Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1886-04-15
miscellaneous &eadina.
ON THE MARCH.
VICISSITUDES OF ARMY LIFE DURING TIE
CIVIL WAR.

i. d. Murray, "IltllS ioi llle Naoni"S
ton Republican says:
The Confederates undoubtedly suffered
far greater vicissitudes than the Union ar
mics, for apart from those hardships Incl
dent to every army in the field, they were
poorly clothed and fed, which was not the
case with their opponents, as rule.
We will suppose a command is ordered
to reach an indicated point within given
time, either to surprise an enemy or to hold
threatened and important position. And
in this am writing from my recollection of
experiences in the Seventeenth Virginia
regiment, of Pickett's division of Confed-
crates.
The men are drawn up, and those who
have knapsacks ordered to pile them.
Then the company nficers see to it that no
man carries more than a single blanket.
Two extra packages of cartridges are serv-
ed out, making, with those in the cartridge
box, sixty rounds, a pretty heavy weight
in itself when the calibre of the rifle was
fifty eight, as was usually the case. Next,
three days. rations of hardtack and bacon
are issued to last four or five days, or until
more could be procured.
The line of march is then taken up and
the quickstep ordered from the first. Now,
it must be remembered, that's soldier with
his rifle, ammunition, blanket, provisions,
etc., is weighed down by about fifty pounds
or over, and this dead weight, instead of
being distributed over the body, bears chief
ly upon the shoulders.
Those who have never been there gener-
ally suppose that the actual contact of bat
tie is the hardest and most trying to the
nerves and pluck in the phases of soldiers
life. This is fallacy. Many a time have
I heard my comrades express satisfaction,
after long and distressing march, at hav-
ing got at last within striking distance of
the foe 1 do not believe that the man
lives or has lived, who could honestly say
that he never felt fear while on the eve of
battle, or rather when first going under fire.
But a forced march is a terror to the best
of troops, no matter however well they
have been disciplined. What do the read
ers of this paper suppose forced march
means? It means torture of mind and
torture of body; it means dull aching OF
every Joint and bone and marrow of the
ness and pain, but almost complete pros
tration of the physical powers; it means
that one falls asleep for minute while
mechanically plodding along and to awake
with a start while staggering to fall;
it means, when the ten minutes rest comes
at every two miles, to sink down in ones
tracks like an empty bag and to be asleep
before you touch the ground. When the
ten minutes rest expires and the command,
"Fal in ~ is given one awakes and gets up
from mere force of habit and resumes the
grinding task, sitter and sorer, if possible,
than before.
1t means, finally, that one would barter
million cheerfully for an hours rest and
sleep, and, while feeling bound to obey the
inexorable command "forward," one is in
such state of mental and physical wretch
edness that he is ready almost to curse God
and die And then, too, when the days
march is concluded, sometimes far in the
night, what must he the condition OF those
detailed to guard their sleeping comrades?
Surely no galley slave was ever tortured
like this.
And such q march often occurs in the
most inclement weather, whether the sun
was blazing hot, and the roads so dusty
that one could not see ten yards before
him, or the air bitter cold and the snow
and slush foot deep on the ground. [ rec
olect that after the second battle OF Bull
Run, when Gen. Lee made his forced march
across the country in order to ford the Po-
tomac before his opponent could reach the
opposite bank, the day was so hot and dus-
ty and the pace so rapid that hundreds of
the men who had been enfeebled by
weeks constant marching ana lighting fell
| (sunstruck) out of the ranks by the way
side, and dozens of them died, as the SUR
geon did not stop to pay them any at
tention.
After the battle of Gettysburg, Corse's
brigade of Pickett's division, which had
been left behind to guard the line of railroad
| between GOrdonsville and Richmond, was
ordered to Winchester. We made forced
march over the mountains, and when we
got to the east branch of the Shenandoah we
found it full and too deep for a small man
to ford, so the six footers formed a Gordon
across the rushing stream and passed the
|
safely over.
Then without stopping to dry clothes, we
pushed ahead, but rain soon afterward came
! down in torrents and every little valley in
that hilly country soon became overrun
with deep, muddy stream, through which
he had to wade breast high. When the
command got to Winchester the feet of the
men, from the constant rasping of the water
and sand in their shoes, were in terrible
condition, and their shoulders were CALLED
like those of tow-path mule. Had the
enemy's cavalry come on US next day, as
was fully expected, for they had advanced
to Berryville, the brigade could not posi-
bly, have maneuvred rapidly enough to
give them stiff fight, unless by taking up
positions behind the stone fences and stay
ing there.
The last march from Petersburg to Apo
matox was the most terrible to the retreat
ing army of any have read of in history,
except the French retreat from Moscow. 1t
is true that the weather was generally mild
during the seven days march, but there
was only four hours of sleep and rest out
of the twenty-four, and for four days we
were entirely out of provisions.
l don't see to this day how the beaten
army managed to sustain any sort of organ
ization under the frightful hardships they
endured. And never did the Cossack hordes
pursue more relentlessly the broken columns
of Napoleon amid the Russian wastes and
Il