CHAPTER VII.
"Boots and Saddles"--"I am the Colonel's Orderly"--Riding Fifty Miles on an Empty Stomach--The Chaplain Appears--I am Wounded by a Locomotive and a Piece of Coal--I Nearly Kill an Old Man.
When our foraging party got back to camp, and I unloaded the corn fodderfrom my horse, I was about as disgusted with war as a man could be. Thefaces of those people I had met at the plantation rose up before me, andI could imagine how they would look when they heard that the Confederatesoldier who was their all, was dead. I hoped that they would never hearof it. While I was thinking the matter over, and grooming my horse, thechaplain came along and took nearly all the fodder I had brought in, andfed it to his horse, and asked me where the chickens and hams, and sweetpotatoes were. I told him I didn't get any. Then he spoke very plainlyto me, plainer than he had ever spoken before, and told me that fodderfor horses was not all that soldiers got when they went out foraging. Hesaid I wanted to snatch anything that was lying around loose, that couldbe eaten. I asked him if the government did not furnish rations enoughfor him to live comfortably, in addition to the sanitary stores. Hesaid sometimes he yearned for chicken. Then I told him his salary wassufficient to buy such luxuries. He was hot, and talked back to me, andtold me he didn't propose to be lectured by no red-headed private as tohis duties, or his conduct, and he wanted me to understand that I wasexpected to forage for him as well as myself, and not to let anothersoldier come into camp with a better assortment of the luxuries affordedby the country, than I did. He said that he picked me out as a man thatwould fill the bill, and do his duty. I told him if he had selected mefrom all the men in the regiment as being the most expert sneak thief,he had made a mistake, and I would be teetotally d----d if I would gothrough the country stealing hens and chickens for any chaplain thatever lived, and he could put that in his pipe and smoke it. It waspretty sassy talk for a private soldier to indulge in towards achaplain, but I was so disgusted to hear a man who should discountenanceanything unsoldierly, talk so flippantly about taking from the women andchildren of the country what little they had to live on, because we hadthe power, their men folks being away in the army, that I got on my ear,as it were. I told him that I was not much mashed on war, and hoped Iwould never have to fire a gun at a human being, but now that I was intothe business, I would fight if I had to, or do any duty of a soldier,but I would be cussed if I would rob henroosts, and he didn't weighenough to compel me to. Then he said I could go back to my company, ashe didn't want a man around him that hadn't sand enough to do his duty.I asked him if I hadn't better wait till after supper, it being afterdark, but he said I could go right away, and he would have another mandetailed to take my place. I was discharged, because I struck againststealing hens. I saddled my horse, took my share of the fodder, andstarted for my company to return to duty as a soldier. On the way tomy company I saw a half a dozen soldiers, covered with mud, and theirhorses covered with foam, ride up to the colonel's tent, and I stoppedto see what was the matter. A sergeant gave the colonel a dispatch,which he tore open, read it, looked excited, and then he turned to 'meand said, "Ride to every commanding officer of a company and say withmy compliments, that 'Boots and Saddles' will be sounded in ten minutes,and every man must be in line, mounted, within five minutes after thecall is sounded, then come back here." Well, I was about as excited asthe colonel, and I rode to every captain's tent and gave the command.Some of the captains, who were just sitting down to supper, asked, "Whatyou giving us," thinking it was some foolishness on my part. One captainsaid if I came around with any more such orders he would run asaber through me and turn it around a few times; another said to hislieutenant, "That is the chaplains idiot, that the boys play jokes on;some corporal has probably told him to carry that message."
I got all around the companies, and went back to the colonel, and toldhim that I had delivered his invitation, but the most of the captainssent regrets in one way and another, and one was going to jab me with asaber. He called the bugler, and told him to blow "Boots and Saddles,"and in five minutes to sound, "To Horse;" then he turned to me and said,"You will be my orderly tonight, and you will have the liveliest rideyou ever experienced. Buckle up your saddle girth and lead my horse outhere." I told the colonel I should have to buckle up my own belt a fewholes, as I hadn't had any supper, when he told his servant to bring meout what was left of his supper, which he did, one small hard tack. Ieat pretty hearty, and let my horse fill himself all he could on cornstalks, and in a short time the bugle calls were echoing through thewoods, men were saddling up and mounting, and picking up camputensils in the dark, and swearing some at being ordered out in thatunceremonious manner when they had got all ready to have a night'srest. There was not near as much swearing as I had supposed there wouldbe, but there was enough. The chaplain came rushing up to where I waswith his coat off, and asked me what was the matter, and the colonelhaving gone to the major's tent, I answered him that we were going tohave the liveliest ride he ever experienced, and not to forget it, andthat probably before morning we would have the biggest fight of theseason.
