The Kicking Musket.
The guns we received were of the old kicking variety, and could kick equal to a mule. I can well remember having a very lame shoulder from the effects of discharging one of these firearms. It reminded me of a story I heard when I was a boy, about an Irish soldier in an Illinois regiment during the Mexican War. One day during a small engagement the soldier fired at the enemy with one of those kicking guns, which knocked him over backward flat on the ground. His captain, thinking that he was shot, said, “Mike, are you wounded?” He replied, “Captain, it seems as though I had the wrong end against my shoulder.”
The latter part of June the 12th was transferred to Cairo, Ill. We marched across the country from Caseyville to East St. Louis, then got on board a steamer and went down the Mississippi, arriving at our destination on the following day. The only excitement occurring on the way down the river was caused by a man on the Missouri shore waving a rebel flag at us while passing. We went into camp at Cairo on the river bottom behind the levee, our camp being about ten or fifteen feet below high water mark in the river. The levee was constructed for the purpose of keeping high water in the river from overflowing the city. This camp proved to be worse than any experienced during all our subsequent three years’ service. While here we received a visit from Gen. McClellan, who addressed us.
We remained here during the balance of the three months’ term, and nearly all of us were sick, caused by the malaria of the river bottoms and other causes. After the expiration of the three months’ term of service I enlisted for three years, in Co. C, 7th Illinois Cavalry. L. B. Crooker, James W. Larabee, and S. P. Whitmore enlisted in Co. I, 55th Illinois Infantry, William Eckert remained at home, and George C. Loomis remained in Co. H of the 12th, became a sergeant, and was twice wounded, losing his right arm at Altona. L. B. Crooker received promotion as a solace for four wounds, and Larabee was twice wounded, receiving the grade of sergeant, and brought home a glorious decoration in the form of a Congressional medal for gallantry, a proper reward for his splendid soldiership.
CHAPTER II.
Beginning of Three Years’ Service.—Camp Butler and Bird’s Point.
The three months’ service ended in August, 1861, and I enlisted for three years in Sept., 1861. Was discharged Oct. 15, 1864, serving in all three years and about four months. The 7th was organized at Camp Butler, near Springfield, Ill., in the fall of 1861, where it was partly drilled. Prescott Bartlett, of Sublette, Ill., was chosen captain of Co. C, John H. Shaw of Lee Center, Ill., first lieutenant, and B. F. Berkley, of Sublette, Ill., second lieutenant. S. H. Richardson was orderly sergeant, and James Henderson commissary sergeant. The names of other sergeants were R. D. McCord and David S. Porter, and the corporals I have forgotten. In November the regiment was transferred to Bird’s Point, Mo., where it went into winter quarters and remained until about March 1, 1862.
“Home sweet home.”—A Scene in Winter Quarters.
The picture represents a camp in the idle days between the great campaigns. The army has settled down to weeks of forced inaction, and the men make themselves as comfortable as the means at hand will allow. They have shown wonderful thrift and industry in housing themselves. The tent in the foreground shows this. Its builders have made a pen of logs neatly chinked with chunks and clay to keep out the wind. They have built a fireplace of clay and used an old plow on top of the chimney to assist the draft. The roof is made of pieces of shelter tents and ponchos and at the entrance has been laid a pavement of pork-barrel staves to keep mud from being carried into the sleeping apartment. The other tents in the distance show similar devices. The whole is as accurate a picture of a winter camp as the camera could make.