Part 14

Our most ideal winter's camp before the Wilderness Campaign was that at Mitchell's Station. A more perfect parade and drill ground could not have been desired. It had abundant length and breadth. It was the smooth level top of an extensive plateau. The log cabins of the officers were in a straight row where the slope to the rear began. The log cabins of the men stretched down the slope toward a veritable Eldorado of firewood and drinking water. These log cabins were very comfortable. Each accommodated eight men. The entrance from the company street was at the middle of its length. The fireplace and chimney were directly opposite the entrance. The living room was between the two. There were four bunks, two at each end with one above the other. Each bunk was long enough for a tall man to stretch out at full length with his head upon his knapsack and wide enough for two men to sleep comfortably, side by side. The cabins of the field officers had, of course, the right of the line. The chapel was more to the front and a little to the left of the cabins of the field officers. The pioneers who constructed Col. Davis' cabin and the chapel were master workmen. No keel of ship in New England shipyard had timbers hewn and dowelled into a substantial whole with more absolute perfection. I never shall forget the perfect delight of an afternoon when, convalescing from a severe attack of measles, I was detailed to report at the Colonel's quarters. Here I was received by Lieut Colonel Peirson with a smile upon his face. He showed me that the cabin was not yet dry enough for occupancy, showed me the wood which I was to burn to dry it out, showed me the charming fireplace in which I was to burn it. If I remember well its top was arched. Perhaps the arch had blocks, with a central one of keystone shape. He gave me a comfortable seat and an entertaining book to read, by an army chaplain, "The Whip, Hoe, and Sword," by George H. Hepworth. The friendly behavior of the Lieut. Colonel, the restful charm of the roomy clean interior finished in natural wood showing its grain, the blazing fire in the big fireplace with its perfect chimney, and the extreme comfort of it all, after the discomforts of the measles, filled me with agreeable sensations and with gratitude to the Lieutenant Colonel.

[Sidenote: FEB., '64]

And the chapel! It may have been thirty by fifty feet inside. Its hewn oaken logs were perhaps twelve inches square, its roof was a fly that the Christian Commission had furnished. Its fireplace was huge, magnificent. The prayer meetings were held in it, the Freemasons used it as a lodgeroom, the Sons of Temperance had meetings there, and the regimental school for those who could neither read nor write nor cipher was held in it. I well remember the morning when Comrade John F. Locke, of Company E, and myself were detailed to report at the chapel and appointed to be the teachers of the school by Lieut. Colonel Peirson. I remember hearing the roll-call of the students of my own and of a neighboring company and the ugly mutterings, the dissatisfaction, the almost mutinous emphatic expressions of discontent of some of those whose names had been called, because they had been detailed to attend a school. I fully expected trouble. A considerable number of men were in anything but a teachable spirit. We met in the chapel, the Lieut. Colonel, the teachers, and thirty students, some of them bristling with unwillingness. But the Lieut. Colonel, who was always a gentleman, drew us all into a comfortable semi-circle about the hearth where the cheerful fire blazed. He told us of the personal benefits and advantages which it was hoped that the work in the school would bring to each student, and his manner and speech almost immediately disarmed the embryo antagonism of the others in the group. When he finally asked if there were any present who desired to be relieved from attendance at the school, not a man wished to withdraw, all were glad of the opportunity. The antagonism had melted away like a mud-puddle in the light of a July sun. And the antagonism never returned. I have taught many hundreds of students since but none who were more interested, more attentive, more constant. Each of the men learned to write his name. Seven wrote letters home before we broke camp, to the great delight of themselves and their families. Twenty-three made especially commendable progress in reading and arithmetic. Our text and copy books had been the generous gifts of Colonel Davis and his brother Robert. The Lieut. Colonel had offered a gold pen and case as a prize to the man who should gain the greatest proficiency in writing. All of the written exercises were carefully preserved from the beginning and, when the time came to award the prize, it was almost impossible to say whether it had been won by Johnny Gibbs of Company A, a brick layer, who was well along in years or by Daniel Lines, a carriage painter. For year after year the good right hand of Johnny Gibbs had clasped the small handle of a trowel. Its active exercise in that cramped position with the acrid lime sometimes in contact with it had caused its bones and cords and muscles to grow out of shape. He could no longer open it much more than enough to enter and remove a trowel handle. He could not hold a pen in usual position. There were sharp crooks made at the joints of his right thumb and forefinger when he brought them together, and there were similar crooks in his capital O's when he wrote his best. But his handwriting, though characteristic, was absolutely clear. It was perfectly easy to read. He had mastered his hand for the purposes of a writer. Despite the crooks he wrote a handsome hand. The hand of Daniel Lines had gained a wonderful cunning in the business of a carriage painter. He could do what he would with a camels-hair brush, when making scrolls and stripes and decorations. He brought to his copy book the artistic power of a hand over which he had a complete control. From the beginning his double-reversed curves were lines of beauty. At the end his writing had almost the perfection of the copyplate. There was no possible doubt that Daniel Lines' writing was more beautiful than that of any other pupil in the school, but which had gained the greatest proficiency in writing in the school, he or Johnny Gibbs? The teachers were puzzled. They called in the Lieut. Colonel as referee. He too was in doubt and suggested that Gibbs and Lines should draw lots. The lot fell to Gibbs. On Sunday, the 21st of August, 1864, Johnny Gibbs and his teacher, John F. Locke, were taken prisoners in a battle on the Weldon Railroad. They were both very sick, together, in that fearful prison in Salisbury, North Carolina. There were no tender-hearted, white-capped, trained nurses there, to keep in extreme cleanliness the clothing of the very sick. But the gratitude, the compassion, the sympathy of the old man for his youthful teacher became too strong. Like many another soldier who has volunteered to dare almost certain death in a forlorn hope, weak Johnny Gibbs washed the soiled clothing of John Locke. Within a day, Johnny Gibbs was dead.

