Civil War Anecdotes
1865
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Gen. Forrest as a Speaker
When our army was in Florence, in answer to a serenade, a corespondent of
the Montgomery Mail says General Forrest spoke as follows:
Well, soldiers, I come here to jine you. I'm gwine to show you the way into
Tennessee. My conscripts are going, and I know Hood's veterans can go.
I came down here with 350 men. I got 3500 conscripts. Since May I have fought
in every county in West Tennessee. I fought in the streets of Memphis, and
the women run out in their night clothes to see us, and they will do it
again in Nashville. I have fought a battle every twenty-five days. I have
seen the Mississippi run with blood for 200 hundred yards, and I'm gwine
to see it again. I've captured 78 pieces of artillery and 16,000 Yankees,
and buried 2500 of them!
It is needless to say that every sentence of this characteristic speech
elicited a shout. He is not gifted with the oratory of Caesar, but if the
old Roman would take a peep from his coffin some frosty morning, he would
learn a new lesson in the art of war.
And we would add says the Recorder, that if the speaking of pure English,
and a knowledge of etymology and syntax makes a soldier, then we ought to
have thousands of men superior to the gallant Forrest. Gen. Forrest belongs
to that class of men who are born great. As a soldier, he would have attracted
the attention and admiration of the great Napoleon, for he had the elements
within him so characteristic of that warrior a quick sagacity and extraordinary
common sense-an original, not an imitator. Unfortunately Gen. Forrest had
not the advantage of an early education, doubtless on account of the poverty
or want of schools convenient to his childhood's home. Learning, not native
intellect, is drawn from books.
- Southern Confederacy, Macon, Georgia, January 19, 1865
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In war the greatest wisdom of a nation should be in its councils; its highest
physical force in its army. This is in full acordance with the sage proverb-"Old
men for counsel, young men for war."
Armies must be supported, and in order to their support, prudence would
dictate that the old men and boys should be assigned to agriculture and
other departments of production. it is not well to place vigorous men of
middle age and strong, active and robust youths of 18 in agricultural employments,
and turn out the little boys and old men to do the work of camps and battle
fields. Nevertheless, this has, more or les, been the policy of the Confedrate
Government in the conduct of the war.
Nor is a corporal's guard of superannuated men and boys an adequate provision
for the agricultural and police necessities of a county having a population
of five to ten thousand negroes. Nevertheless, this, to a truly fearful
extent, has been the policy of the Government. It has been in part relieved
by another error (working its effect elsewhere) of excusing young men and
middle-aged men from arms, and transferring them to agriculture, on the
plea of necessity; while older men-much beyond the age usually alotted to
arms-men of sober and matured knowledge in agriculture-with fixed habits,
unfitting them for war-with families at home, and with their physical force
abated by age-have been called to meet the enemy.
The act of Congress of17th February, 1864, makes all men between the ages
of seventeen and fifty years liable to military sevice. According to the
construction of this law in the War Department, a man who was fifty years
old on the day before the law was passed is free from military duty; while
one who was 50 years old on the day after the passage of the law is bound
to serve during the war, even it it should continue for twenty years. Now,
the difference is founded entirely upon the difference of age. And what
is that difference? It is two days!! By this construction of the law, the
man who is one day over fifty years of age at its passage is too old for
military service, and yet, when the other man, who is one day under fifty
at the passage of the law, becomes 55 or 60 years old, he is still young
enough for military service. The judiciary has wisely contradicted this
construction; but the Government does not appear to regard its decision.
It is absurd to suppose that Congress intended this law should bear the
construction which the Government has given it.
The constitution of the army is otherwise materially at fault. As soon as
the Federal Gvoernment indicated its purpose to introduce the negro into
its ranks, and especially the Southern negro, it should not have been a
serious question with us whether we shoud employ our slaves in some kind
of military sevice. But we have failed to do so.-Our enemies not only had
the advantage, which we could not prevent, but we have permitted them to
come within our own lines, and there recruit their army from our own negroes,
which we might have prevented. We might have defeated their policy of recruiting
amongst our negroes by placing in our own service, if not as soldiers, at
least as accessories. We have lost much by neglecting this policy hitherto.
It is not yet too late to avail ourselves of it. Let us not blindly neglect
it altogether.-Much still may be made by us by even now utilizing a portion
of the negro population that remains to us for military purposes. We should
not leave our homes in the tracts of country overrun by the enemy, and suffer
our negroes to become hostile recruits. To do so is to put a rod into the
hands of our enemies to break our own heads.
Some persons might be sensitive under the invocation of such assistance.
But they would not be sustained by reason or precedent. Neither should we
object that our negroes should not be parties to the war, because they are
not interested in the result. In fact, they are interested. The condition
of our slaves is better, happier, than that of the Northern free negro,
to whose condition-even to a worse condition-the Yankee would reduce them;
and our slaves are indebted to our people and laws for the difference. Our
laws enure to the benefit, to the happiness of our slaves. They protect
them and provide for their well-being, in the same way if not in the same
degree, as they provide for white people. The slave does not vote in our
elections; but neither does our young white man of 18 years, who is, nevertheless,
required to enter the lists of war.
- Richmond Whig, Richmond, Virginia, January 19, 1865
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THE FUN OF BEING WOUNDED
Blood! that is the price to pay for honor now-a-days. The public mind demands
blood. Without loss of blood a soldier is rarely a hero. This the soldier
is made to understand by the tone of the public press, by every personal
letter that touches on the subject, and especially by all that he sees and
hears if he is at the North on a furlough. The consequence is, that a desire
to be wounded is general among officers in the army, merely to meet the
requirements of home sentiment. They know that no faithful service, no daring
bravery, no unwavering endurance is so likely to win them praise at the
far rear as is an entry of their name on the list of casualties. They know
that those who were slightly wounded in the first fight of last spring,
in Meade's or Butler's army, and have been since absent on sick leave, are
to-day given ten times more honor in their native town than their fellows
who remained at the front and were ten times more exposed to the flying
bullets and bursting shell, while suffering all the privations and hardships
of the fearful six months of unintermitted battle and campaigning. They
know that the bullet which breaks the skin counts more than the exposure
which breaks the constitution, or the blow which breaks the heart. They
are ambitious, else they would be unfit for officers, and their ambition
prompts them to crave a wound that they may win respect at home. If they
are good officers, they don't want a severe wound-not enough to take them
off duty, but just enough to count to their credit. I have heard officers
boast of a wound, and others speak enviously of a wounded comrade, or bemoan
their lack of at least a scratch for the surgeon to report. During an engagement
last summer, while men were falling on every side, a brave and gallant general
came hurriedly to our colonel with a half-provoked look on his face, and
snapping his fingers with an excited flourish, said, "I declare, I've
just seen one of your men with a wound that I'd give him a hundred dollars
for this minute. It's a beautiful wound, right alongside the forehead, and
not bad enough to keep him laid up." Then he added, as if to complain
of his own hard lot: I don't know why I can't get wounded. I've tried hard
enough, I've been right into the thickest of the fights ever since I entered
service, and I've never had a scratch." "Have you seen Capt P.'s
wound?" was a question asked over and over again in his brigade after
the battle of Drury's Bluff; and then the wound was decribed with so much
gusto. "A capital wound! just above the temple; shows under the hair;
but doesn't make a bad scar. That sets him up." I saw a noble officer-a
brigade commander-in the hospital quite sick from exhaustion after a hard
campaign. He spoke cheerfully of everything until some wounded officers
were named. Then his pity seemed moved-not for them but for himself. "Oh,
dear!" he said. "If I could only have been wounded. And I had
the same chance that any of them had. I was one of the first men in the
Chapin's Bluff fort, while men were being killed all around; but I wasn't
hit. And here I am in the hospital, sick!" The tone in which he uttered
the last word was that of ineffiable disgust. He would apparently have rather
lost both legs in battle, than be brought down by disease to unfitness for
duty. He knew just how the two things were viewed relatively at home. "I
didn't use to care much about being wounded, until I went home," said
a brave young captain who had risen from the ranks, and was on his fourth
year of active service with one of the hardest fighting regiments in the
entire army. "I found they don't count a man anything if he hasn't
been hit. They'd hardly believe I'd been in a real battle, because I'd nothing
to show for it. Now, I want some scar, to take home." Poor fellow!
