bivouacking on the ground over which the cavalry fought yesterday
afternoon--quite a number of the dead were discovered in the woods and
fields. We picked up, at Elk river, an order of Brigadier-General
Wharton, commanding the troops which have been serving as the rear
guard of the enemy's column. It reads as follows:
"COLONEL HAMAR: Retire the artillery when you
think best. Hold the position as long as you can
with your sharpshooters; when forced back, write
to Crew to that effect. Anderson is on your right.
Report all movements to me on this road.
"JNO. A. WHARTON, Brigadier-General.
"July 2d, 1863."
I have been almost constantly in the saddle, and have hardly slept a
quiet three hours since we started on this expedition. My brigade has
picked up probably a hundred prisoners.
4. At twelve o'clock, noon, my brigade was ordered to take the advance,
and make the top of the Cumberland before nightfall; proceeding four
miles, we reached the base of the mountain, and began the ascent. The
road was exceedingly rough, and the rebels had made it impassable, for
artillery, by rolling great rocks into it and felling trees across it.
The axmen were ordered up, and while they were clearing away the
obstructions I rode ahead with the cavalry to the summit, and some four
miles on the ridge beyond. In the meantime, General Negley ordered the
artillery and infantry to return to the foot of the mountain, where we
are now encamped.
5. Since we left Murfreesboro (June 24) rain has been falling almost
constantly; to-day it has been coming down in torrents, and the low
grounds around us are overflowed.
Rousseau's division is encamped near us on the left, Reynolds in the
rear.
The other day, while sitting on the fence by the roadside smoking my
pipe, waiting for my troops to get in readiness to march, some one cried
out, "Here is a philosopher," and General Reynolds rode up and shook my
hand very cordially.
My brigade has been so fortunate, thus far, as to win the confidence of
the commanding generals. It has, during the last week, served as a sort
of a cow-catcher for Negley's division. At Elk river General Thomas rode
up, while I was making my dispositions to attack the enemy, and approved
what I had done and was doing.
We hear that the Army of the East has won a decisive victory in
Pennsylvania. This is grand! It will show the rebels that it will not do
to put their feet on free soil. Now if Grant succeeds in taking
Vicksburg, and Rosecrans drives Bragg beyond the Tennessee, the country
will have reason to rejoice with exceeding great joy.
6. An old lady, whose home is on the side of the mountain, called on me
to-day and said she had not had a cup of coffee since the war commenced.
She was evidently very poor; and, although we had no coffee to spare, I
gave her enough to remind her again of the taste.
Our soldiers have been making a clean sweep of the hogs, sheep, and
poultry on the route. For the rich rebels I have no sympathy, but the
poor we must pity. The war cuts off from them entirely the food which,
in the best of times, they acquire with great labor and difficulty. The
forage for the army horses and mules, and we have an immense number,
consists almost wholly of wheat in the sheaf--wheat that has been
selling for ten dollars per bushel in Confederate money. I have seen
hundreds of acres of wheat in the sheaf disappear in an hour. Rails have
been burned without stint, and numberless fields of growing corn left
unprotected. However much suffering this destruction of property may
entail on the people of this section, I am inclined to think the effect
will be good. It will bring them to a realizing sense of the loss
sustained when they threw aside the protecting shield of the old
Constitution, and the security which they enjoyed in the Union.
The season's crop of wheat, corn, oats, and hogs would have been of the
utmost value to the Confederate army; when destroyed, there will be
nothing in middle Tennessee to tempt it back.
7. Hundreds, perhaps thousands, of Tennesseeans have deserted from the
Southern army and are now wandering about in the mountains, endeavoring
to get to their homes. They are mostly conscripted men. My command has
gathered up hundreds, and the mountains and coves in this vicinity are
said to be full of them.
It rains incessantly. We moved to Decherd and encamped on a ridge, but
are now knee-deep in mud and surrounded by water.
This morning a hundred guns echoed among the mountain gorges over the
glad intelligence from the East and South: Meade has won a famous
victory, and Grant has taken Vicksburg.
