in this military life, i find there is much quiet time, when the hours pass slowly and the men yawn and wish for something to do. with every change of camp, reading matter is lost or left behind; orders, too, have been given that the quantity of baggage be reduced; and here, in tennessee, newspapers and letters hardly ever come. it is pleasant, then, to sit as i do now, under a tree in the warm sun, and talk with pencil and paper to your distant friends.
my previous letters have had so much in them gloomy or painful, that this time i will choose a more pleasant subject, and give you an account of my first foraging.
gipsy is the prettiest of horses. i should fail to describe my excursion, if i failed to describe gipsy. gipsy is one of those happy beings that everybody likes. no one ever quarrels with her. she has never been struck with a whip or touched by the spur, and knows not what either means. the soldiers all know gipsy, and the germans, who are always sociably inclined, generally say as they pass her, "good morning, shipsy;" at which shipsy looks as pleased as anybody could. gipsy is a small specimen of the[pg 43] black hawk race, jet black in color, and almost as delicate and agile in form as a greyhound, with the mischievous, restless eyes of a bright terrier.
gipsy has several feminine traits of character—a good deal of vanity with a little affectation, and is withal something of a flirt. put on a common soldier's bridle, and she goes very quietly; but change it for a handsome brass-mounted one, and gipsy tosses her head as though the bridle were a new bonnet. if you say, "come here, gipsy," gipsy walks off the other way; if you call her very loudly, gipsy pricks up her ears, and seems completely absorbed in some object half a mile off; but walk away, and gipsy puts up a piteous whinny, for you to come back and make it up. when i am riding alone, gipsy generally does pretty much as she pleases—now trotting, now cantering, now dashing up hill on a gallop, her ears always pricked up, and her bright eyes examining every object on the road. when we come suddenly out of the woods upon a fine prospect, gipsy stops and looks it over, with as much interest as though she were a landscape painter. if we come to a narrow stream, gipsy (who greatly dislikes to wet her feet) stops again, looks deliberately up and down, selects the narrowest place, and then, without asking anybody's leave, proceeds there and bounds over. when thus riding without a companion, i find it very interesting to watch the beautiful intelligence of my little mare.
on her arrival at fort henry, gipsy was greatly [pg 44]disgusted with tennessee. for the clear, prairie fields of missouri, she found nothing but thick woods, steep hills and muddy roads—no chance for her to run races or frolic here. for a week, the rain has fallen steadily on gipsy; her water-proof blanket has kept her dry; but she is knee deep in mud, and has not lain down for three nights. no wonder she puts her ears back, and tries to look sulky. but an order has come for me to go with half the squadron and search for forage. the saddle and bridle are brought from the tent, and gipsy brightens up at the sight. the men are soon ready; the clouds break away; the sun comes out; gipsy takes her place at the head of the column, and throws her heels joyously in the air, champing the bit and tossing the white foam over her jetty coat.
