"Another Sabbath day has nearly passed, but before I go to sleep I must
write you at least a short letter. To-day has been a quiet and rather
profitable Sabbath, at least more so than most of those which I spend
in camp. In the forenoon Willie and I went to the First Presbyterian
Church, expecting to hear Dr. Nelson, but after we were in and well
seated, who should I see going up into the pulpit with Dr. Nelson but
Mr. ----, the Home Missionary agent who preached at Evansville last
year, you will probably remember him. And he gave us the very same
sermon to-day that he did then _verbatim_. The text was the same--'The
Kingdom of Heaven is like unto leaven which a woman took and hid,' etc.
Having heard it before, I was not much interested in it, so that my
visit to the city through the mud was not a very pleasant or profitable
one.
"But this afternoon I read the 'Evangelist' [the Presbyterian Church
paper] all through, reading almost every article, and it generally
interests me, occupying most of the afternoon. This evening I read
several chapters in the Bible, the 60th of Isaiah, 1st, 2d, and
3d of John, and my favorite chapters, the 14th, 15th, and 16th of
John, and others. I also read two of the little books you sent us in
the Soldier's Library. So you see the day has not been an entirely
profitless one, but how much more pleasantly I could have spent it at
home with my dear wife and child! But when I come back the Sabbaths
will be the more pleasant and sacred with you, and we shall have an
added pleasure in teaching our little darling holy hymns and holy
truths."
I had occasion often in my letters to thank the folks at home for the
useful things and dainties they were frequently sending to camp. The
correspondence shows that I was not bashful in making our wants known,
as, for instance, this extract:--
"You have written me several times asking what I wanted. Well, really,
we don't want much of anything but our wives and families, as we are
living very comfortably; but if you want to send us a present you might
send us a box or two of eatables. Say you bake us one of your good
jelly cakes, and mother try her hand on one of her first-quality fruit
cakes, and Eliza and Cassie [my sister and sister-in-law] see what they
can do on a lady cake or something of that kind. And then, if you have
in any of the various Foster families any extra supply of fruits, or
preserves, or jellies, or tomatoes, or such like, you might send them
by way of ballast."
In one of my last letters from Benton Barracks I gave this account of
the Sunday inspection:--
"This forenoon I was busy at the Barracks. Every Sunday morning when
it is pleasant weather we have a general inspection. The troops turn
out in the best clothes they have, with shoes cleaned and blacked,
knapsacks packed and on their backs, guns brightened up, and looking
as well as they can. They are inspected by companies. Then the
sleeping-quarters, dining-room, and kitchen are visited to see that
they are kept in good order, etc. This inspection is sometimes made by
the general. When not made by him, it is made by the field officers.
Colonel Veatch and I made the inspection this morning, and it kept us
busy till near noon."
Our marching orders came finally as recorded in my last letter written
from St. Louis at the Barracks:--
"We have been anticipating marching orders for several days, but have
at last received them. Orders came out from General Halleck this
evening that 'The Twenty-fifth Indiana would prepare to march to
Cairo.' The exact date of our departure is not definitely known, but it
may be early to-morrow. It is quite cold, but we can stand it as well
as any of this army. We are very willing to leave the Barracks and
get into the field, and especially as we are going down the river and
most likely will be sent to Paducah or Smithland. Barracks life doesn't
agree with me near so well as active work."
III
THE BATTLE OF FORT DONELSON
Greatly to our relief the Twenty-fifth Indiana was surely out of
Missouri, with the prospect of active campaigning in Kentucky or
Tennessee. Although we had orders to take a steamer for Cairo on January
30, we did not get away from St. Louis till February 2. On the steamer
I wrote my wife in a tone which indicated that I was taking a more
serious view of our future than I had in Missouri:--
"It may be that when we get to Cairo we shall find orders sending us
up to Smithland, but wherever we go you will have abundant rumors
of army movements and great battles fought. I trust you will not be
unnecessarily alarmed or solicitous. I will write you as often as I
can, keeping you as well posted as possible, but I expect I shall only
be able to write you at considerable intervals.... We will both pray
our Heavenly Father to be my guard and protector, and return me safely
to my home and dear family again. Let us have faith, and hope for the
best."
