MILITARY: Sabre Strokes of the Pennsylvania Dragoons in the War of 1861-1865 - Chapter 13 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 144 SABRE STROKES CHAPTER XIII. SOLDIERS' RE-UNION, AND RETURN TO THE FRONT. THE month of February, eighteen hundred and sixty-four, was fast drawing to a close. The jingle of bells must soon be exchanged for the music of the battle-field. Some days before our furloughs expired, the good people of Nittany, and Bald Eagle, and Sugar Valleys, prepared for a "grand re-union" at Salona. The fatted calf was killed. The feast was spread. The "soldier boys," given up for lost and found again, sat at the head of the table. The Presiding Elder, as was customary on celebration days, pronounced a blessing on the feast, and on the partakers. Then every man began to clear the woods over against his own plate. The best of woodchoppers could not have done any better. After thirty minutes of hard work, the interminable forest of pillared cake, mince pie, turkey, chicken, and ham, was scarcely touched. The multitude came up by fifties and hundreds, and were all filled, and yet there were more than twelve baskets full of fragments taken up. The dinner being cleared away, the multitude began to call for speeches from the bronzed "veterans." PENNSYLVANIA DRAGOONS. 145 An old farm-wagon was hastily run into the centre of the school-yard, and one after another of the speakers was called upon to step into the box. The first speaker was Rev. Benjamin Hamlin, who delivered the "welcome to the soldiers" in behalf of the citizens. Captain Schaeffer gave an eloquent response to the address of welcome, in behalf of the veterans. The people were so well pleased with these opening addresses, that they clamored for more. Repeated calls were made for Sergeant Hayes to take the stand. He slowly mounted the wagon, deliberately uncovered his curly head, and went to work in dead earnest. He rolled out his patriotic sentiments in a torrent of eloquent sentences, as overwhelming and hot as the lava streams of Vesuvius. The multitude was swayed as by a mighty tempest. His peroration was emphasized by the audience with "tremendous applause." The next speaker, whoever he be, must necessarily be sacrificed on this mount of expectation, to which the former speakers had lifted the audience. Calls were next made for "Dragoon," the "incorrigible Corporal," that had lost his stripes; and sure enough, he was led "like a lamb to the slaughter." He ascended the scaffold, he opened his mouth and spoke. What he intended to say slipped his memory, and what he did say no one living can tell. All that the ex-Corporal remem- 146 SABRE STROKES. bers about it is, that when he first looked out over the audience, "men looked like trees walking," his head began to swim, and he wished for Jonah's whale to swallow him, and carry him safely ashore. He remembers also that the next time he was called on for a speech, he took occasion to provide a substitute. An interesting account of this re-union appeared in the "Clinton Republican," from the pen of Sergeant Hayes, in which the ladies of Nittany Valley were especially complimented for their exquisite taste and skill in spreading a banquet for the "old soldier." The company re-assembled at Harrisburg on the twenty-eight of February 1864, with about half a hundred new recruits. Many of the boys took lodgings on the first floor of the State House. The regiment was ordered to report to General Sherman at Nashville as soon as possible. Sergeant Loveland and the writer were left at Harrisburg in charge of the new recruits. We were to see to it that they were properly mustered and uniformed, and then report with them to the company at Nashville. The government had offered a premium of fifteen dollars for every new recruit, which was to be paid to the man who presented the recruits. The "enlistment papers" had to be made out very carefully, in duplicate, and if PENNSYLVANIA DRAGOONS. 147 any mistake was discovered by the enlisting officer, the papers would be rejected. A number of us sat up day and night in the State House offices, to prepare these papers. When we supposed they were correct, and ready for presentation, the writer took them to the enlisting office. He pushed his way through the crowd to the counter. He handed them to the chief clerk, who glanced at them half a minute, then returned them to me, saying, "Your papers are all wrong; you must make out new papers." It was natural for one to inquire what was wrong about them; but the clerk gave me to understand that I must find that out myself. It was very trying to be bluffed off in that kind of a style. It was more than lazy mortals could stand, to do all that tedious work over again, and