The 125th Regiment, Illinois Volunteer Infantry: Attention Batallion!

by Robert M. Rogers

A CONFEDERATE CHRISTMAS.

The following is an account of a Christmas dinner held under the rule of the confederate government in 1861. The individual who helped to celebrate the day, herewith gives the testimony which enables us to set before you, what Christmas meant in those days, and what it cost:

"The dinner of 1861," he says, "did not differ materially from its predecessors in the 'piping times of peace,' and though in 1862 the feast was home-made, it was enjoyable. Turkeys were only eleven dollars a piece, and salt had fallen to thirty-three cents a pound. The yule log was attainable at fifteen dollars per cord; wines were to be had by the very rich, and sorghum rum, or apple, peach, or black-berry brandy, cost thirty dollars a gallon. A few toys were left in the stores in the cities, and fire-crackers, essential to the southern festival, were five dollars a pack. By 1863, the closest search of Santa Claus revealed no play-things, and fire-crackers indicated great wealth, or reckless extravagance. The few turkeys in the market were forty and fifty dollars a piece; whisky, or sorghum rum, for egg-nog, cost seventy-five or eighty dollars per gallon; sugar was five and ten dollars a pound, and flour one hundred and twenty five dollars per barrel. With gold at 2,800, a plain Christmas dinner for a large family, cost two or three hundred dollars. In 1864, when Christmas fell on Sunday, gold was at 5,000: flour was six hundred dollars per barrel; sugar, two dollars an ounce; salt, one dollar a pound; butter, forty dollars; beef, thirty-five to forty dollars; wood, was one hundred dollars a cord. A Christmas dinner at a country house, near Richmond, is described thus: The four gentleman were in uniform, the three ladies in home spun. They had for dinner a three hundred dollar ham and the last turkey on the plantation, valued at one hundred and seventy-five dollars, with one hundred dollars worth of cabbage, potatoes and hominy. Corn bread was served, made of meal at eighty dollars a bushel, and salt at one dollar a pound. The desert was black molasses at sixty dollars a gallon, and after a cup of tea, real tea, worth one hundred dollars a pound, treasured up for the occasion, as a surprise, and not sassafras; there was coffee at discretion made from sweet potatoes cut into little squares, toasted and ground down."

BAD MEAT.

While in camp at Nashville, at one time, the meat issued to us was not up to the standard, but was, on the contrary, far below it. One day there was issued to us bacon, which was actually alive with maggots. All of a sudden in the quarters of company I, there arose a terrible hub-bub, men shouting and yelling, cries of "Hi, hi!" "Get out of here!" "Go on, go on," etc., etc. We all ran down there, the colonel and all, to see what in the world was the matter, when we found Capt. Vinson, with his company, surrounding the pile of meat which had been issued to them, and with their bayonets fixed were going through the motions of driving the bacon out of camp. It was almost lively enough to march. The colonel could not at first understand what was the matter, but soon saw the point when he examined the meat. It was ordered to be destroyed and better bacon was obtained.

At another time company I was called on to go with the quartermaster's team to chop wood for camp use. Capt. Vinson refused to honor the detail from his company, alledging that we did not come down there to chop wood, and that there was no necessity for it any way, as there were cords of wood, already chopped and corded up, standing outside of the line. Quartermaster Ayers got a little riled at this, and off he went to Colonel Harmon to report that the captain of company I refused to furnish him a detail to chop wood. It was not long until an order came requesting the captain's presence at regimental headquarters. Away went the captain and reported to the colonel what he knew in regard to the wood, for he had seen it with his own eyes. He returned to his command, and directly the colonel, mounted on his horse, with the quartermaster by his side, was seen riding off in the direction of the picket line. They soon returned, and the consequence was that the teams went after the wood without the detail. But quartermaster Ayers did not like the refusal of the captain to go with him, and the consequence was company I received a supply of wood that was very lasting, but of not much use for cooking purposes, as it would not burn. Whether the quartermaster intended it, or not, was not known, but the wood furnished company I, at that issue, was mostly green buck eye and cottonwood.

PUBLIC EXECUTION AT NASHVILLE.

