Chapter 58

CHAPTER LVIII

We remained in camp until 9 o’clock, p.m., when we boarded a train, composed of cattle cars, about sixty of us being placed in each car.  This was crowding us into uncomfortable small quarters, as we learned to our sorrow, long ere we had reached our destination.

Shortly after we were all snugly fixed, the engineer blew the whistle, rang the bell, opened the throttle valve, and amidst the vociferous cheers of the soldiers the wheels began to revolve, gaining speed with each revolution, until we were running at full speed towards Washington.

For the past few days it had been rumored that we were going west to reinforce Rosencranz‘s Army, and now it appeared that there were fair prospects of having the rumor actually ver­ified.

As soon as the train was once in full motion, the boys began to cut openings in the side of the cars, in order to give us more ventilation and at the same time to afford us a better opportunity to see the country.

Upon reaching Alexandria, we made a short halt, sufficiently long to allow a number of the boys of our company to make a raid upon a baker, which resulted in the capture of fifteen or twenty loaves of bread, and which was divided among the members of the company.

A loud shrill whistle form the locomotive, announced that we were about to resume our journey, and those who were not on the train came pouring in promiscuously, and several came very nearly being left behind.

We reached Washington at midnight, and as it was announced that the train would stop here for some time we got out of the cars.  It was our first sight of the National Capitol, ­and never will we forget the impression it made upon us.  It was a beautiful moon-light night and the city of magnificent distances lay quietly wrapped in slumber, while the Capital with its lofty dome, towering high above eve­rything else appeared to play the part of a sturdy sentinel, under whose argus eye no foe could successfully ad­vance against it.

The boys amused themselves by chasing several full grown goats, a number of which were gamboling in the vicinity where the train had came to a halt.  One of them had a long beard, which bespoke him to be a ven­erable patriarch, and the beautiful manner in which he sent one of Company F’s boys flying from a bridge into a ditch which it spanned clear1y demonstrating that his early education had not been neglected.

At day-break the train moved onward and we took a long lingering look at the Capitol, feeling fully con­scious that it might probably be the last time that we should ever be per­mitted to look upon the National Capitol again.

The sun was just peeping out from beneath the eastern horizon as we flew past the home of Stuart Mills, the American sculptor, between Bladens­burg and Washington, and who has a bronze equestrian statue in the yard in which the house is enclosed.  As we approached Bladensburg, the place made memorable as a dueling ground being the site where some half-dozen affairs of honor, during the palmiest days of the “code,” were settled, it is also a place of historical note, having been destroyed by fire during the last war with England.

For some cause or other we made a tolerable long halt here, during which time Corporal King of the 28^th Regiment, untied a horse that was hitched to a buggy and stood near the station, got into the vehicle, hoisted an umbrella he found on the seat, and started the horse off at full speed.  The man who owned the horse was afraid that King would injure the animal as well smash the buggy to pieces, ran after him and attempted to catch his horse but all to no effect.  General Geary saw the performance and ordered him to be placed under arrest and which was accomplished after considerable trouble.  King was finally captured and for the remainder of the trip he had a guard over him.

When we again got started we ran on towards Baltimore, but at the Relay House we turned out on the Baltimore and Ohio railroad and left Baltimore to our right.  In due time we reached the mountains of Western Virginia, and passed through a delightfully romantic country, which was strikingly beautiful in its original wildness.  Our journey was continued during the day and at sunset we arrived at Martinsburg, here we were supplied with coffee, hard tack and bacon, which was prepared for us.  After partaking supper the train moved onward and we made preparations for the night.  We then found how very uncomfortable we were crowded in the cars, as it was impossible for more than half of us to lay down at one time whilst the others were compelled to sit up and roost the best way they could.  Morning dawned at last and found us at New Creek, where we stopped and cooked coffee.  To say that we were glad to get out on terra-firma and exercise our tired and cramped limbs is stating the facts very mildly.

After a halt of an hour, and during which time the substitutes belonging to our company succeeded in getting several canteens of whiskey and all of them persisted in getting good and glorious, greatly to the annoyance of the rest of the members of the company, and most especially those of the boys who liked their toddy but who were unable to get it.

During the day the riding in the cars was much more agreeable, as we could get out on the platform or get up on top of the cars, thus making much more room in the cars for those who remained in the ears.  Night came on and we were compelled to undergo the same squeezing process, in order to make room for all.  During the night Charles Brown, Thomas Leadbeater, Thomas McDonald and Thomas Powell, all of them new men belonging to our company, deserted.  During the night an accident happened to Charles Grant, another one of the new men, which almost resulted fatally and from the effects of which he never fully recovered his reasoning faculties.  He had been a sailor before he enlisted and had several times in the course of the day, and while the cars were in motion, made his way from the inside of the car through an opening in the side, up to the top of the car.  Having drank too much liquor he became too reckless and while attempting to climb out during the night, he lost his hold and he fell to the ground.  The train was stopped and Jack, as he was call­ed, was picked up in an insensible condition.  The boys kindly watched over him, and rendered him all the aid they could, but be remained unconscious until daylight, and in fact he never fully recovered his right mind.

Our train stopping at Belltown Sta­tion we stopped to cook coffee, while laying here partly concealed by a sharp curve in the road, another train containing a part of our Brigade ran into our train and badly damaged three of the rear cars of our train.  A number of our company boys who were it their cars at the time of the accident jumped out.  Quite a number, of the occupants of the wrecked cars were seriously injured, although none fatally.

When we arrived at Benwood, we left the cars and crossed the Ohio River on a Pontoon bridge and came to the town of Bellair.  Here we found tables set, something similar to those we used to see at an old fashioned 4^th of July celebration, only in p1ace of being loaded with the same kind of palatable food, we found the fattest and strongest bacon we ever saw and were served with old musty hard-tack, the coffee would have been passable had it not been for the fact that it was made out of river water.  The fact of our being hungry alone made the articles acceptable.  While we lay in the town a row occurred among some citizens and soldiers, in which the former were pretty badly cleaned out. We took the train at 3 o’clock, p. m., and resumed our journey.

On the 1^st of October we reached Columbus, Ohio at noon.  Here we made a short stop, and during which time an altercation took place between Adam Morgan of Company B, 147^th and Pat Shay, Company A, 28^th, and which at one time promised to become general.  Shay abused an old lady who was selling oranges, Morgan shamed him whereupon Shay became enraged and said be could whip the best man in the 147^th.  Morgan accepted the challenge and Shay was whipped.  He started for his regiment, threatening to come back and clean Company B out.  Our company occupied the next car to B, and notwithstanding the attempt of Captain Davis to keep the men in the cars, the boys jumped out to SEE fair play, but Shay and his friends never put in an appearance.