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 THE JAMES VERNER SCAIFE 
 COLLECTION 
 
 CIVIL WAR LITERATURE 
 
 THE GIFT OF 
 
 JAMES VERNER SCAIFE 
 
 CLASS OF 1889 
 
 1919 
 
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 http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924030908036 
 
YOUR FRIEND AND COMRADE, 
 
 MARCUS B.TONEY, 
 
 COM PAN 
 
 , CON FEDERATE VETERANS 
 
THE PRIVATIONS OF A 
 PRIVATE. 
 
 THE CAMPAIGN UNDER GEN. R. E. LEE; THE CAMPAIGN UNDER 
 GEN. STONEWALL JACKSON; BRAGG"S INVASION OF KEN- 
 TUCKY; TH£ CH1CKAMAUGA CAMPAIGN; THE WILDER- 
 NESS CAMPAIGN; PRISON LIFE IN THE NORTH; 
 THE PRIVATIONS OF A CITIZEN ; THE KU- 
 KLUX KLAN; A UNITED CITIZENSHIP. 
 
 BY AURCUS B. TONEY. 
 
 o 
 ooo 
 ooco 
 
 Nashville, Tenn.; 
 Printed for the Author. 
 
 Y* 
 
A.33f27ff 
 
 COPYRIGHT, K-05, 
 
 BY 
 
 MARCUS Si. TONEY, 
 
 
irirtratorg. 
 
 TO THE BOYS WHO WORE THE GRAY — 1S61-65 — 
 
 AND BATTLED FOR THEIR CONSTITUTIONAL RIGHTS, 
 
 AND REMAINED TRUE TO THE PRINCIPLES 
 
 FOR WHICH THEY FOUGHT, 
 
 THIS VOLUME IS RESPECTFULLY DF.DICATED BY 
 
 THE AUTHOR. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 "The Girl I Left Behind Me" 9 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 Campaign under Gen. Stonewall Jackson .... 27 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 The Return to Tennessee 35 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 Bragg's Invasion of Kentucky 39 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 The Chickamauga Campaign 56 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 Carry Me Back to Old Virginia 66 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 On the Rapidan 70 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 The Wilderness Campaign 72 
 
8 THE PRIVATIONS OF A PRIVATE. 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Prison Life, Point Lookout, Md 84 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 Prison Life at Elmira, N. Y 93 
 
 CHAPTER XL 
 The Privations of a Citizen 122 
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 A United Citizenship .129 
 
THE PRIVATIONS OF A PRIVATE. 
 
 CHAPTER 1. 
 "The Girl I Left Behind Me." 
 
 The purpose of this volume is to follow the life of 
 a Confederate private as I lived it and saw it lived by 
 others in the great struggle of 1861-65. The causes 
 leading to the Civil War are history, and need not be 
 enumerated here, except to say that our New England 
 cousins first engaged in the African slave trade; but, 
 finding their labor not profitable in that section, sold 
 their slaves to the Southern people, and a few years aft- 
 erwards looked upon the institution as horrible and the 
 Southern people as barbarians. Their continued on- 
 slaught against it caused the separation of the Meth- 
 odist Church, and we of the Southern branch have 
 been known as the Methodist Episcopal Church, 
 South. Many of the older people of that date pre- 
 dicted that the agitation of the question would lead 
 to the secession of the Southern States, which they 
 thought would be done peaceably. In their fight 
 against slavery in the South the abolitionists vilified 
 and abused the Southern people, their school primers 
 were illustrated with pictures of Southern farmers with 
 whip in hand chastising brutally the poor blacks. The 
 book written by Mrs. Harriet Beecher Stowe and the 
 drama therefrom, "Uncle Tom's Cabin," were a libel 
 upon the Southern people; yet they served their pur- 
 
IO THE PRIVATIONS OF A PRIVATE. 
 
 pose in inflaming the minds of the people North and 
 prejudicing the South against the North. Mrs. 
 Stowe may have visited a Southern plantation in which, 
 the owner being absent, the overseer may have treated 
 some of the slaves in a cruel manner; but this would 
 have been an isolated case, and not representing the 
 Southern people as a class. Mrs. Stowe could have 
 said she had visited the Southern plantations and was 
 surprised to see such a degree of harmony as existed 
 between master and servant, maid and mistress, who 
 were living as one great family in peace and harmony; 
 that the master and servant had grown up boys to- 
 gether, that the young servant had attended his young 
 master to school, and that they had played together 
 the games common to young people of that day; and 
 that the maid had attended the mistress from girl- 
 hood to womanhood, and there existed a mutual con- 
 fidence between them ; and there was the old black 
 mammy who had nurtured the young master and mis- 
 tress from her breasts, nursed them in her arms, and 
 sang them to sleep many a night with her plaintive 
 and sweet lullaby. Mrs. Stowe could have gone to 
 black mammy's and Uncle Tom's cabin and said she 
 was surprised. with what neatness it was kept, and that 
 the table was supplied from the products of the farm 
 and old master's larder, and that the black folks 
 dressed about as well as the whites, and that on Sun- 
 day Uncle Tom put on broadcloth and plug hat and 
 was better dressed than old master. After supper 
 Mlrs. Stowe could have seen Uncle Tom take down 
 his banjo and play "Billy in the Low Grounds" and 
 "Arkansas Traveler," while the young pickaninnies 
 
''THE GIRL I LEFT BEHIND ME." 1 1 
 
 danced around him. Mrs. Stowe could have gone up 
 to the mistress's room of the old plantation, and there 
 have seen two old-fashioned wooden cradles, one on 
 each side of the bed, the one containing the white the 
 other the black baby ; not that the blacks did not have 
 time to attend to their offspring, but they would neg- 
 lect them. 
 
 I will say here that my black mammy did not have 
 the affection for her children that she displayed to- 
 ward me. Next to my own mother, black mammy was 
 as gentle to me ; but with her own children I have seen 
 her manifest an ungovernable temper, and twice in 
 my boyhood I have seen my father take her children 
 from her and say: "That child has been whipped 
 enough I" 
 
 Mrs. Stowe could have visited our jails and peni- 
 tentiaries and wondered why so few prisoners in 
 black; she could have been told that the blacks were 
 imprisoned for murder and arson only, that for petty 
 crimes the master was responsible and stood between 
 the law and the slave, hence they were not allowed to 
 prowl after night without a pass from the master, or 
 the patrol would get them; hence the slaves kept reg- 
 ular hours, which was beneficial to them. 
 
 Mrs. Stowe could have said that in some Southern 
 States she found the whipping post after being tied 
 to which and their clothing stripped to the waist the 
 whites and blacks were given nine and thirty lashes 
 for petty crimes. Of course this was severe punish- 
 ment to both whites and blacks, but in those days it 
 was not considered more cruel than prison walls. 
 
 Mrs. Stowe could next have visited the asylums for 
 
12 THE PRIVATIONS OF A PRIVATE. 
 
 the insane, and reported them full of whites, but she 
 was struck with the absence of the blacks. The super- 
 intendent could have said to her: "Why should we 
 have any slaves here? They have nothing to worry 
 them, they are not troubled about finance or the busi- 
 ness affairs of the world; old master supplies their 
 every want, looks after all their families, clothes and 
 feeds them, and furnishes his own physician in case 
 of illness." 
 
 Surely Mrs. Stowe could have said: "In all my 
 travels I have never seen a happier or a better satisfied 
 race with their lot — no thought of to-morrow, what 
 they shall eat, drink, or wherewithal be clothed. Why 
 should this condition of affairs be changed ?" 
 
 Let us see. In i860 I had two homes, both occu- 
 pied by my negroes, one in what was then Edgefield, 
 opposite Nashville, and the other near Lynchburg, Va. 
 All my family except the blacks had crossed over the 
 river, and I decided to move the Lynchburg family to 
 Edgefield, Tenn., arriving during the heated campaign 
 in i860 which elected Mr. Lincoln President. Wheth- 
 er his election was a casus belli, I do not know, but 
 I do know that the abolitionists of the North had so 
 outraged the feelings of the Southern people that we 
 felt we did not want any further affiliation with them. 
 It is true that many of our old people who had been 
 reared under the shadow of the Hermitage coun- 
 seled against secession, and hoped that some com- 
 promise would be effected and the Union preserved ; 
 but the secession of South Carolina and the firing on 
 Fort Sumter banished all their hopes, and war was 
 inevitable, especially after President Lincoln called 
 
THE GIRL I LEFT BEHIND ME. 1 3 
 
 for 75,000 and then 300,000 troops to coerce the South- 
 ern States, as under our idea of State rights at that 
 time each State should have been allowed to depart in 
 peace, but such was not the case. The old Volunteer 
 State was expected to do her duty, and the governor's 
 call met a hearty response, and the enlisting began in 
 April, 1 861. The young ladies were as enthusiastic 
 as the young men; and if they found a fellow luke- 
 warm, he was threatened with a petticoat and was not 
 allowed to hang up his hat in their father's hall. 
 
 I thought Virginia was to be the theater of war for 
 probably six or eight weeks. We would have a battle 
 in which one Southern man would whip five Yankees 
 with cornstalks, England would intervene, peace would 
 be declared, and we should return home finding all 
 our servants smiling at our home-coming. Vain 
 thought! Four years and three months I was absent, 
 and found no home on my return. The slaves were 
 all free, but morally and financially in much worse 
 state than when I left them. O if we could have had 
 a Roosevelt across the water ; but all the nations stood 
 aloof and said, "Sick 'em, and may the heaviest guns 
 and artillery win !" There was too much revenue for 
 some people in war to want it stopped. 
 
 I thought the first regiment enrolled would reach 
 the seat of war early; and as the Rock City Guards, 
 A, B, and C were organized before the war, I enlisted 
 in Company B, in which there were one hundred and 
 four members, commanded by Capt. James B. Craig- 
 head. We drilled in Edgefield and on the Square from 
 April 15 to May 10, 1861, when we were mustered 
 into the regiment, containing nearly one thousand men. 
 
1 4 THE PRIVATIONS OF A PRIVATE. 
 
 Our line extended across the Square. We elected as 
 Colonel George Maney. We were sent for a few 
 days to Camp Harris (named for Governor Isham G. 
 Harris), on Elk River, near Estill Springs. While 
 many of the young men of the South were adepts in 
 the use of arms, we were novices as to cooking and 
 washing. We knew that water and flour mixed made 
 batter, and we knew that meat when fried made gravy ; 
 so with this much of the art acquired, we had fried 
 dough, or what the boys called flapjacks. As to the 
 washing — well, let that pass. 
 
 Instead of leaving Camp Harris for Virginia, we 
 were returned to Camp Cheatham, where we were put 
 through camp life- and two daily drills. While here 
 the young ladies from the Nashville Academy of Dr. 
 Elliott presented us with a regimental flag by Miss 
 Foster. Many cases of and deaths from measles took 
 place at the camp, and the doleful dirge of the dead 
 march often touched our hearts. We ■ remained at 
 Camp Cheatham nearly six weeks, all chafing under 
 the delay and fearing the war would be over before 
 we reached Virginia. We made one trip as a regi- 
 ment to Goodlettsville June 22 to vote Tennessee out 
 of the Union. Soon thereafter we folded our tents 
 and took the train for Nashville, where we stopped a 
 few hours and bivouacked on the lawn in front of the 
 Nashville Academy, where some three hundred young 
 ladies of the city gave us a luncheon and assembled to 
 say good-by. 
 
 I will say right here that nothing shall be written 
 by me that will encourage young men to go to war. 
 I would rather discourage, because nothing in it tends 
 
'5 
 
 to elevate the young. Separate men from home influ- 
 ences and from the refining influences of female soci- 
 ety, and they degenerate very rapidly. I don't sup- 
 pose ten per cent of the young men who go to war 
 maintain their integrity. This is my opinion after 
 careful study. I will say further that we left Nash- 
 ville with as good a lot of boys as ever went to the 
 front, ' * 
 
 After luncheon we fell in and marched to the N. 
 and C. depot to the tune of "The Girl I Left behind 
 Me." I was too young to be leaving a girl behind me ; 
 so I marched out with light step and joyous heart, not 
 dreaming of the shock of battle, the roar of cannon, 
 the hissing of bullets, and the groans of the wounded 
 and dying. I looked to the right as we were passing 
 the girls, and saw tears gathering in many eyes, for 
 from the intuition of womanhood they knew war 
 meant death and destruction, and that many of the 
 boys going to the front would fill soldiers' graves; 
 and such was the case, for Company B lost seventy- 
 one— only thirty-two reached home alive. It was 
 only a short march to the N. and C. depot; in those 
 days the N. and C. was spelled with small letters ; now 
 it is Nashville, Chattanooga, and St. Louis Railway. 
 In those days we had small engines, after the pattern 
 of the "General," with wood-burner furnace and big 
 smokestack. We had ten box cars, 16,000 pounds 
 capacity, and our speed was some fifteen miles an 
 hour; now we have engines, as 251, 252, of nearly 
 ninety tons, and developing a speed of sixty miles an 
 hour with ten cars, including the coaches and Pullman 
 sleepers. 
 
1 6 THE PRIVATIONS OF A PRIVATE. 
 
 In those days the N. and C. Railway track was on 
 stringers instead of cross ties. The rails were laid 
 on these stringers, and were flat like bar iron, and 
 were nailed to the stringers, as they were too thin to 
 use spikes. Sometimes the nails would draw out, and 
 the end of a rail fly up, tearing up coaches. In those 
 days the box cars were small, and 16,000 pounds was 
 the maximum. Into these box cars we climbed and 
 stood as thick as pins in a pincushion. When a fel- 
 low got tired of standing, he could climb to the top of 
 the car, lie flat like a lizard, and hold on to the run- 
 ning board. About every fifteen miles we had to 
 wood and water, and in order to rest themselves many 
 of the boys would crawl down and spread out on the 
 ground. In those days the passenger coaches were 
 small, with little panes of glass ; and in order to see 
 out, one would have to raise the window. The N. and 
 C. had one train from Atlanta to Nashville called the 
 "owl train" — out owl night — left Nashville at 8 a.m., 
 and arrived in Atlanta next morning at eight o'clock. 
 
 We reached Knoxville in two days, and much to our 
 surprise went into camp just north of the railroad 
 track and in quite thick woods. Knoxville was a small 
 town in 1861, and had no houses north of the railroad. 
 Now she has nearly a city north of the railroad, and 
 she has crowded herself across the Tennessee River. 
 It was while here that we heard that up in Parson 
 Brownlow's home was a United States flag unfurled to 
 the breeze, and some daring soldier said it should 
 not flaunt, and went up to take it down; but Miss 
 Brownlow, with pistol in hand, said: "The man that 
 touches that flag will die," Of course the Southern 
 
"THE GIRL I LEFT BEHIND ME." I 7 
 
 soldier did not die, as he had too much respect for the 
 lady to disturb her flag. Miss Brownlow afterwards 
 married my friend H. M. Aiken, and I had the pleasure 
 of meeting her a few years ago, but said to her that 
 I was not the soldier that went after the flag. 
 
 After a few days in Knoxville we boarded the 
 train and went as far as Johnson City, where again we 
 went into camp. Why those continuous delays I have 
 never been able to find. out, and my readers can imag- 
 ine how we chafed under the delay, as the armies 
 were gathering around Manassas for battle. We 
 fussed and fumed for a few days, when the rush order 
 came to run with all speed to Manassas. We sped the 
 best we could; but when we reached Lynchburg, Va., 
 the battle had been fought and won, many of the 
 wounded had been brought to Lynchburg, and this 
 was our first sight of the bloody war. The first 
 wounded man I saw was Hon. H. A. Edmondson, of 
 Roanoke, Va., who was a brother of John K. Edmond- 
 son, before the war sheriff of Davidson County, Tenn. 
 Having nothing to do, we were held at Lynchburg, 
 the City of Hills; and as we bivouacked near Black 
 Water Creek on a steep hill, we had no use for a 
 pillow, but if a soldier got crossways the hill he had 
 a chance of rolling into the creek, far below. 
 
 While our troops had such success at Manassas, 
 General Garnett had been killed at King's Mountain, 
 General Lee had been appointed' to command the De- 
 partment of West Virginia, and hitherward we were 
 ordered; so we boarded the train for Millboro, Va., 
 and stopped a few days at Staunton, where we met 
 many of General Gamett's soldiers, and they were in 
 
1 8 THE PRIVATIONS OF A PRIVATE. 
 
 a bad plight, many of them without shoes and with 
 stone bruises on their heels. In a few days we were 
 on the train for Millboro, where we disembarked aft- 
 er some eight hours' ride. Our destination was Cheat 
 Mountain, some eighty miles from the railroad. 
 
 This was our first march fully equipped. Besides 
 our gun, knapsack, haversack, and cartridge box, 
 nearly all our boys had on one side a six-shooter Colt's 
 
 PRIVATE HENRY H. COOK. 
 
 revolver buckled around them, and on the other side 
 was a large Damascus blade (made at a blacksmith's 
 shop).. This too had a scabbard and belt. The accom- 
 panying picture of Private Henry H. Cook, of Frank- 
 lin, Tenn., will give my readers a full knowledge of 
 the uniform and accouterments, as Henry (now Judge 
 Cook) had it taken just before leaving home, and his 
 
THE GIRL I LEFT BEHIND ME. 19 
 
 Company (D, Williamson Grays) was next to mine on 
 the march. In Henry Cook's hand can be seen a 
 small book. This is the pocket edition of the New Tes- 
 tament, which, when through with the picture, he 
 placed in his knapsack. Each one of us was given 
 a New Testament by our chaplain, Dr. Quintard, 
 and on the fly leaf was written: "God is our sun and 
 shield." We thought that "thrice armed is he who is 
 armed with the word of truth." 
 
 From Millboro to Warm Springs, the first day's 
 march, was fifteen miles, twelve of which were a 
 gradual ascent. After we had trudged along some 
 five miles in a sweltering August sun, I tried to give 
 my six-shooter away, but could not find any one to 
 accept it, and over in the bushes I threw it. I then 
 unbuckled my Damascus blade, made an offer of that, 
 but was likewise refused, and it was thrown into the 
 bushes. I then tried to give away a blanket, but no 
 one would accept, so away it went. I thought, prob- 
 ably, the war would end before the winter. By the 
 time we reached the summit of the mountain nearly 
 all the men in the regiment had disposed of their 
 extra appendages by leaving them in the bushes. Look- 
 ing down from the crest of the mountain, we could 
 see in the valley, three miles distant, the hotels and 
 cottages of Warm Springs. The descent to the 
 Springs was easy compared with the struggle up. 
 Reaching the Springs, we found a large bathing pool 
 into which, from an iron pipe, the apparently cool 
 water was gushing. Our men being thirsty, they 
 crowded around the springs, and the first one to get 
 a drink yelled out: "It is as hot as h — 1 !" Of course 
 
20 THE PRIVATIONS OF A PRIVATE. 
 
 the water was not cool, for it was the warm springs, 
 known for its curative properties. Near by, however, 
 was a spring so cold that one of the men said that it 
 had ice in it. The next day we marched toward Valley 
 Mountain, and in the evening heard immense cheering 
 in our rear, the sound gradually coming toward the 
 front; and looking around, we saw the cause. Sitting 
 on old "Traveler," clad in fatigue cap and jacket, with 
 polished sword dangling from his side, with cap in 
 hand as we gave a rousing cheer, rode Gen. R. E. 
 Lee, the pride of the Confederate army. At that time 
 General Lee did not wear any chin whiskers; he had 
 a large, dark mustache sprinkled with a little gray. 
 He was the very picture of a magnificent general and 
 horseman. 
 
 The third day from the Springs we pitched our 
 tents near Valley Mountain, and then came the rain 
 every day for some ten days, rendering the roads in 
 very bad condition. We were nearly sixty miles from 
 the railroad, and a two-horse wagon could haul only 
 some four barrels of flour, so with an army of some 
 ten thousand men to feed it was a difficult problem. Our 
 rations consisted of two small biscuits for breakfast 
 and a like amount for supper. However, the country 
 afforded some cattle as fine as I ever saw. They were 
 very fat ; and if we did not get enough bread and beef, 
 we filled up on tallow. We had also some fine black- 
 berries, which were as large as if they had been cul- 
 tivated. One day I denied myself the usual two bis- 
 cuits for breakfast, saved the dough, and had black- 
 berry pies without any sugar for dinner. 
 
 We had not been in Valley Mountain very long till 
 
THE GIRL I LEFT BEHIND ME. 2 1 
 
 one night after nine-o'clock taps the long roll sounded 
 and we sprang to arms and took up our march toward 
 Mingo Flats. The night was as black as Egyptian 
 darkness. We crossed ravines and waded streams; 
 and finally toward daylight, wet and weary, my regi- 
 ment halted near an old stable. It would accommo- 
 date only a few, and the rest of us made a bed in the 
 long dewy grass and got a few hours' sleep. The 
 long roll seemed to be a false alarm, and after day- 
 light we marched back to camp very tired and hun- 
 gry, and without seeing a bluecoat. 
 
 One day I had been on picket duty near Mingo 
 Flats, and on my return to camp in the evening I 
 passed near General Lee's headquarters. There was 
 a spring near by where I knelt to drink. General Lee 
 hailed me : "Don't drink out of that spring ; my horse 
 uses it. Come and drink out of this spring near my 
 tent." Out of deference to the General's request, I 
 went up and drank of the spring; and as I passed him 
 sitting on a camp stool I threw my hand to gun, palm 
 extended, which is a private's salute to a general. Gen- 
 eral Lee returned it with the salute of the hand from 
 the brow, which is a general's salute to a private. I 
 mention this incident to show General Lee's regard 
 for the private soldier. It made no difference to him 
 whether a man wore the stripes of a private or the 
 insignia of a major general: he had respect for the 
 one and respect and consideration for the other. 
 
 Twenty miles from Valley Mountain was a road 
 running from Beverly, Va., on the Baltimore and 
 Ohio, to Staunton, crossing Cheat Mountain at a place 
 on the mountain called Cheat Pass. It was General 
 
2 2 THE PRIVATIONS OF A PRIVATE. 
 
