Red-Tape and Pigeon-Hole Generals Part 28

Darkness was just setting in when our turn came upon the pontoon bridge, and it was quite dark when we prepared ourselves, in a pelting rain, for rest for the night, as we thought, in a meadow half a mile distant from the road. At midnight, in mud and rain, we resumed the march, in convoy of a pontoon train, and over a by-road which from the manner its primitive rock was revealed, must have been unused for years. The streams forded during that night of sleepless toil, the enjoined silence, broken only by the sloppy shuffle of shoes half filled with water, and the creaking wagons, the provoking halts that would tempt the eyes to a slumber that would be broken immediately by the resumption of the forward movement, have left ineffaceable memories. A somewhat pedantic order of "Accelerate the speed of your command, Colonel," given by our General of Division, as the head of the Regiment neared his presence towards morning, reminded us of the "long and rapid march" that the Commander-in-Chief intended the army to make.

On the last day of April we crossed the Rapidan, fording its breast-deep current, considered too strong for the pontoons, and wondering, especially as the cannonading of the evening previous indicated resistance ahead, that our advance was not at this point impeded.

Artillery planted upon the circling hills of the opposite sh.o.r.e would have made the pa.s.sage, if even practicable, perilous to the last degree.

As it was, however, _in puris naturalibus_, with cartridge-box on the musket barrel, and the musket on the shoulder, clothing in many instances bundled upon the head, the troops made the pa.s.sage. The whys and the wherefores of no opposition--the confidence of Old Joe having stolen a march upon Johnny Reb--and the usual surmises of the morrow--increased in this instance by our having surprised and captured some Rebel pickets when just about halting, const.i.tuted ample capital for conversation during our night's rest in a pine grove two miles south of the ford.

With the Army of the Potomac the merry month of May had a lively opening. After a march from early dawn, we found our Division, about the middle of the forenoon, ma.s.sed in a thick wood in the rear of a large and imposing brick building, which, with one or two buildings of minor importance, const.i.tuted what was designated upon our pocket maps as the town of Chancellorsville. The region of country was most appropriately styled "The Wilderness." A wilderness indeed, of tall oaks, and a dense undergrowth known as "black-jack." There were but few open places or improved spots. In one of the largest of these, at a point where two prominent roads forked, stood the large building above mentioned. The day previous General Lee and his staff had been hospitably entertained within its walls. Now our fine-looking Commander and his gay and gallant staff were busily engaged in its lower rooms, while the ladies of the house of Secesh sympathies kept themselves closely in the upper story,--their curiosity tempting them however, to occasional peeps from half-opened shutters at the blue coats below.

At twelve, precisely, just as we had taken a position in the open ground abreast of the house, the sharp report of a rifled piece, followed quickly by the fainter explosion of a sh.e.l.l, was heard upon our left.

Another and another succeeded,--indicating that the wood was being sh.e.l.led preparatory to an advance in that direction. Slowly we filed to the left, proceeding by a narrow winding wood-road until the head of our column had almost reached the river. A sudden order at this stage for the right about created considerable surprise, which ceased shortly after, as the sharp rattle of musketry, now as if picket firing, and now swelling into a volleyed roar, told us of a Rebel movement upon our flank. That our advance upon them in that direction had been quite unexpected, was apparent from their hastily abandoned camp grounds; rows of tents left standing, but slit from ridge-pole to pins; abandoned caissons and ammunition; and the tubs in which their rations of flour were kneaded, with undried dough in the corners. That they had rallied to regain their lost ground, was also apparent.

"What's the matter, Dinah?" shouted one of our boys to an active young wench, who was wending her way from the direction of the firing as rapidly as the frequent contact of an extensive hooped skirt with the undergrowth would allow.

"Dunno zackly, ma.s.sa! Don't like de racket at all down yonder," she replied, making at the same time vigorous efforts to release the hold some bushes appeared to have upon her, upon either side. A sudden roar of artillery, apparently nearer by, brought matters to a crisis, and screaming "Oh, Lor," she loosened her clothing, and sprang out of the skirt with a celerity that showed the perfection of muscular development, and won shouts of applause from the ranks.

A sharp engagement was in progress upon a lower and almost parallel road. The roar of cannon, the explosion of sh.e.l.ls, the rattle of musketry,--now ragged as if from detached squads,--and now volleyed as from full ranks, mingled with the shrill cheers or rather demoniac yells of the Rebels, pealing their banner cry of "h.e.l.l," in their successive charges, and the gruff hoa.r.s.e shouts of our troops, as they duly repulsed them, formed a most martial accompaniment to our march. The unity of sound of well executed volleys, told us how Sykes's Regulars attacked, whilst marching by the flank, halted at the word, faced to the left with the precision of an ordinary drill, and delivered their fire with murderous exactness.

