years of the war, those who escaped and succeeded in reaching their
own lines were exceedingly few, although the attempts at escape were
numerous, and a good many got away from the prisons only to be brought
back captives again in a few days. The most notable adventure of this
kind was an escape from Libby Prison by a hundred and eight officers
in February, 1864. In that crowded prison, which was an old tobacco
warehouse, the prisoners had little to do but play checkers on squares
of the floor marked out with their pocket knives, play cards, tell
stories, and devise plans for escape. One of them discovered a way of
getting into the basement, and, by removing stones, making a hole
through the eastern foundation wall. With a few assistants he then
proceeded to dig a tunnel across the breadth of the yard. The earth
that was taken out was dumped in a dark corner of the cellar where it
never attracted attention. The work had to be carried on very
secretly, not only to escape the notice of the guards, but even to
prevent the knowledge of it from reaching any prisoner who might not
be trustworthy. When the tunnel was about ten yards long a slight
opening was made to the surface of the ground for light and
ventilation; and an old shoe thrown out at this opening in the night,
and resting near it upon the surface, enabled the tunnellers, looking
from the windows of the prison in the daytime, to get their bearings
and determine how much farther they must dig in order to pass under
the fence. When all was done the night of February 9th was fixed for
the escape. One of the officers who passed through the tunnel says of
himself and two companions: "Each man had an entire suit of clothes, a
double suit of underclothes, the pair of boots in which he stood on
entering the prison, an overcoat, and a cap. In common we possessed a
coil of rope, a diminutive hatchet, one pint of brandy, a half pint of
extract of Jamaica ginger, two days' scant rations of dried meat and
hard bread, one pipe, and a bit of tobacco. The tunnel was about
fifty-three feet long, and so small in diameter that in order to pass
through it was necessary to lie flat on one's face, propelling with
one hand and the feet, the other hand being thrown over the back to
diminish the breadth of the shoulders and carry overcoat, rations,
etc. Early in the evening, as I was seated at the card table, Randolph
tapped me on the shoulder. 'The work is finished,' he said. 'The first
party went through soon after dark; there is no time to lose.' Every
one knew it then. We possessed only the advantage of being perfectly
cool and having a plan agreed upon. The excitement in the prison was
of the wildest kind. Parties were formed, plans arranged, farewells
exchanged, all in less time than one can describe. We dropped one by
one into the cellar. I remember well the instructions: 'Feet first;
back to the wall; get down on your knees; make a half face to the
right, and grasp the spike in the wall below with your right hand;
lower yourself down; feel for the knotted rope below with your legs.'
Then one had but to {523} drop in the loose straw shaken from hospital
beds to be in the cellar. To walk across that foul pit in the dark was
no easy matter; but it was soon accomplished, and together we crouched
at the entrance of the tunnel. Only one at a time; and as about three
minutes were consumed in effecting the passage, progress was quite
slow. Of our party Randolph was the first to enter. 'I'm going. Wait
till I get through before you start.' It seemed that his long legs
would never disappear; but a parting kick in the face, as he wriggled
desperately in, quite reassured me. When a cool blast of air drawing
through the tunnel gave the welcome assurance that the passage was
clear, in I went. So well did the garment of earth fit, that at
moments my movements corresponded somewhat to those of a bolt forcing
its way through a rifled gun. Breath failed when I was about
two-thirds through, but a score or more of vigorous kicks brought me
to the earth's surface where Randolph awaited my coming. With sundry
whispered instructions about getting out without making undue noise
and without breaking my skull against the bottom of a board fence, he
then crept away toward the street, keeping in the shadow of a high
brick wall, leaving me to assist in turn and instruct the colonel, who
could now be heard thundering through the tunnel. Dirty but jubilant,
we were soon standing in the shadow of a low brick arch, outside of
which a sentinel paced backward and forward, coming sometimes within
two yards of our position. One after another stole out of the archway,
and we met, as agreed, at the corner of the second street below. Arm
in arm, whistling and singing, we turned and struck out, strong and
hopeful, for home and liberty." The one hundred and eight men who
escaped through this tunnel followed different plans and routes for
getting within the National lines, but the greater part of them were
recaptured. The party of which the officer just quoted was one, after
twelve days of journeying through swamps and by-ways, fed and guided
by the friendly negroes, at length reached the National lines on the
Pamunkey.
[Illustration: RUINS OF CHARLESTON, S. C.]
A LEAP FOR LIBERTY[1]
[Footnote 1: Rewritten (by permission) from Captain Drake's narrative
as printed in the private history of the Ninth New Jersey Volunteers.]
On the morning of October 6, 1864, a party of six hundred captive
Union officers were put on board of a train of box-cars to be
transported from the jail yard at Charleston to prison quarters at
Columbia. Among the number was Capt. J. Madison Drake, of the Ninth
New Jersey volunteers, who had been a prisoner of war five months and
an inmate during that time of three different prisons--Libby, Macon,
Ga., and Charleston. Although he had been foiled in many attempts to
escape, he resolved on one more effort, and, having received warning
of the trip to Columbia, induced three fellow-prisoners to join him:
Capt. H. H. Todd, Eighth New Jersey; Capt. J. E. Lewis, Eleventh
Connecticut; and Capt. Alfred Grant, Nineteenth Wisconsin. While the
train was crawling slowly on toward Columbia, the bold projector of
the scheme managed to remove the gun-caps from the nipples of the
muskets of several guards {524} on the car where the four friends
were; and as soon as dusk came on, the party at a signal took their
daring leap. They landed in a cypress swamp on Congaree River, and
found themselves waist deep in water and mud. A volley of shots from
all the guards followed the fugitives, but no one was hurt, as the
train was running under good headway. A night and a day were passed in
the swamp, and although the barking of dogs and shouting of men
indicated that pursuers had been sent out, the runaways were not
disturbed. The second night a bright new moon arose, and they started
on a systematic journey toward the Union lines in Tennessee.
Before leaving Charleston, one of the party had found a school map of
South Carolina, and with this guide a course had been studied out.
They decided to hug the swamps and woods by day, and at night use the
fields and roads, and spend as little time as possible in sleep until
the mountains of North Carolina were reached. Their chief guide-mark
in South Carolina was the Wateree River.
At the end of a week their rations had all been consumed, and in
desperation the wanderers began to think of food to the exclusion of
all else. Captain Drake says that in these times they heartily yearned
for the government "hard tack" and the contractor's beef they had so
often anathematized on the march and in camp.
But fortune will favor the bold, and one night, as they halted on a
roadside to debate whether it should be a quest for bread or for a
road to liberty, a dark form came shambling along the road, and in the
moonlight they saw at a distance that it was an old negro with a
basket on his arm. Without ceremony the famished men crowded around
the old man, and finding that he had in his basket a "pone" of
corn-bread, they seized it and began to devour it ravenously. After a
time the situation was explained, and when the negro learned who the
highwaymen were, he supplied a quantity of meal and salt, and sent
them on their way mentally resolved to cultivate acquaintance with
colored folks as often as possible.
Not until several hundred miles had been placed between their fainting
feet and Charleston did the hapless fugitives feel a sense of freedom.
Often their fears and alarms were causeless, but they suffered loss of
vitality all the same. Sometimes seeming misfortunes proved to be
blessings. One night a pack of dogs chased them into a crowded
village, and they took refuge in a graveyard vault. There Captain
Drake found a copy of a local newspaper, warning the people to be on
guard for escaped Union prisoners. The escaped prisoners themselves
got the benefit of the hint. At another time some Confederate
cavalrymen chased them on the high-road, and they escaped by getting
into a dense wood, where the horses couldn't follow. While wandering
about, they fell in with a loyal mountaineer, who took them to his
home, fed them, and directed them to other Unionists.
Many of the men met with in the mountains were of the class known as
"lyers out," deserters from the Confederate army, and fugitive
conscripts. A hundred or more of these men were persuaded to join
Drake's party on their tramp toward the Union lines. Thus reinforced
with guides and armed companions, the prospects of the runaway
prisoners began to brighten. But they were not out of the woods by a
long way, as the sequel proved.
When the fugitives drew near the Union lines the danger of capture
increased, for a cordon of mountain rangers patrolled the region to
head off any fortunate ones who got thus far on the journey homeward.
The mountains were simply barren wastes, the few cabins had to be
shunned, and the only food to be obtained was wild game which the
rifles of the "lyers out" brought down. In the uplands the poor
fellows were hounded by "rangers," and in the valleys mounted
Confederates dashed about on all sides.
At length the party reached the vicinity of Bull's Gap, a railway pass
through the mountains, and guarded by Union troops as an outpost of
Knoxville. The chief scout announced that the gap was fifteen miles
from the foot of the hill whence it was first sighted, and that, once
reached, the refugees would be safe. The news stimulated the men anew,
and they started down the mountain with their eyes riveted on the gap,
for fear, as Drake says, it would take wings and flee. Alas! alas! The
unexpected happens in war if nowhere else.
The gap didn't exactly take wings and flee, but the ubiquitous General
Breckenridge, with an army at his back, fell like a thunderbolt upon
the Union garrison at the pass, defeated and routed the entire force
and hurled them backward at mounted double-quick pace toward
Knoxville; and, presto! the gap was closed in the very faces of the
yearning-eyed, broken-bodied pilgrims. Think of it--at the end of
those terrible weeks of endurance and suffering, to find a hostile
army springing across the path at a bound, and its scouts and patrols
beating every byway and bush in the region for the luckless strays of
the fleeing enemy!
A young woman of the mountains volunteered to scout toward the gap and
bring news to the refugee camp. She simply learned that Breckenridge
was sweeping the country of Union troops and marching upon Knoxville.
At the same time it was discovered that a band of Confederate
partisans were on the trail of the fugitives, and to escape this new
danger they found comparative shelter in a ravine. Two of the men who
had leaped from the car with Drake, Captains Todd and Grant, ventured
out to obtain rations, which were sadly needed, as they were all
living on dry corn. During the night mounted men attacked the bivouac,
and the refugees scattered, every man for himself. At the end of a
week they fell in with a cavalry patrol, and were once more, after
forty-nine days' wandering, under the protection of the Stars and
Stripes.
ATTEMPTS AT ESCAPE FROM ANDERSONVILLE.
Escapes from Andersonville, except through the portals of death--that
is, complete escape to the Union lines--were exceedingly rare.
Hundreds, through one device or another, succeeded in getting outside
of the stockade, but the prison was so strongly surrounded with guards
and forts and quarters occupied with zealous attendants, that it was
difficult for a prisoner to elude the detective on the outside even
when he had succeeded in passing the main barrier. Adding to this the
existence of the deep swamps and vast forests just beyond the camp
precincts, in which a stranger to the locality would be only too sure
to lose his way, it will be seen that to enter Andersonville was
indeed to leave "all hope behind." The favorite method of attempting
escape was by tunnelling, for the great extent of the camp area, some
twenty-five acres, and its crowded condition, made the work of
excavation, without danger of discovery by the guards and keepers,
comparatively easy. Another favorable circumstance was the fact that
prisoners were allowed to dig wells to supply drinking water, and the
grounds were everywhere dotted with piles of fresh earth that had been
thrown up in consequence.
{525} In order to excavate a tunnel, the prisoners contemplating
escape would commence a lateral shaft a few feet below the mouth of
one of these wells, located near the stockade; and as the work was
done at night, the earth thus removed was carried in small quantities
and deposited on the piles of fresh earth thrown out from the newly
sunken wells. The tools used were of the rudest kind--tin plates,
cups, and knives with which to loosen the earth, and bare hands to
scoop it into the haversacks, or bags improvised from clothes and
pieces of blanket; and in this manner these tunnels were frequently
extended, not only beyond the stockade, but even beyond the outer line
of prison guards. Yet, although hundreds passed out--as many as one
hundred escaped through one tunnel in a single night, late in
1864--they were invariably brought back; sometimes through the
treachery of spies, who mingled with the prisoners, and at other times
by hunters with their dogs, who were constantly patrolling the
vicinity of the camp, and, in fact, the entire region, in search of
deserters from the Confederate army and runaway slaves, as well as
fugitive prisoners. Not one well-authenticated case of a prisoner
getting out through a tunnel, and making his way North, is to be found
on record.
[Illustration: NATIONAL CEMETARY, RICHMOND, VA.]
Another method of escape from the enclosure was by strolling beyond
the sight of the guards when allowed to go out to the forests for
wood; some, again, tried hiding in the huge boxes used for bringing
prisoners into the camp, and many were missed from their quarters who
had succeeded for the time being in misleading their guards, but
eventually the fugitives turned up elsewhere; while such as enlisted
in the Confederate army, this being their last hope of escape, soon
reappeared, either as willing prisoners or deserters.
One tunnel, which had been carried under and beyond the stockade, was
broken into by a severe flood, and the stockade undermined, which
opened the celebrated "providential spring."
In August, 1864, when prisoners were dying from the use of unwholesome
drinking water, a heavy thunder storm flooded the little brook that,
running through the enclosure, passed in and out under the stockade.
The rushing element not only broke in the roof of the tunnel, but
loosened a quantity of earth which, since the construction of the
stockade, had dammed up a copious stream of clear, fresh water, its
original course passing right through the prison quarters. Some
attributed the reopening to the action of lightning, while others
looked upon it as a direct interposition of Heaven for their relief.
But, whatever the cause, it supplied the prisoners with an abundance
of good water through the remainder of their stay, and is still in
existence.
{526} MORGAN'S ESCAPE.
The account of the capture and escape of General Morgan as here given
is condensed from an article by Samuel B. Taylor, originally published
in the Cincinnati _Tribune_.
In the summer of 1863, General Morgan's command made, through Southern
Ohio, one of those raids which were the most daring and successful in
the history of modern and ancient warfare. In that instance he did not
meet with his usual great success, for his raid terminated, in July of
that year, with the capture of himself and sixty-eight of his officers
and men. By order of General Burnside, he and a number of his officers
were confined in the Ohio Penitentiary, at Columbus.
"We were each placed in a separate cell, in the first and second range
or tier of cells on the south side of the east wing of the prison.
