Produced by David Widger from page images generously
provided by the Internet Archive
THE BLUE AND THE GRAY
OR,
THE CIVIL WAR
AS SEEN BY A BOY
A Story of Patriotism and Adventure in Our War for the Union
By A. R. White
With Over 150 War Photographs And Original Drawings
Illustrated by Frank Beard
“We live for freedom; let us clasp each other by the hand;
In love and unity abide, a firm, unbroken band;
We cannot live divided--the Union is secure!
God grant that while men live and love, this nation may endure.”
--DR. FRED A. PALMER,
[Illustration: 0001]
[Illustration: 0008]
[Illustration: 0011]
[Illustration: 0013]
[Illustration: 0014]
1898
BY
K. T. BOLAND.
TO THE SONS AND THE DAUGHTERS OF THE VETERANS OF THE CIVIL WAR;
TO THOSE WHO FOUGHT ITS BATTLES AND LIVED TO INSTIL ITS LESSONS OF
PATRIOTISM IN THE HEARTS OF THEIR CHILDREN; TO THOSE OF ALL CLIMES WHO
LOVE LIBERTY AND THE NOBLE LAND WHERE FREEDOM HAD HER BIRTH; TO THE
MEMORY OF THE HEROES OF NORTH AND SOUTH WHO FELL IN battle; TO ONE
UNITED COUNTRY,
BOTH NORTH AND SOUTH, FOREVER ONE IN ALL NOBLE AND LOFTY PURPOSES AND
AIMS; TO THE HOMES OF AMERICA; THIS BOOK IS LOVINGLY DEDICATED BY YOURS
SINCERELY
THE AUTHOR.
CALEB B. SMITH, Secretary of Interior.
EDWIN M. STANTON, Secretary of War.
GIDEON WELLES, Secretary of Navy.
WILLIAM H. SEWARD, Secretary of State.
EDWARD BATES, Attorney-General.
SIMON P. CHASE, Secretary of Treasury.
MONTGOMERY BLAIR, Postmaster-General.
JUDAH P. BENJAMIN, Attorney-General, War, State.
ROBERT TOOMBS, Secretary of State.
LEROY P. WALKER, Secretary of War.
STEPHEN R. MALLORY, Secretary of the Navy.
CHRISTOPHER G. MEMMINGER. Secretary of Treasury.
JOHN H. REAGAN, Postmaster-General.
[Illustration: 9015]
HE scenes of the war, related by a boy who followed the flag from
the beginning to the end of the war, must carry with them a sense of
accuracy, for they are the recollections of actual service. Those books
which have been written upon the war have, with very few exceptions,
been penned from the standpoint of mature opinions and experiences. In
this work the views and struggles of a boy who went into the army, from
an honest desire to do right, are portrayed. To fight was abhorrent to
his nature, but there was a call for men who were willing to defend the
institutions of his beloved land. And that defense was only possible
through bloodshed and conflict. Tenderly instructed by a loving and
gentle mother, whose early home was in the South, it was almost a
wrenching of her cherished opinions, to give him up to fight against
her kindred. But her boy did not enter the contest with a thought of
conquering his fellow-beings, but as a duty which, though painful,
must be performed. How that dear mother gave him to his country, how he
marched, and fought, and endured hardships, are here set forth in the
colors of truth, for it is a true story.
And that the boys and girls of to-day and their fathers and mothers may
follow the varying fortunes of the boy of our story, thus ushered into
the conflict, with pleasure and profit, is the heartfelt hope of
The Author.
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.
