MILITARY: Sabre Strokes of the Pennsylvania Dragoons in the War of 1861-1865 - Chapter 3 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. 27 CHAPTER III. BREAKING CAMP - PRESENTATION OF FLAGS - PITTSBURG - LOUISVILLE. AFTER a stay of eight weeks at Harrisburg, occupied in field drill and sword exercise, the regiment was ordered to Louisville, Kentucky. On the morning of December 18, 1861, we broke camp. The paymaster visited the regiment in the forenoon, and paid each man to the first of December, in gold, at the rate of thirteen dollars per month to each private soldier. In the afternoon we marched to the capital square, where we listened to a short address from Governor Curtin, who, in behalf of the ladies of Harrisburg, presented to the colonel a handsome regimental flag, and to the twelve captains each a company guidon. The colonel replied briefly, pledging the Seventh to stand by their colors, and to return them to this city with honor. Took the cars at 6 p.m., and moved slowly toward Pittsburgh. The train was heavily loaded. At daybreak next morning we reached the famous Horseshoe Bend. Three engines did their utmost in worming that train up the mountain. It was a grand sight for this boy from the country, to see those huge monsters puffing, and snorting, and spit- 28 SABRE STROKES. ting fire, causing the very mountains to tremble with their deep and sullen groans. We did not reach Pittsburgh until the evening of the nineteenth. For two hours after our arrival no one was allowed to leave the train. At eight o'clock that evening the regiment was invited to the City Hall, to partake of a warm supper provided by the ladies of Pittsburgh. Many expressions of gratitude were heard among the soldiers for this act of kindness. They will never cease to remember with pleasure the warm reception they received in the "Iron City." From the hall we marched on board steamers on the Ohio river. One boat was allowed to two companies with their horses. The horses were put in the lower part of the boat, and the men occupied the cabins, staterooms, and the hurricane deck. Company "E" was comfortably quartered on the "Prima Donna," the largest stern-wheel propeller on the river. We had on board two hundred men, one hundred and fifty horses, and ten days' provender for man and beast. While we were engaged in feeding the horses, an alarm was given that a man had fallen overboard. It was a member of another company, who had indulged too freely in Pittsburgh whiskey, and being rescued he found himself on board the wrong boat. At noon, on the 21st day of December, the "Prima Donna" pulled out from the wharf and PENNSYLVANIA DRAGOONS. 29 floated down the classic Ohio. It was a beautiful sight from the hurricane deck to see seven large steamers, surmounted by the stars and stripes, moving in magnificent procession, and obeying every signal from the flagship at the head of the fleet. The music of the band added an irresistible charm to the quiet waters. The sunset, arrayed in robes of vermillion and gold, bid us a royal welcome to the great Valley of the West. Eighteen miles from Pittsburgh, we anchored for the night. The water was very low, and the pilot was in constant dread of running aground. At daybreak Sunday, the 22d of December, we weighed anchor and moved down the river from ten to fifteen miles per hour. It was very cold to stand on the hurricane deck - but it was something new to ride on a steamer, and the cold was temporarily forgotten by the pleasure afforded in viewing the new scenery which opened before us at every throb of the great engine. Having crossed the line between Pennsylvania and Ohio, we had then Ohio on the right, and West Virginia on the left. At each town along the river, the Union flag was waving from every pinnacle; crowds of people gathered along the shores, cheering and saluting the fleet. At Wheeling, the loyal demonstrations were particularly impressive; the levee and the bridge across the Ohio were lined with a solid mass of humanity, over which fluttered, like wings 30 SABRE STROKES. of hope, a myriad of white handkerchiefs. Along the shores of Kentucky we discovered an apparent coolness toward the Union cause, and in a few instances it culminated in open disloyalty. About noon of December 24th, we passed Cincinnati on our right and Covington on our left. The cheers from both sides were prolonged and hearty. On Christmas morning we were ordered to disembark at Louisville, Kentucky. One-half of the men took charge of the baggage and the other half, of the horses. It was hard to tell which had the biggest elephant to handle. After leaving the steam-boats, we crossed on the ferry to Jeffersonville, Indiana. We had neither bit nor bridle, nothing but a rope halter with which to hold the horses. To manage two and three wild horses, just aching to made terra firma fly, was a task fit for a Hercules. The streets of Jeffersonville were too muddy for us to walk and lead the animals, so we mounted, and rode through town on a break-neck charge. It was more amusing to the spectators than Barnum's circus, but no fun to those who did the steering. It is about as easy to stop an engine on a downgrade without brakes, as to stop three spirited horses with rope-halters. We cleared the town without any serious collision. No lives were lost, but a goodly number of blue coats were bespattered with mud, and here and there one hung on the fence to dry. PENNSYLVANIA DRAGOONS. 