Chapter 21 - On The March

CHAPTER XXI

ON THE MARCH

The night was passed as the previous one had been, save that a new detail had been made, and instead of standing on picket, we were enabled to pass the evening sitting around the camp fires, listening to yarns and anecdotes embracing a period in the lives of the narrators before the battle-clouds had settled over our beloved country, long before they knew ought of the miseries and privations of a soldier’s life.

During the evening George Henry, the Hospital Steward with his guitar, and assisted by a number of others, favored us with music, among which was a song entitled the Pennsylvania 28^th,” which recited the daring achievements and warlike history of this veteran organization and which was followed by “My Old Log Cabin Home,” rendered in Henry’s best style, after which a number of the then popular war songs were sung, and as they started “Old John Brown” which was at that time the soldier’s favorite, the members of Company E, started in the chorus, which was taken up by the other companies and by the time the last verse was reached the entire regiment joined the chorus, making the welkins ring with the combined musical efforts of the members of the 147^th.

Taps being sounded, the musical interval ceased, and one after another of the boys retired for the night, leaving nothing but the sleepy camp guards to keep their lonely vigils.

We were tired and sleepy and having profited by our experience of the previous night, we prepared our bed by dividing the cover using half to sleep upon and the other half to cover with.  W. S. Keller, W. E. Fausnacht and the writer stretched our limbs to rest and prepared to sleep.

Keller was the first to go to sleep, of which fact we speedily were made aware.  Those who heard him snore upon that occasion will agree with us when we say that it was next thing to impossible to sleep whilst he slept, and the only way we managed to sleep at all, was by placing our fingers in our ears, and whenever that preventative failed us, we would reduce his snores to medium rates by giving him anything but a gentle prod with the toe of our governments.

Morning at length dawned and we were awakened by the usual hub-bub and confusion caused by the sounding of reveille.  The company cook soon had the coffee prepared and it did not take us very long to dispatch our breakfast.

As our brigade was in the rear and our regiment in the rear of the brigade we did not break camp until nearly 9 o’clock.

We passed through Leesburg a little past 10 o’clock, with bands playing and regimental and state colors fluttering in the breeze, to the delight of the American citizens of African descent.

On one porch in front of a small log house, near the outskirts of the town, we noticed an old gray headed negro keeping time to the music of the band with his head and hands, whilst he was surrounded by half a dozen woolly-headed urchins all of which were under 10 years of age, dancing to the music.  The boys gave three hearty cheers, which had the effect of startling the old gentleman to dancing as lively as any of the picaninnies, which he kept up as long as we could see him.

At Leesburg we saw the first rebel fortifications, which were built about the time of the battle of Ball’s Bluff was fought.  They consisted of large forts, with wicker work embrazures for 12 guns each and were named respectively Forts Evans and Johnston, after two prominent Rebel generals.

Upon this march the boys played an outrageous trick upon Corporal Freddy Ulrich, he carried a pair of boots hanging down behind his knapsack, and as we frequently halted to rest, Maxey McFall, Lot Ulrich, and a number of other members of the company quietly dropped small stones into his boots until they were nearly full, and the result was that before he discovered the trick, he was about “played out.”

When Kevic discovered what was wrong with his boots, the way that he made the gravel stones fly was a caution to those near by.

It was upon this march that Sergeant Baker tied Elias Millhoff’s knapsack fast to a stump.  Millhoff having lain down with it on to sleep, and when the bugle sounded the ‘fall in,’ Baker repeated the command given by the Captain in a sharp tone, being near Millhoff at the time, who being suddenly aroused from his nap, attempted to jump up quickly and take his place in the ranks, but being securely fastened to the old stump, he could not make the riddle, and after several ineffectual efforts to rise Bawly Shiffer came to his relief by cutting the strap and freeing him with that huge knife which William Henry Harrison Shiffer carried with him on that march.  Of course Elias wasn’t mad or nothing, or did not say anything when he got loose.

Sergeant Baker informed Millhoff that if it would be found out who had tied him up it would not be good for the person.  It is needless to add that the person was never found, and that although Elias may have had his suspicions, he never knew positively who had tied him to the stump.

We encamped at Gum Springs, at about half-past 8 o’clock, p. m., having made a distance of about 12 miles from where we broke camp in the morning.  It was here in forming our line that the Colonel came near riding over W. S. Keller, he having had his coat off and his gun wrapped in it and whilst he was unwrapping it the Colonel rode down on him, and had the animal he was riding not displayed better sense then he did Keller might have been seriously injured.

Before we were dismissed we were informed that we would remain here for a day.

After having collected rails for the necessary fires and our tents pitched, we started for a run to wash ourselves.  The run about six feet wide at some places was soon found near the camp, it was covered with ice as clear as crystal, here we enjoyed a fine time, like so many school-boys, young and old, enjoyed the luxury of sliding on the ice.  We were compelled to cut holes in the ice, in order to secure water for washing purposes.

After washing ourselves a number of us started out foraging, in order to replenish our stock of rations which were becoming alarmingly low.  In a strip of woods immediately outside of the picket line we discovered an ox, but how to catch and dispatch him without shooting him was what perplexed us most. At length it was agreed that we drive him farther away from Camp, and loading a gun with a small portion of an ordinary charge of powder, we thought that we could kill him without being detected.

We drove him about a half-mile from camp, when coming into a little ravine Daniel Ehrhart, having purposely loaded his rifle, let the ox have the contents of the gun, which had the desired effect of knocking the animal over, although the report was much louder than we cared about.  After he fell, some one struck him on the head with a hatchet and Ehrhart bled him by using his bayonet in place of a butcher knife.

We proceeded to divest him of his skin using pocket knives, table knives and everything else that we could lay our fingers on that could be made useful.  Not knowing much about the trade we commenced at the head and tried to make a start at skinning the ox, but finding it rather hard work we concluded that it was easier to cut out the tongue than to get off the skin.  We placed the tongue in our haversack and awaited results.  It was not long before one of the boys reached into the mouth, but the tongue was missing, he said nothing about it, soon another fellow tried the same game, with no better success; finally Ehrhart stepped up to the head opened the mouth and said, “Boys, I claim the tongue,” which he had no sooner got out than he discovered that it was missing, when he excitedly inquired, “who took dat tongue?”  No one knew.