New Madrid, Point Pleasant and Island No. 10.
About March 1 the movement began down the Mississippi on the Missouri
side of the river to New Madrid, and later to Point Pleasant, where
the 7th went into camp, remaining there about three or four weeks,
doing ordinary camp and picket duties. The camp was located in the
woods, which contained some very large trees. One night a terrible
tornado passed through our camp, uprooting trees and blowing down
nearly all the tents. The trees crashed down among the men and
horses, killing two men and a number of horses belonging to our
regiment. Each company had one row of tents, and when the storm came
on nearly all were asleep. A large tree nearly four feet in diameter
came down with a crash, parallel and within a few feet of our row of
tents, but leaving Co. C uninjured. We congratulated ourselves on our
narrow escape. When our tent went down we jumped up and tried to get
out from under it as quickly as possible. I scrambled out through a
stovepipe hole in the upper part of the tent. I had some difficulty
in passing through this small opening and the boys were obliged to
come to my assistance. They extricated me, and then began laughing at
me, about jumping through the chimney.
The camp was located a short distance back from the river out of
reach of the Confederate batteries on the opposite side. They
occupied several small forts on the east side of the river, and
whenever we attempted to get water from it, or water our horses, they
would open fire on us with their siege guns. On one of these
occasions I saw an oak tree about fifteen inches in diameter which
was cut nearly off by a shot from the large gun. Thereupon we
abandoned the river, and procured water from a frog pond near the
camp. We did not hesitate to use water from the pond because it was
nicely covered over with a green scum.
Gen. Pope was in command of the land forces in this vicinity, and by
this time had concentrated quite an army. One night during the stay
at this place, one of the United States ironclads named Carondelet
ran the gauntlet past Island No. 10 and came down the river to Point
Pleasant without sustaining injury by the Confederate fire. The
following day it captured the small forts located on the east bank of
the river. I witnessed the whole affair, which did not continue a
very long time. A few days after this the Confederate forces on
Island No. 10 and vicinity surrendered to Gen. Pope.
General Pope, as I saw him, appeared to me like another one of those
sound minded, honest, patriotic and well informed soldiers. He loved
his country and his flag, and as he appeared to me and what I learned
about him caused me to believe that he understood his business and
attended to it. Gen. Pope, according to what I learned about him,
possessed the right conception of the American volunteer soldier. He
once said, “It is true and must in the nature of things always be
true, that in a free country and among a free people the real heroes
of every war are found in the ranks: men who have taken up arms with
the sole purpose to serve their country, and with intelligent
knowledge of the object for which they dare the perils of battle and
disease.”
I had nearly forgotten to tell how well we were entertained a portion
of the time while camping in the vicinity of Island No. 10.
[Illustration: Bombardment of Island No. 10.]
[Illustration: Old Abe.]
There were in the river six large United States mortars and a number
of ironclad gunboats. The mortars were of very large caliber, capable
of throwing a shell as large as an ordinary water bucket, in diameter
I think twelve inches or more. The mortars were mounted on small
flatboats, one on each boat. During a period of about three weeks,
every half hour during night time as well as day, one of those large
shells from a mortar was sent over to Island No. 10, and exploded
with terrific force. Whenever one of those mortars was discharged it
would fairly shake the earth about us. During a few nights in the
beginning of the siege the noise made by those guns disturbed my
sleep, but I soon became accustomed to it. The gunboats also annoyed
the Confederates on the island, by throwing solid shot at them. While
we were in the vicinity of Island No. 10 and New Madrid, we
occasionally met the 8th Wisconsin Regiment, which carried by the
side of its regimental flag the famous war eagle (Old Abe), whose
photograph appears above. I well remember seeing this proud-appearing
bird a number of times, while it was being carried, sitting upon its
perch, beside Old Glory. It appeared to me about as large as a
fair-sized turkey, and it served through a three years’ campaign,
returning to its native State in safety, after passing through many
battles. When Gen. Pope’s command had finished its work in the
vicinity of Island No. 10 it went by steamers to Hamburg Landing,
Tenn., near the battlefield of Shiloh.
[Illustration: Map of Island No. 10, and Vicinity.]