 Lee's object of this expedition to dislodge and destroy 
 the enemy at this place. The fort at the pass was garri- 
 soned by some three thousand men, while at Beverly 
 they had some eight thousand men. Besides the fortifi- 
 cations on the mountain, the enemy had felled large 
 trees outward from the fort and trimmed off the limbs 
 and sharpened the many ends, so with a gun and knap- 
 sack and without an enemy in sight it would not be an 
 easy matter to crawl through these obstructions to the 
 fort. The plan of the attack was for General Rusk 
 with his Arkansas brigade to cross Greenbrier River, 
 which flowed near the base of the mountain, and as- 
 sault the fort in front, while General Lee's troops 
 should take it in the rear. September 12, 1861, at 9 
 a.m. was the hour, and the guns from General Rusk's 
 brigade were to be the signal for our moving. We left 
 Valley Mountain on the morning of September 10, with 
 three days' (scant) rations. We marched the valley 
 road awhile, and then commenced the ascent of Cheat 
 Mountain. Our force for this expedition consisted of 
 the First, Seventh, and Fourteenth Tennessee Regi- 
 ments commanded respectively by Colonels Maney, 
 Hatton, and Forbes, with General S. R. Anderson as 
 brigadier. The other troops, commanded by Generals 
 Donelson and Loring, moved down the valley road 
 near the base of the mountain. My brigade was to 
 get in the rear of the fortifications and cut off any re- 
 enforcements that might come. When we reached the 
 crest of Cheat Mountain I saw the roughest and wild- 
 est country that I ever beheld, and we were to traverse 
 it for twenty miles. The mountain -was cut up into 
 peaks and crags. Of course we had to march in sin- 
 
THE GIRL I LEFT BEHIND ME. ' 23 
 
 gle file, and our brigade stretched out some three 
 miles. General Lee and our commanders were in 
 front, and any command from them was passed back 
 from the front man to the next in the rear, and so to 
 the end of the line. We received and passed back 
 many a time: "Keep quiet, keep well closed up." It 
 was impossible to keep closed up ; sometimes my leader 
 would be thirty feet ahead of me, while I would be 
 struggling over a huge bowlder or trying to crawl up 
 the mountain by the aid of a sapling. The night of 
 September n we bivouacked on top of the mountain 
 only a few miles from the enemy's fortifications. It 
 was about the roughest place I ever saw, and on ac- 
 count of the many rocks it was difficult to find a place 
 for a spread. My comrade, George Keeling, was a 
 delicate young man, and I carried his blanket, and 
 after scraping off a lot of stones I spread George's 
 blanket down, and we bunked together, covering with 
 my blanket. Soon after we had retired it commenced 
 to rain, and all night we had a continuous downpour. 
 We not only got thoroughly wet, but our rations of 
 biscuits washed into dough. Next morning I had 
 a hard time carrying two wet blankets. We were in 
 line early, and took up our march, and soon formed 
 in line of battle on the Huttonville road, not far from 
 the fortifications. In marching single file to the road, 
 a bridle path crossed our line, and up this path, riding 
 a magnificent horse, came a lieutenant of the Federal 
 army. He appeared in a deep study, and came near 
 riding into our line. We commanded "Halt;" and he 
 looked up and said, "Did you men come from the 
 clouds?" He was Lieutenant Merrill, of the Engineer 
 
24 THE PRIVATIONS' OF A PRIVATE. 
 
 Corps. He was en route to the fort, but he was our 
 prisoner. While we were in line on the road General 
 Lee received a message from General Rusk saying: 
 "Greenbrier River is at flood height; could not cross." 
 We then received orders to return to camp, but before 
 we moved the enemy fired into us from ambuscade, 
 killing three and wounding eight of our regiment. We 
 had no litters with us, and had to carry the wounded 
 down the steep mountain side in blankets, four men 
 to a blanket; and a new detail very often, as a man's 
 fingers would cramp, and we would put the poor sol- 
 dier down on the ground and change hands. After 
 reaching the valley we had to carry the wounded some 
 distance before we reached a farmhouse, and there 
 we had to leave them and return to Valley Mountain, 
 after falling in line several times on what enemy was 
 following us. When we reached the camp at Valley 
 Mountain, we were in a bad plight, very hungry, and 
 many of us barefoot. I was not quite barefoot, as I 
 had one foot shod, the other bare. This campaign 
 developed much measles and typhoid fever, and we 
 filled the hotels at Warm Springs. Mrs. Jane Thomas 
 and Miss Lavinia Taylor came out from Nashville to 
 nurse the sick, and our boys ever remembered their 
 kind ministrations. 
 
 General Rosecrans had commenced to invade Vir- 
 ginia via Charleston, and we received orders to meet 
 his advance, and on September 25, 1861, we took up 
 our line of march for Big Sewell Mountain, some one 
 hundred miles distant, and we made good mileage 
 considering the downpour of rain we passed through. 
 We reached Big Sewell Mountain September 30, and 
 
THE GIRL I LEFT BEHIND ME. 25 
 
 could plainly see the tents of General Rosecrans's army. 
 On the night of October 3 we received orders to have 
 our guns cleaned and in shape for the following morn- 
 ing, so we were up at half past three on the morning of 
 October 4, and were ready to meet the enemy, as our 
 information was that they were to attack us in the 
 early morning, but we were disappointed. Upon 
 looking over where the tents were the previous evening, 
 nothing was in sight. General Rosecrans had fallen 
 back in the direction of Charleston. We started after 
 him, but the road was in such bad condition we had 
 to return to our camp in an old field on Big Sewell 
 Mountain. We moved off the mountain October 1 1 ; 
 and remained near by till October 22, when we were 
 ordered to Huntersville, Va., where we remained till 
 November 19, when we moved our camp on the 
 Monterey road; and as the weather was getting quite 
 cold, it was decided to build winter quarters, and each 
 mess vied with the others as to which could build the 
 best cabin. But there were to be no winter quarters for 
 us. Before the quarters were all completed we re- 
 ceived orders to join General Stonewall Jackson at 
 Winchester, Va., about two hundred and twenty-five 
 miles distant; so on December 11 we took up our 
 march at 10 a.m., and we moved to Gatewood, ten 
 miles distant. We passed Warm Springs on the 
 morning of the 13th, and on to Harrisonburg in a 
 few days, and we were in the beautiful Shenandoah. 
 On this march we had reveille before daylight, and 
 soon after sunup we had eaten our breakfast, put a 
 couple of biscuits in our haversack for dinner, and 
 we would get into camp before sundown and soon have 
 
26 THE PRIVATIONS OF A PRIVATE. 
 
 our supper. The First Tennessee Regiment had a splen- 
 did band, and as we marched through the beautiful 
 towns of Bridgewater, Newmarket, etc., we would line 
 up, get in step, and have "music by the band ;" and the 
 ladies would come out of the residences, lean on the 
 front gates, and cheer us on our way. We reached the 
 quaint old German town of Strausburg on Christmas 
 Day; and if there was any whisky or eggnog left 
 in that town, I did not know it. Between Strausburg 
 and Winchester we saw many locomotives being 
 hauled along the turnpike. General Jackson had cap- 
 tured them from the B. and O. Railway at Martins- 
 ville. On December 26 we went into camp near Win- 
 chester on the Romney road. 
 
CHAPTER II. 
 
 Campaign under Gen. Stonewall Jackson. 
 
 The object of the expedition we were about to 
 make was to drive from Virginia General W. S. Han- 
 cock's forces, which had crossed the Potomac on pon- 
 toon at Sir John's Run and taken up their camp at 
 Berkely Springs, not far from the Potomac. Gen- 
 eral Jackson's plan was to pass General Hancock's 
 right flank, get in his rear betwen the army and the 
 Potomac, and kill or capture as many as he could. 
 His plans were similar to the Chancellorsville move- 
 ment, but we shall see that the weather knocked us out. 
 We struck tents at 8 a.m. Wednesday, January i, 1862, 
 and the wind struck a good many of them, blowing 
 them down before we had a chance to draw the pegs. 
 It was a blustery day, but not very cold. We moved 
 eight miles to Pughtown, and bivouacked there. On 
 the. morning of January 2 reveille sounded at five 
 o'clock, and before daylight we were on the move, but 
 made little headway, as the weather had turned in- 
 tensely cold, with a light snow. If a man was at the 
 head of the column he was all right; but after a few 
 companies had passed over the snow became as slick 
 as ice, and skating would have been good if a fellow 
 had had skates. I bivouacked on three cedar rails and 
 built a rail fire on each side, and the red cedar popped 
 sparks on the cape of my overcoat, and when I woke 
 up I was afire. 
 
28 THE PRIVATIONS OF A PRIVATE. 
 
 Colonel M ; aney said that he thought we would get 
 in the fight the next day. We were ordered to cook 
 up all our rations. On the morning of the fourth we 
 were formed in line and each man supplied with forty 
 rounds of cartridges. We marched thirteen miles and 
 reached a point three miles from Bath, or Berkely 
 Springs, and camped in the woods. It snowed heavily 
 that night, and was extremely cold. There was little 
 sleep for us. On the morning of the 5th we moved on 
 Bath, and as we formed a line a short distance from 
 the town, which was situated on a hill of considerable 
 proportions, the enemy's battery opened fire upon us. 
 Gen. Stonewall Jackson rode up on Old Sorrel. The 
 General wore a skull cap, a blouse, gray jacket, and 
 the reins hung loosely on Old Sorrel's neck ; he looked 
 more like a plow horse than a warrior. With a 
 twinkle in his eye General Jackson said to Colonel 
 Maney: "Colonel Maney, I want the Virginians [al- 
 luding to his old regiment] to take that battery. They 
 have had some rations since your men." We yelled 
 out: "General, we do not want any rations; let us 
 capture the battery." General Jackson replied : "Colo- 
 nel Maney, move your regiment by companies to the 
 right." We made a gallant charge, but when we 
 reached the guns only two of the enemy were in 
 sight. It was a feint to cover General Hancock's re- 
 treat across the Potomac on his pontoon, but he could 
 have crossed on- the ice, as it was nearly twelve inches 
 thick. 
 
 While we moved to the capture of the battery Tur- 
 ner Ashby with his black horse cavalry charged into 
 the town, capturing a few prisoners. It was a grand 
 
CAMPAIGN UNDER STONEWALL JACKSON. 29 
 
 sight to see the black horses of Ashby as he charged 
 down the valley. We captured some rations, which 
 we devoured in short order. The next day (Sunday) 
 we moved six miles from Bath, and took up our posi- 
 tion opposite Hancock, Md., a beautiful little town on 
 the mountain side, and General Hancock had occupied 
 the town; but alas! the Potomac River separated us, 
 and it was filled with floating ice. The next, day 
 about 9 a.m. General Jackson sent a courier across the 
 river. We watched the horse struggling through the 
 floating ice, and cheered as it broughf the rider safely 
 to the other side. General Jackson's order was to move 
 the noncombatants out of town, as he would com- 
 mence to bombard at 12 m. At the hour named our 
 batteries opened up a brisk fire, and General Hancock 
 rushed some batteries behind the Methodist church 
 and replied furiously. At intervals the dueling was 
 kept up into the night, and it was a grand sight to see 
 the solid shot moving as balls of fire. During a part 
 of the cannonading in the daytime I stood near 
 General Jackson and Col. Robert Hatton, of the 
 Seventh Tennessee. Both sat upon their horses as 
 immovable as statues. It was said of General Jack- 
 son that he was a predestinarian. The Presbyterian 
 boys might have explained the meaning of the term. 
 It was also said that he was a fatalist. This was a 
 term that I think would have been difficult for any of 
 the boys to explain. I believe, however, that General 
 Stonewall Jackson had that faith in God that lifted him 
 above the field of battle, and, living or dying, he was 
 the Lord's; then why should he be disturbed by the 
 roar of cannon or the bursting of shells ? That night a 
 
30 THE PRIVATIONS OF A PRIVATE. 
 
 detail was to be made to picket the Potomac, with 
 orders not to light any fires because the enemy might 
 fire at us from the opposite bank. Serg. J. W. 
 Carter, of Company B, commenced near the head of 
 roster for a detail, and many of the boys were sick. 
 Captain Patterson said: "I cannot excuse any more; 
 the sick must go to Doctor Buist and get an excuse." 
 The roll call was continued, and I was a long way 
 down the list ; . yet my name was reached, and I an- 
 swered: "Am always on hand." Captain Patterson 
 turned to Sergeant Carter and said; "How many roll 
 calls has Toney missed since leaving Big Sewell Moun- 
 tain?" He replied: "Seventeen." Captain Patterson 
 said: "To-night's duty on picket wipes them all out." 
 Gallant, chivalrous John S. Patterson, how I loved 
 him ! He was as gentle and modest as a woman. How 
 my heart ached when I buried him the following Octo- 
 ber at Perryville, Ky. ! In regard to the missing of 
 roll call, I never regarded it as a dereliction of duty, 
 therefore on the march from Sewell Mountain fre- 
 quently when roll was called I was off foraging. In 
 army parlance foraging was to send one of the mess 
 out to buy something to eat, provided he had the 
 money; if he did not have the money, he was to take 
 it. It was related of two comrades who lived near 
 Murfreesboro, and who were sent out by their mess 
 with $1 to purchase supplies, that they returned with 
 five cents' worth of bread and ninety-five cents' worth 
 of whisky, and those that liked to imbibe complained of 
 the purchase of so much bread. In regard to the roll 
 call, it is a breach of duty to neglect when any service is 
 to be performed, because it puts an extra and more 
 
CAMPAIGN UNDER STONEWALL JACKSON. 3 1 
 
 frequent burden on your comrades. If I should use 
 the army parlance term, and say stood picket that night, 
 I should have missed it. I ran picket for four hours 
 around and around a big tree ; I had to do it to keep 
 from freezing. I did not have anything to eat the 
 previous day but some raw corn taken from artillery 
 horses, and chewed the springs of sassafras bushes. 
 
 Capt. F. S. Harris told me that he had traveled in 
 that section much since the war, and that a citizen of 
 Hancock, Md., had told him that the two nights we 
 were there it was sixteen degrees below zero, and I 
 do not doubt it. Many of our boys would get in that 
 stupor which precedes death by freezing, and we would 
 have to seize them roughly and keep them moving to 
 prevent freezing. When relieved, about 3 a.m., by 
 another detail, I crawled in under an oilcloth and 
 blanket and got a few hours' sleep. A fall of snow 
 during the latter part of the night served to keep us 
 warm. Looking from under the blankets next morn- 
 ing, we could see many of the boys sleeping under 
 their snowy couches, which resembled graves. A detail 
 of Company C was made to guard the medical stores 
 of General Jackson, which were in wagons. The boys 
 found in one of the wagons a cask of brandy. Getting 
 hold of an auger, they notified the boys in camp to 
 have some camp kettles ready. Going under the wag- 
 on, they bored through the body into the cask, and thus 
 filled their vessels. General Jackson relieved them 
 from duty, but did not punish them. I presume he 
 thought they were excusable under the weather con- 
 ditions. We were sorely disappointed in not being 
 able to engage the enemy. It is true that we forced 
 
32 THE PRIVATIONS OF A PRIVATE. 
 
 them across the river, but they could return in a few 
 days after we left. General Jackson succeeded in de- 
 stroying a dam in the Potomac River which fed the 
 Chesapeake and Ohio Canal, and cut off canal com- 
 munication between Cumberland, Md., and Washing- 
 ton, D. C. 
 
 On the morning of January 8 reveille sounded very 
 early, and we moved slowly to Bath over a very slick, 
 icy pike. The next morning another early reveille, 
 and we made only seven miles that day on account of 
 the condition of the pike and blockade of wagons. On 
 the ioth we were at Munger's Cross Roads awaiting 
 orders. Sunday, January 12, Dr. Quintard preached 
 for us. 
 
 On my way to the post office tent to mail a letter 
 home Gen. S. R. Patterson hailed me, and asked 
 where I was going. I told him, whereupon he reached 
 into his pocket and gave me a letter, saying earnestly : 
 "I wish I could put myself into that letter and be sent 
 home." 
 
 On the morning of January 13 we had early 
 reveille, struck tents, and moved down to headquar- 
 ters. Many of our boys were on the sick list, and 
 when we went into Winchester we had only twenty- 
 five able-bodied men left in Company B ; and other 
 companies were depleted in proportion. Out of my 
 mess of ten only two of us were ready for duty, and 
 we had the extra blankets of eight men. The town 
 of Winchester was overrun with soldiers, and all the 
 houses filled to overflowing. 
 
 On January 14 we started to Romney, Va., which 
 was situated on the bank of the beautiful south branch 
 
CAMPAIGN UNDER STONEWALL JACKSON. 33 
 
 of the Potomac. On account of the ice and sleet we 
 made only a few miles. On the 15th we crossed 
 Capon River, and made only six miles during the 
 day. The 16th of January we made only nine miles, 
 and camped within eleven miles of Romney, which 
 the enemy evacuated, leaving a lot of stores. On Jan- 
 uary 17 we were within four miles, and bivouacked 
 with the regiments of Colonels Hatton and Forbes. 
 Our cavalry occupied Romney, and we had nothing 
 to do except go into the town and get some rations, 
 and we were given a lot of provisions and drew quan- 
 tities of butter, the first and only rations of butter I 
 had seen issued during the war. 
 
 I went into Romney and took dinner at a private 
 house on January 21. I met Major Yost, our quarter- 
 master, and he said that he had heard that our brigade 
 was going to Hanging Rock, some three miles from 
 Romney, to winter quarters. Was the First Tennessee 
 Regiment to go into winter quarters ? We shall see. 
 
 Friday, January 24, we moved through Romney and 
 reached Hanging Rock, and camped one-quarter of a 
 mile from the Potomac. On January 25 Colonel Hat- 
 ton's regiment moved down to Suspension Bridge, and 
 camped near there. Some of our boys who went 
 back to Winchester commenced to come into camp 
 January 26. They thought we would have a fight, and 
 did not wish to miss it. On January 29 I crossed the 
 south branch of the Potomac in a skiff, and saw the 
 residence of Colonel Washington, who was on Gen- 
 eral Lee's staff, and who was killed in the Cheat 
 Mountain campaign. Colonel Washington was the 
 nearest living relative of General George Washington. 
 
 3 
 
34 THE PRIVATIONS OF A PRIVATE. 
 
 We got too near the enemy's pickets, and had to wait 
 until nightfall to recross the river. At eleven o'clock 
 at night our camp was aroused by the beating of the 
 long roll, and we tumbled out of our tents in quick 
 order. After the regiment was formed, my company 
 was detailed to picket the ford. January 31 closed a 
 very disagreeable week; it had snowed or hailed dur- 
 ing the entire week. 
 
 On February 2 we had orders to be ready to move 
 on a moment's notice, as the enemy were preparing 
 to cut us off. On the fourth we moved from camp 
 as rapidly as the weather and the wagons would per- 
 mit. On February 5 we camped one mile from 
 Capon Bridge, and on February 7 we reached our 
 old camp at Winchester, which we left on January 1. 
 
 On February 8 I went into Winchester to get some 
 clothing from Nashville brought by Lieutenant Van 
 Leer. I heard that my package was lost at Manassas 
 Junction. On February 9 we heard of the fall of Fort 
 Henry, and this made us fear the loss of Fort Donel- 
 son. On the 14th of February my mess built a chim- 
 ney to our tent, and we were prepared for the six- 
 inch snow that fell on "the 15th. 
 
 Colonel Maney had been to Richmond, and had the 
 regiment detached from the Virginia army, and or- 
 dered returned to Tennessee to support Fort Donel- 
 son. The fatalities of the campaign were three sol- 
 diers frozen td death. 
 
CHAPTER III. 
 The Return to Tennessee. 
 
 On February 19 we left Winchester, arriving at 
 Lynchburg on the 21st. We went into camp near that 
 city, not knowing when we could proceed farther on 
 account of many washouts between Lynchburg and 
 Bristol. Sunday, February 23, was a dark day for 
 us, for we heard of the evacuation of Nashville. On 
 February 27 I note from my diary : "Feel a great 
 anxiety for the loved ones at home, but cannot get 
 any message." On March 5 the railroad expected to 
 resume traffic, but there were no trains moving. On 
 the morning of March 6 we left for Bristol, the left 
 wing of the regiment ahead of us. We reached Knox- 
 ville March 10, and remained there until the 12th, when 
 Colonel Maney arrived and said that the right wing 
 would proceed to Bridgeport, Ala., to guard the 
 bridge there. We were held in Knoxville until Sun- 
 day, February 23, when we loaded baggage and pro- 
 ceeded to Chattanooga, where we went into camp one 
 mile from the city. Fred Berry, of Company B, died 
 February 21, at 6 p.m., and on the morning of Feb- 
 ruary 22 Company B escorted his remains to the 
 depot for forwarding to Nashville. 
 
 We had guard, drill duty, and dress parades daily at 
 Chattanooga. On March 28 we heard of General 
 Stonewall Jackson's victory at Kernstown. We left 
 Chattanooga April 1 at 8 a.m., and arrived at Bridge- 
 
36 THE PRIVATIONS OF A PRIVATE. 
 
 port at 11 a.m. and went into camp near the railroad 
 bridge, and in the meantime the left wing of the 
 regiment went forward to Corinth. On April 4 we 
 were ordered to cook up three days' rations and to 
 leave at 9 a.m. We boarded the train, and the order 
 was countermanded and we disembarked and remained 
 in camp till April 5, when ten box cars were backed 
 up and we loaded up at 7 a.m. These cars had been 
 hauling bulk bacon, and they were very greasy. We 
 slipped and slid; but could not slide very far, as we 
 were packed in closely. We reached Stevenson at 
 8 A.M., and remained until 1 :30 p.m., April 6, when 
 the news reached us of the battle of Shiloh and the 
 death of Gen. Albert Sidney Johnston. We did 
 not reach Corinth until Monday, April 7, at 10 a.m. 
 We saw a large number of Federal prisoners, and the 
 old Tishomingo Hotel was turned into a hospital and 
 filled with our wounded. General Johnston's body 
 had arrived, and was in a residence near by. On the 
 morning of April 8 we were ordered to cook five days' 
 rations, and on the morning of the 9th we left Cor- 
 inth for the Shiloh battlefield. We met a large num- 
 ber of wagons and all kinds of conveyances carrying 
 our wounded to Corinth. We marched over a dirt 
 road, through swamps and water, reaching General 
 Breckinridge at sundown, and slept in some vacant 
 tents that were left by the enemy. Reveille sounded 
 early on the morning of April 10, and we were soon 
 under arms. We marched by General Breckinridge's 
 headquarters drawn up in line of battle all day, and 
 went back to our quarters in the evening. On Friday, 
 April 11, it rained nearly all day, and we stayed in 
 
THE RETURN TO TENNESSEE. 37 
 
 our tents until 5 p.m., when we were called out in 
 the rain, but soon afterwards ordered back. 
 
