History of the Forty-second regiment infantry, Massachusetts volunteers, 1862, 1863, 1864

by Charles P. Bosson

SENTENCE.

And the Court does therefore sentence him, Corporal Everett A. Denny, Company E, Forty-Second Regiment Massachusetts Volunteers, to be reduced to the ranks, to forfeit ten dollars of his pay, and to be publicly reprimanded by the commanding officer of his regiment.

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The sentence was approved in General Orders No. 16, Defences New Orleans, March 7th, 1863, and Corporal Denny released from arrest and returned to duty with his company March 17th.

Whether the offence was worth the trouble and expense of a trial is a debatable question. Corporal Denny was young and inexperienced at the time; with more years upon his shoulders he would probably have been more discreet. There were many young correspondents with the army who did not always confine their letters to matters of public interest, but dabbled with surmises of probable movements by the troops, their strength, positions occupied, and morale of officers and men. This is against army rules, and not to be tolerated. It is indirectly furnishing information of value to the enemy.

Private James White, of Company A, while at Carrollton, disobeyed orders, using disrespectful language towards his superior officer. A regimental court-martial convicted and sentenced him to forfeit one month’s pay and to walk six hours a day for fourteen days—three in the morning and three in the afternoon—with a log of wood tied across his back, weighing not more than fifty pounds and not less than twenty-five pounds, and to do fatigue duty every morning. As provided in orders for regimental courts-martial, the sentence was approved by the brigade commander.

Private Jotham E. Bigelow, of Company K, was placed in arrest for sleeping on his sentry post. By regimental General Orders No. 11, issued January 30th, he was released from arrest and ordered to duty, because, “from his previous good conduct as a soldier in all matters, and being the first case of the kind in the regiment.” A warning was issued in the orders that future cases would not be dealt with so leniently.

All proceedings in cases proper for a regimental court-martial had to be before a field-officer of the regiment, by General Orders No. 91, issued July 29th, 1862, from the War Department. Major Stiles was in every case detailed to hear the evidence.

At Carrollton several heavy details were made of working parties to unload vessels at the levee, besides attending to a regular routine of camp duty. Short marches were taken out on the shell road to accustom the troops to that exercise. When Brigadier-General Emory assumed the command he watched sharply these marching drills, also the company and battalion drills of each organization. As some field-officers were inclined to consume time in executing fancy tactical movements when they had their regiments on drill, a general order was issued indicating a more rapid mode of instruction for the field. The following points were enjoined as of the first importance:

1st. The firings—to be executed with facility, promptness, and good order.

2d. Rapid ployments and deployments while marching as well as from a halt.

3d. Sudden and rapid formations of squares against cavalry.

With these instructions carefully and faithfully carried out, any troops could soon be made fairly efficient for field service, with discipline also enforced.

Lieutenant-Colonel Stedman, on several occasions, as field-officer of the day, had to make the grand rounds. The start was usually made between eleven and twelve o’clock at night. Considerable ground had to be covered to reach various bodies of troops occupying scattered camps, while the outpost stations would consume much time. Acting under verbal orders to thoroughly do this duty, numerous attempts were made to catch sentries off their guard; in some cases quite successfully, but it resulted in creating bad feeling between the organization so caught, and the regiment from which the field-officer of the day belonged. One of the most notable cases was a surprise of the Fifteenth New Hampshire camp. Upon approaching a sentry he failed to challenge, and seemed glad to take part in a casual conversation, which was commenced, when it was seen the man was not reliable in his duty. Finally, he was seized without resistance and his musket taken away, frightening the poor fellow to such an extent it was with difficulty the grand rounds’ party could remain by him while proceeding towards the guard quarters, where everything was found to be all right, with the men alert.

The One Hundred and Tenth New York camp was entered one night without a challenge, or being seen by any sentinels; on stealthily approaching the guard quarters, where a log fire was burning, no sign of life was seen excepting a solitary sentinel pacing to and fro before a line of stacked muskets. Watching a favorable opportunity he was made a quasi-prisoner, much to his chagrin, and on inspecting the guard tents a few men were found sound asleep, with no officer of the guard present. Routing out the regimental officer of the day to investigate the matter, it appeared that the reliefs, together with officers of the guard, had gone to their quarters for sleep.

After a few incidents like these were reported to post headquarters, it was not long before sentries were wide awake for surprises. It became dangerous business to attempt any fooling with sentries, and such attempts were abandoned. Whenever a field-officer of the Fifteenth New Hampshire or One Hundred and Tenth New York had the grand rounds, in retaliation, they tried various ways to catch the Forty-Second guard napping, but never succeeded.

On one of these grand rounds’ tour of duty, while proceeding along the levee road towards outpost stations, the road was found to be in an impassable condition, owing to a small break in the levee, not known to exist, as during the early afternoon one of the officers had found the road in good condition. An occupant of a house near at hand was awakened to obtain directions how to proceed: the man either intentionally or by mistake directed the party to take the levee embankment, his reasons for the bad condition of the road not creating any suspicion that a crevasse existed in the levee. Proceeding along the embankment with Sergeant-Major Bosson leading the mounted party, his horse suddenly stopped, and no amount of urging could induce the animal to move forward. In the pitchy darkness it was impossible to see what was the matter, so the party with difficulty (the embankment top was very narrow) turned about, going back, finally reaching another road leading to the outposts. The next morning, upon examining the road at this point, there was found a small break in the levee. Had the horse kept on for a few feet, both horse and rider would have been in the Mississippi River.

A sharp report from several muskets, fired by sentinels, followed with a cry of fire, roused the camp at two o’clock on the morning of January 26th. Not far from the camp lines was a small frame house, used by officers of the Forty-Second for messing. This had caught fire, burning to the ground. The primitive fire department of Carrollton rallied, consisting of several white men, a gang of negroes with an old worn out double-deck hand fire-engine, requiring not over ten men to man the brakes, without suction hose, water being furnished the engine by hand buckets, and a small hose carriage. A detail of men from the regiment soon took possession of this fire apparatus, relieving the local firemen of any responsibility, and earnestly endeavored to stop the flames. What was in rain water cisterns attached to the nearest houses was all the water that could be used. There was great sport in fighting this fire, as well as some sharp and brave work in saving what was in the house. For the purpose of obtaining indemnity from the Government, the owner implicated officers of the regiment with this fire. A council of investigation was ordered by Brigadier-General Emory into the circumstances; the detail consisted of Captains Cogswell and Cook and Lieutenant Gorham, who found that the fire was accidental.

Lieutenant Proctor was without a command, as his company were prisoners of war. Upon landing, with men of Company G who were with him, he met Colonel N. A. M. Dudley, an old friend, in the city, who requested him to join his brigade, then at Baton Rouge, as he wanted a brigade quartermaster, and wished to appoint the lieutenant to that position. Although attached to another brigade and division, Colonel Dudley thought he could arrange the matter with his division general, Grover, and the Department headquarters. Lieutenant Proctor proceeded to Baton Rouge, but Dudley could not carry out his plan, as Adjutant-General Irwin stated it was against the rules of the service. This was true. Lieutenant Proctor and his men reported back to the regiment February 3d.

First Sergeant Nichols, Company G, was detailed acting lieutenant of Company E, vice Stowell, a prisoner of war.

Sergeant Attwell, Company G, remained unattached.

Private H. C. Green, Company G, was attached to Company K for duty.

Private John Luzardo, Company G, was attached to Company K for duty.

Sergeant Vialle, Company G, remained unattached.

War Department General Orders No. 5, issued January 5th, 1863, had made the troops in the Gulf Department to constitute the Nineteenth Army Corps, to date from December 14th, 1862. Orders were issued from Department headquarters on the thirteenth of January attaching the Forty-Second to the Second Brigade, Second Division, Nineteenth Army Corps. In the brigade were the Twenty-Sixth Massachusetts Infantry, three years men; Forty-Second Massachusetts Infantry, nine months men; Forty-Seventh Massachusetts Infantry, nine months men; Ninth Connecticut Infantry, three years men; Twenty-Eighth Maine Infantry, nine months men. The brigade was then under command of Colonel Farr, Twenty-Sixth Massachusetts Volunteers, and constituted part of the garrison in the Defences of New Orleans.

The regiment remained in camp at Carrollton until January 28th, receiving marching orders for five companies to take post at Bayou Gentilly, on the Ponchartrain Railroad crossing, on the twenty-seventh.

Up to this date the following changes by detail and sickness had occurred:

January 17th—Companies C and H left for duty in engineer service.

January 25th—Quartermaster Burrell was detailed by brigade orders as acting brigade quartermaster. Lieutenant Albert E. Proctor, Company G, by regimental orders, was detailed as acting regimental quartermaster, on the twenty-sixth.

Assistant Surgeon Isaac Smith, Jr., Twenty-Sixth Massachusetts Volunteers, was detailed to act as surgeon during Surgeon Hitchcock’s sickness, relieving Surgeon Smith, One Hundred and Fifty-Sixth New York Volunteers, and joined the regiment for duty on the twenty-ninth, at Bayou Gentilly.

Captain George P. Davis, Company K, and Lieutenant T. M. Duncan, Company F, by department orders, were detailed for duty in the provost-marshal general’s office, on the twenty-first.

Captain Charles A. Pratt, Company E, had been absent from camp on sick leave, and not on duty since his company landed from the Charles Osgood. Captain Pratt did not see any service with his company. He resigned, and was discharged for ill health by Special Orders No. —, Gulf Department, March 28th, 1863.

January 3d—Corporal Alonzo I. Hodsdon, Company D, was appointed acting quartermaster-sergeant, in place of Foster, taken prisoner at Galveston. Hodsdon, with the pay of his rank as corporal to July 12th, performed the arduous duty of the position in a most admirable manner during the term of the regiment. Special mention is made in his case over that of other non-commissioned staff-officers, because of his devoted attention to the duties with no prospect before him of any promotion to the position. While Foster lived, Corporal Hodsdon remained a corporal. Foster’s parole, when released by the Confederates, did not allow him to take his position until exchanged, which did not occur during the term of service.

January 1st—Private Eldridge G. Harwood, Company B, was appointed regimental carpenter.

January 15th—Private Clark K. Denny, Company F, was detailed as orderly and clerk at regimental headquarters.

January 15th—Private Leavitt Bates, Company A, was detailed as clerk to headquarters of General Emory, at Carrollton. Relieved February 3d.

January 15th—Private John A. Loud, Company A, was made regimental armorer.

January 30th—Private Winfield B. Tirrell, Company A, was detailed as orderly at brigade headquarters, by brigade orders.

The Quartermaster Department was advanced a stage in its appointments, by organizing the wagon train, as follows: Private John Willy, Company B, chief wagoner; Private Porter Carter, Company K, Corporal Alfred Thayer, Company I, Privates Chauncey K. Bullock, Company D, G. G. Belcher, Company F, Joseph B. Ford, Company A, as wagoners.

On moving to Bayou Gentilly the following sick men were left in general hospital at Carrollton: Privates Adin P. Blake, Company B, George E. Pond, Company B, Lucius M. Turner, Company B, and Surgeon Hitchcock.

CHAPTER VI.
FEBRUARY—AT BAYOU GENTILLY—MORE DETAILS.

That part of Bayou Gentilly where a portion of the Forty-Second was to remain in camp for nearly five months was, at the time of arrival, a most desolate looking place. The Gentilly road passed the camp ground, leading to Fort Macomb, on Lake Ponchartrain, and at this point, at this time, was in a wretched condition. Each side of the road was lined by small plantations and pasture lands, extending back for a short distance to swamps. Most of the plantations were uninhabited, the land covered with rank vegetation, and showed every sign of abandonment. Occasionally some hut or rude cabin would give signs of life—occupied by charcoal burners, who carried on their vocation in the swamps. The Ponchartrain Railroad, from New Orleans to Lakeport, on Lake Ponchartrain, five miles long, in a direct line through the swamp to the lake, ran only two trains a day. Save the regiment, scarcely a person would be seen for days.

A sugar-cane plantation near the camp, belonging to a Mr. Lee, was used to pasture private and Government cattle, and recruit the strength of horses and mules run down by hard service in the army. The private residence, negro cabins, stables and work houses remained in very good order. The sugar-house was a mass of ruins. An extensive grove of plum trees was in good condition.

Pent up in this flat spot of land, with nothing to relieve the eye but a mass of trees situated in the swamp, their limbs covered with light-colored moss, had a depressing effect on the spirits of some men, who began early to show signs of home-sickness.

The ground selected for the camp was upon the old Louisiana race-course, the best to be found in the neighborhood. This race-course had been surrounded by a high board fence, such as enclose similar grounds, but had disappeared, leaving the ground as open as the land about it. Adjoining the Gentilly road and Ponchartrain Railroad, the side towards New Orleans was on the border of a swamp. This ground was formerly occupied for a camp by Confederate troops. The famous Washington Artillery, of New Orleans, first went into camp at this place at the commencement of hostilities. A portion of the Confederate garrison of New Orleans, when General Butler landed, were also encamped here. What few inhabitants were to be seen said that a large number of men had at various times been in camp at this point, and was a general rendezvous for many of the Louisiana troops when organizing for the war. Many an hour has been pleasantly passed inspecting the writings and pictures upon the walls of a building used by them as a hospital, placed there by men from the Thirtieth and Thirty-First Louisiana regiments.

