Part 30 (1/2)
(The accompanying map will give some idea of the location of the troops and the physical surroundings.)
Whole companies were sometimes posted at somewhat remote and inaccessible places for observation and picket duty.
Scouts and spies constantly reported large accessions to the enemy.
Reynolds, therefore, called loudly for reinforcements, but only a few came. On August 26th five companies of the 9th Ohio (Bob McCook's German regiment) and five companies of the 23d Ohio (Col.
E. P. Scammon) reached Camp Elk Water. These companies numbered, present for duty, about eight hundred.
The two regiments later became famous. Robert L. McCook and August Willich were then of the 9th, and both afterwards achieved distinction as soldiers.
The 23d was originally commanded by Colonel Wm. S. Rosecrans; then by Colonel E. P. Scammon, who became a Brigadier-General; then by Colonel Stanley Matthews, who became a United States Senator from Ohio, and a Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States; then by Colonel Rutherford B. Hayes, who became a Brigadier-General and Brevet Major-General, and distinguished himself in many battles; he subsequently became a Representative in Congress, was thrice Governor of Ohio, and then President of the United States. Its last commander was Colonel James M. Comly, a brilliant soldier who, after the war, became a distinguished journalist, and later honorably represented his country as Minister at Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands.
Lieutenant Robert P. Kennedy was of this regiment, and not only became a Captain and a.s.sistant Adjutant-General, but was brevetted a Brigadier-General, and since the war has been Lieutenant-Governor of Ohio and four years in Congress. Wm. McKinley was also of this regiment, serving as a private, Commissary Sergeant, became a Second and First Lieutenant, then a Captain and Brevet Major, and, since the war, has served four terms as Representative in Congress, has been twice Governor of Ohio, and (as I write) the indications are that he will be nominated in June, 1896, for President, with a certainty of election the following November.( 4)
On August 14, 1861, while Captain Henry E. Cunard, of the 3d Ohio, with part of his company, was on advanced picket on the Brady's Gate road, privates Vincent and Watson, under Corporal Stiner, discovered a man stealthily pa.s.sing around them through the woods, whom they halted and proceeded to interrogate.
”He professed to be a farm hand; said his employer had a mountain farm not far away, where he pastured cattle; that a two-year-old steer had strayed away, and he was looking for him. His clothes were fearfully torn by brush and briars. His hands and face were scratched by thorns. He had taken off his boots to relieve his swollen feet, and was carrying them in his hands. Imitating the language and manners of an uneducated West Virginian, he asked the sentinel if he 'had seed anything of a red steer.' The sentinel had not. After continuing the conversation for a time he finally said: 'Well, I must be a-going, it is a-gettin' late and I'm durned feared I won't get back to the farm afore night. Good-day.' 'Hold on,' said the sentinel; 'better go and see the Captain.' 'O, no, don't want to trouble him, it is not likely he has seed the steer, and it's a-gettin' late.' 'Come right along,' replied the sentinel, bringing down his gun; 'the Captain will not mind being troubled; in fact, I am instructed to take such as you to him.'”( 5)
The boots were discovered by the keen instinct of the inquiring Yankee to be too neatly made and elegant for a Western Virginian mountaineer employed at twelve dollars a month in caring for cattle in the hackings. When asked the price paid for the boots, the answer was fifteen dollars. The suspect was a highly educated gentleman, wholly incapable of acting his a.s.sumed character. He had touched the higher education and civilization of men of learning, and his tongue could not be attuned to lie and deceive in the guise of one to the manor born. Though at first Captain Cunard hesitated, he told the gentleman he would take him for further examination to camp. Finding the Captain, in his almost timid native modesty, was nevertheless obdurate, the now prisoner, knowing hope of escape was gone, declared himself to be Captain Julius A. De Lagnel, late commander of the Confederates in the battle of Rich Mountain, where he was reported killed. His tell-tale boots were made in Was.h.i.+ngton.
He was severely wounded July 11th, and had succeeded in reaching a friendly secluded house near the battle-field, where he remained and was cared for until his wound healed and he was able to travel.
He had been in the mountains five days and four nights, and just as he was pa.s.sing the last and most advanced Union picket he was taken.
His little stock of provisions, consisting of a small sack of biscuits, was about exhausted, and what remained was spoiled. He was taken to camp, wet, s.h.i.+vering, and exhausted from starvation, cold, and exposure. It is needless to say his wants of all kinds were supplied at once by the Union officers. After remaining a few days in our camp, and meeting General Reynolds, who knew him in the United States Army, he was sent to join Pegram at Fort McHenry. Both these officers were soon exchanged, and served through the war, neither rising to great eminence. Pegram became a Major-General, and died, February 6, 1865, of wounds received at Hatcher's Run. De Lagnel became a Brigadier-General, and survived the war. He had the misfortune of being twice captured, as we have seen,( 6) once as a Union and once as a Confederate officer; neither capture, however, occurred through any fault of his.