His regiment was blown up in Fort Fisher. He was probably sufficiently mangled
there to suit the most exacting northern censor.
- Springfield (Mass.) Weekly Republican, February 4, 1865
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FROM SAVANNAH
The Sick Soldiers-Help Needed
Correspondence of The N.Y. Tribune
SAVANNAH, Ga., Jan. 30, 1865
The sick, wounded and dying soldiers of Gen. Sherman's army-the weak, racked
and wrecked, fevered and skeleton soldiers suffering and dying from fever
and wounds, and chronic diarrhea and other diseases, the foundations of
which were laid in the hard fighting, hard and long campaign-campaign of
immense and protracted toil and tremendous exposure, which lately closed
with the taking of Savannah-these soldiers, of which there are more than
twenty-five hundred in this city, while ship-load after ship-load of good,
fresh and varied provisions, donated and forwarded with zeal by a generous
public, have arrived to feed the people of Savannah-these soldiers would
like to know why they are overlooked and can't get those necessaries which
are indispensable to the sick to keep soul and body together, and for the
want of which many a veteran who has passed many a hard-fought field unscathed,
has had his body consigned to the graveyard here in the sands of Georgia.
Don't wonder; we are telling truth. Not but that enough plain, rough food
has been at command for the well or but slightly sick; but the seriously
sick have been and are suffering from the want of proper food in a very
serious degree.
In this city, at the hospital of the Seventeenth Army Corps, there are between
four and five hundred sick, and until within a few days the surgeon in charge
has been unable to draw more than half rations, and only a part of the different
kinds which are issued from the Commissary Department. The staple articles
of the Commissary Department are adapted to the hearty soldier, but not
to the sick, and the consequence has been that many have died for want of
the proper kinds of food. The Surgeon in charge estimates that 50 per cent
of the many deaths in this hospital are due to this want of the proper kinds
of nourishment. For over one month this hospital has been unable to obtain
any vegetables save the insignificant trifle of three barrels of potatoes,
one of dried apples, and one of beets, all from the Sanitary. Now, the condition
of the sick demands a constant supply and variety of vegetables and light
food, for nothing else can they eat, or, if at all, not with impunity.
Many a soldier have I heard, day after day, ask, "Can't I have something
different to eat-something that I can eat?" "If I could only have
something that I could eat?" "I want something sour." "Can't
you have them get me some potatoes?" "If I had some peaches; some
toast and butter." "I want to get well!" And the feeble tongue
of the skeleton and fevered form weakly utters his complaint, daily, fasting
for the want of something suitable to eat, and with the tenacity of Gen.
Sherman's soldiers, for days perhaps, that almost lifeless form lingers,
when a soldier's coffin, quietly carried away, tells the finale of the story.
The sick are almost all of them affected with a scurvy condition of the
system, which requires free use of vegetables, and with all the patients,
medicine does but little when a proper diet is not attainable. The medical
officers to be sure might go, and at extraordinary prices buy of the licensed
sellers (and there are sharks in this department at every crook and turn,
taking every opportunity to prey upon private and officer) some of the necessary
articles. The surgeon in charge has already spent private funds for this
purpose, but it is something which an officer cannot well afford to do,
where his salary will barely support him.
The Sanitary is here, but has only received a limited supply, and this but
once, or of course it long ere this would have rendered the requisite aid.
The Sanitary agents say that they have the needed supplies, but cannot obtain
transportation for them!
The great public have been generous-generous in bounties, generous in giving
to the Sanitary Commission, and nobody objects to feeding the needy of Savannah
so far and in such manner as is humane and judicious; but we submit that
it does not look well to pass Gen. Sherman's sick soldiers thus without
so much as saying, "How are you, comrade?"
To feed the needy of Savannah is humane and laudable; so also is well-judged
and well-timed conciliation. But if you of the North believe you are feeding
a city of loyal sentiments you are mistaken. The bulk of the soldiers and
officers who have been and are now here know this. There are and ever have
been quite a number-let me say a good many good and loyal citizens here
as there are elsewhere throughout the South-but a few names of two or three
hundred citizens by no means represent Savannah. The loyalty of the majority
of the people of this city to-day is the loyalty of the last ditch, the
loyalty of necessity; they would prefer the success of the Rebellion to
that of the Union, but being powerless, they will submit to the good old
Government with a very good grace. In truth, with all their chivalric and
terrible boasting, the Southerners take to the last ditch as meekly and
with as peaceable a grace as any people in the world. I would like to indorse
all the statements of the Unionism of Savannah, but they are not true, and
you should prefer the truth even if a little disagreeable. The truly loyal
man of the South is no half-way Unionist; and with all such the toiling
and fighting army feel a hearty brotherhood; but the professed loyal man
who is ever qualifying his Unionism with an if or a but, is most readily
and heartily cursed by every boy in blue, and they are but too sorry to
see such bogus patriotism, passed so easily at the North. You may there
out-Herod Herod in demonstrations of sympathy and the raising of supplies
for the people of a conquered city, and all under the name of "Union,"
but you will not receive the commendation of the army for so doing further
than such aid is ministered to the truly Union people. They of the army
remember too well their starved conrades in the pens of the South; the too
uniform cruelty-nay, barbarity-they have ever been accustomed to meet, when
unarmed, at the hands of the south; they recognize that this disease of
rebellion needs a straightforward and manly application of the proper remedies;
and it will not meet their approbation now and in the future to see Rebels,
when they are powerless to fight their country any longer, let carefully
down and with condoling spread upon a bed of roses. The soldiers of this
and of all our armies have had too much hard and bloody work to esteem such
proceedings.