A few stray bullets flying in the direction of a temporized corral of pack-horses in a corner of the wood in the rear of the brick house, frightened their cowardly drivers, who commenced a stampede to the rear; and as we emerged from the road to our old position, the beasts were rapidly divesting themselves of their packs, in their progress through the undergrowth. In conjunction with this the frequent and fierce charges of the Rebel ma.s.sed columns, favored by the smoke of the burning woods, made a panic imminent among the troops upon the lower road. The quick eye of old Joe saw the danger in a moment, and rus.h.i.+ng from the house and springing upon his horse, he dashed down that road unattended, his manly form the mark of many a rebel rifle. Shouts of applause greeted him, and the continuous rattle of our musketry told us of the regained confidence of the men, and the renewed steadiness of our line.

It was now four in the afternoon--the usual time with the Rebels for the execution of their favorite movement--charging in ma.s.sed columns. On they came in their successive charges, howling like fiends, and with a courage that would have adorned an honorable cause. The steady musketry, but above all the terrific showers of canister from cannon that thundered in doublets from right to left along the line of our batteries, could not be withstood, and they fell back in confusion. The nature of the ground did not permit an advance of our forces, and we were compelled to rest content with their repulse. An hour later our Division moved by still another road to the left, to a ridge in the neighborhood of Banks's Ford. Upon its wooded summit, with no sound to break in upon us save the screaming of whip-poor-wills, which the boys with ready augury construed to mean "whip-'em-well," and picket firing, that would occasionally appear to run along the line, we pa.s.sed a comfortable night.

Breastworks were the order of the day following, and at noon we were enjoying our coffee in a cleared s.p.a.ce, behind a ridge of logs and limbs that fronted our entire Division, and which we would have been content to hold against any attacking force. Cannonading continued at intervals, with occasional musketry firing. As it was considerably to our right, we were not disturbed in our enjoyment of supplies of provisions obtained from vacated Rebel houses in the neighborhood. Our amus.e.m.e.nt was greatly contributed to, by the sight of some of the men dressed in odd clothing of a by-gone fas.h.i.+onable age. But perhaps the most interesting object was a Text-book upon the Divinity of Slavery, written by a Reverend Doctor Smith, for the use of schools; its marked lessons and dirty dog-ears shewing that it had troubled the brains and thumbs of youthful Rebels. Instilled into infant minds, and preached from their pulpits, we need not wonder that they, with the heartless metaphysics of northern sympathy, should consider slavery "an incalculable blessing," and should now be in arms to vindicate their treason, its legitimate offspring.

Cannonading had been frequent during the day; its heavy booming at times varied by the light rattle of the rifle. From four until eleven P. M. it was a continuous roar, save about an hour's intermission between five and six. At first sounding sullenly away to the right, then gradually nearing, until at nightfall musketry and artillery appeared to volley spitefully almost upon our Division limits. It was apparent that our line had been broken, and apprehending the worst we anxiously stood at arms and awaited the onward. Nearer and nearer the howling devils came; louder and louder grew the sounds of conflict. The fiercest of fights was raging evidently in the very centre of the ground chosen as our stronghold. If ever the Army of the Potomac was to be demoralized by the shock of battle, that was the time. But the feeling was not one of fear with our citizen soldiery--the n.o.blest type of manhood--rather of eagerness for the troops in reserve to be called into the contest. Just before six we heard an honest shout, as the boys would call the cheers of their comrades. It grew fainter; the firing became more distant--slackened and ceased at six, to be resumed again at seven, upon another and more remote line of attack.

The terrible distinctness of this alternate howling and cheering--as perceptible to the ear during the thunders of the fight, as the silver lining that not unfrequently fringes the heavily-charged cloud is to the eye,--is a striking ill.u.s.tration of the power of the human voice. We were to have another, however, and that of but a single voice, which from the agony of soul thrown into it, and its almost supernatural surroundings, must eternally echo in memory.

About three hundred yards distant from the left of our Brigade line, in an open field, on elevated ground, stood a large and comfortable looking farm-house. In the morning it had been occupied; but as its inmates saw our skirmishers prostrating themselves on the one side in double lines that ran parallel to our breastworks, and the Rebel advance at the same time attain the edge of the wood upon the opposite side,--and the skirmis.h.i.+ng that occasionally occurred along the lines giving promise of a fight that might centre upon their premises,--they packed up a few valuables and left for a place of safety. But not all.