STILL IN CAMP.

[Sidenote: FEB. 29, '64]

Incessant picket duty has marked the month of February with a great variety of weather and the men are not sorry to see the 29th day, Leap Year's allotment, for they know that they are just so much nearer the end of the war and their consequent return to their homes. A spring feeling begins to be felt on both sides of the river and indications of activity are discovered among the Confederates, and at least twice recently orders have been given for the preparation of rations for the haversacks, as though some sort of a move were contemplated. On this final day of the month, the Regiment is mustered for two months' pay, while drill, inspection and parade have their accustomed places. Doubtless very few are aware of the hardening effect upon the bodies of the men this regular and constant round of discipline is having; the same will appear in the exactions of the coming months. While February is expiring thus quietly with our Regiment, in the First Corps Kilpatrick is making his famous raid towards Richmond, having started on the night of the 28th, crossing the Rapidan at Ely's Ford and, with Colonel Dahlgren's forlorn hope, is entering upon a project which will make history rapidly. To cover this attempt, a diversion of Confederate attention is made by the Sixth Corps and a cavalry force under Custer. Passing through the camps of the Third Corps, Sedgwick and his men move out towards Madison Court House, while Custer and his mounted force push on to Charlottesville, where, on this final February day, hostile forces are contending within sight and sound of Monticello, the home and the tomb of Jefferson.

March started off rainy and cold with usual rumors as to immediate orders for some sort of a move, but duty on the picket line continued just the same, and not a few remarked on the discomforts of those who had gone out to Madison Court House and were compelled to bivouac in the snow, into which the rain had changed. For the 2d day of the month, the return of the Sixth Corps and its cavalry accompaniment was chronicled, along with the fact that nothing had been heard from Kilpatrick. Even in wartimes, it did not always rain and the 3rd, being "a splendid day," some of the men climbed up the sides of Cedar or Slaughter Mountain for the view, and to look up traces of the fierce encounter, August 9, 1862, when the Second and Third Corps, Generals Banks and McDowell respectively, all under General John Pope, were beaten by "Stonewall" Jackson and his men. Having encamped so long under the shadow of the eminence, the trip was particularly enjoyable and there was no difficulty in locating many of the prominent features of the bloody day which served as a prelude to the still bloodier battle of Second Bull Run. A two hours' brigade drill on the 4th, under Colonel Leonard, took all available men to the extensive plains across Cedar Run. As an illustration of the degree to which neatness was carried, it should be stated that from their respective company funds pay was given to men, detailed for the purpose, who should do the company washing, hence no excuse for uncleanliness would avail thereafter.

