THE MANASSAS CAMPAIGN.
Orders to march--A grand spectacle--Bivouac near Fairfax Court
House--The camps at night--Visits to Manassas and
Centreville--Dissatisfaction in the army--A deserted
country--Lawless soldiers--Fairfax Court House--A representative
Southerner--Review by Gen. McClellan--March to Alexandria--"Camp
Misery."
The first week in March brought lovely weather: birds sang more sweetly,
the sun shone more brightly, and bands played more merrily than usual,
and friends passed from regiment to regiment seeking social pastime with
friends.
We had known no such pleasant times in camp; still we were waiting for
orders to advance. During the night of Sunday, the 8th of March, the
order came: "This division will move at four o'clock in the morning with
two days' rations in haversacks." Little rest we got that night; the
hammer and the axe were plied vigorously in tearing down quarters and
packing stores, and as the sun rose in the morning the whole army was in
motion. It was a sublime spectacle: that immense line of troops pouring
along hour after hour, stretching over the hills as far as the eye could
reach; a hundred and twenty thousand troops on the move! Just beyond and
above them, in the gray sky of the morning, hung a beautiful rainbow. At
six our division commenced to march. Rain soon began to fall, and
continued all day. We passed through Vienna and Lewinsville, each a
hamlet of a dozen houses, and reached our camping ground at five o'clock
in the afternoon, tired, and drenched, and hungry.
Great numbers of troops had already occupied the fields, and the whole
country seemed alive with men and horses, artillery and wagons. We were
in the vicinity of Fairfax Court House, about a mile to the northward,
on what was called Flint Hill.
The army, for the first time, was under "_tentes d'abri_," or, as they
are now called, shelter tents. Until now the enlisted men had occupied
the spacious Sibley, or the comfortable wedge tents, and all officers
were quartered in wall tents; now, line officers and enlisted men were
to occupy shelter tents, which they were to carry on their shoulders;
and although a small number of wall tents could be carried in the wagons
for field and staff officers, yet so imperfect was the understanding, in
or out of the quartermaster's department, of what could or ought to be
done, that most regimental field and staff officers were left without
any shelter at all.
The men proceeded to make themselves as comfortable as possible under
their novel coverings, and as evening approached, the hills were
magnificently illuminated with thousands of camp fires. Very few men
occupied their new tents that night. They had not been accustomed to lie
upon wet ground, with only a single blanket wrapped about them, so
during all the night groups of soldiers stood about the camp fires,
talking in low tones and wondering what was to happen in the morning.
The sky was clear and bright when the sun rose, and as we looked out
upon the hill tops, dotted with clean white tents, and bristling with
stacks of shining muskets, we exulted in the thought that we were part
of the Grand Army that was now at work. Soon we knew that we were not to
fight here. The cavalry, and some of Porter's division, were returning
from Manassas and Centreville, both places burned and deserted. Were we
to pursue the retreating army, or were we to return to Washington to
take a new start? Parties from the division rode to Centreville and
Manassas. The works were indeed formidable and the barracks extensive;
and the old chestnut logs with blackened ends, that were mounted in some
of the embrasures, had, at a distance, grim visages. The smoking ruins
betokened the destructiveness of war. On the old battle-field lay
bleaching the bones of horses and men, and here and there might be seen
portions of human skeletons protruding from the shallow graves where
some pretense had been made at burial. Fragments of shells, broken
muskets and solid shot strewed the ground.
Head-quarters of the army were established at Fairfax Court House, and
thither repaired the corps commanders to hold a council in regard to our
future movements. The country about our camp was rolling and sparsely
settled. Nearly all the houses were deserted, and most of them destroyed
so far as any future usefulness was concerned. One house, the ruins of
which stood not far from our camp, and which had been the most
comfortable place in the whole section of country, had been the
residence of a northern farmer. Although the house was completely
stripped, and nothing of the barns and outhouses remained but the
frames, yet there were many evidences of the thrift and comfort of the
former occupant. A northern reaper, several horse rakes, ploughs of
improved patterns, and other modern implements of agriculture, betokened
a genuine farmer. We were told that he was driven from his home early in
the war, and had now found refuge among his friends in New Hampshire.
But the houses of the southerners had not been exempt from the general
devastation, and some who had sought refuge in Richmond had left their
homes to ruin. The people were evidently strongly "secesh," although
some of them professed to be glad to see us.