By railroad the distance from New Orleans to Gentilly Station was three miles, and from Gentilly Station to the Lake End, or Lakeport, was two miles. A short distance up the track towards Lakeport and back from the Gentilly road, which the railroad crosses at grade, was an earthwork mounting four heavy guns, called Battery Gentilly, flanked by extensive breastworks for infantry, with wide and deep ditches in front filled with water. Trees in the swamp in front had been cut down for a considerable distance to give good range to the guns. Another earthwork, mounting nine guns, was situated on the Gentilly road, towards Fort Macomb, some two and one-half miles from the railroad track, and was in all its surroundings similar to Battery Gentilly.

On the twenty-eighth of January, when the regiment changed camps, the roads were in very good condition in spite of cold weather, and rain falling for two days previous. Great coats were worn; the men were in excellent spirits, and the distance, about three miles, was accomplished early in the afternoon. Very few men straggled; most of those that did were suffering from diarrhœa. The line of march embraced a circuit of New Orleans on its immediate outskirts, affording few opportunities to see subjects of interest to strangers in a new land. A greater part of the houses were either deserted or occupied by the poorer class of people; only a few were evidently the property of wealthy individuals. Some handsome residences were seen, but their occupants were decidedly unfriendly. They could be seen looking slyly through blinds and from door corners, but none threw their windows open in a bold manner to look out of them, as the regiment marched past.

The houses were generally in good repair, many of one or two stories in height, with large windows and doors; nearly one-half had a veranda in front of each story. The gardens were in a deplorable condition. Few people were seen on the roads, and they, except the negroes, evinced no interest in the regiment. There was one knot of women collected together who would frequently hiss: “d——d Yankees,” “ain’t you ashamed,” “hope you will all die,” and similar words of welcome. None of the men paid any attention to them. Coffee houses and apologies for restaurants, located on the route, were generally closed for want of business; their signs were retained, put up when the secession excitement was in full blaze. Beauregard was the favorite name for use on these signs.

Having arrived at Bayou Gentilly, by night-time camp was pitched and everything made as comfortable as possible. The hospital was located in a wide and long one-story wooden building, formerly used for a liquor and refreshment saloon, attached to the race-course. Headquarters was also established in the building. The quartermaster and commissary stores, and the horses, occupied a similar building, which had been built or refitted for the purpose, a short distance away towards the railroad crossing.

General Banks, having issued a general order calling for volunteers to fill the Second Vermont Battery, Captain Holcomb, the next day, twenty-ninth, Corporal Thomas Hanson White, Company K, Private John B. Williams, Company K, Private Addison J. Williams, Company K, Private William F. Howard, Company K, Private Horace M. Cowles, Company K, Private Oscar J. Stockwell, Company E, and Private Oliver King, Company E, who had volunteered, received their descriptive lists, final orders, and left camp to join the battery then stationed at Donaldsonville, to remain until their term of service expired. This battery was in the army before Port Hudson, and the men saw some hard service. None of them died from disease, or were wounded or killed. They rejoined the regiment at Algiers, July 23d.

The month of January closed with five companies on duty at Bayou Gentilly, showing a strength of sixteen officers and four hundred and forty-nine men present, with sixteen of the men sick in hospital.

In February the regiment was still further scattered by several details. Cold and rainy weather, combined with these continual details, rather dispirited for awhile both officers and men, who gradually became convinced that as a body the regiment was not destined during its service to perform any gallant deeds, or be placed in a position to try and do so.

A detachment of one sergeant, three corporals and twenty-five privates from Company A, under command of Lieutenant Martin Burrell, Jr., was ordered February 3d to take charge and guard the battery situated on the Gentilly road, towards Fort Macomb. At the time of taking charge of this battery it mounted nine guns. Battery Gentilly did not have an armament. During the month, as nothing was to be feared from the enemy in this direction, and the Confederates could attempt a demonstration against New Orleans from the direction of the lake in the neighborhood of Lakeport, Bayou St. John and Hickok’s Landing, General Sherman, commanding Defences New Orleans, had his ordnance officer, Captain Pease, Forty-Seventh Massachusetts Volunteers, remove the guns from this battery and use them to equip Battery Gentilly on the railroad track and Battery St. John on St. John Bayou. Removal of these guns and putting them into their new positions occupied about one month. On the eighteenth the transfer had so far advanced that the detachment under Lieutenant Burrell was ordered to the battery on the Ponchartrain Road. It was not until March 10th that Battery St. John was occupied and taken in charge by the remaining men of Company A, under command of Captain Coburn.

Pay day were talismanic words to the soldier. Visions of a pocket full of “Uncle Sam’s” greenbacks float before the eyes of those men who had not allotted their money. Depending altogether on his frugality, for days or weeks after being paid off a soldier can visit the sutler, and at enormous prices buy little delicacies and necessaries to go with his Government rations, to make them more palatable. Tobacco and pipes were the most popular articles of purchase. Liquor had peculiar charms for a great many.

The first muster for pay of the regiment took place at Carrollton on the twenty-seventh of January, when the troops at that place were mustered to December 31st, 1862. Government always has its troops in arrears two months at least, to cover any overdrafts on clothing account, or fines charged them by sentence of courts-martial for misdemeanors. The troops are mustered for pay on the last day of the month every two months during the year, when all men present are reported on the muster and pay rolls, who draw their pay when the paymaster makes his appearance. Absent men, except on detached service by orders, do not get mustered, but have to wait until the next muster and payment before obtaining any money; this, to most men, is sufficient punishment for their absence without leave.

Companies A, B, E, F and K were paid off at Bayou Gentilly on February 2d, by a major in the Paymasters’ Department attached to the Department of the Gulf. Companies C and H were paid a few days later at Camp Parapet. Payments to all companies of the regiment (except Company K) were made with regularity and promptness during the term of service, because, stationed in close proximity to New Orleans most of the time afforded paymasters easy access to them. Company K, while on duty with the army in the field, was not so fortunate. The paroled men of Companies D, G and I were first mustered for pay on the regular muster day, February 28th, and first paid April 27th, when they were paid from the date of their enlistment to March 1st.

Those who did not allot any of their pay, received what seemed to be at that time large sums of money. The nine months troops were allowed regular pay from time of signing the enlistment rolls, and a large number had done so early in August and September, 1862; they had, therefore, some six and seven months pay due them. The allotment system never found much favor with men of the Forty-Second, so that nearly every soldier received the full amount due him without any deductions. Many men, with families at home, availed themselves of an express arrangement at low rates with the Adams & Co. Express, to forward most of their pay, every pay day, to those in need of it.

The unmarried men, with those of a spendthrift character, retained their money, spending the larger part of it in a bar-room, otherwise called a sutler’s shop, situated in the same building used for headquarters and for a hospital, kept by a man called Charley Ellis. This man Ellis, in all outward appearances a well-meaning man, was at heart a perfect rogue. Formerly lessee of the New Orleans race-course (the grounds occupied by the regiment for a camp), at the time Louisiana seceded he was a professed Union man, suffering a short imprisonment in the Parish jail, and was treated to a coat of tar and feathers for his sentiments. Nothing definite is known of his former history except that he was a professional horse jockey, an admirer of sports of the turf, and a regular sporting man. As lessee of the race-course he ran in debt, and was unable to pay. Upon the occupation of New Orleans by troops under General Butler, he enlisted the sympathies of that general. He kept a regular drinking saloon in the city, and whenever troops occupied the race-course for a camp opened a branch establishment on the ground, if he was lucky enough to hoodwink the commanding officer, nominally to furnish sutlers’ stores, but practically as a drinking saloon.

HEADQUARTERS AT BAYOU GENTILLY, LA.

Ellis, by his plausible stories and seductive manners, completely blindfolded the eyes of officers in the Forty-Second at first, and was allowed to open his saloon. By rendering little favors and trifling services to the officers he managed to keep in their good graces, and became intimate enough to borrow considerable sums of money from them, much of which was never repaid. He once got a loan from the hospital fund that created some trouble in the hospital by his not paying back the money at the stipulated time, thereby preventing the surgeons from obtaining those little extras they were in the habit of furnishing to their patients, until, by threats, Ellis was made to pay this borrowed amount.

The building occupied for headquarters and hospital Ellis endeavored to make the officers believe belonged to him, as lessee of the grounds, although it was known his lease was void from non-fulfilment of its conditions on his part. On the departure of the regiment from Bayou Gentilly he presented a bill for rent of the building, at the rate of five hundred dollars a month, for the length of time it was occupied by the regiment, to Lieutenant-Colonel Stedman, for his approval. It was never approved. Why Ellis was allowed to remain inside of the regimental lines with his stock of bad liquors for sale was a mystery to those who had learned his character and saw what mischief he was doing. The surgeons were opposed to his being allowed there, and remonstrated against it, and Chaplain Sanger, who could not help seeing that not alone disease of the body but disease of the mind was one of the results sure to accrue from this sutler’s shop, joined in the remonstrance.

Two other liquor saloons on the road, in close proximity to the camp, were also doing mischief. Verbal orders were at one time given their proprietors not to sell liquor to a soldier, on pain of having their stock demolished; but as no extra vigilance was exercised in detecting offences against the orders, they were not considered as of any account.

February 4th, Privates Thomas Burns, John Nolan and Thomas Mathews, stragglers in New York from Company D, returned and were assigned to duty with Company E. On the eighteenth, Privates Greene and Luzardo, of Company G, on duty with Company K, were detached and assigned to duty with Company E, and Private Joseph V. Colson, Company G, was assigned to Company E. Private Colson was a straggler in New York from the regiment. He had a varied experience on his trip to New Orleans. Reporting to the proper officer in New York, he was put aboard the ship Planter, with some two hundred other men belonging to various regiments of the Nineteenth Corps. The ship went upon the reefs at Grand Abaco Island, in the Bahama Channel, during good weather, about four o’clock in the morning. All hands were saved by the ship’s boats, landing them upon the island, where they remained seventeen days, subsisting on pork and water saved from the wreck and shell fish obtained on the island. Finally a few wrecking schooners carried the troops to Key West, and from there they were sent to New Orleans to rejoin their several commands. Of the two hundred and fifty horses aboard, all were lost. The vast amount of medical stores and other property was mostly saved by wreckers; some fifty wrecker sails were counted by Colson hovering about the ship in three days after going upon the reef. What was saved by these wreckers was taken to Nassau. Aboard the ship it was believed that the captain, a Southerner, purposely wrecked the vessel. Colson reported having a good time on the trip, but it seemed like home to him when he reached the regiment.

The only case in February before Major Stiles, for discipline, was that of Private James Minz, Company K, for disobedience of orders and using disrespectful language to his superior officer. Conviction and sentence followed, the sentence meeting the approval of the brigade commander, which was, to forfeit eight dollars a month of his pay to the United States for two months and to remain a prisoner at the guard tent for seven days, doing fatigue duty each day.

A system of rocket signals was arranged between the brigade headquarters in New Orleans, the Gentilly Station and Lakeport. In case the enemy appeared at night upon the lake, three rockets at Lakeport, or in the city, was the signal for the regiment to get under arms and await orders from the general commanding Defences of New Orleans. Several times the sentries mistook shooting stars for rockets, and raised alarms in the camp; even the officers have been led at times to think these stars were signal rockets. They certainly did have that appearance when seen for a moment in the remarkable clear atmosphere prevailing during the early part of the night, just above tall trees of the swamp, and would be apt to mislead any person who was on the lookout for such signals.

Among the several new sensations experienced at Bayou Gentilly were a few night alarms. Only those who have for the first time in a hostile country heard the drums beat to arms near the midnight hour can form any idea of the sensation it gives to a raw soldier. The heart beats quick; he can feel his blood warming up; every nerve is strung to the highest tension in anticipation of stirring events about to happen.

The regiment, for several nights in succession, during February, was under arms for what, at the time, were thought to be good causes, but at a later period partook of the ludicrous and provoked a smile. The first alarm was started one night by Lieutenant-Colonel Stedman, for the purpose of testing the guard in a knowledge of its duty. At a distance of about one-quarter of a mile from camp he fired his pistol some three or four times towards the camp and then quickly returned to his headquarters. The officer of the guard aroused the camp at once by causing the long roll to be beaten, and reported the circumstances to the officer of the day, who proceeded to report to Lieutenant-Colonel Stedman, and entered headquarters a moment after his return. The regiment was always in line from five to ten minutes after a call to arms, ready to obey orders.

