DRAWING NEAR THE ENEMY--BATTLE OF SOUTH MOUNTAIN--PRELIMINARY SKIRMISHES
Sunday, September 15, we broke camp at daylight and marched out on the
Hagerstown "pike." Our division had the field this day. We crossed the
ridge in rear of Frederick City and thence down into and up a most
beautiful valley. We made only about seven miles, though we actually
marched over twelve. We were in the presence of the enemy and were
manoeuvred so as to keep concealed. We heard heavy cannonading all
day, and part of the time could see our batteries, towards which we were
marching.
Towards night we heard the first musketry firing. It proved to be the
closing of the short but sanguinary battle of South Mountain. General
Reno, commanding the Ninth Corps, whose glistening bayonets we had seen
across the valley ahead of us, had overtaken the rebel rear guard in
South Mountain pass and a severe action had ensued. General Reno himself
was killed. His body was brought back next morning in an ambulance on
its way to Washington. We reached the battle-ground about midnight,
whither we had been hurried as supports. The batteries on both sides
were still at work, but musketry firing had ceased. It had been a
beautiful though very warm day, and the night was brilliantly
moonlight, one of those exceptionally bright nights which almost
equalled daylight. And this had been Sunday--the Lord's day! How
dreadful the work for the Lord's day!
Here I saw the first dead soldier. Two of our artillerymen had been
killed while serving their gun. Both were terribly mangled. They had
been laid aside, while others stepped into their places. There they
still lay, horrible evidence of the "hell of war." Subsequently I saw
thousands of the killed on both sides, which made scarcely more
impression on me than so many logs, but this first vision of the awful
work of war still remains. Even at this writing, forty years later,
memory reproduces that horrible scene as clearly as on that beautiful
Sabbath evening.
It was past midnight when we bivouacked for the little rest we were to
have before resuming the "chase." Being now in the immediate "presence
of the enemy," we rested on "our arms," that is, every soldier lay down
with his gun at his side, and knapsack and accoutrements ready to be
"slung" immediately on the sounding of the "call." We officers did not
unsaddle our horses, but dismounted and snatched an hour's sleep just as
we were. Bright and early next morning we were on our way again. It was
a most beautiful morning.
We soon passed the field where the musketry did its work the night
before, and there were more than a hundred dead rebels scattered over
the field, as the result of it. Two or three were sitting upright, or
nearly so, against stumps. They had evidently been mortally wounded, and
died while waiting for help. All were dressed in coarse
butternut-colored stuffs, very ugly in appearance, but admirably well
calculated to conceal them from our troops.
We rapidly passed over the mountain (South Mountain) and down into the
village of Boonsborough. There was abundant evidence of the rebel
skedaddle down the mountain ahead of our troops in the way of blankets,
knapsacks, and other impedimenta, evidently dropped or thrown away in
the flight. We passed several squads of rebel prisoners who had been
captured by our cavalry and were being marched to the rear under guard.
They were good-looking boys, apparently scarcely more than boys, and
were poorly dressed and poorly supplied.
Some freely expressed themselves as glad they had been captured, as they
were sick of the fighting.
My own experiences this day were a taste of "the front," that is, the
excitement attending a momentarily expected "brush" with the enemy. Part
of the time my heart was in my mouth, and my hair seemed to stand
straight up. One can have little idea of this feeling until it has been
experienced. Any effort to describe it will be inadequate. Personal
fear? Yes, that unquestionably is at the bottom of it, and I take no
stock in the man who says he has no fear. We had been without food until
late in the afternoon for reasons heretofore explained. Towards night
one of my friends in Company K gave me a cup of coffee and a "hardtack."
Just before reaching Boonsborough, a pretty village nestling at the foot
of the South Mountain, our cavalry had a sharp skirmish with the rebel
rear-guard, in which Captain Kelley, of the Illinois cavalry, was
killed, I was told. At Boonsborough we found the field hospitals with
the rebel wounded from the fight of the day previous. Their wounded men
said their loss was over four hundred killed, among them two
brigadiers-general, one colonel, and several officers of lesser rank. A
rebel flag of truce came into our lines here to get the bodies of these
dead officers and to arrange for burying their dead and caring for their
wounded. The houses of Boonsborough had been mostly vacated by the
people on the approach of the rebel army and the fighting, and the
latter had promptly occupied as many of them as they needed for their
wounded. Imagine these poor villagers returning from their flight to
find their homes literally packed with wounded rebel soldiers and their
attendants. Whatever humble food supplies they may have had, all had
been appropriated, for war spares nothing. Some of the frightened people
of the village were returning as we passed through, and were sadly
lamenting the destruction of almost everything that could be destroyed
on and about their homes by this besom of destruction,--war. Food,
stock, fences, bed and bedding, etc., all gone or destroyed. Some of the
houses had been perforated by the shells,--probably our own shells,
aimed at the enemy. One man told me a shell had entered his house and
landed on the bed in the front room, but had not exploded. Had it
exploded, he would have had a bigger story to tell.
The rebels, we learned, had been gone but a few hours, and we were kept
in pursuit. We marched out the Shepherdstown road a few miles, reaching
and passing through another village--Keedysville. We were continuously
approaching heavy cannonading. Indeed, we had been marching for the
past three days within hearing of, and drawing closer to, the artillery
barking of the two armies. Old vets said this meant a big fight within
the next few hours. If so, I thought I shall better know how to diagnose
similar symptoms in the future.
A mile beyond Keedysville we bivouacked for the night, after a hard,
hot, and exciting day's chase. Lieutenant-Colonel Wilcox came into camp
with a great trophy, nothing less than a good old-fashioned fat loaf of
home-made bread. He was immediately voted a niche in the future hall of
fame, for two acts of extraordinary merit, namely, first, finding and
capturing the bread, and, second, bringing it into camp intact, the
latter act being considered supremely self-sacrificing. It was
magnanimously divided by him, and made a supper for three of us. Our
mid-day meal had been made up of dust and excitement.