These cells were let into a solid block of masonry, one hundred and
sixty feet long and twenty-five feet thick. They opened into a hall
twelve feet wide and one hundred and sixty feet in length. Then, as
now, the prison buildings and their yard were enclosed by a solid
stone wall thirty feet high and four feet in thickness, and level on
top.
"We at length became so desperate from confinement that we determined
to escape, no matter at what hazard. But how was escape to be
effected?
"From five o'clock P.M. till seven A.M. we were locked in our cells,
with no means of communication. Through the day we were allowed to
roam about the large hall on to which our cells opened and to converse
freely with each other, though there was an armed sentry at either end
of this hall, through which the regular keepers of the prison passed
at frequent and regular intervals. We discussed every possible and
impossible plan of escape, as we thought, but could hit upon none that
seemed feasible.
"We had been some three months in durance vile, when, in consequence
of an insult that was offered to one of our number, Capt. Thomas A.
Hines, by the deputy warden, a plan was evolved by which we did
finally succeed in making our escape. Captain Hines retired to his
cell about eight o'clock A.M., vowing that food should not pass his
lips and that sleep should not rest upon his eyelids until he had
thought out some plan of escape that should be practicable.
"About a quarter to twelve o'clock he came to me and said that he had
hit upon a plan which he thought would do. At all events he was
determined to try it. He then informed me that he had noticed that the
walls of his cell, instead of being damp, as they naturally would have
been from the fact that they were built upon a level with the ground
outside, were perfectly dry. From this he concluded that there must be
an air chamber beneath. Now, if such should be the case, Captain
Hines's plan was to run a tunnel from it through the foundation into
the yard, and then to escape over the prison wall.
"The cells were built in five tiers. Some of our party occupied the
lowest or ground tier, while others, including General Morgan himself,
occupied the second tier. Of course only those in the ground tier
could escape by means of Captain Hines's plan, and in order for
General Morgan to do so it would be necessary to have him exchange
cells with some one in the tier below. The plan of Captain Hines was
communicated to General Morgan and the other officers that afternoon,
and after being fully discussed, it was decided that not more than
seven of those on the lower tier could escape, because the greater the
number the greater would be the danger of discovery. We arranged to
have the work begin in the cell of Captain Hines, and in order to
prevent the usual daily inspection being made of it, he asked
permission to thereafter sweep it himself. The permission was granted,
and he kept it so scrupulously clean that after a few mornings no
inspection was made of it. Work was therefore begun in his cell on the
morning of November 4th. With two small table-knives, obtained from
sick comrades in the hospital, Captain Hines cut through six inches of
cement, removed six layers of brick, concealing them in his bed tick,
and came to an air chamber six feet in height. The work was carried on
under his cot.
"Having progressed thus far, Captain Hines now mounted guard at the
door of his cell, while the work was carried on by the rest of us. He
pretended to be deeply engrossed in study, but in reality he was
watching every movement of the guards and keepers. If one approached,
he gave us warning by a system of taps on the floor. One tap meant to
stop work, two to proceed, and three to come out.
"We cut a tunnel at right angles from the air chamber through the
foundation wall of the cell block five feet, through twelve feet of
grouting to the outer wall of the east wing of the prison, then
through this wall six feet in thickness, and then four feet up near
the surface of the yard in an unfrequented place. Our tunnel
completed, it only remained to make an entrance from the cell of each
man who was to escape into the air chamber. This could only be done by
working from the air chamber upward.
"To do this we must have something to measure with in order to locate
the spots at which to make these holes. We secured a measuring line by
involving the warden in a dispute about the length of the hall,
Captain Hines abstracting it long enough, after the hall had been
measured, to answer our purpose. The chamber being very dark, we
obtained matches and candles from our sick comrades in the hospital.
"It was very essential to our purpose that we should have an accurate
knowledge of the prison yard and the wall inclosing it, but the
windows of the hall were too high to afford us a view. Fortunately the
warden ordered the walls and ceiling of the hall to be swept, and a
long ladder being brought for that purpose, I offered the warden a
wager that I could go hand over hand to its top, rest for a moment,
and then descend in the same way. He took me up, and having been
famous all my life for feats of strength and agility, I readily won
the bet. While resting at the top of the ladder I made a thorough
survey of the yard. There was a double gate to the outer wall south of
the wing in which we then were and almost at right angles from its
eastern end. Of this double gate, the outer portal was solid as the
wall itself, while the inner was of wooden uprights four inches apart.
By means of this latter gate we might ascend to the top of the prison
wall. For that purpose we made a rope of our bed ticking, and fastened
it to a grappling iron made out of the poker of the hall stove.
"All our money had been taken by our captors, but we obtained a fresh
supply from friends in the South, secreted in the cover of an old book
sent through the mail. An old convict, who was often sent into the
city on errands by the warden, procured us a newspaper, from which we
learned that a train left for Cincinnati--whither we were bound--at
1.15 o'clock A.M. At midnight the guards made a round of the cells,
and we determined to start at that hour. I was to descend into the air
chamber and notify the others by a tap under the floor of each cell.
"The evening of November 27th being dark and cloudy, we determined to
try our luck that night. When we were locked up for the night, General
Morgan contrived to change places with his brother, who occupied one
of the lower cells, and who greatly resembled him in face and form.
Every man arranged the stool, {527} with which each cell was supplied,
in his bed to look like a sleeping man when the guard should thrust
his lantern through the cell door a few minutes later.
"I had General Morgan's gold watch, and punctually at midnight I broke
with my boot-heel the thin layer of cement which separated my cell
from the air chamber, and passing along the latter gave a tap under
the floor of each of the others, who soon joined me. We crawled
through our tunnel, and, breaking the thin layer of earth which
separated its end from the surface, we were soon in the prison yard.
Over the wooden gate, which I had seen from the ladder, we threw our
grappling iron, and by its bed-ticking rope drew ourselves up till we
stood on the wing wall, whence we readily passed to the outside wall
in full view of freedom.
"The top of the latter wall was so broad as to form a walkway for the
guards, who were stationed there during the day, but who at night were
placed inside the walls. This walkway was supplied with sentry boxes,
and in one of these we divested ourselves of the garments we had
soiled in passing through the tunnel, each man having provided for
this by wearing two suits. With one of the knives used in tunnelling,
General Morgan then cut the rope running along the wall to the
warden's office bell. Fastening our grappling iron to the railing
running along the edge of the wall, we descended to the ground
outside, and were free once more, though at that very moment the
prison guards were sitting around a fire not sixty yards away.
"We now separated, and in parties of two and three made our way to the
railroad station, and took the train for Cincinnati. During the
journey General Morgan sat beside a Federal major in full uniform, and
was soon on the best of terms with him. Our route lay directly past
the prison whence we had just come, and, as we whizzed by it, the
Federal officer said to our leader:
"'That is where the rebel General Morgan is now imprisoned.'
"'Indeed,' said General Morgan; 'I hope they will always keep him as
safely as they have him now.'
"At Dayton our train was delayed for over an hour, and this made it
unsafe for us to go on to Cincinnati, as we had intended, because we
should now be unable to reach the city until long after seven o'clock
in the morning, and by that time our escape was certain to be
discovered and telegraphed all over the country, and we should be
watched for in every large city in which there was any possibility of
our going. We therefore alighted from the train as it was passing
through Ludlow Ferry, a suburb of the city, and we quickly ferried
across the Ohio River into Kentucky. There we found many kind friends,
who aided us with hospitality, money, concealment when necessary,
horses, and arms. The adventures, the dangers, hardships, hairbreadth
escapes from capture, and serious and laughable incidents through
which each one of us passed in making our way back into the
Confederate lines, would fill an immense volume. For the purposes of
this article, it must suffice to say that ultimately we all succeeded
in rejoining our comrades at the front, though one or two of our
number were recaptured before they could do so, but they again
succeeded in escaping.
"What transpired in Columbus after the discovery of our escape we did
not learn until long afterward. Then we found that we had created one
of the greatest--if not the very greatest--sensations of the war. Our
escape had been effected in such a seemingly impossible manner, and
was so absolutely without parallel in the history of prison escapes,
that the people of the North refused to believe that it had been
accomplished without collusion on the part of some of our keepers. It
is no wonder that they thought so, for everything in connection with
the affair happened so fortunately for us that it really seemed as if
we must have had some assistance from some one within the prison. The
way in which we obtained the line with which to measure for the holes
in the cell floors, the way I obtained a view of the prison yard, the
way in which General Morgan and his brother changed cells on the night
of our escape, all of which I have detailed before, would certainly
seem impossibilities without connivance. Then, when it is considered
that the digging of the tunnel consumed over three weeks, and that the
keepers were almost constantly passing over where it was going on, it
seems incredible that they never became aware of it.
"Nevertheless, there was never any bribery even attempted. It seemed
as though fate or Providence or some controlling power had decreed
that we were to escape, and directed everything to that end. The only
bribery was that practised upon the old convict I have mentioned, to
induce him to bring us a newspaper, contrary to the warden's rules,
that we might find out about the trains for Cincinnati, and the
convict in question had not the slightest idea what we wanted it for.
I believe Warden N. L. Merion was perfectly loyal to the Union."
[Illustration: BREVET BRIGADIER-GENERAL O. E. BABCOCK.]
[Illustration: MAJOR-GENERAL EDW. R. S. CANBY.]
[Illustration: MAJOR-GENERAL C. M. CLAY.]
[Illustration: BREVET BRIGADIER-GENERAL ANSON G. McCOOK.]
{528}
UNION AND CONFEDERATE RAIDS AND RAIDERS.
BY GEORGE L. KILMER.
BEALL, THE LAKE RAIDER--ANDREWS AND HIS DISGUISED RAIDERS--LIEUTENANT
CUSHING'S BOAT RAIDS--KILPATRICK'S RAID BY RICHMOND--MORGAN'S KENTUCKY
RAID--RAIDING A CITY.
The secret enterprise which placed Lieutenant Davis in a dungeon cell
and nearly cost him his life had a deeply tragic ending for John Y.
Beall, the young Virginian, executed at Fort Columbus, New York
Harbor, the 24th of February, 1865. Beall was the chief promoter and
the leader of the Lake Erie raid in the fall of 1864, but technically
the offence for which he suffered was that of a spy. The judge
advocate of the court which condemned him spoke of the prisoner as one
"whom violent passions had shorn of his nature's elements of
manliness, and led him to commit deeds which to have even suspected
him of at an earlier stage in his career would have been a calumny and
a crime."
Beall had been wounded in the Confederate service early in the
conflict. As master in the navy, he had led for a time the daring,
reckless life of a "swamp angel" in the lower Potomac, destroying the
Union commerce in Chesapeake Bay and its adjacent waters.
While thus engaged, he planned a lake raid, but failed to get his
government to sanction the project until 1864, when the Northwestern
Confederacy movement made it necessary for Jacob Thompson and his
co-conspirators in Canada to have a foothold upon Union soil along the
border.
One of Thompson's cherished plans was an uprising of the notorious
Sons of Liberty at Chicago, during the Democratic national convention
in August, 1864. About this time Beall arrived at Sandusky, O., with
authority to proceed on his raiding enterprise. Thompson had prepared
the way for him by a careful investigation of the lake defences,
through an emissary located at Sandusky--Capt. Charles H. Cole,
formerly of Morgan's raiders. Cole was supplied with means to
entertain and bribe such Union officials as might be of service to the
Confederacy; and he finally concluded that the control of the lakes
could be secured by the capture of the gunboat _Michigan_, the sole
defender of the waters, and the liberation of the Confederate
prisoners at Camp Douglas, Chicago, and at Johnson's Island in
Sandusky Bay.
Thompson gave Cole authority to capture the _Michigan_, and appointed
Beall to aid him. It was arranged between Cole and Beall that the
former would remain in Sandusky and coöperate by bribing some of the
men on the _Michigan_, and by preparing the prisoners on Johnson's
Island for an outbreak. The _Michigan_ lay off the island. The date
was fixed for the night of September 19th, and Beall went to Canada to
organize a force, hazarding everything, as will be seen, on the
success of his confederate, who, at the decisive moment, when Beall's
attacking party should arrive off Sandusky, was to make rocket signals
from Johnson's Island that the expected aid was a certainty.
Beall secured the services of nineteen Confederate refugees, chiefly
escaped prisoners of war harbored in Canada, and the party disguised
in civilian dress took passage on a steamer plying between Sandusky
and Detroit, carrying in their baggage a supply of revolvers and
hatchets. At the proper time, the captain in his office, and the mate
at the wheel, were told to vacate their stations, revolvers were
suddenly brandished right and left to intimidate the officers and men,
and Beall as spokesman declared, "I take possession of this boat in
the name of the Confederate States."
Under his direction the vessel was put about and headed for Middle
Boss Island, in Ohio waters, where the passengers and regular crew
were set ashore.
From the island Beall bore his vessel directly for the gunboat
_Michigan_, steamed up within cannon range, and awaited a rocket
signal. When the hour passed and no signal came, he decided to risk
everything, board the gunboat at all hazards, and strike for Johnson's
Island. In his crisis an unlooked-for event dashed his high resolves
suddenly to the ground. The crew of the _Philo Parsons_ mutinied. The
absence of the shore signals was interpreted by them as a warning that
the plot had been discovered; and, although Beall argued and pleaded,
the men insisted that the death penalty awaited them if captured, and
they felt certain that such would be the end of it all. Their boat was
then run to the Canada shore, abandoned, and destroyed.
[Illustration: BRIGADIER-GENERAL JUDSON KILPATRICK. (Afterward
Major-General.)]
[Illustration: LIEUTENANT-GENERAL NATHAN B. FORREST, C. S. A.]
The scene now changes to Union soil. On the night of the 15th of
December, 1864, the engineer on an eastern-bound express train on the
Erie railroad, between Buffalo and Dunkirk, saw a railroad rail across
the track, in front of his engine, just in time to reverse and strike
the obstruction at reduced speed without severe damage. The next night
two policemen at the New York Central depot, Niagara City, arrested
two suspicious men who were about to take the cars for Canada. Beall
was one of them, and, though he made some attempt to deny his
identity, he was sent to New York City and accused of the lake raid
and of the attempt at train wrecking. The clerk of the _Philo
Parsons_, and {529} one of the passengers, and also a confederate in
the attempt on the train, identified him, and furnished ample evidence
for a case.