On the 6th of February I write again from Cairo: "We are quartered
here in the barracks, in the muddiest place imaginable. No one who has
not been in Cairo knows what mud is. How long we shall remain here is
altogether uncertain."
My next letter was written the 9th on a steamer going up the Tennessee
River:--
"We seem fated to make or commence all our marches on the Sabbath. How
often do I long for the enjoyment of one of our home Sabbaths. We were
ordered to go aboard the steamboat at nine o'clock Saturday morning, so
we had the men up before day to cook two days' rations and were packed
up all ready to leave. But we did not go until noon to-day and we
should be at Fort Henry to-morrow forenoon. We have six hundred barrels
of powder on board, which makes traveling a little dangerous, but shall
be at Paducah in an hour or two, where it will be unloaded. Our orders
are to 'join General Grant,' so I suppose we will be with the army as
it goes forward into Tennessee and South to victory.
"I am just in the locality I have been wanting to be all during the
war, and I have only to do my duty like a soldier and a man. You must
not be unduly solicitous about my welfare, or pay much attention to
the rumors by telegraph, as they are at first always uncertain and
generally erroneous. If our regiment is in an engagement, I will see
that a carrier is sent to the first place to get the news home. So that
if you do not hear you can be satisfied that _all is right_. You will
remember me in your thoughts and prayers always, and have faith that
all will be well."
This was the last letter I was able to write home until after the
battle of Fort Donelson. On the 10th our regiment reached Fort Henry on
the Tennessee River which had been captured by General Grant only four
days before our arrival. On the 12th we marched over to the vicinity of
Fort Donelson with the rest of General Grant's army, eleven miles from
Fort Henry, and situated on the west side of the Cumberland River. We
were a part of the division commanded by General Charles F. Smith, and
which occupied the extreme left of General Grant's army. That army,
when it went into camp on the evening of February 12, covered the
entire front of the Confederate forces. From our encampment the rebel
line of rifle-pits and fortifications could be seen, we occupying one
series of ridges and the enemy those confronting ours.
The fighting began on the morning of the 13th, our picket lines being
pressed toward the enemy's front, mainly to develop their position.
In view of the eagerness of my own account in my letters, I quote the
part of the official report of Colonel Veatch, which relates to the
operations of the Twenty-fifth Indiana on the 13th:--
"At 10 o'clock A.M. we moved forward in line of battle to the top
of the hill which was between us and the enemy's breastworks. Here
I received orders to fix bayonets and charge the rebels, and, if
possible, drive them from their works. The timber was so thick that we
could only see here and there a part of the rebel works, but could form
no idea of their range or extent.... At the foot of the hill the enemy
poured on us a terrible fire of musketry, grape and canister, and a
few shells. The rebel breastworks were now in plain view on the top of
the hill. The heavy timber on the hillside had been felled, proving a
dense mass of brush and logs. Through and over these obstacles our men
advanced against the enemy's fire with perfect coolness and steadiness,
never halting for a moment until they received your order. After a
halt of a few minutes they then advanced within a short distance of the
enemy's breastworks where the fire from a six-pound field-piece and
twelve-pound howitzer on our right was so destructive that it became
necessary to halt and direct the men to lie down to save us from very
heavy loss.
"After remaining under a very heavy fire for two hours and fifteen
minutes, with no opportunity to return the fire to advantage, the enemy
being almost entirely hid, and seeing no movement indicating a further
advance from any part of the line, I asked permission to withdraw
my regiment. In retiring, owing to the nature of the ground and our
exposed position, the men were thrown into slight confusion, but they
rallied promptly at the foot of the hill, and remained in that position
until night, when we moved back, as directed, to the ground we occupied
in the morning. We lost in this action fourteen killed and sixty-one
wounded."
