Wauwatosa news. [volume] (Wauwatosa, Wis.) 1900-1948, 1903-05-30
THE FIELD OF BATTLE
INCIDENTS AND ANECDOTES OF
THE WAR.

The Veterans of the Rebellion Tell of
WhistIiug Bullets, Bright BayOnets,
Bursting Bombs, Bloody Battles,
Camp Fire, Festive Bugs, Etc., Etc.
''One of the most terrible cataStrophes
of the Civil War has never had its
proper place In history" said w. f.
Dixon, now in the treasury at Washing
ton, TO a reporter recently.
What was that?" the reporter asked,
THE explosion of a transport on the
Mississippi River at o'clock in the
morning. twelve miles above Memphis,
with 900 soldiers, nineteen women
and one child on board. l was one of
the number. and have perpetual re-
minder of the occurrence In wounds
received at the time and rheumatics
from five hours in the water. OF the
200, LOO were lost. Oh, ii was terri
bile. And somehow a strange fatality
seemed to follow that body of men.
Let me relate the incidents in their
order:
"On the 18th of December. 1864. |
was captured by the ConfedeTates at
Nashville. Tenn, and with others sent
to Andcrsonville. Early in April ar
engagements were made for an exchange
of prisoners, and, accompanied by a
Confederate guard and officers, the An
1nFgng, lilo NinlF-
burg, where the exchange was TO take
place. Before reaching Nicksburg-
shortly after leaving Andersonville, in
fact-we had a frightful wreck, with
the train going at the rate Of forty-tive
miles an hour, We got together again,
and, would you believe 1t, there was
another terrible wreck, worse than the
first, and with the train going at full
speed. What the casualties We're in
those wrecks l never knew, but they
must have been numerous.
I'VE reached Vicksburg at last and
were waiting for an equal number Of
Confederate prisoners to arrive In or6er
to effect an exchange when news care
of the fall of Richmond and the as
Sassiuation of Lincoln, when our guards
and officers left without waiting for the
exchange, and we 200 Of uS-were
ready TO take the transport to be dis
tTibuted to our various destinations.
We had been in Yicksburg long enough
for the boys to write home to tell their
people of their coming and TO receive
answers TO their letters; so all was joy
when the time was announced for us to
take the transport, the Sultana, a big
side-wheel steamer, and 300 soldiers,
nineteen women and one child left
Vicksburg for their homes--with only
600 to reach them and but one OF the
nineteen women. AS II happened ii
looked like Offering a premium on sac
ritlce to load that boat with over two
thousand souls. They were huddled OH
all the decks so thick that there was
no passageway between them.
Nothing occurred, however before
reaching Memphis. We landed there
about midnight for supplies, and then
proceeded up the river, when about
twelve miles above Memphis some
thing did happen, and all at once Oh,
It was terrible, terrible! The explosion,
the shock, the culver; boilers. pieces Of
boat, shattered timbers. bodies whole
and bodies In fragments-ar legs.
one here, another yonder; headless
shoulders and shoulderless heads! All,
sickenlng. sickening! And the shrieks,
the groans, the cries for help! 1t was
pltiful. No language can describe 1t as
1t was, How many persisted in midair
and how many found death after strug-
CLING with the cold and muddy water
of the Mississippi, only the recording
angel knows. But Of the 1900 lives
/ 100 were lost. II seems to me that no
calamity of the war was so dreadful,
shocking Every soul left the boat.
Such as were not blown overheard
jumped. and to destruction. for they
seemed 10 90 in heaps and were
drowned In groups and hundreds, as.
instead of separating. they clmg to one
another. and SO each helped 10 drown
HlIHsPll ubb HlN lelIoW. @~ ioT IINHRIl
l had presence Of mind enough to Sc
lect a vacant place In the water away
from the rest, who appeared TO huddlc
all together, and jumped as far out as
/ could. struck out to get clear II
any struggling form, for contact meant
death for both, or for as many as might
be together.
! was fortunate enough to secure a
small piece Of plank about four feet
long and six inches wide, and with this
under my left arm used my right for
swimming Singularly, I never came
In contact with n single person, al
though the river was full Of the five
hundred who were saved. drifted
with the current and was noated back