Abraham Lincoln and His Cabinet.........................008
A Business Street in Manila.............................389
A Cuban Home............................................371
Allan Pinkerton and Secret Service Officers.............073
An Alexandria Anti-bellum Relic.........................069
Appomattox Court House..................................227
Artillery Going to the Front............................126
Asking for Furlough.....................................095
A Southern Mansion......................................086
A Stolen Child..........................................338
A Sugar Factory in Manila...............................377
Attack on Fredericksburg................................145
Attack on the Mail......................................337
A Typical Colored Boy...................................080
Battle of Bull Run......................................051
Battle of Chancellorsville..............................298
Battle of Malvern Hill-Lee's Attack.....................076
Battle of Phillipi......................................046
Battle of Shiloh........................................194
Bearing Dispatches......................................106
Burning of Chicago......................................328
Burnside Bridge.........................................135
Burying Old Bill........................................142
Camp Douglas............................................159
Camp Fire Songs.........................................117
Camp Life-In the Kitchen................................071
Camp Life on Monday.....................................077
Camp of the Army of the Potomac.........................104
Capitol at Richmond.....................................065
Captain John L Worden Commanding the Monitor............175
Capture of a White Child................................340
Caring for the Dead.....................................055
Charge of a Confederate Cavalry at Trevalian Station... 221
Colonel John S Mosby and a Group of His Raiders.........211
Confederate Soldiers' Monument--Richmond, Va............259
Crossing Big Black River................................191
Custer's Last Charge....................................347
Death of Sitting Bull...................................343
Decoration Day--Gettysburg..............................262
Destruction of Cervera's Fleet..........................385
Devil's Den.............................................208
Dewey's Victorious Battle...............................375
Diamond Joe and Aunt Judah When Young...................082
“Do Any of You Know Peter Hall?”........................123
Drinking from the Same Canteen..........................245
Earthquake at Charleston................................334
Episcopal Church at Alexandria, Va......................088
Fairfax Court House.....................................027
Fall of General James B McPherson near Atlanta..........215
Federal Gunboat--Foraging...............................072
Foraging................................................197
Fort Donelson...........................................161
Fortress Monroe.........................................022
Fort Sumter.............................................019
Franklin Buchanan Commanding the Merrimac...............172
Fremont's Body Guard....................................101
Fun in Camp.............................................119
Garfield Lying in State.................................314
Garfield's Struggle with Death..........................316
General Grant's Birthplace..............................309
General Hancock and Friends.............................153
General Lee on His Favorite Horse.......................295
General Longstreet Wounded by His Own Men...............213
General Meade's Headquarters............................298
General Miles...........................................393
Gettysburg Cemetery Gate................................212
Grant's Tomb-New York...................................258
Grant Breaking a Horse..................................311
Grant Plowing at the Age of 11..........................310
Hailing the Troops......................................064
Harper's Ferry..........................................040
Horticultural Hall, Philadelphia........................323
House Where Lee Surrendered.............................242
Indian Chief............................................349
Indian Dance............................................339
Indian Schools of To-day................................341
Indian Scout............................................350
Interior of Hospital....................................249
In Winter Quarters......................................105
Jefferson Davis and His Cabinet.........................010
Joe Hiding in the Woods.................................083
John Brown's Capture....................................042
Location of the Union Troops--Henry House...............053
Making a Military Road Through a Swamp..................198
Map-Battlefields of the Great Civil War.................147
Map-Loyal and Seceding States...........................052
Map--Showing the Seat of War............................132
Map-The Shenandoah Valley...............................121
McLean House............................................232
National Cemetery at Richmond, Va.......................217
Negro Village in Georgia................................036
Off for the War.........................................018
Old Aunt Judah..........................................081
Old City Hall-New Orleans...............................113
On Board the Hartford-Battle of Mobile Bay..............168
On the March............................................039
Picket Off Duty Forever.................................059
Proposed Monument to Jefferson Davis....................260
Portrait-Alexander H Stephens...........................024
Portrait-Abraham Lincoln................................236
Portrait-Admiral Cervera................................381
