Part 2 (1/2)
We experienced some trouble on the way, and marched and countermarched a good deal, losing three hours' time and our tempers, in consequence of our General having forgotten that, in going through a strange country, he couldn't get on well without providing himself with a guide; and it was not till after dark that we got across the Antietam at Scotland's Bridge.
Once across, however, a pleasant moonlight march over a first-rate road, soon brought us to the border, and when our officers announced, ”That house marks the line, boys!” it was with no small gratification that we shook off the dust from our feet, singing with great empressment the Union version of ”Maryland--My Maryland,” together with a number of parodies not very complimentary to the ”men we left behind us.”
A few miles from the line, we camped by division. Many, in reading of a camp by division, imagine a most picturesque scene, of long lines of snowy tents being pitched, while trees are felled for firewood, and all sorts of poetic things take place. Nothing of the kind occurs. On arriving at the selected spot (generally a large field), the regiments file in one after another, taking their places in the order in which they marched, and break to the rear so as to form column by companies. The orders are given: ”Halt! Stack arms! _Go for rails!!_” And every man simultaneously drops his traps where he stands, and makes a bee-line for the tall worm fences, which are vanis.h.i.+ng in every direction, as if by magic. One of these rails must be contributed to the company fire, and happy is he who in addition to procuring his quota, can secure a couple more for himself! Serenely reposing on their sharp edges, covered by his rubber blanket, he defies at once the rain above and the mud below; or, more ambitious grown, the spoils of four are combined, and a shelter, a la rebel, is speedily constructed, which is roofed with two rubber blankets, and the proprietors lying underneath on the other two, are at once the admiration and envy of their comrades. The company rails being obtained, are split, a fire started, and supper cooked (if there is anything to cook), and the men, after smoking the pipe of peace, lie down, some around the fire, and the rest where they halted in the first instance, and in two minutes are fast asleep; blessing the memory of the discoverer of tobacco, and the man who invented sleep.
At the first streak of daylight all are awake; a hurried breakfast is made, or not (generally not), ablutions are likewise dispensed with; the ”a.s.sembly” sounds; rubbers and overcoats are hastily rolled and slung by those who are lucky enough to have them; a few hurried orders are pa.s.sed along the line; the troops fall in and march off; and in half-an-hour the trampled ground, the ashes of numerous fires, and the ruined fences, alone tell that ten thousand men have camped there for the night.
For some time we had been pressing hard upon the heels of Lee's retreating army, and at every step new signs of the rapidity of his movements were to be seen. He moved in three columns, the cavalry and artillery taking the road, and the infantry the fields on each side, through which their trampling had cut a path as wide as a city street, destroying the crops they encountered, in a way fit to bring tears into a farmer's eyes; and throughout the whole route, numbers of wounded men were found, left in the houses by the roadside, and deserters without end were encountered, while broken wagons, abandoned ammunition, canteens, &c., &c., were strewed on every side. Yet, notwithstanding these appearances of demoralization, it was evident, from the accounts of the country people, that, though much dispirited by their late defeat, the rebel army was far from being the mere mob that it was believed by some to be.
It is true that the mountains were full of stragglers, and our cavalry were constantly pa.s.sing us with crowds of prisoners in their charge; yet the main army had a good deal of fight left in it still, and when it turned on its pursuers, as it frequently did, like a stag at bay, it was not to be despised.
From the formation of the ground, in that section of country, the retreating army derived a great advantage over their pursuers, and were constantly enabled to take positions too strong to be attacked with less than the whole Union army, and where a mere show of strength would check our advance; and then before Meade could concentrate his forces, Lee would be off. At Funkstown in particular, with the simplest materials, a steep slope, fronted by the Antietam, had been converted by the rebels into a second Fredericksburgh. This was all that saved them, for General Meade pressed the pursuit fast and furious.
On the morning of Sunday, the 14th of July, we found ourselves at Cavetown, almost used up. We had had no breakfast; and, from a variety of causes, the march had been one of the most wearisome we had yet experienced. The morning was sultry and exhausting beyond expression; the atmosphere heavy, with that peculiar feeling which precedes a thunder-storm--and, in addition, our shoes were so nearly worn out that the sharp stones, which covered and almost paved a most abominable wheat-field, through which we had pa.s.sed on the route, had disabled many whose feet were just recovering from the blisters of previous marches.
As soon as we had halted, the division formed line of battle, on the rise of a little hill fronting Hagerstown (to act as supports to General Kilpatrick, who had gone forward that morning to attack it), and we then lay down to rest, first sending details in all directions to forage for a meal.
