IN THE WOODS AT CHANCELLORSVILLE.
It is no easy matter to describe a long day's march to one who
knows nothing of the hardships of a soldier's life. That a body of
troops marched some twenty-five or thirty miles on a certain day
from daylight to midnight, from one point to another, seems, to one
who has not tried it, no great undertaking. Thirty miles! It is
but an hour's ride in the cars. Nor can the single pedestrian, who
easily covers greater distances in less time, have a full idea of
the fatigue of a soldier as he throws himself down by the roadside,
utterly exhausted, when the day's march is done.
Unnumbered circumstances combine to test the soldier's powers of
endurance to the very utmost. He has, in the first place, a heavy
load to carry. His knapsack, haversack, canteen, ammunition,
musket, and accoutrements are by no means a light matter at the
outset, and they grow heavier with every additional mile of the
road. So true is this, that, in deciding what of our clothing to
take along on a march and what to throw away, we soon learned to
be guided by the soldiers' proverb that "what weighs an ounce in
the morning weighs a pound at night." Then, too, the soldier is not
master of his own movements, as is the solitary pedestrian; for he
cannot pick his way, nor husband his strength by resting when and
where he may choose. He marches generally "four abreast," sometimes
at double-quick, when the rear is closing up, and again at a most
provokingly slow pace when there is some impediment on the road
ahead. Often his canteen is empty, no water is to be had, and he
marches on in a cloud of dust, with parched throat and lips and
trembling limbs,--on and on, and still on, until about the midnight
hour, at the final "Halt!" he drops to the ground like a shot,
feverish, irritable, exhausted in body and soul.
It would seem a shame and a folly to take troops thus utterly worn
out, and hurl them at midnight into a battle the issue of which
hangs trembling in the balance. Yet this was what they came pretty
near doing with us, after our long march from four miles below
Fredericksburg to the extreme right of the army at Chancellorsville.
[Illustration: A SURGEON WRITING UPON THE POMMEL OF HIS SADDLE AN
ORDER FOR AN AMBULANCE.]
I have a very indistinct and cloudy recollection of that march.
I can quite well remember the beginning of it, when at the early
dawn the enemy's batteries drove us, under a sharp shell-fire, at a
lively double-quick for the first four miles. And I can well recall
how, at midnight, we threw ourselves under the great oak-trees
near Chancellorsville, and were in a moment sound asleep amid
the heaven-rending thunder of the guns, the unbroken roll of the
musketry, and the shouts and yells of the lines charging each other
a quarter of a mile to our front. But when I attempt to call up
the incidents that happened by the way, I am utterly at a loss. My
memory has retained nothing but a confused mass of images: here a
farmhouse, there a mill; a company of stragglers driven on by the
guard; a surgeon writing upon the pommel of his saddle an order
for an ambulance to carry a poor exhausted and but half-conscious
fellow; an officer's staff or an orderly dashing by at a lively
trot; a halt for coffee in the edge of a wood; filling a canteen
(oh, blessed memory!) at some meadow stream or roadside spring;
and on, and on, and on, amid the rattle of bayonet-scabbards and
tin cups, mopping our faces and crunching our hard-tack as we
went,--this, and such as this, is all that will now come to mind.
But of events toward nightfall the images are clearer and more
sharply defined. The sun is setting, large, red, and fiery-looking,
in a dull haze that hangs over the thickly-wooded horizon. We are
nearing the ford where we are to cross the Rappahannock. We come to
some hilltop, and--hark! A deep, ominous growl comes, from how many
miles away we know not; now another; then another!
On, boys, on! There is work doing ahead, and terrible work it is,
for two great armies are at each other's throat, and the battle is
raging fierce and high, although we know nothing as yet of how it
may be going.
On,--on,--on!
Turning sharp to the left, we enter the approach to the ford, the
road leading, in places, through a deep cut,--great high pine-trees
on either side of the road shutting out the little remaining light
of day. Here we find the first actual evidences of the great battle
that is raging ahead: long lines of ambulances filled with wounded;
yonder a poor fellow with a bandaged head sitting by a spring; and
a few steps away another, his agonies now over; here, two men,
one with his arm in a sling supporting the other, who has turned
his musket into a crutch; then more ambulances, and more wounded
in increasing numbers; orderlies dashing by at full gallop, while
the thunder of the guns grows louder and closer as we step on the
pontoons and so cross the gleaming river.
"Colonel, your men have had a hard day's march; you will now let
them rest for the night."
It is a staff-officer whom I hear delivering this order to our
colonel, and a sweeter message I think I never heard. We cast
wistful eyes at the half-extinguished camp-fires of some regiment
that has been making coffee by the roadside, and has just moved
off, and we think them a godsend, as the order is given to "Stack
arms!" But before we have time even to unsling knapsacks, the
order comes, "Fall in!" and away we go again, steadily plodding
on through that seemingly endless forest of scrub-pine and oak,
straight in the direction of the booming guns ahead.
