(IforttcU mmuetatt}} Siibraty 3tl;aca. 5feni fork THE JAMES VERNER SCAIFE COLLECTION CIVIL WAR LITERATURE THE GIFT OF JAMES VERNER SCAIFE CLASS OF 1869 1919 when this volume was tak^n. To renew this bouk copy the call No. and give to the hbrarian. HOME USE RULES All Books subject to'Recall * ^ All borrowers must regis- „,.....„: , , ter in the library to borrow books for home use. ■•• •• All books must be re- turned at end of college • • year for inspection and repairs. Limited books must be re- .'. .^ turned within the four week limit and not Renewed. " Students must return all books before leaving' town. r ' -"* Offxers should arrange for the return of books wanted- dUring their absence from town. Volumes of periodicals " and of pamphlets are held in the library as much as, ■' possible. For special pur- poses they are gjj^n out for * '," * a limited time. « „ .......^ Borrowers should noi ^ their library priviiegfl ■ :-'■ the beneet of other persons. ■- ' Books of special value " ' and gift books,, when the giver wishes it, are not allowed to circulate. -.— ^ ■ Readers are asked to re- port all cases of books marked or miutflated. Do not deface bo^ks by marks and writing. Cornell University Library .B74 1903 3 1924 032 780 458 olin The original of tliis book is in tlie Cornell University Library. There are no known copyright restrictions in the United States on the use of the text. http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924032780458 THE AUTHOR. On the Parallels or Chapters of Inner History A Storv of the RappahannocFi Bv Berviamin Bortoii Country's broke the boundary line, Steady now, believers! North and South we're feelin' fine. Steady now, believers ! ***** One flag's flyin' where we roam. Steady now, believers ! North and South we're all at home, Steady; now hel^j^g^ ; —Atlanta CmiitUutiun. 1903: MONITOR-REGISTER PRINT WOODSTOWN, «. J. Copyrighted by Benjamin Borton. 1903. TO ALL THOSE WHO DIED AND THOSE WHO SUFFERED FROM THE EFFECTS OF THE GREAT CIVIL WAR, THIS STORY IS RESPECTFULLY DEDICATEDu BY THE AUTHOR. A NOTE TO THE READER. A FEW years previous to the preparation of this story, the writer published for local circulation a narrative of his recollections Avhile serving a brief time in the Union army. Encouraged by the good words spoken by the readers of that work, the idea of a revised and enlarged edition with some new features added resulted, after many months of leisure- hour study and patient labor, in the production of thc^Xesent volume, and as it is the last pub- lication the author will ever offer to the reading public, his hope is 'that all defects in its com- position and preparation will be charitably overlooked by the literary critic. To make these new chapters of serious history readable without deflecting from the truth, and that a careful perusal of them will tend in some •degree to re-unite more closely and make stronger the bonds of brotherhood between the participants and their kindred of that long iratricidal strife, is the writer's sincere and fervent hope. B. B. T CHAPTER I. A PROPHECY, AND WHAT FOLLOWED. HE nearer one can get in touch with the participants or witnesses to important events of years long gone by, all the more fasci- nating and impressive are the stories of their varied experiences. The author of this narrative once listened to an account of a lecture by an aged relative he remembered hearing delivered by an old French officer, who had followed Napoleon into Russia in the year 1812, and was present at the burn- ing of Moscow and witnessed the terrible scene at the crossing of the Berisina in the subse- quent disastrous retreat of the French army. That word picture made a most lasting impres- sion upon my memory. If the personal recollections of all the actors in the great Civil War could be placed on 10 ON THE PARALLELS. record, no two of them would be precisely alike. No sooner had many of the volunteers reached the seat of war, when they fell siCk and died, or were sent back to the hospitals, where, by reason of permanent disability, they were discharged from the service. Some were so desperately wounded in their first battle, that they never rejoined their regiment. The more fortunate soldiers who escaped the dan- gers of scores of battles and skirmishes, and endured the hardships and privations of active campaigning from the commencement to the close of the conflict, saw more than those who stayed in the field but a short period. The author's experience in military life was very brief; consequently, he saw compara- tively little to relate, but that little is given to all who will take the time to peruse these pages. Since the close of the war between the States, acquaintances have been made and warm friendships formed between the Blue ON THE PARALLELS. 11 and the Gray and their kindred, which will endure as long. as life shall last. In my inter- views and correspondence with those who wore the gray, I have found them to be just what a Northern writer declares they are, "A warm- hearted, impulsive people are those South- erners." So, therefore, to render my plain narrative more entertaining, I have sought to weave into the recital of my own personal recollec- tions some reminiscences of those who were my opponents in the two great engagements it befell my lot to witness between the oppos- ing armies, while confronting each other on the banks of the Rappahannock. Willingly, cheerfully, from their own lips and pens were my requests for information granted, for which valued favors sincere thanks are hereby tendered, and here begins my story. Before a political assembly at Bloomington, in the State of Illinois, on. May- 29,- 1856,- in. 12 ON THE PARALLELS. what is known as "Lincoln's Lost Speech," are these words : "We are in a trying time. It ranges above mere party, and this movement to call a halt and turn our steps backwai'd needs all the help and good counsels it can get ; for unless popular opinion makes itself strongly felt and a change is made in our present course, blood will flow and brother's hand will be raised against brother." In less than five years after the utterance of that prediction the alarm of war was sounded. Military companies were organized in every city, town and rural hamlet in the North and South ; thousands and tens of thousands of sturdy men and -well grown youth turned out for drill practice to prepare themselves for the impending conflict. Speeches at public mass meetings added fuel to the fiery war spirit and patriotic enthusiasm knew no bounds. Into late hours of the night squads paraded the streets, keeping step to the beat of drum at the head of the line. In our mental ear the sound ON THE PARALLELS. 13 of that drum is ringing yet. Drum, drum, der-um, drum, drum. We hurry to the frout door to see the men march by, cheering lustily as they go. Long after they are lost to view, growing fainter and fainter in the distance, is heard that measured beat : Drum, drum, der- um drum, drum. The blow was struck. Brother's hand was raised against brother, and when the enlisted volunteers had deserted the village streets, and commenced their march to the front, then it was that the nation began to realize the terrible fact that blood would indeed soon flow; but little realizing at the beginning of the struggle that, in magnitude, fierceness and appalling loss of life, it would exceed all wars known to the most learned historians. So many years have elapsed since the close of that long and sanguinary conflict, that the yet surviving participants can hardly reconcile themselves to the fact that the generation of full-grown, able-bodied young men of to-day have not only no personal recollection of those 14 ON THE PARALLELS. stirring times, but were then unborn. The pages of popular history contain graphic accounts of all the important events connected therewith, but the histories within a history — I mean the individual experiences of all the actors, and sorrows of those who suffered thereby — the world will never know. These personal experi- ences, some long, some short, extended through a space of years, beginning from the time of the President's first call for seventy-five thous- and volunteers after the surrender of Fort Sum- ter, until the last battle had been fought and every soldier had left the field, turned in his gun and gone home, There to tell and tell again The story he oft has told, Of the field and camp and marching men, Through the years while growing old. To the rising generation in this, the early dawn of the twentieth century, these stories of a war so long before seem to sound more like fairy tales than narratives of truth. But the most glorious truth of all to place on record is ON THE PARALLELS. 15 the pernianeut restoration of peace between the North and the South, and the men who were once foemen now mingle together in universal brotherhood. Commenting upon the author's story as first written, Mr. R. D. Haislet, then editor of the Staunton, Virginia, "Daily News," wrote thus : "The perusal of this volume convinces us that more and more, as those terrible days recede into the dim past, the passions that were then at play will have lost their fire, and it will be possible and practicable for both sides to accept a history of times that will do justice to the motives and achievements of both, and that each side will prefer to have the exact facts told to coming generations. Sensible men know there is no sense and no justice in having a peculiarly Northern history or a peculiarly Southern history. What we want is a history — one with the stamp of the everlasting truth on it. Such is being gradually evolved, both North and South ; two parallel straight lines, that will meet at infinity and be so near alike 16 ON THE PARALLELS. that it will be a matter of indifference which line you follow to get to the meeting point." Dear reader, to the construction of one of these parallel lines the writer of these pages, who marched in the rear rank of one of the regiments sent to the front, contributes in a plain way his little share. It is only a frag- ment of that inner history which no penman will ever be able to complete. ON THE PARALLELS. 17- CHAPTER II. LEAVING HOME FIRST LESSON IN WAR. AT the close of a cloudy October day in the fall of 1 86 1, I saw the Ninth Regiment, New Jersey Volunteers, march off a steamer at Washington street wharf in Philadelphia, on its way to the seat of war. Being the first military organization I had ever seen in my life, the scene to me was one of exciting curi- osity. The regiment numbered eleven hundred and fifty-nine men, all hardy-looking fellows, too, capable of performing arduous duties. But a great many of the volunteers at that period of the Rebellion regarded the deadly work before them to be little more than a grand military picnic. By formidable numbers they anticipated enjoying the pleasure of seeing the Rebels awed into submission ; then, that accom- plished, begin their homeward march. 18 ON THE PARALLELS. In reply to a question I put to a tall, hand- some-looking soldier guarding one of the army wagons on the wharf, in a tone of perfect assurance, he said: "I expect to eat my next Christmas dinner at home." Christmas came ; winter passed, then spring, then summer, and still the war continued. I have often since wondered whether that too- hopeful guard ever returned home to partake of his coveted Christmas dinner. One summer afternoon, while standing at the foot of Market street in the same city, I noticed a couple of soldiers coming down to the ferry. Before crossing Delaware avenue they halted at the corner, leaned their muskets against the building, flung off their knapsacks and sat down for a brief rest. Their browned faces and soiled uniforms showed they were from the front, and I watched them with unusual interest. "Jim, got any more of that tobacco about you?" asked one of the other. ON THE PARALLELS. 19 "Yes, help yourself," answered his com- panion as he handed out a huge plug of the weed. "Jim, that's tip-top stuff, I tell you. Where did you get it?" "From the pocket of that dead man at Mal- vern Hill," answered Jim. The clang of the steamboat-bell stopped further conversation, and, as the two men hurried across the avenue and disappeared from view in the ferry house, in fancy I looked far away southward — somewhere — -upon their un- fortunate comrade lying dead at Malvern Hill. The Union army having sustained severe losses in the "Seven Days" battle at Malvern Hill under General McClellan, President Lin- coln issued a call for three hundred thousand more volunteers. The war had then been going on over a year. I was not twenty-one years of age, but resolved to enlist and take a hand in the contest for the preservation of the Union. 20 ON THE PARALLELS. So bidding loved ones good-bye, I set out for the nearest recruiting station, some twelve miles or more from home. On the way I joined company with a young man traveling to the same town for the same purpose — to enlist. Our conversation, of course, was upon the object of our journey, and I never forgot the remark my friend made on the way. "Ben," he said, "I want to be a captain of a company and help to garrison a fort where there will be no fighting ; but I cannot get a captain's commission until after I enlist." We enlisted. But my companion's expecta- tions were not realized, for he was kept in the ranks and assigned to more active duty than lounging in an isolated fort. Recruits came in rapidly, and in a few days two hundred men had signed their names to the muster-roll. One pleasant August morning, in the sum- mer of 1862, the two hundred volunteers for the Union army formed in line, in front of the ON THE PARALLELS. 21 Court House in the busy city of Salem, New Jersey. From there, under an escort of home guards with a band of music, we marched down Broadway to the steamboat landing, and on board the Major Reybold. The wharf was crowded with men, women and children, who had followed us from the Court House to bid the departing ones a last good-bye. When the steamer moved away from the landing the writer, silently and with somewhat lonesome feelings, listened to the farewell words and saw the handkerchiefs waving on the receding shore, knowing that none of those wrell-wishing salutes were for him, because to every person on that crowded wharf, and to every man on that crowded steamer sav^e a slight acquaintance with one of the volunteers, he was an entire stranger. It is not at all un- likely that many of the women^ who saw their iusbands-Oir, lovers start a-vv^ay, that beautiful ■ sumrner morning, retraced their steps home- . ward with tear:dimnied eyes and hearts sadden- ed by a feeling that the hysband or lover might 22 ON THE PARALLELS. never return, and to some those fears were real- ized. The loved one lies buried somewhere in the South among the many thousands marked " Unknown." On our way up the river another Company of recruits was taken on board at Pennsgrove. Reaching Philadelphia, we were transferred to the steamer Edwin Forrest, which conveyed us up to the grand camping-ground at Beverly, on the Delaware, where, using stones and blocks of wood for pillows, we spent our first night from home on the bare floors of an abandoned factory, and where for the first time we missed the soft bed and comfortable surroundings of the homes left behind us. Ah, little does the inexperienced soldier feel the .serious responsibility he has assumed. No matter how strong his loyalty may be for the cause he has volunteered to aid and defend, he ponders not the fact that he has sacrificed every enjoyable home comfort, as well as all the con- genial associations round about it. Nor is this all. Under the authority of a strict military ON THE PARALLELS. 23 power, he is expected to obey uncomplainingly and promptly every command of his superiors in rank, and by his willingness to perform every dut}', whether arduous or dangerous, are his qualifications as a true and faithful soldier esti- mated. At the time of which I write, the en- livening music of fife and drum, military dis- play and desire for adventure, was taking; young men by scores and hundreds from their peaceful homes in the North and South to the army camps ; there drilled and trained for active war- fare, then marched to the front to become, oh, so many of them, food for powder or victims to disease. But true to their principles, loyal to the cause they had gone forth to aid, those hardy volunteers in both armies fought long and well ; four long years the most fortunate ones endured the hardships and privations of active campaigning, escaping the foeraen's fatal bullet on many a strongly contested field. ON THE PARALLELS. CHAPTER III. ON TO WASHINGTON UNION REFRESHMENT SALOON — ARRIVE AT THE CAPITAL — IMPRESSIONS, ON September i6th the regiment to which I was attached, tlie Twenty-fourth New Jer- sey \'ohinteers, having a full complement of men — thirty-nine officers and nine hundred and forty-six non-commissioned officers and privates, nine hundred and eighty-five in all — was regularly mustered into the United States service in command of Colonel William B. Rob- ertson. After thirty days of exciting camp life at the Beverly rendezvous, known as Camp Cad- wallader, where for a time three thousand troops were quartered, our regiment was equipped with Belgian rifles and other accoutrements and Union Volnntepi- Rffresliiueut SMlonii as it appeared ill 1S64. No trace of the building now remains. From an oLl iihotograiili. ON THE PARALLELS. 27 ordered to Washington. Arriving at Philadel- phia by steamer, we marched across the same wharf where I looked on at the Ninth Regiment ten mouths before. Stopping at the Union Volunteer Refreshment Saloon at the foot of Washington street, we all partook of a bounte- ous dinner provided by the committee. This refreshment saloon was the first of its kind in the United States, having been organized May 27, 1861. Hundreds of thousands of enlisted men were entertained here on their way to and from the seat of war. Here many a volunteer spoke his last farewell to his loved ones and friends who never saw his face again. Up to August 28, 1865, the committee of the Associa- tion reported having furnished meals to 665,000 passing troops and soldiers from camps and hospitals near the city; 137,000 meals to refu- gees, freedmen and Confederate deserters. As returning troops were continually passing through the city, the work was continued until December ist of that year, when there were no more soldiers to be cared for. During those 28 ON THE PARALLELS. three months 15,991 more men were fed, making a grand total of 817,991. No traces of the former existence of either the Union or Cooper Shop eating saloon now remain. After enjoying our last home-made meal we again formed in rank out in the street, ready to resume our journey. Crowds of citizens had collected to see the "new regiment," and until we started to march out Washington avenue there was no little amount of boisterous merri- ment, blended with a continual hum of voices exchanging well wishes and tearful good-byes. While standing in the ranks, a man in Company C hired a boy to take his canteen to a nearby saloon to have it filled with whiskey, and entrusted him with a five dollar bill to pay for the same; but to this day that soldier never again beheld the same canteen nor the boy who had. charge of his five dollar bill. Crowding into a long train of freight cars out at the depot, the regiment started south- wards. Although thousands after-thousands of soldiers had passed over the same road before ON THE PARALLELS. 29 us, the citizens living along the route had not become the least bit weary of manifesting their loyalty to the Boys in Blue. From the win- dows and front yards of farm houses, in the streets of the towns through which we passed, the lookers-on, with handkerchiefs, flags and hats, waved us a friendly good-bye, and now and then a salutation from a crowd of watchers would be answered by a volley of rousing cheers from the merry soldiers on board the rapidly speeding train. Their enthusiasm was great. Some one in the car commences a war song, and a score of voices join in. It was a familiar melody in every Northern camp. I have for- gotten every word except the chorus : "Oh, we belong to the zoo, zoo, zoos; Don't you thick we oughter ? We're going down to Washing-town To fight for Abraham's daughter." When night obscured the landscape and only the flickering lights in the country houses and towns could be seen, our thoughts dropped into a more sober channel, and we talked and spec- 30 ON THE PARALLELS. tilated upon the prospect before us. Arriving at Baltimore near midnight, the regiment left the train, and after a short march through some of the dark and deserted streets, bivouacked undisturbed upon the pavement inEutaw street. The mob element, against which the Sixth Massachusetts regiment had to contend and fight its passage through the city a year before, was no longer exhibited. It fell to my lot that night to be one of the number . detailed for guard duty, but I had little else to do than stand at a street corner with my bayoneted musket watching the mo^•ements of an occa- sional passing soldier or citizen, until relieved by a new detail at four o'clock. Then, joining my comrades stretched upon the pavement, I was soon sleeping as soundly as the rest. After lounging an entire day about the depot in Baltimore, at dark we again scrambled into a train of box cars and resumed the journey to the Capital, reaching our destination at day- break. The train had been standing several minutes ON THE PARALLELS. 31 before we were ordered to "fall out" After our tiresome all-night ride on the hard floors of the dark, dingy-looking box cars, all of us were anxious to get a breath of fresh air as well as to see what could be seen outside. Some of the boys lost their patience. Using the butt end of their muskets for battering rams, the weatherboarding of the cars was bursted off in scores of places along the train. With a keen appetite for breakfast, and in anticipation of enjoying another good, square meal, we were marched to the soldiers' refreshment saloon, but, to our bitter disappointment, the food there provided looked so unpalatable that many of the men turned their backs to the table and soon left the place. How we did miss just then the Union Saloon in Philadelphia, where every hungry volunteer was given the best of sub- stantial food and plenty of it. As some of us gazed for the first time in our lives upon the city of Washington, the impres- sion was not awe-inspiring. There, too, for the first time we began to realize something of 32 ON THE PARALLELS. the magnitude of the preparations in progress for the prosecuting of the great conflict in which the country had become involved. Long trains of army wagons were leaving the city with supplies or coming in for more ; ca\alr>- encamp- ments, batteries of artillery, — in fact, all the panoply of war in panorama around us. From the steps of the Capitol building a number of battle-scarred soldiers with bandaged heads and arms watched \is march by. No cheers. On a near-by common, then called East Capital Hill, the regiment encamped, and a few days afterward some of our number fell sick and died. From here we were sent to assist in guarding the defences of the city. A march of five miles up the Potomac, on the 14th of October, brought us to Chain Bridge, near which, on one of the Blue Ridge spurs overlooking the ri\-er, we pitched our tents just as darkness was setting in. The situation here was tn:l\- romantic. We could look down upon the waters of the ri-\-er coursing on toward the sea • ON THE PARALLELS. 33 here moving in perfect silence, there tumbling over a chaos of jagged rocks, their plaintive sound being the only voice of nature in that wild and rugged solitude. Among my preserved letters, written while at Chain Bridge, is a long one in rhyme, four verses of which I will here repeat : Loved ones at home, I think of you ; You doubtless think of me ; And may God grant that in that home Again with you I 11 be. When I to slumber lay me down, My thoughts on home do dwell ; I wonder how j'ou're faring there And pray that all are well. Be not uneasy loved ones, For fear I '11 go astray ; Though often in temptation I can live the righteous way. And when I am in the battle, If in battles I should be, The Lord alone can save me And from danger keep me free. 34 ON THE PARALLELS. The life of a soldier has a fascination abont it not easily described. In spite of its hard- ships and privations, there always exists a flow of merriment and good cheer in almost every heart. How often is its unpleasantness forgot- ten in the enjoyment of a laughter-provqking incident. And I well remember one that occuiTed while we were occupying our lofty position at Chain Bridge. An intoxicated sol- dier returned from Washington one night just after tattoo. It was the hour when all lights in the camps must be put out and everj'body quiet ; but our demoralized comrade, who had stumbled into the same tent I was occupying, persisted in talking in a manner which created much amusement. After some persuasion on our part and threats from the officer of the guard that he would put every man in the tent under arrest, the fellow finalh- concluded to make a prayer and then lie down. This was his maudlin petition : "Lord have mercy on us all ; Lord have mercy on us all, Or we can never climb this hill at all." ON THE PARALLEI.S. 35 Down he went and soon after all became quiet. One night the officer of the guard came to our tent to tell us that a squad of the enemy's cavalry had been seen lurking in the vicinity, and to keep ourselves prepared to be called out any moment. All the way from my home I had brought with me a small roll of muslin bandages, and I well remember transferring the bandages from my knapsack to my trousers pocket in case a sudden emergency should require their use. We were not called out. A week later we changed our camp from the river to where General McClellan's army, we -were informed, had been quartered the year before. For miles around every panel of fencing had been lugged to the camp fires ; acres of land had been trod smooth as a board floor, making the region appear like- a barren desert. A month rolled by, and having already experi- enced some freezing weather, stockades were erected, and we congratulated ourselves over the prospect of having little else to do all win- ter beyond the daily routine of drill, dress 36 ON THE PARALLELS. parade and camp guard duties. Eut we reaped disappointment. One pleasant Sabbath after- noon, a mounted messenger galloped into camp, bearing orders for the regiment to march early- next morning with eight days' rations. The news sped from tent to tent, and speculation was rife as to where we were going, but nobody knew to a certainty. Everybody was busy in the entire brigade encampment that night. Some wrote letters for home, others assisted the sergeants in distributing shelter-tents and am- munition. The cooks kept their fires burning till a late hour boiling meat-rations for the men. Knapsacks were packed and every neces- sary preparation made for a long march. ON THE PARALLELS. 37 CHAPTER IV. THE MARCH THROUGH MARYLAND — ^JOIN THE VETERANS BOMBARDMENT OF FREDERICKSBURG. M" ORNING dawned with a threatening sky. An hour later, in a drizzling rain, we fell into line and started away, giving three hearty farewell cheers for old Camp Cumberland. The brigade was composed of the Fourteenth Connecticut, the Seventy-sixth Pennsylvania, and Twenty-fourth and Twenty-eighth New Jersey Volunteers, under command of Colonel Jennings, of the Fourteenth Connecticut. Our course was down the Potomac. Night overtook lis while passing through a tract of timber, where we stacked our guns and bivouacked for the night, five miles below Washington. The sight of a stuifed uniform hanging to the limb of a 38 ON THE PARALLELS. tree, next morning, revealed the fact that a member of the regiment had shed his blue suit during the night and deserted. Another day's tiresome march ended in a farmer's field, where his huge stacks of hay were entirely carried away in armfuls by the soldiers, upon which to rest their tired bodies, aud his fences used for fuel. In the evening of the third day we pitched our tents on a sloping tract of land on the farm of the Confederate General Mitchell, near Port Tobacco. Fires were soon kindled, and a grand and imposing spectacle was presented to the beholder. Around the bonfires which covered the large field were gathered groups of merry soldiers, whose voices, commingling with the crackling of the flames, produced a discordant din, above which now and then snatches of song or bursts of laughter greeted the ear. A large amount of poultry, sheep and hogs were carried into camp by foraging parties, while others, preferring to rest after their fatiguing march, enjoyed the luxury of a smoke around ON THE PARALLELS. 3i> the crackling fires, then covering themselves with their army blankets, dropped into sound sleep. I laid down for rest and repose, but my slumber was so much disturbed by the mirthful foragers that I got up and strolled out of camp to a near-by farm house to see what was going on there. Stillness pervaded the darkened mansion, but the cabins around it were illumi- nated, and going into one, I found the colored occupants baking corn cakes for the soldiers, who were patiently waiting to receive their hot bread ; and one man was stewing a chicken, under the supervision of a female slave. Pur- chasing one of the Ci^kes, I returned to camp and got some sleep. To take as one's own in an enemy's country the necessaries of life from the defenceless inhabitants, when ample subsistence was being furnished to the army of invaders, I never believed was just the fair thing to do, and the motto: "All's fair in time of war," I could not conscientiously adopt ; feeling perfectly satisfied to adhere to Uncle Sam's hard tack, strong 40 ON THE PARALLELS. salt pork and coffee in preference to robbing the poor families of all the little they possessed, already reduced to poverty by the ravages of a "Calamitous war. I have heard soldiers, while relating their night adventures at the morning camp fire, tell how the helpless women cried to see their small stock of poultry carried away. The roll of drums at break of day called many a weary fellow who had tarried too long at the camp fire feast. Besides other despolia- tions, in the smouldering fires were the charred remains of hundreds of panels of post-and-rail fencing. Again the order to march is given, and again the column wearily moves forward. No scenery of interest regales the eye. There is nothing to relieve the monotony of the journey save now and then \\e pass a primitive farm house or still more humble habitation of a settler. Occasionally some one in a jovial mood sets to singing "Old John Brown," or the very familiar sons:: ON THE PARALLELS. 41 ''We'll sooa light our fires on the Rappahannock shore, We'll soon light our fires on the Rappahannock shore, And tell Father Abraham he needn't call for more, While we go marching on." Others join iu, and for awhile score,s of voices resound through the thinly settled region, heard, perhaps, by some disquieted woodsman, whose highest hope for the moment was that the passing army would continue marching along until too far away to come back after his crop of poultry when night sets in. Night comes again, and again the fires are lighted. Another ration of hot coffee, hard tack and salt pork is prepared and eaten with relish, then, gathering about the cheerful blaze, is enjoyed the smoke, the song, the story and the joke, until called by drums all answer to the roll. Now most all retire to their blanket bed, but some, too prone for rude, wild sport, sally out of camp in quest of domestic game, 42 ON THE PARALLELS. and woe to the unsuspecting crowing cock that betrays his whereabouts and his little flock. Late next day we reached Liverpool Point, a landing on the Potomac where steamers were waiting to convey the troops to Acquia Creek landing. On the way down the river a severe snow storm set in, making our situation upon the uncovered deck of the vessel extremely disagreeable. The storm increased in violence, and as the steamer approached the landing I endeavored to define through the gathering gloom the outline of some buildings in which we could take refuge from the driving, pelting snow. But I looked in vain. It was quite dark when we marched off the vessel, to the top of a partly wooded hill, to pass the night as best we could. "Stack your guns!" shouted Lieutenant Wright, " fling your knapsacks under them and let all go to the devil, but take care of your- selves." His order was promptly obeyed. Several men went back to the landing and got perriiis- ox THE PARALLELS. 