"Come and help me catch my horse," said the chaplain, "I turned himloose so he could roll over, and he has stampeded."
"Go catch your own horse," said I with lofty dignity, "and steal yourown chickens. I am serving on the start of the commanding officer, sir.I am the colonel's orderly."
I thought that would break the chaplain all up, but it didn't. "Thedevil you say," remarked the chaplain, as he went off in the darkness,whistling for his horse. Gentle reader, did you ever ride on horsebackfifty miles in one night, on an empty stomach, after having riddenthirty miles during the day? If you never have accomplished such a feat,you don't know anything about suffering. O, to this day I can feel mystomach freeze itself to my backbone. We started soon after orders weregiven on a gallop, and if we walked our horses a minute during the wholenight, I did not know it. We marched by "fours," but I had the wholeroad to myself, as I rode behind the colonel. I wanted to know where wewere going and what for, and once, when the colonel fell back to whereI was, while he was taking a drink out of a canteen, I said, "This isa little sudden, ain't it?" My idea was to draw him out, and get him totell me all about the destination of the expedition, and its object.The colonel got through drinking, and as he knocked the cork into thecanteen, he said, "Yes, this _is_ a little spry." That was all he said,and evidently he wanted me to draw my own inference, which I did.Pretty soon the orderly sergeant of the company that was on the advance,directly behind the colonel, rode up to me and asked me if I had anyidea where we were going. He said he had seen me talking with thecolonel, and thought maybe he had told me the programme. He added thathe thought it was a shame that men couldn't be allowed a little rest. Itold him that I had just been talking with the colonel about it, but Ihad no authority to communicate what he said. However, I would assurethe orderly that we were going to have the liveliest ride he everexperienced. I knew I was safe in saying that, and the orderly remarkedthat he had about come to that conclusion himself, and he left me. Ihad never expected to rise, on pure merit, to that proud position ofcolonel's orderly, and I made up my mind if that night's ride did notfounder me, or drive my spine up into the top of my hat, or glue the twosides of my empty stomach together, so they would never come apart, thatI would try to conduct myself so that the commanding officers would allcry for me and want me on their starts. I argued, to myself, as werode along, that the position of colonel's orderly could not be so veryunsafe, as it did not stand to reason that a colonel would go into anyplace that was particularly dangerous, as long as he could send otherofficers. I knew that colonels in action should ride behind theirregiments, and wondered if this colonel knew his place, or would he befool enough to go right ahead of his men? I was going to speak to himabout it, if we ever stopped galloping long enough, but everything wasjarred out of my head.
A fellow can think of a good many things, riding on a gallop at night,and I guess I thought of about everything that night.