the road is but a bridle-path through woods. the path is narrow, and the men must ride "by file." perhaps you do not know that "by file," means one behind the other; "by twos," two side by side; and "by fours," four side by side. the next formation is "by platoon," or a quarter of a company; and the next "by squadron," or an entire company. we emerge on a small farm, waste and desolate. straggling soldiers have broken into the house, and scattered about what few effects the rebel owner left. it is the first deserted house i have seen, and the sight is rather sad. our road leads us again into the woods, and then brings us into the valley of the tennessee, and follows the windings of the river. we pass several farms, small[pg 45] and poorly cultivated, with rude timber houses, by which i mean houses of squared logs. the chimneys are always built entirely on the outside, and are generally of sticks and mud, instead of brinks and mortar. occasionally we halt to ask questions. the people are not surly, but they do not smile. this is the worst part of tennessee, and it is plain they have sons and brothers among the prisoners of fort donelson. but at one house the man comes eagerly forward and his face lights; his wife, too, comes out, and says she almost hopes to see some face she knows. they have lived long here, but the man is from eastern tennessee, and the woman from northern alabama—those two remnants of the south that hung to the union till the last. he tells us that the country produces little besides pigs and corn. "it is pork and corn dodger," he says, "at breakfast, dinner and tea all the year round." i ask where they grind the corn, and he mentions a large mill now despoiled by its owner, who took himself off to memphis, and a little mill some three miles distant, owned by the "widow williams." it is an object to have some corn meal, so i determine to visit the widow williams' mill. the road to the mill turns abruptly from the river, and goes up a brook. we pass a few houses, scattered at intervals in the woods. the road is so much better than the other, that the men ride "by twos;" and so it should be, for it is the road from dover to paris. we pass one or two houses, whose owners are suspiciously young widows; in other words,[pg 46] we suspect that their deceased husbands are fighting with the rebels. at last we come to the widow williams, whom we do not suspect; for she is a grey-haired matron, who has seen sorrow, and she sits on the rude piazza with a family around her. the girls look nervously at us, for we are the first troop of soldiers they have had halt. the widow rises as i ride up, and says, with a good deal of dignity, "please to alight, gentlemen;" and i take her at her word, and order, "dismount." i ask her if she can grind us some meal, and she rises in our good opinion by saying, "not to-day, this is sunday." it is indeed; but very little like one to us; we had almost forgotten the day. i then buy a bushel of meal for my own men, and go down with the widow's eldest son, who is a lad of fifteen, to get the meal and view the mill—a tiny little affair, and two of the men, who are millers, laugh when they see it. on coming back to the house, i find a group of the men have made themselves quite agreeable. they have come from the city, and doubtless are more refined and polished than any men these country girls have seen before. the youngest is some ten years old, named martha, and i ask her if she is not afraid of us northern mercenaries. martha says no! and laughs at the idea; but when i ask her if we have not been called all sorts of names, and if she has not been told that we would burn her mother's house down, and cut her head off, martha blushes, and the older sisters look confused. it is evident that we have had a very bad name here, and[pg 47] that they are now ashamed to own it. but we have a long circuit to make; the meal is stowed away in the haversacks; widow williams invites us to call again, and assures us we shall be welcome; i pretend to arrest martha, and carry her off as prisoner; at which she is a little frightened and the rest a good deal amused; and then "fall in," "mount," "march," and off we go.
gipsy is the smallest horse in the regiment, but to-day her feelings have been immense. she has borne herself as much like gen. washington's great charger as possible, and has champed the bit more fiercely and pranced more proudly than even he did. her front is white with foam, and every look shows that she deems the head of the column her proper place. whenever any horse has come within a respectful distance, gipsy's heels have flown higher than his head, admonishing him, that whatever happens, she must be first. but the road, which has followed the bank, now crosses the brook. there is no friendly bridge to lift us over—the road leads down the bank, straight into the water. that water is wider than sixth avenue, and the recent rain has made it a roaring torrent—no one knows how deep, and it splashes and dashes fearfully. gipsy looks up—looks down; no narrow place appears for her to bound over. half of her airs and graces drop off at the sight. she hesitates a moment—the tramp of the horses behind tells her that she must decide quickly. she screws her courage up, and marches heroically down[pg 48] the bank. the first plunge, and the water dashes up on her breast—it is a foot higher on one side than the other, so swift is the current. it is cold and very wet—it roars louder than ever, and who can tell how deep it is ahead. poor gipsy! the last of the airs and graces are gone; so is her resolution. she wheels ingloriously round, and throws herself submissively behind the leading sergeant's horse. him she follows meekly through the stream; on the other side, she continues so for a few yards; then she steals a glance ahead. there is no more water with its horrid noise in sight. she gives a slight champ on the bit, and moves up beside the sergeant's horse. a good, long look assures her of a dry road ahead. she bounds past, the airs and graces fly back as swiftly as they flew away; and in five minutes she is as vain a little gipsy as ever she was before.