On the occasion narrated a detachment of thirty men was sent down the road leading toward Fort Macomb, with orders to scour the plantations upon each side and ascertain the cause of firing. Sergeant-Major Bosson was fond of giving his experience on this, his first night on a scout. In detail he gave the peculiar feelings that came over him when prowling around and looking into every nook and corner of a ruined sugar-house, accompanied by two men, expecting to find a body of armed men secreted there; how he afterwards joined the detachment on the road, and then with another detail of two men searched plantations upon the left of the road as far down as the battery, where Lieutenant Burrell with his detachment was stationed, saving the life of a cow one of his companions mistook for a man dodging around among the swamp trees and made ready to fire at.

A number of officers had with them patent-armored vests, that were sold extensively when the nine months troops were enlisting. Those iron-clad arrangements were put on with such alacrity at every night alarm that the officers who unfortunately owned them must have laughed when, at home safe and sound after their term of service expired, they thought over the dangers they passed through in Louisiana, especially at Bayou Gentilly. Some of the officers have slept at night with these iron cases on, and it came to be a fixed custom until the hot weather set in for owners of iron vests to don them when the regiment was under arms for any supposable emergency, more for the purpose of making some use of them, or, as they jocosely remarked, “get their money’s worth out of them at any rate.” Officers who were in the Galveston action also had these iron vests. They were forgotten when trouble was expected and no use made of them.

A private in Company F, a troublesome fellow and great shirk, endeavored to pass a sentinel without giving the countersign on the night of February 14th. He was properly challenged but paid no attention to the call, “Who goes there!” repeated a number of times, when the sentry, also a private of Company F, aimed his musket and fired at him for his temerity. The ball whistled by his head and passed through the hospital without damage. The fellow did not receive any sympathy, nor did he deserve any, and the fright given him was deemed sufficient punishment and warning not to repeat the blunder.[9]

[9] Adjutant Davis had a similar adventure at this camp. A sentry challenged him without receiving a reply, made ready and levelled his gun at him. The click of the trigger woke Davis from a reverie to instantly comprehend his situation and answer the challenge. This sentry acknowledged he recognized the adjutant, and yet maintained he should have fired at him in a moment after taking aim. As Davis was inside the camp on official business, such action on the sentinel’s part would not have been humane or proper, while it might have been justified. As he recognized his officer and thought, as he admits, that his challenge was not heard, to have stopped the adjutant at the point of his bayonet was sufficient.

Quite a number of men in Company F were sick. Two of the cases baffled the surgeon’s skill until it was decided, after an inspection of company quarters, that in these two cases signs and symptoms of scurvy was manifested, and fresh meat in place of “salt horse” ought to be provided. The brigade quartermaster was unable to fill a requisition for fresh meat, while the camp was serenaded night and day by constant tinkling of a hundred cow-bells, attached to as many cows. The idea of going without fresh meat when it was needed, with a herd of cattle within reach, was more than the officers could stand, and a council was held at regimental headquarters. The result was, Captain Cogswell received authority to take some of his men, who understood how to slaughter and dress cattle, and go to work that night.

The party consisted of Major Stiles, Captain Cogswell, Sergeant-Major Bosson, Sergeant B. A. Bottomley, Corporal Sylvander Bothwell, Privates Harvey Allen (company cook), George Mann and Charles Sanderson, of Company F. They selected a fine animal, placed a rope around her horns with difficulty, and dragged the cow towards a grove of trees, selected as a proper place to dress her. Everything was done in a workmanlike manner, as the butchers knew their business, and after the fresh beef was carried upon a confiscated ladder to the regimental quartermaster’s depot all hands returned to Company F’s quarters, to partake of broiled steak and liver, cooked by Harvey Allen about one o’clock in the morning.

Not satisfied with this supply of beef, Lieutenant Harding and men from his company (Company K) again made a raid on the herd of cattle shortly after and slaughtered cow number two, without authority. In this case the hide and entrails were buried in the swamp, while Captain Cogswell’s butchers threw the head, hide and entrails into a well of water used by the cattle, near the paroled camp. No one supposed these cows would be missed, until the owner appeared and made inquiries about them. He was not satisfied with his reception in the camp, proceeding to prowl around to ascertain where they were. His attention was attracted to the well of water, where all that remained of cow number one had been placed, by the moaning of several head of cattle that stood near smelling of the water and tearing up the turf with their feet, when a hundred men of the regiment, who had been watching him with curiosity from the camp line, saw the owner fish out the head and hide with a long pole.

He then made complaint to the provost-marshal in New Orleans, who invited the regimental officers to explain. In order to prevent an unpleasant inquiry the affair was settled by the officers making up a purse of about three hundred dollars to pay the owner’s claim; this fresh meat costing them dear in the end. No cattle were molested afterwards.

Before Assistant-Surgeon Smith, Twenty-Sixth Massachusetts, was relieved from charge of the hospital a curious case came under his care, ending in a manner discreditable to him. Private Francis N. Prouty, Company F, was sick in hospital with malarial fever. No one thought the case serious until, one morning, Surgeon Smith came into the headquarters office excited and breathless, reporting Prouty as dying. Word was sent to Captain Cogswell and his company officers, who at once repaired to the sick-room, accompanied by Chaplain Sanger and several others, to witness the dying scene. There Prouty lay upon his cot, with head and shoulders bolstered up by pillows, breathing short and quick, no sign of death in his face, that had an intelligent look, and his eyes their natural appearance. The other patients in the room were resting upon elbows on their cots watching Prouty with wondering eyes, as the solemn procession filed in and took positions near the supposed dying man. While the surgeon kept one hand upon the patient’s pulse, Chaplain Sanger offered a fervent prayer in his behalf that only served to produce a look of wonder in Prouty’s eyes, that appeared to say, what in the devil is this all about? He did not die, and afterwards said, had no intention of doing so, to please any one. The whole scene ended, after waiting about half an hour, in the solemn procession retiring from his side, pleased to find that the end was not to come, and somewhat mad with the surgeon for his opinion on the case. Smith had not been considered a surgeon of any skill before this event, and this case served to deepen the distrust of his ability.

During February New Orleans was alive with army officers and men, on furlough and without leave, indulging in all sorts of wild dissipation. The evil became so great that special orders were issued by General Banks to General Sherman to stop it. Stringent orders relative to passes, rigidly enforced, soon put an end to this demoralizing conduct. Another source of trouble was the presence of large negro contraband camps in the vicinity of the city, requiring other stringent orders to be issued for their government, and regulating the behavior of soldiers towards them. In January the ladies in New Orleans had shown a disposition to indulge in petty insults to soldiers whom they met on the streets, and caused a circular, dated January 13th, to be issued, which put a stop to much of this silly nonsense, but did not do away with it entirely. The circular read as follows:

“Headquarters Dept. of the Gulf,
“New Orleans, January 13th, 1863.

“Notice is hereby given by the commanding general of this Department that offensive personal demonstrations, by language or conduct of any character, by persons of any class whatever, with the intention of giving personal offence, or tending to disturb the public peace, are forbidden, and will be punished with relentless severity. Parents will be held responsible for the respectful conduct of their children, and prompt measures will be taken to fasten upon the proper parties any act of this character. All persons who may be witnesses to such conduct, are directed, as a measure of public peace, to give information thereof to the provost-marshal, or at these headquarters.

“By command of
“MAJOR-GENERAL BANKS.
“Richard B. Irwin,
“Lieut.-Col., Assistant Adjutant-General.”

Brigade drills under Colonel Farr, and a brigade review and inspection, by Brigadier-General Sherman, commanding division, were had while at Gentilly Bayou. The brigade drills were interesting, and considering the short time most of the regiments had been in service were quite satisfactory. Three drills were all this brigade ever had, on account of its being posted over a large extent of ground, and at posts that could not be left exposed by gathering the men together for such a purpose.

It was the custom to leave camp at eight A.M. on brigade drill days, in light marching order, as a march had to be made of about three miles to the drill ground. The weather would be hot and sun very scorching; on one drill only did the weather prove treacherous, and then the regiment was caught in a thunder shower. After several hours devoted to drill, and then a march back to camp with but short intervals for rest during the time, no rations in haversacks to make a dinner from, when the regiment arrived in camp, usually about half-past three to four o’clock in the afternoon, the men would be thirsty, hungry, hot and dusty. While such service may not be equal to a day’s march in an active campaign, yet for the regiment to perform it with so few men falling out of the ranks from fatigue, as was the case, shows what good material for service composed the regiment.

These drills were not without their attendant scenes and excitements. Crowds of negroes, of both sexes, would hover around the ground to hear the bands of music and witness the evolutions. Colonel Farr would frequently lose his temper and damn both officers and men; Colonel Marsh, Forty-Seventh Massachusetts Volunteers, particularly meriting the displeasure of the brigade commander, and received many of that officer’s choice remarks. Colonel Marsh was not a military man. The way in which he managed to twist his regiment around, mix the companies up and the brigade also, caused more laughter among the men than any other incident. It was amusing to see the expression of wonder on the face of Colonel Marsh when his regiment would be out of place, with the brigade standing at ease, waiting for him to place the regiment where it belonged, and Colonel Farr, accompanied by his entire staff, coming up at a full gallop to know “What in h—ll is the matter now?” Captain “Ned” Bird, Company I, Forty-Seventh Massachusetts, acting as major, would always have to give the correct orders that brought his regiment into proper position.

At a brigade drill which took place on the twenty-sixth of February, the new colors, which had been sent to the regiment by Governor Andrew, to replace those lost at Galveston, were unfurled and carried in the ranks for the first time. This second set of regimental colors never trembled from the whistle of bullets or fluttered amid smoke from powder during the term of service. They were seldom used, consequently on the return home of the regiment they looked new, bright colored and clean, as though fresh from the designer’s hand.

Brigadier-General Sherman impressed an observer very favorably. He was a regular army officer, familiar with all details of the service, courteous in manner towards all officers—a thorough soldier and gentleman. When inspecting the brigade assembled for a drill, February 19th, on reaching the Forty-Second, in position for inspection, he noticed the regimental colors were missing. He sharply called the attention of Lieutenant-Colonel Stedman to the fact, and when informed they had been lost at Galveston his tone of voice quickly changed; lifting his hat he replied: “I beg your pardon, colonel.” There is no importance attached to this incident, except that it showed the thoroughbred officer, and made quite an impression on those near enough to hear the conversation, engendering a feeling that here was an officer to be trusted, and his orders could be obeyed with confidence. Not many volunteer officers display such tact and discrimination.

During February the following additional changes by detail occurred: Private Martin Proctor, Company F, was made steward for the field and staff officers’ mess at regimental headquarters; on that duty until relieved in July in consequence of sickness.

February 2nd—Private Henry E. Putnam, Company E, was detailed as clerk at brigade headquarters by brigade orders, where he remained until July, and then returned to his company.

February 18th—Private Edward J. Worcester, Company E, was made regimental armorer, a position he held until his term of service expired, vice Private Loud, detailed to assist Lieutenant Pease.

February 18th—Company K left the regiment to act as pontoniers to the Nineteenth Army Corps.

February 25th—Captain Cogswell, Company F, appointed as corporals George L. Stone and Sylvander Bothwell, in place of C. H. Woodcock and E. A. Spooner, who preferred to join the regimental band.

At the close of February there were present for duty in the four companies at Gentilly Bayou, and Company K, in New Orleans, twenty officers and four hundred and twenty-five men. Present sick in hospital, seventeen men. The average sick per day of the regiment during February was: taken sick, five; returned to duty, five; in hospital, fourteen; in quarters, eleven. Two men were sent to general hospitals in New Orleans. Surgeon Hitchcock returned to duty on the twenty-fourth, relieving Surgeon Smith, and Surgeon Heintzelman reported for duty March 1st.

CHAPTER VII.
Enlisted Men Prisoners at Houston—March for the Federal Lines—Arrival at New Orleans.

The rank and file of the Forty-Second, with captured sailors of the Harriet Lane, were confined in a cotton press, situated in close proximity to Buffalo Bayou. The officers were quartered in the third story of Kennedy’s brick building, upon one of the streets not far from the cotton press.

While in Houston the men received good treatment and were allowed a furlough in the city every day, four men at a time, under guard. Their officers were allowed to visit them frequently, and cheering words, coupled with good advice, was not wanting. The food furnished was the same as issued to Confederate soldiers, consisting of corn meal, rice, sugar, dried and fresh beef, corn coffee, and occasionally a small supply of salt. The coarse ground corn meal was baked and made into what was called corn-dodger, to take the place of the Federal ration of hard bread. Until General Magruder left Houston, when the ration was taken away, the officers were favored with extra rations of flour. A German baker, formerly of Roxbury, Mass., was found, who took this flour in exchange for bread. Diarrhœa and dysentery were quite prevalent under this diet and a change of water, with sudden, sharp changes of weather that occurred, from warm to cold, and vice versa.

Surgeon Cummings, whose ability was acknowledged at all times by the Confederate officers, was, for a time, given his parole of honor, and assisted in taking care of the wounded and sick, Federals and Confederates. It was asserted that many of the Confederate wounded would not allow their own surgeons to attend them, preferring the care of Surgeon Cummings, in whose honor be it said, friend or foe, who needed his services, shared alike.