Stragglers and deserters from Bragg's army continue to come in. It is
doubtless unfortunate for the country that rain and bad roads prevented
our following up Bragg closely and forcing him to fight in the present
demoralized condition of his army. We would have been certain of a
decisive victory.
9. Dined with General Negley. Colonels Stoughton and Surwell, brigade
commanders, were present. The dinner was excellent; soups, punch, wine,
blackberries were on the table; and, to men who for a fortnight had been
feeding on hard crackers and salt pork, seemed delicious. The General
got his face poisoned while riding through the woods on the 2d instant,
and he now looks like an old bruiser.
McCook, whose corps lies near Winchester, called while we were at
Negley's; he looks, if possible, more like a blockhead than ever, and it
is astonishing to me that he should be permitted to retain command of a
corps for a single hour. He brought us cheering information, however.
The intelligence received from the East and South a few days ago has
been confirmed, and the success of our armies even greater than first
reports led us to believe.
10. We have a cow at brigade head-quarters. Blackberries are very
abundant. The sky has cleared, but the Cumberland mountains are this
morning covered by a thin veil of mist. Supply trains arrived last
night.
11. We hear nothing of the rebel army. Rosecrans, doubtless, knows its
whereabouts, but his subordinates do not. A few of the enemy may be
lingering in the vicinity of Stevenson and Bridgeport, but the main body
is, doubtless, beyond the Tennessee. The rebel sympathizers here
acknowledge that Bragg has been outgeneraled. Our cavalry started on the
9th instant for Huntsville, Athens, and Decatur, and I have no doubt
these places were re-occupied without opposition.
The rebel cavalry is said to be utterly worn out, and for this reason
has performed a very insignificant part in recent operations.
The fall of Vicksburg, defeat of Lee, and retreat of Bragg, will,
doubtless, render the adoption of an entirely new plan necessary. How
long it will take to perfect this, and get ready for a concerted
movement, I have no idea.
12. Our soldiers, I am told, have been entering the houses of private
citizens, taking whatever they saw fit, and committing many outrages. I
trust, however, they have not been doing so badly as the people would
have us believe. The latter are all disposed to grumble; and if a hungry
soldier squints wistfully at a chicken, some one is ready to complain
that the fowls are in danger, and that they are the property of a lone
woman, a widow, with nothing under the sun to eat but chickens. In nine
cases out of ten the husbands of these lone women are in the Confederate
army; but still they are women, and should be treated well.
14. The brigade baker has come up, and will have his oven in operation
this afternoon; so we shall have fresh bread again.
General Rosecrans will allow no ladies to come to the front. This would
seem to be conclusive that no gentlemen will be permitted to go to the
rear.
16. We have blackberries and milk for breakfast, dinner, and supper.
To-night we had hot gingerbread also. I have eaten too much, and feel
uncomfortable.
Meade's victory has been growing small by degrees and beautifully less;
but the success of Grant has improved sufficiently on first reports to
make it all up. Our success in this department, although attended with
little loss of life, has been very gratifying. We have extended our
lines over the most productive region of Tennessee, and have possession
also of all North Alabama, a rich tract of country, the loss of which
must be sorely felt by the rebels.
18. To-night I received a bundle of Northern papers, and among others
the Union (?) Register. While reading it I felt almost glad that I was
not at home, for certainly I should be very uncomfortable if compelled
to listen every day to such treasonable attacks upon the Administration,
sugar-coated though they be with hypocritical professions of devotion to
the Union, the Constitution, and the soldier. How supremely wicked these
men are, who, for their own personal advantage, or for party success,
use every possible means to bring the Administration into disrespect,
and withhold from it what, at this time, it so greatly needs, the hearty
support and co-operation of the people. The simple fact that abuse of
the party in power encourages the rebels, not only by evincing
disaffection and division in the North, but by leading them to believe,
also, that their conduct is justifiable, should, of itself, be
sufficient to deter honest and patriotic men from using such language as
may be found in the opposition press. The blood of many thousand
soldiers will rest upon the peace party, and certainly the blood of many
misguided people at the North must be charged to the same account. The
draft riots of New York and elsewhere these croakers and libelers are
alone responsible for. After the war has ended there will be abundant
time to discuss the manner in which it has been conducted. Certainly
quarreling over it now can only tend to the defeat and disgrace of our
arms.