 In camp all day April 12, and General Forrest's 
 cavalry scouts said that there was no sign of the Fed- 
 erals south of where Shiloh was fought, but that they 
 were under cover of the gunboats at Pittsburg Landing. 
 We left Shiloh Sunday, April 13, on our way to Cor- 
 inth, and after getting lost in the woods several times 
 reached the camp at twelve o'clock Monday, April 14, 
 where we found the left wing of the regiment, and 
 listened to the boys, who gave us a graphic picture of 
 the fight and regretted that we were not with 
 them. We expected the next battle at Corinth, and 
 for days and weeks worked on the fortifications and 
 drank water the color of soapsuds. It was no trou- 
 ble to get water at Corinth. All you had to do was 
 to shovel out a few spadefuls of earth, and the hole 
 would soon fill with water. 
 
 After completing our breastworks, we were expect- 
 ing attack daily by General Grant's forces, but were 
 disappointed. Our pickets were very close together, 
 and for days there was the rattle of musketry and 
 hissing of bullets. The foliage was very thick, and 
 frequently men would be shot from guns held by sol- 
 diers up in the trees. Often we had to crawl out 
 to relieve the pickets. One of our men was shot as 
 he poked his head afound a tree. 
 
 On May 30 the enemy moved as if to flank us, and on 
 May 31 we were en route to Tupelo, Miss. The Fed- 
 eral cavalry dashed around our army near Guntown 
 and fired a train of ammunition, and the explosions 
 could be heard for some distance. We reached Tu- 
 
38 THE PRIVATIONS OF A PRIVATE. 
 
 pelo June 10, and went into camp there. We had the 
 regular routine drill twice a day and dress parade in 
 the evening. We remained in Tupelo until July 20; 
 and learning that the Federals were withdrawing their 
 troops from Corinth toward Nashville, it was decided 
 by our authorities to invade Kentucky. 
 
CHAPTER IV. 
 Bragg's Invasion of Kentucky. 
 
 Our army was moved to Chattanooga, Term., by 
 two routes : one by Selma, the other by Mobile. We 
 went, by train to Mobile, and there embarked on the 
 side-wheel steamer Dixie, and were three days and 
 nights reaching Montgomery, Ala., where we camped 
 a few days, and then went by train to Atlanta, thence 
 to Chattanooga. While we were on the Alabama Riv- 
 er near Selma our boat landed for wood, and the boys 
 spied a watermelon patch, and in a few moments the 
 entire crop, green or ripe, had disappeared. In the 
 meantime the owner boarded the boat, and Colonel 
 Fields ordered every man to pay the farmer for the 
 melons and that he should be paid for either green or 
 ripe; and the farmer got his pay. We remained for 
 some days in Chattanooga, and on August 19 we were 
 ferried across the Tennessee River on a steamboat, 
 and took up our line of march across Walden's Ridge 
 toward Pikeville and Sparta. When we reached 
 Sparta, it was in ashes. Instead of proceeding to 
 Nashville, we went to Gainesboro, where we crossed 
 the Cumberland River, and were on the dark and 
 bloody ground of Kentucky. While the march over 
 Walden's Ridge and the Cumberland Mountains was a 
 little fatiguing, they did not compare with Cheat and 
 other Virginia mountains. Yet we were to encounter 
 a march which was full of suffering, but of a variety 
 
4<3 THE PRIVATIONS OF A PRIVATE. 
 
 which we were to experience for the first time. After 
 we left Tomkinsville, Ky., we met a drought then 
 prevailing in Kentucky. The dirt roads were very 
 dusty, and sometimes we could not see ten feet ahead. 
 The perspiration caused clots of mud to form in our 
 eyebrows, hair, whiskers, and mustaches. At night- 
 fall when we went into camp, very little water could 
 be found, and frequently we drank out of the ponds 
 in the barn lots. How many wiggletails and tad- 
 poles I have drunk will never be known. When we 
 reached Glasgow, Ky., General Buell was moving his 
 army out of Nashville. There was a garrison (well- 
 fortified) of four thousand Federals at Woodsonville, 
 a village of three or four houses opposite Munfords- 
 ville, Ky. It was General Bragg's intention to capture 
 this fort before General Buell could reach there. A 
 short time previous to this, General Chalmers, of 
 Mississippi, had stormed this fort and lost one thou- 
 sand two hundred men. Our object was to get in the 
 rear of these fortifications. We left Glasgow at sun- 
 rise with one day's rations, and marched rapidly in an 
 easterly direction. We had some twelve thousand 
 men and twenty-seven pieces of artillery. In march- 
 ing along the road shaded by a lot of -black- jack trees, 
 we saw a countryman with a barrel of water on a sled 
 drawn by a horse. We did not ask for a drink, but 
 in a few moments the barrel was empty. The poor 
 fellow said : "I have not a drop of water at home, and 
 my wife and children are suffering." We felt sorry for 
 him, but such is war. 
 
 We crossed Green River before midnight, and about 
 3 a.m. we were in Munfordsville, and formed a line 
 
BRAGG'S INVASION OF KENTUCKY. 4 1 
 
 of battle in the suburbs of the town. Company B was 
 in the cemetery, and I slept until sunup with a grave 
 for a pillow. Our artillery had been placed in posi- 
 tion not far from the L. and N. bridge, and consider- 
 ably higher than the Federal fort in Woodsonville. 
 They saw that we were in a position to shell them 
 out, and at sunrise up went the white flag, and we 
 marched four thousand prisoners out and paroled 
 them. The advance of General Buell's army had 
 reached Bowling Green; and in a few days many of 
 his men reached our line without guns and surren- 
 dered, saying that they were tired of the war. After 
 the capture we expected General Bragg to do one of 
 two things : either move on General Buell at Cave 
 City or go to Louisville. The authorities in Louisville 
 expected the latter, and every able-bodied man in 
 Louisville was called on to throw up fortifications ; but 
 General Bragg did neither of the two, but he marched 
 us eight miles toward Louisville, and went into camp 
 at Bacon Creek. Next day he marched us back to 
 Munfordsville and then again to Bacon Creek, and 
 one night we camped at the side of the old stage road 
 near Bacon Creek, and it poured rain all night. The 
 little sleep I got was on three rails. From Bacon 
 Creek the army moved through Elizabethtown, Hod- 
 genville, New Haven, and went into camp at Bards- 
 town, Ky., twenty-seven miles from Louisville. While 
 here Governor Hawes was inaugurated Governor of 
 the State. General Bragg issued a proclamation calling 
 on the Kentuckians to flock to his standard, and fired a 
 few volleys from the artillery, which broke all the glass 
 in the windows of the courthouse. While we were in 
 
42 THE PRIVATIONS OF A "PRIVATE. 
 
 camp at Bardstown General Buell's army marched to 
 Louisville ; and while we were playing soldier and liv- 
 ing high in the blue grass country and losing men, 
 General Buell was recruiting his army, and was soon 
 ready for an advance, and we moved to Springfield, 
 Perryville, Danville, and from Danville to Harrods- 
 burg and then back to Perryville — a forty-mile march 
 to no purpose, for we did not need the exercise. On 
 the night of October 7, 1862, we marched again 
 through Harrodsburg and bivouacked after midnight 
 in the suburbs of the little town of Perryville. When 
 we formed in line and stacked guns for a few hours' 
 rest, Company B was again in a cemetery. Was it a 
 bad omen that twice recently our company slept in a 
 cemetery ? 
 
 Next morning Company B moved out of the ceme- 
 tery to cook up one day's rations. Seven of my mess 
 dipped our hands in the same skillet. They were all 
 stalwart men of brawny arm. That evening when the 
 smoke of battle lifted, five of my comrades were dead, 
 and the sixth wounded. Early in the morning we 
 formed in line and moved slowly through the town on 
 the Harrodsburg Pike, which we left some half mile 
 beyond Perryville, and turned to the left, crossing 
 Chaplin's Creek, or river, as it is called there. About 
 three o'clock we were in line of battle on our extreme 
 right and in a valley of the Chaplin River two and 
 one-half miles from Perryville. There had been some 
 skirmishing before our arrival, and about three o'clock 
 the musketry and cannonading became quite brisk, the 
 shells falling around us as we climbed the fence in 
 battle line. We crossed Chaplin's River, ascended a 
 
BRAGG S INVASION OF KENTUCKY. 43 
 
 high bluff, and when we reached the height Colonel 
 Savage's Sixteenth Regiment was hotly engaged with 
 the enemy. To uncover from Colonel Savage we had 
 to move by the right flank, and while executing this 
 move some of our men were wounded. When we 
 uncovered, we again moved by the left flank. Gen. 
 Leonidas Polk rode up and asked: "What regiment 
 is this ?" The answer was : "The First Tennessee." 
 He then said : "Capture that battery." 
 
 It was Parson's eight-gun battery, supported by an 
 Ohio brigade (Germans) in command of General Jack- 
 son, of Hopkinsville, Ky. They would not stand the 
 charge, but ran in great disorder, leaving the battery 
 in our possession. In attempting to rally them Gen- 
 eral Jackson was killed, and his body fell in our line 
 of march. On a hill in the rear of where we cap- 
 tured the Parrott battery was Bush's Indiana battery, 
 supported by the First and Twenty-First Wisconsin 
 Regiments and another brigade of infantry. In 
 charging this battery we uncovered our left flank, and 
 were subjected to an enfilade fire from the enemy, 
 Which played havoc with our men. We had ten men 
 killed in attempting to carry the colors. We lost some 
 two hundred and fifty men in a short time. Our boys got 
 so close to the battery that the smoke covered them. 
 Young Tom Lanier was killed some thirty feet from 
 the battery, not by the artillery, because we were un- 
 der the crest of the hill, and the pieces could not be 
 depressed so as to reach us, but the men supporting the 
 battery were the ones that caused most of our trouble. 
 Colonel Patterson was slightly wounded in the wrist, 
 but he tied a handkerchief around it and continued to 
 
44 THE PRIVATIONS OF A PRIVATE. 
 
 give orders until a grapeshot hit his mustache, going 
 through his head, killing him instantly. Captain Pil- 
 cher was quartermaster, but he was in the thickest of 
 the fray, receiving a wound that came near causing 
 his death. Company B lost fourteen killed and thir- 
 teen wounded. Amongst the dead was a young man 
 named Robert S. Hamilton. He came to Nashville in 
 i860, and was a proof reader in the Southern Meth- 
 odist Publishing House. We were very intimate 
 friends. He was an ardent secessionist, whilst his 
 family in Kentucky were divided on the war question. 
 In the charge Robert was shot through the forehead, 
 and fell not far from where Tom Lanier and gallant 
 Jack Goodbar fell. Colonel Fields detailed me to stay 
 and take care of the wounded and do the best I could 
 to bury the dead. After getting all the wounded off, 
 with the reflected rays from a burning barn, which 
 the exploding shells fired, I penned the following : 
 
 Battlefield, Perryville, Ky., October 8, 1862. 
 Mrs. W. C. Hamilton, Lexington, Ky.: Robert was killed 
 in gallant charge this evening. Will take care of remains 
 until you arrive. Marcus B. Toney. 
 
 Mrs. Hamilton was Robert's sister-in-law, and I 
 wrote to her because his brother, W. C. Hamilton, was 
 a Union man, and Robert never wrote a line to him; 
 but all his correspondence was with his sister-in-law, 
 and he always read her letters to me; therefore I 
 wrote to the sister-in-law rather than the brother. The 
 blue and the gray mingled together all that night re- 
 moving the wounded. I approached one of the blue 
 and asked him if he would deliver the note to Mrs. 
 Hamilton, and he promised me that he would. 
 
BRAGG S INVASION OF KENTUCKY. 45 
 
 It was a sad sight that night as I gazed upon the 
 upturned, ghastly faces of our dead ; and the cries of 
 the wounded for "water!" "water!" "water!" was 
 heartrending. Before daylight all of our wounded 
 had been brought from the field. A farmer named 
 Goodnight, who lived some half mile from the battle- 
 field, had deserted his house on the eve of battle, and 
 we turned it into a hospital. On the second floor in 
 the small room were the following : J. H. Woldridge, 
 B. P. Steele, T. H. Maney, M. B. Pilcher, Mac Camp- 
 bell, Lute Irwin, I. H. Wheless, and Lieutenant 
 Hammond. These eight men were my patients. Four 
 of them were on the bedsteads and four on the floor. 
 Comrade Woldridge lost both of his eyes, and Cap- 
 tain Pilcher, Captain Steele, Lieutenant Maney, Mac 
 Campbell, and Lute Irwin were all badly wounded. 
 For three nights I did not close my eyes in sleep. 
 
 About the third day after the battle a messenger 
 came upstairs and said that a lady was in waiting to 
 see me. This was my first meeting with Mrs. Ham- 
 ilton. Mr. Hamilton was with her, and they brought 
 a hearse and casket, and a carryall with blankets and 
 provisions for our wounded. I accompanied Mr. and 
 Mrs. Hamilton to the battlefield. I had buried twen- 
 ty-seven of the Rock City Guards in a gully near by 
 where they fell, and not far from the battery that 
 they charged so gallantly. I did not have any imple- 
 ment to bury with, but with the use of a breastplate 
 taken from the body of a dead Federal I invented a 
 tool which formed a kind of scoop, and with this cov- 
 ered our boys with the dirt. I had buried Robert 
 Hamilton at the head of the twenty-seven, and when 
 
46 THE PRIVATIONS OF A PRIVATE. 
 
 we reached the spot I raked the dirt from his face and 
 said: "Mrs. Hamilton, this is Robert." "Is it possi- 
 ble," she replied, "that these are Robert's remains?" 
 I said : "I will soon satisfy you." Reaching down, I 
 caught one of his hands, and, brushing the dirt away, 
 I said to her : "Do you see this ?" She replied : "I am 
 satisfied." Robert was a very studious young man, 
 and in his deep studies I have seen him bite his nails 
 to the quick, and frequently brought blood. When 
 Mrs. Hamilton saw the hand and the condition of the 
 finger nails, she knew they were Robert's. When the 
 body was taken to the hospital and prepared for 
 burial, there was no doubt in her mind. We expected 
 to bury W. J. Whitthorne, of the Maury Grays, Co- 
 lumbia, Tenn., but the body could not be found. He 
 was shot through the neck, and Dr. Buist said that 
 he would not live until we got him to the hospital. 
 Billy Whitthorne, as we all called him, is living this 
 year ( 1905) . He raised a company at Columbia during 
 the Spanish-American War, and went to the Philip- 
 pines. He was elected major in the regular army, and is 
 now lieutenant colonel of the First Tennessee National 
 Guards, arid I am a private in Company B, Confed- 
 erate Veterans, of the Guards. We had a similar case 
 in John Sullivan, the gallant Irishman of the Martin 
 Guards. His wife accompanied him to the war, and 
 was very valuable in assisting the boys in needlework 
 and cooking. Sullivan had a hole in his forehead that 
 exposed a part of the brain. Mrs. Sullivan was at the 
 hospital when the figjb^ was going on, and when we 
 reported after midnight). that John was left on the 
 field for dead she said that she would go out and look 
 
BRAGG S INVASION OF KENTUCKY. 47 
 
 after him. She was a stalwart woman, and brought 
 John on her shoulder to the hospital. About two 
 weeks after that Dr. Buist bought a carryall, placed 
 Captain Woldridge, Mr. and Mrs. Sullivan in it, and 
 started them through the country to Pulaski. Near 
 Lebanon, Ky., they were captured and sent to prison. 
 
 A few weeks after the battle Captain Steele was re- 
 moved to Harrodsburg, and Mrs. C. H. Rochester 
 came after Captain Pilcher, T. H. Maney, S. B. Shear- 
 on, and myself, and we were taken to her residence, 
 near Danville, Ky., where we were royally entertained. 
 Colonel Rochester and the elder boys were in the Con- 
 federate army, leaving Mrs. Rochester and the young 
 ladies and boys at home. The families of Capt. Mer- 
 ritt S. Pilcher, George S. Kinney, and Henry C. 
 Hensley had refugeed from Nashville to Louisville. 
 
 Dr. Buist sent a message to Capt. M. S. Pilcher 
 saying that if Matt were sent to prison he could not 
 possibly survive. Capt. Merritt Pilcher had a stanch 
 friend in Louisville, Mr. John B. Smith, who stood very 
 close to General Jere Boyle, commanding that district, 
 and through his influence we received the following : 
 
 Headquarters Department of Kentucky, 
 Louisville, October 13, 1862. 
 The bearers hereof, Capt. Matthew B. Pilcher and Private 
 Marcus B. Toney, Will be allowed to report at these head- 
 quarters without a guard so soon as the wound of Captain 
 Pilcher's will permit. Jeke Boyle, General. 
 
 We remained at Mrs. Rochester's nearly four 
 months, and I almost despaired of getting Captain 
 Pilcher to Louisville. In addition to his great suffer- 
 ing from the wound, a spell of pneumonia gave him a 
 
48 THE PRIVATIONS OF A PRIVATE. 
 
 setback. Soon after convalescing he came near 
 bleeding to death, and I mounted a horse and went 
 rapidly to Harrodsburg for Dr. Buist. Finally he 
 recovered so far as to allow us to proceed, and he 
 desired to go via Lexington to visit for a few days his 
 relatives, Mr. Hiram Shaw and family, so we pro- 
 ceeded to Nicholasville by stage and thence to Lexing- 
 ton by rail. Mr. Shaw was a stanch Union man, and 
 was dealer in gents' furnishing goods. A few weeks 
 before we reached there, General Morgan's men raided 
 his store, exchanging their old headgear for his fine 
 hats, and some of the boys wore off his nice plugs; 
 therefore I felt a hesitancy in going to the Shaw 
 domicile. But we were treated in a most generous 
 manner. A few nights after reaching there, we 
 paid a visit to another family of the Shaws, where 
 there were three young ladies. Gen. I. Q. A. Gil- 
 more was a visitor, and he asked one of the ladies who 
 we were. She informed him, and the next day we 
 received orders ,to report to General Gilmore's head- 
 quarters. Accordingly we did so, and he said in a 
 very brusque manner : "I wish to know by whose au- 
 thority you Rebels are free." I replied, "By authority 
 of Gen. Jere Boyle, of Louisville;" and I placed our 
 parole in his hands. He glanced over it, and replied : 
 "This is not General Boyle's district; I am command- 
 ing here, and my name is Gen. I. Q. A. Gilmore. You 
 will get ready to go to Louisville with a guard this 
 evening. Report here at three o'clock." I said: "All 
 right, General Gilmore. Your order will be- obeyed, 
 but we were ignorant of the infringement on your terri- 
 tory.'' At 3 p.m. we were there, and so was the guard 
 
BRAGG S INVASION OF KENTUCKY. 49 
 
 with his gun. We wired Captain Pilcher that we would 
 be in about 8 p.m., under guard. When we reached 
 Frankfort, we found that the railroad bridge had been 
 burned, and we had to cross on the ferry. In going 
 through the city many ladies turned out and escorted 
 us to the ferry. When we reached Louisville, Capt. 
 Merritt S. Pilcher was pacing Up and down the plat- 
 form, and appeared more disturbed than we were. 
 After greeting us, he said: "Boys, I have been trying 
 all day to see General Boyle; but one of "his children 
 has smallpox, and he is at home. The officer of the 
 day says he cannot release you, and you will have to 
 go to prison at Tenth and Broadway." We could do 
 nothing but obey. When we reached the pen, we 
 found that some four hundred prisoners had been cap- 
 tured at Fort Donelson: It was ' quite a filthy place, 
 without sleeping accommodations. We had some salt 
 pork, stale bread, and coffee without sugar. As we 
 had been living for four months on the fat of" the 
 blue grass region, we could not eat the prison diet, and 
 Were glad to hear our names called at the wicket about 
 nine o'clock next morning, where we signed parole to 
 National Hotel; and when we reached the sidewalk, 
 we found Captain Pilcher and Mr. John B. Smith with 
 a carriage, and they escorted us to the hotel. We 
 remained- at the hotel for six weeks, waiting for the 
 flag-of-truce boat for exchange. After the first week's 
 confinement at the hotel, General Boyle extended our 
 parole so as to allow us to attend church on Sunday, 
 and we first went to Sunday school and then went to 
 services at ii a.m. Sometimes we went to hear the 
 big gun of the Baptist Church, Dr. Lorimef, and then 
 
 4 
 
50 THE PRIVATIONS OF A PRIVATE. 
 
 to hear Dr. Craik, of the Episcopal Church, and at 3 
 p.m. we attended vespers at the Cathedral, and at 
 night church again. One Sunday morning in Dr. 
 Lorimer's church Captain Pilcher was asked to teach 
 the Bible class, and in the class were some of the boys 
 in blue. The Southern people in Louisville treated us 
 with much consideration and kindness, and the people 
 who differed with us on the war issue treated us with 
 respect. In the churches and on the streets we were 
 frequently detained for hand shakes. We wore Con- 
 federate uniforms, but General Boyle requested that 
 the brass buttons be covered. The Southern ladies 
 visited us frequently at the hotel, and we returned 
 many of the visits at their residences on Sunday. I 
 recall these names among those who were exceedingly 
 kind to us: Miss Fanny Jack, Miss Kate Quarries, 
 Miss Mary Miller, Miss Anna Caldwell, Miss Nina 
 Smith (who after the war married Mr. H. Victor New- 
 comb and later Mr. Ten Broecke). Captain Pilcher 
 and myself did not indulge in wine, so we were much 
 amused to receive from Miss Fanny Jack a bottle of 
 wine with this toast: "Believe that in every drop of 
 wine contained in this bottle is mingled a heartfelt 
 prayer for the ultimate success of the Southern Con- 
 federacy." Evidently it was the toast which Miss 
 Fanny wished us to enjoy rather than the wine. So 
 the time drew near when we were to proceed to Fort- 
 ress Monroe for exchange at City Point, and Mr. John 
 B. Smith called on General Boyle for an order to pro- 
 ceed without a guard. General Boyle said that he 
 could favor us only as far as Cincinnati, and gave us 
 the following: 
 
BRAGG S INVASION OF KENTUCKY. 5 1 
 
 Headquarters Department of Kentucky, 
 Louisville, April 9, 1863. 
 General Aaron E. Burnside, Cincinnati, Ohio: Capt. M 
 B. Pilcher and Private M. B. Toney have been on parole 
 from these headquarters since the battle of Perryville, and 
 have faithfully kept it. I will therefore be obliged if you 
 will allow them to proceed to Fortress Monroe without a 
 guard. J ERE Boyle, 
 
 General Commanding Department of Kentucky. 
 
