whole length. The hospital and surgeons' tents are located on a very
pretty little island, a quiet, retired spot, festooned with vines, in
the shadow of great trees, and carpeted with moss soft and velvety as
the best of Brussels.
18. The name of our camp is properly Elk Water, not Elk Fork. The little
stream which comes down to the river, from which the camp derives its
name, is called Elk Water, because tradition affirms that in early days
the elk frequented the little valley through which it runs.
The fog has been going up from the mountains, and the rain coming down
in the valley. The river roars a little louder than usual, and its water
is a little less clear.
The party sent in pursuit of the bushwhacker has returned. Found no
one.
Two men were seen this evening, armed with rifles, prowling among the
bushes near the place where the affair of last night occurred. They were
fired upon, but escaped.
An accident, which particularly interests my old company, occurred a few
minutes ago. John Heskett, Jeff Long, and four or five other men, were
detailed from Company I for picket duty. Heskett and Long are intimate
friends, and were playing together, the one with a knife and the other
with a pocket pistol. The pistol was discharged accidentally, and the
ball struck Heskett in the neck, inflicting a serious wound, but whether
fatal or not the surgeon can not yet tell. The affair has cast a shadow
over the company. Young Heskett bears himself bravely. Long is
inconsolable, and begs the boys to shoot him.
20. These mountain streams are unreliable. We had come to regard the one
on which we are encamped as a quiet, orderly little river, that would be
good enough to notify us when it proposed to swell out and overflow the
adjacent country. In fact we had bragged about it, made all sorts of
complimentary mention of it, put our tents on its margin, and allowed it
to encircle our sick and wounded; but we have now lost all confidence in
it. Yesterday, about noon, it began to rise. It had been raining, and we
thought it natural enough that the waters should increase a little. At
four o'clock it had swelled very considerably, but still kept within its
bed of rock and gravel, and we admired it all the more for the energy
displayed in hurrying along branches, logs, and sometimes whole trees.
At six o'clock we found it was rising at the rate of one foot per hour,
and that the water had now crept to within a few feet of the hospital
tent, in which lay two wounded and a dozen or more of sick. Dr. McMeens
became alarmed and called for help. Thirty or more boys stripped, swam
to the island, and removed the hospital to higher ground--to the highest
ground, in fact, which the island afforded. The boys returned, and we
felt safe. At seven o'clock, however, we found the river still rising
rapidly. It covered nearly the whole island. Logs, brush, green trees,
and all manner of drift went sweeping by at tremendous speed, and the
water rushed over land which had been dry half an hour before, with
apparently as strong a current as that in the channel. We knew then that
the sick and wounded were in danger. How to rescue them was now the
question. A raft was suggested; but a raft could not be controlled in
such a current, and if it went to pieces or was hurried away, the sick
and wounded must drown. Fortunately a better way was suggested; getting
into a wagon, I ordered the driver to go above some distance, so that we
could move with the current, and then ford the stream. After many
difficulties, occasioned mainly by floating logs and driftwood, and
swimming the horses part of the way, we succeeded in getting over. I saw
it was impossible to carry the sick back, and that there was but one way
to render them secure. I had the horses unhitched, and told the driver
to swim them back and bring over two or three more wagons. Two more
finally reached me, and one team, in attempting to cross, was carried
down stream and drowned. I had the three wagons placed on the highest
point I could find, then chained together and staked securely to the
ground. Over the boxes of two of these we rolled the hospital tent, and
on this placed the sick and wounded, just as the water was creeping upon
us. On the third wagon we put the hospital stores. It was now quite
dark. Not more than four feet square of dry land remained of all our
beautiful island; and the river was still rising. We watched the water
with much anxiety. At ten o'clock it reached the wagon hubs, and covered
every foot of the ground; but soon after we were pleased to see that it
began to go down a little. Those of us who could not get into the wagons
had climbed the trees. At one o'clock it commenced to rain again, when
we managed to hoist a tent over the sick. At two o'clock the long-roll,
the signal for battle, was beaten in camp, and we could just hear, above
the roar of the water, the noise made by the men as they hurriedly
turned out and fell into line.