We read of n.o.ble Romans offering their lives in defence of faithful slaves. That species of self-sacrifice is a stranger to our Southern chivalry. In the garret of the building, upon some rags, lay an old woman, who had been crippled from injuries received by being scalded some months before, and had thus closed a term of faithful service which ran over fifty years, of the life of her present master and of that of his father before him. Worn out, and useless for further toil, she had been placed in the garret with other household rubbish. Her poor body crippled,--but a casket, nevertheless, of an immortal soul,--was not one of the valuables taken by the family upon their departure. As the thunders of the thickening fight broke in upon her loneliness, her cries upon the G.o.d of battles, alone powerful to save, could be heard with great distinctness. Isolated and under the fire of either line, there was no room for human relief. Her strength of voice appeared to grow with the increasing darkness, and above the continuous thunder of the cannon were the cries--"G.o.d Almighty, help me!" "Lord, save me!" "Have mercy on me!" shrieked and groaned in all the varied tones of mortal agony. Long after the firing had ceased, in fact until we moved at early dawn, our men behind the works and in the rifle pits in front could hear with greater or less distinctness, as if a death wail coming up from the carnage of the field, the piteous plaints of that terror-stricken soul. Rumor has it, that before the building was fired by a sh.e.l.l in the middle of the following forenoon, her spirit had taken its flight; but whether or not, it could not mitigate the retributive justice to be measured out by that G.o.d over us all to whom vengeance belongs, upon the heads of the ingrates who had left her to her fate.

We moved, as we have before mentioned, at early dawn on one of those fair, bright Sabbath days so happily spoken of by "good old George Herbert;" marching by the right flank along our works, with a hurried step. It was between five and six when we neared the front,--pa.s.sing on our way out, hosts of stragglers and disorganized regiments of the Eleventh Corps. They had suffered badly--some said, behaved badly--and some said, posted in such a way that they could not but behave badly.

The merits of the case must remain for decisive history. Conceding equally good generals.h.i.+p to both, it is not amiss to say, that what happened under Howard might not have happened under Sigel. The desultory firing along our changed front showed too plainly the ground we had lost the day before. In the wood, alongside of the road fronting the right centre of our line, our Regiment lay at arms,--listening to awfully exaggerated stories from stragglers,--watching the posting of artillery in our immediate front, the entry of Brigades into the wood upon our left, and their exit under skilful artillery practice,--and now and then dodging at the sound of the stray sh.e.l.ls sent as return compliments from Rebel batteries.

"Good-bye, Colonel; these bra.s.s-bull pups will roar b.l.o.o.d.y murder at Johnny Reb to-day," said a fine-looking, whole-souled Lieutenant, in command of an Ohio battery, pointing to his pieces with pride, as he hurried by at a trot, to relieve a battery on our left centre.

Poor fellow! How blind we are to futurity! His pieces were scarcely in position before a sh.e.l.l struck the caisson at which he was adjusting fuses, and his head, picked up at the distance of a hundred yards, was all that remained unshattered of his manly figure, after the explosion.

Files of wounded upon foot, full ambulances, and stretchers laden with the more serious cases, pa.s.sed us here.

"I am done for, fellows," said a slightly built, pale-faced sergeant, resting upon his elbow, and pointing to his shattered side, as he was carried by on a stretcher; "but stick to the old flag; it is bound to win."

His pa.s.sage along the line was greeted with cheers, that must have sounded gratefully to ears fast closing to earthly sounds.

But why individualize? The heroism that may be told of such a day, is but a drop compared with the thousand untold currents of unselfish patriotism and high resolve that well up in the bosoms of our Union soldiers. Not that daring deeds are not performed by Rebel ranks, but--

"True fort.i.tude is seen in great exploits, That justice warrants, and that wisdom guides; All else is towering frenzy and distraction."

About nine in the forenoon, to the sound of lively musketry on our left, our Brigade left in front, crossed the open s.p.a.ce in front of the wood, and in the rear of a white plastered farm-house. A narrow wood-road led us into the wood, and filing to the left we connected with troops already in line of battle. The position was hardly taken before the zip!

zip!! zip!!! of Minie b.a.l.l.s informed us that we were objects of especial interest to Rebel sharpshooters. In another minute flashes of flame and puffs of smoke, that appeared to rise from among the dead foliage of the wood--so closely did their b.u.t.ternut clothing resemble leaves--revealed a strong, well-formed, but prostrate Rebel line. The firing now became general upon both sides. Fortunately our position was such that they overshot us. Our men continued to aim low, and delivered an effective fire. Three times they tried to rise preparatory to the charge, and were as often thrown into confusion, and forced again upon the ground. For nearly two long hours the rattling of musketry was incessant. Finally, the Rebels made the discovery that the supply of ammunition was exhausted upon the right, and the right itself unsupported. It, of course, was the point to ma.s.s upon, and on they came in solid columns to the charge, completely outflanking our right.

