Memoirs of a Veteran Who Served as a Private in the 60's in the War Between the States / Personal Incidents, Experiences and Observations

by I. Hermann

CHAPTER XXVII.

This brings us towards the last part of December, 1864. When General Hood planned his campaign to the rear of General Sherman, instead of following General Johnston's tactics and thus leaving the balance of the State of Georgia to the tender mercies of our adversaries, who had no mercy or respect for age nor sex, but wantonly destroyed by fire and sword whatever they could lay their hands on, save the booty and relics with which they were loaded. Howell's battery, on account of their horses being exhausted, could not follow General Hood's army into Tennessee, and were ordered to Macon to recruit. This Company had seen arduous service from Chickamauga to Atlanta, including Jonesboro. After the battle of Chickamauga, one of the hardest contests of the war, in which the confederate forces were successful, Howell's battery had the honor to open the battle from the extreme right, on the 18th day of September, 1863. On the 19th, which was on Saturday, the fight was progressing furiously, with no results, both armies holding their own, but on Sunday morning our forces centered their attack on the enemy's center, charged through their lines and rolled them back in complete disorder, and the victory was ours. General Bragg rested his forces for a few days and renewed the fight around Chattanooga, Lookout Mountain and Missionary Ridge. He found the enemy well fortified and ready. The battle was a sanguinary one; Howell's battery besides losing two pieces of artillery, which were recovered in the evening and returned to us, lost in wounded, Leonidas Hines, Frank Bailey and Corporal Braswell, and captured James Mullen, John S. Kelley, John Tompkins and John Braswell. That night General Bragg withdrew as quietly as possible and went into camp at Dalton, where we spent in winter quarters. At Macon they did provost duty under direction of General Howell Cobb. The writer drifted back through Alabama expecting to rejoin Dr. Crawford as soon as he would locate, and being intercepted by Federal troops I reported to the nearest Confederate post, which proved to be General Beaufort from Kentucky, a cavalry officer at Union Springs, Alabama. General Abe Beaufort was of colossal stature and an able officer, so I reported to him for duty until I could join my proper command. He said, Have you a horse? We are cavalry. I said, No, but I expect to get one the first fight we get into. He laughed and said, Well, you can hang around here. I stayed at his quarters several days. One day he seemed to be worried more than usual; I ventured to say, "General, You seem to be worried over something." He said, "I have enough to worry about; there is General Forrest at Selma; I have sent him two couriers and neither of them have reported; I don't know what became of them, whether they have been captured, killed or run away. I want to hear from General Forrest so that we can act in concert of action." The Federals who held possession of Montgomery under General Wilson's corps d'army, who later captured President Jefferson Davis in Irwin County, Ga., during the several days of my hanging around at General Beaufort's Headquarters, he asked me how long I had been in the service. I said, "I joined the first Company that left my county and the first regiment that left my State." How long had you been in this country before the war broke out? I answered that I came to Georgia direct from France in the Fall of 1859, about sixteen months before I enlisted. I found in this country an ideal and harmonious people; they treated me as one of their own; in fact for me, it was the land of Canaan where milk and honey flowed. In the discussion of the political issues I felt, with those that I was in contact with, that they were grossly imposed upon by their Northern brethren and joined my friends in their defence, and so here I am, somewhat worsted, but still in the ring. I said, General I have an idea; I think I can carry a dispatch that will land. I have in my possession at home my French passport. I can write for it and use it by going squarely through their lines, as being an alien. I can change my clothes for some citizens clothes. After a little reflection General Beaufort said, "Hermann, you are an angel; it's the very idea." So we arranged to write at once for my pass. It came in due time. The lady of the house where the General kept his quarters furnished me with a suit of jeans cloth, but begged the General not to send me for fear I might meet with reverses. But the General said, He is all right, he can work the scheme. That night I started about ten o'clock, on horseback, with two escorts. It was a starlight night. We passed for some distance through a dense swamp. The General cautioned me to be careful and on the lookout, an admonition I thought entirely unnecessary. He said the enemy's camp was about twelve miles distant, and that they had a company of scouts out that night, and so had we, but as we journeyed along at a walk the lightning bugs were so thick as to blind a fellow and the swamp so dark that we could only designate the road by the distance and open space of the tree tops and the stars. We did not however, meet any of the scouts. On emerging from the swamp I noticed on my right a small farm cottage and a dim light through the cracks of the door. I dismounted, knocked at the door. At first no one answered. I knocked again when a lady's feeble voice answered, Who is there? A friend, was the reply. Open the door please. The door opened and there stood in front of me an old lady of about seventy, I judged, nearly scared to death, trembling from head to foot. To re-assure her I said, Madam, we are Southerners don't be frightened, we won't do you any harm. Can you tell me how far it is from here to the enemy's camp? She answered very excitedly that she had nothing to do with the war, she is only a lone woman and we can't cheat her out of many years. You all have stolen all my meat and did not leave me a mouthful of corn or meat, and I am left here to starve to death. I said, But we are Confederates; but I noticed the woman did not believe me, undoubtedly owing to my brogue, as there were thousands of foreigners in the federal army. I lit a match and scrutinized the ground and noted the doors of the outhouse wide open, houses empty and the ground churned into dust by the horses hoofs. Undoubtedly we were not far from the enemy, as they were there that day and looted the premises. I bid the lady good night and joined my escort who waited for me in the road. As I was about to mount my horse I perceived ahead of me through the limbs of the trees, a bright light. The lady was still standing in the door, and I asked her what that light was we saw ahead of us. She said they were the negro quarters about a quarter of a mile ahead, and I thanked her and we moved a little forward and held consultation as to what was best to do, whether they should return to camp leading my horse back and I to take it afoot or whether we had better go together to the quarters, probably they might get a few potatoes and some buttermilk, for be it understood that we belonged to the hungry army where rations became very scarce, for as a rule the Confederate soldier respected private property and often suffered hunger rather than appropriate property belonging to others. They concluded they might buy something to eat from the darkies. The negroes in those days, as before the war, always had a surplus of provisions. They were well fed, in fact most of them made their own provisions with the exception of meat, their owner allowing them patches and giving them time to cultivate the same for their own use or to sell with their master's permission, which was generally only a matter of form or respect.

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