Third, and Company G, of the Tenth, had a rooster fight, the stakes
being fifteen dollars a side. After numerous attacks, retreats, charges,
and counter-charges, the Tenth rooster succumbed like a hero, and the
other was carried in triumph from the field. General Mitchell made his
appearance near the scene at the conclusion of the conflict; but,
supposing the crowd to be an enthusiastic lot of soldiers who were
cheering him, passed on, well pleased with them and himself.
The boys have a variety of information from Richmond to-day. One party
affirms that McClellan has been cut to pieces; that a dispatch to that
effect has been received by General Buell. Another insists that he has
obtained a decided advantage, and is heating the shot to burn Richmond;
while still another affirms that he has utterly destroyed Richmond,
and, Marius-like, is sitting amid the ruins of that ill-fated city,
eating sow belly and doe-christers.
7. Am detailed to serve on court-martial.
DETAIL FOR THE COURT.
General James A. Garfield.
Colonel Jacob Ammen.
Colonel Curren Pope.
Colonel Jones.
Colonel Marc Mundy.
Colonel Sedgewick.
Colonel John Beatty.
Convened at Athens at ten o'clock this morning. Organized and adjourned
to meet at ten to-morrow.
General Buell proposes, I understand, to give General Mitchell's
administration of affairs in North Alabama a thorough overhauling. It is
asserted that the latter has been interested in cotton speculations; but
investigation, I am well satisfied, will show that General Mitchell has
been strictly honest, and has done nothing to compromise his honor, or
cast even the slightest shadow upon his good name.
The first case to be tried is that of Colonel J. B. Turchin, Nineteenth
Illinois. He is charged with permitting his command, the Eighth Brigade,
to steal, rob, and commit all manner of outrages.
10. Our court has been adjourning from day to day, until Colonel Turchin
should succeed in procuring counsel; but it is now in full blast.
Nelson's division is quartered here. The town is enveloped in a dense
cloud of dust.
14. There are many wealthy planters in this section. One of the
witnesses before our court has a cotton crop on hand worth sixty
thousand dollars. Another swears that Turchin's brigade robbed him of
twelve hundred dollars' worth of silver plate.
Turchin's brigade has stolen a hundred thousand dollars' worth of
watches, plate, and jewelry, in Northern Alabama. Turchin has gone to
one extreme, for war can not justify the gutting of private houses and
the robbery of peaceable citizens, for the benefit of individual
officers or soldiers; but there is another extreme, more amiable and
pleasant to look upon, but not less fatal to the cause. Buell is likely
to go to that. He is inaugurating the dancing-master policy: "By your
leave, my dear sir, we will have a fight; that is, if you are
sufficiently fortified; no hurry; take your own time." To the
bushwhacker: "Am sorry you gentlemen fire at our trains from behind
stumps, logs, and ditches. Had you not better cease this sort of
warfare? Now do, my good fellows, stop, I beg of you." To the citizen
rebel: "You are a chivalrous people; you have been aggravated by the
abolitionists into subscribing cotton to the Southern Confederacy; you
had, of course, a right to dispose of your own property to suit
yourselves, but we prefer that you would, in future, make no more
subscriptions of that kind, and in the meantime we propose to protect
your property and guard your negroes." Turchin's policy is bad enough;
it may indeed be the policy of the devil; but Buell's policy is that of
the amiable idiot. There is a better policy than either. It will
neither steal nor maraud; it will do nothing for the sake of individual
gain, and, on the other hand, it will not crouch to rebels; it will not
fear to hurt the feelings of traitors; it will not fritter away the army
and the revenue of the Government in the insane effort to protect men
who have forfeited all right to protection. The policy we need is one
that will march boldly, defiantly, through the rebel States, indifferent
as to whether this traitor's cotton is safe, or that traitor's negroes
run away; calling things by their right names; crushing those who have
aided and abetted treason, whether in the army or out. In short, we want
an iron policy that will not tolerate treason; that will demand
immediate and unconditional obedience as the price of protection.
