + + +CHAPTER XLVIII. + + ----Fortune is merry, And in this mood will give us any + thing.--JULIUS CÆSAR. + + The night is long that never finds the day.--MACBETH. + +[Sidenote: AMONG THE DELECTABLE MOUNTAINS.] + + +Relieved again from immediate danger, every thing seemed like a blessed +dream. I was haunted by the fear of waking to find myself in the old +bunk at Salisbury, with its bare and squalid surroundings. + +We were often compelled to walk and lead our weary animals. The rushing +creeks were perilous to cross by night. The rugged mountains were +appalling to our aching limbs and frost-bitten feet. The Union houses, +where we obtained food and counsel, were often humble and rude. But we +had vanquished the Giant Despair, and come up from the Valley of the +Shadow of Death. To our eyes, each icy stream was the River of Life. +The frowning cliffs, with their cruel rocks, were the very Delectable +Mountains; and every friendly log cabin was the Palace called Beautiful. + +After our fair guide left us, Dan's foot was on his native heath. +Familiar with the road, he pressed on like a Fate, without mercy to man +or beast. After the late heavy rains it was now growing intensely cold. +A crust, not yet hard enough to bear, was forming upon the mud, and at +every step our poor horses sunk to the fetlocks. + +Even with frequent walking I found it difficult to keep up the +circulation in my own sensitive feet; but the severe admonition of one +frost-bite had taught me to be very cautious. A young North Carolinian, +riding a mule, wore nothing upon his feet except a pair of cotton +stockings; that he kept from freezing is one of the unsolved mysteries +of human endurance. + +Passing a few miles north of Greenville, at four o'clock in the +morning, we had accomplished twenty-five miles, despite all our +weakness and weariness. + +This brought us to Lick Creek, which proved too much swollen for +fording. An old Loyalist, living on the bank, assured us that +guerrillas were numerous and vigilant. Should we never leave them +behind? + +Ascending the stream for three miles, we crossed upon the only bridge +in that whole region. Here, at least, our rear was protected; because, +if pursued, we could tear up the planks. Soon after dawn, upon a +hill-side in the pine woods, we dismounted, and huddled around our +fires, a weary, hungry, morose, and melancholy company. + +[Sidenote: SEPARATION FROM "JUNIUS."] + + XXV. _Wednesday, January 11._ + +As we drowsed upon the pine leaves, I asked: + +"When shall we join the footmen?" + +"After we reach Knoxville," was Dan Ellis's reply. + +This was a source of uneasiness to Davis and myself, because we had +left "Junius" behind. He was offered a horse when we started, at +midnight. Supposing, like ourselves, that the parties would re-unite +in a few hours, and tired of riding without a saddle, he declined, and +cast his lot among the footmen. It was the first separation since our +capture. Our fates had been so long cast together, that we meant to +keep them united until deliverance should come for one or both, either +through life or death. But Treadaway was an excellent pilot, and the +footmen, able to take paths through the mountains where no cavalry +could follow them, would probably have less difficulty than we. + +[Sidenote: UNION WOMEN SCRUTINIZING THE YANKEE.] + +I found an old man splitting rails, down in a wooded ravine two or +three hundred yards from our camp. While he went to his house, a mile +distant, to bring me food, I threw myself on the ground beside his +fire and slept like a baby. In an hour, he returned with a basket +containing a great plate of the inevitable bread and pork. He was +accompanied by his wife and daughter, who wanted to look at the Yankee. +Coarse-featured and hard-handed, they were smoking long pipes; but they +were not devoid of womanly tenderness, and earnestly asked if they +could do any thing to help us. + +About noon we broke camp, and compelled our half-dead horses to move +on. The road was clearer and safer than we anticipated. At the first +farm which afforded corn, we stopped two or three hours to feed and +rest the poor brutes. + +Three of us rode forward to a Union house, and asked for dinner. The +woman, whose husband belonged to the Sixteenth (loyal) Tennessee +Infantry, prepared it at once; but it was an hour before we fully +convinced her that we were not Rebels in disguise. + +We passed through Russelville soon after dark, and, two miles beyond, +made a camp in the deep woods. The night was very