The color-guard : being a corporal's notes of military service in the Nineteenth Army Corps

Front matter

EMORY UNIVERSITY LIBRARY

THE

COLO RG UARD

Introduction

As this volume sees the light at the instance of the author's friends, and with much diffidence and reluctance on his part, it may not be inappropriate for one of those friends to give a brief statement of the history of the work, and of the reasons why its publication has seemed desirable.

In September, 1862, Rev. XniES K. Hosmer, pastor of the First Church in Deerfield, Mass., having but recently entered on his chosen profession with ardor and with rich promise of success, heard, in the needs of his country, a higher call of duty ; and with every motive of interest and personal feeling opposed to the measure, but with a sense of obligation which his conscience would not set aside, he enlisted as a private in the Fifty-second Regiment of Massachusetts Volunteers. He entered the service with the determination to evade neither labor, hardship, nor peril; to devote whatever there was in him of capacity and vigor to the public cause ; and to do what he might, not as a clergyman, but

VI INTRODUCTION.

as a Christian man, to minister to the physical and moral welfare of his fellow-soldiers. His ability and culture early procured for him the offer of a safe and easy post in the military family of Gen. Banks. This he declined ; accepting no preferment, save a place, in the fore-front of peril, as one of the corporals intrusted with the defence of the colors of his regiment. During; his term of service, he prepared letters, in'the form of a journal, with no thought of their publication, but solely for the perusal of his father's family and of certain intimate friends, to whom they were sent in turn. They were read with vivid interest ; and there gradually grew, among several of those through whose hands they passed, a strong desire that the pleasure and benefit derived from them should be extended to a larger circle. It is in deference to their judgment that he consented to revise the journal, and to commit it to the press.

We have urged the publication of this record on the following grounds : — It is the narrative of one who gave every possible proof of disinterested patriotism. The writer had large and varied opportunities of observation ; and with them he possessed keen, quick, and accurate discernment, and, as we think, a superior power of lifelike description and narration. His journal gives a faithful picture of the privations, sufferings, and perils of those whose living and dying sacrifice is the costly price at which we are purchasing the redemption of our country from dismemberment and ruin ; and it can hardly fail to do its part in awakening the gratitude we owe to those who have gone forth in the defence of our liber-

INTRODUCTION. Vll

ties and institutions. It commends our army to our warmest sympathy, and to those offices of relief and comfort by wliich we may lighten the burdens of our soldiers, and solace those who return from the camp or the battle-field maimed, crippled, and invalids. It is also the journal of one who carried with him to the service tender and humane fellow-feeling for his companions in peril ; and we prize it for the unostentatious benevolence and kindness which it breathes, and which made the author's life as a soldier parallel and congenial with the quiet scenes of pastoral duty from which only the imperative demands of a holy cause could have led him to turn aside. TThile the work, on these grounds, proffers high claims on the public regard, it is believed that its literary execution is worthy of the reputation which the author has already attained, and will hereafter realize, in the sacred calling to which he has consecrated his powers and his life.

Less than this we could not say ; more than this we need not ; so much as this the author's modesty would not suffer, were this Introduction to meet his eye before it becomes indelibly a part of his book.

A. P. PEABODY.

Cambridge, Oct. 22, 1863.

Contents

Page Introduction. 9

Chapter I. The Threshold

The Tent — Leaving Camp Miller. — The Steamer. — New York. — In the City Hall. — Camp at Long Island. — Discomforts. — The Rifle. — Dress-parade. — The Colors 12

n.

THE TRANSPORT.

Embarkation. — The Fifty-second irate. — Breakfast. — Officers' Cabin.— Quarters of the "Non-Coms." — Where the Privates go. — At Sea. — Night in the Lower Deeps. — Florida Seas. — Burial at Sea. — Grumblers. — Ship Island. — The Ships assembled. — New Orleans 20

m.

THE TWO LEADERS.

The "St. Charles." — Gen. Banks. — Gen. Butler. — The Conquered City. — Nims's Battery. — Baton Rouge. — First Taste of War. . 39

CONTENTS.

IV.

THE DAY OF CLOUDS AND THICK DARKNESS.

Page Hospital-sights. — Two Letters Home 48

V.

SUSPENSE.

Three Dead Men. — Some Mirth in the Regiment, in Spite of All. — Tibbs. — Old Grimes. — Cripps, the Drummer.— Private Clout's Opinions as to Honor and Chivalry. — Head-boards. — Batterydrill. — Rough Diamonds. — Marching Orders. — The Fleet. — The Review

VI.

"INTO THE LION'S MOUTH."

The Start. — The Big Caterpillar. — The Bivouac. — There is Nothing New under the Sun. — We wilt. — Expected Battle. — The Corporals of the "Guard." — The Wounded Colonel. — The Hostile Batteries. — The Fight in the Night. — The Loss of the " Mississippi."

vn.

FALLING BACK.

Despondency.— The Rain. — The Night in the Swamp. — Pillage. — The Bayou Montecino. — The Cotton Expedition. — Used up. . .

vni.

THE GARDEN OF LODI8IANA.

Donaldsonville. — Assumption. — Princely Estates. — Beauty of the March. — Thibodeaux. — A Morass. — Bayou Boeuf. — Brashear City. — A Half-drowned Country **,

CONTEXTS. XI

IX.

VICTORY.

Page Writing to a Cannonade. — The " St. Mary's." — Packed like Slaves. — Joe Pray's Coffee. — The Skirmish. — The Mother's Petition. — The Rainy Night. — The Bloody Fight 123

X.

PURSUIT.

The Forced March. — The Swoon. — " New Iberia."— Too Much to be borne. — Bayou Vermilion. — The Storm. — The March in the Mud. — Opelousas 136

XL

ON THE BAYOU COURTABLEAU.

Good Spirits. — In " Durance Vile." — The Cotton Mountain. — Marauding. — Negro Camp. — The distant Bombardment. — Short off for Shirts. — The " Gobbler." 148

xn.

IN THE HOSPITAL.

Alligators. — The Atchafalaya. — Baton Rouge again. — The Port- Hudson Hospital. — The Nurses. — Tough Work. — The Dreadful Task. — Night after the Battle. — The Wounded General. — The "Iberville's" Voyage. — The Crowded Pallets. — Barclay — On the March again . 162

xni.

BATTLE.

Within Cannon-range. — Clinton. — The Naval Battery. — Being shelkd. — The Midnight Breakfast. — The Cannonade. — Dawn on the Rebel Rampart. — The " Leaden Rain." — Wounds and Death 183

Xii CONTENTS.

XTV.

the wolf at bay.

Vaqe

The Vigil. — The Flag of Truce. — The " Jackson Skirmish." — In the Sap. — Negro Engineer Troops. — The Mine. — Cyrus Stowell's Death and Burial 196

XV.

TRIUMPH.

Fraternizing of the Two Armies. — " Old Thous'n Yards." — The Last March. — The Perilous Corner. — The Citadel 216

XVI.