MILITARY: Sabre Strokes of the Pennsylvania Dragoons in the War of 1861-1865 - Chapter 12 Contributed for use in the USGenWeb Archives by Judy Banja Copyright 2005. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://www.usgwarchives.net/pa/pafiles.htm http://www.usgwarchives.net/pa/1pa/1picts/dornblaser/sabre-strokes.htm ________________________________________________ SABRE STROKES of the PENNSYLVANIA DRAGOONS in the WAR OF 1861-1865. INTERSPERSED WITH PERSONAL REMINISCENCES By T. F. DORNBLASER PENNSYLVANIA DRAGOONS. 135 CHAPTER XII. RE-ENLISTMENT AND FURLOUGH HOME. EARLY in October the Army of the Cumberland was re-inforced by the Eleventh and Twelfth corps de armee, under the command of General Hooker, who was ordered to take position in front of Lookout mountain. A few weeks later the Army of the Mississippi, under Sherman and Howard, arrived in front of Chattanooga, and by direction of General Grant took position on the left of Missionary Ridge. By this combination of forces Grant prepared for battle. On the twenty-fourth of November, Hooker scaled Lookout mountain, and on the twenty-fifth Thomas and Sheridan charged the enemy's works on Missionary Ridge, routing the centre of Bragg's army, capturing six thousand prisoners and forty pieces of artillery. The wail of Chickamauga was more than silenced by the shout of Lookout mountain. During this series of engagements at Chattanooga, the cavalry was guarding the crossings of the Tennessee river, to the right of the National army. The latter part of November, Crook's division went into camp at Maysville, Alabama. The corn 136 SABRE STROKES. crop supplied abundance of forage for our horses. The men did not fare so well, unless they could help themselves "on the sly." The boys in our mess, six in all, were very fond of chicken. A resolution was passed by a majority vote in the "lower house," that each member of the mess take his turn in stealing or providing chicken for dinner. To help eat "rooster" and not help catch him, would be considered mean. Several of the boys visited the hen-roosts in Maysville, and wrung the necks of the finest Brahmas they could find. The boys had various contrivances by which to capture their game without waking the natives. One of the Ohio boys said it was no trick at all to take a chicken from a tree or a roost without making it squall. The writer was anxious to gain all the information he could, as his turn would come on the very next night. It would not do to flinch, as the reputation of the "Old Seventh" was at stake. At the hour of midnight he issued forth into the darkness in search of poultry. Reconnoitering for a while, in the suburbs of town, he finally knocked at the door of a large white house, and inquired if they had any chickens to sell. The mistress of the house replied very emphatically, that they had none to sell. The writer soon convinced them if they refused to sell, they would miss their chickens all the same. PENNSYLVANIA DRAGOONS. 137 They concluded to let him have four fat hens at fifty cents apiece. Carrying them quietly through the alleys to avoid the night patrols, he threw them into the cook-shanty for "Sambo" to dress next morning. Many were the compliments the writer received for his successful raid on the most aristocratic henroost in town. The "Seventh" performed provost duty at Huntsville. Company "E" occupied the Court-house. Some spicy correspondence took place between the "Boys in blue" and the "Secesh ladies." In the latter part of December, the excitement of re-enlisting as veterans began to agitate the boys, and on the last day of the "old year" a patriotic wave struck the rank and file of the "battle-hardened Seventh," and almost to a man the regiment marched up to the scratch and dressed on the line of veterans. The inducements offered by the government were a furlough of thirty days and four hundred dollars bounty; but the average soldier was not influenced by the money so much as by the following consideration - that however distasteful and disagreeable the service in the army might be, yet it was thought more tolerable than to stay at home when the country was calling loudly for volunteers. Having turned over all our horses, arms, and accoutrements, we mounted a train of box-cars, and in 138 SABRE STROKES. a few days arrived at Nashville via Pulaski, Columbia, and Franklin. On the fifth of January, 1864, we marched into the crowded barracks near the depot at Nashville. The regiment, in view of its former services in this city, was accorded the liberty of the town. The "boys" appreciated the compliment, but unfortunately two companies - one from Pottsville and the other from Scranton - abused the privilege. The open saloons of the city presented too great a temptation for some of them to resist. In the front, where "Prohibition" was enforced, these men were among the bravest and best-behaved soldiers in the regiment; but under a reign of free whiskey, they were worse than dead beats. The orderly sergeant of one of these companies suddenly squelched a drunken row among his men by firing a few careless shots into the crowd of fuming Nihilists, wounding one man in the neck, and another in the arm. On the ninth of January, the regiment occupied the third story in the unfinished "Zollicoffer House," which was used by the Union troops as an "exchange barracks." It was exceedingly unpleasant for "wild dragoons" to be so closely confined. Neither "bed nor board" was at all satisfactory. At meal time there was a rush for the dining hall by several thousand hungry men; a scene of confusion followed that beggars description - it was a battle with pewter spoons and tin-cups. Hard-tack was freely used to bombard the "cook brigade." PENNSYLVANIA DRAGOONS. 