The train-wrecking enterprise was doubtless a last resort by Beall to
secure funds for the prosecution of his plans on the lake. Five men
were engaged in it. The party lay hidden near the track when the train
struck, and seeing that the damage was only trifling they hastened to
Buffalo and secreted themselves. Subsequently the arrest of Beall took
place, purely on suspicion.
He was arraigned on two charges--violation of the laws of war and
acting as a spy. His defence was that his acts had been justifiable
acts of war; and, if confined to his attempt on the gunboat _Michigan_
and the Johnson's Island prison, the plea might have had weight. But
every circumstance likely to weigh in his favor, his education, his
noble bearing, his manly conduct toward the captives on the _Philo
Parsons_, was lost sight of in the appalling railroad horror that had
been planned with such cool deliberation, and with no purpose evident
other than robbery--robbery at the sacrifice of innocent lives.
A most deplorable tragedy brought about by the spy system, or what was
analogous to that, and involving the execution of six Ohio
soldiers,[1] also the imprisonment of sixteen others, who barely
escaped the gallows, is the story of the Andrews railroad raid, or
bridge-burning expedition, in Georgia, in the spring of 1862.
[Footnote 1: George D. Wilson, Marion A. Ross, and Perry G. Shadrack,
Second Ohio; Samuel Slavens and Samuel Robinson, Thirty-third Ohio;
and John Scott, Twenty-first Ohio.]
During General Buell's occupancy of Central Tennessee, before the
armies marched to Shiloh, he had occasionally employed the services of
a spy, named James J. Andrews, who carried on a contraband trade in
quinine, and in the course of his travels across the border often
managed to pick up information valuable to the Union generals. At his
solicitation, Buell permitted a detail from three regiments belonging
to General Sill's brigade, the Thirty-third, Twenty-first, and Second
Ohio, to set out with him, disguised in civilian's dress. They were to
burn the railway bridges east and west of Chattanooga, and thus
isolate that important town, possibly insuring its speedy capture. The
soldiers were given to understand that they took their lives in their
hands, but none declined the dangerous honor. Guided by Andrews, they
started from Shelbyville, April 7th, and in five days made their way
to Marietta, Ga., losing but two of their number on the road. At
Marietta two more disappeared, leaving Andrews with eighteen soldiers
and a civilian volunteer to undertake the hazardous work mapped out by
the leader, which was to capture an engine with a few cars attached,
board them, and speed westward, firing the bridges as they passed.
Securing tickets at Marietta, they entered a westbound train as
ordinary passengers. At Big Sandy station, where the trainmen took
breakfast, these _pseudo_ passengers left their seats, and two of
them, William Knight and Wilson Brown, professional engineers, leaped
into the cab. The coupling bolt of the third car from the tender was
pulled, and the remainder of the party scrambled on board as best they
could. Off sped the stolen train in full view of scores of astonished
bystanders and railroad men. What made the deed doubly risky was the
fact that a camp of Confederate soldiers had been established at Big
Sandy since Andrews's last visit there, and the station was surrounded
by armed men. In fact, a sentinel, musket in hand, stood within a few
yards of the engine, watching the whole proceeding, but too dazed to
act or sound the alarm. But this amazement was short-lived. The
railroad men were prompt to give chase, first with a hand-car,
afterward with a chance engine picked up on the road. The raiders were
delayed by eastward trains, it being a single-track line; but with
singular good fortune ran over half the distance to Chattanooga,
having stopped to cut telegraph wires and remove rails, in order to
baffle their pursuers. The attempt to fire bridges failed. It was
raining, and the would-be incendiaries had provided no combustibles
beyond what the train supplied. In the meanwhile their pursuers picked
up a car-load of armed men, and came up with the runaway train west of
Dalton, where the fuel of the stolen engine gave out, bringing the
raiders to a dead stop. Andrews gave the word, "Save who can," and all
sprang for the woods, but were captured within a few days. Taken
within the enemy's lines in citizen's dress, a court-martial
pronounced them spies worthy of death. Andrews, with six of the
soldiers, also the citizen volunteer, were executed at Atlanta. The
others, including the two Marietta delinquents who had been arrested
and identified, were thrown into dungeons; but preferring death in any
form to the fate which seemed to await them, they succeeded one day in
overpowering their guards, and so escaping to the woods. Eight of the
party made their way North, while the other six were recaptured and
held until the spring of 1863, when they were exchanged for a like
number of Confederate soldiers held by the Union authorities, to
answer for a similar offence.
[Illustration: JAMES J. ANDREWS.]
Cushing was not picturesque in figure, though marked by strong
individual peculiarities. His height was five feet ten inches, his
form slender, his face grave and thoughtful. With steps springy and
quick, prominent cheek bones, a piercing eye and restless habit, he
seemed to his associates like some spirited Indian in the garb of a
paleface.
{530} [Illustration: BREVET BRIGADIER-GENERAL ELY S. PARKER.]
[Illustration: BREVET BRIGADIER-GENERAL HORACE CAPRON.]
[Illustration: BRIGADIER-GENERAL W. A. GORMAN.]
[Illustration: MAJOR-GENERAL CHRISTOPHER C. AUGUR.]
[Illustration: BRIGADIER-GENERAL JAMES B. FRY.]
[Illustration: BRIGADIER-GENERAL CHARLES K. GRAHAM.]
[Illustration: BRIGADIER-GENERAL THOMAS C. DEVIN.]
[Illustration: MAJOR-GENERAL NELSON A. MILES.]
[Illustration: COLONEL HORACE PORTER.]
[Illustration: BRIGADIER-GENERAL GERSHOM MOTT.]
In July, 1862, a lieutenant's straps were given him for acts of
bravery performed in his routine duties with the blockading squadron
off North Carolina. Four months later, at the age of twenty, he
commanded his first expedition, a gunboat raid into New River Inlet,
waters wholly in the possession of active enemies. His vessel, the
_Ellis_, stranded within range of the Confederate batteries, but he
brought his crew and equipments off in schooners captured before the
disaster. A few weeks later he entered Little River at night with
twenty-five men, in {531} a cutter, dispersed the gunners of a shore
battery by land assault, and got out with the loss of one man. Cushing
sometimes volunteered, and at others was chosen, for these fugitive
exploits.
[Illustration: LIEUTENANT WILLIAM B. CUSHING.]
In the summer of 1863 it was known on the blockading fleet that the
Confederates possessed a couple of rams and some torpedo boats in Cape
Fear River around Wilmington; and on the night of June 25 Cushing set
out from his ship _Monticello_ in a cutter, with two officers and
fifteen men, and crossed the bar, passing some forts and the town of
Smithville without discovery. On the way his boat nearly collided with
a blockade runner putting to sea, and also with a Confederate
guard-boat. The night was dark until the cutter was abreast of a
fortified bluff known as the Brunswick batteries, when the moon
suddenly emerged from a cloud and disclosed the strange craft to the
enemy's sentinels on shore. Shots were fired at the cutter, and the
garrison was alarmed. Cushing directed his men to pull to the opposite
shore and proceed up the river. When within seven miles of Wilmington
the boat was hidden in a marsh, and the party lay all next day within
sight of passing blockade runners.
After dark the cutter took to the wave and captured two rowboats
filled with men, who proved to be fishermen from Wilmington. Cushing
impressed them for guides and reconnoitred all the batteries and forts
on the river. He discovered that the ram _Raleigh_ was a hopeless
wreck, the ram _North Carolina_ useless because her draught didn't
admit of passing the bar to attack the Union blockading fleet, and
that the Confederate torpedo boats had been destroyed during a scare.
On the way to sea the cutter was headed off by a gunboat and several
small boats filled with men. It was night and the moon shone, and
Cushing managed to turn and double on his pursuers until he got a
start on them, and by vigorous rowing dashed into the breakers at the
Carolina shoal, where the enemy dare not follow. The cutter was so
heavy that she outrode the breakers and escaped to the fleet. On this
raid two days and three nights were spent in the enemy's territory.
In the month of February, 1864, the Administration at Washington
proposed a cavalry raid to Richmond. One object was to circulate,
within the Confederate lines, the President's amnesty proclamation,
offering full pardon and a restoration of rights to any individuals,
or to States, that might wish to return to their allegiance. Another
was the release of the Union prisoners in Belle Isle and Libby
prisons. The expedition was intrusted to Kilpatrick, who was to have a
picked force of four thousand cavalrymen and a horse battery.
It was believed in the Union camps that a surprise could be effected,
and with this end in view, Kilpatrick set out one Sunday night, the
28th of February, for the lower fords of the Rapidan. Reaching
Spottsylvania unmolested, he sent out from here a detachment of five
hundred men, under Col. Ulric Dahlgren, toward the Virginia Central
Railroad, instructing him to enter Richmond from the south, while he
himself should attack from the north. Through the treachery or
ignorance of a negro guide engaged by Dahlgren, his column failed to
find a ford in the James River, which was a serious drawback, because
he had intended to enter Richmond from the rear, the weakest point. On
March 1st, Dahlgren was eight miles west of Richmond on the James, and
Kilpatrick at Atlee's station, eight miles north, the distance between
them being only about twelve miles. Kilpatrick, however, was returning
from his raid, and the two forces were destined to remain apart and
receive severe handling from enemies now swarming about them.
Kilpatrick had passed the outer defences of Richmond by one o'clock of
the 1st, but on approaching the inner line he was met by infantry and
artillery. Skirmishing continued for several hours, the object of the
Union leader being to prolong the situation until he should hear
Dahlgren on the opposite side of the city. Finally, as he saw
Confederate troops moving in large bodies, he withdrew to Atlee's to
pass the night.
The Confederate cavalry command of Gen. Wade Hampton was strung along
the railroad between Lee's army and Richmond, and Gen. Bradley T.
Johnson, leading a brigade under him, had learned of Kilpatrick's
march and telegraphed to Richmond on the 29th that a raid was abroad.
He also had notified the troops all along the line, and both himself
and Hampton followed in Kilpatrick's path, about a day behind him. On
the night of the 1st Hampton attacked Kilpatrick's camp at Atlee's and
drove him out. The following morning Kilpatrick started down the
Peninsula toward White House, on the Pamunkey.
On the day of Kilpatrick's farthest advance Dahlgren had drawn to
within five miles of the city and then retired. After dark of that day
he, too, started to move down the peninsula along the Pamunkey.
Placing the main body in reserve, Dahlgren rode on ahead with the
advance guard, and on the next night fell into ambush prepared by a
number of cavalry officers who were at their homes in the vicinity on
recruiting service or leave of absence.
A challenge to halt Dahlgren answered by a threat, and the commander
of the Confederate outpost gave the order instantly to fire. At the
first volley Dahlgren fell dead. His men were surrounded and held
until daylight, when the whole party of survivors surrendered.
The chief victim of this raid, Colonel Dahlgren, was the son of
Admiral John A. Dahlgren, and at his death was twenty-two years old.
Early in the war he had served as an artillerist with Generals Sigel,
Frémont, and Pope in northern Virginia. On the retreat of Lee from
Gettysburg toward the Potomac, Dahlgren was at the front under
Kilpatrick, leading about one hundred men, and in the encounter with
Stuart at Hagarstown, July 6th, he received a wound in the foot that
cost him his leg. Having been commissioned colonel in the cavalry
service, he returned to the front wearing a cork leg, but was obliged
to depend on crutches. He volunteered for the expedition in which he
lost his life.
Morgan the raider had given the North an exhibition of his boldness
before he entered upon that celebrated ride across Ohio in 1863. On
the 13th of July, 1862, President Lincoln telegraphed from Washington
to the Union commander in the far West, "They are having a stampede in
Kentucky. Please look to it."
The whole trouble was caused by Colonel Morgan, with a couple of
cavalry regiments, and a clever telegraph operator {532} named
Ellsworth. Ellsworth tapped the wires between Nashville and
Louisville, and sent a bogus despatch to the Union authorities in the
latter city, stating that Morgan was operating around the former,
when, in reality, he was riding northward toward the heart of
Kentucky. Moving along the railroad lines, Union operators were
everywhere surprised at their keys and compelled to serve the raider's
commands, while Ellsworth manipulated the wires. In this way the Union
forces ahead on the line of march were ordered out of the road, or
drawn off by false alarms, and Morgan was able to get exact knowledge
as to the location and numbers of the Union garrisons. At Georgetown,
only sixty miles from Cincinnati, he halted for two days, producing,
by means of the wires, a terrible scare in Lexington, and drawing all
the Union forces to that region. He himself then moved southward to
cross into Tennessee, Ellsworth managing to counteract the Union
orders for pursuit during the retreat by his bogus telegrams. So the
raiders finished their long ride without once encountering an armed
foe.
[Illustration: MAJOR-GENERAL WINFIELD S. HANCOCK.]
Forrest marched to Memphis on his memorable raid in August, 1864, with
a detachment of his choicest cavalry, numbering fifteen hundred men.
The leader of the advanced guard was his brother, Captain W. H.
Forrest, and into his hands the general gave the difficult task of
opening the main road to the town. Captain Forrest approached the
outer pickets about daylight on Sunday morning, knocked the
challenging vidette senseless with the handle of his sabre, and with
ten athletic followers disarmed the reserves on the nearest post. A
musket accidentally discharged during the _mêlée_ aroused others near
by, and the entire main camp of ten thousand soldiers stretching
around the city soon caught the alarm.
Nothing daunted, Forrest galloped his men into the heart of the
stronghold, bent upon creating a panic for ulterior purposes of his
own, and he succeeded. Captain Forrest's band, followed by another
detachment, dashed down the main street to the Gayo House, riding over
an artillery camp on the way, and leaped their horses up the steps
into the office and dining-hall. Still another body, led by Colonel
Jesse Forrest, rode to the headquarters of the Union commandant,
General Hurlbut, who escaped capture by the merest accident. In a few
moments all Memphis was in an uproar; and the raiders, moving in five
isolated bodies, were overpowered in detail and compelled to unite
before they could cut their way out. But Forrest had effected his
purpose, and the glory of the exploit compensated him for the haste
with which he was obliged to abandon the hazardous game.