 Armed with this document and escorted by a large 
 number of friends, we proceeded to board the steamer 
 General Lytle. One of the ladies had purchased for 
 me a large silk handkerchief. It was plain on 
 one side, but on the other was the bonnie blue flag, 
 and as the General Lytle steamed out from the levee 
 Captain Pilcher and I were on the hurricane roof, and 
 I unfurled my banner to the breeze, and received the 
 cheers from the assembled multitude on the levee. We 
 stopped at the Burnett House. Next morning at 
 breakfast I said to Captain Pilcher : "There is General 
 Burnside." He was sitting two tables from us. Gen- 
 eral Burnside at that time was trying Mr. Vallanding- 
 ham for treason, and banished him through our lines 
 at Shelbyville. I agreed with Captain Pilcher not to 
 report as yet to General Burnside, because there were 
 some friends in Covington that we wished to and did 
 meet in our room at the hotel, and they got into such 
 a boisterous discussion one of them said : "Hush, boys ; 
 walls have ears." When we reported to General Burn- 
 side with General Boyle's letter I noticed his brows 
 contract, and he looked at us fiercely and said in a 
 very abrupt manner: "This is a very peculiar request 
 from General Boyle, and one entirely contrary to War 
 
53 THE PRIVATIONS OF A PRIVATE. 
 
 Department orders. / cannot grant it." I replied: 
 "Very well, General ; do with us as you will, as we are 
 subject to your orders." He studied awhile and said: 
 "I will do this: place you in charge of a lieutenant 
 with his side arms. That will be better than going with 
 a soldier and gun over you. Report here at six 
 o'clock to take the train for Baltimore. We reported 
 at six o'clock, and met the lieutenant, whom we found 
 to be a nice gentleman and very companionable. We 
 arrived in Baltimore and registered at Barnum Hotel. 
 After supper we retired early. 
 
 The next morning the lieutenant, after a visit to the 
 provost marshal's office, said that the flag-of-truce 
 would not sail for several, days, and that they had 
 smallpox very bad there. He said that we would re- 
 main in Baltimore. After breakfast he said: "Boys, 
 I am going to see the city. I know you do riot wish 
 to go with me, and I don't care to stay with you. If 
 you are arrested, tell them to wait till I come with the 
 papers." Captain Pilcher and I had a letter to Noah 
 Walker, wholesale clothier, and we started to his 
 store, but had proceeded but two squares before 
 we were arrested as spies. We told the detective that 
 we were under orders for exchange, and under control 
 of a lieutenant of the United States army, and if he 
 did not believe our story he could accompany us to 
 the hotel, which he did, and waited several hours. 
 When our lieutenant returned, he was very angry and 
 cursed and abused the detective severely. Next morn- 
 ing I said : "Lieutenant, we wish to reach Noah Walk- 
 er's. We wish you would ■ go with us to the door, 
 where you can leave us and resume your sight-seeing." 
 
BRAGG S INVASION OF KENTUCKY. 53 
 
 So he did. We presented our letter to Mr. Walker, 
 and had a pleasant chat with him. He inquired es- 
 pecially after his friends in Louisville. When we 
 arose to take our leave, he said: "Boys, wait awhile. 
 Come this way." We followed him up four flights 
 of stairs. Coming to the fifth story, he unlocked a 
 door and we entered another narrow flight of stairs; 
 he locked the door on the inside, and put the key in his 
 pocket. When we reached the head of the stairs, we 
 found a large stock of Confederate uniforms. He 
 said : "Mum is the word. I am running the blockade 
 with these; and if it were known by the Federal au- 
 thorities, my entire stock would be confiscated." We 
 told him that our lips would be sealed. He said: "I 
 did not bring you up here for a display, but I want 
 each of you boys to select an overcoat." We did so, and 
 he sent them to the hotel. The next evening we took 
 passage on the Bay Line steamer for Fortress Monroe. 
 Just after leaving Baltimore I saw a commotion in the 
 ladies' cabin, and heard the word "Rebel" uttered excit- 
 edly. Presently the captain came to us and said : 
 "Boys, I have an old lady aboard who is a regular 
 virago. She says that she does not want to travel on 
 the same boat with Rebels. I told her that you had 
 paid first-class fare and were entitled to cabin fare 
 passage, but that doesn't quiet her. She is creating a 
 terrible furore with the passengers. I wish you would 
 go down on the deck. I will send your supper to 
 you, the best we have on the table, and after supper 
 I will bring you up to your stateroom." 
 
 The captain was a Baltimorean and a Southern sym- 
 pathizer, and to accommodate him we went below till 
 
54 THE PRIVATIONS OF A PRIVATE. 
 
 after the old lady retired, when we turned in to dream 
 of the flag-of-truce. I hope the old lady has reached 
 that land where there are no Rebels to molest or make 
 her afraid. 
 
 When we awoke next morning, we were landed near 
 the truce boat. The lieutenant took receipt for us 
 from the exchange officer, and bade us good-by as if 
 he were sad in leaving us. I am sure we were sorry 
 to give him up, as he was exceedingly kind to us. I 
 wish that I had kept his name. We asked to be re- 
 membered to General Burnside for sending such a 
 clever officer with us. Soon after boarding the truce 
 boat we were sailing up the historic James River. The 
 next morning we landed at City Point, where a like 
 number of Federals were to be exchanged for us. 
 Many cases of smallpox were on the lower deck of 
 our truce boat, and it was difficult to get help to 
 unload. Finally the captain said that if they were not 
 removed he would take them back, so I volunteered 
 to carry the patients off. 
 
 The exchange officer said that he would have to 
 separate the officers and privates and send us to our 
 commands in that manner. He was rather brusque in 
 his order, which irritated us. Captain Pilcher said: 
 "We have been in the hands of the enemy for six 
 months. They not only would not allow us to be sep- 
 arated, but treated us in a more respectful manner 
 than you have." This appeared to put a quietus on 
 the officer, and he allowed us to proceed together, 
 which we did as far as Knoxville, when we separated 
 on account of the following accident. About fifteen 
 miles west of Bristol, at three o'clock in the morning, 
 
BRAGG'S INVASION OF KENTUCKY. 55 
 
 Captain Pilcher and I, with a lot of soldiers, were in 
 the rear car, when a brake beam broke and fell in 
 front of our trucks, throwing our car from the track 
 and dragging it until it reached a sharp curve, when 
 the coupling pin broke and we turned over several 
 times, landing near the edge of the Watauga River. 
 Captain Pilcher said that the first voice that he heard 
 from the groans of the wounded was my query : "Cap- 
 tain, are you hurt?" He replied: "Yes; take these 
 wounded men off of me." 
 
 As soon as we went over the lamps were smashed 
 and it was very dark; but with the assistance of a 
 comrade who had only a few bruises like mine, we 
 succeeded in getting Captain Pilcher out through the 
 end window. His arm was broken, but on arrival at 
 Knoxville he said that he thought he would be able to 
 proceed in a week. As I had been absent for six 
 months, I was anxious to get back. 
 
CHAPTER V. 
 The Chickamauga Campaign. 
 
 I found the regiment on Duck River in the suburbs 
 of Shelbyville. I was glad to be with the boys again. 
 I did not rest long, for the regiment was busy making 
 detail for digging fortifications, and I worked with 
 pick and shovel. 
 
 The two great evils attending war are drinking and 
 gambling. In 1863 the drink habit was much less- 
 ened in our army because the drinks were scarce and 
 hard to get. Mr. McGrew kept a drug store on the 
 Square in Shelbyville, and by some means it was ascer- 
 tained that he had some whisky in the cellar, and one 
 night some soldiers got into it and took the whole 
 stock, consisting of about half a barrel ; and the old 
 mill, situated on the river, was frequently robbed of its 
 stock; and in unloading commissaries at the depot the 
 soldiers would make mistakes and throw meat under 
 the depot, and at nightfall bring it to camp. The 
 mania for gambling continued unabated. I have seen 
 men gamble all night, and do a good deal of nodding 
 on duty the next day. If they did not have money 
 to gamble with, chips for fun would not be much 
 amusement. I have seen on the march, just previous to 
 an engagement, bits of pasteboard (decks of cards) 
 scattered along so the line of march could almost be 
 designated by the scraps and also by letters torn 
 and scattered, because a soldier did not wish to be 
 
THE CHICKAMAUGA CAMPAIGN. 
 
 57 
 
 found dead on the field of battle with a deck of cards 
 in his pocket, or prying eyes to read his letters from 
 home; but I have never yet seen a soldier discard the 
 little pocket Testament that his mother gave him when 
 she sent him forth with her prayers. 
 Shelbyville was a place that could easily be flanked, and 
 
 THE GAMBLING MANIA. 
 
 Rosecrans was preparing for it. General Bragg hoped 
 to give him battle on better vantage ground (for us), 
 and selected Tullahoma, and we prepared to retire to 
 that point in good order if General Rosecrans would 
 permit. Our army commenced to retire— the infantry 
 in front, General Wheeler's cavalry in the rear. Early 
 in the morning I was on detail to proceed to the N. 
 
58 THE PRIVATIONS OF A PRIVATE. 
 
 and C. depot and load up the commissaries. We worked 
 with a will, and thought that we could get everything 
 in the cars, but some of the detail, early in the day 
 found some whisky and commenced to get drunk. 
 About 3 p.m. we heard a tremendous boom, boom, of 
 our artillery on the Square, followed by a fusillade of 
 musketry. The Federal cavalry had approached from 
 the front and flank. Lieut. J. R. McDaniel's (or 
 Wiggins) battery made a gallant resistance, and suc- 
 ceeded in getting his pieces away with the loss of only 
 two. He lost a number of his men, however, the en- 
 emy riding into their midst and cutting them with 
 sabers. In attempting to cross the Duck River bridge 
 General Wheeler found it blockaded and swam his 
 horse above it, having the belt of his sword shot away. 
 As soon as I saw the stampede on the Square I ran into 
 the depot, got some clothing . and shoes out of a box 
 in the depot, and went down under the depot (which 
 had open sides) and bivouacked in the dust with hogs 
 and fleas, which were very industrious. After leaving 
 the Square the Federal cavalry rode rapidly toward the 
 depot. One of my detail, seeing them coming, stag- 
 gered out near the Barksdale House and said that 
 he could whip the whole Yankee army. It was only 
 a short while before he was in Nashville, and later 
 Fort Delaware. I remained with my companions 
 (hogs and fleas, and the dust made a pretty soft bed) 
 till late in the night, and by the aid of the stars kept 
 in the direction of Tullahoma, where I found the First 
 Tennessee next day in a beautiful black-jack grove 
 about one mile north of the town. In front of the 
 grove an avenue some two hundred feet wide by 
 
THE CHICKAMAUGA CAMPAIGN. 59 
 
 some mile long had been cut out, and it was a splen- 
 did place to fight in the open, but the enemy chose not 
 to fight there. General Rosecrans's scouts came with- 
 in some three miles of us, our cavalry interposed, and 
 General Starnes was mortally wounded. After a few 
 days' rest we commenced to retire toward Chatta- 
 nooga, and it was quite a march over the mountains, 
 but nothing in comparison with Cheat Mountain. 
 Soon after reaching Chattanooga we were put to work 
 building two immense forts — one near where the 
 Stanton House is now, and the~ other near the city 
 cemetery, in the eastern suburbs of the city. The only 
 service that the forts rendered was to conceal in the 
 dirt bacon stolen from the cars, and hid there until 
 a favorable time to remove it to the camp. 
 
 We had been in Chattanooga but a short time when 
 General Rosecrans occupied Walden's Ridge and Rac- 
 coon Mountain. About the 15th of August our army 
 moved out of Chattanooga. I did not know where 
 we were going. In fact, it is not the business of a 
 private soldier to know anything except to obey or- 
 ders. I did not like to leave the forts, upon which 
 we had expended so much labor, knowing that in a 
 short while the enemy would be enjoying the fruits 
 of our labor. We moved down the valley via Ross- 
 ville, McLemore's Cove, and next day reached Lafay- 
 ette, Ga., where we camped, and the following day 
 faced again toward Chattanooga, and early next morn- 
 ing crossed Chickamauga River at Lee and Gordon's 
 Mill, and were soon drawn up in battle array, when 
 General Maney stood up in his stirrups and made a 
 speech to the Tennessee boys, saying : "We shall soon 
 
60 THE PRIVATIONS 6? A PRIVATE. 
 
 have an opportunity of striking again for our homes 
 and firesides, and to acquit ourselves like men worthy 
 of the old Volunteer State." Soon the firing of pickets 
 gave notice that the battle of Chickamauga was about 
 to begin. As the First Tennessee Regiment moved in 
 line through a thick wood of oak and pine, we struck 
 the enemy, who were posted on a hill much higher than 
 our position. General Cheatham rode in advance of 
 the line with hat in hand, and said: "Come on, boys." 
 The First Tennessee charged gallantly amidst a ter- 
 rible cannonade. A shell exploded in front of us, 
 a piece striking the shoulder of Lieut. W. H. Webster, 
 of the Maury Grays, from which he soon bled to 
 death. The enemy's infantry retired before our 
 charge, and we reached the crest of a ridge and were 
 ordered to "lie down." While in this position En- 
 sign Joe Campbell raised up on his arm, and a shot 
 from the enemy pierced his brain, and he was instant- 
 ly killed. The next day we were moved to the right 
 of our army, and held in reserve nearly the entire day, 
 and participated late in the evening in making the 
 final charge over the enemy's breastworks of black- 
 jack logs, and Chickamauga was ours, and the enemy 
 on retreat to Chattanooga, ten miles distant. General 
 Bragg has been much criticised because he did not 
 capture General Rosecrans's army before he was safe- 
 ly ensconced in the forts upon which we had ex- 
 pended so much labor. If General Bragg had had a 
 sufficient force of fresh cavalry, the feat might have 
 been accomplished ; but it must be borne in mind that 
 we had been on the move some five days and nights, 
 with little sleep and short rations, and when the final 
 
THE CHICKAMAUGA CAMPAIGN. 6 1 
 
 charge came, about dusk of September 20, our men 
 fell down with the dead and wounded of the enemy 
 inside of their former breastworks, and went to sleep. 
 The next day we moved leisurely up to the crest of 
 Missionary Ridge, and we lost Comrade Eugene Topp, 
 of Pulaski, who was shot by the enemy's picket as 
 we ascended the ridge. From Missionary Ridge we 
 could see the enemy scattered around Chattanooga, 
 and occupying our former forts. We moved down 
 from the ridge and went into camp at the base, facing 
 toward Chattanooga. We occupied also Lookout 
 Mountain, and had one piece of artillery on the point, 
 but we could not throw a shell to the N. and C. depot, 
 which was about three miles distant on an air line. 
 Soon afterwards General Grant succeeded General 
 Rosecrans, and he had a lot of goods casemated at 
 Moccasin Point. We could look down on his batteries, 
 but we could not depress our pieces so as to give him 
 any trouble. A party of us would gather at the point 
 to attract his fire, and as soon as we would see the 
 smoke down we would fall, and the shell would whiz 
 over us. Our pickets were on the bench of the moun- 
 tain below the Craven House, and extended up Look- 
 out Creek. A shell from Moccasin Point killed and 
 wounded five of our men at one time. I was on picket 
 duty one day on Lookout Creek, a Federal, on the 
 other side. You could take a run and jump across. 
 I asked him how his rations were. He said that they 
 were living on ox-tail soup. He said that Joe Wheeler 
 had burned a number of bridges on the N. and C. 
 Railroad between Nashville and Chattanooga, and that 
 General Grant had started a train of some two hun- 
 
62 THE PRIVATIONS OF A PRIVATE. 
 
 dred wagons with commissary stores, and when they 
 reached Sequatchie Valley Joe Wheeler again ap- 
 peared on the scene and burned the entire train, hence 
 the army was greatly reduced in supplies. 
 
 In 1863 Chattanooga was not much of a town, 
 Market was the principal street, and that was filled 
 with a lot of insignificant shanties, hence General 
 Grant's army camped over the hills upon which beau- 
 tiful residences are now located. His tents extended 
 from the fort near the Stanton House to the river, while 
 General Hooker's tents covered Raccoon Mountain. 
 From the top of Lookout Mountain it was a grand 
 sight at night to see the campfires of this large army, 
 and at nine o'clock at night the many bugles would - 
 blow taps after the music from many bands had 
 floated upward. On the night of November 24, 1863, 
 we moved off of Lookout Mountain and took our 
 position on Missionary Ridge. Part of the First Ten- 
 nessee Regiment line was directly over the tunnel. 
 From this position we could clearly see the entire line 
 of General Grant's army moving out of Chattanooga 
 in line of battle, extending nearly to Rossville. Just 
 below where the Cincinnati Southern bridge is now lo- 
 cated could be seen General Sherman's army crossing 
 in a steamboat, and it did not take him a great while to 
 get a battery on one bench of Missionary Ridge, 
 which was separated from our ridge by Chickamauga 
 River and the W. and A. Railway. I think his posi- 
 tion was some higher than ours, and his battery an- 
 noyed us without doing much damage. General 
 Grant's lines were drawing nearer and nearer to us, 
 and our batteries were belching forth, and we could 
 
THE CHICKAMAUGA CAMPAIGN. 63 
 
 now and then see his men scatter from an exploding 
 shell. Nearer and nearer they came until we could 
 see the glittering steel and the flash of the offi- 
 cers' swords in the sunlight; nearer and nearer they 
 came until lost to sight at the base of Missionary 
 Ridge. We then took our position on the crest of the 
 ridge, lying down and waiting for them to come in 
 sight. We did not have long to wait. Soon we saw 
 the long line of blue coats advancing. We were hug- 
 ging the ridge so closely that nothing but our heads 
 peered over, so it was not so easy to see us, as the 
 bushes were quite thick and many large trees were on 
 the ridge. When they got within some hundred feet 
 of us the firing commenced, and they continued to 
 advance, when Colonel Fields said: "Fire, boys, and 
 charge." Down the ridge we went, the enemy keep- 
 ing ahead of us. We got so close to them that Col- 
 onel Fields hit a Federal on the head with a rock, and 
 Comrade John Branch grabbed at the colors, tearing 
 out a piece, but the sergeant got away with them. We 
 followed them to the base of the ridge, where the 
 town of Sherman Heights is now located. Finding 
 them in the trenches which we had once made, we re- 
 turned to the top of the ridge. It was now dusk, and 
 we were still in line of battle and drawing some ra- 
 tions, when the order came to get away as quietly and 
 quickly as possible. General Grant had pierced our 
 center, and all were in danger of capture. We were 
 the worst-disappointed soldiers in the army. We 
 thought our whole line as far as Rossville had made 
 the same movement that we had, and would next move 
 
64 THE PRIVATIONS OF A PRIVATE. 
 
 on General Grant and capture his army before he 
 could get to our forts in Chattanooga. 
 
 Well, we did not stand upon the order of our 
 going, but went out as rapidly as possible, every fel- 
 low taking care of himself. We went down many 
 ridges and crossed the Chickamauga River on the W. 
 and A. Railroad bridge, and afterwards burned it. The 
 next day we came to Chickamauga Station. There was a 
 large pile of bacon there ready to be burned rather 
 than to have it fall into the hands of the enemy. . I 
 fixed my bayonet and selected a small side of bacon 
 through which I ran the bayonet, and was marching 
 along thinking what a nice fry I would have for 
 supper, when the enemy's guns opened on us, and the 
 skirmish known as Cat Creek took place. I had to 
 unfix my bayonet in order to load my gun, and the 
 bacon was lost. Samuel Seay was wounded in this 
 skirmish, and he begged the boys not to leave him in 
 the hands of the enemy. We told him we would not 
 unless they got us, so four of us shouldered him, and 
 we would now and then call for relief. We marched 
 till late in the night before reaching Ringgold ; and 
 although Sam Seay was a light man, he got heavier 
 and heavier. At one place where we crossed the 
 Chickamauga River I got good wet, and it was a 
 cold night — November 26. I rolled up my pants as 
 high as I could, and four of us started across with 
 Sam, and I got into a hole up to my waist. Finally 
 we reached a clump of black-jacks near Ringgold, 
 through which ran a country road well filled with 
 autumn leaves, and here we made our bed. We were 
 sleeping soundly at sunrise when General Walker 
 
THE CHICKAMAUGA CAMPAIGN. 65 
 
 came riding swiftly, saying : "Get up, men ; the 
 Yankees will soon be here, and they will cut your 
 throats." We moved out promptly, and as we had 
 been the rear guard the day previous, we were now 
 in the advance. We had just reached the narrow 
 place where the stream is spanned by the railroad 
 bridge, when the battle of Ringgold was fought, but 
 we continued our retrograde movement until Dalton 
 was reached, and, after camping there for some days 
 and the weather getting cold, we built winter quarters 
 south of Dalton. 
 5 
 
CHAPTER VI. 
 Carry Me Back to Old Virginia. 
 
 While in winter quarters at Dal ton, I received a 
 letter from a relative saying that she would soon get 
 married, and had woven on her loom a nice suit of 
 jeans, and that I must come a week before in order 
 that the tailor could make them. Therefore, I made 
 application for a furlough, and it is not necessary to 
 say here that I obtained a genuine one. My destina- 
 tion was New Canton, Va., on the James River, sixty- 
 six miles above Richmond. I went via Columbia, S. 
 C, and reached there without any money. As I had 
 not drawn any clothing from the C. S. A. for a year, 
 I was entitled to so much money in lieu thereof. I 
 think the paymaster paid me $95. 
 
 When I reached Petersburg I heard that the canal 
 was frozen over between Richmond and New Canton. 
 I therefore went from Petersburg to Farmville by 
 rail, and thence horseback to New Canton, hiring a 
 negro boy to bring the horses back. Near Bucking- 
 ham Courthouse we had to ford Slate River. Some 
 men were working in the low ground, and I asked 
 them where to ford, as the river was much swollen. 
 They pointed to a place above, and in my horse went, 
 and down the stream he swam and me clinging to him. 
 I got pretty wet, and as it was a very cold day I rode 
 to the town for some stimulants. I got a small glass 
 of whisky, for which I paid $1, and I said to the 
 
CARRY ME BACK TO OLD VIRGINIA. 67 
 
 landlord: "It tastes like turpentine." He said: "It 
 is pine top.'' They cut off the boughs of pine and put 
 them into the whisky to color and give it strength; 
 hence the name "pine top." 
 