Portrait--Benjamin F Butler.............................043
Portrait-Brigadier-General Neal Dow.....................222
Portrait-Buffalo Bill, a Foe of the Indians.............342
Portrait-Belle Boyd.....................................257
Portrait-Charles A Dana.................................133
Portrait-Captain Charles Wilke..........................203
Portrait-Capt Raphael Semmes............................218
Portrait-Commander David D Porter.......................186
Portrait-Christopher Carson.............................351
Portrait-Colonel Charles W Le Gendre....................214
Portrait-Florence Nightingale...........................255
Portrait-Frances Willard................................358
Portrait-General Ambrose E Burnside.....................125
Portrait-General Custer.................................218
Portrait-General George B McClellan.....................047
Portrait-General George E Meade.........................151
Portrait-General Grant..................................163
Portrait-General Grant..................................231
Portrait-General Hooker.................................154
Portrait-General John A Dix.............................025
Portrait-General James Longstreet, C S A................062
Portrait-General Joseph E Johnston......................091
Portrait-General John C Fremont.........................100
Portrait-General John A Logan...........................190
Portrait-General James B McPherson......................196
Portrait-James Abram Garfield...........................315
Portrait-General Lee....................................399
Portrait-General Lew Wallace............................127
Portrait-General Oliver O Howard........................220
Portrait-General P T G Beauregard.......................045
Portrait-General Phil Kearney...........................139
Portrait-General Pickett................................209
Portrait-General Rosecrans..............................136
Portrait-General Stonewall Jackson......................182
Portrait-General Winfield Scott.........................030
Portrait-General Winfield Hancock.......................152
Portrait-General William Tecumseh Sherman...............189
Portrait-General Wade Hampton...........................205
Portrait-General Robert Anderson........................292
Portrait-Harriet B Stowe................................206
Portrait-Henry Ward Beecher.............................021
Portrait-Hobson.........................................383
Portrait-Honorable Charles Sumner.......................087
Portrait-Horace Greeley.................................204
Portrait-James Murray Mason.............................020
Portrait-John Slidell...................................020
Portrait-John Brown.....................................041
Portrait-Jennie Wade....................................209
Portraits (from Photographs)-John M Morgan and Wife.....216
Portrait-John A Winslow.................................219
Portrait-John B Gordon..................................229
Portrait-Jefferson Davis................................230
Portrait-John Wilkes Booth..............................237
Portrait-Lee's Surrender................................239
Portrait-General Montgomery Meigs.......................026
Portrait-Major-General Philip H Sheridan................226
Portrait-Miss Nellie M Taylor...........................251
Portrait-Miss Hattie A Dana.............................252
Portrait-Mrs Mary D Wade................................252
Portrait-Miss Clara Barton..............................253
Portrait-Major-General Fitzhugh Lee, C S A..............094
Portrait-Miss Louisa M Alcott...........................256
Portrait-Mrs Mary Livermore.............................254
Portrait-Miss Margaret Breckenridge.....................256
Portrait-Robert E Lee...................................078
Portrait-Rear Admiral David G Farragut..................186
Portrait-Thomas A Edison................................325
Portrait--Walter Q Gresham..............................223
Portrait--William H Seward..............................320
Portrait-William McKinley...............................356
Portrait-William J Bryan................................356
Pickets Examining Passes................................175
Prayer in Stonewall Jackson's Camp......................183
Prayer at the Funeral of the Maine's Victims............369
Punishment in the Army..................................207
Ralph and the Officer...................................029
Ralph's Good-Bye........................................032
Recruiting Office, New York City Hall Park..............181
Rejoicing...............................................066
Review of Soldiers-Washington...........................241
Ruins of the House......................................085
Sharp Shooters..........................................107
Sheridan Reconnoitering at Five Forks...................224
Siege Gun...............................................020
Soldiers Near Santiago..................................395
The Art Palace, World's Fair............................353
The Battle of Atlanta, Ga...............................097
Stand of Flags..........................................170
The Death of Ellsworth..................................043
The Frigate Cumberland Rammed by the Merrimac...........173
The Sister's Farewell...................................277
Thomas A Edison and His Talking Machine.................326
The Soldier's Farewell..................................180
Troops Going to Manila..................................373
Uncle Ned...............................................149
United States Military Wagon............................035
Warning the Inhabitants.................................332
Wesley Merritt and His Staff............................199
West Point..............................................293
What Caused the War-The Negro and Cotton................057
Wounding of General Stonewall Jackson...................178
INTRODUCTION.