Sunday, the 7th, marked the relief of the Second Brigade on picket, and its return by train to Culpeper, while the First Brigade took its place. An order, promulgated March 10th to the effect that all women in the camp must depart at once, was taken as a sign of increased activity and the next day saw the departure of the visiting betterhalves for their northern homes. Further indication of active campaigning appeared on the 12th when the Colonel issued an order directing the several captains to send back to Washington all dresscoats. John S. Beck, Company C, entered in his diary, the 14th, "In the evening, took the Second Degree in Army Lodge, No. 8, and Free and Accepted Masons," an unusual incident in army life; two nights later, he took his Third Degree. St. Patrick's Day, or the 17th, secured no recognition in camp, though large fires on the rebel side of the river betokened something doing there, yet the afternoon's sun, lighting up the hillside on which the Confederates were encamped, revealed their tents still in place. The 18th, in the afternoon, witnessed no end of hurry and bustle as all effects were packed, even to removing tents from the cabin roofs, and all were to be in readiness to move at once. It was the general agreement that Stuart and his lively followers were surely in the saddle. With stacked arms and expectant hearts, the next order was awaited and, at 5.30 p. m., it came, not to fall in and "Forward," but the bubble-burst words heard so often, "As you were," with a resumption of regular camp routine and duties.

[Sidenote: MAR. 20, '64]

The signing of pay-rolls on the 19th was a sure sign of the approach of the paymaster and the perfection of the weather gave light hearts to all, though a clergyman of the Methodist Church South, seized outside our lines for conducting certain of Stuart's men to the capture of one of our pickets may have had a leaden heart as he was dispatched on his way to Washington, there to account for his conduct; bearing the name of Garnett, he must have belonged to one of the best families of the Old Dominion. The 20th was Sunday, not usually a pay day, but were there signs of activity it was thus employed and, as the paymaster came on this date, the event was considered a pretty sure sign of a movement; so late did he begin, it was 8 p. m. before the last company was reached. Much to the disgust of all who had thought winter over and past, snow began to fall on the 22nd. By nightfall the ground was white with it, the wind blowing as in an old-fashioned "nor'-easter," so that the on 23rd there was a foot of snow lying around and all hands had to turn out and shovel the same out of the streets and from the parade ground, which was quite ready for the dress parade of the late afternoon.

To the Regiment, however, the most important event of the day was the rearrangement of the several corps constituting the Army of the Potomac, though this act had no immediate effect upon the regular life of the Thirty-ninth. The First Army Corps of the Potomac Army, commanded successively by Generals McDowell, Hooker, Reynolds and Newton, had left an excellent record through the nearly two years of its existence; the disk which, in red, white and blue, represented its several divisions, had ever been a badge of honor and now the advent of General Grant to the command of the army was to bring about various changes, among them the merging of the First Corps with the Fifth; its three divisions, reduced to two, became the Second and Fourth under Robinson and Crawford respectively while Warren, of late temporarily in command of the Second, was assigned to lead the Fifth Corps, and Newton[I] who had succeeded Reynolds at Gettysburg, was relieved. Under the same general orders, the Third Corps also was disbanded, its first and second divisions going to the Second Corps, its third division to the Sixth, and General Sykes, the Commander, to the command of the District of South Kansas. There were thus left the Second, Fifth and Sixth Corps in the Potomac Army, to which in the campaign of 1864 the Ninth Corps, under General Burnside, was to be added.

This rearrangement of army relations was not accomplished without some heart-burning and many adverse remarks. John D. Billings in his story of the Tenth Massachusetts Battery says:

"Next to the attachment men feel for their own company or regiment, comes that which they feel for their corps. All the active services that we had seen was in the Third Corps, and its earlier history and traditions from the Peninsula to Gettysburg had become a part of our pride, and we did not care to identify ourselves with any other. If such was our feeling in the matter, how much more intense must have been that of the troops longer in its membership, whose very blood and sinew were incorporated with the imperishable name it won under General Sickles."

The farewell of General Newton to the men of the First Corps bears date of March 25, 1864, and is as follows:--

"Upon relinquishing command I take occasion to express the pride and pleasure I have experienced in my connection with you, and my profound regret at our separation. Identified by its services with the history of the war, the First Corps gave at Gettysburg a crowning proof of valor and endurance, in saving from the grasp of the enemy the strong position upon which the battle was fought. The terrible losses suffered by the Corps in that conflict attest its supreme devotion to the country. Though the Corps has lost its distinctive name by the present changes, history will not be silent upon the magnitude of its services."

[Sidenote: MAR. 26, '64]

Though the Thirty-ninth had borne no part in the battle-trials of the corps, save in the premonitions at Mine Run, yet its marchings and campings, during eight months of service, had done much towards impressing upon the Regiment the character of the corps and an appreciation of the corps and an appreciation of its excellent record.