43 sion to sleep in the steamers' cabins, many fled to the woods to build fires, while others, with myself, cleared away the snow near our guns, hastily put up a few tents, then, spreading our rubber blankets on the water-soaked ground, covered ourselves with our woolen blankets and tried to sleep, but being wet and chilled to the bone, sleep was quite out of the question. Sud- denly the storm ceased, the clouds drifted away, revealing the full-orbed moon, which reflected a flood of cheerful light upon the snow-covered woods and hills. Then we got up, carried together a quantity of wood, started a roaring fire, and passed the night in speculative con- versation and listening to Sergeant Thompson make some predictions of what important events would transpire in a few days. IMean- while the writer watched the progress of a partial eclipse of the moon, the shadow passing over a large portion of her silvery disc. Owing to the intense cold, the brigade rested here two days, keeping big fires burning day and night to render the situation more endur- 44 ON THE PARALLELS. able. For the time being army regulations were entirely dispensed with. Confusion reigned. Groups of men from different regi- ments huddled promiscuously together under a sheltering rock or clump of trees, keeping themselves as warm as existing conditions per- mitted. To that bleak, cheerless hillside was given the name of "Camp Misery.'' Resuming our march from Acquia Creek, on the 9th of December we arrived at Falmouth, where we found ourselves among the war-worn veterans of the Army of the Potomac, which then occupied the north, bank of the Rappa- hannock river. Our new burnished-buttoned uniforms were in striking contrast to the faded and threadbare suits of the men who had been carrying a musket over a year. When they saw us coming they gathered ingroups to watch the column pass by. I will never forget the reply one of those battle-tried fellows gave to a member of our regiment, who jokingly called out : " Is there any game down here, boys ?" ON THE PARALLELS. 45 " Yes, pard," was the quick response, " you will find bigger game down here than you ever gunned after before." And he told the truth. At this point of my story a brief explanation of the operations of the contending armies at that period of the war, as given by Captain George B. Herbert, will enable the reader to comprehend more clearly the movements of the troops in the campaign to which my narrative now refers : "General A. E. Burnside, successor to Gen- eral McClellan, relieved, assumed command of the Army of the Potomac on November roth, and promptly reorganized his army. Burnside's plans were directed , toward the capture of Richmond, and on November i6th he moved in the direction of Fredericksburg, where an attempt to cross the Rappahannock was delayed on account of heavy demonstrations by General Ivce's forces, and hostilities were postponed 46 ON THE PARALLELS. until the 21st, when the main body of the Federal army had arrived at Falmouth, and from that point commanded the city of Fred- ericksburg with batteries on the Falmouth hills. On November 21st General Sumner demanded the surrender of the city, but the demand was refused by the authorities. The Confederate forces, numbering eighty thousand, had been pushed forward by Lee and disposed in a semicircle behind Fredericksburg, the right and left wings extending for miles above and below the city. There had been construct- ed along the heights, on the Falmouth side, twenty-nine batteries, to cover the operations." To return to my regiment, where we left the squad of veterans roaring with laughter at the witty remark of their comrade in reply to the inquiry for game by one of the new arrivals. Here the Twenty-fourth and Twenty-eighth New Jersey were immediately brigaded with the veteran regiments, — the Eighth Ohio, Four- teenth Indiana and Seventh Virginia, — under ON THE PARALLELS. 47 Brigadier-General Nathan Kimball, of French's Division, Second Corps. Before daylight on the morning of the second day after our arrival, we were quietly awakened by the officers and ordered to pack knapsacks as quickly as possible and prepare to march at a moment's notice. In quiet suspense the morning meal was hastily prepared, and the writer well remembers seating himself upon a stump, holding in one hand a tin cup full of hot coifee, in the other his allowance of hard tack, when the boom of a cannon away off towards the river fell upon our ears. It was a signal gun which called the two opposing armies to their feet. A few minutes later there was another report, then another, and by sunrise the booming of cannon was almost incessant. We stirred around lively, but the officers be- came impatient at our seeming slowness. Lieutenant Wright, who had had command of my Company from the time we left Wash- ington, had rarely checked the frivolity of his men when in line, but that morning he became 48 ON THE PARALLELS. a changed man and assumed an air of authority which really surprised us. While in rank, waiting to march, a comrade attempted to crack a joke with the Lieutenant, who quickly turned toward him, and with an emphasized oath, threatened to knock the man down if he said another word. His warning had a salutary effect upon the whole Company. Throwing our knapsacks into the vacated hospital tent, with sixty rounds of cartridges and three days' rations, we left camp on double- quick, passing a number of regiments all around preparing to follow. A battery of artillery passed us, the captain swearing at his men for driving so fast. After a forced march of about two. miles through the woods the column was halted in a large ravine, nearly a mile from the river and directly opposite the city of Freder- icksburg. Here in the valley we stacked our arms, waiting for further orders. It was a warm, sunny spot, that valley where we rested all day, and had nothing to do but listen to the thunder of the great guns planted ON THE PARALLELS. 49 on the Stafford Heights, or drowse in the genial sunshine; some told stories or played at cards, and not a few nibbled at their three days' rations until scarcely one full ration was left. Over at the river the scene was more lively and exciting. The Federal batteries, stationed along the heights, were bombarding the city, while the engineers were laying pontoon bridges for the passage of the troops across the river. Con- federate sharpshooters, secreted in gardens and behind buildings, harassed the engineers exceed- ingly, and volunteers from the Seventh Michigan crossed the river in pontoon boats to dislodge them. An unknown imaginative writer thus pictures the scene in verse : "They leaped in the rocking shallops, Ten offered where one could go ; And the breeze was alive with laughter Till the boatmen began to row. "Then the shore where the rebels harbored Was fringed with a gush of flame, And buzzing like bees o'er the water, The swarms of their bullets came. 50 ON THE PARALLELS. "And many a brave, stout fellow, Who sprang in the boats with mirth. Ere they made the fatal crossing, Was a load of lifeless earth." ON THE PARALLELS. 51 CHAPTER V. SCENES ACROSS THE RIVER — FLEEING REFU- GEES TROOPS ENTER THE BURNING CITY. WITH yet more to say about what transpired that day at the crossing, what of the scenes which were then being enacted in the town across the river, and beyond ? A better iiarratorof the pathetic spectacle there witnessed could not have been found, in my prolonged search by letter for one of the living actors in that thrilling drama of forty years ago, than in the person of Captain Val. C. Giles, who, he informed me, enlisted in the "Tom Green Riifles," a company raised in Austin, Texas, early in the spring of 1861, and which was later assigned to the Fourth Regiment in the Texas Brigade. Having endured the hardships and privations of active campaigning, and escaping 52 ON THE PARALLELS. the dangers in many hard-fought battles, he returned to his home in the fall of 1865, after an absence of more than four and a half years. The sectional feeling which then existed between the North and the South has changed. Mr. Giles has written numerous reminiscences of his personal experiences, and since I com- menced upon the first chapter of this volume, one of his poems, " Then and Now," was con- tributed to the " Confederate Daughter." Here are three verses : '■For four long years I wore the gray, And followed my old brigade All over old Virginia On the Pennsylvania raid. Came west with General Longstreet In eighteen sixtj^-'three, And fought and starved with General Bragg In eastern Tennessee. "Our clothes grew old and faded, And sad indeed our plight, But we plodded on in rags and hope. Believing we were right. ON THE PARALLELS. 53 We used to hate the " bluecoats'' And all the Yankee crew. Our souls were wrapped in Dixie, ■ We fought and cussed ' the blue. " I never dreamed in those old days That I would live to see The sons of comrades wear the blue Who marched and fought with Lee. But time, they say, will mellow wine, It mellows passion, too, For I was proud to see my ' kid Go marching off in blue. " "Enclosed," Captain Giles wrote, "I send you a reminiscence of Fredericksburg that I contributed to the 'Galveston News' in 1897. If any part of it should suit you, you are wel- come to use it." The paper is most interesting from beginning to end, but I will only quote those parts of his story which I want to inter- weave into my own narrative : "My brigade," he began, "was stationed on the foot-hills about a mile and a half from the river, opposite the town. Fifty houses were on 54 ON THE PARALLELS. fire in half an hour after the terrible bombard- ment began. Old men, women and children came pouring out of that stricken town, seeking safety back of our lines. Women were carrying babies and leading little children, many of them crying and all frightened. The pale, eager faces of those fleeing refugees appealed to the heart of every soldier there, but we could do nothing for them except make way for them to pass to the rear. With all this stream of homeless, heart-broken people passing us, there was some- thing now and then that made the soldier laugh, although his heart was overflowing with pity at the sad sight before him. I saw one boy leading a dog, a common cur at that, and carr)ing a monkey on his shoulder. The dog sat back on the rope and the monkey kept pulling the boy's cap off and throwing it on the ground. The little fellow was mad all over. A little tot of a girl was hugging up a rag doll as big as she was. Some were carry- ing cats, and I noticed one little girl with a parrot." ON THE PARALLELS. 55 Now back to the ravine from where I digressed. The sun had sunk out of sight, I think, when the cannonading ceased, and news quickly passed along the line that the bridge was com- pleted. In a few minutes the order to fall in was given, and the column started out of the ravine. Comrade Stiles, in the platoon next ahead of me, caught his foot in a briar vine and fell sprawling to th£ ground. Viewed from a rear standpoint, the 'spectacle to me appeared so amusingly ridiculous that I could not help indulging in loud laughter. He was a perfect imitation of a diving frog. Some one behind me spoke up: " Borton will laugh on the other side of his face pretty soon." Trifling as the incident might have seemed to others, in those moments of great suspense it looked very comical to me, and though I have never beheld Stiles since the day we separated for our homes, I never forgot his ungraceful stumble. I think the fall hurt him some, for he regained his feet with a badly bent countenance. When we climbed out of the valley and 56 ON THE PARALLELS. moved across the level plain towards the river, it was so dark that objects at a distance were very indistinct. vSuddenly, from a point far away on the ■Opposite shore, we saw a flash of fire instantly followed by the report of a cannon and whizz of a solid shot passing over our heads. Soon came another. Tiie column halted, and, instead of proceeding on toward the river, was counter- marched back to the woods, while a Federal battery on the bluffs opened a rapid fire on the enemy's big guns which had been turned upon our ranks. In front of the Lacy House, away ofi^ to oitr left, we could discern a motley throng of soldiers, mounted orderlies and attendants in charge of saddle horses ; but when those scream- ing shrapnel came from across the river, the crowd scattered in all directions. From our position at the edge of the woods on the brow of the hill, a good view of the conflagration in Fredericksburg could be had. The scene was awfully sublime, but a truly sad one for meditation. Some time in the night I ON THE PARALLELS. 57 awoke, and, rising to my feet, gazed awhile on the sleeping forms of my comrades around me with feelings not to be described, for well I knew we were on the eve of a great battle. The conflagration across the river yet lit up the sky, when I again laid down and slept until morning. At dawn the drums beat for roll- call ; we answered to our names ; and as soon as we could cook and swallow a light breakfast, the command was given to fall in and the brigade again started to cross into the city undisturbed. To reach the river shore, we marched down a narrow ravine and filed to the right, passing broken gun carriages, and dead horses — killed during the bombardment. Straggling in single file along a narrow path, high up on the crest of the ravine, we met, under guard, a batch of Confederate prisoners. A man in my Company, who wanted to say something funny, called to the prisoners in a rather taunting way, to which salutation one of the Confederates answered: 58 ON THE PARALLELS. " Never mind, Yanks, you chaps will ketch hell over there." Crossing the river on the pontoon bridge at double quick, the column entered the town at Hawk street, turned down Main street and halted. Lying near the crossing, I noticed a dead Confederate soldier who had been killed the day before, for on his clothes was a thick coat of frost. This was the' first dead body of a soldier killed in action that I had seen. Here and there a Union soldier was boiling a cup of coffee among the smouldering ruins of the burned buildings. Heaps of shattered walls and other debris lying about in the streets indi- cated where the cannon balls and shells had done their destructive work. Every business place was vacated and the entire city seemed deserted, save by a few residents of the poor class. At short intervals shells and solid shot, fired from Rappahannock heights, went scream- ing over the town into the enemy's fortifica- tions, the loud reports of the heavy guns reverberating above oiir heads sounding not ON THE PARALLELS. 59 unlike crashes of thuuder at the approach of a mighty tempest Shortly after we halted in the streets, and while leaning on my musket, a rifle-ball fired by a secreted Confederate struck the pavement, and, glancing off, buried itself in a rolled blanket on the shoulder of Private Ballinger at my elbow. Ballinger was the first man in the regiment struck by a bullet. It had doubtless been aimed at our Colonel, who was sitting on his horse in front of his regiment. Excitement ran high, and to preserve proper discipline extreme measures were, in some instances, threatened. I saw a sergeant spring out to gun's length in front of his Company, and take deliberate aim at a refractory com- rade's head, with the angry remark : " I would shoot down my own brother if he disobeyed my orders. Keep your place." The man staid in the ranks. A young girl, in a frenzy of fright, rushed out of her home imploring the officers to not let the men hurt her. Numbers of soldiers of different commands left the ranks to secure some booty. I gaw a mounted officer 60 ON THE PARALLELS. use his sword freely on a crowd in front of a looted store, angrily ordering his men to go back to their regiments. A few minutes later we changed our position, stacked arms and took our ease on the sidewalk. Boxes of tobacco were brought from somewhere, pried open with bayonets, and haversacks and pockets were filled to bursting. Wandering away from my Companj', I went into a few vacated business places, to find everything within topsy-turvy ; books, papers and other discarded articles laid thick upon the floors. Troops poured into the city all day, until every avenue swarmed with armed men. Cap- tain Giles, from his position in the enemy's lines, had evidently been watching the Union troops, for he sajs : "Now the enemy began to come, and it looked like the whole world was coming. They filed up the river, down the river, and all over the town and lower valley. The sunlight gleamed and sparkled on muskets, cannon and ON THE PARALLELS. 61 the trappings on the artillery horses as the long line of blue kept pressing on. An interested comrade standing near me jokingly called ont : ' Say, Captain, where shall we get dirt enough to bury all those men?' " Quietness reigned all night, the drowsy sen- tinels being startled but a few times by the report of a rifle out on the picket line. I was detailed for guard duty in the town. 62 ON THE PARALLELS. CHAPTER VL STORMING OF MARYE'S HEIGHTS — FEELINGS OF THE AUTHOR — SCENES ON THE FIELD. NEXT morning, December 13th, the city was enveloped in a heavy fog, which did not lift, if my recollection is clear, until ten o'clock or later. As far as we could see in either direction stood a continuous line of soldiers in readiness. to start to the field of action. Mounted officers and orderlies were continual!}- passing back and forth along the lines, while some of the regi- mental officers and privates, tired of standing in the ranks, dropped out aud sought a seat upon the curb or a near-by door step. Among those who had taken a resting place was a sur- geon, upon whose face I noticed was depicted an intense feeling of sadness. Perhaps he could not help it, for we all knew that some of ON THE PARALLELS. 63 us would soon be badly wounded if not instantlj^ killed. Yet this solemn fact did not make all men gloomy. The most lively fellows mim- icked the whizzing noise of an occasional round shot or shell in its arched flight high over the housetops, or cracked jokes with their comrades. I remember seeing Comrade Gaffney pick up a large book that had been thrown away, and, after finding a place to sit down, he jestingly told us to give him our attention while he read the "law of Moses." Barney, unfortunately, had never been schooled long enough to know his letters, but feigning to be reading, he went over a nonsenical rigmarole of some sort, to which we were not inclined to listen just then. Adjutant Crowl and Sergeant Grier, perhaps to keep their courage up, tried their hand at fenc- ing with their swords on the sidewalk. Presently is heard the command, "Atten- tion !" Every lounger springs to his place. We are ordered to prime. Every musket is raised and every man caps his piece. Our Colonel made some remarks, telling us to shoot 64 ON THE PARALLELS. low and try to wound a man in preference to killing him. Noticing a red colored scarf about my neck, he ordered me to take it off, saying it would make a good target for the enemy. The scarf disappeared. Suspense is intense. Finally, the long-expected, much-dreaded com- mand, "Forward!" is passed from ofiicer to officer standing at the head of their Companies. With an ominous silence akin to a funeral pro- cession. General Kimball began the perilous march down Caroline street by leading French's First Brigade, with the Twenty-fourth and Twenty-eighth New Jersey in the center. Seventh Virginia (Union) on the right and the Fourteenth Indiana on the left. Reaching what I will call Railroad avenue, the col- umn filed to the right and out that thorough- fare to begin the attack. I think I am telling the plain truth when I say that during that short march many of those men silently offered up to the Almighty their last prayer on earth. Our regiment was about to receive its first bap- tism of fire, and every one knew it. ON THE PARALLELS. 65 My feelings in that trying moment cannot be described. Oh, I thought, why this shed- ding of blood ? Why should brother take his brother's life? Under this impression, I in- stinctively cast a look upward to see if I could not behold a winged messenger of peace. But no ; the sea of bristling bayonets moved on. Shells and solid shot from the enemy's heavy guns now came crashing through brick walls, and pounded in the street around about us. The first wounded man I saw was hurrying down the sidewalk with one hand pressed, against a wound in his breast, inquiring for a; hospital. At the edge of the town we passed General Kimball facing us, in his saddle, who addressed his men in these words, which I never forgot : "Cheer up, my hearties! cheer up! This is something we must all get used to. Remember, this brigade has never been whipped, and don't let it be whipped to-day." No wild hurrah went up in response. Every face wore an expression of seriousness and 66 ON THE PARALLELS. dread. The scene, for the moment, called to my mind an incident I had once read in the military life of Napoleon Bonaparte. The General, says the historian, while watching his soldiers inarching into battle, observed one whose face was pallid with fear. Pointing out the man to oneof his aides, Bonaparte remarked : "There goes a brave man. He knows his danger but faces it." A minute later we realized the awful danger before us, but General Kimball's men, like Napoleon's, courageously faced it. A few steps further and we are out of the town, in the open fields, in full view of the enemy. While the brigade is' coming into position, at double- quick, to assault the Confederate fortifications around Marye's Heights, the artillerymen on the summit are turning their guns upon us, and with eff'ect. To facilitate our progress in the charge, haversacks and blankets are now thrown away. The company commanders shout sharply to their men to keep the regi- ments in line as thev advance to the attack. ON THE PARALLEI.S. 67 Screeching like demons in the air, solid shot, shrapnel and shells from the batteries on the hills strike the ground in front of us, behind us, and cut gaps in the ranks. See there ! A field officer has been struck by one of the missiles and a couple of men who ha\-e raised him to his feet are calling loudly for more help to get him ofi" the field. As the line advances up the slope, men wounded and dead drop from the ranks. It is not every man that can face danger like this. I saw a few so overcome by fear that they fell prostrate upon the ground as if dead. I have seen men drop upon their knees and pray loudly for deliverance, when courage and bravery, not supplication, was the duty of the moment. Hark ! There's one of my comrades, Johnny Brayerton, praying, too, perhaps for the first time in his life. It was a short one : ,, "Oh, Lord, dear, good Lord !"_ he. cried. But Johnny at that trying moment was as brave as he was devout, and kept his place in 68 ON THE PARALLELS. the front rank. Not a gun was fired, if I remember correctly, until the brigade reached the crest of the hill, when, like a burst of thunder, the roar of musketry became almost deafening. It seemed to me every soldier, after firing his piece, had thrown himself flat upon the ground to avoid the enemy's bullets, and I did not see how I could possibly load and fire by lying down in that crouching column of men. To stand up boldly along that firing line — the dead line — was almost certain death, so I ran to a blacksmith shop some distance to my right, where, with a number of other soldiers who had taken refuge there, we banged away at the rebels ; but they were so securely and safely entrenched behind a great stone wall, that I believe every man in the firing line felt that there was no hope of a victory. But we were there to fight, and continued shooting at our unseen foes. Surely, as a writer says : "It was a fight against fate; a march into the jaws of death with no hope of success, when the Confederate bullets would surely strike ON THE PARALLELS. 69 down an erect man. Every soldier that marched with Hancock that memorable December day has a battle record to be envied, if he did not see another fight during the war." So continuous was the roar of the musketry on the firing line, that I do not remember hear- ing the reports of the cannon, but the frightful whizz of heavy missiles passing over our heads every few seconds indicated that the batteries were not silent. The little frame building from which we were firing was by no means bullet-proof, yet we felt much safer there than standing out in full view of the enemy. Down goes one of our party, shot through the head. I know not for what reason, but I stopped firing a few moments, and stood over the life- less form of the uuknown soldier with a sort of fascination, wondering who he could be ; wondering what mother's boy had been added to the roll of the dead. A horse without saddle or bridle dashed from 70 ON THE PARALLELS. the enemy's lines and gallopped down the slope towards the town. Jiist then Colonel Robertson joined us for a few minutes, and noticing the dead body of the man lying at our feet, asked who it was. Nobody knew. The Colonel then ordered a couple of men to place the body by the side of the shop out of the way of charging troops. "There they come !" some one shouted, and looting back toward the city, we saw another long line of reinforcements charging up the slope. Lustily they were cheered as they advanced, and I noticed a wounded man sitting upon the ground waving his cap and cheering with the rest. Until nightfall, brigade after brigade charged across that field of death, to the dead-line, only to suffer disaster and defeat. I see a regiment charging up iheslope towards the stone wall opposite the Stephens' house. A large white dog is capering and leaping ahead of the column. My eyes follow another brigade advancing across the plain. They are veterans. Tlie line keeps well dressed, but the men are ox THE PARALLELS. 71 bending as low as they can travel, and the color- bearers trailing their flags on the ground. Those heroic men are trying to avoid the Con- federate bullets, but many in the ranks never took part in another fight. Here comes a regi- ment charging right towards us, advancing as orderly as if on dress parade. The cool conduct of their Colonel attracted the attention of a few, and some cried out : '"That's the way for a Colonel to bring in his men." Some of the boys were jolly and laughing when they passed us, iu close column, by the blacksmith shop, out of sight. See ! some of them are already returning — I mean those that are wounded — to secure shelter along with us in front of the building. Two stalwart fellows came around the corner, dragging their dying Colonel riddled with bullets. That regiment must have been literally cut to pieces. I never think of the scene without regretting not having asked one of the men the name of the regiment, and I wish these lines would reach the notice 72 ON THE PARALLELS. of a survivor who could answer for me the question I ought to have asked at that awful moment, when so many of those brave fellows were marching to their death. In memory, the writer can yet see their heroic commander lead- ing the charge, and the next minute lying mangled and bleeding, surrounded by some of his wounded men, the blood dripping from their heads, arms and faces, showing where the enemy's bullets had struck. Having been ordered to cease firing at this point, to let the unknown regiment pass our line, I joined company with the color-bearers of the Twenty-fourth regiment. Corporal Kelley, of Company A, and Sergeant Thompson, of Company C. We were seated upon the ground in a small circle, when a shell struck and exploded in our midst. Stunned and blinded for an instant, with my face smarting with pain, I sprang to my feet. If it is possible for a man to get scorched by the burning powder from an exploding shell without being struck by the flying fragments, then such was my experience ON THE PARALLELS. 73 at that frightful moment. I heard Kelley give a piercing scream, and as soon as the smoke cleared away I knelt beside him and looked to see where he was hurt, and asked him if he would like me to help him off the field. "No," he answered, so faintly that I could hardly hear his voice amid such a terrific din of firearms, "let me lie here.'' Then I put his canteen to his lips, from which he took a hearty drink. Then I left, for what more could I do? Poor Kelley, his wounds were mortal. A shell had torn a great hole clear through one ankle, and another had gone into his bod Sergeant Thompson had one of his feet partly blown ofi". How Thompson and myself escaped being mangled as bad as Kelley cannot be explained. A bullet crashed through the shop, throwing a splinter into the face of a man standing near. He cursed in hot anger and left the spot. From the blacksmith shop I hurriedly returned along the firing line to the red brick house, near which we opened fire in the assault. It was indeed a foolhardy act to change my position 74 ON THE PARALLELS. right in front of a charging line of reinforce- ments ; but, strange as it may seem, I got through unscathed. I remember passing along a perfect windrow of prostrate men, dead and wounded. Reaching this house, which was crowded with wounded, I rejoined a number of my Company comrades, while whole regiments, it seemed to me, were crouched promiscuously on the ground in front of it, sheltered to some extent from the raking fire of the enemy. As a soldier, I felt I was not doing my duty by standing idle at the frjont of battle. I must get somewhere, where I could participate in the firing. So I moved to the corner of the brick house, and was about to step out to take aim at the enemy, when Comrade Butler cried out : "Borton, don't go out there ; you'll be sure to get hit!" While hesitating a moment, at my comrade's warning, an unknown man ventured to fire a shot, but before he had time to take down his musket, a bullet pierced his breast and the poor ON THE PARALLELS. 75 fellow fell dying against the man who had warned me of the danger I was going to risk. Close by that very spot, Adjutant Crowell received a fatal bullet while rallying his men. Few men, it is claimed, possessed in a greater degree the qualifications of a good soldier and popular ofiScer. A few yards away, at my left, screened by an abrupt knoll. Corporal Bradway and an unknown man continued firing until the latter was killed by raising his head a little too high, and Bradway was disabled by a ball in his shoulder, after having fired thirty-five rounds. I question whether in any of the great battles of the war the soldiers became more mixed in action, or where as much freedom was taken by the men to save their lives, as the troops who gallantly charged up to Marye's Heights that memorable 13th of December. All over the plain men were going out of the battle, numbers of them wounded, others helping off disabled comrades, and scores seeking safety back into the city. In confirmation of this 76 ON THE PARALLELS. statement, General Couch, who climbed up into the clock tower on the Court House to get a view of the field, in describing the battle years afterwards, said : " I remember the whole plain was covered with men, prostrate and dropping, the live men running here and there, and the wounded com- ing back. The commands seemed to be mixed up. I had never before seen anything like that — nothing approaching it in terrible uproar and destruction." A Prussian officer of high rank, who wit- nessed the battle, declared to some of the higher officers, that he never saw troops march up to storm batteries in the face of such a dreadful fire. He expressed admiration at the excellent order in which the divisions advanced under fire, and the obstinacy with which the battle was contested on both sides, and said that no such severe fighting had ever been done in any of the European wars within the past twelve years. This officer was at the battles of Ma- genta, Solferino, and in the Crimean war at ON THE PARALLELS. 