[Illustration: 9021]
OOKS without number have been written upon the Civil War. There will
probably be many more, for it is a fruitful theme. Many of them are
faithful and accurate presentations of the great deeds done in that
war. But whether large or small, they are all imbued with a desire
to perpetuate that love of our country which should become one of the
absorbing passions of the soul. It is a truth worth remembering--that
the man who is a traitor to his country will be a traitor to all the
relations of life.
Our land, young as it is, has received an awful baptism of fire and
blood. It sprang into being amid the anguish of the Revolution, and
before it had achieved a century of freedom, it was plunged into one
of the saddest conflicts which ever desolated a nation--the conflict
between brothers, speaking the same tongue, living under the same
government, and enjoying the same great privileges. But from that
terrible ordeal it has emerged, and we are once more one in aim and
purpose, and have taken our stand among the proudest nations of the
earth, their equal in intelligent achievements, religion and progress.
The little book we offer our young readers is the simple story, told
in plain language, of a boy who was really in the army--one who left a
pleasant home, as did thousands of others, a mere lad, loving his native
land, knowing her need of strong hands and willing hearts to defend her.
His purpose was noble, his mind fresh and ready for impressions; the
scenes of those days are as ineffaceable as though written on marble,
and not even the corroding touch of time can eat them away. So the
present volume has been penned, that the boys and girls who read its
pages may know of the hardships and self-sacrifice of the boys of those
days--how cheerfully they enlisted to uphold the “starry flag,” whose
folds shall ever “float o'er the land of the free, and the home of the
brave.”
There are other lessons to be taught, as well as that of courage alone;
the lessons of patriotism, of sacrifice, of respect for a government
that offers to all its protection so long as they obey its just and
equitable laws. No one doubts the courage of our boys, but they must
remember that there is a higher quality than mere bravery--regard for
human life, that' it be not destroyed wantonly, a respect for others'
rights and opinions, a readiness to submit to discipline, a willingness
to yield up life when honor and duty demand it. All these thoughts were
impressed upon the boy of our story, and made him a grander man for
their lessons, when the pursuits of peace claimed him.
To the boys and girls whose fathers and friends fought that a great
principle should live, to those whose dear ones fell in battle, or died
of wounds, to all who read this true history of one boy's life in the
army, we send forth this picture, the type of a true soldier, who did
not love war for its noise and glitter, but who conscientiously
fought the battles of his country because he revered her beneficent
institutions. It was there that he was taught what true freedom meant,
and through all his trials, his privations, he kept his faith in God and
humanity undimmed.
Such was our boy, and of such material heroes are made.
The Publishers
THE CIVIL WAR AS SEEN BY A BOY.
CHAPTER I. THE BEGINNING OF WAR.
[Illustration: 9023]
HE early {017}spring days of 1861 were dreams of beauty. The skies
smiled blandly upon the earth, and every heart was glad that the long
winter was over, and the charms of outdoor life could be enjoyed once
more. Surely nature had done her part in making men happy.
A spirit of unrest and uncertainty, however, brooded in the air. The
long conflict between opposing ideas, which had waged so long and
bitterly in politics and churches, and through the columns of the press,
had come to a focus, and dread murmurs were abroad, of an impending war,
and its attendant horrors. Men looked in each other's faces, and asked,
with sad forebodings--“What is coming next?”
The South made ample preparations to seize two South Carolina forts,
Moultrie and Sumter, as early as December, 1860.
Lieutenant-Colonel Gardner was the commander of Fort Moultrie, and,
loyal to the government, he sent to Washington asking for reinforcements
to help him hold that fort. This request offended the Southern members
of Congress, who construed it into an insult, and demanded his removal.
This demand was acceded to by Secretary of War Floyd, and Major Robert
Anderson of Kentucky was appointed to supersede Colonel Gardner.