31 In a swamp one mile northeast of Jeffersonville, we came to a halt, and made preparations to go into camp. It had rained all day and the ground was thoroughly soaked. Late in the evening the wagons came up with the tents, but the pins were forgotten, and no timber in reach to make any from. A few tents only were put up that night. There was no straw in camp, and no boards with which to make a bed. The outlook for the night was truly miserable. Two sticks of cord-wood, with the flat side up, and a haversack at one end for a pillow, constituted the average bed for that night. Taking it all in all, it was anything but a happy Christmas. The Christmas dinner was left out, and the supper was indefinitely postponed. Before morning our restless steeds stood in mud and water six inches deep; our out-door beds Were covered with a sheet of snow. Next day we finished putting up the tents. It was the large Sibley tent, cone-shaped, a sheet-iron stove in the middle, with an opening at the top of the tent for the smoke to escape. One tent was intended to hold sixteen men. When sleeping the men lay with their heads to the wall and their feet toward the centre. It was not long until every blanket in the shanty had three or four holes burnt through it, and many were the lamentations uttered over the "blanket mother sent." The horses were assorted according 32 SABRE STROKES. to color, Company E taking the bays and the blacks. Excellent horse equipments were then issued, consisting of saddles, bridles, feed-bags, saddle-blankets, spurs, comb and brush. Here we received our first shooting-iron. It was a short, heavy-barreled, old-style, cap-lock gun. When one was discharged, it was about as dangerous to stand at one end as at the other. Considerable ammunition was wasted in target shooting. After a number of men had their ears marked by these old arquebuses, they were condemned and returned to the ordnance department. Not much drilling was done in this camp, either mounted or on foot. The fields were too soft, and the camp was a sea of mud without an island. Officially it was known as "Camp Crittenden," but by unanimous consent it was christened the "Muddy Camp." In this particular it surpassed anything we ever heard or read of. In places the mud was boot-deep. From the door of our tents to the farthest limit of the camp, it was swimming with mud. Go where you would, you had to wade the mud; standing, you had to stand in the mud, sitting, you had to sit in the mud. It became so bad, that the camp guards refused to come out any longer on foot, and during the last few weeks of our stay in the "Muddy Camp," all sentinel duty was performed on horseback. The horses fared even worse in this camp than PENNSYLVANIA DRAGOONS. 33 the men. They stood in the mud day and night. On several cold mornings in January, a few of the more quiet horses were frozen fast, and it became necessary to loosen them with pick and shovel. All suffered more or less from scratches. Many took distemper. Ten per cent., at least, died from exposure. Every conceivable device was resorted to by the soldiers to save their horses. The writer obtained permission to take his little black mare to a neighboring stable, where he hoped to nurse her through a severe attack of "distemper." She lived through it, but never fully recovered from the effects of exposure. One cold winter day the writer sought shelter in a house near by, where lived the proprietors of the stable. He found two old bachelors keeping house. They spent their time in eating, drinking and smoking. It was on the Sabbath when the writer paid this visit to "bachelor hall," and just as he entered the room they were amusing themselves with a deck of cards. He obtained permission to write a few letters to friends in Nittany, on their kitchen-table. A small boy was sent to the cellar for a jug of wine. All drank to the health of old Bacchus, except the writer, who was debarred the privilege by a standing pledge of total abstinence. One of the bachelors then began to make preparations for dinner. A pot full of potatoes, sauer-kraut and 34 SABRE STROKES. pig's feet, which had been boiling all forenoon, was lifted from the stove and set on the middle of the table. A few tin plates, and as many rusty knives and