There was not much stirring in the Department of the South early in
1863, and the St. Mary's expedition had afforded a new sensation. Of
course the few officers of colored troops, and a larger number who
wished to become such, were urgent for further experiments in the same
line; and the Florida tax-commissioners were urgent likewise. I well
remember the morning when, after some preliminary correspondence, I
steamed down from Beaufort, S. C., to Hilton Head, with General Saxton,
Judge S., and one or two others, to have an interview on the matter with
Major-General Hunter, then commanding the Department.
Hilton Head, in those days, seemed always like some foreign military
station in the tropics. The long, low, white buildings, with piazzas and
verandas on the water-side; the general impression of heat and
lassitude, existence appearing to pulsate only with the sea-breeze; the
sandy, almost impassable streets; and the firm, level beach, on which
everybody walked who could get there: all these suggested Jamaica or the
East Indies. Then the head-quarters at the end of the beach, the Zouave
sentinels, the successive anterooms, the lounging aids, the good-natured
and easy General,--easy by habit and energetic by impulse,--all had a
certain air of Southern languor, rather picturesque, but perhaps not
altogether bracing. General Hunter received us, that day, with his usual
kindliness; there was a good deal of pleasant chat; Miles O'Reilly was
called in to read his latest verses; and then we came to the matter in
hand.
Jacksonville, on the St. John's River, in Florida, had been already
twice taken and twice evacuated; having been occupied by
Brigadier-General Wright, in March, 1862, and by Brigadier-General
Brannan, in October of the same year. The second evacuation was by
Major-General Hunter's own order, on the avowed ground that a garrison
of five thousand was needed to hold the place, and that this force could
not be spared. The present proposition was to take and hold it with a
brigade of less than a thousand men, carrying, however, arms and
uniforms for twice that number, and a month's rations. The claim was,
that there were fewer Rebel troops in the Department than formerly, and
that the St. Mary's expedition had shown the advantage possessed by
colored troops, in local knowledge, and in the confidence of the loyal
blacks. It was also urged, that it was worth while to risk something, in
the effort to hold Florida, and perhaps bring it back into the Union.
My chief aim in the negotiation was to get the men into action, and that
of the Florida Commissioners to get them into Florida. Thus far
coinciding, we could heartily cooperate; and though General Hunter made
some reasonable objections, they were yielded more readily than I had
feared; and finally, before half our logical ammunition was exhausted,
the desired permission was given, and the thing might be considered as
done.
We were now to leave, as we supposed forever, the camp which had thus
far been our home. Our vast amount of surplus baggage made a heavy job
in the loading, inasmuch as we had no wharf, and everything had to be
put on board by means of flat-boats. It was completed by twenty-four
hours of steady work; and after some of the usual uncomfortable delays
which wait on military expeditions, we were at last afloat.
I had tried to keep the plan as secret as possible, and had requested to
have no definite orders, until we should be on board ship. But this
larger expedition was less within my own hands than was the St. Mary's
affair, and the great reliance for concealment was on certain counter
reports, ingeniously set afloat by some of the Florida men. These
reports rapidly swelled into the most enormous tales, and by the time
they reached the New York newspapers, the expedition was "a great
volcano about bursting, whose lava will burn, flow, and destroy,"--"the
sudden appearance in arms of no less than five thousand negroes,"--"a
liberating host,"--"not the phantom, but the reality, of servile
insurrection." What the undertaking actually was may be best seen in the
instructions which guided it.[B]
In due time, after touching at Fernandina, we reached the difficult bar
of the St. John's, and were piloted safely over. Admiral Dupont had
furnished a courteous letter of introduction,[C] and we were cordially
received by Commander Duncan of the Norwich, and Lieutenant Watson,
commanding the Uncas. Like all officers on blockade duty, they were
impatient of their enforced inaction, and gladly seized the opportunity
for a different service. It was some time since they had ascended as
high as Jacksonville, for their orders were strict, one vessel's coal
was low, the other was in infirm condition, and there were rumors of
cotton-clads and torpedoes. But they gladly agreed to escort us up the
river, so soon as our own armed gunboat, the John Adams, should
arrive,--she being unaccountably delayed.
We waited twenty-four hours for her, at the sultry mouth of that glassy
river, watching the great pelicans which floated lazily on its tide, or
sometimes shooting one, to admire the great pouch, into which one of the
soldiers could insert his foot, as into a boot. "He hold one quart,"
said the admiring experimentalist. "Hi! boy," retorted another quickly,
"neber you bring dat quart measure in _my_ peck o' corn." The protest
came very promptly, and was certainly fair; for the strange receptacle
would have held nearly a gallon.
We went on shore, too, and were shown a rather pathetic little garden,
which the naval officers had laid out, indulging a dream of vegetables.
They lingered over the little microscopic sprouts, pointing them out
tenderly, as if they were cradled babies. I have often noticed this
touching weakness, in gentlemen of that profession, on lonely stations.
We wandered among the bluffs, too, in the little deserted hamlet once
called "Pilot Town." The ever-shifting sand had in some cases almost
buried the small houses, and had swept around others a circular drift,
at a few yards' distance, overtopping their eaves, and leaving each the
untouched citadel of this natural redoubt. There was also a dismantled
lighthouse, an object which always seems the most dreary symbol of the
barbarism of war, when one considers the national beneficence which
reared and kindled it. Despite the service rendered by this once
brilliant light, there were many wrecks which had been strown upon the
beach, victims of the most formidable of the Southern river-bars. As I
stood with my foot on the half-buried ribs of one of these vessels,--so
distinctly traced that one might almost fancy them human,--the old
pilot, my companion, told me the story of the wreck. The vessel had
formerly been in the Cuba trade; and her owner, an American merchant
residing in Havana, had christened her for his young daughter. I asked
the name, and was startled to recognize that of a favorite young cousin
of mine, beside the bones of whose representative I was thus strangely
standing, upon this lonely shore.
