History of the Dewitt guard, company A, 50th regiment National guard, state of New York Part 9

The future movements of the Company at this post are recorded by our worthy Sergeant, H. S.

ELMIRA CAMPAIGN.

DETAILED ACCOUNT OF THE DOINGS OF COMPANY A, FIFTIETH REGIMENT N. G., S.

N. Y., WHILE PERFORMING ONE HUNDRED DAYS' DUTY AT ELMIRA. NEW YORK.

Taken from the Diary of one of its Members.

In pursuance of Orders as follows:

GENERAL HEAD-QUARTERS STATE OF NEW YORK, } ADJUTANT GENERAL'S OFFICE, } Albany, Aug. 28th, 1864. }

SPECIAL ORDERS, No. 348.

Captain Charles F. Blood, commanding Company A, of the 50th Regiment National Guard of the State of New York, will, by the 5th of September, proximo, proceed with his command to Elmira, N. Y., and report to Major A. S. Diven, acting a.s.sistant Provost Marshal General, and Superintendent of the Volunteer Recruiting Service, who will muster them into the service of the United States for one hundred (100) days, and attach them to the 58th Regiment National Guard, of the State of New York.

Requisition for the necessary clothing and transportation will be made upon Brigadier General S. V. Talcott, Quartermaster General, No. 51 Walker Street, New York city, and for arms and accoutrements upon Brigadier General James A. Farrell, Commissary General of Ordinance, State a.r.s.enal, New York city.

By order of the Commander-in-Chief, JOHN T. SPRAGUE, Adjutant General.

HEAD-QUARTERS 50TH REGIMENT N. G., S. N. Y. } Trumansburg, N. Y., Aug. 27th, 1864. }

SPECIAL ORDERS, No. 3.

Above Special Order, No. 348, is hereby promulgated.

Captain Charles F. Blood, commanding Company "A," of this Regiment, will immediately promulgate the above Orders to his command.

Said Captain will immediately report to these Head-Quarters, in writing, the strength of his command, and the number of men he will be able to report for duty at Elmira on the 5th day of September, proximo.

The Captain will see the importance of this Order, when it is stated that orders must be made at once for clothing, transportation, arms and accoutrements, at New York city for his command.

By order of COL. HENRY D. BARTO, Commanding 50th Reg't N. G., S. N. Y.

Lewis Halsey, Adjutant.

Company A, 50th Regiment National Guard, State of New York, started at 9 o'clock on the morning of the second day of September, 1864, in obedience with the above order, with the following officers and men:

CHARLES F. BLOOD, _Captain_.

LEVI KENNEY, _1st Lieutenant_.

JOSEPH ESTY, JR., _2d Lieutenant_.

J. C. HAZEN, _Orderly_.

C. C. GREENLY, _2d Sergeant_.

E. M. FINCH, _3d Sergeant_.

H. A. ST. JOHN, _4th Sergeant_.

B. R. WILLIAMS, _1st Corporal_.

URI CLARK, _2d Corporal_.

J. C. GAUNTLETT, _3d Corporal_.

ALFRED BROOKS, _4th Corporal_.

Frank Betts, E. E. Barnard, J. W. Brown, F. Cheesbrough, Wm. Crittenden, A. Dean, James Faulkner, John Gay, M. L. Granger, T. H. Griffith, George H. Grant, S. J. Humm, T. Hern, E. K. Johnson, J. McKinney, W. H. Kellogg, S. T. Lewis, E. M. Latta, J. Mandeville, E. C. Marsh, H. L. Miller, J. W. Norton, C. L. O'Brien, A. Prame, O. S. Perry, George Pollay, W. C. Steele, C. R. Sherwood, H. E. Smith, E. E. Warfield, Geo. R. Williams, J. V. Wilson.

We reached Elmira at 2 P. M. on the same day, and were immediately marched to our quarters at Barracks No. 1, afterwards called the Subst.i.tute Camp. At 3 P. M. we were mustered into the United States service as Company L, 58th Regiment N. G., S. N. Y., Col. R. P. Wisner commanding, and the same evening, on the requisition of our Captain, we drew the following articles of clothing, arms and equipments, to each man:

1 Woolen Blanket, 1 Rubber Blanket, 1 Overcoat, 1 Blouse, 1 Pair Pants, 1 Cap, 2 Pair Drawers, 2 Pair Socks, 1 Pair s.h.i.+rts, 1 Pair Shoes, 1 Canteen, 1 Spoon, 1 Knife and Fork, 1 Cup, 1 Plate, 1 Knapsack, 1 Haversack.

The arms served us were of the Enfield pattern, known as rifled muskets, and were said to have been taken off of a rebel blockade-runner, which, together with the necessary belts, cap and cartridge boxes, made as complete an outfit as were given to any of the men serving in our army for the preservation of the Union.