Foundation facts for the coming summer are coming fast in these days for, on the 26th of March, General U. S. Grant established his headquarters at Culpeper, a little south of those of the Army of the Potomac. For just a month, the General's name has been heard in the public ear more than usual since, on the 26th of February, the bill restoring the grade of lieutenant-general became a law; on the 1st of March, General Grant's name was sent to Congress and it was confirmed March 2nd; on the 3rd, he was ordered to Washington to receive his commission and he started the day following. March 9th, in the White House, in the presence of the President's Cabinet, his staff or such as were with him and his son, Fred, General Grant received his commission from the hands of Lincoln, with the briefest possible exchange of compliments. The Thirty-ninth Regiment knew it not, but on the 10th, the Lieutenant-general was at Brandy Station viewing some of the scenes that were to be better known by him in approaching days; the next day he was in Washington again and in the evening started back to the west. Many plans were evolved by Grant and his lieutenants before his return to Washington on the 23rd, whence he went to Culpeper as before stated. Henceforth his military record will be a part of that of the Potomac Army.

While this is strictly a story of the Thirty-ninth Massachusetts, of any happening in the camp of our near neighbors and good friends, the men of the Sixteenth Maine, passing mention is due here. Colonel Charles W. Tilden had been captured at Gettysburg and had been held prisoner in Richmond until the 10th of February, when with others he got away from Libby through General A. D. Streight's famous tunnel and on the 28th of March, at four o'clock in the afternoon, he was received by his old boys with a heartiness which only old soldiers can give to the tried and true; in the evening followed a feast in the regimental chapel, attended by the officers of the Sixteenth and the field officers of the brigade, all uniting in the most fervent expressions of respect and admiration; the history of the Sixteenth has this concerning the words of our esteemed Commander, "Colonel Davis, whose encampment is a paragon of neatness and comfort, replied in his calm and witty way to a toast complimentary to the Thirty-ninth Massachusetts." The next day several hundred men from other regiments in the brigade assembled at 9 a. m. to witness the presentation to Colonel Tilden by his regiment of a magnificent black stallion duly caparisoned; evidently the officer was greatly admired. The remainder of the day was one of diversion for the men of the Sixteenth and their friends.

[Sidenote: APR. 8, '64]

The One Hundred and Seventh Pennsylvania, a member of our brigade, whose Colonel, Thos. F. McCoy, at times commanded the brigade, pretty generally enlisted in the month of February, but its re-enlistment home-going did not begin until this day; surely no April Fool's occasion for the happy men who crowded aboard the train which was to carry them hence, all intent on the happiness in store for them; the "battle summer" will be well under way before the regiment rejoins us; a considerable part of the One Hundred and Fourth New York also started away on a similar errand. On the 3rd, the Ninetieth Pennsylvania came over from the Second Brigade and occupied the camp of the One Hundred and Seventh. The general harshness of the season marked early April, rain and snow, and not till the seventh day did the weather clear up effectually and, even then, as matters shaped themselves, there were those who claimed that there was an improvement, not so much on our account as that there might be a bright day for General Grant's inspection. It was Fast Day, too, at home, but we were eating all we could get. We were out early and active on the 8th, doing very thorough policing. We were in line at 11 a. m. and before noon, the hero of Vicksburg, accompanied by his staff and General Robinson, appeared, receiving three cheers from the men as he rode by us; he took a look at our camp and highly complimented its appearance. Evidently the General had heard of our camp for he went down through the company streets which were spick and span as usual. Then he went out to the picket-line and thence to the signal station on the hill, Colonel Davis going with him. Everyone was sizing him up and making some sort of a mental entry concerning him, and one man wrote this, "He has a good, resolute look." There seemed to be a general opinion that he was no great talker, but that, as a doer, he would probably be all right.

Stormy weather was resumed on the 9th and continued almost every day until the excess of water washed away bridges between us and Washington to the extent of stopping trains on the 11th, with consequent lack of mails and other inconveniences; so efficient, however, were the artificers of the army, the very next day trains resumed running and letters from home made glad the hearts of men. During these days we were packing all superfluous articles, preparatory to sending to Alexandria, at the same time all were enjoined from writing about this to the friends at home. The new management did not believe in the utmost publicity. Saddened reflections followed the departure of the sutler, on the 16th, since thereafter, it would be necessary to forego luxuries altogether. The 19th saw seven discouraged rebels come into our lines, saying that there were many more waiting a chance to get through. Notwithstanding this, we could see that the enemy was working hard on making breastworks, evidently expecting us to march directly upon them; nobody knows just what way we shall advance, but it probably will not be by the line surmised by the Confederates. Everyone felt better on account of the serenade that the band of the Sixteenth Maine favored us with in the evening of the 20th. The 21st marked the departure of thirteen men from the Thirty-ninth, transferred to the Navy, many of whom, being familiar with nautical duties, fancied that service afloat would be preferable to that ashore.