CHAPTER
LXX
Soon after our arrival in camp the detail out of the
regiment which had accompanied the wagon train, among the detail was Daniel
Ehrhart of our company, came marching into camp.
Ebrhart had met with a mishap the previous day which
came near being fatal, he had his rifle slung over his back by means of the
sling, in order to facilitate him in locking the wagons, which was done by
means of a small chain fastened at the side of the box, while going down a
steep hill, Danny’s gun caught in the wheel and he was twisted fast to it,
bending the barrel of his rifle, fortunately the sling tore and Ehrhart was
sent spinning down the hill.
As soon as the detail came into camp one of the boys
noticed Danny’s gun and of course he had to tell all about how it
happened. The boys listened patiently
until he was through, then Corporal Fred Ulrich, whose greatest delight was to
tease him, said:
“Ehrhart, that’s too thin, you just bent this gun so
that you could stand behind a tree and shoot at the Johnnies wi—“
The Corporal could not finish the sentence, Ehrhart
made for him and, dropping the gun, he had to “scratch gravel” lively to get
out of his way.
The boys gathered around and sympathized with him and
when Sergeant F. M. Stuck handed him several letters from home, he was soon in
a good humor. But at any time afterwards
that Ulrich wished to
get him on “his ear,” he had just to get behind a tree or any other object and
pretend to shoot around it towards Ehrhart.
It never failed to bring out a lively mix of Dutch and English.
On the morning of the 6th we were ordered
to put up winter quarters. The company
streets were staked off with precision and regularity, and every available
advantage taken to make ourselves comfortable.
Soon after the orders were issued the busy ringing
stroke of the axe could be heard in every direction, and soon the thundering
crash of the huge falling giants of the forest could be heard in every
direction, and by noon we had wood sufficient on
the ground to build our quarters with.
After dinner all went to work and by dark, many of them were ready for
roofing, which was done by buttoning four shelter tents together and stretching
them over a ridge pole sufficiently high to give it the proper pitch to prevent
them from leaking.
Thus the morning of the 7th found us with
the roughest part of our work completed, and we then proceeded to finish up, by
ditching and making other articles
necessary for our comfort such as tables, bunks, &c. Our bunks were an important article, as
troops occupying winter quarters are not permitted to sleep on the ground. The following is the way we generally made
bunks. We would go into the woods and
cut eight crotches, four of them being much shorter that the others, these are
driven in first and are only eighteen inch. high, cross poles are then laid in
the crotches and on these pales are placed, making a bed about four feet
wide, or large enough for half of the mess, providing it consists of four or
more. The other bunk is made in the same
manner and is placed immediately over the lower one being from two to
three feet higher. The general mode of
making a bed is to spread a gum blanket on the poles, then to cover it full of
fine pine boughs; covering another poncho over it, after which the two woolen
blankets, over-coats, blouses, &c., are used at discretion, either to sleep
upon or under, according to the weather, or the inclination of the men. But as a general rule, when troops remain at
one place for any length of time, they soon FIND any amount of bed clothing.
Our camp was pitched on a slight eminence, which
declined toward the railroad, the company streets running parallel with the
slope, thus affording us every facility for drainage, a much desired want in
every camp.
Our first duty was to clear the company street from
the numerous stumps, the trees having been previously felled by the rebel
troops for the erection of quarters as well as to supply them in fuel, and as
the majority of them were large trees the task was a laborious one and what
made it still more of a task was the uncertainty of remaining here, and
all the time we were working on the stumps, someone would be growling something
like the following:
“Oh, shaw, (frequently it would be much stronger)
what’s the use of us working like niggers, about the time we get done we’ll
have to move and give our quarters up to some jay-hawker regiment.” Then another discontented one would chime in:
“Never mind, boys, old John is only afraid we’ll get a
little rest, about as soon as we get through here he’ll have “old Charley”
(Gen. Geary’s horse) rooted and then he’ll ask permission to take us out and
capture Forrest’s rebel cavalry, no doubt but he’d be fool enough to think we
could do it.”
Then would follow a shower of curses and growls at
those in authority, this would be continued until something else would turn up
to change the channel of abuse when it would as readily flow in that direction.
It took several days of hard labor to clean our
street, but when it was accomplished, we had one of the nicest streets in the
regiment, then the boys forgot all about the fault finding they had engaged in
and everything began to move along
smoothly. A large part of the old men in
the old companies, having taken advantage of the terms given by the government,
veteraned, and in company with the veterans of the old 28th
P. V. I., left for home on a 30 day furlough, making the duty considerably
harder on those who remained than it had previously been.
In accordance with General Geary’s usual action, as
soon as we had our quarters erected we commenced to fortify our position. The details were so arranged that each man
got one day on fortifications each week, and by this plan a number of earth
works supported by strong lines of rifle pits sprang up at every avai1able
point, thus greatly strengthening the natural position.
The members of the company were cheered by the
announcement that Lt. Byers was immediately to return to his company, which was
commanded by Lt. Lewis C. Green of F, Lt. Willett having veterened and gone
home with the boys.