It was well to have something to relieve the anxiety naturally felt at
the delay of the John Adams,--anxiety both for her safety and for the
success of our enterprise. The Rebels had repeatedly threatened to burn
the whole of Jacksonville, in case of another attack, as they had
previously burned its mills and its great hotel. It seemed as if the
news of our arrival must surely have travelled thirty miles by this
time. All day we watched every smoke that rose among the wooded hills,
and consulted the compass and the map, to see if that sign announced the
doom of our expected home. At the very last moment of the tide, just in
time to cross the bar that day, the missing vessel arrived; all
anxieties vanished; I transferred my quarters on board, and at two the
next morning we steamed up the river.
Again there was the dreamy delight of ascending an unknown stream,
beneath a sinking moon, into a region where peril made fascination.
Since the time of the first explorers, I suppose that those Southern
waters have known no sensations so dreamy and so bewitching as those
which this war has brought forth. I recall, in this case, the faintest
sensations of our voyage, as Ponce de Leon may have recalled those of
his wandering search, in the same soft zone, for the secret of the
mystic fountain. I remember how, during that night, I looked for the
first time through a powerful night-glass. It had always seemed a thing
wholly inconceivable, that a mere lens could change darkness into light;
and as I turned the instrument on the preceding gunboat, and actually
discerned the man at the wheel and the officers standing about him,--all
relapsing into vague gloom again at the withdrawal of the glass,--it
gave a feeling of childish delight. Yet it seemed only in keeping with
the whole enchantment of the scene; and had I been some Aladdin,
convoyed by genii or giants, I could hardly have felt more wholly a
denizen of some world of romance.
But the river was of difficult navigation; and we began to feel
sometimes, beneath the keel, that ominous, sliding, grating, treacherous
arrest of motion which makes the heart shudder, as the vessel does.
There was some solicitude about torpedoes, also,--a peril which became a
formidable thing, one year later, in the very channel where we found
none. Soon one of our consorts grounded, then another, every vessel
taking its turn, I believe, and then in turn getting off, until the
Norwich lay hopelessly stranded, for that tide at least, a few miles
below Jacksonville, and out of sight of the city, so that she could not
even add to our dignity by her visible presence from afar.
This was rather a serious matter, as the Norwich was our main naval
reliance, the Uncas being a small steamer of less than two hundred tons,
and in such poor condition, that Commander Duncan, on finding himself
aground, at first quite declined to trust his consort any farther alone.
But, having got thus far, it was plainly my duty to risk the remainder
with or without naval assistance; and this being so, the courageous
officer did not long object, but allowed his dashing subordinate to
steam up with us to the city. This left us one naval and one army
gunboat; and, fortunately, the Burnside, being a black propeller, always
passed for an armed vessel among the Rebels, and we rather encouraged
that pleasing illusion.
We had aimed to reach Jacksonville at daybreak; but these mishaps
delayed us, and we had several hours of fresh, early sunshine, lighting
up the green shores of that lovely river, wooded to the water's edge,
with sometimes an emerald meadow, opening a vista to some picturesque
house,--all utterly unlike anything we had yet seen in the South, and
suggesting rather the Penobscot or Kennebec. Here and there we glided by
the ruins of some sawmill burned by the Rebels on General Wright's
approach; but nothing else spoke of war, except, perhaps, the silence.
It was a delicious day, and a scene of fascination. Our Florida men were
wild with delight; and when we rounded the point below the city, and saw
from afar its long streets, its brick warehouses, its white cottages,
and its overshadowing trees,--all peaceful and undisturbed by
flames,--it seemed, in the men's favorite phrase, "too much good," and
all discipline was merged, for the moment, in a buzz of ecstacy.
The city was still there for us, at any rate; though none knew what
perils might be concealed behind those quiet buildings. Yet there were
children playing on the wharves; careless men, here and there, lounged
down to look at us, hands in pockets; a few women came to their doors,
and gazed listlessly upon us, shading their eyes with their hands. We
drew momentarily nearer, in silence and with breathless attention. The
gunners were at their posts, and the men in line. It was eight o'clock.
We were now directly opposite the town: yet no sign of danger was seen;
not a rifle-shot was heard; not a shell rose hissing in the air. The
Uncas rounded to, and dropped anchor in the stream; by previous
agreement, I steamed to an upper pier of the town, Colonel Montgomery to
a lower one; the little boat-howitzers were run out upon the wharves,
and presently to the angles of the chief streets; and the pretty town
was our own without a shot. In spite of our detention, the surprise had
been complete, and not a soul in Jacksonville had dreamed of our coming.
The day passed quickly, in eager preparations for defence; the people
could or would give us no definite information about the Rebel camp,
which was, however, known to be near, and our force did not permit our
going out to surprise it. The night following was the most anxious I
ever spent. We were all tired out; the companies were under arms, in
various parts of the town, to be ready for an attack at any moment. My
temporary quarters were beneath the loveliest grove of linden-trees, and
as I reclined, half-dozing, the mocking-birds sang all night like
nightingales,--their notes seeming to trickle down through the sweet air
from amid the blossoming boughs. Day brought relief and the sense of due
possession, and we could see what we had won.
