Part 10

There were times, when snugly protected from the heavy fire, the boys at the Point found time dragging heavily. Then the story-tellers were called upon. Hugh O'Brien was requested to narrate the trials and triumphs of the handsome cavalier and a princess, entitled "The Beauty of the W-o-r-rld." John Miller was easily prevailed upon to produce with dramatic effects, the narrow escape of a Negro from being buried in the hay-mow at "Old Harve's" (his father's) farm. For the boys needed some relaxation in the struggle for glory--slight compensation for duty well-done, and fun counted big, sometimes. History records exposures in winter's sleet, marches under a tropical sun, sleeping on frozen ground, as well as in a climate where the dew falls like fine mist--where fog rolls up dank from malarious swamps. But when the boys rehearse their stories of the war, they will cherish most the little kindnesses and words which helped to ease their burdens and drive away the gloom.

Inspections on that barren Morris Island were very trying. A man to stand for an hour fully accoutered, with knapsack strapped on his back, the dress coat buttoned close to his chin, his straps drawing his clothing tight about him--to stand thus in a hot sun on a breezeless day, is pitiful torture. Occasionally a man fell down in the ranks. And when the men returned to their quarters they were as tired as though they had been marching. Of course it would not have been the proper thing to inspect the troops in the cool of the day--that would not have been consistent with Folly Island tactics.

And so went along the duty on Morris Island. At night when at the Point on picket, the comrades remaining in camp saw the flying bombs from Sullivan's Island, like meteors, rise from the mortars and following a regulated arc, drop apparently where their comrades were stationed. At times the display was fearfully grand and then a monitor or two would steam up toward Fort Moultrie and take a hand in the excitement. Suddenly, the rebel fire ceased, the monitors and Cummings Point ceased; and all was quiet for the night, save the regular booming of the city gun.

An interesting event occurred while the 157th lay on Morris Island. It was casting the soldiers' vote. Gov. Seymour vetoed the bill allowing the soldiers to vote and it was carried to the people in the spring elections of 1864, and thus was legalized. In the district of Canastota but two votes were cast against the privilege, thus placing the western portion of Lenox on record as not only loyal, but true to their boys in the field. The vote in the regiment was three hundred and nine. Of these, Lincoln received two hundred and sixty-eight. McClellan received forty-one.

In Co. G the vote stood, thirty for Lincoln and prosecution of the war, and seven for McClellan and a patched-up peace. Co. G was willing to fight for peace, but not to vote for peace.

The ballots were supplied by the State and each one of them was enclosed by the voter, in a special envelope marked "Soldier's Vote," upon which the soldier wrote his name. That envelope was sealed and inclosed in another envelope and directed to the person who was to cast the vote.

Credit is due Col. Brown, who sent to Hilton Head and at his own expense provided ballots for the democrats of his regiment, their ballots not having arrived at the time. Whether those provided by Col. Brown were used, is not known. This statement is recorded, because there were unpleasant reflections cast upon the colonel, who was a strong republican but was nevertheless, honorable in this instance.

Those first fifty officers confined in Charleston jail and under fire of Gilmore's guns as already intimated, were replaced by six hundred Union officers. Among this last detail from the rebel prisons were Lieuts. Coffin, Powers and Curtice of the 157th. Fortunately the Union shells usually went beyond the prison and there were no casualties from that source. The placing of six hundred rebel officers under fire in a pen guarded by a colored regiment was retaliation with insult added, according to Southern sentiment. But the 54th Mass. were Northern men and were inferior, as soldiers, to none in the army. It was humiliating to men of spirit,--to Southern men taught from childhood to consider a negro little better than a brute--when they were ordered into line by colored sergeants and compelled to obey the rules. Verily, Jeff Davis was subjecting his brave supporters to hard usage.

The pen was in sight from the rebel shore, and it was rare a shell exploded near there; no prisoner was injured by shells. In one or two instances the guards fired upon some man and unoffending ones were slightly wounded. They had nearly the same rations as were given the Union officers in Charleston. Had they been guarded by white soldiers they would have been contented. At night the calcium lamp on Fort Strong lighted the Point and enabled the guards to keep the prisoners constantly in view.