139 On Sabbath, the tenth, a few of our company obtained permission to attend services in the M. E. Church, where a little more than one year ago we heard Parson Brownlow denounce, with sulphuric adjectives, the ringleaders of the rebellion. On the following Sabbath we had the pleasure of listening to the venerable Bishop Simpson, of the M. E. Church. He preached an eloquent sermon to the soldiers in the Senate chamber of the Capitol. Before leaving the baracks, Captain Schaeffer's company passed a series of Temperance resolutions, requiring every member of the company to abstain from intoxicating drinks on the way home, and during the continuance of the furlough; and for each violation of this rule, a fine of five dollars would be assessed. Only one member, to the best of my recollection, came forward at the end of the time specified and plead guilty of the charge, and his fine was graciously remitted by a Court of Equity. On the eighteenth the "Veteran Seventh" took passage on the steamer Kenton. We sailed down the Cumberland; passed Clarksville, Fort Donelson, Paducah, places memorable in history; sailed down the Ohio to Cairo, where we arrived on the nineteenth of January. At the same time a steamer arrived from Vicksburg, having on board the Forty-sixth Illinois Infantry, in command of Colonel Benjamin Dornblaser, also going home on veteran 140 SABRE STROKES. furlough. The colonel spent several hours very pleasantly on the "Kenton," in company with his nephew and several of his former neighbors in the old "Keystone State." The "Seventh" lay at Cairo two days waiting for transportation. The "whiskey devil" again stirred up a row. The provost guards attempted to arrest a few of the "old vets," and the "vets" turned on them and killed one of the guards and routed the rest. The "vets" retreated to the boat in tolerably good order, followed by a fresh battalion of home-guards. They planted their guns on the levee, with their frowning muzzles pointing toward the old ship, and peremptorily demanded the surrender of the "old vets" that did the shooting. The "Seventh" did not propose to shed any blood in protecting any of its members in committing acts of lawlessness and murder; but the demand to surrender even a criminal must be couched in gentlemanly language or else it would not be respected. The demand was accordingly modified to a polite request. At daybreak our boat moved out into the middle of the river, and lay at anchor all that day. Three of the guilty parties, members of Company "F," were arrested, and by our own guards sent to Provost Head-quarters for trial. Left Cairo on the twenty-third, and next morning took breakfast in the "Soldiers' Home" at Indianapolis. We attended religious services in one of PENNSYLVANIA DRAGOONS. 141 the churches in the forenoon. At three p.m. we took the train for Pittsburgh. T. R. Watson and John Rhodes were left in the hospital at Indianapolis. One had typhoid fever, the other small-pox. On the night of the twenty-fourth we sat down to an elegant supper in the City Hall at Pittsburgh. It was the same room in which we were so cordially and so hospitably entertained in the fall of sixty-one. We arrived at Harrisburg in the afternoon of the twenty-fifth. No quarters were provided for troops in the city, so we marched to "Camp Curtin," in mud shoe-deep. Finding no decent quarters there, we counter-marched through the mud to the State House yard, gave three groans for Harrisburg, and then disbanded for the night. Received our furloughs next day, good from January twenty-eighth to February twenty-sixth. We arrived at Lock Haven on the twenty-eighth day of January, eighteen hundred and sixty-four. The depot was crowded with citizens and friends to welcome the "Soldier Boys." Before leaving the depot we were informed that a saddled horse was in readiness for each dragoon, and that it was the request of the citizens that the company should mount and give them an ocular exhibition of a "sabre charge." The day for playing soldier was past, but the request was so urgent as to admit of no denial. The captain ordered his company to mount. In 142 SABRE STROKES. column, four abreast, the dragoons rode through the streets of Lock Haven, amidst the wildest demonstrations of joy on the part of the people. At the upper end of Clinton avenue, preparations were made for a cavalry charge. A squad of citizens mounted on mules and horses, were sent in advance to represent the "Johnnies." When the order was given to charge, the "Yankee yell" was given. The horses were spurred to their utmost speed, the mud flew in every direction, the "blue coats " rapidly gained on the "gray," at the top of the hill above Lock Haven they began to pick up prisoners, and before the advance reached Flemington the last fugitive was captured. Of course it was a gallant charge; no one stopped along the fence to adjust his saddle-blanket; every man for once, from the captain down to the company cook, did his utmost to keep his horse a neck ahead of all the rest. Surrounded by the shouts of the multitude, and greeted by a glad and hearty welcome on every hand, we almost forgot that there were any sad hearts in the throng. There were some, however, who could weep easier than they could cheer. Some faces were bathed in tears, while others shone with unutterable joy. Here stood a father and mother mourning for their oldest son "Henry," or "Harvey," or "Jacob," who will never come home; there was a widow and several fatherless PENNSYLVANIA DRAGOONS. 143 children, looking in vain for the familiar face of husband and father; here was a sister dressed in deep mourning for a brother who died in the hospital. Ah! how many hearts are sad in this throng, and our coming only opens their wounds afresh! We must quit these reflections, or our short stay in the bosom of kind friends will be clouded with sadness and gloom. Only thirty days! We must press out of them all the sweet and pure enjoyment we can. And in the midst of feasting and social gratification, may we never fail to cherish sentiments of profound gratitude to the Father of Mercies, whose gracious providence has been over us as a "cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night" - whose guardian care has made it possible for us to see this gladsome hour, when we can greet our kindred and friends with the happy salutation, "We're home again, "HOME AGAIN!"