On the 15th, we received orders to clean up
the regimental parade ground so as to be fit for drill, dress parade and
inspection. A piece of ground containing
about 4 acres was staked off, and the boys were set to work cutting and digging
out the stumps, which stood as thick as they could. It was while engaged at this work that the
writer suggested that William H. Spade, who by the way was the author of a poem
in which the following lines appeared:
Full of trees,
might quite readily, owing to the facts in the case,
take advantage of poetical license and write a poem on Bridgeport ,
in which he might say:
Full of white oak stumps,
and that there would certainly be more truth than
poetry in them. Upon looking around we
found Billy engaged cutting a stump immediately behind us, and the way he gave
us a tongue-lashing, all of which the boys greatly enjoyed, was caution to us
in the future not to get him riled.
On Thursday the 18th, a rumor was
circulated that the rebel cavalry leader, General Morgan, with a force of at
least 2,500 men was reconnoitering in our neighborhood, and that we might
expect him to swoop down upon us at almost any moment.
On the following day our scouts brought in news which
fully confirmed the reports of the previous day. The greatest activity at once prevailed. Ammunition was freely dealt out, the men were
ordered to remain in camp and to hold themselves in readiness to fall in at the
first tap of the drum. A number of
details were sent out every hour to patrol all the roads leading to our
position, whilst the picket line was greatly strengthened to provide against
any possibility of a surprise, the line of skirmishers being sufficiently
strong to make a spirited resistance to any body of men that might be led
against it.
At midnight our regiment was ordered out and we were
moved at quick-time to the support of the line on the right of our position,
where it was reported that the enemy were massing for an attack, and from which
point it was more than probable that they wo’d move on us at the first
indication of daylight.
Having reach a commanding position, a knoll which had
been selected the day previous, we halted and at once proceeded to erect a line
of work which was done by gathering all the wood, rails, stones, logs, &c.,
we could find and piling it up in front of us, so as to afford protection from
the effect of the enemy’s deadly carbine balls.
As soon as we had made the works as strong as we could
with the material at our command, we were, ordered to move forward. Obeying the command we moved forward several
hundred yards, where we were halted with in easy supporting distance of the
reserve picket post. Here we were
ordered to halt and lie down on arms and on no condition, unless in a case of
absolute necessity, were we to break ranks or straggle out of line.
Each company sent out a videt to give the alarm in
case of an attack. The rest of the boys
took advantage of this arrangement, and soon were fast asleep, forgetful of the
dangers which menaced them.
As soon as the eastern horizon began to give evidence
of the coming of the king of day, the guards gave the alarm and the boys were
instantly wide awake and ready for any emergency, with every arrangement
fully made to give the enemy, should he have the temerity to advance, a
“red-hot” breakfast.
The day was breaking grandly, soon the sun flashed out
brightly upon our vision and the rebels failed to attack us. Soon the grave face of the men disappeared
and gave place to the smiling countenance of men who feel that they had escaped
a fearful ordeal. After remaining out
until nearly 9 o‘clock, we ware ordered to move back to our quarters, and this
was about the nearest that the members of Company G ever came to fighting Gen.
Morgan’s command.
By this time we had our quarters all completed, and we
feel justified in saying that they were by far the most complete as well as the
most comfortable that we ever had, and that we spent the best winter here of
the three that we passed in the service.
A number of tents bore names, such as “No. 1” “Cozy
Nook,” “The Growlers’ Retreat,” &c.
The names were either by the inmates or bestowed upon it by the members
of the company, frequently on account of the leading characteristic of one or
more of the parties constituting the mess.
Corp. F. B. Ulrich, C. E. Parks, Jerry Moyer and Jas.
P. Ulrich messed together and the members of the company by common consent and
without a dissenting voice, gave the mess the richly merited cognomen of “The
Growler’s Retreat.”
It was our fortune to be quartered in the next tent
north of them, being sufficiently near to them to hear everything that
transpired in their quarters. At about 4
o’clock, every morning we could hear Freddy commence to stir up the animals,
and the “growling” would commence, Parks frequently assisted in stirring up the
other animals and the fight would go on gloriously, until it would be about the
next thing to blows, then Freddy would intercede and smooth up the troubled
waters.
Among the many laughable, and at the same time what
might have proved a nasty mishap, took place in “Cozy Nook,” it was the custom
the mess that each of them should take a turn about in preparing the different
meals. Whenever it was the duty of one
of them to cook breakfast, they always prepared the vegetable in the evening,
by soaking it in water it becomes soft and fit for use. It so happened that W. E. Fausnacht, whose
turn it was to cook breakfast, forgot to soak the prepared vegetable, and as
it was about the only thing we had he concluded to fry it dry. Breakfast ready, he called up the mess.
Keller pitched into the dish, took a bite, spat it
out, remarking:
“Flicker-squater, this ain’t fit for a hog to eat,”
and did not try any more of it.
Sergeant Millhoff tried it, shook his head, drank his
coffee and let the vegetable be.
Billy dished out several spoonfuls, took a mouthful
and swallowed it saying:
“If you can’t eat it, why I can,” and eat it he did,
even cleaning out the pan, after which he finished his quart of coffee. Now it so happened that the vegetable had the
effect of bloating Billy and he was soon as thick as a small bass drum, having
filled up every available inch of room, whilst he was suffering intense
pain. The doctor was sent for and for a
time his life was in great danger. He
got over it but ever after that, even though he said he would do it, Billy
never eat any more unsoaked vegetable.
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