Chapter 29 - In Camp

CHAPTER XXIX

IN CAMP

We gathered around the camp-fires that night and discussed the situation, which certainly was not very favorable.  Here we were huddled around fires built from green pine boughs, the smoke of which nearly suffocated us, tired and hungry, without the means of securing any relief from the ills with which we were beset.

Taps were sounded, and after roll call, we retired for the night, to forget the hardships of the day in sleep, in which we were visited with pleasant dreams of loved ones at home.

The morning dawned at length, welcoming the New Year with the cheering rays of a mid-winter sun, partly dispelling the gloom which had settled over the members of the company, on the previous day, and had it not been for the fact that the inner man craved nourishment, we would have been perfectly delighted with the view which greeted us as we opened our eyes on the 1^st day of January 1863.

The guard-mount a detail was made to go for rations, and we soon after began to feel our spirits revive, and by the time that the detail arrived with three day’s rations we had forgotten our sad experience of the ills of a soldier’s life when taken into connection with an empty haversack.

Sergeant  Stuck had the rations divided among the boys, and they soon had fires kindled and breakfast prepared which was demolished with a relish known only to those who have been similarly situated.

After breakfast the company officers, assisted by Adjutant McGee, laid out the company street, which site had been selected on the southern slope of high eminence, which gave us ample advantages for drainage.

After the street was staked out, trees, or at least a sufficient number, were cut down to give us room sufficient for the company, and the others were allowed to remain standing after all low branches were chopped off, giving the appearance of a Selinsgrove street.  We then cleared a place to erect our tents which were orderly arranged on either side of the street, and by evening, what had been but a wilderness of stunted old trees on the previous day, was now a boom town containing upwards of 700 souls, in short, a town filled with a gay and feeling population.

The regimental parade ground was cleared up and the trees cut down and the stumps dug up, at the lower side of  the regiment, where a guard house was erected and the guard mounts and occasionally the dress-parades of the regiment were turned off.

The officers quarters were erected on the upper side, or end of the company streets, whilst the quarter-master, which occupied a Sibly tent, was in the middle of the line officers tents.  Thus every precaution was taken to make our encampment complete and handy.

On the following day we had an opportunity to look around us and see what the town and its surroundings were like.

The great object that attracted our attention as we sauntered towards the woods was a newly-made grave, under a small tree, which had been shot through with a shell.  As we neared the grave we were enabled to read the following inscription upon the head board:

LIEUT. THOMAS BULL

Co. I, 7^th Ohio Vols.

Killed December 26^th 1862

This was the first grave of any dead soldier who had been killed by the rebels that we had seen, and it was consequently an object of interest to us, and especially because he had been a member of our Brigade, and as we had heard the report of the gun that had mustered him out of the service.

We remember distinctly of cutting a piece of the tree off which had been shattered by the shell passing through, and our example was followed by several of the others who were present, we sent several pieces home in a letter.

The town of Dumfries was a rundown and ancient looking Virginia town which at the time had about 100 inhabitants a majority of whom were colored, it was situated about four miles from the Potomac with which it was connected by means of a canal.  The town contained several big old buildings, the brick of which they were constructed having been brought to this country from old England.

One of the edifices referred to was a church and the bell which was hung in the belfry bore a quaint inscription, which the writer at the time copied but at present cannot find, whilst the bell had a number of pieces cut out of it by relic hunters.  An old fashioned mill stood on the banks of the little stream which flowed to the south of the town and which supplied the inhabitants with material for Johnnie cloth.  Beside this structure resided the “maid of the mill,” perhaps better known to the boys of the company as Lizzie of Dumfries.

Near the town was its counterpart the church grave-yard, and as we walked among the graves and read the inscriptions cut upon the old moss covered brown stones, we were forced to admit that we were upon ground made sacred by containing the last remains of a number of people who had conversed and been familiar with the Father of his country, who in boyhood as well as the more mature years of his life, had frequently been a guest of theirs.  We felt veneration for the solemn spot where rested the remains of a number of the Old Patriarchs of the eighteenth century and we tread as reverently over the rounded mounds above their dust as if the souls of the departed were hovering over us.

The cemetery was without an enclosure of any description, and was covered with a heavy growth of pine trees. A number of the graves were protected by pine poles which were placed over them in the manner in which log houses are constructed, these afforded some protection from the cattle and swine that roamed through the land before the war.

A number of the gardens attached to the best residences had at one time been neatly laid out, the edges of the beds were cornered with splendid box wood, the prettiest we had ever seen, and from the best of which our boys manufactured figures, charms, &c., which they sent as gifts to their friends in the North.

While laying in camp the greater part of our time was consumed in reading, writing, playing cards and checquers , &c., about the most onerous duties consisted of being on picket or camp guard every other day.

A chain picket line was established around the entire camp and the strictest diligence was maintained in order to prevent a surprise.

About this time John F. Bingaman, who took a notion about the time that the company left Harrisburg, that he would rather come North than go to Dixie, was captured and brought to the regiment.

Bingaman was tried by a court martial and condemned to undergo an imprisonment of one month in the guard house, and to carry a stick of wood weighing 80 lbs., eight hours out of every twenty-four, which would give him two hours on and four off, the same as the sentinel.  The pill was a bitter one, but there was no other alternative, it had to be taken.  The guard-house was immediately below our company street and immediately in front of John’s beat, here the boys frequently gathered to watch him on duty, several of whom occasionally pretended to laugh in their sleeves, greatly to the chagrin of the unfortunate stick carrier.