PART 4.
SERVICES AT HELENA, ST. LOUIS, AND NEW ORLEANS—1864-65.
On the 14th of June, 1864, the whole regiment left Fort Snelling, marched to St. Paul, and embarked on the steamboats Enterprise and Hudson, each having two barges in tow for additional accommodation of the men. Arrived at Dunleith, Illinois, on the 17th and took the cars to Cairo, which point was reached on the 19th. Here wagoner Henricks, sick, was left in the hospital. Embarked on the steamer Empress at midnight, and arrived at Helena, Arkansas, and landed there, on the 23rd.
By changes in commissions occurring during the spring, the company had now become the third in rank and in regimental position the fifth from the right, with Company A in front and Company I in the rear or left. Its strength at the time of the arrival was, present 76, aggregate 84; the absentees being Lieutenant Bell and A. J. Hill on detached service, the two Henricks and Schauer sick, and Scheer, Iwan, and Troska left behind at St. Paul.
The regiment at once went into camp, on the bank of the river, one-half mile above the town. Shelter tents were issued now for the first time. The camp was called Camp Buford, and was the last one that was officially named. Troska and Iwan rejoined on the 24th, and also the next day A. J. Hill from detached service at Washington. Detert and Scheibel were detailed as regimental pioneers on the 28th and A. J. Hill as company clerk in the beginning of July.
From the beginning there was a close guard kept around the limited area occupied by the regiment, and it was maintained several weeks. The duty required by the District Commandant was chiefly prison and picket guard. In the first week of July orders were issued to build quarters, and fatigue parties were at once set to work cutting, hauling, and sawing logs for that purpose. Wagoner Henricks rejoined on the 18th.
Companies E and F being detailed to proceed to certain points with a view of obtaining information of the movements of the enemy, the major part embarked, with forty men of the Fifteenth Illinois Cavalry, on the evening of the 13th, on the steamboat Dove, and proceeded up the Mississippi River, reaching Buck Island (No. 52) on the next day, and searched it as ordered. Returned to the levee at Helena the same night, and lay there. Next day, the 15th, went up the St. Francis River, some thirty-five miles, to Alligator Bayou, then returned to Helena and into camp again. The Mississippi River part of this trip was under command of Captain Schoenemann, and the other under that of the major of cavalry. No guerrillas or other enemies were seen. The infantry forces did not land, but the cavalry did and scouted between the two rivers.
Kilian was detached as nurse in the regimental hospital on the 21st. Lieutenant Bell returned on the 22nd, and with him Scheer.
On the 26th of July the regiment went out about two miles beyond the picket lines on the Little Rock road to cover the retreat of some colored troops and cavalry who had been very severely handled that morning at a creek some few miles west of town. On the 1st of August it went out again on the same road as before, but not quite so far, and remained on picket in the woods on the right of the road during the night, returning to camp the next morning. It was understood that a projected attack by the enemy on the defences of the town was the cause of this movement. Nothing of the kind, however, took place.
The heat was now intense, and the sickness increased with alarming rapidity. The building of quarters was given up or postponed, and the houses, more or less finished, occupied as well as they could be. Company E managed to complete—walls and roof—one of the four prescribed barracks, but, being destitute of chinking, in a rainstorm it afforded but poor shelter. Being composed of log and frame houses, board and canvas shanties, the camp of the Sixth Regiment presented, by autumn, a melancholy variety indeed.