All disabled soldiers discharged directly from the Army of the Potomac or from the Hospitals in this vicinity come to the Paymaster's office, which is within this same inclosure, to be paid off. Government can no longer hold itself directly responsible for these men, and here is where we take them up. Yet Government cordially co-operates in our work, furnishing to the Commission part of these very buildings, and giving such army rations at this Lodge as we can use for these men advantageously with our other supplies. The object of the whole thing at this Lodge is this, viz.: so to supply to the discharged soldier close at his hand and without a cent of cost, all that he needs — food, lodging, assistance in correcting his papers, aid in looking up his claims, help in obtaining his pension and his bounty - such that there can be no excuse or opportunity for the soldier to put himself or be put into the hands of claim agents and sharpers, or to go out and expose himself to the temptations of the city. . . But for the gratuitous aid thus afforded these soldiers discharged from the service, disabled by wounds or worn down by long marches and exposure in the field, or enfeebled by disease, anxious to get home, would have applied to "Claim Agents" for aid in obtaining speedily their dues from the Government, submitting willingly to pay a commission ranging from 10 to 40 per cent. These agents, with some rare and admirable exceptions, in four cases out of every five, impede the settlement of accounts instead of facilitating them. The Sanitary Commission Bulletin, November 1, 1863 (New York), I, 11-16 passim. 90. A Night Attack (1863) BY SURGEON ALBERT GAILLARD HART Dr. Hart was a practising physician in western Pennsylvania who was commissioned in the Forty-First Ohio Regiment in 1861 and served as assistant surgeon and surgeon in the western campaigns from 1861 to 1864. He is still a practising physician. The attack described in this letter was Grant's first movement toward the relief of Chattanooga. - Bibliography of the campaign as in No. 122 below. I My Dear Boys: 41st Regiment, O. V. I., Tennessee River, nine miles below Chattanooga, Tuesday Morning, October 27th, 1863. WRITE you from the river bank, with my hospital knapsack my writing-desk. But this morning is the fastest in military matters T which I have ever known since I have been in the army, and I must sketch it to you just as it is before me. . . . About 5 o'clock yesterday afternoon I received an order from Brigade Headquarters, that "one surgeon or assistant surgeon will accompany each regiment in the march to-night." . . . It was dark when 175 men out of our regiment, who on some pretense had been previously detailed, and ordered to have cartridge boxes filled up to sixty rounds, were ordered to be ready to go on a march, without blankets. No intimation was given as to the nature of the service. As the night wore on, it became known that a boat expedition was on foot. I was called up at 1 o'clock A.M., and found a detail from each regiment in our brigade waiting to march. It was 2 o'clock A.M. when we got down to the river. Here a flotilla of fifty pontoon boats awaited us, and slowly we got on board. The boats were twenty-five to thirty feet long, and about seven feet wide, but shallow. On board of each twenty-five men embarked, with five rowers and a steersman to each boat. . . It is a moonlight night, but fortunately cloudy, and we gladly see the fog which hangs over the river, thicken, and the dark shadow of the forest skirting the right or north bank of the river, widening and throwing its friendly protection out to shield us even partially from observation. We are 1,300 strong, bold, resolute, daring men, with enough of the electric fire among officers and men to kindle enthusiasm for any required deed of danger or daring. But night attacks are notoriously uncertain, and ours is no exception. I think it all over in quiet reflection as we float down, and make up my mind that some of us are pretty sure to sink in the waters of the Tennessee before the expedition is over. . . It is understood that after we have descended two miles, or two and a half, the rebels hold the south side of the river, with their pickets, and that we are liable to be fired upon at any point below that. Perfect silence is enjoined. I sit beside one of our Captains, facing the south bank and waiting for the first gun from the enemy. After two miles our oarsmen ceased rowing, and we floated still and silent down the rapid stream. ... Gen. Hazen is in the van, directing in barely intelligible voice, and calling out clear and low, "close up! close up!" For the boats are straggling as they move at different speed, and when we make our landing our boats should be together, that we may not be beaten in detail. My head drops down upon my arm; I find room between the legs of the oarsmen, drop upon the bottom of the boat, and sleep sweetly and soundly. We have floated miles while I slept. We have descended nine miles by the river in just two hours. There is the sharp rattle of musketry as we turn toward the left bank. I fully awaken only after several shots are fired from the shore, to find the balls whizzing over and around, and striking the water close to our boat. "Push