It cannot be said that the presence of our army afforded them great
protection, for the men, unused to the strict discipline which afterward
prevailed, coolly appropriated whatever articles seemed to them to be of
use either for the present or the future. It was amusing to see the
soldiers of some of the divisions in which less than the usual
discipline prevailed, peering and creeping about wherever there seemed a
prospect of plunder. Now one would pass with a pair of chickens; next,
one bringing a clothes line; then one with part of an old table, and
still another with half a dozen eggs. This system of plunder was at
length checked, in a measure at least. Fowls, eggs and potatoes could be
purchased of the people at fair rates, while rebel currency could be
bought for silver at a very considerable discount. Twenty-five cent and
one cent shinplasters were brought into camp and laughed at by men who
were afterward glad to get shinplasters from another manufactory.
To Fairfax Court House was but a short distance; and a ride to the
village afforded a pleasant gallop of a morning. The place, and the
country half a mile on each side, was occupied by McCall's division. The
village was pleasantly located on high ground, surrounded by fine
groves. It contained some pretty residences, which were occupied by
officers as head-quarters: their horses, in some instances, being
picketed on the porticos, and in others in the kitchens. The village was
nearly deserted by its own people, not more than fifty of the original
inhabitants being left, though the population of the town before the war
was nearly six hundred. Houses which were deserted were generally
stripped of everything. The court house was a solid old brick building
of very limited dimensions, with a little bell swinging in a comical
looking steeple. The court house was by no means an exception to the
general rule of destruction; the seats were torn out, and the judge's
bench had been split in pieces, and nearly all carried away by pockets
full, as relics. At one of the houses where the family still remained, a
party reined up and made some inquiries of the _pater familias_, a
hangdog looking specimen, with an old slouched hat covered to the crown
with rusty crape, a mark of second-hand gentility in these parts. He
said that "this yer war" had caused such a famine among the people, that
nearly all of them had been obliged to leave; some had gone to
Washington and some to Richmond, "a right smart lot of them had gone to
Richmond." He had "reckoned onct or twict" that he would have to go too,
but he "had succeeded in hanging on so long."
Our division was reviewed by General McClellan, who was received with
enthusiasm. Although many of us were familiar with the appearance of the
Commander-in-Chief, this was his first appearance to us as a division.
The General appeared a man below the medium height, with broad
shoulders, full chest and a round pleasing face relieved by a heavy
moustache. He sat his horse well and rode with great speed. While his
appearance and address were pleasing, there seemed in his smooth face
and mild eye nothing to indicate a man of brilliant genius or great
purpose.
At length the council of corps commanders had rendered its decision, and
the grand campaign of the Virginian Peninsula was planned. On the
morning of the fourteenth of March, with buoyant hopes and exulting
anticipations of a "quick, sharp and decisive," and as we devoutly
believed, a successful campaign, we left our camp at Flint Hill. It had
few charms for us, and we were glad to leave it. How little we yet knew
of real campaigning. Although we had notice several hours beforehand
that we were to move by daylight, yet many, indeed, the majority of us,
marched that morning without breakfast.
No morning sun cheered us as the day began, but the sky was hung with
heavy clouds. A drizzling rain, now diminishing almost to a heavy mist,
and now coming in fresh showers, made the marching heavy and unpleasant.
Grandly appeared that majestic army as it filed down the turnpike to
Alexandria. At times the elevation of the road afforded a view of the
mighty column for miles to the front, and at other times we could see it
pouring onward an endless stream of cavalry, infantry, artillery and
wagons, far from the rear.
So grand a spectacle had never been witnessed on this continent before.
Our march was rapid and we made no halt for dinner: those who went
without breakfast had poor chance for coffee that day.
Towards evening the rain increased, and as we drew off into a piece of
woods five miles out from Alexandria, the rain came down in sheets. Near
our halting place were some deserted houses. No sooner had we stopped
than began the work of destruction, afterward so familiar to us, and in
less than an hour there was not a board or timber left of either
building. The ground, although quite uneven and sloping, soon became so
flooded that tents, even when they could be pitched, were untenable. The
men attempted to build fires, but in most instances the floods of water
quenched the flames. Some, however, succeeded in starting huge fires,
and around these stood the men during the whole night, while the tempest
poured in torrents upon them. A few of the officers of the division,
among whom was one who afterward became noted for looking out for and
providing good things for his regiment as quartermaster, sought refuge
in a house not far off, where, for the moderate sum of twenty-five cents
each, they were allowed by the people sleeping room upon the floor.
Never since the times of Pharaoh was an army so thoroughly drenched.
During more than three years campaigning in the field our boys never
forgot that night; and to this day they frequently refer to the
disagreeable experience in what they not inappropriately term "Camp
Misery." Here, in "Camp Misery," we remained several days, waiting to
embark for Fortress Monroe.
Without doubt, the rebels all this time knew of our destination; for the
people among whom we were encamped were by no means our friends or
indifferent to the success of the rebels, and the point of our
destination was well known and freely spoken of among them.