On the 14th the battle was continued almost entirely by our naval
forces, the army taking no part except the pickets and sharp-shooters.
It was General Grant's hope that the gunboats would be able to silence
the Confederate water batteries and pass up the Cumberland, and thus
cut off reinforcements to the enemy, but in this they failed and were
forced to retire.
In view of this situation it was the intention of Grant to establish
a siege of the fortifications and await reinforcements. But on the
morning of the 15th our right wing under General McClernand was
attacked in force, the enemy coming out of their intrenchments
with the apparent intention of cutting their way through our line
and abandoning the fort. McClernand being hard-pressed, General Lew
Wallace's division went to his assistance, and the battle raged in that
direction with great intensity all the forenoon. We lay upon our arms
in line of battle, ready and impatient to take part in the contest,
listening to the roar of battle in the distance. General Smith, our
division commander, about three o'clock in the afternoon received
orders to advance upon the enemy in our front, and immediately our
attacking force was formed by Lauman's brigade, in column of regiments,
consisting of the Twenty-fifth Indiana, and three Iowa regiments,
General Smith himself leading the attack.
It was a martial sight, this column of regiments advancing down into
the ravine and ascending the hill on which were located the enemy's
fortifications, struggling through the abatis of fallen timber, with
the bullets whistling thick among our ranks. But it was an event of
only a few minutes; our column, never halting, was soon in front of
the intrenchments, when the enemy broke and fled, and the day was
won. Colonel Veatch says in his report that the skirmishers of the
Twenty-fifth Indiana were among the first, if not the very first, to
enter the fortifications.
General Grant, in his account of this charge, says: "The outer line
of rifle-pits was passed, and the night of the 15th General Smith,
with much of his division, bivouacked within the line of the enemy.
_There was now no doubt but that the Confederates must surrender or
be captured the next day._" It was an inspiring sight for us, as we
ascended the hill, the general on his white horse, hat in hand, waving
us forward into the enemy's lines. He was the hero of the battle. On
the 19th General Halleck telegraphed to Washington: "Smith, by his
coolness and bravery at Fort Donelson, when the battle was against us,
turned the tide and carried the enemy's outworks." General Sherman,
in his "Memoirs," has this to say of the capture of Fort Donelson:
"He [General Charles F. Smith] was a very handsome and soldierly man,
of great experience, and at Donelson had acted with so much personal
bravery that to him may be attributed the success of the assault."
Although this charge of our brigade, the last fighting of the battle,
was the decisive event which brought about the surrender, it was
attended with little bloodshed. The charge was so rapid and the enemy's
fire so unsteady, that we entered the intrenchments with little loss of
life. More men were killed and wounded in the fight of the Twenty-fifth
on the first day of the battle, as described in Colonel Veatch's
report, than by the entire brigade in this charge so decisive in its
result.
At dawn on the morning of the 16th white flags were seen along the
whole of the enemy's lines, and the notes of a bugle were heard by us
advancing to the outworks where our brigade had bivouacked during the
night. It announced an officer, who delivered to General Smith a letter
to General Grant from the rebel commander, General Buckner, asking upon
what terms he would receive a surrender. General Grant's famous reply
was: "No terms except an unconditional surrender can be accepted. I
propose to move immediately on your works." The forces engaged as given
by General Grant were twenty-one thousand Confederates and twenty-seven
thousand Federals.
The only extant account of the battle I sent home was written to my
wife on the day after the surrender, dated the 17th:--
"I can write to you to-day with great thankfulness to our Heavenly
Father for the privilege of again addressing my dear wife, and sending
my congratulations to my home. You will have learned before this
reaches you that Fort Donelson has surrendered. I am happy to write
that the Twenty-fifth Indiana bore a worthy part in the conflict and
triumph. We made two charges on the rifle-pits and fortifications,
on the 13th and on the 15th. Yesterday, after the surrender, the
Twenty-fifth Indiana was the second regiment to enter the fort. We are
now occupying huts in the fort lately occupied by the Second (rebel)
Kentucky. This was the regiment which fought us so desperately in the
rifle-pits on the 13th.
