Hot Springs weekly star. (Hot Springs, S.D.) 1892-1917, 1901-11-01
THE BATTLE-FIELDs.
OLD SOLDIERS TALK OVER
ARMY EXPERIENCES.
The Blue and the Gray Review Incl.
dents of the Late War, and in q
Graphic and Interesting Manner
Tell of Camp, March and Battle.

dents of the Late War, and in \
Graphic and Interesting Manner
Tell of Camp, March Battle.
II never liked a guerrilla Of any Sort"
said the Major. Our first service in
1861 vas in West Virginia, and the first
irregulars l saw We're on our w 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 in 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 when they were about,
and 1 know the .Jollnnies didn't.
when we Went into Kentucky and
Tennessee we found the same sort of
sturdy fighters organized into regi-
mcnts. uniformed and disciplined, and
they did splendid work. But in our
march southwark we came in contact
with guellillas on the other side, and
they gave us lots of trouble. After
Sherman's army had reached Kenesaw
In 1864 guerrillas would sneak up to
the railroad between there and Chat
tanooga and place t%orpedoes OF other
explosives on the track to the injury of
passing trains and the road. 1t was inn
possible to patrol the entire line OF
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
characteristic way. He ordered tile ar
rest of Il score or more of prominent
and wcll-known men living near the
railroad and sent some of them in Il box
car up and down the line every day.
This settled the question. No more tor
pedoes We're put on the track, but as
long as there was probability of it the
distinguished Southerners We're given
free rides t % Chattanooga and back.
The men in Johnston's army heard of
the matter, and they probably laughed
as much over the preticament of the
cXcursionists as we did. Certainly
there was no liking for sneaks or
shippers among the soldiers in either
army"
THE p%rciudices against gucrrillas in
our division said the Captain. "wcre
worry violent. Our very first experience
In the field made the guerrilla the bug
aboo of that campaign. Our two rcgi-
ments were hurried from Camp Dcni-
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
guerrillas on tho Virginia side. Late
one afternoon the umors tool definite
shape, and cartridges were distributed,
onc to eacil man. The two boats were
dashed together, the men were formed
q ,tlie hurricane decks. and we went
SCANNING slowly forward to meet the
suerrillas. who We're supposed to he
massed near an unused steamboatland-
ing. Had there been any considerable
force ut that point, there would have
been overwhelming disaster to the me
in blue crowded on those two steam
boats. But 10 II thought of that. No
one seemed to remember that not one
man in a hundred had any knowledge
OF the musl.ct lie 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 a ready, were en-
thusiastic. eager and full of that spirit
that makes men unmindful of peril.
The boats approached the point of dam
ger, and before they had been made
fast, more than half the men were on
land, and forming for a charge. Dark
ness came. but it 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
1000 volunteers, fresh from home life.
stoodv 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 it 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
army officer who was to swear us in
looked along the line and, discovering
iii company III a man who stood head
and shoulders above every other, shout
II ~ I-..,, ns.. --1