15. The post at Murfreesboro, occupied by two regiments of infantry and
one battery, under Crittenden, of Indiana, has surrendered to the enemy.
A bridge and a portion of the railroad track between this place and
Pulaski have been destroyed. A large rebel force is said to be north of
the Tennessee. It crossed the river at Chattanooga.
18. The star of the Confederacy appears to be rising, and I doubt not it
will continue to ascend until the rose-water policy now pursued by the
Northern army is superseded by one more determined and vigorous. We
should look more to the interests of the North, and less to those of the
South. We should visit on the aiders, abettors, and supporters of the
Southern army somewhat of the severity which hitherto has been aimed at
that army only. Who are most deserving of our leniency, those who take
arms and go to the field, or those who remain at home, raising corn,
oats, and bacon to subsist them? Plain people, who know little of
constitutional hair-splitting, could decide this question only one way;
but it seems those who have charge of our armies can not decide it in
any sensible way. They say: "You would not disturb peaceable citizens by
levying contributions from them?" Why not? If the husbands, brothers,
and fathers of these people, their natural leaders and guardians, do not
care for them, why should we? If they disregard and trample upon that
law which gave all protection, and plunge the country into war, why
should we be perpetually hindered and thwarted in our efforts to secure
peace by our care for those whom they have abandoned? If we make the
country through which we pass furnish supplies to our army, the
inhabitants will have less to furnish our enemies. The surplus products
of the country should be gathered into the Federal granaries, so that
they could not, by possibility, go to feed the rebels. The loyal and
innocent might occasionally and for the present suffer, but peace when
once established would afford ample opportunity to investigate and repay
these sufferers. Shall we continue to protect the property of our
enemies, and lose the lives of our friends? It is said that it is hard
to deprive men of their horses, cattle, grain, simply because they
differ from us in opinion; but is it not harder still to deprive men of
their lives for the same reason? The opinions from which we differ in
this instance are treasonable. The man who, of his own free will,
supplies the wood is no whit better than he who kindles the fire; and
the man who supplies the ammunition neither better nor worse than he who
does the killing. The severest punishment should be inflicted upon the
soldier who appropriates either private or public property to his own
use; but the Government should lay its mailed hand upon treasonable
communities, and teach them that war is no holiday pastime.
19. Returned to Huntsville this afternoon; General Garfield with me. He
will visit our quarters to-morrow and dine with us.
General Rousseau has been assigned to the command of our division. I am
glad to hear that he discards the rose-water policy of General Buell
under his nose, and is a great deal more thorough and severe in his
treatment of rebels than General Mitchell. He sent the Rev. Mr. Ross to
jail to-day for preaching a secession sermon last Sunday. He damns the
rebel sympathizers, and says if the negro stands in the way of the Union
he must get out. Rousseau is a Kentuckian, and it is very encouraging to
learn that he talks as he does.
Turchin has been made a brigadier.
21. An order issued late last evening transferring our court from Athens
to Huntsville.
Colonel Turchin's case is still before us. No official notice of his
promotion has been communicated to the court.
23. Garfield and Ammen are our guests. They are sitting with Colonel
Keifer, in the open air, in front of our tent. We have eaten supper, and
Colonel Ammen has the floor; he always has it. He is somewhat
superstitious. He never likes to see the moon through brush. He is to
some extent a believer in dreams. On one occasion he dreamed that his
father, who was drowned, came up from the muddy water, looked angrily at
him, and endeavored to stab him with a rusty knife. In his effort to
escape he awoke. Falling to sleep again, his father reappeared and made
a second attempt to stab him. This so thoroughly aroused and troubled
him that he could not sleep. In the morning he told this dream to a
friend, and was informed that two members of his family would soon die.
Soon after he was summoned home, when he found his mother dead and his
sister dying of cholera. At another time he felt a sharp pain in the
back of his neck, and was impressed with the idea that he had been shot.