Major Anderson, {018}faithful to the trust reposed in him by the
government, soon decided that Fort Moultrie could not be held against
a vigorous assault, and he moved his garrison secretly to Sumter, a
fortress across the harbor. This fort could not be approached by land,
and, consequently, from this fact, was deemed more secure against any
opposing force. The undertaking was a dangerous one. The harbor was full
of guard boats, vigilant and watchful, and only their supposition that
the little rowboats containing Major Anderson and his men were laborers
going to the other fort to work on it, prevented their detection and
arrest.
[Illustration: 0024]
Moultrie's guns had been trained to protect this transfer in case the
Major's intention was discovered, and the fort, whose defense rendered
the gallant Anderson immortal, was occupied by his troops at only twenty
minutes' notice! We think that was the quickest “moving time” on record.
A siege gun which was turned upon Fort Sumter is shown on page 20.
Its carriage is broken, and it was thus rendered useless by the
Confederates, when they abandoned the fort in 1864.
France {019}and England would not acknowledge the South as an
independent nation, but the Confederate government did all possible to
bring this about by sending Messrs. James M. Mason of Virginia and John
Slidell of Louisiana to London and Paris with the hope that their claims
would be recognized. Henry Ward Beecher, when in the height of his fame,
afterward went to England, addressing immense audiences, and setting
forth the true condition of American affairs.
[Illustration: 0025]
The hope of the Southerners was that the government would allow a
peaceable withdrawal of the dissatisfied States, and that no bloodshed
would be necessary, but as time went by and the most active preparations
for keeping them in the Union were made by the general government, they
commenced hostilities, and the first gun of the war was fired by the
Confederates under General Beauregard on the morning of April 12, and
while the officers and men within the fort were eating their breakfast,
a perpetual bursting {020}of shells and shot kept them awake to the fact
that the peace had been broken, and war had begun.
[Illustration: 0026]
After breakfast the force was divided up into firing parties and
the first reply on the part of the Union was made by Captain Abner
{021}Doubleday. But their guns were very light.
A bombardment followed, and on the 14th of April, 1861, General Robert
Anderson evacuated the fort.
[Illustration: 0027]
Blockade running was so common it became necessary to fit out out an
expedition to close the most valuable of the openings, Hatteras Inlet.
The first expedition projected for this purpuse was fitted out near
Fortress Monroe and was under the command of Flag Officer Silas H.
Stringham. The engagement lasted three hours with a complete victory for
Stringham, and several blockade runners entered the inlet and were
captured.
The news fell like a pall upon the North. It was impossible so many and
old man urged, that Americans, our own people could be so disloyal. Why
had they done it? What did it mean? And when, in consequence of this
act, President Lincoln ordered them to disperse within twenty days, and
called for 75,000 men from the various States, to enlist to “suppress
this combination against the laws,” the response came swiftly.
In every town and village the patriotic fires were kindled, and boys and
old men pressed on, side by side, willing to give their lives, if need
be, to uphold their country's flag.
{022}
[Illustration: 0028]
Many {023}a smooth-cheeked lad, loved dearly and tenderly reared, went
forth from his home, never again to enter its portal. Alas, for those
sad days!
[Illustration: 9029]
Recruiting went swiftly on. Speech-making and passionate appeals to the
people were heard in every quarter of the North.
Women could not fight, but they could organize sewing societies, and
work untiringly for those who had gone to the front. Many an article
found its way to the army that was useful, and when blood had been
spilled, these same patient and tearful women sent lint, and bandages,
and medicines, for the sick and wounded.
As the call for soldiers awoke the boys and men of the North, so did a
like summons from their leaders arouse the spirit of the South. They had
orators in their midst, whose tones swayed them, and they, too, enlisted
to form an army which should repel the “encroachments” of those whom
they deemed their enemies.
Boys went forth from luxurious homes, and stood shoulder to shoulder
with the humblest, clad in the gray, all equally ready to sacrifice life
and home to their idea of duty.