77 Sebastopol, and said that the English and French troops never displayed more daring and good fighting qualities than did the soldiers at the storming of Marye's Heights. General Kimball's brigade held its position at the firing-line until relieved, but even then the men could not safely retire. The only alternative was to lie at fall length upon the ground, skulk into or behind neighboring buildings, or, at much greater risk of being shot down, withdraw to the rear. While at the brick house, looking around about me upon the awful scene -of carnage, a bullet grazed my head. I watched a brigade charge up the slope, close to our left, but the brave men, unable to withstand the withering fire, soon fell back in disorder, followed by soldiers who had been at the dead-line since the first attack by Kimball's men. With a number of others, in the mixed throng collected in front of the brick building, the writer withdrew from the field. All the way down the slope to the edge of the town I saw my fellow-soldiers dropping on every side. 78 ON THE PARALLELS. in their efforts to get out of the reach of the murderous fire from the Confederate infantry securely entrenched behind the long stone wall and the batteries on the heights. I saw a shell explode, close to the heels of a large man fleeing for his life. He was blown clear from the ground, falling in a heap, frightfully mangled. A little further on, another unfortunate fellow was lying on the ground, in a violent death struggle. At the edge of the town, two men were helping off the field a badly-wounded comrade, who. was cursing in a frenzy of anger and vowing vengeance upon the rebels. A couple of stretcher carriers were carrying to the hospital a man with both legs shot away. It was a sickening sight. Scenes such as I have described made a lasting impression upon my memory. Little did I then think of telling these things forty years after their occurrence, for, to declare the whole truth, I was afraid at that moment I would not live forty minutes. When the repulsed brigade hurried in con- ON THE PARALLELS. 79 "usion back towards the town, followed by sol- iiers of other commands, I thought the whole ine was giving way, but discovered my mis- :ake after leaving the field. Taking a hearty irink of water from the street gutter, I again shouldered my gun and started back to the iring line, meeting on the way two of my Company comrades coming into the city. "Borton, where are you going?" asked one Df the men. "Going back to the firing line," I answered. "For God's sake, Borton, don't go ; you will get killed if you do ; stay witli us," exclaimed my comrade in a very earnest tone. Taking his advice, I staid off the field, and along with him and others spent the night in a stable. At intervals through the night a fuse shell from the enemy's fortifications would burst high above the housetops, the scattering pieces descending with a whistling noise. • A piece of iron crashed through the roof, but I was then sleeping too soundly to be wakened. I have never forgiven myself for not proceed- 80 ON THE PARALLELS. ing out to the firing line, and from there assist- ing some comrade less fortunate than myself off the field to a hospital ; but had I gone on and faced those flying bullets, to-day I might have been lying at the foot of Willis Hill, in the ranks of the scores and hundreds who, on that day, began their never-ending sleep of death. When darkness closed the conflict, the scat- tered and shattered regiments made their way back to the city, as the long ambulance train moved out on the field to take oS" the wounded. All .next day — Sunday — men were inquiring for their Companies, and visiting the hospitals in search of missing comrades. Meeting Cap- tain Hancock on the street, he conducted me to one of the hospitals to see our color-bearer. Corporal Kelley. Lying upon the floor of a large room, around which blood-stained soldiers laid as close as they could be crowded together, Kelley was dying. Into churches, halls and dwellings — build- ings of every sort — the wounded had been car- ried, where the army surgeons attended to their ON THE PARALLELS. SI injuries and tried to alleviate their sufferings. Soon after leaving the hospital I joined a remnant of my Company, quartered in a billiard saloon. As the day advanced, more of the missing came in, but some never.returned. The morning after the battle, the Twenty-fourth Regiment mustered only thirty-six men. Hundreds, who had become separated from their Companies, took shelter in cellars, base- ments, stables, sheds, — wherever they could find a roof to cover their chilled forms from the freezing air. 82 ON THE PARALLELS. CHAPTER VII. CAPTAIN GILES LOOKS ON FROM THE OTHER SIDE — THE author's ESCAPE FROM SHARPSHOOTERS — ARMY CROSSES THE RIVER. LET US now take a look at the scene of carnage from the other side, as it was viewed by Captain Giles, who enjoyed, may I not say, the enviable privilege of not being obliged to take a hand in the great slaughter. "From our position," said he, "we had a splendid view of the battle. The heavy fight- ing was below Hamilton's crossing to our right and on Marye's and Willis' Hills on our left. My regiment never fired a gun and only lost one man. A young man named Worsham, of Company E, ventured down town during the ON THE PARALLELS. 83 nnbardment and was killed by the explosion ' a shell. "We saw Franklin's splendid division of ;deral troops start on that forlorn hope against arye's and Willis' Hills, four long, dark blue ilumns, with 'Old Glory' proudly waving ^er every regiment, their bright guns flashing the sunlight of that midwinter day. The st column moved steadily on, as if going on "ess parade instead of to a sure death. The Dnfederate batteries along the crest of the dge were silent, but it was only that silence hich precedes the storm. When the first ilumn reached a point about six hundred irds from the lines, the batteries opened multaneously as though fired by a flash of ectricity. The roar of musketry joined the allowing artillery and the whole earth trembled. " In a few moments the scene before us was iveloped in smoke, and we could see nothing it a seething, roaring crater of smoke and e; 'splendid murder' reigned supreme there. "It was that character of murder that the 84 ON THE PARALLELS. world applauded at the time, but now, after the lapse of more than three decades, a few silver- haired old mothers scattered all over this Union, in the twilight of the evening or stillness of the night, think of the noble boys who fell at Fredericksburg, long since forgotten by the busy world. Napoleon, Wellington and Grant were great, for 'one murder makes a villain, a million make a hei'o.' Colonel John T. Crisp, of Missouri, in making a speech to his regiment eulogizing the memory of General A. Sidney Johnston, wound up by saying : 'It is glorious to die for one's country, but I would rather be John T. Crisp alive tlian General A. Sidney Johnbton dead.' "Six times the Federal infantry stormed that fatal Gibraltar; six times they were driven back, torn, bleeding and dying." It was a common thing in the army for a soldier to cast aside his blanket, overcoat or knapsack before starting in a charge. Having ON THE PARALLELS. 85 flung my haversack away in the assault the day before, how was I to carry my rations if I did not procure another? "Boys," I remarked to my companions, "I guess I will go out on the battlefield and get somebody's haversack-; I cannot get along with- out one." "Bring me a blanket, won't you, Ben?" called out Isaac Ridgway, who had lost his the same way. "Yes, Ike, I will," I replied, as I started away. The tumult of battle had ceased the evening before. Troops were now moving hurriedly about the city, led by excited officers ; but the great death-roll was increasing all the time. The hospitals were giving up their dead — which laid in rows in front of those buildings, await- ing burial in the trenches which gangs of men were digging in gardens and vacant lots. As I approached the battlefield by way of Hanover street, which makes an abrupt descent at the edge of the town, I heard the Confederate sharp- 86 ON THE PARALLELS. shooters all the way along- the stone wall, up at the heights, firing at every Union soldier that appeared in sight. Not suspecting any immediate danger, I continued my course down the hill until I reached the open field, where I stopped at the ruins of a small brick house, destroyed by shells. Inside the walls a dead soldier laid on a heap of crumbled bricks. To find the coveted haversack, and a blanket for Comrade Ridgway, further search was unnec- essary. They were lying all around. Upon the breast of the lifeless body lay a prettily- bound volume of " The Book of Common Prayer.'' Covering the ghastly corpse with a cast-off garment, I turned away to gaze over the field where death had not yet ended its appalling feast, for the well-aimed bullets from the sharp- shooters now and then whizzed across the plain. On a near-by hill-side, at the right of Hanover street, I counted fifteen Union dead, where a regiment had made a futile attemrpt to capture a battery. Away off at my left, near the rail- ON THE PARALLELS. 87 road, in one placeand another among the dead, a severely-wounded soldier could be seen creep- ing or limping, in a low, stooping posture, trying to get back into the town. Whether any succeeded in getting away alive, the writer does not know ; their progress was so slow I did not watch them long. While surveying different parts of the field, and contemplating the awful realities of war, a ball from a sharp- shooter's rifle crashed through a small frame shed which I had just entered, barely missing my limbs. My whereabouts had become known to the enemy, who were bent on driving me from cover, for a fair and open shot. Believing my situation very dangerous, I resolved upon flight back to the city. So catching up my trophies, I sprang out into the road and hurried back up Hanover street on double-quick. The fun was then on the sharpshooters, but they didn't succeed in bringing down their game. Bullet after bullet whizzed past my head and buried in the hill, but by the j5rovidence of God I escaped them all. 88 ON THE PARALLELS. Comrade Ridgway thanked me for bringing him an army blanket, and I felt pleased over the possession of another haversack. Captain Giles, from the enemy's line, went out 01) a part of the field, too, the same day, but says all the wounded had been taken away from there. What he saw is best told in his own words : "The next morning, before good daylight, Comrade Deering and myself stole away from our line of battle and went down in the 'valley of death,' where the fighting the day before had been the hardest. There I witnessed a scene that haunts me still. I disobeyed orders to burden my memory with the most appalling sight I ever saw before or since. The wounded had been removed, but the dead were all there. They lay iu heaps, crossed and piled and in every imaginable position, all cold, rigid and stiffly frozen. "We never saw one-half the battlefield, but we saw enough, and I was glad when a little, dried-up Georgia captain very peremptorily ON THE PARALLELS. 89 ordered us back to our command, which we reached about sun-up. "The destruction of human life was dreadful, especially on the Federal side. As General D. H. Hill sat on his horse and looked sadly at the awful scene in front of the sunken road, he remarked that nothing in modern warfare ever surpassed it, unless it was the hollow road of Ohain at Waterloo." Soon after my return to my Company we were ordered down to the river, where the regiment was reforming by the accession of other Companies and scattered men from the places of their previous night's bivouac after the battle. The regiment spent Sunday night on the river shore, both armies remaining quiet. But on Monday the officers were astir. General Burnside had been preparing to make another attack, and when along the line the command, "Fall in!" was given, it thrilled every man's heart with a feeling of indescribable dread. 90 ON THE PARALLELS. Captain Garwood, who then had temporary command of the regiment, asked who would carry the colors. All kept silent for a few seconds, when Corporal John Chapman, of Company A, and Sergeant George W. Bailey, of Company E, advanced from the ranks, Bailey taking the National emblem and Chapman the State flag. Captain Garwood, with unconcealed emotion, grasped the hand of both of these unfaltering men, in this, the most trying moment of their lives. O, merciful God ,! must we charge again across that blood-stained field, over stiffened corpses, into another holocaust of death ? No. While standing in position, waiting in great suspense for orders to again march out to the field. General Burnside had been persuaded by the presentations of General Sumner, to aban- don the attempt. The order to stack our guns relieved our suspense, for a time at least, and Bailey and Chapman furled their flags. Night came again, and again we fixed our- selves away upon the muddy shore as best we ON THE PARALLELS. 91 luld. One of my comrades found a short dder ; I had a strip of board. We soon rmed a partnership. Upon his ladder I aced my board, and together we "laid us 3wn to sleep." But only a little while had ir eyes been closed in slumber when we were oused by a hand laid lightly on our limbs, id then I heard a voice in a very low tone. ; was Captain Locke, of Company K, bending ver us. " Boys," he whispered, "get ready to march 5 quickly as you possibly can." " Is Burnside retreating ?" we both asked at nee ; but the Captain, in his hurry, had gone way to arouse others. Without a moment's elay, in perfect silence, the regiment fell into ne, at a given signal started, and in less than alf an hour we were safely across the river, allowed by thousands of troops — dispirited, opeless of conquering a foe so strongly forti- ed. From the i2th of December until the retreat n the night of the 15th — three days and three 92 ON THE PARALLELS. nights — all that portion of Bnrnside's army which had crossed over into the city was as much at the mercy of General Lee as a captive mouse between the paws of a playful cat. ON THE PARALLELS. 93 CHAPTER VIII. STORIES OF THE WOUNDED — HISTORY OF A TESTAMENT. WE straggled back to Camp Knight, in the Stafford hills, arriving about midnight. The sky had become clouded, rain soon began to fall, and those who had no tents were drenched to the skin. Next day the weather grew severely cold ; many who had lost their blankets in battle were obliged to construct temporary brush shelters, and keep fires burn- ing, until supplied with new tents and blankets. The losses of our regiment in killed, wound- ed and missing, in that disastrous campaign, amounted in all to one hundred and sixty. My Company had two killed and thirteen wounded. Many of those reported missing were never 94 ON THE PARALLELS. heard from. Lieutenant Alexander L. Robe- son bravely led forward Company H, never to return. Though a faithful and oft-repeated search was made for him, no tidings were ever received, nor has any positive intelligence since been obtained concerning him. The members of his Company loved him as a brother, and his men were equally dear to him. He was a man of exemplary Christian character. Some whose wounds were considered fatal lived to get home. There was Hudson Davis, of Company C, who, while in the act of priming his gun, was struck near the temple, by a bullet which crashed through the bone and lodged in his head, felling him senseless to the earth. His comrades, who saw him fall, supposed him dead. But they were mistaken. Years after- wards he related his experience to the author. "When I came to my senses," he said, "I was on my hands and knees. I got upon my feet and could hardly stand, but managed to get into the brick house near by, when I got on a bed in a rear room up-stairs. While lying ON THE PARALLELS. 95 there two wounded men came in and got on the bed with me. Through the back window we could see the stone wall. Suddenly a bullet came through the window, striking the ceiling and knocking off some of the plaster. The two men with me sprang out of bed and crawled under it. From that time I had the bed to myself, up to twelve o'clock that night, when I got up and walked to the front door, where I met Colonel Robertson, who had come back onto the battlefield to search for his missing men. I asked him if the ambulances were running. He said they had all left the field, and if I was able to walk, to get back to the city as soon as possible. I went back the same way we had gone out in the charge, and as I passed a large building, some one shot at me. Meeting Lieutenant Simpkins, he conducted me to a hospital, which was so densely crowded I did not want to stay ; so he took me to a vacated drug store, where my Company had quartered the night before the battle. Next morning I was unable to get up, and was then 96 ON THE PARALLELS. carried across the river to a hospital tent, where I suffered severely from the intensely cold weather. I could not tell my name. I would study and try to tell the doctors, but could not do so. Seeing a man holding a lead pencil, by signs I got him to let me have it, with a bit of paper, thinking I might be able to write my name ; but after trying nearly an hour, gave it up. The doctor in charge did not know there was a ball in my wound, but one day another surgeon came in and soon discovered there was a bullet in my head. They quickly placed me upon the operating table and went to work at me ; and, after removing several fragments of bone, the ball was extracted, after having been in my' head over four days. Right away after the ball had been taken out I was able to give my name, company and regiment. Along with other wounded men I was sent on to Wash- ington." Very few, if any, among the wounded on the field who lived to get off alive, had a more thrilling experience than Private Martin V. ON THE PARALLELS. 97 Haines, of Company D, who was struck in two places soon after the regiment opened fire. His wonnds were so severe he could not retire, nor could any one possibly help him away. "There I had to lay," he said, "the firing, charging and retreating columns passing over and by me throughout that day, which seemed of interminable length, and I was not taken off the field until darkness had put a stop to the awful work of destruction. I was wounded in the breast and side, the wounds bleedings chilled to the bone and expecting a bullet to enter my head at any moment, for I could not crouch very low to the ground. The volleys of bullets from the rebel infantry struck all around me, some even scathing my body, while the whizz of cannon balls and shells increased the'horrors of my situation. " Some of the shells would burst high in the air, others strike the soft earth, throwing up clouds of mud and perhaps portions of a man- gled body. Then would the cries of the w-ounded be redoubled and the voices of others 98 ON THE PARALLELS. silenced forever. On each side of me laid two of my company comrades, one of whom was shot in the stomach. I shall never forget his cries. His tent-mate tried to help him, but the poor fellow begged to be killed and put out of his misery. The other comrade, our cook, was shot through the legs and other parts of the body, and in his extreme agony, would rub his hands on his face, smearing it all over with blood while calling piteously for help. I was frequently trod upon by the advancing and retreating troops, and often do I wonder how I escaped being killed. By nightfall the pleading voices of my dying comrades had become weaker and fainter, and when, at last, in the gloom of night, helping hands lifted me from the freezing ground to take me off the field, one of them was cold and rigid in death's em- brace, and the other in a dying condition when he was carried away, but he never re-crossed the river. "I was found by Comrade Applegate, who heard me groaning and crying for help. Secur- ON THE PARALLELS. 99 ing an ambulance he had me taken into the town, where I lay in one of the hospitals with- out any care until Sunday afternoon, when a member of m^- Company found me and had me removed at once to quarters. "A bullet, which entered my breast, had pierced the right lung and has never been extracted. A spent piece of shell struck my left side, breaking two ribs without cutting the flesh. " For a period of six months I was unable to raise my hand to my head without assistance, and it was years before I could perform manual labor of any kind. Forty years and over have rolled by since that dreadful day, but those agonizing, pleading cries for help from my dying comrades are yet ringing in my mental ear, and the horrible scenes I then beheld sometimes even, yet haunt me night and day." Mr. Haines keeps a paper store in Elmer, New Jersey, and is a consistent and active worker in the Methodist Church. Another case of marvelous recovery from 100 ON THE PARALLELS. wounds was that of Edward Thompson, a mem- ber of the Sixty-ninth Regiment, Pennsylvania Volunteers. His command had charged to within twenty yards of the stone wall, when he was hit in the face, the bullet lodging in the neck. There he laid unconscious until removed about five o'clock on Sunday morning, when he was taken across the river to the Second Corps Hospital ; from there, eight days after- wards, to Philadelphia, and in two months time he returned to the same log house that he left to go to the fight, carrying then, and ever afterwards, the same lump of lead embedded in his neck close to the vertebral column, where it lodged after leaving the rebel's musket when it was fired from over the stone wall. Happeuings of a peculiar nature invariably occurred in every battle, and some, which were considered very commonplace at the time, have been used to fill chapters of unwritten history in after years. ON THE PARALLELS. 10 A rebel bullet, that had lost its force afte deflecting from a fence post, lodged in th( pocket of a man named Saul, in Company C With perfect indifference to the danger of hi, position, he drew the then harmless missili from where he had felt it stop, and, turning t( Comrade Bradway, remarked : "You can't do that." "Can't do what?" asked Bradway. "Why, catch a bullet in your pocket," wa; the laughing rejoinder. A man, after being struck, let fall his musket laid down as composedly as if to take a nap and in that posture died. Self-possession and steadiness of nerve go i great ways towards preserving one's life in tli^ midst of danger, and death has overtaken score of men who lost presence of mind while in tin excitement of action. One pleasant summer afternoon, in the yea 1 90 1, a Civil War veteran, while limping alonj Pearl stre.et in the city of Bridgeton, New Jersey noticed a man in charge of a fruit stand whosi 102 ON THE PARALLELS. fact looked very familiar. He gazed so earn- estly at him as he quietly passed by that a bystander re.narked : "Eph,. I guess that man will know you the next time he sees you." " I am sure he will," responded the street merchant. Finally the stranger turned back, and, stop- ping in front of the stand, said : "If I did not know that Eph. Buck was tilled at the battle of Fredericksburg, almost forty years ago, I should think you were he." "I am Ephraim Buck, and still living," was the astonishing answer given to the lame trav- eler. We will let Mr. Buck tell the rest : "I told the comrade," said Buck, "that I could not place him, but, as my hearing is poor, I did not clearly understand the name he gave me. He was wounded, he told me, in the hip, and discharged from the hospital without returning to the regiment. He inquired after several other comrades whom I well knew. "Concerning myself," Buck continued, "I ON THE PARALLELS. IC was wounded in the breast, when about thirt yards from the blacksmith shop, but afterward managed to get up to my Company at the firin line. This strange comrade said he was struc' down some forty yards from the brick house and saw me fall in the charge, believing that was killed." In the ranks of the Philadelphia Cor: Exchange Regiment — One Hundred ani Eighteenth Pennsylvania Volunteers — when i hurried up the slope toward the impregnabl stone wall, was Charles Watson, in Compan; C. In trying to pass through or under a three rail fence, Watson's knapsack caught betweei the rails. To free himself, he reached around unhooked the fastening and let it drop. Tha was the last he ever saw of his knapsack, whicl contained a pocket Testament, and a few relic: of his brother who lost his life at Shepherds town a short timebefore. Forty years afterwards almost, great was the surprise of Policemai Charles Watson, of Roxborough, when showi a letter written by Captain D. M. Birdseye, o 104 ON THE PARALLELS. Aberdeen, South Dakota, and addressed to Rev. D. A. Geist, pastor of the Ridge Avenue Meth- odist Church, stating that the writer had in his possession a copy of the New Testament, upon a flyleaf of which was written : "Charles Wat- son, One Hundred and Eighteenth Regiment, P. v., from his pastor, of Ridge Avenue M. E. Church." "Thinking," continued Mr. Birdseye, "that if Watson or any of his family are living this would be quite an interesting relic, I write you, hoping that you will help me to return it to his family. The book does not give an\ further information than the above. My wife, a former resident of your city, told me to-day that there was a Ridge Avenue M. E. Church in Phila- delphia." With this information, Mr. Birdseye wrote to the present pastor, though not knowing his name, and Mr. Geist promptly called upon Watson, who lost no time in answering Birds- eye's inquir)-, and .soon afterwards received the long-lost book with a letter of explanation, ON THE PARALLELS. 105 which the recipient kindly sent me to read, with full permission to record it upon these pages of history. Under date of May 18, 1902, Mr. Birdseye wrote as follows : "Comrade Watson, I take great pleasure in restoring this keepsake to you, its original -owner. I have kept it all these years, and occasionally, while looking at your name in it, have thought of you as one of the killed in that battle. It is not clear in my memory now whether the comrade who gave it to me, in exchange for a pack of cards, took it from the knapsack or found it lying upon the ground. I was at that time in Camp Convalescent, Alexandria, Virginia, being on my way back to my regiment — Fourteenth New York Vol- unteers — from a hospital in Philadelphia, where I made the acquaintance of Miss Mary A. Pol- lock, who lived hard-by and whom I afterwards married. I do not remember the name of the .soldier who had the book, but recollect that 106 ON THE PARALLELS. just before going into the battle of Chancellors- ville, we, while resting, threw away some things, and I remarked that I did not care to be found dead with cards on me, and I accepted the Testament in trade. Although having cards for pastime, I never gambled. I kept this book with me through all my term of service ; carried it with me in Massachusetts in '77 ; in Texas in '78 ; in the mountains of Colorado in '79 to '83, when I came to this State — South Dakota." Captain Birdseye and Policeman Watson were both in the Fifth Army Corps, but were never brought in communication with each other, except through the losing and finding of the pocket Testament. I remember our column encountering the fence at which Mr. Watson parted from his knapsack. Lieutenant Wright, while urging on his men, shouted to us to crawl under the obstruction. Some passed under and others crept between the slats, which were wide apart. ON THE PARALLELS. 107 CHAPTER IX. WINTERING IN THE FALMOUTH HILLS A CAMPAIGN ABANDONED. THE losses sustained by the Army of the Potomac, in that important campaign, amounted to twelve thousand, six hundred and fifty-three men, — killed, wounded and missing, the Confederates losing five thousand, three hundred and twenty-two. In addition to the losses in battle, the fatigue and exposure attending the operations of the army told sadly upon the troops. The regi- mental hospitals were soon filled with the sick ; numbers of them were transported up to Wash- ington, while others remained to die in camp. My regiment was quartered on a steep hill- side, down which the water flowed in good- 108 ON THE PARALLELS. sized streams during a rain storm, sometimes running under our little dog tents, making the situation extremely uncomfortable. Only two men occupied a tent, and to give ourselves more room we dug into the hill, covering the wet earth floors with leaves or pine boughs. To make the best of it, Camp Knight was not an inviting spot in that region of mud and mire. I became disabled with inflammatory rheumatism and remained helpless many weeks. One morning Lieutenant Hancock came to my tent to take me to the Regimental Hospital. I demurred. He said I must go ; so, with his assistance, I managed to get there. That day dragged wearily by, and the night seemed of interminable duration. When morning came I determined to desert back to camp. Securing a couple of canes, I succeeded by ruse in get- ting by the guard at the tent door, fearing only Lieutenant Hancock. I slowly made my way down the long hill path undisturbed to my little A tent, which, with its soft bed of fresh, fragrant pine boughs, was as cosy as a parlor 3> b3 = ?=3 3^ ON THE PARALLELS. Ill in comparison to the cold, cheerless, uncom- fortable accommodations over at the hospital. Here, with only my thoughts to keep me com- pany, while my tent-mate was most of the time away on varied duties, I compared the stern reality of our situation with the illusive ideal of our future as we marched through Maryland, singing "We'll soon light our fires on the Rappahannock shore, And tell Father Abraham he needn't call for more, "While we go marching on." Unable to pass the impregnable stone wall of the enemy, our army, instead of marching on, had settled down for the winter among those mud-coated hills. The boys, most of us, when around the camp-fires, related stories as merrily as when marching down to the front, and in all truthfulness could have sung, I thoirght, — "We have lit our camp-fires on the Rappahannock shore, But tell Father Abraham he'll have to call fur more Ere we go marching on. " 112 ON THE PARALLELS. Who should call at my tent one day while I was helpless and alone, but Lieutenant John M. Fogg, Twelfth New Jersey Regiment. The Ivieutenant and myself had been playmates in our early childhood, but as we grew older our paths diverged until we lost sight of each other entirely, At the time of which I write Johnny had left his home and studies and gone to be a soldier in the army, and it so happened his regiment encamped in the vicinity of the Twenty-fourth. He had kindly come over to see me, to give good cheer and chat awhile. It was our last interview — the last time we ever met. Lieutenant Fogg was killed in one of the .Wilderness battles, May 5, 1864. Captain George M. Swing, in relating to the author the particulars of his death and burial, said : " My place was next to him in the line, and on that fateful afcernoon we were hurriedly ordered to fill a gap in our extended line. Reaching our position, we dropped on the ground for a few minutes to rest, but it was only a few minutes before the Confederates ON THE PARALLELS. 113 developed a strong fjrcj and the skirmishing began. The first ball that struck the ranks of the Twelfth New Jersey took the life of our lamented comrade, Lieutenant Fogg. He was sitting on the ground coolly watching the move- ments of the enemy, when the fatal bullet found its mark. We saw him gently sink to the ground and went at once to his side, but it was all over in a moment — the wheels of life stood still. We carried the body to the rear and buried it by a large leaning tree. A Vermont chaplain made a prayer at his grave and then we returned to our position in the regiment. Where his remains were finally buried after the war I have no knowledge, but the name of Lieutenant Fogg will be found in the roll of the heroic dead while we have a united country and men delight to honor the memory of the noble, brave and good." My tent-mate and other members of my Company kindly looked after my wants, until 114 ON THE PARAI.LELS.. the malady finally disappeared, when I again reported for duty. The very same comrade, I want to say right here, with whom I joined partnership in making a so-called bed on the muddy shore of the Rappahannock on the night of the retreat, became my tent-mate from that hour ; nor did our partnership dissolve until the day we bade each other good-bye to return to our respective homes. His name was Isaac Sheets, who, for size, strength and endurance, was not excelled by any soldier in the regiment. For these good soldierly qualities he was put in the Pioneer Corps, but when off duty we messed together, slept together, and together helped each other to make army life at the front as comfortably endurable as changing circum- stances would permit. Comrade Sheets has answered the last roll-call, having years ago joined the grand army above. General Burnside, still bent upon the capture of Richmond, during a mild spell of weather in January ordered another advance. Accord- ingly, on the 20th, as my diary shows, eight ON THE PARALLELS. 