Late in October the union officers having been removed to the rear of Charleston, orders came to send the rebel officers to Fort Pulaski, Ga.

The six hundred confederates had dwindled to five hundred and forty-nine within fifty days after leaving Fort Delaware. They had been under fire forty-five days.

Oct. 21st, 1864, the 157th were marched out on the beach and opened ranks. The 54th Mass. came down the beach with their prisoners, who moved in between the lines of their new guard. Two dismasted schooners were lying at the wharf at Lighthouse Inlet, into which were marched those rebel officers. The hulks, towed by steamers and convoyed by a large war vessel, proceeded to Fort Pulaski, near the mouth of Savannah River.

It was late when the boats reached the fort dock and the hulks were anchored in mid-stream for the night.

During the night, on board the hulk where Co. G were stationed, there was quite a sensation created by the prisoners attempting to escape. They sawed a hole through the counter, or stern of the vessel, and several of them dropped through into the water. Not far distant was the salt marsh and Tybee Island; if they could have reached land they might have gotten away, some of them, certainly. But their calculations were wrong--the strong tide was running out and they were carried rapidly toward the sea.

"Halt! Halt!!" sang out Hugh O'Brien.

"Don't shoot, Captain. For God's sake don't fire!" came out of the water.

"Keep cool, gentlemen!" called out Capt. McWilliams.

Not much likelihood of sweating in the river. When the patrol boat brought them on board, their teeth rattled like castanets. The dripping fellows asked for something warm, as they went down again into the hold.

In the morning they were landed at the fort and placed in the casemates. Gratings were placed in the embrasures and at the ends of the prison; heavy guards were on duty outside and inside. They were fed on clean food, had abundance of pure drinking water, received medical attendance when sick and in all respects fared very decently. And when a number of them were exchanged they sent an appreciative note to Col. Brown, speaking of him as "a gallant officer and a Christian gentleman." They included the names of Col. Carmichael and Maj. Place "and in fact, the conduct of all your officers and men has been such as to make the name of the 157th N.Y., a pleasant reminiscence to all Confederate prisoners from Fort Pulaski."

Those prisoners had complained bitterly of the treatment given them by men who had guarded them in the North. And while they were secure in all the privileges allowed them at Fort Pulaski, they understood their limits and thus avoided unpleasant results. Not one escaped while under the care of the regiment.

Duty at the fort was not severe, but vigilance was exacted of all sentries, who walked with weapons loaded. Fatigue parties brought wood from Tybee Island, a condensing engine supplied the post with water, the sutler was at hand with his varied assortment of pins, needles, combs and brushes, navy plug, gingersnaps, canned goods, etc.

Thanksgiving day came November 24th. The boys off-duty were drawn up in bright array. The proclamation of President Lincoln was read by the Chaplain, who added a prayer. A brief battalion drill followed and then dinner.

Turkeys and other fowls were scarce at the fort. For dinner, Ziba prepared such as he had in his best style. Capt. McWilliams added small, but palatable pies to the list, with a few other luxuries. Eaten as it was, from tin plates upon a rough but clean table, that was a memorable dinner. Away up in the North-country--yet, never mind. Co. G sent out over the intervening sea and land their warm greetings, for they knew there were places vacant for them, that no others could fill. Such thoughts made Co. G brace-up and take a new hold. It is a very dry occupation, soldiering for the fun of the thing. It is now known Co. G saw both soldiering and some fun, but without the eyes of Lenox--and such eyes--upon them their service would have paled.

Monday, Nov. 28th, loaded down with five days' rations and sixty rounds of cartridges, Companies A, B, C, G and H, under Col. Carmichael, were ordered away from Fort Pulaski. Soon after sundown the little steamer left the wharf for Hilton Head, by the way of Skull Creek.

After waiting awhile, the expedition numbering about four thousand men, a battery of artillery and a squadron of cavalry, moved up Broad River.