but it is one o'clock—horses and men are hungry, and just beyond us is a house. we see chickens, cows, sheep and pigs, but no smoke rises from the chimney. we halt; the sergeant enters the open door; comes back and reports it just what we want—a deserted house. in a few minutes the horses are unsaddled and tied to the fence, munching the corn we find in two large cribs. the poor cows welcome us, for they have not been fed since their owner ran away, and are almost starved. my order to the men is to take nothing but food, and to injure nothing needlessly. the sheep are caught, pronounced too thin, and let loose. but the[pg 49] chickens and pigs—after them there is a chase. there are shouts of excitement, intermingled with roars of laughter, as some brave pig charges between his pursuer's feet, and trips him up, and with the squeals and cacklings of the victims as they are caught. within the house, we find a few things left, which the poor creatures probably overlooked as they hurried away. there is a jar of molasses on the shelf; a bag of dried peaches in the closet; a haunch of smoked venison, and a barrel of black walnuts in the garret. these last are a source of great entertainment for the men, who not only enjoy the most unusual luxury, but exult in the thought of a run-away rebel gathering nuts for them, and crack many jokes as they crack the shells. but the poor children, who picked them for their winter treat, now wandering homeless, and countryless, who can guess where! we have been so bred to respect private rights, that as i sit watching the men gather up the pigs and poultry, and fill their sacks with corn, i have a slight fear that the former owner may appear and charge us with stealing the property which his treason has forfeited to the government. but no owner appears. the horses have done their corn and the men their biscuit; the molasses has been emptied into canteens, and a large bundle of corn leaves tied to every saddle—we must start.
down the dover road we go a mile or two, then turn up another bridle-path, which crosses and recrosses a little rill some thirty times. two men ride before[pg 50] us, partly to accustom themselves to the duties of advance guard, partly to point out the intricate road. as we come round a turn, there are a farmer and his daughter (a young girl) on horseback before us. they have met the advance guard, and have stopped, and are looking back at them with fearful interest, completely absorbed in the sight. they do not even hear our approach, and i get near enough to hear the girl asking her father about these two federal soldiers. the squadron is marching "by twos," and there is not room enough to pass. ordinarily, private persons would have to get out of the way; but i think this a beautiful opportunity to be very polite, so i command "by file." man and girl turn their heads as though a gun had gone off close to their ears. such a look of fear and surprise i have never seen as in the poor girl's face. they are so hemmed in that they have to stand still until the whole column passes one by one, and the last we see of them they continue to stand there, looking back at us. it must seem like a vision, and they will have a tremendous tale to tell when they reach home. this road is so secluded that none of our soldiers have found it, and we cause a great stir in the few houses we pass. my men march silently, more like regulars than volunteers, and the inhabitants confess that they find in us an unexpected contrast to the noisy, yelling rascals, who a few weeks before were plundering them, for the good of the southern confederacy.
[pg 51]
the sun has gone down, and the moon has risen, and we are on the main road from fort donelson, and will reach our camp soon, and have a good supper, and rest sweetly in our tents after our day's ride. we think over what we will have for supper, and debate whether the pigs, or chickens, or corn-meal can be added to the rations we shall find in camp. we are reckoning like inexperienced soldiers. the uncertainty of legal, is nothing to the uncertainty of military life. in the law you can at least calculate on your breakfast, and a part of your bed; but in camp you can calculate on nothing. we approach fort henry, and plunge into the mud that environs our camp. we struggle through till we come to the trees where the horses should be tied, and to the little knoll where the tents should be pitched. we look around in vague astonishment—horses, and men, and tents have vanished; all is darkness and silence; our camp has gone. to come home and find your home absconded, to leave your house in the morning and find it has walked away at the evening, is something new. searching in the darkness for the new camp is folly; there is nothing to be done but wait till to-morrow. it is very easy to say wait, but how are we to wait? if we had some beds to wait in, and some supper to wait for, it would be tolerable; but we were only going for a little while, so we left our blankets, and