A jolly, social set of men, who made everything pleasant as possible, composed the guard—a dismounted company of cavalry, known as Captain Clipper’s company. Their discipline and drill was very, very crude, and often a subject of comment and amusement to the prisoners, who heartily enjoyed the ceremony of guard-mounting as done by this company; soldiers continually chewing tobacco, spitting the juice freely, talking with each other, and laughing all through the parade. The unsoldier-like conduct and poor quality of Sibley’s men, and the entire Confederate force under General Magruder, was a noted fact throughout the State: poorly armed and equipped, indifferently officered, without honor, discipline, or esprit de corps. After the fight at Galveston, Magruder issued an order to his command calling attention to these facts, entreating them to reform and be true soldiers, reciting, as an example of what well-disciplined, efficient troops could accomplish, the stubborn defence of Kuhn’s Wharf by the Forty-Second Massachusetts Volunteers.

The prisoners busied themselves with card playing, singing, making little trinkets from bones left from their meat, and in various other ways; selling their bone trinkets in large numbers to the ladies and others of Houston at good prices in Confederate money, which was used to buy what extras for food they could purchase. Many of the inhabitants would gather in the vicinity of the cotton press to obtain a glimpse at the northern barbarians, as the prisoners were termed; people from the country for miles around came to Houston for this purpose. It is related for a fact, by a sergeant who overheard the conversation, that a little girl who had been brought by her mother to see them, said to her: “Why, mother, they haven’t got any horns; you said they had!” This was about the idea Texan people had of northern troops at the time.

Previous to leaving Houston positive information was obtained relative to the fate of Amos and Revaleon. They had been sold as slaves to Texan planters, bringing somewhere near five hundred dollars each. They were bright, intelligent colored lads, cousins, fascinated with camp life, and notwithstanding the bitter opposition of their parents were determined to see service in the army in some capacity, finally prevailing upon the surgeon and quartermaster to take them as servants. Revaleon was owned by several masters, receiving good treatment, until at last he was taken for a servant by Major Leon Smith, who intended to send him into the Federal lines if he ever got near enough to do so. A few colored men that were in the Harriet Lane crew did not fare so well, suffering harsh treatment by being treated as convicts, with incarceration in the State Prison at Huntsville. All were released at the close of the war and came home in the summer of 1865.

Orders were issued at five o’clock on the morning of January 22d for the men to be ready to move at ten o’clock. Permission was given the captains to visit their companies and bid them good-by. Captains Savage and Sherive did so. Captain Savage said a few words of regret at the necessary separation, and was expressing his fervent wishes for their future safety and prosperity when obliged to stop short, his feelings having completely unmanned him. Captain Sherive was full of fight, and exhorted them to pitch in and “give them h—ll” whenever exchanged and again armed. Colonel Burrell (who was refused the privilege of seeing his men) and the other officers, after an interview with the orderly-sergeants at officers’ quarters, sent by them a farewell to the companies.

Delays occurred in the preparations, and it was two o’clock in the afternoon before the men fell into line for roll-call, proceeding at once, after repeated cheers for the officers were given, to the depot, where platform cars with seats built upon them were in readiness. With a good-by to the guard a start was made about six o’clock for Beaumont.

The following sick and wounded men were left behind, not able to stand the fatigue and exposure of the journey: Private Edwin F. Josselyn, Company D, wounded; Private Francis L. Morrill, Company D, wounded; Private James O’Shaughnessy, Company D, wounded; Corporal Henry W. McIntosh, Company D, sick; Private Dennis Dailey, Company D, sick; Sergeant David L. Wentworth, Company G, wounded; Private Joseph W. D. Parker, Company G, wounded; Private Joseph W. McLaughlin, Company I, sick, returned to Houston from Beaumont; Private Samuel R. Hersey, Company C, remained with the colonel; Citizen Frank Veazie, cook to officers’ mess, remained with the colonel.

Corporal McIntosh, suffering with diarrhœa, was so weak he had to be supported by two soldiers when led out to say good-by to his comrades he never expected to see again, and never did.

At first General Magruder intimated his intention to march the men across Texas to the Red or Mississippi Rivers. Such a march was condemned by prominent officers in his Department as certain death to a large number, and transportation was furnished for part of the way. It was stated in a boastful manner by the guards and citizens, that few would live to reach the Federal lines. This may have been mere boasting and only an expression of what they wished would occur, for the condition of the country passed over, and hardships endured by the men, were in no measure to be compared to what they had been led to expect by the representations of these parties, and it may safely be said their enemies were ignorant of what would have to be encountered.

With enlisted men and Chaplain Sanger, of the Forty-Second Regiment, were the sailors of the Harriet Lane, Assistant-Surgeon Thomas N. Penrose, Paymaster R. Julius Richardson, and the third assistant-engineers of that vessel, who had been allowed to go upon a claim made by all the captured officers, that these officers were non-combatants and could not be classed as commissioned officers. Considerable argument had to be used before the Confederate officials were made to acknowledge the point and let them go.

There was one smart affair managed successfully by a few warrant officers of the Forty-Second that saved the life of Andrew Romain, a Texan refugee, who was smuggled through as a member of the regiment with great difficulty, and when detection was almost certain. Romain, who formerly had lived in one of the New England States, was at the head of a little band of refugees who quartered on Kuhn’s Wharf under protection of the naval guns, and was of great benefit to the fleet before land forces arrived as a spy, from his intimate acquaintance with the inhabitants and country in the immediate vicinity of Galveston. His person, character, and the service he rendered United States officers was well known to the Confederate leaders, hence he was a marked man. Of medium size, he wore an immense black beard of great length, almost covering his face to the eyes, and up to the time of surrender wore citizen’s clothes.

After the surrender, and when names of prisoners were taken by the Confederate officers, Romain was not to be seen, and it was surmised by the boys he had escaped to the fleet. By some lucky chance he had safely hid away, until, at a favorable moment, he joined the ranks on the march through Galveston towards Virginia Point, clad in a blue army blouse, buttoned close to the neck, covering the long, flowing part of his beard, wearing a fatigue cap, and with knapsack upon his shoulders. On arrival at Houston he was partly shaved by Sergeant Frye, Company D, who left him with whiskers of the mutton-chop style. Each successive shave was improved to alter the style of cut to the hair upon his face. A sailor from the Harriet Lane assisted at times in these tonsorial duties.

Shortly after arriving in Houston the Confederate officers began to inquire after Romain, their actions indicating they suspected he was among the prisoners.

A great difficulty to overcome was passing him through the roll-calls, as Confederate officers attended these calls of names, which were made one company at a time. Romain would dodge from one company in line, ready for roll-call, to the ranks of a company whose roll-call was over, assisted in this by various devices of those most active in getting him through, and managed with success for some time in this way. Feeling confident he was among the prisoners, a last effort was made to detect him when the men were ready to march for the depot.

The companies were separately ordered into line, outside of quarters; as each name was called the man stepped to the front and had his name checked. Romain, who saw that his chances to get off with the rest were very slim, prudently remained in the building, and the rolls were found correct. Company G had passed out of the gate, leaving the other companies inside, when Sergeant Phil. Hackett obtained permission to go into the quarters for some few things he stated were left there, and in a short time came out followed by Romain, whom he rated soundly with abuse and curses for having left the ranks to go back to quarters without leave. On his approach towards Confederate Lieutenant Todd, who stood at the gate, Romain was the picture of a devil-may-care sort of man, puffing away at a large pipe, with a broom thrown over his shoulder. Lieutenant Todd sharply asked why he was there, and Romain replied that Sergeant Goodrich had sent him back to get a broom to sweep the cars, because they were covered with charcoal dust. Todd asked his name, and Romain gave one suggested to him by Hackett. Calling for Sergeant Goodrich, Todd inquired who he had sent back, the Sergeant answering with the same name that Romain used, for Hackett and Goodrich were acting in concert. Examining the roll of Company G the name was found, and Romain was ordered to “get out of here.”

The whole thing was so neatly planned and carried out by the two sergeants that the Confederates were completely hoodwinked, and Romain got off with the prisoners. After leaving Houston it was easy work to pass him along.

He left a wife and child at Galveston, who probably thought him dead. He was able to give valuable information to General Banks regarding Texas, and Andrew Romain was afterwards in the secret service corps of the Gulf Department. He was a brave man. It required uncommon fortitude to bear up under the constant dread of capture which must have haunted him, as death was certain were he discovered. From the fact that Romain was armed with a revolver, furnished by some friendly hand, it is surmised, if discovered, he would have sold his life dearly, if not contemplating suicide rather than fall into Confederate hands. A man of quiet reserve, seldom making any conversation with others, it was thought by the paroled men he had no gratitude for the assistance rendered by them, because he never expressed any. When Phil. Hackett was buried at Gentilly Camp, Romain was present, and his presence at those last sad rites is good proof he was grateful for what had been done to save him.

The train left Houston with a speed of about four miles an hour, crossing San Jacinto Bayou at midnight, not reaching Beaumont until four o’clock in the afternoon next day—distance eighty-three miles by rail. This was a tiresome ride for it rained all night, rendering sleep impossible, besides the charcoal dust upon the cars became wet, and in the shifting and turning about hands would get covered with it; these same hands were often applied to faces, and in the morning the men were a sight to behold. As the locomotive could not draw the entire train at once, sections were taken and run until a siding was reached, when the engine would go back for the remaining cars. There appeared to be plenty of cattle in sight grazing on the prairie lands through which the railroad ran, and this was also noticed to be the case on the trip from Galveston to Houston.

At Beaumont the men remained until the twenty-ninth, awaiting the return of a steamboat that had preceded them with baggage, horses, beef cattle, commissary stores, and wagons brought from Houston, to be used on the march to Alexandria. Occupying several abandoned shanties near Drake’s Bayou, the time was made to pass quickly by various expedients. Pigs were plenty in the neighborhood, so that pork was not a luxury, four or five being killed each day, the owners not missing them. They were caught by the lassoing process from a trap-door in an old blacksmith shop, underneath which they congregated. Wild mules were also plenty, whose backs the soldiers and sailors did not miss any opportunity to ride, affording great amusement to spectators by their antics.

Finally the steamer Roe Buck arrived, and a start was made at half-past one o’clock in the afternoon down the narrow Neches River to Sabine Bay; proceeding up the Sabine River, at daylight on the thirtieth, the steamer tied up at Novell’s Bluff, Louisiana, for a short time, and then proceeded to Morgan’s Bluff to remain over night, arriving there at half-past six o’clock in the afternoon.

After wooding-up the trip was resumed early next morning on the crooked and narrow river, lined with forests upon either bank, causing the boys to keep a sharp lookout, as the boat would often snap limbs off the trees to fall upon the deck. At six o’clock in the afternoon a stop was made at Possum Bluff for the night. Here the men had to use fence rails, near at hand, for fuel to cook rations, as all of the cut wood was required for the boat.

The boat steamed along, with occasional stops to take in wood and tie up each night, until half-past four o’clock in the afternoon, February 4th, when the journey by boat was over, on arriving at Burr’s Ferry Landing. The weather had been cloudy, rainy and cold almost the entire trip, creating great inconvenience to the men, who were obliged to use rubber and woollen blankets to stop rain-water leaks in their sleeping-places. Several were quite sick. Private David Chapin, Company I, nineteen years old, died at night, February 2d, at quarter-past eleven, when the boat was stopped at Starks’ Ferry Landing, Newton County, Texas. Chapin was not well when he left Houston, and was down with intermittent fever in a few days. After breakfast, on the third, a beautiful spot in the woods, under cypress and pine trees, was selected for a grave. The funeral took place at half-past nine o’clock in the morning, with three volleys fired over the remains by the guard, as poor Chapin, in a rough-made coffin, the best his comrades could make, was lowered into the grave.

At Burr’s Landing the prisoners went into bivouac in a pine grove about one-half a mile from the river. To make a shelter from the cold, northerly winds, some men made tents with rubber blankets; others built shanties made of bushes, pine boughs and such other material as they could gather, in a manner peculiar only to the “Yankee” soldier. All hands had washed their flannels during the fifth, leaving them out over night to dry, to find them frozen stiff the next morning, and a white frost covering the ground.

Private Henry C. Sellea, Company D, had been sick on board the boat for four days with intermittent fever, and, as his case seemed hopeless, arrangements were made by his comrades to remove him to a farm house owned and occupied by Mrs. Burr, who came from Springfield, Mass., where he would be sure to receive the best of care. This was accomplished at two o’clock on the afternoon of the sixth; but poor Sellea, only nineteen years old, died at five o’clock P.M. the next day.

As in the case of Private Chapin, a rough coffin was made by his comrades, the burial services taking place at eleven o’clock A.M. on the eighth, with Privates Charles G. Weymouth, Daniel L. Weymouth, R. P. Mosely and Henry Fisk acting as pall bearers. The grave was in Mrs. Burr’s private burying ground, where the boys sang “There will be no more sorrow there,” and the guard fired the customary volleys. A neat head-board, with name, age, company and regiment inscribed thereon, was placed on both graves.

