CHAPTER XIX.
Hilton Head—Cape Fear River—Paroled Prisoners—Wilmington—Morehead City—Newbern—Back to Morehead—Fatigue Duty and Oysters—An Alarm—Battle of Petersburg—All aboard for Goldsborough—Sherman’s Army—Surrender of Lee—Assassination of the President—Surrender of Johnson—Morehead again—Transport—Rubber Coffee—Savannah.
Hilton Head—Cape Fear River—Paroled Prisoners—Wilmington—Morehead City—Newbern—Back to Morehead—Fatigue Duty and Oysters—An Alarm—Battle of Petersburg—All aboard for Goldsborough—Sherman’s Army—Surrender of Lee—Assassination of the President—Surrender of Johnson—Morehead again—Transport—Rubber Coffee—Savannah.
letter A
AT daylight, the steamer left the city arriving at Hilton Head about noon, where, after transferring the brigade head-quarters and a portion of the One Hundred and Fifty Sixth to another ship, she anchored for the night. Leaving Hilton Head the morning of the 7th, the mouth of Cape Fear River was reached about noon the next day. A flag was hoisted for a pilot; but none responding, the captain of the ship determined to follow the lead of another steamer, and go up to Wilmington. The Ashland was about a hundred yards astern of the other ship, when the latter suddenly grounded, and a collision seemed certain. Fortunately, there was time to change the direction, and the Ashland rubbed by, smashing a quarter-boat in the contact. Had the distance between the two vesselsbeen a few yards less, the effect upon both might have been disastrous.
Coming to an anchor off Fort Caswell, the troops had an opportunity to see the effects of heavy shot on an iron-clad,—one of the monitors that had taken part in the assault on Fort Fisher lying near. Soon a despatch-boat came alongside, with orders for the vessel to run up as far as Smithville, and there await further instructions.
While anchored off Smithville, a boat came down the river loaded with paroled prisoners, among them a number of the Thirty Eighth, who had been captured at Cedar Creek, had been sent to Salisbury prison, and were paroled upon the approach of Sherman’s cavalry. They all told the same old story of hunger and exposure.
After some delay, a pilot was procured, and the steamer started again for Wilmington, but owing to a thick fog, did not reach the city until morning, when, as she was hauling into the wharf, a harbor-master hailed the captain, wanting to know what brought him there when he had orders to go to sea. Down went the anchor again, and Lieut.-Col. Richardson went on shore to report, and see if anybody knew anything about the third brigade of the second division of the Nineteenth ArmyCorps. Getting instructions, the lieutenant-colonel returned, and the ship again steamed down the river. Passing by Forts Anderson and Caswell, by the obstructions in the river, and by the wreck of Admiral Porter’s mock-monitor, the ship again anchored, and waited for the fog to lift. In the afternoon, a pilot came aboard, and, it being then clear, the steamer stood out to sea, the earthworks of Fort Fisher looming up like hills in the distance.
After a pleasant voyage along the coast of North Carolina, the transport reached Morehead City on the afternoon of the 8th, and landed the troops, who marched through the straggling village, and stacked arms beside the railroad track. The place was full of rumors in regard to fighting at Kinston, where Johnston was trying to overpower Schofield before the arrival of Sherman; and all the available troops were being sent to the front.
At eight o’clock,P. M., the regiment crowded into and on top of its portion of an immense train of box-cars, and after a moonlight ride through the turpentine forests of North Carolina, reached Newbern at midnight, waking the town with cheers; for the brisk March air made the blood run quick, and the men were in the best of spirits.
Disembarking at the depot, the regiment stacked arms, and soon numerous camp-fires were blazing, and the indispensable coffee boiling.
The rumors had grown less warlike as the train approached Newbern; and upon arriving at that place, the troops were informed that they were just too late,—that the fighting was all over, and that their services were not needed. The men of the third brigade had been in the field too long to be “spoiling for a fight,” and were not sorry at being “counted out” of a battle just on the eve of peace.
