leave. Poor fellow! he must have been taken suddenly, for when I saw
him, a day or two ago, he was the picture of health. It is wonderful to
me how a fellow as fat as Bob can come the sick dodge so successfully.
He can get sick at a moment's notice.
4. Called on General Thomas; then rode over to Winchester. Saw Garfield
at department head-quarters. He said he regretted very much being
compelled to refuse my application for a leave. Told him I expected to
command this department soon, and when I got him and a few others,
including Rosecrans and Thomas, under my thumb, they would obtain no
favors. I should insist not only upon their remaining in camp, but upon
their wives remaining out.
In company with Colonel Mihalotzy I called on Colonel Burke, Tenth Ohio,
and drank a couple of bottles of wine with him and his spiritual
adviser, Father O'Higgin. Had a very agreeable time. The Colonel pressed
us to remain for dinner; but we pleaded an engagement, and afterward
obtained a very poor meal at the hotel for one dollar each.
The Board for the examination of applicants for commissions in colored
regiments, of which I have the honor to be Chairman, met, organized, and
adjourned to convene at nine o'clock to-morrow. Colonel Parkhurst, Ninth
Michigan, and Colonel Stanley, Eighteenth Ohio, are members.
I am anxious to go home; but it is not possible for me to get away.
Almost every officer in the army desires to go, and every conceivable
excuse and argument are urged. This man is sick; another's house has
burned, and he desires to provide for his family; another has lawsuits
coming off involving large sums, and his presence during the trial is
necessary to save him from great loss; still another has deeds to make
out, and an immense property interest to look after.
6. This is the day appointed by the President for thanksgiving and
prayer. The shops in Winchester are closed.
Colonel Parkhurst has obtained a leave, and will go home on Monday.
7. Captain Wilson and Lieutenant Ellsworth arose rather late this
morning, and found a beer barrel protruding from the door of their tent,
properly set up on benches, with a flaming placard over it:
"NEW GROCERY!!
WILSON & ELLSWORTH.
Fresh Beer, 3c. a Glass.
Give us a call."
Later in the day a grand presentation ceremony took place. All the
members of the staff and hangers-on about head-quarters were gathered
under the oaks; Lieutenant Calkins, One Hundred and Fourth Illinois, was
sent for, and, when he appeared, Lieutenant Ellsworth proceeded to read
to him the following letter:
"OTTOWA, ILLINOIS, _July_ 20, 1863.
"LIEUTENANT W. W. CALKINS--_Sir_: Your old friends
of Ottowa, as a slight testimonial of their
respect for you, and admiration for those
chivalrous instincts which, when the banner of
beauty and glory was assailed by traitorous
legions, induced you to spring unhesitatingly to
its defense, have the honor to present you a
beautiful field-glass. Trusting that, by its
assistance, you will be able to see through your
enemies, and ultimately find your way to the arms
of your admiring fellow-citizens, we have the
honor to subscribe ourselves,
"Your most obedient servants,
PETER BROWN,
JOHN SMITH,
THOMAS JONES, and others."
The box containing the gift was carefully opened, and the necks and
upper parts of two whisky bottles, fastened together by a piece of wood,
taken out and delivered in due form to the Lieutenant. He seemed greatly
surprised, and for a few minutes addressed the donors in a very emphatic
and uncomplimentary way; but finding this only added to the merriment of
the party, he finally cooled down, and, lifting the field-glass to his
eyes, leveled it upon the staff, and remarked that they appeared to be
thirsty. This, of course, was hailed as undeniable evidence that the
glass was perfect, and Lieutenant Calkins was heartily congratulated on
his good luck, and on the proof which the testimonial afforded of the
high estimation in which he was held by the people of his native town.
Many of his brother officers, in their friendly ardor, shook him warmly
by the hand.
8. Hewitt's battery has been transferred to the Corps of Engineers and
Mechanics, and Bridges' battery, six guns, assigned to me. I gain two
guns and many men by the exchange.
Our Board grinds away eight or nine hours a day, and turns out about the
usual proportion of wheat and chaff. The time was when we thought it
would be impossible to obtain good officers for colored regiments. Now
we feel assured that they will have as good, if not better, officers
than the white regiments. From sergeants applying for commissions we are
able to select splendid men; strong, healthy, well informed, and of
considerable military experience. In fact, we occasionally find a
non-commissioned officer who is better qualified to command a regiment
than nine-tenths of the colonels. I certainly know colonels who could
not obtain a recommendation from this Board for a second lieutenancy.