cold, and despite the +expostulations of Dan Ellis, who feared they belonged to a Union man, +we gathered and fired huge piles of rails, one on either side of us. +Making a bed between them of the soft, fragrant twigs of the pine, we +supped upon burnt corn in the ear. By replenishing our great fires once +an hour we spent the night comfortably. + + XXVI. _Thursday, January 12._ + +At our farm-house breakfast this morning, a sister of Lieutenant +Treadaway was our hostess. She gave us an inviting meal, in which +coffee, sugar, and butter, which had long been only reminiscences to +us, were the leading constituents. + +By ten we were again upon the road. Two or three of our armed men kept +the advance as scouts, but we now journeyed with comparative impunity. + +[Sidenote: "SLIDE DOWN OFF THAT HORSE."] + +Some of our young men, who had long been hunted by the Rebels, embraced +every possible opportunity of turning the tables. No haste, weariness, +or danger could induce them to omit following the track of guerrillas, +wherever there was reasonable hope of finding the game. On the road +to-day, one of these footmen met a citizen riding a fine horse. + +"What are you, Southerner or Union?" asked the boy, playing with the +hammer of his rifle. + +"Well," replied the old Tennesseean, a good deal alarmed, "I have kept +out of the war from the beginning; I have not helped either side." + +"Come! come! That will never do. You don't take me for a fool, do you? +You never could have lived in this country without being either one +thing or the other. Are you Union or Secession?" + +"I voted for Secession." + +"Tell the entire truth." + +"Well, sir, I do; I have two sons in Johnson's army. I was an original +Secessionist, and I am as good a Southern man as you can find in the +State of Tennessee." + +"All right, my old friend; just slide down off that horse." + +"What do you mean?" + +"I mean that you are just the man I have been looking for, in walking +about a hundred miles--a good Southerner with a good horse! I am a +Yankee; we are all Yankees; so slide down, and be quick about it." + +Accompanied by the clicking of the rifle, the injunction was not to +be despised. The rider came down, the boy mounted and galloped up +the road, while the old citizen walked slowly homeward, with many a +longing, lingering look behind. + +We traveled twenty-five miles to-day, and at night made our camp in the +pine woods near Friend's Station. + +[Sidenote: FRIENDLY WORDS BUT HOSTILE EYES.] + +As the country was now comparatively safe, Davis and myself went in +pursuit of beds. At the first house, two women assured us that they +were good Union people, and very sorry they had not a single vacant +couch. Their words were unexceptionable, but I could not see the +welcome in their eyes. We afterward inquired, and found that they were +violent Rebels. + +The next dwelling was a roomy old farm-house, with pleasant and +generous surroundings. In answer to our rap, a white-haired patriarch +of seventy came to the door. + +"Can you give us supper and lodging to-night, and breakfast in the +morning? We will pay you liberally, and be greatly obliged beside." + +"I should be glad to entertain you," he replied, in tremulous, childish +treble, "but to-night my daughters are all gone to a frolic. I have no +one in the house except my wife, who, like myself, is old and feeble." + +[Sidenote: HOSPITALITIES OF A LOYAL PATRIARCH.] + +The lady, impelled by curiosity, now appearing, we repeated the request +to her, with all the suavity and persuasiveness at our command, for we +were hungry and tired, and the place looked inviting. She dryly gave +us the same answer, but began to talk a little. Presently we again +inquired: + +"Will you be good enough to accommodate us, or must we look farther?" + +"What are you, anyhow?" + +"Union men--Yankees, escaped from the Salisbury prison." + +"Why didn't you say so before? Of course I can give you supper! Come +in, all of you!" The old lady prepared us the most palatable meal we +had yet found, and told us the usual stories of the war. For hours, +by the log fire, we talked with the aged couple, who had three sons +carrying muskets in the Union army, and who loved the Cause with +earnest, enthusiastic devotion. We were no longer apprehensive; for +they assured us that the Rebels had never yet searched their premises. + +In this respect they had been singularly fortunate. Theirs was the only +one among the hundreds of Union houses we entered, which had not been +despoiled by Rebel