The night was sufficiently frosty to harden the ground; and after drinking their coffee, the men spread their blankets, and were soon in repose. In the morning, the brigade marched a short distance beyond the city, and quartered in buildings formerly occupied as a hospital.
Newbern had been occupied for so long a time by the Union forces, that its garrison had acquired habits different from those in vogue in campaigning regiments; and the advent in their midst of such a brigade as the third made quite a commotion. As soon as they had stacked arms, the men, as usual, began to hunt for boards and other articles to make themselves comfortable, in case ofgoing into camp in the vicinity. In an out-building, some A tents were found packed away; and, as A tents were a luxury the Thirty Eighth had not known for many days, they were at once appropriated. A commissary sergeant of a certain Massachusetts regiment soon came after the property, saying that they belonged to his company, and that he would be responsible for them. “No, you won’t,” said the Company E boys, whose portion of the prize was claimed. “You can account for them as lost in action.” This way of accounting for property was beyond the commissary’s experience, and he invoked the aid of the adjutant to recover the tents. He supposed that he got them, but afterward two canvas structures towered suspiciously above the dog-tents at Morehead.
There being no call for the services of the regiment at Newbern, it was sent back to Morehead City, arriving at that place in the afternoon, and going into camp in a grave-yard, between the railroad track and the river. The Nineteenth Corps was pretty well broken up at this time,—the first division being still in the Valley with Sheridan, the second division scattered through Georgia and Carolina, and the third division in Louisiana.
Morehead City had been selected as the base of supplies for Sherman’s army, and wharves were being built, storehouses erected, and additional railroad tracks laid, while the harbor was crowded with vessels of all descriptions, awaiting their turn to be unloaded. The work of unloading the ships and loading the cars was done principally by the men of the third brigade, assisted by colored soldiers and contrabands; and there was no cessation of labor, night or day,—one detail going on, when another came off. As a relief to the hard work, oysters and clams were to be procured in abundance a few hundred yards from the camp; and, as soon as the tide receded, the beach was covered with oystermen.
Nothing occurred to break the monotony of the daily and nightly fatigue duty till Sunday, March 26th, when one of the old Louisiana style of “scares” took place. The assembly sounded, the regiment formed in line, and the pickets were reinforced; but beyond the blaze and smoke from a large fire in the pine woods, and the occasional discharge of a piece of artillery, no signs of any enemy were seen, and it soon appeared that the alarm had been occasioned by the report of an “intelligent contraband,” that the enemy wasmarching on Morehead in force,—said contraband having heard a battery practising at a target.
April 7, the great news of the battle in front of Richmond and Petersburg, resulting in the defeat of Lee, was read to the troops, causing much rejoicing, although they did not commit such extravagances as the speculators in the exchanges of New York and Boston,—accounts of whose proceedings were read with amazement by the soldiers in the field.
A change had been made in the military programme, and Morehead was no longer to be the great base of supplies. At noon of the 8th, orders were received to pack up, and three o’clock,P. M., found the Thirty Eighth and the One Hundred and Fifty Sixth again on the road to Newbern on platform cars. Newbern was not the destination, however; and the train finally reached Goldsborough at three o’clock in the morning. Great numbers of recruits and high-bounty men had passed over the road lately; and, at the various wood and water stations, the old soldiers gathered around the train with such queries as, “How much bounty did you get?” “How long did you enlist for?” “Where’s your cow?” etc. One fellow, trying to get a nearer look in the moonlight,exclaimed, “Why, they are colored troops.” So they were “colored,” compared with many who had passed over the road lately. When it was known that the brigade had been “in the Valley with Sheridan,” there was a change in the tone of the remarks.