Saw General Garfield yesterday; he was in bed sick. I have no fears of
his immediate dissolution; in fact, I think he could avail himself of a
twenty-day leave. I know if I were no worse than he appears to be, I
would, with the permission of the general commanding, undertake to ride
the whole distance home on horseback, and swim the rivers. In a little
over a week I think my wife would see me, and the black horse, followed
by the pepper-and-salt colt, charging up to the front door in such style
as would remind her of the days of chivalry and the knights of the olden
time. I should cry out in thunder tones, "Ho! within! Unbar the door!"
The colt would kick up his heels with joy at sight of the grass in the
yard, while the black would champ his bit with impatience to get into a
comfortable stall once more. Altogether the sight would be worth
seeing; but it will not be seen.
The Board holds its sessions in the office of an honorable Mr. Turney,
who left on our approach for a more congenial clime, and left suddenly.
His letters and papers are lying around us in great confusion and
profusion. Among these we have discovered a document bearing the
signatures of Jeff. Davis, John Mason, Pierre Soule, and others,
pledging themselves to resist, by any and every means, the admission of
California, unless it came in with certain boundaries which they
prescribed. The document was gotten up in Washington, and Colonel
Parkhurst says it is the original contract.
Dined with Colonel D. H. Gilmer, Thirty-eighth Illinois. Dinner
splendid; corn, cabbage, beans; peach, apple, and blackberry pie; with
buttermilk and sweetmilk. It was a grand dinner, served on a snow-white
table-cloth. Where the Colonel obtained all these delicacies I can not
imagine. He is an out-and-out Abolitionist, and possibly the negroes had
favored him somewhat.
Colonel Gilmer is delighted to find the country coming around to his
ideas. He believes the Lord, who superintends the affairs of nations,
will give us peace in good time, and _that time_ will be when the
institution of slavery has been rooted up and destroyed. He is a
Kentuckian by birth, and says he has kinfolks every-where. He is the
only man he knows of who can find a cousin in every town he goes to.
9. Dined with Colonel Taylor. Colonels Hobart, Nicholas, and Major
Craddock were present. After dinner we adjourned to my quarters, where
we spent the afternoon. Hobart dilated upon his adventures at New
Orleans and elsewhere, under Abou Ben Butler. He says Butler is a great
man, but a d--d scoundrel. I have heard Hobart say something like this
at least a thousand times, and am pleased to know that his testimony on
this point is always clear, decisive, and uncontradictory.
My visitors are gone. The cars are bunting against each other at the
depot. The katydids are piping away on the old, old story. The trees
look like great shadows, and unlike the substantial oaks they really
are. The camps are dark and quiet. This is all I can say of the night
without.
In a little booth made of cedar boughs is a table, on which sputters a
solitary tallow candle, in a stick not remarkable for polish. This light
illuminates the booth, and reveals to the observer--if there be one,
which is very unlikely, for those who usually observe have in all
probability retired--a wash basin, a newspaper, a penknife, which
originally had two blades, but at present has but one, and that one very
dull, a gentleman of say thirty, possibly thirty-five, two steel pens,
rusty with age, an inkstand, and one miller, which miller has repeatedly
dashed his head against the wick of the candle and discovered that the
operation led to unsatisfactory results. Wearied, disappointed, and
disheartened, the miller now sits quietly on the table, mourning,
doubtless, over the unpleasant lesson which experience has taught him.
His head is now wiser; but, alas! his wings are shorter than they were,
and of what use is his head without wings? He feels very like the man
who made a dash for fame, and fell wounded and bleeding on the field, or
the child who, for the first time, discovers that all is not gold that
glitters. The gentleman referred to--and I trust it may be no stretch of
the verities to call him a gentleman--leans over the table writing. He
has an abundant crop of dark hair on his head, under his chin, and on
his upper lip. He is not just now troubled with a superabundance of
flesh, or, in other words, no one would suspect him of being fat. On the
contrary, he might remind one of the lean kine, or the prodigal son who
had been feeding on husks. He is wide awake at this late hour of the
night, from which I conclude he has slept more or less during the day.