"Our charge on the 13th was desperate, over the steep and rugged hills,
covered with felled timber and under a most terrific fire. The fire of
musketry was thick as hail. The cannon raked us on both flanks and in
front, and the storm of shot, shell, grape, and canister was awful. You
can say to our friends that the Twenty-fifth has been tried in most
perilous positions and has acted like veterans. In the thickest of
the fight the officers and most of the men seemed to lose all sense of
personal danger.
"We have a host of prisoners and a large amount of stores. I am very
tired and sore from our four days' labor. Four nights we slept on the
wet or frozen ground, without tents or fires, and both day and night
under arms. When I get a little sleep and rest I will write you fully.
In our regiment the total of killed is 14; wounded, 99."
General Grant's account of the weather, alluded to in this letter,
was: "It was midwinter, and we had rain and snow, thawing and freezing
alternately. It would not do to allow camp-fires except far down the
hill out of sight of the enemy, and it would not do to allow many
of the troops to remain there at the same time. The weather turned
intensely cold on the evening of the 14th."
Immediately after the battle a representative of the "Evansville
Journal" was sent to Fort Donelson to make a report of the battle and
the situation. I extract the following:--
A detailed account of the battle will not be attempted, as you have
already published an excellent one. I will speak more particularly of
our Twenty-fifth, and of the incidents of the battle and the appearance
of the field as seen by us.
The Twenty-fifth covered themselves all over with glory. Everybody
we talked to gave them credit for the utmost bravery. Exposed to a
terrible cross-fire of artillery and musketry, having to charge through
the difficulties I have described right up in the teeth of the rebel
batteries and into their murderous volleys, they passed through the
fiery ordeal like veterans. On their end of the line the rebels first
proposed to surrender, and to them belongs a large part of the glory of
the victory. This honor is conceded to them.
It is hard, and would be invidious, to mention particular cases of
gallantry in the Twenty-fifth, where all did their duty so well.... The
field officers all did their duty nobly. For coolness and determination
Major Foster is the theme of general praise.... Quartermaster Foster
and Chaplain Huring made themselves very useful, and showed great
courage in attending to the dead and wounded on the field.
I have thus given an account of the battle from participants and others
who had seen the field. But there is always another view of every
battle--that to be seen in the faraway homes of the wives and mothers
of the combatants. As representing the thousands who waited at home
through the days of dread anxiety to know the fate of their loved ones,
I give a letter from my wife dated February 20:--
"After four days of painful suspense and anxious waiting, when the
news came last night that you were safe, you may be sure there was
one thankful, grateful heart. Such dreary days and sleepless nights I
hope I may never pass again. The first news of the battle reached here
Saturday noon, and not one word did we hear of you till last night.
Such a relief I never before experienced in my life, to know that you
were safe and well.
"All the accounts say you acted bravely and nobly, and we are all as
proud of you as we can be. Oh, if I could only see you once more, my
own dear husband! No one knows how thankful I am that you were spared,
while exposed to terrible dangers. I began to feel on Tuesday that you
must be safe, or we should have some report of it. I remembered that
you said if I didn't hear, I might know all was right, but I could
not rest until Willie Gwyn dispatched that all was right. I have heard
to-day that on Monday it was reported and believed at first that you
had been mortally wounded, and next that you were killed, but kind
friends did not let those reports reach me.
"A party went down to the fort from here on Tuesday. I then had heard
nothing from you, and I thought I would hear sooner by staying at home.