We hardly hear of politics in the army, and I certainly did not dream
before that there was so much bitterness of feeling among the people in
the North. Republicans, Democrats, and every body else think nearly
alike here. I know of none who sympathize with the so-called peace
party. It is universally damned, for there is no soldier so ignorant
that he does not know and feel that this party is prolonging the war by
stimulating his enemies. A child can see this. The rebel papers, which
every soldier occasionally obtains, prove it beyond a peradventure.
20. Mrs. General Negley, it appears, has been allowed to visit her
husband. Mrs. General McCook is said to be coming.
Received a public document, in which I find all the reports of the
battle of Stone river, and, I am sorry to say, my report is the poorest
and most unsatisfactory of the whole lot. The printer, as if for the
purpose of aggravating me beyond endurance, has, by an error of
punctuation, transformed what I considered a very considerable and
creditable action, into an inconsiderable skirmish. The report should
read:
"On the second and third days my brigade was in
front, a portion of the time skirmishing. On the
night of January 3d, two regiments, led by myself,
drove the enemy from their breastworks in the edge
of the woods."
This appears in the volume as follows:
"On the second and third days my brigade was in
front a portion of the time. Skirmishing on the
night of January 3d, two regiments, led my myself,
drove the enemy from the breastworks in the edge
of the woods."
Thus, by taking the last word of one sentence and making it the first
word of another, the intelligent compositor belittles a night fight for
which I thought my command deserved no inconsiderable credit. I regret
now that I did not take the time to make an elaborate report of the
operations of my brigade, describing all the terrible situations in
which it had been placed, and dwelling with special emphasis on the
courage and splendid fighting of the men. In contrast with my stupidly
modest report, is that of Brigadier-General Spears. He does not hesitate
to claim for his troops all the credit of the night engagement referred
to; and yet while my men stormed the barricade of logs, and cleaned out
the woods, his were lying on their faces fully two hundred yards in the
rear, and I should never have known that they were even that near the
enemy if his raw soldiers had not fired an occasional shot into us from
behind. If General Spears was with his men, he must have known that his
report of their action on that occasion was utterly untruthful. If,
however, as I apprehend, he was behind the rifle pits, six hundred yards
in the rear, he might, like thousands of others, who were distant
spectators of the scene, have honestly conceived that his troops were
doing the fighting. General Rousseau's report contradicts his
statements, and in a meager way accords the credit to my regiments.
Officers are more selfish, dishonest, and grasping in their struggle for
notoriety than the miser for gold. They lay claim to every thing within
reach, whether it belongs to them or not. I know absolutely that many of
the reports in the volume before me are base exaggerations--romances,
founded upon the smallest conceivable amount of fact. They are simply
elaborate essays, which seek to show that the author was a little
braver, a little more skillful in the management of his men, and a
little worthier than anybody else. I know of one officer who has great
credit, in official reports and in the newspapers, for a battle in which
he did not participate at all. In fact, he did not reach the field until
after the enemy had not only been repulsed, but retired out of sight;
and yet he has not the manliness to correct the error, and give the
honor to whom it is due.
21. The day has been a pleasant one. The night is delightful. The new
moon favors us with just sufficient light to reveal fully the great
oaks, the white tents, and the shadowy outline of the Cumberland
mountains. The pious few of the Eighty-eighth Indiana, assembled in a
booth constructed of branches, are breathing out their devotional
inspirations and aspirations, in an old hymn which carries us back to
the churches and homes of the civilized world, or, as the boys term it,
"God's country."
Katydids from a hundred trees are vigorous and relentless in their
accusations against poor Katy. That was a pleasant conceit of Holmes,
"What did poor Katy do?" I never appreciated it fully until I came into
the country of the katydids.
Two trains, laden with forage, commissary, and quartermaster stores, are
puffing away at the depot.
General Rosecrans will move to Winchester, two miles from us, to-morrow.
No one ever more desired to look again on his wife and babies than I;
but, alack and alas! I am bound with a chain which seems to tighten more
and more each day, and draw me further and further from where I desire
to be. But I trust the time will soon come when I shall be free again.