[Illustration: CONFEDERATE ARTILLERY CAPTURED AT ATLANTA.]
{533}
WOMAN'S CONTRIBUTION TO THE CAUSE.
At the close of the chapter on the Sanitary and Christian Commissions
we have given some account of the work of a few of the women whose
service was connected with or similar to that of those organizations.
It would require many pages to tell the entire story of the
contribution of the loyal women to the cause of the Union--a most
noble story, however monotonous and repetitious. It is impossible to
publish the records of all who served thus, any more than to treat of
every citizen who stepped into the ranks and, as a simple private,
gave his life for his country. But a specific account of what was done
by some of them will give the reader a more vivid idea of the great
price that was paid for the unity of our country and the perpetuation
of our government than can be conveyed by any general statement. It is
the story of women who did not urge their brothers and lovers to go to
the field without themselves following as far and as closely as the
law would let them, and sharing in the toils, the privations, and
sometimes even the peculiar perils, of war. Many of them lost their
lives, directly or indirectly, in consequence of their labors.
"On fields where Strife held riot,
And Slaughter fed his hounds,
Where came no sense of quiet,
Nor any gentle sounds,
They made their rounds.
"They wrought without repining,
And, weary watches o'er,
They passed the bounds confining
Our green, familiar shore
Forevermore."
It is claimed for Mrs. Almira Fales, of Washington, that she was the
first woman in the United States to perform any work for the comfort
of the soldiers during the Rebellion. In December, 1860, when South
Carolina had seceded and she saw that war was very probable, if not
certain, she began the preparation of lint and hospital stores, in
anticipation of the hostilities that did not break out until the next
April. Her husband was employed by the Government, and her sons
entered the army. During the war she emptied seven thousand boxes of
hospital stores, and distributed to the sick and wounded soldiers
comforts and delicacies to the value of one hundred and fifty thousand
dollars. She spent several months at sea attending to the wounded on
hospital ships, and during the seven days' battles she was under fire
on the Peninsula. One of her sons was killed in the battle of
Chancellorsville. It was said that she was full of a quaint humor, and
her visits to the hospitals never failed to awaken smiles and bring
about a general air of cheerfulness.
[Illustration: Mrs. Nellie M. Taylor. Miss Clara H. Barton. Miss
Hattie A. Dada. Mrs. Mary B. Wade.]
Mrs. Harris, wife of John Harris, M.D., of Philadelphia, was one of
the earliest volunteers in the work, and one who had, perhaps, the
widest experience in its various branches. She is described as a pale
and delicate woman, and yet she endured very hard service in the cause
of her country. At the beginning of the war she became corresponding
secretary of the Ladies' Aid Society of Philadelphia, but very soon
she went to the field as its correspondent and one of its active
workers. In the spring of 1862 she accompanied the Army of the Potomac
to the Peninsula, and spent several weeks in the hospitals at Fort
Monroe. After the battle of Fair Oaks she went on board a transport
that was given to the wounded, and she thus describes what she saw
there: "There were eight hundred on board. Passage-ways, state-rooms,
floors from the dark and foetid hold to the hurricane deck, were all
more than filled; some on mattresses, some on blankets, others on
straw; some in the death-struggle, others nearing it, some already
beyond human sympathy and help; {534} some in their blood as they had
been brought from the battlefield of the Sabbath previous, and all
hungry and thirsty, not having had anything to eat or drink, except
hard crackers, for twenty-four hours. When we carried in bread, hands
from every quarter were outstretched, and the cry, 'Give me a piece,
oh, please! I have had nothing since Monday.' Another, 'Nothing but
hard crackers since the fight,' etc. When we had dealt out nearly all
the bread, a surgeon came in and cried, 'Do please keep some for the
poor fellows in the hold, they are so badly off for everything.' So
with the remnant we threaded our way through the suffering crowd, amid
such exclamations as, 'Oh! please don't touch my foot!' or, 'For
mercy's sake, don't touch my arm!' another, 'Please don't move the
blanket, I am so terribly cut up,' down to the hold, in which were not
less than one hundred and fifty, nearly all sick, some very sick. It
was like plunging into a vapor bath, so hot, close, and full of
moisture, and then in this dismal place we distributed our bread,
oranges, and pickles, which were seized upon with avidity. And here
let me say, at least twenty of them told us next day that the pickles
had done them more good than all the medicine they had taken." In the
autumn of 1863, just after the battle of Chickamauga, she went to the
West and began work at Nashville among the refugees. Afterward, at
Chattanooga, she labored in the hospitals until her strength was
overtaxed, and for several weeks her life was despaired of. Coming
again to the East, in the spring of 1864, she was with the Army of the
Potomac in its bloody campaign through the Wilderness, and afterward
with the Army of the Shenandoah. In the spring of 1865 she visited
North Carolina to care for the released prisoners of Andersonville and
Salisbury.
Mrs. Eliza C. Porter, of Chicago, after her eldest son had enlisted,
devoted herself to the work, first taking charge of the Sanitary
Commission rooms in that city, and in the spring of 1862 going to the
army hospitals. At Cairo, she and other women were accustomed to work
from four o'clock in the morning until ten at night. They went to the
front at Pittsburgh Landing, and not only labored in the hospitals,
but did much for refugees and escaped slaves, and established schools
for the blacks. In a letter written from a field hospital near
Chattanooga, in January, 1864, she says: "The field hospital was in a
forest, about five miles from Chattanooga; wood was abundant, and the
camp was warmed by immense burning 'log heaps,' which were the only
fire-places or cooking-stoves of the camp or hospitals. Men were
detailed to fell the trees and pile the logs to heat the air, which
was very wintry. And beside them Mrs. Bickerdyke made soup and toast,
tea and coffee, and broiled mutton without a gridiron, often
blistering her fingers in the process. A house in due time was
demolished to make bunks for the worst cases, and the brick from the
chimney was converted into an oven, when Mrs. Bickerdyke made bread,
yeast having been found in the Chicago boxes, and flour at a
neighboring mill, which had furnished flour to secessionists through
the war until now. Great multitudes were fed from these rude kitchens.
Companies of hungry soldiers were refreshed before those open
fire-places and from those ovens. On one occasion a citizen came and
told the men to follow him; he would show them a reserve of beef and
sheep which had been provided for General Bragg's army, and about
thirty head of cattle and twenty sheep was the prize. Large potash
kettles were found, which were used over the huge log fires, and
various kitchen utensils for cooking were brought into camp from time
to time, almost every day adding to our conveniences. The most
harrowing scenes are daily witnessed here. A wife came on yesterday
only to learn that her dear husband had died the morning previous. Her
lamentations were heart-breaking. 'Why could he not have lived until I
came? Why?' In the evening came a sister, whose aged parents had sent
her to search for their only son. She also came too late. The brother
had gone to the soldier's grave two days previous. One continued wail
of sorrow goes up from all parts of this stricken land."
[Illustration: MRS. MARY A. BICKERDYKE.]
[Illustration: MISS MARGARET E. BRECKENRIDGE.]
[Illustration: MRS. CORDELIA A. P. HARVEY.]
Mrs. Mary Bickerdyke, mentioned in Mrs. Porter's letter, was a widow
in Cleveland, Ohio, at the opening of the war, and immediately gave
herself to the work. Leaving her two little boys at home, she went to
the front and made herself useful in the hospitals at Savannah,
Chattanooga, and other points. She was a woman of great energy and
courage, and it is said that, in carrying on her work for the sick and
wounded soldiers, she used {535} to violate military rules without the
least hesitation, in order to obtain what she wanted. On one occasion,
when she found that an assistant surgeon had been off on a drunken
spree and had not made out the special diet list for his ward, leaving
the men without any breakfast, she not only denounced him to his face
but caused him to be discharged from the service. Going to General
Sherman to obtain reinstatement, the surgeon was asked: "Who caused
your discharge?" "Why," said he, "I suppose it was Mrs. Bickerdyke."
"If that is the case," said General Sherman, "I can do nothing for
you. She ranks me." Finding great difficulty in obtaining milk,
butter, and eggs for her hospital in Memphis, she resolved to
establish a dairy of her own. She therefore went to Illinois, and in
one of its farming regions obtained stock, by begging, until she had
two hundred cows and one thousand hens, which she took to Memphis,
where the commanding general gave her an island in the Mississippi, on
which she established her dairy. Her clothing was riddled with holes
from sparks at the open fires where she cooked for the field
hospitals, and some ladies in Chicago sent her a box of clothing for
herself, which included two elegant nightdresses trimmed with ruffles
and lace. Using only some of the plainest garments, she traded others
with secessionist women of the vicinity for delicacies for the
hospital. The two nightdresses she reserved to sell in some place
where she thought they would bring a higher price; but on the way to
Kentucky she found two wounded soldiers in a miserable shanty for whom
nothing had been done, and, after attending to their wounds and
finding that they had no shirts, she gave them the nightdresses,
ruffles, lace, and all.
Miss Margaret Elizabeth Breckenridge was a native of Philadelphia, but
was closely related to the well-known Breckenridge family of Kentucky.
She entered upon hospital service at the West in the spring of 1862,
and served constantly as long as her health and strength permitted. In
June, 1864, while she was prostrated by illness, the news came that
her brother-in-law, Col. Peter A. Porter, had been killed in the
battle of Cold Harbor, and this proved a greater shock than she could
bear. She had been especially helpful in cheering up the soldiers in
the hospitals and writing letters for them. One very young soldier who
lay wounded said to her: "Where do you come from? How could such a
lady as you are come down here to take care of us poor, sick, dirty
boys?" "I consider it an honor to wait on you," she said, "and wash
off the mud you waded through for me." Another man said: "Please write
down your name and let me look at it, and take it home, to show my
wife who wrote my letters and combed my hair and fed me. I don't
believe you're like other people."
Mrs. Stephen Barker, who was a sister of the attorney-general of
Massachusetts, and whose husband was chaplain of a regiment from that
State, gave nearly the whole four years of the war to hospital duty,
mostly in and around Washington, where at one time she had charge of
ten hospitals, which she carefully inspected herself with perfect
regularity. In her report she says: "I remember no scenes in camp more
picturesque than some of our visits have presented. The great open
army wagon stands under some shade-tree, with the officer who has
volunteered to help, or the regular field agent, standing in the midst
of boxes, bales, and bundles. Wheels, sides, and every projecting
point are crowded with eager soldiers, to see what the 'Sanitary' has
brought for them. By the side of the great wagon stands the light
wagon of the lady, with its curtains all rolled up, while she arranges
before and around her the supplies she is to distribute. Another eager
crowd surrounds her, patient, kind, and respectful as the first,
except that a shade more of softness in their look and tone attest the
ever-living power of woman over the rough elements of manhood. In
these hours of personal communication with the soldier she finds the
true meaning of her work. This is her golden opportunity, when by look
and tone and movement she may call up, as if by magic, the pure
influences of home, which may have been long banished by the hard
necessities of war. Quietly and rapidly the supplies are handed out
for companies A, B, C, etc., first from one wagon, then the other, and
as soon as a regiment is completed the men hurry back to their tents
to receive their share, and write letters on the newly received paper,
or apply the long-needed comb or mend the gaping seams in their now
'historic garments.' When at last the supplies are exhausted, and
sunset reminds us that we are yet many miles from home, we gather up
the remnants, bid good-by to the friendly faces, which already seem
like old acquaintances, promising to come again to visit new regiments
to-morrow, and hurry home to prepare for the next day's work. Every
day, from the first to the twentieth day of June, our little band of
missionaries has repeated a day's work such as I have now described."
Miss Amy M. Bradley, a native and resident of Maine, who had been for
some years a teacher, volunteered as a nurse at the very beginning of
the war and went out with the Fifth Maine regiment, many of the
soldiers in which had been her pupils. She became noted for the
efficiency and good condition of the hospitals over which she
presided, and in December, 1862, was sent to what the soldiers called
Camp Misery, on the opposite side of the Potomac from Washington, as a
special relief agent of the Sanitary Commission. This camp, as its
name indicated, was in a deplorable condition; but she immediately
instituted reforms which rapidly improved it. She not only obtained
supplies for the invalids and others who were there, but brought about
a system of transfer by which more than two thousand of them were sent
where they could be taken care of more comfortably, and she was
especially efficient in setting right the accounts of men who were
suffering from informality in their papers. In eight months she
procured the reinstatement of one hundred and fifty soldiers who had
been unjustly dropped from the rolls as deserters, and secured their
arrears of pay for them.
Miss Arabella Griffith was a native of New Jersey, and at the
beginning of the war was engaged to Francis C. Barlow, a promising
young lawyer. On April 19, 1861, Mr. Barlow enlisted as a private; on
the 20th they were married, and on the 21st he went with his regiment
to Washington. A week later Mrs. Barlow followed him, and still later
she joined in the hospital work of the Sanitary Commission. The day
after the battle of Antietam she found her husband badly wounded, and
when, in the spring, he went to the field again, she accompanied him.
At Gettysburg he was again wounded and was left within the enemy's
lines, but she by great effort managed to get him within the Union
lines, where she took care not only of him, but many others of the
wounded men in that great battle. In the spring of 1864 she was again
in the field, hard at work in the hospitals that were nearest the
front. A friend who knew her at this time writes: "We call her 'The
Raider.' At Fredericksburg she had in some way gained possession of a
wretched-looking pony and a small cart, with which she was continually
on the move, driving about town or country in search of such
provisions or other articles as were needed for the sick and wounded.