One can scarcely imagine the ridiculous picture our boys made as they tried on their new clothes, so generously given them by "Uncle Sam."

Here in one corner you might see a six-footer striving in vain to induce a pair of pants, by hard pulling and stretching, to reach below his knees, but finding no virtue in perseverance, he seizes the coat and finds to his dismay the same difficulty with the sleeves that he found with the pants--namely, too short. As he sits studying over his misfortune, he is hailed by another fellow just his counterpart, hobbling across the floor with a pair of pants so long that they threaten to trip him at every step.

But, O, dear! Look at that perfect picture of despair; a fellow who at home wears a number five boot, trying to make a pair of number ten shoes stay on his feet. Presently, however, a man is found whose fortune has dealt to him a pair of "gun-boats" a size too small, immediately, with true yankee spirit, a trade is made, and each is satisfied that he has made the best of the bargain; so by dint of exchanges, garments are found to fit, which at first seemed as if they had been distributed by common consent, the smallest men to receive those intended for the largest, and vice versa.

But what ails that fellow over yonder? He looks as if he had lost his last friend, and never expected to have another. We rush up to enquire the cause of his discomforture, but our anxiety is turned into laughter, when we behold him who had been congratulating himself on making such a fine appearance in a suit of blue; brus.h.i.+ng off the threads and dust, and picking up one thread which seemed to be very long, but only producing the more thread by the greater picking, our fine fellow finds that he has ventilated the entire side of one of his trowsers legs.

Hark! the Orderly cries "fall in for rations;" although we may not yet be perfectly acquainted with all orders pertaining particularly to camp life, yet all seem to understand this one. With a good appet.i.te after our fun, we start for the mess-house. Some hungry man behind us as we march along, hopes the beef steak will be tender, and the potatoes well done, while another hints he does not like eggs too hard boiled, and a third says he must have his rolls hot, and good b.u.t.ter to eat on them, or he don't care for any supper; while a fourth never eats pies, and so of course is anxious to find a good pudding awaiting his ravenous appet.i.te. But misery me! what a smell! where does it come from? most certainly from the mess-house, no denying that. As we enter, every man immediately loses his appet.i.te; but bound to face the music, we all sit down, place our cups and plates on the table, and await coming events.

Presently there comes a man with a basket of bread, another with a pan of beef and a third with a pail of coffee. Waiter No. 1 very dexterously causes a huge chunk of bread to alight on your plate; waiter No. 2 makes a piece of beef perform the same evolution, and your cup is soon filled.

Here is your meal, now make the attack. Our bread and b.u.t.ter man seems patiently waiting, although very pale, and is only aroused from his stupor by a neighbor asking him if he is not going to eat; he meekly answers, by saying he is waiting for some sugar and milk for his coffee.

But all are soon satisfied, and we go back to our barracks, our poor beef-steak-and-potato companion feeling very much disappointed.

Our duty at the subst.i.tute camp was to perform the guard duty necessary to keep the men from escaping, and also to act as guard in taking men from this post to the front. This camp was used as a rendezvous for subst.i.tutes, to equip them preparatory to sending them to the army. The larger proportion of the men sent to this post seemed to be composed of the refuse of all society, whose entire aim seemed to have been to enlist and desert as often as opportunity offered. They were a lawless set of men, and it was only by enforcing the most rigid discipline, that they were kept within bounds.

When a squad of subst.i.tutes was to be taken to the front, one or two commissioned officers were usually detached, together with a compliment of non-commissioned officers and privates, sufficient to carefully guard against desertions on their way. Ordinary freight cars were used for transportation, into which were crowded from 35 to 40 men, allowing five men in each car as a guard. It was a shameful way of treating human beings, crowded together for two days with barely room to move in, and being required to a.s.sume all manner of positions at night in order to get a little rest. Although sufficient rations were purported to be issued for the journey, yet they never sufficed, and the men often suffered from hunger. Yet in time Baltimore was reached, where all the men were generally put into comfortable quarters for a day or so, and then placed on board transports to be taken to different points on the Potomac or James Rivers.

These transports were often condemned, or at least unsafe vessels in the employ of the Government, with no conveniences for the accommodation of the number of men crowded on them. The writer had the misfortune to be on one of these miserable crafts. On the night of Friday, Sept. 9th, we left Baltimore with 1100 men, en route for City Point, on an old condemned English emigrant steamer. We were 55 hours making the trip (more than twice as long as we should have been), and twice the vessel was turned to be run ash.o.r.e, as she leaked so badly, and the pumps giving out for a time, it was feared by her commander the water might put out the fires under the boilers, and at no time could the old tub be kept on an even keel. There were only a few casks of water, and no provisions of any kind on board. The rations issued to the men on starting were all gone long before we reached our destination, and not a little suffering was experienced by the poor fellows for want of something to eat. This is but one of many instances in which one portion of the men in the Government employ were made to suffer by the neglect and ill-treatment of another portion.