115 days' rations were issued, and at dress parade the following general order was read to the troops : "The officers and men of this division will hold themselves in readiness to march to- morrow morning at an early hour." Eight hundred men had been detailed the day before to cut roads through the woods for the passage to the river of the wagon trains and artiller)-. On the 2 1st, regiments of cavalry, infantry and artillery commenced passing our camps prepar- g^tpry to crossing. They all belonged, I was told, to Sigel's Corps. Sumner was lying quiet. Before night the weather had undergone a great change, and about midnight a furious storm broke upon us. Expecting to strike tents before morning, my regiment made every preparation to move. That evening, before tattoo — when all lights must be put out — I wrote a letter for home, and one for my tent-mate. Comrade Sheets, to his wife. Among other things he told me to write, I remember this : "Ben," he said, "tell her we are going to 116 ON THE PARALLELS. cross the river once more and I may never see her again." "Ike," I replied, "don't send such a message as that. You may get through safe, so don't say anything about the dangeri before us." "Very well, Ben ; you may leave that out,'* answered Ike, and I went on and finished the letter. At daybreak the tempest had not abated. The artillery and army wagons could proceed no further through the mud, so the attempt to cross the river was abandoned, and the already weary troops marched back through the deep mire to their encampments, miles away back in the hills. Immediately after this failure. General Burn- side, it seems, who had previously been in- formed by the President that he did not possess the confidence of the army, went to Washing- ton to ask the dismissal of certain subordinate officers, who, he believed, were fomenting dis- content. His demand was refused, and on the 26th of January an order was issued relieving ox THE PARALLELS. 117 General Buinside of the command of the Army of the Potomac, and Major-General Hooker was assigned to the command vacated by Burnside. For three months thereafter no active opera- tions were undertaken bv either Lee or Hooker, in consequence of the terrible condition of the roads, and also because both armies had been severely demoralized by the heavy fighting of the last campaign. During these three months of inactivity, while in winter quarters, we daily went through the ordinary routine of company drill, dress parade and camp guard duty. 118 ON THE PARALLELS. CHAPTER X. INCIDENTS ON THE PICKET LINES — A CON- FEDERATE'S MESSAGE — BURIAL OF A SOLDIER. AS soldiers' letters went through the mails free, a continual correspondence was kept up by most of us, with relatives or friends at home. After dark we lingered late around the flickering camp-fire, waiting for the arrival and distribution of the evening mail. Then, too, would be heard the cheering cry of the enter- prising newsboy hurrying from one camp to another with an armful of Northern papers, at ten cents a copy. If we wanted more luxurious eatables than- salt pork and hardtack, or something in the ON THE PARALLELS. ]] line of clothing not furnished by the Goveri ment, a nearby sutler kept an assorted suppb It is while an army is idle that the itinerar storekeeper makes the most money. Almo: every regiment had its sutler, who was appoin ed by the Colonel and subject to army reguL tions, being obliged to pay a tax, I was told, c ten cents per month for each soldier in t\ regiment, which went to the hospital func While many of the men saved their pay to sen home, many others spent every cent of the cash at the sutler's tent and then bought o credit. It was a common occurrence when th paymasters came down to the front to see th accommodating sutler standing back of a crow of men, waiting to present his bills to h debtors after receiving their pay. The "tabl luxuries," as they were called in the army, wei exorbitantly high in price : raisins forty ceni a pound ; the same in Washington, thirtee cents. Pies twenty cents each ; the same i Washington, eleven cents. Five cents for cake which sold at home for one cent. 120 ON THE PARALLELS. Soon after roll-call in the camps every morn- ing, the required number of men were detailed by the sergeants for picket duty, and in charge of an officer, marched immediately to the out- posts, to relieve those who had watched the enemy the previous day and night. Picketing on the front, although attended with much exposure, was, to the writer, the most fascinat- ing duty of army life. In fact, I learned to like it. I was usually stationed at one of the posts opposite Fredericksburg, where the river is quite narrow. Standing at the water's edge, we faced the enemy's pickets on the opposite shore, near enough to converse with them, to observe their movements in the trenches, their brigade drills on the common above the town, and the noisy games of ball by the boys too young to bear a musket. Some times we heard the sound of the church organ, and during the long cold winter nights I have counted the ringing strokes of the town clock as it noted each passing hour. Within my range of vision, up and down the river, the light of ON THE PARALLELS. 121 seven Confederate picket fires reflected upon the glassy surface of the ri\-er from the opposite shore, while on our side of the stream the Union pickets paced smartly about their beats or stamped their feet to keep themselves warm, for never a fire on the outposts was permitted to be kindled after dark. To many a Confederate soldier coffee was a great luxury, but exceedingly scarce, while the Union troops were always well siipplied witli that article, but often run short on tobacco. Our Secession neighbors across the water were cor- dial and communicative, and always anxious to exchange some of their tobacco, of which they had plenty, for our hardtack and coffee. Communication with them was strictly forbid- den, but in the temporary absence of the officers of the picket guards I have frequently heard salutations exchanged across the stream — the dividing line between the two hostile armies. We called them "Johnny Rebs ; " they called us " Yanks." One morning a Confederate picket was seen reading a newspaper. 122 ON THE PARALLELS. " What's the news, Johnny ?" called out one of my comrades. " Very flattering, this morning," answered the guard, turning again to his paper. On anothef occasion, we watched one of them attempting to send across a package of tobacco upon a liitle craft, but the current car- ried it down stream. One of our party then proposed sending over a quantity of coffee ; so all four of us took a hand in the scheme. Into a small bit of board, roughly shaped like a boat, a mast was fixed ; one man furnished an old letter for a sail, then each donated a part of his ration of coffee, and the freighted little vessel was shoved out from shore. For a time there was a prospect of a safe voyage, but when in midstream the frail craft capsized and the cargo floated down the river. Upon this subject I am favored with a reminiscence from Lieuten- ant James J. Reeves, of Bridgeton, New Jersey, who, after looking over his diary, wrote : " On March 6th I was detailed for picket duty. Twenty men, one sergeant and two ON THE PARALLET.S. 123 jrporials were assigned me, and we marched ) relieve the men ontheJeft of our lime -along le river. Here we remained six hours, until ar relief came, when we fell back to the Grand eserve Post, where we tarried until four o'clock le next morning. While thus temporarily ilieved, some of the boys amused themselves 1 exchanging small cargoes of tobacco and jffee with the rebels on the opposite side of le river. The best of feeling reigned supreme n both sides. Among other messages received, ne in particular, from James O. Parker, a lonfederate soldier from Mississippi, has been reserved, having been taken from one of these oats. The message reads as follows : " 'Gents U. S. Army : We send you some jbacco by our packet. Send us some coffee 1 return. Also a deck of cards, if you have lem, and we will send you more tobacco, end us any late papers if you have them. Jas. O. Parker, Co. H, 17th Regiment, Miss. Vols.' " There were few more romantic spots in old 124 ON THE PARALLELS. Virginia than the vicinity of this Grand Re- serve Post. Here the boys made for themselves pipes of Powhattean clay and of laurel root, and frequently wandered, when off duty, amid the vine-clad hills that surrounded the weird ravine." Mr. Reeves has in his possession a small book, entitled "Questions on the Gospels," by the Rev. R. Bethell Claxton, D. D., published in 1853. This book may be of no commercial value, but as a relic of the war, it is highly prized by its present owner. On the same small "Packet" which carried James O. Park- er's message to Lieutenant Reeves at the Reserve Picket Post, was sent the publication about which I am writing. The Lieutenant sent the book home by one of the members of his Company, who had leave of absence on furlough, with the following inscription writ- ten on a blank leaf : "This little book, of no particular virtue in itself, may be of some interest, perhaps, from the fact that it was sent over by a rebel picket ON THE PARALLELS. 125 to our pickets, of whom I had charge, in a little wooden boat which they manufactured for the occasion. The boat was nearly two feet long, five or six inches wide, with sails and rudder, and hollowed out about enough to make room for the book and a few plugs of tobacco. Accompanying it they sent a note, which I have, stating that they sent a cargo of tobacco and would like us to send them some coffee and a pack of cards in return. Our boys sent them some coffee and hardtack and promised to bring them cards the next time they were on picket. In almost every note they would ask for a late paper and a pack of cards. The river is wide where the communication is held, but the wind being favorable, the little boat is soon wafted to either side, and scores of Yankee and Rebel pickets flock around it as it is brought to the shore laden with tobacco or coffee and other little notions from Yankeeland or Rebeldom. "The exchange of papers is strictly forbid- den and all trafficking with the enemy is now 126 ON THE PARALLELS. at an end. The rebels are destitute of a great many of the necessaries of life that our army has in abundance. History will at some future day reveal that the Secessionists are now much nearer starved out than we have any idea of" It came my turn one morning to go out with the picket guards just as an order came from headquarters to provide ourselves with four days' rations. The weather was intensely cold, but without a fire to warm by or a tent to shelter our bodies, we staid along the river front four successive days and nights. When relieved by the new guards, we lost no time in starting back to camp ; but instead of follow- ing the usual route, our officer took his men up the river shore, until opposite Falmouth, where we scrambled up the Heights, passing close by the town. A dense fog obscured sur- rounding objects, and to my great surprise I found myself among the tombstones of a deso- late graveyard — a spot which had once been kept with care, but sadly desecrated when I saw it. The few large trees which had shaded the ON THE PARALLELS. 127 grassy mounds through many a long summer, had been chopped down by the soldiers for fuel, and the broken gravestones told where the trees had fallen. I stopped a few minutes to read some of the inscriptions, noting the fol- lowing epitaph in my journal : " Here lies the grief of an affectionate mother, and the blasted expectations of an indulgent father." Long before spring every tree and bush and twig around the camps had been utilized for fuel, until hill-top and valley became as bare as a swept floor. To keep the camp-fires burning, wood had to be carried from a distant forest, or hauled in army wagons. It was a common sight to see a soldier going into camp with a bag full of chips cut from a tree stump on the nearest new clearing. A greivous feature which appealed to the sympa- thetic heart, was the unmerciful treatment of refractory army mules in charge of brutal drivers. I have seen the poor beasts plunging about in their harness and rearing straight upon 128 ON THE PARALLELS. their hind feet in their futile struggles to avoid being struck on the head with the butt end of a heavy cart whip, wielded by the angered teamster. One method of punishment prac- ticed by a wagoner in our brigade, was to seize with his hands the ears of the mule and chew them with his teeth in regular bulldog fashion. It came my turn one winter morning, to go with the picket details out to the rear outposts, quite a long march and in the face of a driving snow storm. On the way we passed a couple of mules hitched to the side of an abandoned pontoon wagon stuck in the mud. How long a time those neglected animals had been left there to suffer, cannot be told. When they saw us approaching, their loud and imploring "Hee-aws" for food and drink were pitiful, and, in memory, their brutish appeals are sotmding in my ears yet. Pity, alone, will not alleviate suffering, but pity for the much-abused, indispensable army mule was all I could bestow. Our position that night on the picket line was one of great danger, in a heavy pine forest. ON THE PARALLELS. ]2» The huge trees became so heavily laden with the coiitiniially-falliiig snow that numbers of them yielded to the burden, and here and there, at intervals, all the night long, a giant pine would fall to the ground with a crash that could be heard far away in the deptlis of the woods. Morning brought a clear sky, and to us a very joyful relief Late in February, the regiment moved to a new and more desirable camping ground, half a mile away and near a forest. The clean and nicely laid out streets, adorned with evergreen trees, and the uniform size of the company tents, made it one of the most beautiful regiment quarters to be found in the Army of the Potomac. By the middle of April more of the sick had been removed to the Potomac Creek Hospital, and more had died in camp. The burial in camp of every deceased soldier was performed with military honors. In a rough board coffin the remains were borne to 130 ON THE PARALLELS. the grave, followed by the members of the Company to which the deceased belonged, marching with slow and regular step to the mournful notes of fife and muffled drum. A platoon of soldiers with muskets fired three volleys over tlie lowered coffin ; the chaplain said, with the few words he spoke, "Dust to dust," the earth was shoveled in, and all was over. I had just thrown off my equipments, after dress parade early one pleasant evening, when my attention was attracted toward the hospital tent by the funeral notes of the druui corps. I followed the little cortege to a cluster of pines near the camp, where, just as the sun was disappearing behind the hills, another coffined body was lowered into the pit prepared to receive it. The chaplain performed his part in the ceremony, the firing squad fired three salutes, then the earth was shoveled back into the pit, and before I left the spot another mound marked the resting-place of one more added to the .soldier dead among the pines. As I sauntered ON THE PARALLELS. 131 away, I thought of the sorrow which would soon darken another Northern home, from -which had teen taken a loved one who would never retura from the tented field to tell the story of ciuip life and battles. 132 ON THE PARALLELS. CHAPTER XI. THE ARMY CROSSES THE RIVER — BATTLE IN THE WOODS — WOUNDING OF GENERAL JACKSON — SCENES ON THE SABBATH. TURNING back for awhile, to the time General Hooker assumed command of the Army of the Potomac, January 26th, I venture the assertion that at no period in its history were the troops more disheartened, or less hopeful of achieving success, than during the ■ winter following the calamitous Fredericksburg campaign. "Hooker," says a historian, "found his men deserting at the rate of about two hundred a day, and a close examination of the muster- ON THE PARALLELS. 133 rolls proved that two thousand, nine hundred and twenty-two commissioned officers, and eighty-one thousand, nine hundred and sixty- four privates and non-commissioned officers were absent. Of course, included in this num- ber were the wounded and sick in the hospitals. It was an appalling state of affairs, but Hooker at once went to work and' speedily brought order out of chaos. By the middle of April he had a thoroughly disciplined force of about one hundred and ten thousand infantry and artillery, with four hundred guns and tliirteen thousand cavalry." Before daylight, on the morning of the 28th of April, we broke camp, and with eight days' rations marched up the river through a light rain, encamping at night in a grove of pines near United States Ford. The numerical strength of nn- Company from nearly a hundred men, while marching through Maryland in December, was no\^ reducvd to forty-three musket-bearers. Private William P. Haines, who served faithfully will: 134 ON THE PARALLELS. the Twelfth New Jersey Regiment from '62 to Appomattox, was as well qualified to com- mand a regiment or brigade as a corporal's guard, but he preferred rather to bear the weight of a musket across his shoulders than have them decorated with a gold-gilted epaulet of an officer. Comrade Haines is my excellent authority for the statement, that in a Company of one hundred enlisted men, only about one- third of the number prove themselves physically able and possessing sufficient courage to endure the hardships, and face the dangers of active campaigning ; the rest, soon after going into the field, drift back to the hospitals and finally out of the service. That night I was detailed with one hundred men to assist the pontooneers in pulling their wagons to the river. Next day several thousand troops passed our camp, among whom was the Twelfth New Jersey. While watching that regin:ent pass, Richard Borton, in Company F, a relative of the writer, sprang out of the ranks and grasped my hand, at the same time > JO 3 i ^ 3 o t» t/i CI B £ o Hi — > << r M fij Cm r* o ON THE PARALLELS. 187 remarking that he hoped \ve would both come cut of the fight all right. I never saw Richard afterward. His grave — be it where it may — is among the unknown. About four o'clock in the afternoon of the 30th, orders came to advance, and we were soon in line, ready to march ; but, before starting, an order from the Commander-in-Chitf was received and read to the troops, which strength- ened our hopes considerably. It was as follows: "It is with heartfelt satisfaction that the Commanding General announces to the army that the operations of the last three days have determined that our enemy must either inglor- iously flee or come out from behind his defenses) and give us battle on our own ground, where certain destruction awaits him." The sky was without a cloud and the air balmy. Brigade after brigade filed down the winding pass through a fortst to the river. Emerging from the woods on to the grassy 138 ON THE PARALLELS. banks of tlie placid stream, I beheld a scene which recalled to mind the glowing description given in ancient history of marching hosts in battle array. The bands played lively airs ; drums were beating at the head of every regi- ment, while cheer after cheer echoed along the tree-covered hills, for the soldiers at that inspiring moment felt strong in the hope that an easy victory lay before them. But, oh ! how man)' crossed the placid waters of the Rappahannock, that beautiful afternoon, never to return to tell the sad story of battle and defeat. Unmolested by the enemy, who was nowhere in sight, we crossed on the pontoon bridge in safety and struck a southwesterly coiirse, follow- ing a narrow wagon road through a thickly- timbered region. Owing to the darkness and inequalities of the highway, the regiments soon became straggled and the men marched at will — that is to say, we picked our own way through the deep gloom. On the way we met a motley squad of Confederate prisoners, captured by the advance guards. They complained of being ON THE PARALLELS. 139 hungry, and from my well-filled haversack I gave one of them a day's ration of bread and meat. Near midnight the regiment stopped in a corn field, near Chancellorsville, where w'e boiled some coffee and rested until morning. All next day we kept ourselves in readiness to march, but the boom of a cannon beyond the woods in our advance, early in the afternoon, signalled the fact that Hooker had overtaken Lee. A lagging artillery fire was kept up until just before sunset, when a long, wild yell in the woods ahead of us, followed by a tremendous volley of musketry, convinced us that a general engagement would soon begin. It was the opening of the battle of Chan- cellorsville. The Second Corps being held in reserve, we rested on our arms awaiting orders. At eight o'clock that night, while my regiment was formed in line of battle along the edge of the timber, I was detailed with others, at stated distances apart, along the line, each man to advance into the thicket one hundred paces 140 ON THE PARALLELS. ahead of the line of battle, as skirmishers. Never before nor since have one hundred paces seemed to stretch as far as the hundred I tried to count while groping ray way alone through the brush toward the enemy, that dark night in the woods of Chancellorsville. Off in another direction, the forest rang with the sound of a thoiisand axes wielded by the Pioneer corps, who were kept busy all night felling trees for abatis and digging trenches for defense, while the soldiers slept by their guns. Fighting was resumed in the morning, but it was not very heavy. All that day our brigade, commanded by General Carroll, occupied aline of rifle pits on the edge of an open space cov- ering many acres. While crossing the field to the earth-works, a fuse shell exploded high above our heads, sounding like a clap of thunder. Our Captain, noticing some confusion in the Company, sternly cried out : "Steady there, men, keep your places; it was only a shell bursted in the air !" I felt abashed by the Captain's coolness. ox THE PARALLELS. 141 Thousands after thousands of troops emerged from the woods into the large field — bordered by timber on evers' side — until it seemed there were enough men massed together on that common to whip the world. Save now and then a stray cannon shot from the enem)', we listened undisturbed to the firing on the front, and watched the movements of the marching regiments changing their position along the borders of the woods. There appeared to be a great deal of maneuver- ing. I remember at one time some of us were ordered to assist the pioneers in digging a rifle pit. The work had been going on but a few minutes when the order was countermanded, and, throwing down our shovels, we laid down by our guns. While resting. General Hancock emerged from the woods and passed along the line. Noticing the shallow trench, only a few inches deep, I saw the (jeneral smile and make a remark to one of his aides. Some time in the afternoon, our noble-hearted Chaplain, Rev. W. C. Stockton, whom every man 142 ON THE PARALLELS. in the regiment honored and revered, approach- ed Colonel Robertson, who was seated upon a pile of knapsacks, and related to him an affect- ing incident, which had occurred only a few minutes before at the Chancellor house, where some of the wounded were lying. I leaned on my musket, an attentive listener, for I stood in the trench only a few feet away. A soldier had been struck in the head by a piece of shell and lay mortally wounded at the hospital, where Chaplain Stockton found him reading his Testament. Upon inquiring of the nature of his wounds, the sufferer informed the Chaplain that he had been told he must die, and in a tremulous voice said : " Oh ! how I would like to see my dear wife and child once more before I die, but I hope to meet them in Heaven." Stockton, after telling his story, said some- thing about the horrors of war, then hastened away. After he had gone I noticed Colonel Robertson resting his head upon his hands, evidently engaged in silent prayer. ON THE PARALLELS. 143 ^.s the day wore on, the firing grew hotter i was coming nearer to the open field. About iset, news came that the Federal forces i gained a position on the plank road or some ler coveted point back in the wilderness, ich aroused such enthusiasm that the brigade id struck up a lively tune. The music 'ealed our position to the enemy, and soon ills from his well-trained batteries commenced cling over the tree tops and dropping about It is needless to state that the music stopped mediately, but not before a mounted officer i already been brushed off' his horse by one the missiles. ^Jight had stopped the conflict, we thought, til morning, but late in the evening e\ery ,n was startled to his feet by a terrific can- nade not a quarter of a mile off. Tracks of ; darted athwart the sky ; shells-bursted in d-air like the sound of thunder, while the :g roll of musketry, under cover of the bat- ies, filled the woods with a terrifying roar, king a scene of appalling grandeur. It 144 ON THE PARALLELS. was about this time that General Stonewall Jackson, while planning to cut Hooker off from United States Ford, was, by mistake, fired upon by his own men in the darkness and mortally wounded. Soon after the close of the war, I formed an acquaintance with a farm hand by the name of Boyles, who belonged to a North Carolina organization. He deserted while General Lee was invading Pennsylvania. He told me his regiment was marching through Richmond to join Lee's forces when news of General Jackson's death reached that city. He said excitement was so intense that he believed every man and boy, able to carry a musket, would have followed the regiment if they could have secured arms. Captain Albert Rennolds, Fifty-fifth Virginia Regiment, Confederate, thus describes his visit to the field, thirty- two years after : "We march by the left flank along the wood a short distance, halt and front. Here is the ON THE PARALLELS. 145 place. It is so dark in the woods that we can- not see a man across the road. In a short while a wonnded man is borne along towards the rear just behind our regiment. Several men were holding him up, and he was trj'ing to walk, when brave Sergeant Tom Fogg recog- nized him and said, ' Great God, it is General Jackson.' Then the order is given to deploy the regiment as skirmishers, and almost imme- diately the road was swept by such a destructive artillery fire as can only be imagined. I don't believe the like was ever known before or since. The darkness and the fire rendered it impossi- ble to execute the movement. The men drop- ped on the ground, for no man could stand and live." To my story. This unexpected night attack threw a por- tion of the Eleventh Corps into confusion, and they rushed helter-skelter across the plain, halting within a few yards of our line. I heard a German Colonel talking to his men in an 146 ON THE PARALLELS. excited tone, but only those who understood liis language knew what he said. A drummer boy helped reform a regiment by frequently calling out : "Thirteenth New York !" We could see the dim forms of the stampe- ded troops hurr)ing hither and thither, search- ing in the pale moonlight for their companies and regiments. As fast as the ranks were reformed they were mai"ched back to their origi- nal position. We had again laid down for repose when our Orderly Sergeant called my name and ordered me to go with the picket guards into the woods outside of the trenches. There were five of us together. We took turns at the post. While one stood guard the rest tried to sleep. When I awoke the bright slanting rays of the rising sun filled the woods with a flood of cheerful light, while from the same direction sounded the rattle of musketry. That beautiful Sabbath morning, May 3, 1863 — as beautiful a morn as the living world ever looked upon — was the last on earth to many heroes in both armies. ON THE PARALLELS. 147 Well, our little party all wanted and needed something to eat. We each boiled a cup of •cofiee and maybe ate a hardtack with some meat ; I hardly remember now. But I have a clear recollection of the fact that the frequent whizz of stray cannon balls falling around us had no tendency to sharpen our appetites for breakfast. Very soon after finishing our nnenjoyable morning meal, we were called back to the rifle- pits, where I rejoined my Company, who were watching the. progress of the engagement ■which was raging fiercely. No breeze was stirring, and the smoke of battle hung like a fog over the field, actually dimming the sun's rays. Riderless horses dashed out of the fray and scampered across the open field into the woods beyond ; wounded men, some bare- headed and without equipments, others assisted by their comrades, were streaming to the rear. Three poor fellows passed down our line of earthworks, all of whom had an arm shot away at the shoulder. Here comes a man with i ON THE PARALLELS. 5 left eye shot away, and what looks like a iss of clotted blood and brains protrude from ; ghastly wound. Two of his comrades ve hold of each arm, but he walks along th a firm step. How a man could live with ch a mangled head I could not comprehend, it yonder goes a youth without hat or coat, nping slowly, using his musket for a crutch. e stops at short intervals and sips a little Iter from his canteen. There go six stout en at a lively gait bearing on their shoulders e dead body of their Colonel. Presently three Dmen, in company with a badly shattered 2^iment, walked past us on the ridge of earth rown out of the trench. One of them used for an instant to look back, and seeing black cloud of smoke rising from her burn- g home, sorrowfully exclaimed to her coni- .nions : "Oh, dear! see what this war has brought )on us ! I" Our attention is now directed toward the )posite side of the field, where the sound of CHANCELLOR HOUSE. General Hooker's headquarters during the engagement. ON THE PARALLELS. 151 musketry in the woods has doubled in fury. Lieutenaut Wright remarked : " Boys, such fighting as that cannot last long. One side or the other must soon give way." At that moment a mounted Orderly came dashing across the field directly toward us. The reserve troops are needed and Carroll's brigade has been ordered in to relieve another command. Leaping out of the rifle-pits, we marched over to a point near the Chancellor House, there formed in line of battle and started for the wood?, meeting more wounded and passing some artillerymen lying dead under their guns, having been killed in the night attack. Entering the thicket, we pushed cautiously forward, our guns at a "ready" to either at- tack or defend. During a halt, I sighted a Confederate soldier coming toward us, franti- cally waving his cap and stopping as though afraid to approach nearer. An officer called to him to come on, and he passed us to the 152 ON THE PARALLELS. rear. We advanced a few yards further. Com- ing out of the thicket, I notice a Union soldier endeavoring to get to the rear. His uniform is saturated with blood. Unable to go any further, I see hioi sink down by the side of a tree, and just then Chaplain Stockton caught sight of the now utterly helpless man. Spring- ing through the ranks, he hastened to his assistance, but the sufferer was in such great pain that he could not endure being moved then, so the Chaplain, brave fellow, followed ■on close behind the line, talking the while to all wilhin hearing — talking to us as ministers preach to their church congregations. Divine service in the wilderness that Sabbath morning ■amidst flying bullets and shrapnel ! A halt is made, when we fall on our faces to await for ■the final charge. The firing line is only a few rods ahead, but so dense is tlie thicket we can see neither friends nor foe. Chaplain Stockton laid down with us and commtnced singing a hymn. One comrade cracked a j jke upon another and started a faint laugh. Stockton ON THE PARALLELS. 153 arose to his feet to preach again. He said he wanted to say a few more words, as it would likely be the last time he would ever speak to some of us. Just at that moment a tremendous volley of musketry from the enemy, in full force in front and on the right flank, not only suspended the preaching, but to escape capture we fled out of the woods, hotly pursued by the rebels, whose progress was stayed by grape and canister from Frank's Battery, stationed in the field near the edge of the timber. Reforming into Companies behind the battery, and near the Chancellwr House, we were marched back to the rifle-pits on the opposite side of the plain. 