Chapter 18 - A Visit to John Brown's Cave

CHAPTER XVIII

A VISIT TO JOHN BROWN’S CAVE

On the 9th of December, D. W. Gross, whilst carelessly handling a small pocket revolver, discharged it and the ball passed through his hand, and was the first man wounded in our company, that is if we except John Mull, who had shot off the index finger of the right hand whilst at home on a “French.”

The same day, our hopes of remaining in camp for the winter, were rudely killed by our receiving orders to hold ourselves to be ready to move at a moments notice.  The company officers were notified that arms and equipment would be issued to the company during the day.

Immediately after breakfast, Lot Ulrich started for the stove dealer to see if he would not take back the stove which he had sold us on the previous day, he did, generously giving us half price of the stove.

All the boys who purchased stoves carried them back, and on the return to the regiment visited a bakery and invested money in pies and cakes, and since a number of the boys are now pillars in several of the churches in the county, we will not tell what was not BOUGHT there.

Having learned that the cave in which John Brown had concealed a number of his men, besides pikes and a lot of arms, was not far from the place where we were encamped, in company with a number of the boys we started out to explore it.  We found the cave, with its opening facing the river, near the Baltimore and Ohio Canal.  Having provided ourselves with plenty of inflammable material, we at once entered and explored the subterranean cavern.

As we entered, we were greeted by unearthly helloes, coming as we imagined  from some infernal spirits entombed in the bowels of the earth, but we afterward learned came from several of our company’s boys, who had preceded us, whose torches had become extinguished leaving them in utter darkness and in a very dangerous predicament, one false step might plunge the unfortunate person to destruction.

We spent quite a long time in wandering through the cave, exploring as far as possible for one to go, often being compelled to stoop, and at times even being compelled to crawl through cavities barely large enough to admit the body of a large sized man; and then again standing in rooms so large that the rays of the torches we carried, were too feeble to illuminate the entire cavern, causing the feeling of the cave to present a weird aspect, serving to fill the mind of the beholder with fear and wonderment.

The sound of running water could be distinctly heard underneath us, and in several places quite a rapid stream would rush on madly through a chasm cut in the stone by its own resistless fury, and in some places it would sink from our view with an agonizing gurgling sound.  After seeing all that we could see without danger, we retraced our steps and again returned to daylight, and one and all apparently breathed freer when we emerged once more into God’s sunlight.

We now hastened our step. to camp, and when we once came in sight of the company street, we had no difficulty to discover that something unusual was taking place, as the boys were moving about like a swarm of bees.

When we reached our quarters, we 1earned that the company had received arms at last.  An old musket of the Springfield version, red with rust, stood up against our shanty whilst on the ground near by, were arrayed the necessary straps, cartridge and cap boxes, brass plates, &c.  We were informed by those in authority that that was our individual property, and that we should lose no time in getting, plates, guns, &c., in military trim.

Those who “have been there themselves” know the perplexities which beset the recruit in properly arranging his accouterments, and they will fully appreciate the brouhaha the members of Company G were in.

We peeped into our shanty, the sight that met our gaze was ludicrous in the least.  Stephen Templin was assisting Jacob Swab to fix his traps, and had succeeded in getting the eagle where the US should have been.  Antes Ulrich was helping his brother Lot to arrange his things, and  whilst they were sweating over the job Old Reed who had managed to get his eagle on upside down, stuck his head into the tent and asked:

“Antes, wee in der teyful fixt mere das draght ding?”

Templin showed Reed how he was fixing Swab’s, Reed left happy, but he discovered his mistake when he tried to buckle the belt about his person, and about that time would have been unhealthy for Templin to have entered Growler’s Retreat for Reed was on his ear and the air was redolent with the strongest kind of German adjectives.  Very few of the boys succeeded in getting their accouterments fixed without any mishap, but when Lot Ulrich and Adam Sholly made their appearance with the eagles on their backs, they knocked the persimmons.  Some of the boys who enjoyed the fun the most, on hurrying to their quarters and upon ex­amination found that  they in the language of Sholly, had the “verflucht Audler,” on their back.

As we were among the last to rig up, we had the benefit of the other boys’ expe­rience, and consequently got along without any serious mishap, our only mistake was in not cutting the strap used to fasten the cartridge-box, which caused the box to hang so low that we were compelled to get on our knees to get our hands into the cartridge box.  A little advice from an “old soldier” which resulted in cutting a foot of strap off, remedied the matter.

A number of the members of the company, who were on the sick list, among them Joe. S. Ulsh, William and Thomas Herbster, and several others whose names we cannot recall, were sent back to Wash­ington.

In the afternoon we, for the first time, took part in the dress parade of the regiment. General orders were read announcing that the 12^th Army Corps, to which, we were attached, would hold itself in readiness to move at a moments notice.  Also another issued by Gen. Geary commanding Division, announcing to the troops in his command, that once more the order to march towards the enemy had gone forth, and that their commander expected from them the same unselfish devotion and spirit of heroism in the fu­ture as that which had characterized the men of his command in the past, and he expressed a hope that the new men, that meant companies. F, G, and H, would prove themselves worthy members of the gallant old command to which they had been so lately attached.

During the reading of the latter part of the order, the flashing eyes and compressed lips of the officers and members of Com­pany G, plainly bespoke the determination which took possession of them, and then and there, on Bolivar Heights, on the afternoon of December 9^th, 1862, a si­lent covenant was made by the boys, officers and men, that Company G, would never do anything to mar the past or further name and record of the Regiment or Division.

After the evening meal the boys assem­bled around the fire at the cook house and where all manner of speculation was set afloat as to our probable destination, as to when we would move, etc.  The latest rumor, direct from the drum corps, was that we were to move to Washington to relieve the troops there, a majority being one year men whose time had expired; another report coming from a more belligerent Source was that we were to make a flank movement to Richmond by way of Winchester.   Each rumor found willing ears, and all the members of the company expressed a perfect willingness to be governed by the exigencies of the case.  To a majority of the boys direction was not an object, just so we moved.

Lt. Byers came to the fire and soon set our conjectures to rest by informing us that orders had been received by the officers to be ready to move to the ‘front” early on the morrow.

A shell thrown into the group standing around the fire, would not have had the effect of scattering it more quickly than did the announcement made by the lieutenant.  Each one of the boys was anxious to be the first one to carry the news to those of the company who had not heard of the order, whilst others hastened to their tents to write the news to their friends.

Tattoo was sounded.  The company was ordered to fall in with arms and accouterments, when we were furnished with 60 rounds of ammunition, and then for the first time we felt as though we were fully prepared to meet the enemy.

After roll call Orderly Serg’t Parks, at the request of the boys, put the company thro’ manual of arms and company drill for fully an hour, after being dismissed, we retired for the night to dream of the events of the next day.