Soon afterward he learned that his brother in the South had been shot in
the back of the neck and killed. He believes that his own sensation of
pain was experienced at the very instant when his brother received the
fatal wound; but as he could not remember the precise hour when he was
startled by the disagreeable impression, he could not be positive that
the occurrences were simultaneous. When going into battle at Greenbrier
and at Shiloh, the belief that his time to die had not come rendered him
cool and fearless. He never felt more at ease or more secure. So when,
at two different times, he was very ill, and informed that he could not
live through the night, he felt absolutely sure that he would recover.
Garfield had a very impressionable relative. The night before his fight
with Humphrey Marshall, she wrote a very accurate general description of
the battle, giving the position of the troops; referring to the
reinforcements which came up, and the great shout with which they were
welcomed.
These mysterious impressions suggested the existence of an undiscovered,
or possibly an undeveloped principle in nature, which time and
investigation would ultimately make familiar.
Colonel Ammen says, "If superstition, or a belief in the supernatural,
is an indication of weakness, Napoleon and Sir Walter Scott were the
weakest of men."
With General Garfield I called on General Rousseau this morning. He is a
larger and handsomer man than Mitchell, but I think lacks the latter's
energy, culture, system, and industry.
24. We can not boast of what is occurring in this department. The tide
seems to have set against us every-where. The week of battles before
Richmond was a week of defeats. I trust the new policy indicated by the
confiscation act, just passed by Congress, will have good effect. It
will, at least, enable us to weaken the enemy, as we have not thus far
done, and strengthen ourselves, as we have hitherto not been able to do.
Slavery is the enemy's weak point, the key to his position. If we can
tear down this institution, the rebels will lose all interest in the
Confederacy, and be too glad to escape with their lives, to be very
particular about what they call their rights.
Colonel Ammen has just received notice of his confirmation as brigadier.
He is a strange combination of simplicity and wisdom, full of good
stories, and tells those against himself with a great deal more pleasure
than any others.
Colonels Turchin, Mihalotzy, Gazley, and Captain Edgerton form a group
by the window; all are smoking vigorously, and speculating probably on
the result of the present and prospective trials. Mihalotzy is what is
commonly termed "Dutch;" but whether he is from the German States,
Russia, Prussia, or Poland, I know not.
Ammen left camp early this morning, saying he would go to town and see
if he could find an idea, he was pretty nearly run out. He talks
incessantly; his narratives abound in episode, parenthesis, switches,
side-cuts, and before he gets through, one will conclude a dozen times
that he has forgotten the tale he entered upon, but he never does.
Colonel Stanley, Eighteenth Ohio, has just come in. He has in his time
been a grave and reverend senator of Ohio; he never loses sight of this
fact, and never fails to impress it upon those with whom he comes in
contact.
An order has just been issued, and is now being circulated among the
members of the court, purporting to come from General Ammen, and signed
with his name. It recites the fact of his promotion, and forbids any one
hereafter to call him Uncle Jacob, that title being entirely too
familiar and undignified for one of his rank. All who violate the order
are threatened with the direst punishment.
The General says if such orders please the court, he will not object to
their being issued; it certainly requires but very little ability to get
them up.
The General prides himself on what he calls delicate irony. He says, in
the town of Ripley, men who can not manage a dray successfully criticise
the conduct of this and that general with great severity; when they
appeal to him, he tells them quietly he has not the capacity to judge of
such matters; it requires a great mind and a thorough understanding of
all the circumstances.
After all I have said about General Ammen, it is hardly necessary to
remark that he does most of the talking.
To-day Garfield and Keifer, who of course entertain the kindliest
feelings, and the greatest respect for the General, in a spirit of fun,
entered into a conspiracy against him. They proposed for one night to do
all the talking themselves, and not allow him to edge in even a word.
After supper Garfield was to commence with the earliest incidents of his
childhood, and without allowing himself to be interrupted, continue
until he had given a complete narrative of his life and adventures; then
Keifer was to strike in and finish up the night. General Ammen was not
to be permitted to open his mouth except to yawn.