The 3d Ohio was encamped on the banks of Tygart's Valley River, usually an innocent, pleasantly-flowing mountain stream, but, as it proved, capable of a sudden rise to a dangerous height, as most streams are that are located to catch the waters from many rivulets, gulches, and ravines leading from the adjacent mountain sides and spurs.
Ill.u.s.trating the exigencies of camp life, an incident is given of this river suddenly rising (August 20th) so as to threaten to sweep away in the flood the 3d Ohio hospital, located by Surgeon McMeans for health and safety on a small island, ordinarily easy of access.
The hospital tent contained two wounded and a dozen or more sick.
The tents and inmates were at the first alarm removed to the highest ground on the island by men who swam out thither for the purpose.
By seven in the evening, however, it became apparent that the whole island would soon be submerged; and logs, driftwood, green trees, etc., were sweeping down the river at a tremendous speed. To rescue the wounded, sick, and attendants at the hospital seemed impossible.
Various suggestions were made; a raft was proposed, but this was decided impracticable as, if made and launched, it would in such a current be uncontrollable.
Lieutenant-Colonel John Beatty, of the 3d Ohio, with that Scotch- Irish will and heroic determination which characterized him in all things, especially in fighting the enemy, met the emergency. He got into an army wagon and compelled the teamster to drive into the rus.h.i.+ng stream above the island so that he could move, in part, with the current. Thus, by swimming the horses, he, with a few others, escaped the floating timbers and reached the imperiled hospital. He found at once that it was impossible to carry back the occupants or even to return with the wagon. He promptly ordered the driver to unhitch the horses and swim them to sh.o.r.e, and to return in like manner with two or three more wagons. Two more wagons reached Beatty, but one team was carried down the stream and drowned. He placed the three wagons on the highest ground, though all the island was soon overflowed, chained and tied them securely together and to stakes or trees. On the wagon boxes the hospital tent was rolled, and the sick and wounded were placed thereon with some of the hospital supplies. He, with those accompanying him, decided to remain and share their fate, and he, with some who could not get into the wagon, climbed into the trees.
The river at 10 P.M. had reached the hubs of the wagons and threatened to submerge them, but soon after it commenced to recede slowly, though a rain again set in, lasting through the night. Morning found the river fast resuming its normal state, and the Colonel and his rescuing party, with the hospital occupants, were all brought safely to the sh.o.r.e.
Two diverting incidents occurred in the night. A false alarm led to the long roll being beaten, the noise of which, and of the men rapidly a.s.sembling, could just be heard on the island above the roar of the water. Francis Union, of Company A of the 3d, was shot in the dark and killed, without challenge, by a frightened sentinel.
This caused the long roll to be beaten.
Beatty mentions an entertainment, not on the bill, to which he and others were treated while clinging to the trees above the flood, and which was furnished by a soldier teamster (Jake Smith) who had swum to the aid of the hospital people, and a hospital attendant, both of whom were so favorably located as to enjoy unrestrained access to the hospital ”commissary.” They both became intoxicated, and then quarrelled over their relative _rank_ and social standing.
The former insisted upon the other addressing him as _Mr._ Smith, not as ”Jake.” The Smith family, he a.s.serted, was not only numerous but highly respectable, and, as one of its honored members, no person of rank below a major-general should take the liberty of calling him ”_Jake;_” especially would this not be tolerated from ”one who carried out pukes and slop-buckets from a field hospital”
--such a one should not even call him ”_Jacob_.” This disrespectful allusion to his calling ruffled the temper of the hospital attendant, and, growing profane, he insisted that he was as good as _Smith_, and better, and at once challenged ”the bloviating mule scrubber to get down off his perch and stand up before him like a man.”
”Jake” was unmoved by this counter-a.s.sault, and towards morning, with a strong voice and little melody, sang:( 7)
”Ho, gif gla.s.s uf goodt lauger du me, Du mine fader, mine modter, mine vife; Der day's vork vas done, undt we'll see Vot bleasures der vos in dis life.
”Undt ve sit us aroundt mit der table, Undt ve speak of der oldt, oldt time, Ven ve lif un dot house mit der gable, Un der vine-cladt banks of der Rhine,” etc.
While at camp at Elk Water my wife and three months' old son, Joseph Warren, Jr., Hon. William White (brother-in-law) and his wife Rachel, and their son, Charles R. White (then twelve years old), visited me for a brief experience in camp with the army. They remained until the morning of September 12th. On the 11th Judge White accompanied me to Reynolds' headquarters, at Cheat Mountain Pa.s.s, and while there he was, by the General, invited to visit the camp on Cheat Mountain summit. It was suggested that in doing so I should, with the Judge, join Lieutenant Wm. E. Merrill, of the engineers, at Camp Elk Water the following morning, go by the main road to the summit, thence down the mountain path _via_ the Rosecrans house to camp. This suggestion we were inclined to adopt, but on regaining camp I ascertained that the enemy had been seen nearer our camp than usual, and decided it was safest for the visiting party to depart for home. They accordingly bade us good-by on the next morning and proceeded _via_ Huttonville, Beverly, Laurel Hill, Philippi, Webster, and Grafton, safely to their homes at Springfield, Ohio.