Why whippoorwills were made I do not know; doubtless for some wise
purpose; but never before that night did I know they had been made
in such countless numbers. Every tree and bush was full of them, it
seemed. There were thousands of them, there were tens of thousands
of them, there were millions of them! And every one whistling, as
fast as it could, "Who-hoo-hoo! Who-hoo-hoo! Who-hoo-hoo!" Had they
been vultures or turkey-buzzards,--vast flocks of which followed
the army wherever we went, almost darkening the sky at times, and
always suggesting unpleasant reflections,--they could not have
appeared more execrable to me. Many were the imprecations hurled
at them as we plodded on under the light of the great red moon,
now above the tree-tops, while still from every bush came that
monotonous half-screech, half-groan, "Who-hoo-hoo! Who-hoo-hoo!"
But, O miserable birds of ill-omen, there is something more ominous
in the air than your lugubrious night-song! There is borne to our
ears at every additional step the deepening growl of the cannon
ahead. As the moon mounts higher, and we advance farther along the
level forest-land, we hear still more distinctly another sound--the
long, unbroken roll of musketry.
Forward now, at double-quick, until we are on the outskirts of the
battle-field.
Shells are crashing through the tall tree-tops overhead.
"Halt! Load at will! Load!"
In the moonlight that falls shimmering across the road, as I look
back over the column, I see the bright steel flashing, while the
jingle of the ramrods makes music that stirs the blood to a quicker
pulse. A well-known voice calls me down the line, and Andy whispers
a few hurried words into my ear, while he grasps my hand hard. But
we are off at a quick step. A sharp turn to the left, and--hark!
The firing has ceased, and they are "charging" down there! That
peculiar, and afterward well-known, "Yi! Yi! Yi!" indicates a
struggle for which we are making straight and fast.
At this moment comes the order: "Colonel, you will countermarch
your men, and take position down this road on the right. Follow
me!" The staff-officer leads us half a mile to the right, where,
sinking down utterly exhausted, we are soon sound asleep.
Of the next day or two I have but an indistinct recollection. What
with the fatigue and excitement, the hunger and thirst, of the last
few days, a high fever set in for me. I became half-delirious,
and lay under a great oak-tree, too weak to walk, my head nearly
splitting with the noise of a battery of steel cannon in position
fifty yards to the left of me. That battery's beautiful but
terrible drill I could plainly see. My own corps was put on
reserve: the men built strong breastworks, but took no part in the
battle, excepting some little skirmishing. Our day was yet to come.
One evening,--it was the last evening we spent in the woods at
Chancellorsville,--a sergeant of my company came back to where we
were, with orders for me to hunt up and bring an ambulance for one
of the lieutenants who was sick.
"You see, Harry, there are rumors that we are going to retreat
to-night, for the heavy rains have so swollen the Rappahannock that
our pontoons are in danger of being carried away, and it appears
that, for some reason or other, we've got to get out of this at
once under cover of night, and lieutenant can't stand the march.
So you will go for an ambulance. You'll find the ambulance-park
about two miles from here. You'll take through the woods in that
direction,"--pointing with his finger,--"until you come to a path;
follow the path till you come to a road; follow the road, taking to
the right and straight ahead, till you come to the ambulances."
Although it was raining hard at the time, and had been raining
for several days, and though I myself was probably as sick as the
lieutenant, and felt positive that the troops would have started in
retreat before I could get back, yet it was my duty to obey, and
off I went.
I had no difficulty in finding the path; and I reached the road
all right. Fording a stream, the corduroy bridge of which was all
afloat, and walking rapidly for a half-hour, I found the ambulances
all drawn up ready to retreat.
"We have orders to pull out from here at once, and can send an
ambulance for no man. Your lieutenant must take his chance."
It was getting dark fast, as I started back with this message. I
was soaked to the skin, and the rain was pouring down in torrents.
To make bad worse, in the darkness I turned off from the road at
the wrong point, missed the path, and quite lost my way! What was
to be done? If I should spend much time where I was, I was certain
to be left behind, for I felt sure that the troops were moving off;
and yet I feared to make for any of the fires I saw through the
woods, for I knew the lines of the two armies were near each other,
and I might, as like as not, walk over into the lines of the enemy.
Collecting my poor fevered faculties, I determined to follow the
course of a little stream I heard plashing down among the bushes to
the left. By and by I fixed my eye on a certain bright camp-fire,
and determined to make for it at all hazards, be it of friend or of
foe. Judge of my joyful surprise when I found it was burning in
front of my own tent!
Standing about our fire trying to get warm and dry, our fellows
were discussing the question of the retreat about to be made. But I
was tired and sick, and wet and sleepy, and did not at all relish
the prospect of a night-march through the woods in a drenching
rain. So, putting on the only remaining dry shirt I had left (I had
_two_ on already, and they were soaked through), I lay down under
my shelter, shivering and with chattering teeth, but soon fell
sound asleep.
In the gray light of the morning we were suddenly awakened by a
loud "Halloo there, you chaps! Better be digging out of this! We're
the last line of cavalry pickets, and the Johnnies are on our
heels!"
It was an easy matter for us to sling on our knapsacks and rush
after the cavalry-man, until a double-quick of two miles brought us
within the rear line of defences thrown up to cover the retreat.