154 ON THE PARALLELS. CHAPTER XII. GENERAL HOOKER DEFEATED — OX THE DEFENSIVE — RETREAT TO THE HILLS. IF the writer's recollection is clear, our repulse from the woods, at about ten o'clock that morning, practically ended the battle of Chan- cellorsville. Although harrassed at times afterwards by shells from the enemy's batteries, the great region of wilderness, in which for three days had sounded the terrible conflict of armies, from that hour soon became still as a grave. The woods, which had been set on fire in places by bursting shells, were filled with smoke. General Hooker had been stunned by a can- non ball, at the Chancellor House — his head- ON THE PARALLELS. 155 quarters — by which misfurtune General Sickles had been kept without the reinforcements he asked for, and by overwhelming numbers of Lee's forces the Federal lines were broken and the Confederates had regained full possession of Chancellorsville. The casualties in our regi- ment were comparatively few. The killed, wounded and missing did not exceed forty men. Sergeant Chapman who volunteered to carry the colors in the contemplated second assault upon Marye's Heights, was shot through the leg. Enoch Souder, a school- mate, while run- ning out of the woods, knocked oif his cap. He stopped to pick it up, but it cost him his life. I remember overtaking our Chaplain streaking out of the thicket in a bent posture, with one hand pressed firmly on his high- crowned hat. Stockton, Colonel Robertson and myself were together, and behind the main body of the retreating line. Sergeant Charles Watson, of Company C, was shot through the body, the bullet entering the left breast and passing out close to the spine. 156 ON THE PARALLELS. The nature of the wound and the profuse flow of b!ood caused Watson to think that his wound would soon prove fatal, and that it was not worth while to be attended by the surgeons. But he didn't die. Serious as the wound seemed to be, he never missed a meal, and, stranger still, never experienced any bodily pain. Mr. Watson was living and well when this page was written. During the afternoon our brigade moved to a point further back in the woods, passing on the way the Twelftli New Jersey Regiment, the men resting from the excitement and fatigue of their first fight. Just as we were about entering the timber, shells from a distant battery of the enemy com- menced falling about us, causing many of the men to break from the ranks and scatter in the woods. Before the confusion had started, I was carrying in ray hand a brightly-polished mess-plate of fancy design, evidently the prop- erty of a commissioned officer." It had been left on the field, and, coming in my way, I ON THE PARALLEIiS. 157 appropriated it as my own ; but, while trying to evade the shells, I entertained strong doubts of having any future use for the coveted dish, and, not caring to be found dead clutching another man's goods, I clearly remember hurling it off among the trees as far as I could toss it. After the shelling I went with some comrades to a spring, in a near-by ravine, to replenish our canteens. Close to the spring we found the body of an unknown soldier, killed by one of the shells. One of the party searched his pockets, to learn his name, but found only a comb. He did not keep the comb ; he would not, because, forsooth ! it belonged to a dead man. Before rejoining my Company, I met some unknown soldiers cai'rying one of their comrades upon a stretcher. A bullet had entered his breast and the poor fellow was crying and moaning in great pain. I helped carry him some distance. " Don't take on so, Charley ; does your wound hurt you so bad?" kindly asked one of his companions. 158 ON THE PARALLELS. "Oh, yes ; it pains me so," said the sufferer. I have oftentimes thought about Charley — as they called him — and wondered if he lived to get home. The narrow road I followed was lined with men seated or lying upon the ground, resting. Several were slightly wounded. " Captain, I see you have met with a mishap," cried a voice near me. "Yes, a slight one," was the cheerful answer of the officer addressed, who was leisurely riding his horse to the rear, with only one arm. Further on I fell in with Sergeant George W. Sheppard. He looked unusually sober. " Ben," he remarked, " Auley is dead. They say he was instantly killed." Auley Sheppard, a brother to the Sergeant, belonged in the Twelfth New Jersey. He had often remarked to his comrades that if he knew he should see no fight while in the service he would want to go right back home. Poor fellow ! His first fight was also his last. While writing a letter for home on Monday afternoon, an attempt was made by the Con- ON THE PARALLELS. 159 federates to get possession of a battery on our right, but grape and canister silenced their wild yells and put a stop to their flying. bullets. In the trenches with leveled rifles, we waited several minutes for an attack on our front, but they did not advance, so we again took our ease. I resumed my letter writing, and was naming some of the killed and missing, when we were again startled by another rebel yell and volley of musketry in the woods up at the battery. Again we seized our rifles and waited for an attack, but failing to get possession of the guns which repulsed them a second time, there was no advance on our front. The next day, Tuesday, Company A was ■ordered out to the picket line, where our posi- tion was extremely dangerous. The Confed- erates blazed away every time the) could get a shot. A rather too venturesome man in the ■Eighth Ohio, a short distance at my right, advanced a considerable distance beyond his post, where, becoming a conspicuous mark for the enemy, he received a fatal bullet. He uttered 160 ON THE PARALLELS. a long, heart-piercing scream and died where he lay. One of his comrades appealed to Ser- geant Sheppard to help him recover the body, but the undertaking looked so perilous that Sheppard refused to risk his life for the recovery of a dead man ; so, alone, the Ohioan crawled out to the body of his unfortunate comrade, and succeeded, after considerable labor, in drag- ging it back to the picket line, then strong hands lifted and bore the remains to the rear of the earthworks. Shortly afterward we were all driven in by a charge of Confederate skir- mishers, but soon returned to our posts, which we held until relieved. During a lull in the firing I sat down, and, while leaning against a tree, fell into a drowsy sleep, from which I was quietly aroused by Sergeant Sheppard. A couple of officers were standing a few rods off, who, had they discovered me slumbering, would, it is very probable, have reported me for sleep- ing at my post in face of the enemy. To Sergeant Sheppard's kindness and love for his fellow comrades I owe my escape from one of ON THE PARAIjLELS. ]61 the most serious charges which can be laid to a soldier. Years after the war a sergeant in my com- mand, whose word is above dispute, told me that when we were advancing into the woods to engage the enemy on Sunday morning, and were lying on our faces to avoid the solid shot whizzing down through the tree-tops, he dropped asleep, and was awakened by the unexpected terrific discharge of musketry from the enemy's line, which broke our ranks. It may seem singular, indeed, that, while in such dangerous positions, a man would succumb to slumber, but prolonged excitement and intensity of sus- pense, Avhile lying in close proximity to an invisible enemy's smoking guns, may account in a great measure for the experiences cited above. There may have been other similar instances, but I have no knowledge of any. But the battle was lost, and Hooker decided to recross the river. Early in the evening of May 5th the sky became clouded ; rain com- menced falling, accompanied by an occasional 162 ON THE PARALLELS. rumble of thunder in the distance. So perfectly does the sound of reverberating thunder resem- ble the echoing report of a heavy gun, that I saw a man belonging to a nearby regiment start on a run to rejoin his command, believing it was the sound of cannon. Precisely at ten o'clock that night, we were ordered in a whisper to pack up quietly, and in a short time the regiment was in line, silently waiting for the signal to jnai'ch. At length a start was made for the river, and the rest of the night, in almost perfect silence — not speaking above a whisper — we slipped and stumbled along a narrow-cut roadway through an un- broken wilderness, passing, I remember, one or two lonely guards standing silently before a little fire which they had evidently kindled to give them company, and afford a view of the passing columns. It was broad daylight when we emerged from the woods opposite the Ford, and, oh, what a scene ! How great in contrast to the gorgeous speciacle I had gazed upon six days ON THE PARALLELS. 168 before at this very same spot. Then, I believe, thousands of the boys felt sanguine of accom- plishing an easy victory and triumphal march to Richmond. Now, Hooker's entire army defeated and recrossing the Rappahannock. A thick mist shrouded the valley. The heavy rains had muddied the waters of the river which flowed a raging torrent. Our soiled uniforms were spattered with mud, and the wearied troojjs were disheartened by the failures of the cam- paign. Just how many were lying dead away back behind us in the wilderness cannot be told here, but the historian says the Federal losses in that engagement, including five thousand prisoners, amounted to seventeen thousand one hundred and ninety-seven men, and the Con- federates sustained a loss of twelve thousand two hundred and seventy-seven. Hooker had also lost thirteen guns and seventeen colors. Ten or twelve miles down the river. General Sedgwick had carried Marye's Heights and was fighting his way, by way of Salem Church, to to the support of Hooker at Chancellorsville. 164 ON THE PARALLELS. Both of these Generals, however, met with disaster, yet it was at Chancellor.sville, promi- nent leaders in the Southern cause declared, the Confederacy received its death-blow in the loss of their daring General, Stonewall Jackson. "It may safely be asserted," says a Northern writer of history, "that no individual loss was more keenly felt by the Confederates through- out the struggle, nor was there a death which had a more saddening effect abroad. Stonewall Jackson's name was a household phrase in Europe, his daring and dexterity having lifted him into wonderful prominence." Crossing the river in safety, the regiments straggled back to their old encampments, through a drizzling rain, in a march-at-will style. The writer does not recollect keeping with any of the members of his company or regimentafter crossing the river, butfollowed the scattered, weary troops through forest and across fields, passing now and then a small group of ON THE PARALLELS. 165 men enjoying, while they rested, a cup of hot coffee. I, too, stopped to rest. A slice of raw salt pork and half a haidlful of crumbled hard- tacks comprised all the contents of my haver- sack, but being quite hungry, the uncooked ration of meat and dirty crumbs tasted quite palatable. Before reaching the old camp ground, to our joyful surprise, we came to an immense stack of boxes containing army bread. There being no guards in sight to protect it, with our bayonets we quickly pried open several cases and filled our collapsed haversacks to their utmost capacity with the coveted hardtack. The deserted shanties were again fixed up, and the. usual routine of camp-life duties resumed once more. Hooker's unsuccessful advance was, of course, the leading theme of discussion for days after- wards. Numbers belonging to different regi- ments visited each other, to tell of their achievements and narrow escapes. 166 ON THE PARALLELS. Five weeks later, our term of enlistment expired. It was a pleasant morning when the regiment packed knapsacks, preparatory to starting home. While wailing for the last "fall in" command at the front, we watched with interest the asctnt of a slowly-rising balloon, held by ropes over at the river; but when'a couple of fuse shells from a Confederate battery, ou ihc other side ;of the stream, bursted in close proximity to the inflated canvas, it was pulled down much faster than it arose. This attempt to watch in mid-air the movements of the . enemy was suddenly frustrated, and not tried again. Just at the time of our departure from the Army of the Potomac, General Lee had com- menced putting in operation his plans for the invasion of Mar^dand and Pennsylvania, and at every camp we passed along the road from Falmouth to Acquia Creek the regiments were preparing for their march to the northward, where at Gettysburg, from July ist to the night of the 3d, was fought one of the greatest and ON THE PARALLELS. 167 most memorable battles during the four years of the Rebellion. Thither we now invite the reader. 168 ON THE PARALLELS. CHAPTER XIIL GETTYSBURG WHAT A CIVILIAN SAW AFTER THE BATTLE THE VALLEY OP DEATH. GETTYSBURG ! Gettysburg to-day, so nota- ble in history, with its beautiful National Park decorated with costly monuments, hand- somely-designed memorials, cannon in military array, and preserved earthworks — every foot of the land historic ground, the Mecca of thousands of pleasure -seeking travelers, a name familiar in every civilized land — is not the Gettysburg it was when General Lee's defeated army drifted back towards South Mountain Pass to recross the Potomac, followed by the victorious but weakened forces of General Meade. Two days after that most desperate and ON THE PARALLELS. 169 decisive enccnuter, a party of five civilians, residing- in Soutliern New Jersey, started for the scene of the conflict. Arriving at Phila- delphia, they were told that, on account of the destruction of the bridges b^ the troops, trains could not get througli by way of Harrisburg, the route they expected to travel. Here two of the number turned their faces homeward, but the rest, in spite of impending difficulties, determined to push on, going by way of Balti- more. One of the party was Mr. William S. Maltson, a prominent retired farmer now resid- ing near my own home. Mr. Mattson recited to the author the story of their visit to the battle-ground when it was yet wet with the blood of the slain. "About sunset," began the narrator, "on the evening of the 5th of July, we left Baltimore, riding upon an open car of a freight train and obtaining but little sleep. The engineer ran his locomotive very slowly on account of the great danger just at that time of his finding bridges cut away or burned, or obstructions 170 ON THE PARALLELS. placed on the track. On the following day, between Hanover and York, we met a train- load of wounded soldiers. At Littlestown, nine miles southeast of our destination, we left the train and proceeded on foot. The afternoon was fast wearing away when we came upon hospital camps, meeting on the road straggling soldiers and noticing other signs of the war. So over-crowded were the tent hospitals, that many of the slightly wounded were seeking conveyance to more accommodating quarters on the line of the railroad, they having been given passes by officers entitled to grant them ; but the owners of teams in the neighborhood were so extortionate in their charges that the poor fellows could not getaway without financial assistance. Putting our hands in our pockets, we raised seventeen dollars for the removal of seventeen of the moneyless wounded soldiers to the railroad station, where they could get transportation eastward. "Many weak, half-famished men, after fight- ing four days on bacon and hardtack, wanted, ON THE PARALLELS. 171 yes, needed more palatable food, but were with- out the means to pay fifty cents for a small pie and equally high prices for luxuries which women were peddling through the camps. I got angry at the Pennsylvanians and gave them a piece of my mind. I told them they com- plained because Lee's men took their property, but they were just as bad as the rebels for trying to fleece and rob the Union soldiers. " Along the border of a woods we stopped to look at a large gathering of wounded Confed- erates, to all of whom it was impossible for the surgeons to give proper attention. They were dying so fast, the men detailed to bury the dead did not undertake to dig graves ; they simply dug long, shallow trenches, and around the camp and in the uncovered pit I counted two hundred bodies. There were squads of Con- federates who had left their commands, most of them seemingly fagged out, listless and indif- ferent to their situation. I approached a boy of about fifteen years, sitting on the fence, who seemed to be crying. 2 ON THE PARALLELS. "'What's the matter, my dear fellow?' I ked, as I stopped before him. " ' Oh, sir, I wish I could get home. I am so ck, and will die if I stay here. I belong to a eorgia regiment. Won't you please give me ime money to help me get home?' "In a reclining position on another panel ose to the boy, his head resting between two OSS stakes, was another Confederate, rigid in ;ath — died from lack of timely care. Further 1, we came to another camp hospital near the ittle-field. Here we found the most desper- ;ely wounded, and surgeons busy. In crossing nearby stream, running through a narrow .vine, we beheld the sickening spectacle of lies of amputated hands, feet, limbs and other langled portions of the human body, numerous rough, I caudidly believe, to fill a two horse lelving wagon. " Leaving these gruesome scenes, in what I ill term the valley of mutilation, one-half lile further we came to a large old burying- found known as Cemetery Hill. The marble ON THE PARALLELS. 173 shafts and tombstones, which had withstood the ravages of time for many a long year, were scarred and broken by the withering blasts of war. We finally enter Gettysburg. All the way along its main street almost every house shows the marks of bullets, and the only place of refuge for the residents when the balls were flying was in the cellars. Yards and gardens were used for burying-grounds, and to see graves in the front yards of some of the residences was a common sight. "The country round about had been so completely devastated by the soldiers of both armies that it was difficult to secure a place of entertainment. Night had by this time over- taken us ; we had found no lodging house, so concluded to look for a farm-house out of town, and were fortunate in reaching one nearly a mile west of the city, crossing, on the way, a narrow creek, and walking over on, the half- burned timbers of a destroyed bridge. The occupants of the farm-house were Germans. At first, they eyed us with suspicion and refused 174 ON THE PARALLELS. us admittance, but finally consented to take us in on condition that all three of us would be willing to occupy one bed. We told them we would gladly sleep anywhere and accept of anything in the line of food. Here we stopped for the night. While the good housewife was frying a slice of salt pork and baking some cakes made of flour and water, her sociable husband told a tale of woe. He strongly protested against having his horses and cattle driven away by the retreating Confederates, but protestation was of no avail. Then, when the pursuing Union troops took all the enemy had left behind, excepting one cow, he did not know, he said, which were the worst, the Rebels or Yankees. "Wearied by two days' traveling, the plain fare set before us was eaten with relish, and upon the rude, hard bed for three we fell into sound repose. Looking out of our room win- dow next morning, I noticed that the spacious front yard had filled up through the night with straggling soldiers and scavengers — a class of ON THE PARALLELS. 175 men which always follow in the wake of a moving army, to pick up everything cast away by men on the march and seizing every oppor- tunity to loot the pockets of the dead on the field. " Retracing our steps backward to the town, we found the public inn crowded with visitors, and parties leaving for different parts of the field under the leadership of employed guides. Taking a southwestern course, we observed marks of the battle on every hand. Every thing which could be used for defense had been utilized by the soldiers to protect' thtmselves fi'om fl)'ing bullets : fence rails, heaps of stone, stumps, fallen trees — anything that would stop a ball. The position of these hastily-constructed breastworks showed how the different lines of battle had wavered in action, for the course of the stretches of defenses zigzagged through the woods and open spaces for a distance of several miles. "I remember leaving my companions for a . while, a:nd mounting a fence to obtaiu a better 176 ON THE PARALLELS. view of the surroundings ; then, as I was on the point of jumping to the ground on the other side, I caught sight of the dead body of a Confederate soldier lying directly under my feet. Between, under and about two great sheltering rocks, known to-day, they say, as ' Devil's Den,' lay a large number of dead men, most of them Confederates. Those who had not been killed outright had, in their sufferings, managed to crawl to the rocks, there, poor fellows, to die unattended and alone, save their dying comrades around them. Here it was, or close by, we' were told, that General Lee's front was broken and the retreat towards the moun- tain pass began. It is a noticeable fact that, almost to a man, the dead lay with their faces upward. Those who did not die in that position had been rolled over by looters, and the pockets of all were turned inside out. " Having traveled over the western side of the ground from which Lee's forces had advanced, we turned eastward to get on the line of the Union Army. Here, in a cluster of trees, we ON THE PARALLELS. 177 found where a Georgia regiment had been repulsed and thirty of the killed hastily bur- ied in a gullied road. The bodies had been laid leni^thwise in the gulley, and on strips of boards from cracker boxes was inscribed the name and rank of the officers, a colonel and major being among the number. Perhaps no other Confederate regiment advanced fur- ther beyond the main firing line than those valorous Georgians. "Pushing on in the direction of Round Top ^Mountain across a low meadow-like common of large area, with here and there a patch of brush timber, but mosth- open, we came to a division stone fence which the Federal troops continued to hold against the repeated on- slaughts of the enemy. Beyond this fence, westward from the Round Tops, we stopped at an old-fashioned brick house, badly broken, in which, to our surprise, we found a woman and young girl. In answer to my question what they were there for, the woman said they had comeback to look after their deserted and des- 178 ON THE PARALLELS. polled home. Nearby I counted twenty-eight dead artillery horses, the guns having been taken away. The horses, I afterwards learned, belonged to Captain Bigelow's Ninth Massachu- setts Battery, which lost heavily. Behind the Bliss barn, which was torn down years ago, I counted thirty graves." Upon the summit of Round Top Mountain, we leave Mr. Mattson with his companions looking down upon and across that far stretch- ing valley of death, from which only a few days before the obstinately contending armies had gone back into Virginia, leaving behind them scenes of utter despoliation and destruc- tion of human life. Scenes, I say, from which the throngs of visitors to historic Gettysburg to-day would shrink with feelings of horror, and a realization of the truth of the language of General Sherman, who, one time, some- where, said, "War is hell." ON THE PARALLELS, 170 CHAPTER XIV. A confederate's story of the retreat EULOGIES ON GRANT AND LEE. PICTURING ourselves standing upon Round Top at the same time Mr. Mattson was contemplating the scene before him, our thoughts wander away, far away westward be- yond the range of ocular vision, and we very curiously wonder how the chivalrous hosts of Geueral Lee are taking their disastrous defeat while making their way through the moun- tain passes back into Virginia. What they were thinking, what they were saying, and what they were doing, can only be told by the soldiers themselves, and their stories truly told, would not, of course, all be alike. 180 ON THE PARALLELS. In the ranks of the retreating army was a man by the name of George W. Nichols, pri- vate in Company D, Sixty-first Georgia Regi- ment, General Gordon's Brigade. Privat; Nichols survived the war, and thirty- three years afterwards, at his home in Jesup, Georgia, penned the story of his long and varied experiences while wearing the gray. By a peculiar circumstance, a correspondence was started between Nichols and myself, dur- ing which, I received from him a copy of a book he wrote, entitled, "A Soldier's Story of his Regiment," but not until I had received Nichols' first letter, was I aware that such a person had ever existed. Happily through him, I was made prepared to put the reader in close touch with a portion of the retreating army, by describing a few scenes as witnessed by my stranger friend and graphically detailed in his story. "Truth was my motto," wrote Mr. Nichols in one of his letters, "and I give you full lib- erty to quote from any part of my book. : ; r i= O ON THE PARALLELS. 183 God has so blessed me with his love that I cherish no animosity against any one, not even those Union commanders who burned so many of our beloved Southern homes. After the burning of Chambersburg by General Early, in retaliation of Hunter's depredations in the valley of Virginia, by burning houses, barns, and parts of towns, I did not feel like fighting any more. I cannot think that a Cliristian heart, full of the love of God, would do or command such a thing; yet this was Hunter's tactics and Early's retaliation." Laying aside Mr. Nichols' letter we open his book at this paragraph : "I don't think the world ever furnished bet- ter soldiers than the Confederate States ; nor was there ever furnished braver soldiers than those we had to fight. I have often wondered how we held out as long as we did." Describing their retreat from Gettysburg he says: "Lee's army, after making preparations to retreat, started to fall back on the night of the 184 ON THE PARALLELS. Fourth of July. It fell back about twelve miles that night. We leisurely marched out of Gettysburg and hardly left a wagon, ambu- lance or a piece of artillery. We fell back near the river and formed a line of battle near Williamsport, Maryland, until the wagon trains could cross, and General Lee could get all his 'booty' over that he had taken in Pennsylvania and Maryland, which was immense. "We went on up the valley by Winchester and other towns, and between Strasburg and Mt. Jackson the brigade was marching along about eleven o'clock, it being very warm and dusty and a great many wanting water. Every one was tugging along in the hot sun with seldom ever a word being spoken. "A real fine-looking man rode up alongside of the Sixty-first Regiment. He had on a fine- looking, high-crowned, broad-brimmed, gray hat, the brim turned up on one side and a large silver-looking star on it. He had on heavy cavalry boots with a large pair of brass spurs, and a large white linen duster reaching nearly ON THE PARALLEIi^. 185 to his feet, and was riding one of the poorest horses, almost, I ever saw any one riding. The poor old horse was so weak that its back was sadly swayed. I suppose he had ridden along- side of onr regiment for more than half a mile, when I saw the boys eyeing him. Presently, one of them halloed out : "'Come down out of that gown, mister; I know you are there, for I can see your legs hanging out.' "The poor fellow took exceptions to it, got very mad, and used language that is not in the Bible. We all marched along, no one, appar- ently, paying any attention to him. He finally turned to ride off, when the boys asked whose coat he had stolen, and what that preacher would do whom he had stolen it from and where he had gotten it, in Pennsylvania, Mary- land or Virginia. Some one asked him if he was a friend to the poor. Others would advise him to get down and tote the poor old horse. They carried on so high until he would not say a word. About that time the bugle was blown 186 ON THE PARALLELS. for a stop to re,st ten minutes. He then rode up to Colonel Lamar and wanted him to puuish the regiment for their insults. The colonel told him to go on and not notice the boys, for they were always going on at ever; fool they met. He left very mad, but some wiser, for he had found out what the boys thought of him. "In the Shenandoah river bottom we saw some of the cattle and sheep we had taken in Pennsylvania and Maryland. They were on both sides of the road for about two miles, and all feeding at will on the clover. When we got through the herd, I asked one of the men guarding them how many there were. He replied : 'About twenty-six thousand head of cattle and twenty-two thousand head of sheep.' I think we saw that inany cattle, but not half that number of sheep. '■We rested one day and started across the Blue Ridge early in the morning, at what I think they call Brown's Gap. It was really no gap, for it was right over a high mountain. We followed a winding road with a heavy up ON THE PARALLELS. 187 grade. While we were going up themountain, we could look down and see seven different roads, and wagon trains and soldiers apparently marching in different directions, while all were going across the mountain on the same road. We got to the top about noon. We rested awhile and I suppose every one felt well paid for his march, for it was a very high mountain, from the top of which we could view the grandest scenery I ever saw. We could stand in one place and see eleven beautiful little Virginia towns on the sides of the mountain. " We ate dinner and started down the moun- tain rejoicing, for we thought we would have easy marching because it was down grade. We marched two or three miles very well. Our knees then began to get weak and our toe nails felt like they were slipping off. When we reached the foot of the mountain, just before dark, it looked like everybody was mad. "We were marched out into a large clover field, halted, and ordered to stack arms and camp for the night. We sat down, pulled off our 188 ON THE PARALLELS. shoes and tried to rest. Our feet were blistered and our toe nails blood-shot. Some of the boys were so mad that they gave vent to their feelings by cursing. Oh ! such terrible oaths ! It looked like some could curse by note. They cursed out the Union, the Yankees, 'Abe' Lincoln, Jetf Davis, the Confederacy and the whole negro race. It seemed like chickens began squalling, owls to hooting, pigs to sqeal- ing, cows to lowing, sheep to bleating, horses to neighing, mules to braying, dogs to barking and cats to fighting. I had never heard just such noises or things better mimicked. It finally wound up with a rebel 3'ell, and the bands began to play. We soon laid down and went quietly to sleep. A great many did not have anything to cover themselves with. Next morning we marched about thrte miles, then encamped for the rest of the day in a nice grove. They finished getting the wagons and artillery across the mountain, and let the teams rest as well as the men. "Company D thought Lieutenant Mincy ON THE PARALLELS. 