We ate supper and immediately adjourned to the adjoining tent. Before
Garfield was fairly seated on his camp stool, he began to talk with the
easy and deliberate manner of a man who had much to say. He dwelt
eloquently on the minutest details of his early life, as if they were
matters of the utmost importance. Keifer was not only an attentive
listener, but seemed wonderfully interested. Uncle Jacob undertook to
thrust in a word here and there, but Garfield was too much absorbed to
notice him, and so pushed on steadily, warming up as he proceeded.
Unfortunately for his scheme, however, before he had gone far he made a
touching reference to his mother, when Uncle Jacob, gesticulating
energetically, and with his forefinger leveled at the speaker, cried:
"Just a word--just one word right there," and so persisted until
Garfield was compelled either to yield or be absolutely discourteous.
The General, therefore, got in his word; nay, he held the floor for the
remainder of the evening. The conspirators made brave efforts to put him
down and cut him off, but they were unsuccessful. At midnight, when
Keifer and I left, he was still talking; and after we had got into bed,
he, with his suspenders dangling about his legs, thrust his head into
our tent-door, and favored us with the few observations we had lost by
reason of our hasty departure. Keifer turned his face to the wall and
groaned. Poor man! he had been hoisted by his own petard. I think Uncle
Jacob suspected that the young men had set up a job on him.
The regiment went on a foraging expedition yesterday, under Colonel
Keifer, and was some fifteen miles from Huntsville, in the direction of
the Tennessee river.
At one o'clock last night our picket was confronted by about one hundred
and fifty of the enemy's cavalry; but no shots were exchanged.
29. The rebel cavalry were riding in the mountains south of us last
night. A heavy mounted patrol of our troops was making the rounds at
midnight. There was some picket firing along toward morning; but nothing
occurred of importance.
Our forces are holding the great scope of country between Memphis and
Bridgeport, guarding bridges, railroads, and towns, frittering away the
strength of a great army, and wasting our men by permitting them to be
picked up in detail. In short, we put down from fifty to one hundred,
here and there, at points convenient to the enemy, as bait for them.
They take the bait frequently, and always when they run no risk of being
caught. The climate, and the insane effort to garrison the whole
country, consumes our troops, and we make no progress. May the good Lord
be with us, and deliver us from idleness and imbecility; and especially,
O! Lord, grant a little every-day sense--that very common sense which
plain people use in the management of their business affairs--to the
illustrious generals who have our armies in hand!
30. We have just concluded Colonel Turchin's case, and forwarded the
proceedings to General Buell.
General Ammen for many years belonged to a club, the members of which
were required either to sing a song or tell a story. He could not sing,
and, consequently, took to stories, and very few can tell one better.
The General is a member of the Episcopal Church, and, although a pious
man, emphasizes his language occasionally by an oath. When conducting
his brigade from the boat at Pittsburg Landing to position on the field,
he was compelled to pass through the immense crowd of skedaddlers who
had sought shelter under the bluffs from the storm of bullets. A
chaplain of one of the disorganized regiments was haranguing the mob in
what may be termed the whangdoodle style: "Rally, men; rally, and we may
yet be saved. O! rally! For God and your country's sake rally!
R-a-l-l-y! O-h! r-a-l-l-y around the flag of your c-o-w-n-try, my
c-o-wn-tryme-n!" "Shut up, you God damned old fool!" said Ammen, "or
I'll break your head! Get out of the way!"
General Garfield is lying on the lounge unwell. He has an attack of the
jaundice, and will, I think, start home to-morrow.
I find an article on the tables of the South, which, with coffee, I like
very much. The wheat dough is rolled very thin, cut in strips the width
of a table-knife, and about as long, baked until well done; if browned,
all the better. They become crisp and brittle, and better than the best
of crackers.