While idling around, bemoaning the condition of our feet, and discussing the chances of capturing Hagerstown, the sultry promise of the morning was amply redeemed by one of the most tremendous thunder-storms ever seen; the rain fell in torrents (but this was a matter of course, and excited no remark), and the thunder pealed and the lightning flashed all around us--too near to some. Five men of the Fifty-sixth Brooklyn were struck, one of whom died instantly, and the others were badly hurt. A gun belonging to the Thirty-seventh was shattered to pieces by the electric fluid; and several men in the different regiments were reminded by slight shocks that the farther they kept from the stacks of arms the better.
During the afternoon our ears and eyes were gladdened, the one by intelligence that Hagerstown had been taken after a sharp fight, the other by the sight of our dinner (or breakfast) coming up the road, in the shape of an astonished ox, who, when he threw up his head in response to the cheers which greeted his entre, was shot, skinned, and boiling, before he fairly knew what he was wanted for; and finally, the arrival and distribution of a case of shoes to those who were actually barefoot, put us all in the seventh heaven of delight. We also found some tobacco! To be sure it was poor stuff, apparently a villanous compound of seaweed and tea; but only those who have known what it is to see their stock of the precious weed vanish day by day, with no available means of replenis.h.i.+ng it, can imagine our feelings on finding a supply, after we had been reduced to less than a quarter of a pound to a company.
At about twelve o'clock the next day, the column camped by division, some three miles from General Meade's headquarters, about the same distance from Boonesboro', and within sight of the immense train of the reserve artillery, at a place where the old bivouacs of the Army of the Potomac filled the air with the nauseating smells invariably incident to deserted camps. In this delightful spot we waited for the battle which was to be brought on.
All were in high spirits;--it was universally supposed that the rains had made the Potomac unfordable, ”and that Lee was a goner this time sure;”
but as hour after hour pa.s.sed without a sound of the heavy cannonading which marks ”the battle's opening roar,” and rumor after rumor filled the air, the talk, as time lengthened, grew less and less hopeful, and finally during the afternoon we learned definitely that ”the play was played out.”
Lee was gone, boots and baggage, and our hopes of taking a hand in the contest which would probably have decided the war, were gone with him.
Perhaps it was all for the best. If Lee gave battle, it would be on selected ground, against weary troops, where every man in the rebel army knew he was fighting with no hope of escape, and would consequently resist to the utmost; under these circ.u.mstances, the contest, if not doubtful, would unquestionably have been b.l.o.o.d.y beyond all precedent; and many desolated homes, and empty places in the armories of the Empire City, would have mourned for those who would return no more.
We were now in the midst of the Army of the Potomac, and it is difficult for those inexperienced in such matters to form the least conception of the vast bulk of men and material which contribute to form that organization; yet, huge as it was, no confusion was visible, and everything went like clockwork, even during the difficulties of that hurried pursuit.
We only wished that the same could be said of us, but so far was this from being the case, that it was remarked by a regular officer that there was more dest.i.tution and suffering among our little division than among the whole Army of the Potomac, and no one acquainted with the facts can deny the correctness of the a.s.sertion.
It is impossible to express what a relief it was when we once became incorporated with this army; for to enter it, was coming once more from the scarcity and make-s.h.i.+fts of the backwoods, into the light of civilization. We found ourselves again among newspapers, and sutlers--people who could change a two-dollar bill and had things to sell; where greenbacks yet served as a medium of exchange, and provision trains were not more than two days behind time; and in our exultation, we even began to entertain vague hopes that, in the progress of events, our letters might be possibly forthcoming. It was now more than two weeks since a word of news had been heard, either from home or abroad; and we naturally were exceedingly anxious for a little information about matters and things in general. Our ignorance was painful on almost every subject.
Vicksburg, we knew, had been captured, but this was all; and even the battle of Gettysburg, fought right under our noses, and a common topic of conversation, was to us ”a tale untold.”
On the 15th of July, our time was up, the rebels gone, and there being nothing more that we could do, General Meade told us ”he was much obliged and we could go.” So, bidding General Smith a cordial good-by, we took up our line of march for Frederick City, _and home_; first, however, going a long way in the wrong direction, and having to countermarch back. This was nothing new, however, for, whether it was owing to ill luck, bad guides, indefinite orders, or stupidity, something of the kind took place at every movement that was ordered. The brigade never turned down a side-road, or took an unusual direction, without a general grumble arising--”Wrong road, of course! see if we don't have to go back in a few minutes,”--and we generally did. In truth, we went back so often, that we began to hate the very word ”countermarch.”
It is presumed that those in authority had been informed by telegraph respecting the riots in New York; but the first that the subordinates knew about the matter was, on obtaining, on the march, that memorable Herald, describing how the ”military fired on the _people_.” If any of the editors of that veracious journal had happened to be in our vicinity about that period, it is more than probable that they would have been furnished with a practical ill.u.s.tration of their text, for a more angry set of men than the first division N. Y. S. M., never was seen.