for the shore ! Push for the shore!" The oarsmen pull heavily at the oars. Our boats have dropped a little below our intended landing, but we reach the bank and leap ashore as we may. The Company in our boat is formed instantly, and rushes up along the bank to reach our proper position. Day is just beginning to break, but objects are confused at a short distance. ... We are at Brown's Ferry. A few feet above the water there is a narrow bench of level ground 100 to 150 feet wide, above which towers a hill ascending at an angle of forty-five degrees. . . At this landing a ravine terminates, which cuts through the ridge I have described, and a road comes down along it to the water's edge. On each side of this road is the high hill. In going back along this road 500 yards you come out upon the broad valley beyond. Stopping to dress a wounded man I got behind the regiment. . . . I had not gone up more than 200 yards when I came upon a squad of sixty men of the 23rd Kentucky holding the road, and although ten minutes had hardly elapsed since the landing, they were already cutting down trees to build a breastwork. . . . I had only ascended a little distance when a fierce fight began at the point I had just left. I could not see it in the gloom, but I could hear the sharp, shrill yells of the rebs, so different from the cheer which our men use. Crack upon crack came the musketry! I could hear our men falling rapidly back; the rebels had got upon the opposite hill, and as our men retreated, the rebel shots crossed the road and came thick and fast around us. . . . Our men threw out skirmishers to the right along the precipitous side of the hill to the right of the ravine, and the whole force pressed forward with furious cheers, and moved up over rocks, and up the almost perpendicular hill down which the rebels in the same order were advancing but a moment before. No man could guess what force the rebels had, or how soon we might run upon a line of battle which would sweep us down the hill like chaff. But the officers, who had been made fully aware of the ground to be gone over, pressed on at the best speed they could make, and in a few minutes more they reached the top of the ridge on this hill. Meanwhile our detachment of 600 men with which I had landed had moved up the precipitous path and reached the top of the hill on the left. The perpendicular ascent was not less than 300 feet. Great boulders, rocks, rubbish, and underbrush were in their way. Along this ridge or razor-back, a few feet wide, our men were posted when I reached them. Of course, our regiment with Col. Wiley is in the advance; the 6th and 24th O. V. I. and 5th Kentucky follow. The top is scarcely two yards wide, and in front again descends rapidly, but is not so steep as on the river side. Our skirmishers form and push down the hill through trees and underbrush. . . . The rebels form rapidly, and probably imagining our force to be small, make a furious effort to take back from us the ground we have gained. Our skirmishers fall back for a moment, but soon drive back the enemy, who, as the daylight advances, are to be plainly seen in the broad valley below, and can be heard giving orders for a rapid retreat. The day is won! But to secure ourselves in our position our men throw up quickly a breastwork of small trees hastily cut down, loose stones, and earth scratched up with their tin plates. As soon as the position was secured another act began. As I sat fronting the ferry, a cloud of men appeared on the opposite shore. At half-past eight A.M. a pontoon bridge, made with the boats which carried us down, started from the bank. As it was pushed into the river, straight as an arrow, I thought how savage Indians of the olden time, watching its progress from the shore, would have thought it some wondrous animal, pushing itself across the water, and bearing upon its broad back a thousand strange and unknown men, coming to drive them from their hunting grounds. At 4 P.M. I crossed the river upon this bridge, capable of ferrying over a great army. And over it, a day or two later, Hooker, coming up from Bridgeport with the Eleventh and Twelfth Army Corps, would reëstablish our "cracker line," and bring hope and relief to our starving army in Chattanooga. From a MS. letter communicated for this volume to his son by Dr. Hart. CHAPTER XVI-THE SOUTHERN ARMIES 91. War Songs (1861 ?) BY SOUTHERN POETS Pike, the author of "Dixie," was of New England birth and education, but he settled in the South, where he gained a reputation as a lawyer and author. During the Civil War he was Confederate Indian commissioner. Macarthy was a light comedian who appeared at most of the theatres in the South during the war, making a specialty of this and other patriotic ballads. — Bibliography as in No. 80 above. A. "DIXIE BY ALBERT PIKE OUTHRONS, hear your Country call you! Sup: lest worse than death befall you! To arms! To arms! To arms! in Dixie ! To arms! To arms! To arms! in Dixie ! Hurrah! hurrah! For Dixie's land we take our stand, And live or die for Dixie ! To arms! To arms! And conquer peace for Dixie ! To arms! To arms! And conquer peace for Dixie! Hear the Northern thunders mutter ! Send them back your fierce defiance! To arms, etc. Advance the flag of Dixie! etc. |