One {024}lad, in his Western home, a dreamer thus far, the light of his
widowed mother's life, heard the war cry, and the blood tingled in his
veins as he listened to stirring arguments day by day, and saw one after
another of his companions leave their homes to join the forces that were
being hurried forward to headquarters.
[Illustration: 0030]
He felt that{025} he must go with them. Why not? His eye was as keen,
his brain as clear, his arm as strong to do whatever his country
required of him, as were theirs.
[Illustration: 0031]
This longing haunted him by day and night, until it became unbearable.
He went to his mother, and with earnest words begged her to send him.
Alas, that mother was not equal to the task. {026}She was loving,
gentle and shrinking, and when he urged her to let him go, her answer
was--“Ralph, you know not what you ask. Do you forget that I am a
Southern woman, whose childhoods days were spent in that beautiful
country? All my people are there. Would you have me send my boy away to
fight those I love, and whose feelings I must share? You are asking too
great a sacrifice at my hands.”
“Mother, it is true that you were born and educated there. But did
you not love my father so dearly that you left your home and all your
friends to come to the North with him, where I was born?”
[Illustration: 9032]
A tender smile flitted across her still beautiful face. “Yes, I did love
him,” she said softly to herself, “and I honor his memory. What shall I
do?--I cannot forget my dear childhood's home. It is too hard a question
for me to decide.”
“Let me decide for you, mother. You surely love your Northern home and
friends. The people of the South have fired upon our forts in Charleston
harbor, and driven the garrison away. I, too, am a Southerner in many
ways. Are you not my mother, and do you not know I honor every thought
or wish of yours?”
“There must be some other way to bring them back, rather than by
fighting. War is a cruel and unnatural alternative. Why, they will be
firing upon their own people--like brothers in one family falling out,
and seeking to do each other deadly harm.” {027}
[Illustration: 0033]
Ralph {028}was silent. His heart burned with patriotic fire, and it
seemed to him that it was his duty to help swell the numbers of those
who were ready to respond to the President's call. But he also knew that
his mother loved her early home, and that it seemed to her unnatural
for him to be so ready to take up arms against “her people,” and he
respected her too deeply to wound her willingly. That mother had been
gently born, and when she met the young Northern lawyer, she had loved
him from the first, and cheerfully shared his humble but peaceful home.
She was now left alone in the world, with her three girls and this boy,
the youngest. The fortunes of war were too varying. She might never see
him again, and how could she live without him?
To Ralph was presented a problem that he was called unexpectedly to
solve. He pondered over it in the silence of night, and in the busy
hours of day. Was it right to fly in the face of his beloved mother's
prejudices by joining the Federal forces? On the one hand he felt that
he, too, was Southern in feeling and in birth. His father was a Northern
man, and he would uphold the old flag; but which side it was his duty to
join, he could not determine. He was resolved to go into one of the two
armies. In the crisis that had come, it was clearly every one's duty to
come to the front.
The boy talked with every one whom he could interest. He was not able
to study out the problem alone. One of his schoolmates had the proud
distinction of having an uncle who was a commissioned officer, and he
took the bold step of meeting him one day when he was walking past his
home.
“Sir,” he said timidly, “may I speak to you?”
“Certainly,” the officer replied. And then and there he poured forth his
doubts, his desire to do what was right, his mother's objections--all,
he told the waiting gentleman whose opinion he so desired.
The officer laid his hand kindly on the boy's shoulder.
“Your wish does you credit. The fortunes of war are too varying for me
to decide for you. Try and work out the proper answer yourself, and may
you be helped to make a wise decision.”
Alas, {029}the question was too hard for a boy like him to answer. He
was humbly trying to see where his duty lay, and then he was ready to
enlist on whichever side called him. On one hand was his mother and her
early teachings, on the other his dead father, with all his views. “What
side would _he_ choose were he here?” was the ever-recurring thought in
his anxious brain.
