_The March to the River--Our Citizen Soldiery--Popularity of Commanders
how Lost and how Won--The Rebel Dead--How the Rebels repay Courtesy._
An early call to arms was sounded upon the succeeding morning, and the
Division rapidly formed. The batteries that had been posted at
commanding points upon the series of ridges during the previous day and
night were withdrawn, and the whole Corps moved along a narrow road,
that wound beautifully among the ridges.
The Volunteer Regiments were unusually quiet; the thoughts of the night
previous evidently lingered with them. The American Volunteer is no mere
machine. Rigorous discipline will give him soldierly
characteristics--teach him that unity of action with his comrades and
implicit obedience of orders are essential to success. But his
independence of thought remains; he never forgets that he is a citizen
soldier; he reads and reflects for himself. Few observant officers of
volunteers but have noticed that affairs of national polity, movements
of military commanders, are not unfrequently discussed by men in
blouses, about camp fires and picket stations, with as much practical
ability and certainly quite as courteously, as in halls where
legislators canvass them at a nation's cost. It has been justly
remarked that in no army in the world is the average standard of
intelligence so high, as in the American volunteer force. The same
observation might be extended to earnestness of purpose and honesty of
intention. The doctrine has long since been exploded that scoundrels
make the best soldiers. Men of no character under discipline will fight,
but they fight mechanically. The determination so necessary to success
is wanting. European serfs trained with the precision of puppets, and
like puppets unthinking, are wanting in the dash that characterizes our
volunteers. That creature of impulse the Frenchman, under all that is
left of the first Napoleon, the shadow of a mighty name, will charge
with desperation, but fails in the cool and quiet courage so essential
in seeming forlorn resistance. In what other nation can you combine the
elements of the American volunteer? It may be said that the British
Volunteer Rifle Corps would prove a force of similar character. In many
respects undoubtedly they would; as yet there is no basis of comparison.
Their soldierly attainments have not been tested by the realities of
war.
There was ample food for reflection. On the neighboring hills heavy
details of soldiers were gathering the rebel dead in piles preparatory
to committing them to the trenches, at which details equally heavy,
vigorously plied the pick and spade. Our own dead, with few exceptions,
had already been buried; and the long rows of graves marked by head and
foot boards, placed by the kind hands of comrades, attested but too
sadly how heavily we had peopled the ridges.
While the troops were _en route_, the Commander-in-Chief in his hack and
four, followed by a staff imposing in numbers, passed. The Regulars
cheered vociferously. The applause from the Volunteers was brief,
faint, and a most uncertain sound, and yet many of these same Volunteer
Regiments were rapturous in applause, previous to and during the battle.
Attachment to Commanders so customary among old troops--so desirable in
strengthening the morale of the army--cannot blind the intelligent
soldier to a grave mistake--a mistake that makes individual effort
contemptible. True, a great European Commander has said that soldiers
will become attached to any General; a remark true of the times
perhaps--true of the troops of that day,--but far from being true of
volunteers, who are in the field from what they consider the necessity
of the country, and whose souls are bent upon a speedy, honorable, and
victorious termination of the war.
A glance at the manner in which our Volunteer Regiments are most
frequently formed, will, perhaps, best illustrate this. A town meeting
is called, speeches made appealing to the patriotic, to respond to the
necessities of the country; lists opened and the names of mechanics,
young attorneys, clerks, merchants, farmers' sons, dry-goods-men and
their clerks, and others of different pursuits, follow each other in
strange succession, but with like earnestness of purpose. An intelligent
soldiery gathered in this way, will not let attachments to men blind
them as to the effects of measures.
About 10 A. M., our brigade was drawn up in line of battle on a ridge
overlooking the well riddled little town of Sharpsburg. Arms were
stacked, and privilege given many officers and men to examine the
adjacent ground. A cornfield upon our right, along which upon the north
side ran a narrow farm road, that long use had sunk to a level of two
and in most places three feet, below the surface of the fields, had been
contested with unusual fierceness. Blue and grey lay literally with
arms entwined as they fell in hand to hand contest. The fence rails had
been piled upon the north side of the road, and in the rifle pit formed
to their hand with this additional bulwark, they poured the most galling
of fires with comparative impunity upon our troops advancing to the
charge. A Union battery, however, came to the rescue, and an enfilading
fire of but a few moments made havoc unparalleled. Along the whole line
of rebel occupation, their bodies could have been walked upon, so
closely did they lie. Pale-faced, finely featured boys of sixteen, their
delicate hands showing no signs of toil, hurried by a misguided
enthusiasm from fond friends and luxurious family firesides, contrasted
strangely with the long black hair, lank looks of the Louisiana Tiger,
or the rough, bloated, and bearded face of the Backwoodsman of Texas. A
Brigadier, who looked like an honest, substantial planter, lay half over
the rails, upon which he had doubtless stood encouraging his men, while
lying half upon his body were two beardless boys, members of his staff,
and not unlikely of his family. Perhaps all the male members of that
family had been hurried at once from life by that single shell. The
sight was sickening. Who, if privileged, would be willing to fix a limit
to God's retributive justice upon the heads of the infamous, and in many
instances cowardly originators of this Rebellion!
Cavalry scouting parties brought back the word that the country to the
river was clear of the rebels, and in accordance with what seemed to be
the prevailing policy of the master-mind of the campaign, immediate
orders to move were then issued. The troops marched through that village
of hospitals,--Sharpsburg--and halted within a mile and a half of the
river, in the rear of a brick dwelling, which was then taken and
subsequently used as the Head-Quarters of Major-General Fitz John
Porter. A line of battle was again formed, arms stacked, and an order
issued that the ground would be occupied during the night.
In the morning the march was again resumed by a road which wound around
the horseshoe-shaped bend in the river. When approaching the river,
firing was heard, apparently as if from the other side, and a short
distance further details were observed carrying wounded men and ranging
them comfortably around the many hay and straw stacks of the
neighborhood. Inquiry revealed that a reconnoitring party, misled by the
apparent quiet of the other side, had crossed, fallen into an ambuscade,
and under the most galling of fires, artillery and musketry, kept up
most unmercifully by the advancing rebels, who thus ungraciously repaid
the courtesy shown them the day after Antietam--had been compelled to
recross that most difficult ford. Our loss was frightful--one new and
most promising regiment was almost entirely destroyed.
The men thought of the dead earnestness of the rebels, and as they moved
forward around the winding Potomac--deep, full of shelving, sunken
rocks, from the dam a short distance above the ford, that formerly fed
the mill owned by a once favorably known Congressman, A. R. Boteler, to
where it was touched by our line--they reviewed with redoubled force,
the helplessness of the rebels a few days previously, and to say the
least, the carelessness of the leader of the Union army.
The regimental camp was selected in a fine little valley that narrowed
into a gap between the bluffs, bordering upon the canal, sheltered by
wood, and having every convenience of water. The rebels had used it but
a few days previously, and the necessity was immediate for heavy details
for police duty. And here we passed quite unexpectedly six weeks of days
more pleasant to the men than profitable to the country, and of which
something may be said in our two succeeding chapters.