The Hocking sentinel. [volume] (Logan, Ohio) 1871-1906, 1901-11-07
THE BATTLE-FIELDS.
OLD SOLDIERS TALK OVER
AEMY EXPERIENCES
The Blue and the Gray Review Incl.
dents OF the Late War, and in a
Graphic and Interesting Manner
Tell of Camp, Marcel, and Battle.

1861 was in West Virginia. and the first
irregulars | saw We're on our own side.
| They We're Unionists who had been
| driven from their homes. and as cour-
| ageous as any men l ever knew. But
| they made war i'm their own way which
WAS not the soldiers way. They wore
no uniforms and went prowling through
the woods as though they We're hunting
for snakes. The boys called them snake
| hunters. and told wild stories of their
bloody work when they met their old
enemies. But the truth is we never
| felt comfortable wherI they We're about,
| and know the Johnnies didn't.
when we went into Kentucky and
Tennessee we found the same sort of
sturdy fighters organized into regi-
| ments. uniformed and disciplined. and
| they did splendid work. But in our
march southward we came in contact
with guerrillas ON the other side, and
i they gave us lots of trouble. After
Sherman's army had reached Kenesaw
| in 1854 guerrillas would sneak up to
the railroad between there and Chat
tanOoga and place torpedoes or other
explosives on the track TO the injury of
passing trains and the road. 1t was i'm
possible to patrol the entire line or
guard it against rebel sympathiZers liv-
ing near. and we wondered what Sher-
man would do about it,
Uncle Billy solved the problem in a
I.,I.. s..r.tsy
! rest of score or more of prominent
and well-known men living near the
railroad and sent some of them in a box
| ear up and down the line every day.
This settled the question. No more tor
pedces We're put on the track, but rs
long as there was probability of it the
distinguished Southerners We're given
free rides TO Chattanooga and back.
The men in Johnston's army heard Of
the matter. and they probably laughed
as much over the predicament of the
excursionists as we did. Certainly
there was no liking for sneaks or
snipers among the soldiers in either
army"
The prejudices against guerrillas in
our division said the Captain. were
very violent Cur very first experience
in the field made the guerrilla the bug
aboo of that campaign. Our two regi-
ments We're hurried from Camp Deni-
son to Cincinnati, were marched onto
two steamboats, waiting. and were
started. with arms but without ammu-
milton. up the river to West Virginia.
We had been in the service only Il few
weeks. We had been drilled in the
manual and in company movements,
but we had been carrying muskets less
than ten days.
"As we went up the river all sorts of
rumOrs reached us as TO operations of
guerrilas on the Virginia side. Late
one afternoon the rumors took definite
shape. and cartridges We're distributed,
one TO each man. The two boats were
lashed together, the men were formed
on the hurricane decks, and we went
steaming slowly forward to meet the
guerrillas, who were supposed TO be
massed near an unused steamboat land
ing. Had there been any considerable
force at that point, there would have
been overwhelming disaster to the men
in blue crowded ON those two steam
boats. But no one thought of that. No
one seemed to remember that not one
man in hundred had any knowledge
of the musket he carried. No one
seemed to have thought of the absurd
ity of sending raw troops. with only
one cartridge each, against an enemy.
But the men, crowding into line,
with their guns at ready. were en-
thusiastic, eager and full of that spirit
that makes men unmindful Of peril.
The boats approached the point of dan
ger. and before they had been made
fast, more than half the men were on
land, and forming for charge. Dark
ness came, but ii did not deter them.
They went at Il double quick over the
whole district. searching for guerrillas.
With my after experience in mind, no
spectacle of the war was more pathetic
or more significant than that in which
2.G00 volunteers, fresh from home life,
stood crowded together, undismayed,
in position where an ordinarily alert
enemy might have slaughtered them.
Ignorance of the possibilities of
war;" said the Judge, was the saving
grace with the volunteers. The One
Hundred and Fifth Ohio Regiment was
ordered to the front in Kentucky. the
very day il was mustered in. and only
two weeks after the men had left their
homes. They had been drilled only with
pine sticks, and started TO the front
without arms and without ammunition.
l remember that when the regiment
was formed for muster the regular
looked along the line AMI. discovering
in company Ii n man who stood head
and shoulders above every other. shout
ed. Get down. sir; you red-headed man
there. get down of that stump.
Nov, as this man standing in the
rear rank was Jerry MILESTONE q feet
Z inches in height, and was not stand
ing on any stump, there was a laugh in
the ranks and explanations were made,
but ever after that. in skirmish or in
battle or on the march, Jerry was greet
ed with the shout, Get down off that
stump He went through the service.
and was in the grand review at Wash
ington, but almost the last words he
heard from his comrades of the One
Hundred and Fifth were, You red
headed man, there, get down of that
stump"
THAT reminds me-" said the Ser
geant. "of Isaac Macavoy. one of the
very best soldiers in company c Of the
First Kentucky. He was probably
6 feet inches in his stockings. and on
one occasion while the men We're work
ing on Notifications in front of Chatta-
rooga became the subject of an e1eit-
ing controversy. The men were sitting
In the trench, with their backs 10 the
earthwork they had thrown. up. eating
their MONDAY lunch. As they were not
exposed, they could not understand
why the rebel Sharpshooters kept peg
ging away just ut that part of the line.
III