Morgan's command has come to grief in Ohio. I trust he may be captured
himself. The papers say Basil Duke is a prisoner. If so, the spirit of
the great raider is in our hands, and it matters but little, perhaps,
what becomes of the carcass.
A soldier of the Forty-second Indiana, who ran away from the battle of
Stone river, had his head shaved and was drummed out of camp to-day.
David Walker, Paul Long, and Charley Hiskett, of the Third Ohio, go with
him to Nashville, where he is to be confined in military prison until
the end of the war.
Shaving the head and drumming out of camp is a fearful punishment. I
could not help pitying the poor fellow, as with carpet-sack in one hand
and hat in the other he marched crest-fallen through the camps, to the
music of the "Rogue's March." Death and oblivion would have been less
severe and infinitely more desirable.
25. General Rosecrans, although generally supposed to be here, has been,
it is said, absent for some days. It is intimated that he has gone to
Washington. If it be true, he has flanked the newspaper men by a
wonderful burst of strategy. He must have gone through disguised as an
old woman--a very ugly old woman with a tremendous nose--otherwise these
newspaper pickets would have arrested and put him in the papers
forthwith. They are more vigilant than the rebels, and terribly intent
upon finding somebody to talk about, to laud to the skies, or abuse in
the most fearful manner, for they seldom do things by halves, unless it
be telling the truth. They have a marvelous distaste for facts, and use
no more of them than are absolutely necessary to string their guesses
and imaginings upon.
My colt has just whinnied. He is gay as a lark, and puts Davy, the
hostler, through many evolutions unknown to the cavalry service. The
other day Davy had him out for exercise, and when he came rearing and
charging back, I said: "How does he behave to-day, Davy?" "Mighty
rambunctious, sah; he's gettin' bad, sah."
Major James Connelly, One Hundred and Twenty-third Illinois, called. His
regiment is mounted and in Wilder's brigade. It participated in the
engagement at Hoover's Gap. When my brigade was at Hillsboro, Connelly's
regiment accompanied Wilder to this place (Decherd). The veracious
correspondent reported that Wilder, on that expedition, had destroyed
the bridge here and done great injury to the railroad, permanently
interrupting communication between Bridgeport and Tullahoma; but, in
fact, the bridge was not destroyed, and trains on the railroad were only
delayed two hours. The expedition succeeded, however, in picking up a
few stragglers and horses.
26. General Stanley has returned from Huntsville, bringing with him
about one thousand North Alabama negroes. This is a blow at the enemy in
the right place. Deprived of slave labor, the whites will be compelled
to send home, or leave at home, white men enough to cultivate the land
and keep their families from starving.
27. Adjutant Wilson visited Rousseau's division at Cowan, and reports
the return of Starkweather from Wisconsin, with the stars. This
gentleman has been mourning over the ingratitude of Republics ever since
the battle of Perryville; but henceforth he will, doubtless, feel
better.
A court-martial has been called for the trial of Colonel A. B. Moore,
One Hundred and Fourth Illinois. Some ill-feeling in his regiment has
led one of his officers to prefer charges against him.
28. General Thomas is an officer of the regular army; the field is his
home; the tent his house, and war his business. He regards rather
coolly, therefore, the applications of volunteer officers for leaves of
absence. Why should they not be as contented as himself? He does not
seem to consider that they suddenly dropped business, every thing, in
fact, to hasten to the field. But, then, on second thought, I incline to
the opinion that the old man is right. Half the army would be at home if
leaves and furloughs could be had for the asking.
29. Lieutenant Orr received notice yesterday of his appointment as
captain in the subsistence department, and last night opened a barrel of
beer and stood treat. I did not join the party until about ten o'clock,
and then Captain Hewitt, of the battery, the story-teller of the
brigade, was in full blast, and the applause was uproarious. He was
telling of a militia captain of Fentress county, Tennessee, who called
out his company upon the supposition that we were again at war with
Great Britain; that Washington had been captured by the invaders, and
the arch-iv-es destroyed. A bystander questioned the correctness of the
Captain's information, when he became very angry, and, producing a
newspaper, said: "D--n you, sir, do you think _I_ can't read, sir?" The
man thus interrogated looked over the paper, saw that it announced the
occupation of Washington by the British, but called the attention of the
excited militiaman to the fact that the date was 1812. "So it is," said
the old captain; "I did not notice the date. But, d--n me, sir, the
paper just come. Go on with the drill, boys." This story was told to
illustrate the fact that the people of many counties in Tennessee were
behind the times.