Chapin and Sellea were delirious the last days of their life, not recognizing anybody. Every attention possible was paid to them by the members of their companies, and if the sympathy of their fellow soldiers could have saved them they would not have died. These two deaths were the only losses suffered on the trip, but several laid the foundation for diseases, which subsequently carried them to their graves.

Orders were issued on the eighth to be ready to commence the march for Alexandria at four o’clock A.M. on the ninth. Extra rations were given out to the cooks, who were at work all night attending to cooking. Mess kettles were few in number, and the practice on the entire trip, either on board boat or on the march, was to detail each night four men to cook until midnight, relieved by four men from that hour until daylight. The rations consisted of corn meal, pork, and fresh beef killed about every day, with such vegetables as the boys could forage, or buy from the few inhabitants living near the route of march.

The Confederate guard consisted of thirty men from the Fourth Texas Cavalry, commanded by Lieutenant W. J. Howerton, a pompous, overbearing individual, without military knowledge or manners. On the march the enlisted men were mounted upon Texas mustang ponies, tolerably well armed and equipped, but without drill or discipline. At any time they could have been overpowered by the prisoners. The guard were well disposed and well behaved towards their prisoners with a few exceptions; one private, a large, fat, red-headed man, whose looks was enough to condemn him to be a coward, was very bitter in speech and treatment of the men. In turn, the prisoners neglected no opportunity to work him up by badinage, partaking more of a sacrilegious tone than the chaplain thought was proper.

With the exception of a few fights among themselves to settle old scores, and retaliating in kind for any taunts made by members of the guard, the conduct of the prisoners was good. Lieutenant Howerton had his good and ill-natured days. At one place where a halt was made for the night some of the prisoners obtained permission to get food and lodging in a so-called tavern, neglecting in the morning to pay for the accommodation. This neglect put the lieutenant in a rage, when the landlord complained about it. Previous to this occurrence the men had been allowed to march in disorder, but on forming column that morning the lieutenant ordered column of fours, and made a speech from his saddle, the substance being, that a citizen of the Confederate States, whom one of his own men would not dare to wrong, had been grossly insulted by some “scabs” of Northern soldiers. He had given orders that the march that day would be in column of fours, and any man who straggled from that formation of column would be shot down or cut down, “by G—d.” One of the sailors slyly shouted S-H-O-W, when the enraged lieutenant rose in his stirrups and yelled: “I’ll show yer!” swinging his sabre over his head to suit action to his words. Several men did get struck for not obeying the orders, although none were seriously hurt. This did not help Howerton, in the estimation of the boys.

No tents were carried, and the men were obliged to sleep in the open air, through fair or foul weather. No rivers were in their path, but several swamps had to be passed, one of them while a heavy rain-storm was in progress. The train, in charge of a wagoner, consisted of four wagons, each drawn by six mule teams. The feed for horses and mules was chiefly wild sugar-cane.

Doctor Penrose acted as surgeon for everybody when he could obtain medicines, for the escort carried none. He attended Chapin and Sellea, doing the best in his power, travelling some miles to obtain a supply of medicine to treat their cases. The sick had to suffer and get along as best they could; those very sick were taken in the wagons, while the men who did not feel strong enough to be encumbered by the weight of a knapsack, but able to march when not encumbered, could purchase from the guard the privilege of stowing away what they wished in the wagons. Frequently a ride upon the ponies belonging to good-natured men of the guard was to be had by parting with some article of value to them, as the Texans were always ready to trade or steal when they could. A Sergeant Bradford is said by the boys to have been a “tip-top fellow.”

The story of the march cannot be described in a more interesting manner than is given by Sergeant Waterman, Company D, in his diary, and the same is presented here:

“February 9th—Breakfast at five A.M. At six o’clock formed line, and one half an hour later commenced the march for the day from Burr’s Ferry. The first eight miles were done without a halt, over a good road, through a heavily-timbered country. Hard pine, very large and tall, some one hundred feet high to the limbs. After we started again from a rest, we went through a swamp about three miles in length, timbered with beach, magnolia and other trees, and at noon halted, after making eleven miles. On this halt killed and dressed two beeves. Marched again about two miles through swamps and then came to higher ground with pine trees again, large and straight, as before. At six o’clock P.M. arrived at a place called Huddleston and went into bivouac for the night, with the boys about played out after marching eighteen miles, and after lying still about two months.

“February 10th—Started at seven o’clock A.M. footsore and weary, with the sky looking like rain. At noon had marched seven miles. Dined on corn-dodger and beef; some of the boys felt as if they had eaten so much beef they were ashamed to look a cow in the face. Weather became warm and pleasant. At half-past five o’clock P.M. halted for the night in a pine grove with a brook near by, at a little place with two houses and one cotton press, called Fifteen Mile Mill.

“February 11th—Started at half-past six A.M. and at eight o’clock met the mail—a man on horseback with a mail bag. It is trying to rain, but cannot make out very well. At noon it cleared off and a halt was made for dinner in a pine forest. Has been nearly all pine woods so far. Passed over a sandstone ledge this morning so soft that it could easily be broken in the hand. At three o’clock P.M. we were halted once more to rest and remain over night, as the march has badly blistered the feet of the boys.

“February 12th—Rain commenced to fall at four o’clock A.M., raining hard until seven o’clock, when, slacking up some, we started again through a swamp seven miles long, with the water knee deep all the way. Had to stop in the rain for a bridge to be repaired, so that the wagons could pass. Passed Hineston, a village of three shanties and a pig-sty, at quarter-past ten, and at noon halted to cook a pot of mush for dinner, the rain spoiling all of the corn bread and meat. The mush tasted good, as we had very little breakfast. Are on high pine land with wild flowers in bloom. Put up for the night in a very pretty place with enough old shanties to hold all the men. Had to sit up until eleven o’clock trying to dry our clothes.

“February 13th—Started at eight in the morning over a very good road for about three miles, and then came down on to what they call Red River bottom, composed of a red sand, clay and glue. Such walking was never seen. Passed by some very fine plantations, where the negroes were as happy as clams at high water, lining the fences and grinning like so many Cheshire cats. Halted near a bayou for dinner, where, upon the opposite side, the mocking birds were singing. Sun came out and it is warm. The grass is green and looks like the last of May at home. Plenty of sheep and lambs all around. Passed through a hedge of rose bushes at least twenty feet high. We are in sight of Alexandria, and at seven P. M. went aboard the roomy steamer New Falls City, in time to escape the rain.

“February 14th—A pleasant day. Boys feel somewhat sore. Heard yesterday that we might have to march two hundred miles more, but I told Lieutenant Howerton to-day that we could not do it any way, and he says we may not have to march more than twenty-five or thirty miles—perhaps none at all. At three P. M. it looks like a heavy shower; the clouds are black and threatening, with heavy thunder. The river is high and roily; as we use it to cook with, the corn-dodger looks like a red sweet cake.”

Marching was over when the Red River was reached. The men had done well, bearing sickness, suffering and fatigue without a murmur; obeying the orders of Sergeants Waterman, Goodrich and Hunt (who were in command of Companies D, G and I, respectively), with commendable zeal, excepting in one instance when Private Fitzallen Gourley, Company D, defied the authority of Sergeant Waterman, who had placed him upon a working detail of men while at Beaumont, and obliged the sergeant to report the case to the Confederate lieutenant, who threatened to return Gourley to Houston, and place him in jail, before he would yield.

That part of the country covered by the line of march was generally admired by the men, so different from anything to be seen at home, and their first sight at pine woods. Small villages on the route, considerable distance apart, with very few houses intervening, made it seem as though they were passing through a wilderness. The dense woods furnished an abundance of wood for cooking purposes, and torches for light at night. The few inhabitants to be met were well-disposed, simple-minded, honest people.

It was on Sunday, February 15th, that the Federal war steamer Queen of the West, an inferior looking craft, having safely passed the Vicksburg batteries to play a flying-devil upon the Red River, gave the Confederates a great scare at Alexandria. The prisoners were ashore, when word came at four o’clock A.M. to be ready to start at any moment as the Federals were coming up river. After breakfast, at half-past six o’clock, all hands were hurried on board the steamer General Quitman, and a race was run for about five miles, with the river behind them full of boats skedaddling in a perfect panic. In the afternoon the panic subsided, and at four o’clock, after news had been received that two Federal gunboats had been taken—the Queen of the West captured, and the De Soto abandoned and burnt—all speed was made for Alexandria again, where mules and wagons were taken aboard.

After starting down the river at daylight next day, the Queen was met during the morning in tow of a river steamer on her way to Alexandria for repairs. The crew of the Queen had escaped to the gunboat De Soto by floating upon cotton bales, except five men who were noticed on shore, where a fire was started to obtain warmth, and were made prisoners. Everything went on quiet and smooth until passing three small one-gun batteries upon the right bank; at half-past two o’clock P. M., because a signal to stop was not noticed, two rounds of grape-shot were fired at and almost into them. Shot flew thick all around the boat, fortunately hitting no one. Turning back, despatches for the Confederate officer in command were sent on board, causing a delay of half an hour before the trip was resumed, and continued until dark. About midnight, orders came from the lieutenant of the guard for all hands to turn out and help wood-up ship; but his unbearable manner in giving his order roused the devil in them and they refused to do so. He threatened and swore, to no purpose, for the men remained obdurate. He had his revenge, however, in not allowing the prisoners to draw rations next day until late in the afternoon, thus allowing them only one meal in twenty-four hours.

On the seventeenth, early in the morning, while proceeding up river again in wake of three other steamers, all making fast time, the subject of seizing the transport-boat was again broached by sailors anxious and ready to try it. While on their way down the Neches River to Sabine Lake, a seizure of the boat then was talked over by the warrant officers in command of companies, but was abandoned from a want of knowledge where to go after obtaining possession. Upon the Red River there did not exist so favorable circumstances for success as there was at Sabine Lake. At the latter place they would have had to pass down the lake to Sabine Pass, and by a fort commanding the channel, before reaching the blockading vessels. Stratagem could have effected this purpose, but upon the Red River Confederate gunboats held the river to the Mississippi after the Queen of the West and De Soto were lost by the Federals. To have passed the enemy’s boats by deceit, or otherwise, would have been impossible. Frequent consultations of the men concerned in the plot failed to develop any plan of action all would give coöperation, and the attempt was wisely abandoned.

After remaining over night above the three batteries before mentioned waiting the return of a courier, sent to Alexandria early in the evening for orders, at noon a transport-boat came alongside with a detachment of two hundred and seventy-eight men, Eighth Infantry, United States Regulars, who had been basely surrendered in Texas, by General Twiggs, May 9th, 1861, on the commencement of hostilities between the North and South, and been retained in close confinement up to this time. Five or six of the men had their wives with them; one with a family of two children.

A day or two after these prisoners arrived on board, one of the women got into a wordy warfare with a private of the guard, who was abusive in speech and manner. The Confederate soldier had said to the woman that if she was only a man he would shoot her, when a private of the Eighth Regulars, who could stand it no longer, made the quarrel a personal one with himself, calling the Confederate a d——n coward, and offered to go ashore for a fight with any weapon he would name. To this bold challenge the Confederate interposed an objection, that he could not fight with a prisoner of war. Our “bold soger boy” said: “That need not interfere; I will fight you with pistols, ten paces apart, right here.” Nothing but sneers were given in reply by the soldier and his comrades of the guard, who had clustered around. In return the United States soldier taunted them all with being cowards, offering to fight the crowd in any fashion they chose, without effect; they finally slunk away. The women were not molested afterwards.

All of the prisoners were conditionally paroled on the eighteenth and nineteenth, and a flag of truce raised upon the boat, with the intention of proceeding to Vicksburg. Horses, mules and wagons were sent ashore, but a start was not made until the twenty-third, on account of trouble experienced in obtaining wood. There was a dispute on the twenty-first, between the officer of the prisoners’ guard and officers upon the steamer Grand Era, in regard to wood that had been supplied the flag of truce boat by the steamer La-Fourche in the morning, resulting finally in a compromise, allowing the Grand Era to have one-half of what was on board. Pistols were drawn amid a general cursing match in the altercation, and at one time a fight was imminent between the two factions. Just as the wood was gone the Grand Duke came alongside searching for the same article, but left without obtaining any.

At last, during the evening of the twenty-second, a boat load of sixty cords was received, about half enough for one day’s consumption, for the General Quitman used from ninety to one hundred and ten cords each twenty-four hours, when the boat steamed down river at daylight next day. After stopping at a wood pile to take on about one hundred cords more, a final start was made for Port Hudson, instead of Vicksburg as first intended, passing Fort De Russy during the day, when Romain was able to rough sketch the work. The Mississippi River was reached at half-past two P. M., and at the sunset hour a high bluff, lined with cannon and men, was dimly discernible, on account of the thick misty rain storm prevailing, which the guard called Port Hudson.