The surgeon in charge had on one occasion assigned to us the task of
preparing a building, which had been taken for {536} a hospital, for a
large number of wounded who were expected immediately. It was empty,
containing not the slightest furniture, save a large number of
bed-sacks, without material to fill them. On requisition a quantity of
straw was obtained, but not nearly enough, and we were standing in a
mute despair when Mrs. Barlow came in. 'I'll find some more straw,'
was her cheerful reply, and in another moment she was urging her tired
beast toward another part of the town where she remembered having seen
a bale of straw earlier in the day. Half an hour afterward it had been
confiscated, loaded upon the little wagon, and brought to the
hospital." Her health became so impaired in the field that, in July,
1864, she died. Her husband, meanwhile, had risen to the rank of
brigadier-general, and was known as one of the most gallant men in the
army. Surgeon W. H. Reed, writing of her, said: "In the open field she
toiled with Mr. Marshall and Miss Gilson, under the scorching sun,
with no shelter from the pouring rains, with no thought but for those
who were suffering and dying all around her. On the battlefield of
Petersburg, hardly out of range of the enemy and at night witnessing
the blazing lines of fire from right to left, among the wounded, with
her sympathies and powers both of mind and body strained to the last
degree, neither conscious that she was working beyond her strength nor
realizing the extreme exhaustion of her system, she fainted at her
work, and found, only when it was too late, that the raging fever was
wasting her life away. Yet to the last her sparkling wit, her
brilliant intellect, her unfailing good humor, lighted up our moments
of rest and recreation."
Mrs. Nellie M. Taylor (May Dewey) was a native of Watertown, New York,
but settled with her husband in New Orleans. There, on the breaking
out of the war, she was subjected to all kinds of persecution because
she was a Unionist. On one occasion a mob assembled around her house,
where she was watching at the bedside of her dying husband, and the
leader said: "Madam, we give you five minutes to decide whether you
are for the South or for the North. If at the end of that time you
declare yourself for the South, your house shall remain; if for the
North, it must come down." "Sir," she answered, "I will say to you and
your crowd that I am, always have been, and ever shall be, for the
Union. Tear my house down if you choose!" The mob seemed to be a
little ashamed of themselves at this answer, and finally dispersed
without destroying the house. Seven times before the capture of the
city by the National forces her home was searched by self-constituted
committees of citizens, who every time found the National flag
displayed at the head of her bed; and on one occasion she was actually
fired at from a window. Mrs. Taylor gave a large part of her time
during the war to hard work in the hospitals, and in addition she
spent many of her earnings for the benefit of the sick and wounded
soldiers.
In the spring of 1862, Governor Harvey, of Wisconsin, visited General
Grant's army with medicines and other supplies for the wounded from
his State, and just after the battle of Shiloh he was accidentally
drowned there. His widow, Cordelia P. Harvey, devoted herself to the
work in which he had lost his life, and served faithfully in the
hospitals of that department. One of her most valuable achievements
consisted in persuading the government to establish general hospitals
in the Northern States, where suffering soldiers might be sent and
have a better chance of recovery than if kept in the hospitals further
south.
Mrs. Sarah R. Johnston was a native of North Carolina, and at the
beginning of the war was teaching at Salisbury, in that State. When
the first prisoners were brought to the town for confinement in the
stockade there, the secessionist women turned out in carriages to
escort them through the town, and greeted them with contemptuous
epithets as they filed past. The sight of this determined Mrs.
Johnston to devote herself to the work of ameliorating their
condition. This subjected her to all sorts of insults from her
townspeople and broke up her school; but she persevered, nevertheless,
and earned the gratitude of many of the unfortunate men who there
suffered from the studied cruelty of the Confederate government. She
made up her carpets and spare blankets into moccasins, which she gave
to the prisoners as they arrived; and when they stood in front of her
house waiting their turn to be mustered into the prison, she supplied
them, as far as she could, with bread and water, for in many instances
they had been on the railroad forty-eight hours with nothing to eat or
drink. The prisoners were not permitted to leave their ranks to assist
her in obtaining the water, all of which had to be drawn from a well
with an old-fashioned windlass. On one occasion a Confederate sergeant
in charge told her that if she attempted to do anything for the
Yankees or come outside her gate, he would pin her to the earth with
his bayonet. Paying no attention to this, she took a basket of bread
in one hand and a bucket of water in the other, and walked past him on
her usual errand. The sergeant followed her and touched her upon the
shoulder with the point of his bayonet, whereupon she turned and asked
him why he did not pin her to the earth, as he had promised to. Some
of the Confederate soldiers called out: "Sergeant, you can't make
anything out of that woman; you had better leave her alone." And then
he desisted.
[Illustration: MRS. MARY A. LIVERMORE.]
[Illustration: MRS. MARY MORRIS HUSBAND.]
Mrs. Mary Morris Husband, of Philadelphia, was a {537} granddaughter
of Robert Morris of Revolutionary fame. When her son, who had enlisted
in the Army of the Potomac, was seriously ill on the Peninsula, she
went there to take care of him, and what she saw determined her to
give her services to the country as a nurse. She was on one of the
hospital transports at Harrison's Landing when the Confederates
bombarded it, but kept right on with her work as if she were not under
fire. She was at Antietam immediately after the battle, and remained
there two months in charge of the wounded, sleeping in a tent in all
kinds of weather and attending the hospital with perfect regularity.
She contrived an ensign for her tent by cutting out the figure of a
bottle in red flannel and sewing it upon a piece of calico, this
bottle flag indicating the place where medicines were to be obtained.
In the severe winter of 1862-63 she often left her tent several times
in the night and visited the cots of those who were apparently near
death, to make sure that the nurses did not neglect them; and when
diphtheria appeared in the hospital and many of the nurses left from
fear of it, she remained at her post just as if there were no such
thing as a contagious disease. It is said that in several instances
where she believed a soldier had been unjustly condemned by
court-martial, she obtained a pardon or commutation of his sentence by
laying the case directly before President Lincoln.
[Illustration: MRS. HENRIETTA L. COLT.]
[Illustration: MISS EMILY E. PARSONS.]
[Illustration: MRS. R. H. SPENCER.]
Miss Katherine P. Wormeley, known of late as a translator of Balzac's
works, is a native of England. Her father, born in Virginia, was an
officer in the British Navy. Her mother was a native of Boston. At the
beginning of the war Miss Wormeley was living at Newport, R. I., and
almost at once she enlisted in the work of aid for the soldiers. When
the hospital transport service was organized, in the summer of 1862,
she was one of the first volunteers for that branch of the service.
Later she had charge of a large hospital in Rhode Island, which held
two thousand five hundred patients.
Among others who volunteered for the hospital transport service were
Mrs. Joseph Howland, whose husband was colonel of the Sixteenth New
York regiment, and her sister, Mrs. Robert S. Howland, whose husband
was a clergyman working in the hospitals. The latter Mrs. Howland, who
died in 1864, was the author of a short poem, entitled "In the
Hospital," which has become famous.
"I lay me down to sleep, with little thought or care
Whether my waking find me here--or there!
A bowing, burdened head, that only asks to rest,
Unquestioning, upon a loving breast.
My good right hand forgets its cunning now;
To march the weary march I know not how.
I am not eager, bold, nor strong--all that is past;
I am ready not to do at last, at last.
My half-day's work is done, and this is all my part--
I give a patient God my patient heart;
And grasp His banner still, though all the blue be dim:
These stripes, as well as stars, lead after Him."
These two ladies had two unmarried sisters, Jane C. and Georgiana M.
Woolsey, who also were in the service. Miss Georgiana Woolsey wrote
some entertaining letters from the seat of war, in one of which she
tells of some women in Gettysburg who, like Jennie Wade, kept at their
work of making bread for the soldiers while the battle was going on.
One of them had refused to leave the house or go into the cellar until
a third shell passed through the room, when, having got the last loaf
into the oven, she ran down the stairs. "Why did you not go before?"
she was asked. "Oh, you see," she answered, "if I had, the rebels
would 'a' come in and daubed the dough all over the place." These
ladies were cousins of Miss Sarah C. Woolsey, who is now, under her
pen-name of Susan Coolidge, well known as a writer for the young. She
also served for some time in the hospitals.
Anna Maria Ross, of Philadelphia, was known as a most energetic worker
in the hospitals, chiefly in what was called the Cooper Shop Hospital
of Philadelphia, of which she was principal until, from overwork and
anxiety, she died in December, 1863.
Miss Mary J. Safford, a native of Vermont, was living in Cairo, Ill.,
when the war began, and at once enlisted in the work of aid for the
soldiers. Immediately after the battle of Shiloh {538} she went to the
front with a large supply of hospital stores, and labored there day
and night for three weeks, when she came North with a transport loaded
with wounded men. She is said to have been the first woman in the West
to engage in this work. The hardships that she endured caused a
disease of the spine, and at the end of a year and a half she broke
down, and had to be sent to Europe for treatment.
Mrs. Annie Wittenmeyer, of Iowa, was appointed sanitary agent for that
State, and is said to have been the originator of the diet kitchens
attached to the hospitals. The object of these was to have the food
for the wounded and sick prepared in a skilful manner and administered
according to surgeons' orders, and they were a very efficient branch
of the hospital service.
Another Iowa woman who devoted herself to the service was Miss
Melcenia Elliott. She served in the hospitals in Tennessee, and
afterward in St. Louis had charge of the Home for Refugees. Here she
established a school, and instituted many reforms in the direction of
cleanliness and industry. It is related that in Memphis, when she was
refused admission to one of the hospitals where a neighbor's son was
ill, she every night scaled a high fence in the rear of the building
and managed to get into the ward where she could attend to the poor
boy until he died.
Miss Clara Davis, of Massachusetts, was one of the earliest
volunteers, and she was so assiduous in her labors and so cheerful in
her manners in the hospital that the soldiers came to look upon her
with most profound admiration and affection. One of them was heard to
say, "There must be wings hidden beneath her cloak." Her labors were
mainly with the Army of the Potomac, and she continued them until an
attack of typhoid fever made further work of the kind impossible.
Mrs. R. H. Spencer, of Oswego, N. Y., whose husband enlisted in the
One Hundred and Forty-seventh New York regiment, followed that
organization to the front, and made herself useful as a nurse and
hospital attendant. On the march toward Gettysburg she rode a horse
which carried, besides herself, bedding, cooking utensils, clothing,
and more than three hundred pounds of supplies for the sick and
wounded. While that great battle was in progress, Mrs. Spencer, a part
of the time actually under fire, established a field hospital in which
sixty wounded men were treated. One day she discovered a townsman of
her own who had been shot through the throat, and whose case was
pronounced hopeless by the surgeon, as he could swallow nothing. Mrs.
Spencer took him in hand, and asked him if he could do without food
for a week. The man, who was young and strong, gave signs that he
could. "Then," said she, "do as I tell you, and you shall not die."
She procured a basin of pure cold water, and directed him to keep the
wound continually wet, which he did, until in a few days the
inflammation subsided and the edges of the wound could be closed up.
After which she began to feed him carefully with broth, and every day
brought further improvement until he entirely recovered. When the
ammunition barge exploded at City Point a piece of shell struck her in
the side, but inflicted only a heavy bruise.
Mrs. Harriet Foote Hawley, wife of Gen. Joseph R. Hawley, of
Connecticut, did much work in the hospitals on the Carolina coast,
whither she had gone in the first instance to engage in teaching the
freedmen. At Wilmington, where typhoid fever broke out, she remained
at her post when many others were frightened away. In the last month
of the war she was injured on the head by the overturning of an
ambulance, and this rendered her an invalid for a long time.
Miss Jessie Home, a native of Scotland, entered the service as a
hospital nurse at Washington and continued there for two years, making
many friends and doing a vast amount of good, until, from overwork,
she was struck down by disease.
Mrs. Sarah P. Edson entered the service during the first year of the
war, and was assigned to the general hospital at Winchester, Va. In
the spring of 1862 she was with McClellan's army on the Peninsula, and
after the battle of Williamsburg, learning that her son was among the
wounded, she walked twelve miles to find him, apparently dying, where,
with other wounded men, he was greatly in need of care. She worked
night and day to alleviate their sufferings, and brought something
like cleanliness and order out of the dreadful condition in which she
found them. In the ensuing summer she passed through a long and severe
illness in consequence of her labors. On her recovery she formed a
plan for the training of nurses, and, after her experiment had been
tried, an official of the medical department declared "that it was
more than a success, it was a triumph."
Miss Maria M. C. Hall, of Washington, was associated with Mrs. Fales
in hospital work, and went through the four years of it with unfailing
energy and enthusiasm. She finally became general superintendent of
the Naval Academy Hospital at Annapolis. After the war she wrote: "I
mark my hospital days as my best ones, and thank God for the way in
which He led me into the good work, and for the strength which kept me
through it all."
Mrs. A. H. Gibbons was a daughter of Isaac T. Hopper, the famous
Quaker philanthropist, and wife of James Sloane Gibbons, who wrote the
famous song, "We are coming, Father Abraham, three hundred thousand
more." With her eldest daughter (afterward Mrs. Emerson) she went to
Washington in the autumn of 1861, and entered upon hospital service.
One day they discovered a small hospital near Falls Church, where
about forty men were ill of typhoid fever, and one young soldier, who
seemed to be at the point of death, appealed to them, saying: "Come
and take care of me, and I shall get well; if you do not come, I shall
die." Finding that the hospital was in a wretched condition, they got
leave to take it in charge, and presently had it in excellent order,
with a large number of the patients recovering. These ladies were on
duty at Point Lookout for over a year, and there they were obliged to
oppose and evade the officers in various ways, in order to assist the
escaped slaves, whom these officers were only too ready and anxious to
return to slavery. While they were engaged in this work, their home in
New York was sacked by the mob in the draft riots.
Mrs. Jerusha R. Small, of Cascade, Iowa, followed her husband, who
enlisted at the beginning of the war, and became a nurse in the
regimental hospitals. At the battle of Shiloh, the tent in which she
was caring for a number of wounded men, among whom was her husband,
was struck by shells from the enemy's guns, and she was obliged to get
her patients away as fast as she could to an extemporized hospital
beyond the range of fire. After the most arduous service, extending
over several weeks with no intermission, she was struck down by
disease and died. To one who said to her in her last hours, "You did
wrong to expose yourself so," she answered, "No, I feel that I have
done right. I think I have been the means of saving some lives, and
that of my dear husband among the rest; and these I consider of far
more value than mine, for now they can go and help our country in its
hour of need." She was buried with military honors.
Another lady who accompanied her husband to the field was {539} the
wife of Hermann Canfield, colonel of the Seventy-first Ohio regiment,
who was killed in the battle of Shiloh. After taking his body to their
home, she returned to the army and continued her hospital service
until the close of the war.