The movement was conducted after the usual and well-established methods popular in the Department. It was the "wait-'till-'tis-dark-and-don't-say-a-word-about-it" plan. All night long the little fleet was endeavoring to feel its way through the fog to Boyd's Point, forty miles above Hilton Head. The steamers appeared to get lost. They ran awhile, then stopped. By and by whistles were heard. The spell was broken, for rebel rockets were seen rising from their outposts.

Near noon a landing was effected and the weary men told to get a little rest.

After dark, with the 157th in the lead, and a few cavalrymen as advance guard, the monkey-work began. First the column moved a mile or two in one direction, about-faced and returned over the same road. Then did the same caper again until, near morning, the worn-out troops were halted at the junction of the Cambahee and Grahamville roads, and were told to lie down in the oak leaves and get some rest. Meanwhile, the johnnies, who had ample warning, were preparing for a reception and to serve every thing warm, next day. Their trains were heard distinctly near Grahamville and the boys of Co. G understood there was to be an entertainment in the morning.

Soon after daybreak picket-firing began. Co. G had barely time to make coffee when they were ordered to fall-in.

Col. Carmichael threw his entire detachment of one hundred and forty-two men, on the right of the road. The boys moved leisurely along in skirmish order for nearly a mile.

Meanwhile a few pieces of artillery were firing from both parties. Near noon Honey Hill was reached. The rebel redoubt there was pierced for several guns with ample breastworks for a strong force. A rebel account which gives the Union force at five thousand infantry and fifteen hundred artillery, states the forces of Gen. Hatch advanced on Honey Hill with sixteen pieces of artillery.

If Hatch had possessed much artillery he could not have used it at Honey Hill.

The road to the foot of the bluff thus sweetly named, led through swampy ground and deep ditches were on either side. On the left of the road and extending to the foot of the bluff was a dense wood, tangled with trailing briars. On the right of the road was a thick growth of scrub timber.

The main column advanced and struck the rebels. The forces of Hatch moved off to the right and ascended the rise of ground, where they formed and charged the work.

When Col. Carmichael heard the firing on his left he halted his men and sent for instructions, with the result that the Colonel was to cross over to the south side of the road, and form on the left of the line of battle.

When Co. G crossed the Grahamville road, close at hand was a brass gun in the ditch, where it lodged from a recoil in the narrow road. One piece of artillery, only, remained to assist the infantry and that was unable to accomplish great results, although it was served gallantly.

As soon as possible the 157th boys gained their position. Off to their right and evidently awaiting, was formed a full battalion of rebels. The johnnies disappeared, fell back into the woods and both parties were soon at work.

The lines on the left were not more than eighty yards apart. The men on both sides covered themselves behind trees and bushes and fought thus, with but one intermission, until sunset; that interval occurred when the 157th fell back for ammunition.

The volleys on the right and the steady firing on the left, maintained a continuous roar, for hours; and above the musketry was heard the sharp cracking reports of the brass piece in the road and the spiteful replies of the rebel pieces.

So near the redoubt were the 157th that grape and canister flew far above their heads, cutting away branches and bark which fell harmlessly to the ground. It was the rifle balls that were doing damage.

Capt. McWilliams was standing in an open space in rear of Co. G, when a ball went through his thigh. He turned very pale.

"Bully boys," said he, "give it to them."

The captain was assisted to the road and left with the surgeons.

Lieut. Forbes took command of the company. He stationed himself on the same attractive bit of grassy ground just vacated by the captain. Lead was passing through the air very plentifully.

"Give 'em hell, boys," roared Jerome, "they've shot the captain!"

The boys were deliberately at work behind their various shields. They watched for a puff of smoke and fired. Rarely was an enemy seen, but they knew they were there. The young recruits on the left of the company were just as firm as the old chaps, only a little more noisy.

"What's the matter Amos, are you hit?" asked Lieut. Forbes of Amos Avery.

"The blinkity-blam johnnies have hit my thumb," he replied, shaking his hand rapidly.

"Then go to the rear."

"Not by a mill-site!" yelled Amos, still trying to comfort his thumb. And he remained and soon was at work again. That was Amos.