 I reached my destination without further mishap, 
 and after a few days' rest carried my piece of jeans 
 to the tailor at Columbia, and soon I was "the best- 
 dressed soldier in Buckingham County. The night 
 for the wedding soon drew near, and what a repast 
 there was ! There were on the table all shapes of cake 
 — tea, pound, and sponge cake — but all made of 
 the same ingredients, flour and sorghum. The cof- 
 fee was made of parched rye mixed with parched 
 sweet potato peelings and sweetened with sorghum. 
 I do not believe that, in January, 1864, there were 
 more than five bags of coffee in Virginia. Nearly all 
 the saddles had been denuded of their skirts to make 
 soles for shoes ; and when leather gave out, the farmers 
 blocked out of hickory or dogwood solid soles and 
 heels. By taking sheepskin for uppers, it gave a 
 solid hair shoe, comfortable to ride in, but very hard 
 on the feet and limbs in walking. The negro boy who 
 made my fire woke me up by his tramping upstairs 
 like a horse. Of course in riding horseback the wood- 
 en shoes were all right. 
 
 I was struck with the absence of young men. They 
 were all at the front with General Lee. The old men 
 and women, the girls and boys, were at home, and the 
 slaves watched over and guarded those girls as if they 
 were their own children. I never heard of an im- 
 proper act committed anywhere in old Virginia by 
 any of the old-time slaves. All honor to these old 
 
68 THE PRIVATIONS OF A PRIVATE. 
 
 trusted servants, many of whom sleep in the sacred 
 dust of old Virginia ! Another thing that impressed 
 me was the^ devotion of the Southern women to the 
 boys in the army. They would deny themselves 
 any little delicacy they could get to send to the boys, 
 and they would knit and knit, sew and sew from 
 morning till night; and as scarce as was cotton goods 
 in 1864, I have seen the women tear up their skirts 
 and make them into bandages and send them to our 
 wounded in hospitals in Richmond. 
 
 The nearest male relatives I had at that time were 
 three first cousins. Two of them had been dis- 
 charged, and the other was in Company C, com- 
 manded by Captain Miller, and was in the Forty- 
 Fourth Virginia Regiment, General Jones's Brigade, 
 Maj. Gen. Edward Johnson's Division, Army of 
 Northern Virginia, and I desired to be with my cous- 
 in in the final struggle. Being a native of Virginia, 
 I was entitled to the transfer under certain condi- 
 tions : ( 1 ) The assent of captain commanding com- 
 pany; (2) the consent of the captain of the company 
 to which I wished to be transferred; (3) the approv- 
 al of the Congressman representing my Congressional 
 district. 
 
 Armed with these papers, I went to Richmond, and 
 stopped at the Spottswood Hotel, next day sending my 
 card to Hon. Thomas S. Bocock. He invited me to 
 his room, where I explained to him my mission by 
 saying that I wished to come back to my native State 
 and try to defend her against the encroachments of 
 General Grant. Mr. Bocock slapped me on the 
 ahoulder and said: "Young man, we would like to 
 
CARRY ME BACK TO OLD VIRGINIA. 69 
 
 have twenty thousand like you. We will go down 
 to the War Department, where we will meet Mr. 
 Judah P. Benjamin, and will arrange the trans- 
 fer for you." We had a pleasant meeting with Mr. 
 Benjamin, who was then acting in place of Mr. Sed- 
 don. Mr. Benjamin said that I would have to return 
 to the First Tennessee Regiment at Dalton, and the 
 transfer would reach me through the headquarters of 
 Gen. Joseph E. Johnston. On my return to Dalton the 
 regiment was in comfortable winter quarters, but I 
 was very lonely. Only nine of my old Company B 
 were present, and I was glad a few days after to get 
 ■notice to report to Captain Miller, Company C, Forty- 
 Fourth Virginia Regiment, on Rapidan, near Veders- 
 ville, Va. As General Lee's army was in winter 
 quarters, and I did not have to report in any specified 
 time, I returned to Virginia, and went over much the 
 same ground as previously, except that I made the 
 trip by canal. I visited also while in Lynchburg. I 
 arrived at Orange Courthouse March 14, 1864, on 
 quite a cold night. I went to the only hotel near the 
 depot, which was covered with what are called in Vir- 
 ginia clapboards. I was surprised on awaking next 
 morning to find about three inches of snow on my 
 coverlid. It had drifted in under the boards. I found 
 about ten inches of snow outside, through which I 
 had to trudge ten miles before I found my regiment. 
 
CHAPTER VII. 
 On the Rapidan. 
 
 I found my boys in a comfortable cabin, some ten 
 in my cousin's mess. He was just recovering from a 
 wound received at Brandy Station. I was considered 
 as a guest of the boys, and did not have to go through 
 any drudgery such as cooking or washing. However, 
 I was detailed on picket duty and occasionally on drill. 
 When I reached the camp, rations consisted of middling 
 meat and corn bread, without any salt. We got along 
 without salt as long as the middling meat lasted, as 
 that was quite salty. By the ist of May the meat was 
 gone, and many of the soldiers were without shoes. 
 When the meat .gave out, we resorted to wild onions, 
 which were plentiful in that section, but hard to dig 
 up. They are about the size of shallots, but very deep 
 rooted, and we had to dig pretty deep with bayonets 
 to get them up. These onions and corn bread without 
 salt did very well toward appeasing the appetite of 
 hungry soldiers. 
 
 One day I was on picket duty near the Rapidan 
 River, which is a stream a little larger than Duck Riv- 
 er; just opposite us were the Yankee pickets. One 
 of them yelled out: "Hello, Johnny Reb! how is sas- 
 safras tea to-day? I told him the tea was all right, 
 but we had no sugar. I asked him how he was fixed 
 for tobacco, and he said, "Very short;" so we ar- 
 ranged on the morrow to get on duty again. I was to 
 
ON THE RAPIDAN. 7 1 
 
 bring a plug of tobacco, and he a shot pouch of cof- 
 fee. The Federals had their coffee parched, ground, 
 and sugar mixed with it, so on the morrow we made 
 the exchange, and I don't think that I ever enjoyed 
 coffee as much as I did that, having been months with- 
 out a taste of pure coffee. After making the exchange, 
 he asked me how I would like to have a New York 
 Herald. He said that it was not contraband, for it 
 was several weeks old. I told him that I would like 
 very much to see it, as we did not get any papers now, 
 and the ones received were printed on the reverse side 
 of wall paper and were so flimsy that they would not 
 stand the mails. So he tied the Herald to a stick and 
 threw it across to me. When I opened it up, I read as 
 follows : "The Rebel Capital Must be Captured at All 
 Hazards; General Grant Has Been Appointed to the 
 Task." He afterwards uttered what became a mem- 
 orable saying: "I will fight it out on this line if it 
 takes all summer." 
 
CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 The Wilderness Campaign. 
 
 On May i General Lee issued the following order, 
 "Send all extra baggage to the rear," and on May 3 he 
 issued an order to cook up three days' rations. The 
 first order was easily complied with. Back to Buck- 
 ingham County was sent my Baltimore coat. The 
 second order was also easily complied with. Three 
 days' rations were three pones, of corn bread without 
 any sifting and minus salt. We did not have any sifters 
 in General Lee's army; and if we had, we could not 
 have afforded the loss of the bran. 
 
 On the night of May 4, 1864, General Grant crossed 
 the Rapidan at Germana, United States, and Ely's 
 fords. We had advanced to Mine Run, and on the 
 night of the 4th we were not far apart. The Wil- 
 derness is a peculiar country, and in the early days 
 much gold ore was smeltered there. From the Rap- 
 idan to Spottsylvania Courthouse, fourteen miles, is 
 the wilderness proper. It is a slightly undulating 
 country without hills, but abounds in the thickest 
 growth of pine or black-jack. The pines are very 
 tall, and range from an inch to twelve inches in diam- 
 eter. These small pines grow in thickets, and in some 
 places it is difficult to walk through. Sometimes you 
 can walk a mile through nothing but a wilderness of 
 pines, with now and then a black-jack; then it reverses, 
 and you can walk for a mile in a wilderness of black- 
 
THE WILDERNESS CAMPAIGN. 73 
 
 jack, with now and then a pine. The growth was 
 thus because in cutting timber in the early days for 
 smelting the undergrowth came up afterwards as de- 
 scribed. There were very few cleared fields in this 
 section, and they took their names from their owners. 
 
 General Grant's headquarters on the night of May 
 4 were near the Wilderness tavern, and one and one- 
 half miles from Palmer's old field, and our line of 
 pickets were on the edge of Palmer's field. A few 
 years ago I was where General Grant pitched his tent 
 at the Wilderness. The trees were then standing be- 
 tween which he rested the night of May 4, after cross- 
 ing the Rapidan, which was less than a mile distant. 
 That night everything betokened the conflict on the 
 coming morrow — the neighing of the horses, the 
 unlimbering of artillery, the commands of the officers, 
 could be distinctly heard from our lines. 
 
 Before taps one of General Grant's bands struck up 
 the old song once revered by North and South alike, 
 
 "The star-spangled banner, O long may it wave 
 Over the land of the free and home of the brave !" 
 
 The music echoed and reechoed through that wilder- 
 ness of pines, and our band responded with that song 
 so dear to Southern hearts, 
 
 "Hurrah, hurrah, for the Southern rights hurrah! 
 Hurrah for the bonnie blue flag that bears the single star." 
 
 In response to our "Bonnie Blue Flag" General 
 Grant's band played "Home, Sweet Home." Looking 
 back to that scene of May 4, 1864, I have often 
 thought that if the messenger of peace could have hov- 
 ered over the camp that night many would have been 
 
74 *HE PRIVATIONS OF A PRIVATE. 
 
 saved to family and friends, for between May 5 and 12 
 nearly fifty thousand men fell, General Grant losing 
 nearly forty thousand. General Lee being on the de- 
 fensive, his loss was only about ten thousand. 
 
 What a contrast between the two armies assembled 
 on the night of May 4, 1864. General Grant's army 
 numbered about one hundred and seventeen thousand, 
 and it was the best-equipped and best-provisioned 
 army ever marshaled in the United States ; on the other 
 hand, General Lee had only about fifty-five thousand 
 illy clad and poorly fed men, but they were veterans 
 who had previously successfully held at bay such gen- 
 erals as McClellan, Meade, Hooker, and Burnside. 
 Many of the men were nearly barefoot ; and some were 
 just from the hospital, with former wounds not yet 
 healed. The morning of May 5, 1865, found us form- 
 ing on the old plank road, my regiment extending 
 across it. There were two roads extending from 
 Orange Courthouse to Fredericksburg, thirty-two 
 miles distant. One was called the plank and the other 
 the dirt road. Both led out of Orange Courthouse 
 together, but diverged soon after. At our line they 
 were three miles apart, and it was sixteen miles by 
 each road to Orange Courthouse or Fredericksburg. 
 The plank road was nearest the Rapidan River, and 
 our left rested not far from the river (our line ex- 
 tended three miles), the right resting on the dirt road 
 near Parker's store. Running from the Rapidan Riv- 
 er and crossing the plank and dirt road was the Brock 
 road, extending from the Rapidan River to Spottsyl- 
 vania Courthouse, eighteen miles from the Rapidan 
 River. General Lee made no resistance to the passage 
 
THE WILDERNESS CAMPAIGN. 75 
 
 of General Grant across the Rapidan; in fact, all our 
 pickets had been withdrawn when General Grant first 
 reached and obtained possession of the Brock road. 
 He thought that General Lee was retiring toward 
 Richmond, but we were hid in the Wilderness for the 
 time being. His scouts reported our whereabouts 
 after nightfall of May 4. On the morning of May 5 
 we were forming our lines; and as General Grant's 
 numbers outflanked us, we had to stretch out the thin 
 gray line, and on my part of the line we did not have 
 a rear rank, and the front rank files were so far apart 
 that they could not touch elbows. There was so little 
 cleared land in the wilderness that the old fields were 
 named for their owners. My line of battle was in a 
 pine thicket on the edge of Palmer's field, a clearing of 
 some two hundred feet in width and some five hun- 
 dred feet in length. On General Grant's side of the 
 field the pine and underbrush was as thick as on our 
 side. Just in the rear of our line, and running par- 
 allel with us, was a newly cut road on which wagons 
 had recently been hauling out timber. Into this road 
 we ran a battery of nine pieces charged with grape 
 and canister. This was our position when, about 
 3 p.m., the picket lines commenced firing, and our 
 pickets, who were across the old field, ran to and 
 joined our ranks. Soon a line of blue appeared on 
 the opposite side of the thicket, and opened a brisk 
 fire, and continued to advance on us, and the battle of 
 the Wilderness had begun. The One Hundred and 
 Forty-Sixth New York Zouaves were in our imme- 
 diate front, and their commander was Major Gilbert. 
 They were as fine-looking a body of men as I ever saw. 
 
76 THE PRIVATIONS OF A PRIVATE. 
 
 They had yellow sashes around their waists and leg- 
 gings on ankles, red caps with tassels. With our shots 
 and those from the nine pieces of artillery they were 
 mowed down like grass before the sickle. It appeared 
 to me that the whole regiment was annihilated. An- 
 other line appeared quickly to take their place, and 
 the battle waged hot and fast till toward nightfall, 
 when General Grant withdrew his line into the thick- 
 et, and all through the night we lay on our arms 
 expecting an attack, as some artillery he had placed 
 some distance off boomed at us all through the night. 
 On the morning of May 6 eleven hundred Federals 
 were dead on Palmer's old field. All their haver- 
 sacks had disappeared, and in many instances their 
 knapsacks, and the pockets of each were turned in- 
 side out, showing that their pockets had been picked. 
 Our men threw away their rations of corn bread, as 
 they had three days' rations of hard-tack, besides some 
 bacon and coffee. When the Federals made their last 
 charge, we were lying down firing, and after they re- 
 tired I said to my cousin, who was by my side : "That 
 was an impetuous charge." Hearing no response from 
 him, I looked and saw that a bullet had pierced his 
 forehead, killing him instantly. I wrapped him in his 
 oilcloth and blanket, and with the assistance of some 
 comrades buried him with a black-jack tree for his 
 headstone, into which I cut, with a knife, the initials 
 of his name, and wrote to his father telling him the 
 spot in case he wished him removed to the old family 
 burying ground, near Buckingham Church. Some 
 months after, I received a letter from his father say- 
 
THE WILDERNESS CAMPAIGN. 77 
 
 ing: "My son died like a true soldier on the field of 
 battle, and I shall there let his bones rest." 
 
 After burying all of our dead, Lieut. George 
 Price, of my company, and I were sitting on a pine 
 log to rest. All around was quiet except now and 
 then a shot from sharpshooters. We were only a short 
 distance from their line, and could see the Federal 
 dead in the old field. We were talking of the dead 
 boys, and the feelings of the folks at home when the 
 news should reach them, when suddenly I heard a thud, 
 and saw the blood gushing from above the heart of 
 my lieutenant. I gathered him in my arms and low- 
 ered him to the earth. He did not speak, but from 
 his inside pocket gave me a daguerreotype. On opening 
 the case I saw the fair features of a James River young 
 lady, and one whom I had heard play and sing : "When 
 this cruel war is over.'' 
 
 On the morning of May 6 about sunrise one of our 
 boys came into the lines with a pair of boots on his 
 arm. He said that he had been trying all night to get 
 the boots, but that every time he attempted to pull 
 them off the soldier would open his eyes. He died 
 just before this, and the soldier got the boots. 
 
 All day quiet reigned in our front, save now and 
 then the sharpshooters of the enemy, who fired from 
 the tall trees ; but of course their shots were at random, 
 as we could not be seen from their lines. On the 
 right of our line the battle was raging furiously. 
 General Grant threw the columns of General Warren 
 against those of Longstreet, and attempted to turn 
 our right flank as he had failed the previous day to 
 turn our left. The battle was in a wilderness of 
 
78 THE PRIVATIONS OF A PRIVATE. 
 
 black-jacks as thick as ours was of pines. First one 
 side and then the other advanced and receded till the 
 end of the day's struggle, when General Longstreet 
 held the ground in advance of where it commenced. 
 Eight years ago, when I was going over the Wilder- 
 ness battlefield, I came upon a huge stone which 
 marked the spot where one of the Texas Rangers 
 took hold of the bridle reins of old Traveler, and 
 carried General Lee from the front to the rear. 
 
 The 7th of May was very quiet and quite warm. 
 The bodies of the dead in the old field were very much 
 swollen, and General Lee sent a flag of truce to Gen- 
 eral Grant requesting that we be allowed to bury the 
 Federal dead, which request was granted. There is 
 very little ceremony in burying the dead of an enemy. 
 With a shovel the dirt is removed the length of the 
 soldier and to the depth of eight or ten inches, and 
 then with the shovel the body is turned into the little 
 trench, sometimes falling on side or back and some- 
 times on the face; the dirt removed from the little 
 trench is then shoveled onto the body, and is soon 
 washed off by the rains, when the body is mutilated by 
 hogs or vultures. We had buried but few of the dead 
 when orders came to fall into ranks, as General Grant 
 was on the march toward Richmond. As we were 
 in the rear, our march was very slow, and we soon 
 bivouacked for the night. 
 
 On May 8 we passed near where Generals Warren 
 and Longstreet fought on the 6th, and saw many sick- 
 ening sights. The wads from the guns had fired the 
 thick beds of leaves in the black-jack thicket, and 
 some of our wounded had been burned, and their 
 
THE WILDERNESS CAMPAIGN. 79 
 
 charred remains were close to our line of march. We 
 moved very slowly on the 9th of May ; but on the 10th, 
 early in the morning, our advance was in position a 
 few miles northeast of Spottsylvania Courthouse, and 
 General Grant made a furious charge, trying to dis- 
 lodge us, but General Lee held the position. Gen- 
 eral Sedgwick was killed, and near by is a handsome 
 monument erected to him. On the night of May 10, 
 by the aid of engineers' voices (it was a very dark 
 night) the dead angle was formed, and we commenced 
 to dig lively with our bayonets, throwing out the dirt 
 with tin plates. On the night of May 11 the trench 
 was completed and occupied by us, as we expected 
 an attack at any moment. In building the trench we 
 threw the dirt out in front, and on top of the dirt 
 placed some small pine logs, cut out of the thicket. 
 The logs would be of no use in case artillery was 
 used, but we knew that General Grant could not use 
 it on account of the wilderness, but the little logs 
 served their purpose in catching Minie balls. All 
 night there was a steady drizzling rain, and soon after 
 daylight on the morning of the 12th of May we heard 
 the pickets firing, and soon they came running in 
 lively, and scampered over the breastworks and yelled 
 out, "Boys, the Yanks are coming in three columns," 
 and soon we were engaged with General Hancock's 
 Corps. The battle raged furiously for a while, and the 
 front column of the Federals was not more than 
 thirty feet from our line. Soon I heard one of our 
 men say: "Stop firing; they will kill all of us." I 
 heard a voice in our rear say, "Surrender," and it was 
 accompanied with an oath. I looked up, and Gen, 
 
80 THE PRIVATIONS OF A PRIVATE. 
 
 Thomas Francis Meagher's Brigade was in our rear, 
 and some of our men were being shot and clubbed to 
 death with guns after they had thrown down their 
 arms. The big, burly Irishman that had called on me 
 to surrender had his gun within two feet of my body 
 and his finger on the trigger. Why he did not shoot, 
 I will never know. Maj. Gen. Edward Johnson, 
 commanding my division, and Col. Norvell Cobbs, 
 of my regiment, had dismounted previous to the battle, 
 and were near me in the trenches, and we leaped the 
 breastworks, grabbing the pine logs on top to assist 
 us over, and we were in the midst of the attacking 
 column in front. One thousand one hundred men were 
 captured, which contained all of General Johnson's 
 division except seven of my regiment that were on 
 our extreme right. When we reached General Han- 
 cock's men, they displayed the excitement incident to 
 a fierce charge, and I think we had about four guards 
 to each prisoner. They rushed to us and said, "To 
 the rear, quick, men ;" and away they ran with us. Of 
 course we know that it was not our personal safe- 
 ty that they were looking after, but they wished to get 
 out of the fight. After the war I talked with one of 
 the seven men who was not captured, and he said that 
 just after we left the trenches Gen. J. B. Gordon 
 came up with his division, and charged Meagher's 
 Brigade, tumbling them into the trenches that we had 
 left, and crossing them was soon in the midst of- Han- 
 cock's Corps, whose ranks had been so depleted by his 
 men going with us to the rear, which left a gap in 
 front. It was in this charge that General Gordon 
 caught the bridle rein of old Traveler and asked 
 
THE WILDERNESS CAMPAIGN. 8 1 
 
 General Lee to retire to the rear, as his boys would do 
 the fighting. Our three or four guards each trotted us 
 to the rear rapidly, and I expect would have gone with 
 us as far as Freedricksburg, but for General Grant, 
 for when we reached his headquarters, about a mile 
 in the rear, the General was directing couriers to dif- 
 ferent positions on the field. When he saw the head 
 column of prisoners attended by so many guards, he 
 knew why there was trouble in General Hancock's 
 ranks. Turning to one of his staff, General Grant 
 said : "Reorganize that line ; for every four prisoners a 
 
 guard, and place Lieutenant in command." 
 
 When the line was reorganized, we proceeded slowly 
 along the dirt road in single file toward the town of 
 Fredericksburg, distant sixteen miles. Soon we had 
 to move out of the road and take to the edge of the 
 woods, for marching in column of fours were twenty- 
 five thousand soldiers who had been doing duty as 
 guards since we invaded Pennsylvania and Maryland. 
 Many of them were members of the heavy artillery, 
 and had been armed as infantry men. Each regi- 
 ment was headed by a fine band. We were in a sorry 
 plight to meet such an array of tinseled regalia. Many 
 of our men were hatless, shoeless, and coatless, and 
 were covered with mud from the trenches. This 
 grand army guyed us all day. As we met one col- 
 umn a good-natured looking soldier yelled out: "Hel- 
 lo, Johnnies ! we are taking you North, and will give 
 you something to eat, put some clothes on your back, 
 and shoes on your feet." 
 
