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the yankee picket lines were not a half mile off |
i am a videt you know the responsibility resting on me |
says he i would not trust a secesh on his word oath or bond march i say |
i soon found out that he had caught sight of the relief on the road and was afraid to shoot i quickly made up my mind |
my gun was at my feet and one step would get it |
i made a quick glance over my shoulder and grabbed at my gun |
he divined my motive and fired the ball missed its aim |
i think we must have killed a good many in the old field because we were firing all the time at the solid line as they advanced upon us |
we kept falling back and firing all day and were relieved by another regiment about dark we rejoined our regiment |
line of battle was formed on the north bank of stone's river on the yankee side |
bad generalship i thought it was christmas |
the private could but he was no general you see |
i called lieutenant colonel frierson's attention to the yankees and he remarked well i don't know whether they are yankees or not but if they are they will come out of there mighty quick |
the yankees marched over the hill out of sight |
we were ordered forward to the attack |
we were right upon the yankee line on the wilkerson turnpike |
we were not twenty yards off from the yankees and they were pouring the hot shot and shells right into our ranks and every man was yelling at the top of his voice cease firing you are firing on your own men cease firing you are firing on your own men |
oakley color bearer of the fourth tennessee regiment ran right up in the midst of the yankee line with his colors begging his men to follow |
the leaden hail storm swept them off the field they fell back and re formed |
we were at that time at least a hundred yards in advance of the brigade cheatham all the time calling upon the men to come on |
i saw and felt that he was not fighting for glory but that he was fighting for his country because he loved that country and he was willing to give his life for his country and the success of our cause |
i thought it had been torn from my shoulder |
as i went back to the field hospital i overtook another man walking along |
i looked at it pretty close and i said great god |
he was walking along when all at once he dropped down and died without a struggle or a groan |
but i could not bear the thought of wearing dead men's shoes |
he was stone dead but i dropped that foot quick |
before we arrived at the house we saw a body of yankees approaching and as we started to run back they fired upon us |
our pickets had run in and reported a night attack |
shiloh |
this was the first big battle in which our regiment had ever been engaged |
i do not pretend to tell of what command distinguished itself of heroes of blood and wounds of shrieks and groans of brilliant charges of cannon captured et cetera |
about daylight on sunday morning chalmers brigade relieved gladden's |
as gladden rode by us a courier rode up and told him something |
on sunday morning a clear beautiful and still day the order was given for the whole army to advance and to attack immediately |
we were supporting an alabama brigade |
that's right my brave first tennessee give em hail columbia |
the fact was kept from the troops |
we had to pass over the ground where troops had been fighting all day |
i had heard and read of battlefields seen pictures of battlefields of horses and men of cannon and wagons all jumbled together while the ground was strewn with dead and dying and wounded but i must confess that i never realized the pomp and circumstance of the thing called glorious war until i saw this |
i had been feeling mean all the morning as if i had stolen a sheep but when the order to charge was given i got happy |
officers could not curb the men to keep in line |
on monday the tide was reversed |
but as i said before reader a private soldier is but an automaton and knows nothing of what is going on among the generals and i am only giving the chronicles of little things and events that came under my own observation as i saw them then and remember them now |
should you desire to find out more about the battle i refer you to history |
about the time he pulled trigger a stray ball from some direction struck him in the side and he fell off dead and his horse becoming frightened galloped off dragging him through the confederate lines |
on monday morning i too captured me a mule |
he was wise in his own conceit |
i frequently thought it would be pleasant to split the difference with that mule and i would gladly have done so if i could have gotten one half of his no |
mule did not desire to cross while i was trying to persuade him with a big stick a rock in his ear and a twister on his nose |
so he got a large two inch rope tied one end around the mule's neck and the other to the caisson and ordered the driver to whip up |
the rope however was stronger than the mule's no and he was finally prevailed upon by the strength of the rope to cross the creek |
on my taking the rope off he shook himself and seemed to say you think that you are mighty smart folks but you are a leetle too smart |
advance into tennessee |
yank says what you doing johnny |