[Illustration: 8035]
But after weeks of this long, weary struggle, he decided to join the
Union army. His mother saw that he believed he was shirking a duty, and
that he longed for action.
She thought she would make one more effort to change his purpose. She
said to him suddenly one day, when she saw his troubled face: “Ralph,
you are only seventeen. You have never been away from your home, and
know nothing about hardships and privations. Do you think you could face
a cannon, and know that its deadly mouth might lay you low on the field,
mangled and torn?”
“Oh, mother, I never think of such things. If I enlist, I must take my
chances with the rest. I want to go with the other boys. Eddie Downing
and George Martin have and are going into camp to-morrow, at Readville.”
“But will the government accept you? Eddie and George are three or four
years older than you. There are plenty of men, without taking a boy who
is his mother's chief comfort.”
{030}
[Illustration: 0036]
“I am strong and well. When I come back, you will be the proudest
mother in the land, to think you sent your boy away. I may go with your
blessing, may I not? That will protect me.”
The {031}boy's eyes were moist with emotion. His mother, with a sigh,
gave her reluctant consent, and though many a bitter tear was shed in
the loneliness of her room, she bravely hid them from the boy she loved.
Now that the decision was final, she made every preparation for the
comfort of the boy who was to leave them so soon. His sisters wept
continually--not a very cheerful parting, but Ralph was the idol of his
home.
“Mother,” he said to her a day or two after she had given her consent,
“do not worry about me. I shall do my duty. This war _can't_ last long.
Then I'll come back to you, and stay at home as long as I live, depend
on that.”
His beaming face half reassured her, and she began to share his
enthusiasm. He was enrolled as a soldier. Although his youth was at
first objected to, his earnestness carried the day, and he was told to
report at Camp Hale at once.
He was a real soldier at last! A genuine soldier, who must fight. He
did not belong to the would-be soldiers, such as they used to call the
“militia,” who simply paraded on the open green, or turned out on dress
occasions, with the curious for an audience, who would watch and be
astonished at their evolutions and their showy uniforms, when the Fourth
of July or kindred days made their demands upon them.
In his neat-fitting suit of blue, the cap setting jauntily upon his
head, his musket in hand, and his belt with its bayonet buckled around
him, he looked so manly that a thrill of pride flashed o'er his mothers
face, as she looked at her boy, her Ralph, in his “soldier clothes.”
But when the day came for him to leave the only home he had ever known,
and he turned to take a last look at its plain walls, his heart almost
failed him. His beloved mother stood in the doorway, her hands pressed
over her face, while she strove to keep back the choking sobs, as she
bade her boy--“Good-bye, and may God bless and protect you.” Those
solemn words came back to Ralph in many a lonely hour, and brought him
consolation and support.
Thus, {032}in many homes, both North and South, were the heartstrings
torn, as mothers and sisters bade farewell to the boys in blue and gray,
who went to the front, to lay down their lives for duty's sake.
Ralph was a proud boy when he joined his companions in camp, wearing
the blue uniform, with its shining buttons bearing the U. S. stamp upon
them.
[Illustration: 0038]
{033}
[Illustration: 0039]
He was naturally retiring, but now he felt as if the eyes of the world
were upon him. He had taken an important step, and he would show his
friends and that great big world that he knew exactly what he was doing.
Camp life was one continual drill--so it seemed to him. Readville was a
quiet little town, but its people were ablaze with patriotism, and the
“boys in blue” were the recipients of perpetual admiration. Every move
they made was noticed and approved, and it is not to be wondered at if
some of them did greedily swallow considerable flattery, which led them
to assume quite lofty airs.
The sameness of life in camp soon wearied, and Ralph longed for
something more stirring. When the bugle call rang out, every man sprang
up, and, after a hasty ablution, at a second call they made a charge
upon their breakfast with vehemence, and tin cups and plates rattled in
a most discordant fashion. Then the drill began; first with musket and
rifle, and then with the bayonet. A bayonet charge was a fierce reminder
of the real thing. When men meet the enemy with fixed bayonets, a
dreadful slaughter may always be counted on. This drilling was kept up
at intervals, all through the day; first in squads and companies, and
then the entire regiment would take part in the use of these weapons,
and the various evolutions that the drill-master taught.
