THE CLOSING SCENES.
IT was stated that within a week after the investment of Vicksburg, its
garrison was reduced to 14-1/2 ounces of food for each man a day. And
the rebel commander declared he would hold the town until the last dog
was eaten. I guess Pemberton kept his word, for after their surrender I
don't remember of seeing a single dog in the city of Vicksburg. How the
tables were turned on poor Fido to be sure--that the biter should not
only be bitten but eaten. A lieutenant on the 6th Missouri who had been
taken a prisoner during the assault of the 19th, on June 5 was paroled
by the rebs and returned to us. He said the living over there when he
left was anything but invigorating; that good juicy mule cutlets were
eagerly sought for by the elite of the city and brought fabulous prices;
the tomcat-weinerwurst was a luxury there that was seldom enjoyed by the
best families; that the squad in which he was quartered while a prisoner
on the day before his parole had boiled victuals composed of a pair of
gumboots for meat, some croquet balls for potatoes and an old green
umbrella cover for greens; said he didn't enjoy those extra dishes at
all; and preferred just common fare only. We used to twit the Johnnies
with eating mule meat in some of our games of blackguard with them in
the rifle pits, but until the surrender we didn't know we had been
twitting upon facts. We had the advantage of the rebel garrison in many
ways because we were sheltered from the blistering heat of the sun by
the forest shade, and had plenty to eat and the cool springs in the
ravines furnished us an abundance of pure water, while the enemy was
wholly unsheltered in their defensive works, reduced to almost
starvation rations and a scarcity of good water. One day we captured a
Johnnie skulking down in the ravine with a dozen canteens over his
shoulder after water for himself and comrades.
The prices of foodstuffs in Vicksburg before the end of that siege were
awful; flour was $1,000 a barrel; meal, $140 a bushel; beef, $250 a
pound, and everything else in proportion. It is a wonder that poor
people managed to eat at all. All the while the beleaguered garrison was
sustained in their hardships and privations by the belief that Johnson
would surely come to their relief, which belief was doomed to
disappointment and sadly misplaced. Though 'tis stated upon good
authority, that Johnson did finally march towards the Big Black and
actually dispatched a messenger to Pemberton on the night of July 3rd
notifying him that he was then ready to make a diversion to enable him
to cut his way out. Before the messenger got there Vicksburg had been
surrendered. The days of this long siege were kept from becoming
monotonous by a hundred and one duties we had to perform, and
innumerable exciting incidents that daily happened. All the time the
firing was continuous on our side, and almost so on the part of the
enemy. Every minute, almost, a tick-a-ka-tick of minie bullets was
registered by the twigs and leaves above and around us. Many of our boys
were killed or wounded in their bowers and beds by the stray bullets.
Referring to my journal, I find June 4, a man of the 6th Missouri shot
while lying in his bed; June 10, two of our men wounded at night in bed
by stray bullets; June 11, heavy picket firing, men continually getting
wounded in camp by stray bullets; June 13, a man of Company A shot in
rifle pits, died while bringing him into camp; June 14, three men
wounded in camp; June 15, today walking with my comrade, John Gubtail,
over the crest of a hill, suddenly fell prostrate at my feet. I thought
he was trying to act funny, but he got up in a few minutes and showed me
a bullet hole through his cap and a shallow furrow across his scalp
where the bullet had ploughed. The rebel sharpshooter had just missed
his target partially. We went down to lower ground then.
One day Mrs. Hoge, of sanitary fame, and the mother of the colonel of my
regiment, came into our camp and after getting all the soldiers of my
regiment there not on duty, assembled for an audience, she made a
stirring speech. Among other things she said, "Before you left Chicago
we ladies presented your regiment with a flag, and your colonel when he
received that flag pledged himself that it should ever be defended, and
sustained with honor. What has become of that flag? I desire to see how
well you have kept that promise." The color sergeant brought it to her.
Said she, "There are suspicious looking holes and rents in this flag.
How is that?" "That flag," said the color bearer proudly, "has been many
times carried in the front when we went across the edge of battle, and
those marks were made by bullets and fragments of shell, and madam, two
men who carried it before me, fell with it in their hands, and both are
dead from the effects of their wounds." "Enough," said the old lady,
"You have redeemed your pledge, and I will tell the women of Chicago who
presented that flag to you, when I go back, how nobly your pledge has
been redeemed." Then she asked some of us who knew the song, to come
forward and sing with her "The Star Spangled Banner." I was one who with
others thus volunteered, and amid the thunder of artillery firing and
the click of minie bullets over our heads we sang that song with Mrs.
Hoge, as she held the flag in her arms.
One day when we had our men out in the rifle pits at the extreme front
we saw a union flag lying in a slight ravine a little ways in front of
our rifle pits, which had been abandoned by some regiment in one of the
charges, and at the risk of his life one of our boys crawled out and
brought in the flag. It proved to be the regimental colors of the 4th
Virginia, and when we were relieved from duty we marched up to the
colonel's tent of the 4th Virginia and called him out, and I with a few
simple, and I thought well chosen remarks restored the lost colors of
his regiment to him and wound up by saying, "Take back your flag
colonel, and next time when you are in battle hang on to it." He took
the flag spitefully from me, turning very red in the face, said nothing
about setting up the cigars or drinks and without thanking us even,
vanished into the bowels of his tent. We boys were all mad, and if we
had known how he was going to act we would have left the flag out there
on the battlefield where they had abandoned it. I thought afterwards,
that perhaps my presentation speech wasn't just to his taste.
On June 20th my regiment was changed in the line to the mouth of the
Yazoo river on the banks of the Chickasaw Bayou. We established our new
camp at that point, little thinking at the time what an unfortunate move
it was for us. In the formation of these new quarters my tent position
came down close to the waters of the stagnant bayou, and when I was
driving stakes for my new home, a great green headed alligator poked his
nozzle above the surface of the bayou waters and smiled at me. Upon
examination of the ground along the bayou shore, I discovered alligator
tracks where they had waltzed around under the beautiful light of the
moon upon a very recent occasion, so I built my bunk high enough to
enable me to roost out of reach of those hideous creatures at night.
Though I had built high enough to escape the prowling alligators I had
not built high enough to get above the deadly malaria distilled by that
cantankerous bayou. We soon learned what a loss we had sustained in
exchanging the pure cold springs of the Walnut hills for the poisonous
waters of our new vicinity. At first the blue waters of the Yazoo fooled
us. It was as blue and clear as lake water, and we drank copiously of
it, but felt badly afterwards. We didn't know we were drinking poisoned
water until an old colored citizen one day warned us. Then we looked the
matter up, and found that the interpretation of the word Yazoo was "The
river of death," and that its beautiful blue waters were the drainings
of vast swamps and swails. We learned too late, however, for the safety
of our men, and lost in the next few weeks nearly half of our regiment
from malarial or swamp fevers. In the meantime Vicksburg was starving.
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