The regiment bivouacked near the depot till morning, when the back mails that had been sent to Savannah, arrived, and were assorted. Sherman’s entire army was encamped about Goldsborough; and the five corps broke camp, and began the march toward Raleigh the day after the arrival of the Thirty Eighth. Among all that force of veteran troops, none appeared to better advantage, or had a more military bearing, than the famous Thirty Third Massachusetts, who had charged under Joe Hooker at Lookout Mountain, and who had marched from Atlanta to Savannah, and thence to Goldsborough.
Upon the departure of Gen. Schofield, Gen. Birge was left in command of the post, and the Thirty Eighth selected to do duty in the town,—Cos. A, B, D, and K as provost guards, and the remaining six companies to guard the commissary stores.
Two days after the departure of Sherman’stroops, the news of Lee’s surrender was received, and glad enough were the men of the Thirty Eighth that the grand old Army of the Potomac had the honor of giving the finishing stroke to the rebellion.
While the whole army was jubilant at the speedy prospect of peace, and of the country being once more united, and when a feeling of pity for the defeated rebels was becoming prevalent among the soldiers, a wild rumor reached Goldsborough on the 17th that President Lincoln had been assassinated. The news was so horrible that it was not believed, and the next day it was reported that he had received only a slight flesh wound.
Then came the tidings that Johnston had surrendered his entire force to Sherman; and, without knowing the precise terms,—willing to put all confidence in Sherman’s integrity,—the soldiers in North Carolina gave way to an enthusiasm that none of the previous victories had excited. All day they poured into the government printing-office to learn if the report was official; and crowds gathered about the orders posted on the buildings. But the next day, the report of the assassination was confirmed; and then a revulsion of feeling took place, and Eastern and Western men alike, in sterntones, hoped that hostilities would be resumed. Few of the citizens of Raleigh or Goldsborough dreamed of the slumbering fire in their midst, that the least provocation would have fanned into a flame that would have destroyed all before it; and it required all of Gen. Sherman’s tact to keep his men quiet.
The paroled rebel soldiers, to their credit be it said, were unanimous in denouncing the assassination; and were determined to allow of no guerilla warfare in the State, now that the main armies had surrendered. Perfect good feeling existed between the late belligerents, although it was rather tantalizing to the Union soldiers, who had been from home so long, to see the ladies crowd around and caress the gray jackets.
The terms of Johnston’s surrender not proving acceptable at Washington, a new arrangement was made; and the lieutenant-general himself came on to ratify it. On his return, while passing through Goldsborough, a wheel came off the engine, and the general was obliged to leave the car, and wait for another locomotive. The news soon spread that Gen. Grant was in town; and he was flanked at every turn by the admiring soldiers, who didn’t ask him for aspeech, however.
The companies on provost were quartered in the Court House; and those doing guard-duty had erected comfortable “shebangs,” with the hope of occupying them until they left for home, when marching orders were received, and colored troops arrived to relieve them. Breaking camp during the evening of the 1st of May, the regiment bivouacked in the grounds of the Court House till morning, and then took the cars for Morehead City.
At all the little settlements on the road, women waved their handkerchiefs, probably glad enough to see the stream of blue-coats again turned northward. Passing through Newbern, the train reached Morehead about sundown, and the regiment bivouacked in the old camp-ground, among the graves, where it remained until the 4th, when it embarked on the transport Thetis, in company with the One Hundred and Twentieth New York and thedivision horses!
The men thought they had already tasted every flavor capable of being produced from coffee; but a new experience awaited them on this transport. The drink was made by putting the ground coffee in an empty pork-barrel, and letting on steam through a rubber hose; and the result was a beverage in which the taste of the barrel, the rubberhose, the cask-water, and the coffee, struggled for the mastery. One ration was sufficient for some companies, although the New York boys drank a quart of it twice or three times a day.
On the morning of the 6th, after a search of several hours for Hilton Head, the officers of the steamer ascertained their whereabouts; and, at noon, the ship arrived off the Savannah River, when a pilot was procured, and the voyage continued to Savannah. The troops remained on board until Sunday morning; when they disembarked, and took possession of the camps just vacated by a portion of the first brigade, which had gone to Augusta.