CHAPTER III.

New Madrid, Point Pleasant and Island No. 10.

About March 1 the movement began down the Mississippi on the Missouri side of the river to New Madrid, and later to Point Pleasant, where the 7th went into camp, remaining there about three or four weeks, doing ordinary camp and picket duties. The camp was located in the woods, which contained some very large trees. One night a terrible tornado passed through our camp, uprooting trees and blowing down nearly all the tents. The trees crashed down among the men and horses, killing two men and a number of horses belonging to our regiment. Each company had one row of tents, and when the storm came on nearly all were asleep. A large tree nearly four feet in diameter came down with a crash, parallel and within a few feet of our row of tents, but leaving Co. C uninjured. We congratulated ourselves on our narrow escape. When our tent went down we jumped up and tried to get out from under it as quickly as possible. I scrambled out through a stovepipe hole in the upper part of the tent. I had some difficulty in passing through this small opening and the boys were obliged to come to my assistance. They extricated me, and then began laughing at me, about jumping through the chimney.

The camp was located a short distance back from the river out of reach of the Confederate batteries on the opposite side. They occupied several small forts on the east side of the river, and whenever we attempted to get water from it, or water our horses, they would open fire on us with their siege guns. On one of these occasions I saw an oak tree about fifteen inches in diameter which was cut nearly off by a shot from the large gun. Thereupon we abandoned the river, and procured water from a frog pond near the camp. We did not hesitate to use water from the pond because it was nicely covered over with a green scum.

Gen. Pope was in command of the land forces in this vicinity, and by this time had concentrated quite an army. One night during the stay at this place, one of the United States ironclads named Carondelet ran the gauntlet past Island No. 10 and came down the river to Point Pleasant without sustaining injury by the Confederate fire. The following day it captured the small forts located on the east bank of the river. I witnessed the whole affair, which did not continue a very long time. A few days after this the Confederate forces on Island No. 10 and vicinity surrendered to Gen. Pope.

General Pope, as I saw him, appeared to me like another one of those sound minded, honest, patriotic and well informed soldiers. He loved his country and his flag, and as he appeared to me and what I learned about him caused me to believe that he understood his business and attended to it. Gen. Pope, according to what I learned about him, possessed the right conception of the American volunteer soldier. He once said, “It is true and must in the nature of things always be true, that in a free country and among a free people the real heroes of every war are found in the ranks: men who have taken up arms with the sole purpose to serve their country, and with intelligent knowledge of the object for which they dare the perils of battle and disease.”

I had nearly forgotten to tell how well we were entertained a portion of the time while camping in the vicinity of Island No. 10.

There were in the river six large United States mortars and a number of ironclad gunboats. The mortars were of very large caliber, capable of throwing a shell as large as an ordinary water bucket, in diameter I think twelve inches or more. The mortars were mounted on small flatboats, one on each boat. During a period of about three weeks, every half hour during night time as well as day, one of those large shells from a mortar was sent over to Island No. 10, and exploded with terrific force. Whenever one of those mortars was discharged it would fairly shake the earth about us. During a few nights in the beginning of the siege the noise made by those guns disturbed my sleep, but I soon became accustomed to it. The gunboats also annoyed the Confederates on the island, by throwing solid shot at them. While we were in the vicinity of Island No. 10 and New Madrid, we occasionally met the 8th Wisconsin Regiment, which carried by the side of its regimental flag the famous war eagle (Old Abe), whose photograph appears above. I well remember seeing this proud-appearing bird a number of times, while it was being carried, sitting upon its perch, beside Old Glory. It appeared to me about as large as a fair-sized turkey, and it served through a three years’ campaign, returning to its native State in safety, after passing through many battles. When Gen. Pope’s command had finished its work in the vicinity of Island No. 10 it went by steamers to Hamburg Landing, Tenn., near the battlefield of Shiloh.