especially as we did not know how to mend our mistake. Before leaving the office, the writer resolved to present the papers a second time; but this time he he rolled up a ten dollar bill between his fingers, and with the papers dropped it into the clerk's hand. The bill disappeared in the twinkling of an eye. The papers were taken to the desk, and in less than ten minutes were officially endorsed as correct in every particular. Next he took them to the mustering office, and presuming that the same strategy would prove successful, he resolved on a smaller bait - in the shape of a two dollar note. 148 SABRE STROKES. The papers were readily signed, and an order drawn on the paymaster for the sum of five hundred and seventy dollars, which was to be distributed among the different recruiting agents. Of this amount, only forty-five dollars fell to the writer, and before he reached the front, his conscience troubled him so much, that he proposed to pay it all back to the three recruits who had enrolled their names on his list. On the tenth of March, we left Harrisburg. We proceeded westward via Pittsburg and Cincinnati. At Seymour, Indiana, we changed cars for Louisville. We were obliged to lie out in the damp air all night at Seymour. It was a severe initiation for our new recruits. The writer remembers having a severe attack of chills and fever on that wretched night. The best transportation that could be furnished was cattle cars, and these had to be cleaned before they could be occupied by our men. On the thirteenth of March, we joined the regiment at Nashville. The "Old Seventh" now numbered more than twice as many as stood in line in Alabama, before going home on "Veteran Furlough." On "dress parade" the twelve companies could turn out thirteen hundred strong. Company "E" had one hundred and nineteen men that answered to roll-call; and from twenty to thirty more made application to join Captain Schaeffer's company, but could not be received. PENNSYLVANIA DRAGOONS. 149 This large ingathering of new recruits was certainly an evidence of the popularity of "Wynkoop's Cavalry." On the eight of April, Lieut. Sigmund re-joined the company with three other veterans, who spent their "furlough" in Nittany, wrestling with the "small pox." Corporal Rhoads died of this disease at Indianapolis. This loathsome pestilence was contracted by our men in the crowded barracks, and boats, and filthy cars, on our way home, and upon our return to Nashville it was raging in the hospitals, and in the lower wards of the city, with a daily mortality that was alarming. The early part of April was spent in drilling the recruits in the "sword exercise," and in reorganizing our old brigade under Colonel Minty. It was difficult for the War Department to furnish horses fast enough to mount the returning veterans and the recruits. Company "E" again drew the "blacks and bays," all of them fresh horses. The whole brigade was armed with long cavalry sabres, Colt's revolvers, and the Spencer carbine. The latter shooting-iron is equal to a small battery in itself. In the stock of this breech-loading gun is a magazine holding seven cartridges, which are brought one by one into the chamber by a movement of the trigger-guard as a lever, which at the same time throws out the shell of the exploded cartridge. These seven minie balls could be let 150 SABRE STROKES. loose in the face of the enemy, in less time than it would take the average Dutchman to say, "Giminy," "Gemima," "Gereco!" It is no wonder that the "rebs" would "git up and dust," when Minty's brigade would begin to unlimber their "seven-shooters." Some of the prisoners taken on the Atlanta campaign wanted to know what kind of machinery our men carried, that turned out bullets in that kind of a style. On Friday, the twenty-third of April, the regiment deserted Camp Garrard at Nashville, and moved to Columbia, forty miles southwest. We passed through a beautiful country, the garden-spot of middle Tennessee. Farmers were getting ready to plant their spring grain. Negro women did most of the ploughing. One ox or cow harnessed to a plough or a cultivator, constituted the average team. It was unsafe to exhibit a clean-limbed horse in the presence of cavalrymen - he would likely have a "U. S. brand" on him before next morning. We lay in camp at Columbia a few days. The quartermaster-sergeant and myself had a bunk, good enough for a king, made out of corn-sacks. On the twenty-sixth, our brigade was reviewed by Generals Elliot, Garrard, and Colonel Minty. Elliot was appointed by Sherman as chief of cavalry, Garrard as division commander, Colonel Minty still retained command of his "old brigade." PENNSYLVANIA DRAGOONS. 