While we were staying at Nashville, desertions became frequent, the boys would go off in squads. It was not the intention on the part of most of them to remain away for good, but they longed to see home once more, and after being absent from the command a week or two, would return. This was contrary to all military discipline and must be stopped. Orders were issued threatening the extreme penalty of army law, if such behavior was continued, which was death. But still desertions were frequent; and so one day an order was read at dress parade to the regiments of the garrison, notifying them to be present at the execution of a soldier belonging to the 10th Michigan, who had been tried by court martial for desertion, found guilty, and ordered to be shot. The execution was to take place the next day at 12 m., and all the troops in the city were to be present. Accordingly at the appointed hour we arrived at the place where we were drawn up into line, the flanks covered by the artillery and cavalry. An ambulance escorted by a mounted guard, soon arrived at the place, on the inside of which was the prisoner, and his coffin. Disembarking, his coffin was carried before him to the spot for it to rest. The prisoner was taken to view his grave, which had been dug at the foot of a small bush not far off, and returning, he seated himself on his coffin. The shooting detail marched out and took position ten paces in front of him. The sergeant of the squad approached the prisoner and proceeded to bandage his eyes with a handkerchief, in doing which he was assisted by the prisoner himself. He then returned to the head of his squad. At the word "attention, take aim," here the prisoner motioned with his hand, pointing to his heart, "fire." The twelve rifles cracked as one gun, the prisoner fell back across his coffin, dead. There was not, so it seemed to us who were the unwilling spectators of the scene, a movement of the body. Death was instantaneous, and the soul of the soldier passed to God who gave it. It was a solemn scene, and impressed us all deeply. But the execution was over, the regiments were marched off to their quarters, and the affair was ended, to be talked over many times, afterwards. We thought it horrible, but could not fail to see the justice of it, as we all knew the penalty of desertion was death. It is needless to add that the lesson was a salutary one, and desertions became less frequent. Still the question arose how can the crossing of the river be effected by any one, unless assisted by some friend outside of our own camps. So the detective branch of the service was called upon, and finally they unearthed the man who was causing all the trouble. He was a doctor in the city, a rebel of the deepest dye. It seems this fellow would make out false paroles for all who applied to him for them, and would direct them to a certain spot on the river's bank, where they would find a man with a boat who would ferry them across the stream. Once over, their paroles would insure them safe conduct, and they would proceed home at their leisure. This doctor was arrested and confined in the penitentiary in the city, but what further was ever done about it we never learned.

DRAWING RATIONS.

One evening after we had arrived in camp, while we were in Kentucky, orders were given us to go for rations. Each company had its commissary sergeant, whose duty it was to attend to this branch of the business. He would call on boys enough for his purpose, and proceed to the brigade commissary with their pots and pans, anything in fact that would hold the supplies, and receive from him the amount of food coming to the company, when on carrying it to the company quarters, each man would receive the amount due him. On the evening to which we have reference, we were called on by the sergeant to go with him for rations. Of course we complied. Arriving at the brigade commissary's headquarters, we found a crowd waiting there, who had come on the same errand as ourselves. Standing close by was a large barrel filled with shoulders. It attracted our eye immediately, for the shoulders and hams were kept for the officers use, as it was not supposed, perhaps, that a private soldier could eat such food. That barrel of shoulders had a mighty attraction for us. We approached nearer to it, and finally were reclining against it. In some way our arm and hand got inside of it, and our fingers, those wicked fingers, quickly closed around the shank of a shoulder with a vice-like grip, simultaneously it was drawn out, and then with a conviction that we had better go to our quarters, we "lit out." We got there with our shoulder safely, and crawling into our tent, were proceeding to hide our treasure under a blanket, when a hand was laid upon us, and a voice said, "Go halves, Bob." We nearly jumped through the tent with surprise. We thought that we had done a very clever piece of foraging, but our departure with the shoulder from the commissary's had been noticed by our commissary sergeant, John Lockhart, and as John had a tooth for such food, he had followed us up to get a share. We divided and then returned for our rations. The next day, as we marched along, we had a good dinner with what was left, and hoped that an opportunity would soon offer to replenish our haversack in the same way.