About the time Amos had resumed firing, the air about the little grass-plot was fairly blue, with very positive cursing of rebels in the woods, or on the plain, high or low. Lieut. Forbes was seen spinning around on one foot ready to whip the entire Confederacy. A rebel had drawn bead on Jerome's leg and grazed his shin, giving him a painful contusion.

Then Co. G was without an officer. Lieut. Grant had been transferred to another company. In the midst of the fight he was returned to Co. G.

The boys were ordered to fall back for cartridges. The 56th N.Y. took their places. Johnny reb discovered a change in the line and drove the 56th. Col. Carmichael took his boys in on a charge and drove the rebels back farther than before. But the charge cost Co. G their last officer. Lieut. Grant fell, shot through the body.

Once more the little band settled down to their work. The same noise of battle still roared on the right. Not a foot of ground was gained, not an inch lost. Those eyes of old Lenox should have peeped into that tangled wood. They could have seen their boys as cool as if by the firesides, but with a dreadfully earnest look about them.

As darkness came on the firing ceased. A detachment of the regiment was left in skirmish line, among them Co. G. The forces were being withdrawn. Those woods, so lately echoing with strife, were now perfectly quiet. And when the main column had passed, a sergeant went from one to another of the thin line out there in the darkness, and whispered orders to quietly fall back to the road. The 157th detachment was rear guard. The johnnies did not follow. Both sides were fully surfeited with fighting for one day.

As stated, the five companies of the 157th one hundred and forty-two men, lost in that hot little fight of Honey Hill, S.C., Nov. 30th, 1864, twenty-seven men and three officers. Two of the enlisted men were fatally hurt and Lieut. Grant seriously.

The rebels claimed a glorious victory. They acknowledged they had fourteen hundred muskets and seven pieces of artillery to begin with; and later in the day, another regiment, a battery and a company of cavalry arrived. And their main force were behind works.

Hatch's men did not exceed three thousand, who with the exception of the small force on the left, fought without cover. Hatch lost in killed and wounded that day fully eight hundred officers and men and gained nothing. No comment is necessary.

The forces fell back, carrying their wounded and bivouaced at Boyds Point under the protection of gunboats.

Co. G could now figure up the cost of the brisk little brush fight.

Capt. McWilliams, wounded in thigh. Lieut. Grant, shot through side. Lieut. Forbes, contusion. Corporal C. A. Near, head. Amos Avery, left hand. John Miller, left hand. J. McMaster, head. Michael Miller, left hand. Nelson Kimball, groin. Simon Nestler, head. James Johnson, right thigh.

With exceptions of Capt. McWilliams and Lieut. Grant, the wounds were slight. Those officers eventually recovered although Grant was partially disabled for life. Neither returned to the regiment and thus Co. G lost two excellent officers.

Corporal Near was knocked over by a ball passing over the top of his head, shaving the hair close to the scalp in its course. Jim McMaster caught a buckshot against his forehead, he picked out the shot and went to the rear--it gave him a headache. Many of the boys had narrow escapes from bullets which struck the trees very close to them.

Charleston papers admitted the rebel loss to have been eighteen killed and eighty wounded.

The johnnies believed they had done great execution. One reb officer reported he had counted two hundred dead and eleven or twelve hundred wounded yankees left on the field. There was no use trying to tell the story, then, unless he told a big one. They must have been scared.

On the third of December a reconnoissance was made toward Partridge Hill and the force ran into a strong force of the enemy. After burning one cotton-gin the boys returned, having lost one man, badly wounded--Irwin Sayles of Co. G, whose right arm was amputated near the shoulder later in the day.

Dec. 5th a reconnoissance in force was ordered north, on the Coosawhatchie road. Three or four miles out, the enemy were seen. Col. Carmichael was ordered to throw out his men as skirmishers, extending into the woods on both sides of the road. Passing through the tangled forest one mile, the boys came to an open field covered by the Bee Creek battery, a redoubt on a rise of ground three hundred yards distant, which appeared just then abandoned.

Gen. Potter ordered the colonel to move his line toward the redoubt. Capt. Van Hoesen was ranking officer next to the colonel.