189 was left with some of our wounded at Gettys- burg, but he was rescued by Rube, his faithful negro servant. " When Rube found that his master was going to be left, he stole a horse and wagon, got his master into it, and followed in the rear of the wagon train. We were glad to see Lieutenant Mincy back, and we were proud of Rube, who could have remained in Pennsyl- vania and have been free, but I believe he hated the Yankees then worse than we did. "The next day we marched on down to the south side of the Rapidan river, about four miles from Clark's mountain, and camped for two months in a pleasant oak grove. Here we drew more clothing, and also plenty of our Pennsylvania beef. "We privates could not hear anything about the Yankees. It seemed for a long time like we had either killed them all, or had left them on the north side of the Potomac, but we after- wards found out this was not the case." 190 ON THE PARALLELS. Although the fighting at Gettysburg was considered the decisive battle of the war, hostil- ities between the States continued. From countless homes throughout the North and South had gone a husband, father, son or brother to aid the cause which each believed to be right ; and following the news from the seat of war, of battles lost or won, came the sad tidings of a loved one killed in action, lying wounded in hospital or taken prisoner by the enemy, and not until the surrender of General L,ee to Gen- eral Grant at Appomattox, April 9, 1865, came the dawn of Peace. Blessed Peace ! General Ulvsses 5. GratTl^ THE age of chivalry is not gone when a victor could accord such terms to the vanquished as Grant freely gave to Lee and the remains of his gallant army at Appomattox. The student of military history will search in vain for anything comparable to it, or to the delicacy with which the victor treated his beaten foes on that occasion. He was painfully modest and retiring in his manner, avoiding pomp and display, loving justice, eminently truthful and never intentionally wronging any one. On his death bed, when no longer able to speak, Grant wrote : "I feel that we are on the eve of a new era, when there is to be great harmony between the Federals and Confederates. I cannot stay to be a living witness to the cor- rectness of this prophecy, but I feel within me, it is to be so. The universally kind feeling expressed for me, at a time it was supposed that each day would prove my last, seems to me to be the beginning of the answer — ' Let us have Peace.'" — James G.Wilson, in "Great Commanders." General Robert E. Lee THERE, at Appomattox, stood the mourn- ful remnants of that once glorious army that had dipped its conquering banners to the crimson tide of eight and twenty sanguinary battles, and strewn its heroic slain froq^ the feet of Pennsylvania's mountains to the gates of their own capital city ; that had witnessed four gigantic campaigns, and through all their shifting and tragic scenes and under all difficulties, trials, toils and dangers, had remained steadfast and faithful to the last. And he, its illustrious chief, now commended it for its past devotions and bade it adieu forevei'. Slowly and sadly he rode from that mournful field, for his strong sword hung shattered at his side and the cause that he had fought for was beneath the foot of power. And though that cause be gone, yet will its memory continue to live, and, on the scroll of fame, no name among the list of eminent worthies will shine with a purer, serener or more resplendent light than that of Robert Edmund Lee. — J. Quitman Moore, in Cres- cent Monthly, 1866. PART SECOND. ON THE PARALLELS. 197 CHAPTER I. SENTIMENTS OF A TRAVELER — THE OLD CAMP- ING GROUND — HISTORIC SCENES. KING Solomon's declaration that there is a time to love and a time to hate ; a time of war and a time of peace, is as true in this age as when it was uttered, nearly three thousand years ago. Having endeavored to entertain the reader with a narration of some personal experiences during the time of bitter hate and bloodshed between the North and South, after many, many years of national peace and prosperity, to gratify a long-felt desire to revisit the old camping grounds and other historic places still familiar in memory, early one summer morning 198 ON THE PARALLELS. I took a train at Philadelphia, and boarding a Southern train at Washington in the afternoon, a pleasant and interesting ride was enjoyed along the shore of the broad and majestic Potomac. In the same seat I occupied was a handsome looking gentleman of pleasing man- ners, with whom I soon fell into conversation after leaving Washington. " Are you going through to Richmond?" I asked, after a few words had been exchanged. ■"My destination, sir, is Charleston, South Carolina," he pleasantly answered. One subject after another was discussed and finally the negro. His sentiments were strongly in favor of slavery. He " had always believed," he said, "that the slaves should never have had their freedom, because they are not capable of governing themselves, and the colored people in their present free and independent condition are a hindrance to the intellectual culture and educational advancement of the white popula- tion. Washington is their Mecca, where they not only ask for but actually demand rights < o ■n ■n ;d tn o -c JO o •n o 3: O) ■-i > ■a c -o ra 5 ■3 H ON THE PAEALLELS. 201 and privileges which shoul4 not be allowed them." Well, I thought, here I ain. already in com- pany with a Secessionist right from where Secession was born, and as radical in his opinion as those who ustd ball and bayonet in defense of the Southern cause away back in the sixties. It was half-past five o'clock when the train bowled slowly over the long bridge spanning the Rappahannock, and bidding my sociable fellow passenger good-bye, I alighted from the car and was once more in the historic City of Fredericksburg. All alone and among entire strangers, I started up Main street — the very same avenue in which General Kimball's Brigade formed in line of battle, after crossing the river on the pontoon bridge from Stafford Heights the morning after the bombardment, forty years before. Then the avenue was filled with armed men ; now I beheld a scene of peaceful, busy industry. 202 ON THE PARALLELS. Partaking of an early breakfast the following morning, I trt^rapei np the river road to Falmouth bridge, from which I gazed for awhile upon the noisy waters dashing over the jagged rocks far below me, then crossed on over to the village, through it and oiit among the pine- fringed hills, to find, if possible, the camping grounds of Kimball's Brigade during the winter of 1862-3. After a fatiguing walk I sat down to rest upon the very spot where my regiment in old Camp Knight wintered with the Army of the Potomac. Here, all alone with my thoughts, I was deeply impressed by the great contrast between the solitude of the now deserted timbered hills and the exciting scenes and incidents of camp life, when all the region around about me was a city of tents — the abode of the "Boys in Blue." Boys, did I call them ? Yes ; looking in memory from a period of life in the sixties — back to the days when the great majority of the soldiers on both sides were somewhere in their twenties, — were they not in age only ON THE PARALLELS. 203 sturdy boys wearing the Union bine and Confederate gray ? Look where I will I see no camp fires or soldiers now ; I hear no comrade's voice, hear no sound save the ring of some Virginia woodman's axe away back in the forest. Medi- tating there alone upon the site of a long-ago vanished tented city, there comes to my mind many an interesting camp scene, and to remem- brance many of my company comrades and regimental officers who have passed away from this world of change. I thought of my kind-hearted tent-mate, Isaac Sheets. There was Jim Glass, the story teller of the regiment ; Adjiitant Cooper, nick- named "Big Boots," who enjoyed associating with his subordinates more than the society of his fellow officers. I thought, too, of our Colonel, whom everybody revered ; brave Lieutenant Wright, who never shirked a duty ; Joe Fox, the teamster, in whose great canvas- covered army wagon I wrote at nights many long letters at Joe's dictation to send to his 204 ON THE PARALLELS. family. I thought of the morning Lieutenant Hancock came to take me, against my will, to the hospital tent. Excepting Hancock, the comrades I have named, with many others of my company whom I never saw after the day the regiment disbanded, are in their graves. On my way back to the town I stopped to talk awhile with the wife of the toll gatherer at the south end of the long iron bridge at Falmouth. This lady was very communicative and related some very interesting incidents of war times. Pointing across the river to a big white house standing alone on the summit of a lofty cliff overlooking the village, the woman said : " My parents lived in that house over there on Falmouth Heights at the time of the war. Us children — I was only twelve years old then — were sent away, but I have heard my mother tell about it. She said the Union soldiers had some cannons over there on Falmouth Heights and they fired at our soldiers over here, who had some very big guns and they fired a heavy ON THE PARALLELS. 205 solid shot, which struck close to the corner of that house. The hill swarmed with Yankees, but when that cannon ball fell so close to them, my ! how they did scamper awa}-. After the ■war my father dug up the cannon ball and kept it several years. Stranger, you Union soldiers were well clothed and had plenty to eat, while many of our men had little to wear and some times nothing to eat. I have often heard my husband say he had seen the time when he would walk for miles to get a slice of bread. But the war is over now, stranger ; all is past and gone, and everything forgiven. If you will come up to our house to-night, sir, my husband will then be at home and he will tell you where he fought and all about his marches." Thanking the lady for her kind invitation, I remarked that, as my stay in that section would be very short, I could not promise to be a guest at their house that evening. So bid- ding her good-bye, I hastened on to the city. Reaching Hanover stireet, which runs from the 206 ON THE PARALLELS. river, I turned to the right, and a few minutes' walk brought me to a descent in the road back of the town, where I paused in my coui'se to take once more in my life a general view of the "slaughter pen," or battle-field, which once shook with the tramp of armies and thunderous roar of booming cannon ; a field upon which thousands shed their life blood. I am standing close to the then shot-torn building from which I was driven by the sharp- shooters, to become a target for their well- aimed rifles, that never-to-be-forgotten Sunday, the day after the battle. Upon yonder distant hillside at my right is where I counted nearly a score of dead. Off at my left, on the brow of the ascending plain, I see the red brick house where many of the wounded were carried during the fight, and where so many of the soldiers took refuge in front of its walls from the storm of bullets. Further in the distance, beyond a vacant lot, is the famous stone wall along the sunken road at the foot of Marye's Heights, and the mansion' upon the summit, I-H fD a 3 ;o 4 o CD 1 c z B »" D M 05 m »' H o o ^ •^ CD m o •-i m 4 CC 2 d s 3 CD H B 3 & m 5" 03 H3 5 ^ o o 1 C3' CD z c*- CD* > t:- Ms z CD o i-i O s Ms 3 B s. & > CD ;c c' i-J ■< O ni o P pi lii 13- S 3 CD et ra C £3* CD o 3' CD !0 3 -i Qj g- Ui > § w D^ 5' a p- H 0!) 5' r Mj o "1 o o B CD m ^ g D cr (B o' m z t3' ct- £0 ^ cr > CD CD 70 EO g- S- O o > ■< •-J cr ly> ON THE PARALLELS. 209 around which the enemy's powerful engines of death psrfor.ned their terrible work. Reaching the brick house, I lingered there some length of time, under some sort of a fascination, because of the still vivid memories I have of that historic spot. Now on to the stone wall and into the sunken road, which the enemy so effectually held during the engagement against the repeated assaults of the Union forces. All that long line of wall is torn away, excepting a short stretch directly opposite the brick house and extending out to Hanover street. I leaned against this stone fence and sighted over it across the lot to the brick house, where in memory I saw the "Boys in Blue" lying thick along the firing line and reinforcements coming up to the front. While standing alongside of the wall, and imagining the road full of rebels pointing their muskets over the stone fence and shooting down the exposed Yankees, great was my surprise to meet there and then a Johnny Reb ; yes, one of the very men who fought with Lee's forces. I 210 ON THE PARALLEtS. found it out by telling him I was with Bui'n- side's army in the disasti'ous assault upon Marye's Heights, and had come to visit the place. We related to each other a bit of our experience. His name is Thomas F, Proctor, a member of Company A, Thirtieth Virginia Regiment, in Pickett's Division, Longstreet's Corps. My interesting informant said he must hasten on to his home in the town, remarking, as he bid me good-bye, that they had lost their all in the struggle, but intended to go on and make the best of life. He had been at work, he said, in the National Cemetery. Again alone with my thoughts, I mentally exclaimed : How strange ! After all these intervening years, I have come upon this great battle-field to meet in friendly converse a Con- federate soldier, where once as enemies we each other fr.c-.d and shot to kill. And how strange, too, that man helping to preserve and keep gr.en tb.e graves of those whose lives he l:eli-.ed 3 O i > O Z g = 3g 6 rn ^ > 3-^ ON THE PARALLELS. 221 CHAPTER II. THE ARMY OF THE DEAD — BUTTERFIELD MONUMENT POSITION OF COBB'S BRIGADE^CURIOUS FACTS. PROCEEDING on down the hedge-lined road to the foot of Willis' Hill, a continuation of Marye's Heights, we come to the entrance to the National Military Cemetery. Passing through the gate, we find ourselves in a great burial ground, the ever-lasting resting-place of the gathered remains of thousands of soldier heroes, who answered their country's call and died in the performance of their duty. From where did they all come ? Read the inscriptions on the low, narrow stones which mark their graves : Ohio, New York, Massa- 222 ON THE PARALLELS. chusetts, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Connecticut — from almcst every loyal State in the Union, they came. Where did they all die? They were kilkd in action on the field near where their ashes repose ; they were killed in action on the battle- fields of Chancellorsville, Spottsylvania, 'Wil- derness, Salem Church and other fields of conflict in Virginia ; they died of wounds in the hospitals, and of sickness in the regimental camps while the Army of the Potomac was quartered in the Stafford Hills across the river. How many soldier dead have been gathered within the gates of this city of graves? In a pretty little cottage within the enclosure resides the Superintendent of the Cemetery, and to him I will go for an answer. This courteous gentle- man informed me that the total number of interments up to the day of my visit was fifteen thousand two hundred and eighty-nine, of which twelve thousand seven hundred and, ninety- seven are unknown. Acce.'^sions to this in z H 7: > z o ra 3 m z c z > r r. 3 ni -i re ■< ON THE PARALLELS. 225 number, he said, are yet being made from time to time. Here lie buried among the unknown, com- rades wlio were the associates and playmates of my youth. Ah ! many a fond mother's boy, many a faithful husband and loving father, who left home forever, lies here with this great,, silent army in the long, eternal sleep of death. No beat of drum, no bugle call, no boom of cannon will ever break their unending bivouac. The most imposing memorial at the cemeter\' is the monument erected by General Daniel Butterfield, who wished the fact known that this costly shaft is not only to the memory of the Fifth Amiy Corps, but to show that the sectional feeling caused by the great war has subsided and should be remembered no more. The monument is a shaft design built of \'ermont granite, thirty-five feet high and nine feet square at the base, bearing appropriate inscriptions. Retracing my steps back along the sunken 226 ON THE PARALLELS. road, silent and deserted now, one's mind is stirred and imagination quickened by the mem- ories of the past. Mr. Proctor had told me, and also the men with whom I talked up on the Heights, that their regiment was down at Hamilton's Crossing, some two miles away, while the fighting was going on. But where, I mentally queried, are the men to-day who were lined behind this rock wall, and whose unerring rifles wrought such awful destruction to the Federal troops in their vain endeavors to carry the Heights ? Many of them, I knew, had passed away, and the survivors were scat- tered far and wide in their native Southland. In the same manner that I found Captain Val C. Giles — by diligent inquiry — my efforts were finally rewarded by being able to communicate with a few of those men, and from them I obtained brief recitals of their experiences. I will first name Judge Alexander S. Erwin, of Athens, Georgia, who kindly and very minutely detailed the position of the Confed- erate troops, as follows : 2 H 5 ■JO < o 2 > H O 2 > P O m 3 m H re XI ■< ON THE PARALLELS. 221) "During the battle the regiment to which I belonged, Phillips' Georgia Legion, occupied that part of the stone wall, from the house where General Cobb was killed to Hanover street. My own Company, which was the Itft of the Regiment as weH as the left of Cobb's Brigade, occupied tlie extreme left of the wall where it curves into Hanover street. That night, after the battle was over, we moved about a hundred yards to the right and doubled behind the Eighteenth Georgia Rtgimtnt, also of Cobb's Brigade. The part of tlie wall that we vacat-d, which is the part 3-ou inquire about, was then occupied by Kersliaw's Soxith Caro- lina Brigade, that brigade occupying the space that our regiment occupied the day of the fight. The effect of this was to greatly ."Strengthen our line in the load, in anticipation of a I'enewal of the attack the next day. Therefore, on Sun- day, the day after the fight, one of the South Carolina regiments was at the place you speak of. There were no pickets or sharp-shooters out, but all of our sharp-sliooting that day was £30 ON THE PARALLELS. done by the line of battle behind the walL " I have been to Fredericksburg twice within the last few years, and have stood in almost the very tracks I stood in during the fight. I am perfectly familiar with the field and the arrangement of our troops, and cannot possibly be mistaken. Some regiments of General Ran- som's came into the road during the fight and assisted in repelling some of the charges. Some of General Kershaw's Regiment also came over from behind the hill and took their places with our brigade. The troops in the road suffered very little. All the losses were from sharp- sliootes iu the buildings and enclosures diag- onally in our front and left. Not a man in my Company was struck from the front. I am satisfied that our whole Brigade did not lose more than fifteen or twenty men killed, and perhaps seventy-five wounded." The fact is worth noting that, according to Private J. W. Lord's story, our Regiment — the Twenty-fourth New Jersey — and the Twenty- ON THE PARALLELS. 231 fourth Georgia, to which Lord belonged, were directly in front of each other during the fight. The night before the battle, he told me, they had a relief post behind the brick house and built a fire at one corner of the building. " The next day," he says, " when the Federals charged, we fell back to the stone fence, firing as we went back, and there loaded and fired until dark, by which time the ground in front of us was almost covered with dead men. I felt sorry for those poor fellows, for the)- were as brave a set of men as ever went to battle." One of the Captains in the Third Georgia Regiment was Mr. C. H. Andrews, of Alilledge- ville. After naming the different commands in Cobb's Brigade, he went on to say : "Now sir, if you will permit it, I will give you some curious facts respecting the battle-field in front of the stone wall. In the following month of January, some six or eight officers of Longstreet's Corps formed a party, obtained permission and visited the city and battle-field. We examined very carefully the 232 ON THE PARALLELS. positions of Cobb's, Kershaw's and Ransom's Brigades in the telegraph road and on Marye's Hill. We examined the frame house — Stephens — and noted that a little distance from the wall towards the town, were several small frame houses, and around these had been enclosures as if for gardens. That near these houses and nearer the city was a well, from which the curbing had been removed, and the well was filled with Federal soldiers, tumbled in helter- skelter, arms and legs protruding in every ■direction. A short distance nearer the city, and where the open field made a sudden dip or :step, was a line of earth-works, thrown up liastily as a protection against the bullets of the Confederates, and in this earthwork defense ■dead horses were placed, and with them had been laid the bodies of dead Federals, for here and there the legs of horses and arms and legs of soldiers were thrust out, and over all loose dirt was piled, intended to cover and bury them. It shocked us greatly — the inhumanity to brave, dead and now helpless comrades." ON THE PARALLELS. 233 According to the story of Private James Br>an, the horse that dashed down the cross btreet into our lines, during the fight, belonged to General Kershaw, for Br^an says that, just as the General reached the wall, his horse was wounded and, slipping off the saddle and bridle, the freed animal scampered over into our lines. He says, too, that he saw the hospital flag waving out a rear upper window in the brick house. When the wounded began to seek refuge in the building, Sergeant Grier of m\- Compan\- got hold of the yellow banner, and signalled to the enemy to not fire upon the house. Bryan remarked that he often thinks "of the good men that were killed, and still wars continue." 28i ON THE PARALLELS. CHAPTER III. MARY WASHINGTON HOUSE — CONFEDERATE CEMETERY — THE " HOUSEWIFE " — THIR- TIETH VIRGINIA REGIMENT — A CON- FEDERATE'S TRIBUTE TO GEN- ERAL GRANT. RETURNING to the city, I paid a visit to the former home of Mary, the mother of George Washington — the house where Washington, it is said, spent his cliild. hood days. It is located on an eminence in the suburbs, and is kept with scrupulous care by the Historical Society, to which it belongs. This venerable structure is, of course, of old- style architecture, and with the exception of a slight alteration inside, the house remains the same to-day as when it was built. I stepped up into the little square portico, and laid my s > ft J3 o- ■< is 5 o E' H 3 O IS Z ON THE PARALLELS. 237 hand upon the very same heavy old brass knocker on ihe same door which was used when this house was the home of Mary Washington and her ilhistrious son, to whom was subse- quently confided the destiny of a great nation, and where she was visited by Lafayette and other famous patriots and statesmen. Robert C. Beale, the occupant of the premises, informed the writer that there was not a person living in the city who could tell the exact date of the construction of the house. It was once a farm residence, and was purchased by Mrs. Washington about 1750. Further out, in the newl)'-built portion of the city, stands a high granite shaft, and near it a pretty stone cottage, both of which were put up by the women of our country. The beautiful shaft stands upon the site of the old monximent erected to the memory of Mary Washington, and bears in large letters this inscription : " MARY, MOTHER OK GEORGE WASHINGTON. ERECTED BY HER COUNTRYWOMEN." 238 ON THE PARALLELS. The corner-stone of the first monument to Mary Washington was laid by President Andrew Jackson in 1833. It was of white marble, but was never completed. The present granite shaft was unveiled by President Cleveland, May TO, 1894, in the presence of a large gathering of visitors from all parts of the United States. Resuming my walk, I approach the entrance to another cemetery and pass through the high iron-barred gate. Here in th is well-kept enclos- ure, with graveled walks and ornamental trees and shrubbery, lie three thousand five hundred and fifty-seven soldiers who wore the gray — Confederate dead gathered from the same battle- fields upon which fell the thousands of Union dead buried over near the Heiglits. I read a number of the inscriptions upon the tombstones, and copied these two in my memorandum book : "In memory of Capt. J. H. Massey, First Texas Regiment. Killed at Wilderness May 4, 1864. 'Soldier rest, thy warfare o'er.' " "Jacob Foster, Pelican Rifles, Third Louisiana Volunteers ; fell at the Battle of Chancellors ville, o o z T ra o ra > H m o ra 3 ra H m ■< ON THE PARALLELS. 241 May 3, 1863 ; aged 24 years. Faithful unto death." In the central part of the cemetery stands a handsomely-designed monument, erected to the memory of those volunteer soldiers of the South- land who fell in the strife, and whose remains- repose in the silent camp within the gates. It consists of a tall, square granite pedestal, sur- mounted by a life-size metallic statue of a Confederate soldier in full uniform at "parade rest." On the four sides of the crown of the pedestal are chiseled the names of the States which seceded from the Union. Somewhere in that silent army of three thousand five hundred and fifty-seven Southern dead is the unknown grave of a lover. There may be se\eral lovers buried here, but of one — nobody knows which one — a sad bit of history' has been preserved. I will give the story nearly as it was Wi^tCcn by Mr. C. Lincoln, of ]Madison, Wisconsin, and published in the "Confederate Veteran." "A little roll or receptacle for pins, needles, 242 ON THE PARALLELS. thread and such things, was taken from the knapsack of a dead Confederate soldier after the battle of Fredericksburg, by Lieutenant Gran- nis, of the Forty-fourth New York Volunteers. •It tells a pathetic tale. The cover is cut out of an old-fashioued, painted, Holland window curtain, and the linings and pockets are of a variety of cheap, gaudy calicoes and flannels, made with rude, coarse stitches, bespeaking 'a ■country girl' with abundance of energy but a "wondrous poverty of resources. The identical pins and coarse needles, stuck into the leaves when found, are still there, while a feature well calculated to bring tears to a veteran's eyes is the little slip of faded letter paper, carefully pinned npon the thread pocket and bearing this legend in a delicate, feminine hand-writing : ' Remem- ber Elma.' Poor Elina ! her brave but sadly- deluded lover, for whom she had ransacked her scanty treasures in a time of great distress, to minister to his necessities and to keep him in constant remembrance of. the loved one at bome, is now one of the 'unknown dead' in OTfTHE PARALLELS. 243 the cemetery commemorating that frightful slaughter at Fredericksburg. Such sad relics as this from 'the other side' tend to soften the bitterness of antagonism between the veterans of the blue and those of the gray. They mutely tell us of a suffering in the homes of Dixie quite as poignant as ever known at the North — indeed, worse, for the survivors had not the solace of victory to sustain them in their anguish. Tens of thousands of Elmas, North and South, sewed their hearts into little 'house- wives' for the knapsacks of their lovers, hus- bands and kindred who were to return no more." Directly opposite tlie Exchange Hotel, on Main street, I recognized the then billiard room in which the small remnant of my Company took shelter the night after the battle. Three doors above, I met with Private R. H. Magee, a Confederate scout in the Thirtieth Virginia Regiment. Mr. Magee said he crossed over into the Union lines several times while Burn- side's army occupied the north bank of the 244 ON THE PARALLELS. river, and got back safely, but in one of his scouting adventures he came near being detected. Of the ten companies composing the Thir- tieth Virginia Regiment, three of them were recruited in Fredericksburg. At the battle of Antietam, fought on the seventeenth of Sep- tember, 1862, this regiment suffered a loss of sixty-two killed and one hundred and eleven wounded. Among the yet surviving members of that organization of volunteers is Martin lyuther Price, of King George county, who kindly communicated to the author a brief history of the organization of his command, with notable incidents of his experiences in those days, which I take great pleasure in giving to the reader. "I enlisted," he says, "in the King George Company K, in April, '61, as private, and rose gradually to the rank of Captain ; but in the fall of 1864 I was detached from my command to take charge of Pickett's Pioneer Corps, and there remained to the close. " Colonel A. Taylor Harrison commanded ON THE PARALLELS. 243 the Thirtieth Virginia in e\er\- engagement until late iii the fall of 1863, when 'he retired to his estate, 'Bra'ndin-on-the-James,' the old colonial Harrison ho:nestead,from which family sprang William Henrj' Harrison of Tippecanoe fame, and Benjamin Harrison, two Presidents of the United States. Upon Colonel Harrison's retirement. Colonel R. S. Chew commanded the regiment nntil its disbandment at Appo- mattox, with onl\' about two hundred men of the original eight hundred enrolled when the organization was new. "]\Iy Company and Regiment, as yoii cor- rectly stated in your letter, as did also the wliole Confederate Army, lost heavily at Antietam. It was a disastrous battle to the South. "At Fredericksburg, in which the Confed- erate Division of General Ransom 'bore the brunt of the fight in your front at Marye's Hill, and two divisions of Jackson's Corps bore the brunt at Prospect Hill, Pickett's Division, to which my command belonged, was stationed in the concave of the semi-circle or sickle- 246 ON THE PARALLELS. shaped Confederate line of battle, from which central position we had an unusually good observation of the movements of the Union troops, in our front and to the left, when Franklin encountered Jackson. We laid on our arms in expectancy of being attacked in front or having to go to the support of our right or left wings, but, not being called to do either, we remained watching transpiring events until night drew its sable curtain over the bloody fratricidal scene. "When, after the battle, large details of Union soldiers came over the Rappahannock under flag of truce to bury their dead, we, being nearly naked and hungry, took advantage of circumstances to traverse this gory plateau in search of the wherewithal to subsist. The good outer clothing of the dead Union soldiers was eagerly sought after to supply our more than scanty wardrobe, while other Confederates could be .seen wending their \\^y to camp with a great quantity of fat pork shouldered on a bayonet, or lugging a box of superior crackers. ON THE PARALLELS. 247 which our Union friends were considerate enough to leave behind when they recrossed the river. "While mixing with our late foes, under the flag of truce that day, I was handed a pretty Bible by a young Union soldier, with the request that I send it to his sister in Charleston, South Carolina, of which city he was a native, but was clerking in New York City when the war broke out and enlisted in a Northern regiment. I have forgotten names, but would be glad to know who he was and whether he and that sister ever met. "When the Chancellorsville fight began, our division was at New Berne, North Carolina. We were hurried to Chancellorsville to support Lee, but not reaching there in time to partici- pate, my observation is lacking. We were foes then ; we are friends now. The blessed Master implanted in this otherwise wicked heart of mine a humane, sympathetic feeling that always rose to the occasion. Often I think of the poor wounded Union soldiers I succored 248 ON THE PARALLELS. as best I could, whom I found on the battle- fields after the engagement, and wonder what became of them in the pilgrimage of life. Among , others, I call to mind four badly- wounded men of an Indiana Regiment, left in an old cabin on the field of the Second Manassas, for whom I brought water to quench their thirst and bathe their wounds. Thank God ! I left them comparatively comfortable, with prayers on their lips for my safety, which I have often thought were answered. How often do I think of this couplet : 'Our acts our angels are, for good or ill, Our fatal shadows that walk by us still.' " While it is conceded by some that General George B. McClellan was the ablest Union General, I have always admired the sterling qualities of General Grant, especially his magna- nimity after the war. I was so much impressed with it that I named one of my children Nellie Grant Price. " I desire to express my high appreciation of the Christinas compliment enclosed in your last MISS NELLIE GRANT PRICE. From a Photograph made for the Author. ON THE PARALLELS. 251 letter. Coming as an exchange of congenial courtesies between the Blue and the Gray, after an estrangement of so many years, I liken it to one of those bright and cheering oases seldom met with in man's monotonous journey through the Sandy Desert of Time." 252 ON THE PARALLELS. CHAPTER IV. AGED RESIDENTS TELL OF THE BOMBARDMENT AND THEIR FLIGHT FROM THE CITY. THE memories of the experiences of those living in Fredericksburg, at the time of the bombardment and battle, are recalled upon every recurring anniversary of that dreadful event, and told to the then unborn generation. Upon the fortieth anniversary day the " Free Lance " thus commented : " In the flight of time and in this era of peace and prosperity, when the war cloud no longer hovers threatening o'er the land, when the earth no longer resounds with the tread of martial hosts, men and women are apt to forget that things were once different ; apt to forget ON THE PARALLELS. 