Jacksonville was now a United States post again: the only post on the
mainland in the Department of the South. Before the war, it had three or
four thousand inhabitants, and a rapidly growing lumber-trade, for which
abundant facilities were evidently provided. The wharves were capacious,
and the blocks of brick warehouses along the lower street were utterly
unlike anything we had yet seen in that region, as were the neatness
and thrift everywhere visible. It had been built up by Northern
enterprise, and much of the property was owned by loyal men. It had been
a great resort for invalids, though the Rebels had burned the large
hotel which once accommodated them. Mills had also been burned; but the
dwelling houses were almost all in good condition. The quarters for the
men were admirable; and I took official possession of the handsome brick
house of Colonel Sunderland, the established head-quarters through every
occupation, whose accommodating flagstaff had literally and repeatedly
changed its colors. The seceded Colonel, reputed author of the State
ordinance of Secession, was a New Yorker by birth, and we found his law
card, issued when in practice in Easton, Washington County, New York. He
certainly had good taste in planning the inside of a house, though time
had impaired its condition. There was a neat office with ample bookcases
and no books, a billiard table with no balls, gas fixtures without gas,
and a bathing-room without water. There was a separate building for
servants' quarters, and a kitchen with every convenience, even to a few
jars of lingering pickles. On the whole, there was an air of substance
and comfort about the town, quite alien from the picturesque decadence
of Beaufort.
The town rose gradually from the river, and was bounded on the rear by a
long, sluggish creek, beyond which lay a stretch of woods, affording an
excellent covert for the enemy, but without great facilities for attack,
as there were but two or three fords and bridges. This brook could
easily be held against a small force, but could at any time and at
almost any point be readily crossed by a large one. North of the town
the land rose a little, between the river and the sources of the brook,
and then sank to a plain, which had been partially cleared by a previous
garrison. For so small a force as ours, however, this clearing must be
extended nearer to the town; otherwise our lines would be too long for
our numbers.
This deficiency in numbers at once became a source of serious anxiety.
While planning the expedition, it had seemed so important to get the men
a foothold in Florida that I was willing to risk everything for it. But
this important post once in our possession, it began to show some
analogies to the proverbial elephant in the lottery. To hold it
permanently with nine hundred men was not perhaps impossible, with the
aid of a gunboat; (I had left many of my own regiment sick and on duty
in Beaufort, and Colonel Montgomery had as yet less than one hundred and
fifty;) but to hold it, and also to make forays up the river, certainly
required a larger number. We came in part to recruit, but had found
scarcely an able-bodied negro in the city; all had been removed farther
up, and we must certainly contrive to follow them. I was very unwilling
to have, as yet, any white troops under my command, with the blacks.
Finally, however, being informed by Judge S. of a conversation with
Colonel Hawley, commanding at Fernandina, in which the latter had
offered to send four companies and a light battery to swell our
force,--in view of the aid given to his position by this more advanced
post,--I decided to authorize the energetic Judge to go back to
Fernandina and renew the negotiation, as the John Adams must go thither
at any rate for coal.
Meanwhile all definite display of our force was avoided; dress parades
were omitted; the companies were so distributed as to tell for the
utmost; and judicious use was made, here and there, of empty tents. The
gunboats and transports moved impressively up and down the river, from
time to time. The disposition of pickets was varied each night to
perplex the enemy, and some advantage taken of his distrust, which might
be assumed as equalling our own. The citizens were duly impressed by our
supply of ammunition, which was really enormous, and all these things
soon took effect. A loyal woman, who came into town, said that the Rebel
scouts, stopping at her house, reported that there were "sixteen hundred
negroes all over the woods, and the town full of them besides." "It was
of no use to go in. General Finnegan had driven them into a bad place
once, and should not do it again." "They had lost their captain and
their best surgeon, in the first skirmish, and if the Savannah people
wanted the negroes driven away, they might come and do it themselves."
Unfortunately, we knew that they could easily come from Savannah at any
time, as there was railroad communication nearly all the way; and every
time we heard the steam-whistle, the men were convinced of their
arrival. Thus we never could approach to any certainty as to their
numbers, while they could observe, from the bluffs, every steamboat that
ascended the river.
To render our weak force still more available, we barricaded the
approaches to the chief streets by constructing barriers or felling
trees. It went to my heart to sacrifice, for this purpose, several of my
beautiful lindens; but it was no time for aesthetics. As the giants lay
on the ground, still scenting the air with their abundant bloom, I used
to rein up my horse and watch the children playing hide-and-seek among
their branches, or some quiet cow grazing at the foliage. Nothing
impresses the mind in war like some occasional object or association
that belongs apparently to peace alone.
Among all these solicitudes, it was a great thing that one particular
anxiety vanished in a day. On the former expedition the men were upon
trial as to their courage; now they were to endure another test, as to
their demeanor as victors. Here were five hundred citizens, nearly all
white, at the mercy of their former slaves. To some of these whites it
was the last crowning humiliation, and they were, or professed to be, in
perpetual fear. On the other hand, the most intelligent and lady-like
woman I saw, the wife of a Rebel captain, rather surprised me by saying
that it seemed pleasanter to have these men stationed there, whom they
had known all their lives, and who had generally borne a good character,
than to be in the power of entire strangers. Certainly the men deserved
the confidence, for there was scarcely an exception to their good
behavior. I think they thoroughly felt that their honor and dignity were
concerned in the matter, and took too much pride in their character as
soldiers,--to say nothing of higher motives,--to tarnish it by any
misdeeds. They watched their officers vigilantly and even suspiciously,
to detect any disposition towards compromise; and so long as we pursued
a just course, it was evident that they could be relied on. Yet the spot
was pointed out to me where two of our leading men had seen their
brothers hanged by Lynch law; many of them had private wrongs to avenge;
and they all had utter disbelief in all pretended loyalty, especially on
the part of the women. One man alone was brought to me in a sort of
escort of honor by Corporal Prince Lambkin,--one of the color-guard, and
one of our ablest men,--the same who had once made a speech in camp,
reminding his hearers that they had lived under the American flag for
eighteen hundred and sixty-two years, and ought to live and die under
it. Corporal Lambkin now introduced his man, a German, with the highest
compliment in his power: "He hab true colored-man heart." Surrounded by
mean, cajoling, insinuating white men, and women who were all that and
worse, I was quite ready to appreciate the quality he thus proclaimed. A
colored-man heart, in the Rebel States, is a fair synonyme for a loyal
heart, and it is about the only such synonyme. In this case, I found
afterwards that the man in question, a small grocer, had been an object
of suspicion to the whites from his readiness to lend money to the
negroes, or sell to them on credit; in which, perhaps, there may have
been some mixture of self-interest with benevolence.