marauders. More than once the Confederates had taken +from them grain and hay to the value of hundreds of dollars; but their +dwelling had always been respected. + + XXVII. _Friday, January 13._ + +My poor steed gave signs of approaching dissolution; and I asked the +first man I saw by the roadside: + +"Would you like a horse?" + +"Certainly, stranger." + +"Very well, take this one." + +I handed him the bridle, and he led the animal away with a look of +wonder; but it could not have taken him long to comprehend the nature +of my generosity. Several other horses in the party had died or were +left behind as worthless. + +Our journey--originally estimated at two hundred miles--had now grown +into two hundred and ninety-five by the roads. In view of our devious +windings, we deemed three hundred and forty miles a very moderate +estimate of the distance we had traveled. + +[Sidenote: "OUT OF THE MOUTH OF HELL."] + +At ten o'clock on the morning of this twenty-seventh day, came our +great deliverance. It was at Strawberry Plains, fifteen miles east of +Knoxville. Here--after a final march of seven miles, in which our heavy +feet and aching limbs grew wonderfully light and agile--in silence, +with bowed heads, with full hearts and with wet eyes, we saluted the +Old Flag.[20] + +[20] KNOXVILLE, TENNESSEE, January 13, 1865. + + "Out of the jaws of Death; out of the mouth of Hell." + + ALBERT D. RICHARDSON. + + _Tribune, January 14, 1865._ + + + + +A +SONG FOR THE "NAMELESS HEROINE" +WHO AIDED THE ESCAPING PRISONERS. + +"Benisons on her dear head forever." + +Words and Music composed by B. R. HANBY. + +(Published by JOHN CHURCH, JR., 66 West Fourth Street, Cincinnati, +Ohio.) + + 1. + Out of the jaws of death, + Out of the mouth of hell, + Weary and hungry, and fainting and sore, + Fiends on the track of them, + Fiends at the back of them, + Fiends all around but an an-gel be-fore. + + _CHORUS._ + Fiends all a-round but an an-gel be-fore! + Blessings be thine, loyal maid, ev-er-more! + Fiends all around, but an an-gel be-fore, + Blessings be thine, lo-yal maid, ev-er-more. + + 2. + Out by the mountain path, + Down thro' the darksome glen, + Heedless of foes, nor at dan-ger dismayed, + Sharing their doubtful fate, + Daring the tyrant's hate, + Heart of a lion, though form of a maid; + + _CHORUS._ + Hail to the an-gel who goes on be-fore, + Blessings be thine, loyal maid, ev-er-more! + Hail to the an-gel who goes on be-fore, + Blessings be thine, lo-yal maid, ev-er-more. + + 3. + "Nameless," for foes may hear, + But by our love for thee, + Soon our bright sabers shall blush with their gore. + Then shall our banner free, + Wave, maiden, over thee: + Then, noble girl, thou'lt be nameless no more. + + _CHORUS._ + Then we shall hail thee from moun-tain to shore, + Bless thy brave heart, loyal maid, ev-er-more! + Then we shall hail thee from moun-tain to shore, + Bless thy brave heart, lo-yal maid, ev-er-more. + +[Illustration: THE "NAMELESS HEROINE."] + +[Transcribers' Note: +Spelling has not been modernized, and inconsistent hyphenation is as in +the original. The oe ligature is rendered [oe]. Italics are rendered +between underscores, e.g., _italics_. Small caps are rendered with all +caps e.g., SMALL CAPS. Superscripts are rendered with carat e.g., e=mc^2. + +Apparent printer's errors have been corrected. The following table +lists changes made by the transcribers.] + + Transcriber's Changes + +----+--------------+------------+ + |PAGE|ORIGINAL |CHANGED TO | + +----+--------------+------------+ + | 9|People |People. | + | 12|Freedom. |Freedom.-- | + | 29|business?' |business?" | + | 46|interesting |interesting.| + | 49|sieze |seize | + | 50|gentleman |gentlemen | + | 82|Sargeant |Seargeant | + | 110|reply |reply. | + | 110|nabbed!' |nabbed!" | + | 123|Tribune? |Tribune?" | + | 171|'Gu rie |Guthrie | + | 211|Parlia-liament|Parliament | + | 223|IIer |Her | + | 228|feels |Feels | + | 230|care lessly |carelessly | + | 238|briddle |bridle | + | 240|shubbery |shrubbery | + | 267|whose |Whose | + | 267|satis faction |satisfaction| + | 280|have'nt |haven't | + | 300|angry.' |angry." | + | 311|Douglass |Douglas | + | 312|Douglass |Douglas | + | 313|Douglass |Douglas | + | 336|cortége |cortège | + | 370|Gaurds |Guards | + | 375|attraced |attracted | + | 378|curreny |currency | + | 501|suposed |supposed | + +----+--------------+------------+ + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's The Secret Service., by Albert D. Richardson + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 44865 *** |