we passed around atlanta crossed the chattahoochee and traveled back over the same route on which we had made the arduous campaign under joe johnston |
outside of these occasional reminders we could see no evidence of the desolation of the track of an invading army |
we saw the united states flag flying from the ramparts and thought that yank would probably be asleep or catching lice or maybe engaged in a game of seven up |
he walked up and says hello boys what is it boss |
a yankee always says nager |
they persuaded eloquently |
a man in the well |
the voice appeared to be overhead |
right before me i saw the long dry grass all bending toward a common center and i knew that it was an old well and that my comrade had fallen in it |
but how to get him out was the unsolved problem |
the poor fellow stayed in that well all night |
we looked all around and thought that the coast was clear |
i don't think his gun was loaded though because we did not hear the ball whistle |
we walked over this floating bridge and soon found ourselves on the tennessee side of tennessee river |
we had beef for supper that night |
how every pulse did beat and leap and how every heart did throb with emotions of joy which seemed nearly akin to heaven when we received the glad intelligence of our onward march toward the land of promise and of our loved ones |
we were inured to privations and hardships had been upon every march in every battle in every skirmish in every advance in every retreat in every victory in every defeat |
he wanted to go by home and tell his wife and children good bye and to get his clothes it was no go |
but after awhile jim says gentlemen ay ganny the law |
you see jim knowed the law |
those old soldiers had long long ago forgotten about that old law of the long gone past but jim had treasured it up in his memory lo these many years and he thought it would serve him now as it had no doubt frequently done in the past |
the third day it was reported that the yankees had taken position on the murfreesboro pike |
a regiment was sent to the attack it was jim's regiment |
he hadn't seen anything to shoot at but he blazed away he loaded and fired the second time when they were ordered to retreat |
shortly after passing one of these chapels we came suddenly upon a village which started up out of the mist and i was alarmed lest i should be made an object of curiosity or dislike |
my guides however were well known and the natural politeness of the people prevented them from putting me to any inconvenience but they could not help eyeing me nor i them |
the streets were narrow and unpaved but very fairly clean |
the vine grew outside many of the houses and there were some with sign boards on which was painted a bottle and a glass that made me feel much at home |
even on this ledge of human society there was a stunted growth of shoplets which had taken root and vegetated somehow though as in an air mercantile of the bleakest |
each feature was finished eyelids eyelashes and ears being almost invariably perfect |
their expression was divine and as they glanced at me timidly but with parted lips in great bewilderment i forgot all thoughts of their conversion in feelings that were far more earthly |
even in middle age they were still comely and the old grey haired women at their cottage doors had a dignity not to say majesty of their own |
the men were as handsome as the women beautiful |
i have always delighted in and reverenced beauty but i felt simply abashed in the presence of such a splendid type a compound of all that is best in egyptian greek and italian |
the children were infinite in number and exceedingly merry i need hardly say that they came in for their full share of the prevailing beauty |
i expressed by signs my admiration and pleasure to my guides and they were greatly pleased |
the country was highly cultivated every ledge being planted with chestnuts walnuts and apple trees from which the apples were now gathering |
i saw a few sheep with rounded noses and enormous tails |
in about four hours of walking from the time we started and after passing two or three more villages we came upon a considerable town and my guides made many attempts to make me understand something but i gathered no inkling of their meaning except that i need be under no apprehension of danger |
suffice it that i found myself taken before the chief magistrate and by his orders was placed in an apartment with two other people who were the first i had seen looking anything but well and handsome |
in fact one of them was plainly very much out of health and coughed violently from time to time in spite of manifest efforts to suppress it |
the other looked pale and ill but he was marvellously self contained and it was impossible to say what was the matter with him |
they felt my pulse they looked at my tongue they listened at my chest they felt all my muscles and at the end of each operation they looked at the chief and nodded and said something in a tone quite pleasant as though i were all right |
but by and by they came to my watch which i had hidden away in the inmost pocket that i had and had forgotten when they began their search |
again there was a very old carriage whose wheels in spite of rust and decay i could see had been designed originally for iron rails |
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