It will not do, however, to conclude that this was altogether a night of
terrors. It was, in fact, not so very disagreeable after all. There was
a by-play going on much of the time, which served to illuminate the
thick darkness, and divert our minds from the gloomier aspects of the
scene. Smith, the teamster who brought me across, had returned to the
mainland with the horses, and then swam back to the island. By midnight
he had become very drunk. One of the hospital attendants was very far
gone in his cups, also. These two gentlemen did not seem to get along
amicably; in fact, they kept up a fusillade of words all night, and so
kept us awake. The teamster insisted that the hospital attendant should
address him as Mr. Smith. The Smith family, he argued, was of the
highest respectability, and being an honored member of that family, he
would permit no man under the rank of a Major-General to call him Jake.
George McClellan sometimes addressed him by his christian name; but then
George and he were Cincinnatians, old neighbors, and intimate personal
friends, and, of course, took liberties with each other. This could not
justify one who carried out pukes and slop-buckets from a field hospital
in calling him Jake, or even Jacob.
Mr. Smith's allusions to the hospital attendant were not received by
that gentleman in the most amiable spirit. He grew profane, and insisted
that he was not only as good a man as Smith, but a much better one, and
he dared the bloviating mule scrubber to get down off his perch and
stand up before him like a man. But Jake's temper remained unruffled,
and along toward morning, in a voice more remarkable for strength than
melody, he favored us with a song:
"Ho! gif ghlass uf goodt lauger du me;
Du mine fadter, mine modter, mine vife:
Der day's vork vos done, undt we'll see
Vot bleasures der vos un dis life,
Undt ve sit us aroundt mit der table,
Undt ve speak uf der oldt, oldt time,
Ven we lif un dot house mit der gable,
Un der vine-cladt banks uf der Rhine;
Undt mine fadter, his voice vos a quiver,
Undt mine modter, her eyes vos un tears,
Ash da dthot uf dot home un der river,
Undt kindt friendst uf earlier years;
Undt I saidt du mine fadter be cheerie,
Du mine modter not longer lookt sadt,
Here's a blace undt a rest for der weary,
Und ledt us eat, drink, undt be gladt.
So idt ever vos cheerful mitin;
Vot dtho' idt be stormy mitoudt,
Vot care I vor der vorld undt idts din,
Ven dose I luf best vos about;
So libft up your ghlass, mine modter,
Undt libft up yours, Gretchen, my dear,
Undt libft up your lauger, mine fadter,
Undt drink du long life und good cheer."
21. Francis Union was shot and killed by one of our own sentinels last
night, the ball entering just under the nose. This resulted from the
cowardice of the soldier who fired. He was afraid to give the necessary
challenge: four simple words: "Halt! who comes there?" would have saved
a life. This illustrates the danger there is in visiting pickets at
night. If the sentinel halts the man, the man may fire at the sentinel.
The latter, if timid, therefore makes sure of the first shot, and does
not challenge. We buried the dead soldier with all the honors due one of
his rank, on a beautiful hill in the rear of our fortifications. He was
with me on the mountain chopping, a few days ago, strong, healthy,
vigorous, and young. No more hard work for him!
23. With Wagner, Merrill, and Bowen, I rode up the mountain on our left
this afternoon. We had one field-glass and two spy-glasses, and obtained
a magnificent view of the surrounding country. Here and there we could
see a cultivated spot or grazing farm on the top of the mountain; but
more frequently these were on the slopes. We descried one house with our
glasses on the very tiptop of Rich, and so far away that it seemed no
larger than a tent. How the man of the house gets up to his airy height
and gets down again puzzles us. He has the first gush of the sunshine in
the morning, and the latest gleam in the evening. Very often, indeed, he
must look down upon the clouds, and, if he has a tender heart, pity the
poor devils in the valley who are being rained on continually. Is it a
pleasant home? Has he wife and children in that mountain nest? Is he a
man of dogs and guns, who spends his years in the mountains and glens
hunting for bear and deer? May it not be the baronial castle of "old
Leather Breeches" himself?
Away off to the east a cloud, black and heavy, is resting on a peak of
the Cheat. Around it the mountain is glowing in the summer sun, and
appears soft and green. A gauze of shimmering blue mantles the crest,
darkens in the coves, and becomes quite black in the gorges. The rugged
rocks and scraggy trees, if there be any, are at this distance
invisible, and nothing is seen but what delights the eye and quickens
the imagination.