But finally, concerning the kind of supplies which have been referred to,
I suppose we ought to have had them somehow, but somehow we have not. The
Sanitary agents say they cannot obtain the requisite transportation; the
sick have been and are short of clothing, and it is said that the Government
is unable to obtain all the transportation that it wants. How in the name
of Heaven and earth, then, is it that the money thirsting horde who have
been rushing here, and who have their varied goods displayed everywhere,
which they are selling at tremendous prices-how is it that they have been
favored with transportation for their goods? They display all the necessary
and tempting requisites for the soldier, while their stocked stores stand
side by side with the empty Sanitary. If speculation has not here got the
inside track of humanity, then I believe it never did; and if there is not
a screw loose somewhere-well, then, the only necessary one, was never put
in.
And lastly, we do not hear that the poor blacks receive any portion of the
donations. There are many here, many who came with Gen. Sherman, and they
are all as devoted and true as truth to the army; they work for officer
and soldier wherever they can find employment-are ever eager and ready to
help our army to the extent of their ability. Please publish the truth,
and oblige, &c., EQUITY.
- New-York Daily Tribune, February 15, 1865
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PRISON LIFE IN THE SOUTH
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Story of Mr. R. D. Francis, Correspondent of the World-Experience in Castle
Thunder and the Prison at Salisbury, N.C.-Cruel Treatment of the Prisoners-How
to Make Confederate Coffee
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&c., &c., &c.
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In communicating some of the incidents of my imprisonment in the South,
I have confined myself strictly to a narrative of facts. Exaggerated statements,
always reprehensible, are especially so in matters of this kind, for retaliatory
measures are invariable resorted to, and additional suffering falls to the
lot of innocent and unfortunate prisoners. I was captured on the 29th of
May, a few miles from the White House, York river, having been credibily
informed that General Baldy Smith had advanced to that point from the south
side. My captors, a lieutenant and two privates of General Butter's South
Carolina cavalry, treated me courteously, and allowed me to ride my horse
into Richmond.
We reached the headquarters of General Gary, who commands a cavalry division,
at 4 A.M., and found assembled there a large and well counted cavalry force
getting ready for a raid into Maryland. After a short conversation with
the general he ordered my guards to take me to Major-General Ransom, commander
of the post at Richmond, and a short ride brought me inside the first line
of defenses on the north of Richmond. Earthworks most elaborately built
met the eye on all sides, but the only piece of ordnance I saw was a single
15-inch mortar which had been left unlimbered by the road side. Arriving
at General Ransom's, I left with his chief of staff my papers, handed my
horse to my captors, and shortly aferward entered the notorious
CASTLE THUNDER.
The wag that first bestowed upon this building its present inspiring name
must have had an extremely lively imagination. Perhaps the tramp of the
sentry as he walks his lonely round suggested the "frowning battlements,"
the "dungeon keep," the "moat and drawbridge," etc.,
which in ancient times constituted the castle in which prisoners of war
were wont to be confined. A substantial red brick building, and all, with
one exception, are occupied by rebel prisoners; the exception is room No.
9, and it is appropriated to northern citizen prisoners, confined as hostages.
HOSTAGES
An especially unfortunate person is a prisoner held as a hostage. A soldier
or sailor, a sutler or sutler's clerk-even teamsters or men captured on
merchant vessels-become prisoners of war when captured, and may indulge
the hope of getting exchanged on a cartel. But the unfortunate victim held
as a hostage may make up his mind to bid a long farewell to liberty, for
a cartel for his exchange has never yet been agreed upon by the contesting
parties. The southern commissioner, in his published correspondence, addressed
the northern commissioner in terms like these: "I think it barbarous
to capture non-combatants; you commenced it; we are driven to retaliation
to protect our citizens. I will agree to release all non-combatants and
capture no more during the war upon condition that you will do the same."
This officer as not acceded to, and it is but fair to conclude that the
reasons of its not being accepted were from the fact that the North held
a very much larger number of non-combatant prisoners than the South and
that as soon as they were exchanged and returned to their homes they would,
by the conscript law, be at once sent as soldiers to the southern army.
LIFE IN CASTLE THUNDER
In comparison with other prisons in the South the general treatment of those
confined in No.9 room contrasts favorably. There is an abundant and constant
supply of good water and the advantage of a gas-light all night. The room
is thoroughly cleansed at short intervals by captured negroes, who do all
the menial work in the Castle. The daily ration is as follows: At 7 A.M.
each person draws ten ounces of corn bread and one pint of rice or bean
soup. At 1 P.M. a ration of meat is given, consisting of either three to
four ounces of pork or of seven to eight ounces of salt beef. There was
scarcely a variation in this daily ration during the eight months I was
confined there; and although it may be just sufficient to sustain life,
it will not enable the constitution to resist an attack of infectious disease;
in fact, apart from all disease, you gradually lose flesh and grow weaker
if you are stinted to it. I had painful evidence of this myself. Up to the
5th of August, we had the privilege of purchasing additional supplies outside.
On that day the privilege was rescinded and had not been again granted up
to the time I left. But there is a serious discrepancy between what the
government allows the prisoners and what they receive. The government allowance
is one pound of bread daily to each prisoner. Upon not one single occasion
was this ration dealt out. I mentioned the difference to a government official,
who assured me that the prisoners were robbed by dishonest quartermasters
and commissaries. However this may be, it is very certain that on the following
day our bread ration was increased and continued larger, but never reached
the allotted weight of one pound.
CONFEDERATE COFFEE
By Librio Pehio and others much has been said of the dreary monotony of
prison life; it is not, however, wholly without its occupations. Take, for
instance, the manufacture of coffee, which is an important branch of daily
duty, and the directions for which I append for the benefit of all whom
it may concern. Take of your yesterday's ration one ounce of corn bread,
grate it up fine on a tin plate, previously punctured to a grater with a
nail; roast it and precipitate it when brown into boiling water, and, like
Dick Swiveller's Marchioness over her orange peel and water, if you "make
believe very much," you may almost fancy that it bears a distant resemblance
to coffee.
HUNTING GAME
The duties of cleanliness are not all comprised in daily ablutions-those
interested in entomological studies can here find abundant scope for investigation
and research, and that passion for the pursuit, capture and destruction
of inferior animals, which is said to be implanted in the breast of man,
can be amply gratified. Occasionally too, "pour varier nos plaisers,"
a general attack is made on rats and mice. Our confederate neighbors in
the adjoining room gladly purchasing all we could obtain of the former at
$2 per head.