Then father was away, and I didn't know what to do. Another boat goes
to-day. If we thought there was any prospect at all of seeing you,
father and I would go, but every one regards it as so uncertain about
your still being there that I guess we won't go. It would only be an
aggravation to go and not see you. I hope it will not be long before
I have something from your own dear self. Mr. Schoenfield [regimental
sutler] was very kind. He dispatched and wrote father that you and Alex
were safe and did bravely. The dispatch came last night (Wednesday) and
the letter by packet this morning. He said you wrote a few lines and he
sent it, but fearing it did not reach us, he wrote himself. We have not
received anything from you at all, and are very thankful to him indeed.
Such kindness, I assure you, we appreciate.
"The news of the surrender reached here Monday, causing intense
excitement and wild joy; but I could not rejoice till I heard from my
dear one. And, oh, the dead and wounded, how much suffering and grief
has been brought to many, many hearts! When we think of the suffering
it takes away most of the rejoicing.
"I am proud of you, my dear John. I always knew you would do your duty
nobly, and I thank God your life has been spared. Father and your
mother came back from Cincinnati on Tuesday. I was glad to see father,
for he is so kind to me. Write soon."
Reference is made in this letter to the steamboats making trips to
Fort Donelson after the battle. The cities and States of the Middle
West vied with each other in dispatching steamers, carrying hospital
supplies and in bringing home the wounded and sick. Governor Morton
of Indiana was a visitor, and immediately after the writing of the
foregoing letter my father brought on one of these boats my wife, my
little daughter, and brother Willie. Their stay was only for one day,
but it brought to us all much joy and consolation.
On our first day's fighting I had found one of the lieutenants
skulking, having left the ranks, and he was hiding flat down under the
bank of a little stream. I punched him out with my sword and made him
join his company, much to the delight of the men who saw the act. The
story went home in a very exaggerated shape, and I was credited with
using to the lieutenant some very severe and profane language. Willie,
who had heard the story and who entertained a high admiration for me,
was greatly grieved and shocked. As soon as the boat landed at the
fort, Willie rushed up to me, and throwing his arms about me, said:
"Brother John, you did not curse and swear at the soldier, did you?"
The capture of Fort Donelson was the first important and complete
victory which had been won by the Union armies since the war began,
and it was hailed with great joy throughout the North as the harbinger
of further victories. General Sherman, ten years after the event,
characterized it as "the first real success on our side in the Civil
War. Probably at no time during the war did we feel so heavy a weight
raised from our hearts, or so thankful for a most fruitful series of
victories."
In a letter of February 23, I acknowledged the receipt of my wife's
letter above quoted, in these terms:--
"George [my eldest brother] brought me yesterday the letters by you
and father on the 20th, and they were such good ones I could not help
the tears coming to my eyes. When I read your letters I began fully
to realize how great was my deliverance. During all the war I most
probably never will be in so hot a fire and in so much danger as that
through which I passed during the late battles. Truly we have great
reason to thank God for his kind protection over me. Do you remember
the Psalm Mr. McCarer [our pastor] read the last night at our house,
before I left with the regiment, the ninety-first? I got out my Bible
and read it to-day again. I have read it many times since then.
"I am proud of you, my dear Parke, for the manner in which you have
acted ever since I have been in the army, but especially during and
since the attack on the fort. You have learned by the experience of
the late battles to put little reliance in the first reports of an
engagement; they are always exaggerated.
"I was very glad to have a visit from George. I sent home some
_play-things_ for Alice by him. The rebels had fixed them up to shoot
her papa with them. She can make better use of them, some canister and
six-pounder shots. I sent you a letter right after the fight, and sent
father one after the first day's fight. But the mails are so irregular
it may be you did not get them. I would have sent a dispatch, but there
was no telegraph nearer than Cairo.
"We were greatly exposed during the four nights of the siege, and the
officers had the same exposure as the men, at least all those who stood
by their posts, sleeping on the ground with no tents and no fires, two
nights both rain and snow, the others severely cold. By the time we
got into the fort I was nearly tired out, and during all this week I
have been resting. The exposure did not affect me much, except that it
increased a cold already contracted. But I am 'all right' again and
ready to go into active service. How long we shall remain here I do not
know. It may be for some time, it may be only to-day."