To hold the ground with our formation was simply impossible. The order to retire was given; and facing by the rear rank--the Regiments preserving their ranks as best they could in that thicket of black-jack, and carrying their wounded,--among them our Major, shot through the chest--made their way to the open s.p.a.ce in rear of the wood. The colors of our regiment were seized,--but the first Rebel hand upon them relaxed from a death shot,--another was taken with the Regiment,--and the flag brought off in triumph. So completely had they gained our flank that our ranks became mixed with theirs, and nothing but the opportune fire of our batteries prevented their taking away a Field Officer, who twice escaped from their hands.

As our Brigade re-formed in the rear of the batteries, treble charges of canister swept the woods of the Rebel ranks. We had suffered heavily, but nothing in comparison to the destruction now visited upon the Rebels. To complete the horrors of the day, the wood was suddenly fired, evidently to cover their retreat, and the fire swept to the open s.p.a.ce, enveloping in flame and smoke the dead and wounded of both sides; and all this at the very time when throughout the length and breadth of this Christian land, thousands of churches were resonant with the words of the Gospel of Peace. But "Woe be unto those by whom offences come."

"They have taken the sword, and must perish by the sword."

So completely were the Rebels masters of the only available fighting ground that no further effort was made to advance our lines, and the army stood strictly upon the defensive. The open s.p.a.ce, in which stood the Chancellorsville mansion, at this time a ma.s.s of smoking ruins, was in their possession. At arms behind the breastworks we awaited the onset; but although there was occasional firing, no general attack was made during the remainder of the day. With the thanks of our Corps Commander publicly given for services during the fight, our Brigade rested at night, speculating upon which side the heavy firing told then heard in the vicinity of Fredericksburg.

During the next day we were stationed as a Reserve upon the right, and called to arms frequently during the day and night, when the Rebels with their unearthly yells would tempt our artillery by charging upon the works. On the day after we were moved to support the centre, and kept continually at arms. In the afternoon a violent thunderstorm raged--the dread artillery of Heaven teaching us humility by its striking contrast to the counterfeit thunder of our cannon. Rain generally follows heavy cannonading. All that afternoon and the greater part of the night it fell in torrents. Cannonading in the direction of Fredericksburg had ceased during the day. Sedgwick's disastrous movement was not generally known,--but our wounded had all been sent off;--our few wagon trains and our pack-horses had crossed,--and notwithstanding the show of fight kept up in front, enough was seen to indicate that the army was about to recross the Rappahannock.

Favored by the darkness, battery after battery was quietly withdrawn, their respective Army Corps accompanying in Regiments of two abreast.

The movement was in painful contrast to the spirited order that gave such a merry May-day to our hope upon the first of the month. In blouses that smoked that wet night around camp fires kept up for the purpose of misleading the enemy, our men stood discussing the orders, and the counter-orders, and what had happened, and what might happen, from the step. Hooker had credit for the successful execution of his part of the programme. What was wrong below was conjecture then, and does not yet appear to be certainly understood.

"Where is Old Pigey?" said one of a group of officers, suddenly turning to a comrade, as they stood about one of their camp fires. "He has not been near our Brigade during the day."

"No! nor near the other, except to d.a.m.n it in such a style as to draw down the rebuke of a superior officer," replied the man addressed.

"Follow me, if you desire to see how a 'cool, courageous man of science,' one, whose face, as the Reporters say of him, 'indicates tremendous power in reserve,' meets this crisis."

The two retired, and on a camp stool, with cloak wrapped closely about him, in front of a fire whose bright blaze gave him enormous proportions upon the dark background of pines, surrounded by his Staff, his hat more pinched up and askew than usual, and receiving frequent consolation from a long, black bottle, evidently his power in reserve upon this occasion, the General was discovered in a pensive mood.

"Do you know," continued the officer, "that he reports, as a reason for his absence to-day, that he did not consider it prudent to be near our Brigade during the loading and firing exercise."

"The torturing of a guilty conscience," was the reply. "Our men, as true soldiers, know but one enemy in the field."

At length, at two in the morning of the 6th of May, we cautiously commenced our movement to the river. The dawn of a rainy day saw us formed in line of battle, supporting artillery planted to protect the crossing. About eight our turn came upon the swollen stream. The rain pelted piteously as we ascended the steep slope of the opposite bank, and after a day's march over roads resembling rivers of mud, we slept away our sorrows under wet blankets, in the comfortable huts of our old camp ground.

CHAPTER XXI.

_The Pigeon-hole General and his Adjutant under Charges--The Exhorting Colonels Adieu to the Sunday Fight at Chancellorsville; Reasons thereof--Speech of the Dutch Doctor in Reply to a Peace-Offering from the Chaplain--The Irish Corporal stumping for Freedom--Black Charlie's Compliments to his Master--Western Virginia at the Head of a Black Regiment._

"HEAD-QUARTERS, ---- DIVISION.

"---- ARMY CORPS, _7th May, 1863_.

"General Orders, No. 22.