There were fewinterruptions of the march. There were about four stops, two beingcaused by horses falling down and being run over by those behind them,and two by carbines going off accidentally. One man was dismounted andrun over by half the horses in the regiment, and when he was pulled outfrom under the horses he asked for a chew of tobacco, and saying hewas marked for life by horse shoes, he kicked his horse in the ribs forfalling down, climbed on and said the procession might move on. He wasall cut to pieces by horse's hoofs, but he was full of fight the nextmorning. Another soldier had his big toe shot off by the accidentaldischarge of a carbine, and when the regiment stopped, and the colonelasked him if he wanted to stop there and wait for an ambulance toovertake him, he said, not if there is going to be a fight. I don'tuse a big toe much, anyway, and if there is a fight ahead, I want to bethere, if I haven't got a toe left on my feet. The colonel smiled andsaid, all right, boy. I never saw fellows who were so anxious to fight,and I wondered how much money it would take to induce me to go into afight when I was crippled up enough to be excused. Along toward morningeverybody felt that we were so far into the enemy's lines that theremust be some object in the long ride, and the probabilities of a fightseemed to be settled in every man's mind. Up hill and down we galloped,until it seemed to me I should fall off my horse and die. About half anhour before daylight the command was halted, and the officers of eachcompany were sent for, and they surrounded the colonel, separatedfrom the men, and he said: "There is a town ahead, about four miles,garrisoned by confederate troops. We are to charge it at daylight, drivethe enemy out the other side of town, kill as many as possible, and whenthey go out they will be attacked by another Union regiment that hasbeen sent around to the rear. There is a railroad there, and a bridgeacross a river, Confederate stores of ammunition, provisions, cotton,etc. The stores are to be burned, the railroad bridge destroyed,the track torn up, engines, if there are any, are to be ditched, andeverything destroyed except private residences. You understand?" Theofficers said they did, and they went back to their companies andordered the men to get a bite to eat. When the officers had gone I waspretty scared, and I said, "Colonel, suppose the rebels do not get outof that town." The colonel was chewing a hard-tack when he answered.Daylight was just streaking up from the East, and he held a piece ofthe hard-tack up to the light to pick a worm out of it, after whichhe answered: "If they don't get out, we will, those of us who are notkilled. I always like to eat hard-tack in the dark, then I can't see theworms." To say that I was reassured would be untrue. I admired a man whocould mingle business with pleasure, as he did when talking of possibledeath and worms in hard-tack, but death was never an interesting subjectto me. I wanted to talk with the colonel more, and asked him if colonelsoften get killed, and if an orderly was exactly safe in his immediatevicinity, but he leaned against a tree and went to sleep, and I stoodnear, as wide awake as any man ever was. I wondered whose idea it wasto send us fifty miles into the Confederacy to destroy provisions andrailroads.
Did they suppose the Confederates didn't want anything to eat. I thoughtit was a mean man or government that would burn up good wholesomeprovisions because they couldn't eat them themselves. And who owned thisrailroad that was going to be torn up? Why burn a bridge that probablycost several hundred thousand dollars. As I was thinking thesethings over and finding fault with the persons responsible for suchfoolishness, the chaplain, who had not showed up during the night, cameup to where I was, without any hat, leading his horse, which was lame.The first thing he asked me how I would trade horses. They all wantedmy Jen, but he was not in the market. The chaplain said he had caughtup with the regiment about midnight, and had rode at the rear, with thehorse-doctor. He said this expedition was foolish, and had no objectexcept to try the endurance of the horses and men. I told him that wewere going to have a fight in less than an hour, and burn a town, andprobably we would all be killed. The chaplain turned pale and lookedfaint.
I had read about hell, and seen pictures of it, from the imagination ofsome eminent artist, but the hell I had read of, and seen pictured, wasnot a marker to the experience of the next three hours. In a few minutesthe colonel woke up, and the regiment mounted and moved on. An advanceguard was put further out than before, with orders to charge the rebelpicket almost into town, and then hold up for the rest of us. As weneared the town it was just light enough to see. The advance capturedthe picket post without a shot being fired, and moved right into town,followed by the regiment, and we actually rode right into the camp ofthe boys in gray, and woke them up by firing. They scattered, coatlessand shoeless, firing as they ran, and in five minutes they were allcaptured, killed, gone out of town, or were in hiding in the buildings.Then began the conflagration. Immense buildings, filled with goods, orbales of cotton, were fired, and soon the black smoke and falling wallsmade a scene that was enough to set a recruit crazy. A train came injust as the fire was at its greatest, and a squad of men was sent toburn it, and the colonel told me to go and capture the engineer andbring him to the headquarters.