When the Rev. Shepard Wells and his wife were driven from East
Tennessee because of their loyalty to the government, they went to St.
Louis, where he engaged in the work of the Christian Commission, and
she entered the hospital and became superintendent of a special diet
kitchen, which did an immense amount of work for the cause.
[Illustration: MISS MARY J. SAFFORD.]
Mrs. E. C. Witherell, of Louisville, Ky., was another of those who
devoted themselves to the merciful and patriotic work in the hospitals
at the expense of their lives. She was head nurse on a hospital
steamer in the Mississippi until she was stricken down with fever and
died in July, 1862. Still another of those was Miss Phebe Allen, a
daughter of Iowa, who served in a hospital at St. Louis until she died
in the summer of 1864. Mrs. Edwin Greble, mother of Lieut. John T.
Greble, who was killed in the battle of Big Bethel, and of another son
who died in the army, of fever, devoted herself to hospital service
and to preparing garments and blankets for the soldiers.
Mrs. Isabella Fogg, of Maine, was another of those who pushed their
way into the service before it was organized, and found some
difficulty in so doing. But she got there at last, and took part in
the hospital transport service in the waters of Chesapeake Bay. After
the battle of Chancellorsville, she was serving in a temporary
hospital at United States Ford when it was shelled by the
Confederates. Her son was in the Army of the Shenandoah, and was badly
wounded in the battle of Cedar Creek. While performing her duties on a
Western hospital boat, in charge of the diet kitchen, she fell through
a hatchway and received injuries that disabled her for life.
Mrs. E. E. George, of Indiana, when she applied for a place in the
service, was refused on the ground that she was too old. But in spite
of her advanced years she insisted upon enlisting in the good cause,
and in Sherman's campaign of 1864 she had charge of the Fifteenth Army
Corps hospital, and in the battles before Atlanta she was several
times under fire. The next spring she was on duty at Wilmington,
N. C., when eleven thousand prisoners released from Salisbury were
brought there in the deplorable condition that was common to those who
had been in Carolina in Confederate stockades. Her incessant labors in
behalf of those unfortunate men prostrated her, and she died.
Large numbers of the troops raised in the Eastern and Middle States
passed through Philadelphia on their way to the seat of war, and some
philanthropic ladies of that city established a refreshment saloon
where meals were furnished free to soldiers who were either going to
the front or going home on furlough or because disabled. Among the
most assiduous workers here was Mary B. Wade, widow of a sea captain,
who, despite her seventy years, was almost never absent, night or day,
through the whole four years.
Another widow who gave herself to the cause was Henrietta L. Colt
(_née_ Peckham), a native of Albany County, N. Y., whose husband was a
well-known lawyer. She labored in the Western hospitals and on the
river hospital steamers, looking especially after the Wisconsin men,
as she was for some time a resident of Milwaukee. She wrote in one of
her letters: "I have visited seventy-two hospitals, and would find it
difficult to choose the most remarkable among the many heroisms I
every day witnessed. I was more impressed by the gentleness and
refinement that seemed to grow up in the men when suffering from
horrible wounds than from anything else. It seemed to me that the
sacredness of the cause for which they offered up their lives gave
them a heroism almost superhuman."
[Illustration: MRS. MARIANNE F. STRANAHAN.]
Among the great fairs that were held for the benefit of the Sanitary
Commission, that in Brooklyn, N. Y., was one of the most successful.
It paid into the treasury of the Commission three hundred thousand
dollars and furnished supplies valued at two hundred thousand more.
This was the work of the Brooklyn Women's Relief Association, of which
Mrs. James S. T. Stranahan was president. Her efforts in this work
broke down her health, and she died in the first year after the war.
Miss Hattie A. Dada, of New York, was one of the women who volunteered
as nurses immediately after the first battle of Bull Run. From that
date she was continually in service till the war closed--her time
being about equally divided between the Eastern and Western armies.
After General Banks's retreat in the Shenandoah Valley, she and Miss
Susan E. Hall, remaining with the wounded, became prisoners to the
Confederates and were held about three months. From that time these
two ladies were inseparable, their last two years of service being in
the scantily furnished hospitals at Murfreesboro, Tenn., one of the
most difficult fields for such work.
At the beginning of the war, Miss Emily E. Parsons, daughter of Prof.
Theophilus Parsons, of Cambridge, Mass., entered a hospital in Boston
as pupil and assistant to educate herself for work among the soldiers.
A year and a half later she volunteered and was sent to Fort Schuyler,
near New York. Early in 1863 she went to St. Louis, where she served
in the hospitals {540} and on the hospital steamers. The Benton
Hospital, under her superintendence, became famous for its efficiency
and its large percentage of recoveries.
Next after the men who commanded armies, the name of Gen. James B.
Ricketts is one of the most familiar in the history of the war. When
he was gravely wounded at Bull Run and taken prisoner, his wife
managed to make her way to him, sharing his captivity, and by careful
nursing saved his life. He was exchanged in December, 1861, and his
wife afterward devoted herself to the care of the wounded in the Army
of the Potomac.
Mrs. Jane R. Munsell, of Maryland, entered upon the service when she
saw the wounded of the battle of Antietam, and devoted both her life
and her property to it until she died of the incessant labor.
Besides these women who served in the hospitals, there were others who
performed quite as important work in organizing the means of
supply--in holding fairs, in obtaining materials and workers and
superintending the manufacture of garments and other necessary
articles, and forwarding them to the right places at the right time.
One of the foremost of these was Mrs. Mary A. Livermore, a native of
Boston, who afterward became eminent as a pulpit orator. She organized
numerous aid societies in the Northwestern States, made tours of the
hospitals in the Mississippi valley, to find out what was needed and
how the supplies were being disposed of, and was most active in
getting up and carrying through to success the great Northwestern
Sanitary Fair in Chicago. There was hardly a city in the North in
which one or more similar women did not rise to the occasion and do
similar work, though on a smaller scale.
NOTE.--For many of the facts related in this chapter we are indebted
to Dr. L. P. Brackett's excellent volume on "Woman's Work in the Civil
War."
[Illustration: INTERIOR OF HOSPITAL CONSTRUCTED BY THE SANITARY
COMMISSION.]
{541}
INDEX.
Besides the usual abbreviations for titles and given names of persons,
and for names of States, N stands for National or Federal, C for
Confederate, port. for portrait, inf. for infantry, cav. for cavalry,
art'y for artillery.
"A" tents, 496.
Abbott, John S. C., quoted, 513, 517.
----, Joseph C., N b'v't brig.-gen., port., 440.
----, ----, N capt., 22d Ill., 117.
Abb's Valley, W. Va., captured, 339.
Abercrombie, John J., N brig.-gen., Falling Waters, 111;
port., 159.
Abingdon, Va., 223.
Acquia, Va., 165.
Acton, Thomas C., New York draft riots, 285.
----, ----, N maj., killed, Lookout Mountain, 313.
Adams, Charles Francis, U. S. minister to England, letter from Sec'y
Sumner, 372-314;
instructed by Lincoln, 374.
----, John, C brig.-gen., killed, 430.
----, John Quincy, President of the U. S., quoted on slavery, 183.
----, of Mississippi, C spy, 505.
----, ----, N aid to Force, Atlanta, 389.
Advance on Petersburg, The, 397-400.
Aiken's Landing, Va., 322.
Alabama secedes, 9;
14th inf. captured by Sherman, 386.
---- regimental losses, 6th, 16th, 22d, 58th, 41st, 3d, 26th inf.,
483, 484.
----, C cruiser, 371;
destroyed by "Kearsarge," 372;
ill., 373;
Sumner's letter, 374.
Albemarle, C ram, Plymouth, N. C., 434;
destroyed by Cushing, 435.
Albemarle Sound, N. C., 67, 71, 72.
Alcott, Louisa M., port., 324;
hospital services, 326.
Alden, James, N rear-adm., Mobile Bay, 393.
Aldie, Va., skirmishes, 250, 267.
Alexander, Barton S., N b'v't brig.-gen., port., 147.
----, E. Porter, C brig.-gen., port., 265.
Alexandria, La., 375.
----, Va., 25, 49, 52, 165, 353, 402.
Allatoona Pass, Ga., 385;
ill., 421.
Alleghany Mountains, 75, 100.
Allen, Henry W., C maj.-gen., port., 508.
----, Phebe, Miss, 539.
Allen's Farm, Va., action, 158.
"All quiet along the Potomac to-night," Mrs. Ethel Lynn Beers, 126.
American Hotel, Richmond, Va., 454.
Ames, Adelbert, N b'v't maj.-gen., port., 440.
Anderson, Charles, N col., Lebanon, Tenn., 229.
----, Rev. Galusha, 41.
----, George B., C brig.-gen., killed, Antietam, 180.
----, George T., C brig.-gen., Gettysburg, 259;
Spottsylvania, 358.
----, John T., C col., residence destroyed by Hunter, 319.
----, Joseph R., C brig.-gen., 319.
----, J. Patton, C maj.-gen., La Vergne, Tenn., 227.
----, Paulding, C, Munfordville, 115.
----, Richard H., C lieut.-gen., Antietam, 180;
port., 195;
Shenandoah, 406.
----, Robert, N b'v't maj.-gen., ports., 7, 11;
sent to command Charleston Harbor, 10;
moves from Moultrie to Sumter, 12;
defends, 15;
surrenders and evacuates Sumter, 17, 18;
takes command in Kentucky, 41.
----, ----, N pvt., Gettysburg, 260.
Andersonville, Ga., prison camps, 321, 323, 390, 524, 525;
ill., 315.
André, a modern (S. B. Davis, C lieut.), 470-472.
Andrew, John A., gov. of Mass., port., 18;
early equips State militia, 23;
influence, 448.
Andrews, Christopher C., N b'v't maj.-gen., Fitzhugh's Woods, Ark.,
437.
----, James J., N spy, port., 529;
execution, 529.
Annapolis, Md., 24.
Anthony, Daniel R., N col., attitude toward slavery, 185.
Antietam, Md., battle, 177-179, 350;
map of battle, 179;
Sanitary Commission, 325, 406;
losses at battle, 477.
Antietam campaign, The, 175-180.
Anti-slavery standard, 128.
Apache Cañon, N. M., battle, 233, 234.
Appalachicola, Fla., 10.
Appomattox C. H., Va., ill., 492;
Sheridan stops Lee's retreat at, 446;
Lee surrenders at, 446;
McLean house, where Lee surrendered, ills., 447, 494.
Aqueduct Bridge, Potomac River, ill., 473.
Arago, N ship, 18.
Archer, James J., C brig.-gen., Gettysburg, 251, 267.
Arkadelphia, Ark., engagement, 343.
Arkansas secedes, 35;
guerilla warfare, 79;
1st cav., Fayetteville, 344;
1st (C) inf. losses, 484.
----, C gunboat, destroyed, 270.
Arkansas Post, Ark., captured by McClernand, 272, 273.
Arlington Heights, Va., 25.
Armistead, Lewis A., C brig.-gen., Malvern Hill, 159;
Antietam, 180;
killed, Gettysburg, 257, 451.
Armstrong, ----, C capt., killed, Belmont, 122.
----, Frank C., C brig.-gen., port., 210;
Britton's Lane, Tenn., 227.
Army organization, North and South, 47-49.
Arnold, W. A., N capt., Bristoe Sta., Va., 334.
Arthur, Chester A., President of the U. S., Porter relief bill vetoed,
170.
Asboth, Alexander, N b'v't maj.-gen., Pea Ridge, 80;
port., 81.
Ashby, Henry, C col., Somerset, Ky., 339.
----, Turner, C brig.-gen., Bolivar Heights, 113;
Winchester, 216;
killed, Harrisonburg, 216.
Ashby's Gap, Va., 333.
Aspinwall, William H., 15.
Astor House, New York, ill., 228.
Atlanta, Ga., 307, 353;
Sherman's campaign, 383-390;
"Gate City," 387;
occupied by Sherman, 390;
ills. of battle, 384, 516;
military depot, 419;
shops and depot destroyed, 421;
ill. of works, 424, 426;
ill., 428.
----, C ironclad, surrendered to Du Pont, 289, 290.
Atlanta campaign, The, 383-390.
Atlantic Monthly, quoted, 395, 425-427.
Atlee's Station, Va., Kilpatrick's raid, 531.
Augur, Christopher C., N maj.-gen., defence of Washington, 403;
port., 530.
Augusta, Ga., 10, 389.
Averell, William W., N b'v't maj.-gen., 317;
Kelly's Ford, 332;
cavalry raid, Va. and W. Va., 333;
port., 335;
Winchester, Va., 404;
Shenandoah, 406, 407;
Crockett's Cove, W. Va., 433.
Avery, ----, N lieut., Tranter's Creek, N. C., 218.
Averysboro', N. C., battle, 441.
Ayres, Romeyn B., N b'v't maj.-gen., port., 443.
Babcock, Orville E., N b'v't brig.-gen., port., 527.
Bacon, A. G., N capt., killed, Sacramento, 115.
Badeau, Adam, N brig.-gen., port., 277.
Bahama Channel, 63.
Bahia, Brazil, "Florida" captured, 372.
Bailey, Joseph, N b'v't maj.-gen., Grand Ecore, La., 381, 382.
----, Theodorus, N commodore, at N. O., port., 93, 95.
Bailey's dam, Red River, ill., 380, 381, 382.
Baird, Absalom, N b'v't maj.-gen., port., 307.
Baker, Edward D., N col., killed, Ball's Bluff, 109;
port., 110, 451.
Baker, L. C., N col., captures Booth, 511;
adventures, 511.
Balaklava, charge, compared with Gettysburg, 476.
Bald Hill (Atlanta), battle, 387, 388.
Baldwin, Philemon P., N col., killed, Chickamauga, 299.
----, Judge, quoted, 315.
Balloons, 162.
Ball's Bluff, Va., battle, 109, 110.
Baltic, N transport, 15, 17.
Baltimore, Md., 6th Mass. regiment attacked in, 5, 23;
Republican convention, 412.
Baltimore and Ohio R. R., 28, 45, 47, 320, 337, 406.