I resort to a note-book of that period, well thumbed and pocket-worn,
which sometimes received a fragment of the day's experience.
_"March 16, 1863._--Of course, droll things are constantly occurring.
Every white man, woman, and child is flattering, seductive, and
professes Union sentiment; every black ditto believes that every white
ditto is a scoundrel, and ought to be shot, but for good order and
military discipline. The Provost Marshal and I steer between them as
blandly as we can. Such scenes as succeed each other! Rush of indignant
Africans. A white man, in woman's clothes, has been seen to enter a
certain house,--undoubtedly a spy. Further evidence discloses the Roman
Catholic priest, a peaceful little Frenchman, in his professional
apparel.--Anxious female enters. Some sentinel has shot her cow by
mistake for a Rebel. The United States cannot think of paying the
desired thirty dollars. Let her go to the Post-Quartermaster and select
a cow from his herd. If there is none to suit her, (and, indeed, not one
of them gave a drop of milk,--neither did hers,) let her wait till the
next lot comes in,--that is all.--Yesterday's operations gave the
following total yield:--Thirty 'contrabands,' eighteen horses, eleven
cattle, ten saddles and bridles, and one new army wagon. At this rate,
we shall soon be self-supporting _cavalry_.
"Where complaints are made of the soldiers, it almost always turns out
that the women have insulted them most grossly, swearing at them, and
the like. One unpleasant old Dutch woman came in, bursting with wrath,
and told the whole narrative of her blameless life, diversified with
sobs:--
"'Last January I ran off two of my black people from St.
Mary's to Fernandina, (sob,)--'then I moved down there
myself, and at Lake City I lost six women and a boy,'
(sob,)--'then I stopped at Baldwin for one of the wenches to
be confined,'(sob,)--'then I brought them all here to live
in a Christian country' (sob, sob). 'Then the blockheads'
[blockades, that is, gunboats] 'came, and they all ran off
with the blockheads,' (sob, sob, sob,) 'and left me, an old
lady of forty-six, obliged to work for a living.' (Chaos of
sobs, without cessation.)
"But when I found what the old sinner had said to the soldiers, I rather
wondered at their self-control in not throttling her."
* * * * *
Meanwhile skirmishing went on daily in the outskirts of the town. There
was a fight on the very first day, when our men killed, as before
hinted, a Rebel surgeon, which was oddly metamorphosed in the Southern
newspapers into their killing one of ours, which certainly never
happened. Every day, after this, they appeared in small mounted squads
in the neighborhood, and exchanged shots with our pickets, to which the
gunboats would contribute their louder share, their aim being rather
embarrassed by the woods and hills. We made reconnoisances, too, to
learn the country in different directions, and were apt to be fired upon
during these. Along the farther side of what we called the "Debatable
Land" there was a line of cottages, hardly superior to negro huts, and
almost all empty, where the Rebel pickets resorted, and from whose
windows they fired. By degrees all these nests were broken up and
destroyed, though it cost some trouble to do it, and the hottest
skirmishing usually took place around them.
Among these little affairs was one which we called "Company K's
Skirmish," because it brought out the fact that this company, which was
composed entirely of South Carolina men, and had never shone in drill or
discipline, stood near the head of the regiment for coolness and
courage,--the defect of discipline showing itself only in their extreme
unwillingness to halt when once let loose. It was at this time that the
small comedy of the Goose occurred,--an anecdote which Wendell Phillips
has since made his own.
One of the advancing line of skirmishers, usually an active fellow
enough, was observed to move clumsily and irregularly. It soon appeared
that he had encountered a fine specimen of the domestic goose, which had
surrendered at discretion. Not wishing to lose it, he could yet find no
way to hold it but between his legs; and so he went on, loading,
firing, advancing, halting, always with the goose writhing and
struggling and hissing in this natural pair of stocks. Both happily came
off unwounded, and retired in good order at the signal, or some time
after it; but I have hardly a cooler thing to put on record.
Meanwhile, another fellow left the field less exultingly; for, after a
thoroughly courageous share in the skirmish, he came blubbering to his
captain, and said,--
"Cappen, make Caesar gib me my cane."
It seemed, that, during some interval of the fighting, he had helped
himself to an armful of Rebel sugar-cane, such as they all delighted in
chewing. The Roman hero, during another pause, had confiscated the
treasure; whence these tears of the returning warrior. I never could
accustom myself to these extraordinary interminglings of manly and
childish attributes.