We see by the papers that Ohio is preparing to organize a grand Union
party, with a platform on which both Republicans and Democrats can
stand. I am glad of this. There should be but one party in the North,
and that party willing to make all sacrifices for the Union.
24. Last night a sentinel on one of the picket posts halted a stump and
demanded the countersign. No response being made, he fired. The entire
Fifteenth Indiana sprang to arms; the cannoniers gathered about their
guns, and a thousand eyes peered into the darkness to get a glimpse of
the approaching enemy. But the stump, evidently intimidated by the first
shot, did not advance, and so the Hoosiers returned again to their
couches, to dream, doubtless, of the subject of a song very common now
in camp, to wit:
"Old Governor Wise,
With his goggle eyes."
25. The Twenty-third Ohio, Colonel Scammon, will be here to-morrow.
Stanley Matthews is the lieutenant-colonel of this regiment, and my old
friend, Rutherford B. Hayes, the major. The latter is an accomplished
gentleman, graduate of Harvard Law School, and will, it is said, in all
probability, succeed Gurley in Congress. Matthews has a fine reputation
as a speaker and lawyer, and, I have been told, is the most promising
young man in Ohio. Scammon is a West Pointer.
26. Five companies of the Twenty-third Ohio and five companies of the
Ninth Ohio arrived to-day, and are encamped in a maple grove about a
mile below us. A detachment of cavalry came up also, and is quartered
near. Other regiments are coming. It is said the larger portion of the
troops in West Virginia are tending in this direction; but on what
particular point it is proposed to concentrate them rumor saith not.
General McClellan did not go far enough at first. After the defeat of
Pegram, at Rich mountain, and Garnett, at Laurel Hill, the Southern army
of this section was utterly demoralized. It scattered, and the men
composing it, who were not captured, fled, terror stricken, to their
homes. We could have marched to Staunton without opposition, and taken
possession of the very strongholds the enemy is now fortifying against
us. If in our advanced position supplies could not have been obtained
from the North, the army might have subsisted off the country. Thus, by
pushing vigorously forward, we could have divided the enemy's forces,
and thus saved our army in the East from humiliating defeat. This is the
way it looks to me; but, after all, there may have been a thousand good
reasons for remaining here, of which I know nothing. One thing, however,
is, I think, very evident: a successful army, elated with victory, and
eager to advance, is not likely to be defeated by a dispirited opponent.
One-fourth, at least, of the strength of this army disappeared when it
heard of the rebel triumphs on the Potomac.
* * * * *
Latter part of August the writer was sent to Ohio for recruits for the
regiment, and did not return to camp until the middle of September.
SEPTEMBER 1861.
19. Reached camp yesterday at noon. My recruits arrived to-day.
The enemy was here in my absence in strength and majesty, and repeated,
with a slight variation, the grand exploit of the King of France, by
"Marching up the hill with twenty thousand men,
And straightway marching down again."
There was lively skirmishing for a few days, and hot work expected; but,
for reasons unknown to us, the enemy retired precipitately.
On Sunday morning last fifty men of the Sixth Ohio, when on picket, were
surprised and captured. My friend, Lieutenant Merrill, fell into the
hands of the enemy, and is now probably on his way to Castle Pinckney.
Further than this our rebellious friends did us no damage. Our men, at
this point, killed Colonel Washington, wounded a few others, and further
than this inflicted but little injury upon the enemy. The country people
near whom the rebels encamped say they got to fighting among themselves.
The North Carolinians were determined to go home, and regiments from
other States claimed that their term of service had expired, and wanted
to leave. I am glad they did, and trust they may go home, hang up their
guns, and go to work like sensible people, for then I could do the same.
23. This afternoon I rode by a mountain path to a log cabin in which a
half dozen wounded Tennesseeans are lying. One poor fellow had his leg
amputated yesterday, and was very feeble. One had been struck by a ball
on the head and a buckshot in the lungs. Two boys were but slightly
wounded, and were in good spirits. To one of these--a jovial, pleasant
boy--Dr. Seyes said, good-humoredly: "You need have no fears of dying
from a gunshot; you are too big a devil, and were born to be hung."
Colonel Marrow sought to question this same fellow in regard to the
strength of the enemy, when the boy said: "Are you a commissioned
officer?" "Yes," replied Marrow. "Then," returned he, "you ought to know
that a private soldier don't know anything."