Early on the morning of the twenty-fourth the prisoners were turned over to Federal naval officers, who sent them and the General Quitman to Baton Rouge, where they landed and were made comfortable, glad to be once more within the Federal lines. Lieutenant Howerton received a torrent of abuse as the paroled men left his boat, after revenge prompted them to throw overboard all movable property they could find upon the steamer, without any attention to Howerton’s request: “Now, gentlemen, please stop.” The red-headed soldier of his command did not dare to show his ugly face, for the prisoners wanted to thrash him. Several negroes were on the river shores, above Alexandria, when the sight of blue-coated soldiers upon the Quitman conveyed an idea to them that the Federals occupied the river. They shouted and sang for “Massa Linkum’s sogers”—“take us wid yer”—in a manner that upset the temper of Lieutenant Howerton, who ordered his men ashore to capture them. They were brought aboard and made to attend boiler fires until reaching Port Hudson, when they stole a boat belonging to the Quitman and made their escape.

Cloudy, or rainy and cold weather had been experienced about every day since their arrival at Alexandria. Cooped on board river steamers most of the time, using Red River water for cooking and drinking, with the depressing effect of bad weather, caused a great deal of sickness among the men, chiefly diarrhœa. On the march, or on board river steamers, through sickness, suffering and fatigue, the men kept up their spirits wonderfully. Very little recreation in the way of foraging for food could be done upon the march, although every opportunity that presented itself was improved to the utmost, many a “porker” falling victim to their snares. Pigs appeared to be the only animal available when a foraging party went to work.

Embarking upon the Iberville, at nine o’clock on the evening of the twenty-fourth, the prisoners arrived at New Orleans about daylight on the twenty-fifth. Through some negligence they were not reported at general headquarters until the twenty-sixth, when special orders were issued, stating that “two hundred and forty men of the Forty-Second Regiment, Massachusetts Volunteers, paroled prisoners, not having been reported to the headquarters, and on the Iberville unattended to and in a starving condition, will be taken charge of by Lieutenant Farnsworth, Fourth Wisconsin Volunteers, and conducted to the camp at Gentilly Crossing, and turned over and kept as paroled men under proper officers.”

They disembarked on the twenty-sixth, and marched to camp under escort of Companies A, B, E and F, after attending a brigade drill. Many were the heartfelt greetings exchanged all around, and for days afterwards the boys were occupied in reciting their adventures and trials.

A communication from General Sherman, commanding Defences of New Orleans, gives the status of the prisoners as follows:

“The Forty-Second Regiment on the Iberville, with the exception of the chaplain, are paroled but not exchanged; the chaplain is unconditionally released. The conditions of the parole are thus stated in the fourth article of the cartel between the United States and the enemy, promulgated in General Orders No. 146 of 1862 from the War Department, adjutant-general’s office: ‘The surplus prisoners not exchanged shall not be permitted to take up arms again, nor to serve as military police or constabulary force in any fort, garrison or field work held by either of the respective parties, nor as guards of prisons, depots, or stores, nor to discharge any duty usually performed by soldiers, until exchanged under the provisions of this cartel.’”

A reply was made March 6th, which elicited from General Sherman a response that everything was satisfactory.

“Headquarters, 42nd Mass. Vols.,
“Camp Farr, Bayou Gentilly, La., March 6th, 1863.

“Sir,—I have the honor to state that your communication of the third inst., enclosing a copy of letter of instructions from headquarters, Department of the Gulf, and inquiring whether special orders from these headquarters, No. 73, current series, February 26th, have been fully carried out, is just received.

“In reply, I would respectively state, that the two hundred and forty men of this regiment, paroled prisoners, were reported to me by Lieutenant Farnsworth, as ordered; and that I have placed them in a separate camp, at a distance of three hundred and eighty paces, or seventy-six rods, from the camp of the men under my command. That I have placed Captain J. D. Cogswell, a competent and efficient officer, at the camp to take charge of them, with instructions to treat them as paroled but unexchanged prisoners of war, and to make such rules and regulations, subject to my approval, as shall conduce to their comfort and welfare.

“I have also given instructions to Lieutenant A. E. Proctor, acting regimental quartermaster, to furnish for them proper rations and such articles of clothing as they are in need of, some of them being quite destitute of clothing. I would also respectfully add, that I have required nothing whatever that shall in the least manner effect their parole, or cause a violation of the ‘cartel’ alluded to.

“I have the honor to remain,

“Very respectfully, your obedient servant, “J. STEDMAN, “Lieut-Colonel commanding.

“To Captain Wickham Hoffman,
“A. A. General Defences New Orleans.”

Had the men at Galveston been captured prior to January 1st, 1863, they would have been declared duly exchanged and ordered to report for duty immediately, February 9th, 1863; a general order issued that day from Department headquarters required all officers, enlisted men and camp followers captured in the States of Texas and Louisiana up to January 1st, 1863, to return to duty at once, as they are declared duly exchanged prisoners of war by General Orders No. 10, dated January 10th, 1863, from the War Department, adjutant-general’s office. The men of the Eighth Regiment, United States Regulars, were exchanged and organized into a battalion for duty with the army. A portion of them under command of Lieutenant Copley Amory, Fourth Cavalry, arrived at Opelousas April 23d to join in the campaign then under way by the Nineteenth Corps. On the twenty-fifth, they were relieved from this service and ordered to return North, as an act of justice to those gallant men. A national salute was fired when leaving Opelousas, and a similar honor was paid them on their departure from New Orleans; General Orders No. 34, Nineteenth Army Corps, made honorable mention of their record, accompanied by a full roster of the men.

The trouble between Federal and Confederate War Departments over the exchange of prisoners commenced in 1863, so all attempts to effect an exchange for the men of the Forty-Second failed. At Gentilly Crossing they remained, until about the time the regiment embarked for home, in a camp laid out very neat, kept in good order, with ovens and fire-places for cooking purposes, built of brick obtained from the ruins of an old sugar house across the Gentilly road, opposite their camp.

Familiarly nicknamed the “pet lambs,” their military life was one of inglorious ease, much to their disgust.

CHAPTER VIII.
At Bayou Gentilly—March—April.

The month of March was dull enough to suit an epicure or sluggard. Additional details from the regiment for service elsewhere was the order of the day. In response to a call by special orders from headquarters, Defences of New Orleans, the following men were detailed from Company E, March 1st, for service in the Fourth Massachusetts Battery, in need of men:

Privates Alender E. Dorman, Henry C. Tyler, George H. Hathorn, Lyman Hathorn, Leonard Mahon and Michael Nedow.

On the tenth, Captain Coburn and Lieutenant John P. Burrell, Company A, with three sergeants, five corporals and forty-eight privates, left camp to take post at Battery St. John, situated on the Bayou St. John.

The monotony of camp life was relieved by a brigade drill held on the third. On this occasion Sergeant Charles A. Attwell, Company G, who had been detailed March 2d to act as band-major, made his first effort in that line of business. Attwell was a stout, pompous appearing man, well calculated to deceive anybody on a slight acquaintance, and he made out of his position all that any man could possibly squeeze. On the march to and from the drill ground he made love to all the women, who followed the regiment with pies and cakes for sale. Dropping to the rear of the column, when a route step was taken, Attwell would be found, escorted by these women, liberally helping himself to their goods. There was a reason for all this on his part; a perfect specimen of a “dead beat,” he never paid for anything, except in compliments.

A ripple of excitement was created on the eighth, when a letter from Colonel Farr was received, with orders to hold the men in readiness for marching orders at a moment’s notice. On the thirteenth, when the paroled men were ordered to get ready for transfer to the United States Barracks and there quartered, it looked like a general breaking up of camp at Gentilly Bayou, and the men were in fine spirits again. The latter orders were immediately countermanded, and the camp soon settled down to the old state of things.

There existed, among regiments that arrived in January and February, a heavy sick list, accompanied with a loss of many men by death. An inquiry into the cause, ordered by General Sherman, produced the following interesting circular, issued to all commanding officers under his orders. One reason for incorporating this circular as a part of the regimental record, is to show certain officers and men of the regiment, who were accustomed to disregard nearly all of the recommendations contained therein, what results will follow from not performing one of the highest duties that belong to an officer on active service, viz., personal attention to the health of his men.

“CIRCULAR.
“Headquarters Defences New Orleans,
“New Orleans, March 7th, 1863.

“Upon the following report of the medical director of this command of February 21st, ult., the brigadier-general commanding has made this indorsement:

“’It is believed that a publication of Surgeon Sanger’s report, to the troops of this command, fully approved as it is by me, will be sufficient to awaken a greater spirit of pride and vigor in attention to duty.

“’There is no doubt but that a want of attention to personal cleanliness, of proper police, and of vigorous, hearty, and interested attention to duty, is the cause of most sickness now prevalent.

“’I call upon all commanding officers to look carefully into this matter, and endeavor to prevent not only all unnecessary mortality, but that continued reduction of the duty list, which so much enfeebles the efficiency of the command.

“’Commanding officers must not take upon themselves to excuse men and officers from duty on the plea of sickness. The medical officers alone are to decide who are fit or unfit for duty.’

“WICKHAM HOFFMAN, “Assistant Adjutant-General.

---

“New Orleans, March 5th, 1863.

“Captain W. Hoffman,
“Assistant Adjutant-General:

“In obedience to your instructions, I have examined with care and interest the various hospitals and regiments in this command, to ascertain the cause of so much sickness. My investigations have been thorough, having visited nearly every cook-house, street, and tent, observing drainage, etc., in this command.

“The results of my investigations are not altogether satisfactory, and in some instances contradictory. The special cause of disease in individual regiments is hard to arrive at, because what seems to predispose to disease in one case is harmless in another, and results are so dependent upon the mental and moral influences exerted over the men, their special predisposition and resistance to disease, and their idiosyncracies, and previous habits. I have, however, arrived at certain general conclusions of importance.

“First. There is but little, if any, malarious poison generated at present. I did not see a characteristic case of intermittent fever, and but one case of remittent. In many cases where malarial fever was reported, it was either initiative fever, or one of the species of the continued form, or the regiments had been previously exposed to malaria, and the damp weather, or other untoward circumstances had developed or reproduced it. In confirmation of this may be instanced the Twenty-Sixth Massachusetts, now suffering from intermittent. This regiment had fever and ague severely at Forts Philip and Jackson last June and July, but after being ordered to the Custom House, beyond malarious influences, recovered. Since the rainy season set in, their quarters have been dark and damp, and this fever has been reproduced.

“Second. The camping ground outside the city is very similar in character; there is but little choice of grounds, most of the camps are susceptible of pretty good drainage, and the difference of altitude does not vary more than twelve to seventeen inches. Some camps are more accessible to certain conveniences, such as drinking water, sinks and places for the disposal of slops, and those on the immediate banks of the river are more exempt from whatever malaria exists at the present time, yet these differences do not account for the disparities in the sick reports.

“Third. Neatness in cooking and person, and cleanliness of camps, are powerful agents in preserving health, and in proportion to the observance of Heaven’s first law, did I see exemption from disease. It is not sufficient, however, that soldiers should be passive agents in the accomplishment of this, but their pride and ambition should be aroused, they should be made to feel that it was not only necessary for the preservation of health, but laudable.

“Wherever I found officers who had inspired spirit in their men, and had taken a personal interest in keeping their soldiers and camps clean, and where soldiers had been made to feel that excellence in these points was meritorious, and that a deviation would not only not be permitted but surely punished; and where I found men were convinced that to complain was unmanly and nursing not the privilege of the soldier, there I found a healthy regiment.

“The One Hundred and Tenth New York had the largest sick list, two hundred and ninety-two; this regiment was on shipboard fifty-three days; after landing had some ship fever and about one hundred cases of measles; lost fifteen men. The voyage, measles and deaths depressed the men somewhat, besides men from agricultural districts do not seem to be so hardy and stand campaigning as well as city soldiers. The camp was neat, tents floored and cooking good; men looked pretty vigorous; think the surgeon too lenient, but he said if he did not excuse the men the colonel would. Should say the sick report might be reduced one-third with impunity.

“The Sixteenth New Hampshire was encamped near the One Hundred and Tenth New York, had one hundred and seventy-three sick; only fifteen days on shipboard; lost ten men; principal disease, diarrhœa; camp was not so well drained as the One Hundred and Tenth New York. Tents and streets were very dirty and the men unwashed, some had not washed for four weeks and the most not for two weeks.

“The One Hundred and Sixty-Second New York, camping on the same ground, had very few sick. This regiment was enlisted in New York City; were forty-one days on shipboard, and, I believe, had not lost a man in camp. The surgeon attended personally to the cooking, drainage and cleanliness of camp, and the commanding officer had his suggestions rigorously enforced.

“The Thirty-Eighth Massachusetts had one hundred and fifty-five sick; tents provided with floors; streets pretty neat, and the facilities for drainage good; cook tents too much crowded, and cooking not attended to as it ought to be; principal disease, diarrhœa; think the surgeon a little too lenient; says there were forty chronic cases, which never ought to have been enlisted; attributes diarrhœa to sour bread.

“The Fifty-Third Massachusetts had one hundred and thirty-six sick; sick list swelled by a number of cases of scarlet and lung fever; lung fever caused by sleeping on the damp ground for the first fortnight after their arrival. The hospital was not neat; sick were not provided with comforts, and the surgeon complains that he could not make his hospital fund available. Both assistant-surgeons sick. Cooking done in the open air, without shelter from the heavy rains.

