_The Buglers' Drill--Getting Used to the Calls--No Ear for Music--A
Visitor from Home--A Basket full of Goodies--Taking Tintypes--A Special
Artist at the Battle of Bull Run--Horses for the Troopers--Reviewed by
a War Governor--Leaving Camp Meigs--A Mother's Prayers--The Emancipation
Proclamation--The War Governors' Address._
[Illustration: 9043]
HOULD there be living to-day a survivor of Sheridan's Cavalry Corps of
the Army of the Potomac who can, without shuddering, recall the buglers'
drill, his probationary period on earth must be rapidly drawing to a
close. I do not mean the regular bugle calls of camp or those sounded on
company or battalion parade. I refer to the babel of bugle blasts kept
up by the recruit “musicians” from the sounding of the first call for
reveille till taps. A majority of the boys enlisted as buglers could not
at first make a noise--not even a little toot--on their instruments, but
when, under the instruction of a veteran bugler, they had mastered the
art of filling their horns and producing sound they made up for lost
time with a vengeance. And what a chorus! Reveille, stable call,
breakfast call, sick call, drill call retreat, tattoo, taps--all the
calls, or what the little fellows could do at them, were sounded at one
time with agonizing effect.
The first sergeant of Company I said to me one day while we were in Camp
Meigs:
“The adjutant wants more buglers, and he spoke of you as being one of
the light weights suitable for the job. You may go and report to the
adjutant.”
“I didn't enlist to be a bugler; I'm a full-fledged soldier.”
“But you're young enough to bugle.”
“I'm twenty-one on the muster-roll. I want to serve in the ranks.”
“Can't help it; you'll have to try your hand.”
I reported to the adjutant as directed, and was sent with a half-dozen
other recruits to be tested by the chief trumpeter. After a trial of
ten minutes the instructor discovered that there was no promise of my
development into a bugler, and he said with considerable emphasis:
“You go back mit you to de adjutant and tell him dot you no got one ear
for de music.”
I was glad to report back to the company, for I preferred to serve as a
private.
The recruits soon became familiar with the sound of the bugle. The first
call in the morning was buglers' call--or first call for reveille. The
notes would be sounding in the barracks when the first sergeant, all the
duty sergeants and the corporals would yell out:
“Turn out for reveille roll-call!”
“Be lively, now--turn out!”
As a result of this shouting by the “non-coms” the boys soon began to
pay no attention to the bugle call, but naturally waited till they heard
the signal to “turn out” given by the sergeants and corporals. And in
a very short time they ceased to hear the bugle when the first call was
sounded.
In active service in the Army of the Potomac so familiar with the calls
did the soldiers become that when cavalry and infantry were bivouacked
together, and the long roll was sounded by the drummers, it would not be
heard by the troopers, and when the cavalry buglers blew their calls
the foot soldiers would sleep undisturbed. In front of Petersburg troops
would sleep soundly within ten feet of a heavy battery that was firing
shot and shell into the enemy's works all night. But let one of the
guards on the line of breastworks behind which they were “dreaming of
home” discharge his musket, and the sleepers would be in line ready for
battle almost in the twinkling of an eye. And let the cavalry trumpeter
make the least noise on his bugle, and the troopers would hear it at
once.
A few weeks before our battalion left Camp Meigs for the front Mrs. E.
L. Waterman of Berlin, mother of Irving Waterman, paid us a visit.
She brought with her a basket full of goodies. Home-made pies, bread,
butter, cheese, cookies and fried cakes were included in the supplies.
She took up her quarters at the picture gallery of Mr. Holmes, the
camp photographer, and we went to see her as often as our duties would
permit. She brought us socks knit by our friends at home, and many
articles for our comfort. About the first thing she said was: “My boys,
what do they give you to eat?”
“Bread and meat and beans and coffee,” we answered.
“No butter?”
“No.”
“I thought not. I had heard the soldiers had to eat their bread without
butter, with nothing but coffee to wash it down, so I brought you a few
pounds of butter.”
And the dear woman remained at the gallery, and Irving and I would
drop over and eat the good things she fixed for us. If we had taken our
commissary stores to the barracks they would have been stolen.
Mrs. Waterman asked Irving and myself to have our pictures taken.
Neither of us had ever been photographed or tintyped, but we took kindly
to the idea. We sat together, and the picture, a tintype, was pronounced
an excellent likeness. What a trying performance it was, though! We
were all braced up with an iron rest back of the head, and told to
“look about there--you can wink, but don't move.” Of course the tintype
presented the subject as one appears when looking into a mirror. The
right hand was the left, and our buttons were on the wrong side in the
picture. But Mrs. Waterman declared the tintype to be “as near like them
as two peas,” and we accepted her verdict. The dear old lady has kept
that picture all these years.