DR. BELL
Our prison life was also occasionally relieved by the visits of Dr. Bell,
assistant medical director of Castle Thunder Hospital, whose generous nature
was superior to the asperities of party feeling, and who combined professional
skill with the urbanity and kindness of a gentleman.
A BRITISH SUBJECT
Having satisfied myself that I could expect no assistance from Washington
towards effecting my exchange, I had applied for, and secured after much
delay, papers certifying that I was a British subject, offering to place
the papers in the hands of Mr. Ould, and feeling confident of a speedy release.
I was much surprised on the 23d of December to receive a notice to prepare
to go to Salisbury on the following day. In fulfilment of a promise I made
to my fellow-sufferers, I now proceed to state the painful incidents of
our
JOURNEY TO SALISBURY.
Our party consisted of fourteen northern citizen prisoners, and seventy
confederate convicts, who were being sent to Salisbury to work out their
sentences. On the 24th December, at 11 A.M., we were formed into column
and surrounded by thirty-nine guards, including a captain, one lieutenant,
and two sergeants, marched from the Castle to the Danville depot. After
some delay we were ordered to get into a small box car, which was closed
on all sides, except the latticed door. It seemed impossible to cram in
so many, but by dint of a vigorous use of the bayonet, and any quantity
of loud swearing, the whole were jammed in, including two guards, who stood
at the door with crossed muskets. It was about noon when the car started
on its journey, the captain having just previously, in peremptory tones,
addressed the guards thus: "On no account whatever is a man in that
car to be allowed to leave the car." In this very painful position,
with scarcely standing room, did we proceed to Danville, a distance of one
hundred and forty-five miles, and reached that place at noon of the 25th.
ARRIVAL AT DANVILLE
On arriving at Danville we were marched about a mile to a small tobacco
warehouse, and the captain ordered the whole of us to the top floor of the
building, a very small room, when I informed him that he could not be aware
of the fact that fourteen of his prisoners were northern citizens, held
as hostages, against whom his government had no charge whatever, and that
we must protest against being treated the same as confederate convicts.
He appeared surprised, and complained that he had not been informed of the
fact before leaving the castle. He told us to remain in the room below,
and that when we again moved he would put us into another car. He then left
us, and returned to Richmond. We remained at Danville till the 29th, being
detained for want of transportation. The only rations given out to us in
the four days inclusive, consisted of four crackers and a gill of sorghum
to each man. The reason assigned was, that food was scarce in the neighborhood,
in consequence of large bodies of troops from General Lee's army having
passed through to Wilmington and other places south, and had cleaned the
country of provisions. I had good reason for believing that this was not
the case.
DEATH OF L. MOORE
Amongst our number was a Mr. L. Moore, of Worcester, Massachusetts. He had
been in Castle Thunder about four months, having been captured early in
September on the Albemarle canal, on his way to Newbern to transact business
with a Massachusetts regiment (the Twenty-fifth, I think) there stationed.
He unfortunately had a position during the journey near the door, from which
he could not possibly extricate himself, and I noticed that he suffered
much from the cold and gave him an additional blanket. On the morning of
the 27th he complained of pain in the head; was very feverish, but not unable
to take exercise; on the 28th he seemed in a state of torpor; breathed heavily,
and seemed disinclined to talk to us. We appealed to the lieutenant of the
guard to get medical aid; there was plenty in the town; but being intoxicated
he failed to do so. Mr. Moore was a person of noble qualities, and during
the few months of his confinement at Castle Thunder, had won the esteem
of all who had made his acquaintance. The captain returned on the morning
of the 29th, when I mentioned to him the scanty rations we had received,
and recalled the promise he had given of affording more comfortable arrangements
for the rest of our journey.
ANOTHER JAM
We marched to the depot at 5 P.M., and found only one empty car, into which
he ordered us all to be jammed as before, promising me that before they
started he would take us civilians into his own car. He did not keep his
promise, and in this wretched plight we traveled to Geeensboro, a distance
of fifty miles, which we did not reach till 6 P.M. on the 30th. A bitter
cold rain was falling when we arrived there, accompanied by sleet and wind.
He marched us from the car a short distance to an open space, and stated
that we should have to remain there till 11 P. M., in the meantime he would
draw rations for us. We saw nothing more of him till 10 o'clock on the following
morning, leaving us in this exposed plight without shelter or food the whole
night.
ARRIVAL AT SALISBURY
We left Greensboro at 11 P.M., and arrived at Salisbury at 3 A.M. the following
day. It was one of the most intensely cold nights I ever experienced; the
door of our car was frozen so firmly that it seemed to defy all endeavors
to open it. Our guard, who occupied the car behind us, and who had been
luxuriating during the journey in a good fire, did not seem to understand
that our door could be frozen. After the barrels of two muskets had been
bent nearly double, and volley upon volley of oaths had been leveled at
the car and its occupants, the door was pried open sufficiently to admit
one person to squeeze through at a time, and seven who stood nearest the
door got out, when the train was suddenly started and the balance of the
prisoners whirled away to regions unknown.
PRISONERS ESCAPING
At twelve miles from Salisbury the train slackened, and the two guards,
who were well aware that their authority had ceased, shouted out, "Break
the door off its hinges and go where you d- please!" Of this courteous
permission we availed ourselves, and having by a united effort burst open
the door, got out, or rather fell out, for our bodies, be-numbed with cold
and starved with hunger, were almost powerless. The prisoners broke up into
squads and lit fires. Out of the entire number not more than twenty-four
reported to Salisbury on the following day, the balance having either succeeded
in making their escape or concealed themselves for the first favorable opportunity
of doing so. At daybreak I sought the shelter of a farm-house, resolved
upon returning to Salisbury by easy marches, as I was very lame. On my way
there I called at a North Carolina homestead, where I passed the night before
a huge log fire on the kitchen floor, and in the course of the following
day reported myself at the garrison at Salisbury.
A BAD CONFEDERATE CAPTAIN
Unwilling for a moment to believe that the confederate government would
tolerate such inhumanity in any of its subordinate officers, I have felt
it my duty to relate thus minutely, the incident of our journey under the
care of Captain Tabb. I now take my leave of this functionary and his guard.
He is a disgrace to the profession to which he belongs, and deserves the
execration of every one possessing the common feelings of humanity.
SALISBURY
I do not propose to enter minutely into details respecting the above garrison.
Two correspondents of a New-York journal who had been imprisoned there for
many months, and who had every facility for obtaining correct data, have,
I understand, brought before the public the results of their experience.
I have not seen their published accounts, but from what came under my own
observation during three weeks' imprisonment in the garrison, I do not believe
it possible to exaggerate the horrible state of things that exists there.
That our men have been the victims of the most cruel neglect is sufficiently
conclusive from the fact that, out of eleven thousand who had arrived there
up to the end of October, not more than six thousand are at present alive.