Engineer threw a lump of coal and hit me 113]
I rode up as near to the engine as my horse would go and told theengineer I wanted him. He turned a cock somewhere, and a jet of steamcame out towards me that fairly blinded me and the horse, and I couldn'tsee the engine any more. My horse turned tail, the engineer threw a lumpof coal and hit me on the head, and I went away and told the colonel theengineer wouldn't come, and beside had scalded me with steam, and hit mewith a lump of coal. The colonel said the engineer could be arrestedfor such conduct. Pretty soon the train was on fire, and one of our boysclubbed the engineer, got on the engine and run it on to a side trackand ditched it, and brought the engineer up to headquarters, where I hadquite a talk with him about squirting steam and throwing lumps of coalat peaceable persons. Then the railroad, bridge was set on fire, andit looked cruel to see the timbers licked up by flames, but when theburning trestle fell into the river below, it was a grand, an awfulsight. I came out of the fight alive, but with a lump on my head as bigas a hen's egg, so big I couldn't wear my hat, and a firm determinationto whip that engineer who threw the lump of coal when I could catch himalone. We cooked a late breakfast on the embers of the ruins, and aftereating, I noticed a sign, "Printing Office," in front of a residencejust outside the burnt district, and asked permission to go there andprint a paper, with an account of the fight, and the destruction of thetown. Permission was granted, and I went to the office and found an oldman and two daughters, beautiful girls, but intensely bitter rebels. Theold man was near eighty years old, and he said he could whip any dozenyankees. I told him I would like to use his type and press, but he saidif I touched a thing I did it at my peril, as he should consider thetype contaminated by the touch of a yankee. The girls felt the sameway, but I talked nice to them, and they didn't kick much when I tooka "stick" and began to set type. I worked till dinner time, when theyasked me to take dinner with them, which I did. During the conversationI convinced them that I was practically a non-combatant, and wouldn'thurt anybody for the world. I worked till about the middle of theafternoon, when I noticed that the girls, who had been up on the house,looked tickled about something, and presently I heard some firing atthe edge of the town, some yelling, more firing, bugle calls among oursoldiers, and finally there was an absence of blue coats, and I lookedfor my horse, and found the old man leading him away. I halted the oldman, and he stopped and told me that the Confederates had come into townfrom the East and driven our cavalry out on the other side, and I wouldbe a prisoner in about five minutes, and he laughed, and the girlsclapped their hands, and I felt as though my time had come. I had neverkilled an old man in my life, but I made up my mind to have my horse orkill him in his traces, so I drew my revolver and told him to let gothe horse or he was a dead man. It was a question with me whether Icould hold my hand still-enough to kill him, if he didn't let go thehorse, and I hoped to heaven he would drop the bridle. He looked so muchlike my father at home that it seemed like killing a near relative, andwhen I
looked at the two beautiful daughters on the gallery, looking atus, pale as death, I almost felt as though it would be better to losethe horse and be captured, then to put a bullet through the gray head ofthat beautiful old man. How I wished that he was a young fellow, andhad a gun, and had it pointed at me. Then I could kill him and feel asthough it was self-defense. But the rebels were yelling and firing overthe hill, and my regiment was going the other way on important business,and it was a question with me whether I should kill the old man, and seehis life-blood ebb out there in front of his children, or be captured,and perhaps shot for burning buildings. I decided that it was my dutyto murder him, and get my horse. So I rested my revolver across my leftforearm, and took deliberate aim at his left eye, a beautiful, large,expressive gray eye, so much like my father's at home that I almostimagined I was about to kill the father who loved me. I heard, a screamon the gallery, and the blonde girl fainted in the arms of her brunettesister. The sister said to me, "Please don't kill my father." He was notten feet from me, and I said, "Drop the horse or you die." The oldman trembled, the girl said: "Pa, give the man his horse," the old mandropped the bridle and walked towards the house. I mounted the horse androde off towards the direction my regiment had taken, thanking heaventhat the girl had spoken just in time, and that I had not been compelledto put a bullet through that noble-looking gray head. The face haunted meall the way, as I rode along to catch my regiment, and when I overtookit, and rode up to the colonel, and asked him what in thunder he wantedto go off and leave me to fight the whole southern Confederacy for,he said, "O, get out! There were no rebels there. That was the Indianaregiment that started out day before yesterday, to get on the other sideof the town. The fellows were shooting some cattle for food. What makesyou look-so pale?" I was thinking of whether a man ever prospered whokilled old people.
How Private George W. Peck Put Down the Rebellion Page 7