Our most untiring scout during this period was the chaplain of my
regiment,--the most restless and daring spirit we had, and now exulting
in full liberty of action. He it was who was daily permitted to stray
singly where no other officer would have been allowed to go, so
irresistible was his appeal,--"You know I am only a chaplain." Methinks
I see our regimental saint, with pistols in belt and a Ballard rifle
slung on shoulder, putting spurs to his steed, and cantering away down
some questionable wood-path, or returning with some tale of Rebel haunt
discovered, or store of foraging. He would track an enemy like an
Indian, or exhort him, when apprehended, like an early Christian. Some
of our devout soldiers shook their heads sometimes over the chaplain's
little eccentricities.
"Woffor Mr. Chapman made a preacher for?" said one of them, as usual
transforming his title into a patronymic. "He's _de fightingest more
Yankee_ I eber see in all my days."
And the criticism was very natural, though they could not deny, that,
when the hour for Sunday service came, Mr. F. commanded the respect and
attention of all. That hour never came, however, on our first Sunday in
Jacksonville; we were too busy, and the men too scattered; so the
chaplain made his accustomed foray beyond the lines instead.
"Is it not Sunday?" slyly asked an unregenerate lieutenant.
"Nay," quoth his Reverence, waxing fervid; "it is the Day of Judgment."
This reminds me of a raid up the river, conducted by one of our senior
captains, an enthusiast whose gray beard and prophetic manner always
took me back to the Fifth-Monarchy men. He was most successful, that
day, bringing back horses, cattle, provisions, and prisoners; and one of
the latter complained bitterly to me of being held, stating that Captain
R. had promised him speedy liberty. But that doughty official spurned
the imputation of such weak blandishments, in this day of triumphant
retribution.
"Promise him!" said he, "I promised him nothing but the Day of Judgment
and Periods of Damnation!"
Often since have I rolled beneath my tongue this savory and solemn
sentence, and I do not believe that since the days of the Long
Parliament there has been a more resounding anathema.
In Colonel Montgomery's hands, these up-river raids reached the dignity
of a fine art. His conceptions of foraging were rather more Western and
liberal than mine, and on these excursions he fully indemnified himself
for any undue abstinence demanded of him when in camp. I remember being
on the wharf, with some naval officers, when he came down from his first
trip. The steamer seemed an animated hen-coop. Live poultry hung from
the foremast shrouds, dead ones from the mainmast, geese hissed from the
binnacle, a pig paced the quarter-deck, and a duck's wings were seen
fluttering from a line which was wont to sustain duck-trousers. The
naval heroes, mindful of their own short rations, and taking high views
of one's duties in a conquered country, looked at me reproachfully, as
who should say, "Shall these things be?" In a moment or two the
returning foragers had landed.
"Captain ----," said Montgomery, courteously, "would you allow me to
send a remarkably fine turkey for your use on board ship?"
"Lieutenant ----," said Major Corwin, "may I ask your acceptance of a
pair of ducks for your mess?"
Never did I behold more cordial relations between army and navy than
sprang into existence at those sentences. So true it is, as Charles Lamb
says, that a single present of game may diffuse kindly sentiments
through a whole community.
These little trips were called "rest"; there was no other rest during
those ten days. An immense amount of picket- and fatigue-duty had to be
done. Two redoubts were to be built to command the Northern Valley; all
the intervening grove, which now afforded lurking-ground for a daring
enemy, must be cleared away; and a few houses must be reluctantly razed
for the same purpose. Colonel Montgomery had the left of the defensive
line, and Lieutenant-Colonel Billings, commanding my own regiment, the
right. The fort under charge of the former was named Fort Higginson, and
that on the right, in return, Fort Montgomery. The former was
necessarily a hasty work, and is now, I believe, in ruins; the latter
was far more elaborately constructed, on lines well traced by the Fourth
New Hampshire during the previous occupation. It did great credit to
Captain Trowbridge, of my regiment, (formerly of the New York Volunteer
Engineers,) who had charge of its construction.
How like a dream seems now that period of daily skirmishes and nightly
watchfulness! The fatigue was so constant that the days hurried by. I
felt the need of some occasional change of ideas, and having just
received from the North Mr. Brooks's beautiful translation of Jean
Paul's "Titan," I used to retire to my bedroom for some ten minutes
every afternoon, and read a chapter or two. It was more refreshing than
a nap, and will always be to me one of the most fascinating books in the
world, with this added association. After all, what concerned me was not
so much the fear of an attempt to drive us out and retake the city,--for
that would be against the whole policy of the Rebels in that region,--as
of an effort to fulfil their threats and burn it, by some nocturnal
dash. The most valuable buildings belonged to Union men, and the upper
part of the town, built chiefly of resinous pine, was combustible to the
last degree. In case of fire, if the wind blew towards the river, we
might lose steamers and all. I remember regulating my degree of
disrobing by the direction of the wind; if it blew from the river, it
was safe to make one's self quite comfortable; if otherwise, it was best
to conform to Suwarrow's idea of luxury, and take off one spur.
So passed our busy life for ten days. There were no tidings of
reinforcements, and I hardly knew whether I wished for them,--or rather,
I desired, them as a choice of evils; for our men were giving out from
overwork, and the recruiting excursions, for which we had mainly come,
were hardly possible. At the utmost, I had asked for the addition of
four companies and a light battery. Judge of my surprise, when two
infantry regiments successively arrived! I must resort to a scrap from
the diary. Perhaps diaries are apt to be thought tedious; but I would
rather read a page of one, whatever the events described, than any later
narrative,--it gives glimpses so much more real and vivid.
"_Head-Quarters, Jacksonville, March 20, 1863,
Midnight._--For the last twenty-four hours we have been
sending women and children out of town, in answer to a
demand by flag of truce, with a threat of bombardment. [N.