255 that this fair Southland, which we love with that devotion peculiar to the descendants of the cavalier, was once the scene of carnage and strife ; apt to forget that our own city of Fred- ericksburg was offered as a sacrifice to the South's glorious cause, and yet forty years ago- she braved a danger so terrible as to cause even the most courageous hearts within her confines to shriuk with terror from the result. Wrapped as she was in the fearful embrace of Federal shell and canister, she bore it silently, uncom- plainingly, because the South demanded the sacrifice. She saw her people driven from their homes, their property destroyed, their lives in many cases sacrificed, and yet the glory of her fate more than repaid the loss. Fredericks- burg stands to-day a monument to Southern valor, a shining example of Southern patriot- ism. She bore the brunt of the battle shock, but she has survived, and to-day her people with one accord are resolved that she shall become as grand in peace as she was brave in war. A remnant of the men live yet to tell of 254 ON THE PARALLELS. the part Fredericksburg played in the great war of the States, but each succeeding roll call on this anniversary will find the list of absent ones increased. Death is mowing them down, but Time, at whose behest men are forgotten, cannot efface the memory nor mar the grandeur of the men who battled at Fredericksburg. The glory of their deeds will live forever and forever." On the principal thoroughfare, a short dis- tance south of the railroad, I called at a small, neat-looking house to inquire the location of the Caldwell home, somewhere nearby. Quite an aged lady, of education and refinement, met me at the door, and, while answering my ques- tion, seeing I was a stranger and seeker of history, she cordially invited me inside. Tak- ing the proffered chair, I was an earnest listener to a pathetic recital of her trying experience in the great war ; yet she told the story smilingly and seemingly in the most cheerful mood. ON THE PARALLELS. 255 "My name," began my friendly entertainer, " is Ann O. Coleman. I have lived here ever since 1841. Having been warned of the bom- bardment, we left our home on Princess Anne street and moved to a cabin on the Plank Road, about seven miles out in the country. The threatened bombardment, however, was so long delayed, that the families who had fled at the first warning began to return to their homes, and some came back the night before the city was shelled. " Isly mother was one of those who returned to town in the interval between the first flight and the bombardment. The house in which she lived was next to my own residence on Princess Anne street. On the morning of the shelling, all of her family who were with her fled to the country as fast as pcssible, but she remained in her home until the flames com- pelled her to leave it. Her house and mine, and another adjoining my mother'.=, were all burning at the same time. A ball crashed through the chimney of our home and stopped 256 ON THE PARALLELS. the clock on the mantelpiece. She carried the clock out into the garden and left it there until she could carry it to a place of safety. We have it now. She then rolled a barrel of flour out of the house and carried, or rather pushed, the dining-table, with some of the dishes on it, into the street. While doing this a flying bit of shell struck and broke one of the cups. She managed to convey these articles to the house of a colored woman a short distance from her's, which, fortunately, escaped the flames. In the cellar of this colored woman's house she passed the rest of that awful day and succeeding night and on the next day made her way out to where we were stopping. "We had heard from some one, who had passed our place of refuge in their flight from town, of the burning of the houses, and also that mother had been killed at her door. So, my friend, you can imagine our relief of mind and gratitude when we saw her approaching. "We staid out of the town several months after the battle, and in April moved out of our ON THE PARALLELS. 257 cabin quarters to the Stansbury farm, now called ' Snowden,' where we were living during the May fight here, and the engagements at Chancellorsville at the same time. During the skirmishing in May we took refuge in the cellar along with a family named Bowling, who lived on the same farm. We staid in the cellar two or three days and nights. "On the second day Mrs. Bowling, wishing to get something from her home, which was. not far distant, ventured out, but, on her return,, as she descended the cellar steps, a ball passed over her head striking the wall in front of her; you may be sure, sir, she took that hint and remained in our underground retreat until the firing was over. "From our town, all the way back to the wilderness, the Yankees and Confederates were fighting or skirmishing until the Federal troops finally recrossed the river. Sometimes your men would be chasing the rebels, and then our men would drive your soldiers back. I remem- ber leaving home on Sunday, and walking over 258 ON THE PARALLELS. to a log cabin on the farm and picking np some army blankets, and, among other things, two or three spools of sewing thread which had fallen out of knapsacks or haversacks, thrown away by the fleeing soldiers. "Our home in the town, as I told you, was burned at the time of the shelling, but the cabin in the country, where we first took refuge when we left the town, was not destroyed until after we had moved over to Snowden. In fact, we moved fr^m there because my father had been warned that the place would likely be the ground over which some hard fighting would be done, and so it proved. " In that war — oh ! I never want to see another! — we lost two homes; yes, we lost everything we had, and our lives have been blighted. We did not know one day where the next df.y's food would come from. We were like the children of Israel, trusting in the Lord for deliverance. Sometimes we were given coffee by the Yankees, and because of H 3 ra o > r a m r r o c 01 CO ON THE PARALLELS. 2B1 their kind benevolence we were often glad to see the\namong us." Close to the plain home of Mrs. Coleman stands a more pretentious ffame dwell in<;, which, in the j'ears of its newness, presenttd a more imposing appearance than it does now in this day of improved architecture ; slill, de.'^pite the sombre hue it wears, it is an attractive place yet. This residence was once the hou-.e of John S. Caldwell, notice of whose death in the month of March, 1863, was chronicled in the Richmond papers, and from a yellow, time- faded clipping before me, I copy this : "The death of Mr. John S. Caldwell, fur some years Mayor of Fredericksburg, has betn announced. His physical constitution lacked the strength to sustain the exposure incidtrut upon living here. Some of his family, in their melancholy depression and exile, are still sojourning in this vicinity. Mr. Caldwell, with his wife, had returned since the battle to the scathed and charred ruins of Fredericks- burg, to share the precarious subsistence which 262 ON THE PARALLELS. a devastated district, afforded, when his life closed amid the gloom of the ruins of former affluence and prosperity. Sad epitome of the wrathful scourge upon this country ! No fire- side but is stricken by the gloom of mourning." Twenty years after the death of Mr. Caldwell, his daughter, Mrs. J. Selden Miller, saw her aged niother laid in the grave, then soon after- ward removed to Dallas, Texas, from where I received the sad story of her recollections of the war, which is best told by herself: "Along the river front, below the railroad," she says, "was my dear old home from my early childhood until the breaking out of the war. It is a building of nine rooms, with an upper and luwer porch facing the beautiful river, and from which we had a- full view of the passing vessels, the high, tree-fringed hills bordering the opposite shore, while over the railroad bridge above many trains were passing- north and south. In the prettily-kept yard and garden was an old-fashioned sun-dial near a stately pine tree. When the war broke out I ON THE PARALLELS. 263 was only twelve years of age. Then came a change. "On November 21, 1862, by direction of General Burnside, a flag of truce was sent over with a written message to the Mayor and Council of Fredericksburg, demanding an im- mediate surrender of the city into the hands of the commanding general of the Union forces, and failing to receive an affirmative reply' not later than five o'clock that afternoon, sixteen hours would be given for the removal from the city of the women and children, the sick, wounded and aged, which period having elapsed, the town would be shelled. " Rifle pits extended along the back end of our garden, and I remember counting fifty big guns across the river, which seemed to be pointing right at us. I remembei;, too, how bitterly I cried, because I could not take my pretty things when we went away. "Six months afterward we returned, to find our once pleasant home broken and torn by shot and shell, and the furniture sharing the 264 ON THE PARALLELS. same fate ; pictures, even the portrait of my dear mother in her bridal dress, pierced by bayonets ; all of my nice playthings, which children so highly prize, gone. Privations came after ; a struggle for the bare comforts and necessaries of life ; bread we fortunately always had ; sugar, seldom ; often no coffee or tea ; my two young brothers in the army and my mother, oh, so frail ; my widowed sister, with her two little ones ; a breakfast on dry bread and coffee, when we had it ; no prospect of anything for dinner. " During the summer months there was fruit and vegetables from the gardens, but the winters were hard, especially on those who had lost all their income. Everything going out and the treasury not being replenished. I expect we became hardened in privation. Our thoughts, probably, more on the battle-fields, and I so yoimg and full of life, what to me was going without coffee or tea ? Our soldier boys did not have them, why sliould I have them? We thought )ou would recognize the Confederate ON THE PARALLELS, 265 flag. Before closing my letter, let me give a little incident that took place one Sunday morning during the May fight at the Wilder- nesb. "A squad of your slightly wounded men came into town hungry, tired, and sick from their march. The women, for there were no men, fed them with the little they had. My mother took everything from the dining table, — a pitcher of buttermilk and a small bit of lamb and some bread, and gave to those men. If the opportunity occurs, tell this one act of kindness by Southern women to Northern soldiers. "The grand old State of Texas became my adopted home, but there are dear and sad meai- ories connected with the land of my birth, which will ever make me love it." Among the many other women and children who had to endure privation and suffering in the war, was Mrs. James H. Bradley, a lady now at the advanced age of eighty-four years. Her memory is remarkably good. 266 ON THE PARALLELS. "My trials and escapes," began the venerable lady, " were so many in number that I hardly know where to begin. If I had the talent I could have written a book. I never left my home but two days during the entire war, and that was the evening the bombardment ceased. With a sick son, I staid all day down in the basement. A shell bursted right at the window, breaking things badly, but we were not injured. About five o'clock in the evening I told my husband, who had been out all day, that if we did not get our soldier boy out of the town, the Yankees would take him. While he was out harnessing the horses I started away on foot, taking a young colored girl with me, leaving my husband to place my son upon a mattress and take him to a small farm house, about three miles out of town and out of range of the cannon. On the way there I sat down to rest, and while in great anxiety about the safety of my husband and son, a gentleman rode up to inform me that they got out safely, so I waited there until they came along. ON THE PARALLELS. 267 "With a large number of others who had fled from their homes, we staid at the farm house all night. As you remember, sir, the weather that December night was severely cold, and those who could not get inside, built fires out doors to keep themselves warm. Mr. Bradley being acquainted with the farmer and his wife, our son was given a small room. Mr. Bradley drove back to the town the same night after some of our provisions, and I charged him to not forget a box of candles, as we had no lights except from the fires, but the Yanks were filling the streets so fast that he made his way out. The next morning I took ray boy to the home of my sister, several miles further away. After the battle Mr. Bradley, whom I had left at the farm house, rode out to tell me that Burnside's forces had been defeated. Then, anxious to get back to our old home, we loaded up what things we had taken away and started back, reaching here on Sunday night. Oh, I cannot describe to you the condition of things then in this place. When the Yankee soldiers recrossed 268 ON THE PARALLELS. the river some of their dead were left lying in the buildings. "Then, during General Hooker's campaign, the following May, there was great excitement here. While we were in church on a Sunday morning news came that the Yankees were pouring into the town again. The meeting broke up and all came out of the church. Many of the wounded brought in that day were taken to the unoccupied houses broken by Burnside's cannon. I gave up my house and all I had to eat upon the promise of a surgeon that he would return me double when their supplies came. He kept his word to the letter. I had in my home two visiting doctors from Boston and three from Philadelphia, all of whom were very kind to us. "While they were here my husband, who had gone into the Confederate service, was taken prisoner, and when the doctors went back to Washington they l;ad him released and sent home. By the hardest I managed to keep my carriage horse, which was taken twice, but I ON THE PARALLELS. 269 rescued it both times. I felt humbled to think how good God had been to me, and I did not like to ride out after all my neighbors had their horses taken from them. "I had gone through so much my health got poor, but here I remained in my home during all of the many changes it was my lot to experience in those years of contention and bloodshed." 270 ON THE PARALLELS. CHAPTER V. SCENES AT THE PONTOON CROSSING THE HERO DRUMMER — CHATHAM. SUCH were the discomforts, vicissitudes and strained anxieties, not only of those whose experiences I have given, as I received them from their own lips and pens, but of scores and hundreds of helpless women and children, who, during and after the bombardment, sought safety by flight or retired to cellars and base- ments. I remember once reading a newspaper report of an engagement, where the war corres- pondent, as if to infuse more courage in the hearts of the well-tried troops, borrowed this refrain : ON THE PARALLEI^. 271 "There's music in the fiddle, boys, There's music in the drum, But the music for the soldier boy Is the music of the gun. ' Far out of harm's way, when cannon batter- ies are playing — where it is so easy to imagine the enemy is being annihilated — the noise of the guns may sound musical to the ear of the excited soldier, but to Comrades Davis, Watson and Haines, from my own regiment, with hun- dreds upon hundreds of others lying j ust as help- less, suffering and dying upon that gore-stained plain, the frightful roar of firearms was no more charming than were the screaming, crashing shells from Staflford Heights to those terrified, panic-stricken families, seeking safety froin the storm of iron upon the city. A pri- vate in a new regiment of volunteers told the writer that while on their march from Aquia Creek to Falmouth, some of the most excited men responded to the booming of the heavy guns by shouting, "Give 'em hell, Birny !" The regiment escaped that holocaust, but it 272 ON THE PARALLELS. received many a fiery baptism in subsequent battles. Now for a look along the river front. I am standing at the foot of Hawk street — upon the identical spot where we entered the town after crossing the pontoon bridge the morning after the bombardment, and where, nearby, laid the dead body of the Confederate soldier I remem- bered seeing in the street. Many of the old buildings bordering the river look just as they did during the war. It was in and behind these old structures Barkesdale's sharpshooters secre- ted themselves to harass the pontoniers while they were trying to lay the bridge. One of the number, who opposed the cross- ing of the river by the Union troops, was Private Moses McAdams, of Company K, Seventeenth Mississippi Regiment. Writing from his home in Pine Valley, Mr. McAdams says : " My company and Captain Givan's company — Mississippi Rangers — were placed at the pon- ON THE PARALLELS. 273 toon crossing, below the market house. The firing began before daylight and our Captain was wounded about sunrise. "The man you spoke about finding dead near the bridge, I am most positive, was Sam Har- din. Oh, my friend, those times were just too bad, and I almost shed tears now when I think of them." Mr. McAdams, to assure himself that he was coiTect in giving the name of the dead soldier I saw near the bridge, took the pains to write to Mr. A. A. Gorden, of his own Company, who replied to his comrade as follows : "I was one of the boys at the end of the bridge, and Sam Hardin was killed there. He was shot while in a garden, and went out of the enclosure we were in and fell in the middle of the street, and is the man mentioned, when llie Federals entered the town. There were four others of our Company killed in that enclosure and several wounded." Over yonder across the river, I recognize the deep and narrow ravine down which we hur- 274 ON THE PARALLELS. riedly inarched to the bridge. It is now so full of tall, slender trees that an army could not pass through it in perfect military order. How easy it is, while standing here, to picture myself with my comrades away off behind those distant hills, listening to the great guns on Stafford Heights, and at night viewing the conflagration in the burning city. The spectacle at the river on that memorable day, as described by the unknown verse com- poser quoted in a previous chapter, can best be narrated by one of the living witnesses to the scene, and, while diligently searching to find one, it was my good fortune to come across Mr. John S. Spillane, Captain of Police in the city of Detroit, Michigan, who, at that time, was a drummer boy in the Seventh Michigan Regiment. In compliance with the writer's wishes. Captain Spillane kindly penned the story of his experience, and here it is : "I received your letter," he wrote, "and it will afford me great pleasure if I can in any way assist you. I shall try and give you a ON THE PARALLELS. 275 faithful account of the event, though I was but a youngster at the time. There were one hun- dred and fifty-three men, and, of these, five were killed and sixteen wounded. "On December ii, 1862, at daybreak, we were in line and ready to march from Falmouth to the Lacy House, which stands directly oppo- site the city. My regiment was commanded by Lieutenant-Colonel Baxter. After marching two or three miles, we reached our destination and found that the engineer corps were obliged to abandon the laying of the pontoon bridge after getting two-thirds of the way across, owing to the severe and dangerous fire of the rebel sharp-shooters. "These sharp-shooters were hidden in cellars, behind stone walls and fences, and could not be dislodged. Two bridges had been laid at the extreme left, but the upper bridge was not completed, and the crossing could not be made until this was finished. " All the morning a dense fog and mist hung over the river and city, but cleared away 276 ON THE PARALLELS. towards uoon. At ten o'clock General Burn- side gave the order for a concentrated firing of the guns, and one hundred and forty pieces of artillery were opened upon the town without any apparent eifect on the sharp-shooters. Many houses caught fire, and when the fog lifted the city seemed to be ablaze. " During the confusion, the engineers again attempted to lay the bridge, but the sharp- shooters were as lively as before. The only way to stop the deadly work of the enemy was to cross the river in boats and dislodge him. This would mean almost certain death to the men in the boats, but, nevertheless. General Burnside called for a party of volunteers. Our Colonel, Hal], commanding the brigade, told General Burnside that he knew his regiment would consent to cross, so he made us the offer, which was accepted. "The men of the engineer corps were to man the boats and row us over, but, after waiting half an hour for them, we were told that they refused to take the risky task, although ON THE PARALLELS. 277 their officers tried hard to make them do it. " Nothing was left but for our men to man their own boats ; so they were stationed along the river at proper intervals, where they could spring into the boats as speedily as possible. At a given signal, the men of 'the gallant Seventh' rushed for the boats, carried them down to the river and manned them, rowing boldly out into the stream, while the bullets fell thick and fast about our heads. " I managed to get into the third boat, when Colonel Baxter, observing me, ordered Private Chauncey Cole to ' throw the little cuss out.' Chauncey attempted to do this, but I, in my desperation, bit him in the hand, and he carries the mark to this day. " Colonel Baxter was severely wounded at the crossing. "After we got under cover of the bluffs, the firing was not so severe. The regiment charged up the ascent, taking possession of the rifle- pits and hiding-places, scattering the Confed- erates right and Itft. We captured thirty-five 278 ON THE PARALLELS. prisoners. The Nineteenth and Twentieth Massachusetts came to our support as soon as possible, and we held the ground until the bridge was completed. The wing of the army marched over, and we did not ourselves recross until the 15th of December." I am still tarrying at the same spot, looking over the river at the grown-up ravine, and, in thought, viewing the pen picture of the exciting skirmish at the crossing, so clearly portrayed by Captain Spillane, who, for his daring and determined participation in the hazardous feat to dislodge the enemy, is popularly known as the drummer of the Rappahannock, and was crowned by his regiment as "the hero of the pontoon crossing." Back up on the high plateau, partly obscured by the dense growth of trees which cover the precipitous banks, stands the famous Lacy House, built in 1730, and still in a good state of preservation, and said to nearly equal in ' ~ -'-^i^^-' ■■ , ^._._v,.<' . ^... ) W\ -■_^-%.!^J*i.7 , - ■ ^^ ■'-'-■ '■■-'■a.- -^s^' •»■ ■ ..*'■ ' - ■ . - "*'Z- ^-^-.iV-^t.' ' ■ vi' ■■ -.'JSt ';/-'■*■' . 'j J r:- ^^?^4fe^ _ "'^'■,. .^' -i -■'■*s.* 5 -' ^^^kSSSBBl H E^K^^t " ''- «»si^^«>i«~- <;^ r i'- ^Sl "'■ i-^^-"i«s'ij ^^^^/- ;. ; ' " -•■"%;eali •^ P^^^L^ '•' ^^■■nBHP'^'-'' ' — # BS^S^a"!. ^ *'" - ■-;&;/,' ^ '- "■■™*1M W^^^'k I ••, !*•*«-.'- - ^-*t.. ■ -'■■■1'^ ■ k '' ' - '-- :'< B^fc^'ytv ^V-' Y* ■■ - « 1^^^^ '"*' * ' '":Jt^ SAj^c^^.^ i ' * i^vj^^H E2S^"" ^^' ''^ ..'.dt^l^H ^^^ ^^^^^■^Hv ^^ * ^5 "^fc / •• ^%- |s# W^ASp" -^ , -^: ^ J ■, "V ' ^; ■•/-. '^:r: L" '' ^ . ■:- r. " ' ■ 'fi^t-' ' ■ ^. -^ * '^.■■■•■^-'W-^' l^r-; -| ,»- p-?j.- ■,: ^;V.- W^'"-y r [^*';i "^ L- ^i 'i -. 1^^^^ '^■-^ '^^ ?S. " ., - '- aBj^Jlf;^ I'}a - >■ 1 -.^J:- . ;-v ■>>'.■ .' ^?3:.\ ' ^,j: ms>^smk ^^M ON THE PARALLELS. 281 beauty cither"Mount Vernon or Arlington. It has a frontage of two hundred feet and is built of brick, brought, it is said, from England. It now goes by the name of Chatham. The relieved picket guards usually collected there, and I have spent many an hour with the idle squads lounging in the large deserted halls of that memorable mansion, waiting for the "third relief" to come up from the river before we all started back to camp. In response to a request for a brief sketch of this familiar place. Major Horace Lacy, a genial and noted literary gentleman, related the fol- lowing facts : "During the Civil War," wrote the Major, "I was the owner of Chatham, and on that account it was called the Lacy House. The estate was purchased by me in the year 1854. It contained, originally, several thousand acres, but only six hundred acres when I bought it. The place was one of great historic interest, from the fact that George Washington was a frequent visitor there. Tradition well authen- 282 ON THE PARALLELS: ticates and affirms that there he first met the lady who became his wife. General Lee courted his wife there, and it was a very famous place in colonial days. For a time it was the head- quarters of General Burnside, who moved to the Phillips House which he occupied during the battle." Mr. Fleming G. Bailey, a Georgian, purchased Chatham in 1901, and made it his home. Mr. Bailey is charmed with his new possessions, and has restored the mansion and its attractive surroundings to theiir former beauty, as when Mr. Lacy was the proud and happy owner. ON THE PARALLELS. 283 CHAPTER VI. A FRIENDLY MEETING CONTRABANDS — REMINISCENCES. THE first occupation of Fredericksburg by the Federal military forces was effected without resistance, on the 27th of April, 1862, and was held by them until August 31st. In the summer of that year the streets were patrolled by a detachment from the Seventy- sixth New York Regiment, under command of Captain P. S. Clark. One day, one of General Lee's staff officers, while entering the town under disguise to visit some relatives living there, was arrested and turned over to Captain Clark, who placed his distinguished prisoner under guard in one of the upper rooms of the Court House. 284 ON THE PARALLELS. Thirty-five years after this occurrence, one of the passengers that got off the train at Freder- icksburg, to look over the town, was Captain Clark, of Schenectady, New York. Soon after his arrival, to his inexpressible surprise and pleasure, he met Major Horace Lacy — perhaps the only person living in the city whom he knew ; nor was the Major's surprise and delight of less degree than that of the visitor, for Mr. Lacy was none other than Captain Clark's noted prisoner at the Court House thirty-five years before. Mr. Clark's story of his meeting with Mr. Lacy, together with notes of other incidents in those by-gone years yet remembered, I will give to the reader just as he penned them to me: " Mr. Lacy received me royally. He remem- bered all the circumstances of his capture, imprisonment, and my kind treatment. He had his horse and carriage brought around and gave me a ride about town, and to our old camping ground and to Chatham, his old home. ON THE PARALLELS. 285 Wherever he met an acquaintance he would stop his horse, call his friend, and introduce me and relate the circumstance of his treatment by me. Mr. L,acy made our meeting ven,- pleasant for me in every way. "The Court House looked the same as when we occupied it in the summer of 1862. I had charge of the jail and prisoners, and also received all contrabands that came into town. They came in singly, by twos, and in squads ; sometimes on foot, or in an old cart with a lank mule hitched to it. They ranged in color from an octoroon to a coal black, and of all ages. I quartered and fed them in the base- ment of the Court House. Here they would sometimes form a large circle of boys and girls, join hands and dance, rocking right to left, while a jet-black darky would stand aside and sing, those in the ring joining in the chorus. Notwithstanding the seriousness of the times, they all seemed as happy as though they owned the town. " After a late hour at night, I would send out 286 ON THE PARALLELS. squads of men to patrol and pick up any Union soldiers without a pass. They usually got some at a resort known as Sandy Bottom, and were placed in jail until morning, then sent to their commands. They were a lively lot, and sometimes made a terrific noise in the jail. One night the prisoners got upon each other's shoulders, tore a hole through the roof and escaped. How the last one or two got up, I never learned. "For a while my regiment was encamped across the river on the Captain Phillips Farm, the owner being in the Confederate army. There were handsome brick buildings on the farm, which were afterwards burned by acci- dent. Here our duties were light. The men picked berries and did various things to kill time. "I remember we had quite a smart young contraband that came into camp, and a soldier proposed that they have a boxing bout ; so a musket was held up horizontally and they commenced. In a few moments the soldier ON THE PARALLELS. 287 lay on his back, ten feet in the rear from where he had been hit by the darky. The soldier evidently did not understand the Southern darky style of boxing. " Here, too, I well remember, we had a modest young boy in my Company, by the name of George Van Patten, who was taken sick. We missed him one day, and, upon searching, found him beside the garden fence, dead. This was one of the many sad things in camp life, and doubly sad for the poor mother at home." 288 ON THE PARALLELS. CHAPTER VII. THE RESERVE PICKET POST — "MEMENTO OP THE WAR" — RESPONSES FROM THE OTHER SIDE. SOMEHOW, that smoothly-running river has for me a sort of fascination about it which makes me loth to leave it. So the reader finds me loitering there again, musing upon the past, looking in retrospect upon realities of the long ago. Down along yonder shore below the ravine is where, in uniform and armor witk fixed bayonet, I paced my lonesome beat through many a long winter night, staring into the thick darkness toward the opposite shore, seeing nothing but the flickering blaze of the enemy's ON THE PARALLELS. 289 picket fires, hearing uotliing but the continual low munniir of the dark, flowing waters. Oh, what memories the scene recalls ! Up in another and larger ravine, below the Lacy House, was located the Grand Reserve Picket Post, where the relieved guards whiled away the time as suited them best. Truly, as Lieutenant Reeves says, "the poetic in one's nature could not fail to be stirred by the beauty of the surroundings," and, in retrospection, I see the Lieutenant, composing on the spot his beautiful poem, entitled A MEMENTO OF THE WAR. "As sweetly bloom the flowers of spring, on Staf- ford's dreamy hills, As calmly flow the waters by. in all her silvery rills, As darkly lower the April showers, as when, in days of yore, No bugle's note, o'er hills remote, gave evidence of war. "As nobly towers the lofty oak, as wildly climbs the vine, 290 ON THE PARALLELS. As thrifty grows the briar rose, the laurel and the pine, As sweetly sing the birds of spring, as joyous now and more Than in those years, when, free from fears, we never thought of war. "As softly play the breezes, through the branches in the vale. As lightly fall the glittering dews, far over hill and dale. As brightly gleams, o.'er mountain streams, the sun as when before His golden light shone out so bright, o'er lands unknown to war. "Oh! may the time be hastened on, the time of Love and Peace, When North and South shall friendly be — this cruel war shall cease ; When we can view this region through, without the saddening thought Of marshaled hosts, throughout our coasts, and fearful battles fought. ■•WheushdU the day — the glad, glad day — dawn en our nation's life? ON THE PARALLELS. 