CHAPTER XVIII.
Departure from Baltimore—Arrival at Savannah—Desolation of the City—Sherman begins his March through the Carolinas—Conflagration—Gen. Grover in Command of the Post—Music in the Park—Marching Orders.
Departure from Baltimore—Arrival at Savannah—Desolation of the City—Sherman begins his March through the Carolinas—Conflagration—Gen. Grover in Command of the Post—Music in the Park—Marching Orders.
letter T
THE third brigade left Camp Carroll, Jan. 13th, and, marching through the streets of Baltimore,—its citizens not scowling at the troops as they did two years before,—took transports at the wharves, the Thirty Eighth embarking on the Oriental, in company with the One Hundred and Seventy Fifth and One Hundred and Seventy Sixth New York.
As usual, there were no cooking facilities; but the men had brought excellent appetites from the Shenandoah Valley, and two men found no difficulty in eating a raw ham in the eight days’ passage. Stores were taken on board at Fortress Monroe, and, at three o’clock,P. M., of the 15th, the steamer took her departure for the South, arriving at the mouth of the Savannah River on the 19th, where she remained waiting for a pilot until the 23d.
No large ship had been up the main channel,through the obstructions, since the occupation of Savannah by Gen. Sherman; and the undertaking was a delicate one. The men of the three regiments crowded the rigging and the deck, barely giving the pilot a chance to see his course; but had it been generally known that there were seventeen torpedoes still in the harbor, between the anchorage and the city, curiosity might not have been so active.
The passage of the obstructions was successfully made, and the city reached before dark. The warehouses, the wharves, and the few citizens seen, all had a decayed, broken-down look; and the fog hanging over the river added to the gloominess of the scene. On the Mississippi and in the Shenandoah Valley, the men of the Thirty Eighth had seen the destruction produced by actual conflict, where the shot and shell had whirled through the air, and plunged into storehouse and dwelling: here, they saw the effects of war on the prosperity of a thriving commercial city, which had seen no battle horrors, but which had been shut up within itself, to live on its own resources.
The regiment remained on board until morning, and then went into quarters in a warehouse on Bay Street, where it remained until the 26th, theweather still being cool enough to make ice at night. At this time, Savannah presented a scene of desolation sad to behold, even in an enemy’s country. Pools of green, stagnant water stood in the principal streets; the beautiful squares had been stripped of their railings and fences to build the shanties of Sherman’s troops, who were encamped all through the city; the houses, as well as the stores, were shut up, and apparently tenantless; the broad avenues were deserted, except by passing soldiers, who vainly tried to fathom the mystery of the closed blinds, wondering if this were not one of the charmed cities pictured by Eastern story-tellers; and a green mould, beginning at the basement, seemed to be creeping up the sides of the houses.
Early Thursday morning, the 26th, the regiment left its quarters in Bay Street, and marched to the outskirts of the town, halting on the edge of a swamp, where the collection of dead mules and horses only awaited the rays of the summer sun to breed pestilence and death. At first, it was supposed that the halt in this, the most dismal-looking place to be found in the vicinity of Savannah, was to be only a temporary one; but, to the intense disgust of officers and men, orders werereceived to lay out a camp. However, as Sherman’s troops were breaking camp to begin their famous march through the Carolinas, boards were plenty; and, in a few days, the regiment was more comfortably housed than it had yet been; while the mules and horses were buried, the company streets graded, and every precaution taken to make the camp healthy.
Sherman’s army, after leaving Savannah, were obstructed in their march by the flooding of the low lands; and it was still uncertain whether Hardee and Beauregard would permit him to sweep through the country unopposed. Consequently, some commotion existed in the camps of the second division of the Nineteenth Corps, when a sudden explosion of shells took place at midnight on the 27th. At first, it was thought by some, that Sherman had been forced back; but the church-bells beginning to ring, and the explosions becoming more rapid, the fact soon became apparent that the arsenal in which the rebel ammunition had been stored was on fire. A detachment from the regiment was sent for, and, under direction of Lieut. Copeland, who took charge of the engines, did efficient service in checking the progress of the fire, not, however, before it haddestroyed a great many blocks of brick and stone buildings. The negroes worked manfully at the engines, some of them being struck by the fragments of falling shells, which were thrown at a great distance over the city; but those of the inhabitants who were not immediately affected by the catastrophe, stood idly on the corners of the streets, with their hands in their pockets.
Afterward, another call was made, for all who were in camp to go on guard in the streets to prevent pillaging; and the entire regiment remained until daylight, when, returning to camp, in an hour or two, the greater part were detailed for picket or fatigue. The fatigue duty consisted in unloading stores sent from Boston and New York to the “suffering poor,” who were too lazy to unload it themselves. The duty of the regiment in Savannah consisted in unloading commissary stores, furnishing guards and pickets, and building breastworks; the men being on duty nearly every other night.
Gradually, the people began to steal out of their houses, and business, which always followed in the track of the Union armies, became better; but there was no loyalty yet. While the citizens condescended to take the supplies of food furnishedby government and by the North, their sympathies were with Lee behind the breastworks of Richmond, and with Johnson in Carolina. As soon as Gen. Grover took command of the post, he set all the unemployed people, black and white, at work cleaning up the city, and, in a short time, the streets were drained, the squares put in order, and the dead animals buried. Concerts were given in the Park several times a week by the bands of the Ninth Connecticut and the Fourteenth New Hampshire, and special guards appointed to preserve order; but, in spite of all the general could do for the comfort and pleasure of the citizens, they remained sulky.
The clergymen, especially, clung to the fortunes of the falling Confederacy; and notwithstanding a large portion of their audience on Sunday consisted of Union officers and soldiers, not a word of sympathy was expressed for the government, nor a word of reprobation for the cruelties of Andersonville, which were casting a blot on the fair fame of Georgia never to be forgotten while one victim of that prison-pen survives.
On Sunday the 19th, news was received of the evacuation of Charleston, and the guns of Fort Pulaski announced the fact to the unwilling earsof the citizens. The birthday of Washington was celebrated by the firing of salutes, ringing of bells, and a cessation from all unnecessary labor. Good news now began to pour in fast. The fall of Charleston was soon followed by that of Wilmington; and the men began to lay plans, which they had never done before, of what they would do “when the war was over.” But the journeyings of the Thirty Eighth were not yet at an end. By the time the “shebangs” were made comfortable, and the camp-ground in good condition, marching orders were received, and the brigade was notified to pack up preparatory to taking transports.
On the 4th of March, the Twenty Fourth Iowa and the One Hundred and Seventy Sixth New York broke camp; and the next day, the Thirty Eighth, the One Hundred and Twenty Eighth, and the One Hundred and Fifty Sixth, accompanied by the band of the latter regiment, marched through the city, treating the citizens who were returning from church to a taste of Union music, and embarked on the steamer Ashland. Not one of the six regiments composing the brigade having a colonel present, the command was conferred upon Col. Day, of the One Hundred and Thirty First New York.