Camp at Cairo--The North and the South in respect to Europe--
Political reflections--Mr. Colonel Oglesby--My speech--Northern
and Southern soldiers compared--American country-walks--
Recklessness of life--Want of cavalry--Emeute in the camp--
Defects of army medical department--Horrors of war--Bad
discipline.
_June 21st._ Verily I would be sooner in the Coptic Cairo, narrow
streeted, dark bazaared, many flied, much vexed by donkeys and by
overland route passengers, than the horrid tongue of land which licks
the muddy margin of the Ohio and the Mississippi. The thermometer at
100° in the shade before noon indicates nowhere else such an amount
of heat and suffering, and yet prostrate as I was, it was my fate to
argue that England was justified in conceding belligerent rights to
the South, and that the attitude of neutrality we had assumed in this
terrible quarrel is not in effect an aggression on the United States;
and here is a difference to be perceived between the North and the
South.
The people of the seceding States, aware in their consciences that
they have been most active in their hostility to Great Britain, and
whilst they were in power were mainly responsible for the defiant,
irritating, and insulting tone commonly used to us by American
statesmen, are anxious at the present moment, when so much depends
on the action of foreign countries, to remove all unfavourable
impressions from our minds by declarations of good will, respect, and
admiration, not quite compatible with the language of their leaders
in times not long gone by. The North, as yet unconscious of the loss
of power, and reared in a school of menace and violent assertion
of their rights regarding themselves as the whole of the United
States, and animated by their own feeling of commercial and political
opposition to Great Britain, maintain the high tone of a people who
have never known let or hindrance in their passions, and consider it
an outrage that the whole world does not join in active sympathy for
a government which in its brief career has contrived to affront every
nation in Europe with which it had any dealings.
If the United States have astonished France by their ingratitude,
they have certainly accustomed England to their petulance, and one
can fancy the satisfaction with which the Austrian Statesmen who
remember Mr. Webster’s despatch to Mr. Hulsemann, contemplate the
present condition of the United States in the face of an insurrection
of these sovereign and independent States which the Cabinet at
Washington stigmatises as an outbreak of rebels and traitors to the
royalty of the Union.
During my short sojourn in this country I have never yet met any
person who could show me where the sovereignty of the Union resides.
General Prentiss, however, and his Illinois volunteers, are quite
ready to fight for it.
In the afternoon the General drove me round the camps in company
with Mr. Washburne, Member of Congress, from Illinois, his staff
and a party of officers, among whom was Mr. Oglesby, colonel of
a regiment of State Volunteers, who struck me by his shrewdness,
simple honesty, and zeal.[1] He told me that he had begun life in the
utmost obscurity, but that somehow or other he got into a lawyer’s
office, and there, by hard drudgery, by mother wit, and industry,
notwithstanding a defective education, he had raised himself not only
to independence but to such a position that 1000 men had gathered at
his call and selected one who had never led a company in his life to
be their colonel; in fact, he is an excellent orator of the western
school, and made good homely, telling speeches to his men.
“I’m not as good as your Frenchmen of the schools of Paris, nor am I
equal to the Russian colonels I met at St. Petersburg, who sketched
me out how they had beaten you Britishers at Sebastopol,” said he;
“but I know I can do good straight fighting with my boys when I get
a chance. There is a good deal in training, to be sure, but nature
tells too. Why I believe I would make a good artillery officer if I
was put to it. General, you heard how I laid one of them guns the
other day and touched her off with my own hand and sent the ball
right into a tree half-a-mile away.” The Colonel evidently thought
he had by that feat proved his fitness for the command of a field
battery. One of the German officers who was listening to the lively
old man’s talk, whispered to me, “Dere is a good many of tese
colonels in dis camp.”
At each station the officers came out of their tents, shook hands all
round, and gave an unfailing invitation to get down and take a drink,
and the guns on the General’s approach fired salutes, as though it
was a time of profoundest peace. Powder was certainly more plentiful
than in the Confederate camps, where salutes are not permitted unless
by special order on great occasions.
The General remained for some time in the camp of the Chicago light
artillery, which was commanded by a fine young Scotchman of the Saxon
genus Smith, who told me that the privates of his company represented
a million and a half of dollars in property. Their guns, horses,
carriages, and accoutrements were all in the most creditable order,
and there was an air about the men and about their camp which showed
they did not belong to the same class as the better disciplined
Hungarians of Milotzky close at hand.