The soldier boys resorted to all sorts of expedients to “beat the
machine.” That is, to so arrange their arms and accoutrements that when
the tintype was taken it would not be upside down or wrong end to.
To this end the saber-belt would be put on wrong side up so that the
scabbard would hang on the right side--that would bring it on the left
side, where it belonged in the picture. I tried that plan one day and
then stood at “parade rest,” with the saber in front of me. I put back
my left foot instead of my right to stand in that position, and when the
picture was presented, I congratulated myself that I had made a big hit.
But when I showed it to an old soldier in the company he humiliated me
by the remark:
“It's all very fine for a recruit, but a soldier wouldn't hold his saber
with his left hand and put his right hand over it at parade rest.”
Sure enough. I had changed my feet to make them appear all right,
but had forgotten the hands. But recruits were not supposed to know
everything on the start.
We had photographs taken as well as tintypes. But the art of photography
has greatly improved since the war. Most of the photographs of that day
that I have seen of late are badly faded, and it is next to impossible
to have a good copy made. Not so with the tintypes. They remain unfaded,
and excellent photographic copies can be secured. In many a home to-day
hang the pictures of the soldier boy, some of them life-sized portraits
copied from the tintypes taken in the days of the war.
I know homes where the gray-haired mothers still cling to the little
tintype picture--the only likeness they have of a darling boy who was
offered as a sacrifice for liberty. How tenderly the picture is handled!
How sacredly the mother has preserved it! The hinges of the frame are
broken--worn out with constant opening. The clasp is gone. The plush
that lined the frame opposite the picture is faded and worn. But the
face of the boy is there. Surviving veterans understand something of the
venerable lady's meaning when she puts the picture to her lips and with
tears in her eyes says:
“Yes, he was only a boy. I couldn't consent to let him go, and I
couldn't say no. I could only pray that he would come back to me--if it
were God's will. He didn't come back. But they said he did his duty.
He died in a noble cause, but it was hard to say 'Thy will be done,' at
first, when the news came that he'd been killed. I'm so thankful I have
his picture--the only one he ever had taken. He was a Christian boy, and
they wrote me that his last words as his comrades stood about him under
a tree where he had been borne, were, that he died in the hope of a
glorious resurrection, and that mother would find him in Heaven to
welcome her when she came. There's comfort in that. And I'll soon be
there. I shall meet my boy again, and there will be no more separation.
No more cruel rebellions.” The early war-time pictures are curiosities
to-day, particularly to veterans who study them. Not a few of the
special artists of the first year of the war seemed to have gained
whatever knowledge of the appearance of troops in battle array that they
had from tintype pictures. I have before me as I write, a battle scene
“sketched by our special artist at the front.” The officers all wear
their swords on the right side, and in the foreground is an officer
mounting his horse from the off side--a feat never attempted in military
experience but once, to my knowledge, and then by a militia officer on
the staff of a Troy general, since the war. In some of these pictorial
papers of the early war-days armies are represented marching into battle
in full-dress uniform and with unbroken step and perfect alignment.
One thing, however, always puzzled me in these pictures--before I
went to war--and that was how the infantry could march with measured
tread--regulation step of twenty-eight inches, and only one hundred
and ten steps per minute--and keep up with the major-generals and other
officers of high rank who appeared in front of their men, and with their
horses on a dead run in the direction of the enemy! These heroic leaders
always rode with their hats in one hand and their swords in the other,
so there was no chance for them to hold in their horses. But the puzzle
ceased to be a puzzle when I reached the front. I found that the special
artists had drawn on their imagination instead of “on the spot,” and
that it was not customary for commanding generals to get in between the
contending lines of battle and slash right and left and cut up as the
artists had represented. In the majority of cases, great battles were
fought by generals on both sides who were in position to watch, so far
as possible, the whole line of battle, and to be ready to direct such
movements and changes as were demanded by the progress of the fight.
To do this they must necessarily be elsewhere than in front of their
armies, riding down the enemy's skirmishers, and leaping their horses
over cannon.
It is possible, however, that the special artists did not fully
understand the danger to which a commanding general would be exposed,
galloping around on his charger between the armies just coming together
in a terrible clash. At any rate, the specials were willing to take
their chances with their heroes--on paper. I have in my possession
a picture of the “Commencement of the Action at Bull Run--Sherman's
Battery Engaging the Enemy's Masked Battery.” In this picture, sketched
by an artist whose later productions were among the best illustrations
of actual warfare, the officers are, very considerately, placed in rear
of the battery. But in front of the line of battle, in advance of the
cannon that are belching forth their deadly fire, stands the special
artist, sketching “on the spot.”