In returning to camp, we followed a path which led to a place where a
regiment of the rebels had encamped one night. They had evidently become
panic-stricken and left in hot haste. The woods were strewn with
knapsacks, blankets, and canteens.
The ride was a pleasant one. The path, first wild and rugged, finally
led to a charming little valley, through which Beckey's creek hurries
down to the river. Leaving this, we traveled up the side of a ravine,
through which a little stream fretted and fumed, and dashed into spray
against slimy rocks, and then gathered itself up for another charge, and
so pushed gallantly on toward the valley and the sunshine.
What a glorious scene! The sky filled with stars; the rising moon; two
mountain walls so high, apparently, that one might step from them into
heaven; the rapid river, the thousand white tents dotting the valley,
the camp fires, the shadowy forms of soldiers; in short, just enough of
heaven and earth visible to put one's fancy on the gallop. The boys are
in groups about their fires. The voice of the troubadour is heard. It is
a pleasant song that he sings, and I catch part of it.
"The minstrel's returned from the war,
With spirits as buoyant as air,
And thus on the tuneful guitar
He sings in the bower of the fair:
The noise of the battle is over;
The bugle no more calls to arms;
A soldier no more, but a lover,
I kneel to the power of thy charms.
Sweet lady, dear lady, I'm thine;
I bend to the magic of beauty,
Though the banner and helmet are mine,
Yet love calls the soldier to duty."
24. Our Indiana friends are providing for the winter by laying in a
stock of household furniture at very much less than its original cost,
and without even consulting the owners. It is probable that our Ohio
boys steal occasionally, but they certainly do not prosecute the
business openly and courageously.
26. The Thirteenth Indiana, Sixth Ohio, and two pieces of artillery went
up the valley at noon, to feel the enemy. It rained during the
afternoon, and since nightfall has poured down in torrents. The poor
fellows who are now trudging along in the darkness and storm, will
think, doubtless, of home and warm beds. It requires a pure article of
patriotism, and a large quantity of it, to make one oblivious for months
at a time of all the comforts of civil life.
This is the day designated by the President for fasting and prayer.
Parson Strong held service in the regiment, and the Rev. Mr. Reed, of
Zanesville, Ohio, delivered a very eloquent exhortation. I trust the
supplications of the Church and the people may have effect, and bring
that Higher Power to our assistance which hitherto has apparently not
been with our arms especially.
27. To-night almost the entire valley is inundated. Many tents are waist
high in water, and where others stood this morning the water is ten feet
deep. Two men of the Sixth Ohio are reported drowned. The water got
around them before they became aware of it, and in endeavoring to escape
they were swept down the stream and lost. The river seems to stretch
from the base of one mountain to the other, and the whole valley is one
wild scene of excitement. Wherever a spot of dry ground can be found,
huge log fires are burning, and men by the dozen are grouped around
them, anxiously watching the water and discussing the situation. Tents
have been hastily pitched on the hills, and camp fires, each with its
group of men, are blazing in many places along the side of the mountain.
The rain has fallen steadily all day.
28. The Thirteenth Indiana and Sixth Ohio returned. The reconnoissance
was unsuccessful, the weather being unfavorable.
OCTOBER, 1861.
2. Our camp is almost deserted. The tents of eight regiments dot the
valley; but those of two regiments and a half only are occupied. The
Hoosiers have all gone to Cheat mountain summit. They propose to steal
upon the enemy during the night, take him by surprise, and thrash him
thoroughly. I pray they may be successful, for since Rich mountain our
army has done nothing worthy of a paragraph. Rosecrans' affair at
Carnifex was a barren thing; certainly no battle and no victory, and the
operations in this vicinity have at no time risen to the dignity of a
skirmish.
Captain McDougal, with nearly one hundred men and three days'
provisions, started up the valley this morning, with instructions to go
in sight of the enemy, the object being to lead the latter to suppose
the advance guard of our army is before him. By this device it is
expected to keep the enemy in our front from going to the assistance of
the rebels now threatening Kimball.
3. To-night, half an hour ago, received a dispatch from the top of
Cheat, which reads as follows:
"All back. Made a very interesting reconnoissance. Killed a large
number of the enemy. Very small loss on our side. J. J. REYNOLDS,
Brigadier-General."