Banks, Nathaniel P., N maj.-gen., Peninsular campaign, 154;
Pope's campaign, 163-168;
Cedar Mountain, 164;
Shenandoah Valley, 216;
Port Hudson, 276, 308, 345;
under Grant, 351, 353;
Shreveport, 375;
ill., 377;
Sabine Cross Roads, 377;
port., 378;
Pleasant Hill, 378-381.
Banks's Ford, Chancellorsville, 243.
Barboursville, W. Va., 113.
Barker, Mrs. Stephen, 535.
Barksdale, William, C brig.-gen., killed, Gettysburg, 254, 259, 451.
Barlow, Arabella G. (Mrs. Francis C.), hospital services and death,
326, 467, 470, 535.
----, C. J., quoted, 317.
----, Francis C., N maj.-gen., Chancellorsville, 245;
port., 255;
Spottsylvania, 359;
Bethesda Church, 365;
Cold Harbor, 365;
Gettysburg anecdote, 465-467, 479.
Barnard, John G., N b'v't maj.-gen., port., 159;
quoted, 162.
Barnes, James, N b'v't maj.-gen., Gettysburg, 259.
----, Joseph K., N b'v't maj.-gen., port., 414.
Barnett's Ford, Va., 335.
Barney, N gunboat, 348.
Barnum, Henry A., N b'v't maj.-gen., port., 414.
Barron, Samuel, C flag officer, 68.
Bartlett, Joseph J., N b'v't maj.-gen., port., 192, 398.
----, William C., N b'v't brig.-gen., port., 386.
Bartlett's Mills, Va., 336.
Barton, Clara, Fort Wagner, 291;
hospital services, 326;
port., 533.
----, Seth M., C brig.-gen., port., 281.
----, William B., N col., 220.
Bartow, F. S., C col., at Bull Run, 55, 451.
Bate, William B., C maj.-gen., port., 314.
Bates, Edward, N attorney-gen., port., 6.
----, Samuel P., Hooker's comments on Chancellorsville, 243.
Batesville, Ark., action, 343.
Baton Rouge, La., 10, 270, 274.
Battery Gregg, Morris Island, 290, 294.
---- Lamar, 219.
---- Reynolds, Fort Wagner, ill., 291.
---- Robinette, Corinth, 207.
Battle Creek, Ala., 301.
"Battle Cry of Freedom, The," George F. Root, 138.
"Battle Hymn of the Republic, The," Mrs. Julia Ward Howe, 127.
Battle of Chattanooga, The, 305-314.
---- of Mobile Bay, The, 391-396.
Baxter, Henry, N b'v't maj.-gen., Gettysburg, 252;
port., 255;
Wilderness, 357.
Bayard, George D., N brig-.-gen., Cedar Mountain, 164;
Harrisonburg, 216;
killed, Fredericksburg, 196;
port., 484.
Bayou Lafourche, La., 382.
---- Teche, La., operations, 345, 347.
Beall, John Y., C, Lake Erie raid, 528.
----, Richard L. T., C brig.-gen., port., 265.
Bean, William S., N quar.-mas.-sergt., Chickamauga, 303.
Beaufort, N. C., 72, 87, 193.
Beauregard, P. G. T., C lieut.-gen., port., 15;
attacks and captures Sumter, 15-17, 49;
in command C troops, 52;
at Bull Run, 53, 54, 57;
Corinth, 100;
Shiloh, 101-108;
succeeded by Bragg, 200, 206;
comment on Secessionville, 219;
comment on the "Black Flag," 235;
siege of Charleston, 289;
cartoon, 461.
Beaver, James A., N b'v't brig.-gen., port., 368.
Beaver Dam Creek, Va., battle, 155.
Bee, Barnard E., C brig.-gen., port., 60;
at Bull Run, 53, 55, 451.
Beech Grove, Ky., 73.
Beecher, Henry Ward, Rev., at Sumter, 17, 18;
in England, 66;
port., 186.
Beekman, ----, N capt., Hawes's Shop, Va., 363, 364.
Beers, Mrs. Ethel Lynn, "All quiet along the Potomac to-night," 126.
----, ----, N maj., Jonesville, Va., 433.
Beginning of bloodshed, The, 29-36.
Beiral, ----, N capt., Ball's Bluff, 110.
Belle Isle, Va., prison camps, 321, 323, 531.
Belle Plain, Va., ill., 352, 362.
Belleville, O., action, 297.
Bellis, ----, N lieut., Hawes's Shop, Va., 364.
Bellows, Henry W., Rev., Sanitary Commission, 324-327;
port., 326.
Belmont, Mo., engagement, 122.
Bendix, John E., N b'v't brig.-gen., at Big Bethel, 45.
Benedict, Lewis, N col., killed, Pleasant Hill, 379.
Benham, Henry W., N b'v't maj.-gen., W. Va., 113, 114;
Charleston Harbor, 219.
Benjamin, Judah P., C atty.-gen., sec'y of war, sec'y of state, port.,
26;
order concerning prisoners, 316.
Bennett, James Gordon, cartoon, 462.
----, ----, police officer, New York draft riots, 285.
Benning, Henry L., C brig.-gen., Wilderness, 357.
Benton, William P., N b'v't maj.-gen., port., 392.
Bentonville, N. C., battle, 441.
Berdan, Hiram, N b'v't maj.-gen., Manassas Gap, Va., 333;
port., 336.
Bermuda Hundred, Va., occupied by Butler, 397.
Berry, Hiram G., N maj.-gen., killed, Chancellorsville, 242, 246;
port., 245.
----, ----, N capt., 318.
Berryville, Va., 334, 406.
Bethesda Church, Va., action, 365.
Bickerdyke, Mary A., Mrs., 534;
port., 534.
Bidwell, Daniel D., N brig.-gen., killed, Cedar Creek, Va., 410.
Bienville, N gunboat, 71.
Big Bethel, Va., 24;
battle of, 45;
ill., 46.
Big Black River, Miss., engagement, 275;
ill., 278.
Big Creek Gap, Tenn., action, 225.
Big Hill, Ky., battle, 224.
Big Mound, Dak., engagement, 348.
Big Sandy, Ga., Andrews's raid, 529.
Big Sandy River, Ky., 73.
Billings, ----, N paymaster, recaptured, 322.
Birge, Henry W., N b'v't maj.-gen., Irish Bend, La., 345.
Birkenhead, Eng., "Alabama" built, 371.
Birney, David B., N maj.-gen., Chantilly, 169;
Fredericksburg, 195;
Gettysburg, 252-265;
port., 255;
Robertson's Tavern, Va., 336;
Spottsylvania, 362;
advance on Petersburg, 397;
port., 401.
----, James G., port., 187.
Bissell, Josiah W., N col., Island No. 10, 99.
Black Chapter, The, 315-323.
"Black Flag, The," Paul Hamilton Hayne, 133.
Black flag displayed, 316.
Black Walnut Creek, Mo., 122.
Blackburn's Ford (Bull Run), 53, 54;
ill., 167.
Blackman, Albert M., N b'v't brig.-gen., port., 440.
Blackwood's Magazine, England, 268.
Blair, Austin, gov. of Mich., port., 18.
----, Francis P., Jr., N maj.-gen., 38, 41;
Vicksburg campaign, 272;
Atlanta campaign, 387, 513;
(sketch), 515;
port., 515.
----, Montgomery, N Postmaster-gen., port., 6;
criticised by Gurowski, 236, 237.
----, ----, Rev., murdered, 315.
Blake, Henry N., N capt., 171;
Chancellorsville, 245;
quoted, 353.
Blakeslee, ----, N lieut., quoted, 434.
Blenheim, battle of, 104.
Blenker, Louis, N brig.-gen., 49;
port., 53;
at Bull Run, 60, 143.
Blockade of Southern ports, 67.
Bloodgood, Abraham, 84.
Bloody Lane, Antietam, 178.
Blooming Gap, W. Va., battle, 217.
Blount's Farm, Ala., engagement, 295.
Blountsville, Tenn., action, 341.
Blue's Gap, W. Va., action, 216.
Blunt, G. W., 15.
----, James G., N maj.-gen., Old Fort Wayne, Ark., 231, 232;
Cane Hill, Ark., 232, 233;
Prairie Grove, Ark., 233;
Fort Smith, Ark., 344.
Boggs, Charles S., N rear-adm., at N. O., port., 93.
Bohlen, Henry, N brig.-gen., port., 480.
Bolivar, Mo., 119.
----, Tenn., 206;
skirmish, 227, 437.
---- Heights, Va., 109;
engagement, 111.
Bolton, Miss., 275.
Bond, F. S., N maj., Chickamauga, 301.
Bonham, Milledge L., C brig.-gen., 52;
at Bull Run, 53.
"Bonnie Blue Flag, The," Harry McCarthy, 136, 413.
Boomer, George B., N col., Iuka, 204.
Booneville, Mo., action, 41, 405.
Boonsborough, Md., 175;
battle, 176.
Booth, John Wilkes, port., 510;
reward offered for arrest, 510;
captured, 511.
----, Lionel F., N maj., killed, Fort Pillow, 320.
Border States, 36-47.
Boston Mountains, Ark., 80;
engagement, 232.
Boteler, A. R., residence burned, 319.
Bottom's Bridge, Va., 433.
Bottsford, ----, N lieut., Clark's Hollow, W. Va., 218.
Boulger, Robert E., N pvt. 23d Mich. inf., 520.
Bowers, Theodore S., N col., port., 31.
Bowling Green. Ky., 75, 76, 209;
evacuated, 223.
Bowne, ----, N lieut., Hawes's Shop, Va., 364.
Boyd, Belle, C spy, port., 506.
Boynton, H. V. N., N b'v't brig.-gen., port., 302.
Bracht, ----, N maj., 18th Ky., Mt. Sterling, 224.
Bradford, W. F., N maj., killed, Fort Pillow, 320.
Bradley, Amy, hospital services, 326, 535.
Bradley, ----, N maj., Big Mound, Dak., 348.
Bradyville, Tenn., action, 340.
Bragg, Braxton, C gen., Corinth, 100;
port., 104, 192;
succeeds Beauregard, 200;
Perryville, 201, 203, 206;
Murfreesboro', 209-213, 223, 295;
Chickamauga, 297-303;
Chattanooga, 305-311;
superseded by Johnston, 311, 342, 350;
anecdote, 458;
retreat through Tenn., anecdote, 503.
Branch, L. O'Brien, C brig.-gen., at Newbern, 72;
killed, Antietam, 180.
Brandy Station, Va., battle, 249.
Brannan, John M., N b'v't maj.-gen., 219, 220;
Chickamauga, 302.
Breckenridge, ----, C maj., Kelly's Ford, Va., 332.
----, Margaret E., Mrs., port., 534, 535.
Breckinridge, John C., C maj.-gen., 43;
Presidential candidate, 117;
Murfreesboro', 210;
port., 213;
Baton Rouge, 270, 403;
Newmarket, Va., 433;
sec'y of war, 453;
Bull's Gap, Tenn., 524.
----, Rev. Robert J., 41.
Breese, S. L., N naval comr., port., 370.
Breshwood, ----, N capt., 10.
Bridgeport, Ala., 301, 305.
Bright, John, 66.
Bristoe Station, Va., destroyed by Jackson, 166;
engagement, 333, 334.
Bristol, Tenn., action, 341.
Britton's Lane, Tenn., action, 227.
Brockway, ----, N lieut., Gettysburg, 255.
Brooke, John R., N b'v't brig.-gen., Gettysburg, 259;
Cold Harbor, 367.
Brooklyn, N cruiser, New Orleans, 90-93;
Mobile Bay, 391-393.
Brooks, E. P., N lieut., recaptured, 322.
----, ----, N lieut., Hawes's Shop, Va., 364.
Brough, John, gov. of Ohio, port., 18, 287.
Brown, B. Gratz, 41.
----, Egbert B., N brig.-gen., Springfield, Mo., 344.
----, John, invasion of Va., 7, 448;
ill., "Last moments," 21;
port., 182.
----, Joseph E., gov. of Ga., port., 420;
at odds with Davis, 420, 425.
----, Theodore F., N b'v't maj., Bristoe Sta., Va., 334.
----, ----, N lieut., Kelly's Ford, Va., 332.
----, Wilson, Andrews's raid, 529.
Browne, Junius Henri, N correspondent, adventures, 520-523.
----, William M., C col., port., 450.
Brownell, Francis E., N, 25.
----, Henry Howard, "Bay Fight," 395, 396.
----, Mrs. Kady, N pvt., 5th R. I. inf., 470.
Brownlow, Rev. William G., 44;
imprisoned, 316.
Brown's Ferry (Chattanooga), 305.
Bruinsburg, Miss., 274, 276, 279.
Brunswick Batteries, 531.
Brush Knob, Tenn., 313.
Buchanan, Franklin, C adm. in command of "Merrimac," 83, 85;
port., 87;
Mobile Bay, 391, 392.
----, James, President of the U. S., 9, 14, 19, 36;
attitude toward slavery, 183.
----, T. McKean, N comr., killed, Bayou Teche, 345.
Buchanan, Va., devastated by Hunter, 319.
Buckingham, C. P., N brig.-gen., port., 414.
----, William A., gov. of Conn., port., 18;
influence, 448.
Buckner, Simon B., C lieut.-gen., Fort Donelson, 76, 79;
port., 80, 508.
Buell, Don Carlos, N maj.-gen., 100;
Shiloh, 101-104;
port., 104;
Munfordville, 115;
Perryville, 201;
superseded by Rosecrans, 203, 209;
Bowling Green, 223, 307.
----, J. T., N col., Independence, Mo., 231.
Buffalo Mountain, W. Va., engagement, 114.
Buffington's Ford, O., battle, 297.
Buford, John, N maj.-gen., Pope's campaign, 163, 164;
Cedar Mountain, 164;
Brandy Sta., Va., 249;
port., 250;
Gettysburg, 251-268;
Manassas Gap, Va., 333;
Rappahannock Sta., 335.
----, Napoleon B., N maj.-gen., Corinth, 206;
Union City, Tenn., 226.
Bull Pasture Mountain, battle, 216.