 Toward nightfall we bivouacked on the marshy 
 plains of Marye Heights, overlooking Fredericksburg. 
 6 
 
82 
 
 THE PRIVATIONS OF A PRIVATE. 
 
 The ground was wet and marshy. One of our boys had 
 a pocketknife, and we cut some chinquapin. bushes, and 
 four of us set back to back on the pile of bushes. 
 This was a good way to rest and sleep when the wet 
 ground would not allow a horizontal position. We 
 had a chain picket around our camp. In army par- 
 
 THE BIVOUAC. 
 
 lance a chain picket is one in which the guards are 
 so close together that with extended arms they can 
 touch hands, so it would be difficult to get away with 
 guards so near each other. 
 
 The next day we went through Fredericksburg, 
 crossed the Rappahannock River on the pontoon Gen. 
 Joe Hooker built while he was in the campaign of 
 
THE WILDERNESS CAMPAIGN. 83 
 
 "On to Richmond, with headquarters in the saddle." 
 Eight miles from Fredericksburg we reached Belle 
 Plains, on the Potomac. We camped a few days here, 
 waiting for transports, and drew very good rations of 
 hard-tack, bacon, sugar, and coffee. Here I first saw 
 what was then termed the Christian Commission, 
 whose duty it was to minister to the spiritual and ma- 
 terial welfare of the United States army. They did 
 not minister to any of the Confederate prisoners. I 
 guess they thought we were an incorrigible set. 
 
CHAPTER IX. 
 Prison Life, Point Lookout, Md. 
 
 In a few days the transports came along, and we 
 boarded them quickly, reaching Point Lookout May 
 20, and before getting in line each prisoner was sub- 
 
 IN THE HANDS OF COLORED TROOPS. 
 
 jected to a search and relieved of any valuables or 
 knives and pistols. We found as guards here some 
 one thousand one hundred colored soldiers, in com- 
 mand of Maj. H. G. O. Weymouth, of the Nineteenth 
 
PRISON LIFE, POINT LOOKOUT, MD. 85 
 
 Massachusetts Regiment. Major Weymouth lost a 
 leg in the battle of Fredericksburg, and this post was 
 given him, and also because he was a good executive 
 officer. 
 
 General Grant knew how to economize in men ; and 
 as these colored soldiers had not behaved well at the 
 front, he replaced them with white troops and sent the 
 colored soldiers to Point Lookout. This camp occu- 
 pied some twenty acres of sandy land. It was a penin- 
 sula with several wells, and the waters before the war 
 were noted for their medicinal properties. It was 
 situated on Chesapeake Bay at the confluence of the 
 Potomac River. The bay was twenty-five miles 
 across, and it was eight miles across the Potomac. It 
 was surrounded by a fence some sixteen feet high, and 
 three feet from the top was a parapet walkway which 
 was the beat of the guards, who were stationed some 
 forty feet apart; besides there were also a garrison on 
 the outside, and artillery shotted, to be used in case 
 of an insurrection by the prisoners. 
 
 Much has been said, written, and spoken of the 
 treatment of prisoners, North and South. In the, 
 United States Senate it was on one occasion the cause 
 of a heated debate between Senators Hill and Blaine, 
 and no doubt Senator Hill got the better of the argu- 
 ment, for with the Southern ports all blockaded, our 
 people raising tobacco, cotton, resin, and turpentine, 
 we did not have provisions to feed the army, and con- 
 sequently the prisoners at Andersonville and other 
 Southern prisons had to fare the same as our army. 
 On the other hand, the United States was teeming 
 with men, provisions, and money, all the ports were 
 
86 THE PRIVATIONS OF A PRIVATE. 
 
 open to the world, and a bounty of six hundred dol- 
 lars had induced a great flood of emigrants from the 
 Old World. While the words I use in describing pris- 
 on life may be harsh, yet there is no bitterness in my 
 heart. When I took the oath of allegiance at Elmira, 
 N. Y., nearly three months after General Lee sur- 
 rendered, I turned my back upon the past, and buried 
 it with all its prejudices and animosities. I recog- 
 nize the fatherhood of God, the brotherhood of man, 
 and there is no one but with whom I can clasp hands. 
 
 The quarters at Point Lookout were large Sibley 
 tents, which were cone-shaped. These tents would 
 accommodate seventeen men sleeping in a circle. We 
 did not need any blankets, and for a pillow we raked 
 up a bank of sand. It was very hot in these tents 
 with so many bunk mates. Our rations consisted of 
 " salt pork, bean soup, hard-tack, and occasionally fresh 
 meat. We had not been in prison long before we 
 were deprived of coffee. There were three large 
 gates in the fence opening out to Chesapeake Bay, and 
 we bathed and did our washing there. Near Major 
 Weymouth's headquarters was another gate, opening 
 to the pier where all the vessels unloaded prisoners 
 and supplies. On the bay side at night the gates were 
 closed, and no one could get to the bay. I was at the 
 Point five weeks without change of clothing. I would 
 go into the bay, wash my clothes, hang them on sand 
 to dry, and go into the water up to my chin to keep 
 from getting sunburned. At the end of five weeks 
 I resolved to get some clothing, so I denied myself a 
 ration a day, and after the two days' fast I sold my 
 two rations to a fellow-prisoner for five cents, and with 
 
PRISON LIFE, POINT LOOKOUT, MD. 87 
 
 the money I purchased from the sutler one postage 
 stamp, in those days three cents, and one cent each 
 for sheets of paper and envelopes, and as soon as my 
 letter reached a friend in Baltimore he sent me a 
 package of clothing and a ten-pound package of Killi- 
 kinnick smoking tobacco. In writing a letter you 
 could use only one side of the sheet, as all letters had 
 to be examined and approved before mailing, and you 
 had to be careful and not write anything contraband. 
 The envelopes were stamped : "Prisoner's letter, exam- 
 ined and approved." On receiving letters they first 
 came to the commandant and were read and stamped 
 approved by him. Remittances of money, by mail or 
 express, were receipted for by the commandant, and 
 then turned over to the sutler. In some prisons I 
 have heard that the commandant and sutler were 
 partners; I do not think that this was the case, how- 
 ever, at Point Lookout. At nine o'clock at night the 
 bugle was sounded for taps or lights out, and every 
 one had to be in his tent at that hour with lights 
 out. The colored soldiers patroled after nine o'clock 
 along the avenues between the tents with six-shooters 
 in their hands; and if they heard any noise in a tent, 
 they would shoot into it, therefore, after 9 p.m. Point 
 Lookout, with its army of ten thousand men, was 
 nearly as quiet as a cemetery. 
 
 Of course it was very humiliating to Southern men 
 to be thus guarded by some of their former slaves. 
 All the commissaries, wood, etc., was unloaded by 
 details of prisoners; and many of them were anxious 
 to get on thfs detail, as it gave them a day outside 
 of prison walls, and also sometimes an opportunity to 
 
88 THE PRIVATIONS OF A PRIVATE. 
 
 appropriate some extra rations, and again they could 
 hear what they called grapevine news. Newspapers 
 were not allowed in the prison, and our chance to hear 
 anything from the front was very limited. There was 
 a line inside the prison called the dead line, which was 
 one of the guards' beats, and no one was allowed to 
 cross this line. One evening a squad which had been 
 on detail on the outside entered the prison, and quite 
 a crowd rushed up to them to hear the news, and 
 some of them were crowded over the dead line. 
 Without hesitation the guard fired into the group, 
 severely wounding two of our- prisoners. Major 
 Weymouth had the sentinel removed, but I never 
 heard of his court-martial. Our ears were frequently 
 greeted with the expression from the colored guards: 
 "The bottom rail is on top now ; my gun wants to 
 smoke." 
 
 For a great deal of persecution from the guards I 
 do not think that Major Weymouth was responsible. 
 They were, nearly all of them, young negroes from 
 the North Carolina tobacco fields. They were uni- 
 formed the same as white troops, and of course they 
 felt their importance. While Major Weymouth was 
 at the head of the troops, he was also to command the 
 prisoners and to see that there was no infringement 
 of the rules and regulations. Major Weymouth was 
 a Mason, and allowed them to make an appear to the 
 fraternity at Baltimore for clothing, which was sent 
 to the prison, and he distributed it to them. 
 
 Major Wertz occupied the same position at Ander- 
 sonville in command of our guards, who were all 
 white. There is no doubt that many indignities of- 
 
PRISON LIFE, POINT LOOKOUT, MD. 89 
 
 fered prisoners at Andersonville were without his 
 knowledge or consent. Mr. Oakley, who is at pres- 
 ent yardmaster of the L. and N., was from an Ohio 
 Regiment, and served a term in Andersonville. I 
 heard him say that Wertz was a Mason, and that he 
 had heard him on many occasions read the Masonic 
 burial service over his dead. Mr. Oakley contends 
 that Wertz was not a cruel man, yet the poor fellow- 
 was denied the glorious death of a soldier by being 
 shot, but suffered an ignominious death by hanging. 
 If we had gained our independence, I do not think 
 that Major Weymouth should have been hung for the 
 many crimes committed by the colored sentinels at 
 Point Lookout, but there is no telling what feelings 
 are engendered by a civil war in which father was ar- 
 rayed against son, brother against brother, and neigh- 
 bor against neighbor. We lived too close to our brethren 
 in East Tennessee and Kentucky not to be familiar 
 with the bitter sectional hate, but let me digress just 
 here to give an illustration between a civil and a for- 
 eign war, in which the treatment of prisoners of war 
 are in marked contrast. During the Spanish-Amer- 
 ican War I was in Norfolk, Va., just after one hundred 
 and twenty prisoners had been received at the Naval 
 Hospital from Admiral Cervera's fleet. Our ladies were 
 very kind to them, sending them all kinds of delicacies, 
 and it will be remembered that some enthusiastic 
 American suggested that we purchase a mansion for 
 the Admiral, and induce him to reside with us. 
 
 A peculiar malady affected the prisoners at Point 
 Lookout. After dark about half of them were blind, 
 and daylight would restore their sight. One day I 
 
90 THE PRIVATIONS OF A PRIVATES 
 
 asked the doctor the cause, and he said that he 
 thought that the salty soup mixed with the mineral 
 water had something to do with it, but he thought 
 that the prime cause was the sun's heat and reflection 
 from the water, the sand, and the white tents. 
 
 One day there was quite a commotion in camp, and 
 I saw a crowd gathering near one of the tents. On 
 inquiry I heard: "There is a woman in camp." It 
 appeared that, in order to be with her lover, who was 
 an artilleryman, she had doffed her feminine garb, 
 cut short her hair, and donned the uniform of an 
 artilleryman. Major Weymouth sent out and ob- 
 tained feminine wearing apparel and sent her home. 
 Whether either survived the cruel war and afterwards 
 married "this deponent sayeth not." 
 
 An enterprising prisoner whom I knew many years 
 ago in Lynchburg, Va., made him a gambling house 
 of pieces of cracker boxes, and here gambling was 
 going on from early morn till nearly nine o'clock at 
 night. If the prisoners did not have any money, they 
 put up tobacco as stakes. 
 
 In July, 1864, the prison was overcrowded with 
 captures from General Lee's army, and the govern- 
 ment was building a new one at Elmira, N. Y., and 
 about the 15th of July commenced to transfer a large 
 number to that point. I left July 30th on a transport. 
 One thousand men were loaded on one steamer. We 
 were packed away in the hull and lower deck, and 
 were not allowed in the cabin. We steamed down 
 the bay, and were en route to Jersey City. Before 
 reaching Elmira it may be well to give some statistics : 
 
PRISON LIFE, POINT LOOKOUT, MD. 9* 
 
 White troops enlisted by the United States 1861-65, 
 
 about 2,100,000 
 
 Colored troops 190,000 
 
 The Confederate States, about 650,000 
 
 The United States captured 220,000 
 
 The Confederate States captured 270,000 
 
 Died in Northern prisons 26,246 
 
 Died in Southern prisons 22,576 
 
 The death rate North was twelve per cent, while the 
 death rate South was only nine per cent, and we have 
 already seen that there was little in the South to feed 
 prisoners or any one else. When we landed at Jersey 
 City, I saw a large crowd over at Governor's Island, 
 and upon inquiring who they were, the answer came: 
 "Bounty jumpers." I asked what constituted a 
 bounty jumper, and the reply was that a lot of for- 
 eigners came to the United States for the six hundred 
 dollars bounty, and after getting the money deserted. 
 
 Soon after reaching Jersey City we disembarked, 
 and were loaded into the cars, and a guard stationed 
 at each door. The car windows were small, and there 
 was no chance to get out. While en route we were not 
 allowed to speak to any one at the various stations 
 at which we stopped. 
 
CHAPTER X. 
 Prison Life at Elmira, N. Y. 
 
 We reached Elmira prison August 2, 1864, and as 
 we marched through the city quite a curious crowd 
 followed us and commented on the appearance of the 
 Rebels, as they termed us. We had been preceded by 
 some fifteen hundred prisoners from the former prison 
 at Point Lookout. As Elmira was a new prison, the 
 government had not built any barracks, and we were 
 comfortably quartered in tents, and the tents were 
 located some fifty feet from the stockade, and no one 
 was allowed to go between the tents and fence or 
 stockade. 
 
 The prison camp contained some forty acres of 
 land about one mile above the city, and near the 
 Cheming River, a beautiful, clear, limpid mountain 
 stream of very pure water. The stockade that sur- 
 rounded the camp was much like the one at Point 
 Lookout, but built of heavier material, and the ends 
 of the upright planks going some eighteen inches into 
 the ground. The planks were some sixteen feet high, 
 and nailed to heavy sills, which were supported by 
 large posts set deep in the ground. The stockade was 
 about sixteen feet high, and three feet from the top 
 was the parapet walk way or beat of the guards, who 
 were stationed some forty feet apart, and were relieved 
 every two hours by other guards. Commencing at 
 nine o'clock at night, or at taps, they would cry out 
 
94 THE PRIVATIONS OF A PRIVATE. 
 
 their posts all through the hours of the night, as, 
 "Post No. i, nine o'clock; all is well," which would 
 be taken up by all posts, and repeated all around the 
 stockade. Inside the stockade, about fifty feet apart, 
 were large coal oil lamps nailed near the center of 
 the stockade, with large reflectors, which were lit 
 after nightfall, and the guards on .the parapet would 
 be able to see any one approaching. 
 
 The tents in which we slept were struck every morn- 
 ing in order for inspection. The prisoners in one of 
 the tents had a false floor laid and covered with dirt 
 hard packed so it would have the same appearance 
 as the ground floor in the other tents. Under this 
 false floor was one of the prisoners digging day and 
 night. There were six occupants of this particular 
 tent, and by making a detail' one man was digging all 
 the time. They were tunneling to get under the fence. 
 The tunnel was only about two feet under the ground, 
 and they had to go about sixty feet distance to get 
 under the fence; the only implement they had was a 
 large knife. They had a small box to which was at- 
 tached a string at both ends, and when the fellow at 
 the farther side had filled his box he gave a pull of the 
 string, and the other fellow just under the false floor 
 of the tent would pull the box under the floor, pile up 
 the dirt, and at night they would remove the false 
 floor, gather the dirt in their hands, fill their haver- 
 sacks, and scatter the dirt along the new-made streets. 
 When they reached the upright planks of the stockade 
 they had to go over a foot lower than the tunnel in 
 order to get under the end of the planks. Finally the 
 tunnel was completed, and one of the boys crawled 
 
PRISON LIFE AT ELMIRA, N. Y. 95 
 
 through, poked his head on the outside, and came and 
 reported bright moonshine, disclosed the camp of the 
 guards under patrol across the street, and a number 
 of pieces of artillery in position along the camp; so 
 they waited for the moon to go down before they com- 
 menced their underground journey. The plan was 
 that the last of the six to leave should notify as many 
 of the prisoners as he could, in order that many might 
 take advantage of it, but only fifteen got out, and we 
 heard that they reached Canada in safety. 
 
 I had charge of and was sergeant by Federal ap- 
 pointment of Ward Thirty-Six. My duty was to call 
 the roll once a day, make out the daily ration report, 
 and to report the sick sent to the hospital and con- 
 valescents received from the hospital. While out call- 
 ing the roll the morning the boys made their escape, I 
 saw a number of the guards with picks in their hands, 
 and they excavated the tunnel up to the tent and car- 
 ried away and destroyed the false bottom. I was sur- 
 prised to see how crooked the tunnel was, yet under- 
 ground it was so dark that they could not make it 
 straight. The tunneling ceased after that successful 
 attempt. 
 
 It is fortunate that I kept a diary in Elmira prison, 
 which refreshes memory of the many scenes I wit- 
 nessed during my sojourn there, and the following 
 survivors of the camp are now living and can testify 
 to my statements : Alphonso S. Allen, Nashville, Tenn. ; 
 L. T. Webb, Nashville, Tenn.; R. W. Miller, Nash- 
 ville, Tenn. ; W. S. Riddle, Nashville, Tenn. ; W. G. 
 Lloyd, Lewisburg, Tenn. ; P. D. Houston, Lewisburg, 
 Tenn. ; D. B, Anderson, Gallatin, Tenn. ; H. M. Cart- 
 
9^ THE PRIVATIONS OF A PRIVATE. 
 
 mell, Lebanon, Tenn. ; Stokely Jacobs, Murf reesboro, 
 Tenn. ; Richard Messick, Beech Grove, Tenn. 
 
 In a military prison it was very difficult to get in- 
 formation from the outside world. No papers were 
 allowed, and the papers received had been opened 
 and read; if there was anything contraband, you did 
 not get it. When you wrote a letter it was left un- 
 sealed, and when the prison authorities examined it 
 they stamped it "Prisoner's letter approved,'' and then 
 sealed and mailed it. Money was contraband of war, 
 for a fellow might bribe his way out. Therefore, when- 
 ever a remittance came to a prisoner it was turned 
 over to the sutler, who opened an account with -the 
 owner, and he could purchase all he wished so long 
 as the funds held out; but when money went, a pris- 
 oner's credit was non est. 
 
 Until I reached prison I did not know what a slave 
 to habit man was. I have seen men go hungry a day 
 and save their rations and trade tnem for tobacco. I 
 have seen a prisoner discharge a quid of tobacco from 
 his mouth and another one pick it up, dry, and smoke 
 it. They used the black navy tobacco sold in prison 
 at the rate of one dollar per pound. They would cut 
 it into little squares ; each square would be called 
 a chew, and five chews five cents. We had all kinds 
 of trades and traffics, and tobacco was one of the 
 mediums of exchange. We had many barbers, and 
 they would shave you for five chews of tobacco. When 
 the barber would get more tobacco than he needed, he 
 would sell five chews for a small loaf of bread, valued 
 at five cents, or he could purchase a small piece of 
 meat or a fresh rat, each valued at five cents, These 
 
PRISON LIFE AT ELMIEA, N. Y. 
 
 97 
 
 barbers carried square boxes with them, upon which 
 they set their patients ; and a fellow would have to be 
 very patient, as they never used a hone or strap ex- 
 cept their boots and shoes, and it was hard to tell 
 
 SHAVE FOR FIVE CHEWS OF TOBACCO. 
 
 which was the worst sufferer, the barber or his cus- 
 tomer. 
 
 Before the fall season opened the government had 
 erected forty-two wards, capable of holding and 
 sleeping three hundred men each, with bunks three 
 high on each side, also two large hospitals and 
 one large cook house, where the light bread was baked 
 and soup and meat cooked. Adjoining the cook 
 house was a large shed with tables that would accom- 
 
 7 
 
98 THE PRIVATIONS OF A PRIVATE. 
 
 modate three hundred men, and there were in the shed 
 some twenty tables which were higher than my waist 
 when standing. Of course they were higher to 
 a small boy. Seats were not allowed. The men were 
 marched in in two ranks, and separated at the head 
 of the table, making one rank face the other. Each 
 man had a plate and spoon, in the plate were his bean 
 soup and beans, by the side of his plate was a small 
 piece of light bread, and on the bread a thin ration of 
 salt pork. The rations were thus prepared: A baker 
 who lived outside would come in daily and superin- 
 tend the baking. In the cook house were a large num- 
 ber of iron kettles or caldrons in which the meat and 
 beans were boiled. I suppose these caldrons would 
 hold some fifty gallons. The salt pork was shipped 
 in barrels and rolled up to the caldrons, and with a 
 pitchfork tossed in, then the beans — I have heard the 
 boys say four beans to a gallon of water. Now when 
 this is boiled down it gets very salty, and after three 
 weeks of a diet of this kind a prisoner will commence 
 to get sick. I thought for a while that the government 
 was retaliating on us on account of Andersonville, but 
 I afterwards believed that it was done by the army 
 contractors. We had the same kind of a scandal in the 
 corned beef business during the Spanish-American 
 War; we would nowadays call them grafters. So I 
 can say without hesitancy that the death rate here was 
 higher than any prison North or South. The life of 
 the prison did not average seven months, because it 
 was not opened till July, 1864, and prisoners arrived 
 till December, 1864, when the maximum of twelve 
 thousand had been received; there are two thousand 
 
PRISON LIFE AT ELMIRA, N. Y. 
 
 99 
 
 nine hundred and seventeen graves in the cemetery, 
 and over two thousand died who were exchanged to 
 go home and die, and many died before they reached 
 home. A prisoner eating this diet will crave any kind 
 •of fresh meat. Marching through the camp one day 
 was a prisoner in a barrel shirt, with placard "I eat a 
 
 THE BARREL SHIRT. 
 
 dog," another one bearing a barrel with placard "Dog 
 Eater." The barrel shirt was one of the modes of 
 punishment. The shirt was made by using a whisky 
 or coal oil barrel, knocking out one end, and in the 
 other boring a hole so as to get the head through, and 
 then putting on a placard to indicate the crime. It 
 appeared that these prisoners had captured a lapdog 
 owned by the baker who came into camp daily to bake 
 
IOO THE PRIVATIONS OF A PRIVATE. 
 
 the bread. The baker made complaint to Colonel 
 Beall, and said that his wife and children would not 
 have taken one hundred dollars for the dog. As the 
 prisoners had nothing to pay with, they were treated 
 to the barrel shirt. The punisjiment was a two hours' 
 march followed by a soldier with a bayonet, and they 
 were not allowed much rest till the two hours were 
 completed. I saw another barrel shirt, "I told a lie." 
 A prisoner did not have much compunction of con- 
 science, especially if he had lied to deceive the com- 
 mandant, which he conceived to be his religious duty. 
 A prisoner carrying a barrel shirt, "I stole my mess- 
 mate's rations," was hissed all around the camp, and 
 deservedly so, because a man who would steal from 
 his messmates in prison deserved the most severe pun- 
 ishment;' while the ones who carried the placard, 
 "Dog Eater," had the sympathies of the entire camp, 
 because many of them would have enjoyed a piece of 
 the fresh meat. When twitted about it, they said: 
 "It was not a common cur, but a Spitz, and tasted like 
 mutton." 
 
 On account of the waste from the commissary a 
 great many rodents from Elmira ran into the prison. 
 As there were not any holes in which they could hide, 
 it was an easy catch for the boys by knocking them 
 over with sticks, and there was quite a traffic in them. 
 As there was very little currency in prison, tobacco, 
 rats, pickles, pork, and light bread were mediums of 
 exchange. Five chews of tobacco would buy a rat, a 
 rat would buy five chews of tobacco, a loaf of bread 
 would buy a rat, a rat would buy a loaf of bread, and 
 so on. I am glad that I did not have to go on this 
 
PRISON LIFE AT ELMIRA, N. Y. IOI 
 
 diet; but I have tasted a piece of rat, and it is "much 
 like squirrel. I bought one for one of my men who 
 was sick. I had friends in Louisville, Cincinnati, Bal- 
 timore, Hoosick Falls, N. Y., and was kept well sup- 
 plied with everything I needed until an order was is- 
 
 , ; i 
 
 TRAFFIC IN RODENTS. 
 
 sued saying that we would have to get a permit to 
 ask for anything in the North, I suppose this was 
 done because we were arousing too much sympathy. 
 When cut off from the North, I fell back on Nashville 
 friends. On August 19, 1864, the sutler received or- 
 ders not to sell us any fruits or vegetables, but it was 
 rescinded in about two weeks. In the meantime I 
 was prepared for it. I had sent out and bought ,a 
 
102 
 
 THE PRIVATIONS OF A PRIVATE. 
 
 sheet-iron stove and had it erected in my office, which 
 was a room about eight by ten in the front end of the 
 ward. I had three bunks, and three of the boys stayed 
 with me. One did the cooking, one the washing, and 
 the other attended to the sick in the ward, and by ref- 
 erence to my diary I find that I weighed, on the cook 
 
 THE DYING PRISONER. 
 
 house scales, one hundred and eighty-one pounds. As 
 sergeant of the ward I had to make the requisitions 
 for rations for the ward, also for the sick in the ward, 
 and I rarely made a correct one, and the mistake was 
 always in my favor, and the extra rations thus ob- 
 tained sufficed for three of us. We would take the 
 salt pork and give it about three boilings in fresh wa- 
 ter together with the beans, and when fried the pork 
 
PRISON LIFE AT ELMIRA, N. Y. I03 
 
 would taste like fresh meat; on account of the diet 
 the hospitals were all filled, and many sick were in the 
 wards. There was a young man named Stroup from 
 South Carolina. He was a nephew of Squire W. D. 
 Robinson, of Nashville. I had been writing to the 
 Squire for Stroup, and money was sent to him and he 
 had been examined by the doctor for exchange ; but I 
 was satisfied that he would not leave the prison alive, 
 and one morning as I knelt by his bunk and pressed 
 his clammy brow with my hard hand he feebly said 
 "Mother," and his soul passed into the beyond, but it 
 was not mother's hand ; mother was in the far South- 
 land, and I thought, "O the power of a mother's love," 
 and when a child could forget a mother's love it would 
 be below the instincts of a brute. 
 
 These bunks extended the length of the ward on 
 each side, leaving an aisle in the center and two stoves 
 in each ward, and the prisoners were not allowed to 
 get very close to them in zero weather. With an open 
 building, the heat was not very intense. The bunks 
 were three high, and the boys occupying the top bunk 
 had to do some climbing. They were wide enough 
 to sleep two medium-sized men. Each one was al- 
 lowed only a pair of blankets, and so had to sleep on 
 the hard board; therefore in extreme weather four 
 slept in the space of two, using one pair of blankets 
 to sleep on, which gave three for cover. Two of them 
 slept with their heads toward the east, and two with 
 heads toward the west, and of course had to be on their 
 sides, and when ready to change positions one would 
 call out, "All turn to the right;" and the next call 
 would be, "All turn to the left." The turns had to be 
 
104 THE PRIVATIONS OF A PRIVATE. 
 
 made as stated, or there would be collisions. Of 
 course the men did not disrobe in extreme cold weath- 
 er, and on awakening in the morning their feet would 
 be in each other's faces. 
 
 Comrade W. S. Riddle, of Nashville, had not been in 
 prison very long, and did not know all the rules, and 
 one day he got hold of a cracker box and was whit- 
 tling off shavings when the sergeant came along and 
 asked: "What are you doing?" Will replied: "I am 
 trying to make a softer bed; that board nearly breaks 
 my back." The sergeant said: "Throw out those 
 shavings, sir; you are not allowed to litter up the 
 ward." Not a straw or shaving was allowed in the ward. 
 Each man was required to fold up his blanket in the 
 morning and deposit it in the bunk. Comrade Riddle 
 was horrified one day to see four prisoners sitting in a 
 bunk -playing poker, when in a near-by bunk was a 
 dying prisoner ; but such is war. A man's sensibilities 
 are dwarfed. To illustrate the severity of prison life, 
 Riddle went into Elmira with a squad of six, and he 
 was the only one to get out alive. By reference to 
 my diary, I note that we had nearly daily inspection 
 in the wards, and every ten days we had what the 
 officers called "muster" on the outside. In the ward 
 inspection the boys were formed in two ranks in- 
 ward face, hat in hand, while the Federal inspection 
 officer passed down one line and returned the other. 
 I think this was to keep the officer in military train- 
 ing. In the muster on the outside my diary says that 
 on one occasion the boys were held in line two hours 
 on a very cold day and in snow ankle-deep. This 
 
PRISON LIFE AT ELMIRA, N. Y. I05 
 
 was very rough on the boys from the extreme South, 
 and they shivered as with chills. 
 
 My diary says that Major Richmond ordered me 
 to the guardhouse for throwing water on the street. 
 The guardhouse was a room about forty feet square, 
 without any light or ventilation; it was like a dun- 
 geon. I said to the guard : "Wait until I write a note 
 to Major Colt." In this note I said: "Officer of the 
 day, Major Richmond, ordered me to the guardhouse 
 for throwing water on the street. It was not dirty 
 water, but from the dipper, as I saw some sediment 
 in it previous to drinking. I respectfully ask that you 
 give me a hearing, that I may vindicate myself." I 
 was in the guardhouse, or dungeon, only a few hours 
 when Major Colt ordered my release. 
 
 One night the boom of cannon saluted our ears, and 
 a solid shot passed through Ward No. 5, and came 
 near hitting some of the occupants. I heard later 
 that the boys were making a noise, and the artillery- 
 men thought that an insurrection was brewing, and 
 they wanted us to know that the artillery was in posi- 
 tion and ten guns always shotted for an emergency. 
 
 No civilians were allowed in the prison except on 
 permit from the President or Secretary of War, so an 
 enterprising citizen with an eye to business erected 
 across the. street from the prison a large observatory, 
 reached from below by winding stairs. He charged 
 ten cents for admission, and kept the platform filled 
 all day. His customers used spyglasses, and scrutinized 
 the camp with much curiosity. I suppose they got their 
 money's worth. The baker, the preacher, and Hor- 
 ace Greeley were the only visitors that I saw previous 
 
Io6 THE PRIVATIONS OF A PRIVATE. 
 
 to the surrender of General Lee. Mr. Greeley made 
 some sneering remark about Southern chivalry, so 
 when the time came that I should choose between 
 General Grant and Mr. Greeley for President I voted 
 for General Grant. I thought it was a magnanimous 
 act when he said, "Boys, take your horses, go home, 
 and go to work;" and later, when the Federal author- 
 ities attempted to disturb the parole of General Lee, he 
 said, "It cannot be done as long as I am in command 
 of the army." 
 
 I find in my diary of November 8, 1864, the follow- 
 ing entry: "The election appears to pass off quietly in 
 Elmira ; no demonstration at night. I believe it would 
 be to the best interests of the South that old Abe be 
 elected, because if General McClellan is elected it 
 would tend to solidify the Northern Democrats." 
 There was quite an anti-war party in the North, and 
 we expected much disturbance at the November elec- 
 tion, and there were local disturbances; but the gov- 
 ernment had so many soldiers at its command that 
 all mobs were quickly dispersed. 
 
 I find in my diary of November 9, 1864: "Some of 
 the prisoners broke into the commissary last night and 
 stole quite a lot of provisions, and an order was issued 
 by Captain Whitson that if the provisions were 
 not returned no more meals would be issued." It 
 was roll call before the stolen articles were returned 
 and we got our dinner. 
 
 On November 10 we had our regular muster, and 
 heard that President Lincoln was reelected. In No- 
 vember, 1864, the boys commenced to get quite a lot 
 of small change in the following way ; and it illustrates 
 
PRISON LIFE AT ELMIRA, N. Y. 
 
 107 
 
 that "necessity is the mother of invention," for without 
 any previous knowledge, the men commenced the man- 
 ufacture of gutta-percha rings which were afterwards 
 sold and distributed throughout the North and South. 
 The machine with which the rings were made was a 
 simple one, and made with a knife. They whittled 
 
 THE INGENIOUS PRISONER. 
 
 out of a cracker box the upright or drill, at the point 
 of which was a needle, a horizontal bar with a hole in 
 the center with a string tied at each end, the strings 
 reversing at the top of the drill. Near the needle or drill 
 was a wheel which gave the drill a rotary action. By 
 moving the hand up and down the wheel moved for- 
 ward and backward, drilling very rapidly. To get the 
 
Io8 THE PRIVATIONS OF A PRIVATE. 
 
 gutta-percha buttons, they approached the guards 
 quietly and said: "Bring us some gutta-percha but- 
 tons, and we will make you some rings ; also bring in 
 some five- or ten-cent pieces of silver, so that we can 
 make settings for the rings." With a knife the in- 
 side of the buttons were cut out to fit the finger ; then 
 with the drill two or three buttons were riveted to- 
 gether, and with a hammer the silver was flattened out 
 and cut with the knife into shapes of two hearts joined 
 together and two hands joined. In some instances 
 they would get hold of a mussel shell highly colored, 
 and insert a small seal in the ring. I have bought and 
 given away many of these rings, North and South, and 
 have some now in Nashville to-day for which I paid two 
 dollars and a half. The next procedure was to dis- 
 pose of them, which was done by the guards smuggling 
 them to the city, selling them, and dividing the pro- 
 ceeds with the prisoners, and I believe in nearly every 
 instance the guards were honest in returning a part of 
 the proceeds of the sale. Generally their commissions 
 were about one-half. There were also prisoners at 
 work on horsehair watch guards or necklaces. They 
 were made in a manner similar to the way ladies work 
 with a crochet needle, except the boys' needles were 
 whittled out of pine. To make a hook, they cut out 
 of a white beef bone a hook representing a snake's 
 head, and on top of the hook was carved a small dog or 
 other animal in a sitting position. To the hook was 
 attached a Bible in a small clasp. It was amusing to. see 
 them rob the horses' manes and tails to get the horse- 
 hair. These horses pulled the wagons that hauled the 
 wood and commissaries inside the prison. Finally the 
 
PRISON LIFE AT ELMIEA, N. Y. 
 
 109 
 
 horses were about to lose their hair appendages, and 
 a guard was sent with each wagon. 
 
 The authorities at Elmira had an admirable system 
 regarding the burial of the dead, and I have said that 
 the care of the dead was better than that bestowed on 
 the living. When a prisoner died, his name, company, 
 and regiment were written on a slip of paper and 
 
 THE BURIAL OF THE DEAD. 
 
 pinned on the lapel of his coat. If he did not have a 
 coat, it was pinned on his vest ; and if the vest was gone, 
 then it was pinned on the shirt. The body was removed 
 to a house called the dead house, a building some 
 thirty by forty feet. In this building were a large lot 
 of boxes made out of poplar, not coffin-shaped, but 
 straight boxes that resembled gun boxes, and into the 
 box the body was deposited. On the lid of the box 
 was nailed a headboard. The inscription was removed 
 from the body, and copied in large letters— the name, 
 
IIO THE PRIVATIONS OF A PRIVATE. 
 
 company, regiment, and the date of death of deceased. 
 The inscription was then placed in a dry mineral water 
 bottle, corked perfectly tight, and placed under the 
 armpit. Each grave was numbered, and an alpha- 
 betically arranged book kept in which the names were 
 entered, and opposite the names were the numbers of 
 the graves. In 1901 I stood by the graves of two 
 thousand nine hundred and seventeen of our dead, and 
 time had swept away each wooden headboard, but by 
 digging into the graves I could have identified each 
 body by the inscriptions in the mineral water bottles. 
 
 From January 25 to January 29, 1865, there is not 
 an entry in my diary! On the 29th of January, 1865, 
 I find this entry : "On January 25, 1865, I was sent to 
 the smallpox hospital, and returned on January 29, 
 and the boys were all glad to see me." My experi- 
 ence as a smallpox patient was very trying. I was 
 taken with a severe chill, with pains in my spine and 
 back of my head. Comrade Stokely Jacobs, now liv- 
 ing near Murfreesboro, was my bunk mate, and he 
 was suspicious of my case, and kept me hid from the 
 doctor. Stokely says that I was delirious for two 
 days, and climbing up and down the bunk. When I 
 came to myself I was out calling the roll of the ward. 
 I noticed that my hands were badly pimpled, but as we 
 did not have a mirror I could not see my face. Be- 
 fore I finished the roll call along came Dr. Burchard, 
 one of the prison surgeons. I have often wondered if 
 this was the Dr. Burchard, author of "Rum, Roman- 
 ism, and Rebellion," that helped dig the political grave 
 of Mr. Blaine. The Doctor looked at me and said: 
 "Toney, you have the smallpox." "No, Doctor," I 
 
PRISON LIFE AT ELMIRA, N. Y. Ill 
 
 replied ; "I have had a case of varioloid, and the fever 
 has left me, and I cannot communicate smallpox to the 
 other prisoners; besides, Doctor, let me show you;'' 
 and I pulled off my coat, rolled up my sleeve, and 
 exposed a perfect scar. "Now you know, Doctor, that I 
 have not got the smallpox." He said that I was not a 
 physician and not competent to diagnose my own case, 
 and that I must go at once, without further parleying. 
 
 It was way below zero, and the hospital was across a 
 little lake inside the prison walls, and the patients were 
 in A tents — i. e., tents shaped as the letter A, and hav- 
 ing a capacity of three patients each. I walked across 
 the lake on the ice, and commenced my search at the 
 head of the row of tents, trying to find some bedfel- 
 lows that had a light attack as myself. Nearly all the 
 tents were filled with patients who had the confluent 
 type, but finally I found a tent with two patients — one 
 very bad and the other lighter — and I crawled in. 
 
 We did not see a doctor while there, but once a day 
 a waiter brought us some tea and bread. As the hos- 
 pital was some distance from the cook house, and the 
 weather below zero, the tea was cold when it reached 
 us. My bedfellows could not eat nor drink anything, 
 and I had all the rations, yet I could not get enough. The 
 second night one of our bedfellows died, and all the 
 vermin came to us, and we had plenty of company. 
 The vermin will leave a body as soon as it gets cold. 
 We had about eight blankets, but could not keep 
 warm ; and to make the situation worse, the men who 
 died were dragged out and left in front of the tents, 
 and in whatever position a man was when death over- 
 
I 1 2 THE PRIVATIONS OF A PRIVATE. 
 
 took him in that position he froze. Some with arms 
 and legs extended presented a horrible sight. 
 
 On the 29th of January, so my diary reads, I was 
 ordered to the cook house for a bath, and my nice suit 
 of gray was burned; and as the authorities did not 
 keep any uniforms of gray I donned a suit of blue, so 
 
 FROM SMALLPOX HOSPITAL. 
 
 in the picture I do not resemble "the boy in gray." I 
 buttoned up my coat and was feeling comfortable as 
 "the boy in blue," when the sergeant, who was robing 
 me, took out his knife and commenced to cut off my 
 skirt. "Hold on, sergeant," I said; "don't disfigure 
 my uniform in that manner." He continued to cut 
 until my skirt was gone, and then replied: "If I had 
 
PRISON LIFE AT ELMIRA, N. Y. I 13 
 
 left that frock intact, you might have walked out as 
 one of. our guards," and I guess I would have at- 
 tempted it. 
 
 The fever had left my eyes in bad condition, so I 
 went to the sutler and bought a pair of green-goggle 
 spectacles, which materially changed my appearance, so 
 when I reached Ward 36 I jumped in the door and 
 yelled: "Attention!" The boys quickly fell in line, 
 hats in hand, thinking I was the Federal sergeant on 
 an inspection. • As I started down the center to in- 
 spect the line they grabbed and hugged me, because 
 when I left for the hospital many thought that they 
 would not see me again, because they had heard of so 
 many deaths there. 
 
 Whenever there was any news favorable to the Fed- 
 eral side, it was bulletined on the inside ; but of course 
 the unfavorable we did not hear of. So on April 10, 
 1865, was bulletined the surrender of General Lee. 
 On referring to my diary on April 10, 1865, I find: 
 "This is a dark day for us, and the officers celebrated 
 by getting drunk." 
 
 As it is well known, the surrender took place at 
 Appomattox Courthouse April 9, 1865, and the capitu- 
 lation papers were signed in the old McLean homestead 
 the next day. General Grant was accompanied by two 
 of his staff and General Lee by Colonel Marshall, of 
 his staff, and in the picture General Lee is in the act 
 of signing the papers. The old McLean homestead is 
 about ten miles from where I was born, and some 
 years ago some Northern capitalist bought the house, 
 tore it down, and intended to transport it to Chicago 
 to become an adjunct to the old Libby prison as a 
 8 
 
ii4 
 
 THE PRIVATIONS OF A PRIVATE. 
 
 war museum; but the Libby prison venture failed, as it 
 should have failed, and the McLean homestead at last 
 accounts was in Appomattox packed in sections ready 
 for transportation to Chicago. I will say here that 
 
 SURRENDER OF GEN. LEE. 
 
 the Libby prison erected at Chicago was intended not 
 so much as a monument to the inhumanity of the 
 Southern people as it was to fill some enterprising 
 citizens' pockets with the shekels. 
 
 I read from my diary previous to the surrender of 
 General Lee that I saw a number of prisoners at head- 
 quarters making application to take the oath ; these 
 men were called "oath takers," and they were ostra- 
 cized by the men who were standing by their convic- 
 
PRISON LIFE AT ELMIRA, N. Y. 
 
 "5 
 
 tions of right. We had more respect for the men who 
 stood guard over us than for these oath takers. They 
 were the men who reported to the commandants of the 
 prison any infractions of the rules, thinking thereby to 
 gain favor with the Federal authorities ; but they were 
 mistaken, because Colonel Beall, Major Colt, Captain 
 
 TIED UP BY THE THUMBS. 
 
 Brady, and Major Richmond, Federal officers of the 
 prison, had very little respect for them, and very 
 properly so. 
 
 Referring to my diary April 15, 1865, I find this: 
 "This has been another dark day for us. About eight 
 o'clock in the morning the news flashed through the 
 prison : 'President Abraham Lincoln assassinated by a 
 
Il6 THE PRIVATIONS OF A PRIVATE. 
 
 Rebel.' " Immediately after hearing this one indis- 
 creet prisoner yelled out: "It is a good thing; old Abe 
 ought to have been killed long ago." The guards im- 
 mediately rushed on him, and I thought that he would 
 get the bayonet ; but they trotted him to the headquar- 
 ters of Colonel Beall, who ordered him tied up by the 
 thumbs. This is a very cruel mode of punishment. A 
 man is tied by the thumbs and pulled up till he is on his 
 tiptoes, and there is no way to relieve the pressure. If 
 he tries to relieve the thumbs, the toes get it ; and if the 
 toes are relieved, the thumbs are in trouble. In a very 
 short time he will faint, and is then cut down. 
 
 April 15, 1865, appeared as if pandemonium had 
 broken loose, the guards were excited, and we did not 
 know but that some of us would get shot or the bay- 
 onet. No one sympathized with the fellow tied up, 
 because he jeopardized so many lives. I believe the 
 artillery would have been turned on us but for the 
 guards who were stationed throughout the camp. 
 Looking back to the scene, I believe it very unfortu- 
 nate for the South that President Lincoln was assassi- 
 nated. I do not believe we would have had the five 
 years of carpetbag rule and other troubles incident to 
 the reconstruction policy adopted by the government. 
 I believe President Lincoln would have said: "The 
 South has made a mistake in secession, and you have 
 not seceded because you cannot draw an imaginary 
 line separating this country. We are Americans; let 
 us be friends and brothers again." 
 
 Of course we were uncertain as to our fate, and 
 would have felt easier if President Lincoln rather than 
 President Johnson was guiding the affairs of the na- 
 
PRISON LIFE AT ELMIRA, N. Y. 1 17 
 
 tion, for the reason that we knew President John- 
 son hated and had no use for Rebels or, as he called 
 them, "secessionists." However, on our return home 
 we had the pleasure of meeting him, and to know him 
 was to love him, and before he was elected to the Unit- 
 ed States Senate he had won many friends, who at one 
 time had cordially hated him. Once upon a visit to 
 Greeneville, Tenn., I went from the little, insignificant 
 tailor shop of A. Johnson to the handsome monument 
 on the hill, and I thought of the possibilities of the 
 American youth. 
 
 On April 24, 1865, we had sergeant's call, and upon 
 assembling at headquarters directions were read from 
 the Secretary of War to furnish : 
 
 1. A list of those who were citizens. 
 
 2. The names of those who had made application to 
 take the oath of allegiance previous to the surrender 
 of General Lee. 
 
 3. A list of those who had not made application to 
 take the oath. 
 
 4. A list of those who refused to take the oath of 
 allegiance. 
 
 In making out the list of my ward, No. 36, I gave 
 the names of seven who refused to take the oath. In 
 regard to the first order, with reference to citizens, 
 many prisons contained citizens who were called "but- 
 ternuts," who sympathized with the South, and some- 
 times uttered treasonable sentiments. 
 
 On May 24, 1865, a new form of oath was received 
 in camp, to which all must subscribe before leaving. 
 This delayed the release of the boys. 
 
 On June 7, 1865, my diary reads: "The New York 
 
n8 
 
 THE PRIVATIONS OF A PRIVATE. 
 
 Herald says : 'Orders will soon be issued to release all 
 prisoners below the rank of major who will take the 
 oath of allegiance.' " On June 8, 1865, orders were 
 received to release all "privates who would take the 
 oath. The prison rules were now relaxed, and vis- 
 itors could come and go with all liberty, and the pris- 
 
 HOMEWARD BOUND. 
 
 on was kept pretty lively in the daytime, and the boys 
 did a fine business selling rings and other trinkets, and 
 took in quite a lot of shinplasters and five- and ten- 
 cent pieces of silver. 
 
 There were twenty-eight men who hesitated about 
 taking the oath. They felt that they would perjure 
 themselves, as they had taken the oath of allegiance to 
 the Southern Confederacy. The appearance of July 
 was near, and there were two hundred and fifty-one 
 sick prisoners in the hospitals who could not be 
 moved and were not in condition to take the oath. 
 
PRISON LIFE AT ELMIRA, N. Y. 1 19 
 
 Colonel Beall was anxious to close the prison, and we 
 asked him what he would do with the twenty-eight 
 who refused to take the oath. He said that he would 
 send us to Dry Tortugas to die. About that time I 
 received a letter and money from Judge Whitworth, 
 and the letter said that I had better come home and 
 go to work, and I had begun to think before the letter 
 came that it would be the best thing to do. So the 
 twenty-eight subscribed to the oath, and were at the 
 depot waiting for the train when an enterprising pho- 
 tographer set up his camera and said: "Boys, you 
 should take a picture home to show the folks how 
 you looked the day you got out of prison. I will 
 charge you only a quarter." I told him to fire away. 
 I was the pnly one of the twenty-eight that had a 
 quarter, and I took the center of the group. I was 
 clad in a light hat and a linen duster. After getting 
 out of prison I first went to a restaurant and then to a 
 clothing store, and fixed myself for traveling. I got 
 a shave also, the first one in many months. 
 
 The effect of the prison diet can be seen in the faces 
 of the men. One has lost his teeth and has his jaw 
 tied up with a rag, another is as pale as a ghost, and 
 several of them are very dark. One poor fellow can 
 be seen on the right with a blanket twisted and thrown 
 around him; he is too weak to stand, and is sitting 
 down. The bad effects produced on the men is called 
 scurvy, and is caused by eating salt pork. I am stand- 
 ing in the center, and weighed about one hundred and 
 eighty pounds. If the tintype picture would show 
 color, I would appear as rosy as a young lady. Colonel 
 Beall had given me transportation to Louisville for 
 
120 THE PRIVATIONS OF A PRIVATE. 
 
 each of the boys, and I said : "Boys, you must keep 
 close to me ; if you straggle off, you will have to walk 
 home." The Big Four had not then been completed 
 to Cincinnati, nor the L. and N. from Cincinnati to 
 Louisville, so we had to go via Indianapolis, at which 
 point we missed connection, and I took the squad 
 around the city sight-seeing. 
 
 There were many of the boys in blue with guns. 
 It appeared to me as an army post. As we were 
 strolling a squad of Union soldiers, recognizing us as 
 the boys in gray, commenced singing : 
 
 "Hang Jeff Davis on a sour apple tree." 
 
 As we approached they continued to sing, and I 
 yelled out: "Why not hang some of the privates?" 
 They replied with an oath that they would hang us, 
 and started toward our group, when I said, "Come on, 
 boys ; it is train time," and we did not get hanged. 
 
 It can also be noticed in the picture that one of the 
 boys had captured a blue army vest, over which he 
 wears a gray coat. Another one has a cotton haver- 
 sack supported by a cotton string, to which is attached 
 a tin cup. He is supposed to be on the lookout for 
 buttermilk, coffee, or probably something stronger. 
 The old slouched hats that had seen hard service were 
 quite noticeable. The picture is unique and antique — 
 unique as the only one ever taken of the group, and 
 antique in being over forty years of age. 
 
 Here is another picture over forty years of age, 
 the survivors of Company B, Rock City Guards, tak- 
 en in August, 1865. Where are the one hundred and 
 four who marched out so gayly from the old Academy 
 
PRISON LIFE AT ELMIRA, N. Y. 
 
 121 
 
 in 1861, when the bands were playing "The Girl I 
 Left behind Me?" Seventy-two of them had filled 
 
 SURVIVORS OF COMPANY B, ROCK CITY GUARDS. 
 
 soldiers' graves; thirty-two had returned to their 
 homes; and in August, 1865, they were much scat- 
 tered, and we could get together only seventeen, who 
 are herewith produced. 
 
CHAPTER XI. 
 The Privations of a Citizen. 
 
 On reaching home we found change '.written upon 
 everything. During our four years and -three months' 
 absence the city government was in control of aliens 
 or carpetbaggers who ground out checks and bonds 
 with a lavish hand. After paying out my last fifty 
 cents for dinner at the Commercial Hotel, I borrowed 
 five cents from a friend, and proceeded across the 
 ferry, which was just above the L. and N. railroad 
 bridge. I trudged along the White's Creek Pike and 
 finally stopped and tried to locate myself. When I 
 left home, the whole country around Edgefield was a 
 vast forest of large poplars, sweet gum, hackberry, 
 hickory, and walnut. There never was a country 
 that produced such a fine and diversified timber as 
 this. It was all gone, and the stumps dug up. I 
 looked for the old homestead, and there was a piece 
 of house that resembled it; but the weatherboarding 
 had been stripped off for some distance, and not a 
 piece of fence was in sight. The trees my mother 
 planted in 1845, the year before she died, were all 
 gone. I walked near the old house, where some 
 mulatto children were playing on the porch. I stopped 
 to look at, but could not recognize, them. Presently 
 a white woman came out on the porch, and I said: 
 "Who are you?" She replied: "I am Jim's wife." I 
 saw at once that she was a Northern woman. The 
 
THE PRIVATIONS OF A CITIZEN. 123 
 
 "Jim" she had reference to was one of my former 
 faithful slaves. As soon as I got one dollar and twen- 
 ty-five cents I went before Mr. R. McPhail Smith 
 and took the amnesty oath, and Jim and his wife had 
 to vamoose the ranch. I trudged along for four miles 
 farther to the home of Judge Whitworth, on the Brick 
 Church turnpike, which I reached early in the evening. 
 The family were all glad to see me; and after supper, 
 feeling very tired, I went to the office room to bed, but 
 could not sleep. Man is a creature of habit, and I 
 had been so used to sleeping on a hard surface that I 
 got up, took a quilt, and slept well in the front yard 
 under the apple trees. James, George, and Leonard 
 followed me, and it was nearly a month before I got 
 used to a bed. 
 
 After helping on the farm for a month I came to 
 the city and went to work for the Express Company. 
 No one who had participated in the war on the South- 
 ern side could vote. In order to vote, a man had 
 to subscribe to an oath that he had not aided, abetted, 
 or sympathized with secession. Of course that dis- 
 franchised nearly all of the whites, and no one could 
 vote save carpetbaggers and the colored popula- 
 tion. Those that had real estate at that time, in 
 addition to the city, county, and State tax, had a 
 special tax to pay on the Edgefield and Ken- 
 tucky and the Tennessee and Pacific Railway. So we 
 had taxation without representation. The city was in 
 the hands of a military post and metropolitan police; 
 the railroads were United States military roads, and 
 were managed by superintendents. It took nearly the 
 entire police force to look after the lawless soldiers, 
 
124 THE PRIVATIONS OF A PRIVATE. 
 
 who would rob and in some instances murder inoffen- 
 sive citizens. We had no law or order; everything 
 was in a chaotic state. In the meantime the Kuklux 
 Klan and Palefaces were a law unto themselves. The 
 object of the Kuklux Klan was a laudable one. It 
 was to intimidate the evildoer and to protect the weak 
 against the strong. No one knew who the Grand 
 Cyclops was unless he recognized his voice in the 
 giving of the oath, as it was administered in a deep 
 guttural voice, and with hoodwink. The Palefaces 
 were auxiliaries of the Kuklux, and were composed 
 of young men who were too young to go in the war 
 of 1861. Any Kuklux could join the Palefaces. Their 
 mode of initiation was quite tragic. A large tent 
 was in the hall room, and a sentinel paced to and 
 fro ; near by was a gallows, and before the initiate was 
 to be hanged there was a terrible scuffling and firing of 
 pistols. This was done to try the mettle of the young 
 candidate. The Kuklux ceremony was quite tame 
 compared with that of the Palefaces. The Kuklux Klan 
 were supposed to have been tried by the fires of battle, 
 and no other kind of firing was required in their 
 initiation. I recollect five meeting places : in the pow- 
 der magazine of Fort Negley, Masonic Temple, under 
 the old Olympic, a store on Market Street, and over 
 the Evans, Fite, Porter & Company's store, and the 
 Grand Cyclops were Player Martin, E. R. Richardson, 
 Frank Anderson, Captain Morton, and Judge Hales, 
 of the Palefaces. There were about four thousand 
 members of the Kuklux Klan and Palefaces in the city 
 and county. Each Klan had a Grand Cyclops, and 
 many of their names I have forgotten. I never heard 
 
THE PRIVATIONS OF A CITIZEN. 1 25 
 
 of a large procession of Kuklux riding through our city 
 intimidating the metropolitan police. There were 
 some eighteen in the squad, and they were not trying 
 to intimidate the police. On the other hand, I have 
 always thought that the Kuklux Klan were auxiliaries 
 to the police in suppressing crime. Columbia and Pu- 
 laski would sometimes have a horseback procession 
 of some one hundred and fifty or two hundred horse- 
 men, the men all heavily gowned and the horses' hoofs 
 muffled, and they presented quite a weird troop 
 as they noiselessly marched through the towns, which 
 would strike awe to the evil doers. It was not done 
 especially to intimidate the blacks, but whites as well, 
 if guilty of wrongdoing. The blacks who behaved 
 themselves had the best of friends in the Kuklux Klan. 
 I never heard of but two deeds of violence in our 
 midst. During the existence of the Klan one was that 
 of a white man who was mistreating his wife. The 
 Klan to which Capt. P. M. Griffin belonged took the 
 man out, gave him a good whipping, and sent him 
 home. The man afterwards always behaved himself, 
 and I think he died a good citizen. The Klans were 
 located in all parts of the city and country, and kept 
 up with their neighbors' doings. When a man was 
 doing wrong a note saying "Beware," and signed "Ku- 
 klux Klan," was enough. The fellow's guilty con- 
 science would say, "I am the man," and thus a refor- 
 mation in his conduct would take place. So I have al- 
 ways maintained that the Klans were great conserva- 
 tors of law and order. The next deed of violence was 
 the case of Mr. Barmore, of Indianapolis. It was 
 said that Governor Brownlow had offered a large re- 
 
126 THE PRIVATIONS OF A PRIVATE. 
 
 ward to any one who would ferret out the Klan, and 
 Mr. Barmore came to Nashville. He soon called at 
 the express office for a package, and I asked for 
 identification, and he brought in Mr. Sparling, who 
 was at that time agent for the Knickerbocker Life 
 Insurance Company. Mr. Barmore would attract at- 
 tention anywhere. He was a man of fine physique, 
 and dressed very conspicuously for a detective. He 
 wore a fur cap, velvet jacket, and pants with high- 
 top patent leather boots, with pants stuffed, in boot- 
 legs, and carried under his arm a large silver-mounted 
 cane. After his first introduction he frequently called 
 at the office for packages, and talked with me, but nev- 
 er mentioned the Kuklux Klan, although he knew that 
 I had been in the Confederate army. One day he 
 went to Columbia, and the Klan gave him a mock 
 and asked him not to come to that section any more. 
 A few weeks later he was in Pulaski, but did not get 
 any information, and left on the train for Nashville. 
 The Pulaski Klan wired Columbia: "Barmore is on 
 the train." Four men in Columbia bought tickets to 
 Godwin, and took seats near Barmore. I think Pitts 
 Brown was the conductor. Just before Duck River 
 bridge was reached one of the men pulled the bell 
 cord and said to Barmore: "We want you." They 
 carried him below the turnpike bridge, put a rope 
 around his neck, and, notwithstanding his plea for 
 mercy, they deposited his body in Duck River. 
 
 In 1870 our franchise was restored while D. W. C. 
 Senter was Governor, and the Kuklux Klan was dis- 
 banded forever. 
 
 Another great privation, and I shall have finished. 
 
THE PRIVATIONS OF A CITIZEN. 137 
 
 On December 4, 1868, I was returning home from 
 Cincinnati on the steamer United States. It was a 
 cold, stormy" night, and we had thirty barrels of coal 
 oil on our bow. At 1 1 :20 the steamer America col- 
 lided with us, knocking a large hole in our bow, ignit- 
 ing the coal oil, and our vessel commenced to burn and 
 sink at the same time. We had quite a passenger list, 
 one hundred and thirty of whom were lost. As soon 
 as I felt the shock of the collision I rushed up to the 
 hurricane roof to see what had struck us. I saw the 
 America standing out between us and the shore, and 
 there was no sign of fire about her except the lights 
 from the cabin. From the light of our fire I read her 
 name distinctly. I rushed at once to the ladies' cabin and 
 said to Rev. J. P. McFerrin and wife : "Get out on the 
 guards quick ; the America will save us." I then rushed 
 back to my stateroom, which was near the office, to get 
 my watch and money. When I came out of my room, 
 the vessel was afire from stem to stern, and on account 
 of the dense coal oil smoke I came near suffocating, 
 and had to crawl some one hundred and fifty feet to 
 the ladies' cabin, where all was in great confusion. 
 Mothers were calling for husband and children, hus- 
 bands shrieking for wife and children. In all my pri- 
 vations in life I have never witnessed such a heart- 
 rending scene, and I was powerless to aid any one. 
 When I reached the outer guard, aft of the wheel- 
 house and near where I left Mr. McFerrin and wife, 
 the bow of the America was passing by, and the fire 
 was nearly to the top of her chimneys. I started to 
 jump on the stageplank space, but all around were 
 burning piles of baled hay. Soon as her bow passed 
 
128 THE PRIVATIONS OF A PRIVATE. 
 
 I took a plunge, and went down, I suppose, some 
 twelve feet; and when I struck the bottom, I shot up 
 like a rocket, and struck out for the shore, which I 
 soon reached. But I got very cold when a few feet 
 up the bank, and could go no farther. I had on noth- 
 ing but my underclothes, and but for a flatboatman 
 who carried me on his back some two hundred yards 
 to the burning America I believe I would have suc- 
 cumbed to the cold. On my berth that night was my 
 Baltimore overcoat, which I had worn in General Lee's 
 army and had sent to relatives in Virginia before the 
 Wilderness campaign. My relatives had forwarded it 
 to me at Nashville in the fall of 1865, and it was lost 
 in that terrible holocaust ; but I was glad to get out. 
 
 I was sick for quite a while after the wreck, and 
 the doctor said that one of my lungs was involved, but 
 I said, "Doctor, I am too young a man to give up so 
 early," and I have been leading an active life to this 
 date (October 3, 1905). 
 
CHAPTER XII. 
 A United Citizenship. 
 
 When the reconstruction of the Southern States 
 had been accomplished by our Representatives taking 
 their seats in the halls of legislature, then we felt that 
 we were again a part of this great nation. The South 
 then started on an era of prosperity; it was not the 
 new South, but the old South, with new life infused 
 into it. We had been slaves to our slaves, and now 
 we were freemen, as the yoke of slavery had been 
 lifted from our necks. Whatever of bitterness 
 had been felt was fast disappearing ; in fact, there was 
 always less prejudice between the men who fought 
 each other than by the noncombatants of both sides. 
 Between the old soldiers it was as with the schoolboys 
 — one a stalwart, the other a weakling — engaging in a 
 fight. The stalwart overpowers the puny one, and 
 feels sorry, and they make up, and are now faster 
 friends than before. Such was the case with many of 
 the boys in blue, who said : "We fought you with 
 all the Americans we could muster, and then gave 
 bounty to all foreigners we could get, and also 
 armed many of your former slaves to fight. We 
 overpowered you, boys, and are sorry for it." And 
 you know sympathy begets love, and that is why the 
 boys in blue, when we go North of the river and at- 
 tend their camp fires, make us welcome guests. Some 
 of them felt so sorry for us that they suggested that 
 9 
 
130 THE PRIVATIONS OF A PRIVATE. 
 
 we ought to receive pensions, and when the matter 
 was agitated in certain sections the bivouacs of the 
 South were unanimous in repudiating it. We have 
 condemned pensions, except in cases of disability, be- 
 cause it discounts patriotism, and a Southern soldier 
 who deserted his flag and joined the enemy and now 
 receives a pension is getting a premium on perjury. 
 
 When the Spanish- American War came on, the men 
 of the blue and the men of the gray stood shoulder 
 to shoulder, the sons of the men who wore the blue 
 and the gray in 1861-65 marched step with step, and 
 won the victory that made us feel proud that we were 
 Americans. Thus was cemented this country as never 
 before, and prejudices gave way to an era of good 
 feeling throughout this Union. 
 
 I wish that every American citizen could have been 
 with Comrade S. A. Cunningham and me and wit- 
 nessed the unveiling of the bronze statue erected to the 
 memory of the private Confederate soldier over the 
 graves of our two thousand two hundred and sixty 
 dead at Camp Chase, near Columbus, Ohio, June 14, 
 1902. The history of the monument is as follows : 
 Colonel W. H. Knauss was a member of a Pennsyl- 
 vania regiment, and was badly wounded at Freder- 
 icksburg, Va., the wound being so severe that the 
 surgeons said he could not recover, and he was uncon- 
 scious for some weeks. He finally recovered; and 
 after the war moved to Columbus, Ohio, and engaged 
 in the real estate business. Soon after he reached Co- 
 lumbus he commenced to look after the graves of our 
 two thousand two hundred and sixty dead at Camp 
 Chase, four miles from Columbus. He found the 
 
A UNITED CITIZENSHIP. I3I 
 
 graves in a common overgrown.with bushes and weeds, 
 which he soon had cut and the ground put in good 
 shape, and asked Governor Foraker to recommend to 
 the Legislature an appropriation of $4,000, which was 
 made, and the cemetery was inclosed in a substantial 
 fence. Colonel Knauss then got an oval stone which, 
 I think, would weigh about two tons. On this stone he 
 inscribed : "Two thousand two hundred and sixty Con- 
 federate soldiers buried here; died in Camp Chase 
 Prison, 1861-65." He then commenced to send ap- 
 peals to the South each June, and he called public meet- 
 ings of G. A. R. men, the Daughters of the Confed- 
 eracy, the Bivouacs and Daughters of the Grand Army 
 Circle, and he put these combined influences to work, 
 and for years has had each June a successful decora- 
 tion. He then conceived the idea of erecting a monu- 
 ment to the private Confederate soldier, and he had 
 all his plans made, and approached Mr. W. H. Har- 
 rison, a wealthy manufacturer of Columbus, and said : 
 "Mr. Harrison, here are the plans for the monument. 
 These men fought for what they thought was right, 
 and were as much entitled to their opinions as I was 
 to mine, and they died away from home and amongst 
 strangers and foes." Mr. Harrison was so struck 
 with Colonel Knauss's enthusiasm that he said : "Build 
 the monument according to your plans, and send me 
 the bill." 
 
 Therefore, on that bright June day was assembled 
 a vast multitude of citizens, Grand Army men, and 
 ex-Confederates. A special train was run from Charles- 
 ton, W. Va., bringing the boys in gray and their fam- 
 ilies to the unveiling. We met and clasped hands with 
 
132 THE PRIVATIONS OF A PRIVATE. 
 
 Governor Nash and Judge Pugh, both of whom had 
 followed General Grant at Vicksburg. We were ac- 
 corded a place on the programme, and followed Gov- 
 ernor Nash and Judge Pugh, and spoke in the uni- 
 form of Company B, Confederate Veterans, and did 
 our best to picture the deeds of the boys in gray. On 
 the platform with us were the Daughters of the Con- 
 federacy and Grand Army Circle. -We could not tell 
 one from the other as far as enthusiasm went. We 
 did recognize them, however, from their badges. Just 
 before the service commenced Colonel Knauss came 
 to each of the Confederates on the platform and whis- 
 pered: "Boys, when the veil is removed from the 
 statue, I want you to give us the old-fashioned Rebel 
 yell." So we did our best, and the entire throng 
 appeared to enjoy it. We heard the Ohio State band 
 play "Dixie," we saw the Ohio State Guards fire a 
 volley over the graves of our dead, we saw the statue 
 standing out like a life figure. The monument had 
 two bases, each starting out on a side of the oval 
 rock, about nine feet high, joined together by an arch. 
 On the arch was inscribed "Americans ;" I guess Colo- 
 nel Knauss did not wish to offend -any oversensitive 
 people by calling them Confederates. On the apex of 
 the arch was the bronze figure of the boy in gray. It 
 was typical of the Confederate private. The empty 
 haversack, the full canteen, the old blanket twisted, 
 tied at both, ends, and thrown around the shoulders, 
 pants stuffed in socks, and shoes well-nigh worn out, 
 he was standing at order arms, and his body was facing 
 his Southland. When I saw this statue I thought of 
 William Stewart Hawkins, the author of "Behind 
 
A UNITED CITIZENSHIP. 1 33 
 
 Prison Bars," a volume he wrote in Camp Chase. 
 Many will recollect his "letter that came too late." 
 He died in Nashville November 5, 1865, of the seeds 
 of disease sown in Camp Chase. The last verse he 
 wrote was a few days after the surrender of General 
 Lee, and was written from behind prison bars as he 
 looked out upon the graves of the two thousand two 
 hundred and sixty dead, who preceded him only a 
 short while. It was entitled "Defeated Valor :" 
 
 "Sleep sweetly in your humble graves; 
 Sleep, martyrs of a fallen cause ; 
 Though yet no marble column craves 
 The pilgrim here to pause. 
 
 In the seeds of laurel in the earth, 
 The blossom of your fame is blown; 
 
 And somewhere, waiting for its birth, 
 The shaft is in the stone.