It is also self-evident that this fearful mortality has been caused by insufficient
food and exposure, and it appears to me most unaccountable that upon the
approach of winter bodies of men were not detailed to obtain from the woods
in the neighborhood supplies of timber, which might easily have been converted
into log huts, and thus have insured perfect shelter from the inclemency
of the weather. The building appropriated to the use of citizen prisoners
is much too small for the purpose, badly ventilated, and in the most filthy
condition.
UNCONDITIONAL RELEASE
On the 17th of January I received from Major Gee, commandant of the garrison,
a letter addressed to me by the under secretary of state at Richmond, conveying
the grateful intelligence that I was unconditionally released, and was indebted
to the interest of my friends in England for the boon.
Leaving Salisbury on the morning of the 20th, I was sent on my arrival at
Richmond to the officers' quarters at the Libby, there to await the departure
of the boat which was to convey a large number of exchanged prisoners to
Varina.
On Sunday, the 29th, we were marched on board the boat, cheered with the
hope of soon exchanging the William Allison for the New-York, when, just
as we were expecting to start, it was announced that the ice had collected
so thickly in the narrow part of the James that our passage through it was
impossible. Consequently, we were all ordered back to prison, and on the
following Sunday, February 5, were again marched down to the boat. Thirteen
of the poor fellows who came on board on the morning of the 29th were not
destined to share our happiness on the following Sunday-some died in the
act of returning to the hospital, and the others soon after their arrival
there. This time, however, we got fairly afloat, and in the course of two
hours exchanged the William Allison for the New-York.
"Night flies away before the sun.
And fear doth into transport run,
And grim death into life."
When the recollection of so many scenes of suffering and the personal effects
of imprisonment shall have passed away, the memory of that happy time will
still be fresh and green in my heart. A cordial and kindly welcome from
Colonel Mulford, the abundant comforts waiting us on board his boat, and,
above all, the consciousness that we were once more free and would soon
be with those we loved, and from whom we had so long been parted, were more
grateful to us than words of mine can express.
R. D. FRANCIS.
- The Semi-weekly World, New-York, February 24, 1865
_____________________________________________________________
A Woman in Military Service Over Two Years
[From the Richmond Examiner, February 20.]
On Friday night a young woman dressed in military uniform, was arrested
somewhere up the Danville Railroad and sent to this city, charged with being
a suspicious character. On examination at the provost-marshal's office it
appeared that her name was Millie Bean, and that she had been serving in
the Forty-seventh North Carolina regiment for over two years, during which
time she had been twice wounded. She was sent to Castle Thunder, that common
receptacle of the guilty, the suspected, and the unfortunate. This poor
creature is, from her record, manifestly crazy. It will not, we presume,
be pretended that she had served so long in the army without her sex being
discovered.
- The Semi-weekly World, New-York, February 24, 1865
_____________________________________________________________
THE BATTLE OF FIVE FORKS
_____
The Engagement that Won Richmond
_____
The Turning Point of the Conflict
_____
Phil Sheridan Deals the Final Blow
_____
(Correspondence of the New York Herald)
Five Forks Battle-Field, 11 P.M.
RESUME OF THE MILITARY MOVEMENTS SINCE MARCH 29TH.
Sheridan had scarcely time to change his horse's shoes before he was off,
and on Wednesday of last week, much of our infantry also moved to the left.
We passed our ancient breastworks at Hatcher's Run, and extended our lines
southwestward till they touched Dinwiddie Court House, thirty miles from
City Point. The rebels fell back, with but little skirmishing, until we
faced northward and reached out toward their idolized Southside Railway;
then they grew uneasy, and as a hint of their opposition, fought us the
sharp battle of Quaker Road on Thursday. Still we reached further and further
marveling to find that, with his depleted army, Lee always overmatched us
at every point of attack; but on Friday we quitted our intrenchments on
the Boydtown plank road, and made a bold push for the White Oak road. This
is one of the series of parallel public ways running east and west, south
of the Southside, the Vaughn road being the first, the Boydtown plank road
the second, and the old Court House the third. It became evident to the
rebels that we had two direct objects in view-the severing of their railway
and the occupation of the "Five Forks." The latter is a magnificent
strategic point. Five good roads meet in the edge of a dry, high, well-watered
forest, three of them radiating to the railway, and their tributaries unlocking
all the country. Further south their defences had been paltry, but they
fortified this empty solitute as if it had been their capital. Upon its
principal road, the "White Oak" aforenamed, they had a ditched
breastwork, with embrasures of logs and earth, reaching east and west three
miles, and this was covered eastward and southeastward by rifle pits, masked
works and felled timber; the bridges approaching it were broken, all the
roads picketed, and a desperate resolve to hold it averred. This point of
"Five Forks" may be as much as eight miles from Dinwiddie Court
House, four from the Southside, and eighteen from Humphrey's the nearest
of our military railway stations. A crooked stream called Gravelly Run,
which with Hatcher's forms Rowanty Creek and goes off to feed the Chowan,
in North Carolina, rises near Five Forks, and gives the name of Gravelly
Run Church to a little Methodist meeting-house, built in the forest a mile
distant. That meeting house is a hospital to-night, running blood, and at
Five Points a victor's battle-flags are flying.
THE INFANTRY BATTLES OF FRIDAY.
The Fifth Army Corps of General Warren, for the present superceded by General
Griffin, has had all of the flank fighting of the week to do. It lost five
or six hundred men in its victory of Thursday, and on Friday rested along
the Boydtown plank road, at the house of one Butler, chiefly, which is about
seven miles from Five Forks. On Friday morning General Ayres took the advance
with one of its three divisions, and marched three-quarters of a mile beyond
the plank road, through a woody country, following the road, but crossing
the ubiquitous Gravelly Run, till he struck the enemy in strong force a
mile and a half below White Oak road. They lay in the edge of a wood, with
a thick curtain of timber in their front, a battery of field pieces to the
right, mounted in a bastioned earthwork, and on the left the woods drew
near, circling a little farm land and negro buildings.
Gen. Ayres' skirmish line being fired upon, did not stand, but fell back
upon his main column, which advanced at the order. Straightway the enemy
charged headlong, while their skirmishers on our left, creeping down through
the woods, picked us off in flank. They charged with a whole division, making
their memorable yell, and soon doubled upon Ayres' line of battle, so that
it was soon forced in tolerable disorder back upon Gen. Crawford's men,
who commanded the next division. Crawford's men do not seem to have retrieved
the character of their predecessors, but made a feint to go in, and falling
by dozens beneath the murderous fire gave up the ground. Griffin's division,
past which the fugitives ran, halted a while before taking the doubtful
way; the whole corps were now back to the Boydtown plank road, and nothing
had been done to anybody's credit particularly.
Gen. Griffin rode up to Gen. Chamberlain in this extremity. Chamberlain
is a young and anxious officer, who resigned the professorship of modern
languages in Bowdoin College to embrace a soldier's career. He had been
wounded the day before, but was zealous to try death again.