It would take too much time to refer, even briefly, to all the stories
related, and I will allude simply to a LONDON GHOST STORY, which Captain
Halpin, an Irishman, of the Fifteenth Kentucky, undertook to tell. The
gallant Captain was in the last stages of inebriety, and laid the scene
of his London ghost story in Ireland. Steadying himself in his seat with
both hands, and with a tongue rather too thick to articulate clearly, he
introduced us to his ancestors for twenty generations back. It was a
famous old Irish family, and among the collateral branches were the
O'Tooles, O'Rourkes, and O'Flahertys. They had in them the blood of the
Irish kings, and accomplished marvelous feats in the wars of those
times. And so we staggered with the Captain from Dublin to Belfast, and
thence made sorties into all the provinces on chase of the London ghost,
until finally our leader wound up with a yawn and went to sleep. The
party, disappointed at this sudden and unsatisfactory termination of the
London ghost story, took a mug of beer all around, and then one
gentleman, drunker probably than the others, or possibly unwilling,
after all the time spent, to allow the ghost to escape, punched the
Captain in the ribs and shouted: "Captain--Captain Halpin, you said it
was a London ghost story; maybe you'll find the ghost in London, for
I'll be d--d if it's in Ireland!" The Captain was too far gone to profit
by the suggestion.
30. This evening General Rosecrans, on his way to Winchester, stopped
for a few minutes at the station. He shook hands with me, and asked how
I liked the water at the foot of the mountains, and about the health of
my troops. I told him the water was good, and that the boys were
encamped on high ground and healthy. "Yes," he replied, "and we'll take
higher ground in a few days."
On the march to Tullahoma I had my brigade stretched along a ridge to
guard against an attack from the direction of Wartrace. General
Rosecrans passed through my lines, and was making some inquiries, when I
stepped out: "Hello," said he, "here is the young General himself.
You've got a good ridge. Who lives in that house? Find a place for
Negley on your right or left. Send me a map of this ridge. How do ye
do?"
31. Met General Turchin for the first time since he was before our
court-martial at Huntsville. He appeared to be considerably cast down in
spirit. He had just been relieved from his cavalry command, and was on
his way to General Reynolds to take command of a brigade of infantry.
General Crook, hitherto in command of a brigade, succeeds Turchin as
commander of a division. In short, Crook and Turchin just exchange
places. The former is a graduate of the West Point Military Academy, and
is an Ohio man, who has not, I think, greatly distinguished himself thus
far. He has been in Western Virginia most of the time, and came to
Murfreesboro after the battle of Stone river.
General R. B. Mitchell is, with his command, in camp a little over a
mile from us. He is in good spirits, and dwells with emphasis on the
length and arduousness of the marches made by his troops since he left
Murfreesboro. The labor devolving upon him as the commander of a
division of cavalry is tremendous; and yet I was rejoiced to find his
physical system had stood the strain well. The wear and tear upon his
intellect, however, must have been very great.
AUGUST, 1863.
2. Rode with Colonel Taylor to Cowan; dined with Colonel Hobart, and
spent the day very agreeably. Returning we called on Colonel Scribner,
remained an hour, and reached Decherd after nightfall. My request for
leave of absence was lying on the table approved and recommended by
Negley and Thomas, but indorsed not granted by Rosecrans.
General Rousseau has left, and probably will not return. The best of
feeling has not existed between him and the commanding general for some
time past. Rousseau has had a good division, but probably thought he
should have a corps. This, however, is not the cause of the breach. It
has grown out of small matters--things too trifling to talk over, think
of, or explain, and yet important enough to create a coldness, if not an
open rupture. Rosecrans is marvelously popular with the men.