No one, to look at this gentleman, would take him to be a remarkable
man; in fact, his most intimate friends could not find it in their
hearts to bring such an accusation against him. His face is browned by
exposure, and his blue eyes look quite dark, or would do so if there
were sufficient light to see them. When he straightens up--and he
generally straightens when up at all--he is five feet eleven, or
thereabouts. His appetite is good, and his education is of that superior
kind which enables him, without apparent effort, to misspell
three-fourths of the words in the English language; in fact, at this
present moment he is holding an imaginary discussion with his wife, who
has written him that the underclothing for gentlemen's feet should be
spelled _s-o-c-k-s_, and not "s-o-x". He begs leave to differ with her,
which he would probably not dare to do were she not hundreds of miles
away; and he argues the matter in this way: S-o-x, o-x, f-o-x--the
termination sounds alike in all. Now how absurd it would be to insist
that ox should be spelled o-c-k-s, or fox f-o-c-k-s. The commonest kind
of sense teaches one that the old lady is in error, and "sox" clearly
correct. Much learning hath evidently made her mad. Having satisfied
himself about this matter, he takes a photograph from an inside pocket;
it is that of his wife. He makes another dive, and brings out one of his
children; then he lights a laurel-wood pipe, and, as the white smoke
curls about his head and vanishes, his thoughts skip off five hundred
miles or less, to a community of sensible, industrious, quiet folks, and
when he finally awakes from the reverie and looks about him upon the
beggarly surroundings--he does not swear, for he bethinks him in time
that swearing would do no good.
10. Colonel Hobart, Twenty-first Wisconsin, and Colonel Hays, Tenth
Kentucky, have been added to the Board--the former at my request.
11. To-day I dined with a Wisconsin friend of Colonel Hobart's; had a
good dinner, Scotch ale and champagne, and a very agreeable time.
Colonel Hegg, the dispenser of hospitalities, is a Norwegian by birth, a
Republican, a gentleman who has held important public positions in
Wisconsin, and who stands well with the people. In the course of the
table talk I learned something of the history of my friend Hobart. He
is an old wheel-horse of the Democratic party of his State; was a
candidate for governor a few years ago, and held joint debates with
Randall and Carl Schurz. He is the father of the Homestead Law, which
has been adopted by so many States, and was for many years the leader of
the House of Representatives of Wisconsin. All this I gathered from
Colonel Hegg, for Hobart seldom, if ever, talks about himself. I imagine
that even the most polished orator would obtain but little, if any,
advantage over Hobart in a discussion before the people. He has the
imagination, the information, and the oratorical fury in discussion
which are likely to captivate the masses. He was at one time opposed to
arming the negroes; but now that he is satisfied they will fight, he is
in favor of using them.
To-night Colonels Hays and Hobart held quite an interesting debate on
the policy of arming colored men, and emancipating those belonging to
rebels. Hays, who, by the way, is an honest man and a gallant soldier,
presented the Kentucky view of the matter, and his arguments, evidently
very weak, were thoroughly demolished by Hobart. I think Colonel Hays
felt, as the controversy progressed, that his position was untenable,
and that his hostility to the President's proclamation sprang from the
prejudice in which he had been educated, rather than from reason and
justice.
12. Old Tom, known in camp as the veracious nigger, because of a
"turkle" story which he tells, is just coming along as I wait a moment
for the breakfast bell. The "turkle," which Tom caught in some creek in
Alabama, had two hundred and fifty eggs in "him." "Yas, sah, two hunder
an' fifty."
Tom has peculiar notions about certain matters, and they are not, by any
means, complimentary to the white man. He says: "It jus' 'pears to me
dat Adam was a black man, sah, an' de Lord he scar him till he got
white, cos he was a sinner, sah."
"Tom, you scoundrel, how dare you slander the white man in that way?"
"'Pears to me dat way; hab to tell de truf, sah; dat's my min'. Men was
'riginally black; but de Lord he scare Adam till he got white; dat's de
reasonable supposition, sah. Do a man's har git black when he scared,
sah? No, sah, it gits white. Did you ebber know a man ter get black when
he's scard, sah? No, sah, he gits white."
"That does seem to be a knock-down argument, Tom."