There was a good deal of stir in Camp Meigs the day that horses were
issued to the battalion. The men were new and so were the horses. It did
not take a veteran cavalryman but a day or two to break in a new horse.
But it was different with recruits. The chances were that their steeds
would break them in.
I had had some experience with horses on a farm--riding to cultivate
corn, rake hay and the like--but I had never struggled for the mastery
with a fiery, untamed war-horse. Our steeds were in good condition when
they arrived at the camp, and they did not get exercise enough after
they came to take any of the life out of them. The first time we
practiced on them with curry-comb and brush, the horses kicked us around
the stables _ad libitum_. One recruit had all his front teeth knocked
out. But we became better acquainted with our chargers day by day, and
although we started for Washington a few days after our horses had been
issued, some of us attained to a confidence of our ability to manage the
animals that was remarkable, considering the fact that we were thrown
twice out of three times whenever we attempted to ride.
One day orders came for us to get ready to go to the front. None but
old soldiers can appreciate the feelings of recruits under such
circumstances. All was bustle and confusion. There was a good deal of
the hip, hip, hip, hurrah! on the surface, but there was also a feeling
of dread uncertainty--perhaps that expresses it--in the breasts of many
of the troopers. They would not admit it, though. The average recruit
was as brave as a lion to all outward appearances, and if he did have
palpitation of the heart when orders came to go “On to Richmond”--as any
advance toward the tront was designated--the fact was not given out for
publication.
The first thing in order was a general inspection to satisfy the
officers, whose duty it was to see that regiments sent out from the Old
Bay State were properly armed and equipped, that we were in a condition
to begin active service. After all our belongings were packed on our
saddles in the barracks, before we took them over to the stables
to saddle up, the department commander with his inspecting officers
examined our pack kits. As originally packed, the saddles of a majority
of the troopers were loaded so heavily that it would have required four
men to a saddle to get one of the packs on the horse's back. When the
inspection was completed each trooper could handle his own saddle.
[Illustration: 8053]
The following articles were thrown out of my collection by the
inspectors:--
Two boiled shirts; one pair calfskin shoes; two boxes paper collars; one
vest; one big neck scarf; one bed quilt; one feather pillow; one soft
felt hat; one tin wash basin; one cap--not regulation pattern; one
camp stool--folding; one blacking brush--extra; two cans preserves;
one bottle cologne; one pair slippers; one pair buckskin mittens; three
fancy neckties; one pair saddle-bags--extra; one tin pan; one
bottle hair oil; one looking-glass; one checker-board; one
haversack--extra--filled with home victuals; one peck bag walnuts; one
hammer.
Some of the boys had packed up more extras than I had, and it went
against the grain to part with them. But the inspectors knew
their business--and ours, too, better than we, as we subsequently
discovered--and we were made to understand that we were not going on
a pleasure excursion. It is hardly necessary to say that there was
scarcely an article thrown out by the inspectors that the soldiers
would not have thrown away themselves on their first expedition into the
enemy's country.
After we had been inspected and trimmed down by the officers, we were
reviewed by Governor John A. Andrew. He was attended by his staff, the
department commander and other officers. Each company was drawn up in
line in its barracks--it was sleeting outside. As the governor came into
our quarters, the captain gave the command, “Uncover!” and the company
stood at attention as the chief executive of the Old Bay State walked
slowly down the line, scanning the faces of the men.
I remember that the governor looked at me with a sort of
“Where-did-you-come-from, Bub?” expression, and I began to fear that my
time had come to go home. The governor said to a staff officer:
“Some of the men seem rather young, Colonel!”
“Yes, sir; the cavalry uniform makes a man look younger than he is.”
“I see. They are a fine body of men, and I have no doubt we shall hear
of their doing good service at the front.”
A few words of encouragement were spoken by the governor, and he passed
on to the barracks of the next company.
It strikes me that Governor Andrew reviewed us again as we were marching
from the barracks to the railroad station, but I am not clear on this
point. I know there was a good deal of martial music, waving of flags,
cheering and speech-making by somebody. Our horses claimed our undivided
attention till after we had dismounted and put them aboard the cars.