B. I advised them not to go, and the majority declined doing
so.] It was designed, no doubt, to intimidate; and in our
ignorance of the force actually outside, we have had to
recognize the possibility of danger, and work hard at our
defences. At any time, by going into the outskirts, we can
have a skirmish, which is nothing but fun; but when night
closes in over a small and weary garrison, there sometimes
steals into my mind, like a chill, that most sickening of
all sensations, the anxiety of a commander. This was the
night generally set for an attack, if any, though I am
pretty well satisfied that they have not strength to dare
it, and the worst they could probably do is to burn the
town. But to-night, instead of enemies, appear friends,--our
devoted civic ally, Judge S., and a whole Connecticut
regiment, the Sixth, under Major Meeker; and though the
latter are aground twelve miles below, yet they enable one
to breathe more freely. I only wish they were black; but now
I have to show, not only that blacks can fight, but that
they and white soldiers can act in harmony together."
That evening the enemy came up for a reconnoissance, in the deepest
darkness, and there were alarms all night. The next day the Sixth
Connecticut got afloat, and came up the river; and two days after, to my
continued amazement, arrived a part of the Eighth Maine, under
Lieutenant-Colonel Twichell. This increased my command to four
regiments, or parts of regiments, half white and half black. Skirmishing
had almost ceased,--our defences being tolerably complete, and looking
from without much more effective than they really were. We were safe
from any attack by a small force, and hoped that the enemy could not
spare a large one from Charleston or Savannah. All looked bright
without, and gave leisure for some small anxieties within.
It was the first time in the war (so far as I know) that white and black
soldiers had served together on regular duty. Jealousy was still felt
towards even the _officers_ of colored regiments; and any difficult
contingency would be apt to bring it out. The white soldiers, just from
shipboard, felt a natural desire to stray about the town; and no attack
from an enemy would be so disastrous as the slightest collision between
them and the black provost-guard. I shudder, even now, to think of the
train of consequences, bearing on the whole course of subsequent
national events, which one such mishap might then have produced. It is
almost impossible for us now to remember in what a delicate balance then
hung the whole question of negro enlistments, and consequently of
Slavery. Fortunately for my own serenity, I had great faith in the
intrinsic power of military discipline, and also knew that a common
service would soon produce mutual respect among good soldiers; and so it
proved. But the first twelve hours of this mixed command were to me a
more anxious period than any outward alarms had created.
Let us resort to the note-book again.
"_Jacksonville, March 22, 1863._--It is Sunday; the bell is
ringing for church, and Rev. Mr. F., from Beaufort, is to
preach. This afternoon our good quartermaster establishes a
Sunday school for our little colony of 'contrabands,' now
numbering seventy.
"_Sunday Afternoon._--The bewildering report is confirmed;
and in addition to the Sixth Connecticut, which came
yesterday, appears part of the Eighth Maine. The remainder,
with its colonel, will be here to-morrow, and, report says,
Major-General Hunter. Now my hope is that we may go to some
point higher up the river, which we can hold for ourselves.
There are two other points, [Magnolia and Pilatka,] which,
in themselves, are as favorable as this, and, for getting
recruits, better. So I shall hope to be allowed to go. To
take posts, and then let white troops garrison them,--that
is my programme.
"What makes the thing more puzzling is, that the Eighth
Maine has only brought ten days' rations, so that they
evidently are not to stay here; and yet where they go, or
why they come, is a puzzle. Meanwhile we can sleep sound o'
nights; and if the black and white babies do not quarrel and
pull hair, we shall do very well."
Colonel Rust, on arriving, said frankly that he knew nothing of the
plans prevailing in the Department, but that General Hunter was
certainly coming soon to act for himself; that it had been reported at
the North, and even at Port Royal, that we had all been captured and
shot, (and, indeed, I had afterwards the pleasure of reading my own
obituary in a Northern Democratic journal,) and that we certainly needed
reinforcements; that he himself had been sent with orders to carry out,
so far as possible, the original plans of the expedition; that he
regarded himself as only a visitor, and should remain chiefly on
shipboard,--which he did. He would relieve the black provost-guard by a
white one, if I approved,--which I certainly did. But he said that he
felt bound to give the chief opportunities of action to the colored
troops,--which I also approved, and which he carried out, not quite to
the satisfaction of his own eager and daring officers.
I recall one of these enterprises, out of which we extracted a good deal
of amusement; it was baptized the Battle of the Clothes-Lines. A white
company was out scouting in the woods behind the town, with one of my
best Florida men for a guide; and the captain sent back a message that
he had discovered a Rebel camp with twenty-two tents, beyond a creek,
about four miles away; the officers and men had been distinctly seen,
and it would be quite possible to capture it. Colonel Rust at once sent
me out with two hundred men to do the work, recalling the original
scouts, and disregarding the appeals of his own eager officers. We
marched through the open pine woods, on a delightful afternoon, and met
the returning party. Poor fellows! I never shall forget the longing eyes
they cast on us, as we marched forth to the field of glory, from which
they were debarred. We went three or four miles out, sometimes halting
to send forward a scout, while I made all the men lie down in the long
thin grass and beside the fallen trees, till one could not imagine that
there was a person there. I remember how picturesque the effect was,
when, at the signal, all rose again, like Roderick Dhu's men, and the
green wood appeared suddenly populous with armed life. At a certain
point forces were divided, and a detachment was sent round the head of
the creek to flank the unsuspecting enemy; while we of the main body,
stealing with caution nearer and nearer, through ever denser woods,
swooped down at last in triumph upon a solitary farm-house,--where the
family-washing had been hung out to dry!