"Yas, sah, I've argied with mor'n a hunder white men, sah, an' they
can't never git aroun dat pint. When yer strip dis subjec ob prejdice,
an' fetch to bar on it de light o' reason, sah, yer can 'rive at but one
'clusion, sah. De Lord he rode into de garden in chariot of fire, sah,
robed wid de lightnin', sah, thunder bolt in his han', an' he cried
ADAM, in de voice of a airthquake, sah, an' de 'fec on Adam was
powerful, sah. Dat's my min', sah." And so Tom goes on his way,
confident that the first man was black, and that another white man has
been vanquished in argument.
13. The weather continues oppressively hot. The names of candidates for
admission to the corps _d'Afrique_ continue to pour in. The number has
swelled to eight hundred. We begin our labors at nine, adjourn a few
minutes for lunch, and then continue our work until nearly six.
16. We move at ten o'clock A. M. Had a heavy rain yesterday and a
fearful wind. The morning, however, is clear, and atmosphere delightful.
Our Board has examined one hundred and twenty men. Perhaps forty have
been recommended for commissions.
The present movement will, doubtless, be a very interesting one. A few
days will take us to the Tennessee, and thereafter we shall operate on
new ground. Georgia will be within a few miles of us, the long-suffering
and long-coveted East Tennessee on our left, Central Alabama to our
front and right. A great struggle will undoubtedly soon take place, for
it is not possible that the rebels will give us a foothold south of the
Tennessee until compelled to do it.
21. We are encamped on the banks of Crow creek, three miles northerly
from Stevenson. The table on which I write is under the great beech
trees. Colonel Hobart is sitting near studying Casey. The light of the
new moon is entirely excluded by foliage. On the right and left the
valley is bounded by ranges of mountains eight hundred or a thousand
feet high. Crow creek is within a few feet of me; in fact, the sand
under my feet was deposited by its waters. The army extends along the
Tennessee, from opposite Chattanooga to Bellefonte. Before us, and just
beyond the river, rises a green-mountain wall, whose summit, apparently
as uniform as a garden hedge, seems to mingle with the clouds. Beyond
this are the legions of the enemy, whose signal lights we see nightly.
22. Our Board has resumed its sessions at the Alabama House, Stevenson.
The weather is intensely hot. Father Stanley stripped off his coat and
groaned. Hobart's face was red as the rising sun, and the anxious
candidates for commissions did not certainly resemble cucumbers for
coolness.
Hobart rides a very poor horse--poor in flesh, I mean; but he entertains
the most exalted opinion of the beast. This morning, as we rode from
camp, I thought I would please him by referring to his horse in a
complimentary way. Said I: "Colonel, your horse holds his own mighty
well." His face brightened, and I continued: "He hasn't lost a bone
since I have known him." This nettled him, and he began to badger me
about an unsuccessful attempt which I made some time ago to get him to
taste a green persimmon. Hobart has a good education, is fluent in
conversation, and in discussion gets the better of me without
difficulty. All I can do, therefore, is to watch my opportunity to give
him an occasional thrust as best I can. Father Stanley is slow,
destitute of either education or wit, and examines applicants like a
demagogue fishes for votes.
Brigadier-General Jeff. C. Davis and Colonel Hegg called to-day. Davis
is, I think, not quite so tall as I am, but a shade heavier. Met
Captain Gaunther. He has been relieved from duty here, and ordered to
Washington. He is an excellent officer, and deserves a higher position
than he holds at present. I thought, from the very affectionate manner
with which he clung to my hand and squeezed it, that possibly, in taking
leave of his friends, he had burdened himself with that "oat" which is
said to be one too many. Hobart says that Scribner calls him Hobart up
to two glasses, and further on in his cups ycleps him Hogan.
Wood had a bout with the enemy at Chattanooga yesterday; he on the north
side and they on the south side of the river. Johnson is said to have
reinforced Bragg, and the enemy is supposed to be strong in our front.
Rosecrans was at Bridgeport yesterday looking over the ground, when a
sharpshooter blazed away at him, and put a bullet in a tree near which
the General and his son were standing.
24. Deserters are coming in almost every day. They report that secret
societies exist in the rebel army whose object is the promotion of
desertion. Eleven men from one company arrived yesterday. Not many days
ago a Confederate officer swam the river and gave himself up. For some
time past the pickets of the two armies have not been firing at each
other; but yesterday the rebels gave notice that they should commence
again, as the "Yanks were becoming too d--n thick."