it was such a fine day that we did not take our overcoats. who would have dreamt of the colonel playing us such a trick? at fort donelson i[pg 52] learned the first lesson—"do not trust to your trunk;" now i have to learn the second—"do not trust to your camp." hereafter i will not leave for half an hour without having my blanket rolled behind, and my overcoat strapped before. if i only had them now! but lamenting will do no good; something must be done. "who has got any matches?" "smith and jones." "then smith and jones light a fire." the fire soon blazes up and discloses a small pile, which the wagons have overlooked. there are a few blankets and overcoats, three plates, a couple of mess-pans, and one camp-kettle. a new discovery is made—some coffee and a sack of meat. "what kind?" "pork." "hurrah! we're all right now." "no, salt beef." "pshaw! what do they send salt beef to the army for? if it had only been pork, we could have toasted it on sticks, and fried it on plates, and broiled it on the coals, and have greased the pans with it; but this beef, we can do nothing with." but' we have the bushel of meal i fortunately bought, and the chickens. pick the chickens, and cut them up; mix some meal and water, and make corn dodgers, as the tennessians do. there are the plates to bake it on, and we can try baking it in the ashes. but the coffee—everybody looks forward to it—no matter if it is poor and weak. without milk, without sugar, and full of grounds, it is always the tired soldier's great restorative, his particular comfort. our camp-kettle is set apart for it. the chickens must be stewed in pans and roasted on sticks. the [pg 53]camp-kettle is sacred for the coffee. "captain," says somebody, "this coffee is not ground, and we have no mill. what shall we do?" "what indeed shall we do?" we must have coffee, and some one hits on the remedy; we take the tough linen bag of a haversack, put the coffee in it, and pound it on a log. somewhat to our surprise, we find that it is soon well ground, and in the course of half an hour we have as good coffee as usual. chicken and corn dodgers come along more slowly, but after awhile we sit around the fire to eat them; and everybody declares that he has had enough, and that it is very good. from supper to bed. the corn forage that we brought for the horses must be used for blankets. spread on the ground, it makes a comfortable mattress. i have said that we had left our blankets; but, nevertheless, every man has one. some years ago, a young cavalry captain, named mcclellan, who (in my opinion) does all things quietly but well, observed that the padding of a saddle frequently got out of order, causing the poor horse a sore back, and requiring a saddler to put it in order again. he also remarked that the pad was of no other use than to play the part of cushion between the saddle and the horse's back. he thereupon introduced into the army what is now known as the mcclellan saddle. it is made of wood, hollowed out so that on the one side it makes a comfortable seat for the man, and on the other conforms to the shape of the horse. a narrow slit is cut out over the backbone, which not only saves the horse's spine,[pg 54] but makes it much more cool and comfortable for him. and, finally, the padding consists of a horse blanket folded up. thus, to the wise, judicious foresight of general mcclellan, each of us is indebted for a blanket.
lying on my cornleaf couch, and looking up at the clear sky, within the glow of our fire, is as pleasant a situation after a long ride as one could desire. i think it delightful, and while thinking so, drop asleep. but there is one more lesson in store for us before daylight. after some hours, i am awoke by a tremendous noise. there are no stars now. the sky is black as ink—the darkness is such that we can see nothing but the half-burnt brands of the fires. the wind howls through the trees like a pack of wolves, and scatters our fires so that the coals fly over our heads, and fall on our blankets and beds. the rain is not come yet, but is coming—we shall be drenched, and then have to sit up in the darkness and shiver till daylight. it is a dismal prospect. pitter, patter on the leaves. now we are in for it: the drops thicken; in a minute we shall be as wet as water. but nature only means to give us a fright. the rain does not increase—the drops stop—the wind howls less loudly. soon, through a rent in the clouds is seen a star, and then another. the rent grows larger, and every one takes a long breath, and says, "the storm has passed round." we lie down again, and wake up to find it a bright, frosty morning.
after an hour's ride, we have found the new camp. it is on a beautiful wooded slope, overlooking the river[pg 55] and the fort, and on either side a clear, little rill trickles through the trees. our tents are pitched on one, and the horses picketed on the other. none of us have ever seen so beautiful a camp before; and, as we dismount, the bugles blow the breakfast call.