“The One Hundred and Twenty-Eighth New York had one hundred and twenty-three sick; were on shipboard forty-two days; did not pay the same attention to cleanliness and fumigation that the One Hundred and Sixty-Second New York did; have had a large number of cases of ship fever, nearly one hundred; lost thirty-nine men. Principal cause of disease at present, diarrhœa. Neither the camp nor hospital are in good condition. The soldiers don’t take pride in grading their streets and keeping their tents clean. Counted beef bones by the dozen about their tents. Many of their patients are treated in hospital tents and on the floor. Suggested to the colonel to take a confiscated house within his regimental lines, now occupied by the One Hundred and Sixty-Second New York. A vacant house can be found near the camp of the One Hundred and Sixty-Second New York, quite as convenient for the latter.

“The Twenty-Sixth Connecticut has one hundred and fifty sick. Diseases, typhoid fever and diarrhœa. Number of deaths, nine. I think the cause of so much disease, and kind, can be traced to want of cleanliness. The tents were all disorderly and dirty. Attention was not paid to keeping the drains and streets free from mouldy bread, meat bones and orange peel. The men had a listless and indifferent look, as if waiting the expiration of their term of service.

“The Fourth Massachusetts had one hundred and fourteen sick; on shipboard forty-eight days; no deaths; diarrhœa prevailing. Through the energy and attention of their commander, this regiment has escaped serious disease. Did not see any very sick in hospital or quarters. The men were enjoying a little respite after long confinement on shipboard.

“The Sixth Michigan is improving; still show the effects of the malaria of last summer.

“The Fifteenth New Hampshire are rapidly improving; officers and men becoming very much interested in improving their camp.

“The Twenty-Sixth Massachusetts has a large number in general hospital. The inclement weather and dark, gloomy and damp quarters give them a sickly look. I think they would rapidly improve if the regiment was removed to drier and more airy quarters.

“The One Hundred and Sixty-Fifth New York and Thirty-First Massachusetts are very free from disease. Much is due in both these regiments to the spirit, energy and attention of their commanders and surgeons. The camp of the One Hundred and Sixty-Fifth New York is scrupulously neat, clean and well drained—best camp in this command; and personal attention seems to be paid by the officers to everything conducive to health and comfort. The other regiments of your command are in very good condition, and present very small sick reports.

“I found very few of the regimental cooks furnished with the little cook books issued by the Commissaries. Either the Commissaries have failed to furnish them, or the company to distribute them. Most of the cooks seemed anxious to be supplied with them.

“The use of mixed vegetables is almost universally neglected. It is important to accustom the regiments to the use of them, at least once a week, in soups, as fresh potatoes will soon fail, and the habitual use of some succulent vegetable is essential to health, as well as to prevent the cravings of a ravenous appetite, produced by a want of that variety to which soldiers have been accustomed in private life. A morbid appetite is created by this neglect, and when soldiers get access to such food they invariably overload their stomachs.

“Respectfully, your obedient servant,
“EUGENE F. SANGER,
“Medical Director, General Sherman’s Command.”

The first vacancy among commissioned officers of the regiment was caused by the resignation of First-Lieutenant David A. Partridge, of Company B, who remained in Massachusetts to look after deserters when the regiment left the State, and was granted a discharge by War Department Special Orders No. 105, dated March 5th, to enable him to accept a commission and recruit for the Fifty-Fourth Massachusetts Colored Volunteers. The vacancy was filled March 24th by the election of Second-Sergeant Benjamin C. Tinkham, Company B, jumping Second-Lieutenant J. C. Clifford and the first-sergeant, who were in the line of promotion.

The second vacancy was caused by the resignation of Captain Charles A. Pratt, Company E. This vacancy was also filled by an election by the company, April 2d. First-Lieutenant John W. Emerson was made captain, and Second-Sergeant Augustus Ford, Company E, was elected a first-lieutenant, vice Emerson, promoted (if this can be called promotion), jumping Second-Lieutenant Brown P. Stowell, a prisoner of war in Texas, and the first-sergeant, who were in the line of promotion.

This elective system of filling vacancies, one of the inducements held out to attract men to enlist in the nine months’ troops from Massachusetts, was a ridiculous system; one of caucus politics in the army. It was the cause of considerable ill feeling and much trouble in nine months’ organizations from the State. To allow the rank and file to choose by an election their company officers was entirely wrong. Under it any man in the company, no matter what his qualifications may be, stands a chance, by electioneering, to win an officer’s position that is vacant. Merit in that officer who has a right to expect the promotion is overlooked, if that officer has been so unlucky as to incur the displeasure of a few prominent men in his company, and they proceed to spread the dissatisfaction to others, and take their revenge by electing another over him not entitled to the vacancy. What is the consequence? The officer so jumped forthwith loses the interest he formerly had in the command, and does not exert himself to work for the good of the men under him.

It is just to say that in the above cases the selections were good. Perhaps could not be better.

With the exception of a slight clashing of authority between Captain Coburn, in command at Battery St. John, and Lieutenant-Colonel Stedman, concerning some captures of prisoners and seizures of contraband goods on the night of the fourteenth, which required two peremptory letters to be sent to Captain Coburn before it was straightened out, everything worked smooth with the command. This was a case where four citizens were arrested near Bayou St. John in the act of smuggling contraband goods across Lake Ponchartrain; three of them were sent to New Orleans March 17th by orders, and one was discharged March 16th by Lieutenant-Colonel Stedman.

The City of New Orleans so near to many camps, full of enticements of a varied character, was the place to tempt many a soldier who was disposed to evade duty and absent himself without leave. Stragglers from these camps without passes gave provost-guards so much trouble and the evil grew to such proportions every day, Department Special Orders No. 61 were issued March 2d to put a stop to it. There were five hundred men in the city without passes and in confinement reported to the provost-marshal-general March 2d. In one day the provost-guard found nineteen men from one company without a pass; but one man from the Forty-Second is known to have visited the city in this way during March, and he, Private Owen Fox, Company A, was promptly arrested by the guard and sent back to the regiment.

Besides the details already mentioned, the following details were made and changes occurred during the month:

March 4th—Corporal John C. Yeaton, Company E, was reduced to the ranks by regimental special orders as unfit for the position.

March 4th—Private G. G. Belcher, Company F, was relieved as a wagoner and ordered to duty in the ranks, and the captain ordered to appoint a trustworthy person to fill the position of wagoner.

March 5th—Privates Thomas H. Sawyer, Company B, and Joseph V. Colson, Company G, were detailed as markers.

March 5th—Private John A. Loud, Company A, was ordered to report to Lieutenant Pease, division ordnance-officer, to do duty as a mechanic in unspiking guns at Chalmette. He returned to duty in the regiment June 13th.

March 7th—Private J. Augustus Fitts, Company B, was detailed as orderly at regimental headquarters.

March 7th—Private William H. Haven was transferred from Company E to Company F, to date from March 1st.

March 8th—Private Clark K. Denny was relieved from duty as orderly and made a clerk at regimental headquarters.

March 9th—Special Orders, Defences New Orleans, appointed Corporal Uriel Josephs and Sergeant Eben Tirrell, Jr., of Company A, as ordnance-sergeants at Batteries Gentilly and St. John, reporting to the division ordnance-officer.

March 9th—Private Elbridge G. Harwood, Company B, was made regimental carpenter, serving in that capacity until relieved in July.

March 9th—Private George H. Greenwood, Company B, was made cook for the wagoner’s mess, serving as such until relieved in July.

March 31st—Major Stiles and Lieutenant Duncan, Company F, were detailed on court-martial duty by general orders, Defences New Orleans, to serve when such court was held. They were not relieved until July 30th.

In addition to these details the chief-quartermaster asked for names of such men in the regiment as were qualified to act as superintendent of machine works, and in the manufacture and preparation of lumber. Upon inquiry there were found quite a number, who were recommended accordingly, but no detail was made from the regiment.

In this month (March) a few unimportant incidents occurred worth notice because a few members, who are aware of the facts, cannot forget them. One was a hunt after dogs, on the night of March 31st, by a few wild, restless spirits, with a view to exterminate all they could from the neighborhood infested with them. Another was an old negro who could not tell his age, but, from facts gleaned in conversation with him, must have been over one hundred years old. Bent over with age, trembling with weakness, without a home or friends, this old man was a wanderer from camp to camp for food and shelter. On a bitter cold night he struck the Forty-Second camp, and was provided with lodging in the guard-house. None of his kind would care for him, so he said, “since old massa had dun gon’ away.”

Sergeant-Major Bosson, and Sergeant Phil. Hackett, Company G, had an adventure on the Gentilly road on the night of March 10th. A beautiful moonlight evening it was. As they strolled along the road songs were heard, sung by a party of men evidently in liquor. To hide and listen, under the shadow of a board fence, was suggested by Hackett. No sooner done than a few snatches of a secession refrain raised Hackett’s anger to such a point that he was ready to whip the entire party. Bosson advised no interference, as the men had a perfect right to sing. Hackett’s blood was up, however, and when a citizen (the party separated a few moments before) arrived opposite their hiding place, Phil. jumped for him, when the man showed fight. Hackett threw him into a ditch, alongside the road, and by the time he got out, swearing vengeance, Bosson was on hand. The two confronted him. He raised one arm to the back of his neck, when stories, often read in books, of Southerners with bowie knives carried in that spot flashed across the minds of both men, and simultaneously they seized him. Hackett held his arms while Bosson placed a pistol to his head. Frenchman as he was, excited with anger and liquor, the cold muzzle against his temple completely cowed the fellow. A search was made for the suspected bowie knife, but none was found. The man, who gave his name as citizen Ambrose Leonard, was marched into camp a prisoner. As nothing could be charged against him, he was released from arrest March 12th by Lieutenant-Colonel Stedman. There was no good cause for this arrest; the affair sprang from a spirit of mischief and from ignorance of what they had a right to do.

On March 21st occurred the first loss by death the regiment sustained at Bayou Gentilly. Private Obed F. Allen, Company G, a paroled prisoner of war, died in the regimental hospital of typhoid fever. The disease was contracted on the march from Houston. His body was embalmed by a city undertaker at the expense of his comrades in Company G, and sent to his home in Quincy, Massachusetts.

At the close of March there were present for duty in the four companies at Gentilly Bayou and vicinity, seventeen officers and three hundred and fifty-five men.

Present sick in hospital, thirty-six. The average sick per day of the regiment during March was: taken sick, two; returned to duty, two; in hospital, twenty; in quarters, three.

In April the companies attached to regimental headquarters had some work to perform. Brigade special orders, issued on the fourth, placed Lieutenant-Colonel Stedman in command of the stations Bayou Gentilly, Bayou St. John, Lakeport, and the bayous dependent upon the same, with headquarters at Gentilly Bayou, and he was ordered to relieve two companies of the Ninth Connecticut Infantry, then stationed at Lake-end of Bayou St. John and at Lakeport, with two companies from the Forty-Second.

On the fifth, a fine Sunday morning, about ten o’clock, Captain Cogswell (who had been relieved from command of the paroled camp by Lieutenant Powers, Company F) proceeded with his company to Lakeport and relieved Company E, Ninth Connecticut, Captain Wright, then on picket duty from Lakeport to Point aux Herbes, fifteen miles. On the same day thirty-five men of Company A, under Captain Coburn, proceeded to Lake-end of Bayou St. John and relieved Company G, Ninth Connecticut. The Ninth Connecticut men behaved in a most unsoldierlike manner, causing Lieutenant-Colonel Stedman to state the facts to brigade headquarters in the accompanying letter:

“Headquarters Forty-Second Regt., Mass. Vols.,
“Camp Farr, Bayou Gentilly, La., April 6th, 1863.

“Sir,—I have the honor to report that I proceeded yesterday, according to Special Orders No. 54, and moved Company F of this regiment to Lakeport, and there relieved the Ninth Connecticut, Captain Wright, who turned over the public property in his possession to Captain J. D. Cogswell, commanding Company F. The pickets were taken from Company F for Lakeport and all stations below that point.

“At the Lake-end of Bayou St. John I placed thirty men and four non-commissioned officers from Company A, leaving thirty men of the same company at Battery St. John; the whole under command of Captain Coburn, of Company A.

“I have remaining of Company A, nineteen men, four non-commissioned officers and one lieutenant, who are now stationed at Battery Gentilly on the Ponchartrain Railroad, thus making all the stations and pickets outside of this immediate camp under charge of Companies A and F.

“In connection with the relieving of the companies of the Ninth Connecticut Volunteers, I am sorry to be obliged to report the ill-will manifested by many of them at their removal from the lake.

“At Lakeport they broke up and destroyed all the bunks in the building they occupied as quarters and sold all the boards they could remove from the building. Several of them were badly intoxicated, and one drew a knife and another a club on one of the members of Company F for refusing to allow them to pull out the faucets of the water tanks and waste all the water at the quarters.