26. To-day we were examining a German who desired to be recommended for
a field officer. "How do you form an oblique square, sir?" "Black
square? Black square?" exclaimed the Dutchman; "I dush not know vot you
means by de black square."
As I write the moon shines down upon me through an opening in the
branches of the beech forest in which we are encamped, and the objects
about me, half seen and half hidden, in some way suggest the
half-remembered and half-forgotten incidents of childhood.
How often, when a boy, have I dreamed of scenes similar to those through
which I have passed in the last two years! Knightly warriors, great
armies on the march and in camp, the skirmish, the tumult and thunder of
battle, were then things of the imagination; but now they have become
familiar items of daily life. Then a single tap of the drum or note of
the bugle awakened thoughts of the old times of chivalry, and regrets
that the days of glory had passed away. Now we have martial strains
almost every hour, and are reminded only of the various duties of our
every-day life.
As we went to Stevenson this morning, Hobart caught a glimpse of a
colored man coming toward us. It suggested to him a hobby which he rides
now every day, and he commenced his oration by saying, in his
declamatory way: "The negro is the coming man." "Yes," I interrupted,
"so I see, and he appears to have his hat full of peaches;" and so the
coming man had.
28. Rode to the river with Hobart and Stanley. The rebel pickets were
lying about in plain view on the other side. Just before our arrival
quite a number of them had been bathing. The outposts of the two armies
appear still to be on friendly terms. "Yesterday," a soldier said to me,
"one of our boys crossed the river, talked with the rebs for some time,
and returned."
29. The band is playing "Yankee Doodle," and the boys break into an
occasional cheer by way of indorsement. There is something defiant in
the air of "Doodle" as he blows away on the soil of the cavaliers, which
strikes a noisy chord in the breast of Uncle Sam's nephews, and the
demonstrations which follow are equivalent to "Let 'er rip," "Go in old
boy."
Colonel Hobart's emphatic expression is "egad." He told me to-day of a
favorite horse at home, which would follow him from place to place as he
worked in the garden, keeping his nose as near to him as possible. His
wife remarked to him one day: "Egad, husband, if you loved me as well as
you do that horse, I should be perfectly happy."
"Are you quite sure Mrs. Hobart said 'egad,' Colonel?"
"Well, no, I wouldn't like to swear to that."
This afternoon Colonels Stanley, Hobart, and I rode down to the
Tennessee to look at the pontoon bridge which has been thrown across the
river. On the way we met Generals Rosecrans, McCook, Negley, and
Garfield. The former checked up, shook hands, and said: "How d'ye do?"
Garfield gave us a grip which suggested "vote right, vote early."
Negley smiled affably, and the cavalcade moved on. We crossed the
Tennessee on the bridge of boats, and rode a few miles into the country
beyond. Not a gun was fired as the bridge was being laid. Davis'
division is on the south side of the river.
The Tennessee at this place is beautiful. The bridge looks like a ribbon
stretched across it. The island below, the heavily-wooded banks, the
bluffs and mountain, present a scene which would delight the soul of the
artist. A hundred boys were frollicking in the water near the pontoons,
tumbling into the stream in all sorts of ways, kicking up their heels,
ducking and splashing each other, and having a glorious time generally.
30. (Sunday.) The brigade moved into Stevenson.
31. It crossed the Tennessee.
In one of the classes for examination to-day was a sergeant, fifty years
old at least, but still sprightly and active; not very well posted in
the infantry tactics now in use, but of more than ordinary intelligence.
The class had not impressed the Board favorably. This Sergeant we
thought rather too old, and the others entirely too ignorant. When the
class was told to retire, this old Sergeant, who, by the way, belongs to
a Michigan regiment, came up to me and asked: "Was John Beatty, of
Sandusky, a relative of yours?" "He was my grandfather." "Yes, you
resemble your mother. You are the son of James Beatty. I have carried
you in my arms many a time. My mother saved your life more than once.
Thirty years ago your father and mine were neighbors. I recollect the
cabin where you were born as well as if I had seen it but yesterday." "I
am heartily glad to see you, my old friend," said I, taking his hand.
"You must stay with me to-night, and we will talk over the old times
together."