forks, constituted the dinner outfit. It is needless to say that it was the best New Year's dinner the writer sat down to for that year. He remembered very forcibly the inspired declaration, "Not that which entereth into a man defileth a man, but that which cometh out." The month of January was spent in equipping the regiment, in breaking the horses to the saddle and the mules to the harness. Such animals as could not be controlled by their owners at home, found ready sale in government markets. To undertake to conquer them was equal to facing the dangers of the battle-field. A man might as well be struck by a cannon ball as to be kicked by a mule. If he happened to be scorched a little by the former, he was taken to the hospital and carefully bandaged, but if struck by the latter beast he was obliged to nurse his sore shins as best he could. The valuable services, in this direction, of John Hull, Samuel Foster, Wilson H. Miller, and others, deserve special commendation. The monotony of camp-life was happily interrupted by an evening's entertainment at the residence of Mr. Miller, Warden of the Indiana State Penitentiary. The commissioned officers and a number of the lesser lights of Co. E, were invited PENNSYLVANIA DRAGOONS. 35 to spend the evening with this pleasant family. The contrast between that elegantly furnished parlor and the interior of our Sibley tent stuck in the mud, was enough to make a soldier very uneasy for fear he might injure the upholstered furniture, or soil the Brussels carpets with his number-nine army boots. While we were trying to dispose of our pedal extremities, the host and hostess entered the room, accompanied by four blooming daughters. The father pointing to the two eldest, said, "These are my 'Union girls.' " The mother, presenting the two youngest, said with an air of Southern aristocracy, "These are my 'Secesh girls.' "The father's sympathies were with the North, the mother's with the South. The battle between the "Star Spangled Banner" and the "Stars and Bars," was soon fought over by nimble fingers on the keys of the piano. "Hail Columbia" was followed by the tune of "Dixie." The contest was spirited and long, and at the close the invincible hostess pinned up the "Stars and Bars" side by side with the "Stars and Stripes." It was a bitter pill for some of my abolition comrades; but the fair combatants were so charming, the supper so elegant, the cake so delicious, the turkey so well done and so handsomely served, that the medicine lost its bitterness, and the boys, one and all, went their way rejoicing. Before leaving this camp, we witnessed a very 36 SABRE STROKES. novel performance. Two men of Co. "A" had their heads shaved, and were drummed out of camp. They repeatedly broke guard, lay drunk in the saloons of Jeffersonville, and were dragged to camp at the end of a lariat-rope. They were taken from the guard-house to the regimental barber, where their heads were shaved as smooth as a peeled onion. They were then led through the streets of the camp, followed by the band playing the "Rogue's March." They were escorted to the river, put on board a boat, and sent adrift. The open saloons in the neighborhood were an absolute curse to our regiment. Several companies were recruited from the coal-regions of Pennsylvania. When removed from temptation they were among the bravest and most faithful of soldiers, but when whiskey was within their reach, they became riotous, and at times it seemed as if one-half of the regiment was required to guard the other half. Our regimental officers were distinguished more for their bravery than for their sobriety, and their example was not calculated to promote habits of temperance among those under their command. One moonlight night the writer had an experience with a drunken sentinel which he has not yet forgotten. Feeling a little melancholy, I retired to the rear of the colonel's quarters and seated myself on some boxes overlooking a beautiful lake, caused by the overflow of the Ohio. My thoughts were PENNSYLVANIA DRAGOONS. 37 busy with the recollections of home, when suddenly the sentinel in front of the colonel's tent called loudly for the corporal of the guard. He shouted "Thief! thief!" The boxes on which I sat were full of picks and shovels, and in his imagination I was doing my level best to get away with them. Starting leisurely to my quarters, he threatened to shoot if I attempted to move another inch. The adjutant and the officer of the guard rushed to the spot, and for a little while it looked as if I was doomed to another drill in "cord-wood tactics." But fortunately, there were enough sober men around to comprehend the situation. The swaggering sentinel was arrested, and being divested of his arms and his whiskey-bottle, he was remitted to the guard-house, and the writer was honorably discharged from further custody.