CAMP AND FIELD. 
 
 -»•«« « ■>-■ 
 
 IN FOUR books: 
 
 I. DIORAMA OF 1862. 
 II. NEW DISPENSATION. 
 III. OUTLOOKS FROM TORYTOWN. 
 IV.- GALLERY OF PORTRAITS. 
 
 BY 
 
 THE REV. JOS. CROSS, D. D. 
 
 MACON, GA. : 
 
 BURKE, BOYKIN & COMPANY 
 
 1804. 
 
 .**. 
 
CAMP kW FIELD. 
 
 
 PAPERS FROM THE PORTFOLIO 
 
 OP AN 
 
 
 .A_R]VtY OHA-PL^lIN 
 
 BY 
 
 THE REV. JOS. CROSS, D. D. 
 
 ^ m » 
 
 MACON, GA.: 
 
 BURKE, BOYKIN & COMPANY, 
 1864. . 
 
4 
 
 Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1864, by 
 
 BURKE, BOYKIN & COMPANY, 
 
 in the office of the Clerk of the District Court of Southern Georgia. 
 
INTRODUCTORY. 
 
 On the fourth of July, 1861, the author of these Papers 
 entered the Confederate service as Chaplain to the Second Regi- 
 ment of Tennessee Volunteers, commanded by Colonel — now- 
 Major General — William B. Bate. 
 
 Six months in camp and field on the lower Potomac furnished 
 abundant material for a book. I returned to Nashville to put it 
 to press. The publishers, in consideration of five hundred dollars 
 paid in advance, commenced the work with most commendable 
 zeal. Early in February, 1862, the stereotype plates were finished, 
 and the last proof-sheets revised. The author hastened to 
 rejoin the army in Virginia. In three weeks, at most, the book 
 was to follow him. 
 
 Alas ! there is nothing certain, but human uncertainty. Fort 
 Donelson fell, and with it fell The Banner of the Regiment. 
 
 Messrs. Johnson, Rosecrans & Co., now have possession of the 
 stereotype 'plates, with the entire material and apparatus of 
 publication. It is plausibly whispered and earnestly hoped, that 
 they intend to issue the volume at an early day, for the illumi- 
 nation and edification of the subjects and soldiers of Abraham 
 The First. The author would suggest for their consideration — 
 very humbly, however, and with great deference to their superior 
 judgment — a long and elaborate introduction by the Rev. Henry 
 Ward Beecher, copious and very erudite foot-notes by the Hon. 
 Charles A. Sumner, and numerous artistic illustrations in the 
 highest style of the engraver, not omitting Great Bethel, Bull 
 Run, and Leesburg— as likely to add no little to the interest of 
 the work and the profits of its sale. 
 
iv Introductory, 
 
 Meanwhile, he begs leave to resume the narrative, interspersing 
 biographical and characteristic sketches of Confederate officers 
 and heroes, with battle-scenes, incidents in camp and field, 
 interesting hospital experiences, suitable moral reflections, and 
 occasional dissertations and discourses, which it is hoped will 
 detract nothing from the. merit or the utility of the volume. 
 
 These Papers from his Portfolio are necessarily somewhat 
 fragmentary in form, written as they were in the brief aud 
 uncertain intervals of official duty, amid frequent interruptions 
 and manifold inconveniences, sometimes sitting upon the ground 
 by night, with no light but the camp-fire, and no book but the 
 Bible. In the quiet leisure of home, the w r ork would have 
 assumed a more consecutive character; but "what I have 
 written, I have written ;" and here is the panorama of the 
 Confederate Camp and Field, with all its chasms and precipices ; 
 furnishing, perhaps, a truer, though less artistic, representation 
 of the original, than if the former had been filled and the latter 
 levelled. 
 
 Not aspiring to the dignity of a History of the War, this 
 book may nevertheless serve as a quarry whence the future 
 Historian may obtain some rough material for his work.. 
 
 A memorial of Southern chivalry and patriotism, it is cordially 
 commended to universal Yankee perusal. 
 
i 
 
 BOOK FIRST. 
 
 DIORAMA OF 1862 
 
 ''And a wind is on the wing, 
 At whose breath new heroes spring, 
 Sages teach, and poets sing." 
 
 Montgomery. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 PAGES. 
 
 I. DISSOLVING VIEWS 13 
 
 II. MISSISSIPPIANA 24 
 
 III. IN TRANSITU 35 
 
 IV. HEGIRA EXTRAORDINARY 41 
 
 V. INTO KENTUCKY 50 
 
 VI. OUT OF KENTUCKY. 66 
 
 VII. FREDERICKSBURG 7T 
 
 VIII. MURFREESBORO 86 
 
 IX. OUR WESTERN CAVALIERS , 105 
 
 X. THE OPEN SEPULCHER f 119 
 
I. 
 
 DISSOLVING VIEWS. 
 
 {FEBRUARY — APRIL, 1862.) 
 
 *'Had I a dozen sons, each in my love alike, I had rather had 
 eleven die nobly for their country, than one voluptuously sur- 
 feit out of action." Shaespbare. 
 
 A few days before I left Nashville for the Poto- 
 mac came sad tidings from our army on the upper 
 Cumberland. Four thousand men at Fishing Creek 
 had been led against ten thousand in their entrench- 
 ments ; and had been repulsed and routed, with a loss 
 of four hundred, including the gallant General Zol- 
 licoffer. Three days after the first rumor, fugitives 
 began to come in, with terribly exaggerated accounts 
 of the disaster. The following are the principal facts : 
 
 A council of commanding officers was called by 
 •General Crittenden. Immediate attack or ruinous 
 retreat was deemed the only alternative. The council 
 determined upon the former. The attempt was made 
 on Sunday, the nineteenth of January, General 
 Zollicoffer Jed the van with a desperate charge, driving 
 the enemy before him, and pursuing the rout impe- 
 tuously over the dying and the dead. He had gained 
 the crest of a hill which was the stronghold of the 
 foe, and had wellnigh dislodged him, when he fell, 
 pierced by several balls. General Crittenden now 
 B 
 
14 CAMP AND FIELD. 
 
 rode forward, apd led his troops to the charge. The 
 Tennesseeans and Mississippians fought with Roman 
 resolution.* But it was in vain. After a bitter con- 
 flict of three and a half hours, they were obliged to 
 give way before the superior force of their opponents. 
 The retreat was very disastrous. Our troops were 
 much demoralized, and scattered in every direction. 
 In addition to four hundred precious lives, we lost 
 two parrot guns, eight six pounders, eight hundred 
 muskets, one hundred wagons, twelve hundred horses 
 and mules, with all our ammunition, and several 
 boxes of arms unopened. 
 
 In the death of Brigadier General Zollicoffer, the 
 South lost a brave champion, the army a gallant 
 officer, and Nashville an excellent citizen. The 
 country confided in him as a friend, and the soldiers 
 •deplored him as a father. During his long career as 
 editor of a popular journal and afterward as a member 
 of Congress, he was the constant advocate of southern 
 rights and the uncompromising supporter of southern 
 interests. His body fell into the hands of the enemy, 
 but was subsequently forwarded to his family. 
 
 The disaster of Fishing Creek was soon followed 
 by a greater, the fall of Fort Henry and Fort 
 Donelson. 
 
 Fort Henry was the only defence of any impor- 
 tance on the .Tennessee River. It was situated on 
 the east or right bank of the stream, not far from 
 the state boundary. On the morning of February 
 the sixth, 'General Grant, with a force of ten thou- 
 sand troops and five or six gunboats, assailed it by 
 land and water. It was bravely defended by General 
 
DISSOLVING VIEWS. 15 
 
 Tilghman, with two thousand infantry and nine 
 pieces of artillery. The river, however, was in flood, 
 and the back-water had surrounded the fort. Our 
 infantrv was half a mile distant. The Federals were 
 between them and Fort 'Donelson. The only retreat 
 possible was up the river. Tilghman, with his gar- 
 rison of forty men, vigorously engaged the gun-boats, 
 
 ► and thus gave his troops time to escape before Grant 
 could cut them off. Our brave General stood stead- 
 fast at his post, pointing the artillery, and exhorting 
 his little band, under a terrific storm of shot and shell. 
 As soon as he saw that his infantry was safe, well 
 knowing that further resistance could result onlv in 
 a vain effusion of blood, he raised the token of sur- 
 render. The enemy, with three cheers for the Union, 
 took possession ; and the General, with his gallant 
 forty, was carried away captive into Babylon. 
 
 There was now great anxiety about Fort Donelson, 
 on the Cumberland. The place was said to be im- 
 pregnable ; but the hearts of those who better under- 
 
 * stood the matter trembled with apprehension. The 
 position was unfavorable, commanded by the heights 
 above, below, and in the rear. On the thirteenth of 
 February, it was attacked, as Fort Henry had been, 
 simultaneously by land and water. Our troops, in 
 their intrench ments awaited the onset of the enemy, 
 repulsed them, and drove them back two miles or 
 more, in great confusion, and with serious loss. The 
 next, day, the fourteenth, a formidable fleet of gun- 
 boats made its appearance, followed by many trans- 
 ports, laden with Yankee troops. The ironcased 
 leviathans approached in the form of a crescent, and 
 
16 CAMP AND FIELD, 
 
 began to vomit fire and thunder at the fort. Our 
 guns replied with vigor. Several of the monsters 
 retired, severely wounded. It was plain, however, 
 that our position was untenable against so over- 
 whelming an odds. At night General Floyd called 
 a council of war. The result was a determination 
 to evacuate the place early the next morning, and 
 attack the enemy in his positions. The enemy, how- 
 ever, was busy during the night. The returning 
 light revealed his lines completely enclosing our little 
 band of patriots in the rear. Every road was inter- 
 cepted, and the Yankee batteries would probably 
 soon cut off their supplies by the river, with all 
 chance of escape. Buckner and Pillow, with their 
 respective commands, made a furious assault, and 
 drove the enemy back with dreadful slaughter. He 
 massed his forces, however, and repulsed them. The 
 conflict was fierce and stubborn, lasting more than 
 two hours. Our troops were obliged to give way, 
 and the enemy gained possession of our trenches on 
 the right and in the rear of General Buckncr's posi- 
 tion. Again and again our brave boys renewed the 
 struggle, and fought with desperate resolution. After 
 nine hours of most bloody work on both sides, 
 night found the enemy in possession of all the 
 ground that we had won in the morning, occupying 
 a position which commanded our most important 
 works, and from which we had vainly endeavored 
 with all our energy to dislodge him. He had been 
 landing reinforcements during the day, and he now- 
 had eighty-two regiments, numbering nearly or quite 
 forty thousand men. Our force amounted to only 
 
DISSOLVING VIEWS. 17 
 
 thirteen thousand, and of these we had lost a large 
 number. The poor fellows had been in the trenches 
 day and night, without shelter and without sleep, 
 covered with sleet and snow, nearly knee deep in 
 mud and water, from the beginning of the contest. 
 The mercury was now but a few degrees above zero, 
 and a bitter storm was beating upon them. Their 
 clothes were stiff with ice, and many hands and feet 
 were frozen. Thus situated, what hope could there 
 be of a sueeessful renewal of the combat? Another 
 council of commanders Was called. It was proposed 
 to concentrate our forces upon the right, and cut 
 their way out. General Buckner prudently opposed 
 the measure General Floyd thereupon turned over 
 the command to General Pillow, and withdrew with 
 his own brigade by the way of the river. General 
 Pillow immediately passed his authority over to 
 General Buckner, and followed Floyd. Buckner, 
 supposing that their movement was an attempt to 
 pass through the enemy's lines, accepted the com- 
 mand. Soon finding that they were gone, he was 
 forced to capitulate; and with five thousand and 
 seventy-nine of his soldiers, he was taken prisoner by 
 the enemy. The world has heard how these heroic 
 men were treated by the officers of " the most be- 
 neficent government on earth." Meanwhile, Floyd 
 and Pillow were retreating up tlie river toward Nash- 
 ville, where they soon arrived in safety. 
 
 The fort surrendered after a fight of four days and 
 
 nights, the severest that had yet occurred during the 
 
 war. The small Confederate force were indifferently 
 
 armed, and the Federal army was at least four times 
 
 B* 
 
18 CAMP AND FIELD. 
 
 their number. Floyd estimated our killed at fifteen 
 hundred, those of the enemy at five thousand. The 
 statement is only conjectural. Within the entrench- 
 ments, and for two miles without, the ground was 
 thickly strewn with corpses, and the snow was crimson 
 with blood. Federals and Confederates were mingled 
 promiscuously together, here wildly heaped upon one 
 another, and there grappling each other in death. 
 Many of the wounded remained two or three days 
 where they fell, covered with sleet and snow ; and 
 some of them, doubtless, died from exposure to the 
 cold. 
 
 The scene which ensued at Nashville is beyond 
 all power of description. The news of the catas- 
 trophe shocked the city like an earthquake. Univer- 
 sal panic and confusion followed. The worshipping 
 assemblies broke up in the midst of their sacred 
 solemnities. Crowds of fugitives were seen hasten- 
 ing toward the railroad depots. All the turnpikes 
 were thronged. Every available means of transporta- 
 tion was called into requisition. Trunks were thrown 
 from three-story windows into the streets. The 
 army stores were besieged by a ravenous mob. Poor 
 people, black and white, rushed eagerly upon the 
 spoil. Huge burdens of pork and flour were borne 
 off in every direction. Yast quantities of provision 
 were thrown into the Cumberland. Forrest was 
 obliged to bring his cavalry to bear upon the vora- 
 cious rabble, and jets of water from the steam fire- 
 engine were employed for their dispersion. 
 
 The actors in these shameful scenes, however, were 
 
DISSOLVING VIEWS. 19 
 
 only the more ignorant and unprincipled of the 
 populace ; the drift upon the stream of society j 
 
 " The scum 
 That rises. upmost when the nation boils" — 
 
 chiefly free negroes, Northern adventurers, European 
 lazzaroni, and the foreign vermin that invest all our 
 Southern cities, and subsist by their own vices, or 
 pry upon the virtues of the people. 
 
 When the Federals arrived, thev found no welcome 
 from the citizen, no sympathy, except among these 
 "lewd fellows of the baser sort," and the mechanics 
 and laborers, who were generally importations from 
 Codfish-and-pumpkindom. Our merchant-sand busi- 
 ness men showed an uncompromising adherence to 
 the Southern cause. Our ladies treated the invaders 
 with contempt and scorn, spurned them in the streets, 
 closed their doors against them, and bore the conse- 
 quences with a noble heroism. The story of their 
 sufferings must remain untold, and the coarse insults 
 and gross outrages daily heaped upon them still 
 appeal to Heaven for vengeance. 
 
 The Second Tennessee Regiment, having unani- 
 mously reen listed for the war, were all furloughed 
 for a month. With glad hearts they set out from 
 the Potomac, in three divisions, on the thirteenth, 
 fourteenth and fifteenth of February, to visit the 
 friends from whom they had been so long severed. 
 Few of them, alas! ever reached their homes. A 
 week of most uncomfortable travel, day and night, 
 in freight cars, without fire, amid rain and snow, 
 with frequent detentions, brought us to Murfrees- 
 boro. Here we met Gen. Albert Sidney Johnston, 
 
20 Camp and field. 
 
 with his army, fallen back from Bowling Green-: 
 We fell sorrowfully into the train of the retreating 
 host, followed them to Hunfeville, and thence ac- 
 companied them to Corinth. 
 
 On Sunday, the sixth of April, occurred the 
 memorable battle of Shi 1 oh. Our forces were ar- 
 ranged in three parallel lines, the first commanded 
 by General Hardee, the second by General Bragg, 
 the third by General Polk. Johnston ifnd Beaure- 
 gard were in the rear. Suddenly, at sunrise, the 
 deadly roar of artillery broke upon the calm, clear, 
 Sabbath air; the fierce music of the murderous shell 
 screamed wildly over head ; and the little rings of 
 white smoke, rapidly multiplying, showed where the 
 dread missiles were bursting. To such sights and 
 sounds many of our troops were quite unaccustomed ; 
 yet they cooly awaited the order to advance, then 
 rushed forward with the force of a tornado, driving 
 the northern hirelings like thistle-down before them. 
 Again and again they rallied and reformed, only to 
 be as often broken and scattered by the impetuous 
 charge. Soon driven beyond their camps, they con- 
 tinued their retreat toward their gunboats on the 
 river. 
 
 About half past two o'clock fell the gallant Gene- 
 ral Johnston, the peerless prince of our hosts. The 
 sad fact was prudently withheld from the army, lest 
 its depressing influence should affect unfavorably the 
 fortunes of the day. The field, however, was won. 
 Amid the music of musketry and artillery, u the 
 noise of the captains and the shouting," the victo- 
 rious hero yielded to all-conquering death. 
 
DISSOLVING VIEWS. 21 
 
 Six o'clock found the enemy desperate on the 
 banks of the Tennessee, his whole force crowded into 
 a space of half or three quarters of a mile around 
 Pittsburg landing. It is said that many of the fugi- 
 tives, pushed forward by the terror-stricken thousands 
 behind them, were forced into the river and drowned. 
 The remnant were now safe under cover of their gun- 
 boats, but we were in possession of their camps. 
 
 With about thirty -five thousand men, we had 
 routed fifty thousand, and taken more than three 
 thousand prisoners, including Major General Pren- 
 tice, and several brigade commanders. They had a 
 hundred and eight pieces of artillery, nearly all of 
 which we had captured, with many thousand small 
 arms, thirty stand of colors, an immense supply of 
 provisions, a vast amount of ammunition, and a great 
 number of wagons and teams. The force we had 
 defeated was the flower of the Federal army, con- 
 sisting chiefly of north-western men, accustomed to 
 the use of fire-arms, and familiar with scenes of hard- 
 ship and danger. Their captive general said to Beau- 
 regard, "We have felt your power, sir; you have 
 whipped our best troops to-day." They were well 
 armed, well clothed, and well fed. A rich spoil was 
 left in their tents, and scattered over the field ; and 
 the " golden wedge " and the " goodly Babylonish 
 garment'* occasioned the next day's disaster. 
 
 General Beauregard established his head quarters 
 for the night at the little log church of Shiloh, while 
 his men lodged in the enemy's encampments. Pil- 
 lage and plunder occupied the night. The morning 
 found multitudes laden with their booty, and quite 
 
22 camp a; 
 
 disqualified for the renewal of the conflict. Mean- 
 while, Buell had crossed the riyer, and Grant was 
 
 reinforced with over thirty thousand Fresh troops. 
 With shouts of vengeful exultation, they assailed our 
 enervated and partially demoralized little army. 
 Again and again were they repulsed. But what 
 human bravery could withstand such overwhelming 
 odds? General Beauregard ordered a retreat. With, 
 unbroken ranks, and without any appearance of 
 panic, our forces fell back unpursued, and resumed' 
 their position at Corinth. 
 
 • Our loss in killed was one thousand, seven hun- 
 dred, and twent} r -eight ; wounded, eight thousand 
 and twelve; missing, nine hundred and fifty-nine; 
 making an aggregate of ten thousand, six hundred, 
 and ninety r -nine, put Jwrs du combat. 
 
 " Ah never shall the laud forget 
 
 How gushed the lifeblood of the brave — 
 
 Gushed warm with hope and courage yet — 
 
 Upon the soil they fought to save 1" 
 
 Bryant. 
 
 The saddest event that occurred at Shiloh was the 
 untimely death of our brave commander. 
 
 General Albert Sidney Johnston was a graduate of 
 West Point Military Academy ; had been an officer 
 in the United States army ; had served as lieutenant 
 in the war against Black Hawk ; had succeeded Gen. 
 Houston in command of the troops in Texas ; had or- 
 ganized and conducted a successful expedition against 
 the Cherokees; had mingled with his compatriots 
 upon theblood}^ fields of Mexico ; had been inspector 
 general to Butler, paymaster general to Taylor, and 
 
DISSOLVING VIEWS. 23 
 
 secretary of war at Washington ; bad led the gov- 
 ernment forces against the Mormons, and afterward 
 commanded the military district of Utah. On re- 
 ceiving intelligence of the opening of this war, he 
 instantly resigned his position in the Federal service, 
 came overland from California to New Orleans, 
 hastened thence to Richmond, was appointed Major 
 General, and took command of the Army of the 
 Mississippi. It is said that when some one depreci- 
 ated his soldiership to President Davis, the latter 
 replied with emphasis, "If Albert Sidney Johnston 
 is not a general, I have no general !" Bj' many 
 who could not see its strategical bearing and im- 
 portance, his withdrawal from Middle Tennessee -was 
 much censured ; but the event demonstrated the wis- 
 dom of the measure, and converted calumny and 
 denunciation into applause. At the battle of Shiloh 
 his noble spirit was still writhing from the sting of 
 envious tongues; and, determined to vindicate his 
 generalship and redeem the honor of the Confede- 
 rate arms, he "jeoparded his life unto the death in 
 the high places of the field." Had he been spared, 
 probably the disastrous defeat of Monday had been 
 unknown, and Grant's army had been crushed or 
 captured before Buell's arrival with reinforcements. 
 It is vain now, however, to speculate. Johnston 
 sleeps in death, and we will " leave him alone with 
 liis glorv !" 
 
 ( - Give me the death of those 
 Who for their country die, 
 Rink on its bosom to repose, 
 And triumph where they lie I" 
 
 MONTGOMHRT. 
 
II. 
 
 MISSISSIPPI AN A. 
 
 (APRIL— JULY, 1862.) 
 
 44 In the tempest of life, when the ware and the gale 
 Are around and above, if thy spirit should fai), 
 If thine eye should grow dim and thy caution depart, 
 Look aloft, and be firm, and be fearless of heart." 
 
 Anon. 
 
 On the very day that our army fell back to 
 Oorinth, Tuesda}' the eight of April, Island Number 
 Ten was abandoned to the enemy, with all our artil- 
 lery and ammunition there, and a great number of 
 men who could not make their escape. Before its 
 evacuation, the Yankees had bombarded it fifteen 
 successive days, exploding fifty tons of powder, and 
 hurling three thousand shells, without doing any 
 damage whatever beyond the killing of a single man; 
 while our batteries had disabled one of their gun- 
 boats, sent another to the bottom of the Mississippi, 
 and. hurried many a poor soul to its eternal retri- 
 bution. '■; 
 
 A severer blow to the Confederate cause was the 
 subsequent surrender of New Orleans. The forts 
 sixty miles below, after a furious bombardment of 
 eight days' continuance, capitulated on the twenty 
 eighth of April. The gun-boats now passed up, and 
 Lovell shamefully surrendered the city. Treachery 
 
MISSISSIPPI ANA. 25 
 
 and mutiny arc alledged to have played their part 
 in this disastrous tragedy. It was a woful day for 
 Louisiana, ".a day of darkness and gloominess, of 
 thick darkness and the shadow of death." But "the 
 Lord reignetlv' and "the wrath of man shall praise 
 him, and the remainder of wrath he will restrain." 
 On the night of the twenty-ninth of May, our 
 
 I army quietly evacuated Corinth. It was a military 
 necessity, and the movement was most admirably 
 conducted. The enemy's superior force, augmented 
 by recent acquisitions, had reached the number of 
 ninety thousand. Ours, originally not more, than 
 forty-seven thousand, had been reduced by disease, 
 resulting from the use of bad water and inferior food. 
 The Yankee moles had dug their way from Shiloh, 
 more than twenty miles. We had twice offered 
 them battle outside of our entrenched lines, and they 
 had twice declined the offer. Far too prudent were 
 they to expose their precious clay in fair fight upon 
 an open field. Their subterranean march was safer, 
 
 ^ and siege-guns and mortars would shoot farther than 
 Belgian musket or breach-loadingrifle. 
 
 At day dawn on the thirtieth, they opened their 
 heavy artillery upon the devoted Eebel host. There 
 was no reply. What could be the reason ? Surely 
 Beauregard had not withdrawn with his army, for 
 the pickets were still seen in their places, and the 
 great guns were still frowning from their embrasures, 
 and the drums were beating all along the line as 
 usual, and the camp-fires were as numerous and as 
 brilliant as ever. Fire away, my prudent friends, 
 and beware how you venture out of your burrows ; 
 C 
 
26 CAMP AND FIELD. 
 
 •for those men of straw are terrible artillerists, and 
 the log columbiads beside them arc charged with 
 Confederate vengeance, and the music that you hear 
 is no midnight serenade for gentle ears, and who can 
 conjecture to what fate those fires may light you ? 
 
 Some time before midday, Brother Jonathan be- 
 gins most shrewdly to suspect that the rebels have 
 beaten him at his own game, and that he has had all 
 his delving and ditching /or nothing. Gen. Ilalleck 
 takes his field glass and repairs to a neighboring 
 elevation ; while his adjutant makes observations 
 from the perilous apex of a two-story edifice, and 
 two of his aids peer inquisitively out from the top- 
 most branches of two contiguous pines. Oh, myste- 
 ry ! transcending marvel ! The formidable army that 
 he has been approaching and investing, for nearly 
 two months past, with so much toil and timidity, is 
 nowhere to be discovered. Where are the rebels? 
 No horses and chariots of fire were seen last night.. 
 Have they melted away into thin air, or dug through 
 into China? 
 
 Cavalry is sent out, making a long circuit, with 
 most prudent circumspection, each particular hair of 
 each particular horseman standing erect upon his 
 head. A courier! "Tidings, my Lord, King!" 
 Beauregard and his command are some thirty or 
 forty miles south of Corinth, on the Mobile and Ohio 
 Railroad. Now the grand army of moles march 
 boldly forth from their burrows, furiously shelling 
 empty houses, and wreaking their valorous rage upon 
 every inanimate object that dares dispute their pro- 
 gress. A glorious victory gained the Federal arms 
 
■ MISSISSIPPIANA. 27 
 
 that day ! • A shrewd correspondent of the Cincin- 
 nati Commercial says : 
 
 "Last night the same band sounded retreat, tattoo, and taps, all 
 along the rebel lines, passing from place to place. This morning 
 suspicion ripened into certainty. Corinth was evacuated. Beaure- 
 gard had achieved another victory. I do not know how the matter 
 strikes abler military men, but I think we have been fooled. The 
 works are far from being invulnerable. The old joke of Quaker guns 
 has been played off upon us. They were real wooden guns, with 
 stuffed paddies for gunners. I saw them. We approached clear 
 from Shiloh in line of battle, and made preparations to defend our- 
 selves, compared with which the preparations of the enemy sink into 
 insignificance." 
 
 The correspondent of the Chicago Tribune also 
 takes a very rational view of the matter : 
 
 "The retreat of the army was conducted in the best of order. 
 Before our men had entered the place, all had got off safely. Noth- 
 ing of any use to us whatever was found. General Halleck has thus 
 achieved one of the most barren of triumphs. In fact, it is tanta- 
 mount to a defeat. It gives the enemy an opportunity to select a 
 new position, as formidable as that at Corinth, in which it will be 
 far more difficult for us to attack him on account of the distance our 
 army will have to transport its supplies. * * * I look upon the 
 evacuation as a victory to Beauregard, or at least as one of the most 
 remarkable pieces of strategy that has been displayed during this- 
 war. It prolongs the contest in the southwest at least six months." 
 
 Did the proportions of my, book allow^ I could 
 write an interesting chapter of incidents connected 
 with this retreat. Take but one : 
 
 Lieutenant Butler, of our regiment, had gone to 
 Memphis to procure a metallic coffin for the mortal 
 remains of his cousin. Keturning to Corinth the 
 day after our departure, he was captured by a party 
 of six cavaliers. As they were conducting him to 
 their camp, they encountered their colonel. He de- 
 
28 CAMP AND FIELD. 
 
 manded of them, with many damnations, whether six 
 men were necessary to guard one rebel ; and taking- 
 charge of the prisoner himself, sent them flying on 
 their scout again, with a volley of curses in their 
 rear. He now led the lieutenant to a log; command- 
 ed him, with several irreverent expletives, "to sit 
 down there," while he went " to see after those infer- 
 nal poltroons ;" and added, with an oath which none 
 but a Yankee Colonel of cavalry could utter, " If 
 you are gone when I come back, I'll take your head 
 off with my sword f" Then he galloped away toward 
 Corinth, occasionally looking back over his shoulder, 
 as if somewhat distrustful of his captive's entire sub- 
 jugation. As soon as he was out of sight, our young- 
 friend ran about a hundred j^ards, climbed an um- 
 brageous . beach, and established an outlook from 
 amid its dense foliage. In fifteen or twenty minutes, 
 the Colonel returned with a numerous escort. Dis- 
 covering that the bird was flown, he swore till the, 
 evening twilight was blue ; then scattered his re- 
 doubtable cavaliers, east, west, north and south, in 
 quest of his incontinent captive. Several of them 
 passed under the beach in which he had ensconced 
 himself; but the friendly shades, now deepening into 
 night, prevented his discovery. He kept his position 
 till all was dark and still ; then, descending, 
 
 " With winged feet lie spurned the plain," 
 
 and the next day overtook onr rear-guard some 
 thirty miles nearer the Gulf of Mexico. 
 
 During the night of this eventful hegira, a detach- 
 ment of the enemy's cavalry made a dash upon 
 
MISSISSIPPfANA. 29 
 
 Boonville, a few miles south of Corinth ; captured 
 and destroyed a -railway train of ammunition, pro- 
 vision, and baggage, which had been detained forty- 
 eight hours by some mismanagement ; and burned the 
 station house, containing a number of our dead, and 
 four or five of our sick, who were consumed in the 
 conflagration. Our cavalry, a far inferior force, soon 
 made their appearance, and the murderous incendi- 
 aries fled in confusion and dismay, carrying away 
 with them only a single man. A number of strag- 
 glers, and some scores of sick and wounded soldiers 
 on their way to southern hospitals, were rescued after 
 a few moments captivity ; and these were the "two 
 thousand men " reported by Pope and Halleck to 
 have been " captured and paroled " on that occasion. 
 We lost by the fire some fifteen hundred inferior 
 muskets, which those voracious officials, with grand 
 .flourish of trumpets, magnify into "ten thousand 
 stand of small arms taken and destroyed." How 
 easy it is to achieve victories on paper I 
 
 The army is now encamped at Tupelo. But in 
 this rapid march we have left a few facts- behind us. 
 Let us go back and gather up our stragglers. 
 
 Many of our brave boys perished at Shiloh. Many 
 others were severely injured, and Colonel Bate among 
 them. The latter were immediately conveyed to 
 Columbus for treatment. A few days afterward, the 
 shepherd followed the wounded of his flock. Bishop 
 Paine gave me friendly welcome by the way. 
 Twenty minutes after my arrival at his house, five 
 men, on foaming steeds, called at the gate, and 
 demanded his stranger guest. They had pursued me 
 C* 
 
30 CAMP AND FIELD. 
 
 thirty miles, they said, for a Yankee spy or incen- 
 diary. A few words were sufficient, and my patriotic 
 persecutors sought every man the shade of u his own 
 vine and fig tree." 
 
 Three days at Aberdeen were "as the days of 
 Heaven upon earth." Whoever saw a lovelier family 
 than Bishop Paine's, or enjoyed a warmer hospi- 
 tality than their guests ? 
 
 On the sixth of May I arrived at Columbus. I>r. 
 Neely, as kind as he is eloquent, welcomed me to 
 the parsonage. Mr. Powell, Mr. Cannon, Mr. Sher- 
 man, Col. Billups, with their respective families, and 
 several others, did all that Christian charity could 
 suggest to render pleasant my sojourn in their city. 
 For several weeks I labored incessantly among the 
 sick and the wounded. Mv soul was full of faith, 
 and love, and joy. I went every morning to my 
 work with a zest I had never known before, and 
 returned every evening to my friends with a tran- 
 quil satisfaction which had in it more of Heaven 
 than of earth. To overcome all diffidence and em- 
 barrassment in my visits^ to the hospitals, I adopted 
 the following method : 
 
 Taking my stand at some convenient place in a 
 large apartment filled with the unfortunate sufferers, 
 I requested their attention to a few verses of Scrip- 
 ture; then expounded what I had read, with appli- 
 cations and exhortations suitable to their condition ; 
 and afterward commended them in prayer to the 
 Divine Mercy. This opened the way for personal 
 conversation, and in these interviews many a young- 
 man showed " a broken •• nd contrite heart." Having 
 
MISSISSIPPIANA. 31 
 
 , finished in one room, I went to another, pursuing 
 the same method, till I had gone throughout the 
 building. 
 
 Some who were able to walk would follow me 
 from one apartment to another, and multitudes when 
 I left them would entreat me to come again. On 
 some days I delivered ten or fifteen public addresses, 
 and offered as many public prayers, besides distri- 
 buting four or five hundred tracts. I witnessed 
 several cases of satisfactory conversion, and saw a 
 number of our soldiers die in peace. Three instances 
 in our own regiment were of the most encouraging- 
 character. G. was as burnt le a penitent as I ever 
 beheld; S. departed in triumphant hope after several 
 weeks of severest suffering; and W., having renounced 
 his infidelity, recovered, to lead a new life, and to 
 thank me often for my visits. 
 
 Friday, the fourteenth, having been appointed by 
 the President of the Confederacy, as a day of public 
 humiliation, fasting and prayer, I discoursed to a 
 very large audience, in Dr. Neeiy's church, from 
 the pathetic words of "The Weeping Prophet:" 
 "Otlic Hope of Israel, and the Savior thereof in 
 time of trouble ! Why shouldst thou be as a stranger 
 in the land, and as a wayfaring man, that turneth 
 aside to tarry for a night? Why shouldst thou be 
 as a man astonished, as a mighty man that can not 
 save? Yet thou, Lord, art in the midst of us, 
 and we are called by thy name. Leave us not." 
 
 The latter part of June found me again with the 
 regiment, "in labors more abundant," instituting a 
 Bible-class in camp, preaching nightly to large and 
 
32 CAMP AXD FIELD. 
 
 attentive audiences, and occasionally holding prayer- 
 meetings which were not unprofitable to the soldiers. 
 I now observed that there was less .gambling and 
 profanity among them than I had ever known before, 
 with other hopeful indications of reform. 
 
 On the night of the thirtieth I was preaching to 
 the Fifteenth Arkansas Kegiment. Suddenly a wild 
 shout of joy arose from a neighboring encampment. 
 Soon the strain was taken up by other regiments in 
 every direction, and the forest rang with the voice of 
 gladness, cheer after cheer, so that I found it quite 
 impossible to proceed. Just then I saw some one 
 hand a paper to an officer behind me. I turned and 
 asked him whether some 2,'ood news had occasioned 
 this unusual demonstration. " Here is a dispatch 
 from Head Quarters," he replied ; " will you be kind 
 enough to read it aloud ?" It proved to be an official 
 announcement of the Federal defeat, after several 
 days of incessant and severe fightings on the Chicka- 
 hominy. 
 
 An army of a hundred and twenty thousand, com- 
 manding all the resources and appliances of war r 
 and confident of reveling ere long amid the luxuries 
 of our fair metropolis, had been driven from all its 
 positions, and put to an inglorious flight. An im- 
 mense spoil, consisting of artillery, small arms, am- 
 munition, commissar} 7 stores, medicines, clothing, 
 wagons, horses and mules, fell into the hands of the 
 victors. The siege- of'Eichmond was raised. The 
 Confederate capital was safe. It is affirmed that 
 but for one serious mistake, the whole army might 
 have been captured or destroyed. 
 
MISSISSIPPIANA. 33 
 
 To finish the sermon now, was what Saint Paul 
 himself could scarcely have done. Three cheers for 
 Lee, Davis and the Confederacy, took the place of 
 doxology and benediction, and we dispersed. As 
 I returned to my tent, wave after wave of vocal joy 
 rolled through the grand old woods; and ever and 
 anon, far into the night, the sounds would break 
 forth afresh, camp answering to camp, and hill 
 echoing to hill, as if the feelings of our soldiers were 
 quite irrepressible, and Nature herself participated in 
 their triumph. 
 
 This glorious victory, however, cost the Confed- 
 eracy many precious lives. General R. Hatton was 
 a native Tennesseean ; the son of a venerable Chris- • 
 tian minister; and one of the best citizens, bravest 
 officers, and purest patriots, this state has produced. 
 A Christian from habit, a secessionist from principle, 
 ardent, eloquent, generous, .honorable, confiding, and 
 conscientious, he was popular alike in Congress and 
 in camp, and never failed to win the love of all with 
 whom he was associated. There is a broken-hearted 
 widow, with several fatherless children, at Lebanon. 
 
 The next day I was galloping along a narrow 
 path through a dense grove of pines, when an object 
 straf%ely glittering in a sunny spot before me sud- 
 denly caught my attention. It was a pyramid,- a foot 
 broad at the base, and about the same height. As I 
 approached, it stretched out and darted aside. I per- 
 ceived that it was a huge serpent. Riding up to the 
 spot, I paused to look for it. It was no when 1 to be 
 seen. After a few seconds I heard a slight rustling 
 almost under my horse ; and looking down, I dis- 
 
34 CAMP AND FIELD. 
 
 covered it, lying at full length, the most formidable 
 rattle-snake I ever beheld. It was at least eight feet 
 long, and somewhat larger than my arm. Its color 
 was a brilliant yellow, with diamond-shaped sp< 
 a very dark brown. It was terriblv beautiful t 
 My mare was in great danger, but fortunately she 
 stood perfectlj 7 still. Now the dreadful reptile began 
 slowly to erect its head till it was a foot from the 
 ground, curving its neck as gracefully as a swan ; 
 and then moved off so gently that its progress was 
 scarcely perceptible. I watched it with intense in- 
 terest, till it passed under a tuft of leaves at the root 
 of a tree, not more than three yards from my posi- 
 tion ; when I alighted, procured me a weapon, and 
 advanced very cautiously, "feeling for the enemy." 
 He was not to be found. With all his bold and de- 
 - flant bearing, he had proved himself an arrant coward. 
 Waxing as courageous. as Halleck did at Corinth, 
 when he ascertained that Beauregard had gone, I 
 beat the bushes in every direction, and threshed fu- 
 riously among the dry leaves ; but in vain ; my foe 
 had " skedaddled," taking all his artillery and am- 
 munition along with him ! 
 
 ■ 
 
ill; 
 
 RANSITU. 
 
 (august, 1862.) 
 
 " He that is born is listed ; life is war." 
 
 Young. 
 
 General Bragg bad been for some time in com- 
 mand of the Army of the Mississippi. A few disor- 
 derly fellows had been shot, and the rest effectually 
 reduced to discipline. We were now ready to as- 
 sume the offensive, which was generally understood 
 to be the policy henceforth of the government. To- 
 ward the end of July, we struck our tents, and bade 
 adieu to Tupelo ; leaving only General Price, with 
 some twenty thousand troops, to protect that part of 
 the county. The infantry, with some of the artille- 
 ry, went by railway to Mobile, and thence to Chatta- 
 nooga. The cavalry, . with the rest of the artillery, 
 accompanied the wagon-trains, by several routes more 
 direct, across the state of Alabama, to the same point 
 of rendezvous. Preferring not to commit my valu- 
 able barb to the custody of careless and irresponsible 
 hands, I gladly availed myself of the invitation of 
 Major Winchester, Quarter-Master of General Donel- 
 son's Brigade, to become one of his party. Starting 
 from Tupelo on Tuesday the twenty-second, and 
 going by way of Aberdeen, Columbus, Tuscaloosa, 
 
36 CAMP AND FIELD. 
 
 Montevallo, Columbian;-), Talladega, Jacksonville, 
 Cave Spring, and Rome, we arrived at Chattanooga 
 on Friday morning the fifteenth of August, having 
 marched more than four hundred miles in twenty- 
 two days. Preaching frequently on the road, re- 
 ceiving man} 7 kind attentions from citizens, renewing 
 old acquaintances and forming new ones, this journey 
 was to me, maugre the fatigue of travel and the 
 discomforts of the bivouac, one of the most delight- 
 ful I ever enjoyed. 
 
 I now commenced a new career, as chaplain to 
 General Donelson's Brigade. This brigade consisted 
 of five* Tennessee regiments, with Captain Carnes's 
 battery of light artillery. My associations were 
 pleasant, and afforded encouraging facilities for my 
 sacred work. 
 
 Sunday the seventeenth we crossed the Tennessee 
 River, and encamped among the hills two miles 
 north of Chattanooga! The itinerant tribes coming 
 up out of the Jordan were scarcely more joyful than 
 our troops. Tennessee was to them the Land of 
 Promise, and the Lookout Mountain pointed pro- 
 phetically to their invaded heritage. Already they 
 saw Nashville redeemed, and revelled in the dear 
 delights of home. Alas for the sequel ! 
 
 Having waited at the foot of Wallen's Ridge till 
 the main body of our troops had crossed the river, we 
 moved forward to rescue Kentucky from the grasp 
 of the tyrant. At the same time the gallant General 
 Maxcy forded the Tennessee at Bridgeport, in the 
 very face of the Federal garrison ; while his artillery, 
 five miles above, was effectually shelling the camp 
 
IN TRANSITU. 37 
 
 at the mouth of Battle Creek. Finding the occupa- 
 tion of the place rather perilous, the enemy fled up 
 the Sequatchie Valley, with a loss of sixty or sev- 
 enty men and of a large amount of property. He 
 burned most of his commissary stores, and a quan-' 
 tity of arms and ammunition ; but many tents, teams, 
 wagons, ambulances, valuable medicines, surgical in- 
 struments, important papers and maps, with various 
 other articles quite useful to our officers and soldiery, 
 fell into the hands of the victors. 
 
 He soon found himself in almost as uncomfortable 
 a condition as Pharaoh in the Red Sea, walled in by 
 nature on the right and the left, a formidable army 
 in front, and ruin menacing his rear. So he turned 
 his face toward the Cumberland Mountains. It was 
 the only chance of escape. And had not Hannibal 
 and Bonaparte crossed the Alps with their armies ? 
 With desperate resolution and much cursing, he 
 toiled up the rugged cliffs, made all possible speed 
 to Manchester and Cowan, joined the main body of 
 BuelPs army, and all fled in wild confusion and mor- 
 tal terror, leaving forts and stockades everywhere 
 standing, and never tarrying to burn down bridges 
 and tear up railroads in their rear. 
 
 A citizen of Murfreesboro, who saw their wagon- 
 trains pass, assures me that they outdrove Jehu him- 
 self; whipping, screaming, swearing, smashing, .as if 
 an earthquake had been after them. Many of the 
 vehicles, stolen from Tennesseeans and Alabamians, 
 and drawn by stolen teams, were crammed with 
 stolen articles of all descriptions ; gilded mirrors, 
 marble tables, mahogany sofas, rosewood pianos, ele- 
 D ' 
 
38 CAMP AND FIELD. 
 
 gant paintings, costly statuary, cut-glass chandeliers, 
 silk dresses and oil-cans, book-cases and cooking 
 stoves, band-boxes and sledge-hammers, silver plate 
 and ox-hides, hardware and cutlery, dry goods and 
 groceries, tumbling, rumbling, jumbling, in most mag- 
 nificent disorder. 
 
 Johnson and Buell, it is said, differed concerning 
 the expediency of a general " skedaddle," and came 
 near having bloody noses on the subject. The Rev. 
 Col. Moody, the pious plunderer of our homes and 
 sanctified assassin of our friends, tells a curious story 
 of this quarrel and his own agency in its settlement, 
 which must not be withheld from the reader. It is 
 taken from the Dayton (Ohio) Journal, where it pur- 
 ports to be given chiefly in his own words. No 
 doubt, Andy is the only u mourner" Moody has been 
 instrumental in "converting" since he entered the 
 army. I have heard, indeed, of no. other instance 
 of Yankee conversion during the war. The reader 
 will excuse the omission of certain expletives that 
 do nOt suit my taste as well as they do the Rev. 
 Colonel's. 
 
 " Col. Moody, of Ohio, stated that after his regiment, with others, 
 had been marched to various! points, they were finally ordered back 
 to Nashville, Tenn. On his arrival there Gen. Buell was in the 
 city, and the question was being agitated of evacuating the city 
 and giving it up to the rebels, Buell being in favor and Gov. John- 
 son opposed to the measure. At this crisis Col. Moody called to 
 pay his respects to the Governor. On entering the building, in an 
 upper room of which was the Governor's office, he met Gen. Buell 
 coming out. As they passed each other they exchanged civilities, 
 -and immediately the Colonel forwarded his card to the Governor's 
 room. Soon a messenger came to him, informing him that the 
 ■Goyernor wished him to come up immediately. As the Colonel 
 
IN TRANSITU. 89 
 
 entered the room he saw Governor Johnson pacing the floor, with a 
 gentleman on each arm, under the most terrible excitement, and 
 saying, ' It must not be done.' Seoing the Colonel, the Governor 
 greeted him most cordially, and expressed his great pleasure in 
 meeting him. The two gentlemen retired, leaving them alone* 
 when instantly Governor Johnson informed Col. Moody what was 
 meditated — that Buell wished to evacuate the city. ' But,' said he, 
 'it must not be done.' So intense was the excitement of the Gov- 
 ernor's mind that his face was fairly livid ; and, frothing at the 
 mouth and jesticulating most violently, he swore ' the city must not 
 be evacuated.' The Colonel gently chided the Governor, saying: 
 
 " ' Governor, just drop these hard words — we can get along without 
 them. True, this is a dark and perilous hour, but we must remem- 
 ber God reigns He is King of kings and Lord of lords, lie rules 
 •Generals, Governors, and nations. If we will only do right and 
 trust in Him, a way of deliverance will be opened, and our beloved 
 country shall yet be saved/ 
 
 Instantly the Governor responded : 
 
 " ' Moody — and when I say Moody I mean more than Colonel — I 
 believe in God and the Bible, and I rest my soul's salvation on the 
 
 merit of Jesus Christ alone, but , if this city shall be given 
 
 up!' 
 
 " Col. Moody, perceiving that the Governor's mind needed relief 
 as much as the imperiled city, otherwise there was danger from the 
 immense excitement of his being driven to. madness, replied: 
 
 " ' Governor, let us pray ! ' 
 
 " Quick as lightning the Governor dropped on his knees ; and 
 while the Colonel was praying for him, asking God to give him 
 wisdom, strength and courage in this dark hour, he responded in 
 groans and aniens; and crawling on his knees to the Colonel, he 
 laid his head on his bosom, and wept and groaned, and said amen 
 to every petition. At length the Colonel felt that God had heard 
 his prayer ; the cloud began to break ; and turning prayer into 
 praise, the Governor also began to praise God. When they rose 
 from their knees # the Governor instantly seized the Colonel's hand; 
 and, all bathed in tears, said : 
 
 " * Thank God that you came ! He sent you to help me— I feel 
 
 better — the cloud is broken — we shall be delivered. But I 
 
 he shall not give up the city I I'll burn it firsts and perish amid 
 the flames, rather than he shall give it up, and let it fall into the 
 hands of the enemy 1 ' 
 
40 CAMP AND FIELD. 
 
 11 Soon after this General Buell came in; and Gov. Johnson, meet 
 ing him, looked him in the eye, and with terrible emphasis he said: 
 
 " 'The city shall not be evacuated. Before that shall bo done, I 
 will burn it, and perish in the ruins.' 
 
 "That settled the question. Gen. Buell was compelled to change 
 his plan ; and after detailing a sufficient force to defend the city, 
 with the balance of the army he came trotting up to Louisville." 
 
 Johnson certainly did well, if well-doing can be 
 predicated of any measure for so bad an end, in 
 maintaining his position at Nashville ; but if. Buell 
 had remained in Middle Tennessee, Bragg would 
 easily have taken Louisville and Cincinnati. 
 
IV. 
 HEGIRA EXTRAORDINARY. 
 
 (AUGUST, 1862.) 
 
 " In this wild world the fondest and the best 
 Are the most tried, most troubled and distrest." 
 
 Crabbb. 
 
 On Sunday evening, the seventeenth of August, 
 while we were in bivouac near Chattanooga, I 
 preached to the Eighth Kegiment. After the service 
 Colonel Moore showed me the Louisville Journal of 
 the sixth instant, containing a notice of my wife's 
 arrest, trial and imprisonment, with her two daugh- 
 ters, on a charge of disloyalty to Lincoln. I was glad 
 that I had not seen it before. My anxiety was intense, 
 though my faith was strong. Immediate relief was 
 impracticable, but we were now marching on high- 
 heeled hopes toward " the Dark and Bloody Ground/' 
 and would soon be able, no doubt, to lead captive 
 the captivity of our friends. 
 
 In a few days, all the army having now crossed 
 the river, we advanced twenty-five miles, and en- 
 camped at the foot of Wallen's Ridge. On Thursday, 
 the twenty-eighth, General Anderson, to my great 
 joy, brought me word that my family had arrived in 
 Chattanooga. I hastened back to meet them, and 
 D* 
 
42 CAMP AND FIELD. 
 
 received from my wife's own lips the story of their 
 adventures, sufferings and escape. 
 
 Mrs. Cross, with her daughters, was on a visit to 
 her native home in Harrodsburg. While there, John 
 H. Morgan made his advent in the town. The ladies 
 waved their handkerchiefs : this was indubitable 
 disloyalty. They welcomed the liberators of their 
 friends : this was abominable rebellion. They fur- 
 nished them some refreshments from Judge Chirm's 
 larder : this was intolerable treason. It would never 
 do to let such proceedings pass unpunished. Proba- 
 bly, too, these ladies knew how to shoot. Who could 
 give assurance that they were not here for the pur- 
 pose of organizing a guerilla party ? Something 
 must be done, and that speedity, or Kentucky, with 
 all its beech -groves and blue-grass, has gone gliding 
 into Secessia. Awake, awake, ye potent guardians 
 of the public peace! The Philistines are upon you. 
 Go forth and shake yourselves, or ye are shaven to 
 irredeemable impotency I 
 
 " Awake, arise, or be forever fallen I" 
 
 Shortly after Morgan's advent, an affair occurs^ 
 confirming, beyond all power of controversy, these 
 terrible suspicions. Two of the Federal guard go 
 out to discharge their guns, preparatory to cleaning 
 them ; when one of them, elevating his piece more 
 than he intended, sends a bullet whistling into Mor- 
 gan Vance's enclosure. Glory to accident ! here is, 
 at least, a plausible probability. Morgan Yance 
 hastens to the Provost Marshal's. I am glad to have 
 forgotten the name of that sapient official: this 
 Paper will be the less offensive to many a good 
 
HEGIRA EXTRAORDINARY. 43 
 
 citizen of Harrodsburg. To that anonymous func- 
 tionary, then, speeds Morgan Vance. There is an 
 unquestionable conspiracy against his loyal life. He 
 has been shot at from Judge Chinn's premises. The 
 Judge, or his daughter, or one of his grand-daughters, 
 or all three of them, must have done the murderous 
 deed. Shall rebel women be permitted to come 
 hither and assassinate and slaughter our best and 
 bravest citizens ? Awake, Justice, and gird thyself 
 with strength ! Hasten, ye ministers of vengeance, 
 to the protection of this paragon of patriotism ! 
 Arise! Why sleep ye? JjO, the gates of Gaza are 
 already gone, and the flame-bearing foxes are among 
 the standing corn ! 
 
 It is well. The world shall see u that we have a 
 government." For two days there are strange scenes 
 in the streets, and stranger scenes at the court-house. 
 Judge Chinn fe arrested and incarcerated. Three 
 ladies, all native Kentuckians, are marched to and 
 fro with bayonets at their backs, and placed on trial 
 for treason against "the best government on earth." 
 A soldier of that model government comes forward, 
 and avows the accidental shooting as his own. His 
 comrade confirms his testimony. Very inopportune, 
 this ! The charge must be set aside, or we shall have 
 mutiny in the camp. Is there no other ? The white 
 handkerchiefs ! The bread, bacon and buttermilk ! 
 Quite sufficient ! Here is " rebel sympathy." Here 
 is " aid and comfort to the enemy." What will be- 
 come of us, if such things are allowed to pass with 
 impunity? Women must be taught to hold their 
 tongues, and mind their own business, and keep their 
 
4-i CAMP AND FIELD. 
 
 kerchiefs in their reticules, and let those who are paid 
 for it do the thinking ! 
 
 On these counts, condemnation is inevitable. Now 
 for securing the culprits. No green withes, nor, new 
 ropes, nor weaving of their seven locks with the 
 beam, will suffice. Steel bayonets and iron bars are 
 better. Away with these pestilent offenders .to the 
 county jail ! Thrust them into these filthy cells, 
 along with this negro who has murdered his master, 
 along with this white man who awaits his trial for 
 the killing of his two children ! 
 
 " So spake the fiend, and with necessity, 
 The tyrant's plea, excused his devilish deed." 
 
 Nay, cries the jailor, that were too barbarous for 
 Mercer county ; the cells are not fit for the ladies ; 
 they must at least be furnished with decent bedding. 
 
 But that involves a question ofxxpen^e to the 
 government; the government needs all its funds for 
 crushing the rebellion elsewhere. 
 
 Nay, exclaims the jailor's gentle wife, the ladies 
 can never lodge in those dirty cells ; allow me to make 
 them pallets on the floor of my own apartments. 
 
 Very well ; that will be cheaper; though, in the 
 opinion of the magnanimous Morgan Yance and his 
 amiable provost, the cells would be preferable, as 
 furnishing securer custody. It will cost nothing, 
 however, to quintuple the guard ; and that night and 
 the next the starlight gleams faintly from fifteen 
 polished bayonets around the grand old bastile. 
 
 The second morning comes, and with it a vehicle 
 to convey the culprits to Louisville. There arriving, 
 they are halted at the Gait House, ordered thence to 
 
HEGIRA EXTRAORDINARY. 45 
 
 the Military Prison, thence back again to the Gait 
 House, and thence to the office of the Provost Mar- 
 shal. Yery refreshing, after the fatiguing travel of 
 the preceding day amid heat and dust and Yankee in- 
 solence, must have been these midnight marches and 
 counter-marches through the great commercial empo- 
 rium of their native State! A highly gratifying 
 spectacle to the benevolent officials of the Federal 
 Government must have been these three ladies, and 
 a delicate little child, driven rudely about through 
 the darkness by the yellow-haired hirelings of the 
 long-armed Kailsplitter of Hoosierdom ! 
 
 At the office of the Provost Marshal there are 
 solemn grimaces and mysterious conferences over 
 sundry papers sent down from Harrodsburg, the 
 character and contents of which the prisoners are not 
 permitted to know. Insulting questions, accompar 
 nied with sardonic sneers, are addressed to them ; 
 some of which they answer with a forced courtesy, 
 and some with undisguised contempt. The name of 
 I their insolent inquisitor I am glad to have forgotten. 
 Many friends call to see the prisoners. Cowardly 
 men advise perjury ; noble women exhort to firm- 
 ness and fortitude. The former counsel is met with 
 merited scorn ; the latter is not needed by our hero- 
 ines. Their spirits are buoyant and unbroken ; their 
 bearing, dignified and defiant. Frighten three Ken- 
 tucky ladies into an oath of fealty to a government 
 like yours? You might as well think to shake an 
 oak with a palsy, or dry up a fountain with a fever ! 
 Now for a lofty retribution. Now for a magnifi- 
 cent vengeance, Jerry Boyle, the " great red 
 
46 CAMP AND FIELD. 
 
 dragon" of the Dark and Bloody Ground, "casts 
 forth a flood " against these helpless women — not of 
 water, but of official paper — " that he might cause 
 them to be carried away of the flood." They must 
 go to Camp Chase. They must be confined, each 
 one of them in a separate hut, subject to whatever 
 insults and outrages may suit the inclinations of the 
 dogs and demons. that Lincoln and Seward have dig- 
 nified with the guardianship of their periled preroga- 
 tives; Most magnanimous edict ! Most splendid 
 coup de guerre ! Now shall the rebellion perish ! 
 
 But here comes Doctor Palmer. He is a* violent 
 unionist ; but he is also a man of some sagacity and 
 foresight ; and, withal, a friend and relation of the 
 victims. He has heard of these proceedings, and has 
 ridden all night to arrest them. 
 
 Nay, General Boyle ; you are overshooting your 
 mark. You cannot afford to send these ladies to 
 Camp Chase. It will ruin our cause in Kentucky. 
 You had better send them into Dixie. 
 
 Away- with them, then, across the lines I 
 
 Well spoken. 
 
 Two days, with some detention at the Tunnel, 
 where John Morgan has been at work, and they ar- 
 rive in Nashville. Two days more, and they are at 
 Bridgeport, on the Tennessee river, twenty-eight 
 miles below Chattanooga. The commandant of the 
 post telegraphs General Buell to ascertain his pleasure 
 concerning them. General Buell replies, " Send them 
 back to Louisville." They are put into a sutler's 
 wagon, to be conveyed to Stevenson, there to reem- 
 bark upon the railway. The necessary papers are 
 
HEGIRA EXTRAORDINARY. 47 
 
 placed ia the hands of the proprietor of the vehicle. 
 Away they go, past the first line of pickets, past the 
 second line of pickets, quite out of sight. 
 
 " Mr. Sutler, are those the last pickets ? "• 
 
 " Yes, Madam." 
 
 " Then please stop a moment." 
 
 "What does this mean, ladies? Why are you 
 getting out? " 
 
 " We shall go no farther with you, sir." 
 
 u But you are not going to leave me, are you? " 
 
 "We certainly are." 
 
 " But I have the papers, and am responsible for 
 your delivery at Stevenson." 
 
 " That is your business, not ours, sir." 
 
 " Well, I am not a Federal officer, and have no 
 authority to detain you by force ; and if I had any, 
 I should not like to fight with three ladies." 
 
 "Your case would certainly be hopeless, sir; for, 
 you see, we have knives." 
 
 It was no false menace. My wife and daughters 
 had really been provided with knives at Louisville, 
 for use, if necessary, at Camp Chase. The mention 
 of them instantly melts the sutler's heart into the 
 sweetest flow of mercy. 
 
 " Ladies, I shall not resist you ; but' what am I to 
 do with your baggage ? " 
 
 " What you please, sir. We thank you for your 
 courtesy. Good morning." 
 
 The ladies now flee one way, while the sutler 
 drives the other. They have lost their baggage, but 
 gained their liberty. Soon finding themselves on 
 the bank of the river, they sit down in dubious de- 
 
48 CAMP AND FIELD. 
 
 liberation. Can they ford the stream? It looks too 
 deep and rapid, and it is a long distance to the other 
 shore. But to remain here is captivity. The cavalry 
 will soon be after them. So, carefully avoiding the 
 public road, 
 
 " Over park, over pale — 
 Thorough bush, thorough briar" — 
 
 their clothes torn with thorns and saturated with 
 dew, they wend their unknown way to an unknown 
 destination. My brave little girl, nine years of age, 
 cheerfully follows her mother, and thinks she can 
 bear it because she was born in Charleston. 
 
 Here is a house. A careful reconnoisance of the 
 environs reveals no danger. A brief interview with 
 the occupants develops their Southern feelings. A 
 generous whiskey toddy revives the strength of the 
 fugitives. Kind Mr. W. is ready to aid them to the 
 extent of his opportunity. But prudence is neces- 
 * sary. A slight indiscretion might ruin the enterprise. 
 Nothing can be accomplished before to-morrow. 
 Then he will put them across the river. Meanwhile 
 they cannot tarry in the house without danger of 
 being discovered. While they are enjoying a hasty 
 dinner two soldiers make their appearance. Mr. W. 
 detains them with conversation at the gate, while his 
 guests flee by the back door and take to the moun- 
 tain. A young lady of the household volunteers her 
 company and guides them to a place of safety. 
 
 Selecting a position which commands a view of the 
 premises below, they establish a diligent outlook for 
 the enemy. Cavalry makes its appearance. The 
 
HEGIRA EXTRAORDINARY. 49 
 
 men dismount and enter. Hours wear away, and the 
 horses are still at the gate. 
 
 " Now evening lets her curtain down, 
 And pins it with a star." 
 
 Poor little Mary Anna, exhausted with toil and hun- 
 ger, lies asleep upon her mother's lap. Miss W. 
 descends from the watchtower, creeps cautiously to 
 the door, finds the cavalry gone, but the two soldiers 
 still there, and returns to the mountain with tidings. 
 
 Content yourselves, hapless wanderers ! You must 
 remain here till morning. Better here than at Camp 
 Chase. But there is no sleep, except #or the little 
 Charlestonian. The rest sit chatting upon the rocks 
 throughout the livelong night. At daylight the 
 young lady goes down again, and hastens back with 
 the glad intelligence that the enemy is gone. Our 
 fugitives descend, snatch a hasty morsel, and 
 away again to the mountain till they are summoned 
 down to dinner. They spend the following night 
 with the family, and the next morning accompany 
 Mr. W. to the river. Everything is in readiness. 
 The Confederate pickets bring over the boat, and my 
 family are soon landed in Dixie, where our officers 
 receive them with distinguished urbanity and a cor- 
 dial Southern welcome. 
 
 Arriving at Shell Mound, Mrs. C. dispatches a 
 note by flag of truce, to the comrrvmdantof the post 
 at Bridgeport, informing him of her successful hegira, 
 and expressing the hope that he will have the mag- 
 nanimity to send over her baggage. The trunks are 
 immediately forwarded under flag of truce. And so 
 endeth " this eventful history?" 
 
 " The good are better made by ill, 
 E As odors cj-ushed are sweeter still." Rogers. 
 
V. 
 INTO KENTUCKY. 
 
 (SEPTEMBER — OCTOBER, 1862.) 
 
 " Higher, higher still we climb, 
 
 Up the mount of glory, 
 
 That our names may live through time 
 
 ^ In our country's story ; 
 
 " Happy, when her welfare calls, 
 
 He who conquers* he who falls." 
 
 Montgomery. 
 
 Ho for Kentucky ! Gen. Kirby Smith is already 
 there, and has routed the enemy at Richmond. This 
 achievement, which occurred on the thirtieth of Au- 
 gust, was one of the most signal victories of the war. 
 After a march of many days through a dreary moun- 
 tain wilderness, almost destitute of water, subsisting 
 on green corn and beef without salt, our brave troops 
 attacked the Yankees in strong position at Mount 
 Zion with less than half their force, drove them from 
 their works after two hours of the hardest fighting, 
 pursued them six miles to Richmond, where they 
 assailed a formidable garrison of ten thousand, scat- 
 tered the magnificent array in fifteen minutes, killed 
 two hundred, wounded over a thousand, took seven 
 hundred prisoners from thirteen different regiments, 
 captured ten cannon, eleven hundred muskets, two 
 hundred wagons, nearly a thousand mules, and a 
 
INTO KENTUCKY. 51 
 
 large quantity of supplies, with a loss in killed and 
 wounded of about four hundred men. Gen. Nelson 
 was wounded on the Federal side, and Gen. Cleburn 
 on ours. My old regiment, the Second Tennessee, 
 suffered severely ; and Colonel Butler, commanding 
 it, was killed. " Never," said Kirby Smith, " was 
 more gallant lighting done' by any troops." Before 
 the battle, the General was on his knees in his tent : 
 and as soon as it was over he retired to give thanks 
 to God for the victory. 
 
 On the self-same day was fought the second great 
 battle of Manassas, in which Lee put the gasconading 
 invader to an inglorious rout; took thirty pieces of 
 artillery and eight thousand stand of small arms; 
 destroyed and carried away an immense amount of 
 Federal army stores; captured a large number of 
 prisoners, seven thousand of whom were paroled 
 upon the field ; strewed the ground for three or four 
 miles with the wounded, the dying, and the dead ; 
 and left the enemy full thirty-eight thousand less 
 than he found him at the opening of the conflict. 
 
 We had heard of these splendid achievements, and 
 our patriotic enthusiasm was at its acme. Hope made 
 the rugged march a pleasant pilgrimage, and con- 
 verted the dark and sterile mountains into a very 
 "Land of.Beulah." Labor was rest, and paifi was 
 sweet, and the green maize which constituted our 
 daily bread was " manna in the wilderness." We 
 crossed the border with a shout which rang for miles 
 along our line of march, and woke the glad echoes 
 of the everlasting hills. 
 
 A day at Tompkinsville, to refresh our jaded 
 
52 CAMP AND FIELD. 
 
 troops, and replenish our seanty commissariat ; then, 
 forward to Glasgow. As we enter the town, an old 
 man, with silver locks streaming on the wind, rides 
 forth to meet us, waving his hat over his head, and 
 bidding us a thousand welcomes. Our response, peal 
 after peal, rends the welkin. That old man has felt 
 the heel of Lincoln. 
 
 A pale woman, sitting by the wayside, cheers the 
 boys, as they pass, with such words as these: " Wel- 
 come, Tennesseeans ! Welcome to Kentucky! Wel- 
 come to Glasgow ! Welcome to our homes! You 
 have come to redeem us. I knew you would come. 
 I told the Yankees so. They said you had crept into 
 your dens, and would never show yourselves again. 
 Now, thank God ! I see you, and it is the pleasantest 
 sight I ever saw. You will drive the thieves 
 beyond the Ohio. Our husbands, brothers and sons 
 will help you. Now we shall be avenged. They 
 have robbed us — the vile miscreants ! They have 
 insulted us in our own homes, at our own tables. 
 They have stolen our horses from the stable, and 
 driven away our cattle from the pasture. They have 
 burned our fences, destroyed our crops, imprisoned 
 our friends, and trampled upon all our rights. The 
 day of retribution is come at last. I have- prayed for 
 it a long time, and my prayer is answered. Heaven 
 bless you, young men ! I know your mothers and 
 sisters are praying for you at home. Thousands of 
 ladies are praying for you in Kentucky. Be coura- 
 geous. God is on your side. God will fight your 
 battles for you. Your cause must prosper. We shall 
 be with vou in the Confederacv." 
 
INTO KENTUCKY. 53 
 
 Two days at Glasgow. One of them, the four- 
 teenth of September, is a Sabbath. While I am 
 attacking the hearts of sinners with "the Sword of 
 the Spirit," Chalmers is assailing the Federal fortifi- 
 cations at Woodsonville. With eighteen hundred 
 men, he engages a force of over four thousand. They 
 are behind their breastworks, and well supported by 
 artillery. He is repulsed, with a loss of two hundred 
 and seventy, killed and wounded. The attempt has 
 been censured. It ought, perhaps, to be applauded. 
 Applauded it certainly would have been, had it suc- 
 ceeded. It is success, not courage,'.' Ahat makes a 
 hero. It is fortune, not merit, that immortalizes a 
 commander. "Let a man show all the good conduct 
 that is possible," says St. Evremond, " if the event 
 does not answer, ill fortune passes for a fault, and is 
 justified but by a sorry few persons." This was one 
 of the most daring and heroic efforts of the war, an 
 illustration of true courage in a worthy cause. But 
 Confederate blood is too precious to be spilled in 
 vain ; and prudence in a military chieftain, though 
 less imposing, is not less important, than valor. 
 Patience and hope ! We shall soon lead captive the 
 conquerors. 
 
 Monday evening, the fifteenth, we are on the 
 march. Tuesday morning, the sixteenth, we hear 
 the sound of artillery. Buckner is annoying the 
 enemy in front, while we are making a circuit to get 
 in his rear. 
 
 Woodsonville and Munfordsville lie opposite each 
 other on Green River ; the former on the south side t 
 the latter on the north. Crossing the stream about 
 E* 
 
54r CAMP AND FIELD. 
 
 mid-day several miles above, we wait for the friendly 
 night, then approach quietly under the double cover 
 of forest and darkness. 
 
 It is nine o'clock. No sound is heard but the 
 tramp of numerous feet. Suddenly a volley of mus- 
 ketry in front bursts upon the still air. The next 
 moment a dozen horses, some ridden and others 
 riderless, come rushing back among the troops. The 
 cry goes from van to rear — "Yankee cavalry I Yankee 
 cavalry ! " The men fall out, right and left, into the 
 thicket; but are instantly rallied by their officers, 
 and stand waiting in painful suspense for an expla- 
 nation. A courier comes with the facts. General 
 Donelson and his staff, riding forward to reconnoitre) 
 had been mistaken by Jackson r s rear-guard for a 
 Federal scouting party, and fired upon. Captain 
 Lowe, Inspector General of the brigade, was shot 
 through the heart; and Captain Craig's horse fell 
 dead beneath its rider. I rode forward to the scene 
 of the accident, and found poor Lowe lifeless in his 
 blood, and Lieutenant Donelson suffering extremely 
 from the effect of the fall of his horse. 
 
 An hour more, and w.e are in the rear of Mun- 
 fordsville. There are no Yankees on this side the 
 river. The garrison on the other side seem not to 
 have suspected our approach, probably arc not yet 
 aware of our proximity. This little town, however, 
 is astir. Women and children are leaving, in expec- 
 tation of a bloody sunrise. I meet with a company 
 of them weeping and wailing along the street, and 
 escort them to a place of safety in our rear. Keturn- 
 ing, I find the brigade in bivouac, awaiting the moon. 
 
INTO KENTUCKY. 55 
 
 1 cast myself upon the dewy grass, and sleep — 0, 
 liow sweetly ! 
 
 At three o'clock I awake, and find myself alone 
 with the moon. Generals Bragg, Polk, Cheatham, 
 Donelson, and the rest, have gone out to locate the 
 batteries and arrange the line of battle. I follow 
 them. The enemy's camp-fires are brilliant beyond 
 the river. Our artillery, within three hundred yards, 
 completely commands their works. Our brave boys 
 lie dreaming upon their arms. 
 
 The dawn of Wednesday the seventeenth reddens 
 the horizon. Couriers are coming. There is a shout 
 in the camp. A rumor of surrender follows. It is 
 even so, for here is General Polk in person, riding 
 along the lines, communicating the intelligence to his 
 troops. It is received with peals of joy. The women 
 and children return, with many congratulations, to 
 their homes. 
 
 .At nine I go over to the forts. An interesting 
 scene is enacted there. The Yankees are marched 
 out upon the plain. The officer in command surren- 
 ders his sword to General Buckner. The latter re- 
 turns it, with a graceful acknowledgment of his cap- 
 tive's gallantry. The troops are ordered to ground 
 their arms. They obey, some with apparent sullen- 
 ness, some with a cheerful smile. To Confederate 
 eyes it is a very pleasant sight. "We have gained a 
 bloodless victory, taken four thousand and three hun- 
 dred prisoners, five thousand stand of arms, ten 
 pieces of artillery, twenty four-horse wagons, two 
 hundred head of mules, and a considerable amount 
 of commissary stores. 
 
56 CAMP AND FIELD. 
 
 Among the prisoners were three chaplains; one of 
 them a Methodist preacher of the Indiana Confer- 
 ence. He said he was "sick of the war," and if 
 released he should "quit the army." Lie seemed to 
 be uneasy, however, and anxious to know what was 
 to be done with him. I told him that we did not 
 imprison ministers of the Gospel, and that he would 
 certainly be set at liberty. He desired me to speak 
 with Gen. Bragg about it, and bring him word in the 
 afternoon. I represented the case, through Colonel 
 Johnston, to the General ; and was authorized to 
 "say to the gentlemen," that he and his two col- 
 leagues would "be free, to go where they pleased, 
 only not in advance of our army." I was subse- 
 quently informed by a citizen, that he had a few 
 days before tried very hard, in a pulpit prayer at 
 Munfordsville, to enlist Almighty God on the Fede- 
 ral side of the controversy, by representing the rebels 
 as the most damnable sinners since the days of Sodom. 
 
 Near the fort the Yandals had burned the Metho- 
 dist church, and the embers were still glowing in the 
 ashes. Not far distant were the smouldering ruins 
 of a dwelling, consumed with all its contents before 
 the proprietor could remove a single article. The 
 fragments of fence around the grave-yard, and the 
 few trees remaining, bore the marks of Sunday's 
 battle, in which so many of our brave boys had 
 perished. And here it was that the gallant Colonel 
 Terry, on the seventeenth of December, nine months 
 ago this very day, fell a victim to his valor, while 
 leading his brave Texans to victory. 
 
 A lady hailed me as I passed, a widow with three 
 
INTO KENTUCKY. 57 
 
 daughters, and asked me to make her house my home 
 while our army should remain in the neighborhood. 
 She feared the soldiers, supposing that ours were 
 like those she had been accustomed to see. I told 
 her she might dismiss all unpleasant apprehensions, 
 for the Confederate troops were gentlemen, and her 
 family would not be molested. After a few moments' 
 conversation, I left her comfortably assured of her 
 safety. 
 
 At midday our corps was again in motion. I re- 
 mained behind to bury Captain Lowe. About sun- 
 set, in a heavy rain, his mortality was committed to 
 the tomb. While performing the solemn rite, I saw 
 an ambulance driven up and halted within a few 
 yards of the grave, surrounded by a circle of bayo- 
 nets. It contained poor T. He was a neighbor of 
 mine in G. Soon after <* the opening of the war he 
 entered the Southern army ; became quartermaster 
 to a battalion of cavalry ; left his place with a large 
 amount of government funds in his pockets; dj^ed 
 his hair and beard, which were of a fine "Confede- 
 rate grey," to avoid recognition ; led a detachment 
 of Federal cavalry to his own town, "breathing out 
 threatening and slaughter" against his patriotic 
 neighbors; but was captured in the height of his 
 career, brought before General Bragg, and ordered 
 to be retained for trial. Why they had driven him 
 hither, and halted him in this drenching storm, I 
 could not conjecture, unless they were going to bury 
 him alive, or shoot him first and bury him afterward. 
 The pallor of his countenance could not have been 
 greater if he had really apprehended the former; 
 
53 CAMP AND FIELD. 
 
 but the number of muskets that escorted him seemed 
 to indicate the latter. This Tennessee Arnold was 
 not executed that evening, however; but'accompa- 
 nied us through Kentucky, returned with us to 
 Tonnessee, remained in custody some time at Knox- 
 ville, and was then mercifully liberated to do more 
 mischief. 
 
 Rumors of Buell in our rear. Having gone as far 
 as Bacon Creek, eight miles, we are ordered back to 
 receive him. Buell declines the interview, and the 
 next day we return to Bacon Creek. The day fol- 
 lowing, the rumor is renewed, and the sham is re- 
 peated. We remain twenty-four hours in line of 
 battle, then resume our march, and press vigorously 
 northward. The wily General had managed very 
 adroitly to detain us two days, that he might pass on 
 our left and reach Louisville before us. 
 
 Monday, the twenty-second, we encamp near 
 Bardstown. The people, with few exceptions, re- 
 ceive us very cordially. The ladies are enthusiasti- 
 cally patriotic. They line the streets as we pass, 
 waving their handkerchiefs, and welcoming their 
 deliverers. A beautiful girl of sixteen seizes the 
 colors when they are lowered in compliment to her, 
 and presses the sacred emblem to her ruby lips. Our. 
 boys throw their caps to the sky, and shout a thousand 
 hurrahs for the ladies of Kentucky. 
 
 And this is the home of Charles A. Wicklilfel 
 And 'here the loveliest of women became the bride 
 of Joseph Holt ! " Tell it not in Gath ! " 
 
 Sunday, the twenty-eighth, I worship in the Pres- 
 byterian Church at Springfield. After service I ride 
 
INTO KENTUCKY. 59 
 
 three miles into the country to pay my respects to 
 Dr. Palmer, and thank him for his late kind offices 
 in behalf of my captive wife and daughters. He is 
 an uncompromising unionist, regarding the rebellion 
 as the most atrocious of errors, doomed inevitably to 
 be crushed. But his heart is independent of his poli- 
 tics. He receives me with great kindness, and treats 
 me with distinguished urbanity. His son, recently 
 discharged from the Federal service, lies dying of 
 consumption at home. His daughter declares herself 
 an invincible secessionist. 
 
 Monday morning, the twenty-ninth, as I ride out 
 of town, a young lady waves her handkerchief from 
 a window, and cries, "Hurrah for Doctor Cross ! " 
 I pause and speak with her. She turns out to be 
 the daughter of my old friend, the Rev. Dr. Grundy ; 
 formerly of Maysville, Kentucky; more recently of 
 Memphis, Tennessee; who is reported to be one of 
 the staunchest Lincolnites in all the land; while his 
 accomplished daughter glories in proclaiming herself 
 a rebel. ^ 
 
 At two o'clock I am in Danville. General Bragg 
 has just arrived, and is addressing the people from 
 the verandah of the hotel.. He tells them he is not 
 here to arrest men, imprison women, and rob peace- 
 able citizens of their property; but to give Kentucky 
 a chance to express her Southern preferences without 
 fear of Northern bayonets — that if she will rally to 
 hig standard, he will stay and defend her soil ; but if 
 she decline the offer of liberty, he will withdraw his 
 army, and leave her to her choice. 
 
 This beautiful town contains the worst community 
 
60 CAMP AND FIELD. 
 
 in the State. The facult\ T of Centre College, and the 
 professors of the Theological Seminary, are a nest of 
 unclean birds, all of the Brcckenridge plume and 
 bill. My clerical Brother Bruce receives me coldly ; 
 he is an irredeemable abolitionist. The patriotic 
 Doctor welcomes me warmly ; he is an en- 
 thusiastic secessionist. 
 
 General Jerry Boyle, Military Governor of Ken- 
 tucky, my wife's late persecutor, resides in the north- 
 ern edge of the town. I pass his superb villa on my 
 way to Harrodsburg. The General, of course, finds 
 it inconvenient to be at hqme just now. Two ser- 
 vants are digging potatoes in the garden. It would 
 not be difficult to burn the building. Who would 
 condemn the act? He that hath said, "Vengeance 
 is mine, I will repay." He that hath said, " Love 
 your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to 
 them that hate you, and pray for them that despite- 
 fully use and persecute you." So I press a potatoe fo'r 
 a memorial, leave my compliments for the General, 
 and pass on with a prayer and a benediction, to spend 
 a few happy days with my friends at Harrodsburg. 
 
 Wednesday morning, the eighth of October, finds^ 
 us in battle-array, at Perry vi lie. Before sunrise, a 
 volley of musketry indicates the commencement of 
 a bloody work. McClure takes his gun and mounts 
 his steed. I accompany him to the lines, and we 
 part to meet no rnore.^ Wounded early in the en- 
 gagement, he dies the next day — a most unselfish and 
 magnanimous young man. I wish I could have been 
 with him in his sufferings. 
 
 Throughout the forenoon, the skirmishing was 
 
INTO KENTUCKY. 61 
 
 constant and lively, and the batteries on both sides ' 
 were very active. 
 
 u They are righting for water now," said my friend, 
 Dr. Quintard ; "I am informed they have had none 
 for two da3's." 
 
 "1 hope," replied a bystander, " they will never 
 get a drop till Father Abraham sends it to them by 
 Lazarus." 
 
 At one o'clock our line of battle was advanced 
 across Chaplain Creek, to the brow of* the hill be- 
 yond. In company with Dr. Quintard, I followed, 
 anxious to witness the scene which I well knew was 
 soon to be enacted. Now began the work of death 
 in earnest. The crash of artillery was deafening. 
 The roar of musketry was like the voice of the stormy 
 sea. The fierce missiles went screaming and whist- 
 ling past me every moment, and fell around me like 
 a fiery tempest. I had often asked myself whether 
 I had the nerve necessary for such a scene; but the 
 excitement which I now experienced was altogether 
 delightful, and throughout the dreadful carnage I 
 was quite unconscious of fear. 
 
 As soon as the wounded begin to arrive at the 
 hospital I am summoned to assist the surgeons. The 
 first sight I see there makes me sick at heart ; a poor 
 fellow from one of the batteries, with both legs 
 crushed by a cannon-ball. Another has a hole 
 through his body, which would admit a man's arm ; 
 yet, strange to say, he lives a full hour. A third, 
 smeared with blood and brains, presents no semblance 
 of the "human face divine." Some are shot through 
 the breast, through the lungs ; others through the 
 F 
 
62 CAMP AND FIELD. 
 
 arm, the hand, the shoulder. One has lost a little 
 finger or a big toe ; another is minus a nose, or has 
 had one of his ears cut away ; while a third will need 
 a new set of. teeth, and has parted perhaps with a 
 piece of his tongue. They are wounded in almost 
 every manner possible, only none of them seem to 
 have been shot in the back. 
 
 Amid these painful scenes' I remain till sometime 
 after dark. # My hands and clothes are besmeared 
 with blood. The noise of battle has died away. 
 Nothing is heard but the rumbling of the ambu- 
 lances, the groans and cries of the sufferers, the slash 
 of the surgeon's knife, and the harsher sound of the 
 saw. A young man of the Sixteenth, with his shoul- 
 der shattered, comes to have his,wound dressed. He 
 reports the gallant Colonel Savage badly wounded 
 and trying to get off the field. I mount my barb 
 and hasten to his help. After riding about two miles, 
 I meet a company of Yankee prisoners ; and close 
 behind them, on horseback, moving very slowly, 
 comes the Colonel. 
 
 " Well, Doctor," he cries with a cheerful voice, 
 have got all my wounded men off the field, I believe ; 
 and now I am coming off myself." 
 
 u Are you badly hurt, Colonel ? " I ask. 
 
 " Not much, I think," he replies ; " shot through 
 the calf of the leg ; no bones broken ; but poor old 
 George has had a ball through his head, and I have 
 to ride slowly." 
 
 I discover that his horse is bleeding profusely, and 
 staggering beneath his burden. I propose to exchange 
 with him ; but he firmly declines the offer. 
 
INTO KENTUCKY. 63 
 
 " Old George has a good constitution," he says ; 
 "I think he will hold out with me." 
 
 He did bold out, and in half an hour we were at 
 the surgeon's quarters. I helped the Colonel down ; 
 pulled off his boot ; it was full of blood. The sur- 
 geons dressed his wound, and he mounted old George 
 again, resisting my remonstrance. We rode two 
 miles farther, and stopped at an unoccupied house. 
 I found a straw bed, laid the Colonel upon it, and 
 tied old George to the fence. In the morning the 
 Colonel was .comfortable, and old George was alive, 
 though the ground where he stood was saturated 
 with blood. The Colonel remounted, and old George 
 carried him eight miles, to Harrodsburg. Good Mrs. 
 Keller took the Colonel in ; and, with the other ladies 
 of the household, nursed him a3 if he had been a 
 brother. He expressed himself in terms of the warm- 
 est admiration and gratitude ; declared that he had 
 never met with such ladies before in his life, and that 
 if he should live to see the end of the war he would 
 certainly return to Harrodsburg. 
 
 The battle of Perryville was a decided victory for 
 the Confederate arms. Our right wing drove the 
 Yankee left back several miles, with great slaughter.. 
 At* the very first charge, according to Northern ac- 
 counts, one whole brigade ran over another, which 
 was held in reserve in its rear ; and never stopped 
 till it reached Springfield, fifteen miles distant. With 
 fifteen thousand men, we fought thirty -five thousand, 
 of whom we killed two thousand, wounded eight 
 thousand, and took five hundred prisoners, putting 
 ten thousand and five hundred hors du combat, with 
 
64 CAMP AND FIELD. 
 
 a loss on our side of less than half that number, four 
 hundred of whom were of my own brigade. 
 
 Thursday morning, the ninth, our army falls back 
 to 'Harrodsburg. The fifteen pieces of artillery taken 
 are brought safely away, but a portion of the small 
 arms are abandoned to the enemy. 
 
 In the evening we are again under marching 
 orders. I go with an ambulance for the wounded 
 Colonel, but ascertain that he is already on the road. 
 "We march till after midnight, and then bivouac on 
 the heights beyond Dix River. I lie down, " solitary 
 and alone," without a blanket, upon the dewy grass, 
 by the wayside. Before cock-crowing I am wakened 
 by a severe blow upon my shoulder, to find myself , 
 under the feet of a mule. The driver has not seen 
 me, and two of the animals have passed over me. A 
 moment more, and I should have been crushed by 
 the wheels. I arise slightly bruised, and thank God 
 for a comfortable night's lodging. 
 
 Friday morning, the tenth, we encamp near Bry- 
 ants ville, ten miles from Harrodsburg, and about the 
 same distance from Danville. Here I meet again 
 with my friend Colonel Savage. 
 
 I have often had occasion to remark how- erroneous 
 frequently are our first estimates of character. Col. 
 Savage at a distance had not impressed me altogether 
 favorably. There was nothing like positive aversion, 
 yet was there no attraction, no sympathy. A better 
 acquaintance with him has developed qualities of 
 which I never dreamed, and I feel an attachment to 
 the man which I thought impossible. Under a some- 
 what rough exterior, he carries a kind and generous 
 
INTO KENTUCKY. . 05 
 
 heart. His remarkable peculiarities would have been 
 much mod.fied, no doubt, had he yielded in youth to 
 the sweet influence of woman's love, withoufwhich 
 nine men in ten become semi-barbarians by the time 
 they are as old as Colonel S. He never married, 
 however, and probably will die a bachelor. 
 
 He is a man of calm thought, sound judgment, 
 self-reliant, careless of public opinion, fruitful of ex- 
 pedients, prompt and energetic in action, a stranger 
 to fear, and very sincerely devoted to his country's 
 cause. In the Florida war, in the Mexican campaign 
 on the floor of Congress, he was always the same 
 ingenuous, magnanimous, independent soul. At" the 
 commencement of the current struggle, he was among 
 theirs to take the field. With the noble old hero 
 general Donelson, he endured great hardships among 
 the mountains of Virginia, and subsequently did 
 valuable service in South Carolina. He went into 
 the recent battle with about three hundred and sev- 
 enty men, and came out with less than half the 
 number. Among all the officers that distinguished 
 hemse ves in that terrible contest, there was none 
 that behaved more heroically than Savage. 
 
 " True courage," says Shaftesbury, « is ever cool 
 and calm. The bravest of men have least of a brutal 
 bullying insolence; and in every time of danger, are 
 found the most serene and free." 
 
 F* 
 
VL 
 OUT OF KENTUCKY. 
 
 (OCTOBER— DECEMBER, 1862.) 
 
 "Pbyaieal courage, which despises all danger, will make a man 
 brave in one way; and moral courage, which despises all opinion, 
 will make a man brave in another. The former would seem neces- 
 sary for the camp, the latter for counsel ; but to constitute a great 
 man, both are necessary." 
 
 Coltqn. 
 
 On Monday morning, the thirteenth of October, 
 very sadly, our troops take up the line of march, 
 and abandon this beautiful country to the tyrant 
 spoiler. Not expecting such a movement, I have 
 left some articles at Judge Chinn's, which I fear will 
 be lost ; among others, the potatoe which I pressed 
 from General Boyle's garden, and the proof-sheets of 
 The Banner of The Eegiment. It grieves me 
 much more to think that several hundred of our dear 
 fellows, wounded too seriousty to allow of their re- 
 moval, remain in Harrodsburg and fall into the hands 
 of the enemy. 
 
 Many bright eyes look mournfully after our re- 
 tiring troops, and weep bitterly for the miseries 
 which are coming upon them. They regarded 
 Bragg's army as the flood that was to refresh the 
 face of a country parched by the fervid heat of op- 
 
OUT OF KENTUCKY. 67 
 
 pression, and renovate a land already half consumed 
 bv the swarming locusts of the north ; but now the 
 great stream is flowing past them, and bearing away 
 with it their friends, their freedom, and their fondly 
 cherished hopes. 
 
 A number of families, taking their servants, a 
 scanty wardrobe, a small supply of provisions, and 
 a few fine horses and mules, fall into the military 
 current, and drift away from their pleasant homes; 
 while others forsake all for liberty, and think they 
 are making a good exchange. How terrible must be 
 the tyranny which drives a people to such sacrifices! 
 
 This retreat has called forth much criticism and no 
 small amount of censure. I shall not enter into the 
 controversy. 
 
 " A. valiant man 
 Ought not to undergo or tempt a danger, 
 But worthily, and by selected ways, 
 He undertakes by reason, not by chance ;" 
 
 and an attention to two or three facts, I am well per- 
 suaded, will modify many a hasty conclusion, and 
 silence many a murmuring tongue. 
 
 First, we must regard the Kentucky campaign as 
 a unit. True, we entered the state in three columns, 
 widely separated ; but Smith's and Marshall's com- 
 mands, as well as Polk's, were portions of Bragg's 
 arnry- ; and to Bragg, as Commander in Chief of the 
 whole, belongs the credit of their success. It was a 
 play in several parts, with many actors, under a com- 
 mon director. It was a single fountain, sending 
 forth a number of streams to mingle their waters in 
 the same sea. 
 
68 CAMP AND FIELD. 
 
 Secondly, we must consider the comparative 
 strength of the two armies. Polk's column was 
 something less than twenty-live thousand ; Smith's, 
 not more than twelve thousand ; and Marshall's,' only 
 two thousand and five hundred ; making a total of 
 thirty-nine thousand and five hundred ; while the 
 numbers of the enemy in the state, taking their own 
 estimates, were nearly as three to one, with the great- 
 est facilities for reinforcing to any desirable amount. 
 This statement, which ought to tinge with shame 
 every cowardly northern cheek, is sufficient to re- 
 deem Bragg's reputation with every ingenuous 
 southern mind. 
 
 Thirdly, we must take into the account the aggre- 
 gate results of the enterprise. It converted a defen- 
 sive war into an offensive ; transferred the scene of 
 action from Mississippi to Kentucky ; revived the 
 drooping spirits of our troops, and visibly imrjroved 
 their health ; dislodged the enemy from his mountain 
 fastness at Cumberland Gap without striking a blow; 
 brought Buell back, with his ,main force, from the 
 line of the Tennessee River to the Ohio; furnished 
 subsistence for our army from an extensive and fruit- 
 ful region which the enemy claimed and occupied as 
 conquered territory ; gave us large quantities of 
 clothing, and provision, many small arms, field 
 pieces, and ordnance stores, with valuable acquisi- 
 tions to our ranks, and prisoners to nearly half the 
 number of our men. Are these facts to be lightly 
 esteemed ? 
 
 Sunday, the nineteenth, we pass through Camber- 
 land Gap, a grand gateway in the great wall of 
 
OUT OF KENTUCKY. 69 
 
 nature. No pause for worship, though here is one of 
 God's sublimcst temples. The mountains are crested 
 with cannon, and the forests on all sides are felled 
 to give them play. To take this American Gibralter 
 would require an army of Titans. As I sit down 
 and "wait for the wagon," I cannot help repeating 
 the fine stanzas of an American poet : 
 
 " The hills — the everlasting hills — 
 
 How peerlessly they rise ! 
 Like earth's gigantic sentinels, 
 
 Discoursing through the skies ! 
 
 " Hail, Nature's stormproof fortresses, 
 
 By Freedom's children trod 1 
 Hail, ye invulnerable walls, 
 
 The masonry of God ! 
 
 " When earth's dismantled pyramids 
 
 Shall blend with desert dust ; 
 "When every temple made with hands 
 
 Is faithless to its trust ; — 
 
 " Ye shall not stoop your Titan crests, 
 
 Magnificent as now, 
 Till your Almighty Architect 
 
 In thunder bids you bow !" 
 
 Sunday, the twenty-sixth, we are encamped near 
 Knoxville. The condition of our troops, tentless 
 and shoeless, is truly deplorable. A heavy fall of 
 snow drives them to booths and bonfires. Public 
 worship is impracticable. The Kev. Mr. Martin has 
 furnished me with a good supply of tracts, and I 
 spend the day in distributing them throughout the 
 brigade. It is encouraging to see with what avidity 
 they are seized and read. I believe I have done 
 more good by this means, since I have been in the 
 
 . 
 
70 CAMP AND FIELD. 
 
 army, than by preaching the Gospel. Frequently 
 have I seen a circle of gamblers throw aside their 
 cards and dice to receive these messengers- of mercy, 
 and retire at once to peruse them. The great 
 harvest-day shall reveal the fruit ! 
 
 We remain here but a few days. The brigade 
 take the railway for Middle Tennessee. The Chap- 
 lain accompanies the wagon train across the Cumber- 
 land Mountains. Sunday, the secgnd of November, 
 finds us on the march. No preaching possible, I 
 pause by the wayside, sit down in a retired and shady 
 spot, read a few chapters from the Blessed Book, 
 then spend six pleasant hours in the composition of 
 a sermon, afterward follow mj friends at double- 
 quick time, and overtake them at twilight. in bivouac. 
 
 " Oh, that men should put an enemy to their 
 mouths to steal away their brains !" 
 
 Aye, Master William, and their consciences too ! 
 
 Thursday the sixth is celebrated by our train - 
 officers as All-Drunkard's Day. It were useless to 
 disguise the fact, or soften the terms that tell it ; 
 all hands — quartermasters, commissaries, teamsters, 
 clerks — are disgracefully drunk. Major Winchester, 
 Major Munday, and Captain Cla^k, are not with us; 
 and if they were, instead of " following a multitude 
 to do evil," they would probably have prevented to 
 some extent the evil-doing of the multitude. During 
 the ensuing night some one creeps into the tent and 
 abstracts my spectacles. lie might as well have 
 taken my eyes. 
 
 "O thou invisible spirit of wine! if thou hast no 
 name to be known by, let us call thee devil !" 
 
OUT OF KENTUCKY. 71 
 
 Monday, the tenth, we overtake the troops- at Tul- 
 lahoma. General Donclson is absent, recuperating. 
 Colonel 0. F. Strahl* is temporarily in command of 
 our brigade. He proves to be a refined and courte- 
 ous gentleman, well informed on all subjects, schol- 
 arly in his tastes and habits, outwardly moral if not 
 inwardly religious, and kindly disposed to aid the 
 chaplain in his sacrotl work. He sends an order 
 every Saturday to each of the regiments and the 
 battery, publishing my appointments for the Sab- 
 bath ; and further encourages attendance upon pub- 
 lic worship by his own example. I have learned 
 from a friend the following facts of his history : 
 
 He was born in the Buckeye State ; educated in 
 part at the Ohio Wesleyan University ; commenced 
 life as a civil engineer on a northern railway ; wan- 
 dered to Iowa, Nebraska, Minnesota, in quest of game 
 and gold ; migrated to Tennessee, and spent two years 
 in the capacity of pedagogue ; became a lawyer, and 
 practised his profession successfully at Dyersburg ; 
 took the stump, in the last presidential canvass, for 
 John Bell and the Union party ; lifted up his voice 
 like a trumpet, on the election of Lincoln, for Seces- 
 sion and Southern Rights ; raised, armed and equipped 
 a company of volunteers, and had them ready for 
 the field by the first of February following ; was 
 elected Lieutenant Colonel of the Fourth Tennessee 
 Regiment, and upon its reorganization subsequently 
 called to its chief command ; was present at the battle 
 of Belmont, witnessed the bombardment* of Island 
 
 * Since promoted to Brigadier General. 
 
72 CAMP AND FIELD. 
 
 Number Ten, participated in the two-day's contest at 
 Shilob, accompanied us through the Kentucky cam- 
 paign, had a horse shot under him at Perry ville, and 
 in all these scenes played the man and the soldier. 
 
 Here I have once more, what I have not had for 
 nearly four months past, a tent to myself. It is 
 small, indeed, but better than none ; and affords me 
 retirement and opportunity £pr study. Thanks to 
 our excellent Quarter-master, Major Winchester, for 
 this convenience. 
 
 But what can I do without spectacles? I can 
 neither read nor write, and am liable to lose myself 
 within a hundred yards of my tent. But how is the 
 desideratum to be supplied ? The lens I am obliged 
 to use is seldom to be found in small towns. I have 
 visited Murfreesboro in vain. To Nashville I can 
 neither go nor send. General Cheatham pities my 
 condition, gives me indefinite leave of absence, with 
 an order for transportation, and bids me go and fur- 
 nish myself wherever I can. Chattanooga, Marietta, 
 Atlanta, can none of them repair the damage done 
 me in the Sequatchie Valley by that villainous glass 
 of grog. But in Augusta, on Thursday the twen- 
 tieth, mine eyes are opened, and I see all things 
 clearly ; Doctor Myers and the Advocate, Doctor 
 Mann and his family, and the goodly viands that 
 garnish his table, with many other old friends and 
 new acquaintances. 
 
 Friday the twenty-first I am at the Capital of Geor- 
 gia, listening to the legislative eloquence of the state, 
 and imbibing full draughts of senatorial wisdom. 
 Saturday the twenty -second I am at Eaton ton, ca- 
 
OUT OF KENTUCKY. 73 
 
 ressed by my little fugitive Charlefkpnian, while her 
 dear mother repeats to me the inspiring story of her 
 late captivity and escape. Sunday the twenty-third 
 I am preaching to the citizens of this quiet town ; 
 and all is as calm as if the whole world were keep- 
 ing Sabbath; and no one seems to know that there 
 is an army within a thousand miles; and 
 
 " My soul is an enchanted boat, 
 
 Which like a silent swan doth float 
 
 Upon the silver waves of that sweet singing. 11 
 
 Returning to Tennessee, I find our command at 
 Murfrcesboro ; preach four successive Sabbaths to 
 very large assemblies in church and camp ; and Gen- 
 eral Polk, with many other officers of high degree, 
 are attentive listeners to the word. Durinsr this 
 
 o 
 
 period the chaplains hold several meetings for mu- 
 tual counsel and encouragement; address a commu- 
 nication to General Bragg, requesting him to take 
 such measures as shall secure to the soldiers more 
 time for religious worship on the Sabbath ; and he, 
 promptly responding, issues an order, in *phrase of 
 pious orthodoxy, requiring the suspension of all un- 
 necessary drills, reviews, inspections, and other mill-; 
 tary exercises, on that sacred day ; and earnestly ex- 
 horting all commanding officers to encourage their 
 respective commands to u assemble and meet together 
 to confess their sins before the face of Almighty God, 
 to render thanks for the great benefits we have •re- 
 ceived at his hands, to set forth his most worthy 
 praise, to hear his most holy word, and to ask those 
 things which are requisite and necessary as well for 
 the body as the soul." 
 G 
 
74 CAMP AND FIELD. 
 
 President Davis' and General Joseph E. Johnston 
 have recently made us a visit. They reviewed the 
 troops, and expressed themselves highly gratified 
 with their discipline and condition. The latter .takes 
 command henceforth of the Western Army. 
 
 General John II. Morgan has captured the Federal 
 garrison at Hartsville, on the other side of the Cum- 
 berland. Fifteen hundred prisoners were brought to 
 Murfreesboro, paroled, and sent to Nashville. Rose- 
 cranz cursed them for a set of cowards, decorated 
 them with cotton night caps, marched them through 
 the city to the Railroad station, and started them 
 northward with many a sonorous execration. The 
 brave Kentucky Cavalier was married a few days 
 after this event, by our Bishop General, to the beau- 
 tiful and accomplished daughter of Colonel Ready. 
 
 The Rev. Messrs. Browning and Elliott have ar- 
 rived in Murfreesboro. They had lain several months 
 in Northern prisons, and have but lately been released. 
 They have suffered extremely, having been thrust 
 into a small room, with sixteen others and a cooking 
 stove. The former of these gentlemen assures me 
 that the Yankees still hold many Southern soldiers 
 in confinement, whom they captured in battle a year 
 or more ago ; that numbers of them are wasting 
 away, from hard usage, bad water, and insufficient 
 food ; and that some have been wantonly shot by 
 the sentinels. 
 
 The Rev. Doctor Sehon also has recently been en- 
 larged. Andy Johnson had kept him a long time 
 in the Nashville penitentiary, ptying him frequently 
 with the infamous Federal oath. The Doctor spurned 
 
OUT OF KENTUCKY. 75 
 
 it with indignation, would not even give his parole 
 of honor, nor any pledge whatever that might be 
 construed into an acknowledgment of the right of 
 Mr. Lincoln to arrest and imprison an unarmed and 
 peaceable citizen. He has displayed a noble firm- 
 ness and independence, and has won his freedom 
 without cringing at the feet of the tyrant. 
 
 A number of ladies, too, have come through the 
 lines. Some of them barely escaped the talons of the 
 old tiger at Nashville, and the fangs of his wolfish 
 crew. Others are here to look after their friends, 
 sick or wounded it may be, in the Confederate army. 
 How much they have suffered in the absence of 
 those friends ! how much of hardship, terror, sorrow, 
 anguish and suspense ! How dear to their gentle 
 hearts must be the cause for which they can make 
 such sacrifices and endure such wrongs ! Let another 
 speak on this subject — Bishop Elliott in a late sermon 
 at Savannah : 
 
 " The attitude of woman is sublime. Bearing all the sacrifices of 
 which 1 have just spoken, she is moreover called upon to suffer in 
 her affections, to be wounded and smitten where she feels most deeply 
 and enduringly. Man goes to the battlefield, but woman sends 
 him there, even though her heartstrings tremble while she gives the 
 farewell kiss and the farewell blessing. Man is supported by the 
 necessity of movement, by the excitement of action, ly the hope of 
 honor, by the glory of conquest; woman remains at home to suffer, 
 to bear the cruel torture of suspense, to tremble when the battle 
 has been fought and the news of the slaughter is flashing over the 
 electric wire, to know that defeat will cover her with dishonor and 
 her little ones with ruin, to learn that the husband she doted upon, 
 the son whom she cherished in her bosom and upon whom she never 
 let the wind blow too rudely, the brother with whom she sported 
 through all her happy days of childhood, the lover to whom her 
 early vows were plighted, has died upon some distant battle-field, 
 
76 CAMP AND FIELD. 
 
 and lies there a mangled corpse, unknown and uncared for, never to be 
 seen again even in death ! Oh ! those fearful lists of the wounded 
 and the dead 1 How carelessly we pass them over, unless our own 
 loved ones happen to be linked with them in military association ! 
 And yet each name in that roll of slaughter carries a fatal pang to 
 some woman's heart— some noble, devoted woman's heart. But 
 she bears it all, and bows submissively to the stroke. ' He died for 
 the cause. He perished for his country. I would not have it other- 
 wise, but I should like to have given the dying boy my blessing, the 
 expiring husband my last ki$s of affection, the bleeding .lover the 
 comfort of knowing that I kneeled beside him.' " 
 
VII. 
 FREDERICKSBURG. 
 
 (decemuek, 1862.) 
 
 "Last of all, the brave Burnsidc, 
 
 With his pontoon bridges, tried 
 A road no one had thought of before him, 
 
 With two hundred thousand men 
 
 For the rebel " slaughter pen," 
 And the blessed Union flag aflying o'er him ; 
 
 But he met a " fire of hell," 
 
 Of canister and shell, 
 Enough to make the knees of any man knock ; 
 
 'Twas a shocking sight to view, 
 
 That second Waterloo, 
 On the banks of the pleasant Rappahannock* 
 
 Illustrated News. 
 
 Fredericksburg is free. General Lee's victory 
 on the thirteenth of December was complete and 
 glorious. From his very modest official report I ex- 
 tract the following paragraphs: 
 
 "On the night of the 10th instant the enemy commenced to throw- 
 three bridges over the Rappahannock— two at Fredericksburg, and 
 the third about a mile and a quarter below, near the mouth of Deep 
 Run. 
 
 " The plain ou which Fredericksburg stands is so completely- 
 commanded by the bills of Stafford, in possession of the enemy, 
 that no effectual opposition could be offered to the construction of 
 the bridges or the passage of the river, without exposiug our troops- 
 to the destructive fire of his numerous batteries. Positions were* 
 therefore seiected to oppose his advance after crossing. 
 
 G* 
 
73 CAMP AND FIELD. 
 
 <o 
 
 "The narrowness of the Rappahannock, its winding course and 
 deep bed, afforded opportunity for the construction of bridges at 
 points beyond the reach of onr artillery, and the banks had to be 
 watched by skirmishers. The latter, sheltering themselves behind 
 the houses, drove back the working parties of the enemy at the 
 bridges opposite the city ; but at the lowest point of crossing, where 
 no shelter could be had, our sharpshooters were themselves driven 
 off, and the completion of the bridges was affected -about noou on 
 the 11th. 
 
 " In the afternoon of that day the enemy's batteries opeiled upon 
 the city, and by dark had so demolished the houses on the river 
 bank as to deprive our skirmishers of shelter ; and, under cover of 
 his guns, he effected a lodgment in the town. 
 
 " The troops which had so gallantly held their position in the 
 city, under the severe cannonade during the day, resisting the ad- 
 vance of the enemy at every step, were withdrawn during the 
 night, as were also those who with equal tenacity had maintained 
 their post at the lowest bridge. Under cover of darkness and of a 
 dense fog, on the 12th, a large force passed the river aud took posi. 
 tion on the right bank, protected by their heavy guns on the left. 
 
 "The morning of the 13th, his arrangements for attack being 
 completed, about nine o'clock, the movement veiled by a fog, he 
 advanced boldly in large force against our right wing. Gen. Jack- 
 son's corps occupied the right of our line, which rested on the rail- 
 road ; Gen. Longstreet's, the left, extending along the heights to 
 the Rappahannock above Fredericksburg.- Gen. Stuart, with two 
 brigades of cavalry, was posted in the extensive plain on our ex- 
 treme right. 
 
 " As soon as the advance of the enemy was discovered through 
 the fog, Gen. Stuart, with his accustomed promptness moved up a 
 section of his horse artillery, which opened with effect upon his 
 flank, and drew upou the gallant Pel ham a heavy firo, which he 
 sustained unflinchingly for about two hours. In the meantime, the 
 enemy was fiercely encountered by Gen. A. P. Hill's Division, 
 forming Gen. Jackson's right, and after an obstinate combat re- 
 pulsed. During- this attack, which was protracted aud hotly con- 
 tested, two of Gen. Hill's brigades were driven back upon our 
 second line. 
 
 " General Early, with part of his division, being ordered to his 
 support, drove the enemy back from a point of woods he had seized, 
 
FREDERICKSBURG. 79 
 
 and pursued him into the plain until arrested by his artillery The 
 right of the enemy's column extending beyond Hill's front, en- 
 countered the right of Gen. Hood, but were quickly dispossessed 
 and repulsed with loss. 
 
 ." During the attack on our right the enemy was crossing troops 
 over his bridges at Fredericksburg, and massing them in front of 
 Longstreet's line. Soon after his repulse on our right he commonced 
 a series of attacks on our left, with a view of obtaining possession 
 of the heights immediately overlooking the town. These repeated 
 attacks were repulsed in gallant style by the Washington Artillery 
 under Colonel Walton, and a portion of McLaw's Division which oc- 
 cupied those heights. 
 
 " The last assault was made after dark, when Col. Alexander's 
 Battalion had relieved the Washington Artillery,, (whose ammuni- 
 tion had been exhausted,) and ended the contest for the day. The 
 enemy was supported in his attack by the fire of strong batteries of 
 artillery on the right bank of the river, as well as by the numerous 
 heavy batteries on the Stafford heights." 
 
 The correspondent of the London Times thus 
 describes the gallant action and melancholy fate of 
 Meagher's Irish Brigade : 
 
 " Meanwhile the battle, which had dashed furiously against the 
 lines of Gen. Hood, A. P. Hill, and Early, was little more than 
 child's play, as compared with the onslaught directed by the Federals 
 in the immediate neighborhood of Fredericksburg. The impression 
 that the Confederate batteries would not fire heavily upon the Fed- 
 erals advancing in this quarter, for fear of injuring the town of 
 Fredericksburg, is believed to have prevailed among the Northern 
 generals. How bitterly they deceived themselves subsequent events 
 served to show. To the Irish division, commanded by General 
 Meagher, was principally committed the desperate task of bursting 
 out of the town of Fredericksburg, and forming under the withering 
 fire of the Confederate batteries, to attack Mam's Heights, towering 
 immediately in their front. Never, at Fonteroy, at Albuera, or at 
 Waterloo, was more undoubted courage displayed by the sons of 
 Erin than during those six frantic dashes which they directed 
 against, the almost impregnable position of their foe. Thero are 
 stories that General Meagher harrangued his troops in impassioned' 
 
80 CAMP AND FIELD. 
 
 language on tbo morning of the 13th, and plied thorn extensively 
 with the whiskey found in the cellars of Fredericksburg. After 
 witnessing the gallantry and devotion exhibited by his troops, and 
 viewing the hilsides for acres strewn with their corpses thick a.s 
 autumnal leaves, the spectator can remember nothing but their 
 desperate courage, and regret that it was not exhibited in a holier 
 cause. That any mortal men could have carried the positiou be- 
 fore which they were wantonly sacrificed, defended as it was, it 
 seems to me idlo for a moment to believe, lint the bodies which 
 lie in dense masses within forty yards of the muzzles of Col. Wal- 
 ton's guns are the best evidence what manner of merr they were 
 who pressed on to death with the dauntlessness of a race which has 
 gained glory on a thousand battle fields, and never more richly de- 
 served it than at the foot of Marye's Higlits on the 13th day of 
 December, 1862." 
 
 On the night of the fifteenth, Burnside withdrew 
 his troops across the river, and telegraphed to the 
 War Department at Washington that they were 
 "safe." Being safe on the north side of the Rappa- 
 hannock, however, with the loss of twenty-five or 
 thirty thousand men", is somewhat different from be- 
 ing safe in the Confederate Capital, with President. 
 Cabinet and Congress in custody. His army was, 
 to Lee's, as three to one; and his loss in proportion 
 to the number engaged, was equal to Napoleon's at 
 Waterloo, though the French were there completely 
 routed. 
 
 A correspondent of the New York Tribune, writ- 
 ing from the scene of action in a most melancholy 
 strain, thus pays an involuntary tribute to the bravery 
 of our troops, and gives their commanding offi- 
 cers credit for great skill and management: 
 
 "The Confederate leaders have acted with their usual wiliness in 
 this whole matter. They did well to let us into Fredericksburg firing 
 but a half dozen guns, when they eould have brought a hundred 
 
FREDERICKSBURG. 81 
 
 to bear upon us. The city itself was the veriest trap that ever was 
 laid, and we have walked iDto it. Is it any wonder that with such 
 a position, on the inside of an arc of a circle of batteries, 
 
 • ' Mid upper, nether and surrounding fires,' 
 
 our troops were over and over again broken and shattered in their 
 attempt to take it ? The wonder is that such admirable pluck was 
 shown." 
 
 An eye witness of th^ desolation says : 
 
 " No city on this continent ever presented such a spectacle aa 
 Fredericksburg did after it had been reentered by our troops. 
 Every house in the place had been thoroughly pillaged from the 
 garret to the cellar. Every thing that was useful or serviceable 
 was carried off. Whatever they could not carry off, the scoundrels 
 destroyed. There was not a chair, or a sofa, or a bureau, or a 
 wardrobe, or a carpet, or a window-shade, or a piece of china or 
 crockery- ware, left entire. Burnside promised his thieves the pil- 
 lage of the place, and he kept his word. Deadly retribution fol- 
 lowed swift upon the heels of this crime ; but it has left thousands 
 without the means of supporting life." 
 
 To the foregoing I add a brief extract from the 
 Richmond Examiner: 
 
 "Burnside has been irretrievably defeated. He escaped what 
 might perhaps have been the most extensive military catastrophe of 
 modern times, except the annihilation of the army which Napoleon 
 Bonaparte led to Moscow, only because the Confederates did not 
 realize tho amount of the puttishment they had inflicted on their ad- 
 versaries, or the degree of consequent demoralization into which 
 they forthwith fell. It may be assumed as quite certain that this 
 portion of the enemy's forces will attempt no further offensive ope- 
 rations during this winter. They may possibly endeavor to pass 
 the season in the Northern Neck ; and although Gen. Leo may not 
 find it safe to attempt the subsistence of his whole army beyond 
 the Rappahannock, there is no reason why Jackson, with a column 
 of thirty thousand, should not fall on the cowed mass of brute force 
 between the Potomac and the Rappahannock like a swordfish on 
 the sides of the whale ; and if not destroy it in detail, at least create 
 
82 CAMP AND FIELD. 
 
 such annoyance and terror as to render safety under the gnns of 
 Washington an object even more desirable to the Yankee heart 
 than ever was the plunder of Richmond." 
 
 The Northern mind was now perfectly paralyzed, 
 
 and its "hope was as the giving up of the ghost/' 
 
 When it began to recover from the shock, it vented 
 
 its rage and despair in bitter execrations and doleful 
 
 threnodies. The Washington .Republican thought 
 
 Lincoln had better withdraw the army from Virginia 
 
 for the protection of the Capital. The Louisville 
 
 Journal said it was " painful and absolutely sickening 
 
 to think of the horrible slaughter of our troops at 
 
 Fredericksburg," and declared that the war could 
 
 not be carried on much longer as it had been. The 
 
 New York World regarded this defeat as "the most 
 
 disastrous of the war," and added, — 
 
 " If, in the present posture of affairs, the President issues his 
 threatened emancipation proclamation on the 1st of January, he 
 will bo simply an object of derision. To proclaim the slaves free 
 immediately after the rebels have met him at the threshold of their 
 territory and driven him ignominiously out, would be a piece of 
 ridiculous bravado that would make him the laughing stock of the 
 world. If he happens to be in a proclaiming mood on the first of 
 January, let him proclaim freedom to the Northern citizens in the 
 South, who were overtaken there by the rebellion, and have not 
 been able to get away. Let him proclaim freedom to the Union 
 men of East Tennessee, who have so long listeued in vain for the 
 chariot wheels of deliverance. Everybody sees how futile and 
 ridiculous it would be for Mr. Lincoln to publish a proclamation 
 declaring these classes free. But has he any more power to free 
 the negroes than to free them? Have not they at least as strong a 
 claim on the government as the slaves.'' If Mr. Lincoln has as 
 ready perception of the ridiculous as such an inveterate maker of 
 jokes ought to have, he will postpone his "bull against the comet." 
 It has become, however, a matter of no sort of consequence, either 
 to the rebels or to anybody else, whether the proclamation be issued 
 or not." 
 
FREDERICKSBURG. 83 
 
 The New York Herald set its music to the same 
 melancholy key. It said this appalling disaster had 
 dissipated the confident expectations of a short, 
 sharp and decisive winter campaign, and forced the 
 friends of the Union to relinquish all hope of crash- 
 ing the rebellion before the election of 1864. It is 
 ludicrous, indeed, to hear the old Scotch blasphemer 
 praying as lustily as a shipwrecked mariner, and in 
 the next breath cursing the officers who have run 
 the ship upon the rocks: — 
 
 "Heaven help us I There seems to be no help in man. The 
 cause is perishing. Hope after hope has vanished, till now the 
 only prospect is the very blackness of despair. 
 
 "But how can we adjure Heaven for help? "Was it not said by 
 the wisest of Pagans that 'there is a stupidity which baffles even 
 the gods ?' aud is it not a proverb among Christians, too, that ' God 
 helps those only who help themselves?' What ri^ht have we to 
 expect that even Infinite Mercy will stay the laws of the universe 
 that we and ours will be snatched from the track to death? Is it 
 not impious presumption to imagine that the Eternal Reason, which 
 has ordained cause and effect, will abdicate to suit the foil}' that 
 now governs us? 
 
 "And j'et it is a terrible spectacle. A ship, the grandest that 
 ever sailed the tide of time, freighted with interests for the race 
 passing all calculation and beyond all price, the marvel aud the 
 glory of the whole world — we saj' it is a terrible spectacle to see 
 this peerless argosy in the hands of chattering idiots, and blind, 
 blundering imbeciles, driving straight on upon the breakers and 
 quicksands, while the crow, the stoutest and the most faithful that 
 over trod deck, are compelled to look passive^ on, and, in sheer 
 helplessness, await the all-engulphin^ fate. 
 
 "Don't call this extravagant language. It is not extravagant. 
 It but feebly expresses the dreadful reality. Here we are, reeling 
 back from the third campaign upon Richmond; fifteen thousand of 
 the grand army sacrificed at one swoop, and the rest escaping only 
 by a hair's breadth ; and all fur what? For the same old accursed 
 trio of imbeciles at Washington ; Lincoln, Halleck, and Staunton. 
 
84 CAMP AND FIELD. 
 
 " Those rebel heights, so murderous, might have been carried 
 without a blow, had the pontoon bridges been delivered at the time 
 promised by the imbeciles at Washington. In the face of the stu- 
 pendous work which the enemy was able to accomplish by reason 
 of that failure, Bufnside would have never made the attack, as he 
 did, had he not, in spite of his most pressing protests, been peremp- 
 torily ordered to cross that river and storm those heights, then and 
 there, by the men at Washington. That is the true record. Not 
 all the cunning nor all the impudence of White IIouso flunkeys can 
 change that record one iota. Like the fatal blunders that preceded 
 it, it has gone unalterably into history. 
 
 "Alas, for our country! Given over, it would seem, to the 
 most ignoble fate that ever befel a country wrecked by imbeciles! 
 Time was, we have read, when an incompetent ruler was not per- 
 mitted among men. If he could not or would not gird himself up 
 to the task required of him, he had to give way. and often very 
 swiftly too, to the man whom God made to command. This cannot 
 be now. The people have named the one to hold the helm of State 
 for four years, come sunshine or come storm. We must abide him 
 as he is, and find in his drollery what solace we can. And yet it is 
 a pity that he cannot be induced to call in proper helpers." 
 
 There was now a tremendous jar in the enginery 
 of the steamship of state. Captain Lincoln was re- 
 quested to remove it all, and put in new, if he eould 
 not devise some way to make it work more smoothly 
 and effectually. Seward and Chase anticipated the 
 action, and offered to retire. The President told 
 them he could not manage the craft without them, 
 and swore that he would not be dictated to by the 
 crew. So Seward and Chase consented to remain on 
 board; and the ponderous machine, which came 
 near stopping with a disastrous shock, went grinding 
 on, red with the blood of innumerable hearts. 
 
 The imbroglio is only quieted for a season. It is 
 a forced compromise, not a cordial reconciliation. 
 The smothered fires will burst forth anew. It is the 
 
FREDERICKSBURG. g5 
 
 old everlasting struggle for place and spoil. One of 
 our popular journalists very justly remarks: 
 
 "Offices cannot he given to all. Contract will not make a mil- 
 lionaire of every Yankee. The sands of the shore and the water 
 in the sea have both limits to their numbers and to their quantity • 
 the offices in the gift of Lincoln, numerous as they are, have been 
 finally counted ; and the pockets of the nation, deep though they 
 be, have been sounded by the lingers of peculators till their bottom 
 is reached. Without the door of the treasury stand the hungry 
 millions to whom no morsel of the feast has been thrown. The 
 long growl rises to a roar, and the solid gates shake under their 
 hands. The war upon the South has drained the hearts of many 
 and fattened the purse for none of these. The quarrels of those 
 Senators, Cabinet officers and Generals are but the whirling chips 
 and scattering foam that show the agitation of the waters beneath. 
 It will be found impossible to reconcile their disputes, for they are 
 inspired by the divisions of a nation. The people of the United 
 States have ceased to bo a uuit ; even for the plunder and murder of 
 the South. Here we have a solid ground for satisfaction. The 
 real union of a nation for any purpose, good or bad, constitutes a 
 tremendous agency. The union for resistance in the Southern 
 Confederacy exists in its greatest integrity. The combination for 
 attack in the North is disordered and discordant. That division 
 does not immediately end the war, nor even diminish our danger; 
 but it is an element, the growth of which will render our safety 
 and success purely an affair of time." 
 
 
VIII. 
 MURFREESBORO 
 
 (JANUARY, 1863.) 
 
 " If WO 
 
 Cannot defend our own door from the Jog,, 
 
 Let us bo worried, and our nation lose 
 
 The name of hardiness and policy." 
 
 Shakspjbare. 
 
 For several successive days the thunder of artil- 
 lery had heralded the approaching storm of battle. 
 Our troops had fallen back from Triune and Eagle- 
 ville, drawing the enemy after them. The army of 
 Tennessee was now concentrated at Murfreesboro. 
 A line of battle was formed in front of the town, 
 crossing Stone's river, the railway, and the Nashville 
 turnpike; and extending from the Lebanon turnpike 
 on the right to the Franklin road on the left, a 
 distance of five or six miles. Here our brave boys, 
 with their gallant officers, calmly awaited the invader 
 of their homes, the despoiler of their possessions, 
 the oppressor of their families and friends. Never 
 were troops more determined, seldom more hopeful 
 of success. 
 
 " Thrice is he armed, that hath his quarrel just." 
 
 Tuesday, the thirtieth of December, there w r as 
 warm skirmishing in the morning, and a grand 
 
MURFREESBORO. 87 
 
 artillery duel in the afternoon. Toward sunset, the 
 scene became, one of real sublimity. The enemy, 
 having felt carefully our entire line, now concen- 
 trated a large force,- well supported by batteries, 
 against Withers and Cheatham in the center. Here 
 the demons of war raged with their utmost fury. 
 Here the heroic Robertson and the intrepid Stanford, 
 with their artillery, won for themselves unfading 
 laurels. Here our valorous Mississippians, Ala- 
 bamians, and Tennesseeans, received the shock of 
 four times their number, and strewed the field with 
 the slaughtered hirelings of the Northern despot. 
 And here, when night closed over the scene, they 
 lay down in the mud, without blankets or fires, 
 under a bitter north wind, and awaited the return of 
 the daylight and the renewal of the strife. 
 
 Cold, and clear, and calm, dawned the memorable 
 thirty-first — a glorious morning to meet the foe. The 
 embattled host presented a splendid sight — Brecken- 
 ridge with his Kentuckians on the right, McCown 
 and Clcburn on the left, Withers and Cheatham in 
 the center — more than thirty thousand patriots, 
 forming a living wall between the ruthless invader 
 and their own precious liberty. * 
 
 " To hero boon for battle stri f c, 
 
 Or bard of martial lay, 
 'Twere worth ten years of peaceful life, 
 
 One glance at their array." 
 
 Before them stood the serried ranks of the enemy, 
 seventy thousand strong, with a reserve of thirty or 
 forty thousand in their rear, and a hundred and fifty 
 pieces of artillery. 
 
88 CM.MP AND FIELD. 
 
 The sun had not yet risen when a general advance 
 of our left wing was ordered. McCown's division 
 moved forward with the impetuosity of the tempest, 
 sweeping before them like thistle-down a foree six 
 times their number. Cleburn's followed, with shouts 
 whieh rent the welkin, and struck terror into the 
 hearts of the Yankee host. Then moved Withers 
 and Cheatham, with eqnal or superior enthusiasm, 
 mowing down the flying foe 
 
 " As the reaper mows the grain." 
 
 Ever and anon the fugitives rallied, formed anew, 
 and met the fury of the Confederate charge ; but 
 again and again they wavered, broke their ranks, 
 and fled like frightened sheep. Battery after battery 
 was taken, and soon the field was blue with Yankee 
 breeches. 
 
 At this stage of the battle fell the gallant Bains. 
 His brigade seemed to be engaged with a whole 
 division. A murderous fire, from front and flank, 
 threatened their annihilation. lie galloped to the 
 van, and perished with the word "Forward!" upon 
 his lips. A minie ball had pierced his heart. 
 
 By ten o'clock our left had driven the enemy's 
 right back nearly three miles. At this hour the 
 writer arrived upon the field, having ridden fifteen 
 miles that morning, hearing the terrific sound of 
 battle all the way like the roar of a distant storm. 
 I found our division, witli its center near the ruins 
 of Cowan's house, its right on Stone's river, and its 
 left on the Wilkerson turnpike. General Cheatham 
 was riding to and fro like a monarch on some grand 
 
MUR.FREESBORO. § 89 
 
 gain day, seeming somewhat more at home than 
 usual. General Donelson displayed a cool courage 
 which was truly sublime, 
 
 " And by his rare example made the crowd 
 Turn terror into sport." 
 
 This was the fiercest scene upon the field. Rose- 
 erans, with his right driven back upon his center, 
 had made a desperate stand. His forces, with the 
 greater part of his artillery, were now massed upon 
 a slight elevation. It was a formidable position, a 
 ledge of limestone famishing a natural breastwork 
 for the men. Chalmers had been ordered to charge 
 this stronghold ; had moved forward gallantly to the 
 task ; but had been severely wounded, and forced to 
 fall back under the concentrated fire of the foe. 
 Donelson, with his brigade, now rushed to his support 
 like an ocean wave upon a rocky shore. Colonel 
 Savage, on the right, was raging to and fro, across 
 the railroad and the Nashville turnpike, stretching 
 his regiment out from the river to Cowan's house, 
 and thus holding a large space of ground under a 
 tremendous hail of shot and shell ; while Carnes's 
 battery, in his rear, was sending death and hell over 
 the heads of his men, into the solid ranks of the foe. 
 The brave Colonel Moore, at the head of the invin- 
 cible Eighth, was "jeoparding his life unto the death 
 in the high places of the held." 
 
 ,l He bore him in tlie thickest troop, 
 As doth a lion in a herd of neat, 
 Or as a bear encompassed round with dogs." 
 
 It was his last charge,, and three hundred of his 
 H* 
 
90 CAMP AND FIKL1X 
 
 command fell with their heroic leader. ChesJ 
 Carter also, with their respective regiments, did their 
 doty nobly ; and the First Brigade of the First 
 Division that day covered themselves with glory. 
 The battle increased in furv till one o'clock, when it 
 abated for a season, from the sheer exhaustion of the 
 troops. General Donelson's horse had been shot under 
 him, and seven hundred of his men had been killed 
 and wounded ; but he had captured eleven cannon, 
 taken more than a thousand prisoners, and strewed 
 the field afar with the ghastly wrecks of Northern 
 fanaticism and hate. 
 
 A Yankee writer from the battle-field, to one of 
 the Cincinnati papers, gives the following graphic 
 account of this act of the drama : 
 
 "The enemy succeeded • in getting the, right flank completely 
 hemmed in. A large number of officers of every grade were shot 
 down while standing almost at the muzzle of the rebel muskets. 
 The brigades and regiments rushed upon one another in disgraceful 
 disorder, and the rout of the division became irretrievable. 
 
 "I suppose T shall raise a storm about my head for saying so. 
 but I can't, from all that 1 have heard, come to any other con- 
 clusion, than that the right wing of tho army was completely sur- 
 prised, and that, too, under circumstances which should have ren- 
 dered it particularly careful and vigilant. t 
 
 " Whether General McCook or General Johnston is to blame, tlwB 
 impartial investigation will hereafter determine. .At present the 
 sentiment of the entire army is extremely hostile to both, and 1 
 imagine it will not be many days before there are important 
 changes in the leadership- of the fourteenth army corps. 
 
 " Brigade after brigade, battery after battery, from Palmer's, 
 Negley's, and Rousseau's divisions,' were sent into the midst of the 
 thickets to check the progress of the foe and rally the fugitives, 
 but all in turn were either crushed by the flying crowds, broken by 
 .the impetuosity of the foe, and put to confused flight, or compelled 
 to retire and extricate themselves in the Lest manner that seemtd 
 ■lo offer. 
 
• 
 MURFREESBORO. 91 
 
 "The history of the combat in these dark cedar thickets will 
 never bo known. No man could see even the whole of his regi- 
 ment, and no one will ever bo able to tell who they were that 
 fought bravest, and they who proved recreant to their trust. 
 
 " I know there was some cowardice displayed ; but I know, too, 
 that there was shown by many officers and regiments as lofty a 
 heroism as that which distinguished and immortalized tho followers 
 of Godfrey or the Cid ; but, in spite of heroism and devotion, in 
 wpite of desperate struggles which marked every fresh advance of 
 tho foe, in spite of awful sacrifice of life on the part of the officers 
 and soldiers of the Union army, the rebels still steadily pushed 
 forward and came nearer to the turnpike. 
 
 '* Nearly two miles and a half the right wing of our army had 
 been driven, and faintness of heart came over me as the destruction 
 of our whole army seemed to stare us in the face. 
 
 " The right of Davis's division, assailed at the same time as 
 Johnston's, gave way simultaneously, and the rout of the remainder 
 seemed to follow as a matter of courso. This left to Gen. Sheridan 
 the task of repelling the hitherto successful onset of the foe. Never 
 did man labor more faithfully than ho to perform his task, and 
 never was a leader seconded by more gallant soldiers. 
 
 11 His division formod a kind of pivot upon which tho broken 
 right wing turned in its flight, and its perilous condition can be 
 easily imagined when the flight of Davis's division left it without 
 any protection from the triumphant enemy, who now swarmed 
 upon its front and right flank ; but it fought until a fourth of its 
 number lay bleeding and dying upon the field, and till both remain- 
 ing brigade com ma riders, Colonels Robert and Schaefler, had met 
 with the same fate of Gen. Sill. Then it gave way, and, as in 
 almost every instance of the kind, retreat was changed to rout, only 
 less complete than that of the troops of Johnson and Davia 
 
 "<■ 11 these divisions were now hurled back together into the im- 
 mense cedar thickets which skirt the turnpike, and were hurried 
 over toward the right, and massed rank behind rank in an array of 
 imposing grandeur along tho turnpike and facing to the woods 
 through which the rebels were advancing. The scene at this time 
 was grand and awful as anything I ever expect to witness until the 
 day of judgment. 
 
 " I blood in tho mitlst »ud upon the highest point of the somewhat 
 
92 CAMP AND FIE F.I). 
 
 elevated space, being between the turnpike and the railroad, and 
 forming the key to our entire position. Let the rebels once obtain 
 possession of it, and the immense trains of wagons parked along 
 the turnpike, and the Union army was irretrievably ruined. Even 
 its line of retreat would be cut offhand nothing could save it from 
 utter rout, slaughter and capture — and yet each minute it became 
 more and more painfully evident that all the reinforcements which 
 had been hurried into the woods to sustain and rally the broken 
 wing and check the progress of the enemy in that direction, had 
 proved inadequate to the task, and had in turn been overthrown by 
 the great mass which was straggling in inextricable disorder through 
 the woods. 
 
 ''Such sounds as proceeded from that gloomy fbrest of pines and 
 cedars were enough to appal with terror the stoutest hearts. The 
 roar of cannon, the crashing of sl»ot through the trees, the whizzing 
 and bursting of the shells, the uninterrupted rattle of thirty thous- 
 and musketS — all mingled in one prolonged and tremendous volume 
 of sound, as though all the thunders of heaven had been rolled 
 together, and each individual burst of celestial artillery had beet, 
 rendered perpetual. Above it all could be heard the wild cheer of 
 the traitorous host, as body after body of our troops gave way, and 
 were pushed toward the turnpike. 
 
 "Nearer and nearer came the stqrm, louder and louder resounded 
 the tumult of battle. The immense train of wagons parked along 
 the road suddenly seemod instinct with struggling life, and every 
 species of army vehicle, preceded by frightened mules and horses, 
 rolled and rattled away pell-mell in an opposite direction, pressing 
 onward. The shouts and cries of the terrified teamsters, urgiug 
 their teams to the top of their speed, were now mingled with the 
 billows of sound which swayed and surged over the field. 
 
 " Everything now depended upon the regiments and batteries 
 which the genius qf Rosecrans had massed along the turnpike to 
 receive the enemy when he should emerge from the woods in pur- 
 suit of our broken and flying battalions. Suddenly the rout be- 
 camo visible, and a crowd o r ten thousand fugitives, presenting 
 overy possible phase of wild and uncontrollable disorder, burst 
 from the cedar thickets, and rushed into the open spaco between 
 them and the turnpike. Among them all, perhaps no half dozen 
 members of the same regiment could have been found together. 
 
MURFREESBORO. 93 
 
 " Thick and fast the bulleta of the enemy fell among them, and 
 scores were shot down ; but still the number constantly increased 
 by reason of the fresh crowd which burst every moment from the 
 thickets. It was with the greatest difficulty that some of the regi- 
 ments which had been massed together, as a sort of forlorn hope, 
 to withstand, and if possible, drive back the victorious cohorts of 
 treason, could prevent their ranks from being crushed or broken by 
 the mass of fugitives. 
 
 "From my position upon the elevated ground between the rail- 
 road and turnpike, I could view the whole scene^ and with an in- 
 tensity of interest and tumultuous emotion which I can find no lan- 
 guage to express. The flower of our troops were ranged in order 
 here, and I had no fears for the result, unless one of those unac- 
 countable panics, which sometimes reign, even in an army of vete- 
 rans, should seize upon our yet unbroken battalions. Yet there 
 were men not liable to panic, men whose lofty courage and devotion 
 to their country's cause overcame and extinguished fear. 
 
 "With cool, calm courage, General Crittenden awaited the coming 
 storm, and conspicuous among the rest was the well-built form of 
 the commanding General, his countenanco unmoved by the tumolt 
 around him, and his thoughtful and animated features expressing a 
 high and patriotic hope, which acted like an inspiration upon every 
 one that beheld him as he cast his eyes over the grand array which 
 he had mustered to repel the foe. He already felt himself master of 
 the situation. 
 
 " At last the long lines of the enemy emerged from the woods, 
 rank behind rank, arfd with a demoniac yell,. intended to strike 
 terror into the 'Yankees' who stood before them, charged with 
 fearful energy almost to the very muzzles of the cannon, whose 
 dark mouths yawned upon them. A dazzling sheel of flame burst 
 from the ranks of the Union forces, an awful roar shook the earth, 
 a crash rent the air, the foremost lines of tho rebel host were lite- 
 rally swept from the field, aud seemed to melt away like snow 
 flakes before the flame, and then both armies were enveloped in 
 a cloud of smoko which hid everything from the eye. 
 
 "In the still visible ground between the pike and the railroad tho 
 tumult redoubled. Not knowing what would be the result of the 
 strife which was raging under tho great canopy of smoke that con- 
 coaled the combatants, the flight of those in charge of wagons and 
 
94 CAMP AND FIELD. 
 
 ambulances became still more rapid and disordered. Thousand 
 fugitives from the right wing mingled with the teams, and fee. 
 quently a mass of men, horses, and wagons, would be crashed and 
 ground together. Every conceivable form of deadly missile whizzed 
 and whirled and burst amid the crowd, and terror and dismay ruled 
 uncontrollably.'' 
 
 Having witnessed these splendid exploits, I retired 
 to the rear, crossed the river, and rode up to Cobb's 
 battery on the right, where 1 had a bettor view of 
 the Yankee stronghold. Here I remained half an 
 hour, observing the magnificent action of our artil- 
 lery, till the deadly missiles came too fierce and 
 frequent for my -perfect peace of mind. So I rode 
 down to a thicket on the river bank, where I thought 
 my precious life would be safer, though somewhat 
 nearer the enemy. Scarcely had I alighted from my 
 saddle, when a terrific shower of shot and shell, of 
 aft sorts and sizes, fell among the trees, and rattled 
 against the -rocks. Several of these sweet singers 
 passed inconveniently near me. A bomb exploded 
 within a few feet of my barb. A cannon ball struck 
 in the brink of the river, and bespattered my pulpit 
 suit with muddy water. A friend at my elbow now 
 suggested that* a change of climate might be favor- 
 able to health. I was not long in debating the 
 question ; and the way Fanny carried me out of 
 that thicket was one of the most interesting spec- 
 tacles of this eventful day. 
 
 In a few moments I found myself near my old 
 position on the opposite side of the stream. General 
 Bragg was there, pacing up and down with his hands 
 behind him, apparently insensible of peril. General 
 Polk was sitting upon his horse hard by, as calm in 
 
MURFREESBORO. 95 
 
 aspect as a summer evening. Their respective staffs 
 and escorts were clustered about them ; and every 
 instant some courier was arriving with tidings, and 
 another was galloping away over the smoky field. 
 Surely, there could be little danger here. I dis- 
 mounted, and held my barb by the bridle. Whew — 
 whish — : whiz— whir — whang — whack! One would 
 think all the Yankee guns were suddenly turned 
 upon this particular spot ! A shell falls close by 
 three men who are sitting upon the ground, and it is 
 beautiful to see them change their base. One of 
 them commences skedaddling on all fours, and runs 
 some fifty yards before he fairly attains an erect atti- 
 tude ; while another, looking one way and retreating 
 the opposite, plunges headlong into a sink-hole', and 
 lies there quietly — whether because he is killed, or 
 because he thinks he has gained a better position, 
 perhaps I had as well not tarry to inquire. Fanny, 
 the General has gone; is it not time the Chaplain 
 were going? 
 
 It is past three o'clock. Breckenridge has hitherto 
 been held in reserve on the right. He now crosses 
 the river, and assails the rocky fastness of the foe. 
 Adams and Jackson's brigades rush on like a cata- 
 ract. The first charge is 'unsuccessful. The second 
 also is repulsed. While they are preparing for the 
 third, night closes in upon victor and vanquished, 
 the living'and the dead. I fail into the great current 
 of humanity that is sweeping townward, and find a 
 hospitable welcome at the residence of Mr. Drom- 
 goole. 
 
 With the dawn of the new year comes the sullen 
 
9() CAMP AND FIELD. 
 
 boom of cannon. The house trembles, and the 
 windows rattle. Captain Carries and Captain Byrnes 
 are shelling the enemy out of the ditches which he 
 has dug during the night. 
 
 Soon after sunrise I ride out to the lines. General 
 Donelson is parching some corn on a bit of tin for 
 his breakfast. lie has had nothing to eat since yes- 
 terday morning. Some of his men, I dare say, have 
 fasted as long as he. So had those dead Yankees, 
 who ■ lie by scores around him. Many of them 
 expired with crackers in their hands — even between 
 their teeth. The ground is strewed everywhere 
 with arms, canteens, knapsacks, haversacks, cartouch- 
 boxes, the wrecks of gun-carriages and caisons, and 
 slain horses mingling with murdered men. Little 
 knots of soldiers are burying their butchered com- 
 rades; and solitary individuals, here and there, are 
 strolling about in quest of spoil. One is pulling a 
 pair of boots from the feet of a foeman he has no 
 longer any reason to fear; another is divesting a 
 defunct Lieutenant of a pair of blue pants which are 
 rather more tidy than his own ; a third has possessed 
 himself of a gold watch which its former proprietor 
 is not likely to need again ; a fourth is quietly 
 investigating the contents of a pocket- book that he 
 has appropriated ; and a fifth I fear will kill himself 
 with laughter over a Yankee love-letter he is reading. 
 
 There is no fighting now. The two. armies lie 
 opposite each other, like two wild beasts exhausted 
 with the rage of battle, eyeing each other ferociously, 
 and ready to spring again upon each other's throat. 
 I seize the opportunity of the uncertain respite for 
 
MURFREESBORO. 97 
 
 surveying, as far as practicable, the scene of yes- 
 terday's slaughter. 
 
 Ah! how many expired with the year! Here 
 they lie, friend and foe, in every possible position, a 
 vast promiscuous ruin, 
 
 41 They sleep their last sleep ; they have fought their last battle ; 
 No sound shall awake them to glory again." 
 
 After a pretty thorough inspection of the ground 
 in the rear of our lines, from Stone's river to the 
 extreme left, I ride to the front, where the dead lie 
 thick among the cedars, in the proportion of five 
 Yankees to one Southron. Here are sights to sicken 
 the bravest heart, sad lessons for human passion and 
 oppression. Here is a foot, shot off at the ankle, a 
 fine model for a sculptor. Here is an officer's hand, 
 severed from the wrist, with the glove still upon it, 
 and the sword in its grasp. Here is an entire brain, 
 perfectly isolated, showing no sign of violence, as if 
 carefully taken from the skull that enclosed it by 
 the hands of a skillful surgeon. Here is a corpse, 
 sitting upon the ground, with its back against a tree, 
 in the most natural position of life, holding before 
 its face the photograph likeness of a good-looking old 
 lady, probably the dead man's mother. 4 Here is a 
 poor fellow, who has crawled into the corner of the 
 fence to read his sister's letter, and expired in the 
 act of its perusal, the precious document still open 
 before him full of affectionate counsel. Here is a 
 handsome young man, with a most placid coun- 
 tenance, lying upon his back, his Bible upon his 
 bosom, and his hands folded over it, as if he had 
 
98 CAMP AND FIELD. 
 
 gone to sleep saying his evening prayer. ] Many 
 others present the melancholy contrast of scattered 
 cards, obscene pictures, and filthy ballad-books — 
 "miserable comforters'.' for a dying hour, but an 
 instructive commentary upon the Yankee cause. One 
 lies upon his' face, literally biting the ground, his 
 rigid fingers fastened firmly into the gory sod ; and 
 another, with upturned face, open eyes, knit brow, 
 compressed lips, and clenched fists, displays all the 
 desperation of Yankee' vengeance imprinted upon 
 his clay. Dissevered heads, arms, legs, are scattered 
 everywhere ; and the coagulated pools of blood 
 gleam ghastly in the morning sun. It is a fearful 
 sight for Christian eyes ! 
 
 Now and then, as I ride over the field, the calm 
 atmosphere quivers to the crash of a solitary cannon ; 
 and here and there, after a long interval of silence, 
 may be heard a volley of musketry. But there has 
 been no battle to-day, only slight skirmishing occa- 
 sionally, at a few points along the line, with a com- 
 plimentary shot ever and anon from some well-posted 
 sharpshooter. 
 
 It is three o'clock. There is now another vigorous 
 assault on the enemy's impregnable hill of cedars. 
 For fifteen* or twenty minutes, it seems as if all the 
 artillery of both armies were in action. But it 
 ceases, and all goes silent for the day. The gallant 
 charge has been again repulsed. 
 
 In the dusky twilight I am returning to town. 
 There is a clatter of hoofs behind me. It is Generals 
 Bragg and Polk, with their respective staffs and 
 escorts/ The former hails me courteously, wishing 
 
MUItFREESBOHO. 99 
 
 me a happy new year, and adds: "We think we can 
 now say, with some degree of confidence, that the 
 enemy is in full retreat." " Yes, " responds the 
 latter, "he has taken Murfreesboro, and is returning 
 to Nashville." "Not much of Murfreesboro, Gen- 
 eral," I answer* " Rather more than he wanted," is 
 the laconic rejoinder. 
 
 Ever since the commencement of the battle, 
 "Wheeler and Wharton, with their intrepid cavaliers, 
 have been in Iiosecrans's rear, picking up his strag- 
 glers, cutting off his supplies, setting fire to his wagon 
 trains, destroying large quantities of ammunition, 
 and sending spoils and prisoners to Murfreesboro, 
 with encouraging messages to General Bragg. 
 
 Friday, the second, I find all the churches in town, 
 the three college buildings, and several other large 
 edifices, full of wounded and dying men, and many 
 ladies tender!}' ministering to their relief. Besides 
 these, however, numbers have been taken into pri- 
 vate residences, and multitudes are being conveyed 
 away on the railroad. At the house of a citizen I 
 meet with two members of my old regiment, very 
 seriously injured — one of them, I fear, mortally. 
 Poor boys ! how glad they seem to see me ! and how 
 my heart bleeds for the suffering I cannot assuage ( 
 
 At the court-house, shrouded for the sepulcher, 
 lie the remains of Major General Sill, killed in 
 Wednesday's engagement. The Yankee officers 
 there in custody tell me they have lost several 
 Brigadier Generals. Among the prisoners are three 
 Chaplains; one of them an old acquaintance, the 
 He v. W. C. At more, of the Kentucky Conference. 
 
100 CAMP AND FIELD. 
 
 He appears pleased to see mc, but seems very much 
 ashamed of his position, and makes an exceedingly 
 awkward apology for being in the Federal army. 
 
 At the Rev. Mrl Critchlow's I have the honor of 
 supping with a eaptive Colonel ; a large, handsome, 
 intelligent young man. He objects* strongly to my 
 calling him a Yankee ; he is " no part of a Yank 
 Nor must I speak of him as an Abolitionist ; i; there 
 is not an Abolition hair in his head." He scorns 
 the character of the one, and hates the principles of 
 the other. I try to show him that, though theoreti- 
 cally he is neither, practically he is both. " O, no, 
 indeed;" he does "not approve of the Lincoln 
 policy;" and the emancipation proclamation is "an 
 outrage upon humanity." I reply, that he is the 
 most inconsistent of men, to fight for that which he 
 cannot justify, and will not undertake to excuse. 
 "But I am in the army," says he, " what can I do?" 
 "Be honest," I answer, "and resign your commis- 
 sion." The painful fact comes out at last, that this 
 man is a native Kentuckian. 
 
 To-day there is no fighting till half-past three 
 o r clock, when the last effort is made to dislodge 
 Rosecrans from his natural limestone fortress. The 
 work is undertaken by Brecken ridge's division, con- 
 sisting of three brigades, assisted by Pegram's and 
 Wharton's cavalry, and supported by a number of 
 batteries. I have *a secure position, from which I 
 enjoy an unobstructed view of the two armies and 
 their fierce collision, though overhead and all around 
 bomb-shell and minie ball make fearful music. At 
 the word of command, Kentuckians and Texans 
 
MURFREESBORO. 101 
 
 spring forward like a herd of hungry tigers upon 
 their prey. 
 
 " At once there rose so wild a yell, 
 As all the fiends from Heaven that fell 
 TTad pealed the banner-cry of hell." 
 
 The roar of the musketry is like the din of a cata- 
 ract ; and the cannonading, crash after crash, too 
 rapid to be counted, could scarcely be outdone by 
 half a score of contending thunder-storms. To one 
 who has never witnessed such a scene, it were 
 impossible to give any adequate idea of its terrific 
 sublimity. 
 
 In thirty 'minutes the enemy is driven back full 
 half a mile, and both armies arc lost in a dense cloud 
 of smoke, Still the earth trembles and the forest 
 echoes with the fearful music. It continues, with 
 unabated grandeur for nearly an hour. Then our 
 troops begin to emerge from " their sulphurous 
 canop}'." The concentrated legions of Rosecrans, 
 supported by a hundred pieces of artillery, are too 
 many for a mere handful of men, though every one 
 of them were fired with Spartan valor. The brave 
 fellows are coming over the hill very slowly, in per- 
 fect order, loading and firing as fast as possible ; but 
 it is sad to see them retreating, and to know that so= 
 many of them have fallen in the fruitless struggle. 
 
 " Where, where was Roderick then ? 
 One blast upon his bugle horn 
 Wire worth a thousand men !" 
 
 Alas! he is mortally wounded — the heroic Hanson^ 
 and they have born him away to the rear. 
 I* 
 
102 CAMP AND FIELD. 
 
 As the sun goes down and the shades of evening 
 deepen over the field, the flash of every gun becomes 
 fearfully distinct; and the shells, bursting above the 
 combatants, fall in brilliant showers among them. 
 The contest lasts an hour and a half, when night in- 
 terposes with its arbitrary interdiction, and our ex- 
 hausted troops retire. It has been, perhaps, the 
 fiercest onset of the whole battle, and will furnish 
 the bloodiest page of the four days' history. A 
 Yankee correspondent of the Cincinnati Gazette, 
 writing from the field, says: "If utter madness can 
 be called bravery, then were these rebels brave 1" 
 
 Eeturning to town by moonlight, I find the road 
 thronged, well nigh blockaded, by the wounded — 
 on foot, on horseback, on litters, in wagons, in 
 ambulances. An Irishman, with a shattered limb, 
 seems to think no one has been injured but himself. 
 "Go back, ye spalpeens £" he cries, "go back an T 
 light the buggars! What are ye laving for? Go 
 back an' kill the last divil of 'em ! I'll go mesel' if 
 ye'll give me a jigger o' wheskey I" 
 
 Saturday, the third, it rains incessantly. "The 
 dogs of war" have ceased to bay. No sound comes 
 from the scene of the recent carnage. I remain in 
 town, among the wounded, the dying, and the dead. 
 At nightfall there arc unmistakable indications of 
 retreat. Long trains of wagons are moving in the 
 wrong direction. I repair to the square, but can find 
 no one able to give me an} 7 satisfactory information. 
 My only expedient is to watch " the signs of the 
 times." At nine o'clock 1 see artillery passing. At 
 eleven Hardee's 'corps is moving toward the Man- 
 
MURFREESBORO. 103 
 
 chcstcr turnpike. An officer now informs me that 
 Polk's command have commenced their march for 
 Shelby ville. ■ Enough. I return 'to my lodgings, 
 throw myself upon a couch, and make an agonizing 
 effort to sleep. It is unsuccessful. The house is all 
 astir. Surgeons are coming and going. Wounded 
 men are preparing for departure. A son and brother,, 
 with a shattered hand, must quit all and flee There 
 is sighing, and groaning, and weeping, and wailing 
 throughout the house. Were there no religion in it, 
 there would be cursing too. Thank God ! there is 
 some religion, and the prayer gets the start of the 
 execration. 
 
 Half-past one. The omnibus calls for the disabled. 
 Kind hands have filled my haversack with bread and 
 bacon. My barb neighs at the gate. Farewell, 
 sweet friends ! Heaven defend you against a ruthless 
 foe! I mount, and away, through "the pelting of 
 the pitiless storm." By seven the next morning, 
 Fanny has waded through twenty miles of mortar; 
 and my good brother Marks welcomes her rider to a 
 bright fire, a warm breakfast, and a comfortable bed. 
 
 This retreat has been severely censured. Let it 
 be borne in mind, that we were outnumbered, two 
 to one, by the enemy ; that a reconnoisance in his 
 rear proved him, as was suspected, to have received 
 large reinforcements from Kentucky ; that four days' 
 fighting, and six days' exposure to wet and cold, had 
 quite exhausted the energies of our troops; and that 
 the Yankee raid into East Tennessee, cutting off our 
 railroad communication with Kichmond, created 
 some rational apprehension of trouble from that 
 
104 CAMP AND FIELD. 
 
 quarter ; reasons sufficient, perhaps, to justify General 
 Bragg's movement as a wise and prudent measure. 
 
 "To judge by- the event," says Colton, "is an 
 error ail abuse, and all commit. For, in every in- 
 stance, courage, if crowned with success, is heroism ; 
 if clouded by defeat, temerity. When Nelson fought 
 his battle in the Sound, it was the result alone that 
 decided whether he was to kiss a hand at a Court, or 
 a rod at a Court Martial." 
 
 The battle of Murfreesboro must certainly be con- 
 sidered one of the greatest of the war, if we regard 
 the disparity of numbers, the sharpness of the con- 
 test, the time of its continuance, and the amount of 
 its material results. With an army of less than 
 forty thousand, not all of whom were in the field, 
 we hurled back a Federal force seventy thousand 
 strong, with a reserve estimated at from thirty to 
 forty thousand; killed, at least, five thousand: 
 wounded fifteen thousand ; captured four thousand 
 stand of small arms, and thirty-three -pieces of ar- 
 tillery ; destroyed an immense quantity of commis- 
 sary stores, medicines, and baggage; brought safely 
 away with us all our spoils and prisoners, except 
 those taken by our cavalry in the enemy's rear; and 
 all this with a loss of scarcely eight thousand men — 
 killed, wounded and missing. 
 
 If this is what you call a defeat, the God of battles 
 soon grant us another 1 
 
IX. 
 OUR WESTERN CAVALIERS. 
 
 (JANUARY, 1863.) 
 
 " But our chief strength was our cavalry, those mounted gladia- 
 tors, whose prowess reached in all directions, whose artful recou- 
 noisances taught us daily concerning the movements of the enemy." 
 
 Sallust. 
 
 As the wars of ancient Rome, renowned as they 
 are in story and in song, will bear no just compar- 
 ison, for magnitude and grandeur, with the current 
 revolution; so the achievements of the Roman Cav- 
 alry, however daring in character and valuable in 
 result, were manifestly far inferior to the services of 
 our mounted men in the present campaign. " They 
 have stormed and taken batteries. They have in- 
 vested and carried fortified camps and towns. They 
 have charged solid columns of infantry, and scattered 
 them like spray." They have successfully assailed 
 the bristling stockade, captured the well-freighted 
 steamer, and sent the iron clad gunboat to the 
 bottom. They have burned down bridges, torn up 
 railroads, demolished trestle and tunnel, piled engine 
 and ear in promiscuous ruin, talked freely with the 
 enemy hundreds of miles away, made him reveal his 
 most important secrets through his own telegraphic 
 apparatus, and done many other things that the 
 " mounted gladiators " of Rome never dreamed of. 
 
106 CAMP AND FIELD. 
 
 I propose to devote this Paper to the brilliant 
 exploits of our western cavaliers. Their prisoners are 
 numbered by thousands. Their trophies amount to 
 millions of dollars. Their achievements. will furnish 
 an interesting chapter in the history of this great 
 revolution. 
 
 Who has not heard of Forrest's magnificent dash 
 upon Murfreesboro last summer, when, "with a com- 
 pact column, he penetrated the enemy's country over 
 a hundred miles in advance of our position, assailed 
 and carried a fortified and garrisoned cit} r , captured 
 nineteen hundred prisoners, and brought away two 
 million dollars' worth of spoils ! " But this splendid 
 feat was completely eclipsed by his recent exploits in 
 the Western District, where he took eight towns, 
 killed a thousand Yankees, paroled "fifteen hundred 
 prisoners, destroyed an immense amount of army 
 supplies, and tore up every railroad north of Jackson, 
 with a loss of only twenty-eight men, and only eight 
 of them killed. 
 
 So far, this was one of the most successful expe- 
 ditions of the war. The sequel, however, was some- 
 what serious, and had like to have been disastrous. 
 
 After these achievements, he set forth to return to 
 Middle Tennessee. -At Parker's Cross Koads he met 
 seven full Federal regiments, who raised the white 
 flaff in token of surrender. The Huntsville Advo- 
 
 •o 
 
 cate thus describes what follows : 
 
 " He approached to receive' their arms, when another heavy col- 
 umn of ten regiments came on his flank and rear and began to fire 
 on his men, and the portion who had raised the white flag treach- 
 erously joined in the firing. The gallant Forrest and his brave men 
 returned the fire vigorously. They had .only ten rounds of amniu- 
 
OUR WESTERN CAVALIERS. 107 
 
 nition, fired six- rounds, aud then fought their way out, with a loss 
 of five hundred, killed, wounded and missing. The killed are esti- 
 mated at about fifty, the wounded at one hundred and fifty to two 
 hundred — the rest are prisoners. The wounded also fell into the 
 hands of the enemy. 
 
 " It is said that in fighting their way out our brave troops massed 
 themselves in solid column and charged the enemy's column that 
 had come upon their rear. The cool and intrepid Forrest remained 
 iu their rear to collect his scattered men and bring them out, and 
 the enemy closed up their column after the most of Forrest's men 
 had passed through, and came vety near catching him. He escaped 
 by riding at full speed along a ravine and leaping his horse over a 
 ten rail fence. One who witnessed his escape said that the last he 
 saw of Forrest he was Hying over the fence, lying flat on his horse, 
 and hundreds of bullets flying after him. One bullet passed through 
 his hat. Strange to say, not one. man was lost in fighting their way 
 out." 
 
 This desperate struggle occurred on the thirty -first 
 of December, while Bragg was chastising Rosecrans 
 before Murfreesboro, and Wheeler and Wharton were 
 achieving such gallant deeds in his rear. The enemy, 
 eight thousand strong, followed our hero to the 
 Tennessee; and he fought them, with his artillery 
 across the river, and forced them to retire. He 
 entered the Western District with thirty-five hundred 
 men, and returned with three thousand, having lost 
 five hundred. 
 
 Morgan's late Kentucky expedition was worthy of 
 his fame. The Winchester Bulletin gives a clear and 
 connected account of his operations: 
 
 "General Morgan left Murfreesboro' on the 21st of December, 
 with four hundred men — passed through Alexandria — crossed the 
 Cumberland at Hardee's Ford, and proceeded to Glasgow, where a 
 small advance sent forward encountered the advance of the 2d 
 Michigan cavalry — when a short but spirited engagement ensued, in 
 which Captain Jones was mortally wounded — Lieut. Patton and 
 
108 CAMP AND FIELD. 
 
 Sergeant Webb, severely. Captain Newton, while in the manly 
 discharge of his duties, was taken prisoner and held three hours; 
 and, after a desperate struggle with his captors, made his escape. 
 Reinforcements arrived, and the Yankee cavalry, panic stricken, fled. 
 
 " The command then took a line of march to Nolin, burnt the 
 bridge at Bacon Creek, tore up several miles of railroad, destroyed 
 the telegraph poles and wires, captured several wagons heavily 
 loaded with government stores, all of which were destroyed. AVe 
 then moved on to Elizabethtown, which place was defended by eight 
 hundred men, who, upon being asked to surrender, replied that the 
 United States troops knew no surrender. General Morgan then 
 gave the women aud children timely notice to leave — ordered Smith's, 
 Palmers, Corbett's and White's batteries to be placed on an emi- 
 nence commanding a line view of the town ; and, after a few well 
 directed shots, the white flag made its appearance, and an uncondi- 
 tional surrender was agreed upon. At this place eight hundred 
 prisoners were taken and paroled; also a large amount of stores, 
 guns, and ammunition, destroyed." 
 
 Part of the prisoners were the Seventy-first Indiana 
 Regiment. They had been captured by Kirby 
 Smith at the battle of Richmond, on the thirtieth of 
 August last ; had been but recently exchanged, and 
 started from Indianapolis only on Christmas Eve. 
 Taken the second time, and almost without a strug- 
 gle, both officers and privates seemed exceedingly 
 mortified. They dreaded the stigma of cowardice, 
 and desired their captors to furnish them some certi- 
 ficate that should place them right On the records at 
 home. The account proceeds: 
 
 "The command then marched up to Muldrough's Hill, where two 
 of the most important trestles on the road were destroyed — one 
 being seven hundred feet in length and a hundred and twenty-five 
 feet high, and the other five hundred feet in length and ninety feet 
 high. These bridges were strongly stockaded, and a stout resist- 
 ance was offered by the enemy ; but shot and shell, well directed, 
 fell iu their midst with such telling effect that they were soon com- 
 
OUR WESTERN CAVALIERS. 10Q 
 
 pelled to stack their arms. At these two points four hundred were 
 taken prisoners, and a fine lot of Enfield rifles, ammunition, stores, 
 &c, were captured. Where we captured arms superior to ours, we 
 hand over our guns and take those captured. 
 
 "The burning of these magnificent structures, whose strength 
 seemed to defy the flames, was a scene of grandeur unsurpassed. 
 As the burning element mounted up the high frame-work, lighting 
 up a beautiful star-light sky, for miles the line of road seemed in 
 one lurid blaze ; while a thousand hammers and sledges could be 
 heard, with the tearing up of railroad irou, the burning of cross-ties, 
 the cutting of telegraph poles, the blowing up of abutments, &c. 
 The trestles were a long time burning, as if determined to retain 
 forever their beauty and strength ; but they yielded at last to the 
 devouring flames, and fell frqm their dizzy heights in smoking ruins. 
 
 " Ellsworth, the skillful telegraph operator, had been amusing 
 himself by conversing with operators at different points on the road. 
 General Morgan, taking advantage of the opportunity so favorably 
 presented, wished to be remembered to Geo. D. Prentice, Esq., and 
 informed him he had commenced the arduous duties assigned *him, 
 and was already superintending that road, and hoped his diligence 
 and experience would warrant a continuance of employment in that 
 capacity, but suggested that his visit over the road and his careful 
 inspection would preclude the necessity of another trip in six 
 month?. 
 
 " Our line of march was continued up the Rolling Fork, and in 
 the direction of Bardstown. While effecting a crossing at Rolling 
 Fork, our rear was attacked by a large force of the enemy, supported 
 by cannon. A spirited engagement ensued, in which Colonel Duke, 
 whose name is already known in the present war, was badly 
 wounded by the bursting of the enemy's shell. He was, however, 
 taken from the field and carefully conveyed in an ambulance to his 
 friends. His wound, it. is feared, will preclude the possibility of hia 
 taking the field for several weeks. 
 
 "We arrived at Bardstown, and, after spending one night, marched 
 down the Bardstown and Springfield Pike. Arriving at Springfield 
 we ascertained that at Lebanon, nine miles distant, the enemy had 
 concentrated a force, amounting to fifteen thousand, together with a 
 large body of cavalry, who were posted at every point and disputed 
 our path in every direction. They made their boasts that General 
 Morgan had made his last trip into Kentucky, and indeed it appeared, 
 
 J 
 
110 CAMP AND FIELD. 
 
 in my humble judgment, to be the case, for it was the duskest 
 hour we had seen ; but through the skill and coolness of our brave 
 leader, who planned and executed a flaok movement, we left Leba- 
 non thirty miles in the rear, marched seven miles in sight of the 
 enemy's camp fires, and arrived at Campbellsville before they were 
 apprised of our. leaving Springfield. This was a masterly movement 
 of General Morgan's, and reflects great credit on him as a leader of 
 brave men. From Campbellsville to Burksville an interrupted line 
 of march was effected, and the command reached Smithville after a 
 march of fifteen days. 
 
 "Our loss in killed and wounded will not exceed twenty, while 
 that of the enemy cannot be less than three hundred killed and 
 wounded, besides about a thousand prisoners. 
 
 " Great credit is due the officers and men, who, on every occa- 
 sion, behaved gallantly, executing their commands, promptly, giving 
 the world another evidence that General Morgan is a daring and 
 skillful leader, and his men invincible. 
 
 " As our command was moving from Lebanon, General Hallesy, 
 With two members of his staff, charged upon three men in the rear, 
 when a fight occurred in the middle of the creek, in which Hallesy 
 was killed, and the officers with him captured. Hallesy was shot 
 through the head while he and his antagonist were clenched. This 
 Federal General was the most odious man in Kentucky, and had 
 persecuted our friends beyond endurance. 
 
 "While at Elizabethtown a detachment was sent to Shepherds- 
 ville, eighteen miles from Louisville, where they burned the town. 
 At Bar^stown we captured three hundred prisoners." 
 
 During this pleasant trip through his native State, 
 Morgan killed and wounded seven hundred of the 
 enemy, captured and paroled two thousand, and de- 
 stroyed an immense amount of arms, ammunition, 
 commissary stores, and other Federal property. 
 
 While Morgan was turning Kentucky upside down, 
 Yan Dorn was executing his marvelous coup de guerre 
 at Holly Springs, in Northern Mississippi. A letter 
 writer has furnished the following interesting nar^ 
 rative : 
 
OUR WESTERN CAVALIERS. 111/ 
 
 "General Van Dorn started from tins point thirteen days since, 
 having first supplied his cavalry command of 2,700 men with fifteen 
 days' rations to support and satisfy the inner man, and a bottle of 
 turpentine and box of mutches each, to enable-them more perfectly to 
 carry* out their work of destruction upon Abolition property. Striking 
 out northeast, the command* passed through Pontotoc, and, having 
 no time to devote to the Yankee marauders who were at the time 
 south of them, on the Mobile and Ohio Railroad, having much more 
 important work on hand, Van Dorn's forces marched on through 
 New Albany and started on the Ripley road, in order to perfectly 
 deceive the enemy. 
 
 " Two hours after the force passed through Pontotoc, 1,100 Yankee* 
 cavalry, which had been on a raid down the Mobile and Ohio 
 Eoad, returned with a train heavily laden with the plunder they 
 had stolen. They were informed that Van Dorn had only passed an 
 hour before with 15,000 troops. Taking a few minutes time to 
 destrojr their train, they took the shortest route for Corinth, and left 
 on fear-impelling wings. Mean time, Van Dorn left the Ripley road 
 to the left, and took a by-way and meandering route through the 
 swamp, and came within eight miles of Holly Springs in the eve- 
 ning, where he bivouacked his force until two hours before day, 
 when he moved cautiously into town, leaving the Texas brigade upon 
 the heights outside as a reserve. As our forces dashed in from all 
 sides, the entrance proved a complete surprise, the breaking streaks 
 of daylight showing the Yankee teats with their yet undisturbed 
 slumberers. A charge was ordered upon them, and the torch 
 applied to the canvas which covered them. 
 
 "The rapidity with which the tents of, the enemy were vacated 
 was marvellous ; and impelled by burning torches and rapid dis- 
 charges of side-arms, the Yankees took no time to prepare their 
 toilets, but rushed out into the cool air of a December morning 
 clothed very similar to Joseph when the lady Potiphar attempted to 
 detain him. The scene was wild, exciting, tumultuous. Yankees 
 running, tents burning, torches flaming, Confederates shouting, guns 
 popping, sabres clanking, Abolitionists begging for mercy, 'rebels' 
 shouting exultingly, women en dishabille clapping their hands, frantic 
 with joy, crying, 'kill them, kill them' — a heterogeneous mass of 
 excited, frantic, frightened human beings, presenting an indescri- 
 bable picture, more adapted for the pencil of Hogarth than the pen of 
 a newspaper correspondent. 
 
112 CAMP AND FIELD. 
 
 "The surprised camp surrendered 1800 men and 150 commis- 
 sioned officers, who were immediately paroled. And then com- 
 menced the work of destruction. The extensive building of the 
 Mississippi Ceutral depot, the station house, the engine houses, and 
 immense storehouses were filled with supplies of clothing and com- 
 missary stores. Outside of the depot the barrels of flour, estimated 
 at half a mile in length, one hundred and fifty feet through and 
 fifteen feet high. Turpentine was throwu over this, and the whole 
 amount destroyed. Up town the court house and public buildings, 
 livery stables, and all capacious establishments, were filled, ceiling " 
 high, with medical and ordnance stores. These were all fired, and 
 the explosion of one of the buildings, in which were stored one hun- 
 dred barrels of powder, knocked down nearly all the houses ou the 
 south side of the square. Surely such a scene of devastation was 
 never before presented to the eyes of man. Glance at the gigantic 
 estimates: 
 
 "1,800,000 fixed cartridges and other ordnance stores, valued at 
 $500,000, including five thousand rifles and two thousand revolvers. 
 
 " One hundred thousand suits of clothing, and other quartermaster's 
 stores, valued at $500,000. 
 
 "Five thousand barrels of flour and a quantity of other commis- 
 sary stores, valued at $500,000. 
 
 " One million dollars worth of medical stores, for which invoices 
 to that amount were exhibited. 
 
 " One thousand bales of cotton, and six hundred thousand dollars 
 worth of commissary stores. 
 
 " As there was no time to remove these immense stores from the 
 building containing them, they were destroyed, comprising the Mis- 
 sissippi Central depot, engine houses and storehouses, the most 
 elegant and capacious in the South, the court house, livery stable, 
 and the largest buildings on the public square. 
 
 "While the capture of the camp, parolling of the prisoners, and 
 destroying of the stores, were going on, the Texas Rangers, com- 
 prising the 3d, 5th and 9th legions, became engaged with the Michi- 
 gan Cavalry, and drove them pell-mell through the town, and ran 
 them off north, with a considerable loss to the Abolitionists, and 
 thirty killed and wounded on our side. 
 
 "The ladies rushed out from the houses, wild with joy, crying out, 
 'There's some at the Fair Grounds. Chase them, kill them, for 
 God's sake!' One lady said: 'The Yankee Commandant of the 
 
OUR WESTERN CAVALIERS. 113 
 
 Post "is in my house; come and catch him.' And a search was insti- 
 tuted, but without success; when the noble woman insisted that he 
 was there, concealed: and finally, after much ado, the gallant Col. 
 Murphy, the intrepid Yankee Commandant of Holly Springs, was 
 pulled out from under his led, and presented himself in his nocturnal 
 habiliments to his captors. 
 
 " The Provost Marshal was also taken, and addressing General 
 Van Dorn, said: 'Well, General, you've got us fairly this time. I 
 knowed it. I was in bed with my wife when I heard the firing, 
 and I at once said, Well, wife, it's no use closing our eyes, or 
 hiding under the cover; we've gone up. ' 
 
 "Our attention was given to Grant's headquarters, which he 
 had left twenty four hours before. All his papers, charts, maps, 
 etc., were captured, together with his splendid carriage, which 
 was burned. Among his papers was found a pass, to pass the 
 bearer over all railroads and steamboats in the United States at 
 Government expense, and to pass all pickets and guards ; and other 
 papers, at once interesting and valuable. Mrs. Grant was also 
 capturtd, but no indignity was offered to her. 
 
 " Nearly every store on the public square was filled with sutler's 
 stores, and after our men had helped themselves, the balance of 
 the goods, was burned. 
 
 " When our forces reached the depot, there was a train about 
 leaving The engineer jumped off and ran away, and one of our 
 men took his place, shut the throttler-valve, and stopped the 
 train. Sixty cars and two locomotives were then fired and de* 
 stroyed." 
 
 The footing up is glorious: — more than twenty- 
 three hundred prisoners paroled, over three million 
 dollars' worth of Federal stores destroyed, and five 
 hundred horses and mules taken, with a vast 
 amount of other property. 
 
 And now let us trace the victorious path of 
 Wheeler, in his several successive detours during the 
 late battle of Murfreesboro ; which spread conster- 
 nation throughout the Yankee hosts, and electrified 
 the whole South with patriotic delight. Educated 
 
114 CAMP AND FIELD. 
 
 at West Point, constitutionally energetic and enthu- 
 siastic, exceedingly fond of military adventure, ar- 
 dently devoted to the cause of Southern indepen- 
 dence, blending a lofty ambition with a magnanimous 
 patriotism, and as void of fear as he is of selfishness, 
 he seems made for the emergencies of a revolution 
 like ours ; and though the youngest Brigadier Gen- 
 eral in the Confederate service, he is already rivaling 
 Forrest and Morgan in the rapidity and splendor of 
 his deeds. The following vivid picture would do no 
 dishonor to the author of Salathiel : 
 
 ** All day on Monday, the 29th December, General Wheeler's 
 cavalry were slowly dropping back before the insoleut advance of 
 overwhelming numbers. All that day the men of Bragg's army 
 in serried ranks awaited the long expected but now imminent 
 hour.. At nightfall the long ranks of horsemen filed slowly to 
 their position on tbe army's flanks, and after a time the glare of 
 the hostile camps extended wide and far in our fiont At mid- 
 night, after a few hour's rest, the word 4 Forward !' was given, 
 the little Brigadier was in the 6addle, and around him were 
 gathered his regimental and battalion commanders, his well- 
 chosen, well-tried staff. It was dark, but in the flashing eyes of 
 those few determined men shone the true and teuder light of 
 patriot devotion. A cold, drizzly rain fell, but nothing could 
 damp the ardor that beat in those valiant and trusty hearts 
 
 44 Then it was resolved to boldly attack the rear of that mighty 
 Yankee horde, that seemed only to await the dawn for a rude 
 onset against our rights, our homes, and our kindred. 'To- 
 morrow,' said the little hero, 'as his lines move so vaingloriously 
 forward, his heart shall quake with fear to hear that hi3 trains are 
 burning, his supplies cut off, and thousands of Southern cavalry 
 hovering in his rear like birds of prey.' On, on — what heed in 
 such a cause be given to cold and hunger and fatigue. Daylight 
 finds him below Jefferson. A little breathing ppell is given, for 
 this is the fifth day those men have been doing work— four days 
 already have they been making history. 
 
 "What white line in the distance? Yankee wagons. For- 
 
OUR WESTERN CAVALIERS. 115 
 
 ward! cautiously, men, cautiously ; close up quickly, but with- 
 out noise ! A shot— a volley— a yell -and like the wolf on the 
 fold, the men of the South hurl themselves on the invader. Soon 
 a shuddeiing, shrinking group of prisoners are mouuted on the 
 captured mules; and with the light of fifty blazing wagons to 
 signal the first accomplishment of a glorious design, the line 
 moves on. Past cedar glades and wild inland copses ; past rising 
 streams and over hill? and fields, the cavalcade moves on. La- 
 vergne ! once sweet village of the plain, but now almost a desert 
 wild, with its blackened homesteads, and the eloquent silence of 
 the few inhabitants whicb the monster of invasion has spared — 
 Lavergne is before us I Three columns quickly deploy, and at the 
 word, three eager, daring and unbroken lines pounce on the un- 
 suspecting foe. Again the weapons are, dropped, the hand9 held 
 up imploringly, and pale, affrighted faces seem to expect a right- 
 eous doom General Wheeler and his staff approach. Colonel 
 Hawkins, in a solemn and touching manner, administers the 
 parole, and others quickly take the registry of names. The eve- 
 ning gathers, but its shades are powerless; two hundred wagons 
 laden richly, almost with wealth of argosies from foreign strands, 
 light the horizon with a ruddy glow. Burn and brighten cheerily, 
 Christmas tires of Freedom ! Whose fine trunks a're these ? 
 McCook's Pile on the blazing brands. Woik hard, boys. Cut 
 the spokes ; unhitch the mules ; mount, Yankees, and away. 
 More miled of ceiar thicket ; more pallid, tearful faces at the 
 wayside casements, doubtful whether we be friend or foe. Ah, 
 those coats of brown and gray ! The white handkerchiefs wave ; 
 the dainty hands throw kisses warm with love and trust to us in 
 that bleak December air. Still on to Nolensville ; more deserttd 
 homes; more timid, cowering foemen. 'Fall in prisoners, in two 
 ranks!' More paroles, rr ore wagons, moie mules, more Yankees 
 distraught at such wantm destruction of property. Night falls ; 
 Wheeler and his gallant troopers have gone the grand rounds for 
 old Rosecrans ; may he sleep easy. Two dns after to Lavergne 
 again Wheeler, as ever, in the van The long reach of pike is 
 like a wide sheet of flames. How eagerly they lick in the fresh 
 New Year's air. Blaze after blaze, till it seems as if Fate has 
 written there a sentence of fire, punctuated every few rods by a 
 dead Yankee Yes, Fate ! Ye inglorious dead, ye can no more 
 do dishonor. Day by day, before arms strong with hate and scorn, 
 your vile brood lessens. And so let it be, till in every Northern 
 
116 CAMP AND FIELD. 
 
 home the love-lights are put out by scalding tears of giief and 
 shame. 
 
 "Our loss in numbers is trifling; but a few have suffered. 
 Allen is wounded ; M'Caw is dowu to rise no more ; Patterson 
 reels a bleeding corpse from his horse, his grey hairs to be a 
 laugh and a jest to those infuriated fiends; Prentice turns sick 
 with pain from his place in iront ; Wailes moans, 'my friend, I 
 am wounded ;' Ledyaid falls. 
 
 "But the woik is done, and even from cannon's mouth and 
 musket's blazing throat no heavier blow has cr me than fell when 
 Wheeler's brave brigade, with clattering hoof and clanging swords, 
 traced in lines of flame and gore another page in our country's 
 history. It reads like a vision of the Orient, like a wild fancy of 
 some lone dreamer's brain ; yet this and more took place in those 
 few recent days, when our tried and true went up to victory." 
 
 In the execution of these amazing feats, our 
 " mounted gladiators" left many a gallant comrade 
 behind them. They seem, however, to have made a 
 mere holiday amusement of the business, killing and 
 consuming less in malice than in mirth. "The 
 Yankee pickets," says one of them, " had promised 
 us a Christmas ball ; Bragg was now giving them 
 the music, and we were dancing to Wheeler's Quick- 
 step." 
 
 They took at least nine hundred prisoners, de- 
 stroyed three hundred and fifty wagons, captured 
 and stampeded two thousand and one hundred mules 
 and horses, relieved Mr. Lincoln of something more 
 than a million dollars' worth of property, and de- 
 voured McCook's new year's turkey in his tent. 
 
 On the twenty-ninth and thirtieth - Wheeler and 
 
 Wharton seem to have kept company and acted in 
 
 concert. On the thirty-first their commands were 
 
 . separated ; whether by mistake or by design is not 
 
 apparent. Wharton, however, pushed vigorously 
 
OUR WESTERN CAVALIERS. 117 
 
 on to the enemy's rear, took a hundred and fifty 
 prisoners, drove off four hundred mules, and applied 
 the torch to a hundred loaded wagons. One of the 
 vehicles contained the valuables of the chief pay- 
 master ; to-wit, the accounts and vouchers of the 
 army, and a million of Federal greenbacks, for set- 
 tling with Lincoln's "hired help." This required no 
 turpentine, and a single match was sufficient to pro- 
 duce a most frightful billious inflammation. Another, 
 filled with ammunition, being fired, was drawn off 
 by four affrighted mules, in full jump, toward the 
 Yankee lines. Flames spreading, shells exploding, 
 animals plunging and kicking, blue coats getting out 
 of the way with all convenient speed, constituted a 
 somewhat amusing spectacle, well adapted to give a 
 person of lively imagination a tolerably accurate 
 idea of what many have heard of, but no one has 
 seen — " hell in harness." 
 
 Wharton afterward made four successive charges 
 upon a stockade, in which a large force of the enemy 
 had ensconced themselves; but night coming on, 
 obliged him to desist before he had accomplished its 
 reduction ; when he mounted his prisoners upon his 
 captured mules, and returned in triumph to his 
 camp. The next day he took part in that desperate 
 charge in which the brave Hanson fell, and the blood 
 of Texas mingled with that of Kentucky. His 
 brigade, numbering two thousand, sustained a loss of 
 three hundred killed and wounded, of whom sixty- 
 three belonged to the Rangers. 
 
 After resting his jaded horses and recruiting his 
 exhausted troopers a few days at Beech Grove, 
 
118 CAMP AND FIELD. 
 
 Wheeler set forth again for parts unknown. On the 
 fifteenth of January he reached the Cumberland 
 River opposite the famous I Iarpeth Shoals, and there 
 awaited the development of events. Soon came a 
 fleet of four steamers, convoj^ed by two small gun- 
 boats. General Wheeler immediately disposed his 
 force for action. From a formidable bluff he opened 
 his batteries upon the startled flotilla. The com- 
 mandant now made his appearance on the deck of 
 one of the gunboats, frantically waving a white 
 handkerchief. The other gunboat escaped, while 
 this was burned, with three of the transports, and 
 their cargoes, consisting of supplies for Rosecrans. 
 The remaining transport, after the destruction of its 
 contents, was bonded for the transportation of the 
 four hundred prisoners taken, who were promptly 
 paroled and sent down the river. Our indomitable 
 chieftain then swam the Cumberland, swollen by the 
 recent rains, attacked a huge wagon-train, over- 
 powered the guard, and destroyed an immense quan- 
 tity of provisions destined for Nashville. This 
 brilliant coup de guerre sent a ray of sunshine into a 
 thousand desolate homes, revived the hopes of a 
 thousand desponding hearts, and added another 
 diamond to the young victor's coroncl. Who will 
 henceforth disparage the valor of Our Western 
 Cavaliers ? 
 
X. 
 THE OPEN SEPULCHER. 
 
 (JANUARY, 1863.) 
 
 " Their throat is an open sepulcher ; * * * * the poison of 
 asps is under their lips ; whose mouth is full of cursing and bitter- 
 ness." St. Paul. 
 
 David exclaims, in one of the psalms, " Woe is 
 me, that I dwell in Mesech, that I sojourn ui the 
 tents of Kedar." Mesech was the son of Jephtha, 
 whose progeny peopled the drear}' regions of northern 
 Asia; and Kedar was the son of Ishmael, whose de- 
 scendants, then as now, wandered without a settled 
 home through the wild solitudes of Arabia Deserta. 
 Literally, David neither dwelt with the former, nor 
 sojourned with the latter; but, as his melancholy 
 complaint implies, he was surrounded with men 
 whose manners were as distasteful to him as those of 
 the barbarous Moschi or the brutal Kedarines. 
 Driven out from the presence of King Saul ; chased 
 from house and hold by the royal arm}' ; watched 
 by a host of spies and informers, who sought the 
 favor of a wicked monarch by the betrayal of the 
 innocent blood; obliged to cast himself upon the 
 patronage of a heathen prince, and consort with an 
 idolatrous and degraded people ; while his own ad- 
 herents consisted chiefly of outlaws and desperadoes, 
 
120 CAMP AND FIELD. 
 
 who resorted to him in their extremity; his environ- 
 ments in court and camp were not more revolting to 
 his taste, than the moral practices of his associates 
 were shocking to his piety. And as the soul of 
 righteous Lot was vexed from day to day with the 
 fdthy conversation of the men of Sodom ; and as 
 the prophet Jeremiah wept day and night for the 
 apostacy and consequent captivity of his Hebrew 
 brethren ; so the Lord's anointed deplored, in most 
 pathetic strains, the profligacy and impiety, of which, 
 in his long and weary exile, he was constantly the 
 unwilling witness, as he sings mournfully in another 
 of the psalms: "I beheld the transgressors, and was 
 grieved : rivers of waters run down mine eyes, be- 
 cause* they keep not thy law.'' 
 
 What pure and pious heart can be happy amid 
 the guilty license of those who fear not God neither 
 regard man? And what Christian, that has spent 
 some time in the army, and seen the wanton wicked- 
 ness of our soldiery, has not felt like uttering the 
 lamentation of David ? " Woe is me, that I dwell 
 in Mesich, that I sojourn in the tents of Kedar !" 
 
 • The astute author of Lacon says: "Men, by as- 
 sociating in large masses, as in camps and in cities, 
 improve their talents, but impair-their virtues; and 
 strengthen their minds, while they weaken their 
 morals ; and thus a retrocession in the one is too 
 often the price they pay for a refinement in the 
 other." As far as this elegant antithesis applies to 
 the camp, the mental improvement is, to say the 
 least, a matter of doubt ; but concerning the moral 
 deterioration, I think, there can be no controversy. 
 
THE OPEN SEPULCHER. 121 
 
 War, indeed, is proverbially demoralizing. As 
 Burke says, it "suspends the rules of moral obliga- 
 tion, and what is long suspended is in danger of 
 being totally abrogated."" There is much in the 
 scenes and associations of the camp and the field, to 
 harden the heart, and lead the soul astray. The 
 soldier is exiled from the house of God, and in a 
 great measure deprived of his blessed Sabbath. 
 Many regiments are without chaplains, many knap- 
 sacks without Bibles. The .young man, before his 
 virtuous habits and principles are fully established, 
 is far removed from the conservative influences of 
 home, and exposed to new and strange temptations. 
 Sinners entice him, and he too often consents. The 
 contagion of bad example is fatal to the health of 
 the soul. If 
 
 " One sickly sheep infects the flock, 
 And poisons all the rest, 1 ' 
 
 what is to be expected in such an assemblage of cor- 
 rupt and corrupting influences, where vice spreads 
 with the celerity of pestilence and more than the fa- 
 tality of plague ! 
 
 Now, of all the evil practices of the army, none 
 is more common than the use of profane language. 
 A custom, this, of well-nigh universal prevalence.. 
 It is astonishing, how soon a young man learns to 
 swear. Many who at home never uttered an irreve- 
 rent expression, now seldom speak without an oath. 
 Some love to display their genius in the invention of 
 new and startling forms of blasphemy. It seems to 
 be considered manly, heroic, almost virtuous, to in- 
 sult Almighty God to his face, and grieve the hearts 
 K 
 
122 •* CAMP AND FIELD. 
 
 of those who revere his name. And the saddest 
 thing of all is, that the officers should set so per- 
 nicious an example to the soldiers ; that men of 
 intelligence and refinement should indulge habitually 
 in so disgusting and degrading a vice ; that those 
 who stickle for the merest punctilios of military rule 
 and order, should wholly disregard the third item in 
 the "Articles of War," which makes any profane 
 oath or execration punishable with public and severe 
 reprimand, imprisonment, and fine, at the hands of a 
 court-martial. But alas! there are even of our Cap- 
 tains, Colonels, and Generals in command — and I 
 fear they are by far the greater number — who are 
 sadly addicted to this "superfluity of naughtiness." 
 Before my connection with the service, I never 
 imagined that men could make themselves so vile. 
 Among the gallant defenders of our homes and 
 liberties, I have heard more cursing and swearing in 
 twenty -four hours, than in all my life before. In 
 camp, throughout the day, my ears are painfully 
 shocked with the most dreadful forms of profanity ; 
 and often, amid the silence of the night, those fright- 
 ful utterances come floating through my brain, like 
 voices of fiends borne on chance blasts from hell. 
 The air, indeed, is so filled with profanity, that it 
 seems to swear without a tongue. The sound of 
 blasphemy haunts me everywhere ; disturbs my rest; 
 pollutes my dreams; desecrates my devotions; in- 
 trudes upon my holiest solitudes ; mingles with the 
 gracious words which fell from the lips of my Re- 
 deemer ; and odious as it is to me — and I solemnly 
 aver that there is no other vice so revolting — I 
 
THE OPEN SEPULCHER. 123 
 
 sometimes fear that I shall learn the loathsome prac- 
 tice myself! 
 
 What is more offensive than " an open sepulcher " ? 
 what more ghastly than its grinning skeleton, or 
 more noisome than the effluvia which it exhales? 
 Yet to such an object the apostle compares the 
 throats of wicked men, their lips to the fangs of a 
 deadly serpent ; and adds, "whose mouth is full of 
 Cursing and bitterness." And if Our moral sense 
 were properly quickened and corrected, we should 
 all regard profane swearing with something of apos- 
 tolical abhorrence. 
 
 Would that I could cure this desperate disease? 
 Would that I could reform every profane tongue in 
 the Confederate Army ! " Who will rise up for me 
 against the evil-doers? or who will stand up for me 
 against the workers of iniquity?" I have a specific 
 to offer; but in morals, as in medicine, the best 
 remedies are often unavailing from the negligence or 
 the resistance of the patient. Kebuke, remonstrance, 
 the most cogent arguments, and the most solemn 
 dissuasives, are all useless, without the ear and the 
 heart of those who are most deeply concerned in the 
 matter. Hoping that some of our soldiers may read 
 these pages, I proceed to offer several considerations 
 against the vice in question ; which I trust will be 
 received as kindly as they are recorded, and pondered 
 with a seriousness worthy of their importance. 
 
 I. Profane swearing is a senseless habit. 
 
 In reply to my reproofs, it is often said: " O, I 
 mean nothing by it!" Now, this is precisely the 
 objection which I urge against the practice; it means 
 
124 CAMP AISI> FIELD. 
 
 nothing. Shall a man of sense utter words without 
 meaning? King Solomon saith, " The lips of the 
 wise disperse knowledge, but the mouth of fools 
 poureth out foolishness." Again, it is written, " The 
 heart of the righteous studieth to answer, but the 
 mouth of the wicked poureth out evil things." 
 These passages mean, that the wise, -the righteous, 
 speak prudently and profitably, exhibiting in their 
 discourse both sound sense and a good heart ; but 
 the foolish, the wicked, talk rashly and recklessly, 
 spewing out their folly like a flood, and vomiting 
 forth the evil that is in them like an avalanche. The 
 profane swearer is like the bell in the steeple, which 
 is void of brains, but has a huge tongue, and makes 
 a great noise. Such a habit most strongly indicates 
 a want of sense ; and I cannot see how anything but 
 the want of sense can reconcile any man to the habit. 
 
 II. It is as useless as it is senseless. 
 
 He who indulges in it is certainly no utilitarian. 
 He never asks the question, in reference to this 
 practice, which most men ask in reference to all their 
 undertakings — Cui bono? Other vices may afford 
 either gain or gratification ; but what gain or grati- 
 fication can result from oaths and curses? Do they 
 meet any want of a man's nature ? Bo they respond 
 to any desire of his heart? Do they improve his 
 credit, enlarge his business, or augment his store? 
 Do they win the applause, or attract the confidence 
 of his kind ? Do they elevate his character with 
 others, or increase his respect for himself? Will his 
 neighbors believe him the sooner for swearing to all 
 he says? Will they give him any place of trust or 
 
THE OPEN SEPULCHER. 125 
 
 honor because he is an adept in the language of 
 impiety? Is habitual cursing usually regarded as a 
 mark of superior intelligence and refinement, of 
 courage, of magnanimity, or of any other excellent 
 quality ? What good purpose does it answer? Were 
 it not well for every man who is addicted to this 
 habit, always, before uttering a profane expression, 
 to pause and ask himself the Yankee question, 
 "Will it pay?" 
 
 III. It is no less discourteous than useless. 
 
 The man of true courtesy will do nothing unneces- 
 sarily, that is likely to inflict pain upon others. He 
 would rather forego his own reasonable gratification, 
 than offend the taste or wound the feelings of his 
 neighbor. Who would use a father's name with 
 contemptuous levity or disrespect in the presence 
 of his son? and will the true gentleman treat irrev- 
 erently the blessed name of God in the hearing 
 of his children ? The pious hold the Divine name 
 in great veneration, and nothing grieves them more 
 than to hear it recklessly profaned. "There is that 
 speaketh," saith Solomon, "like the piercing of a 
 sword ;" and often, though I have given no expres- 
 sion to my feelings, hath the iron entered into my 
 own soul. He that utters a wicked oath in my 
 presence wantonly insults me, for he trifles with the 
 name of my Father, and tramples upon my feelings 
 as-a Christian. Nay, setting aside all consideration of 
 religion, profane language must be extremely dis- 
 tasteful to a person of refined and cultivated sensi- 
 bilities, and he who employs it in the hearing of such 
 a person commits an egregious breach of courtesy.. 
 - K* 
 
126 CAMP AXD FIKLD. 
 
 I was lately traveling on the railway, when a young 
 officer entered the car both smoking and swearing. 
 I said to him mildly, " Captain, would you not dis- 
 pense with your segar, if you knew that it made 
 some one present very sick?" "0, certainly, sir," 
 he replied, "is my smoking offensive to you?" 
 " No, sir," I answered, "but your swearing is." "I 
 beg your pardon, sir," lie exclaimed ; " and I thank 
 you for the reproof." He felt that he had been 
 guilty of a discourtesy ; and he sat down by my 
 side, and discoursed with me an hour without an 
 oath. Many, who are too polite to puff tobacco 
 smoke in a gentleman's face, think nothing of pour- 
 •mff the dissonances of hell into a Christian's ears. 1 
 dislike tobacco smoke ; but I would rather breathe 
 tobacco smoke as dense and foul as a London fog, 
 than have mvsoul suffocated with these fumes of the 
 bottomless pit. Some may protest against the charge 
 of discourtesjr, and in other respects they may be the 
 politest of men \ but just so far as they indulge in 
 a habit so shocking to many and so distasteful to 
 more, just so far they come short of being perfect 
 gentlemen. 
 
 IV. It is indecent as well as discourteous. 
 
 Even those who practice it must admit this propo- 
 sition. They do tacitly admit it, by bridling their 
 tongues in the presence of ladies and superiors. 
 Why should they refrain, unless they deem the 
 practice indecent? Indecent it certainly is, as all 
 good men bear witness, and the most profane are 
 obliged to acknowledge. One whom I reproved the 
 other day, pronounced it "a foolish habit, and a 
 
THE OPEN SEPULCHER. 127 
 
 mighty ugly one." It is, indeed, "a mighty ugly 
 one," and all its features proclaim its satanic father- 
 hood. Vices there are, which, for their grossly 
 sensual character, are properly called bestial ; but no 
 beast ever uttered a profane oath, or execration of 
 its kind, or blasphemy against its Maker. There is 
 only one recorded instance, well authenticated, of a 
 brute "speaking with man's voice;" and he, though 
 he had much greater provocation than most profane 
 swearers, was not ass enough to curse Baalam. He 
 "forbade the madness of the prophet," but he did 
 not swear. 
 
 If a man may be judged of by his associations, so 
 may a vice. Apply this test to the vice in question. 
 What company does it keep? That of the most 
 ignorant and degraded, of the most dissolute and 
 abandoned. They are its chief patrons and panders, 
 and it is always most at home in such society. What 
 are its familiar haunts? The bar-room and ihe brothel, 
 the gamblers' saloon and the public race-course. 
 There it is most at home. There it breathes freely 
 and flourishes luxuriantly. It mutters sullenly in 
 the felon's dungeon, raves fiercely in the maniac's 
 grated cell, and riots triumphantly in the vilest dens 
 of guilt and shame. 
 
 Other vices may require money, or beauty, or 
 knowledge, or genius, or generosity, or contempt of 
 danger, or indifference to suffering, 'or a reputation 
 for probity and honor, or the influence of superior 
 social position. This is a xcry cheap vice, practi 
 successfully without any of these advantages and 
 facilities, needing nothing but a shallow brain, a 
 
128 CAMP AND FIELD. 
 
 vulgar taste, a wicked heart, a brazen brow, a filthy 
 tongue, the parrot's faculty of imitation, and just 
 memory enough to retain the most odious and impious 
 expressions ever gleaned from the filthy purlieus of 
 human depravity. It is essentially coarse and undig- 
 nified ; and he who is addicted to it displays a sad 
 poverty of intellect, a deplorable want of true refine- 
 ment, and an utter destitution of moral sensibility. 
 
 V. Its impiety is greater than its indecency. 
 
 It consists chiefly in a familiar use of the sacred 
 names and titles of God, and a presumptuous trifling 
 with his august perfections and prerogatives. The 
 simplest description of such an act is sufficient proof 
 of its impiety. The first petition taught us by Our 
 Lord in that admirable prayer is, "Hallowed be thy 
 name." The cherubim cover their faces with their 
 wings and fall prostrate in the presence of the Divine 
 glory; and the seraphim tremble while, they cry, 
 "Holy, Holy, Holy Lord God of hosts!" The 
 purest and greatest of men have ever spoken rev- 
 erently of the Supreme, and the wise and virtuous 
 have never trifled with his honor. It is said of Sir 
 Isaac Newton, that he always made a solemn pause 
 before uttering that awful name ; and of Charles 
 Lamb, that he was accustomed to remove his hat 
 whenever he heard it pronounced. The Jews would 
 not tread upon a piece of writing, lest it might 
 chance to contain the name of God; one of his 
 names they deemed too sacred to be uttered by 
 human lips ; and their law adjudged the blasphemer 
 to death by public stoning. . The Romish priests 
 always take off the cap when they pronounce the 
 
THE OPEN SEPULCHER. 129 
 
 name of Jesus in their sermons; and in the Episcopal 
 Church, the whole congregation are accustomed to 
 bow wherever it occurs in the litany. But 0, how 
 many swear lightly by that blessed name, which is 
 above every name, which reminds us of Olivet and 
 Calvary, on which we depend for our redemption 
 from death and hell ! Many a soldier, who would 
 not trifle with the name of his general in command, 
 will trample in the dust the honor of the Captain of 
 his salvation. In short, men treat the Great God 
 with far less of reverence than they treat their fellow 
 worms. They rush where angels fear to stand, and 
 vomit their vocal insolence and contempt upon the 
 very footstool of the Almighty's throne! 
 
 "Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy 
 God in vain, for the Lord will not hold him guiltless 
 that taketh his name in vain " — is one of the prohi- 
 bitions thundered from the flaming top of Sinai, and 
 written with the finger of God upon the tables of 
 stone. " Swear not at all; neither by Heaven, for it 
 is God's throne ; nor by the earth, for it is his foot- 
 stool ; nor by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the 
 great King ; nor by thy head, because thou canst not 
 make one hair white or black " — is one of the solemn 
 admonitions uttered by the lips of Redeeming Love, 
 when in the likeness of sinful flesh he tabernacled 
 and dwelt among us. Can these Divine teachings be 
 disregarded with impunity ? Jehovah is jealous of 
 his honor, and will not brook the insolence of the 
 worm. "Whoso despiseth the word shall be de- 
 stroyed." 
 
 And is there no impiety in the perversion of a 
 
130 CAMP AND FIELD. 
 
 noble faculty ? Speech is one of the chief distinctions 
 of the man from the brute. Through all the animal 
 tribes, complete organs of speech have been found 
 only in connection with the rational soul. It is a 
 glorious thing, peculiar to the human species, to be 
 able to communicate thought and feeling by articulate 
 sounds. And what was the design of this grand 
 endowment? The dishonor of its Author, and the 
 grief of the wise and good ? Shall so sublime a 
 faculty be so miserably degraded ? And has not the 
 tongue, with the whole body, been redeemed with 
 the precious blood of Christ? Doubly its Creator's 
 by redemption, shall it not be devoted to his praise? 
 And is it not destined, in the blessed world to come, 
 to blend with the tongues of cherubim and seraphim, 
 and swell the many-voiced harmony around the 
 throne of God and the Lamb? And yet there are 
 who say, "With our mouth have .we prevailed; 
 our lips are our own ; who is lord over us?" They 
 pervert one of the chief endowments of nature to 
 the dishonor of God and the destruction of human 
 souls. 
 
 The language of the profane swearer, what is it 
 but the very vernacular of hell ? It is not the 
 language of Heaven ; there is no cursing there, but 
 all are perpetually employed in blessing and praise. 
 It is not properly the language of earth ; God never 
 contemplated it in the provisions of nature, and 
 tribes there are who have no words in their voca- 
 bulary of an impious or irreverent character. Nay, 
 it is the native and habitual language of hell ; for 
 there every mouth is full of execration, and impre- 
 
THE OPEN SEPULCHER. 131 
 
 cation, and blasphemy. It is the attempt of lost 
 spirits to transform men into demons, and convert 
 our terrestial abode into the counterpart of their own 
 terrible home. It is hell transferred to earth. The 
 wise monarch saith that "in the lips of an ungodly 
 man there is as it were the burning of a fire ;" and 
 St. James tells us that "the tongue is a lire," that it 
 "setteth on fire the course of nature, and it is set on 
 fire of hell." I may say, then, to the profane swearer, 
 " Thy speech bewrayeth thee." He speaks the dialect 
 of demons. His language proclaims his country and 
 his kindred. He is practising for his future association 
 and employment. In bell he shall have cursing 
 enough for evermore. 
 
 VI. This is of all vices the least excusable. 
 
 What can a man plead in apology or extenuation ? 
 The thoughtlessness of the practice? Thoughtless- 
 ness itself is a crime, and rather augments than 
 justifies or palliates the crime that it causes. God 
 has given us the power of thought, and no man can 
 be guiltless in the neglect of its exercise. 
 
 What will the profane swearer plead? The popu- 
 larity of the custom ? Its popularity is no mitiga- 
 tion of its guilt. " Thou shalt not follow a multi- 
 tude to do evil." If others do wrong, there is the 
 greater necessity that we should do right, Nor shall 
 we escape punishment by being with the many. 
 "Though hand join in hand, the wicked shall not 
 go unpunished." The crowd arc in the broad way 
 to destruction. The additional fuel will only aug- 
 ment the flame. 
 
 What will the offender plead? His ignorance of 
 
132 CAMP AND F1ELP. 
 
 its enormity ? But who can be so blind as not to 
 sec the sinfulness of such a habit? Who can con- 
 found the grape-vine and the fig-tree with the thorn 
 and the thistle, or believe that the foul and turbid 
 stream proceeds from a pure and transparent foun- 
 tain? u Many crimes," says Doctor Jeter, "are the 
 excess of innocent dispositions and lawful indulg- 
 ences; we pass imperceptibly from the right to the 
 wrong; and the most descriminating casuist may 
 not be able to decide at what point the one ends and 
 the other begins." But this certainly does not ap- 
 ply to profane language. In regard to this, the pro- 
 hibition is plain and unmistakable. The swearer 
 sins knowingly, wilfully, defiantly. "There is no 
 fear of Grod before his eyes." 
 
 What, then, will he plead? The difficulty of 
 reformation? There is no insuperable difficulty. 
 There is no real difficulty. The " can not " is a will 
 not. If the soldier can restrain his tongue in the 
 presence of his commanding officer, if the most 
 inveterate swearer can suppress the oath in the com- 
 pany of a lady or a clergyman, why can he not do the 
 same always and everywhere? There wants but 
 the will, the resolution, the determined effort, in 
 humble dependence upon that all-sufficient grace 
 which is never sought in vain. I know a young 
 man who was formerly very profane, but has re- 
 formed since he entered the army. If one can do it, 
 why not another? why not all? Seneca says, 
 "There is no evil propensity of the human heart so 
 powerful that it may not be subdued by discipline." 
 And if Socrates conquered his intemperate and 
 
THE OPEN SEPULCHEK, 133 
 
 libidinous habits by his philosophy, what may not 
 we do by the grace of God ? 
 
 But what will he plead ? The power of tempta- 
 tion? What temptation is there? what profit to be 
 gained? what pleasure to be enjoyed ? what passion 
 to be gratified? what possible good to be realized? 
 An old divine says, " When the devil fishes for 
 other sinners, he baits the hook with some earthly 
 advantage, real or imaginary; but when he fishes for 
 profane swearers, he throws them the naked hook, 
 and the fools bite at that." u In vain is the net 
 spread in the sight of any bird;" but the swearer 
 leaps into the snare of the devil, and is led captive 
 by him at his will. Satan usually puts on the angel's 
 robe, and smiles with the angel's face, and speaks 
 with the angel's tongue; but in this case he presents 
 himself in all his native hideousness, and the swearer 
 rushes into his father's arms. Generally he conceals 
 the mouth of hell, and strews it over with flowers; 
 but here he shows the open abyss, and the swearer 
 plunges headlong into the flaming gulf. It is written, 
 that " fools make a mock at sin ;" and to whom does 
 this apply more properly than to profane swearers? 
 They treat sin as a very trivial matter, though "it is 
 an evil and exceeding bitter thing." They roll it 
 "as a sweet morsel under their tongues," though it 
 hath in it the very wormwood and gall of the second 
 death. They "are raging waves of the sea, foaming 
 out their own shame; wandering stars, to whom is 
 reserved the blackness of darkness for ever." 
 
 For the want of a better apology, a profane man 
 once replied to my reproof, " I would rather be a 
 L 
 
134 CAMP AND FIELD. 
 
 swearer than a hypocrite." Some of my readers may 
 find it difficult to credit the statement, that any sane 
 man ever offered so shallow a vindication of his 
 vicious habit. I solemnly assure them, however, 
 that I knew such a case ; and he was not only a sane 
 man,, but a shrewd man, a lawyer, a logician, and a 
 military officer of high rank. So irrationally do 
 wicked men reason, because their practices are 
 wholly indefensible. If they had better arguments 
 to offer, they would, no doubt, adduce them. "Bather 
 be a swearer than a hypocrite?" Is there, then, 
 any such alternative ? Must a man be the one or 
 the other? Are all persons hypocrites, who do not 
 swear ? Are none sincere but the profane ? Is 
 blasphemy the best proof of veracity ? Would you 
 rather trust "him that sweareth," than "him that 
 feareth an oath?" Nay, verily. He that has no 
 reverence for the Lawgiver, has no respect for the 
 law. He that is constantly breaking one of God's 
 commandments, would not scruple to violate any of 
 the rest? Let interest or passion prompt him, with- 
 out fear of punishment or unpopularity, and he will 
 trample upon them all. I should expect the profane 
 swearer to lie, and cheat, and steal, and rob, and 
 kill, and commit all the abominations prohibited by 
 the Decalogue, if he could do so without infamy in 
 this world and anguish in the next. There is no ra- 
 tional apology for the practice. 
 
 VII. The vice must be ruinous in its tendency and 
 results. 
 
 It is a well known truth, that the frequent repe- 
 tition of an act renders it more and more facile, till 
 
THE OPEN SEPULCHER. 135 
 
 it comes at length to be performed without conscious- 
 ness and without effort. This is the potent law of 
 habit ; and it applies equally to the action of muscle 
 and of mind. In a course of vice it operates with 
 tenfold power, because " man is very far gone from 
 original righteousness, and of his own nature in- 
 clined to evil, and that continually." Every act of 
 sin tends to its own repetition ; and the oftener the 
 repetition, the stronger the tendency. Eepetition, 
 thus produces habit; and habit forms character, and 
 confirms it forever. " No one," says Juvenal, " ever 
 arrived suddenly at the summit of vice." The spark 
 becomes a flame, and the flame rises and spreads till 
 it envelopes and consumes the building. The rock 
 starts slowly from the mountain top, but acquires 
 velocity and power in its progress, till it leaps over 
 all obstructions, or carries every thing in its course. 
 Such is the career of the profane swearer. The 
 youthful amateur in this infernal art at first shudders 
 at the sound of his own voice ; but by little and 
 little his conscience becomes seared, till he can curse 
 without compunction and blaspheme without a 
 tremor. And from dealing so lightly with" things of 
 the utmost sacredness and solemnity, all feeling of 
 reverence for God and his Holy Word is lost. 
 
 "One sin another doth provoke;" 
 
 and perjury follows in the train of profanity ; and 
 all sorts of profligacy and crime find countenance 
 and encouragement in the practice of a single vice. 
 For vices, like virtues, grow in clusters, as certain 
 serpents in South America congregate together, and 
 build themselves into formidable pyramids. 
 
 "Ill deeds are doubled with an evil word;" 
 
136 CAMP AND FIELD. 
 
 " the wicked is snared by the transgression of his 
 own lips j" and thus the statement of St. James is 
 verified, that " the tongue is an unruly evil, full of 
 deadly poison.' 7 And the influence does not termi- 
 nate upon the sinner himself; for u evil communica- 
 tions corrupt good manners ;" and the sin spreads, 
 with epidemical celerity, through the company and 
 the regiment ; more contagious than small pox, and 
 more destructive than plague,* not only "defiling 
 the whole man," but polluting the whole camp, 
 demoralizing the whole army, and charging the 
 atmosphere everywhere with articulate blasts of hell ! 
 Nor is this the end. u The fool's mouth is his 
 destruction, and his lips are a snare to his soul." 
 The profane breath kindles the unquenchable fire. 
 " Because of these things eometh the wrath of God 
 upon the children of disobedience." Every vain 
 oath is noted in the book of doom. He who has so 
 often challenged the Almighty Vengeance to the 
 damnation of his own soul, shall meet with a terrible 
 response to his imprecation when God ariseth to 
 judgment; and he who has so impiously consigned- 
 others to the place of eternal torment, shall be asso- 
 ciated there with the wretched objects of his execra- 
 tion, or shall see them admitted to the abodes of the 
 blessed, while he sinks beneath the dreadful sentence, 
 " Depart, ye accursed, into everlasting fire, prepared 
 for the devil and his angels 1" How fearful are these 
 words of the Psalmist! words of prophecy rather 
 than of prayer : "As he loved cursing, so let it 
 come unto him ; as he delighted not in blessing, so 
 let it be far from him; as he clothed himself with 
 
THE OPEN SEPTJLCHER. 137 
 
 cursing like as with his garment, so let it come into 
 
 his bowels like water, and like oil into his bones ; let 
 
 it be unto him as the garment which covereth him, 
 
 and for a girdle wherewith he is girded continually." 
 
 And so shall it be fulfilled in hell, where the impious 
 
 breath shall blow the eternal flames, and the ear that 
 
 once delighted in such horrid dissonances shall find 
 
 no relief from the everlasting din 
 
 " Of curses loud and blasphemous, that make 
 The cheek of darkness pale!" . 
 
 VIII. Finally, — Profanity is especially unbecom- 
 ing in a Confederate soldier. 
 
 '■ Sin is a reproach to any people ;" but to us more 
 than to any other. We are engaged in a glorious 
 ~ campaign, fighting for the dearest rights of man, for 
 our pleasant heritage, our personal liberty, our very 
 lives, and lives more precious than our own, against 
 the most infuriate, fanatical, unprincipled, diabolical 
 flood of human filth and infidelity that the old 
 dragon ever vomited forth upon a civilized country, 
 v " In the name of our God have we set up our 
 banners," and in his good providence do we trust for 
 the success of our arms. And shall we wantonly 
 insult him whose aid we expect and implore? Shall 
 we offend our Almighty Ally, till he becomes our 
 enemy and fights against us? 
 
 It is not surprising that our invaders should curse 
 and swear. They have drawn the sword in the 
 service of Mammon, of Moloch, of 'Lucifer, of Beel- 
 zebub, and blasphemy beseems them best. Like 
 Satan himself, 
 
 "They come, of hellish malice full, 
 To scatter, tear, and slay ;" 
 L* 
 
138 CAMP AND FIELD. 
 
 and oaths and imprecations accord perfectly with 
 their fiendish motives and aims. But we, who are 
 engaged in a holy warfare of self-defence ; we, who 
 stand forth in the name of God to support the gov- 
 ernment we have organized; we, who rush to arms 
 for the protection of our wives, daughters, sisters and 
 mothers, from insult and outrage of the most brutal 
 and diabolical character ; we, who 
 
 " Strike for our altars and our fires, 
 Strike for the green graves of our sires, 
 God and our native land;'' 
 
 we ought, above all things, to refrain from a practice 
 so incompatible with the cause we vindicate and the 
 faith we cherish, a practice so offensive to Heaven 
 and so fatal to ourselves. 
 
 Why is profane language in the army made pun- 
 ishable by an act of Congress? Why is the law 
 incorporated in the Articles of War, as "a solemn 
 admonition to our officers and soldiers? Why do 
 we all pledge ourselves, on entering the service, to 
 conform to these rules, and profess to be governed 
 by them in the camp and on the field of battle? 
 And whj r did the Father of his Country remonstrate 
 so earnestly against the introduction of profane 
 swearing among our ancestors in arms, during their 
 struggle to extricate themselves from the burden of 
 the British yoke? Has alt this no aim or meaning? 
 impious sense of dependence upon Jehovah, and a 
 humble trust in his providential aid, underly these 
 enactments and warnings and pledges. And how 
 lean we hope for the help of a Grod whom we neither 
 fear nor love, and whose law we will not obey? 
 
THE OPEN SEPULCHER. 139 
 
 "Who hath hardened himself against him and pros- 
 pered ?" 
 
 "Because of swearing the land mourneth. " 
 Nothing else has discouraged me so much as the 
 prevalence of this most abominable of all abomina- 
 tions. But when I have been ready to despair on 
 account of it, I have consoled myself with the 
 thought, that an all- wise God mercifully discrimi- 
 nates between the cause we contend for and the 
 character of its defenders ; and that he will bless the 
 former for its righteousness^ though he send the latter 
 to hell for their wickedness. 
 
 The opinion of some among us seems to be, that 
 their souls arc safe because they are waging a good 
 warfare; and however vicious their lives, they hope 
 to 'be accepted at last for their patriotism. It is a 
 deplorable delusion. Piety, not patriotism, is the 
 passport into Paradise. What I does any one imagine 
 that he will enter the City of God because he has 
 faithfully served his country, though he die with 
 v blasphemy on his tongue ? He may be the best and 
 bravest of soldiers, but he must repent of his pro- 
 fanity, or he is lost forever; as certainly as he ever 
 invoked or defied the wrath of Heaven. 
 
 Robert Hall characterizes this sin, in the language 
 of the apostle, as the "superfluity of naughtiness," 
 and adds: "It can be considered only as a sort of 
 peppercorn rent, in acknowledgment of the devil's 
 right to superiority. ' * * * If we attempt to 
 analyze it, and reduce it to its real motive, we find 
 ourselves at a 1<>ss to discover any other than irre- 
 ligious ostentation, a desire of convincing the world 
 
140 CAMP AND FIELD. 
 
 that its perpetrators are not under the restraint of 
 religious fear. But as this motive is most impious 
 and detestable, so the practice arising from it is not 
 at all necessary for that purpose, since the persons 
 who persist in it may safely leave it to other parts of 
 their character to exonerate them from the suspicion 
 of being fearers of God. * * * They are in no 
 danger of being classed.with the pious, either in this 
 world or in that which is to come, and may safely 
 spare themselves the trouble of inscribing the name of 
 their master upon their foreheads. They are not so 
 near to the kingdom of God as to be liable to be 
 mistaken for its subjects." 
 
 Let me entreat all who may read this Paper, 
 especially those who arc righting for Southern free- 
 dom and independence, to cease at once and forever 
 from this shameful sin. Is it not high time there 
 were a reformation of tongues in our army ? " Who 
 is on the Lord's side ? let him come unto me." Who 
 will renounce cursing and swearing, and do all he 
 can to suppress it among his comrades ? Soldiers, I 
 appeal to you as rational creatures, capable of dis- 
 criminating between right and wrong ; I appeal to 
 you as social beings, influencing others by your 
 example to good or evil ; I appeal to you as moral 
 agents, accountable to God for the use of your noble 
 faculties of reason and of speech ; I appeal to you 
 as Southern patriots, desiring the welfare of your 
 country, the prosperity of your'governmcnt, and the 
 happiness of generations to come ; I appeal to you 
 as Confederate warriors, committing your righteous 
 cause to the God of battles, acknowledging his hand 
 
THE OPEN SEPULCHER. 141 
 
 in all jour former victories, and looking for his aid 
 in every future conflict and campaign ; I appeal to 
 you as men and officers, my brothers all, and fellow 
 sufferers in this glorious struggle — sharers of a com- 
 mon nature, subjects of a common redemption, and 
 expectants of a common immortality ; and I beseech 
 you by every high and holy consideration that can 
 move the human heart r to discontinue and discounte- 
 nance a practice so degrading to your manhood, so 
 corrupting to your morals, so insulting to your 
 Maker, so injurious to your comrades, so unfriendly 
 to your country, so unfavorable to your success, and 
 to pernicious to your souls t 
 
 ■* 
 
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 J 
 
 
A 
 
 
-5-| 
 
 CAMP AND FIELD. 
 
 >«-^- *~ 
 
 THftE SEOOMD BOOK? 
 
 WILL BE PUBLISHED IMMEDIATELY. 
 
 THJ3 FOLLOWING IS THE TABLE OF CONTENTS 
 
 I. MISCELLANEA. : i 
 
 II. CONFEDERATE FAST. 
 
 III. BENJAMIN F. BUTLER 
 
 IV. GENERAL DONELSON. 
 * V. THE CALM CENTER. 
 
 VI. THE STORMY CIRCUMFERENCE. 
 YH. CHANCELLORSVILLE. 
 VIII. STONEWALL JACKSON. 
 IX. ROMANTIC STEBPLE-CHASE. 
 X. WISDOM versus WEAPONS.