The boys moved forward in skirmish order, until within a hundred yards of the work. Something about the appearance of the place excited the colonel's suspicion. Leading up to the redoubt the ground was bare; the rebels had burned the grass. The line was halted and the colonel rode to the rear. Two or three mounted rebels, who passed around the hill, were gone and no other enemy appeared.

Col. Carmichael returned with three cavalrymen and started along the front of his line to inspect the rear of the redoubt. He had gone one-third of the distance, when the redoubt suddenly was alive with johnnies, who poured a heavy volley into the colonel and his escort. The cavalrymen very naturally turned and spurred to the rear. One of them was fatally wounded. A ball struck the flank of the colonel's horse, which reared and threw him over its head into the high weeds. Then the skirmishers opened fire.

Col. Carmichael arose from the ground and the johnnies gave him another volley and the colonel fell back into the weeds. When they saw the colonel fall the entire left of the line started to rescue him. Capt. Van Housen halted them and detailed two men, who went forward, assisted the colonel to his feet and they left the field supporting the brave, unselfish man who had risked his life for them.

So ended the Bee Creek incident so far as general interest may extend, but not so with the faithful Carmichael. Not a shot had injured him. In falling from his horse his sabre swung around under him and he was thus injured about the spine, and never fully recovered.

The same night after returning to the Point, orders came to be ready to move at midnight. Fires were lighted, by the light of which they read their newly-arrived letters, and they smoked and chatted while waiting for the order to move.

At one o'clock, Dec. 6th, the boys embarked for another river trip. Their knapsacks had been stacked and left--an army way of announcing that lively work was anticipated. At daybreak the boat moved up Broad River to Tillifinny Creek, where the men were landed in boats on Deveaux Neck. A rebel picket made a feeble demonstration, causing the boys to duck some, but they pulled steadily to the landing. Capt. Van Hoesen threw out his men and the advance began. For three miles the skirmishing continued, the rebels displaying considerable force and disputed the progress from behind every belt of timber.

When the road leading to the railroad was reached, the line halted and formed along the edge of some heavy timber. A regiment of johnnies came yelling up the road and filing off to their right advanced through the woods. Very soon firing began at close range.

Supports were hurried up from the landing and formed in rear of the 157th. As the rebels pressed forward the 157th boys were ordered to fall back and lie on the ground, and as the rebs came out of the woods the main body of yankees gave them a few rounds, which drove them back in confusion and ended the fighting for that day.

Gen. Hatch at once began to entrench and get into position for a stay of several weeks.

In that brush the regimental casualties were eleven wounded, some of them badly. In Co. G the losses were four.

Sergt. Harvey Lindsley, left hip (contusion.) Corpl. A. R. Barlow, left elbow. Hugh O'Brien, right arm, slight. Simon Nestler, left forefinger.

Dec. 9th, Capt. Van Slyke, who was sent up from Fort Pulaski, moved the 157th boys out to support a party engaged in felling trees in order to clear the range for artillery bearing upon the railroad. Supported by other regiments the 157th moved forward, drove in the rebel pickets and advanced until they were met by a severe fire of grape and canister shot. For some time they lay behind a low knoll; to raise a head was extremely dangerous.

While in that position word was sent to Lieut. Pierce (then assigned to Co. G) to advance his line. He sent back a message characteristic of the plucky boy.

"If there is any doubt as to my own personal solicitude in the matter, I will go alone. But as to ordering these boys up there to be slaughtered, I never will do so."

There they lay, a handful of men in front of a battery screened by earthworks, the lead and iron plowing the ground around them and an officer somewhere in the rear ordering an advance. But Co. G had been on Folly Island and the boys were not surprised. If an order had come for them to crawl nearer and make grimaces at the mad rebels, the Department would have been credited for smartness.

When night came on the boys crawled back out of range, having lost fifteen wounded, one of them mortally. Poor Frank Pratt of Co. G, he raised his shoulder a little too high and a cannon shot tore it away. Wm. L. Johnson of Co. G also, was slightly wounded in the side.