But to return to our camp at Elmira. Our duties were about the same thing every day; doing guard duty when it came our turn for detail, with the diversion of an occasional squad to the front. This began to be an old story to us, and we had to use our best endeavors to get up some little excitement to break the monotony of camp routine.

On the afternoon of Sat.u.r.day, Sept. 10th, orders were issued to our Regiment to move to Barracks No. 3, without delay. It was a rainy day, and all felt more like staying quietly in the barracks than like packing up and moving; yet go we must, and go we did. The last squad left at 8 o'clock in the evening. Tents, of which each Company had twelve, including one officer's wall tent, were pitched for the night, and all made themselves as comfortable as possible. In the morning, although it had ceased raining, it was very wet, and the nature of the ground made it very uncomfortable. We arranged our camp with a little more care, building a stockade of boards two feet high, on which we pitched each tent, and also making a floor on the bottom. Later in the season we provided each tent with either a camp-stove or fire-place, which made our quarters very comfortable, even in the severest weather.

We also built a cook-house capable of seating our entire Company, and furnished it with a good stove and such other apparatus as was necessary to carry on our culinary operations. We were indeed the envy of the entire Brigade, and it is undoubtedly true that by our own exertions we possessed the best _arrangement_ for promoting our own comfort of any Company on the ground. We were enabled by our advantages to provide all the variety possible with the rations served us. There was hardly a day but we were supplied with some delicacy by the kindness of our officers, that was not on the regular bill of fare. Indeed, our Table d'Hote gained such a notoriety, that in less than two weeks we had some of the staff officers as regular boarders, and our worthy Colonel considered it quite an honor when we gave him a standing invitation to partake of any meal with us when he did not see fit to go to his boarding house--an invitation that he often accepted and seemed quite to enjoy.

Our princ.i.p.al duty at Barracks 3, or the rebel camp, as commonly called, although the correct name was Camp Chemung, was to guard the rebel prisoners confined at this post. Almost every day, however, men were detailed and sent off on extra duty. The prison was formed of a stockade built of boards 14 feet long, placed perpendicularly on a fence frame, having the posts on the outside, thereby giving a perfectly smooth surface on the inside, quite impossible to scale. There were two entrances to the enclosure, one called the Main Gate, which was placed on front, and was the princ.i.p.al means of entrance, the other was called the Rear Gate, and placed at the rear of the prison on the river bank.

All around this stockade, four feet from the top, there was a platform and railing for the guard to walk on, with sentry boxes about 240 feet apart. Besides the guard "on the fence," there was a line of sentinels on the ground outside the stockade. During the day men armed with revolvers were posted at different points in the enclosure, and at night were formed into a patrol guard. This patrol walked around the entire enclosure about 15 feet from the stockade, there being an interval of three minutes of time between each man. The guard on the fence and those outside were relieved every two hours; the patrol was relieved every four hours. It was the duty of the guard to challenge any of the prisoners who were approaching the stockade, a second challenge was given if the first was not sufficient, and if they still persisted and were evidently trying to effect some means of escape, the order was to fire on them and give the alarm.

There were about 300 men detailed for duty each day. These consisted of eight commissioned officers, 32 non-commissioned officers, and 260 privates. This number was distributed to four different positions, allowing an equal number of officers to each, but the men were apportioned to each post according to the amount of duty to be done.

The guard was formed and reviewed each morning at 8 o'clock, preparatory to going on duty; the new guard usually relieved the guard of the previous day at 10 o'clock, and were kept on duty 24 hours. Each squad was under command of two officers, and was divided into three reliefs; these reliefs alternated with each other in a duty of two hours, thus allowing each man four hours' rest out of six.

The field officer of the day was accustomed to make a complete tour of the camp during the day, and usually visited each guard post at least once during the night. Whenever he was seen approaching any of the princ.i.p.al posts, the entire guard had to be turned out in order to be inspected and reviewed by him.

During the night, from 8 o'clock in the evening until 6 in the morning, every half hour was called by the guard on the fence, at the same time giving the number of each post and the word "All's well."

The prisoners were divided into companies, each company being under the charge of an officer detailed for that purpose. Roll was called morning and evening, at one of which the officer was required to be present and to make a daily report to the commandant of the post. Two meals per day were given the prisoners, one at 8 A. M. and one at 3 P. M. They were furnished with good, wholesome food, prepared in an immense cooking establishment. Each company marched to this house at the regular hours, and were served with their rations, going immediately back to their quarters to eat them.

Several large and commodious hospitals were provided for the sick, arranged with all possible convenience, and attended by a corps of competent Surgeons.