Ralph was very anxious to become proficient in their use, and while many
of the older men grumbled at this work, he kept on, learning at each
repetition something more of their actual value.
“You'll have to know all about this,” said Lieutenant Hopkins to them,
or you'll be in a nice hole when you're caught out in the field. “We
don't know how soon we may be sent to the front, and then there won't be
much time for this sort of practice. It'll be march and fight then.”
Way down in his heart this quiet stripling, hitherto jealously guarded
from a knowledge of the world by a fond mother and sisters, had his own
dreams of fame burning brightly and steadily. What if he could plan or
assist in some grand sortie, and be mentioned {034}in the dispatches
as “the gallant private of Company K---- Mass. Volunteers, whose valor
turned the tide and carried the day?” Then probably he would be summoned
before the commanding officer, and honors would be thrust upon him.
Perhaps, if he kept on, he might be a general! What would the dear ones
at home say then? The picture was too brilliant; his head fairly grew
dizzy at the prospect.
“I'll tell you,” he said to a comrade, “we are in no danger of starving
here in camp, at any rate, if we don't have much variety.”
“That's so. What's the matter with pork, beans, soup, bread, molasses
(here he made a wry face), rice and hard tack? If we get enough
of these, we'll pull through all right,” his companion responded
cheerfully.
“And we sleep as sound as kittens in our wooden bunks, with plenty of
straw for a bed, and our big army blankets over us,” continued Ralph.
“The pillows might be a little softer,” said Harvey Phillips. “Overcoats
doubled up ain't quite as easy shook up as feathers.”
“No, but our captain tells me that we are living in clover just at
present. Wait till we go into a battle. Perhaps we'll come out without
any heads, then we won't need any pillows,” laughed Ralph.
“That's true. Your easy times are right here just now,” said a “vet,”
who had been in many a battle in the far West with the red men, and had
“smelt powder” to his heart's content. “War looks very pretty on paper,
with the big fellows at Washington moving the men like they're at a
chessboard, but wait till the guns speak up on the field, and men to
men are hurled against each other, to fight like demons. The real thing
ain't so romantic, let me tell you youngsters.”
“You can't frighten us,” said Harvey. “We are no three months' men. We
enlisted for the war and we propose to see the war out.”
“Boys, I tell you war aren't no pastime. It means work, and hardest kind
of work, at that. It's a great thing to organize an army, and keep its
various parts in trim. We don't usually {035}go out to fight the enemy
with only a flask of powder, and a knapsack filled with soda crackers.
There are men and horses and ammunition to carry along.”
“Who takes care of all these matters?” asked Ralph.
[Illustration: 0043]
“The quartermaster. He looks after the rations, the ammunition, in
fact, all the supplies--blankets for the men, medicines for the sick and
transportation for the baggage. He is usually a captain or a lieutenant.
The government appoints him.”
“Does he fight?”
“Oh, no. He's got no time for that. He has to look after the fellows who
do the fighting. The quartermasters have excitement and danger enough,
however, in protecting their stores They ain't like the sutlers.”
{036}
[Illustration: 0044]
“What is a sutler?”
“He's a chap that gets permission from the government to carry things
to sell to the soldiers. He furnishes them at his own expense, and then
trades and sells them to the boys.”
“Is he a soldier?”
“Not much. You don't see him in the battlefield. He takes good care not
to interfere in any skirmishes going on. Somehow, the smell of powder
don't agree with him.”
“Then he goes to war to make money?”
“That's {037}just what he does. He oftener loses it, though, and then
his friends don't cry nor take up a collection for him. Still, he's
generally a good sort of a fellow. He's obliging and always willing to
trust a man. Often the boys help themselves to his goods without his
leave, and then he's out that much. He has his ups and downs like the
rest of us.”
[Illustration: 0045]