I claim no special merit for the successful manner in which I guided the caisson down that awful road, because there were thirteen other wheel-drivers who were just as successful, but all the same, I believe it was my thorough knowledge of the peculiarities of my horses that enabled me to do it. I was intimately acquainted with both of them, as I had driven them for twenty months. Both were powerful animals, but with entirely different notions as to how their strength was to be used. Hercules, the nigh horse, which I rode, was always willing to do his full share of the pulling, and if upon occasions it became necessary for him to make an extra effort, he would, at my bidding, take the whole load of the caisson upon his shoulders. The off horse, with almost as much strength, did not believe in pulling, and would not unless he thought I was watching him, when he would put in apparently for all there was in him; but when asked to hold back, he entered into the performance of that act with all the enthusiasm of a horse's nature. I have frequently stopped the whole team by signifying that I wanted him to do his best at holding back.
I have always regretted that I obliged that horse to go down to his grave with a name which entirely misrepresented him. He had the most vicious expression I ever saw upon a horse. His ears were always lopped (I never saw them erect), and he had a habit of parting his lips, showing his teeth in such a manner that it gave one the impresssion that he only awaited an opportunity to attack. His appearance led me, when the sergeant presented him, saying, "George, here is a horse just suited to go with Hercules," to exclaim, "He looks like Old Satan himself!" and from that moment he was known through the battery as "Old Satan."
It was wrong thus to name him, and I desire on this occasion to do him justice by declaring, after two years constant association, during which I learned to think a great deal of him as a horse, that I never saw any evidence of his possessing a single attribute said to be possessed by his namesake. Kind and gentle, he never gave me any trouble. He seemed to have acquired a perfect understanding of how that caisson should be managed upon the march, and I soon learned to trust him with its management. Upon long marches at night, when I found it almost impossible to keep my eyes open, many were the restful naps I enjoyed sitting on Hercules' back with my head pillowed upon the valise in "Old Satan's" saddle.
Speaking about horses, I wonder if my comrades of Battery D have forgotten what an amount of affection was lavished upon the horses by their drivers. Certainly no one of the sixth detachment will ever forget "Old Curley," driven so long as the nigh leader upon their piece, by Anson Mathewson, possessed of an intelligence which enabled him to reason more successfully than some animals of the human species.
We all remember the affectionate regard held by St. John, Billy Mills, William Stalker and many others for their teams. Any of them would tramp miles after dark to some haystack which they had seen during the day, make as large a bundle of the hay as they could carry, bring it to camp, spread it before their horses, and then sit up half the night watching until the horses had consumed it, from fear that some one would steal it and feed it to his own team.
At last we are over the mountains, and the great difficulties of our journey passed. This march of the Army of the Ohio over the Cumberland Mountains has been likened to the crossing of the Alps by Bonaparte, and it seems to me the simile is well taken. Certainly it is hard to imagine difficulties greater than those encountered by our army. The rebel Gen. Buckner, who is said to have had an army of 20,000 men to oppose our entry into East Tennessee, while Gen. Burnside had but about 15,000, was so thoroughly satisfied of the absolute impossibility of the passage of an army from Kentucky to Tennessee at this point, believing that they must come by way of Cumberland Gap, that he made no attempt to oppose us; consequently when we appeared before him his astonishment was so great, and his retreat so precipitous, he failed to notify a detachment of his army, numbering 2,000 men, who were guarding Cumberland Gap, and who soon were obliged to surrender to Gen. Burnside.
Our march of the 28th and 29th had been through a wilderness of rocks; that of the 30th and 31st was through a wilderness of woods. The troops in advance of the battery had worked the road-bed into an almost impassable condition. Our horses having had but little forage since the 21st, and had been forced to work beyond the limits of their strength, now began to give out, many falling from sheer exhaustion. It began to look as though if grain could not be secured for them our chances for getting through would be rather slim. Quartermaster Remington was scouring the country in search of it; but on his return gave the discouraging information that no forage could be secured until we should reach a point about twenty miles further on. There was no other way out of our present difficulty: that point must be reached, and the cannoniers must help the horses pull the carriages.
Our progress was necessarily very slow, but patience, perseverance and lots of hard work, finally accomplished the task, and late in the afternoon of the 31st, as we drove into park, we had the pleasure of seeing Quartermaster Remington ride into camp, followed by two wagons loaded with corn. It gave the drivers much satisfaction to see their teams enjoying the first good feeding which they had had for ten days.
We had now gotten out of the wilderness, and were just about to enter one of those fertile valleys which we had seen from the mountain top. The men who had accompanied the wagons upon the forage trips after the corn, gave us our first impression as to the kind and friendly treatment which we might expect from the people whose country we were just entering, in their description of the reception they had received from those at whose places they had secured the corn.
On the morning of September 1st, after another good feeding, the horses seemed to be in much better condition. About ten o'clock in the forenoon the battery pulled out into the road and joined the division, which had been ordered to make "Big Emery," about twenty miles distant, before dark. We accomplished the task easily, and formed a junction with the column under Gen. Carter, with whom Gen. Burnside had crossed the mountains.