Whilst we were seated in Captain Smith’s tent, a number of the
privates came forward, and sang the “Star-spangled banner” and a
patriotic song, to the air of “God save the Queen,” and the rest of
the artillerymen, and a number of stragglers from the other camps,
assembled and then formed line behind the singers. When the chorus
was over there arose a great shout for Washburne, and the honourable
Congress man was fain to come forward and make a speech, in which
he assured his hearers of a very speedy victory and the advent of
liberty all over the land. Then “General Prentiss” was called for;
and as citizen soldiers command their Generals on such occasions,
he too was obliged to speak, and to tell his audience “the world
had never seen any men more devoted, gallant, or patriotic than
themselves.” “Oglesby” was next summoned, and the tall, portly,
good-humoured old man stepped to the front, and with excellent tact
and good sense, dished up in the Buncombe style, told them the time
for making speeches had passed, indeed it had lasted too long;
and although it was said there was very little fighting when there
was much talking, he believed too much talking was likely to lead
to a great deal more fighting than any one desired to see between
citizens of the United States of America, except their enemies,
who, no doubt, were much better pleased to see Americans fighting
each other than to find them engaged in any other employment. Great
as the mischief of too much talking had been, too much writing had
far more of the mischief to answer for. The pen was keener than the
tongue, hit harder, and left a more incurable wound; but the pen was
better than the tongue, because it was able to cure the mischief it
had inflicted. And so by a series of sentences the Colonel got round
to me, and to my consternation, remembering how I had fared with my
speech at the little private dinner on St. Patrick’s Day in New York,
I was called upon by stentorian lungs, and hustled to the stump by
a friendly circle, till I escaped by uttering a few sentences as to
“mighty struggle,” “Europe gazing,” “the world anxious,” “the virtues
of discipline,” “the admirable lessons of a soldier’s life,” and the
“aspiration that in a quarrel wherein a British subject was ordered,
by an authority he was bound to respect, to remain neutral, God might
preserve the right.”
Colonel, General, and all addressed the soldiers as “gentlemen,”
and their auditory did not on their part refrain from expressing
their sentiments in the most unmistakeable manner. “Bully for you,
General!” “Bravo, Washburne!” “That’s so, Colonel!” and the like,
interrupted the harangues and when the oratorical exercises were
over the men crowded round the staff, cheered and hurrahed, and
tossed up their caps in the greatest delight.
With the exception of the foreign officers, and some of the Staff,
there are very few of the colonels, majors, captains, or lieutenants
who know anything of their business. The men do not care for them,
and never think of saluting them. A regiment of Germans was sent
across from Bird’s Point this evening for plundering and robbing the
houses in the district in which they were quartered.
It may be readily imagined that the scoundrels who had to fly from
every city in Europe before the face of the police will not stay
their hands when they find themselves masters of the situation in
the so-called country of an enemy. In such matters the officers
have little or no control, and discipline is exceedingly lax, and
punishments but sparingly inflicted, the use of the lash being
forbidden altogether. Fine as the men are, incomparably better
armed, clad--and doubtless better fed--than the Southern troops,
they will scarcely meet them man to man in the field with any chance
of success. Among the officers are bar-room keepers, persons little
above the position of potmen in England, grocers’ apprentices, and
such like--often inferior socially, and in every other respect, to
the men whom they are supposed to command. General Prentiss has seen
service, I believe, in Mexico; but he appears to me to be rather an
ardent politician, embittered against slaveholders and the South,
than a judicious or skilful military leader.
The principles on which these isolated commanders carry on the war
are eminently defective. They apply their whole minds to petty
expeditions, which go out from the camps, attack some Secessionist
gathering, and then return, plundering as they go and come,
exasperating enemies, converting neutrals into opponents, disgusting
friends, and leaving it to the Secessionists to boast that they have
repulsed them. Instead of encouraging the men and improving their
discipline these ill-conducted expeditions have an opposite result.
_June 22nd._ An active man would soon go mad if he were confined
in Cairo. A mudbank stretching along the course of a muddy river
is not attractive to a pedestrian; and, as is the case in most of
the Southern cities, there is no place round Cairo where a man can
stretch his legs, or take an honest walk in the country. A walk in
the country! The Americans have not an idea of what the thing means.
I speak now only of the inhabitants of the towns of the States
through which I have passed, as far as I have seen of them. The roads
are either impassible in mud or knee-deep in dust. There are no green
shady lanes, no sheltering groves, no quiet paths through green
meadows beneath umbrageous trees. Off the rail there is a morass--or,
at best, a clearing--full of stumps. No temptations to take a stroll.
Down away South the planters ride or drive; indeed in many places the
saunterer by the way-side would probably encounter an alligator, or
disturb a society of rattlesnakes.
To-day I managed to struggle along the levée in a kind of sirocco,
and visited the works at the extremity, which were constructed by an
Hungarian named Waagner, one of the _emigrés_ who came with Kossuth
to the United States. I found him in a hut full of flies, suffering
from camp diarrhœa, and waited on by Mr. O’Leary, who was formerly
petty officer in our navy, served in the Furious in the Black Sea,
and in the Shannon Brigade in India, now a lieutenant in the United
States’ army, where I should say he feels himself very much out of
place. The Hungarian and the Milesian were, however, quite agreed
about the utter incompetence of their military friends around them,
and the great merits of heavy artillery. “When I tell them here the
way poor Sir William made us rattle about them 68-pounder guns,
the poor ignorant creatures laugh at me--not one of them believes
it.” “It is most astonishing,” says the colonel, “how ignorant they
are; there is not one of these men who can trace a regular work. Of
West Point men I speak not, but of the people about here, and they
will not learn of me--from me who knows.” However, the works were
well enough, strongly covered, commanded both rivers, and not to be
reduced without trouble.
The heat drove me in among the flies of the crowded hotel, where
Brigadier Prentiss is planning one of those absurd expeditions
against a Secessionist camp at Commerce, in the State of Missouri,
about two hours steaming up the river, and some twelve or fourteen
miles inland. Cairo abounds in Secessionists and spies, and it is
needful to take great precautions lest the expedition be known; but,
after all, stores must be got ready, and put on board the steamers,
and preparations must be made which cannot be concealed from the
world. At dusk 700 men, supported by a six-pounder field-piece, were
put on board the “City of Alton,” on which they clustered like bees
in a swarm, and as the huge engine laboured up and down against the
stream, and the boat swayed from side to side, I felt a considerable
desire to see General Prentiss chucked into the stream for his utter
recklessness in cramming on board one huge tinder-box, all fire and
touchwood, so many human beings, who, in event of an explosion, or a
shot in the boiler, or of a heavy musketry fire on the banks, would
have been converted into a great slaughter-house. One small boat hung
from her stern, and although there were plenty of river flats and
numerous steamers, even the horses belonging to the field piece were
crammed in among the men along the deck.
In my letter to Europe I made, at the time, some remarks by which the
belligerents might have profited, and which at the time these pages
are reproduced may strike them as possessing some value, illustrated
as they have been by many events in the war. “A handful of horsemen
would have been admirable to move in advance, feel the covers, and
make prisoners for political or other purposes in case of flight;
but the Americans persist in ignoring the use of horsemen, or at
least in depreciating it, though they will at last find that they may
shed much blood, and lose much more, before they can gain a victory
without the aid of artillery and charges after the retreating enemy.
From the want of cavalry, I suppose it is, the unmilitary practice
of ‘scouting,’ as it is called here, has arisen. It is all very well
in the days of Indian wars for footmen to creep about in the bushes,
and shoot or be shot by sentries and pickets; but no civilised war
recognises such means of annoyance as firing upon sentinels, unless
in case of an actual advance or feigned attack on the line. No camp
can be safe without cavalry videttes and pickets; for the enemy
can pour in impetuously after the alarm has been given, as fast as
the outlying footmen can run in. In feeling the way for a column,
cavalry are invaluable, and there can be little chance of ambuscades
or surprises where they are judiciously employed; but ‘scouting’ on
foot, or adventurous private expeditions on horseback, to have a look
at the enemy, can do, and will do, nothing but harm. Every day the
papers contain accounts of ‘scouts’ being killed, and sentries being
picked off. The latter is a very barbarous and savage practice; and
the Russian, in his most angry moments, abstained from it. If any
officer wishes to obtain information as to his enemy, he has two ways
of doing it. He can employ spies, who carry their lives in their
hands, or he can beat up their quarters by a proper reconnaissance on
his own responsibility, in which, however, it would be advisable not
to trust his force to a railway train.”
At night there was a kind of _émeute_ in camp. The day, as I have
said, was excessively hot, and on returning to their tents and huts
from evening parade the men found the contractor who supplies them
with water had not filled the barrels; so they forced the sentries,
broke barracks after hours, mobbed their officers, and streamed up
to the hotel, which they surrounded, calling out, “Water, water,”
in chorus. The General came out, and got up on a rail: “Gentlemen,”
said he, “it is not my fault you are without water. It’s your
officers who are to blame; not me.” (“Groans for the Quartermaster,”
from the men.) “If it is the fault of the contractor, I’ll see
that he is punished. I’ll take steps at once to see that the
matter is remedied. And now, gentlemen, I hope you’ll go back to
your quarters;” and the gentlemen took it into their heads very
good-humouredly to obey the suggestion, fell in, and marched back two
deep to their huts.