"Chamberlain," said Griffin, "can't you save the honor of
the Fifth Corps?"
The young General formed his men at once-they had tasted powder before-the
One Hundred and Eighty-fifth New York, and the One Hundred and Ninety-eighty
Pennsylvania. Down they went into the creek waist deep, up the slope and
into the clearing-muskets to the left of them, cannon to the right of them;
but their pace was swift, like their resolve; many of them were cut down,
yet they kept ahead, and the rebels, who seemed astonished at their own
previous success, drew off and gave up the field. Almost two hours had elapsed
between the loss and the recovery of the ground. The battle might be called
Dabney's Farm, or more generally the fight of Gravelly Run. The brigades
of Generals Bartlett and Gregory rendered material assistance in the pleasanter
finale of the day. An order was soon after issued to hasten the burial of
the dead and quit the spot, but Chamberlain petitioned for leave to charge
the rebel earthwork in the rear, and the enthusiasm of his brigade bore
down General Warren's more prudent doubt. In brief, Griffin's division charged
the fort, drove the rebels out of it, and took position on the White Oak
road, far east of Five Forks. While Griffin's division must be credited
with the result, it may be said that their luck was due as much to the time
as the manner of their appearance; the rebel divisions of Pickett and Bushrod
Johnson were, in the main by the time Griffin came up on their way westward
to attack Sheridan's cavalry. Ayres and Crawford had charged as one to four,
but the forces were quite equalized when Chamberlain pushed on. I furnish
elsewhere the names of the killed and wounded of this battle, although you
have had some of them already. We lost in Griffin's division 170 wounded;
in Ayres' 251 wounded; in Crawford's 350; the killed and prisioners may
reach 500. The corps probably lost 1,200 men in this action. The rebels,
for the first time for many weeks, exhibited all their traditional irresistibility
and confidence. The merit of the affair, I am inclined to think, should
be awarded to them; but a terrible retribution remained for them in the
succeeding day's decrees. In this fight Colonel Tremlay and Colonel Daley
were wounded as well as Adjutant General Bartlett. The Third Delaware Regiment
lost 25 in all, and Colonel Pattee's consolidated regiment 37. I cannot
now make a synopsis of all losses.
SHERIDAN'S CAVALRY FIGHT AT LITTLE FIVE FORKS
This is a cross-road not far from Dinwiddie Court House, in the direction
of Petersburg, called Little Five Forks, which it must be borne in mind,
gives name to the great battle of Saturday, is further out by many miles,
and does not lie within our lines. But, if the left of the army be at Dinwiddie,
and the right at Petersburg, Little Five Forks will be first on the front
line, though, when Sheridan fought there, it was neutral ground, picketed
but not possessed. Very early in the week, when the rebels became aware
of the extension of our lines they added to the regular force which encamped
upon our flank line at least a division of troops. These were directed to
avoid an infantry fight, but to seek out the cavalry, and by getting it
at disadvantage rid the region both of the harmfulness of Sheridan and that
prestige of his name, so terrifying to the Virginia housewife. So long as
Sheridan remained upon the far left the Southside road was unsafe, and the
rapidity with which his command could be transferred from point to point
rendered it a formidable balance of power.
The rebels knew the country well and the peculiar course of the highways
gave them every advantage. The cavalry of Sheridan's army proper is divided
into two corps, commanded by Generals Devin and Custer; the cavalry of the
Potomac is commanded by General Crook; MacKenzie has control of the cavalry
of the James. On Friday these were under separate orders, and the result
was confusion. The infantry was beaten at Gravelly Run, and the cavalry,
met in flank and front by overwhelming numbers, executed some movements
not laid down in the manual. The centre of the battle was Little Five Forks,
though the rebels struck us closer to Dinwiddie Court House, and drove us
pell mell up the road into the woods, and out the old Court House road to
Gravelly Run. We rallied several times, and charged them into the woods,
but they lay concealed in copses, and could go where sabres were useless.
The plan of this battle-field will show a series of irregular advances to
puzzle anybody but a cavalryman. The full division of Bushrod Johnson and
General Pickett were developed against us, with spare brigades from other
corps. Our cavalry loss during the day was 800 in killed and wounded, but
we pushed the rebels so hard that they gave us the field, falling back toward
Big River Forks, and we intrenched immediately. Two thousand men comprise
our losses of Friday in Warren's corps and Sheridan's command, including
many valuable officers. We shall see how, under a single guidance, splendid
results were next day obtained with half the sacrifice.
SHERIDAN ON HIS OWN HOOK
On Friday night Gen. Grant, dissatisfied, like most observers, with the
day's business, placed Gen. Sheridan in the supreme command of the whole
of Warren's corps and Sheridan's cavalry. Gen. Warren reported to him at
nightfall, and the little army was thus composed:
Gen. Sheridan's forces, Saturday, April 1st:
Three divisions of infantry, under Generals Griffin, Ayres and Crawford.
Two divisions of cavalry, formerly constituting the Army of the Shenandoah,
now commanded by Gen. Merritt, under Generals Devin and Custer.
One division of cavalry of the Army of the Potomac, under Gen. Crook.
Brigade or more of cavalry, Army of the James, under Gen. Mackenzie.
I
n this composition the infantry was to the cavalry in the proportion of
about two to one, and the entire force, which I am forbidden to enumerate,
would be a considerable army, far up into the teens. Sheridan was absolute,
and his oddly-shaped body began to bob up and down straightway; he visited
every part of his line; though it stretched from Dinwiddie Court House to
the Quaker road along the Boydtown plank and its adjuncts. At daybreak on
Saturday he fired four signal guns, to admonish Warren he was off; and his
cavalry, by diverging roads, struck their camps. Just south of Culpepper
is a certain stony creek, the tributaries of which wind northward and control
the roads. Over Stony Creek went Crook, making the longest detour. Custer
took a bottom called Chamberlain's Bed, and Devin advanced from Little Five
Forks, the whole driving the rebels toward the left of their works on White
Oak road.
SHERIDAN'S CAVALRY DISMOUNTED
We must start with the supposition that our own men far outnumbered the
rebels. The latter were widely separated from their comrades before Petersburg,
and the adjustment of our infantry as well as the great moveable force at
Sheridan's disposal, renders it doubtful that they could have returned.