31. General Ammen is so interesting to me that I can not avoid talking
about him, especially when items are scarce, as they are now. Our court
takes a recess at one, and assembles again at half-past three, giving us
two hours and a half for dinner. To-day the conversation turned on the
various grasses North and South. After the General had described the
peculiar grasses of many sections, he drifted to the people South who
lived on farms, where he had seen a variety of grass unknown in the
North, and the following story was told:
In the part of Mississippi where he resided for a number of years, there
lived a Northern family named Greenfield. When he was there the farm was
known as the Greenfield farm. It was the peculiar grass on this farm
which suggested the story. The Greenfields were Quakers, originally from
Philadelphia. One of the wealthiest members of the family was a little
weazen-faced old maid, of fifty years or more. Her overseer was a large,
fine looking young man named Roach. After he had been in her service a
year she took a fancy to him, and proposed to give him twenty thousand
dollars if he would marry her. He accepted, and they were duly married.
A year after she grew tired of wedlock, and proposed to give thirty
thousand dollars to be unmarried. He accepted this proposition also.
They united in a petition for a divorce and obtained it. Roach took the
fifty thousand dollars thus made and invested it in the Yazoo country.
The property increased in value rapidly, and he soon became a
millionaire. When General Ammen saw him, he had married again more to
his liking, and was one of the prominent men in his section.
The farm of the Gillyards lay near that of the Greenfields, and this
suggested another story. A Miss Gillyard was a great heiress; owned
plantations in Mississippi, and an interest in a large estate in South
Carolina. A doctor of prepossessing appearance came from the latter
State, and commenced practice in the neighborhood, and an acquaintance
of a few months resulted in a marriage. After living together a year
very happily, they started on a visit to South Carolina; she to visit
relatives and look after her interest in the estate mentioned, and he to
see his friends. On the way it was agreed that he should attend to his
wife's business, and so full power to sell or dispose of the property,
or her interest therein, was given him. At Charleston she was met by the
relatives with whom she was to remain, while the Doctor proceeded to a
different part of the State to see his friends, and afterward attend to
business. When about to separate, like a jolly soul, he proposed that
they should drink to each other's health during the separation. The wine
was produced; they touched glasses, and raised them to their lips, when
the door opened suddenly and the Doctor was called. Setting his wine on
the table, he stepped out of the room, and the wife, more affectionate,
possibly, than most women, took the glass which his lips had touched and
put her own in its place. The husband reappeared shortly, and they drank
off the wine. In an hour he was dead, and she in the deepest affliction.
After she had recovered somewhat from the shock, she left Charleston to
visit his people. She found them poor, and that he had a wife and three
children. The truth then broke in upon her; he had drank the wine
prepared for her.
This story suggested one involving some of Miss Gillyard's relations.
Two lady cousins resided in the same town. The father of one had amassed
a handsome fortune in the tailoring business. The father of the other
had been a saddler, and, carrying on the business extensively, had also
become wealthy. The descendant of the saddler would refer to her
cousin's father as the tailor, and intimate that his calling was
certainly not that of a gentleman. The other hearing of this, and
meeting her one evening at a large party, said: "Cousin Julia, I hear
that you have said my father was nothing but a tailor. Now, this is
true; he was a tailor, and a very good one, too. By his industry and
judgment he made a large fortune, which I am enjoying. I respect him; am
grateful, and not ashamed of him, if he was a tailor. Your father was a
saddler, and a very good one. He, by industry and good management,
accumulated great wealth, which you are enjoying. I see no reason,
therefore, why we should not both be proud of our fathers, and I
certainly can see no reason why a man-tailor should not be just as good
as a horse-tailor."
AUGUST, 1862.
1. The Judge-Advocate, Captain Swayne, was unwell this morning. The
court, therefore, took a recess until three o'clock. Captain Edgerton's
case was disposed of last evening. Colonel Mihalotzy's will come before
us to-day. A court-martial proceeds always with due respect to red tape.
The questions to witnesses are written out; the answers are written
down; the statement of the accused is in writing, and the defense of the
accused's counsel is written; so that the court snaps its fingers at
time, as if it were of no consequence, and seven men, against whom there
are no charges, are likely to spend their natural lives in investigating
seven men, more or less, against whom there are charges. It is thus the
rebels are being subjugated, the Union re-united, the Constitution and
the laws enforced.