All sorts of rumors were afloat as to the movements of the enemy, as
well as of our own army. It was said Jackson was across the Potomac with
a large force; that Hooker was engaging him, and that we were likely to
bag the balance of Lee's army soon. One thing I learned, namely, that I
could be sure only of what I saw, and that was very little, indeed, of
the doings of either army. The soldier who professes to know all about
army movements because he "was there," may be set down either as a
bummer, who spent most of his time up trees, safely ensconced where he
could see, or as a fake.
[Illustration: COLONEL VINCENT M. WILCOX]
My diary records a night of good rest September 16, 1862, in this camp
on the Shepherdstown road. The morning was clear, beautiful, and cheery.
This entry will look somewhat remarkable in view of that which
follows, namely, "No breakfast in sight or in prospect." Later one of
our men gave me half his cup of coffee and a couple of small sweet
potatoes, which I roasted and ate without seasoning.
The "ball" opened soon after daylight by a rebel battery, about
three-quarters of a mile away, attempting to shell our lines. Our
division was massed under the shelter of a hill. One of our batteries of
12-pounder brass guns promptly replied, and a beautiful artillery duel
ensued, the first I had ever witnessed at close quarters. Many of us
crept up to the brow of the hill to see the "fun," though we were warned
that we were courting trouble in so doing. We could see columns of rebel
infantry marching in ranks of four, just as we marched, en route, and as
shell after shell from our guns would explode among them and scatter and
kill we would cheer. We were enjoying ourselves hugely until presently
some additional puffs of smoke appeared from their side, followed
immediately by a series of very ugly hissing, whizzing sounds, and the
dropping of shells amongst our troops which changed the whole aspect of
things. Our merriment and cheering were replaced by a scurrying to
cover, with blanched faces on some and an ominous, thoughtful quiet over
all.
This was really our first baptism of fire, for though at South Mountain
we had been in range and were credited with being in the fight as
supports, none of the shells had actually visited us. Several of these
came altogether too close for comfort. Colonel Oakford,
Lieutenant-Colonel Wilcox, and I were sitting on our horses as close
together as horses ordinarily stand, when one of these ugly missiles
dropped down between us. It came with a shrieking, screeching sound,
like the pitch of an electric car with the added noise of a dozen
sky-rockets. It did not explode. It created considerable consternation
and no little stir with horses and men, but did no damage further than
the scare and a good showering of gravel and dust. Another struck
between the ranks of our brigade as they were resting under the hill
with guns stacked,--only a few feet away from us. It also, happily,
failed to explode, but we were sure some one must have been killed by
it. It did not seem possible that such a missile could drop down upon a
division of troops in mass without hitting somebody; but, strange as it
may seem, it did no damage beyond knocking down a row of gun-stacks and
tumbling topsy-turvy several men, who were badly bruised, but otherwise
uninjured. The way the concussion tossed the men about was terrific. Had
these shells exploded, some other body would probably have had to write
up this narrative.
Another shell incident occurred during this artillery duel that looked
very funny, though it was anything but funny to the poor fellow who
suffered. He, with others, had been up near our battery, on the knoll
just above us, witnessing the firing, when one of these rebel shells
came ricochetting along the ground towards him as he evidently thought,
for he started to run down the hill thinking to get away from it, but in
fact running exactly in front of the shell, which carried away one heel.
He continued down the hill at greatly accelerated speed, but now hopping
on one foot. Had he remained where he was the missile would have passed
him harmlessly. Except when nearly spent, shells are not seen until they
have passed, but the screeching, whizzing, hissing noise is sufficient
to make one believe they are hunting him personally. Veteran troops get
to discount the terrors of these noises in a measure, and pay little
attention to them, on the theory that if one is going to be hit by them
he will be anyway, and no amount of dodging will save him, so they go
right on and "take their chances." But with new troops the effect of a
shell shrieking over or past them is often very ludicrous. An
involuntary salaam follows the first sound, with a wild craning of the
necks to see where it went. Upon marching troops, the effect is like
that of a puff of wind chasing a wave across a field of grain.
Returning to our artillery duel, so far as we could judge, our battery
had the best of the practice, but not without paying the price, for the
second rebel shell killed the major (chief of artillery of our
division), who sat on his horse directing the fire, and besides there
were a number of casualties among the battery men. I had seen many a
battery practice on parade occasions with blank cartridges. How utterly
different was the thing in war. Infinitely more savage, the noise
deafeningly multiplied, each gun, regardless of the others, doing its
awful worst to spit out and hurl as from the mouth of a hell-born dragon
these missiles of death at the enemy.
The duel continued for upwards of two hours, until the enemy's battery
hauled off, having apparently had enough. Evidences of the conflict were
sadly abundant. A number were killed, others wounded and several of the
battery horses were killed. The work of the men in this hell of fire
was magnificent. They never flagged for a moment, and at the conclusion
were not in the least disabled, notwithstanding their losses. I think it
was Nimm's battery from Pittsburg. This was the chief incident of the
day. It was said the two armies were manoeuvring for position, and
that a great battle was imminent. This from my diary. It proved to be
true, and that all the skirmishes and "affaires" for the preceding ten
days had been only preliminary to the great battle of Antietam, fought
on the next day, the 17th.
We remained in bivouac here the remainder of the day and night.
Burnside's Ninth Corps passed to "the front" during the afternoon, a
splendid body of veteran troops, whose handsome and popular general was
heartily cheered. He was a large, heavily-built man, and sat his
handsome horse like a prince.