Battery D First Rhode Island Light Artillery in the Civil War

by George C. Sumner

Battery D entered East Tennessee well supplied with clothing, the men having replenished their wardrobes at Camp Nelson, but the long journey over the Cumberland Mountains had been so rough, and so filled with difficulties, in the way of climbing the rocky and precipitous roads, the lifting necessary in order to get the heavy carriages over the rough places, had, to say the least, entirely destroyed that appearance of newness which the cloth had possessed a month before. Then came the twice-repeated march, almost from one end of East Tennessee to the other, and it began to dawn upon some of us that the time was not far distant when we should be obliged to draw clothing to hide our nakedness. We were told that a train was then upon its way over the mountains, and promised that as soon as it arrived clothing would be issued. That was a train which was longingly looked for, but never came.

During the three weeks siege the men had no time to give any attention to their persons, and as may be imagined, they were, at the close of the siege, in a deplorable condition. Daily the expected clothing train was looked for, but it did not materialize. Fortunate was it for us that we could not see into the future, and have known that it would be more than two months before we would see that clothing, and realize fully what suffering we would have to endure from the extreme poverty of our condition in regard to clothing and food.

Up to the appearance of Gen. Longstreet, before we had been deprived of the privilege of foraging, our army had been able to live upon the country. His coming altered that condition of things immediately. As soon as Gen. Burnside became assured of the approach of the enemy, he ordered Col. Goodrich, Chief Commissary, to collect all the beef cattle, hogs, etc., and drive them into Knoxville. The hogs were killed and salted; the cattle were collected in two droves, one located near Temperance Hill, the other near Second Creek, in close proximity to Battery D's caissons.

Orders were at once issued to reduce rations. The Commissary, hoping, I suppose, to impress the men's minds with the fact that they were after all getting a fair amount of food, stretched his conscience as much as he could, and called the amount given us one-fourth rations; but the old soldiers that he was trying to deceive were too well posted upon the size of a ration to be thus taken in. They were perfectly certain that a piece of fat pork about the size of their hand, together with a quart of flour or corn meal—ground cob and all—issued to last three days, but frequently made to last four, which could be eaten at one meal without the least sensation of fullness or the slightest indication of indigestion, was not only not a fourth ration, but was not even an eighth. Small rations, such as coffee, beans, etc., were discontinued entirely, the supply being so small that it was found necessary to reserve them all for the hospitals.

Our flour ration was not a popular one, from the beginning, in consequence of the difficulties attending the getting it into edible condition. Before we were shut in we succeeded in getting along fairly well, because we were able to secure from our lady friends a supply of those rather essential articles for making good bread—leaven and salt. After we were shut in we found it impossible to procure those articles, and our efforts at bread-making yielded only a cake of burnt dough, which required a good appetite to enable us to eat.

The enemy found it impossible to extend their line on the northwest much beyond the Taswell road, and on the south the excellent work of a division, aided by the cavalry of the Twenty-third Corps, prevented the rebels from extending their lines much beyond their works, which left open to us the free use of our bridges and enabled us to forage along the French Broad River and out on to the Louisville road, both of which were kept open to our foraging parties during the principal part of the siege. The loyal citizens sent down the French Broad River a large amount of grain and meat in flats, and Capt. Doughty maintained a small force up the river during the whole siege directing the efforts of the people in our behalf.

On our arrival at Knoxville on the 17th, we had a mixed motive power consisting of mules and horses, but as soon as we had been assigned positions in the works, we gave up our mule teams. They had helped us out of a bad hole on the road from Loudon, but we had not taken kindly to them, and were glad to see them go.

Our caissons were parked in the ravine near Second Creek, and all our horses but the wheel teams on the pieces, were picketed in a small grove of pine trees near the caissons. Forage was short, and it was soon found that it was an impossibility to keep them hitched, as they would chew up every piece of leather that they could get at, and in a few days there were no halters to be had, and the picket ropes went with the halters. They ate up all the pine boughs, and finally we had to shoot quite a number of them, as they were so near starved it was a mercy to put them out of their misery.

The departure of the enemy was very satisfactory to us. A person who has never passed through the experience of being confined within very narrow limits for a considerable time, under an almost constant fire from artillery and infantry, can hardly realize what a strain it produces on one's nervous system.