“At the Lake-end of Bayou St. John the Government schooner Hortense was lying, and the crew of that boat managed, before my men took possession of her, to damage her in several ways. Twelve lights of glass were broken of the cabin windows, and the cabin furniture considerably damaged. They sold the hawser, also the launch, or tender, of the schooner, and many of the cooking utensils were thrown overboard and lost. The water cask and a few of the ropes have been recovered from parties who bought them, but the launch and other things, which they sold, we have not found as yet.

“I would respectfully submit this report as a simple statement of facts which have come under my observation since relieving the companies named.

“I have the honor to remain,

“Your most obedient servant, “J. STEDMAN, “Lieutenant-Colonel commanding.

“To Lieutenant George E. Davis, A. A. A. General,
“Second Brigade, Second Division, New Orleans.”

The boat of the Hortense was found May 2d at Hickok’s Landing in the possession of a coffee house proprietor. There was some correspondence with the brigade commander about this affair, but it was allowed to blow over, and no steps were taken to punish the ringleaders. The Connecticut men were very angry, because taken from a post where they enjoyed themselves to the neglect of duty.

Captain Cogswell soon found there was business to occupy his attention. Within two hours after his arrival a man representing himself as J. D. O’Connell, special detective in Government employ, with a companion, requested assistance in a case they were engaged in working up. Not producing any proof, as requested, that they were in the Government service, a special messenger was sent to the provost-marshal of New Orleans, who returned with the information O’Connell was “all right.” While not fully satisfied in his own mind, the captain concluded to join in the game, intending to arrest them if they did not prove “all right.”

The case was one in which a party of Confederates wished to get across the lake. A sail-boat was furnished by Captain Cogswell with one man disguised as a fisherman, who was to have the boat ready at a certain lonely spot on the road leading to Bayou St. John where it ran close to the water. The party of Confederates were to be ready to cross on the eighth, but did not make the attempt until the night of the tenth. Requesting assistance from the lieutenant-colonel, eight men from Company B, under Lieutenant Tinkham, were sent to Lakeport on the eighth.

A detail of twelve men, divided into two squads, under the commands of Lieutenant Tinkham and Orderly-Sergeant J. A. Titus, Company F, were secreted among bushes that bordered upon the road. Accompanied by the two detectives, who pretended to be Confederates, the party appeared about nine o’clock P.M. The detectives waited until their companions had reached the boat, when they gave a pre-arranged signal, responded to by Lieutenant Tinkham shouting the agreed-on command, “Rally on centre,” fired his pistol, and the squads dashed out from their hiding-places with a shout. One detective pretended to be killed, the other was made a prisoner; all in the plan. It was supposed the men who reached the boat would make a hot fight, but they shouted not to fire and they would agree to come in; as there was some delay in doing so, Sergeant Ballou, Company B, asked and received permission to wade out and hurry them up, taking possession and remaining upon the boat until relieved.

Under guard, the prisoners were marched to Captain Cogswell’s headquarters for examination. They proved to be Major Breedlove, a Confederate spy within the lines for nearly three months, Captain Switzer, a Confederate steamboat man, on his way to take command of a gunboat, and three other men. On the person of Captain Switzer was found $3,098.00; $2,800.00 was in one-hundred-dollar Confederate bills, the balance in notes of Louisiana State Banks, located in New Orleans. Relieved of their personal effects, the prisoners were turned over to the provost-marshal of New Orleans, and the property also. They were confined in the Parish prison for several weeks, and then released. Breedlove and Switzer afterwards visited Captain Cogswell to obtain their property.

Later, on the same night, a negro reported men loading a boat on the lake near the “White House.” Sergeant Ballou was sent with a detail of men to the spot, but did not capture any prisoners. The boat was secured, and found to contain boots, shoes, cards for carding cotton, pipes, matches and sundries.

A schooner, under a Confederate flag of truce, conveying one hundred and thirty-three United States soldiers, sailors and marines, captured at Vicksburg, paroled for exchange, arrived on the sixth, accompanied by Confederate Commissioner of Exchange, Colonel Zyminsky. The men were in a sad condition from detention upon the lake by a severe storm, three days without food or water. They were supplied with all of the food at the post, not enough to go around, and some of the men ate raw potatoes, preferring to do so instead of waiting to have them cooked. After a few hours delay sufficient supply for their immediate wants was obtained.

Colonel Zyminsky, a Pole by birth, resided in New Orleans when the war commenced. His wife was then residing in the city, and came out to the post to see him. Captain Cogswell allowed her five minutes to exchange compliments, but that was all the colonel desired, and, in fact, said he did not want to see her anyhow. Zyminsky was a giant, six feet four inches in height, as large everyway in proportion. Such a nose! A pickled blood-beet was pale beside it. He wanted a twelve-gallon demijohn of Louisiana rum more than he did a visit from his wife. He got the visit, but did not get the rum, although he clandestinely ordered it. The demijohn was brought to the wharf, where Cogswell would not allow it to pass, so Colonel Zyminsky went back across the lake very dry.

To northern soldiers all southern scenery, cities and towns, so different in character to what they were accustomed to see North, charmed the eye and senses of those men who had not travelled far away from home, until a thorough acquaintance with any locality where they were stationed produced a desire to get away. After the novelty of being in a new section of country wore off, the men were unanimous in praise of their own sections as the proper place to live, enjoy life while living, and be laid away when dead.

Lakeport was no exception to this first seductive influence. A small village, with a few one-story houses, two hotels that entertained dinner parties from New Orleans, repair shops for the Ponchartrain Railroad, and a school-house was about all there was to it. On Sundays there were many visitors from the city bent on pleasure, as though no war was in progress. The hotels for dinners and bath houses to sport in the lake water were objective points. Occasionally, large numbers of colored men and women came out early on Sunday mornings to witness ceremonies of baptism to a score of both sexes who had joined a church. The religious fervor was always great on such occasions, coupled with antics of voice and body that cannot be described. White-robed negro women would become unmanageable when ducked under, as the boys termed it; if two stout assistants did not lead their religious sisters to where the minister stood and be ready to seize them after baptism for conveyance on shore they would drown. An exhibition of this character once seen can never be forgotten. While on duty at Lakeport, Company F could not complain of a monotonous existence.

Picket duty at the Lake-end Bayou St. John requiring extra attention, ten privates were sent from Gentilly Battery, on the sixth, to reënforce Captain Coburn, and on the ninth, Lieutenant Clifford, Company B, was ordered there to assist the captain, remaining at the post until the twenty-first.

The schooner Hortense was repaired under supervision of Corporal Croome, Company F (an old sailor), who was detailed to command her, with the following crew: Kirkland A. Hawes (an old sailor) was mate; Privates John J. Upham, cook; George M. Roberts, Thomas H. Robinson, George Adams, all of Company F, and Rufus C. Greene, Company G, were seamen. Two picket-boats for night duty were respectively in charge of Corporal George L. Stone, assisted by Privates Charles M. Marsh and John Kraft; Sergeant Hiram Cowan, assisted by Privates Albert W. Cargell and James F. Harlow. These small boats captured many prisoners with contraband goods, in their attempts to cross the lake. The schooner was used for picket duty and to carry supplies to such picket-posts as were stationed on the bayou outlets.

On the fifth, Corporal Rhodes and three privates of Company B, with rations for one week, were detailed to proceed as a guard, on the schooner Concordia, carrying stores and property to Fort Pike and Fort Macomb.

When the steamer N. P. Banks was loaded at Lakeport with supplies for Pensacola, and ready to sail on the twenty-first, Captain A. N. Shipley, A. Q. M. in New Orleans, called for a detail. Sergeant Ballou, Corporal Fales and twelve privates from Company B composed the detail, with rations for one week. The instructions Ballou received from Shipley were, to go aboard the Banks as a guard, watch the captain, a southerner, and see that he stopped at all forts on the lake to leave provisions and various stores, then to proceed to Fort Pickens, and Pensacola. If the steamboat captain showed any disposition to do otherwise, then he was to arrest all of the officers and run the steamer into the blockading fleet off Mobile and report. The transport vessel that made a similar trip, a short time previous, had been run through the blockaders into Mobile by her officers, and the cargo passed into Confederate hands. The round trip was made in five days, without any event of importance.

These duties of detailed men, with constant activity at the lake posts to prevent smuggling across to the enemy, gave many men a taste of active duty that was fatiguing, if it was without glory.

It was hard work to get rolls, returns and statements, required by army regulations, made correctly and promptly by company officers of the regiment. A few officers appeared to think these documents were unnecessary, a species of red tape to be fought down. Still it was said they averaged as good as any organization in the Gulf Department, if not better. In the army, among those who knew nothing about it, a great deal of talk was constantly made about red tape. Among business men the wonder was, that the vast machinery of an army could be successfully kept going with such simple returns. There was nothing about them a school-boy of ordinary ability could fail to understand in a short time of study. To understand the nature and use of these documents was as much the duty of an officer as to know how to drill his men. His duty to the men demanded it. Without them payments could not be made, either bounties or wages, rations provided, clothing held in readiness for issue, pensions granted for disability or to the proper relatives of deceased soldiers. Many a large corporation or business house, in their method of conducting business, requires a system much more complicated than the Government has in use for administration of the army. When delays and trouble occurred in the rolls, returns, etc., it was usually traced to the inability of some officer to understand them.

The company returns required were: morning reports, company muster rolls, company muster and pay rolls, company monthly return, returns of men joined company, descriptive lists, quarterly company returns deceased soldiers, muster-in rolls, muster-out rolls, enlistments, re-enlistments, furloughs, discharges, final statements, rolls of prisoners of war, ordnance returns.

All very simple to fill up properly; each return so printed that there was no excuse for not understanding how it was to be done.

The regimental returns required were: consolidated morning reports, field and staff muster rolls, field and staff muster and pay rolls, muster rolls of hospital, muster and pay rolls of hospital, regimental monthly returns, lists of officers, alterations in officers, quarterly regimental returns of deceased soldiers, annual return of casualties.

Careful supervision at regimental headquarters was necessary of company pay rolls, in order to have them correct before forwarding to proper officers.

The regimental books were lost at Galveston; it became necessary to make out a new descriptive book, and could only be done by obtaining the company descriptive books to copy. Captain Bailey, Company H, had peculiar ideas of his own in regard to making proper company returns to regimental headquarters, and when he refused to obey an order from Lieutenant-Colonel Stedman, to forward his company book, it was proper to discipline him.

On the thirteenth a regimental order to Captain Leonard, Company C, in command of Companies C and H, contained the following: “You will also forward to these headquarters the descriptive books of both companies C and H of the regiment, for copying in the regimental records.” What followed is explained in a letter written to the brigade-commander next day:—

“Headquarters Forty-Second Regt., Mass. Vols.,
“Camp Farr, Gentilly Station, La., April 14th, 1863.

“Sir,—I would respectfully report that the enclosed is a copy of an order sent to Camp Parapet yesterday, by my orderly, and that Captain Leonard complied with the order at once. Captain D. W. Bailey, of Company H, absolutely refused to send his descriptive book, saying that ‘the colonel or no other man should have his company books.’ If he was under my immediate command here at the camp, it would be clear to my mind how I should act in this case. In the present instance I am not sufficiently informed what my action should be in the premises, not knowing fully how the commanding general considers their relations to this regiment, and more particularly to the commanding officer of the same.

“I would respectfully refer the case to Colonel Farr, for advice and information.

“I have the honor to remain,

“Your obedient servant, “J. STEDMAN, “Lieutenant-Colonel, 42nd Mass. Vols.

“To Lieut. Geo. E. Davis, A. A. A. General,
“Second Brigade, Second Division, New Orleans.”

By orders of General Sherman, Captain Bailey was placed in arrest on the sixteenth, sent to Gentilly Station the next day, an orderly bringing the descriptive book that caused the trouble. Under orders from brigade headquarters, charges and specification of charges were forwarded on the sixteenth. The assignment to quarters, while in arrest, was as follows:

“Headquarters Forty-Second Regt., Mass. Vols.,
“Camp Farr, Bayou Gentilly, La., April 17th, 1863.

“Captain,—You having been reported at these headquarters in arrest by orders of Brigadier-General Sherman, you are hereby assigned quarters in the large tent to the left of these headquarters, and you will hold yourself within the following limits, viz.: On the right, on a line with the guard line and the right flank of this camp. In front, on a line with the woods in front of the camp. On the left, on a line with the tents on the left flank of the camp of paroled prisoners. In the rear, on a line with the road extending along the rear of this camp.

“You are also referred to the Army Regulations in relation to officers in arrest, in relation to communications, etc.

“By command of

“Lieutenant-Colonel J. STEDMAN,
“Charles A. Davis, Adjutant.

“To Captain Davis W. Bailey,
“Company H, 42d Regt., Mass. Vols.”

Until May 14th the captain remained at Gentilly Bayou, when he was allowed the limits of New Orleans, until the findings in his case were promulgated.

The charges and specifications in this case, and findings of the Court, were as follows—copied from General Orders, No. 48, Nineteenth Army Corps: