Chapter 15
chapter fifteen of company h advance into tennessee general hood makes a flank movement after remaining a good long time at jonesboro the news came that we were going to flank atlanta we flanked it a flank means a go around yank says what are you doing johnny johnny says we are flanking yank says bully for you we passed around atlanta crossed the chattahoochee and traveled back over the same route on which we had made the arduous campaign under joe johnson it took us four months in the first instance and but little longer than as many days in the second to get back to dalton our starting point on our way up there the yankee cavalry followed us to see how we were getting along with the flanking business we had pontoons made for the purpose of crossing streams when we would get to a stream the pontoons would be thrown across and hood's army would cross yank would halloo over and say well johnny have you got everything across yes would be the answer well we want those old pontoons as you will not need them again and they would take them
we passed all those glorious battlefields that have been made classic in history frequently coming across the skull of some poor fellow sitting on top of a stump grinning a ghastly smile also the bones of horses along the road and fences burned and destroyed and occasionally the charred remains of a once fine dwelling-house outside of these occasional reminders we could see no evidence of the desolation of the track of an invading army the country looked like it did at first citizens came out and seemed glad to see us and would divide their onions garlic and leek with us the soldiers were in good spirits but it was the spirit of innocence and peace not war and victory where the railroads would cross the river a block house had been erected and the bridge was guarded by a company of federals but we always flanked these little affairs we wanted bigger and better meat we captured dalton when we arrived at dalton we had a desire to see how the old place looked not that we cared anything about it but we just wanted to take a last farewell look at the old place
we saw the united states flag flying from the ramparts and thought that yank would probably be asleep or catching lice or maybe engaged in a game of seven-up so we sent forward a physician with some white bandages tied to the end of a long pole he walked up and says hello boys what is it boss well boys we've come for you hiya hiya hiya a he he he if it ain't old master show the place was guarded by negro troops we marched the black rascals out they were mighty glad to see us and we were kindly disposed to them we said now boys we don't want the yankees to get mad at you and to blame you so let's just get out here on the railroad track and tear it up and pile up the cross ties and then pile the iron on top of them and we'll set the thing afire and when the yankees come back they will say what a bully fight them naggers did make a yankee always says nagger reader you should have seen how that old railroad did flop over and how the darkies did sweat and how the perfume did fill the atmosphere
but there were some yankee soldiers in a blockhouse at ringgold gap who thought they would act big they said that sherman had told them not to come out of that blockhouse anyhow but general william b bate began to persuade the gentlemen by sending a few four-pound parrot feelers ah those feelers they persuaded eloquently they persuaded effectually those feelers did the yankee soon surrendered the old place looked natural-like only it seemed to have a sort of graveyard loneliness about it a man in the well on leaving dalton after a day's march we had stopped for the night our guns were stacked and i started off with a comrade to get some wood to cook supper with we were walking along he a little in the rear when he suddenly disappeared i could not imagine what had become of him i looked everywhere the earth seemed to have opened and swallowed him
i called and called but could get no answer presently i heard a groan that seemed to come out of the bowels of the earth but as yet i could not make out where he was going back to camp i procured a light and after whooping and hallooing for a long time i heard another groan this time much louder than before the voice appeared to be overhead there was no tree or house to be seen and then again the voice seemed to answer from under the ground in a hollow sepulchral tone but i could not tell where he was but i was determined to find him so i kept on hallooing and he answering i went to the place where the voice appeared to come out of the earth i was walking along rather thoughtlessly and carelessly when one inch more and i would have disappeared also right before me i saw the long dry grass all bending toward a common center and i knew that it was an old well and that my comrade had fallen in it but how to get him out was the unsolved problem i ran back to camp to get assistance and everybody had a great curiosity to see the man on the well they would get chunks of fire and shake over the well and peeping down would say
well he's in there and go off and others would come and talk about his being in there the poor fellow stayed in that well all night the next morning we got a long rope from a battery and let it down in the well and soon had him on terra firma he was worse scared than hurt tuscumbia we arrived and remained at tuscumbia several days awaiting the laying of the pontoons across the tennessee river at florence alabama and then we all crossed over while at tuscumbia john branch and i saw a nice sweet potato patch that looked very tempting to a hungry rebel we looked all around and thought that the coast was clear we jumped over the fence and commenced grabbing for the sweet potatoes i had got my haversack full and had started off when we heard halt there i looked around and there was a soldier guard we broke and run like quarter horses and the guard pulled down on us just as we jumped the fence i don't think his gun was loaded though because we did not hear the ball whistle we marched from decatur to florence
here the pontoon bridges were nicely and beautifully stretched across the river we walked over this floating bridge and soon found ourselves on the tennessee side of tennessee river in driving a great herd of cattle across the pontoon the front one got stubborn and the others crowding up all in one bulk broke the line that held the pontoon and drowned many of the drove we had beef for supper that night en route for columbia and nightly we pitched our moving tent a day's march nearer home how every pulse did beat and leap and how every heart did throb with emotions of joy which seemed nearly akin to heaven when we received the glad intelligence of our onward march toward the land of promise and of our loved ones the cold november winds coming off the mountains of the northwest were blowing right in our faces and nearly cutting us in two we were inured to privations and hardships had been upon every march in every battle in every skirmish in every advance in every retreat in every victory in every defeat
we had laid under the burning heat of a tropical sun had made the cold frozen earth our bed with no covering save the blue canopy of heaven had braved dangers had breasted floods had seen our comrades slain upon our right and our left hand had heard guns that carried death in their missiles had heard the shouts of the charge had seen the enemy in full retreat and flying in every direction had heard the shrieks and groans of the wounded and dying had seen the blood of our countrymen dying the earth and enriching the soil had been hungry when there was nothing to eat had been in rags and tatters we had marked the frozen earth with bloody and unshod feet we had been elated with victory and crushed by defeat had seen and felt the pleasure of the life of a soldier and had drank the cup to its dregs yes we had seen it all and had shared in its hopes and its fears its love and its hate its good and its bad its virtue and its vice its glories and its shame we had followed the successes and reverses of the flag of the lost cause through all these years of blood and strife i was simply one of hundreds of thousands in the same fix
the tale is the same that every soldier would tell except jim whittler jim had dodged about and had escaped being conscripted until hood's raid he called it hood's army was taking up every able-bodied man and conscripting him into the army jim whittler had got a position as overseer on a large plantation and had about a hundred negroes under his surveillance the army had been passing a given point and jim was sitting quietly on the fence looking at the soldiers the conscripting squad nabbed him jim tried to beg off but all entreaty was in vain he wanted to go by home and tell his wife and children good-bye and to get his clothes it was no go but after a while jim says gentlemen i ganny the law you see jim knowed the law he didn't know b from a bull's foot in the spelling book but he said the law now when anyone says anything about the law everyone stops to listen jim says ah ganny the law laying great stress upon the law allows every man who has twenty negroes to stay at home ah ganny those old soldiers had long long ago forgotten about that old law of the long gone past but jim had treasured it up in his memory lo these many years and he thought it would serve him now as it had no doubt frequently done in the past
the conscript officer said law or no law you fall into line take this gun and cartridge box and march jim's spirits sank his hopes vanished into air jim was soon in line and was tramping to the music of the march he stayed with the company two days the third day it was reported that the yankees had taken position on the murfreesboro pike a regiment was sent to the attack it was jim's regiment he advanced bravely into battle the mini balls began to whistle around his ears the regiment was ordered to fire he hadn't seen anything to shoot at but he blazed away he loaded and fired the second time when they were ordered to retreat he didn't see anything to run from but the other soldiers began to run jim had not learned the word halt and just kept on running he run and he run and he run and kept on running until he got home when he jumped in his door and shouted whippee rhoda i ganny i've served four years in the rebel army chapter fifteen