At any rate they did not do so, whether from choice or necessity; and it
was a part of our scheme to drive them back into their intrenchments. This
work was delegated to the cavalry entirely, but, as I have said before,
mounted carbineers are no match for stubborn bayoneted infantry. So when
the horsemen were close up to the rebels, they were dismounted, and acted
as infantry to all intents. A portion of them, under Gregg and Mackenzie,
still adhered to the saddle, that they might be put in rapid motion for
flanking and charging purposes; but fully five thousand indurated men, who
had seen service in the Shenandoah and elsewhere, were formed in line of
battle on foot, and by charge and deploy essayed the difficult task of driving
back the entire rebel column. This they were to do so evenly and ingeniously
that the rebels should go no further than their works, either to escape
westward or to discover the whereabouts of Warren's forces, which were already
forming. Had they espied the latter they might have become so discouraged
as to break and take to the woods; and Sheridan's object was to capture
them as well as to rout them. So, all the afternoon, the cavalry pushed
them hard, and the strife went on uninterruptedly and terrifically. I have
no space in this hurried despatch to advert either to individual losses
or to the many thrilling episodes of the fight. It was fought at so close
quarters that our carbines were never out of range; for, had this been otherwise,
the long rifles of the enemy would have given them every advantage.
With their horses within call, the cavalrymen, in line of battle, stood
together like walls of stone, swelling onward like those gradually elevating
ridges of which Lyell speaks. Now and then a detachment of rebels would
charge down upon us, swaying the lines and threatening to annihilate us;
for at no part of the action, till its crisis did the Southern men exhibit
either doubt or dismay, but fought up to the standard of the most valiant
treason the world has ever had, and here and there showing some of those
wonderful feats of individual courage which are the miracles of the time.
A Colonel with a shattered regiment came down upon us in a charge. The bayonets
were fixed; the men came on with a yell; their grey uniforms seemed black
amidst the smoke; their preserved colors, torn by grape and ball, waved
yet defiantly; twice they halted and poured in volleys, but came on again
like the surge from the fog, depleted but determined; yet, in the hot faces
of the carbineers, they read a purpose as resolute, but more calm, and while
they pressed along, swept all the while by scaling volleys, a group of horsemen
took them in flank. It was an awful instant; the horses recoiled; the charging
column trembled like a single thing, but at once the rebels with rare organization,
fell into a hollow square, and with solid sheets of steel defied our centaurs.
The horsemen rode around them in vain; no charge could break the shining
squares, until our dismounted carbineers poured in their volleys afresh,
making gaps in the spent ranks, and then in their wavering time the cavalry
thundered down. The rebels could stand no more; they reeled and swayed,
and fell back broken and beaten. And on the ground their Colonel lay, sealing
his devotion with his life.
Through wood and brake and swamp, across field and trench, we pushed the
fighting defenders steadily. For a part of the time Sheridan himself was
there, short and broad, and active, waving his hat, giving orders, seldom
out of fire, but never stationary, and close by fell the long yellow locks
of Custer, saber extended, fighting like a Viking though he was worn and
haggard with much work. At four o'clock the rebels were behind their wooden
walls at Five Forks, and still the cavalry pressed them hard, in feint rather
than solemn effort, while a battalion dismounted, charged squarely upon
the face of their breastworks which lay in the main on the north side of
the White Oak road. Then while the cavalry worked round toward the rear,
the infantry of Warren, though commanded by Sheridan, prepared to take part
of the battle.
BY ECHELON TO THE RIGHT
The genius of Sheridan's movement lay in his disposition of the infantry.
The skill with which he arranged it, and the difficult manoeuvres he projected
and so well executed, should place him as high in infantry tactics as he
has heretofore shown himself superior in cavalry. The infantry which had
marched at half-past 2 P.M., from the house of Boisseau, or the Boydtown
plank road, was drawn up in four battle lines, a mile or more in length,
and in the beginning facing the White Oak road obliquely; the left, or pivot,
was the division of Gen. Ayres, Crawford had the center, and Griffin the
right. These advanced from the Boydtown plank road, at ten o'clock, while
Sheridan was thundering away with the cavalry-mounted and dismounted-and
deluding the rebels with the idea that he was the sole attacking party;
they lay concealed in the woods behind the Gravelly Run meeting house, but
their left was not a half mile distant from the rebel works, though their
right reached so far off that a novice would have criticised the position
sharply. Little by little, Sheridan, extending his lines, drove the whole
rebel force into their breastwork; then he dismounted the mass of his cavalry
and charged the works straight in the front, still thundering on their flank.
At last every rebel was safe behind his intrenchments. Then the signal was
given and the concealed infantry, many thousand strong, sprang up and advanced
by echelon to the right. Imagine a great barn door shutting to and you have
the movement, if you can also imagine the door itself, hinge and all, moving
forward also. This was the door.
AYRE-CRAWFORD-GRIFFIN
Stick a pin through Ayres, and turn Griffin and Crawford, as you would a
spoke in a wheel, but move your pin up also a very little. In this way Ayres
will advance, say half a mile, and Griffin, to describe a quarter revolution,
will move through a radius of four miles. But to complicate this movement
by echelon, we must imagine the right, when half-way advanced, cutting across
the centre and re-forming, while Crawford became the right and Griffin the
middle of the line of battle. Warren was with Crawford on this march. Gregory
commanded the skirmishers. Ayres was so close to the rebel left that he
might be said to hinge upon it; and at six o'clock the whole corps column
came crash upon the full flank of the astonished rebels. now came the
PITCH OF THE BATTLE.
We were already on the rebel right in force, and thinly in their rear. Our
carbineers our infantry, four deep, hemmed in their entire left. All this
they did not for an instant note, so thorough was their confusion; but seeing
it diretly, they so far from giving up, concentrated all energy and fought
like fiends. They had a battery in position, which belched incessantly,
and over the breastworks their musketry made one unbroken roll, while against
Sheridan's prowlers on their left, by skirmish and sortie, they stuck to
their sinking fortunes so as to win unwilling applause from the mouths of
wisest censure.
It was just at the coming up of the infantry that Sheridan's little band
was pushed the hardest. At one time, indeed, they seemed about to undergo
extermination; not that they wavered, but that they were so vastly overpowered.
It will remain to the latest time a matter of marvel that so paltry a cavalry
force could press back sixteen thousand infantry; but when the infantry
flew like a great barn door-the simile best applicable-upon the enemy's
left, the victory that was to come had passed the region of strategy, and
resolved to an affair of personal courage. We had met the enemy; were they
to be ours? To expedite this consummation, every officer fought as if he
were the forlorn hope. Mounted on his black pony, the same which he rode
at Winchester, Sheridan galloped everywhere, his flushed face all the redder,
and his plethoric but nervous figure all the more ubiquitous. He galloped
once straight down the rebel front, with but a handful of his staff. A dozen
bullets whistled for him together; one grazed his arm, at which a faithful
orderly rode; the black pony leaped high, in fright, and Sheridan was untouched,
but the orderly lay dead in the field, and the saddle dashed afar empty.
General Warren rode with Crawford most of the afternoon, mounted likewise
and making two or three narrow escapes. He was dark, dashing and individual
as ever, but for some reason or other was relieved of his command after
the battle, and Griffin was instated in his place. General Sheridan ordered
Warren to report to General Grant's headquarters, sending the order by an
aid. We shall probably have an explanation of this fall from grace very
soon. Warren, on his own hook, did not met on Friday with his general success,
and on Saturday Sheridan was the master spirit; but Warren is a gentleman,
as well as a General, and is only overshadowed by a greater genius-not obliterated.