Why, when the battle was progressing so advantageously for our side, did
they not go on? This, then, is the result of the grand demonstration on
the other side of the mountain.
McDougal's company returned, and report the enemy fallen back.
The frost has touched the foliage, and the mountain peaks look like
mammoth bouquets; green, red, yellow, and every modification of these
colors appear mingled in every possible fanciful and tasteful way.
Another dispatch has just come from the top of Cheat, written, I doubt
not, after the Indianians had returned to camp and drawn their whisky
ration. It sounds bigger than the first. I copy it:
"Found the rebels drawn up in line of battle one mile outside of their
fortifications, drove them back to their intrenchments, and continued
the fight four hours. Ten of our men wounded and ten killed. Two or
three hundred of the enemy killed."
If it be true that so many of the rebels were killed, it is probable
that two thousand at least were wounded; and when three hundred are
killed and two thousand wounded, out of an army of twelve or fifteen
hundred men, the business is done up very thoroughly. The dispatch which
went to Richmond to-night, I have no doubt, stated that "the Federals
attacked in great force, outnumbering us two or three to one, and after
a terrific engagement, lasting five hours, they were repulsed at all
points with great slaughter. Our loss one killed and five wounded.
Federal loss, five hundred killed and twenty-five hundred wounded." Thus
are victories won and histories made. Verily the pen is mightier than
the sword.
4. The Indianians have been returning from the summit all day,
straggling along in squads of from three to a full company.
The men are tired, and the camp is quiet as a house. Six thousand are
sleeping away a small portion of their three weary years of military
service. This time stretches out before them, a broad, unknown, and
extra-hazardous sea, with promise of some smooth sailing, but many days
and nights of heavy winds and waves, in which some--how many!--will be
carried down.
Their thoughts have now forced the sentinel lines, leaped the mountains,
jumped the rivers, hastened home, and are lingering about the old
fireside, looking in at the cupboard, and hovering over faces and places
that have been growing dearer to them every day for the last five
months. Old-fashioned places, tame and uninteresting then, but now how
loved! And as for the faces, they are those of mothers, wives, and
sweethearts, around which are entwined the tenderest of memories. But at
daybreak, when reveille is sounded, these wanderers must come trooping
back again in time for "hard-tack" and double quick.
5. Some of the Indiana regiments are utterly beyond discipline. The men
are good, stout, hearty, intelligent fellows, and will make excellent
soldiers; but they have now no regard for their officers, and, as a
rule, do as they please. They came straggling back yesterday from the
top of Cheat unofficered, and in the most unsoldierly manner. As one of
these stray Indianians was coming into camp, he saw a snake in the river
and cocked his gun. He was near the quarters of the Sixth Ohio, and many
men were on the opposite side of the stream, among them a lieutenant,
who called to the Indianian and begged him for God's sake not to fire;
but the latter, unmindful of what was said, blazed away. The ball,
striking the water, glanced and hit the lieutenant in the breast,
killing him almost instantly.
6. The Third and Sixth Ohio, with Loomis' battery, left camp at
half-past three in the afternoon, and took the Huntersville turnpike for
Big Springs, where Lee's army has been encamped for some months. At nine
o'clock we reached Logan's Mill, where the column halted for the night.
It had rained heavily for some hours, and was still raining. The boys
went into camp thoroughly wet, and very hungry and tired; but they soon
had a hundred fires kindled, and, gathering around these, prepared and
ate supper.
I never looked upon a wilder or more interesting scene. The valley is
blazing with camp-fires; the men flit around them like shadows. Now some
indomitable spirit, determined that neither rain nor weather shall get
him down, strikes up:
"Oh! say, can you see by the dawn's early light,
What so proudly we hailed at the twilight's last gleaming,
Whose broad stripes and bright stars, through the perilous fight,
O'er the ramparts we watched were so gallantly streaming?"
A hundred voices join in, and the very mountains, which loom up in the
fire-light like great walls, whose tops are lost in the darkness,
resound with a rude melody befitting so wild a night and so wild a
scene. But the songs are not all patriotic. Love and fun make
contribution also, and a voice, which may be that of the invincible
Irishman, Corporal Casey, sings: