Part 5 (2/2)
March 26. We went on board the steamer ”Kennebeck” during the forenoon, and in the afternoon started for Baltimore. In the early morning of the 27th we steamed into the harbor of that city. The 2d Maryland was in the 1st Division and it was a Baltimore regiment. It had pa.s.sed through the city just ahead of us and had arranged with its friends there, to be on the lookout for the 21st when we came along and see that we had a good breakfast. Well, there was nothing for sale at any of the restaurants near the wharf to members of the 21st, but we were all treated to as good a breakfast as any fellow could wish for. The editor of the Baltimore American, whom we had become acquainted with when doing picket duty on the railroad near Annapolis Junction, in the autumn of 1861, was there to welcome us. After breakfast we fell in line, marched up to the office of the Baltimore American and the band played all the national airs. Every one made a speech. We gave three cheers and a tiger a number of times and then we marched back to the wharf again. This reception was arranged for by the 2d Maryland, in memory of the Pollocksville breakfast we gave them May 17th, 1862, down in North Carolina. We did not leave Baltimore until the next morning (the 28th), when just at dawn we steamed away and on through Harrisburg, Pa., and Altoona, where we were given a fine supper at midnight.
At Pittsburgh, on the 29th, we were marched to a public hall and given a fine reception; left in the morning for Cincinnati. On the way, at Coshocton, Ohio, we were received with great cordiality by the people, were given a fine breakfast and the tables were waited on by as handsome a lot of young ladies as can be seen anywhere. We reached Columbus, Ohio, early in the afternoon of the 30th. We were cordially received there and furnished coffee and sandwiches. After this was all over and the people who had furnished the lunch had gone home, the train remaining in the railroad station, some of the boys wandered up into the town to see the capitol buildings and anything else of interest. A little way up a guard was encountered, refusing the boys admission to the town. After some bantering the guard opened fire on the boys, killing two and wounding a number of others. This so enraged the boys that there was a general rush for their guns, and had not the officers been on hand at the time there would have been a lot of blood spilled. The boys were got on to the train and we left the town as soon as possible.
The guard that opened fire on our boys was a detail from a new regiment of Ohio soldiers. How a lot of new soldiers doing ordinary guard duty in a city like that were given loaded muskets was impossible to understand. We reached Cincinnati at two o'clock the next morning, March 31st. We marched to the Market House where we received a good breakfast and cordial greeting from the people. While there, we learned that we were a.s.signed to the ”Army of the Ohio” and that General Burnside had been put in command of the ”Department of the Ohio.” In the middle of the day we crossed the river and took train for Paris, Ky., arriving there in the early morning of April 1st. We went into camp and remained there three days.
April 3d. We marched to Mt. Sterling, a distance of twenty-two miles.
Here, we were to do frontier duty, a.s.sisting in protecting the people of Kentucky from raids by Confederate cavalry and guerrillas which had become very common. The march to Mt. Sterling was through the blue gra.s.s region and over a fine turnpike--the first fine road we had seen since leaving New England. Mt. Sterling is the county town of Montgomery County and has about 3000 inhabitants. But as we marched through the town we saw not one of the 3000. The streets were deserted, the blinds on the windows were closed and the doors barred. We marched on through the village out on one of the main roads and went into camp. A strong guard was put around the camp and no one was allowed to go in town.
During the evening the day after we reached Mt. Sterling, the cavalry pickets were driven in by a guerrilla band, but they got no farther than our picket post. There they came to a very sudden stop. The next day we changed camp, going to a large pasture on high ground finely drained and with a grove of beautiful trees in it, about a mile from town.
The reason for the cold reception we received from the people of Mt.
Sterling on our arrival there, was because we were from the black abolition state of Ma.s.sachusetts. They preferred, we were told, to remain unguarded rather than be guarded by Ma.s.sachusetts men. However, it was our fortune to see a most remarkable change in the sentiment of the people toward us in a very short time. Colonel Clark, the commander of the regiment, was an Amherst professor, a man of intellect and culture, and a man of an exceptionally fine presence. He was a fine example of New England culture and must have made a superior impression on the leading men of the town and county. As soon as we reached there a strong guard was put on the court house, the jail and every other public building and piece of public property that required guarding. Not a soldier was allowed in the village excepting the guards on duty; no one was allowed to touch anything he did not buy and pay for in the regular way. Raiding the town by guerrillas was stopped, perfect order was maintained. And as a result on the 17th we were invited, by the civil authorities, to move down into the village and camp in the beautiful grounds in front of the court house; and there we remained until early in July.
This period of three months was the most delightful period we had during the war. It was a veritable campaign of peace. Confidence returned to the people of Mt. Sterling, the court held its regular sessions, a thing that had not been done since the war broke out. We were paid off; money was spent freely and Mt. Sterling put on her holiday attire. After we moved down into the court house grounds there was no guard kept around the camp, the boys were allowed to go and come as they pleased so long as they behaved themselves and were present at roll-call. In a short time they became acquainted with the people of the village and in the country around. They used to wander off into the country for miles, call at the farmers' houses, and buy things to eat. In this way they became acquainted in families, and those acquaintances in many instances ripened into friends.h.i.+ps. A Company E man and I went off into the country one day some three or four miles. We came to a medium-sized, pleasantly situated house, with a lot of hens in the yard. We thought this our opportunity to get some eggs, which was our errand, and walked up to the door and knocked. We were invited in. As we were buying our eggs two young ladies appeared. We did not feel like rus.h.i.+ng away then, although the girls were a little slighting in their answers to questions and in speaking of the Confederates referred to them as ”our men.” In the course of the conversation it was disclosed that they had relations in the Confederate army. However, the girls were young and attractive and we did not hurry.
There was a piano in the room and my friend suggested that one of them favor us with a selection. The younger one, a girl about twenty, sat down and played ”Dixie” and ”My Maryland.” As she finished she swung around on her chair and glanced at each of us in a way that said, what do you think of that. We complimented her and asked her to play the ”Star Spangled Banner,” and ”Columbia, the Gem of the Ocean” which she did as a favor. My friend then asked her to play the Ma.r.s.ellaise. She did not recognize it.
Would he hum it?--she might remember it. He hummed it, but it was evident she did not know it. Finally, she said in a rather saucy way, ”Why don't you play it yourself?” He said he would if it was agreeable. A plainly dressed private soldier sat down to the piano but from that moment the instrument seemed inspired. He played the ”Ma.r.s.ellaise,” ”The Watch on the Rhine;” then he played a number of selections of dance music from Strauss and other things. If he stopped they would say, ”Oh don't stop, play something else.” For nearly an hour he played ahead--those people and I as well were charmed; it was interesting to see those girls glance at each other and at their mother at times when the music was especially interesting. When finally he did stop, the saucy distant airs of the girls were gone, they had become our friends. We were then less disposed than before to leave, and when we did go it was with the understanding that we would come again and in future buy all our hens' eggs from them.
We did no drilling while there. Our princ.i.p.al duties were picketing the roads leading into the town from the south, east and west, keeping the bra.s.s plates on our accoutrements and our shoes, well polished. Reports of guerrillas being in adjoining towns reached us from time to time, but as those men never really wanted to fight, but only to steal, they never approached very near Mt. Sterling.
In talking with one of the Union men of the village one day about the people who were in sympathy with the South he said, ”Zeek Jones over there was until lately one of the biggest Rebels in the blue gra.s.s region; he preached it and he sung it until the Rebel cavalry came along and bought out all his horned cattle, horses, potatoes and general truck and paid him in Confederate money; then he sung a new tune--he's been cursing them ever since. He sits up nights to swear about them. Nothing like that to bring a man around, stranger,” and the old man haw-hawed right heartily.
About a mile from the village on one of the roads leading from it, a picket post had pitched its tent near what appeared to be some deserted buildings. At night there issued from the house the most delightful music.
The unknown singer had a contralto voice, with all the richness of tone of the most highly trained prima donna. For three successive evenings there poured forth from the house a concert the like of which those soldiers had never heard. On the third night one of the boys could endure it no longer, his curiosity had got the best of him. He approached the building, climbed over the garden wall, pa.s.sed around the house, and, lo, there was an open window. He stole up to it and peeped in. The room was full of music. For a moment he was lost in the splendor of the tones, when lo, upon the kitchen table sat a colored girl singing as if her heart would burst. As she sang she scoured her dishes. She saw him! He dropped and slunk away. ”Go way dar you soger man, or I'll let fly de frying pan at you head. You mustn't stan dar peeking at dis yer chile.” The romantic vision was dispelled. The soldier stole back to his companions, but that entrancing music was never heard to issue from that house again.
Once we marched to Paris and once to Sharpsburg to attack guerrillas, but in each instance when we reached the place the guerrillas had disappeared.
Twice we were ordered away, but each time the people sent to headquarters extensively signed pet.i.tions praying that we might remain there a little longer. And stay we did until the corps was nearly ready to march into Tennessee, and the capture of the hearts of two Kentucky belles of the blue gra.s.s region, by men of the 21st were among the results of our campaign in Kentucky.
July 6. With sincere regret we said goodbye to our many friends at Mt.
Sterling and marched to Lexington. The farmers of the vicinity showed the sincerity of their regard for us by turning out with their teams and carrying our knapsacks the whole thirty-three miles. It was a sweltering hot day, and in our untrained condition it was all we could stand. As we reached Lexington we found the streets filled with farmers and their stock, they having come to town to escape from a guerrilla band that was reported to be in the vicinity. But we were there in time and the guerrillas did not attempt to enter the town. We went into camp in a large field near Fort Clay. The 16th we changed camp, going to a beautiful grove near the Lexington cemetery. Here we remained until we started for Tennessee.
CHAPTER VII
THE CAMPAIGN IN TENNESSEE
We crossed the c.u.mberland Range. The patient mule. Seeing a railroad engine with a train of cars make a dive. The siege of Knoxville. ”Will you lend me my n.i.g.g.e.r, Colonel?” Re-enlistment. Recrossed the Mountains, returning to Kentucky on the way home, on our re-enlistment furlough.
We remained in camp near the Lexington cemetery at Lexington, just one month, until August 12, 1863, when we made our first start for Tennessee.
We took train for Nicholasville, then marched to Camp Nelson, where we went into camp, and stayed another month having a delightful time in that most healthy and beautiful place.
September 12. We started in good earnest on our march over the mountains but went only as far as Camp d.i.c.k Robinson. As we went into camp we were drenched by a fearful thunder storm, hailstones falling the size of marbles. The next day we made a good day's march pa.s.sing through the town of Lancaster. The 14th we pa.s.sed through the village of Crab Orchard, camping for the night a little way beyond the town.
The 15th we remained in camp, but the 16th we moved on a good distance in spite of the dreadful roads, along the sides of which lay numerous wrecks of army wagons, dead mules, etc. We were then getting into the foothills of the c.u.mberland range, and also into the abode of the rattlesnake, a number having been seen the last day or two. Colonel Hawks made an interesting discovery as he started to retire last night. He found a rattlesnake about two feet and a half long comfortably coiled up in his blankets, that was not the kind of bedfellow the colonel was looking for, and he was despatched at short notice. The 17th we met a lot of Confederate prisoners being taken to the rear. They had been captured at c.u.mberland Gap. They were about the dirtiest and most repulsive looking lot of men I have ever seen. We climbed Wildcat Mountain, a hill so steep it did not seem as if the trains could ever get up it; but by going slow and with a good deal of pus.h.i.+ng and pulling by the boys they did succeed in reaching the top without accident. We pa.s.sed through the town of Loudon and Barboursville, and September 21st crossed the c.u.mberland River at c.u.mberland Ford.
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