291 When shall the shadows flee away, aad when shall end this strife ? Not, Father, grant, until we plant our flag o'er land and sea, — Then shall our land in triumph stand— redeemed, exalted, free ! " Where now shall I inquire for some of those Confederate guards, whose movements we closely watched from our outposts ? Where, after the lapse of over forty years, can I find those veterans of the Gray who will relate something of their experience at the Rappa- hannock that winter? Through the thoughtful kindness of Mrs. J. Selden Miller, a member of the United Daugh- ters of the Confederacy, I received, quite unexpectedly, from Judge A. T. Watts, of Dallas, Texas, a lengthy communication descriptive of army life in the Confederate camps and military operations before and during Burnside's unsuc- cessful campaign. Mr. Watts wrote as follows : "Mrs. Miller, of this city, handed me your 292 ON THE PARALLELS. letter, with the request that I furnish you with a brief narration of my personal observations at Fredericksburg. "I was a private in Company A, Sixteenth Mississippi Regiment, Longstreet's Corps. Our Division arrived at Fredericksburg, as I remem- ber, about twenty-four hours after General Burnside's advance reached Falmouth. We first went into camp near the river opposite Falmouth, and subsequently went into winter quar-ters in a line of hills about two miles from and south of the city. Until the morning of the nth of December, there was no firing along the picket line, and 'Yank' and 'John- nie' indulged in a commerce which ignored tariff laws, custom-house and revenue officers. They constructed out of white pine boards miniature ships, which, properly rigged, with helm tied down, they would send across the river with their cargoes. 'Johnnie' would load a ship with flat tobacco, and in the first favorable wind she would sail to the north bank, to be met by the Yankee consignee, who, ON THE PARALLELS. 293 after removing the cargo, would load the ship with coifee, sugar, cheese and so-forth, for the return voyage to a rebel post, the first favorable breeze. This trafiBc continued for about the first six months, and there was never a complaint about quantity, quality or value ; uniform fair dealing was the principle upon which it was conducted. "From the time we arrived at Fredericks- burg, until the battle, the service was very light and the rations reasonably sufficient." Passing over Mr. Watts' accurate description of the movements of the two armies, from his point of observation, from the commencement of the battle until the fighting ceased at night- fall, we follow him again : " About dusk there was some talk of makino- a night attack upon that portion of the Federal army in the city, and the reserve artillery was brought up and placed in position, but General Lee, with his men, believed Burnside would make a general attack the next day, and that he would then make the counter stroke. 294 ON THE PARALLELS. " From the heights, the smouldering ,ruins of many houses were visible in different por- tions of the city. The December air was laden with the sulphurous fumes of battle, and the groans of the wounded and dying — things that touch sharply the hearts of true soldiers. In the turmoil of battle, the soldier is a veritable demon and glories in the destruction of his fellow-men, but when the contest is over and night throws her sable curtain over the bloody scene, human nature reasserts herself, and it is with profound sorrow that he hears the groans of his d) ing enemy. Thus it was that we stood upon the heights, looking down into the black valley where the carnage of battle had been frightful to behold, but now shut out from view by the pall of darkness ; yet we could hear the moaniiigs of the dying mingling with the importunities of the mangled and wounded for assistance. " It was then that a strange phenomtiion broke upon the scene ; a rippling, silvery moon of light shot up from the Northern horizon ; ON THE PARALLELS. 295 others to the right and left followed in quick succession, until a third of the heavens was alive with the ghostly light of the aurora borealis. We took this as an omen of great victory upon the morrow, while it must have meant — ' Brothers, stay the bloody hand of war,' for, as is now known, General Burnside determ- ined upon a general assault upon our lines on the 14th, but was ultimately persuaded not to do so by his subordinates, and two days after- wards he recrossed the river under the cover of night and a heavy rain storm. " Next morning, after Burnside's retreat, I walked over the field in front of Cobb's Brigade, and was astonished at the number of the Federal dead. The slaughter was much greater than I anticipated, notwithstanding I had observed each assault. " Fredericksburg, so far as Longstreet's Corps was concerned, was not a battle ; it was simph- a slaughter-pen for some of the very best divis- ions of the Federal army." 296 ON THE PARALLELS. While pondering at the river bank, I thought of the message which Lieutenant Reeves found fastened to the little packet, after its successful voyage across the stream, and marveled, whether the author of that dispatch, which was destined to make history, survived the war, and was still in the land of the living. Resolving to get some information concern- ing him, after a prolonged search, I found at Batesville, Mississippi, Mr. N. C. Knox, who was one of Parker's Company comrades, and Knox communicated to me the sad story of Parker's fate and his own misfortune in the war. Here is what he wrote : " Your letter reached me and I will endeavor, as best I can, to comply with your request. I will say at the outset, that I appreciate very much the slip of paper you sent me, for it brings fresh to memory not only my lamented comrade, Parker, but many and thrilling, and to me, very interesting scenes around the city and along the Rappahannock River. You will remember, no doubt, a large brick mill near the ON THE PARALLELS. 297 water's edge, down near the railroad bridge. There I caught fish and launched miniature boats laden with tobacco, receiving in return coffee and other things, which were valued very highly by myself, and comrades. " Parker and myself were in the same com- mand and followed Lee in all his important engagements up to the battle of Gett)sburg, where I lost an arm, and after spending a few months on Davis' Island, I returned to nn- home in Mississippi. Parker was a good soldier. It was my sad privilege to see him just before he was killed. A ball struck him just before we entered the peach orchard and he could not get off of the field. I went on through the orcht.rd and received my wound while putting my last cartridge in my gun, near where General Barksdale was killed. On my way back I passed Parker, and had not gone but a few steps when a cannon ball struck him, killing him instantly. Barksdale's Brigade never lost a better soldier or truer Christian than James O. Parker, who occupies an 298 ON THE PARALLELS. unmarked grave. All honor to such noble characters as his, who gave their heart's blood for what they believed to be right." While prosecuting ray search for tidings of Parker, I received a letter from Little Doe, Tennessee, written by L. H. Horn, of the Eighteenth North Carolina Regiment. Along with other things he related an incident well worthy, I think, of a place- in these gleanings of history, because of the fact that beneath the then outward exhibitions of deadly strife between the States, there all the while existed in the hearts of the contending soldiers a latent feeling of brotherly love, one for another, which was ofttimes manifested under favorable circumstances. "In 1863," says Horn, "I was on guard duty at the prison ward of the small-pox'hospital in Richmond. We had two prisoners recovering from that disease, and one Sabbath morning they beset the guards very earnestly to take ON THE PARALLELS. 299 them a short distance to hear-sblne preaching. The sentinels were nnder strict orders to allow no one to leave the prison, but finally their entreaties induced me to break the orders, and I took them out to the meeting. They acted like men and seemed to enjoy the trip so much that it is a pleasure to me yet to think of it, for none of the other guards would venture to take them out. How I would enjoy meeting them now if they are living." Next came a communication from Private W. A. Jones, of Holly Springs, Mississippi. After answering my inquiry, Mr. Jones sub- joined this personal reminiscence : "I was a member of Company B, Seven- teenth Mississippi Volunteers. I was in the Bull Run fight and the Ball's Bluff battle, near Leesburg, Virginia. After a spell of fever I was discharged as a minor, and then went home to get money from my mother to join General John B. Morgan's command, but found Grant's army in possession of Holly Springs and my mother's home occupied by the Commissary- 300 ON THE PARALLELS. General and -his stafi, rny mother and-&ister-s- living in the back rooms of our house. During my stay at home, while Grant's forces were occupying our town, Mrs. Ulysses S. Grant called at my mother's home to see the wives of the officers that were quartered in the house. I answered the ring of the door-bell and had the honor of inviting her in the parlor to see her friends." ON THE PARALLELS. 301 CHAPTER VIII. MISS CORNELIA HANCOCK, THE ARMY NURSE — A LETTER FROM THE FRONT. AMONG those who visited the battle-field to nurse the wounded was Miss Cornelia Hancock, of Philadelphia. In the month of May, 1864, when General Lee was strongly resisting General Grant's progress through the Wilderness, Miss Hancock justly claims the honor of being the first woman from the North to enter Fredericksburg, where scores and hundreds of sick and wounded Union soldiers gathered during and after the several days' hard fighting in the woods at Spottsylvania and Salem Church. The day after her arrival she was given charge of one hundred and twenty 302 ON THE PARALLELS. men, who had been taken to the Methodist church. Miss Hancock was only twenty-three years old when she first went to the front as a nurse in 1863, and ministered to the wounded of the Second Army Corps on the field of Gettysburg, where, with unremitting care, she attended to the wants of the disabled soldiers, and her labors were highly appreciated by the men. In a recent interview with this lady on the subject of her hospital experience, several packages of carefully preserved letters, written to and received fro"m her friends in the North during the war, were laid before me, with full permission to read and copy all I wished. Probably as interesting as any was the first letter I unfolded, which bore the date of May 20, 1864, and written at Fredericksburg. After the usual preliminary remarks on family affairs, the message reads : "We are having an awful time l;ere. I have to submit to seeing the men fei on hard-tack and coffee. Supplies are veiy limited and ON THE PARALLELS. 303 scarcely any soft bread reaches us. Guerillas infest the country and endeavor to cut off sup- plies coming to the front. I have written very little, as it is almost impossible to get any time. I am boarding with a Secesh family, and I can tell you they are very bitter, but treat us with marked civility. "There is no end to the wounded. They arrive at all hours of the day and night. I hope the North does not feel jubilant at our successes, for we have little cause thus far. It seems to be General Grant's determination to persist, if he is whipped, and I can say to any one he is whipped about half his time, but he does not appear to care. Playing soldier is of the past with Grant. I hope none will enlist thinking they will not have to go further than Washington, for if Grant wants them in the front rifle-pits, he will have them there. He has ordered all the poor little drummer boys to shoulder a musket and go into the trenches. "The suffering does not seem so great as at Gtttysburg, becaiise here the wounded are in 804 ON THE PARALLELS. houses ; but I have not seen the worst, as iny hospital was started under the auspices of the Surgeon- General of New York, which has taken the lead of all in the town. I must pride myself I was first on the spot. "Fredericksburg is one vast hospital, requir- ing all the muscle and supplies the North can send. The groans from the helpless sufferers go up from almost every building. I am taking care of Colonel Moore, of the Fourteenth Connecticut, and three officers of the Twelfth New Jersey. Miss Swiss Helm and Miss Georgeanna Willets came down here on my pass and they are doing good service." Strung from end to end upon the same metal watch chain which Miss Hancock wore, while assiduously laboring to ease and comfort the sick and wounded, are mementoes of different kinds presented by soldiers as a testimonial of their high appreciation of her timely adminis- tration in their hours of severest need. The soldiers of a division in the Second Army Corps voted her a silver medal, bearing this ON THE PARALLELS. 305 inscription : "Testimonial of regard for minis- trations of mercy to the -wounded soldiers at Gettysburg, July, 1863." From among the many communications received by Miss Hancock from her friends in the North, the following is chosen as represent- ing the far-reaching effects of the sad conse- quences of war. It was penned by Mrs. Sarah B. Harris, from near Salem, New Jersey, and in it she says : " I was in Salem yesterday, speaking to Mar)- Bassett about you. A woman who was just then passing by, stopped to inquire where you were. She said you waited upon her husband in a Fredericksburg hospital, and wrote you a letter dated May 17th. I think she told me that a Baptist minister from Baltimore had written her a letter, saying her husband had been removed to a house out of the town, not a hospital, and was thought to be dying. Since then she has heard nothing, and is in terrible suspense about him, almost distracted, and wants you to write particulars, when you last 30(3 ON THE PARALLELS. saw hiin and where he is, if alive. His left leg had been amputated above the knee. His name is Jacob Adams, Company I, Twelfth New Jersey. She has sent several letters, but as yet has failed to receive an answer. Write. She seems to fetl ?o thankful to anybody who does her a favor. "You have heard nie speak of my school- mate near Rochester, New York. Her intended enlisted in the One Hundred and Fortieth New York, and was wounded in the Battle of the Wilderness, taken to Fredericksburg and lived but fifteen days. Please let me know whether you saw him. His body was taken home, and now lies buried in sight of her school-room. Her future is blasted, but, alas ! how many more with her." Yes, we here repeat, how many more with her. Jacob Adams lies in an unknown grave in one of the National Cemeteiies. ON THE PARALLELS. H07 CHAPTER ]X. MEMORIES OF GIRLHOOD A MAN OF WOUNDS — STONEWALL JACKSON — A HOMILY — A NOTED MONUMENT. YET living witnesses of those troublous years, residing along the borders of the Rappahannock, can entertain the sojourner with narrations of humorous and pathetic occurrences touching upon the war. A stretch of miles down the river is the home of a lady of culture and refinement, who related varied experiences of her girlhood, but whose name will not be given here. "I had little advantages of schooling," she remarked, "only one short year, and that was 308 ON THE PARALLELS. to a Northern man, who was a cripple, and very quick-tempered, too ; yet I never got a scolding from him, as he said I naturally took to books and my lessons were always perfect. But that dreadful war came on, and, of course, his sympathies took him home. I recollect so well the base ingratitude with which I paid his unswerving kindness to me. He asked if I was not sorry because he was going to leave, and would I not kiss him good-bye? ' What!' I exclaimed, in an unkind tone, 'I kiss a Yankee ? ' His face crimsoned. I was sorry for what I had said, but it was too late — he was gone. "Almost from the window, where I sit, can I see the very spot where the old gnarled oak grew that spread its protecting boughs around two forms, full forty years ago, as they bid each other a last adieu ; he to languish and die in a Northern prison, she to forever keep his manly form pictured in her memory. That girl was I. All this, sir, is with the irrevocable past, and we would not recall them if we could. ON THE PARALLELS. 309 The present is too full of duties, which, if nobly performed, is all that our Creator asks of us." Then this affable lady recounted an episode of her experience while visiting her cousins at the "Windsor Castle," as the young folks romantically termed the place, located near tl'.e banks of the Potomac River. It was late in the winter of 1865, when my entertainer was a jovial young girl of sixteen years. One bitter cold night, while the little company were in the midst of a merry-making — singing and dancing — two sharp raps upon the door sud- denly stilled the boisterous mirth. At the door, when opened, stood a couple of sturdy- looking men in traveling garb, one of whom proved to be a relative of one of the assembled company, but to all the visitors at the mansion his companion was an entire stranger. His actions, manners, and trend cf conveisation, after joining the party, caused some wonder- ment ; and, to quote the words of my informant, "he seemed possessed of the demon of unrest." 310 ON THE PARALLELS. He told her, she said, of his recent travels round about the country lying between Washington and the Rappahannock, nor did he attempt to keep concealed the heavy pistol which he car- ried. He also said he was an actor, and intended to go to Cuba. When, about two months later, the country was shocked by the news of the assassination of President Lincoln and the particulars of the shocking tragedy became known, the convic- tion that then fastened itself upon the mind of the young lady remains as firm to this day, and that conviction is that that uninvited and mysterious guest at the "Windsor" on the Potomac, that winter night, was none other than John Wilkes Booth. A good long distance further down the valley, •in the village of Rexburg, is the abode of Captain Albert Rennolds, the man of wounds ; the same Captain Rennolds who described the thrilling scene in the Chancellorsville woods, on the night General Jackson received his- death wound. When Virginia seceded, April ON THE PARALLELS. 311 i8, i86ii Rennolds was a cadet in the Virginia Military Institute. A few hours later he, with others, was on the march to Staunton, in Major Jackson's command, and assisted in drilling- most of the men who fought the first battle of Manassas. Later, he joined as private the "Essex sharp-shooters," a company composed of his schoolmates and neighbors ; manv of them fell upon different fields, and it was not long before he took command of one of the companies of his regiment. Captain Ren- nolds was in the war from first to last, or until his capture at Sailor's Creek, and held a prisoner, first at the Old Capitol Prison and then at Johnson's Island, until late in June, 1865. From five of the many battle-fields upon which he led his command into action, Captain Rennolds was borne off wounded, sometimes severely ; but when given his freedom at John- son's Island he was able to again lead his comrades into battle. He felt proud, he told me, of the part he played in the war, but cherished no hard feeling against any Yankee, 312 ON THE PARALLELS. except the thief who robbed him of his sword after he had been permitted to keep it, after his capture, by a "gentleman" Sergeant of the Fifth New Jersey Cavalry, at the battle of Sailor's Creek. " Although I think you made a mistake, friend Borton," remarked the Captain, "I love you; I love all true soldiers." The South will always revere in memory the heroic deeds of its army leaders, and their names will ever continue to be told in story and song. Some years ago, when nothing but a rudtly-shapen rock marked the place where Oeneral Jackson received his mortal wound, a contributor to a Southern paper composed these plaintive lines : ■"Where Bappahanaook rolls along The field he fought so well, A simple granite marks the spot Where Stonewall Jackson fell. ROCK THAT MARKED THE SPOT WHERE GENERAL JACKSON RECEIVED HIS FATAL WOUND. ON THE PARALLELS. 315 ' Wheresighing pines and murmuring elms Their mutual sorrows tell, The birds sing dirges o'er the spot Where Stonewall Jackson fell. 'The birds and trees are sounding still A nation's funeral kuell, For all our hopes were buried there When Stonewall Jackson fell." Those who knew him best tell us that Stone- wall Jackson was a man of exemplary character, a true and devoted Christian and a firm believer in the efficacy of prajer. It is related that General Jackson was once asked the meaning of the passage, "instant in prayer." He replied: " If you will not mistake and think I am setting myself up as an example, which I am not, I will give an illustration from my own habit. I have so fixed the habit of prayer in my mind, that I never raise a glass of water to my lips without a moment's asking of God's blessiug. I never seal a letter without putting a word of prayer under the seal. I never take a letter 316 ON THE PARALLELS. from the post without a brief sending of my thoughts heavenward." Kind reader, you may call this digression what you like — a homily, or only a reflection — but I feel to say that the Christian example set by that great Southern soldier conveys a lesson worthy of emulation by every professed follower of the Master. In simplest verse, in words well understoocl, These thoughts I'll pen for th' thoughtful read- er's good. A grateful feeling for each blessing God confers, Ennobles thought, and deep meditation stirs. When, in every act performed for motives best, God is petitioned that the deed be blest, A soul so mindful of life's comforts given Is in the pathway leading on to heaven. Of joys and sorrows we all do have a share ; But in shade or light, let's practice instant prayer ; Not wait for place, to please some listening ears, In silence ask — the Master always hears. ON THE PARALLELS. 317 The monument on the battle-field of Chan- cellorsville, marking the position of the One Hundred and Fourteenth Pennsylvania Regi- ment, commanded by Colonel Charles H. T. Collis, was, if the writer has been correctly informed, the first monument of any kind erected upon that field. On Sunday, May 19, 1901, a large crowd assembled on the Harris farm, near Spottsyl- vania Court House, to witness the dedication of the monument erected by the Massachusetts Heavy Artillery to their comrades who fell on that spot, during one of the most desperate engagements of the Wilderness battles. That fight was the first the regiment had ever taken part in, they having been kept at Washington, and the result was an awful loss of life. The design of the monument is sarcophagus and contains the following inscription : " In com- memoration of the deeds of the First Regiment Heavy Artillery, Massachusetts Volunteers (armed as infantry) three hundred and ninety- eight of whose members fell within an hour 318 ON THE PARALLELS. around this spot during an action, fought May 19, 1864, between a division of the Union army commanded by General Tyler and a corps of the Confederate forces under General Elwell. Erected by the survivors of the regiment 1901." ON THE PARALLELS. 319 CHAPTER X. REUNION OF THE BLUE AND THE GRAY— ECHOES OF A SPEECH ORIGIN OF THE MEMORIAL CUSTOM THE WAR's COSTS 'AND LOSSES — CLOSING REMARKS. THE oldest portion of Fredericksburg wears nearly the same appearance as when it was the theatre of war ; but on the broad plateau beyond the Washington monument, and on the o'.d battle-ground, many new and pretty resi- dences have been built, and before many years the sunken road — now known as the Telegraph road — with its short remnant of stone wall, and the square brick house at the corner of Fair and Mercer streets, will be about the only landmarks to indicate the firing lines of the contending armies. 320 ON THE PARALLELS. No one who enters the city is made to feel more welcome,, or is more hospitably enter- tained, or to whom the true spirit of charity is shown in circumstances of distress, than the very same men who fought in the Union army. The first reunion on Southern soil of the Society of the Army of the Potomac was held in this historic town in the month of May, 1901. Among the eminent speakers upon the occasion was St. George R. Fitzhugh, a resident of the city, and at whose hospitable home President McKinley, members of the Cabinet and other distinguished guests were entertained. On a page in tlie opening chapter of this volume, I quoted the prophetic declaration of Abraham Lincoln, in his speech delivered at Bloomington, Illinoi.'^, in the month of May, 1856. In this, the concluding chapter, as a sequel to the complete fulfilment of that proph- ecy, Mr. Fitzhugh, in his masterly speech before that large gathering of the Blue and the Gray, just forty-five years after lyincoln's warning to the country, told his hearers that round about o S- - -i > H H O 2 3 O C 01 ra cr B B mj £ lis' ON THE PARALLELS. H2H Fredericksburg, and within a distance of fifteen miles, more great armies manoeuvered, more great battles were fought, more men were killed and wounded, than upon any other sim- ilar territory in the world. More men fell in the little county of Spotts'ylvania, during the four years of the Civil War, than Great Britain has lost in all her wars for a century. More men were killed and wounded in the four hours' engagement on the plain, back of the city, than Great Britain lost in her war with South Africa. He recalled Appomattox, which was the culmination of the courage and carnage of Spottsylvania ; where General Grant, he said, won more prestige, when the eight thousand men of the Confederate army laid down their arms, than the German army under Von Moltke did at Sedan. It was at Appomattox where the doctrine of secession and the institution of slavery perished, and a more perfect Union than our forefathers formed washere established. He told the visiting Northern soldiers, too, how dearly the South cherishes the memory of 324 ON THE PARALLELS. those Southern heroes whose sacred ashes repose in sacred soil, representing a heroism sublime with self-sacrifice, and a deep courage born of their then conscientious convictions. "A wise Providence," said Mr. Fitzhugh, in his closing words, "seemed to forbid that, in this grand struggle, the South should have the honor of final triumph, but the South to-day shares equally with its victors in the glorious fruits of that victory which resulted in a more perfect Union, and an indestructible Union, under that grand symbol, the glorious Stars and Stripes." Those who. wore the blue and those who wore the gray are united in their request that the Government establish in that section a great National Battlefield Park, as a perpetual monument to their bravery and heroism on the bloody fields on which they fought and saw their comrades die. In June, 1865, about two months after the surrender of General Lee, a number of the no r*. m z tn f i 6 ;o ■g i — o o tn > z z tn w H tn m _-i ■n ;o tn o tn r> 7; ai n c o rr rr Ti) .'/J ■S tr -rc ON THE PARALLELS. 327 ladies of Fredericksburg met in tbe basement of the St. George Episcopal Church for the purpose of "preserving a record, and, as far as possible, of marking the spot where every Con- federate soldier is buried." At this meeting, however, the annual tribute of flowers to the dead was not contemplated ; but at a meeting in the fall or winter of that year, this annual floral tribute was added. The Ladies' Memorial Association was then formed, and in that city, May lO, 1866, this beautiful custom was first observed. The above particulars of the origin of the now universal memorial custom were taken from a carefully-prepared paper published by Judge John T. Goohick, who, in a letter to the author upon the same subject, wrote as follows : "After an exhaustive and thorough search, I found that the beautiful memorial of annually strewing the graves of soldiers had its origin, for the first time in all the world, in St. George Episcopal Church here. This service, so beau- 328 ON THE PARALLELS. tiful and touching, is now nearly world-wide, and I hope it will never be abandoned. I agree with you that this church is, for that reason, sacred and hallowed or should be so held by the soldiers of the North and South. ' In the National Cemetery here, the soldiers of the South have, on more than one occasion on Decoration Day, strewn flowers over the graves of the brave Federal dead." In a tabular statement of the estimated cost of the nineteenth century wars, compiled by Mr. R. G. Butler, the Napoleonic wars stand next to the highest, at three billion two hun- dred and eighty-nine million dollars, which is exceeded by the American Civil War by the sum of five billion dollars. Carefully collected statistics show that not less than one hundred and twenty-nine thousand eight hundred and thirty-eight men were killed, wounded and missing in the memorable conflicts. If, upon the appalling record of deaths result- ing from that internecine strife and the peaceful ON THE PARALLELS. 329 condition of our country to-day, any comment is here needed, no more fitting language can be expi-essed than to repeat the sentiments of a writer who is to me unknown, but whose able and timely contribution to the " Friends' Intel- ligencer " came to my notice while penning this concluding chapter of my narrative. " The loss of life, the sorrow, the uncounted, innumerable woes of the four long years during which the nation contended with those who had risen against it, formed a body of instruction which no people could ever unlearn or cease to remember. Those who passed through the conflict had its character burned into their knowledge as with an iron red hot. Grass grows over the battle-fields ; the stains of blood are long since effaced ; but the historic memory of the war cannot be obliterated. Those who think of life and its activities as something more than merely a time for self- assertion and self-aggrandizement, will go back and look for a moment at the grave in which the Civil War is buried, and will come away 330 ON THE PARALLELS. saddened with it and checked in the purpose or desire for a new conflict. We see now in the renewed unity of the American nation, in the effacement of the old sectional lines, in the cordiality which has slowly grown up between the North and the South, that we are, and we were, all brethren." Dear reader, as time rolls on, one by one the yet surviving war-worn veterans of the Blue and the Gray, who composed the great Army of the Potomac and the Army of Northern Virginia, are falling from the rapidly thinning ranks. One by one new made graves are being added to the increasing legions of soldier dead lying buried in every cemetery all over our broad land, and in a short while, when all have answered the last roll-caH, their stories of strife, battles, privation, and attendant incidents, will be heard no more forever. These true reminiscences, which, after long and unremitting effort, I succeeded in gathering to embody in the recital of my own compara- ON THE PARALLELS. 331 tively uneventful experience while wearing the blue, are but mere flash lights upon the vast panorama of war scenes and attending incidents, which will never be presented in entirety by either the painter's brush or historian's pen. So, now, to all who patiently followed me to the close, with these concluding rythmical thoughts I bid a final adieu : Forty years ago and o'er, grim war the silence broke ; Forty years ago and o'er, the guns at Charleston spoke. All o'er the country's wide domain was heard the echoing peal. And quickly was it answered by the clink of burn- ished steel. Then as the years came after, until four went rolling by, Infair and sunny Southland sounded the battle cry. Those booming guns at Charleston called many a last farewell, — To many hundred thousand lives they voiced the funeral knell. 332 ON THE PARALLELS. Three million men went marching, marching forth in battle array : Two million soldiers dressed in blue, over a million clothed in gray. Led on by well-tried leaders — none better could there be ; J>Tone achieved more worldly fame than Generals Grant and Lee. In the heat of bitter passion, on many a Southern plain, Fought there opposing armies until thickly laid the slain. As the bosom of the ocean by mighty winds is stirred. So the changing tides of battle by angry strife were urged. All the while were prayers ascending for the cruel war to cease, TJnti!, at Appomattox, appeared the messenger of Peace. Then scattered wide the armies to their homes in the North and South, And "the birds their nests they builded in the ru.sted cannon's mouth." ON THE PARALLELS. 333 All the work of devastation and the sum of human woe, Wrought in that great Rebellion, no mortal man will know. Tn unmarked graves vast numbers lie; oh, what transporting bliss Had they returned to their beloved, and received the waiting kiss ! But "Time," says Giles, "will mellow wine; it will mellow passion, too." A friendly feeling since has grown between the Gray and Blue. United by fraternal ties o'er the buried hates of yore. The Blue and Gray — Americans — are at peace forever more. ■a •■*v^ in I'lli' III