It is due to Sergeant Greene, my invaluable guide, to say that he had
from the beginning discouraged any high hopes of a crossing of bayonets.
He had early explained that it was not he who claimed to have seen the
tents and the Rebel soldiers, but one of the officers,--and had pointed
out that our undisturbed approach was hardly reconcilable with the
existence of a hostile camp so near. This impression had also pressed
more and more upon my own mind, but it was our business to put the thing
beyond a doubt. Probably the place may have been occasionally used for a
picket station, and we found fresh horse-tracks in the vicinity, and
there was a quantity of iron bridle-bits in the house, of which no clear
explanation could be given; so that the armed men may not have been
wholly imaginary. But camp there was none. After enjoying to the utmost
the fun of the thing, therefore, we borrowed the only horse on the
premises, hung all the bits over his neck, and as I rode him back to
camp, they clanked like broken chains. We were joined on the way by our
dear and devoted surgeon, whom I had left behind as an invalid, but who
had mounted his horse and ridden out alone to attend to our wounded, his
green sash looking quite in harmony with the early spring verdure of
those lovely woods. So came we back in triumph, enjoying the joke all
the more because some one else was responsible. We mystified the little
community at first, but soon let out the secret, and witticisms abounded
for a day or two, the mildest of which was the assertion that the
author of the alarm must have been "three sheets in the wind."
Another expedition was of more exciting character. For several days
before the arrival of Colonel Rust a reconnoissance had been planned in
the direction of the enemy's camp, and he finally consented to its being
carried out. By the energy of Major Corwin, of the Second South Carolina
Volunteers, aided by Mr. Holden, then a gunner on the Paul Jones, and
afterwards made captain in the same regiment, one of the ten-pound
Parrott guns had been mounted on a hand-car, for use on the railway.
This it was now proposed to bring into service. I took a large detail of
men from the two white regiments and from my own, and had instructions
to march as far as the four-mile station on the railway, if possible,
examine the country, and ascertain if the Rebel camp had been removed,
as was reported, beyond that distance. I was forbidden going any farther
from camp, or attacking the Rebel camp, as my force comprised half our
garrison, and should the town meanwhile be attacked from some other
direction, it would be in great danger.
I never shall forget the delight of that march through the open pine
barren, with occasional patches of uncertain swamp. The Eighth Maine,
under Lieutenant-Colonel Twichell, was on the right, the Sixth
Connecticut, under Major Meeker, on the left, and my own men, under
Major Strong, in the centre, having in charge the cannon, to which they
had been trained. Mr. Heron, from the John Adams, acted as gunner. The
mounted Rebel pickets retired before us through the woods, keeping
usually beyond range of the skirmishers, who in a long line--white,
black, white--were deployed transversely. For the first time I saw the
two colors fairly alternate on the military chessboard; it had been the
object of much labor and many dreams, and I liked the pattern at last.
Nothing was said about the novel fact by anybody,--it all seemed to come
as matter-of-course; there appeared to be no mutual distrust among the
men, and as for the officers, doubtless "each crow thought its own young
the whitest,"--I certainly did, although doing full justice to the eager
courage of the Northern portion of my command. Especially I watched with
pleasure the fresh delight of the Maine men, who had not, like the rest,
been previously in action, and who strode rapidly on with their long
legs, irresistibly recalling, as their gaunt, athletic frames and
sunburnt faces appeared here and there among the pines, the lumber
regions of their native State, with which I was not unfamiliar.
We passed through a former camp of the Rebels, from which everything had
been lately removed; but when the utmost permitted limits of our
reconnoissance were reached, there were still no signs of any other
camp, and the Rebel cavalry still kept provokingly before us. Their
evident object was to lure us on to their own stronghold, and had we
fallen into the trap, it would perhaps have resembled, on a smaller
scale, the Olustee of the following year. With a good deal of
reluctance, however, I caused the recall to be sounded, and, after a
slight halt, we began to retrace our steps.
Straining our eyes to look along the reach of level railway which
stretched away through the pine barren, we began to see certain ominous
puffs of smoke, which might indeed proceed from some fire in the woods,
but were at once set down by the men as coming from the mysterious
locomotive battery which the Rebels were said to have constructed.
Gradually the smoke grew denser, and appeared to be moving up along the
track, keeping pace with our motion, and about two miles distant. I
watched it steadily through a field-glass from our own slowly moving
battery: it seemed to move when we moved and to halt when we halted.
Sometimes in the dim smoke I caught a glimpse of something blacker,
raised high in the air like the threatening head of some great gliding
serpent. Suddenly there came a sharp puff of lighter smoke that seemed
like a forked tongue, and then a hollow report, and we could see a
great black projectile hurled into the air, and falling a quarter of a
mile away from us, in the woods. I did not at once learn that this first
shot killed two of the Maine men and wounded two more. This was fired
wide, but the numerous shots which followed were admirably aimed, and
seldom failed to fall or explode close to our own smaller battery.
It was the first time that the men had been seriously exposed to
artillery fire,--a danger more exciting to the ignorant mind than any
other, as this very war has shown.[D] So I watched them anxiously.
Fortunately there were deep trenches on each side the railway, with many
stout projecting roots, forming very tolerable bomb-proofs for those who
happened to be near them. The enemy's gun was a sixty-four-pound
Blakely, as we afterward found, whose enormous projectiles moved very
slowly and gave ample time to cover,--insomuch, that, while the
fragments of shell fell all around and amongst us, not a man was hurt.
This soon gave the men the most buoyant confidence, and they shouted
with childish delight over every explosion.