Ayres, accounted the best soldier in the Fifth Corps, but too quietly modest
for his own favor, fought like a lion in this pitch of battle, making all
the faint-hearted around him ashamed to do ill with such an example contiguous.
General Bartlett, keen-faced and active, like a fiery scimitar, leading
his division as though he were an immortal! He was closest at hand in the
most gallant episodes, and held at nightfall a bundle of captured battle-flags.
But Griffin, tall, and slight, was the master genius of the Fifth Corps,
to which by right he has temporarily succeeded. He led the charge on the
flank, and was the first to mount the parapet, with his horse, riding over
the gunners as May did at Cerro Gordo, and cutting them down. Bartlett's
brigade, behind him, finished the business, and the last cannon was fired
for the day against the conquering Federals. General Crawford fulfilled
his full share of duties throughout the day, amply sustained by such spendid
brigade commanders as Baxter, Coulter, and Kellogg, while Gwin and Boweryman
were at hand in the division of General Ayres not to omit the fallen Whinthrop,
who died to save a friend and win a new laurel. What shall I say for Chamberlain,
who, beyond all question, is the first of our brigade commanders, having
been the hero of both Quaker road and Gravelly Run, and in this action of
Five Forks making the air ring with the applauding huzzas of his soldiers
who love him? His is one of the names that will survive the common wreck
of shoulder-straps after the war.
But I am individualizing; the fight, as we closed upon the rebels, was free
from great loss on our side, though desperate as any contest ever fought
on the continent. One prolonged roar of rifle shook the afternoon; we carried
no artillery; and the rebel battery until its capture, raked us like an
irrepressible demon, and at every foot of the intrenchments a true man fought
both in front and behind. The birds of the forest fled afar; the smoke ascended
to heaven; locked in so mad frenzy, none saw the sequel of the closing day.
Now Richmond rocked in her towers to watch the impending issue, but soon
the day began to look gray, and a pale moon came tremulously out to watch
the meeting of squadrons. Imagine, along a line of a full mile, thirty thousand
men struggling for life and prestige; the woods gathering about them-but
yesterday the home of hermit hawks and chipmunks-now ablaze with bursting
shells, showing in the dusk the curl of flames in the tangled grass and,
rising up the boles of the pine trees, the scaling, scorching tongues. Seven
hours this terrible spectacle had been enacted, but the finale of it had
almost come.
DEATH OF WINTHROP
It was, by all acounts, in this hour of victory when the modest and brave
Gen. Winthrop, of the First Brigade, Ayres' division, was mortally wounded.
He was riding along the breastworks, and in the act, as I am assured, of
saving a friend's life, was shot through the left lung. He fell at once
and his men, who loved him gathered around and took him tenderly to the
rear, where he died before the stretcher on which he lay could be deposited
beside the meeting-house door. On the way from the field to the hospital
he wandered in mind, at times crying out, "Capt. Weaver, how is the
line? Has the attack succeeded?" etc. When he had been resuscitated
for a pause, he said; "Doctor, I am done for." His last words
were; "Straighten the line!" And he died peacefully. He was a
cousin of Major Winthrop, the author of "Cecil Dreeme," and the
brother-in-law of Mr. August Belmont. He was twenty-seven years of age.
I had talked with him before going into action, as he sat at the side of
Gen. Ayres, and was permitted by the guard of honor to uncover his face
and look upon it. He was pale and beautiful, marble rather than corpse,
and the uniform cut away from his bosom, showed how white and fresh was
the body, so pulseless now. Gen. Griffin said to me: "This victory
is not worth Winthrop's life." Winthrop went into the service as a
simple color-bearer. He died as a Brevet Brigadier.
SURRENDER OF THE REBELS
At seven o'clock the rebels came to the conclusion that they were outflanked
and whipped. They had been so busily engaged, that they were a long time
finding out how deperate were their circumstances; but now, wearied with
persistent assaults in front, they fell back to the left, only to see four
close lines of battle waiting to drive them across the field, decimated.
At the right the horsemen charged them in their vain attempt to fight "out,"
and in the rear straggling foot and cavalry began also to assemble: slant
fire, cross fire, and direct fire, by file and volley, rolled in perpetually,
cutting down their bravest officers and strewing the fields with bleeding
men; groans resounded in the intervals of exploding powder, and to add to
their terror and despair, their own artillery, captured from them, threw
into their own ranks, from its old position, ungrateful grape and canister,
enfilading their breastworks, whizzing and plunging, by air line and ricochet,
and at last bodies of cavalry fairly mounted their intrenchments and charged
down the parapet, slashing and trampling them, and producing inextricable
confusion. They had no commanders-at least no orders-and looked in vain
for some guiding hand to lead them out of a toil into which they had fallen
so bravely and so blindly. A few more volleys, a new and irresistible charge,
a shrill and warning command to die or surrender, and, with a sullen and
tearful impulse, five thousand muskets are flung upon the ground, and five
thousand hot, exhausted and impetent men are Sheridan's prisoners of war.
THE CAPTIVE AND FLYING REBELS
Acting with his usual decision, Sheridan placed his captives in care of
a provost guard, and sent them at once to the rear. Those who escaped he
ordered the fiery Custer to pursue with brand and vengeance; and they were
pressed far into the desolate forest, spent and hungry, many falling by
the way of wounds and exhaustion, many pressed down by hoof or sabre stroke,
and many picked up in mercy and sent back to rejoin their brethren in bonds.
We captured in all fully 6,000 prisoners. General Sheridan estimated them
modestly at 5,000, but the Provost Marshal assured me that he had a line,
four abreast, a full mile long. I entirely bear him out, having ridden for
forty minutes in a direction opposite to that they were taking, and growing
weary at last of counting or of seeing them. They wore the grey and not
very attractive uniform of the Confederacy, but looked to be warm and fat,
and passing along in the night under the fir trees conveyed a most romantic
idea of grief and tribulation. They were put in a huge pen midway between
Big and Little Five Forks, for the night, the officers sharing the same
fare with the soldiers, from whom, indeed, they were undistinguishable.
Thus ended the splendid victory of Five Forks, the least bloody to us, but
the most successful, proportionate to numbers engaged, that has been fought
during the war. One man out of every three engaged took a prisoner. We captured
four cannons, an ambulance train and baggage teams, eight thousand muskets
and twenty-eight battle flags. Gen. Longstreet, it is thought, commanded.
Neither he nor Pickett or Bushrod Johnson, division commanders, were taken;
they were wise enough to see that the day was lost, and imitated Bonaparte
after Waterloo.
- Daily Alta California, San Francisco, May 8, 1865
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