Ottumwa tri-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1903-1916, 1904-10-15
CHAPTER w.

WHAT WAS FOUND AT MANASSAS,
Dark and dreary the winter of the
first year of the war closed in on the
camps about the capital. Between the
Long Bridge and the heights of Ar
lington lay sea of mud. Dull red,
the Virginia roads were quilted deep
by the wheels of cannon, ambulance
and army wagon that sank now to the
very hubs in sticky mire, and time
and again stalled the needed supplies
almost within sight of their destina-
ton. In vain the darby drivers dou-
bled their teams and piled lash and
blasphemy. Hour after hour the or
der would ring through the swarming
streets of the nearest camp: Turn
out, boys-more wagons stuck in the
mud" and by whole companies, regu-
lars or volunteers, the men would
wade knee-deep to the scene, and with
fence rails as levers and drag ropes
over the brawny shoulders, pryirg,
pushing, hauling and shouting they
would "yank" the heavy rolling stock,
one by one, from the slough of their
despond and tide them over to the next
camp beyond. and SO, from slough to
slough, pass them on their final desti.
nation.
But while the roads and flats were
quagmires, up along the wooded
heights the ground was fairly dry and
well drained, and there the four regi-
ments, three Of which had drilled
through August on the broad, level
plateau of Kalorama, and much of tho
early fall about Chain Bridge, were
now kept from morn till night busily
at their soldier task. The general held
that the less time soldiers had to kill
the happier and heartier they were,
and determined was he that the splen-
did material confided to his charge
should be nodded into equally splen-
did, soldierly shape-that the one ex-
clusively western brigade of the now
Well-organized army should be second
to none in point of instruction, disci,
pine and efficiency. To this end, drills
by squad, company and battalion, all
three, were of daily occurrence, fol-
lowed by dress parade at shutdown,
and all this supplemented by long,
searching inspections every Sunday
morning. Presently, too, he was able,
by mile march through the woods, to
reach an open plain out toward Balls
cross roads, and there have brigade
evolutlons twice a week. Then the full
uniform of the regulars had been
drawn for the entire command, the In
r,1,@
garb of gray in favor of the army
blue, as had certain of their Wiscon-
sin comrades at Chain Bridge as early
as September One Badger regiment,
the Second, whose men lorded it some
what over their fellows because they
had been all through Bull Run and,
despite fairly heavy losses, retired in
good order-had even obtained the
quaint, stiff, Kossuth hat, looped up on
one side and garnished with cord and |
brasses and feathers-the headgear of |
The regulars at the time-and were |
dubbed the BLACK Hats by enyious
comrades of other commands. Their |
original field officers had disappeared |
somewhere about the time Of that mi
Ilal battle, and in their place had come
stocky little black-bearded West
Pointer as colonel, with most SOL
1lerly ex-captain of state militia as
us second, and then the whole brigade
had to be fitted out with white gloves,
and some nearby regulars were de-
tailed to show them how best to polish
heir belts and boxes, and great was
he competition among the four regi-
nents to win the honor of headquar-
.ers guard and orderlies.
Then, as freezing weather set in with
December and it became possible for
to come humping and sway
ng over the icy powders and ridges
INTO which the almost liquid mud had
'een transformed, many generals of
anh, and statesmen by the score, and
wen the president himself. began pay
ng visits to Arlington and bringing
furious and distinguished foreigners
With them.
There was one visitor who could not
ONE too often. He came, however,
My twice or thrice He never left
is carriage, but sat there lounging