151 The Fourth Regular cavalry was drawn up in front of the "Seventh," and the Fourth Michigan in our rear. No better regiments of mounted men ever drew a sword on the enemy, than the three just named. We challenge any brigade of Federal or Confederate cavalry to produce a better record for active service in the field, and uniform courage in the presence of danger. In the absence of one of the majors, Captain Schaeffer assumed command of the first battalion of our regiment. First Lieut. Sigmund was sent to Lynnville with thirty or forty dismounted recruits, to garrison a "block-house" on the railroad south of Columbia. Second Lieut. E. F. Nixon was left in command of the company. On the first of May, Garrard's division of cavalry was ordered to report to Sherman in front of the enemy at Dalton, Georgia. The first night we camped fifteen miles southeast toward Shelbyville - rain falling, and roads heavy. The second night we encamped at Shelbyville, on the ground where Minty's brigade had so signally routed Forest's command less than a year before. The Union flag was now waving proudly over the town, where, less than twelve months before, Bragg had his head-quarters. On the night of the third, we went into camp five miles beyond Tullahoma. The next night we bivouacked near Cowan station. 152 SABRE STROKES. On the fifth we crossed the Cumberland mountains, and halted for the night a few miles from Stevenson, Alabama. On the sixth, we passed through Stevenson and Bridgeport, crossed the Tennessee river on the railroad bridge, and picketed our horses five miles beyond the river that night. On the seventh, we encamped on Sand Mountain, six miles beyond Trenton. Feed and rations were getting scarce. On the eighth, we crossed Lookout Mountain, and spread our blankets for the night in Chattanooga valley. Next morning we resumed our march before day, passed through Dug Gap into Chickamauga valley, and early in the afternoon joined the "right wing" of Sherman's army in front of La Fayette, Georgia. The boys could not resist the temptation of trying their "Spencers" on some of the "Chester whites" that were seen rooting in the woods. The killing, quartering, and packing, was done most handsomely on the skirmish line, without any perceptible halt. A few arrests were made, not because a few pigs were killed, but because it was contrary to orders to fire at any other object than a "gray jacket." To fell a steer or a hog with a "sabre stroke," was not interdicted by any general order from Sherman's headquarters. Before going into camp on the first day of our PENNSYLVANIA DRAGOONS. 153 arrival at the front, we had a brisk little skirmish with the genuine "gray jackets." The first shots on the skirmish line resembled the large drops that precede a heavy thunder-shower. These were followed by the booming of cannon, and the hideous shriek of hostile shells among the tree-tops. This was the first introduction our recruits had to the "Elephant" they had heard so much about; and, without exception, they were fully satisfied with the warm greeting they had received. When the shells began to fly in the air, whispering loudly; "Where are ye, Jimmy?" an Irish Catholic, Jim McKenny, rode up to Sergeant Hayes, a staunch Presbyterian, and with lips pale with fear, said: "Bill, if you should get killed you would be all right; but what would become of me if I should get shot." The next day "Jim" had a severe attack of camp diarrhoea. He found a hiding-place among the mules and wagons. The next night he deserted our army. In the neighborhood he found a young woman, who had a horse concealed in the mountains. He persuaded her to go with him to Selma, Alabama. They rode the horse together, and passed themselves off as Confederate refugees. At Selma "Jim" offered his services to the "rebel" garrison as a non-combatant. They put him to work with the negroes, building that very line of breast-works over which the "Old Seventh" charged with such glorious victory in April, sixty-five. 154 SABRE STROKES. In the fall of sixty-four, when Lieut. Nixon, of Company "E," was captured and sent to Selma as a prisoner of war, he found this "wild Irishman " and his little woman keeping house in a "dug-out" behind the formidable breastworks, and ascertained from him the facts, substantially, as above narrated. In the "memoirs," written by General Sherman, he says that he wanted Garrard's Cavalry to come up, before he would order a general assault against Johnston's army. Our army commanders began to appreciate more highly the cavalry-arm of the service, and would not venture on any important campaign without a due proportion of mounted troops. An army without cavalry was in a condition similar to that of a porcupine stripped of its feelers and its quills.