On the way down to the railroad an attempt was made somewhere near the
barracks to form in line, so that we could be addressed by the governor
or some other dignitary. It was a dismal failure. Our steeds seemed to
be inspired by “Hail to the Chief,” “The Girl I Left Behind Me,” and
other patriotic tunes played by the band, and they pranced around, stood
upon their hind legs and pawed the air with their fore feet, to the
great terror of the recruits and the delight of all the boys in the
neighborhood who had gathered to witness our departure. How the boys
shouted!
“Hi, Johnny, it's better'n a circus!”
“Guess 'tis--they don't fall off in a circus; they just make b'lief.”
“Well, these fellows stick tight for new hands.”
It was fun for the boys--the spectators--but just where the laugh came
in the recruits failed to discover. I was told that the governor--or
somebody--gave us his blessing as we rode by the reviewing officer, but
I have no personal knowledge on the subject.
After we had put our horses on board we waited a few minutes before
entering the cars while the other companies were boarding the train.
There was a chain of sentinels around us, and Mrs. Waterman was outside
the line. She caught sight of us as we stood there, and she advanced
toward us.
[Illustration: 0058]
“Halt--you can't go through here!” commanded one of the sentinels.
“I must go through.”
“But my orders--”
“I don't care; my boys are there, and I'm going to speak to them again.”
She came through and gave us her parting blessing once more.
“Boys, I'll pray God to keep you and bring you both back to your
mothers--God bless you; good-by.” The mother's prayers were answered.
Her son and his tentmate were spared to return at the close of the war.
There was a scramble to secure seats when orders were given to board the
cars. Good-bys were said. Mothers, wives and sweethearts were there, and
with many it was the last farewell. The whistle blew, the bells rang,
the band played, the troops remaining at Camp Meigs cheered and we
cheered back. The train moved away from the station, and we were off for
the front.
I never saw Governor Andrew again, but I recall his appearance as he
reviewed our company in the barracks very distinctly. I observed
that while inspecting officers paid more attention to the arms and
accoutrements of the men the governor was particular in looking into the
faces of the recruits, to satisfy himself, no doubt, that they could
be trusted to uphold the honor of the State when the tug of war should
come. John A. Andrew was one of the “war governors” whose loyal support
of President Lincoln's emancipation programme held the Northern States
in line when the time came for the President to issue the proclamation
that freed the slaves of the States in rebellion against the Government.
The proclamation was promulgated September 22, 1862, a few days after
the battle of Antietam. It is on record that Lincoln had made the draft
of the document in July, and had held it, waiting for a Union victory,
that he might give it to the country at the same time that a decisive
defeat of the rebels was announced. The second battle of Bull Run came,
and Pope's shattered army retreated into the works around the national
capital. Lee, with his victorious followers, crossed the Potomac into
Maryland. The Confederate chief hoped to rally the disloyal element in
that State and along the border under the rebel flag. It began to look
as though the victory Lincoln was waiting for would never come. It
was one of the darkest hours of the conflict. What would have been the
effect of issuing the Emancipation Proclamation at that time? The rebels
had invaded the North! The Union army had been defeated--everything
seemed to be going to destruction!
Lincoln is credited with saying in respect of the rebels crossing the
Potomac just before the battle of Antietam:
“I made a solemn vow before God, that if General Lee were driven back
from Maryland, I would crown the result by a declaration of freedom to
the slaves.”
September 24, 1862, two days after the proclamation was issued, Governor
Andrew, with the governors of other loyal States, at a meeting at
Altoona, Penn., adopted an address to the President that must have set
at rest any doubts the chief magistrate may have had that his policy was
the policy of the loyal people of the North. The document was inspired
and executed by patriots in whom the citizens of the loyal States
reposed unbounded confidence. They declared:
“We hail with heartfelt gratitude and encouraged hope the proclamation
of the President, issued on the 22d inst., declaring emancipated from
their bondage all persons held to service or labor as slaves in rebel
States where rebellion shall last until the first day of January
ensuing.
“Cordially tendering to the President our respectful assurances of
personal and official confidence, we trust and believe that the policy
now inaugurated will be crowned with success, will give speedy and
triumphant victories over our enemies, and secure to this nation and
this people the blessing and favor of Almighty God. We believe that the
blood of the heroes who have already fallen and those who may yet give
up their lives to their country will not have been shed in vain.
“And now presenting to our chief magistrate this conclusion of our
deliberations, we devote ourselves to our country's service, and we
will surround the President in our constant support, trusting that the
fidelity and zeal of the loyal States and people will always assure him
that he will be constantly maintained in pursuing with vigor this war
for the preservation of the national life and hopes of humanity.”