The moment a shell had burst or fallen unburst, our little gun was
invariably fired in return, and that with some precision, so far as we
could judge, its range also being nearly as great. For some reason they
showed no disposition to overtake us, in which attempt their locomotive
would have given them an immense advantage over our heavy hand-car, and
their cavalry force over our infantry. Nevertheless I rather hoped that
they would attempt it, for then an effort might have been made to cut
them off in the rear by taking up some rails. As it was, this was out of
the question, though they moved slowly, as we moved, keeping always
about two miles away. When they finally ceased firing, we took up the
rails beyond us before withdrawing, and thus kept the enemy from
approaching so near the city again. But I shall never forget that
Dantean monster, rearing its black head amid the distant smoke, nor the
solicitude with which I watched for the puff which meant danger, and
looked round to see if my chickens were all under cover. The greatest
peril, after all, was from the possible dismounting of our gun, in which
case we should have been very apt to lose it, if the enemy had showed
any dash. There may be other such tilts of railway artillery on record
during the war; but if so, I have not happened to read of them, and so
have dwelt the longer on this.
This was doubtless the same locomotive battery which had previously
fired more than once upon the town,--running up within two miles and
then withdrawing, while it was deemed inexpedient to destroy the
railroad, on our part, lest it might be needed by ourselves in turn. One
night, too, the Rebel threat had been fulfilled, and they had shelled
the town with the same battery. They had the range well, and every shot
fell near the post head-quarters. It was exciting to see the great
Blakely shell, showing a light as it rose, and moving slowly towards us
like a comet, then exploding and scattering its formidable fragments.
Yet, strange to say, no serious harm was done to life or limb, and the
most formidable casualty was that of a citizen who complained that a
shell had passed through the wall of his bedroom, and carried off his
mosquito curtain in its transit.
Little knew we how soon these small entertainments would be over.
Colonel Montgomery had gone up the river with his two companies, perhaps
to remain permanently; and I was soon to follow. On Friday, March 27th,
I wrote home,--"The Burnside has gone to Beaufort for rations, and the
John Adams to Fernandina for coal; we expect both back by Sunday, and on
Monday I hope to get the regiment off to a point farther up,--Magnolia,
thirty-five miles, or Pilatka, seventy-five,--either of which would be a
good post for us. General Hunter is expected every day, and it is
strange he has not come." The very next day came an official order
recalling the whole expedition, and for the third time evacuating
Jacksonville.
A council of military and naval officers was at once called, (though
there was but one thing to be done,) and the latter were even more
disappointed and amazed than the former. This was especially the case
with the senior naval officer, Captain Steedman, a South-Carolinian by
birth, but who had proved himself as patriotic as he was courteous and
able, and whose presence and advice had been of the greatest value to
me. He and all of us felt keenly the wrongfulness of breaking the
pledges which we had been authorized to make to these people, and of
leaving them to the mercy of the Rebels once more. Most of the people
themselves took the same view, and eagerly begged to accompany us on our
departure. They were allowed to bring their clothing and furniture also,
and at once developed that insane mania for aged and valueless trumpery
which always seizes upon the human race, I believe, in moments of
danger. With the greatest difficulty we selected between the essential
and the non-essential, and our few transports were at length loaded to
the very water's edge on the morning of March 29th,--Colonel Montgomery
having by this time returned from up-river, with sixteen prisoners, and
the fruits of foraging in plenty.
And upon that last morning occurred an act on the part of some of the
garrison, most deeply to be regretted, and not to be excused by the
natural indignation at their recall,--an act which, through the
unfortunate eloquence of one newspaper correspondent, rang through the
nation--the attempt to burn the town. I fortunately need not dwell much
upon it, as I was not at the time in command of the post,--as the white
soldiers frankly took upon themselves the whole responsibility,--and as
all the fires were made in the wooden part of the city, which was
occupied by them, while none were made in the brick part, where the
colored soldiers were quartered. It was fortunate for our reputation
that the newspaper accounts generally agreed in exculpating us from all
share in the matter;[E] and the single exception, which one
correspondent asserted, I could never verify, and do not believe to have
existed. It was stated by Colonel Rust in his official report, that some
twenty-five buildings in all were burned, and I doubt if the actual
number was greater; but this was probably owing in part to a change of
wind, and did not diminish the discredit of the transaction. It made our
sorrow at departure no less, though it infinitely enhanced the
impressiveness of the scene.
The excitement of the departure was intense. The embarkation was so
laborious that it seemed as if the flames must be upon us before we
could get on board, and it was also generally expected that the Rebel
skirmishers would be down among the houses, wherever practicable, to
annoy us to the utmost, as had been the case at the previous evacuation.
They were, indeed, there, as we afterwards heard, but did not venture to
molest us. The sight and roar of the flames, and the rolling clouds of
smoke, brought home to the impressible minds of the black soldiers all
their favorite imagery of the Judgment Day; and those who were not too
much depressed by disappointment were excited by the spectacle, and sang
and exhorted without ceasing.
With heavy hearts their officers floated down the lovely river, which we
had ascended with hopes so buoyant; and from that day to this, the
reasons for our recall have never been made public. It was commonly
attributed to pro-slavery advisers, acting on the rather impulsive
nature of Major-General Hunter, with a view to cut short the career of
the colored troops, and stop their recruiting. But it may have been
simply the scarcity of troops in the Department, and the renewed
conviction at head-quarters that we were too few to hold the post alone.
The latter theory was strengthened by the fact, that, when General
Seymour reoccupied Jacksonville, the following year, he took with him
twenty thousand men instead of one thousand,--and the sanguinary battle
of Olustee found him with too few.