As the General was smoking his cigar before going to bed, I asked him
why the officers had not more control over the men. “Well,” said he,
“the officers are to blame for all this. The truth is, the term for
which these volunteers enlisted is drawing to a close; and they have
not as yet enrolled themselves in the United States’ army. They are
merely volunteer regiments of the State of Illinois. If they were
displeased with anything, therefore, they might refuse to enter the
service or to take fresh engagements: and the officers would find
themselves suddenly left without any men; they therefore curry favour
with the privates, many of them, too, having an eye to the votes of
the men when the elections of officers in the new regiments are to
take place.”
The contractors have commenced plunder on a gigantic scale; and their
influence with the authorities of the State is so powerful, there
is little chance of punishing them. Besides, it is not considered
expedient to deter contractors, by too scrupulous an exactitude,
in coming forward at such a trying period; and the Quartermaster’s
department, which ought to be the most perfect, considering the
number of persons connected with transport and carriage is in a
most disgraceful and inefficient condition. I told the General that
one of the Southern leaders proposed to hang any contractor who was
found out in cheating the men, and that the press cordially approved
of the suggestion. “I am afraid,” said he, “if any such proposal
was carried out here, there would scarcely be a contractor left
throughout the States.” Equal ignorance is shown by the medical
authorities of the requirements of an army. There is not an ambulance
or cacolet of any kind attached to this camp; and, as far as I could
see, not even a litter was sent on board the steamer which has
started with the expedition.
Although there has scarcely been a fought field or anything more
serious than the miserable skirmishes of Shenck and Butler, the
pressure of war has already told upon the people. The Cairo paper
makes an urgent appeal to the authorities to relieve the distress and
pauperism which the sudden interruption of trade has brought upon so
many respectable citizens. And when I was at Memphis the other day,
I observed a public notice in the journals, that the magistrates of
the city would issue orders for money to families left in distress by
the enrolment of the male members for military service. When General
Scott, sorely against his will, was urged to make preparations for
an armed invasion of the seceded states in case it became necessary,
he said it would need some hundreds of thousands of men and many
millions of money to effect that object. Mr. Seward, Mr. Chase, and
Mr. Lincoln laughed pleasantly at this exaggeration, but they have
begun to find by this time the old general was not quite so much in
the wrong.
In reference to the discipline maintained in the camp, I must admit
that proper precautions are used to prevent spies entering the lines.
The sentries are posted closely and permit no one to go in without
a pass in the day and a countersign at night. A conversation with
General Prentiss in the front of the hotel was interrupted this
evening by an Irishman, who ran past us towards the camp, hotly
pursued by two policemen. The sentry on duty at the point of the
lines close to us brought him up by the point of the bayonet. “Who
goes tere?” “A friend, shure your honour; I’m a friend.” “Advance
three paces and give the countersign.” “I don’t know it, I tell you.
Let me in, let me in.” But the German was resolute, and the policemen
now coming up in hot pursuit, seized the culprit, who resisted
violently, till General Prentiss rose from his chair and ordered
the guard, who had turned out, to make a prisoner of the soldier
and hand him over to the civil power, for which the man seemed to
be most deeply grateful. As the policemen were walking him off, he
exclaimed, “Be quiet wid ye, till I spake a word to the Giniral,” and
then bowing and chuckling with drunken gravity, he said, “an’ indeed,
Giniral, I’m much obleeged to ye altogither for this kindness. Long
life to ye. We’ve got the better of that dirty German. Hoora’ for
Giniral Prentiss.” He preferred a chance of more whisky in the police
office and a light punishment to the work in camp and a heavy drill
in the morning. An officer who was challenged by a sentry the other
evening, asked him, “do you know the countersign yourself?” “No, sir,
it’s not nine o’clock and they have not given it out yet.” Another
sentry who stopped a man because he did not know the countersign. The
fellow said, “I dare say you don’t know it yourself.” “That’s a lie,”
he exclaimed, “its Plattsburgh.” “Plattsburgh it is, sure enough,”
said the other, and walked on without further parley.
The Americans, Irish, and Germans, do not always coincide in
the phonetic value of each letter in the passwords, and several
difficulties have occurred in consequence. An incautious approach
towards the posts at night is attended with risk; for the raw
sentries are very quick on the trigger. More fatal and serious
injuries have been inflicted on the Federals by themselves than by
the enemy. “I declare to you, sir, the way the boys touched off their
irons at me going home to my camp last night, was just like a running
fight with the Ingins. I was a little ‘tight,’ and didn’t mind it a
cuss.”