Bull Run, Va., 1st battle, ill., 50, 51-61;
effects of battle, 62;
2d battle, 168-171;
ills., 170, 171;
Sanitary Commission, 325;
reminiscences of battle, 472-474;
anecdotes, 464-465.
---- (stream), 52, 53, 54, 55, 60, 61;
ill., 167.
Bull's Bay, S. C., 69.
Bull's Gap, Tenn., 524.
Bummers, Sherman's, 423;
ill., 430.
Bunker Hill, Mass., 190.
----, W. Va., engagement, 111.
Burials, military, 497.
"Burke, Deaf," C spy, anecdote, 505.
Burnett's Ford, Va., 165.
Burns, John, Gettysburg, 259;
ill. of residence, 267.
Burnside, Ambrose E., N maj.-gen., 49;
ports., 53, 72;
at Bull Run, 55, 57;
N. C. expedition, 72;
ills., 74, 75, 163;
Antietam campaign, 176-179;
port. with staff, 191;
succeeds McClellan, 193;
Fredericksburg campaign, 193-197;
on the N. C. coast, 218;
superseded by Hooker, 241, 308;
Knoxville, 311, 342;
in command Dept. of the Ohio, 341;
East Tenn., 342, 348, 351;
Annapolis, 354;
Wilderness, 355, 356;
Spottsylvania, 358-361;
North Anna, 362, 363;
advance on Petersburg, 398, 399.
Burnside's campaign, 191-200.
---- mine, Petersburg, 469.
Burnsville, Miss., 204, 205.
Bussey, Cyrus, N b'v't maj.-gen., Canton, Miss., 342, 343.
Butler, Benjamin F., N maj.-gen., in command 8th Mass. regiment, 24,
28;
ports., 43, 66;
service in Md., 43;
at Big Bethel, 45;
in command Fortress Monroe, 45, 49;
expedition to Hatteras, 68;
at N. O., 90, 95;
"woman order," 96, 97;
refusal to return slaves, 185;
outlawed by Pres. Davis, 235;
commands Army of the James, 351, 365;
under Grant, 353, 368;
advance on Petersburg, 397;
Bottom's Bridge, Va., 433;
cartoon, 456;
anecdote, 457.
Butler, Mo., battle, 231.
Butterfield, Daniel, N maj.-gen., port., 259;
Gettysburg, 259, 263.
----, ----, N capt., Romney, 113.
"Butternuts" (Confederate soldiers), 105.
Byrnes, ----, N col., killed, Cold Harbor, 367.
Cabell, William L., C brig.-gen., Devil's Backbone, Ark., 344.
Cadwalader, George, N maj.-gen., at Harper's Ferry, 47.
Cairo, Ill., 73, 76, 99, 122, 223.
----, Tenn., 227.
Caldwell, Charles H. B., N lieut., 10;
at N. O., 92.
----, John C., N b'v't maj.-gen., Bristoe Station, 334.
Calhoun, John C., 41.
Calhoun, Ky., 115.
----, N gunboat, Bayou Teche, La., 345.
California, Sanitary Commission, 325.
---- regiment, 71st Pa. inf., 109.
"Call All" (author unknown), 132.
Cameron, Simon, N sec'y of war, 48, 143;
authorizes Sanitary Commission, 324.
----, ----, N col., killed, 479.
Camp Douglas, Chicago, Ill., prison camp, ill., 322, 528.
---- Lyon, Mo., 117.
---- Wildcat, Ky., engagement, 73, 114.
Camp life, 495-505;
pitching and striking, 498;
sports in, 501-502;
sutlers, 501;
winter in, 496-498;
ills., 501.
Campaign of Shiloh, 99-109.
Campbell, John A., C peace com'r, 441.
Campbell's Battery, losses, 483.
Campbell's Station, Tenn., battle, 342.
Camps, arrangement of, 496.
Canada, hostile to the United States, 66.
Canby, Edward R. S., N maj.-gen., Ft. Craig, N. M., 233;
port., 527.
Candy, Charles, N b'v't brig.-gen., port., 389.
Cane Hill, Ark., battle, 232.
Canfield, Mrs. Hermann, 539.
Canton, Miss., engagement, 342, 343.
Cape Girardeau, Mo., 73, 118;
action, 230.
---- Hatteras, N. C., 67, 87, 469.
Capron, Horace, N b'v't brig.-gen., port., 530.
Capture of New Orleans, 88-98;
ill., 95.
Carlin, William P., N b'v't maj.-gen., Fredericktown, Mo., 118;
Perryville, 201.
Carlisle, Pa., occupied by Lee, 250, 251, 252.
---- Barracks, Pa., 27, 28.
Carmody, John, N sergt., 15.
Carnifex Ferry, W. Va., engagement, 113.
Carondelet, N gunboat, Island No. 10, 99.
Carpenter, Daniel, New York draft riots, 285, 286.
Carr, Eugene A., N b'v't maj.-gen., Pea Ridge, 80;
Milliken's Bend, La., 240.
----, Joseph B., N b'v't maj.-gen., Robertson's Tavern, Va., 336.
Carroll, Edward, N lt.-col., port., 484.
----, Samuel S., N b'v't maj.-gen., Blooming Gap, 217;
Gettysburg, 254, 255;
Wilderness, 357;
Spottsylvania, 362;
port., 367.
Carson, Christopher, N b'v't brig.-gen., port., 342.
Carter, James E., N col., Big Creek Gap, Tenn., 225;
Blountsville, Tenn., 341.
----, L., Rev., murdered, 315.
----, ----, N capt., Point Pleasant, W. Va., 337.
----, ----, N capt., killed, Winchester, 407.
Carthage, Mo., action at, 41.
Casement, John S., N col., 429.
Casey, Silas, N maj.-gen., port., 152;
Peninsular campaign, 144-156.
Cass, Lewis, U. S. sec'y of state, 9, 36.
Cassville, Ga., occupied by Johnston, 385.
Castle Pinckney, S. C., 9, 12, 35.
Catlett's Station, Va., 165, 166.
Catlin, Isaac S., N b'v't maj.-gen., port., 368.
Causes of the war, 5, 7;
ill., 181.
Cavander, Rev. M., murdered, 315.
Caves as dwellings, Vicksburg, 280-282.
Cayuga, N gunboat, at N. O., 93, 95.
Cedar Creek, Va., battle, 410, 411.
Cedar Mountain, Va., battle, 164, 354.
Cemetery Ridge, Gettysburg, 252, 256;
ill., 266, 368.
Centreville, Va., 53, 54, 60, 61;
evacuated, 143, 154, 169.
Chain Bridge, D. C., ill., 349.
Chalmers, James R., C brig.-gen., Colliersville, Tenn., 306;
Fort Pillow, 320.
Chalmette batteries, N. O., 95.
Chamberlain, Joshua L., N b'v't maj.-gen., Gettysburg, 254.
Chambersburg, Pa., occupied by Lee, 250, 251;
burned by Early, 317, 319, 320, 404, 405.
Champion's Hill, Miss., battle, 275.
Chancellorsville, 241-247.
----, Va., occupied by Hooker, 241;
battle, 241-247, 353;
_Map_, 243;
ills., 244, 246, 358, 470;
losses, 477;
capture of flag at, ill., 481.
Chapman, Sam., Rev., C cav., Warrenton Junction, 331.
Characteristics, comparative, Northern and Southern soldiers, 502-505.
Charles City Cross Roads, Va., battle (ill., 157), 158.
Charleston, Mo., engagement, 117;
engagement, 230.
----, S. C., State flag raised, 9;
arsenal seized by rebels, 10;
bombarded by Gillmore, N, 18;
N operations against, 219;
siege, 288-294;
ill., 288, 307, 385;
bombarded, 435;
evacuated, 440;
in ruins, ill., 523.
---- Harbor, 5, 10, 12, 18, 35, 71.
----, W. Va., 113.
Charleston and Memphis R. R., 312.
Charlestown, Va., actions, 334.
----, W. Va., 319.
Charlotte, N. C., 43, 307, 441.
Charlottesville, Va., 409.
Chartres, Duc de, ports., 142, 147.
Chase, Salmon P., N sec'y of the treasury, port., 6, 49;
management of finances, 415-417;
cartoon, 463.
Chatfield, John L., N col., killed, Fort Wagner, 290.
Chattanooga, Tenn., engagement, 226;
campaign, 295-304;
ill., 304;
battle, 305-314, 350, 383, 420, 425.
Chattanooga campaign, The, and battle of Chickamauga, 295-304.
Cheat Mountain, W. Va., skirmish, 114.
Cheat River Valley, W. Va., 45.
Cheatham, Benjamin F., C maj.-gen., port., 427.
Cheraw, S. C., 440.
Cherbourg, France, 371;
battle between "Kearsarge" and "Alabama," 372.
Cherokee Indians, 80, 81;
Shirley's Ford, Mo., 231;
Cane Hill, 232;
Tennessee, 317.
Chesapeake Canal, 406, 409.
Chester, Pa., 190.
Chestnut, James, Jr., C brig.-gen., 17;
port., 450.
Chewalla, Tenn., 207.
Chicago, Ill., Camp Douglas, ill., 322;
Democratic convention, 413, 528.
Chickahominy, Va., battle, 155, 156.
Chickamauga, Ga., 100;
battle, 298-303;
ills., 300, 308, 405;
losses, 477.
Chickasaw, N monitor, Mobile Bay, 391, 392.
---- Indians, 81.
Chipman, Norton P., N b'v't brig.-gen., port., 409.
Chivington, John M., N maj., Apache Cañon, 233, 234.
Choctaw Indians, 81.
Christian Commission, 326, 354, 448.
Churchill, T. J., C maj.-gen., surrendered to McClernand, Arkansas
Post, 273.
Cincinnati, O., approached by Morgan, 297.
----, N gunboat, sunk, Vicksburg, 281.
"Circus," "Thomas's," 383.
City Hall, New Orleans, La., ill., 96.
City Point, Va., fortified by Butler, 397;
ills., 397, 400, 489.
Clark, Charles, C brig.-gen., killed, Baton Rouge, 270.
----, John S., N b'v't brig.-gen. on Banks's staff, 166.
----, William T., N brig.-gen., port., 345.
----, ----, N lieut., 5th Kan. cav., Pine Bluff, Ark., 344.
Clarksburg, Tenn., 229.
Clark's Hollow, W. Va., engagement, 218.
Clay, Cassius M., N maj.-gen., port., 527.
----, Henry, 41.
Clayton, Powell, N brig.-gen., port., 341;
Pine Bluff, Ark., 344.
----, ----, N col., Pine Bluff, Tenn., 437.
Cleburne, Patrick R., C maj.-gen., port., 303;
Atlanta, 389;
killed, 429.
Cleveland, Grover, President of the U. S., Porter relief bill signed,
170.
Cleveland, O., Frémont convention, 412.
Cleves, ----, N capt., killed, Fort Wagner, 290.
Clifton, Ga., 390.
Clingman, Thomas L., C brig.-gen., port., 508.
Clopper, John Y., N maj., Memphis, Mo., 231.
Cloud, ----, N col., Devil's Backbone, Ark., 344.
Cloyd's Mountain, Va., battle, 433.
Cluseret, Gustave P., N col., Harrisonburg, 216.
Cobb, Howell, U. S. sec'y of the treasury, 9;
C maj.-gen., port., 177.
----, Thomas R. R., C brig.-gen., killed, Fredericksburg, 196.
Coburn, John, N b'v't brig.-gen., 295;
Thompson's Sta., Tenn., 340.
Cochran, ----, N lieut., Fort Wagner, 292.
Cochrane, John, N brig.-gen., nominated for vice-president, 412.
Cocke, Philip St. G., C brig.-gen., at Bull Run, 53, 55.
Cockrell, Francis M., C brig.-gen., port., 392.
Cockspur Island, 185, 220.
Coggswell, Leander W., N col., Spottsylvania, 361.
----, William, N b'v't brig.-gen., port., 423.
Cold Harbor, Va., battle, 155, 156;
battle, 365-368, 387.
Cole, Charles H., C capt., Lake Erie raid, 528.
----, Henry A., N maj., 433.
Colliersville, Tenn., action, 301.
Collins, Napoleon, N naval comr., port., 370.
Colorado, N frigate, at N. O., 90, 91.
Colored Orphan Asylum, New York, draft riot, 286.
Colored soldiers, employment of, 235-240.
---- troops, Butler, Me., 231;
in Confederate service, 235;
in National service, 237;
in Revolutionary War, 237-240;
losses among, 483.
Colquitt, Alfred H., C brig.-gen., port., 445.
Colquitt's salient, Ft. Steadman, 487.
Colston, R. E., C brig.-gen., port., 399.
Colt, Henrietta L., Mrs., port., 537, 540.
Columbia, Ky., captured by Morgan, 297.
----, S. C., prisons, 321;
Sherman occupies, 440;
burned, 440.
----, Tenn., 226.
Columbus, Ky., 75, 99, 122, 223, 271.
Colville, William, Jr., N col. 1st Minn. inf., charge at Gettysburg,
476.
Colyer, Vincent, Christian Commission, 326.
Commerce, Miss., 348.
Commercial, Cincinnati, O., 211.
Concord, N. H., riot, 317.
Confederate Cruisers, The, 371-375.
---- prisoners, guarding, ill., 522.
---- States of America, founded, 5;
seat of government established at Montgomery, Ala., removed to
Richmond, Va., 9, 49;
ill. of flag, 9;
recognized as belligerents by France and England, 63;
conscription act, 200.
Congress, members of, captured at Bull Run, 473.
----, N cruiser, destroyed by "Merrimac," 84.
Connecticut _Infantry_, 7th, Tybee Island, 220;
8th, Suffolk, 329;
10th, Fort Wagner, 291;
13th, Irish Bend, 345;
16th, Antietam, 180, Suffolk, 329;
25th, Irish Bend, 347;
2d heavy art'y losses, 478.
Connor, Selden, N brig.-gen., _Article_, 495-505.
Conrad's Ferry, Potomac River, 109.
Contraband of war, ill., 184, 185.
Cooking in camp, 496.
Cotton, C war steamer, Bayou Teche, La., 345.